Mr. Grunden commented on some of the key challenges in the current footprint of RTHS, summarized as
1.  Increase percentage of enrolled low-income students and students of color
2.  Increase financial support from families and private sector
3.  Increase STEM offerings, opportunitis, and reputation
4.  Prevent staff burnout.

Discussion included several short-term and long-term goals of the Organization, and conversation surrounding possible help needed from the RTHS Board.

Rich arrived at 2:30 pm.    Rich began the presentation of Academic Excellence Committee at 2:40 pm. 

Goals of the Academic Excellence Committee include:
1.  Serving as a sounding board for CSO in instructional decision-making (instructional practices and curricula based on performance data)
2.  Improve monitoring of staff oversight via enhanced visibility into staff surveys, retention data
3.  Streamline process for obtaining and presenting data for committee and board review
4.  Align goal-setting and measurement processes with those of CSO evaluation

Academic Excellence Committee will assess the need and benefits to utilize the coaching resources of Board on Track short term and long term. 

Rich will assess with Mr. Grunden if there may be some "data-driven" analytics and outcomes that have driven change or process improvement at RTHS, and assess if it may be valuable in the messaging/marketing of the School. 

On behalf of Finance Committee Chair John Kerr, Pamela Blizzard presented the results of the board assessment taken online, and the Board discussed the opportunities for ongoing Board Education pertaining to the Organization's financial management, and increasing efficiencies in management's deliverables and reports, etc.  

Recommendation made by the Board to develop an online "New Board Member Orientation Training" module with materials to include all RTHS Committees and to include the overall RTHS Organization key initiatives and sustainability goals, and the role of a RTHS Board Member.  Suggestion made to have Student(s) from RTHS participate in helping create this orientation module within the Board on Track Tool, which also provides student engagement opportunities with Board Members.  

Governance Committee identified the critical need of board member recruitment.  Request was made for existing board members to complete the Board on Track profile tool for each Board Member to list out their individual profiles.   Go to upper right corner where your name is, click on "My Profile", then click on "Skills" and complete the various assessments; follow that by completing the section called "Demographics" with your personal information.  Target to complete the skills profile and demographic inputs by October 31, 2016.  

Development Committee discussed the role that RTHS Board can play in the sustained growth of funding from Corporate investors.  One action identified was that RTHS will summarize the complete school listing of a parent that is employed by a business, that could be a targeted outreach for contributions, reminding parents to use corporate match through employee charitable contributions.  Another area of recommendations were: 
Raptor Funds:  Participate in promotional activities such as videos and meetings, and driving education & awareness of matching corporate funds
PTSO:  Support activities of the PTSO, i.e. Silent Auction
Corporate:  Expand the list of potential corporate partnerships through both parent & Board connections; assign board members corporate partnerships to pursue.  Corporate/University support can include:  financial donations, curriculum support, menthorships, job shadowing, internships and college grants, in-kind donations, student research grants at colleges.  Critical step here is to establish tracking for donations beyond financial donations (something in Board on Track?). 

Mr. Grunden commented that the RTHS Board strengths included a shared vision, governance strength vs. "operational focus", and positive energy and commitment for the success of RTHS.     A suggestion was made to use Sean Gallagher at Board on Track as a resource for addressing the gap of CSO Goals/Objectives dashboard versus Academic Excellence dashboard,  to streamline metrics/management systems and aiding in the development of compensation and incentives plan development for the CSO.  Target date is by November 10 to for CSO Support and Evaluation Cmte. to discuss with Sean Gallagher what available resources and guidance can be used to build a framework, or find out if there are charter high schools that have a reference CSO compensation planning process.  

Each board member was asked to list their top 5 recommendation Board goals onto yellow sticky notes and then all input was reviewed by the board.   the consensus from all of the input was:

1.  Increase board members with a goal of 12 by 2018, and propose succession plan recommendation  - Governance Committee 
2.  Identify candidate businesses and correlating Board owners to assist, and create roadmap to develop and sustain key corporate partnerships - Development Committee 
3.  Financial Management - enhance monthly reporting tools for Board review (i.e. Bond stats and key milestones) and finance operating manual.
4.  Create "new board member" onboarding online manual - Governance Committee
5.  Identify parents that are business professionals who could be recruited to become active volunteers for various Committees of RTHS Board
5.   Board commits to 1/1 with CSO on an ongoing basis
6.  Helps RTHS find opportunities and categories for RTHS national recognition and Teacher recognition - Develop Marketing Committee?
7.  Better understand resources available in Board on Track tool to increase efficiency of Board and sustainability of Organization - All Committee.
8.  Teacher retention and effectiveness - raise and sustain $300K to tackle the key actions to address : 
9.  RTHS to develop a forward-looking financial strategy with key priorities, and needed roles of the Board for oversight
10.  Underserved students priorities - Pamela to bring to the Board a proposal for increasing diversity of underserved students with costs and benefits by  November, 2016 board meeting 
11.  Marketing Committee -- develop a strategy and plan once more Board members are recruited