Ms. Moree welcomed a member of the ALH Leadership Team, Jennie Evans, who is observing the Board meeting as part of a graduate class she is taking.  She may be following up with Board Members to conduct 1:1 interviews as a separate part of this same class.

Ms. Cook provided the Board with an overview on the first month of school operations which also represented her first month as school leader.  Despite some hiccups just prior to the opening of the school year, the first month has functioned according to plan, minimum disruption with faculty, and on-the-job learning with our new structure of home-school coordinators who are intended to serve as a way to address school culture issues identified through various surveys of staff and students.  An overview on enrollment was provided (361 students started the school year), 37 ELL students are among the student mix, and the top priority has been to ensure school culture moved from reactive to proactive.  

Ms. Moree presented the Finance Report providing details on the Finance Committee meeting to the Board.  This early in the school year, the financial dashboard does not show any deviations from plan.  She noted that the Finance Committee along with the Business Administrator conducted an in depth review of the financial statements against spend, given some of the unanticipated staff budget elements which occurred over the summer.  After that review, the committee felt the budget remained on plan, and no material modifications needed to be made.  Expenditures made could all be sufficiently accommodated within the adopted school budget.  

Ms. Moree advised that the dashboard showed ALH  fully enrolled for the start of the school year.  While churn is to be expected, the high rate of retention in the upper grades reflected increases from prior years and represents the strong effort of the leadership team to demonstrate the value proposition to our families and students.  Focus on developing a very strong 9th grade pipeline continues to be a focus and the Finance Committee and the Board will expect a more detailed plan from the leadership team in November.