Graduation Achievement Charter High School Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Directors Tuesday, August 18, 2015 7:00 PM EDT Via Go To Meeting Present: Herb Jones, Dan Soles, Monica Henson, Gale Stein, Erica Terry, Rob Brown, Kristen Bernhard, Candy Yu, Lora Hawk, Sherri Breunig, Tyjuana Burton, Tavaras Jones Meeting called to order by Rob Brown at 7:05 PM. The Agenda was amended as indicated below. The minutes from the July 2015 meeting were not approved as submitted. Minutes will be reviewed and possibly modified due to a request by Sherri Breunig for a change to be completed to correct typo. Sherri Breunig presented a question about the approval of the school name GACHS and requested clarification on the Superintendent’s salary increase of 5% and merit bonus. Board concluded this information will be included in the chair report. There were no public attendees and no public comments. Monica offered the Superintendent’s Report. Monica opened with the suggestion that the Board take advantage of the professional knowledge offered by Carl Vinson Institute of Government and Kennesaw State University Professor of Education Policy and Governance Dr. Mike Dishman. Monica suggested that the first training might be focused on the possibility of adopting the State Charter Schools Commission Performance Accountability Frameworks. It was suggested that we will hold on this adoption until the Board has had an opportunity to review the proposed framework with renewed Chapter. Additional conversation was exchanged and a questioned was asked by Rob Brown. Rob Brown asked will we pay for the 2nd Trainer Dr. Dishman in addition to CVIOG. Rob stated we do not want to pay double for training. Monica is waiting on a response from Lauren at the SCSC to advise on the credit on file from the previous year for strategic planning and whether we can apply those funds. Monica will present the cost to the Board once finalized. Kristin Bernhard agreed with preferring not to remit two payments, but agreed with Monica that CVIOG and Dr. Dishman together would be a great asset. Mike has experience as a school board attorney as well as a professor of educational leadership. Kristin feels it will be a solid decision to use both. Erica gave the Academic Division update. She informed the Board that the Academic Division is expanding to offer 4 Electives, 4 Math selections, ESOL, etc. The new school counselors are working with parents and students to provide class schedules and login/password information. The students have been assigned to school counselors by last name and the process is in motion. The Federal Needs Assessment is underway. We are revamping enrollment procedures for English Learners. We met with Central Georgia Technical College last month to launch an advertisement campaign for a statewide Dual Enrollment campaign. Dual Enrollment will enable students to earn two STEM electives and CTAE and Advanced Academic Pathways. Dr. Ivan Allen, president of CGTC, has committed to waive any fees not covered by HOPE for PAGA students who complete a technical certificate.
Gale provided the Development Division update. Last month we were working on setting up a fully online application process; since then we have successfully had several documents added to the dropdown tab on our website for parent/student access. We had 500 students signed up for fall semester before having launched our fall enrollment campaign, those numbers have increased. We are working on scheduling and will have more accurate numbers by the end of the month. Gale answered a question from the Board in reference to how enrollment compares to FTE numbers. Gale stated that it is usually a 200- to 300-student difference, sometimes less. It has been affected previously by students that only needed the graduation test. The Board was interested in learning whether there is a penalty for exceeding the enrollment cap Monica responded, stating “we will be funded only for those students up to the cap in the FTE 1 Count”. It’s a juggling act to get as close to 1894 as we can without going over the cap, Gale stated. Marketing: Gale discussed that we are not marketing or spending any money on advertising, still we are at “full capacity” simply by word of mouth. Instead, Gale has decided to spend the money saved from not marketing on the re-brand, new name tags, business cards, etc. Civil Rights Data Collections: The Civil Rights Data Collections reports are due on Friday and are 90% completed. Per Gale the completed reports should be done by Friday. Afterwards, this report will not be due for another (two) years. Development is working on a clean senior transcript submission. FTE DateTuesday, October 6, 2015. This information will include but not be limited to: How many student courses will be cleaned up by October 29, 2015. This information will provide Fall FTE count –Due Oct. 29, 2015. (This is huge)! Assessments- We are now allowed to offer the PSAT in our building, instead of a college center. The PSAT will be offered to all first-time Sophomores and paid for by the State of Georgia. The College Board has designated GACHS as a testing center. November will be the students’ fall retest window and December will be Milestones Testing for first-time testers in one-semester courses. First semester will be the true test to see how things will work with Edgenuity. Our school website will have a tab that will give parents/students test tips and preparation. Gale discussed the $30,000K budget she has and stated that “all” of the money will be spent on re-branding. She doubts that she will need more, but is certain that she will use all that she has. Sherri mentioned that Kristin’s biography is not on the website. Per Gale and Monica, Asif will be certain to add that information as timely as possible. Monica discussed the leadership division. Our “grow our own leader” program has taken flight. Monica is happy to announce the rise of our upcoming leaders. Ratreisia Ferguson (Marietta’s GAC) has been approved for her Educational Leadership certificate and will receive a salary increase with new & additional duties. Darius Pinder (Atlanta’s GAC) is eligible for his leadership certificate as well once he completes the GACE testing. Shirkia Spearmen (Macon’s GAC) has enrolled into a master’s degree program at Mercer University. Asif Jessani, Chief Technology Officer consultant, was not present for the call, so Monica reported on his behalf. Monica informed the Board that Asif is developing a Microsoft SharePoint site for the school. We will set up Board folders with information that is pertinent to the Board. Board member email addresses have been created. Asif is acting as a one-man team, working diligently to hire a vendor firm in the next few weeks to take on additional tasks providing service desk support. A technology ticket form has been created to simplify how request are submitted. Candy has been working with Monica and Asif to ensure they are within the margins of the technology budget. Asif is also working with independent technology consultant Derrick Brown, overseeing the work that Derrick is completing. Asif is also working to provide
a filter for Zscaler and the migration from Blackberries to Android smartphones. Asif will be providing training for the Board on the usage of SharePoint. Training dates will be announced soon. Lora Hawk discussed Government Affairs- the current changes in government staff. Lora advised she will be conducting Board recruitment for Macon and Augusta. She is expecting to receive some resumes’ from some recommending government associates. Kristin Bernard shared the information of our new primary contact in the Governor’s office: Mary Hunter. Rob suggested: Advocacy committee focus on some of these changes will assist us with staying informed. Kristen does not agree and feels we should focus on Academic Improvement. Sherri seconded this suggestion. Inclusion question on Priority Schools was mentioned. Sherri wanted the Board to be aware that we are (1) Beta point over graduation rate. We will receive assistance form Title II-flexible learning plan to increase graduation rate. This plan will be included in September’s reports. It is a (3) year process. Demonstrate our data. This list means we are in the bottom 5% of the state’s graduation rate. The important thing is, we have been included and will receive service to help guide us through the work. We will be able to show and share more in September. This information has been added to our school improvement plan. Monica Henson was informed that it is a multi-year process. Public graduation rate last year was 9.45% to 80% in a single year. This is a huge task. Monica feels we need to focus on Academics and Alternative Accountability. In the future Board meeting discuss the issue above. Suggested to have the correction in Board Training meeting. Candy presented the Financial Report. We are currently logging into and using Chrome River, it seems to be working. Banking and credit card imports are occurring directly into QuickBooks for several months now. Gary and Candy have worked to get the Netchex payroll automation completed. The huge discrepancy between the costs of rental cars versus mileage reimbursement has been resolved. We are currently only submitting reimbursement for mileage, no rental cars are permitted. The federal implementation grant has been successfully closed out in the GaDOE Portal. Candy is working on the July preliminary reports and stated that the audit is moving along. Monica delivered the Personnel Report. We welcome certified personnel: School counselors- Gloria Hines, Jewel l Betts, and Aishah Rahman. Michelle McDuffie – Math Teacher- Macon, Carla AtkinsSpecial Education Teacher and Classified Personnel – Olivia Kellar (Classroom Attendance Clerk). Separations: Margo Habiger has resigned. Her departure will show up on next month’s report. Nikki Brigham has resigned to take a position teaching in the Richmond County school district. Albert Yon has moved on to purse another endeavors. Ron Favors, Jonathan Woods, Mary Byrd, and LaReese McNew. Dan offered the Board Chair’s Report, beginning with the Finance Committee Report. In addition to the information Candy provided, Dan is excited about the finance report and the fact that the audit is moving along with the auditor’s having everything they need. Herb gave the Personnel Subcommittee Report. The Academic Committee Report will be sent to all Board members by Kristin by email. Sherri discussed the Governance Committee Report. The Committee worked on progress for the annual evaluation of the Superintendent and putting together a slate of officers and directors. Chair SupportKristen and Sherri would like Academic Framework to be shared. Monica’s raise was an issue of discussion. Sherri Breunig inquired how the amount of the increase was decided upon and requested an explanation for the merit bonus. The determination for this increase was justified and the terms upon reaching the amount awarded were disclosed.
The Consent Agenda was passed on a motion by the Acting Chair, second by Sherri, All in favor a. To approve the Financial Report b. To approve the Personnel Report The following Action Items (NONE) Future Business: The First quarterly Board Training, including the monthly Board meeting is September 26, 9:00 AM, at Atlanta Headquarters. Tavaras will arrange travel for any Board member in need of a room Downtown on Friday evening. Adjournment to Executive Session at 9:30 PM on a motion by the Chair, second by Sherri, all in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
9/21/2015
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Robert Brown, Chair Date
