Appreciate everyone joining and all our help this year.  Hoping for 2021 will bring brighter days.

no one from the public in attendance

Reopening Plan Update - Cases in Springfield and Hampden County are still high.  Recently Springfield was a district that commissioner sent a letter to on how to support special needs students.  Not directly to Libertas but to the district.  Need to think about how we're supporting those students. Plan for January: Teachers will be on site, Mid January starting Remote + so having students with high needs on site (need academic support or having absence issues).  Govener's expecting K-12 educators to begin vaccination starting in February.  Hoping to have students back on sight in early spring.  Question about if the vaccine is available doesn't mean everyone will take it. Lots still up in the air, but need to think about what we might do.  Focus on the community messaging and support of community.  Also wait for guidance from DESI, etc. Add this to our topics to stay on top of in the next few months.

Facilities - Started 2nd floor construction. Also asked landlord for buyout price for the building. (Jennison would help pay for it.) Right now negotiating. Still moving forward on construction for the high school, especially the gym space.  1st floor would become middle school - would need to be work some of the spaces.  

Talent - current vacancy for Dean of Student Support (interviewing currently), covering with Modesto and MS Principal.  New Roles - HS Dean of Instruction, Dean of Students and 7 teachers. Interviews in the works, 1 hired. In a good place so far. 

Student Recruitment & Enrollment - no movement in our current numbers. FY22 Recruitment has started. Carla taking lead this year. Applications went live this week, sending mailing campaign this week.  HS Principal meeting with 8th grade families next month to get them excited about staying for HS.  Sent a survey to learn their thoughts for next year. 

Attendance Data - November has been the lowest month. 86% attendance, putting in place strategy plan for the 11% of unexcused absence.  8th grade has the biggest dip - similar to other schools' data. 

Interim Assessment Data - Gave this 2 weeks ago.  Reading at LA is a little higher than network, Math having bigger gaps between LA and network.  Q1 we tend to be lower than the network - especially in math - other quarters we tend to pick up. 

Much of their discussion covered in the Management Report.

Taking notes in the Board on Track system but not saving. Not sure why.

MCAS are still planned to happen.  No changes on this right now. 

Reviewed November Financials - nothing out of ordinary, nothing of concern

 

Received $21,400 to date, $150,000 goal. Solicitation went out 3 weeks ago hoping for a good response before the calendar year.

Looking at 4 legs of our support stool: Individual/private funding, Jennison Foundation, local institution (college/university), local business. Working on the last 2 legs.  If anyone has ideas/connections please bring this forth.  The idea of these last two to have support/affiliation.  Tiffani mentioned some deans at Springfield College that she works closely with that could be a good connection. The University/College connection would be volunteer, networking focused and business affiliation would be more financial, but also potential volunteer, networking, etc.

 

Did not meet this month but will be voting on 3 potential trustees today.

Also focusing on board training in the new year.

Reviewed Executive Director Evaluation Tool - Tiffani was a huge help on this. Focused on 5 areas for Modesto to report on and be evaluated on. Goals and benchmarks to achieve these goals.  Requested Modesto's feedback on the tool as presented: Provides him clarity on what to work toward and excited to use this to better define goals.  Removes lots of the subjectivity and better understanding of the business of schools. There is the ability adjust this if we find this isn't working.  Question about parent engagement benchmark - too high? Felt possible but also would cause rethinking events and connection.  The benchmarks involved Modesto and DESI requirements - they are reach goals not easy achievements - plus consider the boards expectations to keep the school moving forward and improving. A 3rd party reviewed this as well.

Coming up is Modesto's contract. Idea of doing a 2 year contract instead of previous 1 years.  Also considering adjusting dates to be Jan-Dec.  Send thoughts/questions Lauren's way. Thought came form MCATs results arrive in fall, after July contract has been decided. Also, a question about how that would impact the budget since it would span a fiscal year. Wondering if other schools do it with this kind of calendar. Lots to be discussed here in committee and again with the larger board.

Onboarding scheduled for January.  Will join January board meeting. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021