Research Triangle High School

Minutes

Board Meeting

Date and Time

Wednesday April 17, 2019 at 5:30 PM

Location

RTHS
THIS MEETING WILL BE IN PERSON AS USUAL AT RTHS AT 5:30PM.

If you need to call in, you may Join Zoom Meeting
(By the way, you can download the Zoom app to your phone, and then this link always works when you are mobile)

https://zoom.us/j/9194264274

One tap mobile
+16468769923,,9194264274# US (New York)
+16699006833,,9194264274# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location
        +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 919 426 4274
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adEctfyWX7
 

Directors Present

A. Quigley, C. Mugge, C. Rao, G. Rodgers, R. Cohn, S. Mcmullan, S. Rivers-Kobler

Directors Absent

E. Cunningham, T. Medhin, T. Vaidhyan, V. Vojnovich

Guests Present

E. Grunden, Eric Grunden, 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 Wednesday Apr 17, 2019 at 5:37 PM.

C.

Approve 2/27 Board Meeting Minutes

A. Quigley made a motion to approve minutes from the Monthly Board Meeting - new date to accommodate some staff schedule changes on 02-27-19 Monthly Board Meeting - new date to accommodate some staff schedule changes on 02-27-19.
C. Rao seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

D.

Approve Minutes from 3/20 Meeting

G. Rodgers made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 03-20-19 Board Meeting on 03-20-19.
C. Rao seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

E.

CSO report

Item III. Staffing
- One faculty returning to UK (recd. citizenship)
- Another faculty leaving to go to Cary Academy (Coaching/Leadership/Teaching combo)
- Made one offer to potential candidate; Have 2 more candidates
- One faculty went on leave; Not returning

F.

Monthly Finance Report

G.

Vote to accept Consent Agenda above

A. Quigley made a motion to accept Consent Agenda.
G. Rodgers seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

II. Governance

A.

Foundation Discussion

- Refer to Lisa Gordon-Stella's email response (end of Cover sheet)
- Discussion on whether to have a Foundation or go with Raptorium LLC 
- Pro to go with LLC: No overheads; Board has control over funds; Protection from state Clawbacks; Good alternative
- Con with Foundation: Starting all over; Hence, time-consuming and more involvement by Board; requires more scrutiny; Creating new by-laws

- What was filed last year (by attorney) was Article of Incorporation only; not by-laws which require a different process
- 27-month deadline to withdraw the application; for good housekeeping, good to withdraw it now; Recommendation by Governance Committee to bring it forward
- Recommendation by Governance Committee to move the Funds ($345,000 - non-state and county funds) to Rapatorium LLC; (have a bank account in this LLC's name)
 
G. Rodgers made a motion to move funds of $384,000 to Rapatorium LLC.
A. Quigley seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Board Member Resignation

- Thomas Vaidhyan sent an email on 4/17/2019  to Board members informing them that he would like to resign from the Board. Effective 4/17/2019, he is no longer a Board member.

III. Finance

A.

Review 2019/20 Budget First Draft

- Prelim budget is basically consistent to the previous ones; Everything is mostly carry-forward
- Strategic Initiatives: Likely removed and assigned to another item
- School piloting bus service; Transportation is a new item; Examining UBER services; Targeting Durham area/EDS students; Transportation grant eligibility - maybe? Look into it
- Athletic bus: Has been looked into; Need clarity on how it will be run - have a clear operational structure; Have data about cost associated with running a Athletic bus - not athletic only but look at is Activity bus. Eric to look into this.
- Board to review the prelim budget
 

B.

Financial Policy Manual - for information

- Board to read the Fiscal Manual (prepared by P. Blizzard) and bring it to vote at the next meeting

C.

Committee Minutes - READ

IV. Academic Excellence

A.

ACT Result Trends

Slide 3
- Look at growth over multiple years rather than performance in 9th Grade
- EVAAS: do not have for other schools
- Ability to compare 9th Grade to 12th grade as we have similar data
- EOC proficiency is base line; ACT benchmark is difficult to achieve - relatively high benchmark; Lower than the diagonal for this reason; 55% for RTHS - ACT Benchmark; Math 2016 EOC Proficiency - we performed better than other schools.
- Ideal to be up on x-axis, end of 11th grade
- How do you improve performance of African-American students once they get in to RTHS? (Slide 5)
- Out of 667 Schools, RTHS is ranked 27th in Math
- SCIENCE: RTHS stands at the top (Slide 8)
- Science data looks different when compared to Math (Slide 8 onwards) - gets better
- Some challenges based on the data; Need to be looked into; Statistically, look at it manually year to year, look for outliers under diff. categories like male/female/etc.  A staff member to look into this breakdown and make data available at next Board meeting

B.

Minutes from Committee Meeting

V. Development

A.

Report from Committee

B.

Enter Executive Session

To discuss personnel matter

C.

Vote to enter Executive Session

G. Rodgers made a motion to Enter Executive Session to discuss Personnel Matter.
C. Rao seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

D.

Vote to Exit Executive Session

A. Quigley made a motion to Exit Executive Session.
G. Rodgers seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

VI. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

A. Quigley made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
G. Rodgers 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 7:57 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
C. Mugge