N. Stewart provided the financial update.   She advised that we have a net income of -$574.  For the 24-25 plan the ADA dropped from 93 to 93.4%  which will affect the school by a negative $91k.  C. Robie asked about other services and operating of our 17% and how that compares to other schools, N. Stewart advised she does not have the data on hand but will get it and send it to Christine.  B. Schaff asked about how the COLA will affect,  N. Stewart said they are waiting to get final numbers and then will update us.

C. Chilcott also gave update for 24-25 budget update.  Reminded board that almost 500k of Covid funds have ceased, state reducing the COLA, and enrollment and ADA still in flux. Meetings are being set up with the staff to review the budget, let them know of the deficits, discuss ways to increase revenue and support staff.  J.  Whatley advised there will be questions and answers but would like to have input to how to help.  J. Thompson asked if there is any recommendations on cuts that were going to be made; C. Chilcott advised we reduced staff and non-staff items and those were shared in previous board meetings.  D. Forbes said it is a good idea to get input however what is done is done.  K. McCoy asked if in the meetings with we will be comparing information with other schools.  R. Rentschler wanted to point out that as a positive the fact that we have had an increase in students and retainment and less truancy should be an acknowledgment that work trying to make the school better is being done.  B. Schaff said we are not getting parcel tax for 1/3 of our students since they are not Alameda residents but we are still providing the same education to all of the students,

C. Chilcott commented that this is year 1 of the strategic planning and we will now be going into year 2.  Year 2 culture is to implement more family events in the MS level, to establish the AoA Brand better.  For staff it was to retain strong academic support staff and ensure staff and teacher benefits are competitive. 

Year 3 goals:  Culture- have all of Alameda know what AoA stands for.  Instruction and Pedagogy- reduce achievement gap by 50%, teacher led professional development.  

Year 4 goals:  Culture:  Parents actively engaged in child's education in terms of fundraising and volunteering and communication

Year 5:  Culture:  99% of students feel safe at AoA;  ADA improved by 2.5%; Have the ability to track student growth.  Instruction and Pedagogy:  Implement cross age (grade-level) tutoring.  Staff:  staff across all areas are paid equally or higher than surrounding school/districts.  

C. Chilcott advised some of these goals need clarification from the board as well as OLT and that includes the new principals (that are yet to be hired).  Need to determine the calendaring of year 2 goals and go over year one goals to determine achievement.

J.  Whatley advised she loved hearing the  goals and cannot wait to be working here in the 27-28 school year and seeing all of the goals implemented.  She said she did not recall hearing this before and would like clarification on what the leaders would be.  She also asked what the impact on robust fundraising would be as she has not seen that done in years but knows that it has been done in the past.

J.  Thompson stressed the need for board support and advised the need to develop a strong board.  She wondered why that is not as one of the goals as they are the ones making some of the big decisions.  C.  Chilcott advised that was originally not one of the goals.   J.  Thompson noticed some years there were no staff goals,  C.  Chilcott advised that was because some years there was no new goal.  J.  Thompson asked for the process to edit the goals.  C.  Chilcott advised so far step one is review them with new onboarding team members, step 2 is adding specificity by both leadership team and the board.

C. Robie stated this seems like areas of hopes and not necessarily goals as they are not stating what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it.  She stated there is a lot of things that we want to accomplish under each year but it is unattainable but even if there is 2 under each of the 3 main subtopics that would be 6 total and that is already a lot of goals to achieve, so we need to try and be more realistic about what we are aiming for.  

D.  Forbes echoed the ladies sentiments and mentioned that it is not until year 5 that an increase in ADA is mentioned and that we need to distill down to achieve them.

Finance:  Discussed issues with budget and will continue to discuss further.

Student success committee:  was unable to meet due to last minute principal conflicts.

Governance Committee:  Interviewing 2 potential candidates on Monday and reaching out to 3 additional candidates.

C. Robie advised that she would like more time for speaking instead of just getting reports.

J.  Thompson thanked for being able to be part of the board and for having her.

K.  McCoy advised one of their other companies is sponsoring a farm to table luncheon.

We are starting camp AoA that is for the 6th graders that tours the school, they get to meet some of their teachers and they do testing to see where they are education-wise and they get a grab bag along with their log-ins.  It is a few hours long and is a great opportunity for our newcomers and have about 50-ish new families and encouraging them all to join.