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Research Triangle High School

Minutes

Board Meeting - Retreat

Date and Time

Friday October 20, 2017 at 8:30 AM

Location

Syngenta - 9 Davis Drive, RTP
The Retreat is being held at Syngenta Biotechnology at 9 Davis Drive, via the gate. 

Members who are offsite may join by video conference via Zoom; just click on this link: https://zoom.us/j/136733585 

You may also join that link by phone; it will download the app onto your phone, and then you can use it solely aurally if you like. Or you can also video chat from your phone.  Lastly, it uses battery power intensely, so be prepared to recharge, and also be sure to close the app after you ring off or it will stay open and use battery life.

Directors Present

C. Mugge, C. Rao, C. Rockafellow, J. Kerr, K. Pigues, R. Cohn, S. Rivers-Kobler, T. Medhin, T. Vaidhyan, V. Vojnovich

Directors Absent

A. Quigley, G. Rodgers, S. Mcmullan

Guests Present

Darrell Allison, Martinette Horner, P. Blizzard

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

C. Mugge called a meeting of the board of directors of Research Triangle High School to order on Friday Oct 20, 2017 at 8:40 AM.

II. Ice Breaker

A.

Ice Breaker Exercise

Sondra's bracelet
Chaya's license plate
Rich's Tamiflu box
Carmen's rum
Keith's speaker tags
John's rubber band
Pamela's bracelet
Victoria's photo of children
Caroline's photo of dad
Eric's book
Thomas' 
Tsegga's daughter's necklace
 

III. Trends and Strategic Direction

A.

CEO Update

B.

Work Group by Strategic Area

C.

Break

D.

Work Group Readouts

  1. Increase STEM access and programming - to what end? “Impacting a broader group of students and families for today and the future”
    1. Future jobs - can succeed in future proofing
    2. The charter commitments to the state
    3. Our values in interpreting the world - STEM is a tool to think deeply akin to the Humanities
    4. Access for minorities and women to the future, neediest and rural
      1. Model how to increase minorities in AP for example
      2. Have SUCCESS in diversity! Defined as:
        1. Entering, staying, and graduating from RTHS
        2. Completing college
        3. So… increase administrative bandwidth
          1. And this could be on the template
          2.  
  2. Continued Innovation? What are the pain points?
    1. Programming and curriculum - unique problems bc of what we are trying to do - blend hi and low end; PL;
      1. Administrative bandwidth
      2. World class PD environment - Observations & coaching of teachers
    2. Operational support
      1. Increasing efficiencies
  3. Marketing & Branding
    1. Want people to know who we are - “leading charter school in STEAM area” - doing innovative programming to do 1. Above
    2. “Who is RTHS and why do we matter to key stakeholders”
    3. Show diverse population main page!
    4. Out in the community - visuals
  4. Consider strategic growth - to impact more students with what we’re doing-
    1. Publishing - From our template of success - financial, academic, governance - that can be used by other schools to succeed - a unique focus on academic excellence, governance, financial mgmt
      1. Being a Thought Leader
    2. Replicating? Opening sister schools - Managers
      1. CMO
    3. Scaling? Shared model training to other entities? Coaches
    4. Burden should be on the State -  they find, fund, invest in things they know about - but it’s on us to Communicate the great work we do
      1. Invite NCGA visitors, committees, etc




MARKETING AND BRANDING
GOAL: Tell the story of who we are and why we matter
ACTION:
  1. Identify stakeholders - key recipients of our message
    1. Internal and external
  2. Establish committee to do this
  3. Review 5-year UNC GA strategic plan
  4. Take Board through PL 100 minutes tour - PB



MEMBERS:
Victoria
Thomas
External: James Kotecki
Faculty - Deb Brown?
Graduated/current student - Candace Swepson




 
  1. Marketing & Branding
    1. Want people to know who we are - “leading charter school in STEAM area” - doing innovative programming to do 1. Above
    2. “Who is RTHS and why do we matter to key stakeholders”
    3. Show diverse population main page!
    4. Out in the community - visuals






STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
STRATEGIC GROWTH
GOAL 1: IMPACT many more students and families with what we are doing
ACTION:
  1. Define the ways #3 to #5
    1. Doubling or tripling the footprint here to impact more students

MEMBERS
Alex Quigley
Thomas
Keith Pigues
Sondra
Eric and Pamela
Carmen
Victoria


 
  1. Consider strategic growth - to impact more students with what we’re doing-
    1. Publishing - From our template of success - financial, academic, governance - that can be used by other schools to succeed - a unique focus on academic excellence, governance, financial mgmt
      1. Being a Thought Leader
    2. Replicating? Opening sister schools - Managers
      1. CMO
    3. Scaling? Shared model training to other entities? Coaches
    4. Burden should be on the State -  they find, fund, invest in things they know about - but it’s on us to Communicate the great work we do
    5. Invite NCGA visitors, committees, etc
GOAL 2: IMPACTING A BROADER GROUP OF STUDENTS AND FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY





 
  1. Increase STEM access and programming - to what end? “Impacting a broader group of students and families for today and the future”
    1. Future jobs - can succeed in future proofing
    2. The charter commitments to the state
    3. Our values in interpreting the world - STEM is a tool to think deeply akin to the Humanities
    4. Access for minorities and women to the future, neediest and rural
      1. Model how to increase minorities in AP for example
      2. Have SUCCESS in diversity! Defined as:
        1. Entering, staying, and graduating from RTHS
        2. Completing college
        3. So… increase administrative bandwidth
And this could be on the template



CONTINUED INNOVATION
GOAL 3: Improve programming, efficiency and effectiveness of operations
ACTIONS:
  1. Determine pain points
  2. Baseline other schools
    1. What’s NCSSM up to that we could ...something
      1. Arrange tour for Board, incl. Their online effort
        1. Melissa Th & Todd Roberts

ADD data and analytics





 
  1. Continued Innovation? What are the pain points?
    1. Programming and curriculum - unique problems bc of what we are trying to do - blend hi and low end; PL;
      1. Administrative bandwidth
      2. World class PD environment - Observations & coaching of teachers
    2. Operational support
      1. Increasing efficiencies
      2. Support from state on how to measure each student gets 185 days/hours instead of the whole building = more students in our building at varied times
        1. Ask Friday Institute for help on this legislatively

IV. Work Session

A.

Develop Unified Set of Actions

AFTERNOON COMMITTEE REPORTS - RANDOM NOTES
  1. Need data and analytics to inform these strategic directions from today ACEX COMM
  2. Development - Add comments to DD/RR about needs - $$-for-volunteering; paint the bldg, etc. - Idea: Get PTSO to ask parents to collect this info! - DEVCOMM
  3. Our work is unique and matched to what companies are looking for - Listen first
    1. “We should make more money from corporate donors than from states and counties in five years,” says Keith!
    2. Gala - NCSSM - school pushed back re:’no appetite’ vs. oversold actual gala $150K - DEVCOMM
      1. Alignment with corporate goals of our neighbors - VV
      2. Work with RTF - SLevitan - Keith and Pamela
      3. Remove our constraints bc they may be self-imposed - KP
      4. ROI
  4. UPDATE corporate ‘ask’ document/presentation - PB
    1. ADD a school development officer FINANCE COMM/DEV COMM TAG TEAM
    2. ADD big thing celebrating something
  5. Succession planning - get that doc from Maureen Joy; update roles & responsibilities of CSO - GOVERNANCE
    1. "Make yourself dispensable"
  6. Enrollment - how many students could we grow to? FINANCE COMM
    1. ​​​​​​​Maanasa? Intern?

V. October Monthly Board Meeting Items

A.

Audit Review

John Kerr reported out on the Auditor's visit and discussion to the Finance Committee. It was a clean audit with no comments or changes required of the school.
R. Cohn made a motion to approve the audit.
S. Rivers-Kobler seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

B.

Approve September Minutes

V. Vojnovich made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 09-20-17 Board Meeting on 09-20-17.
J. Kerr seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

VI. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

Pamela shared the plans of the April RTP Rotary event. 
 
C. Rao made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
J. Kerr seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 2:24 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
P. Blizzard