Enrollment:

Enrollment is up from last year and we have been experiencing better word of mouth which is helping with enrollment.

Internal personal experience and student engagement have been really impactful along with our messaging and branding. 

Prospective spartan night was better than ever. 

we've been very intentional about student shadowing as well, making sure to match prospective students with the student and classes that will be the best fit for each shadowing student. 

We should ask what is bringing returning students back to STEM.

Fall Staff Pulse Survey:

Full survey results are available in Board Book.

53.7% would recommend STEM as a place to work, 

47.2% were excited and inspired by STEM's program model

Fall SAC Survey Data:

They felt that their PLC time was a little too intensive and time consuming- we are reevaluating our model for PLCs. We want our staff to have personalized pathways just like our students.

Have you had any push back from teachers? Yes- they feel that they have already done this work in Canvas. Once we talk then through the reasons for doing it, the Replication aspect but also how much better it will be for them, and the fact that we are providing extra time and coaching, the majority feel better about it.  

Does it require a lot of work? Yes, up front it is a lot of work especially the first time. However, our teachers who are on their 2nd year have far less work and they have seen the final outcome is positive. 

If we are getting good content out there from our teachers- It's good for STEM. We do celebrations of learning for our students, can we do that for our teachers? 

AP Diploma is an advanced diploma offered by the College Board designed to Promote College readiness and Critical thinking through 2 courses: AP Seminar and AP Research. Students will earn the diploma by completing these courses and earning scores of 3 or higher on them along with scores of 3 or higher on four additional AP exams of their choice. 

It is a 2 year program. The kids can pick whatever area they want to research and they are taught the skills that will make them more effective at a college level. We will star this next year if we have 20+ kids enroll in AP Research.  The grade level is normally 11th and 12th grade, but in STEM they may allow 9th and 10th grade. 

Is AP Starting to bring anything up about open AI? I have been hearing more about how we are going to get our kids ahead of it.- We have not heard anything out of CollegeBoard, but the teachers are definitely aware of it. 

Students are worried that their grades will not translate to colleges, so they are taking AP and CE courses because it will translate so well for any college they want

We have 400 kids and so many pathways for them to chose. this will teach them how to research then apply that research to their chosen pathway. 

This will probably take away some of the numbers from the other courses, but it should help our students hone in on their passions.

What are the staffing needs around this?- Yes, we will have to hire more teachers if we have another 100 students joining next year. 

This can help us retain some students. 

There will be more examination to see if the BOD has to vote on this in January and if they need to vote on it, that will be done during the January 7th BOD Meeting.

We may need to streamline the policy. What is our role today according to the policy? We need to vote on this in January 

Letter of Intent is due before January 15, 2025. The Application will be due between February 1 and April 1, 2025. The district will decide May 27,2025. 

The fact that we have turned around enrollment is a very good sign. It's hard to get letters of intent if you haven't been authorized to move somewhere. We're open to the location and will discuss with the district, we don't want to send multiple letters of intent for different locations. 

We are targeting 2027 and 2028 as a start date, and with Lehman Academy's new campus still not open, having a targeted start date should be advantageous for building that replication. 

The LOI is more than just a procedural step—it lays the groundwork for a successful application process by fostering transparency, collaboration, and alignment with district goals.

Matt will write a letter of intent with Bullet Points, and we will approve the bullet points- DCSD makes it very hard to submit on LOI without specific detail. 

Comment - I would suggest you ask the district to give you an outline of what is needed. 

The board could approve the key points that we want the board to approve. We could add it to the special meeting on Monday- If it is going to have each of our names on it, I want to make sure that we are completely comfortable approving. How do you feel that we have a special meeting to go through it all and decide what to approve? 

It was determined that the board would vote to approve the request to draft a letter. 

Matt Cartier went through the percentages that were high so far for our budget and provided explanations. All in all, for all expenses we are at 36% for the year which is where we want to be. 

- How were the overages balanced? We were lower in Benefits than we expected. 

There were no public comments. 

Next meeting- Board vote on updated 24/25 Budget

AP Program Approval

Present Student/Parent Handbook Updates and Draft Staff Handbook

CIO Support and Evaluation - Approve Mid-Year Evaluation

STEM Enrollment Strategy and Facilities Updates

We also clarified the policy for course selection and board approval- last revision 2023- we should discuss it in the governance committee. 

Started 7:24pm; all directors present except Darrell Lomelino.

Ended 8:43pm