August 22 Board Minutes

FRONTIER CHARTER ACADEMY Board of Directors Meeting Minutes from August 15, 2022 at 6:00 p.m.

A Regular Meeting of the Board was held at the FCA office at 10653 NE 71st St., Brooks, Oregon 97305 and via videoconference

I.

PRELIMINARY A. Call To Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order by the School Board President, Michael Winning at 6:02 pm.

B.

Roll Call Directors Englehart, Gallagher, and Winning indicated they were present. Director Memory was absent. ● Travis Englehart, Secretary/Treasurer appointed November 18, 2019, term ending June 30, 2024 ● Jack Gallagher, Board Member, term ending June 30, 2022 ● Jelani Memory, Board Vice-Chair, term ending June 30, 2023 ● Michael Winning, Board President, term ending June 30, 2023 ● (One position vacant) Others present included: Joanne Lehman, Katie Schweitzer, Todd Schweitzer, and Melissa Wolfer

C.

II.

Approval of Previous Board Minutes Motion: Director Englehart moved and Director Gallagher seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors approves the minutes of the May 16, 2022 meeting as presented. The motion passed 3-0 (Director Memory 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 the comment.

There were no public comments.

B.

PRESENTATIONS: None

C.

BOARD CHAIR DISCUSSION AND RECOGNITION None

D.

BOARD/STAFF DISCUSSION Reports: 1.

School Update Todd stated that as of August 15, 2022 the 22/23 student enrollment was 325. However, he expects enrollment activity to continue to increase in August and the first part of September. The lower grades have the fewest students. Todd also updated the School Board Members on the marketing campaign through Charter Connect who have been working on marketing campaigns with Facebook and Google. Todd clarified that although enrollment is down, due to conservative budgeting and not replacing staff, the school should be OK financially for another year. He also complimented Katie on adjusting the staff schedule to accommodate student levels.

Director Gallagher asked how many students Todd would like to have enrolled for the 22/23 school year.

Todd replied that the school is OK financially and will let Melissa answer. He also informed the

FRONTIER CHARTER ACADEMY SCHOOL BOARD - AUGUST 15, 2022

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Board Members that since enrollment is down statewide, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) has increased the per pupil payment amount which will help to compensate for the lower enrollment.

2.

Financial/Business Melissa agreed with Todd that the school is OK financially, but would like to see another 100 students enrolled. The 22/23 Budget was based on 425 students. a.

Written report - Melissa’s written report included information about the balances in each bank account by month, the 21/22 budget balance remaining, the difference in expected state school fund revenue, and information on an action item to renew E-Therapy as a special services contract provider. b.

21-22 Budget vs. Actuals - This report, which was included in the written financial report, showed the difference between the 21-22 approved budget and unaudited actuals by fund, function code, and object code. Melissa clarified that the areas that were underspent were salaries and associated payroll costs. These areas were lower due to a reduction in the expected staffing, the number of staff that opted out of insurance, and the number of staff that participated in the 403b matching program. c.

Healthy and Safe Schools - Melissa stated that FCA is required by the ODE to update its Healthy and Safe School assurance document to include the latest water and radon test results. FCA is waiting on the sponsoring school district to complete these tests. Once the tests are done and the document updated, Melissa will be sending the board members the updated document by email, please watch for it. It does not need to be approved by the Board Members, but it does need to be reviewed.

3.

Principal Update Katie updated the Board Members on the upcoming staff professional development meeting, the meet and greet with the parents, and preparing for the upcoming school year. Staff are putting supplies together and shipping them out. She has received several calls per day from interested families and is hopeful that more students will enroll. She said that the high school recently went through the application process for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) approval. FCA had always intended to get this accreditation, but moved forward with it because of a recent graduate who planned on participating in college sports.

Todd added that since FCA builds its own curriculum, and that the NCAA accreditation is partially based on that factor, it will be a testament to all the work that staff have done to prepare and teach students when the school is approved.

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.

The were no consent items

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IV.

V.

SCHEDULED FOR ACTION A. Personnel None B.

Business Action Item 2022.08.15 - 01: Contract for Mental Health and Special Services Motion: Director Englehart moved and Director Gallagher seconded that the Frontier Charter Academy Board of Directors approve the renewal of the E-Therapy contract for mental health and special services during the 22/23 school year (Policy DJCA). Motion passed 3-0 (Director Memory was absent).

C.

Instruction and Curriculum None

ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR INFORMATION 1.

Todd updated the Board Members on recruitment for another Board position. There has been no interest expressed. He asked the Board Members to let him know if they want him to approach anyone about filling this position.

2.

Todd stated that two staff, that work closely with him, have completed the Executive Director Evaluation and that he has done a self evaluation. He invited the Board Members to submit their comments to Melissa who will include any submissions in the final draft before presenting the document to the Board for approval in November.

3.

Melissa reviewed how the policy adoption and revision process works at Gervais School District who contracts with Oregon School Board Association (OSBA) for policy services. OSBA updates policies regularly based on changes to the law and Gervais reviews and adopts them monthly or as needed. Per the Board’s discussion in May, FCA will continue to use the Gervais adopted policies as applicable for a virtual school and review them at each meeting. The following policies were presented for review.

Melissa encouraged the Board Members to visit the Gervais School District policy website and review the policies regularly. ● ACB - Every Student Belongs - updates to align with legislative changes ● ACB-AR Bias Incident Complaint Procedure - updates to align with legislative changes ● DH Loss Coverage - language updated to reflect current terms and practices ● GBA-AR Veterans’ Preference - replaced term ‘preference points’ with percentage points during the screening, interviewing and appointing process for a public employer. The Senate bill 184 also added more circumstances for which an employer may treat an individual as a Veteran or a Disabled Veteran. ● GBL Personnel Records - combining of policies about personnel records and disclosure of information ● GCBDA/GDBDA-AR Family Leave - includes language for public health emergencies and reemployment eligibility. ● IGBB Talented and Gifted Program - changes to parent involvement and provision for contact information ● Other policies to note are AC- Nondiscrimination and JB - Equal Educational Opportunity Director Winning acknowledged familiarity with the process and noted that the Board Members need to review school policy regularly.

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4.

Todd stated that there were Handbook updates for the 22/23 school year - Students (Draft) and Staff (Draft). Todd confirmed and Director Winning agreed that the School Board does not need to approve these changes because the essence of the document has not changed and because the documents are available for review on the website.

5.

Melissa reviewed the 22/23 per diem information as shown below and noted there were no changes from the prior year and that FCA uses the amounts approved by the Gervais School Board. ● Lodging limit, unless booked by the school: $96 ● Meals: $59 per day (guidelines are $13 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, and $26 for dinner with $5 allowed for incidentals) and gratuity must not exceed 20% ● Allowable limits listed may change based on location of the charge and would be based on the IRS per diem guidance.

VI.

EXECUTIVE SESSION None scheduled

VII.

ADJOURNMENT Director Englehart moved and Director Gallagher seconded to adjourn the meeting at 6:31 P.M. Motion passed 3-0 (Director Memory was absent).

SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL BY M WOLFER APPROVED BY THE FCA SCHOOL BOARD ON 11/28/22

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