Download minutes PDF Minutes Approved

Rochester Academy Charter School

Minutes

Board Meeting

Date and Time

Friday January 21, 2022 at 5:30 PM

Location

Trustees Present

C. Sampson (remote), D. Calder (remote), J. Santos (remote), M. Guler (remote), W. Middleton (remote)

Trustees Absent

None

Trustees who arrived after the meeting opened

J. Santos, M. Guler

Guests Present

D. Ozcan (remote), J. Doyle (remote), M. Demirtas (remote), M. Stevens (remote)

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

W. Middleton called a meeting of the board of trustees of Rochester Academy Charter School to order on Friday Jan 21, 2022 at 5:40 PM.

C.

Approve Minutes

D. Calder made a motion to approve the minutes from Board Meeting on 12-17-21.
C. Sampson seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

II. Academic Excellence and Equity

A.

Monthly Topic

Advocacy Efforts on Transportation

  • Working closely with NY Charter Schools Association and parents

Mission & Key Design Elements Review

Organizational Capacity Review

  • We are waiting for the Charter School Office's evaluation report to review these items

Enrollment Plan for 2022-2023 school year

  • We will enroll 816 students for the 2022-23 school year by adding fifth grade with 66 students.

Select a new Committee Chair

  • This will be discussed in the AEC meeting.

B.

Committee Meeting Minutes

III. Community Outreach & Development

A.

Report

M. Guler arrived.

Mr. Demirtas presented a slide show sharing what has been going on at RACS this past month.

 

Coffee with CEO/CAO was one of the events.  Some board members suggested scheduling it at different days of the week and different times to work around parents' work schedules to get more parents involved.

B.

Committee Meeting Minutes

IV. Finance, Facilities & Audit

A.

Enrollment

We are close to our target.  Ms. Zehra and Ms. Moore have been active in trying to enroll students to make up for the decline last month.

B.

Financials

Demir shared our monthly Financial Summary.

C.

Salary Increase Proposal

J. Santos arrived.
M. Guler made a motion to approve the salary increase to attract and retain teachers.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

D.

General Contractor Change Order

M. Guler made a motion to approve the first change order.
J. Santos seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

E.

Architectural Change Order

Items will be discussed in the Finance Committee before being presented to the board.  Ms. Sampson agreed to temporarily join the Finance Committee.

F.

Committee Meeting Minutes

V. Governance

A.

Nominating A Board Member

Due to the fact that Ms. Wright has been extremely busy, she has requested there be a pause on her nomination for a year.  She has completed all of her required documents.  The board agreed to honor her request.  They also expressed that she has been an asset to the Governance Committee.

The board suggested that we ask Saliha Al to be fast-tracked to become part of the board.

The board will search for someone with a Legal or Development background.  

B.

Committee Meeting Minutes

VI. Other Business

A.

Executive session

The board went into executive session.

B.

Employee Contract Decisions

C. Sampson made a motion to approve staffing changes as presented.
J. Santos seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

It was reminded that hiring and firing are the responsibilities of the school leadership team. The board has to approve the personnel changes. The board would like more information or content as to why a person is leaving and new hires such as their qualifications compared to other candidates. They also would like information about the impact of new hires on diversity overall. Moving forward we will implement these changes in our practices.

VII. Closing Items

A.

Board Meeting Evaluation

Pluses

  • We got through everything
  • We came up with good ideas - deligating to Finance committee
  • Getting more into staffing changes
  • Cheryl joining the finance committee

Deltas

  • We have to be careful with our words before we speak them out loud.

B.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
M. Stevens