Lighthouse Community School specializes in highly individualized, flexible, and intensive strategies to meet the educational needs of youth in the child welfare system. We take pride in employing unconditional positive approaches to foster a safe, stable community that develops effective social skills and enhances academic progress for students whose current or ongoing needs are best met in our small school.
Lighthouse Community School Board Meeting Minutes – October 24, 2016
A board meeting of the Lighthouse Community School Board was called to order by David Greenfield, Board Chair, October 24, 2016 at 6:00pm at Lighthouse Youth Services, 401 E. McMillanStreet, Cincinnati Ohio 45206.
Board Members Present: David Greenfield, Carolyn Campbell, Fran Unger, Louise Gomer Bangel, Nancy Shepardson,Garien Gatewood, Chris Harris, Tatianna Rozhnova, and Dan Pfau
Staff: Judy Oakman, Doug Mangen (filling in for Nicki Hagler), Shannon Kiniyalocts, Daniel Trujillo and Paul Haffner
Welcome and Approval of Minutes.
David Greenfield welcomed all board members and staff. Board members and staff reviewed the minutes from August 15, 2016. Chris Harris moved and Louise Gomer Bangle seconded a motion to approve theminutes. The motion passed unanimously.
Financial Report:
The Treasurer, DougMangen(filling in for Nicki Hagler), presented the Board members with copies of July, August, and September’s financials (Attached).
The unrestricted cash balance decreased in September from $324,735 to $319, 436. This is primarily due to the ramp up of school expenses/start of school while still operating on summer funding from ODE.
The net assets are holding steady. September’s financials ended with Net Assets being $718,938. The total cash balance is at $731,875.
Doug Mangen presented the five year forecast (see attached). LCSis anticipating costs to increase while revenue remaining flat, due to enrollment expectations.
The state will be designating categories for budgeting that will require more detail moving forward. Doug Mangen presented a working draft of what this may look like for FY 17. This will be an object code and activity/function based budget (see attached).
Louise Gomer Bangel moved and Fran Unger seconded a motion to approve the financial report for September, FY 17, and the 5 year forecast. The motion passed unanimously.
Student Census Report:
Student enrollment was budgeted for 61 FTEs this school year. September’s enrollment indicates 59.48 FTEs and October’s enrollment is closer to 61. There appears to be a discrepancy in the October 15th pull from EMIS, as it is designating students in the wrong category. It counted category 3 as having three enrollees and category 2 as having two enrollees. Daniel Trujillo indicated that he would look into this further.
A sample from the December 22, 2016 count will be taken to determine if LCS will be granted a designation as a Dropout Prevention and Recovery program . The requirement is that 50% of students must be age 16 and above at the time of enrollment. Youth that were enrolled at age 15 and under, but turn 16 during their high school years at LCS, will not be counted. LCS will need to be at 50% to continue this designation. This is a difficult task since all the students who were less than 16yrs of age last year came back. Although they are 16 now, they do not count.
The Special education count date was moved from 11/1/16 to 10/22/16. There are several students that were not included in this count, as they are scheduled for their IEP meetings this week. We don’t know why ODE made the change. There is no appeal process.
For the students that were counted on 10/22/16 as having an IEP, this could increase costs for the school, as there is increased revenue that is dependent upon SED designation. The students that were not included in this count but have this designation, will receive the services indicated, but not the revenue attached.
2016 Report card
Daniel Trujillo presented the 2016 report card to the board. The NWEA Math and Language Arts assessment is the new ODE state assessment for grading Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Schools performance. Per Ohio Department of Education (ODE)standards, LCS needed to have 50% of its students tested in the fall of 2015 or the school would get an automatic “Does Not Meet Standards”. ODE did not inform Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Schools until February of 2016 of the requirement or the consequence. There is also no appeal process. Therefore, Lighthouse Community School received a “Does not meet Standards” for the overall rating. The remaining metrics of the report card weremet. The participation rate for 2017 school year was increased to75% for this year. LCS anticipates meeting this standard and is on track to do so.
ODE Requirements for Charter School Sponsors and Drop out Recovery and Prevention
House Bill 410
Daniel Trujillo gave a brief summary of House Bill 410. Daniel presented that this bill would takeaway the school’s ability to suspend or expel for a student that is truant. An intervention plan will be mandated for schools to be compliant. After 60 days, schools need to file truancy charges.
Daniel reported that there may be legislative initiative to separate drop out and recovery schools from regular school to differentiate needs of students.
Teacher Positions
Lighthouse Community School hired a teacher intervention specialist, Michael Arellano at $19.83 per hour. In addition, Heidi Palmer was hired as a social worker at $18.69 per hour, in preparation for new requirements in House Bill 410. Nancy Shepardson moved and Chris Harris seconded a motion to approve the new hires. The motion passed unanimously.
There has been no progress in identifying a math or a physical education teacher. Daniel will be approaching CPS in hopes that they may assist. Daniel reports that there is a teacher shortage at this point, thus has limited applicants.
Policy Approvals:
None for this meeting.
Volunteers:
Daniel reviewed volunteers and projects/events that have occurred. All volunteers continue to be excellent and of great benefit to the students and staff of Lighthouse Community School. GE would like to schedule an event with LCS to accommodate 102 volunteers. Lighthouse Community School is finding a way to accommodate this request.
Daniel reminded Board Members and staff of the need to attend the Sunshine Law training yearly.
Updates since last Board meeting:
Daniel Trujillo gave a brief report on the Ohio Department of Education’s School Sponsor Rating System (SPR).
There are 3 area components that are rated under the SPR. Each component can earn a total of 4 points. They are Academic Performance, Quality practices and Compliance. Since Carpe Diem, the other school that CPS sponsors received an F on their School Report Card, CPS was awarded 0 points for Academic Performance. (LCS’s report card is not used because we had more than 50% special education students.) CPS was awarded 4 points for Compliance and 0 points for Quality Practices. These items were highly subjective. Although the items that were scored are in place, the rater determined that the items were not “quality”.
According to the SPR scoring rubric 0 to 2 = Poor, 3 to 6 is Ineffective, 7 to 9 is Effective and 10 to 12 is Exemplary. The overall score for CPS is a 4 and therefore should be ineffective.
But there are two additional business rules that ODE came up with:
Rule1 A sponsor can score no better than “ineffective” if it receives 0 points in any component.
Rule 2 If a sponsor scores 0 in any two components, then the Overall rating is “Poor”.
Because of Rule 2, CPS gets a “Poor” rating. CPS intends to appeal this rating on a variety of grounds.
If CPS is unable to successfully change this “poor” rating to an “ineffective” rating, CPS will immediately lose their sponsoring authority and Lighthouse will need to find a different sponsor for the Lighthouse Community School. Since LCS is a Dropout Prevention and Recovery School, it is unlikely that another sponsoring entity would take LCS as a school. At this point ODE would take over sponsorship until May of 2017 (end of contract with CPS). Lighthouse Community School would have to negotiate a contract with ODE in order to stay open past this school year.
If CPS wins the appeal they will have an “Ineffective” rating and willhave two years to bring their score up to effective. This is the outcome we are hopeful for.
Daniel requested approval for the renewal fee for the G.R.A.D.S. Coalition, our Trade Association, not to exceed $6000/year. Carolyn Campbell moved and Fran Unger seconded a motion to approve this request. The motion passed unanimously.
Quorum Issue:
David Greenfield reviewed attendance and the function of the board and the need for attendance to meet the minimum for a quorum.
David reported that Lighthouse Community School works exceptionally well, thus the board is looking for other ways to be hands on. Dr. Greenfield gave an example of the board making connections with businesses to allow youth to gain experience with community employment. Students take a career inventory assessment upon enrollment. Daniel will forward to the board a list of occupations/careers that students score high on.
Some board members have volunteered and those positions have been helpful in engaging the students to further understand needs. Daniel Trujillo will schedule an event that will allow board members to engage with the students.
Kent Friel has requested to re-engage as a board member. David Greenfield will contact him surrounding his interest.
Upcoming events include:
11/4/16 Fall Dance
11/5/16 Grandma’s Greens Cook Off
12/16/16 GE’s Holiday Event 9am-2pm
Student Council is seeking donations of toiletries to the Senior Centers- Daniel will send out this list to the Board
Board Meetings dates for 2016/2017
Meetings will continue on the 3rd Monday of every other month and Lighthouse Youth Services at 401 E. McMillan, 45206 from 6pm-7:30pm
December 19, 2016
February 20, 2017
April 17, 2017
June 19, 2017
Dr. David Greenfield moved and Garien Gatewood seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Minutes respectfully submitted by, Shannon Kiniyalocts and Daniel Trujillo