Main Menu

Council Notes Apr 21 2022

Horizons K-8 School
Council Meeting Minutes
Date 4/21/22
Time 6pm

Minimum of 20 member quorum established
Facilitators: Mike Ashemore, Lucas Ketzer
Notetaker: Maggie Anderson

6:00 Introductions

6:05 Communication Agreements/Procedure/Concordance/Minutes

6:10 Celebrating Horizons Students: ¾ Team: Oregon Trail Project

6:20 Open Forum 

Four open board seats – Lucas discusses the procedure: submit a resume, answer three questions, we will vote at next council.

Lucas talked about the issue of playground usage after school, wants to make a plan for the rest of the year, wants to do our best to accommodate. The issue is supervision of students when parents aren’t watching. Lucas reached out to BVSD and the state about how to assure aftercare kids are safe and secure, provide opportunities for non aftercare kids to use the playground.

Joy: what role is covid playing in this issue, the district doesn’t have a policy, BVSD didn’t give a timeline on when they will develop a policy but Joy expects it will be sooner rather than later.

Peter:  20 for quorum, 2 faculty & 2 parents at least.

6:30 Committee Reports

  • District Accountability Committee (DAC) – still looking for a representative
  • District Parent Council (DPC) – Gena
      • Meet once a month with the superintendent, last meeting we talked about air quality after the Marshall fire, school calendar, school volunteer system, Raptor – parents put off by new rules, National Honor Society – inequities were discussed. We’re looking for another representative for next year.
  • Equity Diversity Belonging (EDB) – Lucas –
      • Talked about WEEAC – equity audit is finished, great ideas came out of a subcommittee within EDB, wanting to move towards one time ask for donations vs several asks, ready to unveil our new logo, slideshow presentation next Friday, film in May
  • Horizons Community Group (HCG) – Elizabeth
    • Digital media presentation went well, 37 online 20 in person, another one set up for fall,
    • Spring Swap is Friday (and pizza!)
    • Coffee Connections on May 6, sharing summer ideas, spirit week volunteers,
    • Plant sale May 6th, looking for help watering over the summer,
    • Teacher Appreciation for end of the year May 16-20, potluck on 20th,
    • New parent night & volunteer opportunities
    • Mentor information – collect info and create glossary, plant sale – selling starter plants, ask council if we can vote on taking 50% of profits we make to give back to volunteers who put their time and funds into creating starter plants, motion to reimburse, Adam raises concern about volunteers making a profit off of it, Elizabeth says the intention is not for profit, Julie mentions we don’t typically reimburse for things like bake sale, suggests putting money into kits for next year, Mike – can we donate something to them like a t-shirt? Lucas proposes to put 50% to purchasing kits for next year; Adams seconds it. Concorded.
  • Finance Review Committee (FRC) – budget is tracking like we expected, projecting to draw down 40K in the year, working on next year’s budget, increase in revenue next year
  • Board Report – Mike – playground usage, work around governance, how we make decisions, head of school evaluation, parent board members filled in their HOS evaluations

6:45 Parent/Guardian Input – Head of School Evaluation

Online survey, Elizabeth suggests that people don’t know they have to be here to take the survey, Rob suggests that not showing up to council means that folks are at least mostly okay with how things are running, Gena says some folks are stretched too thin, 

7:00 Mission, Vision, Values Discussion, Notes from Last Council Meeting, Student Feedback

Our five values are community, responsibility, diversity, growth, communication

Diversity – 

Lucas’s starting points – We embrace a variety of ideas, perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences within and outside our community to promote empathy and belonging

Jess- focus on diversity is part of the education, we embrace this to promote education, promote knowledge of a variety of ideas

Mike T – We embrace and promote knowledge of a variety of backgrounds and experiences

Mike A – personify, manifest, express, we all belong

Adam – actively teach, intentionally build, pursuing, we want students to be able to say and understand this.

Lucas – what is the essence of diversity? Learning about others so that we can all belong

Karen – more than just learning, we learn about other’s backgrounds, ideas, and experiences so that we can all belong

Jess – We actively engage in and encourage knowledge of a variety of ideas, perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences within and outside our community, to promote empathy, justice, and belonging

Proposal to accept this as our diversity value:

We learn about and empathize with others so that we all belong.

Concorded!

Communication – We are open, honest, and direct with one another to build trust

8:00 Adjourn