STEM School Highlands Ranch
Minutes
Board of Director's Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday August 20, 2024 at 5:30 PM
Location
8920 Barrons Blvd
P-TECH Mechatronics Room
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
Directors Present
C. Gustafson, D. Lomelino (remote), E. Quigley, G. Shick, G. Wing, I. Kalra, L. Davison, R. Lukez
Directors Absent
K. Reyna
Ex Officio Members Present
M. Cartier
Non Voting Members Present
M. Cartier
Guests Present
A. Westfall, Chris Damour, Cortney Crouch, Kimberly Lander (remote), L. Kovalesky, Laurie Veldhuizen, M. Pritchard (remote), Michelle ? (remote), N. Bostel, Ryan Alsup, Ryan Mehaffey
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Pledge of Allegiance
D.
Reciting of the Mission Statement
II. Approve Meeting Minutes
A.
Approve Minutes
IK abstain
Roll Call | |
---|---|
C. Gustafson |
Aye
|
E. Quigley |
Aye
|
K. Reyna |
Absent
|
G. Shick |
Aye
|
I. Kalra |
Abstain
|
R. Lukez |
Aye
|
L. Davison |
Aye
|
D. Lomelino |
Aye
|
G. Wing |
Aye
|
B.
Approve Minutes
RL abstain
Roll Call | |
---|---|
G. Wing |
Aye
|
K. Reyna |
Absent
|
L. Davison |
Aye
|
G. Shick |
Aye
|
C. Gustafson |
Aye
|
E. Quigley |
Aye
|
D. Lomelino |
Aye
|
R. Lukez |
Abstain
|
I. Kalra |
Aye
|
C.
Approve Minutes
LD abstain
The branding documents were added to the minutes
Roll Call | |
---|---|
D. Lomelino |
Aye
|
C. Gustafson |
Aye
|
L. Davison |
Abstain
|
R. Lukez |
Aye
|
E. Quigley |
Aye
|
G. Wing |
Aye
|
K. Reyna |
Absent
|
I. Kalra |
Aye
|
G. Shick |
Aye
|
III. Annual Information Technology Strategy Presentation and Board Q&A
A.
Mike Pritchard, Director of IT
IV. STEM School Highlands Ranch Updates
A.
Back to School Report
Additional Staff Hired to Support Student Needs
- Behavior Specialist (K-12)- Ken Hurst
- LSS Teacher (ES)- Sheila Badovinac
- LSS Aide (ES)- Aisha Khan
Added Dedicated Space for HS Students for Down Time
- The High School Counseling Office has been converted to a student center.
- Students have a calm, nurturing space to do work, relax, connect with others, and access to our amazing counselors.
- Parents and community members have sent in donations for snacks
Morning Open Gym - Tues/Thurs for Secondary
- Every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:15-7:40.
- The gym is packed and the students are engaging in basketball and interacting.
- Less students on their phones and laptops before the start of their school day.
AI Khanmigo Pilot Program
- 8th Grade and 7th Grade Accelerated ELA classes with Mrs. Dillon
- Only Charter School Participating in the District
- AI powered personal tutor within Khan Academy
- Tutor will assist students with how to solve problems vs providing answers.
Accomplishments
- Started the year fully staffed.
- Increase in student enrollment
Hot Topics
- Cell Phones- We are enforcing this more this year.
- Lightning Dismissal- we want to avoid extended time, new policy went pretty well last week.
- 6th Grade Laptops- we are able to monitor what are on their laptops, increased computer testing for CollegeBoard, next year we will adjust when we release these. We are also looking into laptop insurance.
- Early Release Schedule- starting next Friday. working on a plan for after care options
STEM Enrollment & Engagement-Laurie Veldhuizen
Provided a breakdown of the process, struggles and successes, and how we are stabilizing the process for the current year, future planning and how to move forward
August first-Transition from open enrollment to choice enrollment
1,396 students; 1,403 potential (including Choice applications and Admin Transfers)
V. KOSON Schools
A.
Strategic Plan Discussion
Tonight we are discussing the Experience portion and approving the target of Identity, Experience and Growth.
STEM demonstrated strong school culture and operations on Bellwether’s Readiness to Grow Assessment
Campaign- REDEFINE LIMITS. UNLEASH POTENTIAL.- By exposing students to real-world problems, we ignite a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics through hands-on, collaborative learning that empowers students to become critical thinkers and innovative problem-solvers who do good in the world.
Our focus is on Systems, processes and identity over goals.
Follow Up - Splash Graphic is an abstract element meant to evoke STEM
Optimizing the Student Experience
BOD Q & A
Was there any discussion over industry partnerships?
That will be apate of future events and discussion
WHat areas are the most important for us to focus on when giving you feedback
Look through the initiatives, the 3 goals the executive summary and the greenlighting page
I have a question about hiring an admission/ community relations specialist- I thought that was you, and that you were the face of the school.
When looking at a new community i.e. Sterling Ranch- I would be the face of the school. I would not be the face in the building giving the tour with all the information. I am one of the faces of the school, with LynAnn, Laurie, I am the face of the new community. Someone who knows the high level, and someone who knows the building and the people.
Focus tonight is experience- Net Promoter Score (NPS) over 60 what does that mean- How likely are you to refer- you should have a score of 60 coming out of the surveys
We should keep an eye on student outcomes- this measures student attitudes which is good. -
We are not relying just on student survey data alone- this is just one component of this.
What is your plan for community stakeholding-
In september you will see some of the ways we want to meet with our logistic leads and looking how to engage student in a meaningful way.
I think the struggle might be explaining to parents what this is, and th eimportance of it since we haven't had it done in the past and parents will need to be reintroduced.
How about industry partners-
We are getting a lot of interest from colleges and other STEM Industry people.
VI. Board Committee Updates
A.
Academic Excellence Committee
Ish and Gina co-chairs, LynAnn and Michelle staff support, SAC UIP subcommittee
Board members will make sure to liaison at SAC and DEI
Working on one-pager for September meeting
B.
CIO Support and Evaluation
Erin (chair), Kelly (transition), Linda, Matt
Focus on better processes for CIO evaluation and support
CIO Evaluation must have alignment to the strategic plan and how they are connected.
Next meeting is to be about firming those goals up so that we can have something to bring to the board and discuss.
We also shifted the calendar earlier in the year.
End of year performance meeting, we discussed disconnecting renewing his contract from the performance review so that we could give ourselves time to hash it out. BOD will have an opportunity to vote on this.
C.
Development/Advancement Committee
Greg (chair), Rudy, and Kelly, support from PTO, enrichment, and booster (athletics)
Will make sure public meetings posted according to COML 1/2 would be subcommittee work, then we would have a team of experts engaged in the discussion and driving us forward.
Main areas of focus gala event, golf tournament, growth advisory, marketing feedback
Matt - when I see growth advisory- there is an opportunity in another town and we are thinking about whether or not to start a school down there.
Getting buy-in and voice from our families- This could be the tool to do it. They are the perfect market to tell us whether they understand, believe, etc.
How are we going to communicate this- these are the kind of skills we're looking at. We do have a bit of a communication plan. This is closely related. we need a strategic plan to start the targeted outreach. I would recommend attaching these things to as many existing STEM events as you can.
We will be coming back in October to present to the board
D.
Finance Committee
Darrell (chair), Gina, Matt, Interim CFOs Ryan Mehaffey (budgeting process) and Cortney Crouch (compliance and audit)
Focus on cleaning up financial processes to increase transparency and accountability for Board
Update on Interim CFO strategy and transition, introduce CFO support staff
Courtney Crouch- CFO Golden View Classical Academy
- She is very familiar with Charter schools in Colorado , will be helping us through the audit process - when our new person starts, that person will have working plan
- A more robust accounting software would not go amiss
Ryan Mehaffey - Feast Over Famine
- Fundraising and marketing Strategies- Creating, revising and implementing department budgets. Scaling so that we can replicate and grow.
- Annual Audit status
- Annual Budget and Management Process
Can you help the BOD determine the metrics that we should be looking at month to month?
How is the Audit going?
We will need to have a meeting with the Building Corp with the new CFO to check the box since we have had the major player change.
E.
Governance Committee
Carla (chair), Ish, Matt and LynAnn
- Discussion on finance policy recommendations from finance subcommittee
- Ongoing conversation about policy governance
- Redline version has more changes
- Focus on changes (outlined in clean version) to clarify financial processes. Rules and dollar amounts are not changing, but there was a lot of clarification added. We want to have something that is transparent
- Bid requirement, approval requirement. check approval
- Make sure not overly restrictive to make sure day-to-day operations are smooth
- The changes were added to the agenda- Board is voting on approving these changes next month. Next meeting we only look at these three additions, but I would hesitate to take anything out of the policy until we are ready to update the policy. I think we are looking at a little different timeline to what you are proposing .
- Tabeling until next month.
- Committee One Pagers - provide for September board book
- Present draft Finance Policy and Board Q&A (with support from Finance Committee)
- Board Policies for confirmation in September Meeting (consent agenda)
- Enrollment Policy
- Volunteer Policy
VII. Board of Directors Updates
A.
Chair Update
Propose a working session in January to review operational plan to prep for budget approval in March
BOD to do: headshots 8/27, bio updates, BOT assessments, CDE non-discrimination training
B.
Discuss Proposed Annual Calendar for Board Meetings
BOD calendar updates/propose edits/prework needed, make sure to finalize updates and upload committee one-pagers to BOT
VIII. Public Comment
A.
Public Comment Sign up link
No public comment
IX. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
Moved by RL, second by GS
- Policy_IT-Student Data Privacy_2022.pdf
- Policy_Electronic Device Monitoring_2022.pdf
- Board IT Update 2024.pdf
- Board Meeting Slideshow 24_25.pdf
- STEM Strategic Plan SLIDE BOARD PRESENTATION EXPERIENCE.pdf
- Advancement Committe Structure Graphic.pdf
- 2024.08 Financial Controls Policy Revisions_REDLINE.pdf
- 2024.08 Financial Controls Policy Revisions_CLEAN.pdf
- Policy_Financial Controls_Draft_20240817 - Markup.pdf
Update- Security posture
New Initiatives
New P-Tech Network
New Project Management Software
BOD Q & A
Are there other big capital needs you foresee in the next 24 months?
- Yes, I'm expecting another server expenditure. Hope to have the government fund it
Do we have enough bandwidth for everyone?
- Yes, moving from zayo to comcast we had a reduction in cost and an increase in connection
Wifi- 60K is that for PTECH
- no that's just the school
Are our older kids using hotspots?
- We can check that. Occasionally I get a notification when those get turned on.
Are there any updates we need to make to the STEM policies ?
- there is probably a lot of space we can reduce on that. LK is looking at the beginning of Jan to dive into this with me . There are no changes from me right now.
Have giving the 6th graders computers gone smoothly?
- a few bumps with how we pushed them out, and we are working to keep track of how to make this smoother. I think it will provide more benefit than it does cost.