Menlo Park Academy Governing Board
Minutes
Board Working Session
Date and Time
Thursday February 29, 2024 at 6:00 PM
Location
Menlo Park Academy
2149 W. 53rd Street
Cleveland, OH 44102
The working session of MPA’s governing board will be held on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at Menlo Park Academy, 2149 W. 53rd Street, Cleveland, OH 44102. Meeting dates and times are posted in several places in building as well as on our web site at www.menloparkacademy.com.
Directors Present
Joe Loyd, Shruti Aring, Teri Harrison, Tiffany Randle, Twana Rogers
Directors Absent
Jillian Dura
Guests Present
Deborah Zeffren, Kaitlyn Old
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
II. Action Items
A.
New Hires
- Does he have any license?
No. One is expired and he’s working on his principal license. Phyllis Robinson will talk with Allison Lentz to see if he can be her backup if she’s not in the building.
- When is his start date?
March 11 or 13th. He can be in the building for onboarding until BCI FBI come in.
B.
SPED Consultant
Retroactive with unexpected and no notice resignation of Stacy Frank. Phyllis Robinson reached out to Beth Turk (former IS and SPED manager). She will be coming in on a consulting basis after hours.
She will not be working with students during the school day but can schedule meetings for IEPs after 4:00pm to facilitate that.
C.
Resignations
D.
Testing Stipends
E.
Learn Well Contract
Shruti Aring shared that this program provides a teacher while students are in the hospital to help keep up with their work. We have to pay this teacher separately. We don’t have to do this but the family is opting for it. The students has been gone for a while already and managing with google classroom and making sure things are posted. We cancel any time if needed.
F.
Board Secretary
G.
23-24 OKR Update
III. Operations
A.
Organization Chart
The wrong version was uploaded but they are very similar. Adding Admissions Manager, Dean of Students, Jessica Wilcox to take on Director of Curriculum & Enrollment and to have a project assistant.
The volunteer coordinator position is not there. We don’t want Renee to think we’re throwing her to the wind, so last meeting we talked about how Jessica Wilcox and Phyllis Robinson have very different needs for assistants. Jessica is more project focused and Phyllis is more of a traditional administrative assistant. Renee in the interim would provide assistance to Jessica Wilcox.
Kaitlyn Old and Renee Dornan are doing everything they can to hold down the fort and move things forward.
B.
Job Descriptions
C.
Admin Compensation Adjustments
She was not eligible for the last raise. She has been here for 1.5 years and Deborah Zeffren has seen her taking on more responsibility, her last evaluation was stellar, and she knows that she would like to make the recommendation to raise her hourly wage.
The annual July raise will depend on evaluation
D.
Internet- E-Rate Renewal
E.
Technology Services
F.
SIS Services
Since departing from Sarah O’Bryan with Accel, it was time to look at other SIS and EMIS services to see if we should sever ties with Accel or if they would sever ties with us. Over the last few months, Deborah Zeffren has reached out to many companies that host SIS environments and others that provide EMIS services. She uploaded everything into the board book and has a comparison sheet. She mapped out cost to stay in the current set up and to switch the set up.
There is a tremendous discount going through Accel. Feedback needed is which direction we should go. Significant amount of work in whichever direction we need to go.
Teri Harrison asked if the frustrations with Accel PowerSchool worth the savings?
G.
ECF
If we don’t have computers delivered by the end of June, we lose money from grants. Putting pricing on board books means that if we don’t purchase, we will lose the money. When we bring it to a vote for the next board meeting, anything under $400 will be 100% reimbursed. Anything above will only be reimbursed $400 of it. 20-30 laptops for staff will be brought in the $800 range.
H.
Spring Break Floor Maintenance
IV. Board Applicants
A.
Board Applicants
There is a committee interest application that went out to everybody. If we can send that out again and reach out to those who have expressed interest we can vote at the next regular meeting to add them to the committee. Tiffany Randle will repost the application.
V. 2024-25 School Calendar
A.
2024-25 Calendar Draft
Proposing changes for the next board meeting
VI. New Business
A.
Mid-Year Survey Result Review
B.
Grant Opportunity
Music Grant Budget - Requesting more information before moving forward.
Space Bound contract and current contract with Datapath.
For a while, Deborah Zeffren and Joe Loyd have been looking at different places for technology services. Quotes are uploaded from Space Bound.
They received one from FIT technology but didn’t seem that we wanted to go that way. They had a different vision than our current path.
They brought these two contracts up to see where the Board would like to go.
Deborah Zeffren will circle back with Datapath to discuss inventory.