Patrick McCarthy gave a thorough update on progress of the high school expansion project.  Per Patrick, Warton Smith has been working with subcontractors and will be returning with GMP pricing by April 19.

The site contractor is expected to be on property any day.

The plan is to move forward with the two academic buildings and delay the accelerator building.  This plan needs to be discussed with Northwest Florida State College.  The school's Foundation Board of Directors will be providing a full project update to the NWFSC board during their May meeting.

Tom Miller mentioned that the admin team was working on messaging to the school's high school families to make them aware of the upcoming construction.

Patrick McCarthy indicated that an appraisal had been ordered as part of the bank financing due diligence process, but had not yet taken place.  

Tucker Brooks asked who was conducting the appraisal.  Patrick McCarthy said that we don't know that at this point.

Tom Miller updated the committee that the school's finances were in good shape and that he'd like to spend some money to hire third-party support for both Triumph Gulf Coast Grant writing services as well and capital campaign consulting services.

Regarding Capital Campaign support, the school's admin team has been in conversations with multiple companies to find a vendor:
- Sharity

- Brian Boone

- Jim Rice

- Denise Song

Tom mentioned that Denise may be better suited as a board member, than a candidate for this role.  Lloyd Blue has been in conversations with Jim Rice.  More conversations are needed with Brian Boone to understand his scope of work - Tom has a previous relationship.  A meeting with Mr. Boone is being scheduled.  Jon Ward expressed concerns that Sharity would critique the work that has been done by the foundation to date, but their scope wouldn't include hleping us attract new donors - not a good use of money.

The group agreed that all proposals would be evaluated once we had them all in hand.

Tom Miller discussed multiple proposals that the organization received to perform Triumph Gulf Coast application writing services.  Tom indicated that after internal conversations, that he, Kim and Drew felt very confident in TSG Advisors and the project lead, Cary Henderson.  There proposal includes submitting a Triumph Gulf Coast grant application within 16 weeks with the admin team's participation at a cost of $36,000.  If the project goes beyond those 16 weeks, each month will be billed at $14,000.

In addition to messaging about the high school expansion and fundraising efforts being disseminated via all of the school's channels, Michelle Uhlfelder encouraged everyone to like the school's new LinkedIn page and use it as a way to share information with various networks.

Michelle reminded the committee that the marketing contract with Parker Gene Creative would be expiring at the end of June and that we should begin thinking about what a renewal would look like.  Michelle and other board members expressed that they felt that Parker Gene Creative has done a great job in the first year of the contract and should be considered for renewal after the contract's 6/30 expiration date. 

Teresa Horton gave an update on progress toward the school's major fundraising initiatives:  the Capital Campaign, The Rising Tides Annual Fund.  In March, the capital campaign saw an additional $25,000 in donations and well as $25,000 in in-kind contributions.  

The Foundation is tapping into the school's alumni network to solicit support for the high school expansion project.  Teres recently made a presentation to the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce to raise awareness of the project.  In the coming weeks, Teresa will continue to cultivate prospects and conduct face-to-face meetings.