Jess Monda- Center for Strength

We are in the Final month of the Center for Strength operating under All Health, funded by federal grant.

Action Item: the grant does not cover food costs leaving a need of $750 for food. 

How to donate- Write a check payable to All Health or donate snacks directly to the center. 

Bridge Connections- All STEM Community is encouraged to attend events and programs and stay connected with May 7th staff and students. 

All health will be transferring current counseling cases into the All Health network. Insurance payments will be needed for any future mental health services through All Health. 

Center for Strength Survey (391 responses) highlighted the value of the Center for Strength as place for students to escape the stress of the day and decompress. As a place of refuge, safe spaces create extra eyes and support for struggling students. 

Request for Board on potential ways to help bridge the gap:

1. Work with Center to collaborate on what is working to fulfil the needs of students

2. Call to action: Donation requests

3. Tap into existing resources and partnerships in the community

Matt is meeting with Jess to discuss in more detail.

BOD Questions

Is there an age group of students we should be looking to support especially during transition? Center has had students from grade 6 through college coming in for community and healing. 

What is the cost per month to fund the center? 

An annual budget is about $425,000. However, funding isn't the reason CFS is closing, it's a governing body issue. All Health has decided not to continue.

Why did All Health make the decision to not continue?

The grant was intended to be a temporary program, so they decided not to renew. The need continues and it's a successful program. 

Last time you were here we talked about some of the kids coming in with food insecurity and using the center to get food. Have you seen that get better?

No, that is still happening. 

L. Kovalesky

All school updates-including CMAS, competitions, events and upcoming field trips. MS and HS awards nights will take place in May.

11 students are attending FBLA State and there are 5 finalists. 

There are 3 students going to DECA Nationals in Anaheim later this month. 

We were honored with the John Irwin award and the Governor Distinguished award. (again)

SBL Updates- 

Pilot group is testing out canvas features that allow for more transparency for teachers, student and parents. April 3rd the SBL Parent group will be meeting to provide feedback.

Prof Development focus on scope and sequence of standards based curriculum. Summer Work Opportunities (paid) for teachers to work on curriculum and developing repository of information for all teachers to share. 

M. Cartier

Charter renewal is in the appeal process to finalize the charter contract. There is great news in that the additional requirements/stipulations in the previous charter are not in the renewal. We want to clarify language on expansion. If we don't come to full agreement we have until April 10th (Mediation Day).

On April 23rd the updated contract will be presented to DCSD board for approval vote.

Employment Agreements- Many changes were made to the Employment Agreements, including a new start date of July 16th for our teachers and July 1 for admin. Other changes include a 5-9% pay increase, contract day/hour language was removed, we highlighted Exempt status, and reinforced care for staff. 

STATE OF STEM will occur April 11 at 6:00 PM and April 12th at 8:00 AM. There will be a staff meeting on the April 8th. Draft slides from the The State of STEM presentation was shared with the BOD.   

Marketing Update- the STEM message needs to demonstrate that there is a greater impact than a neighborhood school because we have students traveling from longer distances. This needs to be conveyed in a way that can be digested quickly. We investigated 3 companies and ultimately landed on Momentum and Suprema to work with Nicole and Jeff. 

Consistent observations from staff, Bellwether, and Colorado League of Charters were turned into action items to address. M. Cartier shared some Strategic Decisions to solve these observations. 

Other important upcoming dates:

April 25th - STEM Fest

April 26th - Professional Development Day (no school) 

May 7th - STEM Shares  

May 14th - Board Meeting 

May 20th - Graduation 

May 22nd - Elementary Last Day (half day) 

May 23rd - Secondary Last Day (half day) 

June 2nd - Board Meeting 

June 21st (all day) - Board Retreat

S. Ake

Preliminary Budget for the 2024-25 school year was shared with the BOD. 

May 14th- Updated budget for STEM Board approval, due to DCSD by 

May 31st

The enrollment number is being set at 1375 students but we will also have a 1325 budget if needed. Budget is based on maintaining current staff for next year.

In the fall, there may be a request to STEM Board to utilize reserve cash for Facilities/ Capital Expenditure. Chris is working to assess the building and confirm maintenance/upgrade needs.

BOD Questions

Where did you choose to cut in the lean budget?

Capital expenditure. 

I see that salaries go up? 

These reflect increases that people make year over year, plus the new salary schedules. 

What is a categorical Reserve and why does it go down?

That is a grouping of Capital Construction money and any grants we have such as the Mentor grant, CEEI Grant, Evolve Grant. We don't budget for it because we don't know which grants we are going to get.

Did we let go of something else in order to pay for the marketing firm?

We did scrub the budget but we did not need to let go of something. 

Is this what we will be submitting on the 14th?

We are still negotiating employment agreements, so there might be some changes to the Salaries. We will go through the budget again to highlight changes made. 

The updated draft of the Student/Parent Handbook will be provided to the BOD in May for initial review. Tim Farmer (legal counsel) will be at May meeting to provide guidance and answer questions regarding the handbook. It will need to be finalized before June 30th for Express Check-in. We hope to have the vote completed June 2.

The Employee handbook is due before July 16th. This is still being worked on by staff.

Bellwether survey results will be discussed at the June 21st BOD Meeting. Governance committee is preparing summary and highlights.

The BOT survey will need to be completed within the next 2 months.

There are no new policy updates.

M. Cartier

All departments have gathered a list of dreams. With the current enrollment we can't achieve these dreams right now, but we are heading toward having a greater donation fund utilizing tools we already have.

A new website will be rolled out in the fall and will have information on funding needs and group them into donation categories. 

The main donation categories:

• Academics (includes PTO events), plan to have a Gala event 
• Athletics- Boosters will be kicked off in May, golf tourney planned for end of September 
• Enrichment programs

We also have gathered all the asks that we put forward in one year, to see how often we are asking our parents and community. 

The program will utilize Ask, Thank, Report

E. Quigley

The Board is very dedicated to getting this right. The CIO contract will be different in subsequent years. This topic will be discussed in the Executive Session tonight. The committee will then speak with M. Cartier before meeting with legal to finalize the contract. The goal is to have the new contract ready for Board vote at the May meeting.

R. Lukez

All biographies and photos (if desired) should be submitted by April 19th. This should give enough time for everyone to view the candidates. 

Election will run April 28-May 4.

We need to send out the link for parents to submit their information complete the form.  Requested that Nicole highlight the candidate submissions and board elections in the next newsletter and send out an IC message.

Board Training- June 21st. 

Morning will be training, planned by Carla with support from Gina at BOT and Tim Farmer (legal counsel).

Afternoon reserved for Strategic Planning- Structure will be planned Matt with support from Kelly and Carla. 

We did have someone sign up for public comment- Subject SBL

Executive session lasted 7:52pm - 8:53pm.

Resumes public session at 8:54pm.