Le Monde Immersion
Board Meeting Minutes
Conference Room at Washington Trust Bank,
Portland Financial Center (19th Floor)
760 SW 9th Avenue Suite 1900
Portland OR 97205
Thursday, February 27, 2025
In attendance: Michal McCamman, Jarod Hobbs, Karen Kitchen, Shouka Rezvani (non-voting), Dory Hobbs, Mark Williams, Ali Garfinkle,
Various parents in attendance. Meeting called to order at 5:35pm
1. Board Approvals
Board approves consents since last meeting (Q 2 2024/25 Financials including Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statements, Audit Report read and approved by board members, October 2024 Board minutes, Revised 24/25 budget)
2. School report
Recent state assessment results put Le Monde middle school at #1 in the whole state!
The Yondr pouch system is going well, although some kids are apparently sneaking devices to school (based on parent report). Staff is consistently enforcing rules, but some parents have expressed that if other students are getting away with devices, then their student also should be able to. The school wants to make it clear that if it finds ANY student with a device, it is enforcing the same rules and hopes that parents will assist in this process. Unauthorized devices include anything that communicates, including smart watches.
The District may be changing its communication platform next year. Le Monde must take attendance using part of the existing platform, but typically doesn’t use the rest (ParentVue). If the district adopts a new platform that also serves as a communication hub that works well with Le Monde’s systems, we may also adopt it.
Kindergarten applications are up in numbers which is good, while statewide enrollment numbers are down.
Le Monde continues to have struggles with inadequate SPED support, while statewide there appears to be a special education staffing issue. Because charters each have different general education approaches, but must rely on the district to provide special education, the interface between special education and the different general education approaches of charters can be a bit like a square peg in a round hole. Shouka has been drafting a document to eventually share with the district in collaboration with the other local charter leaders in hopes that we can get to a place of common understanding about the process as between charters and the district. Parents of students in special education or in the process of being evaluated for special education remain the best advocates for their students in terms of requesting that the district meet its timelines and support requirements. There are district special advocates who can be contacted to provide support to parents if they feel their student is not having their special education needs or timelines met.
A group of parents are working on creating a French pathway to Lincoln High School to continue French beyond 8th grade. Shouka will share information in the Gazette if this comes to fruition. If parents are interested in a French pathway in high school, this is a good time to express interest with PPS directly.
3. Lunch Vendor Update Discussion
The school is open to learning about new potential lunch vendors as we don’t currently have a great option.
4. Intern Committee Discussion
This has been a great year so far with our interns, as all three interns are well integrated into the school and doing well with their host families. We are starting to market to find new families to host interns next year. Ali will work with the Parents Council and send information to Shouka to put in the next Gazette. The school is requesting 3 interns again for next year.
5. Draft Calendar Discussion
The board reviewed a draft Le Monde calendar for next year with the same number of instructional days as this year. Le Monde’s proposed calendar has more instructional days than the district. The Board likes to align major holidays with the district calendar, but that has not yet been released. Dory asks about reviewing trends of absenteeism. Le Monde has better attendance than the district, but it is still bad. The Board discusses the placement of half day Wednesdays right next to inservice days. The impact is greater for families when we don’t align with the PPS days off. The Board asks to move two Friday dates to Tuesdays to maintain a 4 day weekend for families but avoid being too close to the half days. The Board approves the proposed calendar with those changes, but asks Shouka to return to the board for reconsideration if when the district calendar comes out Shouka feels the school needs to move more than one day from the approved draft calendar.
6. Financial and Fundraising Update
The school is budgeted to use some of its reserves this year. The school is also operating to the negative as against budget because we have more PERS and Social Security-qualifying employees this year than in previous years. State and local line tax items are appearing as 400% higher as compared to budget and prior years, so Shouka is looking into why that is. It looks like possibly a mis-allocation in Quickbooks.
The school is on target or under budget otherwise, just the one line item is surprising. Health Insurance is also more expensive than anticipated.
a) Read a thon is happening now! Encourage everyone to read and get more donors. Le Monde doesn’t have major donors, but a good community of smaller, thoughtful and generous gifts. There is a lot of uncertainty around funding for schools. We don’t know what federal reduction or elimination of the Department of Education will mean for school funding and we need to continue to watch the bottom line closely.
b) Grants – Shouka is applying for additional small grants to increase income; specifically small targeted local grants for specific items. For example, she’s applied for a grant to fix up the playground and its potholes. Shouka applied for dual language immersion grants from the French government for interns and the French assessment fees. The school is always open to learning more about possible grants. A parent is a grant writer and is happy to help. Michal requests art grants. Short discussion about balancing smaller grants that take up a lot of time for accountability.
7. Public Comments
a) Le Monde Parents Update
Ongoing activities:
+ Uniform exchanges and predictable first Friday coffees going well.
+ Annual wreath sale earned over $3300 and was well received and worked with the bake sale (received almost $1000!). Feeling sensitive to donation fatigue.
+ Holiday concert and cookies swap at a donated space. The room was packed! Monday choir has 25 participants.
+ OBOB held with record number of teams, thanks to LMPC for two sets of books donated to the school. Coming up is a double feature dance with a lot of enthusiasm around the event. LMPC is looking for volunteers.
+ Co-hosting a Friday coffee about neuro diverse learning as a joint event with DEi Committee. Parents
looking to start affinity groups.
+ Possible book swap in April.
+ Staff appreciation week – looking to contribute for staff. Can dial in and personalize.
+ Possible Choir concert in May.
+ Science fair in May at new venue. The group has a new volunteer for this who is a science teacher.
+ June 6 final picnic
+ Summer meet up dates (Shouka offers to send the dates to new incoming families if the Le Monde Parents will send them to her.
Temp check. Questions are coming up whether international fair is happening? Grade representatives are building What’s App groups per grade.
b) DEi Committee Update
This fall the committee has had a leadership shift and has been reviewing the group’s history. The website is receiving basic updates. The overall goal is to increase integration with other activities. This
includes outreach to Facebook groups to share information about the school to increase numbers for lottery for incoming students. Planning to increase engagement by learning what the community needs and increase awareness to improve the experience for the community in general. The group is starting from a supportive standpoint with a focus on safety and belonging.
8. Executive Session
Meeting adjourned 7:15pm.