Ross Montessori School Board of Directors Meeting Minutes June 27, 2016 Location:

Ross Montessori School Conference Room, 109 Lewies Lane, Carbondale, CO 81623

Present:

Robin Cole, President, Mark Kavasch, Vice President, Yuani Ruiz, Treasurer



PC Drew, Anna Cole, Sara Berry, Sarah Oates

Also present: Sonya Hemmen, Head of School, Tricia Williams, Director of Development & Enrollment, Mandi Franz, Teaching Coach 5:55 p.m.

Call to order

No one present for public comment Vision Statement read by Sara Berry Approval of Minutes of May 23, 2016 The board reviewed minutes from the May 2016 Board meeting. No one had any amendments to the minutes. Anna Cole moved to approve the minutes, PC Drew seconded the motion. All voted in favor of the minutes from the May 23, 2016 Board meeting. Head of School Report Sonya reviewed recent assessment data including school-wide NWEA and ELL results. Mandi Franz shared that it helps her, as a classroom teacher, to look at the classroom assessment data as a whole. We can see trends in different grade levels. All of the classroom teachers spend time going over the NWEA data. The graphs are helpful to visualize the trends. We have had NWEA data for eleven years so we can track students’ entire time at Ross as well as Ross’ historical data. Teachers can recognize what they may have missed in their teaching or students in their learning and make those adjustments based on the results. Mandi’s focus as the Teaching Coach will be to analyze specific data for teachers and grade levels and work to address anything. Sonya recently met with teachers to discuss implementing the consistent analysis of data. Discussion included that NWEA is a great measure and that overall we are doing better than the national average throughout. It was asked if there were big disparities between teachers in the same level. We don’t see that much of a difference but we do use the data to evaluate our teachers.

In the ELL data oral, aural, verbal and reading are considered. It is normal to see high growth in Kindergarten. ELL students show a lot of growth at the beginning because they are learning language and academic language. Some of our students have never been in pre-school before they come to our Kindergarten. Mandi shared that the third years in bilingual households perform better than students in monolingual households. Sonya and Andrea will analyze the data further this summer to determine any adjustments to make or work to do. Sonya shared that this is good, strong data. Having Mandi in the classrooms to work through these areas in the classrooms with the teachers will be beneficial. Mandi shared that a lot of schools across the country use NWEA and it is statistically significant. Mandi and Sonya will research the demographics of other schools that are also using NWEA tests such as public, private, geographic locations, types of teaching methods, size of school etc. to provide an in-depth comparison to the national averages. Tricia will include assessment data in the Annual Report and on the website, pointing out the highlights of the current data. The school’s messaging will show that we do score highly. Using the NWEA data is the best way to share the scores with our constituents because we have consistent data since our inception. We also use state test data, however the test format has changed many times in the past few years and year-to-year comparisons are challenging. The most recent PARCC scores will be available in late August/September. We will publish the NWEA and PARCC data as well as the state required policies for testing. Our students’ portfolios are also an important part of our annual assessments. Sonya and Mandi will pull together the data points for the Annual Report and other materials. Tricia will create graphical representations for marketing materials. ELL achievement data would be great to share with the public as well. The Post Independent doesn’t usually cover our test scores. Our data appears under the Charter School Institute rather than with the local districts. The Charter School Institute is a state-wide organization. Our ELL and Free and Reduced Lunch students combined are about 25% of the school. This percentage is consistent with the demographics in Garfield County. Mandi and Sonya have been going through all of the stored works and getting them into classrooms. Mandi will work with teachers on using these materials. Sonya shared the hourly school schedule that was provided to CSI. We have more seat time than other schools in our community. Our Friday staff development days are still highly regarded by parents and teachers. Next summer we will have programming. Sonya is also looking at joining the Board for Access Roaring Fork and there will be opportunities to expand our after-school programming as well.



Approval of 2016/17 Budget and review of May financials Board members discussed the budget for 2016/17. Discussion included clarification about reading the budget documents for new board members. The discussion included how our salaries compare to others in the valley. When Sonya compares us to other charters, we are higher. Everyone’s pay is increasing and the bonuses are nice. Our benefits are good and get better each year. We are able to do pre-tax health insurance now. It was mentioned that the board reviewed a salary report from a few years ago created by the League of Charter Schools. Sonya is interested in offering opportunities for staff to earn additional money for extra/additional work. For example, based on evaluations from HOS, there are goals set in the fall and if you meet them, you would qualify for the bonus. Sonya would like to create a culture where everyone is working toward improvement. We are doing in-house staff development this year. Seven days in August will be devoted to staff development. We will go as a staff to the American Montessori Conference in Denver in 2017 and hope to have a lot of presentations. Sonya clarified the literacy and science line items in the budget. Our students’ literacy rate is solid and the READ act requires us to have a reading department to focus on literacy. This line item is the salaries for our reading specialists. Part of the science line item refers to the work C-pher Bair and Michael Lambert have been doing to sort through all of the supplies and resources we have on hand so each classroom will have a complete kit for science. Yuani Ruiz shared that the budget is solid for now based on details we currently know. We will have a chance to review in December to have a better idea of the expenses for the building since we do not have a full year of data in the new building. Mark Kavasch motioned to approve the 2016/17 budget and Sarah Oates seconded. The motion to approve the budget for 2016/17 was approved unanimously. USDA Loan/Construction Update Mark Kavasch presented an update on the USDA and final stages of construction. The Foundation has two loans for the construction project. One is $6.4M and the second is $700K. Construction costs are currently under budget by $14K. Solar, parking lot, landscaping and playground are being completed this summer. Irrigation has been the only part of the project that has had difficulty. The irrigation lines are not 24” due to rock, they are at 15” so we are retaining funds and the Building Committee will discuss how to move forward regarding these irrigation issues.

Vote on officers for 2015-16 School Year The Board discussed current roles and suggestions for officers next year. The Board voted on the slate of officers for 2016/17: Robin Cole as President, PC Drew as Vice President, Sarah Oates as Secretary, and Yuani Ruiz as Treasurer. Mark Kavasch motioned to approve the slate of officers for 2016/17. Anna Cole seconded the motion. The motion passed. Wrap Up Next meeting is July 25, 2016 and will be a training session for Board members. The Strategic Leadership Team will be meeting and working on the strategic plan that morning. 7:48 Adjourn