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GES Board
APPROVED Minutes
September 21, 2005
The meeting was opened at 4:03 pm.
Members present: Patty Nordahl, Suzy Schweig, Nina Simonowicz, Susan Miller, Amy Brown
Others present: Marcia Cushmore, Peter James, Kathryn Nelson Pedersen, Julie O’Neil
Suzy Schweig read the school’s mission.
All gave a Celebration Sentence.
Susan moved and Patty seconded to accept the agenda with the addition of Policy to the agenda . Ayes all.
Susan moved and Suzy seconded to approve the minutes of the board meeting. All ayes.
Management Reports:
Task Completion: Nina e-mailed all the teachers, staff and board with the tasks they signed up to do and reported that better than 1/3 of the tasks are already completed.
Annual Report: Suzy reported that Susan Larson Kidd is no longer with UMD, and she is no longer available to do the annual report. Suzy spoke with the staff and it was decided that the only way staff could participate in writing the annual report is if someone stays back from Audubon to work on it.
Suzy contacted Andrea Coffey who said we do not have to have an “expert evaluator” do the annual report, so that it is acceptable for teachers and staff compile the report.
Her advice was to “make it family friendly, include photos”. Suzy reported that it can also be e-mailed so we do not have to make time for it to be sent in the mail. There has been one change; finance is no longer needed in the annual report.
Nina mentioned the annual report has to be approved by the board by Oct 1st and due also at the state on that date.
Suzy will e-mail Julie a copy of the state’s requirements. Julie volunteered to help with the technical aspects of the report and “making it pretty”.
New Fundraising Recommendation: The Fundraising Committee wants consensus from the board to go ahead and start planning a fundraising event at Papa Charlie’s in Lutsen for a breakfast on a Saturday morning in February. The event would be open to tourists and anyone in the area and not solely rely on Cook County residents.
Shelley Schroeder mentioned that Papa Charlie’s will donate their kitchen, food, cook, and a cashier. GES will need to supply the wait staff.
Perhaps Mary Junnila who owns has a shop at Lutsen can be involved in some capacity.
Patty brought up the point that traditionally Birch Grove uses this area for events and that we would have to be very careful to not step on their turf.
Based on the concept presented the board gave consensus for the idea.
Implementation Grant 1 and 2: Nina spoke with Cindy Murphy at the state. Regarding implementation grant 1, Cindy’s opinion was that we can build the proposed downstairs, not the upstairs in the Great Room. Cindy felt the plan for the spec education space is appropriate and we can use our existing grant to make the space. The downstairs is allowable because we are modifying of existing space, however, building stairs and an upper floor might be interpreted as creating a permanent structure.
Nina added that once the next grant is approved it now takes up to six weeks until the money comes when it used to take approximately four weeks.
The board, teachers and staff now need to make some choices for the remainder of implementation grant 1.
Bookshelves, lockers, a treasurer’s computer, some software, lunch tables were some of the ideas that were brought up.
Treasurer’s/Finance Report:
Patty moved and Suzy seconded to approve the bills presented. All ayes to approve the bills.
The finance report was presented by Nina, Payroll was not on the report because of the change to using CMDERC for payroll. Soon the new company will be doing the entire finance report.
The auditor will be coming Oct. 11th and 12 and Nina will be spending 2 full time days with him.
Educators Report: Kathryn reported that we are still finishing in-take conferences. She also informed the board that there is a new format for staff meetings where we have opportunity to make connections and share what is working, also there is a time to discuss and get input on challenges.
A young person came in to mentor/volunteer in our school and Kathryn was able to connect him to some opportunities at GES. There will be follow-up on how to do background checks on all volunteers over the age of 13.
The chaperone meeting was held for Audubon. It went well. The list of what to bring has not gone out yet, but no electronics will be allowed.
Reading buddies has a new structure and it is going very successfully
Writing Workshop is going well in the individual classrooms. The teachers still want to do an All-School writer’s workshop
Committee Reports:
Enrollment: We have a new student enrolled today and we have one more interested.
Personnel: An ad was written for a business manager and there was a great response. Interviews will take place after Audubon.
Facility: no report
Sponsor Communications: Mike Link will be attending our Oct 12th board mtg. We will begin a process of renewing our sponsorship with ACNW.
Kathryn gave an overview of the gathering of ACNW schools.
The Role of the sponsor: in most states sponsors are called Authorizers, and that gave a new meaning to the sponsorship. The role is always changing. The group that attended the gathering learned a great deal about the meaning of sponsorship and the reciprocity between GES and ACNW.
Audubon has experts in 3 specific areas: Education, Governance, and Finance; a summary of each area was presented at the gathering along with many other wonderful speakers. GES noted it was the first school under ACNW sponsorship.
MACS was present and spent a lot of time answering GES questions. It was reported that they are interested in working with us and on solving the problem of the $5,000 fee to become members and in providing opportunities in our area/region.
All the participants at the ACNW seminar were there to encourage and show that they are to help. The teachers felt that they had a lot of support and they felt that there is a huge group of people interested in our success.
A secession plan is needed to help move some of the founders and teachers out of the board and on to parents and community members.
The entire gathering was very positive and beneficial.
Policy: Patty made sure that all board members have the Crisis/ emergency manual.
She reminded staff we need a fire drill before winter. Patty also can make an update calling tree for school closings.
Strategy/Vision Discussion:
New Mission Statement: Consensus was given to keep the newest mission statement, although some felt it seemed quite cold. Committed to Academic Excellence, Social Growth and Emotional Intelligence..for Life.
Board Commitments/ goals for 05-06
Discussion of attributes and board make-up still needs to be done to identify what is missing so we can fill our areas of need. We will do on Oct 12th.
Upcoming Board meeting dates:
Patty moved with regrets the approval of Kathryn’s resignation from the board. Amy seconded. Ayes all.
The approval of this resignation changes our quorum. We now need 3 people for quorum.
The next meeting will be Sept 30th 11:00am.
Sept 30th at 11:00
Oct 12
November 3rd annual meeting
November 16th
December 7th
Jan 11 (tentative)
Adjourn
Patty moved and Susan seconded to adjourn the meeting at 6:40 pm. Ayes all.
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