Dr. Berry thanked everyone for pitching in to get the school ready this year, and the school is looking great...several improvements including: Dr. Berry arranged for the outside benches to be painted orange, and front doors to be painted purple and columns painted orange, and the parking curbs painted orange, and inside the classroom doors are painted orange and purple; Dr. Berry also arranged for the display in the entrance hall which mirrors a display at the Milford Historical Society called "Walking Toward Greatness" chronicling Bryan Allen Stevenson's life; and Paula Roberts made curtains for all the classroom doors.  

Sixty bookbags and supplies were donated by the Sunshine Circle Club of Rehoboth Beach and Wayne Paskins' nephew, which were distributed during the first week of school.  Dr. Kim brought in lots of supplies for the nurses' office, and Doc Kate fixed up the teachers lounge and brought in a puzzle table, as well as cleaned out closets and organized supplies.  Additionally, all the books in the building have been moved to the Media Center and now we just need a person with library skills to volunteer to help us get them organized.

Dr. Berry arranged for a sign to be printed and posted that reads Diaz Bonville Breezeway, and spoke with Mrs. Bonville regarding the dedication of the breezeway as the Diaz Bonville Breezeway associated with a fundraiser.  So we will start a fundraising campaign for the school in honor of Diaz and after we have met a specific goal, we will have the dedication ceremony for the Breezeway. 

Dr. Berry talked with a printer/designer about setting up some giving trees in the lobby as well to honor and recognize people who have made donations to the school over the year. 

Dr. Berry reported that an organization wants to hold an event at the school and will rent the gym in January which will provide some additional revenue.

Now that school has started, we need to get a parent representative to serve on the Board.

We can look at a popcorn fund-raiser.

Brian and Howard Stevenson are speaking at a WHYY podcast event in Philadelphia September 26 and everyone is invited. 

The Charter School Network is trying to get a list assembled with salaries of all Charter School administrators, and reminds everyone to make sure all school policies are updated to reflect changes in state law.

Thank you everyone for the work being done in the school.

There are a number of things happening at the school and with our families.

First, we have a popcorn fundraiser underway for four days in the school community.  Everyone is welcome to buy popcorn--I'll send you the link. There is also a Dine and Donate Fundraising event at Chic Filet coming up soon, more details to follow..

Wednesday September 24 is Back to School Night starting at 5:00PM and everyone is invited.

Thursday evening September 25 will be the first School Town Hall meeting which moving forward will be held monthly.  This is an opportunity to celebrate students who have met expectations for the month and a place to address "hot topic" issues all designed to help build school community, promote school spirit increase community engagement with the school.

Friday, October 26, BASSE will host a guest speaker from the Lewes History Book Festival, Riley Black will come to speak about her books, The Last Day of the Dinosaurs and When the Earth Was Green.

October 6 will be a family breakfast to get more people involved in PAC and the school in general.

School has been in session almost a month, and in the PD last Friday the focus was on Tier 1 instruction--classroom observations start in October.

We continue working to reduce our deficit, and we have enrolled additional students--currently at 124 which includes students requiring accommodation--and hope to be able to confirm ten to eleven units of teaching positions very soon. 

Shout out to the ILT for good work to increase enrollment.

We have hired a special education teacher and paraprofessional, and are interviewing for a second special education teacher.

Our PCA contract ends September 30, 2025, and we have engaged a new consultant to provide some support with personnel and budget.

We are looking to include  some after school programs in the building, more information to come.

Karen Letonoff is working with students to design a logo for our school mascot Bryan the Lion.

Doc Kate thanked Raushann for the every two week newsletter, the Lion Press, which has been going out--filled with information about what's going on at the school.

Dr. Kim outlined his work in securing Donna Brazille as a speaker to keynote a fundraising event for the school in March, 2026.  We can secure a contract for a bit under her normal fee and Dr. Kim and friends can cover 50% of this at the time of signing with an expectation that we would have raised the other half prior to the event based on sponsorships. The event will occur at the school and involve other speakers and a small reception following.  Dr. Kim has outlined the whole process required to pull this off--we just need to assign jobs to be sure everything is done in a timely manner.

Additionally, Dr. Kim is working with a well-known athlete to come to the school for an evening to give a brief talk, sign autographs with which there would also be a small reception, and this would also be a ticketed event to raise money and hopefully will get some good press coverage.

Dr. Kim suggested the golf tournament fundraiser might get pushed out a bit, perhaps next Fall. 

All of these events are excellent community outreach for the school.

Doc Kate reported on grants received and submitted including the following:

WSFS Bank will be making the fourth of five $30K grants, awarded each year over five years, in November of 2025.

Since June we have submitted seven grant applications totaling over $300K in requested funds, to support a wide range of programs and activities at the school including: incorporating Community Health Workers into the school, adding a specific SEL curriculum, expanding our literacy training in the school, supporting the School Store, and enhancing our physical education/health curriculum.

Additionally, the ILT is working with any state and federal grants that become available in collaboration with the DE DOE.

Candace reported that we have the Spanish Curriculum up and running, and have an enhanced focus on literacy needs in the school.  All students will be engaged though an MTSS block each day using Read 180 and Systems 44.  We are currently looking for some more comprehensive curriculum to address this issue as students across the county, largely based on losses incurred during COVID and asynchronous learning, struggle with reading, and are more regularly reading below grade level.  

We are working to update a couple of policies including paid leave for adoption of a child as required by new DE law.

This has been previously approved by the board.