Terry is sitting in the board due to Patricia taking a leave of absence. 

No public comment was made. 

Brian reported that the finance committee went over the end-of-year financials for the 22-23 school year. All the key financial metrics for Enlace were met which means that Enlace is in good financial health. The only loan is the 10-year 1% innovation loan. There may still be some recognition of grant revenue during the audit which is scheduled for October 11 and is still being conducted by Donovan.

The success of the strong financials is due to the history of conservative budgeting that was a priority for previous board treasurers and staff. 

The August statement of financial position was shared with the board. The charter innovation grant was received in July. Normally it is received in September so it was early this year. Right now the budget is ahead due to this. In September this will catch up and we will be very close to budget. The budget represents a projected surplus by the end of the school year. 

The innovation agreement will end in June of 2025. At the board retreat, there will be a 3-year sensitivity analysis to be reviewed and discussed by the board. 

Terry is the board president due to Patricia taking a leave of absence . There is vacancy for vice president. Katie spoke to Joan regarding the immediate vice president opening and she is interested in stepping up. 

Terry reported that the board is working on the search process for the new executive director. It was halted due to board health concerns and busy schedules. 

The proposed search committee is comprised of Dennis Casey, Kenith Britt, Marty Dezelan, Joan Servaas, and Raul Zavaleta. A job description has been put together with the help of the Board on Track, the Mind Trust, and Enlace's specific needs. The goal is to approve the job description this week. 

The position will be posted in several places and as early as next week. The interviews will start within a couple of weeks. The committee will make a full recommendation to the board. The goal would be to have someone start mid-year. The committee wants to be as transparent as possible and will look into piecing interest groups. 

Finally, there is a draft communication that will go out to the Enlace families with the leadership transitions and the process that will go out next week. 

Board Dashboard

Katie presented the board dashboard which are the goals that we share with OEI. They are academic, governance, financial, and talent goals. 

• For the 23-24 school year, the focus will be academics. 
• The goal for NWEA is that there is a 78-80% growth because that is what will help with proficiency goals. 
• The iRead goal was added. A literacy cadre will focus on iRead. OEI has a goal set up for a 10% increase for this school year. The benefit is that Enlace has already had a 10% increase. 
• Another goal is to have an iLearn increase by 10% this year which aligns with the iRead goal. 
• For attendance, the goal will remain at 95% which Enlace hit for the month of August. The attendance committee monitors attendance closely on a weekly basis. 
• The enrollment goal has been surpassed by 25 students. Enlace also has a waitlist. 
• The suspension, culture, and financial goals will stay consistent. 
• There was a community outreach committee before COVID-19. Board interest will be gaged. 

On Friday, Enlace will know if they get the Next Gen SIG grant. Enlace made it to the final round. This money is intended for transformational change. It is a 3 million grant and there is an expert team made of community members within Indianapolis. 

The board plans to have an annual retreat in person. A SWOT analysis will be conducted in order to look at the strategic plan and plan for the future. The board will push the retreat to February in order to have the most board attendance possible. 

Mission Moment

Carlota Holder reported that our student population has grown this year with 39 Haitian Creole natives. She oversees our language program for multilingual learners. This was an unexpected growth as the bilingual instruction is in English and Spanish, not Haitian. In the first week, there was a great need for communication with our Haitian families and students. Therefore, we hired Cleeves as a bilingual instructional assistant. He speaks a total of 4 languages. He mostly supports upper school grades and mentors students in the pm. The operations team also hired Norah, a bilingual office assistant. She supports with interpreting and translating for our Haitian families. 

Enlace held a parent orientation for new kinder families on the first day of school. The presentation included a deep dive into why attendance is important. We had Daphne with the Haitian Association present. She is looking into English classes for adults free of charge.