SHEEP Board Meeting on August 7, 2017

SHEEP Board Meeting on August 7, 2017

• Those in attendance were Patti Barron, EmilyBubela, Margarita Mejia,Carole Gish, Karen Medina, Melissa Hart, Nancy Bradley, Tiffany Jureczki and Dawn McLendon with Julie Vickery on the phone and non-Board member Melanie Garcia.

• The meeting was opened in prayer by Dawn.

• New Board members Emily Bubela, Patti Barron, Melissa Hart and Margarita Mejia were introduced and welcomed to the Board.

• The vacated Board Secretary position was discussed and Nancy Bradley was elected to fulfill that role.

• The prior school board meeting minutes from May were approved.

• Public Comments - Melanie addressed the Board regarding a concern about the school starting the school year with a zero budget and how this would affect the teachers and purchasing supplies. This didn’t seem right since the registration fees had already been paid for this school year and those funds should be available to use. The Board thanked Melanie for her input and this issue will be addressed in the budget discussion further along in the agenda. There were no other public comments.

• Enrollment update – We currently have 84 pre-school enrollees. There are two openings in the 3 yr. old class. Two families on the waiting list have been contacted and Tiffany is waiting for a call back. There are 15 kids enrolled in Kinder. This leaves 7 families on the waiting list.

• New Pre-K class – We will have three 3 year old classes this year and no first or second grade class. The first grade teacher will co-teach with the Kinder teacher.

• Employee Changes – Miss Kim is leaving for family reasons and teachers were reassigned to cover the classes. With this change we needed to hire two more Assistant teachers. Tiffany hired Shannon Wills and Courtney Mays to fill these positions. The website will be updated. There was a brief discussion on information that should be included in the teacher bios – i.e. work experience, education and just a little personal information.

• Building Usage –The Church has asked for Annex East back. This will require art, movement and music to relocate. The Music room (shared with the choir) will have to be licensed. Tiffany has called the inspector, but the inspector we had is no longer there. She is waiting for a call back. Movement is primarily done outside and when it is bad weather the school can use the Great Room upstairs. Art will travel to each individual classroom

There was a discussion about adding another class. The Church would have to give us some space which would mean the storage room or half of the Rock in the other building. Neither space is very big which would limit the number of children. We would have to hire two more teachers and there was some concern that there were not enough kids on the wait list to make this feasible. There was also concern about separating a new preschool class from the other classes. Since we will be starting classes in three weeks, it was decided to table this for now.

• November 10 is the SHEEP 10 Year Anniversary Fall Gala to raise money for growth. The money raised will help grow the school whether it is adding more classrooms or additional learning programs. The Gala is from 6:30 to 11:00 p.m. with a Retro Prom theme. Tickets will go on sale soon.

On April 29, 2018, the Church will celebrate SHEEP’s 10 year anniversary. Immediately after the Sunday service, there will be a picnic with bounce houses and food trucks (which will donate part of their proceeds to SHEEP). It was suggested we also put out a donation bucket. All of the families from prior years will be invited to join us.

• Employee Policy Manual – Changes discussed in May were incorporated into the updated manual. All board members will receive a revised copy of the manual.

• Currently all SHEEP funds are in one account. Ann Shorter asked that the Board pass a resolution to separate these funds into three accounts for better accountability. The school has grown and this separation will be more accurate and make it easier to track funds. The three accounts are an Operating Budget for the day to day operations, a Shepherd account and a Growth Fund which would primarily contain the monies raised from the Gala designated for future growth of classes/programs. Dawn made a motion and Karen seconded it. All were in favor and the Board resolved that the SHEEP funds would be split into three separate accounts.

• Budget – A shortfall was discovered in the SHEEP budget. A quick decision was needed to move funds from the Church to the SHEEP budget to cover operating costs. Upon further review, some accounting discrepancies were noted and the shortfall may not be as much as once believed. An external audit is needed to determine the exact amount. A new line item has been added to the budget to pay for this audit.

Part of the problem is the fact that all funds were lumped together under one SHEEP account. This worked when we were just starting out but the school and budget has grown. The three separate accounts should alleviate this problem. We are also introducing a new format for the budget. Each source of revenue and expense is a separate line item and has a unique account number. This will allow us to track expenses and to get monthly reports that show us exactly how much we are under/over budget. This new format will also help Ann understand what is coming in and what is being spent.

We will now get monthly reports. Julie will send these out to each board member before the meeting so we can review them prior to our monthly meeting. All this will ensure we will not be surprised by another deficit.

Julie will finalize the numbers and we will vote by email on the 2017-2018 SHEEP budget.

This is an opportunity to start fresh. We will now have a paper trail for all transactions and will monitor the budget closely month by month. Even though we are starting with a zero budget, there should not be a problem reimbursing teachers for supplies by the end of August.

Dawn reiterated this school year will be fine. SHEEP is a ministry to the community and our goal is not to make money. We also do not want this to turn into an adversarial situation between the church and school. The vestry has been very supportive of us and we have promised we will not have another situation like this and have taken the corrective measures to prevent it.

The discussion opened up again about adding another class. There are many pros and cons but the majority of the Board felt this was not the right time to add a class simply for the sake of adding a class. Future growth (whether additional classes or new programs) needs to be well thought out and based on need.

Carole made a motion to table the discussion of additional classes until after open enrollment in February 2018. Karen seconded the motion.

• The second Wednesday of each month, the entire school will go to Joshua Springs Park for different learning activities. Parents will drop off and pick up kids there. The cost is $50 for the large pavilion. There is no charge if the event is cancelled.

• Sheep Round-up is August 23rd from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Board members should arrive to help at 5:30. Wear your name tags. Julie will order name tags for our new board members.

On the first day of school, August 29th, all available board members areencouraged to attend chapel to help the parents/children. Please arrive around 8:15 and meet in the Historic Sanctuary and wear your name tags.

• The meeting went into executive session.

• Dawn closed the meeting in prayer.

• Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 4 at 6:00 p.m. in the Crown Room. This is Labor Day so I will defer to Julie and Tiffany whether or not we will reschedule.