Financials

Brian Anderson provided the board with the most recent financials available for period 07/01/2024 through December 31, 2024. 

• The financial reports show that Enlace is in a strong financial position and all the OEI financial metrics are being met. 345 Days cash on hand and debt to asset at .04
• 5.472 million in revenue has been received due to additional grants, such as the Lilly Grant for 50k, and because enrollment was higher than anticipated. Revenue is coming in this year, ahead of budget. 
• The end of the school year will end in a surplus. 
• 100k is still due to the state for the charter loan. 

Kitchen Renovation

Cafe Patachou is a foundation that provides food service consulting. Adelante and Circle City Prep worked with Cafe Patachou to renovate their kitchens. Enlace currently operates a warming kitchen, which limits what we can serve our students. The goal is to transform the Enlace cafe into a scratch kitchen. Phase 1 involves preparing a proposal, while Phase 2 will require a vote. The earliest we could launch the kitchen is in the fall of 2026. We have been conducting listening tours, and students express a desire for more food options.  

Board Recruitment Update

• Katie shared that in the bylaws, it states that the board members' maximum years allowed to serve is not limited. This allows for continuity and value.
• Rob Hall rolled off in December 2024. We will hold elections in January. Allision will fill the secretary position. 
• Joan will stay as board president for one more year and Brandon as the treasurer.

Board Recruitment Update

• Marc Sisco is a proposed board member. He is a retired attorney from Ice Miller who is bilingual in Spanish and English. He is excited about the opportunity to be involved. He will visit Enlace before March to tour. 
• Dr. Juanita Limas is a proposed new board member. She is a Senior Advisor at Lilly, working as a drug hunter in molecular pharmacology (quantitative biology) in Molecule Discovery. 
• Leslie Salazar is a proposed new board member. She is a creative strategist, community advocate, and passionate entrepreneur.  She is great at storytelling and building meaningful connections. She is the founder of Chief Creative Officer of Colores Creative, where she partners with mission-driven organizations to deliver culture relevant videos that resonate, beautifully designed emails that connect, thoughtful community events that engage, and more. She is the Vice President of the Indian Latino Democratic Caucus. 

Mission Moments

• Cathedral High School hosted a beautiful program for our students, Christmas on the Hill. Cathedral students also visited our students.
• Enlace received a Project Lead the Way, which is a STEM grant. We are currently hiring for a STEM teacher. 
• The 2024 Holiday assistance program sponsored a total of 250 students. Which is 100 more students supported than the previous year. 

Academic Updates

Enlace is investing in academic outcomes this year and looking for opportunities to invest in what will help its students move forward. 

The three questions are: 

• How are students showing growth? 
• Are all of our students learning and growing? 
• Are our students demonstrating proficiency?

64% of students are meeting the expected fall-to-winter goals. This is due to the intentionality of aligning with the Indiana State Standards and the increased investment in personalized learning, specifically blended learning and success block. Which provides differentiated, small group instruction 4x per week in grades 6-8th. Stephanie and her team worked over the summer to align the Indiana State Standards. 

With Next-Gen SIG, additional staff was hired to increase personalized learning. Such as ML teacher and the intervention team. It has taken a lot of intentional work that has resulted in drastically improved growth and proficiency. There was an increase in Math and ELA proficiency and students on grade level have also grown. 

In Math, there was no difference in growth with individualized plans. The New SPED coordinator had been at Christel House for 10 years and has had an incredible impact. 

In ELA Black and Hispanic students hit their growth goals at about the same rate as the total student population. 

Our percent of kids on grade level in 2nd and 3rd grade had the strongest teacher retention. Kids hitting their goals. We will have students who do summer school. 

Projected based on i-Ready, assuming children continue to grow, estimate 16% to pass in math and 20% to pass in ELA. 

New this year is iLearn checkpoints. It gives a good predictor of how kids are going to do in the fall. 18.7 proficient, 10% higher than where we were last spring. 

All of our students in 3rd grade are receiving one-on-one tutoring or no more groups of 5. That is how they start their day each morning. Looking at standards mastery. All the work with writing and ELA focus. Lessons in literacy for any teacher not OG trained. 

On the Board Dashboard, our attendance was 94.56% with an 89% of staff retention. 

The board broke into executive session.