David read it. 

Did some introductions of new student representatives. 

Brent Nielsen Report:

General Current Events updates:

-We are past the quarter point of the year. 

-Grades closed on Oct 27. 

-This weekend, scheduling for parent teacher conferences is starting. 

-Next week students are going to 4 other schools for the "we came to play" tour. All the musical ensembles go play for other schools. We have been trying to visit schools with high Latinx populations because we want to recruit Latinx students to PVPA.  

-Dance showcase is about to open. First time doing a fall show case, usually it's in the spring. There will be 123 students dancing. It's the start of the production season. 

Enrollment:

-We are in the best shape we have been in years. 

-92% ave. daily attendance. It's good, but our goal is 95%.

-DESE is putting an emphasis on attendance this year. 

-We are going to be working hard to support parents on getting students in school. 

-This year and next year are the most important years in terms of data. It would impact our charter renewal. 

DEI - Grant Update:

-Grants haven't been decided yet, so we don't know if we'll get that grant money we applied for (for teacher diversification). No one has been notified, so we are still hopefully that we'll get it. Brent is also hopeful that we will get more time to spend the money since notification will be coming late. 

Friends of PVPA update:

-They have had more meetings in the last month than they've had in the last 5 years! 

-Vanessa Ford, board member, is participating in the Friends of PVPA. 

-They are making new policies.

-They approved funds to put some new HVAC controls in and it was completed. 

-They are able to open bids for another job. 

-They are planning to update their bylaws, and start fundraising! 

-They have 5 new members.

SAP tracking: 

- The annual report from last year is now up on the website. 

SOA: 

-There is budgetary info that needs to be organized, reporting where the money was used. We are a bit behind on that due to how much is going on right now (union contract approval put raises into effect and Marcy had to process those), but also because information was lost during the cyber attack. 

Allison Miller report about MCAS: 

-Shared graphs that are available publicly. 

-Reviewed ELA (English Language Arts) for grade 10, years 2021-2023

-----We are mostly holding steady. 

-----We are performing higher than the state.

-Reviewed Math for last three years. 

-----Some increase in the meeting expectations category, which is great. 

-----The math department was surprised by an increase in the number of students that are not meeting expectations. From 5% last year to 9% this year. These kids will have to retake the MCAS. 

-----We are going to review the Math curriculum to see how it may be working well or not. The algebra 1 curriculum currently has a support block - we're going to review if that is working (if those students are getting the scores they need). Will evaluate if we need to restructure the math curriculum / classes. 

-----We are performing similarly to the statewide data. 

-Bio/Science

-----Our results are fairly similar to statewide results, tho fewer exceeding expectations students. 

Notes:

-Our kids come from all different school before PVPA. 

-Our participation rates for MCAS are very good, and that is something the state looks at. (We did particularly good in the post-covid 2021 year). 

-PVPA is much more than the MCAS, but our charter renewal depends on performing in MCAS. 

-We don't want students to stress about MCAS.

Q: Can we see the breakdown of more details? Teachers get much more detailed in. 

Q: What happens to the students who do not meet expectations? They continue to retake it until they pass. PVPA have always had all students eventually pass. 

-No students will have to retake ELA this year! Yay! 

Neil Hede reports:

The first quarter funding was reviewed in the last meeting. 

The conservative budgeting strategy we have had the past 4 years has been working. We are at 1.8M in reserves at the moment. We are required to have at least 3 months of operations saved and that is included in reserves. 

For SAP, nothing specific that they plan to track. 

-David points out that Goal 2. Ob. 2.5 about systemic growth might apply to the finance committee. 

-Neil asks if there is a fiscal aspect to system growth.

-Marcy notes that the finance committee is thinking through budgeting which is about growth, so the finance committee's work is interconnected with growth and budgeting. 

-The finance committee could make graphs to show growth if that would be helpful. 

-David asks that the finance comm think about if there is a way that they could help "check the box" of this specific SAP item. 

-The finance center worked with the long range infrastructure committee to work on projects at the school that support growth of the school. But would that fall under the long range infrastructure committee or finance committee? 

The Finance Center may have a new member to present to the board president soon! 

Shino Pichette reports about ByLaw Updates:

DESE "strongly recommends" that we not articulate the CEO and CFO as ex officio Board Members in the ByLaws. They say there is an expectation that the Head of School and CFO participate in board activities as part of their role, it should be separate from being a board member. The DESE representative warned against the employees being automatically invited into executive session. 

We need more info: 

-Is DESE saying we're not allowed to list them in our bylaws?

-Is it possible to recognize HOS and CFO in the ByLaws without them being assumed as invited to executive session? 

We invite all board members to come to the next governance committee to help discuss all this! 

Shino Pichette shared notes from the last Governance Committee meeting about SAP Tracking: 

Goal 1: Prioritize PVPA’s mission in every aspect of the school community.
Objective 1.1: Maintain a Director of Arts and a Director of Academics as key leadership
positions.

Goal 2: Improve transparency and increase the use of inclusive, collaborative decision-making.
Objective 2.1: Clearly define leadership positions, roles, and responsibilities in a solidified organizational and leadership structure and share this openly with the greater PVPA community.

Strategic Action Plan that we would like to work on as a governance:

GOAL 4: Improve overall effectiveness of the Board, through consistent communication,
community engagement, and increased Board accountability for promoting, protecting, and
ensuring PVPA’s mission of academic excellence.

It is recommended that we create a timeline and or excel sheet based on the tenure of the board prior to elections.

Revitalize the DEI Committee in collaboration with the Brent, faculty, staff, students. We will research out to see how do we bring committees which no longer exist back.

David Potter Report:

Committee met with Brent about goals. They connected the goals to the SAP. 

Goal 1 will be about a student support structure.

Goal 2 will focus on diversifying the work force. 

Goal 3 will be about transparency.  

Mindi Winter Report:

The committee will meet for the first time in December. They will review all the projects and timelines. 

HVAC is now going through the friends which is great. 

David Cavallin reporting: 

-The Union Contract got approved! David gives a big thank you to the admin who helped processed all the raises etc for teachers. 

-Successful LSU showcase last week! 

-Brent reported out on all the other stuff David was going to mention. 

Fiona (12): 

-Had an amazing sunrise activity. 

-Hope to have a senior trip. 

-Seniors are fundraising. Students want to not just showcase but also sell their art! 

Serena (9) (read by Fiona because Serena left early): 

-They are working on valuing student voices throughout the year. They will use google forms to reach everyone. 

-They will be fundraising. 

-They're excited to settle into 9th grade! 

Eva (10): 

-They are eager for serious performance opportunities. 

-They have a goal to raise $900. 

-They want to do a human chess game (like in Harry Potter). 

-They want to put back together a community garden. 

Cadance Maldonado (11) (Reporting for Danyelle who is not present):

-They are working on fundraising. 

-Their class is very focused and arts oriented. They have lots of ideas about activities. 

David Potter wants each committee to keep the SAP discussion alive in their committees. 

We're at the midpoint of our SAP. 

We might want to report out to the community about how far we are with the SAP. 

The conversation is continuing. 

Vanessa has an idea about a story telling campaign, so we can hear from community stake holders, teachers, students. We want stories that we can share widely. 

PVPA does have a steady instagram presence. So that could be a good place to share things. 

Candace: There are affinity groups for maaaaany different folks. The affinity groups would likely be more than happy to share some stories for a project like this. The board could talk with Trevin Bond to coordinate with the affinity groups. 

Vanessa and David will create a little task force to help this happen. 

Diversity Task Force. Azizah and Latrina may also be interested.