May 2011 Minutes

 

Board Meeting Minutes

Monday May 14, 2011, 7:00 p.m.

Location: PCCS Stage Meeting Room

 

	2010				2011
	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Jeanné Avery	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔
Tricia Ferrett	✔	✔		✔	✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔
Bonnie Jean Flom	✔	✔	✔		✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔
Cynthia Gilbertson	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔
Paul Hager	✔		✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔		✔
Caroline Jones	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔
David Lefkowitz	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔		✔
Laura Medwetz		✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔		✔
Dean Paxton	✔	✔		✔	✔	Cancelled	✔		✔
Michael Viola	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	Cancelled	✔	✔	✔

 

Also in attendance: Marianne Moser, Community Chair; Keith Johnson, Chief Financial Officer.

 

Public Comment

Phil Kasten spoke in support of keeping mixed age classes at the K-1 level despite the challenges posed by the low enrollment in full-day kindergarten for next year. He is willing to lead fund raising efforts targeted to that issue, if that is necessary.

April Minutes

April minutes were approved with corrections.  

The Board discussed how best to reflect decisions in the minutes and agreed to continue with the current practice, which is to record votes by name but otherwise to record that the decision was made "by consensus."  Next year's Board should address the question, however, to be sure the Board is complying with Open Meeting Law requirements.

Treasurer's Report

Keith presented a financial report, reflected in a handout (copy attached).

 

New Policy Needed.  Keith reminded the Board that a new Fund Balance Policy needs to be approved at the June meeting.  He is expecting the auditing firm to provide a standard policy.

 

Teacher Contracts.  Paul reported that the Finance Committee recently met with the teachers to review the financial situation, which includes some expected increases in expenses for next year.  The teachers were made aware that the school cannot afford salary increases (beyond the regular step increases) without making some changes in the budget. A couple of options were discussed, including changing the amount of assistant help in the classrooms and increasing class size.  The teachers are going to continue these discussions, and there will be a follow-up meeting on this topic.

 

This report lead into a lengthy discussion about the advisability of increasing teacher salaries, how to involve teachers in that decision, and how to deal with the fact that teachers will be wanting contracts for next year before the state has decided on next year's school funding. No final decisions were reached. 

 

To continue the discussion, the finance committee will meet with the teachers on Wednesday May 25th at 4:30.

 

Authorizer Application.  Bonnie Jean pointed out that we could benefit from having a copy of NSD's authorizer application, since it shows what the District intends to do in terms of oversight next year. Caroline will ask Dr. Richardson for that when she sees him next week. 

 

Ideas for next year.  Keith intends to have a discussion with the finance committee next year regarding the donation figures in the budget. He recommends that the numbers not be higher than the amount we can actually bring in. 

 

Keith also recommends that next year we come up with a more sustainable formula for determining teacher salaries.

 

Director's Report

Caroline had a very full visit to Washington, D.C. during Charter School Week.  She learned that charter schools in other states struggle even more with inadequate resources and came home feeling appreciative of Prairie Creek's situation.

 

The remainder of the agenda was tabled due to the length of the budget discussion.

 

Adjourned: 9:40 p.m.

Minutes approved June 20, 2011.