The agenda was reviewed by A. Bothner.

K. Davidson shared his vision is to see scholars have a successful transfer to college. He shared that his relationship with the school is beyond family, its building the community. It reflects who we are and who we are trying to be as the new school, Nuasin. 

M. Russell reflected on the situation that happened with one of our families and how impressive the staff became supportive for the family. 

M. Russell updated on the priorities and action items for his April 30, 60, 90  Plan. 

High School: 

Org Chart:

Testing:

Culture:

Leadership: 

Transition to Nuasin Next Generation:

M. Russell shared the org chart and what it will possibly look like for next year. 

K. Brisseau asked how many new positions will be open and do we have the budget for it? M. Russell responded with the budget will be finalized soon so he will share everything when it's ready. A. Bothner shared that they also meet weekly and speak about the budget. The academic team really needs a lot of support and is optimistic with the strategic plan for the school. The goal is to have support for K-12 as a whole. 

K. Shabazz asked if the college readiness person will have a team? M. Russell responded that they will have a data specialist to support and another member from the High School. S. Pressly asked why the team chose to have one AP for High School especially with all the work that needs to be done? M. Russell shared that he would like to have a strong Principal and AP that will be able to support the High School on their own. He also said that if we start to structure scholars from the lower school when they get to High School they will be prepared for greatness. 

M. Russell shared his High School Principal Protocol draft. He wants to get a great person who will be willing to grow and build something great for the school community. The draft really enforces the culture and traits that the candidate must have in order to succeed in the position. Pre-work will be provided in order to hear the candidates ideas and track record, as well as his 30, 60, 90 plan. He would like for the candidate to also lead a PD for the teachers and the leadership team to see how he connects with everyone and how well he can lead. Before the final round, he would for the candidate to interview with the board so everyone can get to know him. 

M. Russell also shared the Executive Director Evaluation Rubric. 

T. Bryan asked if we could have a network placed to find a candidate instead of searching for someone. He also shared how the board can support M. Russell through the process to find an excellent candidate. 

K. Davidson gave his updates on College Metrics, Attendance and test prep. 

College Metrics:

Attendance: 

State Testing: 

E. Chen asked if there's enough staff members for those testing days. K. Davidson responded that we are very rigid with safety and are in a strong place for this plan. Trainings for the full K-12 staff will be held to prepare for back ups for testing and other classes. 

After spring break, the school will hold covid testing for both scholars and staff members for extra precaution. 

M. Alston shared the staff retention overview Dashboard.

J. Boulet asked if there's historical data from the previous years of retention? M. Alston shared that she is looking into that because Lighthouse was in charge of that. 

S. Pressley asked with the staff meetings that were held with the uncertain members, what were their outcomes? M. Russell shared that it was mostly on compensation and an opportunity to speak to him. Overall, the meeting ended positive and reassurance. 

Operations Dashboard-Academic/Business/Talent Portion

K. Perez shared the monthly enrollment numbers, 482 scholars for LCS and 200 scholars for CPA. K. Perez also shared that as for the applications for potential scholars, we have about 1300 for this month. April 1st is the deadline for all applicants. The lottery will be held on April 14th. She also shared the comparison of 2019-2020 and the present year applications. 

K. Perez also shared that there were no new updates for facilities or the roof top ceremony for this month. The FDNY is still working on our case for the license. 

A. Bothner shared that hopefully we can have the roof top ceremony next year to kick off the start of school. The ceremony is what is needed to fully transition from Lighthouse. 

S. Pressley asked a question for Melissa on her covid reporting. She asked how much time does covid work take from your day to day between you and Kisha? M. Alston said probably 30 to 40% of the week. Every week. S. Pressley also asked are you guys staying later because you can't focus on your actual duties? Give me an example of a day, if you were to run into an issue. Because I know when I came into school this week, I was flagged as red. So if someone flagged as red, what does that look like? M. Alston replied that it's hard to predict because it's something that you just don't know it's coming. I think we joke when it's too quiet, we're like, "Wait a minute, it's quiet. What's going to happen?" I think it's like a mindset shift because this is the process now, I don't want to speak too early, but this is how we get to that hundred percent, no negative tests for COVID when we're testing in the building. We don't even have to test in the building. We've tested out of the mandate to test in the building. So we don't have to test.

M. Alston also shared it's something that we may spend 10 minutes on it one day and the entire day, another day. I think it's just so unpredictable. But I think we're committed to doing that because we see that it's been successful and we have had a successful return to in-person. And yes, there are days where there are, 17 people out, that's real. But I think we have created a protocol and dashboard for the academic team to really support them with the decisions that we need to make and providing some coverage and communicating what that looks like in a dashboard that they can go to daily and open and understand how the different pieces are coming together so that we can be successful. And that was through growing pains because when you have 17 people out, I think we scramble and we have to try to figure it out but it's important to be resilient and adaptable and as we continue on, as we're learning and things make sense. And I feel that the opening while challenging has been successful.

E. Chen shared that K. Davidson covered the education committee monthly report during his K-12 updates.

A. Khanyile wanted to bring to the board's attention about the families that we serve that may be having housing issues and would like to provide them a space where they can figure out the documentation and how to sort out the situations about them losing housing. Obviously we are interested in ensuring that the school itself is marketed and we also want to have a presence in the community. This will also be a way that we know what is going on with our families and the community that surrounds us.

J. Boulet shared that a committee meeting should be held to discuss further details. A. Bothner and M. Russell will discuss on a plan to move forward with this project. 

S. Pressley shared that we continue to have weekly transition calls with 4th Sector to iron out any issues from last month to this month. For the PPP applications, we are still waiting on Chase to open that up. 4th Sector keep us updated weekly on the application.  Also,  the investment policy, will be reviewed and minor updates have been made, but we are not going to submit the amendment to the board until May.

E. Mew updated on the February financials. 

R. Keogh updated the remainder of the finances with a dashboard. The dashboard shows both the current and previous year buckets for each section. The per pupil decreased but it has remained flat with all the current events going on. R. Keogh provided a snapshot for the year and we are still strong. 

R. Keogh also shared that M. Alston and his team are building the budget together for the following year. The per pupil rate is estimated to raise for the next year and the second round of Trump stimulus is also coming in soon. All this state funding will give a surplus that will be used through future years. 

The budget for the next year is complete and there is a meeting being held on Monday to take a deeper look. The budget will be presented to the board in the May board meeting for approval. 

The 990 Draft was prepared by the auditor and it's in the document folder for viewing. 

There are no members of the public in the meeting. 

J. Boulet shared that they will continue to discuss in the executive session on the Mid Year Principal Evaluation.