New America School Board Meeting

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Minutes from NAS Board

Board Members in Attendance:Sarah Kurz, Vincent Badolato,Tomas Mejia,Matt DeAngelis,Polly Baca,Gina Nocera, Mary Hanewall, Paula Gomez Farrell

Regrets:Gracie Carr, Dianne Lefly, Deb Brackney

Meeting called to order at 4:35pm by Vinny Badolato.

Minutes

  1. Moved byPolly Bacathat the agenda be approved. SecondedMary Hanewall. Votes: Unanimous.
  2. Sarah Kurzread the mission statement.
  3. Moved byPolly Bacathat the minutes of September 10, 2013 be approved. Seconded:Sarah Kurz. Votes: Unanimous.
  4. The merits of Amendment 66 were discussed. The reform of the Finance Act will inject $1 B into K-12 education. This could mean upwards of 30% in increased PPR funding for NAS. The one drawback would be a new formula to calculate FTE (an average of 4 quarters of enrollment to determine FTE counts instead of a one day snapshot). This will lower our normal October counts. Moved by Polly Baca and seconded by Mary Hanewall that the Board endorse amendment 66. Votes: Unanimous.
  5. Guests Keenan Davis and Mark Poshak from Portmont College at Mount St. Mary’s spoke about the opportunities at their College. This nonprofit offers online credit courses at a very reasonable tuition cost. Their starting cohort in the new year will be 40-60 students. Questions from the Board were addressed.
  6. The Superintendent highlighted the decline in enrollment in all three schools. Some reasons for the decline were outlined. Principals spoke of their particular circumstances. Competition from other district schools, improved economy, fewer immigrants entering the state were the main reasons. Principals offered planned strategies to recapture students including: earlier start date, growing the summer program, offering more opportunities for students to earn credits (Friday school, summer program), and modifying the marketing messages.
  7. Corey presented a dashboard that illustrated that more than 50% of students who enroll after the count date return the following year.
  8. Marco Rafanelli led a work session to start the work of identifying the key indicators of success and action plans to achieve the proposed key indicators for the first two strategic goals. After brainstorming some key indicators for the first goal the group determined it was best if the leadership team brought their work and then the Board would see how they could advocate for the goals. The SP committee will meet to streamline next steps.
  9. Craig distributed an information update on the 8978 North Washington facility. The school is slated to open in early January 2014.
  10. Mary presented the Leadership Committee report. The committee has had discussions with three possible candidates (Terry Whitney, Tonee Mwamba and Bill Bethke). They will also meet with a fourth candidate Mario Hernandez next month. A slate of recommendation will be brought to the Board in November.
  11. Public input-None
  12. Meeting adjourned at 6:45.