Merrick Academy Charter School
Minutes
Monthly Board Meeting
Date and Time
Thursday December 19, 2019 at 7:00 PM
Trustees Present
C. Dalgetty-Jarvis, G. Karikari, J. Cummings, T. Pierre-Louis (remote)
Trustees Absent
J. Ding, M. MUNOZ, T. Boothe
Guests Present
A. Manuel, C. Watterson, D. Goulbourne, J. Luina, S. Pugh, T. Miller
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
G. Karikari called a meeting of the board of trustees of Merrick Academy Charter School to order on Thursday Dec 19, 2019 at 7:38 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
J. Cummings made a motion to approve the minutes from Monthly Board Meeting on 11-21-19.
T. Pierre-Louis seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Executive Director's Report
A.
Executive Director's Report
Dr. Manuel noted the following in his report:
- Renewal status will be received early January. CSI recently notified us of timeline.
- We are actively still receiving letters of support from elected officials. Executive Director of NYS Charter Association pledged advocacy support after our renewal.
- Budget Update: We are 45% into the school year and have only exhausted 36% of the budget; we have a projected surplus at the end of year.
- Our enrollment is currently steady at 540 students.
- Academic Performance indicators show progress made towards targets. We are awaiting the results or the second interim assessments.
III. Chief Academic Officer's Report
A.
Chief Academic Officer's Report
Ms. Pugh highlighted the following:
- Informal Observations are 85% complete. The average score for teachers is 2.7 (developing and effective).
- Early/Mid Quarter teacher data meetings with Principal and school leaders were completed with success.
- Professional development will focus on ratio-increasing the ratio of thinking and participation of students as opposed to teachers doing the thinking and working.
- January 14th-17th are the next interim assessments and the last week of January for next IReady. After we receive data from these two assessments we will plan mid-year course corrections.
IV. Operation's Manager
A.
Operation's Manager
Ms. Miller highlighted the following:
- The first half of the school year enrollment has been steady with 540 students.
- Currently we have about 7-10 seats available in grades K-2 and are continuing enrollment with phone calls to waitlisted families.
- In November, we updated our Schoolmint Application for the 2020-2021 lottery.
- Application Portal is now open for families to apply.
- This month(December), we began transitioning from paper registration to digital using the Schoolmint software.
- January's focus will be on student recruitment and Open Houses.
- The mid-year building cleaning will occur during the December break.
V. PTO President's Report
A.
PTO President Report
Ms. Cummings gave us the following updates in her report:
- The PTO meeting for November and for December was held on December 3rd.
- Next meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2020.
- PTO emergency meeting was held. Financial status of PTO and 2019 audit of the financial records was discussed.
- Parent support group chat on GroupMe currently has 32 members.
- December was the second month that the IEP families got a progress report that will be going out every 8 weeks letting the families know if their child is meeting their goals.
- 5th Grade prom will be held in school gym and the senior trip destination will be Holiday Hill.
- PTO bank account is officially open at Carver Bank in amount of $15,650.88. PTO Paypal is up and running paypal.me/merrickacademypto.
VI. Committee Reports
A.
Academic Committee
The Academic Committee was held on December 17, 2019. the agenda focused on:
- Performance Dashboard
- Intervention
- Teacher Observations and Coaching
- Curriculum Updates
B.
HR Committee
The HR Committee was held on December 17, 2019. the agenda focused on:
- UFT Grievances
- Open Positions
- Observations and evaluations
C.
Finance Committee
There was no meeting held for this period.
D.
Operations Committee
The Operations Committee was held on December 17, 2019. the agenda focused on:
- Performance Dashboard
- Facilities Updates
- School Safety
- Technology
- Operations Budget
VII. Executive Session
A.
Motion to enter Executive Session
T. Pierre-Louis made a motion to to enter executive session.
J. Cummings seconded the motion.
to discuss the medical, financial,credit, or employment, promotion,demotion,discipline,suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person or corporation.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VIII. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
T. Boothe