The Ranches Academy Board Meeting Minutes

March 2, 2006 6:00-8:00 pm

MINUTES OF 03-02-06 BOARD MEETING

The Board of Directors from the Ranches Academy held a meeting on:

Date: Thursday March 2, 2006
Time: 6:00 pm closed session, 7:00 pm open session
Place: The Ranches Academy

The following directors, constituting a quorum of the full board, were present:

Stephanie Colson
Valerie Mattson
David Hadlock
Katie Allen
Stacey James
Jennifer Maroney

The Chair called the meeting to order and opened the closed portion of the meeting.

Adoption of agenda:

The Chair made a motion that the following agenda be adopted for this meeting:

Closed session:
1. Personnel issues – training ideas presented by Katie Allen
2. Expansion issues.
3. Financial issues – grant expenditures, grant proposals submitted by Michelle Larsen
4. Governance issues – Board of Trustees, organizational flow chart
5. Parent Survey – letter from the Board

Open session:
1. Approve minutes from 02-02-06 Board Meeting.
2. Discuss parent volunteer opportunities including child care
3. Any items from the closed session
4. FSO report
5. Public Comment

The motion was duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, and was made a part of the records of the meeting.

Closed session:

Motion

Motion by the Chair to approve the revised amendments to the charter was duly made, seconded and unanimously carried and was made a part of the records of the meeting (see attached copy)

The original changes were taken to the State Charter School Board for approval and upon their suggestions the changes to the previous amendments were made and again voted on by the founding families.

Discussion held during the closed session:

Katie Allen presented the board with an opportunity to have some free training for the staff that would be held during their after school conferencing. Some of the board members felt it was unnecessary while some suggested getting Principal Becks input on the matter.

The school expansion committee has looked at all options for possible locations for school site for 7th grade. This site would not be permanent. It would just be a temporary site until a more permanent option has been arranged. An option that was discussed was the possible addition to the school which would only be used for one to two years then it would be used as a possible cafeteria/storage space. Some members of the board expressed their concern with having this grade in the same building as the younger students. The board will have further discussion on the matter.

The board also reviewed a possible budget for 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years if the expansion were to take place. (see attached copy).

The Board discussed further the option of hiring a part-time grant writer. The board was able to review a proposal given to us by Michelle Larsen for her services. She gave the board a couple of options to look at. The board felt that they needed to have these options reviewed by the financial advisor before any further approval could be made.

The board discussed the results from the parent survey and addressed the issues that were brought to their attention. The board will be sending a letter home to the parents informing them of those things that were addressed.

Motion

Motion by the Chair to close the meeting was duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, and was made a part of the records of the meeting.

Open session:

Motion

Motion by the Chair to approve minutes from 02-02-06 Board Meeting was duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, and was made a part of the records of the meeting.

Discussion held during open session:

The board discussed the need to improve upon the use and organization of parent volunteers. The board also agreed that parents, who assisted other parents by offering child care to them while they volunteer at the school, could count this as volunteer time also.

The board announced the approval of the amendments to the charter.

There were was no member of the FSO available to report this month.

Mrs. Haux, the teacher representative, reported to the board on the Core Knowledge training that the teachers attended. She expressed appreciation to the board on behalf of all the teachers. The teachers felt that it was a very successful training and that they learned many exciting things that they can use in their classrooms.