Forte Preparatory Academy
Minutes
Forte Prep Board Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday December 20, 2023 at 6:30 PM
Location
- 51-35 Reeder Street (Forte Prep)
- CLEAR offices 85 Tenth Avenue, New York NY
- Zoom
Directors Present
C. Padula, E. Winn, F. Lin, K. Mullen (remote), L. Mendez (remote), L. Rodriguez, S. Song, V. Abrams, W. Yip (remote)
Directors Absent
None
Ex Officio Members Present
G. Browne
Non Voting Members Present
G. Browne
Guests Present
B. Johnson (remote), Bryson Wilson, Cliff Schneider, Dawn Antoine, J. Smith (remote), Robert Baldwin (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Approve Minutes
II. CEO Updates
A.
SY updates; upcoming Leave plans/Qs
III. Finance
A.
Review monthly Actuals
Bryson leads conversation. (Began at 6:57pm)
Review Monthly actuals.
433 actual students.
Overall positive balance, receiving appropriate per pupil funding as well as recent grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies, New Schools Venture Fund, etc.
SUNY Fiscal Dashboard - in strong shape.
B.
Board Approval/Discussion: High School Facilities
Discussion:
Bob walks us through the property plan to get us to the launch of the new building (78-06 Queens Blvd), July 1, 2026. We have reserved space at Redeemer and St. John's for the in-between years.
Ground to be broken on June 2024.
Cliff tees up resolutions. Reminds board that Friends of Forte Prep will be the tenant.
One vote to approve this resolution in full. Three parts: 1) permanent 78-06 Queens Blvd, Extension of Redeemer location, additional temporary space on Myrtle Ave.
Fiona moves that we approve and adopt the three-part resolutions
Certain Real Estate Transactions
78-06 Queens Blvd
Redeemer
St. John's (Myrtle Ave)
Ellen seconds
Voice vote - passes unanimously!
IV. Governance
A.
New Board prospects (SY23-24 Goal)
We have been sourced four potential board members via the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. All are NYC-based or willing to travel.
Fiona did initial interviews, Laura will do the next. Fiona excited about these candidates.
Potential to vote in 1-2 new members in Feb/March.
Motion to close meeting, Fiona Lin.
Seconded by Val.
Adjourned at 7:58pm.
B.
Review & call final SY23-24 Board goals
V. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
Next meeting will be at the Warwick Hotel -- West 54th and 6th Avenue. Thank you to Sally.
And thank you to Matt Levine for hosting us at CLEAR for the past year.
Scheduling request re: February meeting. Looking to move to Thursday 2/15.
January meeting - Wed. 1/17 at Warwick.
Started with CEO report. 6:40pm
Things are going very well at Middle and High School. Clubs, talent show, etc. First-ever high school dance!
Justin: First round of school reviews. Entire Senior Leadership Team participated. Provided extensive feedback to campus directors/heads of school.
Graham/Fundraising Update
Raised $40K+ from individual donors -- our biggest year yet!
$15K+ raised for the musical instrument campaign/Giving Tuesday.
Greenhouse Application Tracking System - just launched this month. Streamlines recruiting, hiring processes. Shout out to Bridget who has led this effort.
Also working with Agree to Agree, HR consulting firm.
Graham planning to take family leave as soon as baby arrives. Roughly all of January and February. Justin will serve as Interim CEO. Strong plans in place for Graham's family leave.