As per Public Officers Law, Article 7, § 103-a (Videoconferencing by public bodies) board members G. Winn and M. Casale are attending via videoconference from locations posted on the public meeting notice/agenda and therefore open to the public; they are considered to be in attendance for purposes of quorum and are permitted to vote.

L. Gyimesi said that we have a lot of good things happening; our school's permanent placement is very exciting - she took a tour of the site recently; it's feels secure to know we have this permanent location; she thanked T. Castanza for getting the placement done. We also have 5th grade graduation looming and the 5th grade dance next week. Our first round of 5th graders are graduating and that's exciting. At the same time, we are dealing with the process of our charter renewal; we have a very busy calendar and agenda for tonight's meeting. Thank you all for the time and attention you give to our school. Let's move onto tonight's agenda.

R. Kerr reported that the Academic Committee met on May 9th:

• The committee reviewed their final recommendations on staffing; those recommendations were shared with the E.D. and given to the Finance Committee
• Tonight, C. Volpe and T. Castanza will review the data from our Data Dashboard from the MAP assessments

G. Winn reported that the Finance Committee met on May 15th and the following was discussed:

• E.D. gave an overview of the budget and the work of the Academic Committee on the staffing plan; he thanked them.
• Reviewed ongoing contracts with BoostEd and edIT and will put those contracts forward tonight for approval
• We received a first draft of the budget today and the Finance Committee will reconvene soon to have a broader budget conversation after the committee has had time to review the draft
• E.D. will give an update on the work he has done with cash management.

M. Harmon-Vaught gave the following report: 

• The Board Development & Governance Committee met on May 2nd 
• We will hold our annual board elections in June;
• We have 2 potential board members who are still in process for membership; Becky Peters is still in the pipeline and Traci Frey's paperwork will be reviewed by NYSED under a new slightly streamlined process; he thanked the state for that streamlining and will follow up soon. G. Winn added that Becky Peters has been supporting our Finance Committee since last August.
• The Board Development & Governance Committee also reviewed the contract renewal for Board on Track and recommends that to the full board for approval.

L. Gyimesi stated that we have received recommendations and incorporations from Pasek Consulting regarding changes to our charter; we met with Pasek last week to discuss those changes; 

• We have a red-line version of the charter and Pasek gave us a "cheat-sheet" regarding changes; 
• We have 5 draft resolutions regarding changes to our charter to be approved tonight.
• There are 3 additional areas that the board needs to understand a little better and remaining questions; The resolutions regarding these 3 critical areas will not be voted on tonight and are on hold so that the board can spend a little more time to consider them: 

1. Key Design Elements
2. Calendar Schedule
3. Educational Plan

• Pasek Consulting is drafting a narrative that will address all the changes to the charter and will be shared with the full board; the narrative will show what we are implementing, and why; what we did not implement and why. If the board members wish to have another meeting, just let her know; Pasek will make itself available to the board.
• Tonight we are considering 5 resolutions regarding 5 areas of the charter that are being changed:

L. Gyimesi stated that we are now ahead of the curve in the charter renewal process and the remaining 3 areas (Key Design Elements/Calendar Schedule/Educational Plan) will be dealt with next - although the due date has not been announced, we think it is in August; Benchmark #1 is not due until October.

R. Kerr asked if the narrative will be reworked and presented to the board as a new document; L. Gyimesi responded that she will ask Pasek to do that.

T. Castanza gave the following update:

• We have a lot of end-of-year events happening; 5th grade graduation adds another layer to this; 
• Many of our 5th graders will be attending one of the 3 middle schools who are working with us in a dyslexic support program; We hosted the principals and leadership teams of those 3 middle schools and discussed which students will be entering their school, what their strengths are, and what are our students needs; the principals agreed to keep us involved; we will meet with the families of 5th graders on June 1st to walk them through the graduation experience.
• Many parents of graduating 5th graders are asking about school busing for middle school; the OPT regulations regarding eligibility for yellow school buses: 6th graders who live more than 1 mile from their middle school can receive either yellow school bus or MetroCard; students in grades 7-12 can receive MetroCard only. We have been working with the principals of the 3 middle schools so that they can help families of 6th graders with busing issues immediately after the roll-over to their middle schools. R. Kerr asked if there was a change in school bus eligibility recently because she remembers 7th and 8th graders were eligible for yellow school buses if they lived far enough away from their schools. The OPT Transportation Liaison for Staten Island schools is Shenise Hendricks, 718-420-5644, SHendricks4@schools.nyc.gov  
• Summer services for 5th graders graduating to middle school will be offered at the elementary school site as offered any other year.
• We are planning professional development training for staff this summer; the emphasis is on training our entire team needs; focusing on writing with full team writing revolution training; also focusing on classroom management and a 2-tiered approach and executive functioning; this is still in the planning stage and more information will be shared by June.
• We did a walk-through of our permanent siting location; we have confirmation that construction will begin in July on the classrooms; target completion date is mid-August; our staff returns on 08/21/23. He then gave the floor to C. Volpe to discuss academic data.

C. Volpe said that we received a Summer Boost Grant and are fully staffed. We are fully enrolled with a wait-list. We hired a site-coordinator for the summer program. 

Our students took the NYS tests and it went well, the students had more stamina and there were very few questions that they weren't prepared for, some students felt that the tests were easy; we are looking forward to seeing their scores. 

She then reviewed the data for: 

• Whole School Growth and Projections in ELA and Math for Fall 2022-Winter 2023 and WInter 2023-Spring 2023 for each grade; Projections 54% in ELA and 53% in Math; Growth 67% in ELA and 79% in Math.
• Grade Level Projections and Growth in ELA and Math for Fall-to-Fall; Winter-to-Winter and Spring-to-Spring (by cohort of students). The data shows that students that have been at our school for at least 2 years make good progress. Students already performing above grade level, are projected to keep growing at that rate, yet we are not exposing them to material on that level - which results in these students being shown as not making projected growth. We are planning to implement more enrichment activities so that we can expose these students to higher level work. In addition to differentiating our students who are struggling, we have to meet the needs of our students who need enrichment. 
• ELA and Math Data for each grade from Beginning-of-Year, Middle-of-Year and End-of-Year

R. Kerr asked how this data will be used to plan for next year; C. Volpe responded that this is all shared with teachers for next year and the data moves with the students from class to class. We share this data with middle schools for our 5th grade graduates.

T. Frey thanked E.D. and C. Volpe for their hospitality during her school visit today; she spoke about MTSS (Multi Tiered Support Systems) to teach students of different levels in the same classroom; teachers know what skills students should know from their previous grade, what they need to know in their current grade and what they will learn in the next grade which follows; this method can be used to offer enrichment to students already performing above grade level. L. Gyimesi thanked T. Frey for the time and effort she is already giving to our school.

As a reminder, here are some upcoming school events:

Red & Blue Dinner Gala - June 2nd at 7 PM at the Staaten

Student Awards Ceremony - June 14th at the school

Graduation - June 15th

Formal printed invitations will be sent to board members very soon.

A. Wolkowitz gave the following update:

• The funds collected from the May student Dress-Down Day were donated to Staten Island University Hospital Pediatric Oncology patients; the Family Association donated to many charities during the year and will continue to do so next year
• The 5th Grade Dance is next week with a DJ, a photo booth, a snow-cone machine, and donut wall; 53 fifth graders RSVP'd they will attend; painted t-shirts with their name and year of graduation will be given to each 5th grader
• Read-a-Thon Prizes: we had a Pizza Party last week and this week the ice cream truck is coming to the school
• We are participating in the Staten Island Soap-Box Derby on Saturday May 20th from 8AM to 5 PM here at Petrides.
• Family Day is June 10th here at Petrides.

M. Harmon-Vaught said that the Family Association here at Bridge Prep is amazing; they are so engaged in the life of the school and contribute so much to the sense of community here; he wants to thank A. Wolkowitz for her leadership of the Family Association; the other board members agreed.