Alliance College-Ready Public Schools
Minutes of a Quarterly In-Person (Via Skype) Conference Meeting of the Board of Directors of
Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4
Friday, February 26, 2016
The quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors of Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4 (the “corporation”), a California nonprofit corporation, was held at 12:30 PM on Friday, February 26, 2016.
Attendance for school board directors and guests present and absent was as follows:
Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4
Board Members Present: Board President, Howard Lappin, Dale Okuno, Sarah Ouchi, Mynor Mendoza-Teacher, David Barba-Teacher, Manuela Chaidez-Parent, Rosario Mejia-Parent
School Staff MembersPresent: Darron Evans- Principal, Nancy Chavez-Parent Engagement Specialist
Alliance Staff Members Present: Howard Morales-Data Analyst, Mike Krutz-Vice President of Finance, Laura Galvan-Director of School Development and District Liaison, Maynor Garcia-IT Director, Ivan Ramos- Parent Engagement Assistant and Mary Louise Silva-Director of Parent & Community Engagement
Board President, Howard Lappin, called the meeting to order at 12:30 PM
The role was called and all present were welcomed.
The minutes for December 4, 2015were reviewed. A roll call vote was taken. The following board members approved the minutes:
●Howard Lappin
●Dale Okuno
●Sarah Ouchi
●Mynor Mendoza
●David Barba
●Manuela Chaidez
●Rosario Mejia
Mr. Howard Morales asked school board members to briefly review the PowerPoint presentation entitled, CASSPP Performance Data: A Fresh Look, 2014-15, Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4.In December we compared how students at your school are performing on the CAASPP assessment compared to the neighboring schools. Now we are going to compare your school with other schools in California, including top-quartile schools (25% highest performing high schools). CAASP is the new testing system used to monitor how students are progressing on the common core state standards and to determine if they on track for college level coursework.
Slide 2 describes the CAASSP’s student performance bands, which are as follows:
●4 = Grade Level Standard Exceeded
●3= Grade Level Standard Met
●2= Grade Level Standard Nearly Met
●1= Grade Level Standard Not Met
Our goal is to ensure Alliance students score a 3 or 4. If a student gets a 4, it means they will most likely meet EAP status and are ready for college-level work. If a student gets a 3, it means they will most likely receive conditional EAP status and are not fully ready for college level work but can be placed in AP or Honors course work.
The staircase on Slide 3 is a visual depiction of Alliance’s vision for student achievement. In our first decade of existence we measured ourselves against the neighboring schools, moving forward we will compare ourselves with all schools in California with the goal of preparing students to be top quartile performers.
Slides, 5 and 6demonstrates how students at Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4 performed on the 2014-15 CAASP. CAASP results are as follows:
●37% of 6th graders of have met or exceeded the standards for ELA
●15% of 6th graders have met or exceeded the standards for Math
●39% of 7th graders of have met or exceeded the standards for ELA
●30% of 7th graders have met or exceeded the standards for Math
●53% of 8th graders of have met or exceeded the standards for ELA
●21% of 8th graders have met or exceeded the standards for Math
Slide 7 compares API Decile scores versus CAASSP Decile scores for Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4 and demonstrates how well the school has transitioned to the Common Core State Standards. A Decile of 10 refers to the top 10% highest performing schools and a Decile of 1 refers to the lowest performing schools. The data shows an API Decile of 4 compared to the CAASPP ELA Decile 6 and CAASPP Math Decile 5. An increase from API to CAASSP means the school has successfully transitioned to the Common Core.
Slide 8, 9, 10 (CAASPP Decile) provides cutoff scores for students who have received 3s and 4s in ELA and Math compared to other schools in California.
For additional support, please refer to the glossary found on the second to last slide.
Mr. Mike Krutz asked school board members to refer to the PowerPoint presentation entitled, Budget Overview, Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4.
The information presented in this report is specific to Alliance College Ready Middle Academy 4 and is intended to provide board members with an in-depth look at the school budget in terms of revenues sources, types of expenditures, and school assets.
Slide 2 (Source of School Funds) is an Alliance wide average detailing different sources of school revenue. Slide 3 (Use of School Funds) is an Alliance wide average detailing how school revenue is utilized. Slides 4 and 5 contain a glossary of terms regarding different types of revenue sources and other terminology.
Highlights of school revenues include:
●Slide 6 (Revenues- Private Grants and Federal)- 14%of the school’s revenue comes from private and federal sources
●Slide 7 (Revenues-State) - most of the school’s revenue comes from the state at 73%
●Slide 8 (Revenues Local and Other) is funding received from the County of Los Angeles and from sale of equipment/supplies and school fundraising which make up 13% of the budget
Highlights of school expenditures include:
●Slide 9 – (Salaries and Benefits) 56% of the school’s budget is spent on teacher salaries and benefits and is the largest school expenditure. By 2020 the school’s contribution for STRS (certificated staff retirement program) will increase from 10% to 19%.
●Slide 10 (Expenses, Books, Supplies and Sub-agreement Services) 13%of school’s budget is used for books and supplies, field trips, the school’s lunch program and Special Education
●Slide 11 (Expenses – Professional Consulting Services & Facilities) 27% of the school’s expenditures covers professional consulting services, facilities, repairs, and other leases; this includes a 7% management fee (services and support provided to the school from the Alliance home office); a 1% LAUSD oversight fee and SELPA fees for Special Education
●Slide 12 (Monthly Budget – Operations, Depreciation & Interest) 4% of the school’s budget is spent on operations, housekeeping and interest
●Slide 13 is a summary of what we have already discussed (school revenues and expenses) including surplus funding. For sustainability purposes, total revenues should exceed total expenditures. The school has a surplus of $87,748.
Principal Darron Evans shared that students at CRMA 4 are using MyOn (an online personalized literacy program) to increase lexile scores. All teachers at CRMA 4 have made a commitment to serve as a literacy teacher and are encouraging students to read. Consequently, students are reading more and are doing so independently. Mr. Evan’s shared that his goal is to ensure that 90% of students at CRMA 4 are reading at grade level.
In Math, Mr. Evans shared that the school is working on building student’s conceptual knowledge of Math to help increase student performance.
Lastly, Darron told the board that he is very proud of his school’s academic accomplishments. As part of LAUSD’s oversight visit on February 25, all teachers were commended for their highly effective teaching practices.
Howard announced that we will not have a closed session today but we will host a closed session at the June meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM