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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, October 1, 2024 5:30 PM

 

Board members Dory Hobbs, Michal MacCamman, Shouka Rezvani (nonvoting), Jarod Hobbs, Karen Kitchen, Mark Williams, Ali Garfinkle, Ben Melix, and various parents in attendance.

  1. Board approved Q4 2023/24 Financials, including Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement, and June board minutes.
  2. School Report
    Oregon Department of Education (ODE) will be publishing Oregon school report cards soon, that show data trends on state testing primarily. It is possible to pull the Oregon report card from the ODE website to see trends over the years. It appears that Le Monde will continue to be highly ranked in the state (historically it is named as one of the top 10 elementary and middle schools in the state in terms of state assessment results). One area tracked on the report card for which Le Monde needs improvement (though it is trending better since the pandemic) is poor student attendance overall. The board anticipates that we may see some improvements in attendance with the change in the academic calendar, as well as concerted efforts by staff to reach out to parents when students have poor attendance.
    The staff has refreshed and boosted supplies to shelter in place in the event of an emergency (food and medical supplies).
    Columbia Regional Support Services provided an excellent professional development training for staff during the before school training week on supporting students with autism and provided resources for staff. The trainers are former teachers with concrete resources and information to share.
    Staff have reviewed and updated the French curriculum scope and sequence, incorporating additional grammar and making sure years build on each other appropriately. Staff discussed ways to incorporate more of the productive elements of language (speaking and writing), which are always the biggest challenges as compared to the listening and reading aspects at which our students tend to excel.
    Outdoor school for 6th graders will again be at Camp Meriweather, in spring.
    The employment lawyer reviewed the staff handbook, most specifically to update the leave policy to comply with the new state leave laws. No significant changes to the rest of the handbook overall; however, the leave policy needs updating to comply with the legal changes as recommended by the employment lawyer. Board approves the policy with those legal updates once completed.
  3. Lunch Vendor discussion
    There are considerable constraints finding a lunch vendor: looking for a cost of $6 less for a nutritionally-complete meal, bag lunch, minimal storage on site, delivered right during lunch or put into coolers we can hold in the office, ideally meets the needs of vegan, GF, and other dietary needs). There are very few local vendors that can help considering those constraints. The primary company under consideration is just starting business at another school, and that school is reporting some issues like repeated failures to provide the lunch items that parents ordered. Shouka recommends not moving ahead right now and waiting to see if things with this company improve over time as they get used to service. Other vendors charge $9-11 per lunch. One existing potential vendor we have used in a prior year and was not well-liked by families. The board agrees to wait and see if the available vendors seem to improve service and will continue monitoring the situation.
  4. Discussion and request for approval to create Section 403(b) retirement plan
    Staff have expressed an interest in having a 403(b) plan. Fidelity provides services to other charter schools, and was the most responsive of those contacted. Board approves creating a Section 403(b) retirement plan with Fidelity at no to minimal set up and ongoing costs to Le Monde (other than Executive Director time), assuming no issues are identified by the Executive Director.
  5. Intern Committee Discussion
    Currently we have 3 French teaching interns who are acclimating well, with positive reports from host families and interns alike. Shouka reports that the interns are integrating well with the staff and are well liked. Ali is moving ahead with incorporating new members into the Intern Committee and they will meet soon to start marketing for host families for the spring term. Would like to do introductions to the community – can we do something in the next few Gazettes? Shouka will have students interview the interns and include those introductions in the Gazette. Host families indicate they may want to continue hosting for the rest of the year, but will have conversations in the next month to make final decisions.
  6. Financial and Fundraising Update
    Oui Run raised over $60K to date (past the $50K goal!). Amazing organization from Michal and help from the community (despite the rain). Really awesome work! The Board reviewed the profit and loss statement and balance sheet through August (don’t have September financials currently but will shortly). The annual audit should be completed in October, a little late. Shouka will distribute the final audit report to the board once it is completed. Insurance premiums are going up quite a bit, especially for “Paid Leave Oregon” equivalency coverage. Shouka has asked our insurance brokers to obtain bids, and we will change to Lincoln Financial as the new carrier (which will also impact other insurance coverage). After the audit is complete, Shouka will review the budget to see if there are any adjustments needed in light of these increases. We ended last year with an overage of funds, primarily due to the increase in state funding, and this year’s existing budget anticipated that overage and used it to create a balanced budget this year. Shouka will work on new budget taking into account changes in funding and known expenses, and will submit it to the for board approval.
    The board reviewed and discussed Student Investment Account (SIA) expenditures and Early Literacy Grant expenditures. The Student Investment Account was created to provide funds to schools to address mental and behavioral health needs and reduce academic disparities for focal populations. Early Literacy Grant funds are meant to support early literacy at the school. Those funds are currently being used towards staffing (for SIA, early grades classroom assistants, recess monitor for student safety, IB Director, and part of the early intervention salaries for math and literacy; for Early Literacy, a portion of the Early Literacy Specialist’s salary), after having surveyed the community about key areas that there was a belief additional support was needed at the school. The question to the board was whether this is a good use of the funds to support the purposes of SIA and the Early Literacy going forward, or whether these funds should be used differently. The board noted that this is all really key funding to have adequate staffing to ensure student safety and appropriate student interventions and supports, which benefits both focal populations and all students. The school sees significant gains from the early interventions using the research-aligned targeted strategies of the Early Literacy Specialist, and the school is identifying students who need extra help so much earlier thanks to this funding. The board noted that all students who received early intervention supports were reported to have experienced growth last year, using DIBELS and/or MAP assessments. It is imperative for the school to be able to provide that support, and also to be able to ensure student safety with adequate staffing, which allows classroom teachers to have time to support focal groups. After board discussion, the board felt this continues to be a good use of these funds, and will continue evaluating the use of the funds over time
  7. Public Comment
    Le Monde Parents Council (LMPC) Update
    Le Monde Parents Council (LMPC) Update
    Marisa is the co-chair of the LMPC for communications, and Jessica is the co-chair for events. The LMPC adopted a new system of having grade parents: 3 grade parents per grade, each grade has a Whats App group. They are organizing some social events and temperature checks with the goal of fostering community and communication. They held two summer park meet ups with a uniform swap, and thanked parent Sara Childers for donating staff Back to School desk gifts of succulent plants (Potted in Portland). The LMPC is also organizing monthly coffee dates and park play dates, as well as making plans for a Winter dance and possible Winter Concert. The LMPC notes that parents are expressing that they want to be involved. The LMPC wants the Board to know that parents are interested in fundraising for the school, as well as receiving school-wide introductions to teachers and staff, such as birthday lists for staff and teachers. The school will work with staff on sharing out more information; often this is something it defers to individual teachers to share as they wish with their own classes.
    Families for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Update
    Stephanie presenting for the FDEI. They have new leadership and are excited and working on information planning sessions.
    No Executive Session.
    Meeting adjourned 7pm