Denise framed the discussion with some background and context. The board has never done a lot of fundraising and has never had a formal development committee. Two years ago, SGP gave us a matching grant to encourage the board to raise money and the board did raise $50k. The purpose was more to raise community support than it was to raise funds. David asked about the need for money, Rachel explained we did not necessarily need to raise money but we should be raising friend and supporters. Rachel shared that in the past we have staffed someone to maintain the development software, donor relations and do the work behind development of individual and corporate donors. Matt suggested an outside consultant who would singularly own this work, Rachel thought that was a good idea if we could find one. This fiscal year, Rachel will work on drafting a description of needs and potentially coupling it with communications and advocacy.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Denise presented our goals and we did a great job accomplishing them this year. We met three out of our four goals. The completion of two risk assessments did not happen as planned because of the pandemic and school being closed. We will resume in the year ahead and  in the year ahead and we will continue the development discussion. Looking forward to FY22, Denise and Lynne are considering a goal around expanding our internal controls to test for things like reputational risk and Denise will share more about this when we discuss our goals. Rachel suggested we include a specific goal around management of grants given the influx of funds.  Denise asked the committee to think about goals for FY22 and we will resume this discussion next month to draft our goals for the year ahead. 

Rachel presented to the finance committee the school's plan to enroll fewer students in the 5th grade next year, reducing our projected enrollment by about 25 kids. Rationale is that space feels tight post-pandemic, won't have to hire two additional teachers, fewer students to remediate/accelerate learning. We would resume our normal projected enrollment in FY23 with a full size 5th and 6th grade.

Meeting ending. Trustees will review monthly financials and reach out to Lynne with any questions.