W. Ning read the Mission Statement.

S. Dasu gave the Administrative Meeting Review and Zoom Webinar Etiquette and Rules.

There were no members of the community who wished to make a public comment.

A. Pieper gave the Director's Report.

Staff and Students

Staff has been asked for their intent to return. Hiring activities have begun for expected vacancies.

Staff Appreciation Week is next week as is Night of the Arts.

Friday teacher workday will be a staff service project. Twenty staff members will volunteer at the food bank. Following the service project, there will be a staff luncheon.

Upcoming Events

iReady and end of year testing

Boosterthon - will take place in the overflow parking lot due to the paving project (parents will park at the far end).

Grandpeople's Day

Night of the Arts

6th and 8th Grade trips

Field Day - all K-8 at the same time at Freedom Park. Transportation from and to school will be provided by bus.

EOGs/EOCs - families have been told that students cannot miss all of the last 10 consecutive days of school or their enrollment will be dropped due to state law.

Talent Show - students will get to see it live

8th Grade Graduation - will be held indoors at school.

Summer Camps - SA runs a camp for new students and other select students. A Camp Invention is run by an outside group and will focus on STEM. There is information in the lobby.

Positivity Rate has risen from 6.8% to 11.4% from February 26th to April 21st for Mecklenburg county (considered "high" for transmission rate). 90.5% population with at least one dose of vaccination. Overall "Community Level" is considered low risk.

50-60% mask use among students/20-30% mask use among staff.

School Cases - no significant increase in cases since changes to mask policy in February

Recommend removing mask requirement from buses - move to mask recommended.

C. Lewis gave the Expansion Committee update. 

"The Board would like to reiterate that Scholars’ Academy will remain in its current building for the next school year 2022-23. We remain committed to finding an appropriate new location and would like to reengage the expansion committee to assist with the search. Anyone interested in joining the Expansion Committee can email the board email at board@scholarsacademy.org. We will plan to have an initial meeting before the end of the school year, so that we don’t lose the summer months. There are no grand updates to share at this time, and this will be a working committee, so come prepared to pitch in with your local Charlotte knowledge.

Potential contracts will be discussed in the closed session."

C. Lewis gave the Governance Committee Report. 

"The Governance committee met earlier in April, just before heading out for Spring Break.

The Board continues to work through the annual ED Evaluation process. We will be having a second closed session this evening, with only Board members, to discuss the evaluation memo that will be shared with Ms Pieper as her 2021-22 evaluation. No voting will come out of the closed session.

Last month, in my committee update, I mentioned that our third-party HR group would be joining our April Governance meeting to discuss procedures, this did not happen this month.

As Erica will share the policy update, the policy committee is still working through the financial policy recommendations.

Natesha is leading our search for a reasonably-priced vendor for the Board’s document and meeting management. This research is still ongoing.

There are no updates on strategic priorities this month.

Board members will be attending their first Board development training session next week, to learn more about the school’s financials and review the proposed 2022-23 budget. This will appear as a special meeting in the school calendar and will mainly be a closed training session. No decisions / votes will be made during this session. There may be a short open session to provide a first read of the proposed financial policies, if they are ready by then.
 

We are currently accepting applications until May 27th for those interested in joining the Board next year. The nomination form is available on the school website in the Board section. Please don't hesitate to reach out to any Board members, or to Ms Pieper, if you have any questions about being on the Board.
 

Staff contracts and Personnel Matters will be discussed in the closed session."

S. Schroeck gave the Whole Child Committee Update

"The Whole Child committee met the first week of April primarily to discuss the plan for virtual Grandpeople Day. Teachers will be providing links to parents to share with Grandpeople. Grandpeople will attend via Zoom and students will be in school on May 5. The Whole Child May meeting has been moved to 11:15 AM on Thursday, May 5 so that we may provide technical support via a Zoom help desk during the meeting. We will also be working on projects to support the efforts of the Counselors in recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month in May. We will be creating Mental Health Awareness ribbons to be passed out to teachers and discussing other ways we can support the staff."

K. Neal gave the DEI Committee Update. 

The Committee put together a DEI plan earlier this month to outline the values of the DEI committee, what those values mean to the school, and how these values impact school culture. The document will be revised and looked over at the next meeting in May and will be made available to the school community before the end of the year.

A. Pieper stated that a concise statement from the DEI plan will get incorporated into the school’s foundational Mission, Vision, and Values documents.

N. Morrison gave the Educational Excellence Committee Update. 

The Committee is focused on planning to gather information by getting feedback from focus groups made up of parents, alumni, and middle school students to get a holistic view of what the school is doing well and what are the areas of opportunities for the school.

W. Ning gave the Foundation update.

Annual giving Campaign update: $417,759 has been received which is 84.5% to the fundraising goal of $495,000. There is $66,800 outstanding in matched gifts and $54,000 outstanding in pledges. Parent Ambassadors are sending out pledge fulfillment reminders. Based on data from prior years, estimated projected total to be collected this year will be between $500,000 to $511,000.

The Foundation has been working on non-government grants and corporate research programs (grants, partnerships, and sponsorships to assist the school in reaching strategic goals).

In the event that the school needs to launch a capital campaign for expansion financing, Toni Hemming is already drafting a timeline plan that will span several years.

A. Starling gave the Finance Committee Update. 

The committee met to discuss next year's budget projections. The committee wants to propose a bonus for staff members to be voted on by the Board tonight in order to get SA teacher's pay closer to the CMS pay scale. Full-time teachers would get a $1500 bonus. Administrators (excluding the Executive Director) would get a $2000 bonus. Part-time staff would get a prorated amount. A possible smaller add-on bonus for staff who return to SA for the 2022-2023 will be discussed at a later date.

There was a discussion about this year's budget surplus. The budget had a larger-than-usual surplus this year because of revenue coming in higher than projected. The teacher bonuses, if approved, would be paid from that budget surplus. 

E. Womer gave the Policy Committee Update. 

The committee will meet this week to finalize policies. The school's attorney gave feedback and revisions. The plan is to have a revised copy to present to the Board prior to the May 3rd training meeting and answer any questions from the Board at the meeting.

There were no members of the community who wished to make a public comment.

There are no items to vote on from Closed Session.