Butler Academy
Minutes
BA Board Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday August 21, 2024 at 5:30 PM
Location
BA Board Meeting
Wednesday, August 21 · 5:30 – 7:30pm
Time zone: America/New_York
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/bkj-tjmk-par
Or dial: (US) +1 302-364-6380 PIN: 606 675 200#
Trustees Present
C. Robinson, E. Mobley, E. Waters, K. Flaherty, M. Bunnell, S. Wilson
Trustees Absent
D. Buryj, H. Hoilett-Frierson, M. Stellingworth, S. Hill
Guests Present
J. Reyes, V. Reyes
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Approve Minutes
One abstention from C. Robinson
II. President Updates
A.
Introduction to leadership team
B.
DESSA updates
To be discussed at the September board meeting
C.
Summer reading data 2024
Tabled for next board meeting.
III. VP of Operations updates
A.
Enrollment updates
Currently at 95% capacity. As of August, has 73 new scholars and have a 104 scholar waitlist. There have been a small handful of former BA scholars that left and even came back to BA this year. One of the predominant reasons is the school culture.
Reviewed wait lists from Aug 2023 to August 2024 which have been trending up.
All on the waiting list is K-4, There are 19 open seats with zero scholars on the wait list for 5th-8th grade.
Preparing for the likely impact on the high school. Would like to create a unique/desirable high school experience and think of the financial considerations .
Asked to have reports on withdrawal information and the scholar experience committee offered to help with that task.
IV. Governance
A.
Introduction of new board member
Introduced Cian Robinson as the newest board member.
B.
Special Elections
Currently running and there have been two nominees. Voting is open and will close on the 26th.
C.
Accountability Framework Index
Currently in a trial period, will go live to the public in 2025.
Deadlines at the end of the year and committees are encouraged to publish agendas and minutes and email board training certificates to become compliant.
Percentage of certified teachers are increasing year after year.
D.
Board Calendar
E.
Propose creation of Facilities committee
Motion to create a facilities committee was made by C. Robinson, seconded by E. Mobley.
Core members to include C. Robinson, D. Buryj and M. Stellingworth. Plan to urgently start working with the school president to come up with creative ideas on expanding to the high school.
V. Scholar Experience
A.
Annual review of disciplinary data
Data has been provided by the school president and the committee will meet as a whole to present at next month's meeting.
B.
Update on board support of teachers/faculty
Data has been provided by the school president and the committee will meet as a whole to present at next month's meeting.
VI. Finance
A.
Review June and July Financials
Will discuss at the September meeting.
B.
Change in capitalization policy
C. Robinson made a motion to amend the financial policies manual to state that that any individualized item $5,000 or more or any bulk purchase of $25,000 or more to be capitalized per a recommendation of our accounting firm.
Seconded by E. Waters
Motion passed.
VII. Other Business
A.
Calendar change
There are 180 required academic days, but BA has 184 planned days. With the recent inclement weather 2 weeks ago, needed to amend the calendar August 8th and 9th to say ' no school' days.
E. Mobley made a motion to change the academic calendar to change August 8th and 9th to no school days.
S. Wilson seconded the motion.
Motion approved.
Request from the President to ask the Finance committee to work with the accounting firm to create a 3y and 5y financial budget.
Introduced to Ms Lenora Lefew the new VP of Development, her experience, how she shares in the mission of the school and how she hopes to help BA grow through grant writing and networking.