New Board Members L. Addipah and K. Corrales took the Oath of Office and have been officially sworn in as Board of Directors

Led By: B. Cerruti

B. Cerruti- Expressed her disappointment with receiving an invitation to the dedication of the Multicultural Library to Sherri Nelson with only a two day notice.

No members from the public are present

No members of the public are present

M. Miller shared with the Board the building and maintenance projects happening at all three of our school sites.  She gave a progress report on the land acquisition taking place for the future Waterford Resource Center.  She shared updates and progress on the remodeling and expansion taking place at our East Bay Resource Center in Union City. Finally, she shared the facility maintenance happening at our Central Valley campus. The Board received her report and thanked her for the presentation.

S. Johnson shared her presentation with the board and offered the raw data and big trends that we are seeing as of this time for student assessment. This information will be used to celebrate progress and see where we need to offer greater supports. 

S. Johnson offered an update on our Amira Screening tool used for screening reading for Kindergarten through second grade. The state mandated that we adopt a tool to use to screen all K-2 grade students within 45 days of enrollment starting this year.  The state approved the Amira screening tool but it is having technical difficulties at this time and we are working with Amira to resolve these so that we can meet the statute the state requires.  It is not just our school that has run into these difficulties so we will keep you updated on the situation.

Michael Canney, CEO and Cynthia Harsen, CFO from 9Dot were with us online to share about their services and answer questions.

Our board thanked them for presenting to our staff the previous day and shared how much they appreciated the time they took to answer each question thoroughly.  

J. Levers gave her report to the Board and they received it.  The highlights she shared were the new  virtual college and career center that has been created by our Guidance team.  As part of the APLUS advisory committee that J. Levers and T. Hushaw serve on, they look at the legislative bills being presented in congress and participate in advocating for our school and all charter schools. At this time, the legislative bills that are being watched closely are AB 84 and SB 414. J. Levers thanked our Vendor Relations team and J. Boersma for joining her at the Capitol when she visited to advocate for Charter Schools.

She provided an update on our Resource Center Orientations and shared that a new feature this year was free haircuts, offered by one of our site assistants. The addition was very well received.

Trustee McDonald from ACOE joined us at the CWEB Orientation for the ribbon cutting ceremony on the renovations taking place over there.  Since we will no longer need to have the mobile science lab at CWEB we are going to place it at CW to offer science classes in Waterford.

Finally, on the open positions that are listed, we are moving forward with conducting interviews and filling those positions.

T. Hushaw presented her report to the Board — Projects that are happening at the schools part 1 is painting a tiger on the wall of the multipurpose room at CV. We have met with some local artists, and we are still trying to determine the best artist for the project.  She gave some examples to the Board that they are considering.  We are looking at another artist that is a former student that we are also considering.  Part 2 is a playground that was requested by a student who came to a board meeting and asked for something for our students at CV to play on.  We are looking at games that can be painted onto our cement for the students. The other component of this is asking our students what games they would like to see us paint on the ground.

T. Hushaw noted that we did have a restorative practices training that she will bring us more information on at the next meeting.  They offered a painting that can also be done on the ground that can help students process emotions.

We will be doing more trainings with Family Concern Counseling to provide more training opportunities for our staff on restorative practices.

B. Cerruti stated that she is still not sure what her therapy will look like for the future and once she has more information she will be able to better determine if she is able to remain on the Board. All of the current Board Members added that they would be happy to have her remain if she is able to do so.

The idea of creating a Chief Business Officer (CBO) position at Connecting Waters was discussed. Last year, the possibility of hiring a fractional CFO was considered, but our attorneys advised against it, recommending that the role be filled in-house. After consulting with leadership and advisors, there is strong support for establishing a CBO position, as it would provide valuable internal support for planning, financial oversight, and HR-related matters. This role would also offer additional assistance to both administration and HR staff. The proposal was brought forward for board input.

The Board has determined the next step is to bring to the board a job description and a salary study.

We are looking at a mobile food trailer to accommodate our culinary students in the East Bay.

A trailer would allow us to accommodate entrepreneurial opportunities that could also benefit our Business CTE program and give our culinary students some real time experience.  We could also partner with the church to help feed the homeless. This would provide more families and students with equitable access to the culinary program.

When our students graduate they all get an exit survey.  They do not all fill it out but those that do help us see some valuable data. Please let us know if you would like other things added to the exit survey.

K. Fatima would like to see a survey to our past students to see where they are now.  These could be success stories that we offer to all of our authorizers.

K. Corrales suggested this as a spotlight on the website and our social media sites.

J. Louie-Monzon would like to consider adding some questions in for the 8th grade and up about classes they are interested in next year.

The Board voted 6 of 6 which means it was unanimous to give direction to legal counsel regarding the resolution of a personnel complaint.

And, by a vote of 6 of 6, which means it was unanimous to give direction to the Executive Director regarding the continued assessment of employee compensation matters.

Nothing to report

Board Members B. Cerruti and L. Addipah excused themselves from the Closed Session at 7:14 p.m.