Board meeting minutes January 2016
Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy Governing Board
FALA campus, room 1
January 20, 2016
Minutes
Board Members Present: Rand Jenkins, Laurah Hagen, Stephanie Stackhouse,Alicia Krzyczkowski, Bret Carpenter, (Annette Zinky, Eli Cohen via cell)
Staff Members Present:JaneeceHenes, Alana Miller, StephanieBurns
Visitors:
Call to Order:Laurah Hagen called the meeting to order at 4:14pm
Approval of Minutes: Laurah Hagen called for a motion to approve the December minutes per removal of question marks, Stephanie Stackhouseseconded.Motion approved unanimously.
Approval of Consent Agenda:Laurah Hagen called for a motion to approve agenda, Alicia Krzyczkowskiseconds. Motion approved unanimously.
Information Items:
Discussion and introduction to Board candidate Bret Carpenter a former parent. Currently employed at NACET. A big fan of the school, feels like this Charter is great with special education! He got his masters in business, undergad for Construction, IT consultant, IT for schools and is now Director for Small Business Development Center. He was the interim ED for Willow Bend and helped to find a new ED and is familiar with accounting for non-profits and experience with boards, volunteers and programs. Has a lot of experience with business forecasting with his present position and has budget analysis experience with the construction background.
Annette Zinkymoves to approve Bret Carpenter’s membership to the FALA board, Laurah Hagen seconds. Motion approved unanimously.
Public Comment: N/A
Laura Kelly introduced the financials and mentioned that Bret Carpenter can now participate.ED mentioned that we are now over the budget on student fees by over $11k. We are also over budget on the tax credit collections by over $5k. Great news! Annette wanted to know how much of the student fees are uncollectable. ED mentioned that all fees being collected are from students that are still enrolled. ED hopes to collect 60% of the $42k that is still out there. ED takes financial hardship into consideration and tries to work with parents creating payment plans where needed.ED gave Tanya Buckley credit for being on top of it with helping to collect. ED will start to send the financials to FALA LOT each month.
Annette Zinkymoves to approve the December financials, Laurah Hagen seconds, motion passes unanimously.
Stephanie Burns brought up concerns about changing their contracts in the middle of the year. JaneeceHenesweighed in on the staff meeting, staff was concerned that they’d be losing 5 days. They felt positive about the new policy combining sick days with days of leave. Alana Miller weighed in that tenured teachers are losing 5 days for each of their past years. Stephanie Burns is not so much concerned with the policy as much as the lack of safety in contracts if you were to change the teacher’s contract mid semester. ED would like to make the change so that we can get an actual number as soon as possible. ED is wondering if we speak about it in the Spring to give staff enough time to make the changes for May to be the time to renegotiate their contracts. Stephanie Stackhouse suggests that we can approve the policy today and then change the contracts starting in the new semester. Dean suggests that we discuss new ideas during the semester but that we only change the contract at the end of semesters. Alicia mentioned that we just have to change the effective. JaneeceHenesand Alana Miller just want to make sure that the board and staff communicate clearly about any new ideas in the staff meeting. ED will change
Laurah Hagen moves to table the Amended Leave Policy, Alicia Krzyczkowski seconds, motion passes unanimously.
Eli Cohen has come up with a plan to look at other school’s salary structures and industry standards. The idea is to have the committee start as soon as possible. Have some teachers interested, Dustin Kuluruis or Julia Gilmore, Leslie baker, Alana Miller. Eli Cohen is opening this up to the board, other teachers. Would like to meet once a month. If teachers are involved if they could be at night, perhaps Tues or Thurs 5pm. ED has given some salaries from other schools as a reference. Would like to present to the board within 2-3 months. JaneeceHeneswould like the committee to consider that they have professional Art teachers with specific skills/ that might not be able to pair with other schools salaries because FALA is so Art focused. Laurah Hagen suggests finding other Art schools to use for salary reference for teachers with professional Art experience. Alana Miller suggested after 5p to make sure that there is not a tutoring conflict. Alana Miller would like to know if the parameters are going to be available before they start or if the teachers (committee members ) would be able to set the structure. Stephanie Stackhouse spoke to the first meeting being where the structure and list of information need be decided.
ED Report: ED has concerns about the special education department. WE have a teacher opening that has been open for 3 weeks. ED feels like we have a shortage of SPED teachers in Flagstaff. ED asked for help. We’re also losing Amy, the administrative assistant, coordinator of 504’s and IEP’s. There is internal interest, will post her position if those don’t work out. FALA council is thinking about the 20th Anniversary, 100th day celebration to have the teachers make food for the students. Major facility rental for the summer for June.Lots of upcoming events.
Dean Report: Attendance numbers are at 323. 100th day, foreign exchange students do not count. 320 is the estimate. If we are at that number or above, we are ok, but if we are below that number we get money taken away. Perhaps next year, we go a little bit low. It was a myth that the 100th day attendance is counted as the funding source. Met with Council, information on the 100th day celebration coming soon, day to be announced. Student of the quarter announcements are Tues Jan 26th 8am room 10, light breakfast. Gearing up for student applications for next year. Parents that want to re up will be first focus. Dean will issue a yes/no date on the website and get updated mailing info from them. Dean discovered that the school wants to do a lottery and not first come/first serve. Dean spoke with 2 other schools about their lottery systems. Dean will implement the policy soon. There would be a sign up date for the lottery and then have a drawing. Siblings and employee’s children get preference. Open House parent information meetings will be at the Center for the Arts Feb 10th and 18th 5p-6p. Teachers look at which courses to teach next week. Dean would like Middle School students to be more consistent in choosing. This would create more fairness in class sizes, Dean will speak with departments. Dean personal introductions to council soon.
Teachers Report: Most of the teacher issues have been addressed throughout the meeting. JaneeceHenesasked the board if they could be at more meetings. Laurah Hagen asked about the culture and the feel of campus. JaneeceHenessaid it’s been a weird year. Really tough that Christina Bauer and Taylor Smith left. She mentioned that the students still continue to inspire. In year’s past there was a parent’s luncheon to show appreciation for the teachers. The teacher deficit is new and a challenge. JaneeceHeneswould like to better understand why the young teachers are leaving and what we can do to avoid it in the future. She’d like to see if there are more current on the course selection, perhaps, sign language, Mandarin and Arabic perhaps.
Annette Zinky suggests that we schedule another executive session,Laurah Hagen would like to address the previous Deans letter and also get the staff survey. We need to publish the meeting. ED volunteered to post the meeting. Laurah would like to have ED present for feedback on the survey. Annette will set up a doodle pool and publish in the next day.
Alicia Krzyczkowskimakes a motion to adjourn, Stephanie Stackhouse seconds. Motion passes unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 5:37pm.