LE MONDE IMMERSION
Board Meeting
1/13/2014
5:45-8:45 PM
(The December 2013 Board Meeting was cancelled due to a downtown Portland power outage.)
Board Members present: Dory Hobbs, Jarod Hobbs, Robyn Pfeifer, Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, Karyn Warner, Shouka Rezvani, Jane Fabulet-Roberts
Parent present: Stanford Brown
Staff present: Craig Nelson, Cris Davis, Erin Szabo
Adoption of November Minutes – Nicole moved, Robyn seconded, all in favor.
Annual Meeting—Election of Officer slate below: Karyn moved, Robyn seconded, all in favor.
Shouka Rezvani—President
Dory Hobbs—Vice President
Karyn Warner—Secretary
Jarod Hobbs—Treasurer
School Status Update:
- The flu has been going around staff at school, and they have been doing a great job keeping things going.
- Sidsel Andersen has been assisting teachers with Singapore Math implementation.
- The school has hired an FLA director. Chantal will be at Le Monde on the 27th of January to begin her first training session. Craig and Chantal will be in talks in the meantime and an agenda will be presented to the board.
- Samara and Craig have been working to structure recess more, and have had good success with Kindergarten, and are now working to do the same for Grades 1 and 2. This has resulted in fewer guidance referrals for behaviors during recess. Students have a minimum of 3 activity options as well as free play time, and new equipment has been ordered to expand play opportunities. Jarod Hobbs
Advisory Board Creation:
The board discussed the creation of an Advisory Board, which is a great way to involve experts in the community with limited time availability to assist the board with their expertise. Jean Claude Paris, a founder of FAIS, would be one of those people and meet with the board and other advisors several times a year, as well as being a resource available for consultation during the year. The board supports the creation of the Advisory Board.
Calendar Discussion: Revisions are needed to the calendar to accommodate the change in Project Weeks. The board is considering using arts money to hire educators to run some projects, or having another volunteer-run session where the dates will not be considered formal school days. Another alternative under consideration is non-instructional day field trips.
Events:
Review of Grandparents and Special Friends Day. This event was organized by Amy Wilde Taylor, and the kids and their grandparents and special friends loved it. It was suggested that limiting guests might help keep things manageable in the classroom in the future. Erin recommended using the chapel for a short program from the kids and offering classroom tours with student art on display. Big thanks to all who worked on this event.
Mardi Gras – last year Le Monde celebrated Mardi Gras with decorated masks and had a parade. We will buy mask materials and repeat that this year. International Day – April 5 – A parent is spearheading this and will review the plan with Shouka this week.
Cirque de Soleil – Shouka found that we could obtain discounted tickets as a school group for Friday night 4:30 April 25 show. Shouka will send an email to the community.
The board approved subsidizing ticket costs for free or reduced lunch qualifying families with arts-restricted funds.
Enrollment Process Discussion
Application materials review – Board approved materials and will distribute materials.
- Addition of new family expectation statement
- Dates of Info sessions and lottery – info sessions are planned for Feb 8 & 20.
- Applications are due Mar 14, and the lottery is scheduled for Mar 31.
- Discussion of Info Session format
Day in life of Kindergarten student—K teacher
Craig – Head of school statement
Discussion of academics – Nicole & Dory
FAQ – Shouka
We are continuing to work to raise 10k monthly and on task at the moment. We need to keep momentum, all of us should think about ways to convey the financial needs of the school to the community and keep reinforcing the $100/month/student goal.
Website Usage:
- Craig will work with the teachers to use their individual web pages.
Facility Discussion :
- Le Monde’s lease last through next academic year. Shouka is in discussions with the landlord regarding lease extensions, and we also will look at other options.
Executive Session.