No quorum, could not approve minutes for June, July or August meetings.

Principal Amy Clark shared MCAS accountability data with trustees, walking them through the achievement, growth, progress toward attaining english language proficiency and the additional indicators in the state's new accountability system. The school met 79% of its targets this year, saw another year of strong growth in math and exceeded targets for the lowest performing and EL sub-groups. Areas for improvement include chronic absenteeism, 8th grade science and a stronger focus on writing instruction. Amy shared with trustees about attendance and chronic absenteeism and that the school has already started Saturday school to support kids who are trending toward chronic absenteeism. 

David Kelleher and Nichole Reilly from AAF presented to the Finance Committee this month about the content of the audit report and the process of working with management. They were very complimentary of Lynne and team for being proactive and bringing any issues up to them, there was one voluntary correction to payroll taxes which was handled in an exemplary way. Dale asked about the naming conventions, Enterprise Fund and Component Unit Contributions, and if this was a change. Lynne explained that it is how the auditors report for all charters and no change to what the state has seen in the past. Denise and Lynne explained the MTRS liability The board could not vote to approve the audit report because we did not have a quorum in the room. We will vote to approve next month as audit report due to the state on November 1.

FY20 is going as expected, no surprises with the monthly financials. No trustees had questions.

The governance committee discussed strategies to increase board diversity and aims to fill two vacant board seats with people of color this year.  Aaron talked about the need to increase diversity on the board so that trustees more closely mirror the students we serve and how the governance committee discussed strategies to do this. Aaron asked that trustees please share any nominations with the governance committee. David and Aaron met with Herbie Flores and will follow up to get some recommendations of individuals from the Latinx community.

Rachel shared an update on the high school request which was submitted to DESE in August and referred to the amendment guidelines that she and team will be responding to in the next submission. The board discussed the process to design the high school and program and the desire to use the planning year to do some of this work. Dale encouraged us to be nimble but clear about who we are and what we offer. The trustees want us to focus on post-secondary success and how we prepare someone for college, gainful employment and a successful life. 

Denise and Matt are meeting and discussing the letter that needs to be sent. Letter head is ready, need to finalize the letter and  develop he donation instructions and envelopes to send with it. Rachel can send first round then trustees can send or deliver to their contacts, no need to centralize this process. Email version is needed too.