Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School

Minutes

Governance Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Tuesday April 2, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Location

Committee Members Present

EJ Lafleur (remote), LATRINA DENSON (remote), Shino Pichette (remote), Vanessa Ford (remote)

Committee Members Absent

Azizah Yasin

I. Opening Items

A.

Call the Meeting to Order

LATRINA DENSON called a meeting of the Governance Committee of Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School to order on Tuesday Apr 2, 2024 at 7:18 PM.

B.

Read Mission Statement

Latrina read the mission statement. 

C.

Record Attendance

D.

Approve Minutes - December 2023

Shino Pichette made a motion to approve the minutes from Governance Committee October 2023 Meeting on 10-24-23.
Vanessa Ford seconded the motion.

No discussion. 

The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Vanessa Ford
Aye
EJ Lafleur
Aye
Shino Pichette
Aye
LATRINA DENSON
Aye
Azizah Yasin
Absent

E.

Approve Minutes- October 2023

EJ Lafleur made a motion to approve the minutes from Governance Committee Meeting on 12-18-23.
Vanessa Ford seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
LATRINA DENSON
Aye
Shino Pichette
Aye
Azizah Yasin
Absent
EJ Lafleur
Aye
Vanessa Ford
Aye

II. Governance

A.

Membership and Term Status Tracking Document

Discussed Current Terms, prepped doc to share with full board. 

 

Discussed nomination for Kiara Badillo. 

- Reviewed her resume and interview that she did with Latrina and Shino. 

 

Dicussed nomination for Grace Bannasch. 

- Reviewed her resume and interview that she did with Latrina and Shino. 

 

We want to hold off on bringing both nominations of these two great new candidates until we are ready to bring the next folks in the process. There are 3 other people in the nominations pipeline, and we would like to bring all 5 people together to the board for nomination (assuming we choose to nominate these additional 3 people). 

 

We will need to run the nomination process for officers soon. What process do we want to do for this? We need to evaluate who plans to stay on the board and who might be willing to hold positions. Do we want to do a call for nominations for officers? Yes, Latrina will ask the board for officer nominations at the next board meetings. 

EJ Lafleur made a motion to nominate Kiara for the Board's consideration as a trustee at the next board meeting.
LATRINA DENSON seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
EJ Lafleur
Aye
LATRINA DENSON
Aye
Vanessa Ford
Aye
Azizah Yasin
Absent
Shino Pichette
Aye
EJ Lafleur made a motion to nominate Grace Bannasch for consideration by the full board as a trustee.
Vanessa Ford seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Shino Pichette
Aye
EJ Lafleur
Aye
Azizah Yasin
Absent
LATRINA DENSON
Aye
Vanessa Ford
Aye

New Topic - Sessions Latrina attended:

 

Latrina and Brent attended a Succession Planning Session with Board on Track. It is up to the board to make a Succession Plan for what to do if the Head of School were to leave for any reason. The board needs to ensure that the school functions both financially but also in terms of management. Who would fill the Head of School role if Brent were to leave?

 

Latrina and Trevin Bond and Brent went to a Diversity Training through the grant. It encouraged looking at diverse staff. Does the board representation match that of the student body. 

 

Latrina will send some materials to the committee members about Succession Planning. 

B.

Update on Retreat Schedule

Reminder to complete the survey! Latrina will send another email to board members. 

C.

By Laws Update

The subcommittee meeting needs to meet again. We're not yet ready to report out to the Gov Committee. But we are doing a whole revamp as the subcommittee, per DESE's suggestion. 

D.

Approve Minutes - January

Vanessa Ford made a motion to approve the minutes from Governance Committee Meeting on 01-23-24.
EJ Lafleur seconded the motion.

This was actually approved up near the beginning of the meeting. 

 

Note: We're not sure if we need to do every single thing that DESE recommends for the ByLaws, but rather be sure that we are making ByLaws that align with our needs as a board. 

 

The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Azizah Yasin
Absent
Shino Pichette
Aye
Vanessa Ford
Aye
EJ Lafleur
Aye
LATRINA DENSON
Aye

III. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

EJ Lafleur made a motion to adjourn.
Vanessa Ford seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Roll Call
EJ Lafleur
Aye
LATRINA DENSON
Aye
Vanessa Ford
Aye
Azizah Yasin
Absent
Shino Pichette
Aye
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:28 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Shino Pichette