Inspire School of Arts & Sciences Board of Directors

July 10, 2017 Page 4 of 4

Inspire School of Arts & Sciences Board of Directors

Regular Session – 7:00 pm

Monday, July 10, 2017

Held at Inspire Classroom IC-6

335 W. Sacramento Avenue Chico, CA

The mission of the Inspire School of Arts and Sciences is to provide high levels of learning and support within a personalized environment that allows students to explore their interests and develop their talents.

Minutes

Open Session:

1.  Call to Order – 7:05 pm

·  in attendance Dan LaBar, Gail Holbrook, Jarrah Myles, Doris Luther, Linda Hovey, Kathy Brazil, Rob Reddemann, Jana Gosselin, Kate McCarthy

2.  Roll Call

·  Gail Holbrook, Linda Hovey, Rob Reddemann, Kate McCarthy

3.  Public Comment

Kathy Brazil –

o  daughter who’s a senior, incoming 9th, student that’s a 6th grader.

o  Longtime homeschool parent, LCAP participant.

o  Were evacuated in February, kids ended up missing a lot of school, at the end of the school year ended up feeling like the kids weren’t supported academically or emotionally.

o  Would like to encourage “mindfulness” training for teachers and to include in Inspire’s curriculum.

4.  Consent Calendar

4.1 Consider Approval of May 22nd, 2017 Minutes (attachment 1)

o  Removed from consent calendar. No quorum

4.2 Consider Approval of May 30th, 2017 Minutes (attachment 2)

o  Removed from consent calendar. No quorum

4.3 Consider Approval of June 12th, 2017 Minutes (attachment 3)

o  Removed from consent calendar. No quorum.

4.4 Consider Approval of June 26th, 2017 Minutes (attachment 4)

o  Removed from consent calendar. No quorum.

4.5 Consider Approval of Donations (attachment 5)

4.6 Consider Approval of Expenditures

Gail motions to approve expenditures and donations, Kate seconds. Kate aye, Gail aye, Linda aye, Rob aye. Approved unanimously.

5.  Teacher Report - presented by Jarrah Myles

·  Staff retreat – spent first day working with Nileen Verbeten the consultant helping staff develop a five year strategic plan for Inspire. Very refreshing. Lots of positive feedback.

·  Second day a session on mental health and a conversation on new grading initiative.

o  Overall feedback on new grading policy was mixed. No decisions made, lots of trends noticed.

o  Everyone agreed to try nine strategies related to campus wide grading policy.

o  As and Fs both went down. Profound change in students capitalizing on second chance opportunities.

o  New policy is impacting special education students in a negative way. While they’re working to learn (or re-learn) past material, class continues to move forward. They feel like they’re falling farther and farther behind.

6.  Principal’s Report

6.1 Hiring update –

·  New Charter Business Officer – Doris Luther awarded the position.

·  Marcus Hopkins new full time Counselor for 2017-18.

6.2 Office closed July 17 – 21 for cleaning.

6.3 Vision Workshop follow up. August 16th –

·  Identifying blocks and barriers, creating strategic plan, implementation (steps to be taken).

·  This action initiated by the Facilities Committee.

·  August 3rd and August 9th will be two follow up meetings with the Facilities Committee.

7.  Closed Session – 7:35 begins

7.1 Public Employment: Interim Principal

8.  Reconvene Public Session 7:50 pm

8.1 Public Report on action taken in Closed Session, if any

·  No action taken

9.  Action Items

9.1 Consider approval of Principal Compensation Comparability Study (attachment 6)

·  Linda moves to approve the Compensation Comparability Study as presented, Kate seconds. Approved unanimously. Kate aye, Gail aye, Linda aye, Rob aye.

9.2 Consider approval/ratification of At-Will Employment Contract for

Interim Principal, Eric Nilsson.

·  I am required by law to indicate the Interim Principal employment agreement we are about to consider contains a base annual salary of $103,000. The agreement also provides for a 220-day work year with 96 hours of sick leave per year and the same health benefits received by all other full-time certificated employees. The salary is wholly in keeping with the compensation comparability study the Board has received.

Gail moves to approves employment contract for Eric Nilsson, Linda seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.3 Nominate and approve Corporate President of the Inspire School of Arts & Sciences Non-profit Benefit Corporation.

Kate moves to officially appoint Eric Nilsson as the President of Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, Gail seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.4 Consider approval of the Education Protection Account (EPA) Spending plan for 2017 – 2018 (attachment 7, 8)

·  EPA funds for teacher salaries

Linda moves to approve EPA plan for 2017, Kate seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.5 Consider approval of contractual agreements

9.5.1 Frontline Education Solutions (Substitute management system) (attachment 9)

·  Sub system software. Hoping to work with CUSD to use their employees for one year or even one semester. Unsure how the decision will go and don’t want to end up without enough time to implement.

Kate moves to approve, Gail seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.5.2 Logiic, Inc. (IT Service and retention agreements) (attachment 10, 11)

·  Jeff will no longer be employed by Inspire, instead Logiic will be available to service Inspire IT issues.

·  Inspire will pay for CUSD IT services for 6 months and will run parallel services then will leave CUSD.

·  Jeff doesn’t think we can support going entirely to Amazon cloud services. Targeting October to have AWS in place. CUSD is an enterprise environment – they remotely service devices.

·  Jeff knows the school very well, can be institutional memory for his team.

·  Teachers concerned about tech support on campus.

·  Questions about pricing. Over 12 hours/month, prices goes to $90/hour?

·  How is time billed? What about partial hour visits?

·  Trial period is in summer. Classes won’t be in yet. Won’t represent reality.

·  What are risks if we don’t approve this month?

o  Many initiatives that are being researched will come to a halt.

o  Schoology, sub systems, technology that we do over the summer.

o  Imaging systems in the summer.

o  First 12 hours are $167/hour.

·  15 hours/week vs. 12 hours/month is too vast a difference.

·  Want trial period to cover at least a month of the school year to make sure it works for the school.

·  Inspire is an educational client. Hoping for support. Pricing may be high for being under contract.

·  Other similar companies that could provide services include:

o  Greg Morgan Company

o  Stratti

·  What if Jeff’s folks work remotely from IC-15?

·  Possibility of on-site support.

·  Staff will bring back to board.

9.5.3 School Services, Inc. (Fiscal guidance and metrics) (attachment 12)

·  Organization that does a lot of research on school finance.

·  Discounts on trainings.

·  $3120 / annually

·  FCMAT is the other organization that provides school budget info.

Kates moves to approve, Gail seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.5.4 Consultant Agreement – Jennifer McQuarrie (16-17) (attachment 13)

·  ’16-17 contract will go to CUSD Board also. Covers services provided in previous year.

·  HR attorney.

·  YM&C has been slower to respond to questions.

Linda moves to approve, Kate seconds. Approved unanimously. (attachment)

9.5.5 Consultant Agreement – Jennifer McQuarrie (17-18) (attachment 14)

·  Up to $7500 for 2017-18 school year.

·  2017-18 contract will not go through CUSD.

·  Contract on CUSD letterhead - only because form hasn’t been changed over.

Kate moves to approve, Gail seconds. Approved unanimously.

9.5.6 Consultant Agreement – Nileen Verbeten (16-17) (attachment 15)

See June 12, 2017 minutes for approval.

9.5.7 Consultant Agreement – Nileen Verbeten (17-18) (attachment 16)

·  Meeting facilitation on August 16, 2017.

Linda moves to approve, Gail seconds. Approved unanimously.

10.  Announcements

·  Still looking for recommendations for k-12 educator to serve on Inspire Board. Someone with Inspire history, someone from a feeder school. Process includes providing background or bio to Rob, they can reach out to talk to Eric or Dan. Charter teachers.

·  Have we ever considered having a student representative on the Board?

·  Could unofficially invite students and see how it goes.

·  CSUC PE program will not be offered Fall 2017. Will bring it back revitalized in the Spring 2018.

11.  Adjournment 8:52 pm

a.  Next meeting 8/14/17