Samuel Steinhouse, BPS Board Chair, called the meeting to order at 5:02pm with roll call.

Danielle Eisenberg, Chair, School Boards called the Schools Board meeting to order at 5:02pm with roll call.

Samuel Steinhouse motioned for approval of the September 14, 2022 Joint Board Meeting minutes. Jennifer Howard so moved, Alan Kopit seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

Danielle Eisenberg motioned for approval of the September 14,, 2022 Joint BPS Meeting minutes. Alan Kopit so moved, and Danielle Eisenberg seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

None.

J. Howard provided the update stating the Governance Committee would like to build the board roster backup to 15 by the end of the calendar year. We have two new candidates for election this evening by way of the Friends of Breakthrough Board. They include: Laura Mimura, Senior Communications Manager, Key Institution Bank and Sanjay Vyas, General Manager, Progressive Insurance sharing their background information. The School and BPS Boards continued with updates and a presentation of Director Candidates.

School Board – D. Eisenberg, Board Chair

D. Eisenberg motioned to elect Cynthia Tancer to a 2-year term as a Director of the School Boards and Official Capacity Director of the BPS Board, effective October 19, 2022 at 5:07pm. Alan Kopit so moved, and Linda Zucca seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

D. Eisenberg motioned to elect Cynthia Tancer as Board Secretary, effective October 19, 2022 at 5:08pm. Linda Zucca so moved, Alan Kopit seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

D. Eisenberg stated as proposed by the Governance Committee, Official Capacity Directors of the BPS Board voted to elect Laura Mimura to 3-year term as a Network Director, effective October 19, 2022 at 5:09pm. 

D. Eisenberg stated as proposed by the Governance Committee, Official Capacity Directors of the BPS Board voted to elect Sanjay Vyas to 3-year term as a Network Director, effective December 7, 2022 at 5:00pm.

BPS Board – Samuel Steinhouse, BPS Board Chair

S. Steinhouse stated BPS Board vote to acknowledge the appointment of Cynthia Tancer as Official Capacity Director of the BPS Board, effective as of October 19, 2022. Jennifer Howard so moved, Paul Harris seconded, and all were in favor. Vote carried.

S. Steinhouse stated BPS Board vote to acknowledge the appointment of Laura Mimura and Sanjay Vyas as Network Directors, effective October 19, 2022 and December 7, 2022 respectively. Jennifer Howard so moved, Paul Harris seconded, and all were in favor. Vote carried.

John Zitzner provided the update highlighting the following:

• Written update provided in the Board materials
• Staff Bash scheduled for November 11; asking 100% participation from the Board towards donating to the event
• BASH scheduled for Friday, April 28, 2023
• Conducting Advocacy 101/201 classes; encouraging the Board to please sign up
• Update on High Quality dollars
• Update on Hampden Bldg. – more to come
• Career Awareness program being held this weekend

R. Johnson and the Leadership Team provided the update supplemented with a Power Point presentation highlighting the following:

Review of Stabilizing and Executing

• Review of Four Steps:
  • 1) Aligning Network Goals around Academic Achievement; Family Satisfaction, and Fiscal Sustainability;
  • 2) Cross Functional System Alignment – will be a challenge for us around execution
  • 3) Functional Team Goals – in the process of defining and prioritizing;
  • 4) Individual Staff Goals: Performance Management Overhaul – implementing a new Performance Management System and process for Home Office staff; kick-off meeting scheduled for Friday, November 4th

• Chief Talent Officer - Denise Rice-Ali, new CTO, will begin on October 31st
• Chief Operating Officer – Currently in the midst of the search; completed first round of the interview process; scheduling second round interviews; will move through subsequent rounds this month
• Managing Director, Communications – nearly done with the interview process; plan to make an offer shortly

A. McRae provided the update supplemented with a PowerPoint Presentation highlighting the following:

• Presentation provided in the board materials
• Review of first several years of Better Together and challenges and the Network Academic goals/priorities; and tools and systems needed to achieve short, and long term academic goals
• Review of Top 3 Strategic Priorities – 1) Increase Literacy; 2) Strengthen Monitoring Systems; and 3) Develop New Systems and Increase Collaboration
• Overview of Annual Goals relating to growing and achieving academically; and building a sustainable people model

R. Johnson and J. McBride provided the update highlighting the following:

• Scholars – Scholar population at 3160;

 Classroom Management – J. McBride

• Return from remote really stressed our overall system
• Schools that had a higher level of teacher retention, capacity, and leadership was stretched but were able to push back and restore the overall culture; big difference this year
•  Lots of challenges in terms of classroom management this year; continue to see a lot of unique scholar needs and challenges on a day-to-day basis
• We have plans to specifically support our teachers and think about how to systematically  bring along our new leaders and develop them

Staff – D. Sobel provided the update on retention highlighting the following:

• Since the first day of school have made 22 additional teaching hires; very exciting
• Currently only 15 people in the pipeline
• We are moving quickly as talent is really hard to find; employees hired right now include new to teaching or coming in to co-teaching roles with less traditional backgrounds
• Had 8 resignations and 2 terminations; resignations still tracking below last year numbers; starting retention workshops for our Principals next week 

• Home Office Supports – J. McBride provided the update highlighting the following:
  • One of the aspect of having a Network our size is getting to the economies of scale and being able to create a plan that would create efficiency  We are not able to get these economies of scale when we think about things like classroom management or the overall execution of Academic Priorities because of staff vacancies/challenges so we have restructured schools/school mergers
  • The team is working day-to-day to find the best level of support to be able to provide and differentiate the needs – cross function of collaboration making sure we are aligned and have the same goal but may work on different things and provide schools with different needs from different staff members
  • We are continuing our work on Total Rewards and bringing in TNTP for staff retention to keep staff
• Transportation – M. Johnston
  • CMSD was able to secure us with two additional buses
  • A schedule re-route took place that allowed families to have better stops
  • No more wait lists; seats are available on buses – total of 13 buses across the Network with 632 riders

• Always looking at our iReady data and will always provide this data
• Review of iReady Math and Reading scores for scholars

August and September 2022 Financial Reports – D. Mangen shared the Schools and BPS highlights from the August and September financial reports included in the Board materials.

Updates for Schools/BPS:

• Below budget on enrollment – started school year with 3400; at 3160
• Retention is huge; not just for this year but for the foreseeable future – this is key; we have to retain students and everyone needs to be a part of – not just enrollment
• Another change is staffing; not seeing the savings we saw last year from a financial standpoint; will be back to Board at some point requesting more money

Resolutions to Approve the August and September Financial Reports

Action of All School Boards – D. Eisenberg raised approval of the August and September 2022 Schools Financial Reports.  Linda Zucca so moved, Cynthia Tancer seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

Action of BPS Board – S. Steinhouse raised approval of the August and September 2022 BPS Financial Reports.  Alan Kopit so moved, Brad Schlang seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

Resolution to Approve October 2022 Five-Year Forecast Updates

Action of All School Boards – D. Eisenberg raised approval of the October 2022 Five-Year Forecast Updates.  Linda Zucca so moved, Alan Kopit seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

• Staff Medical Coverage Options – D. Mangen provided an update on medical coverage for employees stating in past years we have been lucky in our negotiations with our health care coverages but this year there is 38% increase for employees. We are currently considering an option of becoming self-insured and very fortunate to have Board members with experience in this area. We are not in a position to make a recommendation yet but will need to be ready to make a decision by the end of the year. Doug recommended to the Board to delegate an individual (preferably Sam Steinhouse as Board Chair) to listen to the advice/guidance provided by others on the Board. In doing so, we would not have to pull the entire Board back together to discuss. 

Lengthy discussions were held regarding the staff medical coverage with the Board agreeing to authorize Sam Steinhouse to make the decision related to Breakthrough’s employee medical coverage options for 2023.

“The Board resolved to authorize Sam Steinhouse to make the decision related to Breakthrough’s employee medical coverage options for 2023 (including the options of self-insured and full-insured plans) and then bringing that decision back to the BPS/School Board for ratification at the December Board meeting”.

Action of All School Boards – D. Eisenberg raised approval to authorize Sam Steinhouse to make the decision related to Breakthrough’s employee medical coverage options for 2023.  Cynthia Tancer so moved, Alan Kopit seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

Action of BPS Board – S. Steinhouse raised approval to Sam Steinhouse to make the decision related to Breakthrough’s employee medical coverage options for 2023.  Joy Johnson so moved, Cynthia Tancer seconded, and all were in favor. Motion carried. Note: Brad Schlang abstained from voting on the Medical Coverage.

D. Eisenberg provided the update stating her and Sam attended the meeting due to scheduling conflicts but had a great meeting and requested the Board to please read the NAT report included in the board materials. The report is very detailed including what the plans and metrics are for the year and what the work looks like for this year. 

P. Harris provided the update stating the Committee met on September 29. The two main topics for discussion were Ralph’s goals for the year and the CEO assessment. The goal is to launch the assessment through Board-on-Track on Monday, October 24 and will be open for 2-weeks for completion. The assessment will be due by Friday, November 4. If there are any questions, please contact Juliet. A summary will be shared at the December Board meeting.

Action of All School Boards – D. Eisenberg raised approval of the School Consent Agenda. Linda Zucca so moved, Alan Kopit, and all were in favor. Motion carried.

None for the month of October

M. Rado provided the update highlighting the following:

• Began Fall site visits; compliance and oversight related; focus groups with teachers
• Additional site visits scheduled for November; will share the summary at the December meeting

Maureen Barbessi provided the updates highlighting the following:

• Bi-annual scheduled; will do students/teacher interviews and classroom observations
• Board will receive report after site visit is complete
• Conducting bi-annuals; will receive reports soon
• Met Matt Smith the new DOO at WH

There being no further business for the Breakthrough Public Schools Boards meeting, Sam Steinhouse and Danielle Eisenberg requested a motion to move into Executive Session with roll call at 6:49pm to discuss a personnel matter. Paul Harris so moved, Brad Schlang seconded, and all were in favor.

The Boards voted to conclude Executive Session at 7:18pm and there being no further business to be transacted, and upon a motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:19pm.