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Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School

Minutes

Board Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday July 29, 2021 at 6:00 PM

Location

Board & Staff: In person at school

Public: Zoom only 
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Directors Present

C. Billings, E. Hatch, S. Stevens, T. McCoy (remote)

Directors Absent

S. Trivedi, S. Zephirin

Ex Officio Members Present

C. Brodniak, M. Ston

Non Voting Members Present

C. Brodniak, M. Ston

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 Jul 29, 2021 at 6:14 PM.

C.

Public Comment

  • No public comment

D.

Approve Meeting Minutes - June 2021

S. Stevens made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Meeting on 06-21-21.
E. Hatch seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
S. Stevens
Aye
S. Zephirin
Absent
S. Trivedi
Absent
E. Hatch
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye

E.

Approve Minutes: July 25th Board Special Session

S. Stevens made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Special Session on 07-25-21.
E. Hatch seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
S. Zephirin
Absent
E. Hatch
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
S. Trivedi
Absent
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Stevens
Aye

II. New Business

A.

Approve New Employment Agreements

E. Hatch made a motion to Approve the employement agreement for the new PE teacher.
S. Stevens seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
C. Billings
Aye
S. Trivedi
Absent
S. Stevens
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Zephirin
Absent

B.

2021-22 Strategic Planning

Covered in Directors Report

C.

Vote on Board Emeritus Members

Move to August Board Meeting

D.

Discuss need for printed Board meeting materials

Move to August Board Meeting

III. Academic Excellence

A.

Executive Director's Report

S. Stevens made a motion to Require weekly covid testing for unvaccinated employees.
E. Hatch seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
S. Zephirin
Absent
C. Billings
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Stevens
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
S. Trivedi
Absent
E. Hatch made a motion to Adopt 2 sentence version of mission statement.
T. McCoy seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
C. Billings
Aye
S. Trivedi
Absent
E. Hatch
Aye
T. McCoy
Aye
S. Zephirin
Absent
S. Stevens
Aye

Director’s Report
7-29-21
Information to Share
Student Achievement
  • We have 85 students enrolled in summer school and things are going well so far. We are very happy to have the funding to make this program possible!

Climate and Culture
  • We are using a new parent communication tool called Parent Square.  BSD made the shift to this system so we followed suit in order to have the ability to sync our student information and parent communication systems.  So far, it seems like a positive change.  It has all the features of our old system as well as the ability to send messages in the parents’ language of choice without requiring translation on our end.
  • Jon Bridges shared a summary of BSD’s survey results for the last two years so that we could use them as a comparison.
  • We are offering Singapore Math training to all of our elementary teachers.  They will do 4-6 hours of online coursework in September and we’ll have an in-person trainer work with them in October.  
  • BSD is inviting our teachers to join their multi-lingual summit in August.  This will be an optional PD opportunity for them.
  • We will need to increase our PD budget at some point this year.  When we created the budget, we didn’t know whether in-person PD would be available this year, but now that things have changed, our $5k allocation will be too low.  



Hot Topics
  • We have very significant floor damage in one of our classrooms that seems to be coming from moisture under the building.  We are trying to get someone to come out to find the cause and give us a bid.
  • We are very focused on hiring.
  • Once we complete the hiring process for our 4/5  blended classes, we will plan a parent meeting to explain the class configuration change and answer questions.  We’ll probably offer both in-person and Zoom meeting options to maximize attendance.
  • ODE put out the new guidelines for next year, and they are mostly what we expected.  The only change from the draft version is that the guidelines do not specify the instructional time requirements for CDL, which is good news for us if we decide to offer this option to families.  However, the guidance does say that more information will be coming out about CDL programs, so we don’t yet know what the final recommendations will be.  Based on these new guidelines:
    • We will require masks for staff and students indoors regardless of vaccination status.  This is consistent with BSD’s plan and it follows the recommendations from our local health department.  Masks will not be required outside, but we will support students who choose to keep their masks on as a personal choice.
    • We will adhere to the recommendations to maintain 3 feet of distance and keep students in cohort groups as much as possible.
    • We will create a schedule that minimizes time spent in hallway transitions and standing in lines.
    • We will keep our additional handwashing stations to allow easier access to handwashing before meals.
 
  • Procedural changes based on ODE guidelines:
    • We will not provide a drop in option for our Buenos Dias/Buenas Tardes programs so that we can maintain stable student groups. We will make every effort to group students in the program according to grade bands to minimize mixing among different grade levels, but it will not be possible to have complete separation due to staffing and space limitations.
    • We will continue to use all available exterior doors for pick-up and drop off to minimize hallway traffic. The traffic flow pattern we used last spring will have to change to accommodate more drivers and we will probably have staggered start and end times, but those details have not been worked out yet.

Seeking Input
  • We want to offer an onsite orientation for kinder and CDL families before school starts.  We can either set this up as a series of tours or as a single evening event.  What do you think families would prefer?
  • I would like to require weekly COVID testing for any employee who has a medical vaccination exemption.  I wrote to our lawyers to see if we could do this and got this response:  An unvaccinated employee getting periodic COVID-19 testing can be part of their reasonable accommodation arrangement. I have included below the EEOC’s Q&A that addresses this topic. The entire Q&A is linked HERE.
  • I would like to notify our families that we require our employees to be vaccinated, subject to allowed legal exemptions.
Decision Needed
Family Donations
  • We need to finalize the messaging for our family donation requests so that we can get the information out to new families.  
    • Changes would include a new name for the contribution, an explanation of why we need the funds and how we plan to use them, a suggested donation amount per family and an easy way for families to donate.
    • I’ve linked the Hope Chinese Family Giving page as an example.

Mission Statement
  • One sentence:  Arco Iris Spanish Immersion Charter School cultivates academic success for all students through a biliterate education and a robust math curriculum, where our students are members of a supportive multicultural community valuing diversity, equity and inclusion. 
  • Two sentences:  Arco Iris Spanish Immersion Charter School cultivates academic success for all students through a biliterate education and a robust math curriculum. Our students are members of a supportive multicultural community valuing diversity, equity and inclusion. 

CDL Option for Families
  • We got survey responses for 392 students (56 did not respond)
  • 21 students would prefer CDL
  • We would use Proximity Learning to purchase contracted teachers, and I would suggest that we only commit to 1 semester at a time.  
Strategic Planning Process - DRAFT
  • Define the end goal - purpose, type of document, level of detail, audience, etc.
  • Identify pillars, such as spending priorities, academic programs, culture and climate, facility
  • Create guiding questions that are related to the pillars and still allow parents the option to share their personal priorities.
  • Decide on a format for gathering stakeholder feedback and provide input opportunities to board, staff, families, and students
  • Analyze and organize feedback
  • Decide on strategic goals - specific, measurable, achievable
  • Develop strategic planning documents - public and internal, timelines for goals, success metrics, opportunities for ongoing adjustments
  • Implement communication plan
  • Create calendar of deliverables and identify leaders for each phase of the process
  • Get input/guidance from Kristen Miles?  If yes, at what stages and to what level?

IV. Finance

A.

Adopt Updated Budget

E. Hatch made a motion to Adopt the revised budget as presented.
S. Stevens seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
S. Stevens
Aye
C. Billings
Aye
E. Hatch
Aye
S. Zephirin
Absent
S. Trivedi
Absent
T. McCoy
Aye

V. Closing Items

A.

Closing Comments and Action Items

  • Wording for family donation communication
  • Christa to connect with Cyndi on software
  • Christa to connect with Kristen Miles
  • Michelle to connect with program to detemine if they can teach an additional subject in Spanish & semester vs year
  • Michelle to update strategic planning process

B.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:17 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
C. Billings