Le Monde Immersion
Board Meeting Minutes
December 8, 2014
Board Members Present: Shouka Rezvani, Dory Hobbs, Jarod Hobbs, Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, Karyn Warner, Robyn Pfeifer
Educators present: Chantal Dufour-Martel, Kate Gaudouen, Anou Stahl
- Adoption of November Board Minutes – Nicole moved, all in favor.
- Director and Officer Elections –
Unanimous approval of following officer slate:
President – Shouka Rezvani
Vice President – Dory Hobbs
Treasurer – Jarod Hobbs
Secretary – Karyn WarnerRobyn Pfeifer, whose term is expiring, has asked not to be considered for another three-year term as a director. She indicates that she hopes to support the school as a parent. The board thanks her for her dedication and service.Shouka moved to adopt new board members Jeff Scott and Karen Kitchen effective January; unanimous approval in favor. In addition, Shouka Rezvani, Dory Hobbs, Jarod Hobbs, Nicole Aas-Rouxparis and Karyn Warner are elected to additional three-year terms as directors. The number of outstanding directors for the purposes of determining a quorum is thus seven, such that four directors constitute a quorum.
- Chantal provided a school update. On the second Monday of every month, she will host a gradelevel team meetings so staff can get together and work on their planning. Chantal will sit in on the teams. The goal is to review how the CCSS are being addressed by grade level, and ensure that there is a well-articulated curriculum at every grade level as we progress through the grades.NWEA will come on December 16th for a MAP testing Q&A, and Chantal suggested that they provide more training to teachers in the future before testing.
PBIS – a consequence/level table has been developed, and will be shared with the community. A new behavior form has been put into place. A refocusing activity is in use in the classrooms as well. A documentation process for suspensions is in place.
Staff Review Plan – teacher evaluations started today and will be completed soon. Chantal also will conduct assistant evaluations. Terry will conduct non-instructional staff evaluations.
The school needs more special education support from the district than it is currently receiving. Chantal will continue to press the district for adequate services, and we may pay for services on our own to fill any gaps in what we need and what we are getting.
- HR Committee Update
The HR committee will interview and report on candidates for next year. - Technology and Technology Policy Adoption
Our third-party tech provider Sjobeck charges a significant hourly fee for the basic service of updating the website. We do not want to use a volunteer to do this service as this has not had positive results in the past and we want to have a professional relationship with any significant service providers. Robyn’s company Musicwerks has professional expertise in providing this service and will do it for $13 per hour, which is far below what competitors have quoted. Robyn
recused herself and the rest of the board approved using Musicwerks to provide the website updating service. This analysis and discussion happened in August but we failed to document it per our Conflicts Policy, so Shouka encouraged that it be done now in minutes.Chantal and Shouka are working on a Technology Policy and hope to send out for board review later this month - Early Admissions Policy Review
The current policy allows early admission for students who have been approved via head of school and are recommended by the TAG office. After consideration of the pros and cons of allowing early admission, the board elected to remove the early admission option, effective immediately. Because we have been advised by our PPS liaison that using any discretion in admitting students might be a discriminatory act, the board did not want to open the school up to liability. Not exercising discretion means having to automatically accept students even if school staff does not believe the student is ready, something that the school is not willing to do
as it does not believe it creates the best environment for student success. - Charter Renewal Letter Review
Kristin Miles, the PPS liaison, has advised that the school must submit a letter indicating its intention to renew the charter on (but not before) 1/2/15. Chantal will submit the letter before then because of Winter Break, but will advise PPS that it can be deemed to be submitted on 1/2/15 if they prefer. - Fundraising/Financial Update
Monthly financials (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, P and L against Budget) were reviewed. We need $10,000 a month to be on track to meet our fundraising goal. We are not meeting this goal, and need to increase fundraising, especially in light of our need for a new building. Parents Laurie Hager and Erin Dhruva have agreed to coordinate the Iron Chef fundraiser this year and are actively organizing. The board expresses their thanks. - SOAR/Equity in Education Discussion
The board would like to devote more time to working on ensuring equity in education at the school, and supporting all forms of representations of diversity within the organization. Shouka has been doing a lot of reading about the various approaches to equity and feels that we would be best served by hiring consultants to frame up how we want to continue our SOAR approach. The board approved hiring consultants to assist it to frame up the equity discussion. - Facility Discussion
The Facility Committee is continuing to actively looking for a new building. PPS has indicated that it will not lease Smith School. Another potential space has been located and we are in lease negotiations. We have no assurances that the space will work out, so we must continue our active search for alternate locations. - Le Monde Programs LLC update
Requiring parents to pay for the program in order to participate means that we are having more success with parents paying their fees