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October 2017: Board Meeting Minutes

Board Meeting Minutes
At Tonkon Torp LLP, 1600 Pioneer Tower, 888 SW 5th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204
October 4, 2017
5:45-8:45 pm

Board Members Present: Jarod Hobbs, Jeff Scott, Dory Hobbs, Alison Garfinkle, Karen Kitchen, Shouka Rezvani (nonvoting)
Others: Diane Henkel, Zjelka Boyd

As a preliminary matter, the board noted that Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, a long-time board member and valuable contributor to the Le Monde community, passed away since the last board meeting. The Board acknowledged that Nicole was an integral part to the organization and helped immensely with HR matters. We will all miss her warmth and kindness. Nicole’s family mentioned that Le Monde was a passion of Nicole’s, and her friends have passed on small donations in her name.

  1. Consent approvals – The board approved unanimously the Q4 financials that had been provided to the district, the calendar modification for staff regarding Thanksgiving week (conferences to be done the week before Thanksgiving week), and the Board minutes from last meeting.
  2. New Board Member – The board voted to replace Nicole Aas-Rouxparis with Alison Garfinkle. Ali is a parent with 4th grader and 2nd Grader at LM and a preschooler. Ali is a study abroad advisor in her professional life and has been actively involved with our Intern Committee.
  3. Request for leave for family – a family has requested a leave to relocate family out of state to spend a trimester near an ailing relative. They have had this request granted in 2 prior years. Discussion points – Family has done this seasonally. Academic considerations were discussed. Financial impact was discussed. Board would like to seek additional information to support the request.
  4. Interns – 6 of 8 interns have arrived. 2 have had visa issues. Similar visa issues to last year, appears this may be what we can expect each year. We need Spring host families, we have 2 new volunteer families from K class. We have asked the LM community to donate SCRIP to assist with expenses of hosting, but this may not be sustainable. There are tax ramifications on giving gifts to interns or intern families. We will reach out to other schools and see what they do. Need to analyze and see if there is an ideal number of interns to host. 8 interns have been difficult to find families for. Need to build further support within community outside of LM to host interns of we keep the program at this size. A parent has volunteered to write up a bio about each intern to be disseminated to the community.
  5. Equity & Inclusivity – Nancy Ellis has agreed to chair again. Initial meeting had good, diverse attendance from within our community. Presented goals of LM Board: seeks to represent demographic of entire district. Parents would like to see cultural outreach opportunities, positive discipline workshop, job fair similar to int’l day where people speak to children (break stereotypes). The Committee will get updates to FB page to publicize events, possibly host a book club to highlight equity issues, and Nancy would like to bring in talks from Oregon Humanities Project (well received last year). The Committee also discussed International day and increasing the food and drink from different countries, which people really enjoyed.
  6. Facility Update. The move went well to Division. Had myriad small issues which have been resolved, from renovations, to issues with internet and keypad entry. We have given 15 min of free time to families with children at both campuses. There are other families who do not have siblings at both, but who carpool. Board is unanimous to forego AFCA charges for carpooling families between locations. Board voted to waive AFCA fees for third party programs that pick up from both locations and carpool families (Dory and Jarod abstained due to possible conflict of interest).

    Update on possible new facility – Dory and Jarod met with Guggenheim architecture who was commissioned to do a feasability study on a new location. G.A. will meet with City building dept. to discuss code requirements. Owner may be interested in selling property. G.A. is happy to provide marketing materials to support a capital campaign. Shouka has discussed with landlord who may consider a build to suit property for us. Another possible property with E occupancy has also come up and is being explored.

  7. School Report – The first two weeks back to school for staff involved professional education on Sinagapore Math, Positive Discipline, Mind Up curriculum training. Mind Up trainer will do a parent night and a refresher for teachers later in year. Mind Up curriculum has been embraced by teachers. Co-grade teachers are planning together and working well together (Best year yet for this). Finished first round of MAP testing done by end of this week. Still waiting for all-school results for Smarter Balance, though individual results have been sent. LM does not yet qualify for Oregon School Report Card reporting. School has created centralized management system for tracking students with academic, behavior, or other issues of note, to ensure individualized attention. This is internal only and secure. All information is accessible only by staff members who work with the child.

    Board thanks Leah Lowey for the years of service she has given to LM. Leah organized annual La Fete. She and family will be moving out of town.

    La Fete – Two first grade parents agreed to co-chair La Fete event and there are a few other parents who will participate. Run For Arts is next week. Two parents are are co-chairing again, to the board’s pleasure.

    Winter Dance is being planned by parent volunteers and additional parents have volunteered to assist. La Foire a Faire – not a fundraising event per se. (it has broken eve)n. Some feedback from parents that they want to separate social events from fundraising, but La Foire folks would really like to combine fundraising and social. Note that the Foire was colocated w/back to school, some parents don’t want to feel obligated to buy things.

    Discussed possibility of in future co-locating with winter dance. Shouka will discuss with Eva, parent chair.
    Outdoor school – 6th grade went to Camp Westwind. They have started specials (Spanish, World History & Archeology) which are well received. 5th and 6th graders have lockers and seem to love them. Several challenges with logistics, 6th grade furniture did not arrive on time. Math and Science curriculum did not arrive on time. We are reaching out to other schools to see if they would like do a school dance. Overall, OK start to the year for them with issues to address

  8. Financial Report – Q1 reports due to PPS by end of October. Aug financials disseminated. Close to budget as expected. LMP LLC needs to work on more timely collections. Shouka will disseminate final Aug financials and September prior to month end. We have been approached by a school band contractor wanting to submit a proposal for an after school program. LM would need to negotiate a contract for rent and vet the organization. A teacher would be willing to share classroom space. Shouka will obtain a proposal and disseminate for board review.

    Parent Council Rep – Diane Henkels – questions from parent council:
    When will Shouka be available for Q&A with P.A.? Decision: first Monday of November.