Enlace Academic Update

• Both school leaders are currently on maternity leave. 
• Enrollment is currently at 422.
  • Attendance was slow on the first week since some families were still on vacation. 
• Enlace  is looking to fill a special needs teacher.
• The staff has been able to rally together and take on different responsibilities during the school leader's leave.
  • The PD sessions were run by teachers and veteran staff. 
  • The feedback from teachers has been positive. 
• The Mind Trust paid for Kevin, Shanae, and Andy to go through a relay graduate program. It was an intensive session in Denver, CO. 
• There were some transportation glitches due to a slow response from the transportation company but are currently working to resolve those issues. 

•  

Kindezi Academic Update

• Enrollment is currently at 371.
  • Only 275 students showed up on the first week of school since some families didn't know school was starting in July.
  • The ops team is working with the IPS district to work on enrollment gaps due to where the students are going to enroll. 
• Staffing is at 100% but due to Title I there is potential to hire a SPED teacher. 
• Retained about 80% of staff from last year, mostly administrators and teachers. 
• Last year there was 134 support calls and at this point there has only been 22. 
• There has been a focus on data driven instruction.
• Increase need with students with mental health challenges and special needs.
  • There has been conversations with Gallahue.
  • 15 staff members were sent to Chicago to do some responsive training. 
• There are a lot of new students who are way behind grade level.  
• The budget for Kindezi was written at 405. Budget discussions are already in place in case the budget target is not met.  

Brian Anderson reported that: 

• Form 9's were submitted for both schools which is a cash basis report. 
• Form 9 for 3-6th grade for the IPS section at Kindezi were submitted as well. 
• The budget vs. actuals are in great shape for both schools and were very close to budget. 
• The OEI meeting went great and financial reports are strong. 
• Audit adjustments will most likely be necessary for some of the financials.
• Brian met with OEI, other innovations school's, SBOA, IPS, and auditors to work through some of the audit questions with innovation schools specifically. There is still some unanswered questions about how the school's are broken out. Some financial adjustment's might be necessary during the audit as a result. 
• IPS is requesting that contributions be accounted for in the financials. 
  • Brian will put a summary together so that it can be put on the board meeting minutes with management comments.
• Going forward the focus will be about expansion and procedure changes. 

Kevin provided a slide presentation to discuss the strategic next steps. This presentation is located under the board agenda documents. 

• Ampersand is scheduled to finish their work by October. The price for this work study is $3,500. 
• Kevin went with Joe Height from Cristo Rey to Forest Manor. Forest Manor is bigger then Enlace and Kindezi combined. The facility has an open concept with no walls. This building is a mile away from Kindezi. 
• Enlace and Kindezi are currently working with Cristo Rey in their work/study program. 
• Enlace could house a K-8th grade facility in the current building. IPS announced that the Newcomer Program is moving to Northwest next school year so that Enlace could expand in the current facility.
  • Dennis was concerned about the cultural effect with having too many students in one building. Kevin will look into ideal numbers put up against the space. 
• The Kindezi building does not have the capacity to house a middle school.
• Facility discussion on the east side will continue with final approval in October.
• Ken recommended looking into running an early learning high quality child care program. Indiana Early Learning would be interested in this. This would be a feeder for Kindergarten. 

Next steps: Kevin to finalize the strategic document for the board meeting in October. 






 

Kevin reports that there is a Title II grant at both schools that is earmarked for development and school improvement. Through the Mind Trust, Evan Rudall will lead an academic team that will do an instructional audit. The team will be in charge of listing the school's strengths and weaknesses, create an action plan and insure rigor. The Mind Trust is paying for the bulk of the audit and both schools would be responsible for $7,500 each. Cody will be working closely with the academic team. This process will take a school year to complete. 

An update on the work that Evan is doing will be included at the board meetings agendas.