Board meeting minutes March 2016
Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy Governing Board
March 25th, 2016 FALA campus, room 4
Minutes
Board Members Present: Annette Zinky, Rand Jenkins, Alicia Krzyczkowski, Eli Cohen, Bret Carpenter, Laurah Hagen
Staff Members Present: Laura Kelly, Deidre Crawley, Dustin Kuluris, NadegeNeta, Sara Buss, Alana Miller, JaneeceHenes, Leslie Baker,Jamie Satre, Julia Gilmore
Guests: Bill and Judy Jordan, Joe Bodin, JJ Boggs
Call to Order: Annette Zinky called the meeting to order at 4:11 pm
Approval of Consent Agenda: Alicia moves to approve agenda, Bret seconds. Motion passed. Bret moves to approve minutes, Alicia seconds. Motion passed.
Information Items:
ED, Laura Kelly, alerts all attendees that monthly financials are posted online for all to view. ED is reaching out to parties involved in a settlement to discuss possibility of paying off settlement. This month’s financials are very similar to last month’s, there are no red flags identified by her or by accountant John Faccone. Staff will be giving input into the salary schedule at the next staff meeting and will be creating and prioritizing a list of budget items.
Bret moves to approve February financial report, Alicia seconds. Motion passed.
Eli gives update on provisional salary scale based on discussion with staff, which takes into account education, years of service, professional experience and certifications, and STEM experience. The next step is to compare the current salary scale being used with the new draft, to determine how staff salaries would change on a teacher by teacher basis. The goal is to present the comparison of the salaries at the next board meeting.
Staff member Stephanie shared experience of taking on additional responsibilities; felt she was not fairly compensated for extra duties. Recommends analyzing the salary structure of the administrative staff in addition to the teachers’ salary.
Alana requests that the budget committee compares the salaries of the last 5 years to the new salary schedule, to take into account the turnover of experienced teachers that has taken place in recent years.
ED delivers report on transition of leadership that is already in process. Laurah shares update on discussion that has taken place on possibility of changing organizational structure, adding positions, and rewriting job descriptions.
Bill proposes that a strategic plan be created before hiring a new ED. He suggests hiring an interim ED in order to free up time for the strategic plan to be created. One of the objectives for a strategic plan should be the retention of staff.
Staff responds that a strategic plan exists, could be refreshed and utilized to determine priorities for new ED.
ED suggests an offsite be facilitated in order to capture FALA community goals and objectives for the new ED role.
Deidre gives principal report. Staff will be meeting tomorrow discuss issues that have come up in individual meetings. Evaluation of Deidre and Laura will be discussed. Student of the Quarter celebration will be on March 31st at 8am, board members are invited. Student led conferences were last night, which attracted a crowd of parents and family members. FALA recently went through accreditation process, which resulted in two findings that need to be addressed including how teachers are evaluated, and how students appear to wander on campus.
Staff update: Dustin asks for clarification on new PTO policy. Expresses concern that new policy has been discussed verbally, and this may not be communicated to the next ED. Current ED agrees that policy changes will be put in writing and passed by the board. Board and staff agree that clarity in the process of how PTO is accrued is essential.
Sara requests a timeline for hiring process, including when the job description will be revised, posted, and filled.
Public comment. Judy would like to compliment the school for finding Yvette, and would like to request that school be evaluated by an outside specialist. Joe would like to request that opportunities for parent volunteering be more frequent and more often announced. Would like to see the microwaves put back in for student use after the “explosion” that happened. Would like to see the technology and internet issues at FALA fixed.
Alicia motions to adjourn open session, Eli seconds.