Inspire School of Arts & Sciences Board of Directors
Regular Session – 7:00 pm
Monday, March 11, 2013
Held at Inspire Classroom PC11 on the Chico High Campus
901 Esplanade Chico, CA
The mission of Inspire School of Arts and Sciences is to provide high levels of learning and support within a personalized environment that allows students to explore their interests and develop their talents.
In attendance: Denver Latimer, Debbie Travers, Ben Juliano, Jay Goldberg, Matt Brown, Eric Nilsson, Dan LaBar, Jana Gosselin
1. Meeting called to order at 7pm.
Inspire frosh will visit CSUC on March 12, 13th from 10-12.
2. Consent Calendar (10 min.)
· Consider approval of February 11, 2013.
Motion to accept minutes (Ben), seconded by Denver. Approved unanimously.
· Consider approval of donations.
No donations to report.
· Consider approval of expenditures (attachment)
Cooperative painting project of existing Inspire buildings. Jon Nickerson, his students, and a select group of Inspire students will work together to power wash and then paint Inspire’s buildings. John Carver has agreed to work as the District Supervisor. We are working to coordinate a meeting between all parties. An estimate of costs is attached.
Labor costs? How much time? CSEA may have a problem with this. May let Nickerson’s kids do prep work but want CSEA people to do painting.
Can we approve this amount but if above this amount we’ll revisit it. Money coming from surplus. Painting not budgeted. Source of money? Need to bring budgetary information to discussion. Matt moves to approve expenditure of $12k for painting buildings, Denver seconds. Approved unanimously.
3. Student Report – no student present
4. Principal’s report (25 min.).
a. Sustainability Update – Dan Labar. (Attachment)
b. AP/IB – Report on CUSD Workshop – informational only. Inspire numbers so small they’re not statistically valid. Lots of questions on college readiness. UC a-g in place, counseling.
Gates Foundation and Facebook funded a grant to help kids explore ways for getting to college; online database that takes preferences and connects students with similar likes. Program called Tractus – contact is Lori McGlone ; kids go in, put in data, organization searches database and match kids info with specific institutions. If they find similarities, then they match with other kids. Lori has offered free pilot to Inspire kids this semester. Similar programs available, but they focus purely on college finance. First meeting tomorrow after school. www.tractuseducation.com
EAP – campus wide prompt. Require all 11th graders to take test. Will alter prompt for 9th and 10th graders. All staff will read.
PLTW – program growing, colleges reserving places in freshmen classes for PLTW kids.
Researching performing arts & arts programs. Looking to plug into universities to show what our kids are doing. For non-college bound kids: trying to advise them in ways to ensure they are ready to take the next step. Eric will bring update on last year’s 48 graduates. Andrea Azevedo has worked to update on all students.
AFWD – alliance for workforce development – help people find work paths. Butte College has job skills workshop. Our performing arts students are working right after high school in technical performance jobs. CTE teachers are supposedly prepping students for the work force but realistically many of the careers we’re prepping for will still need post-secondary education.
c. Fundraiser Issues. – legal problems with raffle. It’s a game of chance. Tickets have to go to parents and come through parents. Kids are not supposed to sell tickets unless their parents give them to them. We went into advisories and handed them out to kids. Also have to have a license to do a raffle (which we have). Can’t provide incentives to kids to sell. Kids were getting coffee cards. Made over $4000.
d. Frosh Enrollment. Pretty full enrollment with a waiting list. Seeing some movement but kids setting in the queue waiting to get in.
e. Chicago. – Denver feels the roles too old for kids to play. Lots of money spent on production. No evidence of why that particular show was chosen. Need a new way to make school decisions.
5. Discussion/Action Items
5.1Public Hearing/Discussion/Action. (60 min.)
5.1a. Discussion/Action: Approval of Safety Plan (see attachment). Changed to reflect Inspire staff and their roles in an emergency situation. Whichever site initiates call to PD, that person stays on the phone with emergency services.
Jann moves to approve safety plan, Jay seconds. Approved unanimously.
5.1b. Discussion: Input regarding agenda at the summer retreat (see attachment).
5.1c. Discussion/Action: Approve Roles and Responsibilities of Education Representative to Inspire Board (see attachment). Jann will cc Inspire Board on a letter to CUSD Board highlighting discussions of the Board meeting. It currently goes to Eric, Kelly Staley and the president of the CUSD Board. Move #5 to upper paragraph in description. Motion to approve by Ben, second by Denver, approved unanimously.
6. Items from the floor.
1. Have we gotten permission from CUSD to paint school? Architectural Board of City of Chico.
2. Ron – previous productions cost a little money but seemed worth it for experience kids got. This year we sold $35k in tickets. A great experience for students.
3. Ron would like Board to consider letting him serve on the board. Member who wrote charter and is only person who is still around. Would like opportunity to serve.
4. Jay’s position has been eliminated at Butte College. After 22 years at college his last day will be May 24th. Will look for someone at Butte College to replace Jay on Inspire Board.
7. Announcements.
Engineering Open House. Was a fantastic display, great attendance.
Meeting adjourned 8:55pm.