Young Scholars Charter School
Minutes
Regular Board Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday March 28, 2023 at 4:00 PM
Location
Virtual Only
This meeting is being held in compliance with Open Meeting requirements of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act and is open to the public. Notices were duly posted and the meeting was advertised in The Philadelphia Daily News. Formal action will be taken.
Trustees Present
B. Harrison (remote), B. Stambaugh (remote), B. Young (remote), D. Dwirantwi (remote), E. Ashe (remote), G. Singer (remote), J. Brown (remote), J. Wang (remote), L. Pressman (remote), S. Midha (remote), T. Rebar (remote), V. Schwartz (remote), W. Churchill (remote), W. Weisman (remote)
Trustees Absent
E. Kaplin, I. Brind, V. Hanraty
Guests Present
Beth Birnkrant (remote), J. Amenda (remote), K. Corcoran (remote), K. Lamilla (remote), Shakira Smith (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
II. Board Discussion Topics
A.
Comprehensive Schedule & Program Update for 2023-2024
B.
Compensation Guide
Mr. Amenda presented the updated compensation guide that aims to be more competitive.
C.
Finance Summary & Statements
Kevin Corcoran gave an update on the school's finances. The current year is healthy and is hitting all metrics required by the charter school office. The budget for 2023-2024 was reviewed and will be approved at the next board meeting. Mr. Corcoran also discussed the current rates for CDs included in “CDARS” program at WSFS. Win Churchill put a motion forward to approve the new CD rates.
D.
Committee Reports
Development- Mr. Amenda gave a fundraising update and noted that the school exceeded this year's fundraising goal of $350,000. Valerie Schwartz then updated the Board on the 25th Anniversary celebration being held on October 18th, 2023 at Vue on 50 in Philadelphia.
High School- Mr. Amenda gave an update on high school acceptances. 94% of 8th graders have already accepted high school offers and offers are still coming in.
School Performance- No update at this time.
Governance- No update at this time.
E.
Statement of Financial Interest Forms
Board members were reminded to fill out their Statement of Financial Interest forms if they hadn't already done so.
F.
Determine Meeting Format for May 2, 2023 Board Meeting
It was decided that the two remaining board meetings of the 2022-2023 school year will be held in person.
III. Approval of Minutes
A.
Resolved that the Board approve the Regular session minutes from the December 13, 2022 meeting.
IV. Motions for Approval- Policy / Governance / Operations / Miscellaneous
A.
2023-2024 School Calendar
V. Executive Session
A.
Executive Session
The Board went into a brief executive session to review a legal agreement.
Mr. Amenda explained that we are maintaining our total staffing count but shifting resources to expand special education staff, introduce more instructional leadership and culture support and provide specialized programming for students needing more supports or enrichment. We will return to a 3 section homeroom model with specialized programming for approximately 15-25 students. This will be a mixture of special education supports, enrichment, intervention and placement for students needing a more therapeutic environment. We will also pivot to a Trimester model, allowing for more intentional expressive arts, foreign language and physical education/health opportunities for students across three grades. The trimester model will also reduce the frequency of summative assessments and align with our Beginning, Middle and End of Year NWEA MAP Assessments.