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
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 5:30 PM
Dory Hobbs, Michal McCamman, Shouka Rezvani, Jarod Hobbs, Karen Kitchen, Mark Williams, Ali Garfinkle, Sunita Santos (PPS Charter Representative), parents in attendance.
- Board reviewed and approved as consent resolutions Q3 2023/24 Financials including Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement, March board minutes, and 2024/25 budget.
- School Report
Last week the honorary French consul (owner of St. Honore) toured and awarded the school the LabelFrancEducation certification. He met with 2nd grade students who asked him questions, and awarded the school a plaque.
5th grade IB exhibition taking place beginning of June; they worked hard on their projects.
Kindergarten lottery almost completed. We are already fully enrolled for next year, though we anticipate some movement as usual before the start of the year.
School milestones are taking place: 5th grade promotion will take place Saturday, June 8; Kindergarten graduation ceremony, with K students escorted by 8th graders, will take place on Thursday; 8th grade graduation ceremony on June 13th; Games Day at Blue Lake Park the following Friday. Also, the first class of Le Monde is now graduating high school! Shouka congratulated the students in Gazette and has been receiving nice messages from those students and their families expressing appreciation for Le Monde and the education they received.
Grades are enjoying a number of field trips and there is a true whirlwind of wrapping up activities and parties during this time of year.
Cell phones usage by students is still a problem as discussed last meeting. Advised Shouka to research possible available solutions.
Special Education is still a concern as the school is not receiving adequate support from PPS. The school has a good relationship with the district and recognizes the overall staffing problem they are experiencing. The problem was persistent all year. Le Monde had a large number of students who needed support. The assigned school psychologist contractor was scheduled to work ½ time (2.5 days per week scheduled). The contractor came to Le Monde approximately 5 times the whole year, and then stopped working in May. The situation was communicated with the PPS District Liaison. Shouka encouraged parents experiencing Special Education delays to be their own best advocates in the Gazette, and also spent a lot of time advocating for additional support with the district. This has been a large impact for all schools and Shouka has been communicating with other charters about this persistent problem. All PPS charters are being impacted, as charters can only cooperate with the district with the district’s provision of Special Education services—the school has no OT or psychologist on staff and it cannot create specially designed instruction. When early interventions are missed they become larger problems and the school overall becomes more reactionary as opposed to being pro-active with helpful early interventions. Overall message: parents can and should advocate directly with the district if they have Special Education concerns. - Intern Committee Discussion
The Intern and Host Family Committee reports that three interns are on board for the 2024-25 academic year, and three host families are assigned to these interns. Ali is communicating with the families during the summer. She plans to hold an orientation with the families in early August. She also plans to reach out to parents to ask for volunteers to serve on the Intern and Host Family Committee to assist with marketing and outreach. - Financial and Fundraising Update
The Board reviews the profit and loss statement and balance sheet through April, which is a draft but trending ahead of budget and anticipate ending the year similarly (despite heavy spending month). Q3 give a sense of this. Read-a-thon just ended and earned around $38,000 so far and checks still coming in. This is a great type of fundraiser – kids read 250,000 hours! Love a fundraiser with a benefit to the kids made up of mostly small amounts in a very meaningful way! Thank you to everyone who participated!
Shouka received a grant to remodel gym bathroom to make it gender neutral (more stalls and take away urinal). The initial bid didn’t take into account additional costs like painting, plumbing etc, so far larger cost than anticipated. Board approved, with grantor approval, paying the grant funds toward an architect to create a more comprehensive plan and get appropriate licenses.
Shouka shares health insurance quotes, and it is proposed Le Monde should stay with the current Kaiser plan. Kaiser has been consistent and it is important to the staff to keep the same insurance. Propose that the school take on most of the cost increase and only increase monthly staff cost by approximately $25. Overall, the costs of some insurance like the MetLife equivalency plan for Paid Leave Oregon may increase significantly due to usage this year. - Public Comment
Le Monde Parents Council Update
Marisa co-chair presents; Staff Appreciation Week (April 22nd week) they asked for parents to contribute, Meredith Mortenson offered private cooking classes for staff at Cookshop! Able to use some funds to cover some of the instructor course. Thank you Meredith! Cards, flowers, fun video, splashy Friday breakfast. Thank you to the Parents Council! Learned May 8 – walk and bike to school day (aligned with national day). Can we do once per quarter? May 11 Science Fair held at Tabor Space – had 10 participants. Level of passion that was very touching! Could look at OBOB examples – can science teachers make announcement and suggestions (light touch!). Past Monday they held Zoom Info Session to discuss planning another parent-planned 8th grade trip to France separate from the school. - Executive Session
Meeting adjourned 8:15pm.