C. Chilcott presented the current mission and vision statements and advised that 

although the words social justice are not mentioned in either statement in California we are still one of the top 50 most diverse schools. She also advised of the OLT's preferred statements. 

C. Robie stated the statement says that AoA is committed to but would also like to 

include that it is not just committed to but also where it happens. She also said she would like the sentence to show why choose AoA over any other school. 

J. Laird said she understands what it means when it says that systemic barriers are dismantled but is worried many families may not understand what that implies. 

K. McCoy said he preferred Amy Price's more general sentence and said that the ones given as examples are a bit more cold than the other one mentioned. 

D. Forbes asked if C. Chilcott had a favorite phrase. C. Chilcott advised she does not since she created them all but wants them to show that it is not general but tailored to our students. D. Forbes also said he echoed K. McCoy's sentiments and did not really like any of the phrases given and mentioned that 3A actually gave him a negative reaction. He said that he also liked A. Price's statement more. 

C. Chilcott advised that her understanding is this will go to the board to update and then go to the staff for feedback. She also asked if they can define what exactly they like from A. Price's statement since it is a bit more generalized which is what we were trying to move away from, and does not speak on the social justice aspect of the school. 

W. Schaff mentioned that unfortunately now social justice is seen as a negative idea, possibly not so in Alameda but in the world around us. That is the reason why he is struggling adding that to our statement. 

D. Forbes said he sees urgency in needing to get this finalized as soon as possible because if not people will be looking at other schools. C. Robie also said she does see some urgency and should be done no later than next month. She also encouraged to get some ideas from the PTA of why they chose AoA. D. Forbes asked why do we not like the "private school feel" sentence. J. Laird stated she does not like putting the public vs private school argument. 

The group then dove into digesting A. Price's phrase more and correcting some ideas they want with it. Once they got it where they liked it they then asked "what in that sentence differentiates us from ACLC or NEA?" , they all echoed nothing in that sentence. So they started thinking more about how to make AoA stand out in this phrase.

N. Stewart gave the board an update of the 2025-2026 budget. She did mention that we did receive additional funds from the government that are updated on the presentation. She also mentioned that the TK ADA was raised and that helped AoA. The board thanked N. Stewart for the very detailed report. 

D. Forbes advised that some have mentioned the board needs more financial training and spoke to the board financial advisor about it and it mentioned that they may need more training on the check registers and credit card statements. He asked what other training the board would like. K. McCoy said he would like to have training on if a completely new board member joined what they would need to know. He mentioned the funds on hand and the driving finances of AoA (i.e. parcel tax, our LAIF, the SELPA, we have the biggest reserve in CA and what makes specifically AoA stand out). D. Forbes said he heard people want to learn more about internal controls (how many people have credit cards, what to look for in the check registers and credit card statements, who has access to the money, etc.). 

C. Chilcott advised that our current enrollment is 678 but we budgeted 709, and we have a total of 9 offers out for a total of 687. If we fill all 9 offers then we would be 22 off our budgeted enrollment numbers. She advised we have 16% IEP students which is 108 with IEP's and 10 pending and that percentage is that same percentage as the 24-25 school year which was 3% higher than other districts and the previous 23-24 school year. 

A. Schlenk advised that she wishes the school would not fill up all of the spots open although she knows that is not possible. 

J. Whatley advised that she does not like speaking about how we have so many students with IEP's not being accepted but rather would like to focus on making sure they get the proper placement in areas they need. 

K. McCoy asked why we have so many no shows at the beginning of the year. C. Chilcott advised Jazz added as much information as she can regarding the reasons for not coming to AoA but with some of the no-shows it is kind of like them "ghosting you" and not responding. 

D. Forbes mentioned his concern since in district students is only 61% and would like to know what is being done to increase this number. C. Chilcott advised she was speaking with the PTA yesterday about it and is also coming up with ideas together on it. C. Robie advised we need to become more visible to the community. 

Finance Committee report- had first meeting and ended up with 4 goals for the year: educating board members , long term lease renewal, review feasibility of proposition to facilities grant and ongoing budget monitoring. 

Student success committee- identified 3 goals that have not been accessed yet. Academic achievement goals and key indicators to be reviewed by November. 2nd goal is to be reviewed by Feb 2026 and the 3rd goal will be reviewed by June 2026 and will be about programmatic changes. 

Governance committee- had 4 goals which is to get 4 new board members. Discussed creating a succession document for board members. 

C. Robie said that the Alameda library has their book sales starting Wednesday especially for teachers.   It is $5 for a bag of books.  Board said they will support any teacher who buys the bag. 

No other board member report. 

C. Chilcott advised that the same presentation that N. Stewart just made she will review it with the staff on Monday.

PTA just got their bank account this week and now they are getting the sign up program online and as soon as they get that going they will forward to the board so that they can sign up.