S. Howorko read the Mission

• Ray recognized Wayne, Jenn and Stacy for putting the Month of Thanks together.
• Samantha recognized Lindsey for the work on the Strategic Plan, Stacy and Wayne for their work on the Giving Campaign.
• Lisa recognized Kathy Elliott and DAC Members for their support durning the charter renewal process.
• Danielle recognized Robin, Wayne and all those who have had input on the charter renewal.
• Shaun recognized Jeff Spletzer and Dana O'Neill for their work on the Burpee Mile.
• Lindsey recognized Wayne, Robin, Rob, Karen and all those working on the charter renewal.

• Lindsey: Charter renewal interviews and SAC meeting
• Shaun: The Burpee Mile, the Cross Country Team banquet, the play "Clue", staff pancake breakfast and Coffee Chat
  Danielle: Charter renewal interviews, 3rd grade halloween party and 3rd grade music program 
• Lisa: Charter renewal interviews
• Samantha: Charter renewal interviews and Coffee Chat

Mr. Jim Hinkle presented the Financial Audit

• Brief overview of audit process - Looked at source documents and checked that they are operating as designed. 
• Look for material weaknesses in the design of the system. No insufficiencies or material weaknesses found. 
• Unmodified opinion: Financial statements have been prepared in accordance with best practices. 
• Biggest change from last year is pension obligations. Unfunded liability grew. Pera’s investments went down in 2022 to 2023. The state made a contribution to the unfunded liability gap. 
• No disagreements or difficulties in the audit. No adjustments to the financial books, no errors needed past adjustment. It was a clean audit. From an audit standpoint, Stargate's accounting department provided open transparency and provided anything that was needed to complete the audit. 

Mr. Wayne Granger presented the Executive Director of Operations and Finance Report

• Discussed the need for a more robust communication system:
  • Current radios are functional but very basic and need upgraded. Will apply for a grant to purchase a system called School Safe that allows first responders to talk directly to the school to avoid the multi-person call system.
    • Radios may not be covered with the grant. If it is not covered, the radios would need to be purchased for $50k-$100k. 
  • Collected feedback from staff regarding the school's public address (PA) system. PA system was deemed to be undersized and inadequate. There's a need for redundant systems and obtaining estimates for improvements.
• Updates to Lunch Program:
  • 2 new elementary aids, 1 to replace a vacancy, 1 to fill a position 
  • Survey will be sent to the community to see who is interested in a vegetarian option. Currently working with charter choice operative and MY Kids Lunch to determine the options.
• Month of Thanks is going very well! Lots of opportunities to meet and recognize staff and their hard work.
• October count came in at 1,573, which is 22 kids below projected budget. Will provide update to budget in January to reflect changes in projection and impact to funds.
• Prospect Ridge Academy uses Meeting Owl to project their meetings which is a 360 camera. PRA has an extra device they're potentially willing to sell at a discount, likely ~$500. 

Dr. Robin Greene presented the Executive Director of Academics Report

• Professional learning over the next several months will focus around differentiation.
• MTSS process for secondary is new this year with a larger volume of testing - offering more testing dates to accommodate. Both processes can be found in the linked report.
• Superintendent and Adams 12 board member will be touring the building on December 5th. 
• Board asked if there was a way to track how people are hearing about Stargate? If we could we collect names and contact during prospective parent night, along with a welcome table? 
• Discussed the comparison of amount of incoming applications this year to previous years. Currently ahead by about a hundred applicants compared to last year at this time.

Ms. Karen Wolfer, elementary principal, presented the Academics Staff Report

• Shared exciting events:
  • Trimester 1 music concert was a success!
  • Lots of field trips in various grades
  • Halloween parade
  • Perspective parent nights have been well attended
• MTSS process is fine tuned 
  • Identify the student's need, collect data for 6 weeks and come back to put a plan in place to deliver what is best for the student. 
  • PLCs allow for Dr. Rundquist to support teachers efforts towards differentiation. 
• Classrooms are implementing the Social Emotional Learning curriculum, Sources of Strength, with emotion thermometers and “cozy corners” for students to regulate without missing instruction.

Dr. Cynthia Rundquist, Director of Curriculum and Instruction presented a report on Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) 

• Greatest area of need for compliance sake is parent signatures. Elementary teachers have been shown how to collect parent signatures on ALPs in Infinite Campus. After 3 attempts to get a parent signature, the teacher can go in and remove the flag that is on the account, stating that all 3 attempts were made.
• The number of ALPs grow daily.
• Goals for K-8 are created with the collaboration of teacher, student and parents. Parents collaborate with each goal for which they're identified with 1 affective goal. 
• Teachers will receive consistent training to develop the best goals for students on ALPs.
  • ALP's can have interest-based goal
  • Use supplemental services (Battle of the Books, etc) to further develop and personalize goals and outcomes.
  • Focus ALP around what students want to do to make them more meaningful to students so they become alive in the classroom.
    • District started Essential Thinking Skills (21 Century Skills). Looking to potentially pilot this program in 1st grade.

• Coach: Discussed the benefits of athletics outweighing the costs. Asked questions regarding the plans for athletic programs at Stargate. 
• Student: Shared personal experience of athletics at Stargate and impact it had.
• Parent: Shared compliments of basketball coach, shared sentiment to prioritize athletics. 
• Parent: Shared what athletics taught him and how it impacted him as a student.
• Parent: Shared concerns over the gym space and bussing to sports events.
• Parent: Shared concerns over decreased school spirit over time and bussing.
• Parent: Shared impact of sports and Stargate coach on her family.

Mr. Granger has reached out to the coach to set up time to talk about the athletics program.

Report

Amy Pierre-Johnson is leaving, therefore an open staff position will be available for SAC. Danielle will work with Robin to get communication out to staff for anyone who may be interested in fulfilling the remaining months for this seat.

• Shared KPI Report
  • Increase in Responsible Leadership and Exceptional Staff, decrease in Financial Stability due to metrics differing throughout the year.
• Discussed proposed changes to both parent and staff survey questions.
• Discussed the calendar and the collection of data from both staff and community.
• Suggestion to utilize the Social Research Lab to help drive the development of the questions.

• Discussed changes in KPI, specifically retention. 
  • Staff retention is up from last measure
    • Discussed the benchmark to be used, 
    • Suggested looking at industry standards 
    • Where does coaching staff falls into the retention standard?
• Discussed the financial policy and which measure of cash on hand to use. 
  • Measure will likely change based on the financial policy discussed below.

• Seeking to determine a shared understanding of what the mission and vision are. Will create a working group that will produce any proposed changes to the Mission and Vision to be voted on by the community in the spring.
• Intentions are to:
  • Define proposed changes to Mission & Vision Statements, to be voted on by the community along with any by-law changes
  • Increase alignment for our Mission & Vision among stakeholders
  • Clarify Mission & Vision in our communications internally, externally, and to the District
• Working session will be January 10th at 5pm before the board meeting.
• Will utilize Social Research Lab to help in sending survey and coding results.
• Lindsey and Danielle will create a survey to send to the community to capture thoughts on the Mission and Vision. Results will drive work session work on January 10th. 

Transparency to show the recommendations and the progress currently made.

Lisa and Danielle will meet with Carleen and begin work on the potential changes to the Bylaws.

SPED/Title XI will be before the Adams 12 Board meeting February 7th from 6pm to 7pm

• Committee written reports
• Policy updates
• Fundraising allocations
• Supplemental budget
• Strategic Plan/Reimagine updates
• Charter renewal update

Samantha and Ray will attend on December 18th at 8:30am