Mission Moments

• Katie reported Enlace is the first charter to join the National Center for Families Learning. Megan Singh was named the Toyota NCFL Teacher of the Year. A check will be awarded to her for Enlace for $20,000.00. Megan was honored to be nominated. She has dedicated a lot of time to completing home literacy visits at Enlace. A total of 60 home visits were completed for 108 students. A total of 500 books were distributed. 
• Tylie Mendoza and Bailey Rager shared that Enlace began two initiatives, Reading Rocketz and Learning Leaders in which all parents of 2nd and 3rd grade students are invited to complete work with their children. 

Academic Goals

Enlace's Academic Goals are: 

• 70%+ students make typical to high growth as measured by IReady 
• IRead: 10% increase in IRead pass rate 
• ILearn: 5% increase in combined proficiency 

NCN Board Goals

Katie reported that testing checkpoints are new this year. Which matches what the state is assessing. It is a huge celebration for students and staff as the data thus far is showing growth. A lot of intentionality has gone into preparing for this since the summer. The data shows every cohort grew from Spring to Fall. More data will be available by the next meeting. 

IPS Innovation Update

Jamie reported that she has been working with the innovation renewal committee along with Heather. They are working on making final edits to the agreement drafts and will share them back with IPS by Friday. It will then be presented to the IPS board the following week and hopefully be approved by the IPS board. 

IPS did a site visit at Enlace Academy and looked at markers of culture, panorama survey, enrollment, etc. The site visit was very positive and showed lots of wins. Enlace has been recommended for a full renewal as a result of the site visit. 

Brian reported that the finance audit was just finalized. Last year the audits were backlogged due to many reasons. Donovan and the schools worked on improving the timeline and were able to get the audit completed on time this year. 

The audit resulted in a clean opinion with only one internal control finding. There were no disagreements. There were also two proposed audit adjustments. 

Enlace does not record the IPS in-kind. Spoke to Erin regarding the in-kind IPS calculations of what the value of services we receive as a school is. 

The September financials summaries are in good shape through the 1st quarter. Meeting all the metrics and right under budget. Enlace is in a very strong position. 

Board Recruitment

Katie reports that the goal is to add 2-3 new board members. The ideal profile would be community members and/or representatives of our student and community demographic

with ideal areas of expertise: Legal/HR, STEM/Science, Finance/Accounting, or Development/PR/Marketing Request: 

Please send recommendations (names, contact info, and brief context) to Joan & Katie. We will review as a governance committee and reach out.

Raul Zavaleta was a founding board member of Enlace Academy. He supported in knocking on doors for our founding K-3 students.  Enlace is extremely grateful for his commitment and determination to help our community. He will be stepping down as a board member. 

Lilly Grant Update

Enlace has received $50,000 from the Lilly grant. This money will be used for grant writing and research. 

Next up will be round II of the Lilly Grant. Enlace qualifies for up to $338k. This money will be used for high-dosage tutoring, staffing, and personalized learning. Our grant request will be submitted by 2/14/25

For the final round, Enlace could receive up to 15 million. The money would be used for investments in teacher recruitment, retention & development, personalized learning during/after the school day, and stakeholder wellness. This grant request will be submitted by early April.