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.

D. Coats opened the floor to public input.  No public input was given.

The Board reviewed the Academic Calendar for the 2019-20 school year. The Principals the one change that was made to the calendar for the upcoming year and that was the early release on Wednesdays.  The reason for this was to allow the teachers more time for planning and the kids need a break during the week.  It helps the teachers to collaborate and develop their lesson plans.  We sent out surveys to the teachers in March, this liked the idea and we also reached out to the parents and did not receive any significant concerns.

T. Miller asked how it affected the total school days.  J. Brown shared that as long as the dismissal was 2 hours or less it does not affect the school day.

D. Coats felt that we should move forward with the calendar as is.



 

T. Miller participates with the Children’s Policy Law Initiative of Indiana.  They are looking at the discipline numbers at Indiana schools. They provide a workshop (7 days) for schools, this is to help keep kids in school and is age-appropriate and also trauma-informed care. They suggested that their institutes, should be something that we consider, cost $4500.  T. Miller is going to try and see if there are any funding options available.  He would also like to see how do we can become a community space?  Could we find money, approximately 12-15 thousand, for local training, board participation and then pilot a night during the summer to become a community center.  He wanted the board and schools to know what was available.  There is a meeting set for October 3rd, at 2 pm. for outreach with them.  I want to make sure that we are culturally responsible. 

D. Coats shared that we should be happy that they are coming out to our schools, they do not do that on a regular basis.

C. Fraiser– asked to have an update on the Cultural practices at the school, at the next board meeting.

D. Coats– Since our budget is driven by enrollment, having The Black Expo know about us would be positive. T. Miller, they have agendas that they are really standing on and we try to stay close to those agendas. 

O. Secen talked about the ILearn scores that can’t be shared yet.  The schools went up in 5 areas.  He also explained the new curriculum, for ELA and Math, they expect it to be challenging not only for the kids but for the staff.  Challenge is good, as it helps make us better.   We also took a new test this past year, and the state numbers went down.   M. Arslan said we will be able to give you more detailed information at the next meeting as far as performance and growth. 
D. Coats Weren't we anticipating scores to go up?  M. Arslan, yes based on the NWEA/Airways scores but it is an adaptive test.
C. Frazier, when will they take ILEARN again?  It will be in May.  NWEA & Airways are also adaptive. 
T. Miller, in the areas, we went down, will that affect our grade?  M. Arslan, it could but we do not know yet because previously they did a “Hold Harmless” and no one’s grade changed. 

DCI candidates update, we had a second interview on Friday, Shannon brought a lot to the table. We have 2 more second interviews on Monday.

T. Miller - YTD actual – budget $14,000  and ended up with $81,000 this number still needs some adjustments and then it will give us the actual net income.  H. Dulgeroglu – The audit will be based on the accrual and not cash on hand.   T. Miller – We will still be positive.
T. Miller, There are no purchases over $5,000 - On the current statement – I asked about the state grant, we are expecting it to be higher.  H. Dulgeroglu – The state grants will be high because there will be an increase from $500 to $750 per student.    T. Miller, – We will be making a 40% payment to the management fees.  We came out of the meeting feeling pretty good.  We went over the vouchers and there were no concerns.  The committee requests approval of the North financials.

T. Miller, we ended up in the positive, we had projected $62,000 and ended up with $53,000 and there will be adjustments to this number as well.   There were some questions on the vouchers for West.  Miller Transportation, the number seemed high however it was for multiple field trips.  The US Department of Homeland Security.   Why are we spending this money?  The fees were for out of country math teachers?  However, they cannot start until at least October.
C. Frazier – Who is teaching the class now? A. Atlihan,  the Math resource teacher is teaching the classes now. 
T. Miller, they have gone through a long process of trying to find teachers.  O. Secen – There are also ITF & TFA and we pay $4,000 per teacher and this money goes to the company, not the teacher.
C. Frazier,  Do we have a relationship with schools that teach math and bring in teachers from there?   O. Secen  We try to get student teachers so that maybe we can hire them for the next year.
D. Pearson – There is a shortage of teachers, as they can make more in the business world.
C. Frazier – We need to have our salaries go up.     O. Secen – Once we get them in we want to keep them.
T. Miller,– recommends that the vouchers are approved.

T. Miller,  we have 2 banking options,   I know that you are looking for a recommendation from the committee.  We have a relationship with the National Bank of Indianapolis, and this could be a conflict of interest.    We would like to put it before the board.   T. Miller and D. Coats will abstain from voting.    5/3rd is a better choice from the seamless transfer prospective.   The rate from 5/3rd bank is a promotional rate, and they did not disclose this.  It is not a fixed rate.  National Bank of Indianapolis is a fixed rate.  NBI does an outreach every fall goes to their nonprofits and ask for proposals.  5/3rd does this as well.  We want to leave it up to the board to see what they would like to do.
C. Frazier – How much flexibility do we need to have extensions or special financing?  The fact that they would work with us is important.   H. Dulgeroglu – Feels that we would be able to get that from both banks. 
D. Pearson – We were looking to get a local bank as opposed to a national bank. H.  Dulgeroglu – My least concern is that we get more money, the two things that are important, is that they are easy to work with, and the Secretary’s make a deposit twice a week. Having a local bank could also be a benefit.

TM – One of the things we would like to look at is a Capitol campaign, like moving out of this building, whichever bank will help with that would be beneficial.  

Vote
BVW – 5/3
CF – NBI
DP – 5/3
Dr. G  5/3 – it is closer

D. Coats,  we are still talking about the board retreat.  We are in the process of replacing Michael.  Does everyone know why he left?  Michael is now a Principal at a school in Southern Michigan.    We have several candidates that we are having second interviews with, we interviewed one of them yesterday, there are 2 more interviews Monday.  Any members that are interested in attending are welcome.

D. Coats, we are waiting on a proposal for the mediator.

D. Coats - We are moving into the end of the year; it is a great time to increase tax deductions.

North –  We are at 680 budget is 690  is it doable, yes. 680 to 690 by Sept. 13th.

West – 560 budget is 565.  We had to hire another KG teacher so we increased our  enrollment target to 575

B. Valentine-Watts - Yes
C. Frazier - No
D. Pearson - Yes
Dr. G - No
T. Miller - Yes