Members of the public were on the call.

M. Dixon read the mission statement.

No members of the community requested to make public comment.

Ari Pieper gave Director's Report regarding after care program.

Goals of the after-care program:

• Quality program
• Trained, reliable staff
• Staff to student ratios at 15:1
• Safe and Secure
• Enriching and fun environment
• Flexibility to provide part-time, full-time, and emergency care
• Easy billing

Concerns with current program:

• Due to increased enrollment in extended care and difficulty maintaining consistent staffing, the program has struggled to maintain a 20:1 ratio of staff to students for four years.
• Billing software has been difficult to manage due to software limitations and lack of dedicated billing staff.
• Program has not consistently provided enrichment activities.
• Despite troubleshooting to fix these issues, no permanent solutions have been found.

Proposed change:

• Outside vendor to do training, staffing, billing of aftercare program.
• Parents can pay through a billing app maintained by the vendor.
• The program will maintain a 13:1 staff to student ratio.
• Program will be run through an independent company based in Charlotte which is already working with charter schools in the area. The company comes highly recommended with excellent references.
• The company will provide an onsite supervisor to manage staff, respond to parent needs, and respond in the case of an emergency. Staff will be trained by the vendor.
• There will be no increase in cost to parents for this service.
• This change would only affect after school program, before care program would continue to be run by Scholars Academy.
• There would be daily homework time, unstructured play, and enrichment options: coding, robotics, martial arts, "DIY" crafts, culinary arts, photography, and sports. Scholars Academy would choose three electives to offer. Parents would be surveyed prior to the program rollout to make the decision which enrichment programs to offer. Students enrolled in the program can choose one or two enrichment programs.
• If voted affirmatively, public notification of the program change would potentially happen on Friday. There would be approximately a six week transition time. The program would officially launch in November.

A. Pieper answered questions from Board members:

• There had been a hope to resolve current issues with billing and staffing. This did not pan out until the school year had begun. This is the reason that this was not proposed before the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
• There were multiple service providers considered, but this program was the only one that was willing to come onsite.
• The extended care program was initially designed to be a net zero operation. With increased enrollment, there has been a slight surplus.This vendor will give the school a percentage of their revenue each month.
• A. Pieper will reach out to the vendor to see if staff could come to the Fall Social to meet parents and students.
• Prior to transition to the new aftercare program, there will be a new short-term staff member in the current program and other full-time staff who could potentially fill in if the program requires staffing.

Smita discussed the purchase of a modular unit for Chinese and Chorus classes. 

No members of the community requested to make a public comment.

S. Liner made a motion to convene in Closed Session pursuant to "Permitted Purposes" under N.C.G.S. §143-318.11: (e) To discuss contract negotiations.
A. Farooqi seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

Non-board members of the community left the call prior to going into closed session.