Kristi wasn't visible, so she will abstain.

Rachel to review Minutes on ERA/Board on Track website to make sure no Minutes are missing and that all minutes are visible to public.

Teacher appreciation week is this week.  We are proud of ERA team and have some fun plans for the fall.

~Current Enrollment: K-8 420 (full) and HS = 360 (9th = 94, 10th = 95, 11th = 93, 12th = 78). Mrs. Hover will open the waitlist to new applicants the week of May 11th.
~Grading policies: NC DPI has created grading policies for K-11. We have shared the information with our teachers:
K-5 :Students will not receive numeric final F1 grades for the 2019-2020 school year. Schools are required to provide comments to parents/families instead of final grades. Principals are allowed to make promotion and retention decisions at their discretion. Schools may store numeric quarter grades for students in grades K-5, but they must not store numeric grades into the F1 store code.
Middle School: Students will receive a PC19 (Pass) or WC19 (Withdraw) based on their class progress until the end of the year; grades will remain harmless as of March 13th. Schools will store these final grades. High school courses taken in middle school will follow the same guidelines as grades 9-11.
High School 9-11: Students enrolled in Semester 2 courses will choose to keep their regular numeric grades or receive a PC19/WC19 for each course. In either case, final grades will be based on class progress until the end of the year; grades will remain harmless as of March 13th. If a student is failing, schools are expected to provide remote learning opportunities that allow students to improve their grades. Schools must ensure that grades received during remote learning do not result in student grade averages decreasing.
~Senate Bill 704: The bill passed yesterday which requires schools to have 5 remote learning days included in their calendar. The Office of Charter Schools will give us guidance on this once they know more. Charters have calendar flexibility so start dates, etc. don’t apply and this may fall into that category. All testing requirements and calendar days/hours have been waived for this year.
~Re-entry in the fall: NC DPI has created a task force to provide schools with guidance on how to proceed with school. The NC Association of Charter Schools has created one as well. We are working on processes for the end of this year, summer initiatives and fall re-entry. These ideas will be shared through the association as guidance for all NC charters.
~Graduation and 8th grade promotion: The Admin team has created plans for both events. Dr. Davis will be sharing the graduation information tomorrow night in a webinar format. The middle school team met last week to go over the format for honoring 8th graders.
~Field Trip Reimbursements: All lists have been given to Acadia. They are cutting the checks and mailing them to families directly.  We are reimbursing 100% of the amount paid even though we didn’t receive a full refund.

Lisa reached out to the school's insurance company to learn what resources we can get from them.  ERA is able to access a group at no charge called "Safe Schools". Teachers will be taking online training such as Bloodborne Pathogens etc.  Also a Safety Taskforce has been formed that will include: Kristin Martin, Lisa Bair, the Athletic Director, a fire fighter from Durham and Hadley from the Insurance company.  The taskforce will perform walkthroughs of the buildings and go above and beyond. Some of the details can't be shared with the public. However, monthly meetings will be held and applicable information will be shared with the BoD. 

Michael mentioned that he met with the fire marshal to make sure we are following his recommendations. The Fire Marshall is also willing to conduct a future Zoom meeting or in-person meeting with the ERA Safety Task Force or even attend a board meeting if needed to educate on a particular fire safety topic. Regarding future Fire Drills and Lockdown drills in the upcoming year which we can publish ahead of time so there is greater clarity for parents:
-School administration will coordinate the future Lockdown drill dates with the Sheriff's office in July
-School administration can also publish a list of future fire drill dates (first drill within first 10 of school and every month thereafter)

Lisa Bair said teachers have requested to end online teaching a few days early on May 15th to give them a chance to work on grading. Directors were in favor of that.

Lisa Bair said we are still waiting on the market to move in the correct direction and to become stable.  A few schools have been well received in the bond market.  The goal is to close by the end of June.  Steve, our builder, has agreed to extend the current contract until beyond June if needed. 
Amy wondered if BoD will need to review again because it has been a while since the review.  Lisa said another review wasn't expected to be necessary. 

Mike mentioned that the survey results were provided to the BoD for review via email and he requested to hear from each Board member.
Sarah - said parents aren't feeling as connected to the board and suggested we start a quarterly board newsletter and add information about each board member so that they can feel more connected.
Brad - K-8 and high school feedback had similar themes - high quality education and two areas of improvement: communicating with ourselves and with families, as well as extra curricular activities and athletics.
Amy - liked receiving the positive comments. Also noted that board communication needs improvement. She was intrigued by how the teacher communication varied from teacher to teacher, and wondered if there are expectations for teacher communication.  The third one that hit the radar screen was the desire for additional extra curricular activities.
Sarah mentioned the need for volunteers to run sports and clubs and would love to see what other schools are our size are offering.
Kristin - the positive feedback was that the academics are strong. Perhaps we could do a better job of communicating to parents and other community members our needs more effectively so that they can share their time.
Travis - Some mentioned a need for better communication with both the parent teacher and parent administration level.  He thinks we could streamline the process to facilitate sharing information.  He noted there were a lot of nice things said about the staff and stated how we are really fortunate to have great employees.
Rachel mentioned that there were no surprises for goals with the survey results. Most of the items mentioned were already topics that the Board has discussed; for example: a bus, staff diversity and student diversity, a track, field play space, field house and auditorium for performances.  Good to have formal feedback to help steer the direction of the school and strategic planning for the future.
Kristi - proposed that we create a new job description of a school communication liaison who could do Board of Directors newsletter, and provide blurbs from each board member.  She and Mike will work towards creating a new job description for the July meeting when we typically appoint those positions.
Mike - thought the results showed teachers were kind and supported students.  Diversity, and cultural literacy are on parents minds.
Amy Davis - She held a meeting with the high school leadership team today.  One of the things that came up was streamlining teacher communication.  What are our universal expectations for teachers so we can have more consistency?  They are also looking at increasing extracurricular activities including National Honors Society, Tri M (Music) Honors Society, and Art Honors Society.
Lisa - She has recently signed up for 2 committees with area charter schools: Communication and Messaging Committee, and Recruitment and Retention of Highly Qualified Staff. It is a great opportunity for us to network with other charter schools. Unfortunately, we are never going to please everyone with respects to communication - especially with the grade ranges served by the school and what parents of different aged children are looking for.  Streamlining is something we are going to be working on.
Next steps the Board will be working on - creation of the Communications Liaison, and further applicable discussions with Future Visions and strategic planning.
 

There was no need for a closed session.