The Neighborhood Charter Network
Minutes
NCN Board Meeting
Date and Time
Monday February 26, 2018 at 9:00 AM
Location
Enlace Academy, 3725 N. Kiel Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46224
The Neighborhood Charter Network is hosting a board meeting on the third Thursday of each month.
Directors Present
D. Casey, P. Castaneda, R. Zavaleta, T. Baker
Directors Absent
K. Britt, L. Turner, M. Dezelan
Ex Officio Members Present
K. Kubacki
Non Voting Members Present
K. Kubacki
Guests Present
B. Anderson, C. Whitesell, D. Castellanos, L. Kuruzar
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
D. Casey called a meeting of the board of directors of The Neighborhood Charter Network to order on Monday Feb 26, 2018 at 9:03 AM.
Dennis Casey recommended that the board meetings be moved to 6 times a year to increase board participation. He will be sending a memo out to the board. NCN will send out the new proposed calendar meeting invites and cancellations.
C.
Approve Minutes
T. Baker made a motion to approve minutes from the January 16, 2018 on 01-16-18 January 16, 2018 on 01-16-18.
D. Casey seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Kindezi Academic Update
A.
Kindezi Academy Update
- Kevin reported today is the first day of state testing at Kindezi.
- The lower grades are doing better and the upper grades are struggling to move up.
- Data driven instruction has become the focus to increase the testing scores.
- Kindezi has a constant changing and growing enrollment.
- This is due to many habitat community factors such as evictions and expulsions.
- Dennis asked about looking into transitioning classrooms.
- There needs to be communication between the administration and community partners to address this transient community.
III. Enlace Academic Update
A.
Enlace Academy Update
- Kevin reported that the upper school leader parted ways with the Neighborhood Charter Network. The separation was a mutual agreement. There was no show of improvement in her improvement plan.
- Kevin is currently revisiting at how the structure looks.
- Cody will focus his time at the Enlace middle school grades and build a playbook.
- Leah has stepped up and taken the extra responsibility as a school wide principal wonderfully.
IV. Finance
A.
Finance
Brian Anderson provided a preliminary budget in the April board meeting and a final budget in the June board meeting. The NCN budget and school budgets have been included with the agenda. They reflect the financials through the end of December.
- Enlace Budget
- The Enlace budget is over on some budget items such as supplies and materials. This was due to grant related expenditures that happened this year and will be offset by grant revenue.
- Enlace does not currently have any impediments due to the budget.
- The overall budget performance at Enlace has been stable and as expected.
- Kindezi Budget
- The Kindezi budget reflects a lot of red on the revenue side. This is due mostly to under enrollment at count day in September.
- Kindezi received a $215,000 deposit in February for prior year SIG grant.
- There is uncertainity at Kindezi for budgeting due to enrollment variances, the transient community, and the fact there is only one count day.
- The biggest need at Kindezi is to manage the unstable enrollment issues.
- Kindezi does not currently have any facilities, technology or furniture expenses.
- The second count day at Kindezi is definitely necessary for a stable budget.
- The Kindezi budget will close to breaking even.
- Dennis would like a discussion with the Mayor's office and IPS about the enrollment issue and the financial loss from it. Kevin had previously met with IPS and requested for funding for students that came in after count day, the request was denied.
- Dennis is requesting a financial model to better understand the Kindezi budget.
V. Executive Director Reports
A.
Strategic Plan Discussion
The former St. Andrew Catholic school that is currently housing Indiana College Preparatory School, a charter school, is being closed at the end of this school year.
- This provides Kindezi with a possible middle school solution which was the number one need for Kindezi in the strategic plan.
- The building would house 5th through 8th grade. Rather than opening a new charter there would just be an amendment to the Kindezi charter to extend to 8th grade.
- Extending the charter instead of opening a new charter would eliminate all start up grants.
- At the moment there isn't enough history of results to get a new charter school.
- Existing grade staff and students would transition to the new building.
- Currently the assistant principal at Kindezi would be the best fit for a school leader at the Kindezi middle school.
- Under the current innovation agreement with IPS this would mean 4th, 5th, and 6th grade would be IPS students, while 7th and 8th grade would be Kindezi students.
- There are many questions to answer such as:
- Can a building with 4 grades be sustainable financially and what would be impact be?
- How would this affect the current innovation agreement with IPS.
- There is nothing in the agreement in reference to 7th and 8th grade.
- What would be the IPS and Mayor's office stance?
- Why have two previous charters failed at this location?
- One reason being leadership issues.
- What is the geographic competition?
- Tindley, AMA Middle School, and Kipp.
- Would transportation be provided at the middle school?
- The current district middle school is a 20 minute drive.
- Patricia recommended that in terms of technical procedure a deciding sub-committee is created.
- In March there will be a conference call with the board to further discuss findings.
- The board has given Kevin direction to pursue conversation in acquiring the middle school building.
VI. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
P. Castaneda made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
T. Baker seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
With the meeting adjourned a board executive session followed.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 11:00 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
D. Casey