Mission Moments:

1. The Mind Trust awarded $5,000 to one of our families to implement a book exchange program called "Leyendo Juntos." It was the most money awarded. 

2. Cynthia Diaz has been a teacher at Enlace, left for a moment, and started back at Enlace this year in 4th grade. She asked to switch a book in her curriculum. The book is called When the Stars are Scattered." The 4th-grade team wanted to have a book with high rigor that was culturally relevant. Our students could see themselves in this graphic novel. They were very invested in reading. The 4th-grade team hosted a dinner for the families and invited a guest speaker who talked about his journey with immigration. The Enlace families felt seen and heard.

3. Enlace had Santa come visit this year thanks to Brian Anderson. The students took pictures with Santa. 

Academic Excellence

Kevin presented an update on the board dashboard.

• Currently, both our math and reading growth percentages are the highest percentage of students meeting their winter growth goals in the past five years. 
• Enlace is staffed better than many schools in the city right now. 
• Stephanie has been intentional with the SIOP model and allowing grade levels to cluster and work with their data. 
• 5th grade was moved from departmentalization to self-contained. 
• New interventionists were hired to support the upper school grades. 

Keep Doing: 

• Phonics instruction based on the science of reading
• Professional development for best practices for ELLs
• Ignite! tutoring in 3rd grade. 

Under Consideration:

• Expanding our master teacher initiative
• Using existing staffing to create more co-taught lessons
• Shifting the math curriculum to the updated version that aligns with best practices for ELLs. 

Financial Investment Strategies

Kevin presented the financial investment strategy proposal to the board. Brian, Brent, Katie, and Denise have been working with KeyBank and United Fidelity Bank to put together a side-by-side comparison of the proposals. The investments are legally possible because there is no risk and are guaranteed investments. 

Given Brandon's ties to United Fidelity, he is abstaining from any decision in the investment strategy. 

Finance Update

Brian reported that the audit was finalized and it was a smooth audit with minimal findings. The December financials were just finalized. We are about 400,000 off due to the 2nd innovation payment coming in January at about 427k. The financials are in great shape and on track to meet the budget. 

IPS Referendum 

Kevin reported that IPS went for 2 referendums in 2018. There was no plan to share the money with charters. That has recently changed to 500 per pupil with innovation charters. They are going for another referendum, which originally said 650 per pupil which is short of what traditional public students get. There have been different conversations regarding what the referendum could look like. We will likely see an increase in our per pupil amount in the next referendum. Kevin has been focused on keeping the IPS relationship strong. 

Marty, For the next board meeting the board will discuss this. Kevin will gather more information from the next meeting with a detailed overview as it stands. He will bring it to the meeting. 

OEI Core Question 3 

Kevin reported that the OEI summary of ratings reports that we are meeting or exceeding standards in Indicator 3. 

OEI Core Question 4

Enlace had a site visit this year. Last year we had an end-of-year charter review with Kindezi. We used the same curriculum and assessments from an academic standpoint. Enlace has always had meets or exceeds standards in core question 4. Our academic analyst at OEI to find out what changed. The response was to talk to the evaluator. Kevin will talk to Patrick about how we can come to an agreement and we need more feedback. 

New standards will be implemented in a year. Respond in writing and make our position clear. And this is not a high-stakes evaluation for us. This will not be used for our charter renewal. We don't agree with our rating.