Quorum not present at the time meeting was called to order at 6:37pm. Quorum achieved at 7:10pm when Derrick Lewis arrived at the meeting. 

Committee Items on the radar:

• No recommendation to the organizational charts. Director of Finance would be 
• Compliance calendar was provided by HOS and during the next round of review committee will plug in some considerations for board approval. Governance committee will add in deliverables from the full board perspective.  Committee will also flesh out some of the deliverables.

Key financial indicators were met or above benchmark.

• 1.9 million in assets including pre-paid expenses
• Grants receivable at about 23K and Management will submit for reimbursement
• 2.3 million total assets
• Total liabilities are at 1.8 million
• Total enrollment slightly lower than what was budgeted for (162 - budgeted for total enrollment is 160)
• Budgeted for 27 SPED students but currently only have 15 students and this is having a negative impact on revenue. (Management explained that budget next year will under estimate the roll over) The biggest impact on the budget is for the greater than 60 percentile were school budgeted for 15 students but we only have 5 students. Financial impact is around $50K -100K in terms of revenue. 
• Title grant appears to be trending lower but in effect it is not trending lower because reimbursement did  not start until later.

Expenses

• Internet budget line item was incorrectly listed so there will be an overage in that line item because we accounted for the revenue but did not account for all the expenses. (Management would like to disucss this with the back office provider for further clarity.)
• BES agreed to reduced fee of $8K but management noted that services would be reduced.
• Board Chair also told management that auditors need to be paid based on a email sent to Vice-Chair. Management to look into the outstanding bill based on an email received today. 

Financial Compliance Issues

• Nov 1, 2020 Auditor's financials and year 2 budget 
• ESSA fiscal transfer was submitted on Nov 30, 2020
• Questions for 990 tax filings were completed by back office provider and given to auditors.  

 

TriNet acquired Little Bird and joined the finance committee meeting to answer some questions. Committee did not vet the contract completely as management made the recommendation. Committee noted that insurance providers vet contracts for approvals. However, deadline was approaching for the automated integration process so that process would not have to be started all over. 

Discussion tabled as quorum not achieved and chair of the committee was not present. 

Discussion tabled until the next meeting. 

New charts shared with the board which were not provided to the committee or board prior to the meeting by HOS. Materials shared on screen with board.  Discussion held about enrollment/attendance and dashboard benchmarks.
Attendance

• Charter goals for 90% attendance and in house school goal is at 85%

Attrition

• Discussion held on decrease of attrition over time. 

Application for 2021-22 school year

• 5 for K received so far when applications went live on Nov 1, 2020
•  60 K available seats for next year. 2 seats available for 1st grade. 2nd grade has the largest gap of 7 available seats and HOS to inquire  with NYSED about thoughts on filling this gap. 3rd grade has one available seat. 
• Aim to get 3x as many applications for the available seats. 

Initiatives for Increasing Applications 

• Virtual open houses, recordings done and mailer completed for this year.
• HOS described imitative as more "boots on the ground."
• Direct mailer through Vanguard also produced a lot of good results last year.   

Assessments discussion held and video shown.
Math Assessment (IA) was conducted but needs to be tweaked because the results have not reflected actual knowledge. Fidelity of the assessment in question. Video shown and HOS discussed ideas for going forward.  
Literacy Data provided:

• Kindergarten - 2% on grade level, 45% below grade, 54% above grade level- (Last year Kindergarten - 71% were below grade level - 17% on grade level, 12% were above grade level)
• 1st Grade - 17% below grade level, 30% on grade level, 53% above grade level (Last year all students were below grade level)
• 2nd Grade - 13% on grade level, 20% above grade level, 67% below grade level. (in this group all readers are placed in groups with scholars on the same grade level)

Head of School Report on hiring: 
2 teachers hired.
SPED teacher hired and she starts after the new year
1 more teacher needs to be hired.

• Report card conferences happening on December 14 and 16t. 
• Storybook character day took place.
• Teachers receiving accoloades from parents
• Discussed needs for families. 
• Virtual pods created for students to mix and mingle.
• FaceTime check ins with some scholars
• Asynchronous science lesson to start after the break. 
• Staff survey data shared with the board. 

 

• Re-opening plan to be discussed with Academic Achievement Committee and will be shared with the full board after issues are vetted by the committee. 

• Update on Giving Tuesday discussed. 
• Google docs folder shared for marketing materials for Giving Tuesday Imitative.
• Note-A-Thon scheduled for December 3, 2020 and will be virtual. 

Discussion on contract, goal setting and other issues.