Élan Academy Charter School
Minutes
Board Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday June 6, 2023 at 6:00 PM
1801 L B Landry Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70114
(504) 619-9720
www.elanacademy.org
The matters listed are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair to be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may, in fact, be discussed. Other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. All agenda items are informational unless otherwise denoted, though all committee reports require a vote for acceptance. The meeting will be held on the campus of the school.
Directors Present
D. Barnes, D. Patin, E. Marrero-Savoie, G. Briggs, J. Stewart, J. Thibodeaux, R. Watkins, S. Rademaker
Directors Absent
R. Green, S. Brown
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
R. Watkins called a meeting of the board of directors of Élan Academy Charter School to order on Tuesday Jun 6, 2023 at 6:03 PM.
C.
Approval of Today’s Meeting Agenda - Darren Patin (Voting)
G. Briggs made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Meeting on 04-26-23.
J. Thibodeaux seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
G. Briggs made a motion to Approve Agenda.
R. Watkins seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Head of School Report
A.
Head of School Report – Dr. Melanie Askew Clark (Voting)
E. Marrero-Savoie made a motion to Approve Head of School Report.
D. Barnes seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
III. Governance
A.
Governance Committee Report - Darren Patin (Voting)
G. Briggs made a motion to Approve Governance Committee Report.
R. Watkins seconded the motion.
At the May 15, 2023 Governance Committee Meeting, the following matters were discussed:
- Status of vendors - Fourth Sector is conducting their onboarding efforts with regards to serving as our back office provider. They believe that they will be able to incorporate the work previously performed by Ed Tec. Ed Tec has delayed getting the information to Fourth Sector. Indeed, Ed Tec has delayed the Release of Information to Elan as well. Elan will execute a release of the Ed Tec Contract and deliver payment of approximately $19,000 in order to end the contract. It is our understanding that Ed Tec is setting up a meeting with Fourth Sector in order to coordinate the transfer.
- The Governance Committee has reviewed the Finance Committee's recommendations that we select the Daigrepont Firm to perform our CPA/auditing services. This will be presented to the Board at the May meeting and for vote.
- The janitorial and food services vendors will remain the same. Transportation remains in limbo, although it appears that we will be likely end our contract with First Student to serve as our transportation vendor, in light of the poor service that we received from them, and will consider Knowledge Transportation, who responded to our RFP.
- The draft 2023-2024 budget is almost complete. We have posted the Notice in The Advocate. We will discuss the budget at the May meeting, and vote on same at the June meeting. Much of what remains is simply putting numbers to salaries. There may be some position reorganization, but the foundation of the organizational structure is in place.
- Head of School Evaluation - we have drafted the Head of School Evaluation and will circulate same for consideration, review and vote at the May meeting.
- Board Succession Plan - we are circulating the draft Board Succession Plan for vote at the May meeting.
- Board Recruitment Efforts - Our Board Recruitment Efforts have been slow. Our outreach has not produced any response. We will now send out form letters to the roster of potential candidates that we received from Caroline Roemer with LAPCS.
With that, the meeting adjourned at 5:25pm.
IV. Academic
A.
Academic Committee Report –
V. Finance
A.
Finance Committee Report – Roger Watkins (Voting)
D. Barnes made a motion to Motion to approve Finance Committee Report.
R. Watkins seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VI. Development
A.
Development Committee Report –
Did not meet.
VII. Additional Business
A.
Old Business
B.
New Business - Darren Patin
R. Watkins made a motion to Go into Executive Session.
S. Rademaker seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D. Barnes made a motion to Come out of Executive Session.
G. Briggs seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
C.
Vote on selection of CPA Vendor
R. Watkins made a motion to Approve the retention of Daigrpont Firm as CPA firm for annual audit.
G. Briggs seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D.
Vote on Board Succession Policy
S. Rademaker made a motion to Approve Board Succession Plan.
D. Barnes seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VIII. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:17 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
R. Watkins
Did not meet.