• Vinnie welcomed the new members who were just approved to join the board. They provided a quick introduction to themselves and what caused them to join the board.

• Held a lottery at the end of October for the 8th grade as the 8th grade waiting list was almost exhausted. 
• Lourdes presented the current enrollment: 
  • 739 total students
    • 6th - 113
    • 7th - 109
    • 8th - 113
    • 9th - 98
    • 10th - 105
    • 11th - 112
    • 12th - 89
• What is the enrollment cap? 
  • 735 students
  • Is there a limit based on grade? 
    • Typically replace students in middle school rather than high school as older students are more separated by who is ready for college and who isn't
  • Do you backfill throughout the year? 
    • We do, we are only paid for the number of students who are enrolled each day.
  • Discussion continued about the enrollment process for the school

• Lourdes presented the following presentation on the current enrollment demographics of the school: 
• How often does the State do a review? 
  • It was once a year in the first charter, in the second and fifth year in the second charter
  • Has the State made any comments on the demographics? 
    • Not related to ethnicity. 
• Grappling with what it means to diversify the school and what it might mean for the mission
• Other than public perception does it matter? 
  • No

• The following presentation was given to spotlight students, departments, and staff: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LW9oX24l6dsfgZXsvmfOuhC0Y9Q9tbAlbRIzgyUl9JQ/edit?usp=sharing

• Dr. Sumner presented on Rising Hope, an organization who is providing counseling and wellness at New Heights that began last Monday.

• Mike Gilbert presented about the Sickle Cell Awareness Breakfast and Blood Drive that is happening on January 15th at New Heights. At the first blood drive in October there were 24 people who donated. More information will go out before Christmas. 
• Request for a Board vote to approve this event and a 12/16 toy drive at the school. 

• Nicolas presented on fights from September to October.
  • Fights were flat from September to October and decreased by 34 fights from SY23
• The board approved changes to the student handbook? How are the changes affecting what's happening? 
  • Don't think the consequences are impacting the decisions. The main thing is that students and parents know that if fights happen in the school there will be a heavy consequence. Main impact is the prevention work of staff to stop incidents before they escalate into fights. 
• Does this data include kids on staff? 
  • No, don't recall any incident from last year. 2 weeks ago staff broke up a fight and one staff did get hit in the fight. 
• Is it spread across all grades? 
  • Much higher concentration among middle school and female students.
• Last year we had multiple incidents where police were called. Have there been any incidents this year? Do we have an SRO?
  • There have been no incidents where we have had to call the police. We do have an SRO that we can call but they are not on site due to lack of police resources. 

• Meagan provided background on the company that is creating promotional videos for social media. The videos can be found at the following links: 
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nhcsbrockton/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newheightscharterschoolbrockton

• Maria played a video of the Brockton Holiday Parade. 
• The Brockton Rotary Club generously provided 25 turkeys for staff.
• Friday December 1st the Alumni basketball players are coming back to play the current basketball team at 7:30 as a fundraiser for the scholarship committee. Last year's championship banner will also be unveiled that night. 

• Handbook discussion postponed until the January meeting

• Will presented the following information on Principal salaries: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16L1QzuKPwbbIk4yOXgcCAutCmM67TzDLJzpzzpnVcgI/edit?usp=sharing
• Have had a successful first round of the Principal Search Committee. We are getting questions about salary. Hoping that the Board will advise on a range that will be acceptable and supported. We are in a competitive market but have a benefit of being first out for the search 
• Is there anyway to compare to public school principals? 
  • Found some old salary data for high school principal, Randolph in 2020 was about $130,000-$140,000, Quincy was $140,000. 
• Does Omari have a recommendation? 
  • There may be qualified people who fit in these ranges, think it's a longer search the lower the range. Would hate for the committee to do the work and have the hire fail because the salary range isn't what that candidate would want. Don't want to share a recommendation as I want to work within the range that the board gives. 
• What were we paying the previous principal? Did we list a range? 
  • Paying $130,000 and didn't list a range. 
• Why does a public school principal get a higher salary than charter schools? 
  • Principals don't fall in union at public school, believe its union wages that drive up the Principal salary. 
• Board can make a recommendation and if the Search Committee struggles finding a candidate the board can adjust this. 
• Steve Bernard recommends that the Board rely on the Search Committee to decide what the range would be as they are looking for the best person and not who wants the most money. 
• What effect will the salary we pay the Principal have on those who are above the Principal? This is something that should be considered. 
•  

• Spotlights took place of the committee report due to other responsibilities this month.

Recommendation from Finance to the full board is to accept the financials as reported. It is important to recognize that the operating surplus is inflated due to recognizing grant money that is already spent. In order to recognize the grant money you have to spend the grant, so it will be drawn down over the coming months. Other than that all the finances are in line. 

October Financials are included below: https://app2.boardontrack.com/org/emXiCW/attachment/download/302943

• Board chose to defer the vote to the January meeting

• Jess presented the proposed changes to be made to the Board Bylaws as attached. Changes are: 
  • Board term
  • Nomination Committee being changed to Governance Committee
  • Removing language that is outdated
• Will hold a special Board meeting to vote on changes in December to get changes to DESE by January 1 for review.
  • Proposed special meeting for December 19th

• Maria will send out a meeting invite for newest members for an orientation to the school. Invitation will be extended to other board members who are interested in a refresher.