E. Mew and R. Keogh gave their updates for the month of July and August. 

• R. Keogh said "typically, we don't necessarily make a budget versus actual reports during the August board meetings, just because one month of budget versus actuals are not necessarily helpful to anyone that might be on this call. So, just by way of the financial updates we've been working on your annual audit close. The audit with MMB is scheduled to take place the second week of September. We do plan on having your books transferred over to them right around labor day weekend.
• Federal grants applications for both the ESA program, which is typically your federal grant allotments under titles, 1, 2, 3, and 4. And also, your third round of federal stimulus ramp, the ARP, is both due on August 31st. So, we've been working with Melissa to get those grant applications squared away, and we should have those submitted to the state education department by this weekend, which is good.
• Second stimulus application through round two was approved by the state. We should receive an upfront payment of 20% of those dollars.
• R. Keogh shared that Malik and Melissa also been working with them as far as fleshing out what a five-year budget does look like inclusive of our growth targets and our marketing plan, which the passive consulting team will be submitting with the renewal applications. So, we went through several iterations of the five-year financial model, just developing staffing plans.

M. Russell shared his monthly updates starting with our mission statement. M. Russell said "Every single thing that we put out in the school on the website that Nora has, everything we do is always grounded on three pillars: rigor, self-advocacy, and community. And as we go through any decisions that we go to, we think, "Are they in line with our three pillars?" And we believe, if we're in line with our three pillars, we'll be able to achieve our mission. And so, as we go through this charter concept, and there's lots of different pieces of it that are procedural and protocol… One is to make sure that we're staying rooted in the mission and the three pillars. And most importantly, the kids and families that we're serving. That is at the base of all the stuff that we do. And as we do that, I want to make sure that that's always front of mind"

 

N. Clancy gave an updates on the renewal. She shared "The application essentially is two big pieces. One is a narrative where you get to talk about all of your accomplishments in the past charter term, and for Nuasin it's a really short period of time, starting in the first year of the current charter term, which was 2019-20 up until now. Nora Clancy: So the narrative is a 30-page document, it's been drafted, it's been sent out for review and the leadership team is continuing to review and make tweaks. Although the bulk of it is there and ready to go. We're just in the editing phase now. Admissions policy is next on the list. This was something that we had Susan Briggs review as part of her review of school policies. And the policy that was in the charter most recently updated in 2019, Which is when the school added preferences. It lacked some of the standard sections that admissions policies have, as well as a description of the school's use of SchoolMint, which is the software that most charter schools in the city use to run their lotteries. And it connects with the Common Application where families can submit one application to many charter schools. So we updated the admissions policy based on Susan's suggestions. And essentially there is no material changes, it's just clarifying language about the process and adding some of the standard language that was not in the original policy.

K. Davidson gave the monthly updates. 

• Professional Development Institute- Teachers and staff have been prioritizing on the 3 pillars, Rigor, Self advocacy and Community. We have been diving into many sensitive topics to adjust staff back to In-Person.
• Teacher and staff members have been adjusting back to in person and
• Scholar Orientation- It took place today August 26. Tomorrow, August 27 we will be hosting the second session. Families were super excited to be back in school!  
• Covid Safety- Masks will be worn at all times. Dividers will be installed on all desks. There are cleaning sections in each classroom.

M. Alston updated the board on July and August Updates. She shared that "over the summer and through September, it continues to be very heavy with reporting. Reporting that we'd never done before because of the way that we have taken attendance and other things because of COVID and the city and state meeting, other data points.  In regards to academic operations, we continue to push through on multiple phases of edits on the scholar handbook like those of our school council. Finishing up classroom libraries as we start school. And then, tech upgrades, which we also talked about it a few, but we also have a technology person in the building full-time, which we've never had before."

E. Chen shared that their have been some challenges with rescheduling but the team will be meeting next week. 

No updates. 

No present public members.