A. Bothner reviewed agenda and the order that we will discuss all items in.

K. Brisseau read the mission and vision for Met and shared that this vision resonates especially now. She highlighted that Met educates the whole student, rather than just focusing on ABC's and 123's.

K. Davidson shared a brief update about the focus over the last few weeks is getting PDI up and running. Teachers joined August 14 for two weeks of online PD. The school has been spending lots of time on relationship building with an 85% retained team. A decent amount of PDI time has been dedicated to planning student orientation to ensure a strong start for students during this time of COVID.

The first week has gone well. The culture team has been working hard to make it fun for kids. In person orientation has been working out well with students coming in for half days. The school has been able to account for all but a handful of students, which is not out of the norm compared to other years. There are some students who are still away on vacation, but they have still been attending classes from wherever they are.

K. Davidson highlighted Aminata's resume who is the new 8th grade English teacher. She just joined last week. Jennifer W. whose resume is also there resigned shortly after she joined. She had small children and was not able to commit to coming to work in person.

T. Williams has also been working on engaging students this past week. The students have been working on lots of social emotional learning and social justice activities. Seniors have been reviewing college requirements in light of COVID so they can move forward with applications. Structure has been given to teachers, but they are able to mold it based on what students believe they need.

Next week, orientation will begin, but there is still planning associated with this to make sure students are engaged for the full day. The week of the 8th, the team will be completely ready to move into instruction. This year, teachers will be creating a syllabus for students to follow along throughout the year, with opportunities for office hours with high school teachers. In light of the recent tragedy, the team has been working hard to keep students and staff happy and continue to connect with the family.

T. Williams thanked all of the board and the LHA family for supporting the high school through the tragedy and all associated with it.

CPA was down to the last two hires; Spanish and SpEd. It's been tough trying to get a good Spanish teacher, but a new teacher was recommended by a current staff member and he has been able to connect with students immediately. Our SpEd hire has 5 years of experience and she is a need addition to the team. She's been learning what SpEd looks like at Met. The school is fully staffed and there haven't been any recent surprises in terms of staffing.

Other resumes that have been presented are K-12 resumes, which are brand new hires or hires from other departments. K. Perez has come on as the Manager of Operations for the school. N. Cunningham is starting on Monday and is stepping into the (new) Manager of Academic Operations role to support with testing and the ed dashboard. He has extensive experience and is relocating from Minnesota. The school also has a new Director of Student Support Services. The role has been open for over a year and it's been really difficult to fill the role with someone who has all of the experience we need.

J. Boulet asked about N. Cunningham's perspective on coming into a different context and moving to NY.

T. Williams explained that although he's moving, the context he's coming from is similar in makeup to where Met is in the Bronx. His experience is really well-rounded and the school will benefit from his vast experience.

A. Khatiwada cosigned that where N. Cunningham went to school is renowned for the education program so he believes it could be a good fit.

E. Chen highlighted that the new DSSS will join the board meeting next month to outline the update on special populations.

E. Chen reminded the board that the summer school grading policy also needs to be voted on.

A. Khatiwada recommended that the board gets familiar with the ed dashboard. There shouldn't be anything new in it now, but the more familiar we get now, the easier it will be to understand later on down the road.

A. Bothner recommended that the ed dashboard be added as a standing item in the packet.

K. McGuire has no re-entry updates.

CPA had summer school for the first time this summer and CPA received guidance in July and the grading policy was created based on that guidance.

A. Bothner outlined that the grading policy was created to fill the gaps that existed after guidance was created by the DOE and other constituencies. This will allow CPA the opportunity to do the right thing for students in this particular case.

K. McGuire did an overview of the grading policy for all board members.

K. Shabazz asked if we were mandated to stay within recommendations by the state or did we have room to consider other avenues?

K. McGuire stated that we did not have autonomy in terms of the Regents waivers, but in terms of the grading policy, we did have autonomy. But the recommendation has always been to follow the DOE as closely as possible.

K. Shabazz highlighted that we should think about the autonomy we do have as a charter school to go beyond what DOE offers in the future.

J. Boulet asked if this policy will be where they're going to land for this year or are there going to be additional changes?

K. McGuire responded that there may be an evolution to this beyond January.

K. Brisseau agrees with K. Shabazz in that we do not have to follow what the DOE says to do. If we want better for our students, we should continue to think about what we can do beyond the DOE.

K. McGuire highlighted that the policy is a combination of state and DOE guidance.

K. Brisseau doesn't necessarily think it's equitable to take a weighted average of students grades through a pandemic and summer school grades.

A. Khatiwada suggested that changes and suggestions to policies moving forward should be addressed through Ed Committee.

E. Chen suggested that the board can read through it and get feedback to K. McGuire by Tuesday, September 1.

A. Bothner asked if we are time constrained in voting on this policy?

K. McGuire would like to vote on this prior to the next board meeting so the school has time to reconcile grades. This should be finalized before the end of the next week.

A. Khatiwada asked if we could give the Ed Committee oversight to approve the final policy, rather than the entire group.

S. Pressley asked if there are guidelines that can be given to the board since everyone is looking at the policy with different experience.

K. Brisseau stated that there really is no logical reason to take an average of last year and summer school grades because they were thrown into chaos.

M. Dorrie asked T. Williams what she thinks is best.

T. Williams outlined that the grades that were averaged originally just weren't fair and ended up leaving a lot of kids as failing. With this policy, we were able to pass students who were on the cusp and performed well in summer school and consider students has Incomplete who did not attend at all.

K. McGuire agreed that Q3 and Q4 were indeed tough, but this policy is tied to the Regents waiver. So we want to make sure it's equitable for all.

A. Khatiwada suggested that E. Chen host an Ed Committee call late Monday or early Tuesday to vote on this.

E. Chen agreed and will send out a Doodle and the board agreed to have it complete tomorrow (8/28) by noon.

A. Khatiwada asked if T. Williams is okay with the policy as it is written.

T. Williams said yes.

M. Alston reported lots of movement across all of the grades, currently exceeding the charter amendment goal of 52 students per grade, with the exception of 12th grade, which currently has 50 students.

K. McGuire noted that there were not changes that were made from last month

S. Pressley outlined that the document is clear

K. McGuire introduced A. Ames to the whole group.

No members of the public.

M. Rousseau reviewed the financials.

The school seems strong and the team has not seen anything that should be a cause for concern.

S. Pressley said the financial report during the committee call was similar and there are no questions.

C. Barnes exited the meeting at 8PM

M. Rousseau outlined that the audit has begun and last week was field work. We turned in everything they asked for and they are working through our documents.

The auditor is very professional and everything seems to be running on time. In the October board meeting, we will likely have all we need to vote.

M. Rivera let the group know that Met is waiting for the Department of Buildings to approve and sign off on the final rooftop documents and then will need to apply for the C of O.

The door-locking inspection and FDNY inspections were passed last month.

Some leaks were identified in the gym. Contractors were called to repair them next week. There is also a leak in the old part of the roof and it will also be repaired soon. M. Rivera will pass on updates as they come.

M. Rivera said the goal is to have the roof open when students are back in school full time.

K. Davidson asked what he can tell students.

M. Rivera let K. Davidson know that the roof cannot be occupied, but they can look at it.

S. Pressley asked if there is a warranty on the roof since we already have leaks

M. Rivera said that we are currently still in construction so the contractor is responsible for everything until sign off is completed. After that, there is a one year warranty on the project.

Postponed until further notice.

No significant changes, just added first day of school and hybrid dates.

J. Boulet introduced the executive dashboard and quickly reviewed the Board Strategic Plan. The board came out of the June meeting with 5 strategic priorities. Although the committees own these, all of these are full board endeavors in certain ways. J. Boulet invites the board to take a look at the strategic plan again and think about what it means for specific committees and moving these forward. Conversations about these initiatives will be happening this upcoming month.

A. Bothner introduced the board project dashboard which will be a standing agenda item moving forward. This will give everyone a space to update the group on board strategic initiatives and it will be updated with committee updates monthly.

A. Bothner put forward the final consulting agreement for the full board vote. A. Bothner named that there may be a slight concern regarding the type of insurance the consultant holds and ensuring the consultant has all appropriate background checks. But, they were highlighted and discussed within the agreement.

A. Bothner A. Khatiwada spoke to the consultant to begin to build a relationship and understand what he would need from Met to usher the transition over the next few months. The Consultant asked if he could come together with the board and senior leadership for vision setting. A. Bothner proposed Saturday, September 19, 2020 for the board to come together with the Consultant for a 3-hour vision setting session.

A. Khatiwada let the board know that the entire board does not have to join Saturday, September 19 if it's not possible. The Consultant just asked for a representative portion of the board to be present. A. Bothner suggested at least having quorum.

A. Bothner asked for attendance for Saturday September 19.

K. Brisseau - Yes
J. Boulet - Yes
A, Khatiwada - Yes
T. Bryan - No
T. Williams - Yes
K. Davidson - Yes
M. Alston - Yes
A. Khanyile - Yes
M. Dorrie - Yes
K. Shabazz - Yes
E. Chen - Yes

Enter into Executive Session for personnel matters.

Invitees:
K. McGuire
T. Williams
K. Davidson