A. Schlenk just gave an update on the way the school year is going so far and repeated  the difficulties of teaching a greater class size.

J. Whatley shared some of the students' open house farmers market flyers.

C. Chilcott presented Alina Kagan, the new SPED coordinator to the group.   J. Laird asked A. Kagan what has she observed in her time here at AoA.  She said a strength is the dedication and commitment to the team and to the students.   She mentioned behavior intervention is an area of growth and it is her specialty so she is excited to take it on.  C. Chilcott added that A. Kagan is good at explaining the why as to some steps are taking place.  

N.  Stewart provided AoA's financial report.   She explained the difference in budgeted for next year along with the budgets for the new programs and how it will affect the projected balances.

J.  Whatley wanted to know if she could get an explanation about how the COLA affects the budget and what it affects or goes to.  She also asked if the projections are for what is current or if it is also going based on the fact that we are in cutbacks.  She also stated it projects student numbers and would like to know if we usually go high on student attendance and where are we getting those numbers from.

A. Shlenk stated she did not feel any of the staff knows where to find their pay scales.  She also stated she would like to know more about where the numbers for the budgets come from.

K. McCoy stated he was curious if the student numbers are accurate, agreeing with J. Whatley's comment.  C. Chilcott responded that the numbers have been decreased from the previous projections due to the numbers we have been receiving and historical data.  She also stated we do not know what the effects of Wood opening will have on our middle school numbers yet.  A. Price asked if we have looked into support staff and having our staff be certified by the state so that we can bill the state and it not come out of our budget.

C. Chilcott presented the LCAP report to the board.  She did mention that normally from our parents the data needs to be at least 175 responses and we received 206 responses.  She advised that student data is being collected this week as the students are testing. 

C. Chilcott explained the new expanded curriculum.  A. McGeorge stated that the program is now K-7th grade which is very beneficial.  She also stated that we are very excited for using Lexia which is an online intervention program and we have noticed some growth in the students.  Next year it will be used for Reading and History.

C. Robie asked at what point do we know that a program is working. 

C. Chilcott advised that this new program is to help address our name now being on the Differentiated Assistance Program.   She stated that we are building relationships with our partners and working with families together to address concerns before it becomes an issue.  She stated that we are working on attendance for the Black Students and creating relationships with the families, finding out what they need for us and how we are addressing those needs.  She wanted to make clear that this is not a placing any group above the other racial groups but rather not ignoring a current problem of them not being addressed enough to help them succeed.  It is a 3 year pilot program. 

J.  Whatley wanted to make note that something that may need to be addressed is the Black and African American parents' view of school and education.  She stated that some are very opposed to stepping foot into a school as they have been mistreated.  She advised that the safety, the love and the want must be felt by them in order for them to want to engage.  She also stated that while some parents want to be acknowledged as a black or African American family some want to just be seen as a person/individual and sometimes it is a hard line to thread and to know what each would prefer. 

A. Price and C. Robie stated they would like the bulk of the work to be done in year 1 and 2.  

J. Laird asked what is the new staff training that will happen and have other schools that have implemented this program been looked into to see how it has worked there.   C. Chilcott advised that since we just got the approval for the program some rough draft has just begun but metrics has not been looked at as a whole.  C. Robie advised that the board should be getting more information about that in the beginning of the next school year.  She also asked if the $50k for year 1 can be added into the budget.  C. Chilcott advised she can add that to the budget that the board will vote on later.

C. Chilcott and A. McGeorge advised that we are in year 3 of the 5 year strategic plan.  

A. McGeorge stated nothing replaces a good teacher in front of the students

The Board discussed the new board slate.

Finance committee-  did meet and discussed what was presented.

Student success committee-  did not meet.

Governance committee- posted something in the newspaper as well as on Linkedin inviting people to join our committee.  They asked if we have or if we can get it posted on the AoA website.  Also added that there are about 3 new policies that were just received that will be looked at and voted soon. 

None to report.

Nothing to report