MCCPS Board of Trustees
Minutes
MCCPS Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday October 25, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Location
17 Lime Street
Marblehead, MA
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Trustees Present
Artie Sullivan, Ian Hunt, Jessica Gelb, Jessica Xiarhos, Nick Santoro, Paul Baker, Peter Cohen, Rodolphe Herve, Tim Wadlow, William Rockwell (remote)
Trustees Absent
None
Guests Present
Andrea Barlow, Carol McEnaney, Jeff Barry, Katie Holt, Katie Sullivan, Stephanie Brandt, Steven Gleason
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
Tim Wadlow called a meeting of the board of trustees of MCCPS Board of Trustees to order on Tuesday Oct 25, 2022 at 7:04 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
Ian Hunt made a motion to approve the minutes from MCCPS Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting on 09-27-22.
Nick Santoro seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| Paul Baker |
Aye
|
| Jessica Gelb |
Aye
|
| William Rockwell |
Aye
|
| Jessica Xiarhos |
Aye
|
| Tim Wadlow |
Aye
|
| Peter Cohen |
Aye
|
| Ian Hunt |
Aye
|
| Artie Sullivan |
Aye
|
| Rodolphe Herve |
Absent
|
| Nick Santoro |
Aye
|
II. Public Comment
A.
Public Comment
- No public comment
III. Opening Comments From Chair
A.
Opening Comments
- Tim Wadlow thanked both the BOT and meeting guests
- Time introduced guests
- Steven Gleason, MCCPS parent
- Katie Holt, MCCPS parent
- Tim highlighted a number of recent events
- Recent Marblehead Weekly News article on MCCPS
- Feedback Tim received after last month's meeting (including pushing the meeting along!)
IV. Board Annual Items
A.
Upcoming Meeting Agenda Items
- Tim highlighted this month's items outside of usual monthly items
- Approve the Head of School Goals
- Adoption of the Annual Audit
- Presentation on HOS Evaluation Process by the Personnel Committee
- Committee Memberships and Vice-Chairs
- Rudi asked Peter to confirm Dean of Students' review of bullying policy, which Peter did
V. HOS Report
A.
Monthly Report
- Upcoming items
- Parent coffee chat
- FTF interviews architects after sending RFP for architect assistance with warehouse expansion
- Exhibition
- Peter said school is looking to improve exhibition
- Note: Peter mentioned exhibition is not going anywhere
- Peter took feedback from community since his coming on as head of school
- This exhibition
- Continuing staggered start (4-5th grade starting first), conducting exhibition later than usual date (right before Thanksgiving)
- Later to accommodate extra time taken during September to build relationships with students (which was done in response to COVID)
- Surveyed faculty about usual versus new (Dec. 7) date, doing two exhibitions instead of three, splitting upper/lower grades' exhibition
- Conversation will be continued during upcoming staff meeting
- Continuing staggered start (4-5th grade starting first), conducting exhibition later than usual date (right before Thanksgiving)
- Peter said school is looking to improve exhibition
- Differences between lower and upper levels
- 7th-8th grade have different recess area, looking at staggered schedule
- Note: Community Meeting would remain common touch point
- 7th-8th grade have different recess area, looking at staggered schedule
- Enrichments
- Currently collecting new ideas for next semester (current enrichments offered through end of calendar year), some of which are coming from students- actively looking for parent input/volunteering
- Ideas from students include "Explosive Science"
- Paul Baker asked whether there are specific core areas/topics that have been identified for potential parent involvement
- Peter said there aren't
- Jess G. proposed sending note to parents explaining enrichment, what is involved in running one, etc.
- Currently collecting new ideas for next semester (current enrichments offered through end of calendar year), some of which are coming from students- actively looking for parent input/volunteering
- Enrollment
- Currently at 224
- Currently trying to hold off on adding 4-5th graders
- Will start accepting applications soon (enrollment opens 11/15), looking for videographer
- Staffing
- A couple leaves upcoming, one subsequent opening has been filled and MCCPS is still looking to fill the other
- Currently examining responsibilities associated with some roles, some of which have caused confusion among community
- Peter mentioned Principal v. Head of School roles as causing confusion, idea of adding Capital Campaign manager
- Peter- there may be need to increase marketing line item in next year's budget to address shrinking class sizes and spread the word about MCCPS and its' unique educational approach
- Rudi noted the difficulty of creating compensation model for this role
- Proposal for Cost of Living Stipend
- This will be addressed in upcoming agenda item
- Recess Cont.
- Ian said he must have missed an email about recess controversy
- Note: it sounds like Ian isn't checking his emails regularly!
- Ian said he must have missed an email about recess controversy
B.
Approve the Head of School Goals
- Goal 1
- Jess X raised question about how Peter sees this goal evolving over coming years given plan to appoint teaching leads, ambiguity about principal role
- Peter- if there is no principal, Peter would take on heavier evaluative workload... teaching leads would play increasingly larger role
- Jess X raised question about how Peter sees this goal evolving over coming years given plan to appoint teaching leads, ambiguity about principal role
Nick Santoro made a motion to Approve Head of School goals for School Year 2022-2023.
Paul Baker seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| Jessica Gelb |
Aye
|
| Jessica Xiarhos |
Aye
|
| Tim Wadlow |
Aye
|
| Ian Hunt |
Aye
|
| Peter Cohen |
Abstain
|
| Paul Baker |
Aye
|
| William Rockwell |
Aye
|
| Artie Sullivan |
Aye
|
| Rodolphe Herve |
Aye
|
| Nick Santoro |
Aye
|
VI. Other Business
A.
Adoption of Annual Financial Audit
- Rudi delivered findings from yearly audit
- Highlights
- MCCPS financial reporting controls and compliance were both found to be without deficiency (this is strongest possible report)
- $613,00 surplus last year
- Proposal raised to direct certain moneys toward special staff compensation bonuses ($750/faculty member)
- Proposal raised to allocate $250k to Board Restricted Fund
- Highlights
B.
Allocation of Dollars to MCCPS Board Restricted Fund & Special Staff Compensation Bonus
Artie Sullivan made a motion to Allocate $250,000 to the MCCPS Board Restricted Fund from a surplus stemming from the budget for the school year ending June 30th, 2022 as recommended by Finance Committee.
Nick Santoro seconded the motion.
- Additional items raised
- Jeff noted that surplus calculation includes only state-allocated dollars, not those raised from private capital campaign(s)
- Tim mentioned impending 2024 mortgage rate adjustment as something to keep an eye out for
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| Artie Sullivan |
Aye
|
| Nick Santoro |
Aye
|
| Peter Cohen |
Aye
|
| Tim Wadlow |
Aye
|
| Paul Baker |
Aye
|
| Rodolphe Herve |
Aye
|
| William Rockwell |
Aye
|
| Jessica Gelb |
Aye
|
| Ian Hunt |
Aye
|
| Jessica Xiarhos |
Aye
|
Paul Baker made a motion to Provide a one time, $750 cost of living stipend to MCCPS staff members in alignment with Dr. Cohen's proposal to be included in the November 15th payroll.
Ian Hunt seconded the motion.
- Peter explained logic behind this proposal
- Staff's handling of COVID pandemic, increased cost of living standard, MCCPS' solid financial footing
- Additional discussion
- Concern about timing- MCCPS isn't yet 4 months into current FY and given that this money will come out of this year's operating budget and oil prices are skyrocketing, does BOT have fiduciary responsibility to wait on allocating this stipend while we ensure MCCPS is able to continue its financial success? Might it make sense to revisit this in a few months?
- Optics question- given that we are allocating $250k to Board restricted fund, would deciding not to provide this stipend cause problems?
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| Tim Wadlow |
Aye
|
| Jessica Xiarhos |
Abstain
|
| Nick Santoro |
Abstain
|
| Paul Baker |
Aye
|
| Rodolphe Herve |
Aye
|
| Peter Cohen |
Aye
|
| Artie Sullivan |
Abstain
|
| Jessica Gelb |
Aye
|
| Ian Hunt |
Aye
|
| William Rockwell |
Aye
|
C.
HOS Evaluation Process Presentation
- Note: this was done before delivery of audit to allow Katie Sullivan, who led the presentation, to head home
- Katie Sullivan delivered presentation on the HOS evaluation process
- Noted HOS evaluation is critical part of BOT's job, BOT members' homework (which was reading through paperwork associated with HOS evaluation)
- Presentation attached with these meeting minutes
- Sections include evaluation timeline, supporting evidence and criterion behind evaluation, performance standards & indicators among others
- Note: Part II of BOT training will happen in March, 2023
- Q&A afterwards
- Ian- asked if Peter will be delivering monthly updates on progress towards goals
- Peter will now be including this in monthly HOS Report now that goals have been approved
- Ian- asked if Peter will be delivering monthly updates on progress towards goals
D.
Committee Memberships
- BOT must vote annually on committee memberships
- BOT agreed to conduct this during next month's BOT meeting... committee chairs will send rosters beforehand
VII. Committee Updates
A.
Governance Committee
- Discussed streamlining the onboarding process for BOT and committee members
- Matt Cronin and Nick are meeting tomorrow to discuss how new members (5 upcoming) will be onboarded
B.
Finance Committee
C.
Personnel Committee
D.
Academic Excellence
- Guest speaker from Lift Learning during last meeting who spoke about their product, which they say is more aligned with MCCPS' project-based learning approach
- Jess X noted that the tool is not cheap but that they will continue doing research on the project given that MCCPS' current attendance tool doesn't communicate well with Schoology, MCCPS' current project-learning software
- Minute Taker's WiFi went down
E.
Development & Communications
- Three new members adding the committee
- Discussed creating one-pager to dispell common myths about Charter Schools and establishing a "parent/care-giver night out" to help re-engage and strengthen the MCCPS parent community
F.
Strategic Plan Committee
- Didn't meet this month
G.
Facilities Task Force
- RFP for architectural involvement with warehouse expansion sent out last week, currently awaiting responses (due 11/2)
VIII. Public Comment
A.
Public Comment
- Katie Holt revisited topic of separate exhibitions for upper and lower grade levels, citing how busy the facility gets during Exhibition
IX. Board Member Comments and Resolutions
A.
Board Member Comments and Resolutions
- Jess X raised question about pre-survey mentioned in HOS Goal #1
- Peter mentioned an email will be sent to faculty soon
- Jess X also, citing Katie's remark about how different grade levels don't do combined presentations, mentioned that doing so would be worth doing as a way of strengthening the community feel at MCCPS
X. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
Paul Baker made a motion to Adjourn October 25th, 2022 meeting of the MCCPS Board of Trustees.
Ian Hunt seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 9:07 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
William Rockwell
Documents used during the meeting
- 2022_09_27_board_meeting_minutes.pdf
- HOS Report to Board of Trustees 10_25_22.pdf
- Head of School Goals - P. Cohen 2022 DRAFT (3) (2).pdf
- Fin.Com. Presentation.pdf
- Draft_-_Marblehead_.pdf
- One Time Cost-of-living Stipend.pdf
- HOS Evaluation TrainingPart 122-23.pptx
- FinCom_notes_Sept_22.pdf
- MCCPS-Sep-2022-Financial_Statements_v1 Saved as PDF.pdf