Woods Charter School October School Board Meeting minutes (draft)

[Gene Galin]

Woods School Board meeting – October 7, 2009

Present: Chair, Ms. Dee Dee Nachman, Vice-Chair, Mr. Michael Van Hoy; Secretary, Mr. Gene; Treasurer, Mr. David Madison; Members, Ms. Adrianne Leinbach, Mr. Mike Smith, Ms. Teresa Perschy, Principal, Mr. Harrell Rentz; Mr. Aaron Trocki, Faculty Representative

Ms. Nachman called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm

1.   The Pledge of Allegiance

2. Chairman’s Report
2i. Board training (minutes, public comment, policy development)

Ms. Nachman highlighted Ms. Kruft’s visit to conduct school board training. Ms. Kruft addressed questions from the Woods school board.

Three items the school board addressed with her were
1)   Minutes: what our minutes should look like as a charter school
2)   Public comment: what do we do when people want to include something written in the public record
3)   Policy development: what and how should school policies be developed. How is the school board involved in the process.

What minutes should look like – legal requirements. Minutes should reflect what actions are taken, which board members are present. The minutes should reflect the business of the board. The minutes can include conversation and discussion germane to the topic being voted on. Jean thought that the best practice was that “less is more” and that they didn’t need to be a transcript of what transpired. Procedures could be audio or video taped and kept on file for people to be able to hear or to see. Minutes should not be a dictation of what happened.

There is no requirement to record individual votes unless a board member requested that their vote be recorded.

Public comment – what do we do with written submissions from the public.
Public comments should not be included in the board minutes. Board could keep public comments in a separate comments notebook. Comments do not have to be incorporated into the formal minutes.

At a previous meeting, the Woods school board has opted to go with a notebook that would hold people’s written submissions. Minutes could contain the fact that certain persons did make public comments during the school board meeting.

Public comments, either verbally or written, should comply with some kind of standards. Woods school board has started talking about what the parameters might be.

A Woods Community Input notebook has been started and was shown. It already contains comments from the last school board meeting.

Policy development – how we should go about that.
In the past the board appointed someone to write a policy as needed, with varying degrees of success.

One of the issues is the difference between policies and practices and procedures. Practices and procedures live in the realm of the administration, while policies belong to the realm of the school board. Line between these is pretty gray. School board must determine how much the board wants to be involved in the development of policies and procedures.

Number of things in the student handbook that need to be developed. Revised.

Maybe policies should be less specific? How that policy is implemented is done procedurally at the administration level. Policies are the general guidelines.

Open to that conversation of how to develop policies. We don’t want to be very specific but we do need to make the policies to be clear enough to make parents and community aware of what the expectations are.

A couple of items are fairly unique to our Woods community.

It is highly unusual to have a member corporation for a board. The DPI representative noted that the recommendation of the Attorney General today would be not to set up the school board that way.

DPI mentioned that Woods should also consider changing the fact that our board is made up entirely of parents.  That is not done by most charter schools. The boards may be 50 percent parents and the other 50 percent are educators, community leaders, etc. The DPI rep did mention that the current Woods school board setup does seem to work well for Woods.

2ii. Employee list should be published every year and made part of the public record. New hires have been made public in the principal’s list but an employee list has not been public annually.

Mr. Madison added that the board usually is responsible for formally approving all the contracts. Each faculty member has a contract. The board signs off on the principal’s contract and the principal signs off on every faculty member’s contract. We now need to formally approve all these contracts as per the list.

2iii. Capital Expenditure Accounting Update –
Last month, for the first time, a capital expenditures report was prepared to show how this money was spent.

There is another report today that reflects changes from last month to this month in capital expenditures.

This information is not something that would be posted on the web page, but would be made available for inspection by the public.

Rentz began a discussion about mapping expenditures. Tom works on mapping expenditure to various pots of money. Mr. Rentz and Tom Williams explored a couple of issues. i.e. set up a separate checking account to track capital expenditures.

Seems to be more of a database issue. Kim Rossi is our connection to Arcadia. We would like to do more internal tracking. Mr. Rentz is working towards striking a balance between being efficient and being appropriately redundant. 

Ms. Nachman asked for public comments about what went on at the training.

Joe Frances asked “If the parents don’t vote on the board members, then who?”

Ms. Nachman responded that it was self-perpetuating. Board members would appoint new members to take their place as they rotate off. This is not required by law.

Mr. Rentz mentioned that the Woods Foundation board is self-perpetuating.

Ms. Scholle mentioned that the history of the school is that it is a parent run school. The issue is that parents believe that they are voting for a board that represents them. Woods has a principal that is representative of the administration. That is the tradition. When it stops working, that’s when the discussion begin.

Ms. Scholle was not certain why would you want the board to appoint?

Ms. Nachman responded that the DPI rep mentioned that every board should have members to speak to different issues – i.e. legal issues, business, education, etc.

Woods may want to be more conscientious in future elections about pointing out that here are the needs that we have since certain members are rotating off the board.

While it might be appropriate to ask people who have certain skill sets to run for the school board, Ms. Scholle raised concerns about anyone saying that this is the person I would like to see fill this space.

Mr. Madison mentioned that it is not unusual for a board to offer a slate. Under the current system it could be conceivable that 30 or 40 parents could take this school into a totally different direction from what is. Using appointments can lend itself towards more stability.

Mr. Daw would support the idea of adding a community leader or a local educator to be on the board. Bylaws are written that school board members can only be parents.

4. Consent agenda.

August minutes and September minutes.

a.   Mr. Madison raised some objections to the August minutes and thought some items needed to be struck from the minutes because they did not strictly address the business of the board.

Mr. Galin pointed out that the North Carolina Open Meeting Law (Article 33C, 143-318.10. e) requires that a public body keep full and accurate minutes so that a person not in attendance would have a reasonable understanding of what transpired.
Mr. Galin added that a review of his August 2009 school board meetings by the Assistant Director, Dale Harrison, of the North Carolina Sunshine Policy center has found that he have met his obligation as a public official in the state of North Carolina by providing a full and accurate record of the meeting. The minutes covered the major points of the discussions held during that school board meeting. Someone reading the meeting minutes wants to know what the major points were. Keeping a record of the motions made and acted upon are a minimum requirement.
Ms. Nachman proposed that there be a balance in the minutes between the minimum requirements and a transcript.
 Ms. Nachman mentioned that there were missing parts in the August minutes concerning who made policy motions and who seconded the, Mr. Galin promised to review the audio record of the meeting and fill in these parts.
Mr. Galin made the motion to pass the August minutes as drafted minus the three amendments as needed. There was no second to that motion.
August minutes were tabled.

b.   Mr. Madison moved to approve the September minutes as presented. Mr. VanHoy seconded the motion. 

Mr. Galin raised a concern about the specifics of Ms. Scholle’s and Mr. Daw’s comments not being included in the minutes.

Ms. Nachman noted that the comments were placed in a notebook. The Woods school board has accepted the comments and made a note of doing so in the minutes.

September minutes approved. Four ayes (Perschy, Madison, Leinbach, and VanHoy) and two abstentions (Mr. Galin and Mr. Smith).

c. Principal’s report.

Mr. Madison asked if multiples take priority over siblings in the admissions process.

Mr. Rentz responded “no.” Faculty children and siblings take priority.

Multiples basically apply as if they were one child going into the admissions pool.

VanHoy asked one question about the admission update. He asked if the racial background question that was added was mandatory.

Mr. Rentz noted that the application information was not used in selection at all. A response is not required.

Mr. VanHoy noted that it should be made clear that responding to that question does not affect selection in anyway and that is for simply for demographic purposes.

Mr. Rentz noted that Woods does not use a computer for admission selection and uses a hat to pull those to be admitted.

Mr. VanHoy asked for clarification about twins and whether they get one or two numbers. Mr. Rentz pointed out that the twins would get only one number.

Mr. Madison moved to approve the Principal’s report and the elevator contract. Ms. Perschy seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

5a. No student update.

5b. Pre-Meeting Casual Discussion Report – Teresa Perschy

Ms. Perschy noted that there was a premeeting session.

5c. Faculty update

Mr. Trocki let the board know that the student rep will probably come out of the student rep pool. Mr. Trocki expected to see a student at the next school board meeting.

Elementary is having a visit from the fire department to discuss fire safety. Visit from Chatham County Transit to teach students about bus safety.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades will be going to Carolina theater to see hour theatrical show that teaches about the human body on October 27.

Family night on October 15.

Kindergarten through 4th grade will have fall festival event on October 30. Upper grades will have a written assignment to go along with that event.

In the middle school, the 5th grade teachers hosted a “Back to School” night with parents.

8th graders had a Shakespeare workshop.

7th graders are going on a two-day retreat to a 4H center in Reidsville, NC to work on team building, communications, and responsibility.

1st middle school band and chorus performance on the October 15 in conjunction with Book Fair Family night.

Went from one 12th grade advisory section two years ago up to three 12th grade advisory sections this year. Denise O’Gorman has been a big support for the college advising process.

College night for 12th grade students and parents.

Took group of juniors to UNC last Monday for college visit to get them thinking about college plans.

Faculty advisory meetings were held with peer evaluators and high school supervisor.

High school student council elections just took place.

There is a faculty consensus that larger class sizes are taking a toll.

Ms. Nachman asked how many juniors went to UNC? 26 juniors went along with some seniors.

VanHoy noted that Mr. Trocki said that larger high school classes are taking a toll. Mr. Trocki said that it is in some subject areas, in particular language arts and history.

What is the toll? Teachers are feeling the toll of extra grading and more students than previous years. In science there are some very large sections, in particular in the 9th grade level. The numbers are in the low 20s, which is high for Woods.

Mr. Bryant has not been able to schedule a day for the senior/frosh retreat.

5d. Treasurer’s Report – David Madison

Mr. Madison says that everything is on target and we are working within our reserve levels.

Ms. Nachman asked if there is a line item to show a “fair share.”

Mr. Madison noted that it should drop in as a revenue item. Plans to budget the item once enough information is gathered

Mr Smith asked about student allotments from the State. Mr. Rentz noted that the State gives allotments in July, November, and March. State fund numbers are reflected in the budget.

Count last month for Woods was 502.

VanHoy asked about the evenness of the state revenue flow. Mr. Madison explained that the money comes in “clumps” during various points during the year.

State starts to give money in July. County monies usually come later than state monies. County allotments can change if Woods students go back to their county schools.

Ms. Perschy asked about Foundation money. Mr. Madison explained that Foundation monies will eventually catch up by the end of the fiscal year.

Mr. VanHoy asked if it is the practice that the school pays for certain items and the Foundation reimburses for those? Mr. Rentz says that will depend on individual situation. Foundation money comes to the school as grants.

5e. WCS Foundation report – Carmen Laethem. 

$444,419 in total donations. Open pledges to date is $51,404

Last month the foundation awarded grants of $44,848 for stage curtains, science materials, document camera projector, etc. These were the first grants made this year.

Balance forward of $131,282 of which $19,551 are designated funds, leaving an anticipated amount of $119,731 at the end of October.

5f. Facilities - Ms. Leinbach

We are getting four benches out front and two more for the back.

5g. Policy – Mr. VanHoy

Athletic handbook will be revisited after faculty input.

Policy about public input? Should we have one about public comment? Are we doing both guidelines and procedures?

Mr. VanHoy asked about drawing something up and bringing it before the board next month. A proposed guideline maybe that public comment can be submitted as written form, but will not be included in the minutes. It must meet certain parameters, such as not being slanderous. We will ask that inappropriate items be removed before inclusion in the comments notebook.

Ms. Leinbach asked about policy handbooks and procedures. How do we figure out where we are going with this? Handbooks, policies, guidelines?

Mr. VanHoy said that, for example, Mr. Rentz will talk to the faculty and then get back with Mr. VanHoy and come back to the board sometime after the beginning of the year.

Rentz recommended making a board policy followed up by administrative procedures. Approach would be that the board ratifies the policies. The student handbook could contain both the policy and the procedures. Board ratifies the policies. Faculty and administration comes up with the procedures. We can prototype it with the Athletic policy.

Ms. Nachman sees the board approving broad vision policies. How that gets implemented will be left up to the administration.

Mr. VanHoy asked about board policy and administrative procedures. Van Hoy thinks if the school board gives the administration the policy then the administration sets up the procedure.

Other business -

Mr. Galin mentioned that he had contacted NC DOT about a road sign on 15-501 for Woods Charter School. Mr. Rentz needs to send formal request in writing to NCDOT. Mr. Galin will provide the contact name and address.

Ms. Leinbach asked about traffic considerations for the new middle school traffic.

7. Closed session

No closed session this evening.

8. Adjournment

Ms. Leinbach made a motion to adjourn. Ms. Perschy seconded the motion. Motion was approved.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35 pm.

[munn5]

Public comment – what do we do with written submissions from the public.
Public comments should not be included in the board minutes. Board could keep public comments in a separate comments notebook. Comments do not have to be incorporated into the formal minutes.

At a previous meeting, the Woods school board has opted to go with a notebook that would hold people’s written submissions. Minutes could contain the fact that certain persons did make public comments during the school board meeting.

Public comments, either verbally or written, should comply with some kind of standards. Woods school board has started talking about what the parameters might be.

A Woods Community Input notebook has been started and was shown. It already contains comments from the last school board meeting.

The Chatham County School Board minutes include a summary of the public comment. If a speaker provides written text, then it the text (not an attachment) is included in the minutes. I have made public comments several times, and I give Sheila Talley, who takes the minutes, a copy of my written remarks to make her job of completing the minutes easier.

For comparison, here is an example of Chatham County School Board minutes from October 12 i've included the first 2 of 22 pages from the 4 hour meeting, which include public comment, and then the discussion of the first item of new business, the OR/Ed Proposal.

 CHATHAM COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
PITTSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
REGULAR SESSION MEETING

SAGE Academy Media Center
      Monday, October 12, 2009

**Approved 11/02/09**

The Chatham County Board of Education met for a regular session on Monday, October 12, 2009, at SAGE Academy in the media center at 5:50 p.m.  Members present were Vice-Chair Deb McManus, and members Col. Gerald Totten, David Hamm, and Flint O’Brien. (Chairwoman Kathie Russell was absent) Robert L. Logan, Superintendent; Board Attorney Trey Allen from Tharrington Smith, LLP; and Board Assistant Sheila Tally were also present.  (Due to personal illness, Col. Totten dismissed himself from the meeting after the SAGE Air Quality Agenda Item discussion.) 

Attendees at the meeting included: Dr. Robin McCoy, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services; Dr. Tina Hester, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources; David Moody, Assistant Superintendent for Auxiliary Services; Susan Little, Chief Operating Officer; Beth McCullough, Public Information Officer; Randy Drumheller, Construction Manager; Kim Taylor, Principal of SAGE Academy; Joel Caviness, Transportation Director; Peggy Douglas, Director of Technology, and Martin Milano, Network Administrator.  Other guests included The Chatham Record reporter John Hunter; Felicia Sawyer, Edrise Glover representing NCAE & CCAE; Tammy Yarborough and Nikki Murchison, representing the Siler City Elementary Parent Advisory Council; Rudy Johnson from Virginia Cross Elementary; and Mia Munn.  There were other guests who did not sign in.

Call to Order:
Vice-Chair McManus called the October 12, 2009, Board of Education open session to order at 6:45 p.m.   

Pledge of Allegiance:
Board members led the audience in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Invocation & Welcome of Visitors:
Superintendent Robert L. Logan offered the invocation and welcomed visitors.

Public Comments:
One individual signed up to make public comments.
Ms. Tammy Yarborough introduced herself as a representative from the Siler City Elementary Parent Advisory Council.  She stated she spoke to the Board several months ago about concerns with the “offer vs. serve” child nutrition department option at Siler City Elementary.  She thanked the Board and administration for addressing her concerns.  She stated there seems to be improvement in the school’s cafeteria, but some parents still feel students should get a full serving of food without having to ask.  She stated there was some customer service training done at the school to address student intimidation issues.  She stated that seems to be going well also.
She stated there are still transportation concerns dealing with busing of students in Siler City and the number of reduced bus stops.  The busing concerns are particularly centered on the younger children (kindergarten and first graders) who have to walk up to 3/10th of a mile to get to the bus stop.  She stated one parent did contact Chairwoman Russell and Mr. Caviness and both responded warmly to the parent and gave a positive response explaining the budget situation and restraints it has caused this school year.  Ms. Yarborough stated she recognizes the district does not have a lot of control over the budget being cut.  She stated however as parents they feel they have an obligation to express themselves and their concerns to the Board and administration.

Ms. Yarborough announced as a Parent Advisory Council they have developed a monthly newsletter which will be shared with the Board.  Board members were encouraged to subscribe to the publication via email.  A copy of the October issue was placed in the board members packet.    Ms. Yarborough stated the newsletter this month focuses mainly on safety issues and academic issues at Siler City Elementary. 

Ms. Yarborough stated another area the Parent Advisory Council is very excited about the possibility of an expansion of the Siler City Elementary dual language program to Chatham Middle School.  Ms. Yarborough stated she is the parent of a 4th grader who is in the dual-language program and her child is doing extremely well in the program as well as 10 other children who were in her child’s dual language class last year.  They scored significantly high when tested last year on their EOGs. 

Ms. Yarborough concluded her presentation by thanking the Board and administration for hearing them.

Adoption of the Agenda:
Board members reviewed the agenda for the regular session. 

On a motion by Mr. O’Brien, seconded by Mr. Hamm, the board unanimously agreed to remove agenda item IX. (E) Board & Superintendent/Staff Relations Policy 2010 since Chairwoman Russell was absent from the meeting and bring back at the November 2nd  board meeting. 

On a motion by Mr. O’Brien, seconded by Mr. Hamm, the Board unanimously approved the agenda as amended.




OR/Ed Proposal:
Mr. Logan reviewed the proposed scope and timeline for the Integrated Planning for School (IPSAC referred to as OR/Ed) and Community study for Chatham County Schools.  He stated the proposal is in two phases with the cost outlined.  Mr. Logan stated this study will:
1.   provide data to further improve the district’s transportation system
2.   provide data to study district-wide reconfiguration of the schools
3.   provide data regarding new growth projections and population trends

Mr. Logan stated when the first report was completed by OR/Ed for Chatham County Schools, OR/Ed did not know there would be a recession and a drop in the housing market.  Mr. Logan stated with any such report, it is a scientific/educated guess based on the best available information at the time.

Mr. Hamm asked if administration had found a copy of the report that was completed in the mid 1980s.  Mr. Logan and Mr. Moody were not aware of that report.

Col. Totten stated the district should move ahead with all proposed scope of work (phase I & II) as presented with no delay and made a motion to move forward now with the study.  Col. Totten stated past studies have been most helpful to the school district in planning for future growth.  Mr. Logan stated this proposal will not require action from the Board, just agreement to move forward. 

Mr. O’Brien asked if the reconfiguration report would be for the entire county at all grade levels.  Mr. Logan stated the grade configurations for K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 would be looked at for the entire school district.  Mr. Logan stated an implementation of this type grade configuration may be years down the road, but it was time to begin looking at and planning for reconfiguration, giving the public plenty of time for input and dialogue on the concept for possible action in the future.   Mr. Logan emphasized moving to a K-5, middle school, and high school configuration will help with transportation costs and allow more academic as well as extra-curricular offerings at the middle schools.  Mr. O’Brien asked if the Board would receive a map outlining proposed new attendance zones.  Mr. Moody stated there will be worksheets with attendance zones outlined for the Board once the report is completed by OR/Ed.  Vice-Chair McManus stated OR/Ed will actually make the recommendations for school attendance districts. 

Mr. O’Brien asked how far out the projections will be from OR/Ed.  Mr. Moody stated they are usually 5+ years out, but it depends on what the district request, which can be an immediate projection, 5 years out, or 10 years out.  Mr. O’Brien stated usually three different scenarios are prepared.   Vice-Chair McManus stated the last report requested by OR/Ed was for a fast growth scenario.  Vice-Chair McManus stated that is usually the time period OR/Ed feels comfortable projecting out.  Col. Totten stated he thought the last report prepared by OR/Ed was in February of 2008 and in that report it spelled out a moratorium in the Pittsboro area on building due to a sewage problem.  Col. Totten emphasized again that OR/Ed produces very thorough reporting.   

Mr. O’Brien stated this is a very atypical time period right now and the next two years will be more predictable as we slowly come out of the recession.  Mr. Logan stated administration can certainly ask for different scenarios from the study to incorporate the pace of the growth of the county. 

Col. Totten stated he was not sure the Board should have a new western middle school on the CIP plan until the OR/Ed study is complete.  He stated if the district does go to a middle school grade configuration that he is sure a middle school would be needed in the western part of the county, but felt we were “getting the cart before the horse.”  Mr. Moody stated the new middle school is listed as “for consideration” and would be at least five years out if it is determined that one is needed.

Mr. O’Brien stated that if you look 5 years ahead, you might say, “Obviously, we need a school here. But if you look 10 years ahead, you might say, Well, we really didn’t need it there, we needed one over here and one over here and we screwed up putting it there, but that is how far we looked.”  Mr. O’Brien said he doesn’t think we’re looking far enough ahead. In particular with things like bus routes, if we could put a middle school and a high school on the same campus, you don’t have buses from one neighborhood going to two locations. He thinks it’s much more efficient. Not to mention sharing other facilities.
Mr. O’Brien stated that there are two things going on here. One is, where are developments going to go? The other is, what is the pace that we will see those developments develop? Mr. O’Brien stated he thinks this county has a much better idea than we’ve had in the past about where developments will be going. When you are deciding on building a school, there are two different questions of accuracy: one is, are you accurate where the developments will go and the second is, are you accurate in how fast they will build out. When you’re talking about where you should put a school, just being accurate on where developments are going to go, even if you don’t know the timeframe, is useful for long term planning.
Mr. O’Brien stated other school districts are predicting 10-20 years out in planning for schools.  Mr. O’Brien stated he felt a five year projection was not far enough out in planning for new schools.  Mr. Logan again stated, the further out projections are made in development and growth, the less accurate the information will be and the greater the cost for the study. 

Mr. Moody stated the only way the district will get up-to-date, accurate information is to hire OR/Ed back each year to update its statistics.

Col. Totten stated he would withdraw his motion since board action is not required as long as the entire proposed scope of work is accepted.

Mr. O’Brien asked the superintendent when he talks to OR/Ed, could he ask them about projections of where things are going to be built versus projects of when they would be built.   Mr. O’Brien said he would be interested in what they had to say. Mr. Logan agreed. Mr. O’Brien went on to ask the superintendent to ask OR/Ed about the idea that if you look 5 years ahead, you may be picking the wrong spots for 10 years ahead. Mr. Logan agreed.
Mr. Logan stated that we’ll inquire what impact long range projections have versus the cost of what they’ve already presented to us. If it’s well within the scope of this, then OK. As Ms. McManus pointed out, their typical work is only 5 or 6 years. They can project out further, but again, the further out you project, the less accurate it is.
Mr. O’Brien stated that he wasn’t interested so much in how much it costs. He was asking for their expertise on; when they’ve done that in other districts, have they seen a big change in where things should go when they’ve projected further.
Mr. O’Brien stated he wanted to make it clear the Board has not decided to change the grade configurations for the district to a K-5, middle school, and high school concept.  It is only looking at and collecting data at this time. 
 
(A copy of the IPSAC study for Chatham County Schools is attached at the end of the minutes.) 

[Gene Galin]

Here's what a recently revised copy of the October minutes looks like.

Which do you prefer for form and function?

Woods Charter School
School Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Meeting conducted by Deedee Nachman.  Signature: _________________________________

Voting Board members present: Nachman, Perschy, Galin, Madison, Leinbach, Van Hoy, Smith
Non-voting Board members present:  Trocki - Faculty Representative, Rentz - School Principal

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm in The Glade of WCS.

The Pledge of Allegiance

Chairman’s Report:

1.   Board training :  The Board met with Jean Kruft from the Charter School Division of DPI for board training.  The particular areas of discussion were managing the board meeting minutes, public comment and policy development.   A summary of her observations and recommendations is attached.

2.   Capital Expenditure Accounting Update:  Last month, for the first time, a capital expenditures report was prepared to show how this money was spent.  There is another report today that reflects changes from last month to this month in capital expenditures.  This information is available for inspection by the public.  Rentz and Acadia continue to explore the best way to map our cash flow and capital expenditures.  Woods is working on providing more internal tracking of our finances independent of Acadia.  Mr. Rentz is working towards striking a balance between being efficient and being appropriately redundant.

3.   Public Comment following the Chairman’s Update:

a.   Joe Frances asked about how the board would be elected if not by the parents.  Many boards of this nature are self-perpetuating. Board members would appoint new members to take their place as they rotate off.   The Woods Foundation board is self-perpetuating.

b.   Ms. Scholle mentioned that the history of the school is that it is a parent-run school. The issue is that parents believe that they are voting for a board that represents them. What benefit would be derived from a self-perpetuating board?  Ms. Kruft noted that in a self-perpetuating board, the organization can ensure that they are getting the types of skills and talents they need on the board regardless of public support or name recognition present in many board elections (ie: legal, financial, educational, etc.).  Woods may want to be more conscientious in future elections about pointing out that here are the needs that we have since certain members are rotating off the board.   The Board may consider providing a slate of candidates they believe should be elected to ensure all the bases are covered in terms of skills needed.

c.   Mr. Daw would support the idea of adding a community leader or a local educator to be on the board. This would require a bylaw change since the bylaws currently require that school board members can only be parents.

Consent agenda:

1.   Minutes

a.   August Minutes: The Board discussed the August minutes and whether they struck a sufficient balance between providing information on the business of the board and being too lengthy and providing more information than is necessary or wise.  Galin outlined his process and his understanding of the requirements of North Carolina Open Meeting Law.  Madison raised concerns that some of the language of the August minutes was imprecise and subject to incorrect interpretation.  Nachman proposed that there be a balance in the minutes between the minimum requirements and a transcript.  Galin moved the approval of the August minutes as drafted.  There was no second; the motion died.

b.   September Minutes:  Madison moved to approve the September minutes as presented. VanHoy seconded the motion.  The motion to pass September minutes passed with two abstentions.

2.   Principal’s Report

a.   Clarification was sought over the admissions of multiples: multiples apply as if they were one child and faculty children and siblings take priority.

b.   Clarification was sought over racial identification on the application and its use, if any, in the admissions process.  Application information was not used in selection at all and a response is not required; it is collected for demographic purposes only.

c.   Madison moved to approve the Principal’s report and the elevator contract. Ms. Perschy seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Reports:
1.   Student Update:  None offered.

2.   Pre-Meeting Casual Discussion Report: Pershy noted that there was a premeeting session.

3.   Faculty Report: Trocki let the board know that the student rep will probably come out of the student rep pool. Trocki expected to see a student at the next school board meeting.
a.   Elementary is having a visit from the fire department to discuss fire safety and a visit from Chatham County Transit to teach students about bus safety.   1st, 2nd and 3rd grades will be going to Carolina theater to see a theatrical show that teaches about the human body on October 27.   Family night on October 15. Kindergarten through 4th grade will have fall festival event on October 30. Upper grades will have a written assignment to go along with that event.

b.   Middle School, 5th grade teachers hosted a “Back to School” night with parents.  8th graders had a Shakespeare workshop.  7th graders are going on a two-day retreat to a 4H center in Reidsville, NC to work on team building, communications and responsibility.  1st middle school band and chorus performance on the October 15 in conjunction with Book Fair Family night.

c.   High School, went from one 12th grade advisory section two years ago up to three 12th grade advisory section this year.  Denise O’Gorman has been a big support for the college advising process.  A group of juniors visited UNC for a college tour.  Faculty evaluation meetings were held with peer evaluators and evaluation supervisors.  High school student council elections just took place.  A date has not been scheduled for the senior/freshman retreat.

d.   Generally, there is a faculty consensus that larger class sizes are taking a toll, particularly in language arts and history. Teachers are feeling the burden of extra grading and more students than previous years. In science there are some very large sections, in particular in the 9th grade level. The numbers are in the low 20s, which is high for Woods.

4.   Treasurer’s Report:  Madison reviewed the financials and advised that everything is on target and we are working within our reserve levels.  The transportation “fair share” should show us as a revenue item.  The state allotments are paid in July, November and March. State fund numbers are reflected in the budget and are based on a count of 502 students.  County monies usually come later than state monies. County allotments can change if Woods students go back to their county schools.  Foundation monies will eventually catch up by the end of the fiscal year.  When the Foundation is paying for items for the school it is paid via grants.

5.   WCS Foundation report: Carmen Laetham reported that the Foundation has received $444,419 in total donations. Open pledges to date total $51,404.  Last month the foundation awarded grants of $44,848 for stage curtains, science materials, document camera projector, etc. These were the first grants made this year.  Balance forward of $131,282 of which $19,551 are designated funds, leaving an anticipated amount of $119,731 at the end of October.

6.   Facilities: Leinbach reported that we are getting four benches out front and two more for the back.

7.   Policy:  VanHoy advised that the athletic handbook will be revisited after faculty input.  He will also prepare a policy regarding public comment for review next month.  Additional discussion around the procedure for making policy and administrative procedures followed.  Rentz recommended making a board policy followed up by administrative procedures. Approach would be that the board ratifies the policies. The student handbook could contain both the policy and the procedures.   The faculty and administration comes up with the procedures. The board would approve broad vision policies but implementation would be delegated to the administration.

Other business

Galin mentioned that he had contacted NC DOT about a road sign on 15-501 for Woods Charter School. Rentz needs to send formal request in writing to NCDOT. Galin will provide the contact name and address.

Leinbach asked about traffic considerations for the new middle school traffic.

Closed session:  No closed session this evening.

Adjournment:  Leinbach made a motion to adjourn. Perschy seconded the motion.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35 pm.
 
Summary of Discussion with Jean Kruft, DPI as presented at the October Board Meeting

1.   With respect to board meeting minutes, Ms. Kruft outlined the legal requirements as well as a “best practice” approach.  In her opinion, the minutes should reflect the business conducted (motions made and approved) including discussion germane to the topic subject to the vote.  Within that framework, Ms. Kruft recommended a “less is more” approach.   If the desire is to provide a full transcript of the meeting, there is no prohibition from recording the meeting and making the recordings available to the public.

2.   With respect to submission of written materials during public comment, Ms. Kruft advised that these submissions should not be included in the board minutes but other mechanisms for retaining these submissions for institutional history may be employed.  In response, Mr. Rentz has prepared a Public Comment Submission notebook for receiving the written comments of the public during the board meetings.  The Board also decided to create a standard for comment (whether verbal or written) to ensure that the comment comports to standards of civil conduct as well as legality.  Mr. Van Hoy will work to create a set of guidelines for the Board’s review and approval.

3.   With respect to policy development Ms. Kruft outlined that the practices and procedures live in the realm of the administration, while policies belong to the realm of the school board.  Oftentimes there is overlap and gray area between these two areas.  There are a number of revisions needed to the student handbook and as we tackle these changes we should bear in mind that the policy implementation is done at an administration level not at a Board level.  The policies should be vague enough to allow administration to form sufficient implementation practices that can respond to different and changing needs but the policies should be clear enough to make parents and community aware of what the expectations are.

4.   Ms. Kruft also pointed out that Woods is a unique community in its organization and structure:  it is highly unusual to have a member-run corporation for a school.  Ms. Kruft noted that the recommendation of the Attorney General today would be not to set up the school board that way.   Ms. Kruft also recommended that Woods should consider changing the fact that our board is made up entirely of parents.  Typically, the boards are 50 percent parents and the other 50 percent are educators, community leaders, etc. The DPI rep did mention that the current Woods school board setup does seem to work well for Woods.

5.   Employee list should be published every year and made part of the public record. New hires have been made public in the principal’s list but an employee list has not been public annually.

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