Rochester Academy Charter School
Minutes
Board Meeting
Date and Time
Friday February 19, 2016 at 6:00 PM
Location
Portland
Trustees Present
D. Calder, G. Aktas, J. Santos, M. Gedemenli, W. Middleton, Y. Bilgic
Trustees Absent
M. Guler
Guests Present
D. Ozcan, M. Demirtas
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
M. Gedemenli called a meeting of the board of trustees of Rochester Academy Charter School to order on Friday Feb 19, 2016 at 6:00 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
G. Aktas made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 01-15-16 Board Meeting on 01-15-16.
D. Calder seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Academic Excellence
A.
Directors Report
353 students.
Meeting with town of Greece about locating new school building-some issues but resolved in favor of locating the school there.
We still have a planning board review.
We need to employ an architect for the renovations: Mr. Demirtas recommends using the landlords architect since he knows the building and has a reasonable fee. Hourly fee of $97/hr.
The architect will provide an estimate for completing the planning board review and the board will vote via email:
Estimate is due next Friday, February 26th.
Estimate is due next Friday, February 26th.
Supreme court will have to approve changing the new location (a church) to a school.
We will need to hire a hazardous material consultant to review the new location: We have taken three bids, lowest was $15K.
Our lease agreement will need to include an escape clause if environmental mitigation is excessive.
We also need to hire a consultant/project manager to oversee the renovation process.
Star Test results continue to show improvement, and appear to be on track to meet the state standards.
Data meetings are having a big impact on student performance.
English results for 8th grad are showing 31% proficiency or better; we do not yet know how this will track to the state exam since this is the first time we have used the program.
English test results for 7th graders are showing 27% proficiency or better, again we don't know how this will track to the state exams.
For honor role assembly of the middle school, James Sheppard came to talk about his life
for high school. Regent Norwood talked about college.
for high school. Regent Norwood talked about college.
B.
Vote on Environmental Contractor
J. Santos made a motion to approve the hiring of Envoy Environmental to do the survey of the new school property.
Y. Bilgic seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
III. Community Outreach/Development
A.
Results of January Meeting
Reviewed current RACS partners; Monroe Community College, action for Better Community, Foodlink, SUNY Oswego
Identified potential Partners for future: Various Local Colleges, Community Organizations, and Companies; potential locations for student internships, etc.
Investigate the possibility of establishing a RACS Foundation to solicit and handle donations from the community.
Some of these tasks can be accomplished by Mr. Demirtas, others will be delegated.
We might consider hiring a full or part time person who can manage community outreach and social media.
An alumnus or alumna would be a very good candidate for such a position.
IV. Finance, Facilities & Audit
A.
Finances Review
Bulk of expenses are Salaries, followed by insurance/medical, payroll taxes, Computer equipment, and Rent.
We have received 65% of our anticipated income and expended about 60% of our anticipated expenses.
We currently have about 1.3 million dollars in the account and should finish the year with about $800k in the bank, which will allow for new building expenses.
Landlord of the new school property has provided estimates for renovation of the property-about $950K.
Finance committee recommends that we close our Chase bank account and merge it with the Citizens bank account.
We have a $200k Cash Reserve, $170k for building expenses.
We will be applying for a $900k loan.
Total cost for the new building is estimated at $1,270,000.
We will be applying for a $900k loan.
Total cost for the new building is estimated at $1,270,000.
We will begin loan application process soon.
The cost analysis shows that we will have substantial savings paying for the renovations ourselves with a lower rent (approximately 2 million dollars over 15 years) The school attorney also believes that we have made the right decision in terms of accounting and legal responsibilities.
B.
Vote on Finance Committee Recommendations
G. Aktas made a motion to Vote to approve the Finance Committee Recommendations.
D. Calder seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
V. Other Business
A.
New Hires List
Phys Ed teacher Margaret Smith resigned and was replaced by Robert Cocilova.
G. Aktas made a motion to approve new hire list.
D. Calder seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VI. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:46 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
W. Middleton