Green Channel Presentation and Proposed Building Opportunity

Green Channel Development Corporation, a new nonprofit affiliate of Rooted Schools Foundation, would buy, own, and finance a school facility while Rooted School Vancouver serves only as tenant, with Green Channel bearing all diligence and pre-development costs and lease payments modeled to remain affordable. A candidate Hazel Dell  site — about 1.78 acres with protected wetlands — was presented with two test-fit plans supporting growth from 140 to roughly 280–400 students. Directors questioned family transportation, the existing 15-year lease and construction debt, maintenance capacity, cost responsibility, and limited outdoor athletics space.

Executive Director Singleton reviewed Rooted Schools Foundation’s current support of the school, noting that Steven serves as RSF’s primary point of contact and has participated in on-site “DNA” fidelity audits. She reported that Rooted School Vancouver does not yet have a formal operator agreement with RSF and currently receives Foundation services at no cost. During the week of Juneteenth, the executive directors of the three network schools — Rooted School Vancouver and schools opening in Cleveland and South Carolina — met with RSF staff to establish a shared set of network principles and associated SMART goals, in preparation for a forthcoming Education Service and Management Agreement (“ESMA”) between Rooted Schools, the Foundation’s planned operator entity, and each school.

The Executive Director reviewed the network’s eight guiding principles: (1) economic mobility through career-connected high school; (2) fidelity to the Rooted DNA model’s active ingredients; (3) leadership pipelines that reflect the communities served; (4) genuine industry and post-secondary partnerships; (5) lifelong alumni leadership; (6) holistic student outcomes; (7) campus autonomy, under which the local board — not the Foundation — governs the school; and (8) Beloved Community, reflecting mutual investment between the school and its local community.
 

The Executive Director explained that the draft ESMA will formalize reporting, data-sharing, and network expectations, replacing the school’s current founding agreement, which she noted the Washington State Charter School Commission had previously found too vague. The ESMA will be brought to the full board for review this school year. She noted there is no urgency, as the current no-cost service arrangement continues in the interim. Directors noted that any such agreement will require board review and approval in open session, consistent with the campus-autonomy principle.

Director Lockhart reported that OHSU has included Rooted School Vancouver in its strategic plan for the year and that his office anticipates additional K-16 programming collaboration, including possible participation at the August 21 kickoff event.

KPI and OKR Framework

The Executive Director reviewed the network’s ten outcome-and-key-result (OKR) categories and the school’s broader set of key performance indicators, distinguishing the Commission’s Compliance Dashboard, which addresses organizational and financial sustainability metrics, from the Foundation’s model-fidelity dashboard. She proposed developing a consolidated, board-level KPI report to give directors clearer visibility into school culture and instructional metrics beyond the Compliance Dashboard, to be developed with board support from J. Weatherspoon.

Proposed Evaluation Priority Goals

The Executive Director proposed three focused priority goals to guide her 2026–27 evaluation:

1. Staff Culture and Leadership (OKR9): staff trust and collective-vision rating above 75%; staff retention above 85%.

2. Governance and Fund Development: raise $300,000 from at least eight new funders donating $15,000 or more; engage in Washington Charters advocacy related to enrichment and levy-equalization funding; and develop a strategic plan.

3. Student Experience and Belonging (OKR4): five-percentage-point growth on the JHU student experience survey; a discipline-fairness rating above 4.0 on a 5-point scale, from a current range of 2.6–3.59; a 15-percentage-point increase on COMPASS survey measures of academic press and teacher caring; at least 25 students in named leadership roles; at least one real-world, work-based learning task per student per quarter; and two student exhibitions during the year.

The Executive Director reported that a current staff member has accepted a head coaching and full-time teaching position at Prairie High School and will depart shortly before the first day of school.
The Executive Director proposed appointing Jessica Marcherson, currently engaged as a part-time CTE contractor and intern, to a new full-time Director of CTE and Student Success position combining CTE program leadership — including Perkins funding compliance, licensure, and curriculum framework requirements — with student-success and senior-experience responsibilities.
 

Jackie Weatherspoon, engaged to support board governance, led a discussion of foundational governance resources. She reviewed the distinction between the board’s governance role and the Executive Director’s operational role.

The Executive Director proposed a board–staff "buddy" program pairing each director with two to three staff for informal individual check-ins four to five times a year. Key dates include a publicly noticed family barbecue on August 21, 2026, the first day of school on August 26, and the regular board meeting on August 27. Per RCW 42.30.080, three items were referred for action at future noticed meetings: a resolution of support for the Green Channel facility opportunity, the Director of CTE and Student Success appointment (August 27), and the Education Service and Management Agreement with Rooted Schools Foundation (during the school year).