Board President M. Smith introduced newest member of the board K. Wigfall.

Cabaret fundraising gala is underway and going well and he looks forward to it being highly successful. 

School policy has to change in light of new government rules on January 22 and changing landscape. There was further discussion around safe zones, ICE and warrants, with legal advisor Candace Gomez. 

D. Stern noted that K. Johnson will be retiring. K. Johnson introduced her successor S. Charioui.

K. Daniels shared the financial report of December.  

N. Thurman provided a quick summary 

P. Morenburg encouraged board members to make their annual gifts within the next 4 months. He also asked for each member to contribute to the cabaret and try to attend. Planning for a big fundraising gala committee in the fall. It takes months to plan, identify venue, caterer, etc...so asks if anyone wants to be on the sub committee, please let him know. And/or be on the task force to partner with local businesses.

Thanks to A. Spencer, they found someone to help plan for the fall gala and will discuss further at the April 21 board meeting. 

For ED accountability committee, G. Sardi will now co-lead this with L. Attis.

D. Stern shared the art work created by students that will be shared at the March 10 Gala. 

She summarized financial and enrollment numbers and discussed future recruitment efforts.

Currently, 36 interested in kindergarten and 17 itnertesed in first grade.

As for cabaret, she encouraged all to invite friends and family.

J. Ciavirella  provided an update on the academic program, aggregated by grade. Things really improved especially in 5th grade reading. Amani academic growth scores compared to national scores ranked higher in 5,6,7 grades in reading. In math, however, Amani performed less than hoped for.

There was further discussion on causes for the discrepancy and what will be done to improve. She also called for how these could be improved with Amani's elementary education offering in the coming years.

She summarized what is being done and will done and also noted that she has to free up her time from operational aspects of school to focus more on the academic and mathematical instructional.

She went through the data meeting, action plan and learning continuum details.

She then went to summarize all the various events at school, visual arts, black history celebration, harnessing their creativity and think critically and collaborate what a student centered classroom looks like. 

Basketball teams are in the playoffs. Cheer team earned 2nd place in CSAA competitions. 

Had 52 faimlies show up for today's Parent Involvement Day.  And kicked off Black History Spirit Week.

D. Stern noted that application for expansion was reviewed and still in discussions with NYSED senior management, etc... 

G. Sardi made a motion to move to Executive Session to discuss the Expansion project. It was seconded by S. Edwards, and the board voted and unanimously approved to move to Executive Session.