FCS Board Meeting - September 2021 Minutes

September 14, 2021, 5:30-7:00 PM

Minutes Approved

Frayser Community Schools

Minutes

FCS Board Meeting - September 2021

Date and Time

Tuesday September 14, 2021 at 5:30 PM

Location

Topic: FCS Board Meeting
Time: Jun 8, 2021 05:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every month on the Second Tue, until Feb 8, 2022, 9 occurrence(s)
Jun 8, 2021 05:30 PM
Jul 13, 2021 05:30 PM
Aug 10, 2021 05:30 PM
Sep 14, 2021 05:30 PM
Oct 12, 2021 05:30 PM
Nov 9, 2021 05:30 PM
Dec 14, 2021 05:30 PM
Jan 11, 2022 05:30 PM
Feb 8, 2022 05:30 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Monthly: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJ0tdemgrzIuH9wLYLGUOQL5x4aUcnyAgA6M/ics?icsToken=98tyKuChrjkqEtWctByPRox5Aojoc_zzmFhbgvpKsCbJJBV8Uy-jLrZDB7FxCfnX
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99020819458?pwd=NlNVZzRIZVloZXBqWE0zYjJXd0d2Zz09
Meeting ID: 990 2081 9458
Passcode: xHj49e

Directors Present

A. Cathey (remote), J. Thornton (remote), K. Adams (remote), K. Tucker (remote), M. Shepherd (remote), R. Dowell (remote), R. Hamilton (remote)

Directors Absent

None

Ex Officio Members Present

B. White (remote)

Non Voting Members Present

B. White (remote)

Guests Present

B. Lawson (remote), D. Mickey (remote), L. Warren (remote), T. Hervey (remote), T. King (remote)

I. Opening Items

A. Record Attendance and Guests

B. Call the Meeting to Order

A. Cathey called a meeting of the board of directors of Frayser Community Schools to order on Tuesday Sep 14, 2021 at 5:45 PM.

C. Approve Minutes

R. Dowell made a motion to approve the minutes from August 2021 FCS Board Meeting on 08-10-21.

K. Adams seconded the motion.

The board VOTED to approve the motion.

II. CEO Updates

A. Remembering the Vision

Dr. Bobby White:

We talk about school as a center of the community and how we stand in the gap and stand up for the parents and students, we serve in whatever type of challenges they face.
The tragedy that we had over the last five days with the student's death at MLK, the family was so afraid, and this was so sudden, they could not lay the baby to rest appropriately. Through partnerships we have developed, we were able to have a conversation with them Sunday afternoon to say, you all go and grieve your baby. Don't worry about those arrangements; they're taken care of already.
When we talk about remembering the vision. You have to understand that the vision is not always pretty. We say we're the center of the community and we are the lighthouse.
I think how it was handled with our staff in our organization trying to ensure the family was okay, as well as they could be in light of the circumstances. Once again, I think we showed them the kind of organization we are and how much we care.
I was on the phone with her Grandmother for like two and a half, three hours yesterday; she talked, and I listened. I spoke with her today for about an hour, they're crushed, but they are so appreciative of us listening. All her teachers and staff have been reaching out to the family, and it makes me feel good because that's who we are. And I thought that this was something that needed to be shared.

III. Finance

A. Finance Committee Updates

Mr. Greg Thompson:

Financial Report September 14, 2021

Cash Balance

At June 30, 2021: $4,127,152
As of 9-12-2021: $2,608,531 (lower cash due to not receiving BEP in July as well as upfront purchases that will be grant reimbursed)
July had a deficit, which is typical for that month (BEP payment is not received in July). As the year progresses, year to date financial will move closer to breakeven. We expect cash to fluctuate between $3M-$4M throughout the year, with summer and early fall months having the low cash levels.
PPP Loan of $1,525,000 has been forgiven and moved into unrestricted cash
Audit process will take place over the next several months (September – December)

BEP funding

Currently calculated at $10,029 (less 2.5% fee from ASD) or $9,778.28 per student. This is slightly higher than the number used for the board approved budget ($9,457.50).
ASD will initially fund FCS based on enrollment from the ending of last fiscal year (see table below)
A true-up (based on actual enrollment) will happen in October.
We anticipate enrollment being closer to the numbers projected in the board approved budget.

School               MLK Westside Humes Total
Enrollment under Board              575          330              250          1,155
Approved Budget
Enrollment for Initial BEP             568              311              246          1,120
Payments (numbers used
from previous academic year)

FY2021-2022 Grants
FCS will continue to receive a significant amount of funding in federal grants this year and over next several fiscal years (for ESSER 2.0 and ESSER 3.0).

IV. Academic Excellence

A. Academic Excellence Committee Updates

Mr. Theodore King:

Currently, we have 1093 students enrolled in PowerSchool. These are warm body counts. They physically have been attending school over the last 20 days in our school. That's 95% of our projection.
Humes has 209 students, Westside has 318, and MLK has 566. We projected 1155 in hopes that we would be back in school. COVID would be under control; of course, that didn't happen. And there is a group of parents from school to school that has now re-engaged back in the process.
I know schools that are 20% of their projection, so for us to be 5% off, I'm kind of happy with that. We are still enrolling kids even though it's day 26, and parents are still coming in. They were holding out think we were going to go virtual, and now that that's not happening, they're starting to roll in load at a time.
I know that more than 100 students who should be enrolled at our schools are not registered. I still contact them every week via email and text, encouraging them to enroll. Even students that might be somewhere else, I'm saying, hey, if you're not happy where you are, we still have a spot for you.
With that being said, I think Westside and MLK will hit their targets very soon. But we were hoping that they would have been a little overflow to cover up for the shortage is that we were expected at Humes.
But we know that Humes is always that one school we have to concern ourselves with because they only have one elementary school that feeds to the school. So it's more about recruitment, so we're going to be a little bit more aggressive

Mr. Brett Lawson:

The numbers don't seem terrible on the charts that we're keeping. The state is asking for the numbers, sliced and diced in various ways, just to let you guys know. The one number they're not always asking for is the total today, but I am tracking that as well.
I split out an excel spreadsheet that I can share with you, but I also wanted to have a chart that showed the trend along, a dateline showing you how that's going. And I need to make some adjustments before I can share that out.
Another kind of trend that I'm watching is going back and knowing when students are actually coming back into the building and making sure that we're logging that in as well. So all my data goes back to spreadsheets that the principals are responsible for putting information into.
They track the first time they know somebody has been notified of contact, what was the first date that that person experienced symptoms if they were positive. We track whether or not their exposure happened inside the school or outside of the school. We track how many closed contacts occurred inside the school. We're following various things that the state is asking daily, or at least the ASD is. So far, it's been the ASD asking us to submit this information. The state is supposedly coming up with their form that they want us to fill out daily, which may ask for different things. I spent a little effort creating the formula that would calculate regardless of what they asked for, and I can spit it out; that way, day by day, you know where we are.
Kids are reminded regularly to keep their masks on, stay three feet apart, you know, doing those things that we're asking them to do. And I do feel like that is keeping the spread of this virus down in our buildings.
Now, I know that you know, we've had one terrible loss. We are fortunate that it has not been more in our organization because our families are the most at risk, have the worst health care, and have the most comorbid conditions possible. And yet, we are dealing with it, and so far only lost one of our family members. I hope that we can weather this storm, come out on the other side of it and get everybody back into school full time. That's my hope and prayer on that.
So, in terms of other academic news, we are implementing new curriculums. We continue to add some new programs to what we are doing. I want to update you on branching minds a little bit, and that is going very well. Humes has taken it to heart, and they are implementing it just as quickly as possible.
Mrs. Gibson, our Director of Special Populations, has been leading the charge to create groups in branching minds to track the interventions we're giving to students and see how that is going.
We spoke with a group today, and they were pretty amazed by the description of that product. They were taking notes because they knew the importance of tier students on all those different areas that we're tracking them on—providing interventions and doing progress monitoring. All in the same place in the same platform, so whether it's one of our community members from Agape, Communities in Schools working with a student classroom teacher or Assistant Principal, whomever it is that can see everything going on that statement. At a glance, and that is powerful.

V. Governance

A. Governance Committee Updates

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

I want to start with a vote this evening, specifically for the positions on the executive committee, and that will be for the board-chair, vice-chair, and treasurer. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to look at the agenda thus far. Right now, our slate of nominated candidates include me continuing as board chair, Ms. Joia Thorton, actually stepping in the vice-chair role until the end of not the academic year but the end of this actual year in 2021, and Michael Shepherd as the Treasurer
We don't currently have anyone slated for Secretary. But at this moment in time, the task associated with being a secretary is something that I can continue on with - with the support of Ms. Warren.
If everyone is okay and no one has any questions, or we don't have any other nominations, I would like to move forward with a vote at this time: Ms. Thornton as vice-chair, Mr. Shepherd as the Treasurer and, myself as Board-chair.
So are there any questions, concerns, points of clarity before taking the vote? There being no questions. I will move forward then with asking the question, Who is all in favor of the slate of candidates as listed? Please say aye. Aye. Aye. Do we have anyone opposed?
Okay. There being none opposed that we will move forward with the edits as is. Thank you.
Lastly for governance, I will need Dr. White and Mr. King to specifically address Westside's parent trigger petition that is being rolled out in October. If you have been attending any of the parent advisory council meetings, this has been discussed. It was discussed in August at our last board meeting, and I was hoping that Mr. King could share some insight about the Parent Advisory Council meeting tomorrow. Could you give us some information about the event that's coming up, that we should also be aware of?

Mr. Theodore King:

We're going to invoke the parent trigger law for Westside. This is something that has never been done before, so it is new. We need 60% of our parents to sign a petition for us to remain in ASD for two years.
Currently, we don't know what the petition looks like, not sure what they're looking for when capturing the signatures. I'm thinking it's like a standard petition where we get parents to sign in person. We're thinking that they're going to have an electronic signature as well. So in talking with the parent council, we discussed having one major event to kick off our efforts.
We have between October 1st and October 30th to get signatures, so on October 2nd, we will have a day party at Westside from three to five. We're hoping to have some live entertainment, Food, DJ, line dancing, and fellowshipping.
How can you support us with that event? We're looking at phone banking the week of September 27th to October 1st. I can give you a group of parents to call and encourage you to come out on the day of the event for us. Also, I have scheduled a canvassing for October 23rd. So Saturday after fall break, whatever signatures we don't have, we will have a team together that will go door to door and try to get signatures that way.
We're hopeful that we can get the signatures before then. My deadline for submitting a petition is October 22nd; it's due November 1st. So those are two significant dates that we have set, and we'll modify and adjust them based on when we get the petition complete.

J. Thornton made a motion to Mrs. Arlinda Cathey continue as Board-chair, Ms. Joia Thornton as Board Vice-chair and Mr. Michael Shepherd as Board Treasure.

R. Dowell seconded the motion.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

Roll Call
M. Shepherd	Aye
A. Cathey	Aye
K. Adams	Aye
R. Hamilton	Aye
R. Dowell	Aye
K. Tucker	Aye
J. Thornton	Aye

VI. Development

A. Development Committee Updates

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

And then lastly, for governance, I will need Dr. White and Mr. King specifically about Westside's parent trigger petition that is being rolled out in October. If you have been attending any of the parent advisory council meetings, this has been discussed. It was discussed in August at our last board meeting, and I was hoping that Mr. King could share some insight about the Parent Advisory Council meeting tomorrow. Could you give us some information about the event that's coming up, that we should also be aware of?

Mr. Theodore King:
Just a point of clarity, we're going to invoke the apparent trigger law for Westside. So it's something that has never been done before, so it is new. So, part of it is we need 60% of our parents to sign a petition for us to remain in ASD for two years. Currently, we don't know what the petition looks like, not sure what they're looking for when capturing the signatures. I'm thinking it's like a standard petition where we get parents to sign in person. We're thinking that they're going to have an electronic signature as well. So in talking with the parent council, we discussed having one major event to start it off. Because we have between October 1st and October 30th, so, on October 2nd, we will have a day party at Westside from three to five. We're hoping to have some live entertainment, Food, DJ and line dance, and fellowshipping. How can you support us with that event? We're looking at phone banking from the week of September 27th to October 1st. I can give you a group of parents to call and encourage you to come out on the day of the event for us. Also, I have scheduled a canvassing for October 23rd. So Saturday after spring after fall break, so whatever signatures we don't have, we have a team together that will go door to door and try to get signatures that way. We're hopeful that we can get the signatures before that. My deadline for submitting a petition is October 22nd; it's due November 1st. So those are two significant dates that we have set, and we'll modify and adjust based on when we get the petition, and we know exactly what it looks like, and then we can share it out. So, as you all know, we're looking for any suggestions you have; please send them my way.

VII. Closing Items

A. Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

A. Cathey