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Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School

Minutes

Board Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday May 27, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Location

Join Zoom Meeting

Directors Present

C. Billings (remote), E. Hatch (remote), L. Anderson (remote), M. Barron (remote), S. Marx (remote), S. Stevens, S. Trivedi (remote), S. Zephirin (remote), T. McCoy (remote)

Directors Absent

None

Directors who arrived after the meeting opened

S. Stevens

Ex Officio Members Present

M. Ston (remote)

Non Voting Members Present

M. Ston (remote)

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

C. Billings called a meeting of the board of directors of Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School to order on Thursday May 27, 2021 at 6:31 PM.

C.

Public Comment

There was no public comment.

D.

Approve Meeting Minutes - April 2021

S. Marx made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Meeting on 04-15-21.
M. Barron seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
L. Anderson
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Trivedi
Aye
S. Marx
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
M. Barron
Aye
S. Zephirin
Aye
S. Stevens
Absent

E.

Approve Minutes - May 11th Special Session

S. Marx made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Special Session on 05-11-21.
M. Barron seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
E. Hatch
Aye
S. Trivedi
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
S. Marx
Aye
S. Zephirin
Aye
S. Stevens
Absent
L. Anderson
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
M. Barron
Aye

F.

Approve Minutes - May 16th Special Session

S. Marx made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Special Session on 05-16-21.
L. Anderson seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
S. Trivedi
Aye
L. Anderson
Aye
S. Zephirin
Aye
S. Marx
Aye
S. Stevens
Absent
M. Barron
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye

II. New Business

A.

Executive Search Updates

Ms. Christa Billings shared the public announcement of the new Assistant Principal.
S. Stevens arrived.

B.

Approve New Employment Agreements

C.

Approve board software

Ms. Christa Billings presented the board software options. 
M. Barron made a motion to purchase BoardOnTrack and authorize Ms. Christa Billings to sign the contract.
S. Trivedi seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
C. Billings
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Stevens
Aye
S. Marx
Aye
M. Barron
Aye
L. Anderson
Aye
S. Trivedi
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
S. Zephirin
Aye
The Board thanked Ms. Christa Billings for her work as the Auction Committee.

III. Academic Excellence

A.

Executive Director's Report

Ms. Michelle Herron presented the Executive Director's Report: 

Information to Share
Student Achievement
  • We have almost completed state testing in English, math and science for families who chose to participate.  We had about 150 students signed up, but we ended up seeing about 100.  
  • We are still working on adopting an internal testing system to assess students’ Spanish proficiency. The committee who worked on this came up with two recommendations, but their first choice was too expensive (~$18,000 per year) and their second choice may not meet our needs.  
  • We did not have any internal candidates interested in the new intervention position for Spanish and Math for next year, so it is posted.  No takers yet.
  • We are going to be able to offer summer school for grades K-5.  Right now, we have about 80 students signed up.  Summer school will go from July 26 - Aug. 20 and will be a full day program with a focus on academics in the morning and enrichment in the afternoon.  Perla and Maestra Vega are sharing the responsibility for coordinating the program and the teaching team is meeting weekly to make plans. Unfortunately, we do not have enough staff to offer summer school for grades 6-8.  
Climate and Culture
  • We’ll need to be very intentional about onboarding our new staff next year since we will have so many new hires.  I see this as an opportunity to define what is important to us and to get everyone aligned in our goals for the year.
  • We are planning an outdoor graduation for 8th grade (June 11) and drive by ceremonies for kindergarten and 5th (on June 16).  The new guidelines from ODE allow for maskless gatherings outdoors, which will be nice.
Professional Development
  • Our last professional development day is June 4.  We’ll use a portion of this time to evaluate our equity and inclusion work this year and make plans for next year.  The rest of the time will be used for grading since we have a quicker turnaround to get report cards out at the end of the year.
Hot Topics
  • ODE will release a draft of the guidelines for next year on June 25 and a final version on July 22. In the draft, mask wearing will remain in place in some form, and the other protocols will become advisory. This should allow us to bring all students back 5 days per week.  We are making plans to do that and still offer a remote option for families who choose to remain in CDL and/or have to quarantine. The remote option may be challenging because the current draft requires that 50% of distance learning time be synchronous.  That will be hard for us because we’ll have low numbers of kids over many grade levels.
  • Many families are eager to have Buenos Dias/Buenas Tardes return.  We need to see what the ODE guidelines say before we can finalize any plans for this.  We may have to hire additional instructional assistants in order to meet safety requirements.
Seeking Input
  • Any suggestions for sharing our many staffing changes with the community?  Parents are starting to ask and I don’t want to put them off or give them inaccurate information.
The Board discussed pros and cons of announcing staffing changes.
  • One of the parents on our Equity Advisory Committee put us in contact with a group that does public murals.  We met with the coordinator and she felt we could do a  mural on the east side of the building and a smaller section facing the playground over the summer.  The approximate cost would range from $1500 - $5000 depending on the size.  If this sounds like a possibility the board would consider, I will continue working with her to flesh out the details and bring more information to the June meeting.  We would want to involve the community if possible to gather mural ideas to share with the artist. If we do this project in the summer, the students who attend summer school would be able to help.
  • We would like to close the office from June 28 - July 6 to give admin staff a well deserved break.  After that, we’d like to close on Fridays until summer school starts (July 9, 16, & 23).  The office staff was not able to take their allotted  vacation days last year so we want to create a schedule that ensures they will get a break.
Decisions Needed
J-1 Visas
  • We have ~14 new positions to fill and so far we are having little luck with our applicants.  We have the jobs posted on multiple job boards and in Puerto Rico as well.  I’m also exploring the possibility of getting exchange teachers through a program with the Embassy of Spain. There is a cost of approximately $2000 per hire spread over two years if we get candidates from Spain due to the need for a J1 visa sponsor. These candidates are asked to work for 2 years, and then they have the option to renew for up to 5 years.  The cost goes down after the first two years. I need to know if I have approval to hire candidates through the J-1 visa program.
Relocation costs
  • If we hire candidates from Spain or Puerto Rico, they will have significant relocation costs.  Can we offer any support to help them with moving expenses?
Staffing
  • I sent a survey last week to get a sense of how many students might remain in CDL.  Families could only submit one response, so these numbers are low because they only reflect one child in each family.  As of today, we had 201 responses.  Of these, 
    • 183 will return if we go 5 days per week
    • 100 will return for hybrid or full time
    • 23 will not return (4 don’t want mask requirement, 19 have health or other concerns)
  • Based on these numbers, I’d like to add 1 ½ - 2 positions to support kids online.  One person would coordinate ELA and math lessons online and would do periodic tutoring sessions.  This would be more similar to BSD’s flex online model than to our current CDL program because the person would be covering multiple grade levels.  For Spanish, I’d like to have one person (either ½ or full time depending on numbers) who would plan online lessons and offer daily Zoom classes to give kids more chances to practice speaking and reading.  We might also be able to use some of our instructional assistants’ time to support online Spanish like we are now.  
  • We are looking into the possibility of making these hires (if approved) through an external staffing agency so that we don’t have to deal with the payroll requirements in different states since these teachers could work from anywhere. Tonya and I met with them today and gave them our salary numbers, so they are going to let us know if we could hire people through them for approximately the same amount as we would pay on our own.
Mission
  • A committee of staff and board representatives met several times to review the mission and suggest changes.  They looked at the results of a staff/community survey to determine people’s priorities.
 
  • Current Mission: The mission of Arco Iris is to offer a rigorous education that includes Spanish immersion and Singapore Math, a mathematical curriculum, that will improve outcomes for all our students, including those who are historically and educationally underserved students, with the goal of reducing and eliminating achievement and opportunity gaps, allowing the entire student population to be responsible citizens and lifelong learners with strong values.
 
  • Committee recommendation:  Arco Iris Spanish Immersion Charter School cultivates overall academic success through biliterate education and a robust math curriculum, where students are members of a supportive multicultural community valuing diversity, equity and inclusion.
 
  • Possible edits: Arco Iris Spanish Immersion Charter School cultivates academic success through a biliterate education and a robust math curriculum. Our students are members of a supportive multicultural community valuing diversity, equity and inclusion. 
S. Marx made a motion to authorize Executive Director Michelle Herron to hire up to five J-1 visa applicants.
S. Trivedi seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
L. Anderson
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
M. Barron
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
S. Marx
Aye
S. Zephirin
Aye
S. Trivedi
Aye
S. Stevens
Aye
ACTION ITEM: Executive Director Michelle Herron to work with Accountant to get budget information including PERS offsets with the goal of recommending relocation fees for staff from outside of the country.
ACTION ITEM: Executive Director Michelle Herron to send Board the mission statement options for review.

IV. Development

A.

PTO Report

B.

Development & Community Relations Committee

Ms. Christa Billings provided an auction update.

V. Finance

A.

Treasurer's Report

Ms. Shagun Trivedi presented the Treasurer's Report:
  •  ADMw received for (Month):    $ 272,587
  •  Total income for (Month):         $ 314,219
  •  Cash balance for (Month):       $2,105,364
  •  Accts Receivable for (Month):  $ 122,007
  •  Net gain/loss for (Month):        $ (9,673)
She noted a variance for which she has requested additional information from the accountant.

VI. Closing Items

A.

Closing Comments and Action Items

Ms. Sara Marx read the action items.

B.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:28 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
S. Marx