Mission: The Leadership School exists to grow our students’ leadership capacity through earnest engagement in an academically rigorous, culturally relevant, and relationship-oriented environment.

Roll Call Vote

Motion to approve Shinita Jones as a new member of the TLS Board of Directors with her term starting this evening.

Motion needed: "I move that this meeting be closed, and that all records and votes, to the extent permitted by law, pertaining to and/or resulting from this closed meeting be closed under Section 610.021.2 "Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor."

Status: Goal #10 - Board Engagement

• Average meeting attendance YTD: 85%
• Giving YTD: $2576

ACTION ITEMS

Mid-Year Board Report

• End of January distribution to stakeholders
• Discuss at January Board Meeting & Community Coffee in February at TLS

Other

• Fulfill commitment to Giving Tuesday, if not already done.
• RSVP to 1/31/25 Retreat: Aaron, Tanisha
• Sign Board Conduct Policy: TC, Tanisha
• Who would like to bring snacks for January 27?

Committees Report on Monthly Activity

December Meeting:

Fundraising

• Discussed plans to sell wellness kits at Christmas in the Kitchen
• School to receive a donation from Mitzi MacDonald in addition to proceeds from Wellness Kit.
• Principal Maldonado will loop board in to upcoming school-based fundraisers, e.g., Double Good popcorn.
• Operations Director Denise Griffin will develop SOPs for tracking various donations sources:  CashApp, PayPal Giving, Give Butter, checks, cash, EFTs.
• Courtney will take a deeper look at mounting a capital campaign to fund Ourdoor Classroom/Naturescape in January.

Community Communication

• Family Newsletters will be posted on the website and a link to the most recent shared with the board.
• Courtney is working on a State of the School address for Fam U on 1/27, including how to make sense of iReady data.
• Will use info for the Board's mid-year report

January Meeting:

• Reviewed Donation Tracker and responsible parties recording Cash App, PayPal Giving, Checks, Give Butter donations
• Over $1500 in donations brought in through Christmas in the Kitchen.  Thank you Marilyn McCarthy and Mitzi MacDonald!  TLS students sang at this event!
• Clarified community newsletter cadence and need to post on TLS website/send to board, as this did not happen in December.
• Discussed need to revise the Events Calendar to include all events and sequence in chronological order
• Courtney will present a State of TLS report at Family University in early February.

Monthly Financials for November

• KPIs: 73 Days of Cash; 7% Gross Margin; 21% Fund Balance
• Revenue: $218K net increase 
• Expenses: Net decrease of $155K

Annual Audit

• Completed, no issues
• Gary will look into ways to increase efficiencies of school inputs with Denise.

Policy

• Suggested that we determine whether to increase our coverage for Employee Theft from $250K to $500K.

Facilities

• Courtney and Lindsay are working hard on finalizing loan documents for the next phase of expansion.

Monthly Financials for December

• KPIs : 72 Days of Cach; 7% Gross Margin; 20% Fund Balance
• On track to end the year with a $410K Operational surplus 
• Monitoring enrollment

Other Follow Up

• Check how lead testing is being done with the expansion and see if we can tap the same contractors to conduct a study of the current buildings
• Courtney and JB will add language to vendor contracts about timely invoicing.
• Will send out the next Quarterly Controls Questionnaire in March
• Clarified who will track which type of donations

ACTION ITEMS

• Discuss monthly financials for November and December
• Discuss Employee Theft coverage

December Meeting

Reporting

• Reviewed expectations for Courtney's Second Quarter Report for the Board on 1/27/26.
• Deadline for assessment summary needed for Reportwell was moved to the end of January.

Goal 1 - MAP Achievement

• Discussed APR display on school website per TLS's existing APR Information Policy and whether to modify language; how best to display.
• Classroom libraries are currently being assembled.  Need volunteers to help with classifying and leveling in later spring.

Goals 2 (Progress Monitoring/Growth)

• Reviewed the ELA progress monitoring data for K  - 2 based on the CKLA Foundations Curriculum.
• Using the data for intentional reteaching of small groups needing more help.

Goal 5 - Attendance

• Level Up incentive bracelets are working.  Kids are motivated.  
• Will share impact specifically on students who have had attendance issues with the board during the quarterly report at the end of January.

Goal 6 - Student Leadership:  

• Several different data sources for tracking impact of the student leadership development through wellness initiatives:
• Assessments 1
• Assessments 2
• Keisha will generate reports based on these sources some monthly, some quarterly.
• Discussed the Online Safety aspect of student leadership within the context of Resources available though Parent ProTech.

Goal 7 - Family Satisfaction

• Mid-year data will be discussed with the board in January

Goal 9 - Staff Satisfaction

• Awaiting data from The Opportunity Trust who handles the survey.
• Reviewed status of performance evaluation rubric development for various functions.
• All staff will have been reviewed once by end of January/early Feb and again in April/May.

January Meeting

Goals 1 through 4 - Reviewed the Charter Goal Scoreboard for Year Four to date.  Need to provide the growth to proficiency metrics, not just reduction in numbers of those reading or doing math 2+ years below grade level for Growth goals 2 and 4 to give a more accurate view of actual progress made.

Goal 5 - Attendance:  Will resume adding discipline referrals and tardies to attendance data

Goal 6 - Student Leadership through Wellness

• Will report to the SP Comm in February about which slice of the plan unveiled in December will be rolled out first and present the first pieces of data.

Goal 7 - Family Satisfaction - need a clearer picture of family units represented in attendance numbers recorded at TLS schoolwide events.

Goal 9 - Staff Satisfaction - Data forthcoming from TOT's survey. ETA: End of January.  Need a clearer tracking of staff involvement in school committees/events.

Goal 12 - Reporting - Discussed reports due this month.

Classroom Libraries

• Will roll these out next fall.  Currently working on organizing books by genre/level.
• Shinita's sorority could help with this in later spring.
• Need to organize a bar code/scanning process for tracking loans and returns.

Vocabulary

• Currently emphasizing academic terms like claim, evidence, warrant.

ACTION ITEM

• Discussion/Vote on APR Information Policy

December Meeting

Comprehensive School Safety Plan

• Reviewed expectations, status
• Moved board presentation to January

Annual Existing Policy Review

• Discussed timeline for reviewing existing policies, approving and including new model policies into our document.
• Discussed which existing policies will be reviewed in January.

Board Retreat

• Date to be set to meet with Veronica to plan Retreat 1 and coordinate with Kent re: Retreat 2.
• 2 board members still need to RSVP for Jan 24; 4 board members still need to RSVP for Jan 31
• Part of the first retreat will deal with themes from the Board;s Midyear Self Evaluation.

ED Evaluation

• Discussed status of the ED evaluation; data will be shared with the Board in December.
• Presentation of the data to Courtney in closed session on 1/6/26.

Emergency ED Succession Planning

• Tanisha and Aaron have met twice about this.
• Now need to set up a meeting with Courtney.

Exit Interviews

• Stephanie will connect with Courtney about the status of exit interviews for departing staff.

Charter Renewal

• Work has started on the charter renewal narrative.

January Meeting

Meeting time will be 4:00 PM to align with School Performance and Dev Comm meetings

• Reviewed the Annual Trainings and Drills tracker; will follow up monthly to ensure all are addressed by EOY.
• Courtney will check with Lindsay (facilities consultant) about water testing in the expansion and see if we can use the same people to test water in the existing outlets.
• Discussed annual expectations in Reportwell reporting and the need to establish a set of expectations among Courtney's direct reports about who generates which reports.
• Courtney will set up an orientation for JB and herself to Reportwell with Laurel Bowers to solidify understandings.
• Report due to the Gov Comm next month on status of MOY evaluations of all staff
• Reviewed agendas for Retreat Parts 1 & 2
• Reviewed Midyear Board Report through Goal 8.
• Reviewed upcoming policies to share at upcoming board meetings for our PD
• Clarified that the Gov Comm would be checking in with Courtney in February on the status of next steps surfaced in the MOY ED evaluation.

ACTION ITEMS:

• January Policy Review: Physical Restraint Procedures Policy, Parental Involvement Policy (Title IA), FMLA/FERPA Rights Policy 
• Discussion of new policies: Special Education Records (275), Records Retention Model Policy (276), Bus Driver Background Check Model Policy (290), Crown Act Model Policy (291)

Quarterly Report

• Dec. 8 - Development Committee Meeting Notes
• Dec. 9 - Governance Committee Meeting Notes
• Dec. 17 - School Performance Committee Meeting Notes
• Dec. 18 - Finance & Facilities Meeting Notes
• Approve the November 2025 Financials
• Jan. 5 - Development Committee Report
• Jan. 14 - School Performance Committee Meeting Notes
• Jan. 20 - Governance Committee Meeting Notes
• Jan 22 - Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting Notes
• Approve the December 2025 Financials
• Approve a Proposal to Extend Board Membership to 3-year Terms
• Approve a Proposal to Fold the Responsibilities of the Development Committee into the Finance, Governance, and School Performance Committees
• Approve the Board/ED Compact
• Approve the Board Norms, Look Fors, and Self-Check Tool
• Approve the Board Midyear Report

Respond by sharing your response to one or more of the following: (*include evidence, practical examples)

The TLS Board furthered our school mission tonight by ...

* spent____ of our time in the here & now, and ____ planning for the future by... 

* was engaged and stayed on track by ...

* participated in the meeting by ... 

* demonstrated examples of strength during our meeting by ...

* demonstrated opportunities for growth during our meeting by ...

* we upheld our fiduciary (compliance, legal) responsibilities by...

* we honored the need to be strategic (long range planning) by...

* we were generative (brainstorming, sharing new knowledge) when....

1. If not already done, please consider making a monthly donation to TLS via GiveButter. 

2. To promote enrollment and fundraising, if you haven't yet, please post this TLS promotional flyer on your social media and share within your personal networks.

3. TLS Board Professional Development:

• Professional Development Opportunities for Board Committees 
• Professional Development Tracker for TLS ED & Board Members 

Upcoming Board Meetings:

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 @ 6 PM

 Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 @ 6 PM