The governance committee reviewed the MCPSA's Board Diagnostic survey results. 9 of our 11 members responded. 

Generally, Board members responded similarly to questions. One area that saw some discrepancies was the consistency with which we review academic data. 

Rachel mentions that we have already begun to address this by putting our Academic Achievement updates at the top of our Board meetings as well as our new academic dashboards which will allow us to show data in a new way moving forward.

Survey analysis by the committee is synthesized below:

Strengths:

1. 9 out of 11 responses (11% is one person)
2. Consensus on most responses 
   1. Consistent willingness to discuss the impact of systemic racism within the school - full consensus (agree or strongly agree)
   2. Governance - compliant with bylaws and effectiveness of meetings 

Opportunities:

1. Recruit new trustees with targeted professional expertise (HR, Legal & Fundraising) 
2. Regular review of student achievement data - consistent access to a data dashboard
3. ED goals and progress monitoring
4. Annual board self-assessment

Discussion/Inquiry:

1.  In the last 12 months, the Board and the school leader have had at least one substantive conversation clarifying the balance between governance and management and who makes what decisions.
   1. 13% I don’t know
   2. 50% Disagree
   3. 25% Agree
   4. 13% Strongly agree 
2. I or another board member has initiated a discussion about whether any school policy or practice may disproportionately impact some students negatively and/or advantage some over others. 
   1. 13% I don’t know
   2. 38% Disagree
   3. 38% Agree
   4. 13% Strongly agree
3. A member of the Board has initiated a discussion about whether any school policy or practice disproportionately impact some students negatively and/or advantage some over others. 
   1. 100% Agree

Rebecca mentions that scale and magnitude matters here. 

Rachel concludes that this survey shows that there is a lot our Board does and does well. 

Most of the opportunities lie with governance committee other than the academic piece with the data dashboards. 

Revenue Highlights and Changes: Enrollment is 477 students as of June 2023. Grants are fully expended. 

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

Change in Net Position: With cash averaging below $500k we are currently experiencing a 15 day window of available cash which is 75 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. We expect to draw on the working line of credit in the first quarter of FY24.

We are ending the year with a balanced budget. This is good news based on how the year has gone previous concerns that we might have a deficit at year end. 

There has been an increase in the request for documents this year - there is a new person that is on the team on AAFCPA's side who does not know as much about Veritas which could be adding to this. 

It is going well overall and we expect to have the audit report reviewed at the September meeting by the finance committee - any Board members can attend this meeting. Denise will then provide highlights from that meeting at the September Board meeting. 

Your packet contains the Seeley Howard quarterly update. 

We are up approximately 3.4% - we are still being conservative. 

There was a good discussion during this meeting about taking more risk. Seeley Howard doesn't want us to have any surprises but the committee engaged in a very productive conversation around this point. 

We are only a year and a half into this investment portfolio and that is a relatively short time in terms of investments. 

No July Meeting.