David Nagel read the conflict of interest and ethics statement:

No conflicts were brought forward.

No Public comments were brought forward in writing to Jeremy.

No Public comments were brought forward in person.

No Public comments were brought forward on-line. 

Pamela Norcross- Update from ED Hiring Task Force

17 applications in review currently.

Spreadsheet of criteria of evaluation has been developed. 

Next steps will be narrowing down of candidates by committee with rubric they have developed.  

After April 5th next step will be a zoom/phone interview of the 6-8 top candidates.

Continue to narrow down to 2-3 candidates for an interview day. 

Lots of positive work going on to go through applications and process. 

Sabrina- discussion on by-laws

Finalized version 5 of by-laws distributed to board members prior to meeting.  

Lawyer still strongly suggests to not go with 2/3rd majority for quorum. 

Only secretary needs to sign the new by-laws. 

Scan that with approved minutes from March and signed by-laws and they will go into effect immediately. 

If further changes are needed or want to revisit future topics can revisit with new ED and board in future. 

We will now be legally compliant, especially concerning digital updates. 

Financial Update:

Overall, we are looking good. Kristin, Lindsey, and Sabrina reviewed the February financial report from Acadia and there are some places that we have overbudgeted and some where we have underbudgeted, but it will balance out and if we finish out the school year with no surprise large ticket items we should have about $300K to roll over.

Examples of underbudgeting:

·  Workshop Expenses (about 94% of budget remaining ~ $50,000)

o Not likely going to spend this year as it's so late, but Kristin & Lindsey are coming up with a plan for next school year, starting with a needs analysis survey to send out to staff this week. 

·  Facilities (about 66% of budget remaining - ~ $100,000 for improvement)

o Kristin and Lindsey are also working on a plan for this, such as scheduling a meeting with our security person to discuss key fobs, camera doorbell placement, and possible overhaul of camera system, as well as updating a few things that are broken, like doors etc.

·  Cap Equipment and Purchases (about 91% of budget remaining ~ $50,000 for instructional technology)

·  ESSR III Funds (about 74% remaining ~$211,000)

o This is federal money that we must spend before June, and we won't get this again, it is very specific what we can purchase using this money, but it includes technology, so Kristin and Lindsey are looking into what exactly the wording is of what we can spend this on and will create a plan once we know that!)

Also of note, the internal staff salary audit was completed and we will discuss possible recommendations in closed session as well as preparing the discussion around contracts. This also includes substitute teacher pay increase proposal presented to us by Morgana.

Comments:

Dave: really good that teachers have been reached out too as developing budget. Good practice to have a plan for where the funds are going and the needs. As a plan of what to do with ESSR is there a mechanism to share that with treasurer or board? 

Sabrina responded it is board's role to approve the budget only and not oversee how funds are spent. 

Kristin and Lindsay are fine with sharing that plan of how they want to spend funds. 

Discussion on the balance between being too rigid with oversight but needing some accountability and how to best meet in the middle of those two. All members made comments on this subject. 

Principal Update for Board of Directors

March 19, 2024

Severe Weather Awareness - ERA did Tornado Drills at both the K-8 and High School on Monday, March 18.

Spelling Bee - The 3rd-5th grade spelling bee was a great success!  Lise N. is ERA’s winner and will have the opportunity to represent her peers at the Regional Bee at Duke.

The Arts - On Wednesday, March 20, Ms. Amy is holding a K-8 Art show from 4-6pm.  At 6pm, the middle school performing arts students proudly present The Little Mermaid.

Registration - All rising 10th - 12th grade students have registered for classes for next school year. Current ERA 8th grade students began registering for HS classes today and have until the end of the week to complete. From this data, we will be able to build a first draft of the master schedule for 24-25. 

System for Award Management (SAM) - this allows our school to be eligible for federal awards. We renewed this today.

High School had their Fire and Ice dance last weekend. The student organization raised almost $1200 to donate to the ALS foundation.

Teacher Working Conditions Survey: We are at 80% completion rate for 9-12 and 66% for K-8, and staff has until March 31 to complete the survey. (Last year had a 41% completion rate)

Sabrina asked for band and athletics to give update for how much they raised in recent fundraiser?

Fundraiser for Fire and Ice Dance- how is it handled- does not pass through books it goes through clubs and monies raised donated directly to ALS foundation.