Lisa Pope had a public comment seeking to reassess the possibility of Spring Sports for Middle and High School. She notes her concern with the psychological wellbeing of students.
 

• Celebrations:
  • High School Celebrations:
    • In the process of Gov. School applications for nominated students.
    • Several students are already receiving college acceptance letters.
    • Ms. Kimbrough was one of 5 Orange County art teachers to receive the 2020/2021 Arts Educator Professional Development Grant
• COVID Plan:
  • First week of December families will receive information for the Spring Semester. Admin team and Department heads are meeting regularly to discuss options. The current average is 6.2% for the 4 counties ERA pulls from. This is higher than admin would like, but everyone is keeping an open mind and looking at other schools' successes and lessons learned.  If the decision is made to go back there will be a full plan sent out with COVID procedures and town hall meeting opportunities. Teachers are being re-surveyed after the Thanksgiving holiday.
  • Mr. O'Malley asked if another survey would be sent out. Ms. Bair stated that if the decision is made to go back another survey will be sent out so parents could decide once they have all of the information which plan works best for their families. 
  • Mr. Penny asked about the general teacher morale.
  • Ms. Bair shared that at the last pulse check with teachers were about 50/50 for being comfortable going back but that more recent, smaller conversations have revealed that is changing and less are comfortable now
  • Ms. Yagnow asked if each teaching team has at least one teacher that feels comfortable teaching in person. Ms. Bair stated that before the recent rise in COVID cases she did, but that is quickly changing with the increase in cases and with the death of a teacher at a charter school in Fayetteville from this strain of coronavirus 
  • Ms. Gonzalez asked about recent, local data for school sports. Ms. Bair has not seen any data specific to school sports, but there are many outbreaks. 
  • Ms. Barr suggested including the possibility of a vaccine coming out within the survey information to gauge the feelings of safety once a vaccine is available to teachers. 
  • Ms. Bair shared that socially distanced, outdoor activities are coming soon for students. 
• First Virtual tours took place - not as well attended as hoped, but received great feedback from prospective parents. 
• Work with Scribsoft, the new lottery application that was approved. has started. Lottery site demos have begun and will be ready to roll out beginning of January 2021.
• Open enrollment or benefits started. Many employees signed up for the new FSA plan and are appreciative of the newer benefits that were available this year. 
• First quarterly filing for our bond was last Friday and was completed on time.
• Progress reports are coming and next week there are times for teachers to meet with any students that may need extra help or are behind in their work.
• End of class tests are coming: Math I and III, Biology and English. There will be a lot of safety protocols in place. Students will come for a short period of time, take their tests, and leave.
• Rolling out a new platform, Canvas, to the High School in January, later in the Spring/early next Fall for Elementary and Middle. 

• K-8 PATH has been encouraged by administration to wait to reconvene until students are back in building.
• Thanks to Anne Kenyon for the High School PATH breakfast
• Thanks to Lisa Pope, Anne Kenyon, and Tammy Tapper for writing cards to our teachers. 

Ms. Bair stated there are some activities coming for K-8 PATH and admin will loop PATH in.

No update reported

Ms. Anspach and Ms. Bair met and reviewed the budget updates prior to the meeting. 

ERA received a per pupil increase. There was a slight reduction in EC dollars, but also a corresponding decrease in EC enrollment. 

The new per pupil amount is now reflected in the budget.

At this time of the school year ERA is  typically at 63% of the total budget spent, we are currently at 68.4% with a net surplus projected. 

 

There is an open board seat we are accepting applications through November 30th

• The D&I taskforce is in the interview process with multiple consultants. Mr. O'Malley talked through the process detailed in the agenda. Once a short list has been identified the Admin team will be brought in to participate in the interviews. The goal is to have the consultant identified and hired by the end of January 2021. 
• Ms. Anspach brought up a concern about the timeline being too tight with the holidays.
• Ms. Bair thanked Ms. Asnpach for bringing that up as we will need to be flexible to everyone's schedules, including the interviewees. 
• Ms. Yagnow did not want to completely remove a due date, to make sure it remains a high priority.
• Dr. Davis had already brought this up at the last taskforce meeting. The taskforce will be meeting to discuss the timeline and will work closely with the admin team to come up with the dates.
• Ms. Gonzalez stated that the D&I would like a timeline to make sure it isn't something that gets pushed aside but agrees with the need to be flexible.
• Ms. Barr noted that it seems that end of January is a bit ambitious and suggested an end of February timeline to allow for the flexibility while still maintaining a firm date. 

There was a detailed discussion about the public comment policy weighing the pros and cons of responding to public comment. It was determined that the expectation to reply to each public comment after the meeting was inappropriate for the role of the board. 

Ms. Bair and the board all expressed the desire to continue to receive public comments and that they are always appreciated.

The outcome was to have the Communication Liaison draft a message to send to the school community clarifying the public comment policy and the expectation that no responses, oral or otherwise, will be given by the board. In almost all cases, these public comment subjects are already agenda items on the board meeting and being discussed or have been discussed previously with administration and a decision was already made. 



 

The Evaluation team, in conjunction with Ms. Bair, plan to wrap this process up by Winter break. 

• Strategic plan updates will be voted on in December.
  • Request for board members to review the strategic plan updates prior to December meeting so that it can be put to vote.
• The board directory has been updated and is current.
• The board event calendar has been updated as well

The next Board meeting will be December 10th from 5-7pm, remotely held. 

No need for a closed session at this time.