David Nagel read the conflict of interest and ethics statement- No conflicts brought forward

Public Comments- none were submitted via email

Opened up to Public- none were brought forward in-person

Lindsey went over School Goal presentation- Focused on school goal #2= To Build an Unparalleled Teaching Program (See presentation)

• Wants to be intentional about these goals.
• Needs to be accurate, well thought out in regards to timing.
• Working on STEAM plan and goals: Needs to be intentional, needs teachers on board
• Wants to do what is best for school 
• Want to respect teachers and their autonomy. 
• Next year professional development will be a priority and subject education for teachers
• Proposal to be a model school- ERA's model will be STEAM- want to define program model
  • Need to conduct a STEAM analysis of current practices, and create a committee and guiding coalition to work on STEAM and program model related work.

Discussion around what Lindsey presented- 

Some comments: Dave commented good to set goals, can pivot with goal but good to making strides to get there, Charlotte- some interim representatives and milestones in place would be good, Pamela- need to show teachers are trusted, Margaret- good that we are being intentional. 

Jay Sharpe- Discussion of the audit and findings, presented an overview of that process of the school audit. 

• School is required by state to have an audit
• Went over status of audit- fieldwork done, financial statements completed, audit has been issued, 990 tax return in progress
• Went over role and objectives of audit- plan, test of controls, perform risk (risk-based approach), 
• perform audit procedures to obtain sufficient evidence to render an opinion.

2024 Audit Results

• Scope and timing of the audit on track
• Unmodified opinion (best rank)
• One finding- (deficiency regarding EC teacher licensure-one was not licensed for whole year, this is a common finding in other schools as well)
• Audit adjustments- only one audit adjustment- not significant

Need a communications letter-went over this requirement letter

2024 Financial Highlights- went over those numbers- Overall positive numbers and doing really good job, went over fund balance, cash reserves (healthy place), working capital (operations- very healthy), Functional Expense Breakdown (doing excellent job managing school funds, could be selling point for school because most money is being spent on kids)

Pamela- discussion of Pre-read documents

• BoD Fundraising Committee Proposal (vote on this) -passed
• ERA Fundraising Policies & Procedures
• Board Training Fundraising

See above discussion on fundraising policies

Lindsey Discussion on positives of working on Committees

• Seems like we are already working in a committee structure.
• Would it be helpful to draft a document to create official board committees
• Comments- strong proponent of creating efficiency of committees, harnessing the strength of all our ERA communities, need to think out what committees would be most effective and help strengthen our school. 
• Discussion around pros and cons of formation of committees 
• Next meeting bring together Board expansion and committees

Sent out as a pre-read-see document

• There is a policy, and it mirrors Orange county
• Recommend a criminal history background check policy voted on that requires this.
• Strong support for this, discussion around this. 
• On policy need to be sure to put substitute teachers, volunteers, and any individuals supervising kids or significant access to kids. 
• More work to do on this will come back to this to vote on

We do have Title IX policies- we need to return back to 2020 Title IX policies, federal Title IX policies no longer in place. This is required

• New policies have more protections for groups
• Policy was sent out as pre-read
• Staff has been doing training
• Mrs. Harkey will be the trainer, investigator, board of appeals (will follow g, decision maker 

Adam discussed an Investment Policy Statement: 

• Want to have this policy in place not the details of specific policy. 
• Right now not earning income on our savings. 
• Need a financial group helping to navigate and oversight. 
• Went over statement: purpose, goals, risks tolerance, investment objectives, permissible investments, risk management, governance and oversight
• Need be able to look annually and if need to use money, can change direction if needed, how much do we keep liquid if needed, high yield savings where we could get it if needed. 
• Will adjust policy as discussion dictated and pull a quick voting meeting to get in place asap
• Ameriprise right now looks like the best option

Discussion around this from board members

Mrs. Sealey 

• Went over the budget numbers (see attached budget)
• Overall looking good

Celebrations:

• Evan Myers won the state championship in 1A/2A diving 

Curriculum: 

• The new Computer Science curriculum will allow students to get Adobe Certified in Adobe Digital Design 1
• Changed to honors by the state so we are increasing rigor
• To obtain an Adobe certification 
  • Adobe certifications demonstrate proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud apps and knowledge of digital media. To earn a certification, you must pass an exam, gain hands-on experience, and renew your certification every two years. 
• New class Game Art & Design to help with our STEAM focus 

Testing:

• Seven students took the ACT WorkKeys test in the fall. All 7 earned the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate. Five students earned a Platinum certificate, one earned Gold, and one earned Bronze. 
• All 11th grade students will take the ACT on March 11 at ERA

In-Seat Hours:

• With the weather tomorrow, we will cancel school and will do remote instruction for high school. Also, high school will make up on the teacher work day on March 28. 

Lottery:

• As of 2/18 we have 1073 lottery applications. 
• Closes on Friday
• 101 applications lower than our highest application year (24-25)
• Average amount of applications = 873

Personnel Report

 3 new hires and 1 resignation.