I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

R. Ernst opened the floor for public input.  No public input was given.

Chris Murphy, Director of Strategic Growth and PR shared with the board, an update on the shift of their mission.  Previously Concept Schools did not offer their services to schools outside the Concept Network.  They are now working with school on a part time basis.  Concept is one of the leading partners in education management companies in the nation.    
Concept supported the student walk out on March 14th, there are over 14,000 students in the Concept Network.  They also have Studio 7 Sky with is the design team.
They are working on the updated alumni group which is now called the Future Institute.  Through the institute they are workign on not just getting the alumni into college but keeping them there through graduation.
Area's of growth are 
Early Childhood Literacy
Culturally Responsible Schools
Career readiness Pathways, College Persistence, and Continue to disrupt the traditional urban education. He also asked the board to check out MathCON before they leave school today.
B. Valentine-Watts asked for his contact information and he stated that he would be around after the meeting if any one had questions for him.

M. Dunn shared the updated Dashboard.  There were some revisions made, they added the person responsible, and an explanation of each item below the grid.  Based on the grid, we lost a few kids at North and West.  The retention is staying at about 80%.  Home visits are increasing and the home visit program has been expanded, now teachers can meet the parents somewhere like McDonald's or Starbucks if the parent is more comfortable doing that.

C. Murphy shared why home visits are so important - The whole purpose is to build relationships.
M. Chisley,  do we do anything at community centers in the area? 
O. Secen, we do not currently do that. We have done a one-time event.  However, that is a good idea.
H. Menendez, the dashboard is a good step. 
M. Chisley, asked if we monitored mobility rates, H. Menendez shared that the DOE started reporting on this information just this year.  M. Chisley asked how many of our first-year students are staying and how many are leaving?  R. Ernst, can we do something about that? M. Chisley, how are we letting parents know that that we are providing things to keep them in the building?  D. Pierson asked M. Dunn to add a trend column to the dashboard with a simple arrow up or down, to show where it is trending monthly.

H. Menendez shared the Core 3 question report for the school year 2016-2017.  The indicators for both schools are similar.  The major difference for North is  "engagement".   North was in a difficult place, however, there is progress.  The work that has been done and how that translates to the progress is good.  We look at the leadership and see where the gaps where.  
H. Menendez, 3.2 - Halil along with the local team have done a good job. IMSA has a 100% compliance rate, meaning everything is submitted on time.  
3.3 - Completion of the board and how their talents are helping the schools, we acknowledge the upturn in the board. However, we would still like to see a lawyer added.  The best would be someone with education experience.  This way they can anticipate and analyze information.  K. Pattison, you want someone that you feel confident in their ability to look at charter school laws and keep everyone on track.  H. Menendez, based on the information, North should be at a "meeting standards" by the end of the year.  The only one that would still be "approaching standard would be the lawyer on the board.
3.4 Meeting standard, this is an improvement. I saw this in the Academic Excellence Committee meeting the things that are contributing to the changes, and the trending.  I really see the Academic Excellence Committee moving in that direction.  
3.5 H. Menendez, everything in this section is good. We check with the state to see if there are any complaints before we do this section.
3.6 School determined goals, both schools are meeting standards.
K. Pattison, we need to keep the upward trend.
B. Valentine-Watts, do we have specific plans to change the "approaching standard" to "meeting standards"?  H. Menendez shared that this is based on the 2016-2017 school year. K. Pattison stated that the addition of the dashboard is great and you need to keep going in the direction you are now.

M. Chisley, shared the conversation from the Academic Excellence Committee Meeting. The results of the topic surveys from the previous meeting are:

1. Effective School
2. Parent Involvement
3. School Culture
4. Student Assessment
5. School Climate
6. Governance

We discussed an article that was sent out and you all have a copy in your binders reflecting Core 1 Question 1.  How can the Board be more effective? M. Dunn was asked to provide some information to M. Chisely for the next meeting.  Parental involvement is a concern as well as high academic expectations, and safety came out on top as being the most important. As well as how to help the school meet the standard.

The next meeting will be an article on parent involvement.

D. Pierson gave the financial report for IMSA North.  The percentage's that are over 60% are because they are amounts that have been prepaid.  There is a positive account balance and the cash on hand is a little lower than it should be.  

The Vouchers everything looks good, there are two that stood out, one was the payment for the electric go-kart that the robotic's will be working on this project.

The others were to Mrs. Pico, they were checks for the tickets for the spring break trip to Columbia.
 

D. Pierson gave the financial report for IMSA West.  The advertising for the remainder of the budget year will be coming out of West.  So the amounts will increase.  There is a $6400 charge for the onsite visit, the school has to pay for a third party vendor to come out and do a site visit to the school to fulfill the Core questions 4 requirements by the OEI.  The large expense to Purdue was for the science kits. 

Everything else was good, however, the cash on hand is lower than we would like it to be.

R. Ernst suggested that the board retreat is in June instead of May.  There was also a suggestion to cancel May's meeting as it conflicts with the High School graduation.  They will vote on that at the April meeting.  R. Ernst asked for volunteers to help plan the retreat, B. Valentine-Watts, M. Chisley volunteered.  M. Chisley asked if it would be possible to do a phone conference in case some could not make it to a meeting.  M. Dunn reminded them that you can only have a maximum of four people or less on the committee or you have to post it as you do with regular board or committee meetings.  

More information to follow.

R. Ernst, also mentioned that it is important to answer emails that you receive and be sure to RSVP to the meetings.

R. Ernst started the conversation on school safety. M. Dunn went over the current safety plan and the driving questions that were included.  H. Menendez suggested that the board go over the plan that was submitted at the beginning and make sure it is what you want.  What was submitted to OEI meets the standards.  B. Valentine-Watts asked how the drills are done and are they effective.  
M. Arslan shared that the Regional Team met and the building Principals are tasked to present their plans.
M. Dunn we do monthly fire drills, as well as tornado and severe weather drills throughout the year.  

O. Secen shared that both North and West received the 21 Century Grant and that will be about $200,000 per year for four years.  They are re-applying for the Counseling Grant, as well as an Implementation Grant gear toward substance abuse.  

M. Atlihan shared that they were done with the first round of ISTEP and were getting ready for IREAD.  The second part of ISTEP starts April 16th.