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GES Board
APPROVED Minutes
October 12, 2005
Call to Order/Welcome Introduction
The meeting was opened at 4:02 pm.
Members present: Patty Nordahl, Suzy Schweig, Nina Simonowicz, Susan Miller, Amy Brown, Barbara Nagle
Others present: Mike Link, Peter James, Julie O’Neil, Peter and Amy Henrickson, Jeri Person
Barbara Nagle read the school’s mission.
All gave a Celebration Sentence.
Susan moved Patty and seconded to accept the agenda with the following additions:
Mike would like to share during the “sponsor” potion of the meeting. Policy needs to be added to committee reports. Ayes all.
Suzy moved and Amy seconded to approve the minutes of the Sept 21 and Sept 30 board meetings. All ayes
Treasurer’s Report:
Nina presented the bills that were accepted at the September 30 meeting.
Educators Report:
Kathryn reported that GES has made plans through Ilena to attend North House for a full day learning program. We still need to raise money for this. All proposals should first go through the fundraising committee. Mike Link suggested that these things should be run through the Director.
Joan Farnam is writing an article for paper about GES attending Audubon.
The second education meeting for families was last Thursday. Suzy taught multiple intelligences. Kathryn asked board members to encourage parents to attend. The next parent education night is on November 3rd and will be about assessment, focusing on rubrics. MAPS testing will be administered in early November for new students only.
Committee Reports:
Personnel: Suzy reported that the personnel committee recommends that we hire Peter James as director. Barbara Nagle moved and Amy seconded the motion to hire Peter James. Ayes all.
Amy suggested that we should think of a way that we can introduce Peter James to our GES community. Mike Link suggested that we invite the community to this event.
Fundraising: Ilena met with Scott Pollack to plan a full day program at North House Folk School. It ties in well with with our social studies all-school culture theme. Ilena passed out an outline and stated that the estimated cost would be $700.
The fundraising committee applied for a grant but even if awarded, the grant money wouldn’t be here on time so the fundraising committee gave Ilena an “Ok” to do a fundraiser bake sale.
Nina asked if teachers would want some of the money to come out of curriculum. The teachers did not want to use the curriculum budget if we can find another way.
Patty made a motion to approve fundraising to attend a one day North House program, Suzy seconded. Ayes all.
Mike Link recommended we look ahead and plan the activities for the year and roll it all into one activity fee that perhaps some group or corporation would match. It would also give parents an idea of how much they may need to pay out of pocket for the entire year.
Enrollment: Patty proposed a plan for enrollment. Patty identified that a High School Committee would need to meet and report to the board in November. Nina committed herself to heading up the high school committee.
Mike Link spoke with parents this morning and will write a report about the discussions he had. Several people are interested in being on the high school committee, and a decision is needed by December because there will be an open house in January.
Also an outline of publicity opportunities was passed out along with who is responsible, and the dates needed.
Community relations: Barbara brought up the “hot potatoes” visit by David Walsh. Suzy made a motion to donate to the presentation in recognition of the shared concern for children in our community contingent. Amy seconded it. Barbara will work on getting us recognized as one of the partners.
Susan amended the motion to include taking $100 from the technology line item and to make a new partners line item. Ayes all.
Finance reports: Patty has been sending in reports related to student funding and she warned that when we lose children our funding goes down, but not immediately…we have to plan for it. Nina added that the state always holds back 20% until the end of the year. The Finance Committee will meet next Tuesday at 7pm.
Nina added that Microsoft has settled with the MN Dept of Education and we will have the opportunity to apply for $3,800 to spend on software applications and hardware and peripherals.
Also we were awarded a $16,800 REAP grant for small rural schools. This money is intended to help us retain our staff.
Barbara mentioned that people who give money to the school need to be recognized at the annual meeting unless they have donated anonymously.
Jeri Person brought up the LIEC may be getting money for Indian students and is wondering if some of this is going to ISD #166 and if GES is eligible for any LIEC funding.
Policy: Patty presented an agreement between Sawtooth Mt. Clinic and HIPPA , an information sharing agreement. This was given to Peter to read and sign.
Patty made a motion that we approve the agreement with Sawtooth Mountain Clinic. Suzy seconded. Ayes all.
Strategy/Vision:
Identifying board characteristics: Board members were asked to identify their skills so that we could look objectively at what skills sets we are lacking on the board. To help give direction to the development committee, the board identified that we need people who can help in the areas of : legal expertise, marketing, facility, and government. We will find out the waiver parameters and if we need a teacher majority in the third year. We may have to consider including advisory board members.
Barbara reminded everyone that we are a membership non-profit. That means that Parents and paid employees can vote, but not community members..
The development committee needs ideas of potential candidates by October 19th.
The annual meeting is going to be overseen by Pete and Julie will help and Barbara will give notes from the last two annual meeting.
Patty moved to accept the Board Commitments for ’05-‘06 Susan seconded, ayes all.
At the retreat the board will come with these commitments prioritized. The time commitment may be 4 plus hours so we will try to find a week day in the second week of December.
Sponsor: Mike said he was very happy to have Peter James on board. Peter’s job responsibilities were discussed. Nina and Barbara were present at this discussion.
Mike gave us the advice to give Peter the authorization to do his job well and make our lives easier.
Mike reported that in all the discussions today from everyone he heard concerns about enrollment, so Mike cautioned to not lose sight of that. Mike cautioned to not let high school issues detract from our main job.
Public relations campaign – we have motivated people, and we should think of this not as recruitment, but rather a campaign.
Mike discussed there is still a need for better communication within the staff.
We need to make sure that our board retreats are in line with the open meeting laws. Today, all the input given Mike was positive, that all the people talking want us to succeed.
Renewal- we need to think of ways to measure our “value-add-on”…how can we show they benefit?
Four things our sponsor will be looking for in deciding renewal for 0-3 years:
need federal grants and outcomes were they achieved? Mike wants a narrative of our outcomes and how we measured our achievement.
plan for life without the federal grant.
need cash flow budget and a one to two year projection.
need strategic plan with specific goals
need a really strong case for high school if we wish to add high school.
Nina asked if Mike knew of an example/model of a small rural school’s strategic plan entering the fourth year of operation. Nina will have to ask Steve Dess for that.
Adjournment:
Susan moved to adjourn and Amy seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 6:50.
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