Board Members Attending: Kyle Peck, MargaretHopkins, Mark Toci, Theresa Shay

Community Members Attending: Jalynn Woleslagle, MJHogan, Katharine Dixon, Donna Fischer, Brian Rowan, Paul Fischer,Kosta Dussias, Winnie Bolinsky (via telephone)

I. Call to Order

- Kyle called the meeting to order at 7:06 PM.

II. Open Discussion

- MJ has sent the notes from the April 19th Parent Meeting to Winnie. The notes will be sent to parents tomorrow via Friday folders and email with revisions based on Winnie's input

- In regards to the structural changes of the Board Meeting Agenda, Donna asked if community members would be able to participate in discussions beyond the "Open Discussion" portion. Margaret clarified that this portion of the meeting would simply be an opportunity to address items that are not on the agenda. All people present at CLC Board meetings will still be allowed to participate in all discussions.

III. Routine Approvals

- Margaret has yet to receive from Ann the monthly budget reports for the fiscal year, which were requested at the March 28th Board meeting.

A. Approval of the Minutes

- Margaret moved and Mark seconded approval of the March 28, 2002 Board Meeting Minutes with the following revisions. Jalynn Woleslagle and Paul Fischer were added to the list of community members in attendance. In section c of "Old Business", a sentence fragment was deleted. The motion passed.

B. Payment of the Bills

- Kyle said that most school boards approve payment of bills in advance, not after-the-fact. Ann has it setup so that the Finance Committee reviews the bills each month and can report to the Board on the accuracy of bill payments and have the Board approve the bills. MJ brought up a concern about a billing error in the past. Kyle said that the Finance Committee would provide oversight and rectify any errors made. Winnie will also look at those bills when she is working full-time as the CAO. Margaret requested that a list of the bills paid be presented at each Board meeting for public record. Winnie agreed and also believed that Ann needs to be given the authorization to pay bills immediately and not wait for Board approval. There was general agreement on both of these issues. As a result, the Finance Committee will bring an itemized list of bills to the Board each month. Margaret requested that an "expense approval policy" be made from this discussion. Kyle agreed to write this policy and place it on binder website after approval.

IV. Student Advisory Committee Report /Questions

- No student representatives were present at the meeting. MJ reported that a group of students who are building a sign for the school would like to know how they should get their proposal approved. These students would like to receive approval before the next Board meeting. Kyle suggested that the Board appoint a group to make that decision. Mark suggested that the students present a complete plan with a full-size replica of the sign at the next Board meeting. There was general agreement on Mark's suggestion.

V. Communications

- There were no communications that needed to be reported. MJ requested that action items for Board meetings be posted publicly ahead of time. Kyle will try to get an agenda roughly set a week ahead and post it on the CLC website. Parents will also be emailed when the agenda is posted online.

VI. Action Items

- There were no action items on the agenda.

VII. Information / DiscussionItems

A. Agenda Structure

- Kyle looked into the Sunshine Law and reported that CLC is doing well by the letter of the law. He found that using the CLC website to advertise Board meetings is appropriate. Kyle suggested that a sign inside the lobby would also be helpful. Kyle will email a summary of the law to Board members. Notifying parents via email and newsletter will also continue.

B. New Teacher Representative to the Board

- Theresa has asked to step down from Board at the end of April. Teachers have already voted Katharine Dixon as the new teacher representative. This position is interim. Katherine will be fulfilling the rest of Theresa's one-year commitment.

- Margaret requested a future discussion about if there should be an assistant teacher representative on the Board. Also, Margaret would like to discuss parent representation on the Board. These discussions will be on the agenda for the June meeting of the Board when Winnie will be more available.

C. Finance Committee Report

- The Monthly Enrollment Report, Monthly Budget Report and Draft Budget for the 2002/2003 school year were distributed. In the future, these will be included in a Board packet that is given to Board members a week in advance of the meeting. These will also be emailed to Winnie, and the school will invest in a better speakerphone for the next Board meeting.

Draft Budget for 2002/2003 Fiscal Year - Paul, Ann, and Costa went over budget numbers for next year and created a budget to file with PDE. Paul reported that the proposed budget for next year is "lean", and Ann has worked hard at finding ways to find money and make money work with the projected number of students. 125 students were projected at an average of $7,200. 95% is being budgeted for expenses. MJ thought that 120 students were supposed to be budgeted. Paul said that this budget is primarily for state reports and is not set in stone. No school policy decisions have been made as a result of creating the proposed budget. Also, the format of this budget fits legal regulations but will not be good for making school decisions. Mark believed that these decisions would need to wait until the school year was over. Margaret requested a budget meeting for informational (not decision-making) purposes. The members of the finance committee and Ann will set a date with Margaret.

Enrollment and Budget Reports - Student enrollment is down to 120 students. This will result in approximately $17,000 less revenue than budgeted. Cash flows are fine and there is a projected cash balance of $67,894 at the end of the fiscal year in June.

Financial Concerns - Ann passed along some concerns for Kyle to share. First, Ann would like to make sure that the expenditures from the CSRD are acceptable to the CSRD people. Kyle reported that the school has moved more of the technology and infrastructure expenses to the first year of the grant while moving some consulting and professional development expenses to the next two years. Kyle has met with a CSRD reviewer and feels that this is not a problem. Kyle will work with Ann to send a letter to CSRD people in writing about how CLC will be changing expenses.

Another concern is that the bank might get uneasy because of the school's reduced enrollment. Paul doesn't consider that a big concern as long as the school continues to pay the bank on time. MJ reported that the staff has been recently informed on the need to crackdown on expenses. As a result, the 8th grade students might not go on the All-School Trip. MJ asked the for the Finance Committee's perspective. Bussing is about $700 and Paul believes that Ann is being cautious so that money doesn't come out of the bank that might be needed for major expenditures. MJ requested more warning ahead of time so that the school could have reduced expenditures earlier rather than having to crack down suddenly. MJ also requested more detailed budget reports at Board meetings similar to those presented during the school's first two years. Kyle said that CLC has the Finance Committee to protect the staff from needing to monitor the detailed budget. Margaret asked the Finance Committee if there has been a cushion (capital for building renovations) built into budget. The Finance Committee reported that it has been talked about but not integrated into the budget or budget process. In the future, Winnie would like to take a serious look at budgeting process. Kyle and Winnie thanked the Finance Committee for their hard work.

D. Proposal for Second Student Representative

- No student representatives were present at the meeting.

E. Clarification of Interim CAO Authority

a. Ann would like to know what authority she has, as Interim CAO, over disputes. Winnie would like to be kept informed on disputes, but she knows that she cannot resolve disputes at this moment and agrees that somebody on site needs to make those decisions. There was general agreement that Ann will resolve disputed decisions until Winnie becomes the CAO.

b. What authority does the Interim CAO have to decide the termination of temporary, part-time employees due to lack of need? MJ had specific concerns about Ann's assessment of lack of need. Ann has told MJ that she feels Kate needs to reduce her hours. Kate is the current office support person who was hired after Glenn left. In addition to Kate, Rachel (an intern who will be leaving this Friday) has been helping out in the office. MJ requested that, at the least, Kate work from 8:30 - 1:30. Kyle believed that it should be the Board's authority to make those personnel decisions. After further discussion, it was agreed that Ann would have authority to oversee staff, while the Board would make decisions concerning termination of employees. As for staff disputes, Kyle recommended that individuals should approach each other first, then go to Ann if the dispute is still unresolved.

c. Ann would like to know if she should approve public notices. Winnie and Margaret agreed that another pair of eyes would be helpful. There was general agreement that Ann should review global communications before they are sent to the community at large. Communications within teams or pods do not have to be reviewed.

F. Enrollment and Recruitment Report

- MJ reported that 10 students are not returning (another 8-10 are questioning their return). 24 applicants were selected in the lottery and 14 have confirmed that they will be attending CLC next school year. 4 more applications have been received. MJ said that the way the charter is written the school should keep accepting students on a first come first serve basis after the first lottery, but class configurations have not been determined yet. Theresa suggested that an ordered list be made for applicants that do not fill the 24 spaces for the new 5th/6th class. The school should wait until class configurations have been made to officially accept the students on the list. Currently there are 23 students accepted for the 5th/6th class spots. MJ will draft a letter to applicants on the ordered list that says the school has spots available but has not determined for what grade they are and that the applicant will be on an ordered list. Winnie was concerned about the amount of time it will take to notify applicants that they are officially accepted and would like to come to an agreement soon on class configurations for next year.

G. Formal System for Parent Input

- Kyle handed out section G of CLC's charter application that details how the school would be assessed. Included in this section is the use of parent surveys. Kyle has developed a format and some general survey questions. These questions will be posted on a website and parents will be notified by email of when to go to the site. There was agreement to have the survey not contain a neutral response. The six response categories will be Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, Somewhat Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, and Very Dissatisfied. The survey will also include open-ended questions and a place for parents to submit questions that they would like to ask other parents. Winnie would like to hear parents' opinions about changing to a 2-year teacher cycle as soon as possible. Kyle will include this as the first survey and will place previous conversations about this issue on the website. Theresa also suggested including a monthly questions about students' social/emotional development. Kyle suggested that the school should develop a survey for students after the parent survey process has been established. For the moment, Winnie would like to get some baseline data from students before the end of school year.

H. Teaching Faculty for Next Year

- Winnie made a public announcement of teaching staff that have decided they will not be returning next year. These staff members are Joe Priddy, Theresa Shay, and Mike Weitzel. Winnie announced that the rest of the teaching staff is interested in returning. Mark clarified that his decision to return is contingent on the decisions to be made about classroom configurations, school configuration, salary, etc. Jalynn agreed with Mark's stance and believed that other staff members are probably in the same boat. Winnie will be meeting with the interested staff members as decisions are made. There was concern raised about the timeliness of these decisions. Winnie believed that the important decisions would be made by the end of June. Jalynn referred to the many unknowns surrounding the assistant teacher position and was concerned about assistant teachers losing their opportunity to find another job because they will not know the details of their job at CLC until the end of June. Mark said that he is accepting the risk of waiting until the end of June and he does not believe the school should be pressured to move forward on making decisions. Jalynn believed that possible changes to the assistant teacher job could be much more dramatic than changes to the job of a lead teacher.

I. Teacher Search Process Update

- Winnie reported that the school has received about 12 applications for positions next year. The next step will be to hold meetings to make decisions about school-wide changes, many of which are interconnected. The first step is gathering information, which will happen by receiving feedback from parents about grade level configurations (2-year teacher cycle). With this information in hand, meetings can occur before the end of the school year. Winnie is aware and sensitive about the timeliness of decisions but doesn't want to hurry into bad decisions. Also, a decision needs to be made as to who should participate in these meetings. Winnie will email Kyle with possible dates for these meetings.

J. "Tipping Points"

- Kyle read a book and will send everyone three pages from it that describe how little things can push you over the edge.

K. CSRD Update

- This discussion was held during the Finance Committee Update (section C).

L. Technology Plan

- This is due by April 30th and is not very far along. Kyle will do his best and get it in on time.

VIII. Adjournment

- Theresa received a standing ovation for her service to the school

- Margaret moved and Theresa seconded to adjourn the meeting. All were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 PM.