S. Steinhouse called a meeting of the Board of Directors of Breakthrough Public Schools to order on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at 5:00 PM

Danielle Eisenberg called the Schools Board meeting to order at 5:00 PM on January 24, 2024.

No public comment

Susan Ertle the FOB President spoke to the materials shared in the board packet and highlighted the following:

• Park Place Technologies has agreed to be the BASH Presenting Sponsor
• Dave Chudowsky of WKYC Channel 3 will be the Emcee for the BASH.  
• Working on the final draft budget for the Woodland Hills improvement project - addition of the gym and improvement to the drop-off area. 
• The Beyond Breakthrough team is gaining considerable traction with outreach to alumni in all
  cohorts
• Starting February 20, FOB will be mirroring the new BPS in-office/work-from-home schedule to allow for better planning of activities, improved collaboration, and a sense of belonging amongst teams. 

Andrew spoke to materials shared in the board packet and highlighted some of the material that speak to the strategic direction. and multi-year improvement plans.

Structure 

• CMO Strategic Alignment. The goal is to make sure the structure aligns with our vision. 
  • Consolidating all family-focused teams under one umbrella
  • Establishing a new Schools team to bring Principals and Directors of Operations together
  • Re-constituting the Operations team
  • Re-evaluating compensation structures and market rates for the FY25 budget

Culture

• New work-from-home policy to enhance collaboration, stronger office culture, and cross-functional problem-solving. As of February 20, 2024, both BPS and FOB will be required to be in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Environment

• A firm has been hired to support efforts to renovate the home office to improve culture, environment, staff, and visitor experience. Added that campuses/buildings/entrances need to have a unified Breakthrough branding, look and feel.

A full set of board metrics was shared in the board packet. 

Juliet shared the following highlights;

• 37% of grades are on track to meet their Math goals
• 43% of grades are on track to meet their ELA goals
• In-year scholar retention is holding steady
• Attendance continues to outpace last year
• In-year staff retention remains high across all entities

SY24 Scholar Population

Scholar Retention & Re-enrollment:  Juliet spoke on scholar population, retention, challenges, and wins. She highlighted the following;  

• A net increase in total enrolment from December to January 2024 has been had
• Stopping to enroll students for February SY23-24 on February 1st 
• Enrollment has outpaced withdrawals 

Financial Reports

Celeste gave an update and highlighted the following:

FY24 Projections

• Expense projections have decreased due to both vacant staff positions and actual benefit costs below original estimates
• The network is projected to be ahead of the original budgeted deficit
• Finance continues to work closely with school and network leaders to refine projections and identify opportunities for expense reduction
• The audit of the financial statements for all schools is ongoing
• The BPS and FOB FY23 audits have been successfully completed
• Board Members should expect to receive notification of the post-audit meetings for the
  schools in March or April 2024.
• The first draft FY25 budget will be presented to the Finance Committee on 2/27 and the Board in March

iReady

Andrew spoke to the data points shown in the report. A detailed report was shared in the board packets.

A suggestion was made to add benchmarking on each data point to better understand the target goals and where we are.

The board members were encouraged to spend more time on the SPED BPS Scholar slide to have a better understanding of the SPED Scholars vs Non-SPED Scholars. 

Board Reports - materials from the leadership team were shared in the board packet

Danielle Eisenberg spoke to the materials shared in the board packet and shared the following highlights;

• Great team effort in collecting data is resulting in improved quality of reporting and board presentation 
• Advising management on critical issues – continuing 
• Amplify Tutoring Update:  The program is off to a successful start. Scholars are participating in the tutoring sessions.

Brad gave an update speaking to materials shared in the board packet and shared the results from a recent survey of the current board makeup. The process was undertaken to analyze the composition of our existing Board to identify opportunities to improve diversity both in demographics as well as skills.  The survey results will enable an enhanced structure of the nominating process for new Directors. Areas identified as lacking in representation were;

• African American and Latin communities
• Parents of school-age children
• Media and social media 
• Visionaries 

-  The next Governance meeting will be held on February 7, 2024. 

-  The approval of Board nominees will be held in June 2024

Matt Rado was present to represent CMSD and reported the following;

- Recommendation for renewal of Glenville and Cliffs were approved on Jan 9th

- Charter School Network meeting to be held on January 25, 2024

- Danielle Eisenberg to be featured in the next Charter School newsletter

Emily Puterbaugh was present to represent Buckeye Hope, sponsor of Village Prep Woodland Hills.