Portland Village School, a Public Charter School

DRAFT

Portland Village School, a public charter school

Board Regular Session Meeting Minutes for February 20th, 2014

Meeting called for 6:33 – 8:44pm in Upper Grades Basement at PVS

PUBLIC MINUTES

Board in attendance: Ethan Medley (president), Autumn DeMet, Travis Southworth-Neumeyer, Allison Bernat, Mary Li, Don Marquiss, Atty Zschau, Chris Medinger, Nadia Dobraya

Board absent: Brandy Westerman, Becky Blumer, Rebeckah Castillo

Staff in Attendance: Paul Berg, Emily Saxton

Guests: Erica Banka, Annie Adams, Amy Thomas, Chuck Masi

Agenda Item 1: Call to Order, Opening Statement

Called to order by President Ethan Medley @ 6:33 pm.

Opening Statement lead by Don

Agenda Item 2: Agenda: Amend/ Adopt

There are no items added to the agenda for tonight’s meeting

Agenda Item 3: Public Comments and Questions

·  Parent speaks about her decision to withdraw her son from PVS. Her statement to the Board is that his needs were not being met; his IEP status was not sufficient for him to achieve grade-level reading. Parent does not feel there has not been any acknowledgement that he had to leave.

Mary arrives to the meeting at 6:40pm.

·  Another parent speaks in support of the above student, whom she knows very well. She shares her concerns about special needs not being met at PVS and offers help to better the special needs offerings at the school.

·  Allison thanks parents for speaking.

·  Atty explains that due to the regulations of Board meeting proceedings the Board cannot converse regarding and public comments made during the session. Other members of the Board express their deep regret at the loss of this student.

Agenda Item 4: Minutes: Review, Amend, Approve Jan. Board meeting Minutes

·  Allison clarifies a statement about the special interest classes being offered which will be offered to Grades 5,6,7, & 8.

·  A sentence regarding important hiring decisions being discussed at the Board retreat is struck from the Jan. minutes.

January Board Meeting Minutes are adopted.

Agenda Item 5: Brief Board Business

·  Ethan asks that the Committees respond about the items to be added to the parent survey in March.

·  Ethan asks that Board members share their plans about membership for next with him. He will be circulating information to Board and Staff about potential Board members for next year.

·  Ethan talks about last minute needs for facilitators for the Board retreat. He asks that the members respond about their attendance

·  Mary asks that Board members respond about their attendance to the Theater for the Oppressed workshop

Agenda Item 6: Principal’s Report

Paul starts his report by highlighting communications and community relations’ developments

·  A parent meeting about classroom placement for next year was held two weeks prior to tonight’s meeting. Comments gathered at the meeting will be included in the upcoming digest

·  The recent PVPS Finance Evening was an informative event presented by Travis, Cary, Megan, and Paul. Only a few parents attended, but the breakdown of how PVS manages it finances was informative; formatted with a slideshow about how money is obtained for the functioning of PVS.

·  Paul announces the upcoming Kindergarten Open house and decisions about which students will complete a second year of Kindergarten will be made as the First Grade Readiness Assessments are submitted.

·  The heating repairs are complete now & a leak in the roof is being addressed

·  3 no-school days due to snow to be made up. Staff development days will be given up in April & May, and school will end on June 12th instead of June 11th.

·  Parent- Teacher conference days are coming up in March (3/12-3/14). Hours have been extended to include early morning and late evening hours to accommodate parent schedules.

·  Recent information about applying for permits for open flames during occasions such as the Spiral Walk in coordination with the Fire Marshall

Ethan thanks Paul for sharing the notes from the Finance Evening

Atty asks about computers use for the Spring survey

·  Paul explains that computers will be set up for Parents to utilize for the survey during the three days of Parent-Teacher conferences

Agenda Item 7: Finance Report and Initial

Travis presents the Financial Updates

·  Initial Budget to be submitted to PPS this month

·  Finance report released later due to schedule constraints and workload

·  In the Black since January and nearly in the Black for months before

·  Budget for repairs and maintenance expanded

·  Continued communication about meeting scheduling for next year: may need to move Regular Board Session to the 4th Thursday of each month; Paul suggests waiting until June to change the Board meeting schedule so it can be synched with the upcoming school year and no evening events overlap

·  Financials were over on audit, there are no significant concerns

·  Finance Committee has estimated the budget for next year (3% contingence; 5%increased salary; 1% for equity fund). Adjustments to be made between now and May.

·  State School funds will yield a 1% increase which enables PVS to add 23 students to current enrollment (conservative estimate)

·  The Finance Committee will take a break and come back to look at the numbers anew; after future classroom placement discussions the budget will be appropriately adjusted and a revised report on how goal are being addressed will be circulated

Don asks whether PVS has any outstanding debt

·  Travis replies that there is no outstanding debt and adds that the advantage of leasing the building means that PVS will not have to use its own resources for repairs.

·  Travis mentions that there was positive feedback from the Finance Evening and hopes that this will create more interest in the future

Agenda Item 8: Board Development: Fundraising

Emily introduces an activity she prepared for the Board

·  There is a discussion about garnering more interest from community contacts and reaching out to acquaintances and friends in Portland and beyond to benefit PVS.

·  The issues that are most important to various members are discussed: grant opportunities, capital investing, political support, access, credibility, etc

·  Emily discusses her plan for correspondence with potential benefactors and asks for the Board’s support

·  Business cards/ Post Cards will be provided for members and teachers to provide information (contact and curriculum) about PVS.

·  Autumn states that it is important that any person(s) representing the school should have a consistent response to inquiries about PVS that is encompassing of the work that Teachers, Students, and Administrators are doing.

Agenda Item 9: Policy Bylaws Discussion and Policy KL

Atty submits Policy KL concerning the PVS public complaints policy

·  Atty presents the most recent revision of Policy KL

·  Paul shares concerns about the use of the word “shall” regarding the documentation of complaints by the administrator; he shares concern that this policy will require excessive and redundant complaints’ documentation.

·  Don says there should be a protocol regarding the ways complaints are handled and that written record of the issue of the complainant and how it was resolved

·  Travis thinks a level of distinction should be made; members are encouraged to put serious complaints in writing rather than becoming overly process oriented

·  Autumn says that requiring documentation be brought to board may filter out less serious complaints

·  Nadia comments that the gravity of a complaint is defined by perception, and, therefore, is not objective. She wonders if a process to define the level of seriousness of a complaint could validate or invalidate the complainant’s concern and escalate a potential situation

·  Allison points out that the Board does have the ultimate decision of whether or not they would listen to a complaint, and that it is the practice to err on the side of caution

·  Mary states that the level of discontent regarding this motion to accept the revised Policy KL calls to question whether it is ready to be voted on

·  A decision is made to add the words ‘in writing if necessary’ to the last sentence of the 5th paragraph beginning, ‘ The Board of Directors will have 30 days in which to respond…’

Motion: Atty moves to adopt the newly revised Policy KL regarding public complaints

Mary seconds the motion. All are in favor. None opposed. Motion passes.

Atty leads a discussion about Policy Bylaws

·  The track-changes version of the policy is discussed including important issues including; Terms of Directors (Article 1: Section4), Decision Making & Voting (Article 1: Section11), Vacancies (pg 14, Section4)

·  Board to thoroughly review these revised Bylaws and bring for further discussion and first reading at next month’s Regular Board Session. Motion to be made the following meeting (April Regular Board Session)

Agenda Item 10: Questions and Discussion of Committee and Faculty Reports

No questions or discussion of PVPA report for tonight’s meeting.

Faculty Report

·  Autumn distributes a letter from the organizer of Theater of the Oppressed and accompanying reading material and requests that members are prompt for the workshop and remain until it is over.

·  Paul agrees to look into the possibility of child care if needed for those attending the workshop

No questions or discussion of Fundraising Committee report for tonight’s meeting.

No questions or discussion of Executive Committee report for tonight’s meeting.

No questions or discussion of Policy Committee report for tonight’s meeting.

Site Committee Report

·  RSF meeting took place; RSF feels PVS’s current financial standing precludes it from being considered for financing

·  OSA meeting tomorrow

Agenda Item 11: Closing Business

The Board shares gratitude with Ethan for is dedication as President of the Board

Agenda Item 12: Adjourn

Regular Board Session for February Adjourned by President Ethan Medley at 8:44pm

Minutes respectfully submitted by Erica Banka and Nadia Dobraya

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PVS Board, Public Minutes 02/20/2014