1/21/14 Governance Council Meeting Minutes
January 21, 2014
Members Present: Virginia Trujillo, President, Community Member
Chris Velasquez, Secretary, Parent
Jim Freese, Community Member
Members Absent: Todd Caplan, Vice President, Parent
Lori Hagen, Community Member
Guests: Mary Tarango, Principal
Judy Bergs, APS finance
Tami Coleman, APS Finance
Rita Hirschy, APS Finance
Jim Richardson, 21st Century School
Meeting called to Order at 6:46 pm
Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes
Review December 12, 2013 meeting minutes:
Correction to minutes submitted by Judy. Spelling error of “disbursements” in School Finances.
Motion to approve corrected minutes – Chris Velasquez
2nd – Jim Freese
Passes unanimously
Open Forum:
Tami introduced Rita Hirschy as a new member of the APS Finance team assisting the school. She will be doing Business Manager duties.
Virginia mentioned sending the APS bullying policy to parents for their signature.
Chris asked if Foundation could potentially purchase the new server out of existing Foundation funds. New server is needed if we are to be PARCC compliant by Spring of 2015. Standardized testing will follow the PARCC’s next generation assessment system and will need to be done completely online. Our current computer server is woefully inadequate. Server is approximately $40k. Jim indicated Foundation doesn’t have $40k; asked if PED could potentially pay for it since it’s a PED requirement for assessment system. Tami indicated PED was to provide matching funds to schools who were eligible after submitting PARCC Readiness Assessments to PED. APS has not received any funds and Mark Tolley has not been notified if APS to receive matching funds. Mary indicated PED gave some SB9 funds to go towards server.
Mary added a discussion point for the need of a new server; the Student Information System needs to be on a capable server and in addition, current computer lab teacher, Mr. Peckens, has resorted to using Google Domain to act as a server for his lab classes.
Virginia stated that Maxine Mora may want to join the Governance Council.
School Finances
Statement of Expenditures presented. Operational Balance was reported at $90k in debt. Slowly making improvements. 21st Century finances were again discussed at recent APS Board meeting and the overall indication from the APS Board is they think positively about the school and how much we are achieving and want the school to succeed. They are concerned that we will end the school year in a negative, but do not want to damage the school. All are hoping Unit Value will increase by end of January. 1 BAR submitted to adjust current budget.
Intra-function transfer to align with actuals in the 24106 Fund (IDEA-B) by way of adjustments to Therapists-Contracted, Specialists-Contracted, and Speech Therapists-Contracted. A net $0 transfer.
Motion to approve BAR
Motion – Jim Freese
2nd – Chris Velasquez
Passed unanimously.
Cash disbursements presented. Nothing out of the ordinary observed. $164.8k in December.
Motion to approve Cash Disbursements and approve BAR’s
Motion – Jim Freese
2nd – Chris Velasquez
Passed unanimously.
Principal’s Report:
Mary submitted her report for the record
40-day count is 257 students, not 256 as indicated in written submission
Goal is 263 for 180 day count (avg. goal for next yr is 260)
Jim asked if magazine ad is drawing in parents. Mary indicated that, right now, Radio ad is working more. Jim would like Ms. Morga to ask parents how they found out about 21st Century when she gets calls so we can assess what’s working and not working.
Open House is scheduled for 25 January.
School Choice Fair is at Pyramid, 3 February.
Will have a wall section to advertise our school.
Virginia may purchase pens that have name and # of our school printed on them to hand out at fair.
Parent Survey discussed
Amazing scores for majority of items.
Low score on number 18: Governance Council Parental Involvement
New Business
Old Business discussed before New Business
Old Business
Charter School Performance Contract presented for approval items
Reviewed “Yellow Highlighted Areas” in Contract that need Governance Council approval. Too numerous to mention here
Basic edits were description of school, history, and school’s mission
Motion to approve edits to Charter School Performance Contract – Jim Freese
2nd-Chris Velasquez
Passed Unanimously
APS Charter School Performance Framework presented for discussion
Focus on changes will be centered around Special Education
Intent is to align us more with APS and PED with respect to Special Ed.
Action Item for Governance Council for next meeting is to approve the Framework
Bullying Policy – Will send out APS policy with notice to parents for signature.
Training – Ron Romero will find out about being able to train the Governance Council himself, in lieu of the PED training. Mark Tolley also to check into this with PED.
New Business
Principal’s Evaluation discussed
“Teachscape” not available to us yet, so evaluation format needs to be decided.
Nothing in place now on what objectives are to be used to evaluate the Principal.
Objectives were written by Mary last year and will be template for Governance Council to agree on.
Needs to be done 30 days prior to end of contract. Current contract completion date is 30 June 2014.
Meeting Dates: (6 pm)
February 20 New Date Tuesday 25
March 20
April 24
Motion to adjourn: Jim Freese
2nd – Chris Velasquez
Passes unanimously.
Meeting Adjourned at 7:58pm