As per Public Officers Law, Article 7, § 103-a (Videoconferencing by public bodies) although committee members are not present in-person for this meeting, they are attending via videoconference from locations posted on the public meeting notice/agenda and open to the public; therefore, quorum is met for this meeting.

L. Gyimesi welcomed everyone and thanked them being here at such an early hour; she thanked them for their service and wants to get right into the meeting agenda.

R. Kerr reported that the Academic Committee will meet on December 13th and the topics on the agenda are:

• A more inclusive Dashboard will be presented by the E.D., to include more data beyond the academics, on a monthly basis
• The first "mock" testing was held using real questions of appropriate grade levels; the teachers learned a lot about testing modality, what to expect on testing day, how to better prepare their students for testing; the success of the mock testing for the faculty will be discussed in some detail; the students will be better prepared for the actual state testing since the teachers now know what to focus on
• MAP data fluency and the first trimester data report will be discussed
• Update on new math curriculum now that the classes have been working with it; have seen the math in action and it's a very good curriculum; with C. Volpe, observed a math lesson and was very impressed with the teacher, new to our school, but not new to teaching. The students were very involved in the lesson. 
• C. Volpe will be observing all the teachers during the school year and has about 35 teachers to monitor, of which 10 are new teachers. We will start "learning walks" where new teachers go into classrooms to take a forensic look at what makes some classes so good; would also like to discuss the E.D.'s role in observing teachers.

The next Academic Committee Meeting will be January 10th at 11 AM.

G. Winn reported that the Finance Committee will meet on December 15th and the topics to be discussed are:

• We are moving into budget season; will look at the finances programmatically this year to get a sense of where we have been and where we want to go; that will require some of the school staff to let us know what their needs are;
• The first area to be looked at is professional development/coaching of teachers, in terms of training, but also of staffing; this will affect the budget; we need to make sure we are putting needed supports in place; it's a good practice and others will look at our school to see where our focus is; this is a great way to begin budget assessment; C. Volpe has been invited to a Finance Committee Meeting to discuss this.
• R. Kerr added that she will talk to C. Volpe at the next Academic Committee Meeting about the academic budgetary needs; G. Winn responded that teacher coaching/development is a good place to begin to focus school budget needs.
• L. Gyimesi has been focusing on the professional development area because it is so critical; she often attends Executive Leadership Meetings at the school and has discussed with E.D., C. Volpe and F. Ebanks if there are teacher professional development programs they want, or if they think the budget in that area needs to be increased; the Board of Trustees is very willing to oblige, to make sure school staff get the necessary training. She welcomes the opportunity to make sure we have sufficient budgeting in place for professional development.
• R. Kerr said that we might require more than just having professional development for staff, it might also involve bringing in an instructional coach to deal with teachers who need support; G. Winn added that bringing in an instructional coach is somewhat different from classroom management support. L. Gyimesi said that this is an important topic for our school's future growth; E.D. is aware of this and has done some instructional teaching himself. 
• G. Winn said that we need to be clear where the budget will devote the needed resources.
• G. Kuriakose suggested that some of our needs might be met by hiring a school psychologist to relieve other staff so they could do more in other areas. All agreed that is something to look at.

The next Finance Committee Meeting will be January 5th at 4:30 PM.  

M. Harmon-Vaught reported the following: 

• Amanda Wolkowitz has been approved by NYSED to be a Board of Trustee member; 
• Heba Nassef-Gore will be approved as soon as a missing document from her application packet is resubmitted to NYSED; 
• Becky Peters' paperwork can be submitted as soon as the minutes of our last board meeting are approved, since that was the meeting at which the board voted to select Becky. 
• Creating a guide for future use indicating the necessary steps to get NYSED approval of new board members more efficiently.
• We need to have further conversations on future recruiting goals; which board members might be reaching the end of their terms, and where we want to build more capacity. He also will be speaking with two other potential board members.

The next Board Development & Governance Committee Meeting will be January 3rd at 7:45 AM.

M. Harmon-Vaught will meet with T. Castanza to discuss the E.D. 1st Trimester Check-In on December 20th (tentative date) and discuss E.D.'s conversations with his leadership team; E.D. will present the 1st Trimester results to the Executive Committee members and then to the full Board of Trustees.

L. Gyimesi has been in touch with Nora Clancy at Pasek Consulting; 

• Pasek is moving ahead with our renewal plans and has asked us for some board documents; 
• Pasek has suggested development of a "Board Dashboard" (separate from the Academic Dashboard) showing enrollment, attendance, and any significant disciplinary actions - just a small dashboard that we can present at our full board meetings and submit to Pasek to show compliance.
• R. Kerr said that IEP data is important for us, information on CSE pending cases, etc. - this information is important for our school; L. Gyimesi asked that the Academic Committee let her know what data should be added to the Board Dashboard. R. Kerr said they would make recommendations.
• Pasek has not found a "comparative" school similar to Bridge Prep yet; we don't know what NYSED will suggest if there is no existing comparative school.
• Middle school applications were due on December 5th; some 5th grade parents visited our 3 middle school partners; a few board members visited the Windward School, along with the principals of our 3 partner middle schools - those principals came away with some good ideas and a vision of what can be a great teaching model for dyslexic middle school students.
• Attends the Executive Leadership Team Meetings at least monthly; the school staff discusses topics such as which school vendors are efficient or not; what programs are working; etc. She also checks in with them about the renewal benchmarks they are covering.