David Potter read the PVPA mission statement.

Sasha Viands - Board membership candidate.  Introduction & welcome.

Update - returning from long weekend with curriculum day today.  DEI work led by Trevin Bond including all staff.  Beginning work to understand the roots of racism.  Also started to frame all other work through the lens of DEI.  Looking forward to working together with the Board to keep this important work moving forward.

Big shout out to the PTO for raising the funds to provide breakfast and lunch.  $200-$300 was spent buying lunch platters and bagels from Mason's Creations (PVPA student).  Also shout out to Charlotte Powell who left from PVPA on bicycle to Seneca Falls, NY - 300 mile ride to raise awareness of voter rights.

Enrollment at 392.  Application period open now through Oct 17th for wait list - grades 7, 10 & 11.  Hope full to get to 400.  All charter schools are experiencing a decline.  Our recruitment focus is on getting students out into the community - Puerto Rican parade, jazz festival and We Came To Play Tour.  Worked with Slowey McManus with the coverage for Charlotte's trip.

Heading into fall with Octoberfest, grades closing and parent teacher conferences.

Alyson Miller here this week to review MCAS scores that were released this week.

Next meeting will bring Trevin Bond and Kendrick Roundtree to talk about student culture.

Three policies to approve:  Chronic Absenteeism Policy, Student Vehicle Policy and Freedom of Expression Policy.

Chronic Student Absenteeism Policy - been approved as a model policy by MCPSA and DESE. Chronic absenteeism policy requested by DESE during review last year.  Huge indicator in terms of future success for students.

Student Vehicle Policy - student responsibilities around having a vehicle on campus. Collaborative effort by Dean of Students and Facilities Manager - has been reviewed by attorney.  Basic responsibilities along with consequences.  Off campus privileges for seniors - intentionally vague due to limited time for lunch.  

Freedom of Expression Policy - does express that expression is a privilege and not a right and names hate speech.  Attorney's advice was that it needed to be more vague.  

MCAS - 2022 - ELA

8th Grade

• PVPA overall is performing better than the state averages with 47% of students taking the test meeting or exceeding expectations, 48% partially meeting expectations and 5% of students not meeting expectations vs state averages of 42% meeting or exceeding expectations, 40% partially meeting expectations and 18% not meeting expectations.

10th Grade

• PVPA overall is performing better than the state averages with 76% of students taking the test meeting or exceeding expectations and 8% of students not meeting expectations vs state averages of 58% meeting or exceeding expectations and 8% not meeting expectations.  PVPA is slightly lower than state averages in students partially meeting expectations with 21% vs 34% statewide.

MCAS - 2022 - Mathematices

8th Grade

• PVPA has some work to do with increasing scores for 8th grade mathematics with 12% of students taking the test meeting or exceeding expectations, 76% partially meeting expectations and 12% of students not meeting expectations vs state averages of 36% meeting or exceeding expectations, 47% partially meeting expectations and 18% of students not meeting expectations.  It is difficult to take in 7th graders that are coming to PVPA with varied skills in mathematics and only having one year to work with them prior to taking the 8th grade MCAS.

10th Grade

• PVPA grade 10 scores improve as students are done transitioning into PVPA.  The averages compared to the state show improvement with 49% of students taking the test meeting or exceeding expectations, 45% partially meeting expectations and 5% of students not meeting expectations vs state averages of 50% meeting or exceeding expectations, 40% partially meeting expectations and 10% not meeting expectations.  

It is also important to note that PVPA had higher participation rates than the state; 96% of 8th graders taking the MCAS vs the state average of 52% and 97% of 10th graders vs the state average of 53%.

The Finance Committee met on October 4, 2022 with the main topic being the Audited Financial Statements for the year ending June 30, 2022.   Ben Adsit and Frank Seretti from Powers & Sullivan were present and conducted the review.

The first item presented was the disclosure of required communications:

 • Significant Accounting Policies- there were no new policies or changes

 • Use of Estimates- not many estimates and all found to be reasonable

 • Difficulties- there were none- PVPA staff was curious and information was received timely 

 • Audit Adjustments- there were no audit adjustments

 • Disagreement with Management- there were no disagreements 

The Audit was issued with an unmodified opinion with no identified deficiencies - this is the best possible outcome from an audit.

Further highlights form the audit and presentation included:

• No issues found with cash reconciliation, payroll, accounts receivable, credit card transactions, adjusting entries or accounts payable- all selections were documented, complete, accurate, timely and approved. Funds in the bank are fully insured under FDIC.

 • Analysis of the balance sheet and the revenue and expenses proved accurate with no changes to disclose

 • Approximately $3.5 million in available cash

 • Due from Friends of PVPA of approx $192,000- this represents accumulated expenditures paid by PVPA on behalf of the Friends of PVPA since 2014. It was recommended that arrangements for repayment should be made to remove from balance sheet.

 • Capital Assets- total $6.1 million with an addition of approximately $157,000 for FY22.  We generally budget for about $100,000 annually - FY22 was higher due to wrapping up capital projects that have been outstanding since the COVID closure.

 • Accrued Payroll- noted that balance is less than FY21

 • Debt Covenant- bond requires a combined minimum debt service ratio of 1.25:1.0. This includes both PVPA and the Friends of PVPA as blended activity.  The debt ratio was met.

 • Overall combined net position of $6 million. Change in combined net position of approximately $530,000; increase for PVPA $554,000 with a decrease of $24,000 from the Friends of PVPA. Friend's decrease was attributed to depreciation. Increase to PVPA was attributed to tuition being over budget and expenses under budget by $204,000.

 • Tuition is 80% of revenue

 • MTRS Pension- recorded as both income and expense. Information is obtained from the annual audit of the Commonwealth's pension system as required under GASB Statement No. 68. 

Under Other Business the Committee discussed the installation of an acoustical curtain in the theater and fundraising.  The acoustical curtain is the last remaining outstanding capital project since the COVID shut down.  This item was passed back to the Infrastructure Committee to analyze the need and decide how to proceed.  Committee discussed how the goals are set for the annual fundraising plan - Finance Committee is only responsible for determining a reasonable and obtainable goal for the budget.  There is an immediate need for approximately $1.5 million to replace the roof and the HVAC units.

Recruitment timeline and guidelines for new members.

November 1 meeting reminder for people to participate in process for approving new by-laws.

Need to add memberships, especially community members.  No new nominations - three in process but we need to get to 15 members as written in by-laws.  Public notice will go out - change deadline from Oct15th.  Looking to have a cohort of new members.

Looking to standardize the process of bringing on new members.  Board on Track has helped - looking through an equity lens about people's qualifications.  What are potential members bring to our community.  These tools are meant to guide our decision making.

By-laws - updating - not since 2017.  Invite the full Board to come to Nov 1st meeting 8-9pm.  Governance will draft and get preliminary review from DESE then to the full Board for approval.  

Goals that the Committee would like the Board to review.  There are three goals that have an over arching description with action steps.  Committee would like support.  

Goal 1 - recruitment of hiring and retaining diverse staff that represents the student body.  Are we making progress?  does it have integrity?

Goal 2 - improvement of transparency of leadership.  Collaborative decision making.  

Goal 3 - evaluations - ensure that all employees have an evaluation process.  Specific objective of the senior leadership team.   

Survey process will capture alot of perception and people's sense of how the Head of School is doing. This survey will extend out to staff and parents - Committee is working on this process.  Will be brought in its entirety to the next Board meeting.

Timeline - self assessment piece and evaluation pieces come from Brent and the committee.  Brent will work to bring pieces of evidence through the year.  Surveys will be another point of information to gauge his impact on the community.  Committee will analyze the evidence and screen survey data then bring it to the Board.  Ultimately a process for honest feed back with some place on a rubric looking for improvements each year.

Middle School perspective - collaborative day - Bond's presentation was helpful.  Significant challenges with students.  7th grade team met with Brent and Bond to discuss concerns - lack of paras in classrooms has to do with hiring, 70 minutes in class is long and meeting 3 time a week is hard.

High School - is going strong - new hires are reporting good levels of support.  New sign ups for the Union - stewards, reps and reps are a wide array of people who are involved and represent the school.  Hear the middle school - changes about what can work for 12yr olds and 16yr olds.

Sounds productive with open channels of communication.

Off campus lunch proveledge return is good!!  Students have adjusted to new schedule but some concerns about things like the amount of passing time.  Students are excited about clubs and upcoming Octoberfest - community building.  Productions are starting soon.  Alot of new stuff on the horizon.

Negotiations with the UAW Local 2322 on a new contract for a fall 2023 start date will begin in November.  The Board needs a team that is effective and efficient.  Subcommittee of the Board it would need to follow Open Meeting Law.