Dr. Bobby White:

• For our October Remember the Vision, I would like Ms. Perry to speak on the program at MLK today with Project Pat. There's always a challenge at MLK because it's a high school in the heart of Frayser's highest crime area and highest poverty in the State of Tennessee and Memphis. And whenever we get an opportunity to shout out a positive event that represents who we are. I always want to be able to do that. And so, Ms. Perry, you can share the meaning of the event you and your staff put on today. That will be great for the board for Remembering the Vision.

Ms. Chiquita Perry:

• Typically, each year, we have a male-gender-based symposium hosted by one of our former teachers. Now that he is no longer with us, Ms. Wadely, our 11th and 12th-grade social worker, decided to do something for the entire student body. So we had Mr. Patrick Houston, otherwise known as Project Pat, Tony Allen, Dr. Daffanie Darcell, and Mr.Montorius Herron come to the school today to discuss or to drop a few gems for students to talk about some of the obstacles that they had and being able to overcome. Mr. Allen was instrumental in talking about his journey from high school or adolescence, from high school to college. And so when he finally, of course, was drafted into the NBA, and he had a lot of obstacles. So they could talk about themselves and how they are the same people. They've been in the same seat as students. They had been a part of under-deserved communities, just making sure that they take their obstacles and try to create a pathway and utilize them. So it was a good, decent event, and the logistics were fine, but it was very long. One thing about our students is that they tend to have a little hyperactivity, so they have to move. And we're good until Mr. Houston decided to pass off the books in the middle. They both did say, "Hey, I thought we were doing Q & A? I want to sit down and have them ask me questions. I said, Well, I didn't know this. Would you like to come back? Tony and Patrick said yes, so I do plan on having them come back and have a small group or something more private conversations where he can have one-on-one discussions. And then Mr. Patrick Houston also said he wanted to talk to those tier-three students who have typically been to the court system. He wants to target those students and have conversations with them. But overall, it was a very busy day. So I was happy with the messages that were stated and the presenters as well. We had less parent participation than I would have liked or that Mr. Houston would have liked. But for the most part, the students were very attentive until we got to those books where everybody was saying they didn't have any books, so yes, but besides that, it was a long day, but it was very successful.

Greg Thompson:

Financial Update 10-17-2023

Financial Notes 

• Cash Balance: 

• At 9-30-2023: $2,361,881 (57.5 days of cash) 

• At 10-17-2023: $3,591,665 (87.4 days of cash) 

• In the previous board update, FCS was waiting on grant reimbursements of approximately $1.45M. That funding has been received.

School                                   MLK           Westside           Humes         Total

Budgeted Enrollment            540              330                  195              1,065 

Enrollment on which FCS      517.8           334                   190.3           1,042

is currently being funded  

Enrollment as of 10/16/23    495             295                     194              984

The average per pupil funding for FCS is approximately $11,590 per student (net of ASD fee of 3%)

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• 
  We are at the end of our first nine weeks and have started our second nine weeks. Report cards will be going out this Wednesday. We also finished our first mass review predictive assessment before the break, and the scores returned. The principals will be preparing their improvement plans based on those results. So those are some essential data points for us academically. To understand where we are, where the students are, and the capacity to move them to proficiency by the end of the year, where we need to push in. So they started analyzing that data, but again, it's extremely premature. They just got them yesterday. So we will know more and be able to report more once they have a chance to look at that and can present some plans to us. So, that part is solidly underway. 
• 
  I did want to report on our last walkthrough, and I didn't ask Dr. Clark to speak on this. I'll make one quick observation: we have some weightier matters to get to in the board meetings. However, we did have an instructional walkthrough with the MCLs walking through all the schools together. And a reflection on my part is that the work and the quality of work they did was very high. It was obvious that they were owning that information in a way that was different from how they did when we were using instructional partners to do the walkthroughs with the MCLs and school leaders. And I want to credit Dr. Clark for pushing them that way and getting them prepped and ready to go. To stand up to that level of scrutiny. The part that I was most impressed with was holding up a true mirror to themselves and their teachers around what instructional looks like for our kids. And let me stop there and ask Dr. Clark if there's anything that she might like to add on there. 

Dr. Lawanda Clark:

• 
  Thank you, Mr. Lawson. I agree with everything you said.
  The assistant principals now, along with MCLs, have continued to do walkthroughs in the building. So, the spirit of walking through the buildings being reflective of the practice that they're seeing is alive and well in FCS. I was excited to hear today that they are still doing unofficial walkthroughs gauging where teachers are. Quite often, we look at where our students are academically, but sometimes, we don't want to look hard at what teachers can do. And so the MCLs, along with the assistant principals and the principals, are digging into what our teachers know how to do and don't know how to do, what they can do well, and how we can support them to impact their practices, which will ultimately impact student outcomes. So, Mr. Lawson, as always, thank you for your support and drive. The MCLs are excited this year about the work that they're doing, and I'm excited for them as a team. 

Dr. Bobby White:

• Given that we're going to have one school next year. We have to have a different network model slash organizational model. And I have folded it into a slash-school model. I am in the process of having individual meetings with everyone on the network team, as well as Dr. Peterson, to help everyone understand where we are and what we're doing moving forward. The driver behind this is how many dollars we have to compensate staff somewhat outside Westside, the actual school model. That said, Mrs. Pearson, Greg, Lawson, and I. Of course, Mrs. Pearson and Greg did yeoman's work as it relates to the bulk of this work, but based on the numbers they've given me, what I've decided to do is to create a different model at Westside to keep as much of the talent that we have in our organization as possible. So, we will not have MCLs next year at Westside, and we will not have an assistant principal. If everything goes the way I anticipate it to, I'm going to use network staff who are currently doing those roles as a network, keeping us compliant in those areas. I will attempt to compensate them in a way where they will be willing to stay on board as directs school support inside of the schools as well as network support as we think about what the next steps are. So one of the things you want to avoid doing when you are an organization that is downsizing but who has the goal of eventually starting another school is to lose all of your talents. When opening that second school, you need more talent because everyone is left in. So I am excited about the potential of this model, where essentially, there will be three leads at the middle school, and each person will be in charge of a specific area that they are again school-based but network-based all at the same time. People don't understand that. And of course, Mrs. Pearson knows because we had one school before. We still are a small district because we still need the support that a district school would have. We need someone to handle our ACES department's compliance issues. We can't depend on a teacher to do that at school. So you have to have somebody at your organization that does that. Well, to be able to do that. Mr. Lawson and I thought through how we keep our talent and again have these school-based things taken care of, with us being compliant with the folks and just keeping the talent that we need.
   
• I will roll out this complete staffing model and plan the beginning of next week. I was going to do it today. However, I wanted to talk to each team member individually about where they stood regarding the plan before I had a general overview conversation. I try my best as a leader and servant to make sure I'm thinking about how everyone feels. To do this, I can't present a plan to the group without individuals being very clear about what part they play in it; in my mind, it doesn't sit well with folks you care for and serve with. We know some necessary decisions will be made. We've talked about this as an organization to team members early in the year when we recognized we were going to be and we all wouldn't be back next year. We will be as supportive as possible to figure out everything we can do for those of us who may not be back. Also, there are some team members that, because of what they do, we will see if they can contract work with us. It's one thing to pay someone $75,000 and give them $20,000 in benefits. That's $90,000. But it's another thing to be able to give someone a $40,000 contract to do some similar work. That is a significant saving for us, so what I'm explaining is to help the board understand that Mr. Lawson and I and Mrs. Pearson have been thinking through this to exhaust all options of what we can do to keep as much talent as possible with an eye towards building towards for the future. I am excited about the potential of writing a charter in the spring of 25 for an alternative school model. Of course, you guys will have to allow us to do it as a board. That's different from anything anybody's doing in Memphis, and it is, of course, under the Frayser Community Schools Network. The only way to be able to do that is to keep some of the talent and keep as much of the talent as we currently have on our team to help us work through those kinds of things. And so I'm pretty excited about those necessary conversations we will have within the next week. And yeah, that's where we are. 
• And the in-between with Westside is we are still in the throes of conversations with Shelby County Schools about the purchase. We have submitted a bid, and we offered them $500,000. And truth be told, I'm still determining where we are with that right now. But I'm more optimistic about it than I was at our last board meeting because of some of the movement on the MLK front. Right, because now some of the things they were asking of us with the Westside building are no longer on the table as a part of the solution for MLK. And so, as a result, I feel like there's a pretty clean, clear path for us to be able to purchase Westside for the amount that we are offering, which is, again, you're one of those reasons why we need that cash flow. Mrs. Pearson probably has another way to purchase the building if we can't raise the money. I'm sure she's probably not going to spend $500,000 of our cash flow, and she'll figure it out another way, but that is still in the works. One of the things I always tell everybody during fall break is my time to make sure I'm at work because everybody's off, and so somebody needs to be around just in case something happens. 
• The architects needed to get into MLK Tony Brown, and I support it with that. I just spent some time meeting with multiple board members to help them understand the whole Westside process. You guys will be surprised how little the board members know. But the architects came back about a month ago and decided they would not be able to build the new high school while the kids continued to attend MLK. If you guys can remember, I have said ad nauseam that we applied for the charter to continue running the school until the new high school was built. We would run the school in the current building while the new high school was being built. I did not want the kids to experience that much change. We would be the ones there. We would navigate, help, and support Shelby County with what that transition looks like. God was shining down and looking at us, and we were not approved. The students at MLK will not be able to attend that building next year. But it is not our challenge. Because they are not our kids come July. The school doesn't belong to us anymore. But one of the things I'm doing now, and part of my role in all this, is making sure that the transition makes sense. So, for the folks I see on a call, like Ms. Perry and Mr. Cooper, I will have these conversations with you guys in the next week so that we can bring it to the staff. It hurts to say that the MLK kids will not be in at 1530 Dellwood next year. 

Mrs. Arlinda Cathey:

• Thanks. I appreciate that. And I know that this is a challenging conversation to have or an easy topic to discuss, given all the moving parts. One of the most important things we all want to stress is that at the forefront of these decisions is what's best for the students, their safety, and the quality of the environmental experience. We support you in the planning process and look forward to learning more information as you all continue to draft that out. I only had additional things on the governance piece that needed to be shared. I wanted to let everybody know that I will contact the Tennessee Charter School Center to receive some updates; this is generally the time of the year when we are working to satisfy our annual board training requirements, and I have not received much in my email about that. I'm not sure if they've shifted some information in terms of who they're sharing that with, but I will follow up because that is something we must ensure we satisfy every year. So I'll be letting you all know more about that. So you'll be on the lookout for emails from me about that. Also, I'll work with Candice as we reconvene our committee meetings and ensure we're clear. The hard part is, you know, committee meetings as we're also in the midst of transition. But I think the meetings are also a good space for us to provide insight and feedback, share strategies, and honestly partner with our school leaders on these topics. So, as more information comes to you about that, make time in your schedule to join, if at all possible, because we'll be following up on it. That's all I got, Madam President.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• As our Madam Vice Chair, Mrs. Cathey, mentioned, we plan to work together to discuss the meaning of the committee meetings this fall. 
  Regarding development, I've talked with Ms. Warren about the celebration of the FCS 10th anniversary celebration. And so she and I will be working together because I'm giving her a lot of information about potential venues and some fundraising ideas and/or goals. I am also working with her on the event planning committee. So, as we reconvene this fall, that would be the number one priority to discuss going forward. I did mention to her that I would attend that celebration. She would have to let me know of the day. So that's all we have for development.