Board meeting minutes April 2015
Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy Governing Board
April 16th, 2015
Minutes
Board Members Present: Annette Zinky, Russ Rothamer, Rand Jenkins
Staff Members Present: Laura Kelly, JelenannSelayers
Guest: Taylor Smith, Alana Miller, Douglas Lyerly
Call to Order: Annette called the meeting to order at 4:10pm
Approval of Consent Agenda:
Russ Rothamer moved to approve the addition of teacher contracts and salaries to the April 2015 Agenda, Rand Jenkins seconded. This motion passed unanimously.
Russ Rothamer moved to approve February and March minutes, Rand Jenkins seconded. This motion passed unanimously.
Annette Zinkymade a motion to approve the consent agenda and minutes, Rand Jenkins seconded. This motion passed unanimously.
Information Items:
Executive Director’s Report- FALA Gala made approximately $4,800, because of the Gala, 2 parents donated extra money totaling approximate profit of $6,000. ED would like to thank all of the amazing volunteers and participants. ED would like to push the Gala for approx. 5 years and switch gears with a new fundraising plan which will be presented at next meeting. ED worked with Dean to update the teacher contracts, more transparent and more clear. Website designer search, ED would like to update the site and be more user friendly and able to accept money in different ways. ED has begun working on the budget, fore sight with teacher requests. Naipta would like to offer a special second bus to be added to the route that goes from the library. Get to school 10 minutes early and leaves from school directly.
Dean of Academy Report- New teachers, we had middle school social studies has been filled by Douglas, Science position open, offer has gone out, middle school English is open with 2 possible hires. Dean updated student suspension, 20 day suspension, not an expulsion, second offense.
Annette Zinky moved to go into executive session, Russ Rothamerseconded.This motion approved unanimously.
Russ Rothamer moved to exit executive session, Annette Zinkyseconded. This motion approved unanimously.
Annette Zinkymoved to approve employment contracts and salary schedule, Russ Rothamerseconded. This motion approved unanimously.
Budget discussion- ED is concerned with receipts that pile up because of multiple field trips with multiple cc’s and this becomes a low priority and is not properly given to our accounting firm. ED taking over all cc transactions and taking away cc from staff will remedy the lack of or delayed communications. ED is analyzing the larger expenses and finds concern with items around or below half of projected budget and finding ways to balance the areas that we are under and over budget so that she can start to understand next year’s budget. ED will go to Phoenix to meet with ADI and go over last year’s numbers to better project next year’s budget numbers. Annette asked about how we are 75% through the year and yet we’ve only spent 65% of staff salaries. ED explained that it is a balance of contract issue that was passed under previous mgmt. ED noted that the Legal settlement amount is now closer to $2500. ED would like to send drafts of the budget in a few emails to preview what the budget will look like and ask for feedback. ED said she will stay conservative with fundraising projections and base everything on the income from previous year. ED was curious about the relationship with our previous accountant. Annette addressed some prior issues. ED is going to go to the prior accountant and ask him about the books.
Annette Zinky motioned to approve March 2015 financials, Russ Rothamer seconds. Motion passed unanimously.
Discussion of proposed changes to bylaws. Discussion of inclusion of parents (or parents of alumni) and impact into the culture of the school. Parent board members will continue not to be allowed on the board.
Proposed ratification of the new bylaws will be tabled until ED edits.
ED to review the FALA charter to better understand the language concerning the board and its name.
Board discussed future meeting dates. May 20th, June 17th
Annette Zinky motioned to adjourn at 5:46 pm. Russ Rothamer seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
**************************Please see below for exec session minutes
Exec Session- Russ wants to know if there is a faculty handbook. Dean said it is outdated. Dean put together a new binder. Dean has to ask teacher’s to teach different classes and times. i.e-Teacher’s have been able to go home early if they are not teaching, FALA has had to hire substitutes to fill in for different classes. Dean and ED wanted specificity in the contracts to be clear about the teachers duties, expectations and . Russ commends them on strengthening their ability to manage. Dean is confused about the pay scale and consistency of the past. Dean would like their salaries to be consistent and yet open to change when a class load changes year to year. There are approx. 6 class pay scale schedules that need to be weeded through and updated with at least a base. ED is trying to figure out how to pay per education, tenure, Dean’s evaluation while having the ability to discuss raises without guaranteeing them. Dean has been telling teachers that we are a campus that can’t grow and without growth we cannot offer raises. ED handed out a pay scale draft, with assistance of Dean, ED calculated COL for Flag, there are tenured salaries going away and this helps to give some sort of raise, modest increases, but the number will be higher than it was last year. Russ is curious as to the schedule proposed, Dean explained that these numbers were handed down from previous management. They are trying to get a base and move forward while giving them something. Russ commends and is impressed that they are using employer based evaluations to determine pay. The evaluations will also be updated and be easier to use by Dean. Score on schedule is determined by education, what they are contributing, willingness to work with team and…Dean spoke to the improvement plan that will go into place when teacher’s need some motivation to change and improve.