Dr. Bobby White:

With this being teachers' appreciation week, we paticipated in our network tradition of serving the teachers breakfast. We've been doing this every year of our existence and they look forward to it this year, as we were at their doors bright and early with an array of things for them to eat. Today we served Humes, tomorrow is Westside, and Thursday will be MLK. I love to see the teachers and the smiles and the students. You know this day is about the teachers and the kids. The kids get a big kick from seeing their teacher smile and being served. This morning was so interesting, so many people wanted to turn down our chicken minis because they said they were watching their weight or figures, but they would turn around and want doughnuts. It was a fun morning, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday. Stay tuned, Ms. Bearden will post photos on Facebook so you can join us in celebrating our teachers.

Mr. Greg Thompson:

Financial Update 5-9-2023

FY2023 Cash Flow Projections

Cash Balance: 

• At 3-31-2023: ~$2.21M (~ 48.3 days of cash)
• Cash at 5-9-2023: ~ $2.26M (~ 49.6 days of cash) 
• ASD has released ESSER 2.0 and 3.0 workbooks, and FCS has made its first submissions.

BEP funding 

• Currently calculated at $10,536 (less 2.5% fee from ASD). This is slightly lower than what was projected in the budget ($10,587). 
• True-up calculations happen throughout the year (based on actual enrollment). 
• FCS received an additional $297K in true-up funds in April from FY22 
• Enrollment is approximately 37 students below Board Budget.

School                                  MLK           Westside           Humes            Total

Enrollment under Board       550            335                   205                1,090

Approved Budget

*Enrollment on which FCS   523.6          336.8                192.4              1,052.8

is currently being funded

and number that is being used for projections

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• Before I start, I want to say the TCAP test is over. Dr. Clark is on the call and she spearheaded the test coordinators and made sure that all of that work was done correctly, pushed the principles, and monitored and made sure that we had everybody who could take the test take the test. So let me just let her come off of mute and describe how that all worked this year and recognize some of the people who helped her get to 100% of the students who were in our schools and could take the test. 

Dr. Lawanda Clark:

• Good afternoon, everyone. So for the past three weeks, I've worked closely with the building test coordinators, Mr. King, and the school leaders to ensure that we had a daily report on who was in the building, who was taking the test, and who needed to take the test. And we successfully put strategies in place as principals were picking up students. Parents would call the school to say, "You can find little Johnny over at Grandma's house. Please go pick him up for testing." And so it was, as described, a day of movement to get all the kids in the building tested and it just proved that FCS could do the work.
• Each student was coded or assigned a test. Each school has almost 2500 test sessions or assigned tests, and we came in with 100% completion for all three schools. Westside came in hot, and they stayed hot the entire time. I was worried about MLK. I had a conversation about maybe we should jump in, and the next thing I knew, MLK, was rising to the top, and they reached 100%. Humes the same thing; well, they came in hot and got colder as it got to the third and fourth parts of math and ELA, but then they jumped as Mr. Thomas was out picking up students, and parents were calling him, and it was just remarkable for everybody to make sure that all those kids got tested. 
• We have to show what we're doing at FCS. Our kids are learning. They are growing, and they're achieving. So I'm just grateful for the team. I'm thankful to Dr. Hervey for stepping in and administering the tests. I'm grateful for Mr. Lawson sending me that email to say hey, send the numbers today because that took almost three hours per school to go through those reports. And so it was something that I enjoyed doing because it excited me to see students logging in and taking the test. If I saw a familiar student's name, I called somebody and asked, "Where's Jonathan Owens?" And they can say Jonathan Owens is on remand. He's been suspended, but he'll be in next week to take the test. And it was great to have that open line of communication for this process. And so we will do the same process. We have a blueprint now, and we'll use the same process next year to ensure we get all kids and all answers counted for the testing period.

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• Thank you, Dr. Clark. We were nervous going into this because this also connects to attendance. We talked about attendance throughout the year. Now that's still an issue, but if we had not reached 95%,  which is the state's goal for every school to at least test 95% of their kids. In that case, there are accountability implications around it, would not have affected our TVAAS score or our percent proficiency or those kinds of things, but on the school performance framework, in some of the state accountability pieces, it definitely would have been the case. So I thank everybody who got involved, got to work early, and made it happen. And that was a tremendous achievement to get to 100%. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would hit 100%. But we did. So that's great.

Dr. Bobby White:

• Given our daily attendance rate at our schools, it is important to note how much of a feat this is. As you all know, throughout the year, we've talked about how attendance is lagging, and Mr. King has yet to be on any of our calls to talk about that and some of the strategies we're using to increase its daily attendance rate. So for the year, MLK is at about 70 percent average attendance daily and for us to pull off getting 100% of the kids to school to test is just huge. So just kudos to everyone who was a part of making that happen. I wanted to share with the board how challenging this was, given that it's different than we have 95% of our kids at school daily. So this was huge. 

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• The next thing on the agenda I'll hit on is MLK's graduation 13th at 11 AM at First Baptist Broad. I am looking forward to that. The kids are excited. Westside Middle School has its promotional assembly on the 19th at 9 AM and Humes on the 26th at 10 AM. I'd love for you guys to be at the high school graduation. That's the big one. If you can be there, that would be great.

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• I'm on the strategic plan. Last week, we had our data retreat, and it was a great session. So Ms. Williams walked us through looking back at the data we have received so far from students, parents, faculty, and staff. There were also a couple of small bits of data from some of the town halls; they are a small focus group on town halls. We did focus groups for both parents and students. There was some additional data there that was not robust, but we were able to glean from all that information. We need to address some direction, ideas, and things as an organization. We did a great little SWOT analysis exercise with Post-it notes virtually because this was on Teams meeting.
   
• What we were creating was the precursor to that SWOT analysis. I'm on the website we use because it is a great little website. If you need to do some engaging activity with someone or a group, they'll put post-it notes on a board in different categories and organize them thinking through it. So it's a great activity. Ms. Williams's next step is to do the SWOT Analysis for us. And once that's complete, we'll return to a larger group setting for the vision retreat. And that will be down the line in a few weeks.

Dr. Bobby White:

• I can't wait for the next session and all of you guys to be there. As we start to problem solve based on the collected data, it is incredible how it aligns the parents, students, staff, and network. The entire family is saying the same things about what we need to do to improve. And that makes our strategic planning session extremely powerful. Because we know that we are working towards what everybody believes we need to be working towards. That lets me know that everybody's on the same page. We are all seeing the same thing. So I'm excited about bringing the rest of the board with us, so we can start problem-solving as we build out the strategy to impact those issues that we see as important. 
   
• Here is where we are in the charter process. And Schoolworks handles the revisions, but they asked us for the information to support the modifications they are making to the application. Because we submitted an excellent application, it won't be too cumbersome. We'll get that done. The process is 30 days from the submission will be the 25th of this month, and then we have the next 60 days. After that, the board will decide, and again we are confident they will approve us. And for those who have any ambiguity around the new high school. So, I have been conversing with the interim superintendent and school board members about what that looks like for us. Suppose they approve us to continue to run MLK past our contract for next year. One of the only reasons they would approve us is they want us to continue running MLK while they build a new high school. The thinking is us absorbing MLK while attempting to develop these new high schools. If you are indeed our partners and willing to decide MLK after, or we can bind into a written agreement that says when the new high school is built, MLK will relinquish his charter. Those students will attend the new high school.
• There is such positive communication around us right now regarding being approved for MLK. That is the sticking point for MLK approval. If they didn't think that we would do that, there's no chance they wouldn't approve us for MLK, because for the new high school to flourish, they will need MLK and Trezevant students. They can automatically just close Trezevant down because it's their school. If they approved us for a charter for MLK and we didn't agree to what we tentatively agreed to, then those students would still be ours. And there'd be nothing that they can do about it. That would be challenging even to attempt to tear the building down when we're still in the building. Our conversations were genuinely collaborative, where we're saying if MSCS approves us to continue to run MLK, and when the new high school is built, of which the funding still needs to be approved. We don't know when that's going to happen. So we will continue to run MLK until that happens. I wanted to share that with you all.

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

• We're continuing to move forward with the strategic planning process with the network team. And there will be an additional retreat soon that the rest of the board members will be invited to participate in. So we'll wait for other dates to be confirmed around that so that it can be verified. The data retreat was virtual; not sure if the vision retreat will be virtual or if it'll be in person but rather have that one person if at all possible. 
• No actions have been taken as of right now for the charter application. Our next steps in this process are to submit the revised charter  application and then move forward with the Memphis Shelby County School Board approval process, making a vote on Humes and MLK Prep.
• So, everyone should have received their email invitation to participate in the annual CEO evaluation. As I've previously said, this is a yearly evaluation that the board and network staff participate in to evaluate Dr. White's performance over the academic year. We are asking that everyone completes their evaluation by Monday, May 15. It takes 25 to 30 minutes to complete the evaluation and provide feedback. It is essential because it's all documented and goes into a CEO evaluation report. Every year the Governance Committee works to provide Dr. White with real-time feedback on areas he's doing great in, as well as areas where there may be opportunities for improvement. It's an excellent opportunity for us to collectively hear from the board and network staff what their perception is in terms of the most challenging aspects of our work, as well as to hear what are the top things that we need to do to continue to move this work forward.
• Please move through this thoroughly to provide your insight. We move through this evaluation to also make recommendations in terms of salary increases and things of that nature. Part of this process is also our governance committee working with our finance committee to make recommendations regarding opportunities for increases across the board. Your feedback is important to us. We want to be able to hear from you and if you would like to join us for our upcoming Governance and Finance meeting to discuss CEO evaluation results and an opportunity for us to discuss all things tied to the increases for Dr. White, which is the board's purview, I want to encourage you to participate in that. So first things first, please make sure to complete your CEO evaluation. 
• Let me transition into board recruitment. So we've got Kirbi on with us, who I mentioned last month, we'll be rolling off the board. So this is an excellent opportunity for us to thank Kirbi for fulfilling her term with us and, of course, for all of the contributions that she's made to the board thus far. We appreciate your help and for stepping up into the roles when needed to provide support. Thanks, Kirbi.
• We are in a space where we are looking for, at a minimum, at least one to two additional board members to join us for the next academic year. We have some preferred board expertise areas, which I've listed below. And we also accept recommendations and nominations from the entire board as we receive recommendations and nominations from network staff. So I'd love it if you are thinking of some individuals who would love to be engaged in this work, can actively participate, and make contributions. Please take some time to submit your nomination through the form. And that way, we can move forward with onboarding and interviews. And hopefully, we have new board members ready to start with us for the new school year by the end of July. 

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

• As we're talking about board recruitment, let's move forward with a vote on Ms. Carla Tolbert for board membership. For everyone who has not been with us for the past two meetings, Ms. Tolbert has been joining us; she is one of the FCS Parent Advisory Council members and has done some remarkable work. She is acting on behalf of FCS parents providing feedback to network staff, as well as to school leadership in terms of parent needs. One of our goals as a board is to make sure that we were creating a space and a seat on this board that a member of the Parent Advisory Council will always occupy and Ms. Tolbert has graciously given her additional time to say yes, I will also serve on the board and the Parent Advisory Council. So, Ms. Tolbert's application information was sent out to everyone, and I would like us to move forward with a vote on her board membership for this evening. I want to move forward with a motion to recommend Ms. Carla Tolbert for membership on the FCS board of directors and I'm going to need someone to second that motion. Ms. Reddick second. Okay, awesome, we can move forward with the vote. So all those in favor of Ms. Carla Tolbert come on as a full board member on the FCS board of directors. All those in favor, say aye or submit that through the chat. Beautiful. Okay. We have the votes that we need. Is there anyone opposed? I believe everyone has, is all in favor. So okay. I don't see anyone that is opposed. Awesome. So the eyes have it. Ms. Tolbert, welcome to the FCS board of directors. Thank you so much for your service to FCS thus far, and we look forward to your continued service with us in the future. 

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

• The big piece is our upcoming Frayser Community Schools Day, Saturday, May 20, from 12 pm to 3 pm. Mr. King organized the entire event. He shared with me that one of the things that were very successful last year was there was a distribution that took place as part of FCS day, in addition to just all of the fun fanfare with games and food and whatnot, but how items were passed out to families that were in attendance. The families that were able to drive up to the school took advantage of a lot of the goods that we were able to collect, and our community partners were able to support us this year. He has a team preparing the bags to have them ready for the 20th. It would be great if you all could come out and support us. I encourage you to come out. You may contact Mr. King via email, or you may contact Ms. Warren. She is another point of contact with Mr. King. He shared that there will be several shifts regarding volunteers. So I'm awaiting that information from him. That way, I can share it with you all, and we can all go ahead and sign up for a shift, or if you're unavailable to be there on that day, physically provide some support regarding the household items needed for the back distribution. That also will be extremely helpful, but I'd like to see some of your faces next Saturday for FCS day.