No public in attendance.

Return to in-person learning - currently in week 5 with students on site. Exciting to have staff and students back. Shifted to hybrid April 12 (50% students on site at a time).  May 10 shift to full in person.  About 48% families opted for in person learning for the Spring. This has enabled us to make sure all protocols were met and are on track.  Students doing well coming back into school and the new routines. Looking to permanently change our hours from 7:30 - 3:30 for next year but what we are doing now.  T.S. Asked how many staff have been vaccinated: Cannot legally require staff to be vaccinated but only know of 1-2 who are hesitant to be vaccinated.  Did approve 2 people to remain remote due to health limitations.

High School Planning:

    Talent: already have 89% teachers signed on for next year and 18 hew hires added. Still looking for 14 more members.  New director of talent tried some new proactive methods and it has been very successful.

     Facilities - finalized floor plan layout.  On track for 7/1 occupancy. Furniture orders in process this week for student needs.  Working on the offices/other area furniture next.

Student Recruitment/Enrollment: based on the number of applications and accepted our offers we are all set with the upper grades.  Still early in the process but looking for more students for 6th grade.  Want 90 students and a healthy waitlist.  Modesto monitoring this more closely than last year.  August 1 need to be fully enrolled for 6th grade.  LD asked if other schools are behind in recruitment.  Yes, similar schools are struggling with this as well.

Planning to do MCAS this spring. Planning on having all students on site to take the tests even though this is not required by the state this year.  

LD mentioned that she discussed ED evaluations with Sue Walsh and she mentioned how wonderful the leadership team Modesto has pulled together. 

Meeting on Thursday.

Reviewed March financials.  All on track and look good.  No concerns.

Will review the 2021-22 budget at May meeting.

At 68.2% of our goal (minus Gary Jennison's donations).  Many grants have come in and expecting more possibly. Feel we are in a good place for reaching $150k goal by June 30. Will take more follow up with potential donors though.

Making progress on having 100% board participation.

Will be approaching a local business to partner with us on a potential significant donation.  

Also working on connecting with local colleges to partner with.  Started discussions with some schools and seeing how we can partner. 

Working on a special thank you for donors since we cannot do an event this year.

Also working on getting a stronger database up and running so we can better track donors and future graduates.

Looking for a financial partner to join our committee or even the board.  Reached out to someone at Peoples Bank and they can't but are thinking of someone on their team to join us.  if you know of someone, please share any suggestions.

Board Assessment - annual questionnaire through Board on Track.  Working on finalizing the questions.  Expect to take it in May so we can set goals at our June retreat. 

Will be meeting a few times in May to get ready for the end of year. 

Will have more to report next month.

Excited to use the new evaluation tool this year.

Lots of research done on this including other schools' plans. Took pieces from different schools in to one that made most sense for Libertas. Looking at two succession scenarios for the board: emergency and planned.

Also creating a critical systems back-up plan with the granular details for whoever would have to take over. 

An important thing that strong schools have in place.  Will also be included in the charter renewal application due July 1.

T.S. Asked about how difficult would it be for the new person to pick up the plan and go forward.  The succession plan is more for the board and how to fill the role.  The Critical Systems plan would be more the resources for day to day and contacts, passwords, etc needed.  The board would use the Succession plan to ensure that person selected is capable to handle the role.  Question re-asked: How hard would it be to replace Modesto given all the growth of the school?  Earlier in the schools' life it would have been very difficult.  Now we are in a much stronger place and could be replaced.  

D.B. asked about appointing an acting director to give the board time to find the appropriate person to fill the role into the future.  It is addressed in the document but may want to add something outside the document that is reviewed annually to help the board know who on the current staff could step in.

Decided to wait until May meeting to vote.  Send any questions to Modesto, Lauren and Hector.

Two years ago the board approved $25,000 funding for Modesto to go to graduate school at Lynch.  This was put on hold given all that was going on.  Is now going to graduate school online at Harvard (school leadership) and will be done in the next few weeks.  Greatest benefit has been developing leadership skills instead of doing the work and able to directly implement these new skills right now.  Full cost of the program is $61,000.  

When approved in the past, we asked if his staff was getting professional development reimbursement too.  That is happening now - approved by Modesto.  The teaching team has been reimbursed at a rate based on the program.   It is the board's job to approve for Modesto.  

T.S. asking if the $25k is because of the amount approved in the past or what is an appropriate amount?  Modesto said he weighed what to ask for but decided on this. Should we pick a different amount since this program is more expensive and may have been more valuable?  We may want to put a policy into place as not all education is valued the same.  Do we want to do something different going forward?

D.B. suggested that we approve $30,500 to be 50% of the cost of the program.  This has been a 

Pushed until the May meeting

Approved 2 years ago but not able to implement due to Springfield Public Schools (SPS) because of transportation so was not proposed to DESI.

Now have the agreement with SPS and this is a great balance for time to focus with kids.  Lots of positive feedback from staff, families and students. 

H.Z. as a former parent able to speak to the long days.  They were long for some kids and families.  Good to go along with what other schools are doing.

Tuesday, May 18 5:00