None

Ms. Morgan commented that as a Wiseburn resident, she drove by the campus at 135th and Aviation and saw that there was a break-in.  Brief discussion ensued.  

Dr. Brann commented on Governor Newsom's speech the previous day, in which the governor spoke about the possibility of changes that schools may have to make when returning in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Dr. Brann also asked the staff to think of all possible sources of revenue for the next school year, as the DV Connect charter revision has not been approved, and government funding is uncertain due to the pandemic's effect on the May Revise..

Dr. Brann also asked what would happen in case one of the four remaining Da Vinci Board trustees is unable to attend.  He would like contingency plans and options.

Dr. Wunder credited the faculty and staff in transitioning to remote learning, and pointed out that having independent study schools like Connect, DVX and RISE allowed Da Vinci to quickly move all of its schools to remote learning.  He noted the timeliness of DV Connect high school.

Mr. Scott Warner spoke of the changes to the FY20 financials, the FY21 budgeting process, and the transition to Ms. Sabrina Ayala and CSMC.

Central Office costs will now be allocated monthly rather than annually to the individual school sites.
Mr. Warner has been creating new budget models, and working on the P2 budget revision to determine the 2019-20 school year final financial standing.  He will be meeting with school leaders to discuss P2 final budget revision figures.

At Dr. Wunder's request, Ms. Ayala discussed DVX's position as a program, saying that while costs associated with the program were shown in DVX's profit & loss statements, the revenue that DVX students generated was attributed to the school sites under whose charters the students were held, resulting in an inaccurate picture of DVX as a loss for the school sites' budgets.  If DV Connect High School moves forward, those students would be tracked at DV Connect and a clearer financial picture would be seen.

Ms. Ayala spoke of the next steps in the FY21 budgeting process, noting that the team will determine desired reserves keeping in mind the Wiseburn-required 15% reserves by FY23, determine the FY21 funding rates, central office fee, and work with Dr. Wunder and administrators on building the budgets. Those budgets will be created using estimates prior to the May Revise, it is possible that the budgets approved by the Board in June will need to be revised and re-approved in the fall.

CSMC is determining the format of future board meeting presentations, and will be presenting board packages with monthly data by cost center (monthly variance, year-to-date data, variance-to-date, full year budgets), and financial and cash flow projections. 

Cash flow issues include Wiseburn In Lieu of Property Tax payments to Da Vinci deviate from the State-mandated schedule.  Ms. Ayala went on to say that she and CSMC hope to rectify this matter to improve cash flow.  Dr. Wunder added that this matter is a holdover from the days when Da Vinci was a much smaller organization.  Mr. Mayotte noted this and worked with Mr. Dave Wilson and Dr. Blake Silvers to revise the schedule; however, no one anticipated Da Vinci's growth, and so Da Vinci will be working with Wiseburn.

Ms. Ayala wrapped up the update by saying that the team worked with Mr. Meath to create a format for reporting the Profit and Loss statements, which will be summarized, but also include details.  Mr Warner commented that all the financials are generated by CharterVision, and he feels it would be beneficial for the Board to see a demonstration of that system.

Mr. Jesse Corral noted that 592 Chromebooks have been distributed since March 13, 2020.  All Chromebook distributions have been documented for tracking, and a support ticket system has been created for parents and students in addition to the ticket system that exists for staff. Three times a week, an IT team member is at the 201 N. Douglas campus to handle issues that cannot be taken care of remotely.  Some content filtering and copier payments have been suspended, and lighting schedules are being altered to reduce costs.  The IT team is also setting up Microsoft Teams to give faculty another platform to use for delivering lessons in addition to Google Meet and Zoom.

Mr. Steve Wallis, Ms. Veronica Rodriguez, and Ms. Erin D'Souza spoke about the high school remote learning.  A Schedule was created for students to check in with their teachers and each other, and keep to a classwork schedule.

Short videos were shown depicting the faculty's work and the students' remote learning experience.

Mr. Wallis spoke of the personalization that Da Vinci Schools' faculty practices, even in remote learning.  The teachers work hard to make the work relevant and engaging to the students.

Ms. Veronica Rodriguez spoke of surveying staff and families and creating  virtual instruction schedules to allow students to participate in asynchronous learning and to provide structure to give students a sense of normalcy and consistency.

Ms. Erin D'Souza noted that Da Vinci transitioned to virtual instruction very quickly, and as a few weeks had passed, staff are discussing their successes and struggles.  A professional development virtual "un-conference" was held in which staff indicated the topics and best practices they wanted to discuss, and other staffers volunteered to lead the discussions based on their experiences.

Ms. Michelle Rainey spoke about the K-8 remote learning experience at Da Vinci Connect.  Staff surveyed the students to see how they were experiencing remote learning.  Connect has continued to use HeadRush, the PBL management tool.  There are indications that the existing systems in place at Connect have continued to be effective.  Activities like Exhibition and POLs will be combined and virtual in late May.  Ms. Rainey and Ms. Kaitlin Toon host regular opportunities for families to give feedback, counselors hold weekly wellness sessions, and the regular Parent Educator event will be held, just virtually.

Mr. Marc Pioch of DVX spoke about the strong relationship with college partners UCLA, El Camino College, and Southern New Hampshire University, and the resulting successful transition to remote learning.  Political Science, music lessons, oceanography, and BA and AA courses have all successfully moved online.  Additional supports being provided are Cohort Time, weekly group meetings for coaches and students to check-in and socialize, and Lighthouse, daily open forum opportunities for student academic or personal drop-ins.  DVX also held a Town Hall for faculty and students in March and plan a second after Spring Break.  Mr. Pioch credited coaches for their hard work each week.  He also spoke of virtual counseling supports for students' academic and mental health.

Mr. Pioch went on to say that in the three weeks since the transition, in the College for America program at Southern New Hampshire University, 22 students had completed 33 competencies and 10 goals/college courses had been mastered.  The DVX Achievement Awards on May 20 will be held virtually.

At the beginning of the year, 24 students had earned their AA degree. Thus far, three more have completed their AA, with 12 more expected.
10 students are doing BA work, but hopefully at least six more AA students will transition to the BA program.

Dr. Allegra Johnson, Special Education Director, spoke of the 80% participation rate among IEP students who are logging in regularly to work with the Special Education teachers and service providers.

Mr. Vicente Bravo spoke of Chartwells's work in food services.  Adjustments have been made to reduce waste.  Safety officers have been available to help with food service distribution and working at the 201 campus from 8 to Noon.  CSOs from El Segundo PD have been patrolling.

Sign-in/sign-out processes for all visitors have been instituted for contact tracing purposes, should the need arise.

Building services like furnaces in the Gym have been shut down to save resources.  Other maintenance work has been scheduled and completed.

Further brief discussion ensued.

None.

Mr. Meath inquired about the contract with CSMC and his request to have Legal Counsel review it.  Dr. Wunder shared that Da Vinci Schools' counsel, Procopio, also represents CSMC, and the conflict. 

Dr. Brann apologized to CSMC for the delay.

Item tabled for legal review.

Mr. Meath spoke of his support of the agreement, but wanted to discuss the number of hours, requesting a realistic sense of the number of hours that Ms. Sabrina Ayala would be working.  
Brief discussion ensued.

Entered at 7:27 p.m.

Public Session reconvened at 8:24 p.m.
Dr. Brann reported that no action was taken.