Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School

Minutes

Board Special Session

Date and Time

Tuesday October 5, 2021 at 6:00 PM

Location

Board & Staff: At school
Public: Zoom

Directors Present

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

Directors Absent

None

Ex Officio Members Present

C. Brodniak, M. Ston

Non Voting Members Present

C. Brodniak, M. Ston

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance

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 Tuesday Oct 5, 2021 at 6:08 PM.
Board Emeritus members in attendance today due to their experience with the middle school program (Mario, Sara, Caitlin)

II. Governance

A.

Strategic Planning

Board discussed strategic planning for the Middle School program.  Considered pros and cons of maintaining the middle school.  Our biggest challenges to maintaining the middle school are finding qualified Spanish speaking staff and maintaining full enrollment in the program through all 3 years.  Covid has accelerated these challenges.  Maintaining the middle school program aligns with the original vision for Arco Iris. It allows students to continue learning Spanish in middle school so they can participate in a dual program in high school.  We also know there are families who enrolled their student at Arco Iris because we are a K-8 option.

Our current enrollment in 5th grade is 29 students. We know not all these students will enroll in our middle school program.  This means we likely do not have enrollment numbers to support a 6th grade class for next year.  Administration will notify 5th grade families of this possibility so they have ample time to explore other options.

Board will continue to discuss options for the future of our middle school program.

III. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:26 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
S. Zephirin