Urban Montessori Charter School

Minutes

Board Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday May 22, 2025 at 5:30 PM

Location

4551 Steele Street, Oakland, CA 94619. Ring the front bell or call/text 510-290-4005 for entry. Signage on campus will direct you to the correct room, generally the Head of School's Office.


The public may comment and participate via Zoom if they prefer. The public may also email comments to board@urbanmontessori.org to be shared by the Board's Secretary during the meeting. Please make that intention clear in your email.

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Meeting ID: 825 9285 5160; Passcode 510 842 1181

 

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Meeting ID: 825 9285 5160
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This meeting will be audio recorded. The public can find documents related to this agenda either linked directly on the agenda or under "Documents" after selecting the meeting in BoardOnTrack and prior to viewing the agenda. Downloading the "packet" may not include all of the "Documents" that are still otherwise available to the public via the Meeting on BoardOnTrack.


Members: Lana Butler, Kara Fortuna, Greg Klein, Sarah Morrill, Amy Ng (Chair), Evan Sequoia

Urban Montessori Charter School welcomes your participation at Board meetings. The purpose of a public meeting of the Board of Directors (“Board”) is to conduct the affairs of the organization in public. Your participation assures us of continuing community interest in our school and assists the Board in making the best decisions for our school. To assist you in the ease of speaking/participating in our meetings, guidelines are provided at the bottom of this agenda. All materials for all board and committee meetings, including audio recordings of Regular Board Meetings, are available on our BoardOnTrack public portal and also through the UMCS School Calendar. The board uses Robert's Rules of Order.

 

Each year by April 1, and when first joining or leaving the board, board members complete and file a Form 700. Board members annually train on the CA Brown Act, Conflict of Interest, and the Public Records Act.

Directors Present

A. Ng, E. Sequoia, G. Klein, K. Fortuna, L. Butler, S. Morrill

Directors Absent

None

Directors who arrived after the meeting opened

S. Morrill

Guests Present

D. Bissonnette

I. Opening Items

A.

Call the Meeting to Order

A. Ng called a meeting of the board of directors of Urban Montessori Charter School to order on Thursday May 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM.

B.

Record Attendance

C.

Review of Action/Discussion Items

No changes needed.

D.

Board and Community Appreciations

K. Fortuna appreciated the FAC and admin for the Fun-a-thon. Echoed by L. Butler and D. Bissonnette.

E.

Board Member Comment

No Board member comments on items not on the agenda.

F.

Presentations from the Floor

No public comments on items not on the agenda.

II. Head of School Report

A.

Head of School Report

Fun-a-Thon update

SBAC on going

Field Day on second to last day of school

 

Final stages of MOU with OUSD. Labor sending in requests and it should be on the May 28th OUSD board meeting. OUSD is working on setting up application process for current UMCS students.

 

K. Fortuna asked if registration will be available to non-current UMCS students - yes, including students with no Montessori.

 

A. Ng asked about staffing situation? Daniel doesn't know which staff will go - the longer negotiations go on, the harder it will be to ensure staff is still available. Right now there seems to be the right number of staff for the number of students.

 

A. Ng asked if packing and moving is on track. Hard to tell. OUSD staff is supposed to come to assess needs. Some of UMCS furniture/equipment can go to a OUSD warehouse. Tobie is inventoring Montessori materials and Rosi is inventoring non-Montessori materials. Feels like we're on track.

 

L. Butler asked if any Brookfield families were able to make it to Fun-A-Thon? D. Bissonnette didn't think so.

 

No public comments on this item.

III. Family Advisory Council

A.

Discussion Item - Committee Report

Fun-a-Thon was huge and fun and a great celebration.

 

Also had teacher appreciation on May 7th and luncheon on May 14th. 

 

There isn't really anything coming up. FAC might help with field day.

 

No public comments on this item.

 

IV. Executive & Governance Committee

A.

Discussion Item - Committee Report

When we met, spent time talking about Brookfield update as well as HOS end of year goals. Landed on three goals: 1) MOU finalization; 2) around ensuring families feel like they are getting transition support, such as surveying to make sure they knew where they are going and reaching out if they don't; and 3) ensuring that there is a set of activities where the community feel include, now and going forward.

 

HOS annual review process: we will shift the timeline to accommodate the MOU deadline. Will happen in July.

 

Draft calendar proposes meeting 4 times a year, starting in July. Officer roles can be evaluated in June or July, and board members can chose not to finish their terms given the changes happening. In June we can review calendar and revisit the bylaws. Board members can either reach out to A. Ng before hand or bring to full board next month.

 

No public comments on this item.

V. Other Business

A.

Approve Minutes from April 24, 2025 Regular Meeting

L. Butler made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Meeting on 04-24-25.
K. Fortuna seconded the motion.

No public comments on this item. Approved without objection.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

B.

Action Item - Vote on General Consent Report

E. Sequoia made a motion to approve the General Consent Report.
L. Butler seconded the motion.

No public comments on this item. Approved without objection.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
S. Morrill arrived at 6:09 PM.

C.

Collect New Business items for Future Meetings

Calendar of nonprofit board meetings

nonprofit Bylaws updating

Officers of the board for next fiscal year

VI. Closed Session

A.

Closed Session Items

At 6:12p, Amy shared that the board would go into closed session on Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Head of School. There were no public comments on this item.

VII. Return to Open Session

A.

Report out of any closed session action(s)

Returned to open session at 6:47p; no action was taken.

VIII. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 6:47 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
K. Fortuna
Documents used during the meeting
  • UMCS Record Retention Policy.pdf
  • UMCS April Finance Committee Meeting 05.15.25.pdf