B. Carlson, board chair, welcomed members of the public to address the board. 

Note: There were no members of the public present throughout the board meeting. 

There were no vendor approvals. 

CFO, B. Chan went over cash position for February with the board members. 

The starting cash balance is 1,327,016.

The ending cash balance is 771,868

Our food account was 35,000 because we were reimbursed for payments we made for the meals we served to the students. 

School Total Cash Position is 1,091,410

CFO went over Budget to Actuals. CFO reports we are following expectations.

Fundraising: budget is 119,000 and our actual is 94,000.

SpEd Funding is 398,167

State Funding is 6,484,051

Federal Funding is 968,278

Total is 7,850,496

Maintenance funding grant that is 72,000 and we have applied and will come around May so this will be added to the state funding line. 

Personnel salaries are where they need to be. We are right on track. D. Zieff report at the finance committee we got into the weeds of things. There was nothing to be concerned about. D. Zieff states at the end of the year we will break even and have a small surplus.

There are a couple of initiatives D. Zieff would like to talk about. Increasing the number of students will cover the cost of the expansion and cover the cost of the students. D. Zieff discussed loans with the board of directors. 

We need to do the expansion in advance to the students coming in.

B. Carlson asked a clarifying question to D. Zieff about the passbook loan. D. Zieff discussed the CD with the board members. B. Carlson asked if the budget is 400,000 and we are borrowing 200,000 against the CD. Where are we finding the other 200,000? B. Chan states this will be part of FY 27. We have 73,000 by May and that 250,000 plus 73,000 there is money to front load a lot of the work.

Board member, M. Nwosu, asked J.Scalice since there is a risk, what if the expansion doesn't yield the numbers we anticipate and what is the downside? J. Scalice reports the break even number for year 1 on population is 51 students. Thinking of our trajectory at the HS level with the waiting list, the ability to engage earlier with more seats, 51 is a very easily obtainable number. With the high degree of certainty of other grant allocations. 

D. Zieff went over fundraising efforts with the board of directors. 

The tax return 990 has been uploaded on Board on Track. D. Zieff went over the form and states that everything went well.

L. Hubbard went over COO Report.

Enrollment numbers are at 161 in applications. Our highest numbers of applications are coming in for the 9th grade. 

We have our lottery coming up in April 20th, 2026.  We will pull students in a blind lottery. L. Hubbard shares that we are in a good spot with applications and enrollment. 

Big News! 

We have are at 100% Certification. A lot of the certifications that were recently approved were made retroactive for the beginning of the school. Most of our teachers were certified within a few weeks from when they were hired. 

Next Steps for Teacher certification:
 

• Intent to Return Surveys have been sent out
• End of Year Check Ins are coming up
• Cert Paperwork Due End of May 
• Proof of Enrollment in Programs due End of May 

Community Partnership Events:

• We had a winter essentials drive with Bridgeport Rescue Mission
  • Over 3,000 clothing items, jackets, coats, winter items. 
  • Almost 500 of our students went home with a bunch of items. 
• We also had a community partnership fair where over 20 community partners came to the school and set up tables full of resources; it was open to all of our students and families. 

J. Scalice went over CEO Report.

Policy review and vote on Proposed Policy 5131.2 

- This policy overview is below.

Policy Overview

Policy 5131.2 is designed to provide clarity and structure related to the use of public transportation by Great Oaks students. This policy closely mirrors the transportation expectations for students outlined in Policy 5131.1. A draft was emailed to all Board Members on March 2, 2026 and feedback from Board Member Marie Casper was incorporated into the version presented this evening. 

Key Differences

• Policy 5131.1 is primarily focused on “school bus” transportation and is not clearly applicable to public transportation passes provided through the school
• Policy 5131.2 specifically outlines school authority as it relates to public spaces, private businesses, and public transportation as a result of provided transportation access.
• Policy 5131.2 specifies student expectations for these areas when used for the purpose of transportation to and from school.

Expansion:

Shifted to an internal expansion-

• Focuses on reallocation and redesign of internal space for increased student population
• Reduces overall expansion from 89 students to 75 students (15.75% decrease)
• Reduces cost by approximately 70-80% (based on current projections) and creates opportunities for self funding expansion
• Reduces required personnel for expansion (administrative, security, student support)
• Increases school based funding by approximately $1,000,000 gross revenue (11.11%)
• Acknowledges current square foot to student ratio (currently viewed as underutilized), keeps current housing for Fellows in-tact (reducing additional annual expenses), and should not impact current building rent structure (reducing annual rent increase)

Timeline- 

• Increase in student population applied for on March 12, 2026
• Required plan on building accommodations and instructional accommodations submitted 
• Approval leads to an increase in population for the 2027 fiscal year
• Independent of any additional considerations from the Board related to future building, design, or other financial strategies
  • B. Bagley asks How many more classrom
     

J. Scalice went over Americorps CT AmeriCorps State Grant

The CT State AmeriCorps grant opportunity provides non-profit and school organizations opportunities to house AmeriCorps programs through their grant.

• Previously, our Fellows earned scholarship opportunities and AmeriCorps experience (resume) as part of their Great Oaks experience.

Potential Impact…

• Recruiting - increases recruiting potential through funding as well as name recognition and personal goal alignment
• Finance - would potentially reduce our overall program cost by 40-45%
• Allows for the earning of up to $8,000 end of year pay-outs for AmeriCorps members to apply to educational opportunities or loan repayment

Process for this-

Process

• Information Session - this was attended by Great Oaks as an overview of eligibility - based on the information provided and questions asked, we are eligible for this grant
• Technical work - Initial budget projections have been started by Ben as part of the required application submission process
• Grant work - the grant application has been reviewed with required information and narratives being compiled by John and Brian

Changes as a result- 

• Required to hire an additional internal staff coordinator for the grant funding to take place (partially covered by the grant)
• No changes to current structure or implementation of the program
• No change to tracking or internal systems as they already align to AmeriCorps reporting requirements

No new business.