Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter Schools
Minutes
Monthly Board Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday October 19, 2021 at 6:00 PM
Location
The meeting is open to the public.
Trustees Present
Cecelia Russo, Doris Givens, Kevin Nesbitt, Tyler McConnell, Victor Rivera
Trustees Absent
Joseph Sciame, Leticia Theodore-Greene, Tamikka Pate
Ex Officio Members Present
Nicholas Tishuk
Non Voting Members Present
Nicholas Tishuk
Guests Present
Lisa-Renée Brown, Patience Brown, Patricia Bramwell
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
Victor Rivera called a meeting of the board of trustees of Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter Schools to order on Tuesday Oct 19, 2021 at 6:11 PM.
Chair Victor moved the structure of the meeting to begin with the committee reports first.
C.
Review of the minutes
Chair Victor moved the structure of the meeting to begin with the committee reports first. The review of the meeting minutes occurred after the Governance Committee's report.
D.
Vote to approve minutes
Tyler McConnell made a motion to approve the minutes from Monthly Board Meeting on 09-21-21.
Kevin Nesbitt seconded the motion.
Approved minutes with corrections noted, including adding Patricia Bramwell to the attendees list.
II. Academic and Family Life Committee
A.
Committee Update
See the attached committee report for needs. The number of Special Needs students is currently at 152.
BSNBCS website indicates engagement activities. The entire website has been reformatted.
Testing for our students will occur in April and May.
Our Family Engagement school page is now on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. We also have a YouTube account. All board trustees are asked to "follow us".
The social media outlets show wonderful photos of our students portraying "My Black Is Beautiful" and examples of the student's participation in photo journalism.
The committee requests the board's participation in virtual High School Information Meeting.
Additionally, BSNBCS's participation in best practices sharing with "Critical Friends" highlighting our instructional coaching work and professional development was well received. There were 28 people on the call with breakouts.
Work is underway to share best practices with the Unified School District in LA where there is a large population of English Language Learners.
The next call is Tuesday, November 9 at 5PM. All trustees are invited to attend. Contact Chair Cecelia for more information.
III. Finance Committee
A.
Committee Update
The committee met on October 14th. Please refer to the committee report. We are pleased to report a "clean audit" and that our PPP loan has been forgiven.
Our auditors will be meeting in person with us on November 9th at 6PM for our annual public audit meeting.
We are also pleased to report that we negotiated a 2022 benefits package which allows for premiums to remain flat for our employees, as we are in the position to absorb the 3.88% increase. This helps with retention.
ED Nick, communicates these changes to employees through his monthly newsletter.
IV. Governance Committee
A.
Committee update
We have two potential candidates in our trustee recruitment pipeline. Marsha Maxell who comes to us through Avra Rice at the NY Urban League. She's a native of Brooklyn and a SUNY Binghamton and NYU Wagner School graduate. She is experienced in state relations and lobbying. She has served as a trustee on the board of the St. Marks School in Crown Heights and is currently doing work with Cornerstone Baptist Church's economic development arm. She knows all of our elected officials.
Brad Borden, a tax attorney and professor at Brooklyn Law School, is a candidate that we have renewed discussions with since his return to Brooklyn. He is committed to education. His mother was an educator. He resides in Brooklyn. He met with Nick and Doris during the Halloween festivities at BSNBCS and was able to witness our children and their talent. He was quite impressed.
Our BSNBCS annual board assessment is almost complete with only one trustee outstanding.
V. Development
A.
Committee's Update
No updates to report.
VI. New and Old Business
A.
Old Business
The Board's task force needs to put on agenda for next meeting.
Hart Street bid is no longer viable. The property's lien issues delayed things quite a bit. The cap for additional charters was not lifted and the future is sufficiently cloudy, as it relates to the cap being lifted.
Cecelia Russo made a motion to Move into executive session.
Kevin Nesbitt seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Tyler McConnell made a motion to End Executive Session.
Doris Givens seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
The Board discussed personnel matters during Executive Session.
VII. Public Comments
A.
Public Comments
No public comments.
VIII. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Doris Givens
Documents used during the meeting
- October 13, 2021 AFC minutes.pdf
- Fin Comm Call Notes - October 2021.pdf