Common Ground Board of Directors Minutes- Jan. 2018

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Jan. 8, 2018

Present: Melissa Spear, Wendy Battles, Michael Doolittle, Kerry Lord, Bob Parker, Beth Klingher, Claudia Merson, Jane Lee

Staff: Elena Augusewicz, Joel Tolman, Kimball Cartwright, Rebecca Holcomb, Liz Cox, Deborah Greig, Betsy Sneath

Regrets: Babz Rawls Ivy, Frank Mitchell, Monique Frasier

Guests: n/a

Bob called the meeting to order at 5:40

Public Participation: There was no public participation

Business Requiring Approval:

November 20, 2017 Board of Directors Minutes
Beth Klingher moved to approve
Jane Lee Seconds
APPROVED

Employee Handbook Revisions:

Betsy noted that the major changes are related to “Parental Leave” and the updated outline of this policy. Also the following policy was clarified: upon termination of employment, employees who have given two weeks written advance notice will be paid for unused vacation time that has been earned through the last day of work.

Melissa also added that the lengthy dress code section was simplified to a shorter, more concise, statement. A new statement that “diversity is mandatory” for our organization was added to the hiring practices section. There are now 5 specific employee definitions. There were minor changes made to the full time high school role and the seasonal roles.

Bob Parker moved to adopt these Employee Manual revisions.
Wendy Battles Seconds
APPROVED

2016-2017 Fiscal Year Audit Report:

Jane stated that the finance committee has reviewed the report and it looks very good. There was one finding related to deferred revenue from 2015 which has to do with the construction project. This finding is minor and to be expected, all else is fine.

Jane moved to approve the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Audit Report.
Claudia Seconds.
APPROVED

Invoices:

Konica Minolta Premier Finance Lease Buy-Out $8492.70
Claudia moves to approve. Michael Seconds
APPROVED

Organizational Challenges:

Jane wanted to let the board know that the finance committee is now reviewing the 2017 second quarter to help inform next year’s budget. Jan. 24th is the first kick off meeting that Melissa will be doing with staff to review the budget. We started talking about priorities and what the budget will look like.

Joel passed out a new dashboard with some minor changes; focus on board membership, program revenue, and development. Added description of graphs in italics and aligned the Impact Story/Challenge/Priority with the Board meeting agenda

Liz gave an in depth reflection concerning staff stress levels and school climate. Liz stated that she understands that the new schedule, class lengths, professional development work and curriculum changes are a lot to handle along with all of the additional work required from teachers. Despite the significant student support budget, teachers are asking for more. Liz and her staff are thinking about how their core work has been implemented and how they can finesse that process. Liz is a big believer in the new core and can see the benefits with this new freshman class.

Development Proposal:

Kimball passed out a shortened version on the revised development plan. He will be increasing the development budget in the 2018 budget projection. Kimball presented a full powerpoint presentation that outlined the development plan going forward. Kimball also reiterated that the job posting for the Development Associate has been posted and encouraged all board members to share it with anyone they think would be a good fit.

New Business:

Bob encouraged all board members to bring in more people for the open Board of Directors seats, he encouraged everyone to reach out to neighborhoods and friends.

Melissa reiterated Frank’s suggestion from the last meeting to put a public board recruitment post up on the website.

The next meeting was originally scheduled for Jan. 22. However, there is a staff Justice PD event until 7:30pm that day. Bob proposed that the next meeting be Feb. 26, all board members present voted in favor of this.  Next meeting Feb. 26 5:30pm

2018-08-14T15:17:36-04:00

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