Rachel shared some of the data from the 2018 surveys which outlines the areas for improvement around governance and summarizes progress and potential next steps. Governance committee is  asking committees for the next 2 months to set some goals and share them in September's Board meeting. Trustees should use the summary prepared by governance committee and their own work to set goals for the year ahead. Dale  asked for volunteers to join Ann Erichetti in the work of setting Rachel's goals and Rebecca Sela and Matt Landon will do this. The goal is to have FY21 goals set for the Executive Director and Committees by the end of September. These goals do not need to encompass all of the committee's work but should be aspirational and help you create space for work outside of the committees typical work. 

Denise presented the monthly financials. We have a very solid result for the Fiscal year. The revenue has been adjust by the DESE to a 1/12 budget to which the management team is adapting.
Lynne is getting a Grant to get some  new technology for the school. The budget is tight but the team is working hard to bring in revenue and curb expenses as needed. Rachel expressed she is confident about the FY21 budget despite all the uncertainty around revenue.

We received a $70k capital grant to help pay for the new roof which is a big plus. This allows us to keep more funds in our operating budget and to keep more cash in our reserve. We finished our year with 59 days of cash on hand, just one day shy of our 60 day goal. 

FY20 Audit is in process, we are doing pretty well. The auditor report will be presented to the board in a future meeting for your review, questions and approval. 
 

Rebecca Sela reported on the work of the academic achievement committee at their last meeting where they discussed the school's systems for tiered support, referred to as MTSS (Multi Tiered System of Support). These are the ways in which the school designs supports for all students, those who need a little more intervention and support and those who need intense supports. The trustees discussed how these systems have changed with remote learning and Rachel gave some examples of how the team had to bring these supports into remote learning. With more time to plan, supports will be embedded more in the reopening plan. 

Rebecca provided some background on the guidance released by DESE for Reopening planing, DESE provide some guide lines in July and the team has been using them to drive the creation of three plans, in-person, hybrid and remote. These plans are due to DESE on July 31. According to a recent survey of families, about 1/3 are opting for remote learning. We will continue to survey parents to inform our plan. We must also work with SPS and we are still waiting for transportation to get back to us with the final decision. 

Rachel described the feasibility testing the schools conducted to figure out how many students can fit into the building while following hte health and safety guidelines from DESE. We are providing a bit more distance than the required 3 feet to keep our stakeholders comfortable and safe. 

Our hybrid model groups students into cohorts A and B with a rotating schedule to come into the building. We have new technology to implement the remote learning and have it be more effective, all students will be remote at least three days per week. Some teachers have expressed concerns about  going back to a safe place and the team is listening and responding to their concerns. 

We will ask you to vote on following Springfield schedule to help parents and also transportation.
We will schedule another board meeting in early August to vote for approval of the reopening plan. 


Are we fully prepared regarding the insurance part in case we don't have all the equipment or ask parents to sign a waiver. Lisa Doherty will reach out to Kevin Munsell about our policy to ensure there is no COVID exclusion. Rachel will ask the commissioner about this issue and any relief the state may provide to schools on this front. 

Rachel described some of the health and safety measures that will be in place. All the students and teachers are require to wear a mask at all times. Expansion of the nurse station for isolation of symptomatic students/teachers. We will increasing cleaning during this time and maybe the possibility of touch less sinks and soap if we can make it work within the budget.
 

Rachel explained how aligning with SPS calendar will allow for more planning time and ease soem of the discomfort felt by parents and teachers of starting school so early. Our school year starts one week earlier than SPS district schools and our teachers start 3 weeks before that. We would like to align our start date with SPS this year.  
 

We have a new member of our team who joined us this month in the role of Director of High School Design, Lily Newman. She is very experience educator and school consultant who most recently worked at Holyoke High school. We are excited to have Lily on board to lead the design work. 

We are working with Greeley Commercial Real Estate to draft and distribute an RFP for our high school space. We are hoping it will be out by the end of day tomorrow with proposals being due in late August.