FRONTIER CHARTER ACADEMY Board of Directors Meeting Minutes from August 17, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. The Regular Meeting of the Board was held at the FCA office at 10653 NE 71st St., Brooks, Oregon 97305 and via videoconference
I.
II.
PRELIMINARY A. Call To Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order by Director Burch at 6:00 P.M. B.
Roll Call Director Burch called for a response from those in attendance. Directors Winning and Gallagher answered affirmatively. Director Memory arrived at 6:08 p.m. and Director Englehart was absent. Board Members: ● Jordan Burch, Board Chair - 3-year term ending June 30, 2021 ● Jelani Memory, Board Vice-Chair - 3-year term ending June 30, 2021 ● Michael Winning, Secretary - 2-year term ending June 30, 2020 (see action item) ● Jack Gallagher, Board Member - 2-year term ending June 30, 2019, extended by bylaws to June 30, 2022 ● Travis Englehart, Board Member appointed November 18, 2019, term ending June 30, 2021
C.
Approval of Previous Board Minutes Director Burch moved and Director Winning seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors approve the Board Meeting Minutes of the regular meeting on June 15, 2020. The motion passed 3-0. (Directors Memory & Englehart absent)
COMMUNICATIONS A. PUBLIC COMMENTS: No individual comment shall be for more than three (3) minutes and the total time for this purpose shall not exceed fifteen (15) minutes. Board members may respond to comments however no action can be taken. The Board may give direction to staff following comments. B.
PRESENTATIONS: None
C.
BOARD CHAIR DISCUSSION AND RECOGNITION None
D.
BOARD/STAFF DISCUSSION Director’s report: 1. School Update Todd Schweitzer, Executive Director, reported on the Ready School, Safe Learner guidance from the Oregon Department of Education. All schools in the state will be starting the 20/21 school year with remote learning. FCA will be emphasizing daily engagement as part of collecting attendance data. The established virtual schools in the State will need to modify current practices to fit the distance learning guidance from the Oregon Department of Education. Frontier’s current enrollment is over 620 students which exceeds the established CAP. The school is allowing returning students to enroll, but it is expected that some students will leave
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and the enrollment will reflect the CAP within a couple weeks of the start of school. Todd also reported on the accreditation site visit with representatives from Cognia. The virtual visit went well. The Cognia team interviewed administrators, managers, teachers, parents, and some board members. Although the academy has not received the final report, the review team’s exit conference was positive. 2.
Financial Review Melissa Wolfer, Business Manager provided a written report. She stated that enrollment is above the number of students budgeted. Since there were no reductions to the state school fund in the recent legislative short session, she anticipates that actual revenue will be $450,000 or more above budgeted revenue.
3.
Principal Update Katie Schweitzer, Elementary Principal & Student Service Director, reported on the positive staff inservice, the staff onboarding training, and the excitement level of the staff. There was discussion and questions from the Board Members regarding the Chromebooks needed and the availability of those devices. Todd stated that the school had purchased units using grant funds, and that there were currently enough devices in stock for the new students. Todd informed the Board that the Oregon Department of Education has temporarily eliminated the requirement that schools drop students that have not attended for ten days. The school will continue to try and contact these students and then will be allowed to count them for enrollment and state school fund.
III.
CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered by the Board to be routine and will be approved/enacted by the Board in one motion in the form listed below. Unless specifically requested by a Board member for further discussion or removed from the agenda, there will be no discussion of these items prior to the Board voting on them. The Executive Director recommends approval of all consent agenda items. 1. New Employees: ○ Tony Cannon, Counselor ○ Bridgette Macke, Teacher ○ Tony Mills, Teacher ○ Marguerite Redelfs, Teacher ○ Rebekah Richardson ○ Khema Williams 2. Resignations: 3. Employment Changes: Motion: Director Winning moved and Director Gallagher seconded to approve the consent items in mass. Motion passed 4-0 (Director Englehart absent).
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IV.
SCHEDULED FOR ACTION Todd informed the Board Members that there were some annual procedural appointments that needed to be conducted at the first meeting of the school year. A. Personnel None B. Business IV-BDRPT-01_081720 Appointment of School Board Position Director Burch moved and Director Gallagher seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors appoint Michael Winning to a three year term on the Board of Directors through June 30, 2023. Motion carried 3-0 (Director Winning abstained and Director Englehart was absent)
IV-BDRPT-02-04_081720- 2020/21 Board Organizational Annual Positions Director Burch moved and Director Winning seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors roll over the organizational positions from the 2019/20 school year for Board Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer into the 2020/21 school year. Motion passed unanimously 4-0 (Director Englehart absent).
C.
Instruction and Curriculum Todd and Melissa discussed the current process for internet stipends, how the stipends are given, that the amount is determined based on months of concurrent enrollment, and the possibility of using an opt out system for parents that want to donate the money back to the school. The school is also exploring the use of paycards to reduce the administration burden of processing checks. Director Burch asked if the school determined that the funds were used toward household internet expenses and if the students that had built in LTE service on their devices received the stipend. Todd and Melissa stated that FCA doesn’t have a way to track if households pay for the internet, but did confirm that those households with LTE enabled Chromebooks were not eligible for the internet stipend.
IV-BDRPT-05_081720- 2020/21 Internet Stipends Director Burch moved and Director Winning seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors approves an internet stipend be sent to all households in the 20/21 school year that qualify in January and in July as presented by Todd and Melissa. Motion passed 4-0 (Director Englehart absent). V.
ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR INFORMATION None
VI.
EXECUTIVE SESSION None scheduled
VII.
ADJOURNMENT Director Burch moved and Director Winning seconded to adjourn the meeting at 6:31 p.m.
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