Board Minutes Dec 12 2019
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF
Board of Horizons K-8 School
Dec 12th, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:49 pm
Facilitators: Paul Martin / Lucas Ketzer
Note Taker: Hope Nelson-Roohr (non-member)
Minutes: Geary Layne
Timekeeper: Peter Hegelbach
Process Observer: Allison Akhnoukh
Call to Order: 6:00pm
Present:
Alex Osias, Allison Akhnoukh, Beth Coleman, Geary Layne, Julie Cohen, Karen Wolfer, Lucas Ketzer, Paul Martin, Peter Hegelbach, Teran Sittner, Tyler Currie
Absent:
Paul Ramer
Quorum established
Guests:
Welcome & Invitation for public comments:
Approval of Agenda:
Motion - Lucas Ketzer
Second - Alex Osias
Concorded
Approval of Minutes:
Motion - Lucas Ketzer
Approve minutes for 11/14/19 meeting
Second - Allison Akhnoukh
Concorded
Motion - Allison Akhnoukh
Approve minutes for 11/21/19 meeting
Second - Lucas Ketzer
Concorded
Head of School Report:
- BVSD confirmed they are renewing charter, subcommittees reviewing sections
- Tyler and Lucas will attend meeting with district leadership as well as Summit and Peak to Peak regarding the 2005 mill levy. Based on districts interpretation of the mill levy, only school providing specific services, primarily transportation, should receive this specific funding
- BVSD has stated that charging charters for purchases services is a revenue growth opportunity
- Currently Horizons pays approximate $730K for purchased services
- What services to purchase will be part of contract renewal, and a budget consideration in future years
- BVSD reevaluating Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) process, and thus School Accountability Committee (SAC) will not produce plan. In the future UIP will be presented to the Board
- Climate/Culture survey is back - we are out-performing BVSD in every area except for extracurricular - the wording of the question might have put a focus on sports
- Survey results will be shared with council, with a discussion about extracurricular activities
Decision Making Matrix:
- No further work by faculty since last board meeting
- Several sessions are scheduled for January
- DMM documents are part of the current cleanup of Horizons documentation
Principal Evaluation/Hiring Committee:
- Three surveys ready to go out
- First- faculty, staff, and interims
- Second- parent board members
- Third- Opt in high level survey for anyone in community (share via Skylines)
- Faculty had successful meeting regarding thoughts and recollections about interim Head of School position and how to move forward
- As part of the evaluation process, survey data will be shared with Lucas before next Board meeting
- Faculty expressed confidence in the Board do make a decision based on survey results regarding offering the position to Lucas or opening it up to applicants
- Candidate for the position, be that Lucas or new applicant, will be posted for public comment
Finance Review:
- Annually audit by a third party, hired by BVSD, was completed
- Auditors found no needed correction or inconsistencies
Motion - Tyler Currie
Accept audit report
Second - Peter Hegelbach
Concorded
- 5 year budget highlights
- Review of budget completed with support from Bart Skidmore, CPA
- Board reviewed assumption in budget and discussed a few alternative budget scenarios
- The original 5 year budget draft for 2020 through 2024 had a double count of salaries- that is why we were running deficit (salary for special education teachers was being double counted)
- Goal is to have Finance Review Committee (FRC) run monthly budgeted to actual amounts for every line item
Development Committee:
- Moolah $21,515 (23% so far) Goal is $50K
- Paddle Fundraiser - working on theme, will be held at eTown again
- Alcohol cannot be donated, thus tickets include 2 drink tickets
- This year the Moolah push is in February- MooLahLah the Valentine’s cow
Charter Renewal:
- Finalized budget section
- Format is correct
- Financial transparency on website is updated
- We expect draft of contract 2/15/20
- We have yet to get timeline (in 2010, they were approved in June)
- Lucas and Paul Martin, with legal support, will negotiate with BVSD
- Issues/concerns will be brought to the Board
- Some purchased services are locked in, some-not. Some are in 5 year contract; some reviewed annually.
By-Laws:
- Refined definition of concordance to be appropriate when used by different groups
- Incorporation language requiring Board Agreements
Motion - Beth Coleman
Accept changes to bylaws
Second - Geary Layne
Concorded
- Bylaws warrant further discussion
- Geary and Paul will redline current bylaws to address inconsistencies and errors in the latter half of January to present at Feb meeting
Articles of Incorporation:
Articles were approved by council in May of 2019, but bylaws needed to be updated to be consistent with changes. A few corrections were made to AOI, change the Head of School from Lauren Tracey to Lucas Ketzer and capitalize Corporation when used as a proper noun. Once approved, they will be filed.
Motion - Karen Wolfer
Accept Articles of Incorporation with corrections
Second - Allison Akhnoukh
Concorded
Process Observer:
- Good structure
- Good communication and participation
- Not much conflict
Adjourned: 7:49pm