J. Scalice went over CEO report and went into detail regarding Commissioner's Network Committee.

There are 2 committees-

1. Formal Committee which votes on the plan prior to it coming to the board. 

2. Informal- Teachers that met at least once a week to do a root cause analysis. 

Talent: Professional development and Recruitment and Retention.

• One way we know we can accelerate student learning is to spend more time on the alignment of missing prerequisite skills faced by our students as they enter our school. Aligning the curriculum, data structures, and professional development with those skills, through a focus on lesson and unit development, data enhancement and streamlining, and more focused coaching will increase student performance and reduce teacher burn-out.  This strategy will help our second priority of recruitment and retention. 
• Through the Commissioner’s Network development process, survey data and discussions yielded specific recommendations for how this can be achieved. Promoting the school as a learning community, highlighting student expectations, using our strengths for the purpose of branding “What it means to be a Great Oaks teacher” were all seen as underutilized strengths.

Academics: 3 priorities, Tier 1- Instructional Practices, Tier 2- Differentiate Tier 1 Instruction and Tier 3- Realignment of SRBI of Tier 1 

• A focus on prerequisite skills, scaffolding, and consistent use of the Great Oaks Instructional Framework.
• Use of curriculum specific resources for scaffolding, flexible grouping, and the development of learning habits to increase access to the curriculum. 
• Revising the MTSS/SRBI structure to focus on Tier 1 implementation and procedure while providing specific action steps around implementation and data collection for referral; partnered with increased coaching for support. 

Culture: 2 big priorities, Chronic Absenteeism and Learning Environment

• Focus on the monitoring and celebration of attendance promoting daily attendance in classes for middle school and high school students. 

Chronic Absenteeism- 

• With Chronic Absenteeism, we find a common thread of designing assignments that require group collaboration for grading, a significant increase in student celebrations for improved attendance, and a wider variety of individual student and family support and communication methods around attendance challenges. A strong showing of correlation between school based attendance coordinators responsible for attendance plans and home visits with an outcome of increased attendance was noted in researching improved attendance. 

Learning Environment- 

• Focus on relationship building, consistent classroom expectations and enforcement, specific support structures and accountability, and communication of clear expectations for the school community. 
• Enhanced education, community forums, and incentives to promote positive interactions on Social Media resulting in policy creation with student and parent voice. 
  • The ability to reduce the impact of Social Media on students behavior is also a critical component of our plan.  
     

D. Zieff asked what are the reasons why students don't come to school? J. Scalice states one of the big difficulties is with transportation. But after the pandemic has affected everyone in some way. 

Operations- CSDE model- adult actions needed to ensure the success of the plan. 

Two priorities, Schedule and Space Usage

• Focus on aligning the schedule, and class length to allow for the talent, academic, and culture plans to be implemented, monitored, and revised successfully. Not every course needs to be the same time. 
• Ensure that space within the building is adequately used and assigned to promote the implementation of the talent, academic, and culture plans successfully. We also know that we have limited space. We will be re-footprinting at the school. 

Budget: How much does this cost and who's paying for it? 

First year budget is $804,060 

- CN Network $712,020 (88.55%)/GOBPT $92,040 (11.45%). 

Talent: Professional Development services and materials, stipends, Branding and Materials for recruitment, Retention incentives, Data Personnel is $122,700.

CN= $109,700

GO= $13,000

Academics: Academic materials, coaches salary, contracted services, student support materials, data integration is $495,216.

CN= $441,712

GO= $53,504

Culture: PowerSchool attendance services, personnel, consulting services, stipends, Social Worker, student incentives is $166,144

CN= $140,608

GO= $25,536

Operations: Consulting and professional development services is $20,000

CN= $20,000

GO= $0

The plan overall on the commissioners network is focused on sustainability and they tend to shy away from adding a big amount of personnel. The first year they fund all personnel costs at 80%. We are adding 3 new FTE to our roster. One is a data coordinator, one is an attendance coordinator/ student support services and the other is a social worker for social media. The other FTE not counted as additional are our two coaches currently funded with SIG shifting over to CN. The additional 20% of salary will be covered through SIG grant next year. 

Commissioner's Network continued: 

 Next Steps: 

• Board Approval - February 21, 2024
• Commissioner’s Approval - March 15, 2024
• State Board Committee Hearing - May, 2024

Board members discussed the potential funding for the CN. 

L. Hubbard discussed COO report.

In January of 2024 the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Division of State Police Conducted an Audit on how we conduct, use, and maintain responses to background checks.  We are please to report the following compliance results! 

• Facilitation of Background Checks  - 100% 
  • Timeliness
  • How background checks are administered.
     
• Use of Background Checks  - 100% 
  • How we use background checks to determine employment eligibility. 
     
• Maintenance of Background Checks - 100% 
  • How Secure are the results for both paper and electronic records. 

L. Hubbard also went over certification updates.

40% of our staff who are required to be certified hold a temporary license. 

• What this means for our HR/OpsTeam
  • Diligent review of transcripts prior to hire 
  • Submission of Application to CSDE 
  • Tracking of Missing Credentials 
  • Monitoring of Expiration Dates and Renewal Requirements
  • Support of Enrollment in Certification Program in collaboration with our Director of Special Programs. 
• ADP Resources (Current Staff) 
  • Automated reminders of certification expiration 
  • Automated Renewal Application submission prior to signing offer for next year 
• Recruitment 
  • College Fairs and Partnerships as well as direct contact with certified educators.

B. Chan went over current cash position for the school.

Current Cash Position 

Checking: $898,193

Food Service: $12,293

Reserve: $14,093 

Total: $924,579

The credit card balance is $2,970..

• Currently, the school is waiting on a SpEd Receivable in the amount of $297,000. We should be getting a payment within two weeks.
•  J. Scalice has a meeting with Michael Duffy the GO Foundation president regarding Barr grant funds of 166,000. 

C. Sneed asked for the school to be ready regarding TriNet filing with the Employee Retention Credit. As of February 8th they've said they submitted it. B. Chan has asked for concrete documentation and has not been provided any. 

The school has 2 accounts payable to release: Foundation and Supply vendor. 

B. Chan went over the dashboard for January. 

• The school is over the instructional staff but under in admin. 
• Benefits are slightly favorable because as we have more teachers who are certified, they are required to be enrolled in TRB. 
• Professional services is a big expense which is the tech support. 
  • Vendor was required to start documenting and recording all overages per month. This has significantly dropped.

Since we are currently working on budgeting for FY 25 we are looking how much we are currently spending on staff, professionals/contracts, School Ops, Facilities as a whole and where we are getting funding for what buckets in the school. 

• We got our latest energy bill yesterday but we noticed that the energy usage has gone back up. Board and GOBPT team discussed ideas of energy conservation for the school.

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