Conflict statement read by Dave Nagel and no conflicts identified.

No in person or online comments. One submitted comment read by Jeremy Greene from Allie and Danial Yarborough regarding ED hiring and importance of K-8 principal hiring.

Discussed the two parents seats (Jeremy & Pamela) as well as one community seat (Adam) are open. Parent seats application process starts Wednesday, April 17th and will be open for one week. Information will be gathered and then voting opened. All applications will go to the board@enoriveracademy.org email address.

The School Hiring Committee has narrowed down the 20 applications to the top 7 applicants. Zoom interviews will start on Wednesday, April 17th with 3 groups dividing up the interviews. Then they will be narrowed down to the 2-3 that the board will interview.

It was requested to add a question to the interview for salary expectations. In addition, a plan is needed to determine how board members will interview the final candidates.

1) An issue arose at the January SIT meeting that teachers needed to first purchase the annual fund grant items and then get reimbursed. This is an issue where the school is losing money on taxes as well as the teachers being without savings/money until reimbursement is completed. The board asked Adam Haber to look into credit card possibilities.

Adam Haber presented his findings on a line of credit through First Horizon (ERA's bank). It would be a purchase card and not a credit card. The line of credit is no cost and does not cause issues with our bond. The bank recommends opening a line of credit equal to two times our monthly spend, with a minimum of $100k. All training and set up is free. There is a reward program associated, but need more information on it. The reporting and analytics are strong for trends and issues. Our bond company also has a 3rd party line of credit available. 

Next steps: Adam will determine whether to move forward with First Horizon or our bond lender. Then the company will come in and present a demo to our admin. A policy will need to be created and then the line of credit can be established.

2) As discussed in the March board meeting, there is a lump sum of ~$211k available as a one time grant for technology for the school that must be used by June 30th. This grant is called ESSR. Lindsey Sealy and Kristin Martin presented that Chromebooks will be purchased to update our inventory. Approximately 500 for students and 35 for teachers with Chromebooks that were 8+ years old. There is also an ongoing audit from ESSR which happens in two rounds. The first is policies and Acadia took care of this. The second round will be incoming soon and that is ensuring what the money was spent on. Lindsey and Kristin have attended training and are ready for this.

3) The March budget review showed no issues, with the budget being spent as expected for this late into the year. Lindsey and Kristin are working on next year's budget with the support from Acadia's worker tool. We will have sufficient budget for an ED and K-8 principal.

AltHR:

After consulting with our attorney, she advised that we may be out of compliance without a dedicated HR person. So we signed a contract for 10 hours per month with AltHR for us to utilize as a resource as HR related things come up.

Moodys:

We completed the investor service call interview.  Moody’s is the company that provides a rating outlook to potential bond investors.  They look at things like enrollment, days’ cash on hand, debt service coverage, major capital plans, any charter changes or management changes, and any extraordinary expenses or revenue items.  In a few weeks, we will get a report to review regarding our rating status.

Kindergarten Screening and Potty Training Recommendation

After meeting with the Kindergarten teachers, we were able to draft up a recommendation and parent sign off for incoming students about being potty trained.  We will be holding our annual kindergarten screening on the April 29 teacher work day and are looking forward to meeting all of our new bobcats!

TWCS (Teacher Working Conditions Survey)

We reached our 95% goal in both the K-8 and HS (previously ~40% response rate). We should get the data back in May.

Soft Lockdown

Deputy Huffman informed us that there was police activity nearby and instructed us to enter into a soft lockdown (not outside the building). Lasted less than 10 minutes and a good test of our safety procedures.

Testing Season

Testing season is upon us.  We are doing test training, readying computers, and creating testing plans for AP exams, EOGs and EOCs.  We will test the majority of May!

Summer Camps

Summer Camps at ERA: Historically, teachers have been able to hold summer camps at ERA at no cost to them. Teachers and coaches have been able to schedule camps that they are excited about while having the opportunity to put in some extra effort to supplement their salaries. 

The recommendation from the school attorney is to cancel all camps until there is complete school oversight of camps. Any money collected should be returned and then recollected through ERA. Contracts should be drawn up with teachers for summer employment, enrollment paperwork standardized and kept on file by ERA, and a summer camp director be appointed and on staff by ERA.

The decision made was to move forward with no change, but adding liability waivers and facilities contracts with teachers. The incoming ED will make decision on how to move forward with summer camps.