Mr. McCarthy stated that Dr. Audrey Erazo-Trivino has resigned from the board. The board is working on outreach and will appoint a replacement director.

He also noted that Nicole Morrissey will be assisting with board and committee meetings.

Charter School staff: Jennifer Fedele, Christian Adamkiewicz, Grace Bendick, Stephany Gonzalez, Dr. Mary Anne DeVivio, Lynsey Bailey, Nicole Morrissey

Guests: Kamlesh Singh, Chris Monroe

A motion was made by James McCarthy and seconded by Angel Audiffred to accept the agenda as presented. The motion was carried unanimously.

A motion was made by Sr. Patricia Broderick and duly seconded to approve both the minutes of the August 1, 2023 and the August 9, 2023 board meetings. The motion was carried unanimously.

The Principal’s report was presented by Jennifer Fedele.

Principal Jennifer Fedele reported that the school was very excited to have had their first sanctuary training. Hiring is going well, as this is the first time having assistants in classrooms. Community outreach events have included many volunteers. James McCarthy asked about the expected date for sanctuary certification. Ms. Fedele expects 2025 as being officially certified. Mr. McCarthy noted that there is a disconnect as to what was submitted for enrollment and what school has as admissions policy. He proposed reviewing the differences the policy before the SUNY review. The governance committee will work on assessing the differences and reporting it to the board for its review the policy and proposing it to the team for review.

Dr. Mary Anne Devivio presented the instructional plan and benchmarks, as well as the assessment calendar, specifically highlighting iReady. Students exceeded their growth measures in both ELA and math as per the SUNY report and iReady testing in June 2023. She presented a curriculum overview for this year and a pacing guide overview, including the skill/strategy/grammar focuses. She reviewed the lesson plan protocol used by teachers this year, the Summer PD schedule teachers completed, as well as introduced the student pilot program. She reviewed the strategic plan for the year based on feedback from the SUNY report in the spring. The NYS scores are to be released in September or October of this year. Mr. McCarthy asked about iReady vs. NWEA MAP testing and suggested removing the student names from the assessment report. Dr. Devivio explained the state scores and how the cut scores are calculated. 

Dr. Reva Gershen-Lowy submitted and presented the Finance Committee report. A thorough review happened with all corresponding documents submitted. The June monthly financials include year-to-date expenditures and revenues with an update on the total number of enrolled students including special ed, ELL and general education students. An update on revenue was provided as well with an ESSER II budget and ARP budgets. Both budgets will be carried over to FY 24. Overall, the school is in a very good place financially. Moving forward Leslie Cruz will update the board with quarterly reports on all school grants as well as the 5-year budget for the charter school renewal application which is 90% complete. The annual audit will begin August 22, 2023, and will be submitted to CSI in a timely manner on November 1st. This year the school will be participating in a single audit which will begin at the end of August and a draft of the report will be available to the board in October.  

Dr William Ursillo referenced the Academic-Sanctuary Committee's report as submitted. Dr. Ursillo reported that the Committee has been active and is going well. The team is working on creating a strong plan for prospective board members and the best way to recruit and onboard them. The plan is to review other committee plans and support other committees in achieving their goals for the year.

Jim McCarthy reviewed the Governance Committee goals for this year, noting that this year's goals include review of the compensation structure and establishing a compliance calendar for the school.  He reviewed his desires to have a policy in place in order to respect comments and limit the length. Mr. Audiffred asked where this would happen should there be interest in public comment. Mr. McCarthy suggested moving future meetings from the library to the auditorium in order to enable easier access for the public to attend the meetings. Mr. McCarthy asked for consideration to authorize the Governance Committee to act on nonemergency issues to avoid special, full board meetings.

Angel Audiffred presented the Ad Hoc Committee report, stating that there is nothing to report other than the fact that the committee has overseen the timely submission of the renewal application and awaits further action from CSI.

Goals were reviewed in each committee report.

A motion was made by Mr. McCarthy and duly seconded to approve the Public Comment Policy as submitted.  The motion was approved unanimously.

Mr. McCarthy made a motion to authorize the Governance Committee to act in the name of the full board in emergency non-material matters and subsequently report such to the full board. The motion was duly seconded. The motion was approved unanimously.

Mr. McCarthy noted that Empire Charter Consulting would be available to assist board members in preparing for CSI's renewal visit, as there will be a meeting with the board as part of that visit from CSI. 

There was no public comment.

Mr. McCarthy asked if there were any additional questions or comments. He motioned to adjourn the meeting, and it was duly seconded. The motion was passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 5:48 PM.