The Intergenerational Schools Board of Directors Held Jointly with TIS, NWIS & LIS Wednesday, August 19, 2015 Near West Intergenerational School 3805 Terrett Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113 Board Attendance: NWIS TIS LIS Mark Saffran, Chair Present Present Present David Atton Present Present Present Diana Starks Present Present Present Lee Trotter Present Present Present Andy Male Present Present Present Lynn Phares Absent Absent Mark Charvat Present David Merriman Present Molly Wimbiscus Present Erica Adlakha Present Mike Swearengen Present 8/9 7/7 5/6 Quorum for NWIS, TIS, and LIS Meeting is called to order at 6:10pm Public Comment Public comment was invited but none provided. Staff: Brooke King Cathy Whitehouse Molly Toussant Janelle Horton Andres Perez-Charneco Emma Monaghan Lauren Onda Olivia Harmon Iliam Cortes Nancy Szilagyi Guests: Mark Michael Stephanie Kuplinski Brian C. Knight Penn Berens Jill Miller Alan Rosskamm Angie Neeley Organization Executive Director, IG Schools Chief Educator, IG Schools Principal, NWIS Asst. Principal, NWIS Operations Director, NWIS NWIS Junior Cluster Teacher NWIS Title 1/Math Teacher NWIS Primary Cluster Teacher NWIS Spanish Teacher NWIS Primary Cluster Teacher Organization ODE (LIS sponsor) CMSD (NWIS sponsor) ESCLEW (TIS sponsor) Finance Committee COO of BCS CEO of BCS Schools Treasurer Consent Agenda a. Minutes from July Meeting b. Shared Staff & School Bill Backs c. Contract Actions d. Purchases Over $5,000 Ms. Adlakha (TIS) requested Minutes from July Meeting be moved off of the Consent Agenda pending further review and correction. One Motion to Approve All Items on Consent Agenda (Except July Meeting Minutes) TIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second--David Atton NWIS: Motion David Merriman; Second Lee Trotter LIS: Motion David Atton; Second Lee Trotter Motion Approved Unanimously Request to amend the July minutes to accurately reflect that all motions and votes occurred outside of Executive Session, and not during. Motion to Amend the July minutes: TIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second--David Atton NWIS: Motion David Merriman; Second Lee Trotter LIS: Motion David Atton; Second Lee Trotter TIS, NWIS, & LIS Abstention: Diana Starks (not in attendance at July meeting) Motion Approved
BCS Board Representative Report None given at this meeting Chair s Report Mr. Saffran stated that a goal for board meetings was to have them end at 8:30 pm. Succession Planning Committee Enrollment Committee No Report given. See Executive Director s Report Finance Committee Outreach and Community Engagement Committee Executive Director s Report Ms. King reported on the start of the year at all three sites and the continued effort to move to site based management in the schools with strong teams of Principal, Assistant Principal, and Director of Operations. So far, everything was going well. She then asked the board to consider adjusting the 2015-2016 board calendar, back to meeting on the 3 rd or 4 th Wednesday of each month due to the availability of financial reports, certain deadlines, and the staff s timelines to obtain necessary board approvals for smooth operation of the schools. Members asked her to submit an alternate calendar and agreed to move the September meeting to the 23 rd. Motion to change the September 2015 IG Schools Boards Meeting from September 2 nd to September 23 rd TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Andy Male NWIS: Motion Molly Wimbiscus; Second Lee Trotter LIS: Motion---Andy Male; Second David Atton Motion passed unanimously Ms. King then reported on enrollment. TIS and LIS are both full but, at meeting time, NWIS still had 9 open K spots with waitlists at the higher grades, but she also showed that classes in those clusters, particularly junior cluster, were already oversized. Mr. Charvat asked if it is normal for there to be a wait list bubble like this. Ms. King said that yes that was common since KG parents were likely to try their home school first, whereas parents of older children are generally seeking an alternative after a period of dissatisfaction. Dr. Whitehouse then commented that NWIS also had little attrition at higher grades. Ms. King presented data on offers versus declines at NWIS. Out of 23 recorded KG & 1 st Grade declines, half were due to transportation and/or location issues, a quarter due to having a sibling on the wait list, and a quarter due to getting a spot at either Campus International or another private school. Ms. King differentiated between the capacity number of 206 and the budgeted number of 200 and asked the group to consider having 2 goals: to get to budget first; then to get to capacity. Should NWIS only reach budget, it would mean that when students leave during the year, they would have to fill those spaces. Should NWIS reach the
206 capacity, this would be overfilling at the beginning so any losses throughout the year would not be replaced. She cited several failing charters schools in the near west/ohio City neighborhood and felt that increased schoolspecific marketing (as opposed to network-focused), combined with highlighting NWIS being rated in the top 5 Elementary Schools by the Cleveland Transformation Alliance, an effort that could be supported by NWIS parents, would yield the 9 KG s needed. Dr. Wimbiscus cited that such efforts need to be diverse and centered on the local population and wanted BCS enrollment to know this. Motion for the NWIS board to formally request the BCS Enrollment department launch a NWIS-specific, neighborhood focused marketing effort. NWIS: Motion Molly Wimbicus; Second David Merriman Governance Committee Motion to have Penn Berens act as BCS representative to the IG Schools boards. TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Andy Male NWIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second Mark Charvat LIS: Motion David Atton; Second Andy Male Motion to approve a revised Kindergarten Age Enrollment Policy TIS: Motion Erica Adlakha; Second Mark Charvat NWIS: Motion Andy Male; Second Lee Trotter LIS: Motion Andy Male; Second Lee Trotter NWIS Motion to amend CMSD sponsorship contract so it accurately reflects grades served at NWIS (K-8) NWIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second David Atton FERPA Discussion Dr. Whitehouse and Ms. Adlakha presented on the setup of a joint testing system across all BCS schools for NWEA testing. Because of the architecture of the system, any school staff member in the BCS network, could access student files at any other BCS school. They were concerned this would be in violation of FERPA law. Dr. Whitehouse suggested to all other school leaders that each school have its own portal but the consensus, as well as consult from BCS attorneys, was to have one joint site and have all users sign a release stating they would only access data in good faith. Dr. Whitehouse and Ms. Adlakha were not comfortable with this for access and control reasons. Jill Miller, COO of BCS, reiterated the consensus from the other 9 BCS schools and their boards. All three school sponsors said they would not be comfortable with the schools entering into such an agreement and suggested individual school access (not even model access). Mr. Saffran asked the board to allow Ms. Adlakha, and Dr. Whitehouse to continue to work with our legal counsel on a solution with BCS and authorized them to propose a solution to launch that would then be approved at the September board meeting. Board agreed. Motion was not deemed necessary. Facility Committee No report given Human Resources Committee
Personnel Actions TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Lee Trotter NWIS: Motion David Merriman; Second Molly Wimbiscus LIS: No Actions to Approve Motions passed unanimously Motion to accept new OTEPS Teacher Evaluation Framework for the 15-16 school year. TIS: Motion-- Erica Adlakha; Second David Atton NWIS: Motion Molly Wimbiscus; Second Andy Male LIS: Motion Andy Male; Second Lee Trotter Motion passed unanimously EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion to enter executive session: to consider the appointment, employment, or compensation of a public employee or official. NWIS: Motion David Atton; Second ; ROLL CALL VOTE passed unanimously LIS: Motion Andy Male; Second David Atton; ROLL CALL VOTE passed unanimously TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Lee Trotter; ROLL CALL VOTE passed unanimously Passed unanimously Executive Session Begun at 7:49pm Executive Session ended at 9pm CLOSING VOTES/MOTIONS Motion to authorize expenditure, not to exceed $3500 for the purpose of engaging a consultant to provide research to be conducted at the direction of the Contract Task Force TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Erica Adlakha NWIS: Motion Molly Wimbiscus; Second David Atton LIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second Andy Male Passed Unanimously Motion to Adjourn: LIS: Motion Lee Trotter; Second Andy Male TIS: Motion David Atton; Second Erica Adalkha NWIS: Motion Molly Wimbiscus; Second David Atton Passed Unanimously Meeting adjourned at 9:15 Next Regular Board meeting: Wed September 23rd 2015 at 6:00 pm at LIS Minutes prepared by Andres Perez-Charneco, TIS/NWIS/LIS
Signed: Mark Saffran, Board Chair: Signed: