There was no public comment.

Ms. Christa Billings shared that the enrollment numbers presented are still current.

Ms. Christa Billings presented the recommended lottery dates; the lottery is usually held on a non-school day. 

Ms. Christa Billings presented the policy and procedure; it will be added to the November 2020 Board meeting agenda for adoption vote.

Information to Share
Student Achievement

• We presented our annual performance report to BSD on Sept. 29 and we received our annual BSD evaluation last week.  The final version of the evaluation will come out next week, but I do not anticipate any changes.
• Our School Learning Plan (formerly known as the School Improvement Plan) is due on Oct. 15, but I will not have it done by then because it requires staff and board input and I haven’t been able to make that happen.  I spoke with Jon Bridges and he said it was “no big deal” if we got it in late because there is no student achievement data to include.  I’ll use our plan from last year as a starting point since we were not able to fully meet our goals last year due to the closure.
• We finally finished preliminary student assessments with lots of support from homeroom teachers, ELA teachers, instructional assistants, and Betty Evans who coordinated this massive effort.
• We found out last week that we are supposed to provide Talented and Gifted qualification testing to all interested 5th graders by mid-November, so we are trying to figure out how to safely make that happen.  If we provide the testing onsite, we have to revise our reopening blueprint to show how we will keep people safe.  I got clarification from Jon Bridges that we are allowed to have students onsite for this testing, but we still have to meet all of the safety protocols, which means we would need to hire custodial services and reallocate staff time away from instructional support in order to monitor the testing.  I also asked Jon if we could have our students test at a BSD location, and I’m waiting to hear back about this.  Once we finish with 5th grade testing, we’ll figure out how to test other grades, but that won’t happen until later in the year.

Climate and Culture

• Stress levels are still high for families and staff.  I continue to get several emails a week about people's concerns and frustrations.  Unfortunately, I do not have a solution that will fully resolve the issues that are causing the stress.
• The Equity Advisory Council has met twice and decided that we need to start our work with staff and families by focusing on terminology, holidays, resources.  You can read over the meeting minutes here. We are meeting every other Monday at 4:00 if you would like to join!
• I’ll start visiting Zoom class this week.
• The office staff and I met with the volunteer coordinators and they’ll start recruiting for parents to help support breakout rooms during classes and to manage class celebrations.  We’ll only require background checks for people who will be working with kids on Zoom.

Professional Development

• We had a great equity training on Oct. 9 led by Yamilet Alas with support from Shahrou Tavakoli, both new teachers.  The staff engaged deeply and it is clear that we will need to continue this work for quite some time in order to get to a place of common understanding about how we can create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment.

Hot Topics

• The schedule! We got over 230 responses to last week’s survey, which is great.  We did some data analysis on Friday and then I met with each team this week to see what adjustments they felt were appropriate based on their experiences and on parent feedback.  I should have a revised schedule ready to implement in the next week or so.  

Seeking Input

• Thoughts on Parent “Coffee” dates and times, board member attendance? I’d like to start doing this at least once a month.
• We’ve started sending text alerts whenever we send out all-school newsletters.  Any feedback?

ACTION ITEM: Ms. Christa Billings to follow-up with Executive Director Michelle Herron on the School Learning Plan and feedback loop.

Board feedback on Parent "coffee" times is that it is important to have on a monthly basis and prefer the lunch hour for greater participation. 
Board feedback on text alerts is that they are helpful and appreciate the specificity on email vs. newsletter.

Ms. Shagun Trivedi presented the Treasurer's Report:
 
§  ADMw received for (Month):    $ 285,644
§  Total income for (Month):        $ 456,564
§  Cash balance for (Month):       $ 1,920, 226
§  Accts Receivable for (Month): $ 463,165
§  Net gain/loss for (Month):        $ 107,288

For last month, ADMw was $285,000 as well, which is consistent for this year. There are a few outstanding questions on budget to actual pending with the Accountant.

Ms. Christa Billings presented the amended budget to reflect current enrollment. 

Ms. Yessenia Jones presented the PTO update including: Move-a-thon on 10/28; need for classroom coordinators; positive community response to fundraising website; drive-through spirit wear sale; matching donations; restaurant nights; and a tentative virtual book fair.

Ms. Sarita Stevens will be scheduling a Development & Community Relations meeting in the next couple weeks, with the goal of looking for a broad representation to spread the work. She will provide a document in advance of the meeting.

Ms. Christa Billings shared that the upcoming Governance Committee meeting is on November 5th and will include succession planning. 

Ms. Sara Marx read the Action Items.

ACTION ITEM: Ms. Sara Marx to reach out to Executive Director Michelle Herron on student assessment data.