https://app2.boardontrack.com/org/p4b2x0/minutes/show/34092The minutes were distributed during the meeting and reviewed by the trustees. 

Academic Committee Chair Cecelia Russo shared that the Academic Committee met on May 12th. Currently 65% of students are in person and 30% are remote. The ELA and Math tests were rendered and there was 100% attendance by the students. 

8th grade graduation trip is scheduled for June 3
Graduation ceremony is scheduled for June 19th at St. Joseph's College with a June 26th rain date. 
Kindergarteners have a special ceremony on June 24th. 

The school's website provides an events calendar. 

All the students are doing very well and our outreach with Hunter College is progressing. 
Summer academy is well on its way.. There will be a focus on Math and English. Many of the teachers will participate and partner/collaborate with teachers at One Wonder, Inc. 

Trustee Leticia Theodore-Greene added along with Chair Cecelia Russo that  The school is being held up as a DOE model for inclusion, diversity and emotional health namely for our social emotional activities, diversity of staff, work being done for mental health of students and those with learning differences. There may be of some concern the lack of diversity in the student body, though the school is representative of the demographic of the surrounding community. 

ED Nicholas Tishuk shared that Principal Patience Brown sent a robust summary (newsletter) to the Board. We have 2 social workers for 700 students whereas other schools may have only 1 social worker for the same size school. 

Recently there was an HBCU Summit consisting of a ten member team of HBCU graduates (social workers and leaders) to facilitate a leadership program for our scholars. 

Work is underway to launch a new BSNBCS website. 
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The results from the most recent testing are expected in August/September. This test was in a different format that compressed a 3 day test to a 1 day exam. We will only be able to compare our results to that of the district and state. The test is more for the DOE. We have internal assessments and tests we do. 

Board Chair Victor Rivera commented the we are hoping when our children return in August that they will return with less deficits, given that we remained open for much of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is our guess that less than 10% of the schools did what we did during COVID. Our school opening practices were more in alignment with the Catholic schools. 
 

Finance Committee Chair Tyler McConnell reported that our committee's budget discussion on May 13 was robust and included Pat, Tyler, Tamikka and Lisa-Renee. The blue column on the schedule reflects the austerity budget, The yellow column reflects the actuals. We were in a very good revenue position and our expenses were much lower than expected. Actuals are informing the fiscal year 2021-22.  The number one takeaway is that we are operating flat with a net income of $100,000. There is a slight increase in revenue and a slight increase in expenses. We are enhancing our educational program to close gaps. There are three federal tranches of aid that we could qualify for. ESSER2 Funding is in for our 2021-22 budget and ESSER1Funding is not included (but noted) because of the uncertainty in how much we will be granted. The primary consistent drivers on the revenue side are  per pupil allocation,  per special education pupil allocation (these are the more fixed revenue streams). Compensation, benefits and facilities are the primary drivers on the expense side. Everything flows nicely. 

We are entitled to get multi-year extra (ESSR ARP) funds which will allow us to be reimbursed for approved, learning loss, corona virus related expenses.  

CFO Lisa-Renee Brown added that the cost of being open during COVID required more spending on PPE for the school and school families. We are keeping close track of what we already spent related to COVID.

ED Nicholas Tishuk shared that to keep staff safe, the administration ensured that we had zero cases of community spread in the building. We deployed electrostatic machines, every staff member received a caddy of supplies for their rooms. We had extra cleaning staff, supplies, sinks, temperature monitors, etc.  All windows are open all day. We discontinued the use of the old water fountains. We deployed touchless sinks. We kept the HEPA filters on all devices on 3. 

We were successful in turning this building into a strategic asset for leaning. Nick tips hat to entire staff. There will be a midyear update in January 2022 for the budget. 

The trustees reviewed the proposed policy documents. Chair Victor and CDO Vicky commented on the differences between the two designations. The Board voted to adopt the policies. 

Our board recruitment work continues. We will follow up with current trustee prospects to finalize their interests. 

Development Chair Tamikka Pate distributed a survey to the trustees to get feedback on what our priorities and focus should be for trustee training to building our fundraising and development skills.

She also shared that discussions are underway between her, Nick and a development consultants to brainstorm other ways that we can advance BSNBCS development initiatives to the next level of maturity.

Culture Working Group Chair Leticia Theodore-Greene shared background of genesis of BSNBCS Culture Working Group --- initially the focus was through a social justice lens -- looking at the institution top down from a DEI perspective. The Committee met and discussed what the work will be. and realized that the mandate is to look at school from top down and figure out how we go about doing that. We talked about engaging a consultant to work with our school. It's the culture that we are looking to examine and make improvements. We are seeking opportunities to become a better institution, recognizing that we don't know what we don't know. 

Board Chair Victor shared the importance of assessing the current state of BSNBCS's culture as a starting point so that we can define succinctly what areas we are trying to improve before we engage a consultant. . 

Governance Chair/Secretary Doris shared her experience in conducting cultural assessments and volunteered to join the committee in their work to assess current state. 

LEA's must do public comments. Summer school program spend, window spend, Saturday academy, afterschool program free for all. We are required to have public comment on this. Demonstrate good faith effort to reach out to stakeholders. This is one of three public comment opportunities before July 1. Part of ESSR available funds. Parent meetings through ZOOM.