Charlotte Dungan introduced herself to public. 

David Nagel read the conflict of interest and ethics statement.

No conflicts were brought forward

In-Person

Casey Trull- Commented on the ED selection process.  Concern of the speed of process and recommended to slow process down.  Timeline of survey was too rushed. Want time to give thorough thoughts and feedback. 

Mark Alford- Commented on how morale is good at ERA and that some voices given in January meeting was not the consensus. Morale is good and to listen to our current administration to know where to go next.  

Sandy Gray-Comment on board process for ED hiring and feedback is moving too fast. Teachers are still processing losing Lisa. Need time to get information back to board. Request slow down and hold off on changes to by-laws. 

Reading of Concerns.

Rebecca Gallegly- Jeremy read her comments. Strongly dissent to remove 3 administrators as non-voting board members. Want them to have voice and a separate teacher vote. More clarity on how roles of ED and principle will be funded. 

Kelly Young- Concern concerning the speed of hiring ED process. Concern of not enough EC representation on Hiring committee. STEAM focus but does not want to loose all aspects of learning for students. Finances of new roles. Has felt her voice has been heard and wants that to stay. Continue to listen.

Lauren Webb-Commented on questions as to why by-laws were presented at this time and why are we making these choices now? Would like to see teacher representation on the board and be heard and have a voice on board. Timeline of hiring ED concern of speed and concern of hiring a 3rd party to set salary and contracts. Would like the contracts to be determined by those we work with. Overall happy at ERA. 

3 Candidates for Community Board Seat- Pre-recorded videos given out to board members prior to this meeting. 

Adam Haber

Anna Zirkel

Amanda Bisset

Discussed the 3 candidates and their strengths. 

David Nagel went over 3 components for interim ED coverage chart- discussed and went over. 

3 Components- proposed:

Lisa Bair's Interim Role-Lisa has asked to remove herself for interim ED roles.

Interim two-lead model-moving to contract Lindsay and Kristin for share of ED roles. Kristin K-8 Principal

HR Support

Kristin commented- that she is on-board with this model and can fulfill this role. 

Lindsay commented she feels able to fulfill this interim role. This will help on-board and give new knowledge to new ED. 

Charlotte- Had multiple questions regarding the interim ED role.

Discussion on the HR Support Component of the interim ED coverage and clarifying this issue. 

Defining what we meant, what the lawyer brought up, taking into account public comments from all parties. This is where the HR component came up as a resource to help board navigate these issues and concerns. 

Sabrina commented on her viewpoint of wanting an unbiased viewpoint on teacher compensation. Wanting a professional to come in and give professional information. 

Charlotte- questioned the timing of considering an HR evaluation at this time of transition with new ED. 

Lindsey-proposed doing this as an in-house evaluation. Taking into consideration degrees, years, etc.  There is a public NC state reference to reference for evaluating these topics.

Pamela- downside is financial cost of 3rd party.

Sabrina- $230/hour for 4-5 hours for first service. Multiple models given by HR firm.

Kristin- Is there a list that Kristin and Lindsey can look at and decide if outside assistance is needed? 

Charlotte- teacher compensation package needs to be done with a compensation plan? That is role of ED to develop. 

Dave- second bullet on chart (HR employment practices audit) point for HR support.

Lindsey- confirmed there does need to be a report at the end of the year.  She documents through NCEES

At this point we want to wait on this HR piece. 

Pamela commenting on ED HIring Task Force (EDHTF)

An ED job decription draft (close to final) was created by committee that was sent out recently. 

Welcoming feedback thorough out the week to your representative.

Then will present this at special board meeting next week. February 28th. 

Sabrina summarizing the Board of Directors by-laws not the school as a whole. 

We were told by lawyer that some of our By-laws were out of compliance which is a legal matter. 

Lawyer had some recommendations. 

Some of the preferences (recommendation) versus compliance. - some things were terminology. 

Compliance- for digital options, such as zoom. 

Recommendations- and clarifying terminology of board members. 

Lifting and shifting the recommendations to minimize a lot of changes right now to vote on at the next special meeting. 

Curriculum Night - February 21

We will host a curriculum fair on February 21st from 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm. The Curriculum Fair will help students and families learn more about the various courses offered to make strategic selections during registration for the 24-25 school year. In addition, our counselors and dean of students facilitated grade level assemblies to open up the registration process for next year. 

February 27 - ACT

On Tuesday, February 27 all Juniors will take the ACT at school. All 9th, 10th and 12th grade students will not report to school on that day.  - Students in 9th, 10th, and 12th grades can be working on late or missing assignments, a service learning project, planning a college visit, or exploring a natural curiosity. 

Driver’s Ed will start Feb 26

The spring session of Driver Education will be held February 26th through March 15th. Classes will meet virtually Monday through Friday from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.

College Acceptances Coming In

125 College Acceptances (so far!) including ERA’s first ever Duke acceptance! 

Scholarships are also rolling in and we should have a better idea of school commitments and how much our senior class received in scholarships in the coming weeks and months, but we have a Morehead Cain finalist this year, and have 11 students who have been awarded at least $30,000 in scholarships (many full rides!)

5th and 7th Grade Field Trips

In March, both 5th and 7th grades are taking field trips.  5th grade is riding the Amtrak to Raleigh, visiting a few museums for the day and riding the Amtrak back to Burlington.  The 7th graders are going to YMCA camp near Asheville.  They will be doing team building activities, ropes courses, night hikes and bunking in cabins. 

Admissions Update

Our lottery application window for the 24-25 school year closed on February 16. This year we have had the most applicants ever for K-12 - 1168! This is an increase by about 50 applications from the last highest application year. Roughly 20% of this year’s applications are for kindergarten, 14% are for 6th grade, and 11% are for 9th grade. The first day applications were opened we received 260 alone (25% of those were for Kindergarten). The lottery will be run this Friday, February 23 and all applicants will be notified the same day of their standing.

Contracting Process

• February 16: Interim ED's and Board Treasurer meet with Acadia to onboard and transfer over responsibilities.
• March 11 - 14: Sealy will be completing an in-house salary audit. We are looking to see where our staff fall on the state salary schedule, as well as in comparison with neighboring county salary schedules. 
• March 14: Interim ED's will meet with Board Treasurer, Chair and Vice Chair to provide findings and recommendations for moving forward with a set schedule and a three year plan to get everyone in line with the proposed schedule. 
• March 19: Board Meeting - Board will discuss in closed session about percentage increases for annual raises as well as if they want to move forward with the proposed salary schedule. 
• April 9: First draft of contracts to Board Chair for review and signatures and information to be shared with faculty on the proposed plan for getting on a salary schedule.
• April 26: All contracts will be shared with staff for review and signatures.

Marketing Updates

Our admin team (k-8 and HS) met with Jordan at Apptegy today to get a tutorial on how to update the website, send out push notifications, SMS, calls and emails. He shared with us a 5 week marketing plan specific to ERA and getting out the information about the new website and system. Our admin team will need to meet to begin the marketing roll out plan.

Dave asked if new website will replace BAND app for athletics? Lindsey responded it is capable of doing that but she is not sure if we will replace it. Need to check with AD and coaches, at this point still working on BAND.  But it does have a lot of capabilities. 

Kristin proposed to make April 8th an early dismissal day due to solar eclipse that day. Due to safety concerns. 

Discussion around the proposition. 

Finance committee- met Wednesday with Accadia and requested Audit and Budget- does not have update for this month. Working on it. No new updates. 

Approved almost all annual fund grants- only ones that were not passed were duplicative ones. 

Went to athletics, books, smart tv, cabinets, anatomy. 

Placed pause on this team until incoming ED comes in with input- before revising handbook. 

And to prioritize other needed tasks. 

One thing brought up was there is no school credit card or way for teachers to purchase items without having to buy with personal funds and wait to be reimbursed. Need to discuss a way for teachers to make school purchases without having to use personal funds. What are options. Pros and Cons for credit card for school?

Charlotte has some experience expense management platforms- with an option of virtual cards with specific limitations but might be a good option.