On 8/8/25, TLS held its Open House and181 students attended.

Community partners offering pre-school and after school programming were present, along with the Asthma Truck, fire department, and Vivian foundation. It was energetic.

Average Board attendance YTD: 64% (see notes)

Consensus to adopt the FY 26 goals for Board engagement

• Introduce 3 associates to TLS, being intentional about bringing in people that can connect with and potentially donate to, volunteer with, or supply resources to our school.
• Make a personal donation to TLS on Giving Tuesday and Give STL Day 
• Attend 4 TLS events (e.g., Building A ribbon cutting, Trivia Night, Halloween, Christmas event, Black History Month student presentations, Skating for Change, Kindergarten & Grade 5 Graduations).  Board members could attend once a quarter.  TLS Events will be added to the Board Calendar to facilitate planning.
• Participate in 2 retreats (fall and spring/summer)
• Promote the school via personal social media, wearing or using TLS swag, and posting pictures.

Other Opportunities to promote the school:

• Community Partnerships
• Grants
• Facility-rental*
• Fee-based services**

*Facility rental for community events -- the Development committee supported by Courtney will explore an app to put the multi-purpose room on a list of available spaces for activities like meetings, dances, Kiwanis Club, North County Democrats, yoga classes.  An MOI will needed to be drafted to ensure the facility is left school-ready after the event.

**Therapy would be a possible fee-based service--Performance Committee and Keisha will pursue.

Will explore the opportunity to hire someone (either full time or as a consultant) in order to lead the work in Development, after we determine actual enrollment numbers in October. A capital campaign would likely be more feasible as the school increases in size.

There was a drop of $66K in net income in July due to invoices from FY25.  Will need to pursue an invoice payment policy to minimize carry-overs.

Days of Cash: 71

Gross Margin: 6.3%

Fund Balance 20%

• This year's budget was built on an enrollment of 280 and as of today 8/26/25 we have 286 enrolled.
• ASBR was submitted on August 15th, 2025
• Annual Audit will happen in October 
• Long Term financial planning model has been developed by EdOps based on three possible space-related scenarios.  Enrollments for 2026 - 2027 could be:

437 if space is available

359 if two modules are added

342 with no additional space

In its monthly meeting, the Finance Committee also reviewed the portions of the proposed Strategic Plan that it will monitor in the coming two years.

• Reviewed rationales for amendments to School Performance and School Culture charter goals
• Reviewed key objectives in the proposed Strategic Plan that the committee will monitor for the coming two years
• Shala and Keisha are working on a grant from the St. Louis Children's Fund --more will be shared as information becomes available. 
• Teacher evaluation rubric is complete.
• Language added in the Board Personnel Evaluation policy to change the evaluator of all staff (educators and classified staff) to be the immediate supervisor rather than the Executive Director.

In Committee, continued work on aligning the Organizational Health Dashboard and the Strategic Plan and reviewed the template for the Charter Goal Amendment letter.

Discussed the Cell Phone (Electronic Communications Device policy) 

During the meeting, discussed examples and non-examples of the TLS Board norms 

• Under "Lead with unity and purpose" add a participation and engagement indicator under "Examples"
• Under "Value and respect each other" change "We apologize promptly" to "We remember our common goal and make amends" (agree to disagree; talk things through)
• Some feel that ensuring transparency does not require a Contact Log
• Carrie will list observable behaviors for Examples and Non-Examples to ensure greater objectivity when naming a norm violation.

Possible Protocol for Holding Ourselves Accountable to the Norms

• Step 1:  Parties resolve the issue among themselves
• Step 2:  If not unresolved, the complainant contacts the Chair or Vice Chair who sets up a three-way to discuss.
• Step 3:  If issue persists, the Governance Committee presents the issue to the full board for input.
• If a violation is found, it's logged and:

Violation #1:  Violator offers an apology and verbal re-commitment to the norms.

Violation #2: Written statement from the Board to the violator issuing a warning.

Violation #3:  Board deliberates whether to dismiss the member or not.

Enrollment 286 as of 8/25/25; budget is based on 280.

Are working hard on recruiting students and building waiting lists to off-set students who are enrolled but do not end up attending, which was an issue last year.

Have shortened the time frame families have to start sending students to school and moving students from the wait lists into seats.

Staffing 100% staffed (leadership, instructional, and classified staff).  Do need to line up a substitute teacher.  Discussed whether to hire Kelly.

Assessment Calendar 2025 - 2026:

• BOY iReady: 8/27 Reading and 8/28 math.  Should have results next week to share with the Board.
• MOY iReady: 12/8-12/12
• EOY iReady/MAP: 4/27-5/8