Board meeting minutes February 2015
Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy Governing Board
February 19th, 2015
Minutes
Board Members Present: Annette Zinky, Russ Rothamer, Laurah Hagen, Stephanie Stackhouse
Staff Members Present: Laura Kelly
Guest: Alena Hlohinec
Call to Order: Annette Zinky called the meeting to order at 4:09pm
Approval of Consent Agenda:
January 14th, 2015 Agenda
Russ made a motion to approve the consent agenda and minutes. Stephanie seconded. This motion passed unanimously.
Laurah made a motion to approve meeting notes from January. Annette seconded.
Information Items:
Laura reported out on current financials. She is becoming more familiar with the P&L statements, specifically monies that come into the school, and their timing over the year. Next month we will be looking and January and February financials.
Laura briefly reviewed a few sources of school income and how they are used: Prop 301 goes primarily to teacher salaries, SPED money goes towards special education, tax credit money also comes in.
Annette asked why a budget item was reflected in the balance sheet as monthly payments rather than the lump sum it arrives in. Annette asked Laura to clarify with ADI why, on a cash flow, that amount is broken up and ask them make change to reflect the single annual deposit.
Annette questioned why the Purchased Services category increases significantly in January. Laura will clarify with ADI what items are being included in that category.
Annette explained that Laura is working with ADI to identify the challenges of FALA’s accounting procedures, and expectations for their performance. Laura noted that all teachers currently have credit cards, resulting in 29 independent cards that instructors use and turn in with receipts. This is a very labor intensive process for ADI, because they invest so much time reconciling each individual teacher’s card. Laura is still working out a potential new process with them, to implement when cards expire in April, perhaps moving to a reimbursement system to eliminate individual cards. Laura suspects that our complicated card system has contributed to a challenging relationship with ADI.
Laura noted that in regard to the Private Donations and Contributions line item, $25,000 was anticipated while we have only $15,000. The upcoming FALA Gala event is expected to bring in $7,000-$8,000. Grant money is also lower than projected.
Laura noted that Professional Development has been moved to a budget new category. Also, that SPED is a complicated program, and she is getting more education on how this money is distributed before signing on any budget issues related to it.
Laura noted that wireless signals had been weak in a few places on campus, so she brought out Ben, a contracted agent to identify and fix the problem. He’s currently working for $85/ hour on an on-call basis while we figure out how much of his time is necessary before establishing a formal contract.
Annette noted that travel is significantly over budget in 6580, and under budget in another category. Stephanie asks for clarification from ADI: What defines “travel” under every category, and does the budget need to be moved around to different categories to better reflect use of funds.
Annette asked for Laura to clarify with ADI the Insurance expenses as reflected in the 2400 category.
The board agrees that many of the complicated budget issues have to do with the staff credit cards, and they are looking forward to minimizing this.
Laura hired a custodial service as of March 2nd to consolidate expenses related to custodial maintenance and supplies, reducing her time spent supervising custodial staff and purchasing supplies.
Laura is still asking lots of questions to better understand the budget, and form relationships with service providers to ensure we’re getting the best deal.
Russ made a motion to approve December financials, Stephanie seconded the motion.
Annette shared the history of parent involvement on the FALA board: Prior to the current board, there was an initiative that was requested by staff to start a FALA council, comprised of parents, teachers, and students, who would meet separately from the board and work on different initiatives. As this council was not created, Annette would like parents to be represented on the board, with bylaws enacted to minimize potential risk of parents attempting to influence teaching styles. Annette suggests a maximum number of parents at 2, opening the door for parent participation without allowing for a quorum of parents.
Annette suggested several changes to the bylaws, including editing typos.
Russ suggested that board members take time to review the proposed changes.
Annette noted that current bylaws allow for electronic voting, so we could vote by email or wait until the next meeting following a discussion.
Stephanie asks for clarification on the history that resulted in not allowing parents on the board, and the anticipated value of bringing them on. Annette clarified that the purpose is to bring highly qualified parents into the board who already have a vested interest in the success of FALA.
The board briefly discussed creating an onboarding process for new members, and establishing a professional development plan for the board as a whole.
Laura asked for clarification on the process of bringing in new board members. She has had coffee with two people who express interest in joining the board, Jen Spensieri and David Spivey. Annette clarified that in the past, board members were selected by the executive director since the board wasn’t effective in recruiting new people. However, the current board is highly committed to bringing in new members with specific skillsets.
The board agreed to identify the largest gaps in skill represented by the current board, in order to determine what skillset to seek in new members. Laura will deliver board hiring matrices to Stephanie, who will compile them to identify gaps. The board will review the matrix to see if there are other skills in addition to those on the matrix that we need to hire for.
Stephanie suggested developing a leadership pipeline for the board, allowing us to build relationships with a pool of potential candidates who could be brought is as the need for different skillsets arises.
Executive Directors update:
The FALA Gala will have an auction of services that people can purchase. Typical net profit is $7-8,000.
Laura would like to offer a summer art school, initially suggested by the teachers. She would like to offer 2, 2-week sessions with several classes. Revenue might be in the$12-15,000 range. The culmination of these camps would be an art sale.
March 7th, Viola Awards at high country. 5-9pm. FALA has a table.
An Academy Awards fundraiser will be hosted at the Orpheum, half the proceeds are donated to FALA.
Discussed current negotiations with magnum wall and if its negotiable, Laura is looking into this.
The board discussed honoring previous Executive Director Becky Daggett at the FALA Gala. Laurah will initiate gift.
Annette made a motion to adjourn at 5:32pm, Russ seconds, all in favor.
Next meeting March 26th, 2015 at 4pm.