L. Hubbard went over COO Report. 

Enrollment:

B. Carlson asked if we do not meet the 661, would we have to come up with the rest of the money somehow? L. Hubbard reports we would. CFO, B. Chan, reports that in the per pupil formula, since last year there is an equitable funding formula where they take into account the students that are low income or eligible for free lunch and the number of per pupil will increase and help offset the difference.

Summer Attrition:

• Enrollment Between August 16-26h- 692
• Enrollment as of Today is 650
• 65% of Attrition took place after August 16th

Reasons for Student Withdrawals:

• Multiple Schedule Changes
• Moving out of Bridgeport
• Later Enrollments of Magnet Schools
• 6% of Students who withdrew have returned

Enrollment Challenges:

• District Wide Schedule Changes
• Families moving out of Bridgeport
• Transportation is a huge challenge for us
• Lower 9th Grade Waitlist of at this time of year.

C. Sneed asked if Transportation can be something we highlight at the gala? L. Hubbard states that the 6 or 7 routes we use for busing will cost around half a million dollars annually. To maintain something like this year over year without expected income, it doesn't make sense.

Recruitment Strategies:

Current: 

• Call Banking
• Canvassing
• Social Media Marketing
• Targeted Mailing

Future:

• Started Earlier- Launch 25-26 Application- November 15th
• Post Card Mailing and Social Media Marketing - starts in November
• Continue current marketing strategies

CEO went over the CEO report.

Schedule Changes has been a big focus for the school regarding Impact of Time Change.

1. Busing: Bus changes to 2:30 pm  to 3:30 pm 

2. Survey: Parent Surveys and Staff surveys

3.Schedule: Schedule student and teacher assignments

4. Action: Implementation of the the plan designed in cooperation with parent and staff groups 

Impact of Time Change:

Once again, the fifteen minute time change impacts the the exit time for the school from 2:15 pm back to 3:30 pm beginning Monday.

• Change was communicated on September 4, 2024 after-hours in connection with parent and staff notices of Bridgeport Public Schools that the change was occurring as of September 16, 2024; 7 planning days after announcement.
• Change was not communicated prior to implementation and notification as promised during the August 23, 2024 meeting with Charter School Districts

Local Impact: 

• The majority of Charter Schools have indicated strong consideration for a return to their original schedule.
• Great Oaks has seen a significant shift in student attendance, participation, and a reduction of incidents since the time shift for dismissal.
• It was important to us a community to try to keep as much of the new framework as possible and to respect the effort parents made to change their schedules under the original change.

Survey Process:

Staff was notified of the change on September 4, 2024 and immediately invited to participate in problem-solving. Three ideas were possible for implementation:

• A split dismissal allowing parents to select a walker/pick up option for 2:30 and a bussing/walker/pick up option for 3:30 pm; using after-school style programming
• A universal application of after-school style programming for all students with middle-school exiting at 3:30 pm
• Extending all periods by 8 minutes, outside of lunch and recess, for all students. 

Surveys for Staff:

• Staff overwhelming supported a split dismissal option with over 98% of staff strongly supporting or supporting this option.
• Staff showed support for a universal after-school style program at approximately 38% showing strong support or support
• Staff showed reduced support in returning to the traditional school schedule of 8 additional minutes per period for all student at 20% showing support.

Surveys for Parents:

• Over 70% of parents stated that the time change to 2:15 had a positive impact on their child
• Over 85% of parents supported an option where all parents were provided choice to select a 2:15 or 3:30 dismissal
• Over 40% of parents indicated that the change to a 3:30 end time would be difficult for transportation arrangements for their family with 42% stating it would have limited or no impact. 

Our Plan:

• A Parent Option notice, parent option video, and parent option permission slip were distributed between Monday and Tuesday of this week.  
   
• We anticipate that we will service approximately 180 out of 275 students through this program; with two days of academic instruction and 2 days of club activities. Academics groups will be approximately 10:1:1
   
• We are in the process of organizing student groupings, creating teacher and fellow teams, and outlining curriculum, objectives, and setting up approval for clubs.

Implementing our plan:

• Students will be given a color coded card for the first few weeks to identify if their designated time for dismissal and room and teacher assignment
   
• Teachers will have rosters, and contact phone numbers for day 1.

• All teachers will support for week 1 to assess the total population of students. Afterwards, we will likely move towards a rotation utilizing the teacher team structure to ensure consistency. 

CFO, B. Chan, went over CFO Report.

CFO reports that we are doing more internal controls, working with AP Specialist, Laura Nivia. 

• FY24 is being submitted to the auditors.
• This shows a loss for the year including internal controls between the budget and spend. We will look into the salary to make sure there are no gaps from where we are and what we spend so that there are no surprises.

We also have FY25 attached in the agenda. We are on budget. B. Chan states because teachers salaries are paid through July so we need one extra month therefore we will always be one month behind the budget.  B. Carlson asked a question "because of last year we incurred the IT overages, are these one time charges? B. Chan confimed they are. B. Carlson asked Is there a way to ensure the reorganization charges and any deficits that it cost so that it is not looked at as a continuum in the future year's budget. C. Sneed states we could run an expense report and highlight the expenses that are part of the reorganization. 

Board Treasurer- Corey Sneed went over new vendors and will present as a slate because each of the new vendors are below 5,000.

Gala Vendors:

• Living Word Printing - For our journal
• DJ Chris Elliot - DJ for the gala
• TRLP Music LLC- Band for the gala

Other Vendors: 

• 80 by Design- Tile work in bathroom
• Rocca Bee- personalized teacher gift

B. Chan, CFO, discussed a summary of Finances that showed FY25 for July and August. The teachers are paid over the summer so that will show in the Budget for July and August. 

Personnel costs are slightly higher than last year because we have a few more fellows than last year. 

C. Sneed asked to go over the contracted services if we are 24000$ above budget and what does that trend look like? Is it one time or ongoing? B. Chan discussed payroll services if one of them which B. Chan will look over. B. Chan also states that food services is now SMG, during the course of FY24, one of the agreements is to get more detailed information of the monthly contract and we broke that number out in food team, cleaning staff and repairs. 

Everything is  itemized and categorized. B. Chan reports that we are going to be disciplined so that we can 

C. Sneed reports that the school is on track and operating below budget. Next is the FY24 P&L. 

We have costs incurred from splitting from the foundation. We will need to check our staffing budget. We will need to be more mindful. 

C. Sneed summarizes that the school will implement a process by leveraging the tools and resourced provided to us by Bill.com and make sure that we are consistent in communicating with each other. The finance committee did notice a potential discrepancy on Salary budget vs. the actual so further research will have to go into what that will look like. Fortunately, the loss is able to be recovered.

Gala is coming up on October 10th, 2024- Please spread the word!