Ann updates the Board on most recent Friends of VPCS and Executive Committee meeting about fundraising. Ann and Rachel met with Scott Berg, Director of Development at Baystate Health and he mentioned that we need to have a group of people specifically dedicated to this task as well as an annual fundraising campaign. Prosper and the Development Guild are two organizations who will give us some in regards to doing a feasibility study for us. 

We are going to aim for a fundraising campaign that raises $50,000 this year as well as continue development conversations with other experts in the field to help us determine our next steps in preparation for a capital campaign down the road (potentially to buy the high school building). 

We will approve the Annual Report at the July meeting as well as review Rachel's evaluation. 

Please confirm your attendance for the July meeting - Nikki will send an email seeing if we should hold the July meeting remotely. 

Rebecca shares thinking and planning processes behind planning for SY23-24 middle school priorities. 

1.) Strengthen academic achievement

2.) Strengthen response to learning gaps

3.) Strengthen culture of achievement  

She also shares the professional development plan for high school staff as it connects to high school priorities (currently being finalized). 

The committee also discussed a plan to discuss/analyze MCAS data as it is released. 

Ann adds that the school's priorities were developed by members of the School Improvement Team (SIT) which is made up of teachers and staff members - priorities in the past have been developed by leadership but having their input was extremely helpful and impactful. The culmination of this group's work was Amy giving a State of the School address at the end of the year with student testimonials, our priorities, our re-vamped equity/anti-racism statement, etc. It went very well and was very effective at demonstrating that we are going to do what we say we do and connecting both campuses and our overall mission. We will do that same presentation during PD in August. The high school leadership aligned around these middle school priorities and created priorities for the high school. 

Nikki will share the State of the School PowerPoint with Board members via email after the meeting. 

The Board discusses current enrollment. 

Rachel mentioned that we will share more of the results from the Board diagnostic survey sent our by MCPSA in a future meeting. 

Denise would also like to hear from the two new principals (TJ and Kori). 

Revenue Highlights and Changes: Enrollment is 481 students as of January 2023. Releasing Contingency to off set the reduced tuition revenue due to the low enrollment numbers. Grants are being monitored closely and trending as expected with the majority of those allowable expenses being related to staffing costs. 

Expense Changes: Expense details are reviewed at the Finance Committee meetings. 

Change in Net Position: With cash averaging below $1million we are currently experiencing a 30 day window of available cash which is 60 days short of ideally where it would be, so there is strong need for future surpluses to build the available cash back up to a healthy level. There have been recent investments in fixed assets and long term purchases that have been paid for out of cash which has contributed to the reduced days cash is available.

Denise updates the Board that there is still a deficit overall. Rachel and Lynne met to discuss this and there is some additional ECF funding - our financial consultant is doing a reconciliation which could be around $10-15K. We are also looking for additional funding on the technology side - we could then shift some of that expense to FY24 to make it so the remaining expense for this year will be relieved until next year. Those two things could provide approximately $20K of relief. School ends next Tuesday so we are tightening up on any further purchases this year as well. 

Rachel shared the success of the State of the School address earlier in the meeting. Nikki will share the document with the Board after the meeting. 

Rachel informs the committee that Jonathan Swan is still her named successor. We are making some leadership changes: 

Amy will be Chief Academic Officer (similar to current role)

Jonathan will be Chief Operations Officer (new role - we have a new Director of School Supports to take over Jonathan's previous role)

Lynne will be moving back more strictly into finance. 

Lisa recommends a salary adjustment (real promotion) and a press release about Amy and Jonathan's promotions.