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GES Board
APPROVED Minutes
February 8, 2006
Board members in Attendance: Nina Simonowicz, Susan Miller, Patty Nordahl, Suzy Schweig, Dave Ingebrigtsen, Scott Pollock, Julie O’Neil, Amy Brown
Others present: Peter James, Mike Link, Kate Crowley
4:00 p.m. Call to Order/Welcome and Introduction
Reading of the Mission: Suzy Schweig
Celebration sentences: All
Approval of Agenda: Susan moved to approve the agenda, Patty seconded. Ayes all.
Approval of Minutes: Julie moved and Suzy seconded to approve the minutes with a few minor changes. Ayes all.
Director’s Report:
Peter James handed out a written report. Pete reported that the final implementation grant contract was received. When the proper signatures are obtained and the documents returned we will receive 40% of the funds.
The board was briefed on the parent education night coming up on Feb 9th. An agenda for that was reviewed and explained. Included on the agenda are: foreign language opportunities, wind ensemble opportunities, Papa Charlie’s Fundraiser, parent education opportunities, and Federal Grant implementation plans.
Lastly, Pete reported that the GES open house week from 2/21-2/24 has been advertised in the news herald this week and in the Advantage and will be advertised next week in the Star. Fliers will be placed around town and in the schools.
Treasurer’s Report:
Scott Pollock passed out the summary of invoices paid, invoices to be approved, a finance committee report and master calendar.
Suzy moved to approve the bills to be paid, Patty seconded. Questions and comments on the bills were addressed. Ayes all.
The treasurer’s report included a quarterly budget review; it was noted we are continuing to operate with a deficit. This deficit can be strategically offset with the addition of 4 or 5 more students.
Pete wrote a letter to Mike Lavigne at GM State Bank requesting a line of credit.
Re: the 2006 Goals –the finance committee will work toward monthly analysis that will better help the school forecast expenses. The finance committee will plan for becoming financially sustainable after the Federal Grant expires.
CMERDC will be providing GES with monthly reports that will help with analysis and foster better forecasting and decision making.
The finance committee will meet the first Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m
In reviewing the GES budget as of January 15th, 2006, Mike Link asked some questions about percentages and Nina explained how the state withholds 20% of our money and the reason we have spent more that 50% of our budget to date is because certain expenditures such as insurance, special education director, etc need to be paid in advance.
Nina added that transportation continues to be a high cost for GES and that we can expect our transportation costs to go up because we will have to provide our own transportation for 5 days this winter and 20 days this spring. However, reimbursement for special education transportation will offset our total transportation costs.
Educator’s Report:
Suzy passed out a written report. She highlighted a few of the recent school activities including the two weeks of swimming class and the continuing chess classes with Walt McCarthy. The Wolves classroom will be outdoors next week on a two hour animal tracking excursion with volunteer Amy James. The Otters science class will be utilizing community resources when a speaker from the co-op makes a visit to GES. The topic will be food and nutrition. The book Birch Bark House is just being finished in the Bear Cub’s classroom. The Wolves have already read it and the Otters will be reading it next. Mike Link mentioned that Louise Erdrich (author of Birch Bark House) lives in Minneapolis and owns a book store. Mike recommended that our students reach out and contact her because she may be very open to corresponding with GES students.
Zipper pulls were hand made by all GES students. Shelly Schroeder and Heather Kemp volunteered their time and materials to help the students create a beautiful product to sell at the upcoming fundraiser.
The puppets made by Otter classroom will be featured in a performance coming in early March. Otter students have been working on writing personal narratives. The culmination of this project will be the puppet show/ narrative performed for GES students and parents.
Inuit performers will be coming to our school to do throat singing, drumming and dancing. Grand Portage students and elders are invited. Mike recommended that Kelly Dupre’ be invited also.
Enrollment/Community Relations:
Patty took Scott Pollock’s calendar idea and used the finance calendar as her template for a community relations calendar of events. This helps break down community relations into monthly tasks and events and will aid us in long range planning.
Patty educated the new board members on enrollment capping and how that works. If GES receives more applications than we have room for students we must do a lottery, however, students with an enrolled sibling are admitted first…that is a law.
As in past years, we are generally considering capping the population at 15-17 students per class.
Last year we did parent surveys twice per year so Patty will be passing out surveys at the next parent education night. These satisfaction surveys are required for federal grant and annual reports and provide us with good information about what we are doing well and where we need to grow.
Patty has identified 6 potential kindergarteners for next fall.
Patty discussed the need to revise the web site. The pictures are old and the site needs to be updated on a regular basis; such as before each learning block. Nina will update the front page with some of the information passed out tonight.
Patty purchased and donated Microsoft Publisher and will to install it on one of the computers at school.
Mike Link made a recommendation to the community relations committee about
celebrating Grandparents Day since many grandparents are becoming a more important
part of today’s families. This may help spark more participation in the school.
There was a reminder that a different educator is responsible for getting GES articles into the newspaper.
Lastly, a fundraising report was passed out regarding the brunch at Papa Charlie’s on February 25th.
Strategy/Vision:
Mike Link passed out a hard copy of the charter school renewal process.
This information is available at HYPERLINK wwwauduboncharterschool.org
This web site has articles and links and is an up to date resource for us and is a place for us to get our name out there.
Mike made a “celebration statement”. He stated he feels very food about the direction GES has taken. Mike started the conversation about renewal last fall. The strategic plan we create will truly become the contract with Audubon. We need to make a strategic plan that will span 3 years.
The outline Mike Link passed out included 9 points: first, our plan needs to be a summary, then a reflection of the last 2 ½ years. Included will be measurable goals in 12 areas including the methods and benchmarks we will use.
This document is due by March 31st, 2006. In April we will answer any questions ACNW has and final approval can be expected by June.
Nina asked Mike to explain the MOU (memorandum of understanding). It is an obligation of ACNW (and can be found on the web site mentioned above) to education that is project based. ACNW has expanded its school numbers to make it make business sense. This MOU will need to be accepted by the board in at the June meeting.
Committee Update handout- Nina asked board members to sign up for committees. Guidelines are flexible, but there should be no more than 3 board members on each committee.
Strategic Plan – Next steps: Looking at what Mike handed out, we need to assign what needs to be done. Board member will help by e-mailing Pete ideas for our top 10 accomplishments, areas of concern and immediate problems—this is to be done by next week.
Meeting Feedback: All.
Susan moved to adjourn at 6:40pm , Julie seconded. Ayes all.
Respectfully Submitted,
Susan Miller, board secretary
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