Vote to approve April minutes will be moved to next month 

Malik gave an overview of how the evaluation rubric was being developed:
- interdependent development process for all evaluations so that they are coherent
- aiming to make it not overly procedural, easy-to-use, effective
- General categories: description, state of the school at the time of evaluation, quantitative portion, self-evaluation portion, qualitative portion
- Quantitative performance concepts will use academic and other data and will include grade-specific metrics, including the following (subject to change, but these are currenly under consideration):
    1 - F&P data (reading levels for K-8): goal is 85% at or above grade level
    2 - math state test  
    3 - ELA state test (comparable targets to F&P)
    4 - "College ready" will be considered 80% of students with GPAs of 80% or above 
    5 - Interim Assessments (same 80% concept as above)
    6 - iReady (K-12): not a great test in itself but offers great benchmarking data because they are national, have multiple years of data, and offer lots of statistical analyses; this is our first year using iReady so how we use this data will take some fine-tuning
   7 - Regents + IAs: 80% pass rate; goal of 90%
   8 - "Exit tickets" on each unit: goals of completion rate of 90-95%; 75-85% mastery --> considering how to make sure incentives are properly calibrated for this metric
  9 - Student engagement: 95% attendance rate; 95% on time; 85% homework completion
 10 - Satisfaction surveys - 85% satisfaction rate
 11 - Staff culture - satisfaction, timeliness & daily attendance, attendance at PD days, etc.
 12 - leader/teacher performance: 4-point scale; target growth rate for teachers looking to improve skills
 13 - New K-2 metrics: reading levels, counting jars, etc.
  14 - Waiting a bit on high school with respect to securing a new principal, figuring out college admission/perserverence/success rates; SAT numbers (probably will target 1150), ACT (probably somewhere between 28 and 30)  --> need to align this with all other concepts

Malik is currently focusing on making sure that these indicators connect to the qualitative activities and experiences that students should be having; indicators should also be digestible and give an accurate read of real student success.

These are intended to be attainable, difficult-to-achieve goals that, when achieved, would yield a successful school with thriving students. Malik emphasized that it will be a multi-year process to achieve these goals.

Aaron emphasized that the Board is very keen to get trackable year-over-year data. Malik agreed emphatically and added that the school is hiring a data manager to ensure that the understanding and use of data is solid. He also wants to ensure that the school is tracking individual students from K through 12, which is an important advantage that the school should make use of to support and understand students' needs. 

Jessica flagged for everyone that in a normal year the ED evaluation process should start this month, but given Malik's recent onboarding and ongoing set-up process, the Committee will instead keep an eye on how to do a useful end-of-year check-in in the coming months. For the rubric under discussion, the goal is to have it fully operational starting with the upcoming mid-year evaluation at the end of the 2021 calendar year. Gov Comm will revisit a proposed timeline and process for the evaluation next month.

Reviewed draft policies for: 

• Grievance
• Complaint
• Public Comments at Board meetings
• FOIL

- Policies are for Nuasin, so will have an effective date of July 1; thus, these can be approved at the June board meeting as part of the full handbook approvals that we will do.
- Need to make sure all policies are cohesive with one another
- These policies have been updated by Susan in cooperation with Melissa and Malik, sometimes significantly, in comparison to older inherited policies from Lighthouse
- Jessica will share some aspects with the full Board next week to help prepare them, so that the June meeting can run smoothly (since June will be a particularly busy month)

1. Need to pick a date: AB will touch base with Malik, Dan & Nora to get a date on the calendar (was June 12 last year)
2. Will start with a "State of the School" from AB, anuj, and malik
3. Clarification of Committee annual planning and what Trustees can expect from each Committee
4. Board goal of getting systems in place to develop the Board, especially as individuals
5. Will continue within the framework of our strategic goals from last year

Ellen asked whether it would be in person or remote; AB said that this would need to be a conversation with all board members to see what makes sense, but probably at least partially remote since many people are still in a remote world.

AB emphasized that Committee chairs need to spend time figuring out what happened over the last year and what next year should look like.

Aaron gave an overview of how the retreat would go:
1. date needs to be set - will be in touch
2. Aaron, Anuj and Malik will give a "State of the School" 
3. Will evaluate Board progress on Strategic Goals so far and, keeping the same framework, will look to set goals for the coming year. There will be a particular emphasis on getting Committees running functionally and taking the full lead on Board work. This will also involve putting in place better systems to ensure individual Trustee development, the Board leadership pipeline, etc. 

 

Jessica highlighted that the Governance Committee was responsible for making sure that the Board has the right processes and shared metrics and goals in place to ensure that strategic and individual Trustee goals are set and engaged with effectively--for example, providing clear blueprints or tools for onboarding, mentorship processes, learning goals, and how Committees set clear plans and involve their members. She suggested that in the next year, the Governance Committed should focus on supporting:

• individual accountability mechanisms/supporting Board members' growth
• committee-level accountability
• integrating DEI across the board in all our operations, from individual growth metrics, committee-level and board-level operations, and how we set up that culture and expectations for the school

 

Last month it was flagged that some group discussions needed to happen between school staff, Ellen, Shanta, and Aluta as a gating item for moving forward with fundraising plans. Malik and Kurt have been working toward this goal. Jessica mentioned that as we review annual strategic goals at the retreat, it would be really helpful if possible for the Board to have an update on what work has gone toward this. Malik said he thought that would be possible. He also mentioned that the goal is to start with low-hanging fruit and to solidify a fundraising approach sooner rather than later. 

Jessica proposed for everyone's consideration that we move the format of the Strategic Goals update to be a touch-base for group discussion rather than individual Committee updates. We can return to this idea in next month's meeting.

Handbooks and policies will need to be approved next month.