Rochester Academy Charter School
Minutes
Board Meeting
Date and Time
Friday September 18, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Location
Portland
Trustees Present
D. Calder, M. Gedemenli, M. Guler, W. Middleton, Y. Bilgic
Trustees Absent
G. Aktas, J. Santos
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 Sep 18, 2015 at 6:02 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
W. Middleton made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 08-15-15 Board Meeting on 08-15-15.
Y. Bilgic seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Finance, Facilities & Audit
A.
Building Rent
The finance committee will make a recommendation on the rental of a new building
1701 Latta Road Building: Neighborhood is safe and has several other schools and a park around it. Property includes school building, convent, and old church (which will be converted to a gym)
Property owner, a tax exempt corporation; also owns other charter school buildings
Options include renting without paying any renovation costs, paying half of the renovation costs for reduced rent, or paying all of the renovation costs for a substantial reduction in rent.
Option three would represent a $3020 per month savings over our current monthly rent
Landlord of the current high school building does not want to renew our lease and also doesn't have a gym
Renting the building will give us a better physical environment and stability for the next 15 years
Maintenance costs will be substantially lower at the Latta road location
Our lawyer has indicated that the terms of the potential agreement are extremely favorable to us.
M. Guler made a motion to to move forward on the rental of the Latta building, checking with our lawyer and the Charter School office to be sure that we can legally pursue this course. The rental of the building under option three (option 3 is our first choice, 2 and 1 will be followed in that order if option three is not possible) will save us considerable funds over the 15 year period. Contract for option three will be submitted to our lawyer and the charter school office for their review and proposal.
W. Middleton seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
B.
Monthly Financial Report
370 students 61 employees
High Revenues are in line with budget
Mahmut suggested that we occasionally have a non-school employee verify that all paycheck recipients are legitimate.
C.
Budget Revisions
Current enrollment is 370 which is ten above our cap
Only 346 of our students are from the Rochester City School District
The long-term enrollment trend is good.
26 of our current enrollment come from other surrounding school districts
ELA and Math scores are low, but in comparison to other local schools we are doing fairly well
Charter School office always compare our rates to the state average, which is higher than the entire Rochester area
III. Academic Excellence
A.
Academic Excellence Committee Report
B.
Director's Monthly Report
Updated Strategic plan: Regents Exam scores are much higher than RCSD, our graduation rate is much higher than local and even state scores; four year cohort math and ELA scores are high
IV. 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 7:35 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
W. Middleton