[0:05] All right.

[0:08] Welcome everybody to the Athenian Academy board meeting. The date is Thursday, 27th of August, 2026. Board members, if you will please acknowledge your presence. Tenor ribbon.

[0:25] He's traveling. He's asking. Yeah, he was going to try and call in. I wasn't sure if he made it or not. Yeah, I'm not sure. He's going to be able to make it. Ryan Burrubi.

[0:37] Hey, Jennifer. I'm here. Hi, Ryan. How are you?

[0:41] Hey, how are you? Good. All right, Kevin Cuykin doll.

[0:48] He's also absent. I think he asked me excuse today too.

[0:53] Okay, and Dallas wall here. All right, so we do have a quorum.

[1:02] Do we have a quorum? I think so. 3 out of 5. Yeah. 3 out of 5. Yes.

[1:08] Yep.

[1:10] Okay. Yep. I just had to do the math in my head. So we'll go ahead and proceed.

[1:19] Are there any changes to the agenda as published?

[1:26] Okay. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and proceed.

[1:29] Are there any changes that need to be made to the minutes as published?

[1:37] Okay. Hearing none,

[1:37] we'll go ahead and approve the minutes as published. That takes us to our financial report with

[1:44] Tanner out. I am going to turn that over to Arthur. Yeah and I'm actually wondering. I had to update

[1:54] the financials and just notice that the new financials are not on that exact link. Is there a

[2:02] possibility to go to another item and then come back to me? Absolutely. We can go ahead and rearrange.

[2:12] That's not a problem. We can actually swap out with the board's leave. If there's no objection, we could go ahead and do the academic report and then come back to the financial report. Is there any objection to that rearrangement?

[2:29] Okay, let's go ahead and just swap B and A.

[2:31] Will you email them to me and I'll put them in the week?

[2:35] Oh, I'm putting them in right now.

[2:37] Oh, are you okay?

[2:38] Yeah.

[2:38] Let's just go ahead and we'll go ahead

[2:40] and do the academic progress.

[2:41] We'll just swap under four.

[2:43] We'll just swap B and A.

[2:45] And that'll give us a chance to bring that up.

[2:47] So I'm not sure it says super 10 and administration.

[2:54] So I guess I will go to Jared first.

[2:57] Thank you.

[2:58] So we have started our new year at many locations.

[3:02] We've got one or two that are a little behind

[3:05] because of some community events that go on there

[3:07] but we'll be starting in the next week or so.

[3:10] And we're excited.

[3:11] We've done some trainings to provide some staff,

[3:14] some information that's necessary every year

[3:18] and we also got our trainings set for,

[3:21] I believe the first week of,

[3:23] oh, now I'm saying October, it's for regional trainings.

[3:27] somewhere in there. And so we've got our return of our consultant and helping us with our

[3:38] personalized competency-based learning model. We've also got a student planner this year that

[3:42] lists standards for the students grades three through eight. We're really excited to have that

[3:46] and gives a chance for students to be able to kind of look out for their own goals, academic goals

[3:52] and plan with that and those in blended ed can use that with their parents and their

[3:57] teachers at the school as well as the teachers at the school use that with the students

[4:01] in their classrooms and parents can review that and see it.

[4:04] So something new for the school customized and we've got the first iteration in place.

[4:10] This year we're very excited to see that happen.

[4:12] Pamela worked a bunch of hours to make that a reality and so did Zach in helping make

[4:20] sure that we got that ready for the the start of school. So this past year we reviewed the data

[4:26] and we looked at our test results and our scores for our students and so forth. We're doing okay.

[4:33] I think I'm with reading and reading progress and growth and so forth. We're struggling a little

[4:39] bit with math and we've got some things and and further down the agenda Natalie can talk to you

[4:47] kind of boost our math scores and hopefully a new approach to some of the things we're doing.

[4:53] But we had two teachers that really stood out as exceptional with the growth of their

[4:58] students. And these two teachers also exemplify just some incredible character traits that

[5:05] we're really appreciative of. They're kind, they're happy, their classrooms are enjoyable

[5:13] places to be for our students. And so we selected a teacher this year from the

[5:18] blended education program and that's lose Warner and loses on with us tonight.

[5:24] So yeah we can recognize I don't know how we on Zoom is it we give a pause icon

[5:31] or something and we're a character there we go. But I just I would like to lose to

[5:40] just tell you what maybe her philosophy is about educating kids or share

[5:45] that because she's a great person. And then we're going to tell you about the

[5:48] other wonderful person we have. Well thank you. I'm just really honored to be

[5:54] nominated the teacher of the year for blended ed. And actually I was having this

[6:00] conversation a few minutes ago with a parent that's thinking about coming to her

[6:03] school and she was asking me about how my first week of school was because her

[6:10] kids are already hating school and I was just telling her about some of the

[6:16] things we've done and I told her about one specific person in my life when I was

[6:23] younger that really influenced me to think outside the box and to really

[6:30] a revalue my life and what I was wanted to do with it and that was my English professor

[6:36] in high school. He looked at me as a person. He treated me like a person. He invested

[6:42] his time in me. He found out about the things that I do. He spent time getting to know me

[6:51] and by doing so he was able to teach me ways that I've never thought was possible. And that's

[6:59] what helped me become a teacher that after spending those years with them, I'm like, I want

[7:06] to be a teacher. I don't want to do anything else but be a teacher because I want to get

[7:14] to know my students the way he got to know me and be able to help them in more ways than

[7:21] just by telling them what to learn and how to learn it. But by doing those things together

[7:27] and by really getting to know them because if you don't know your students, you're not going to know or understand how you're going to teach them because one thing that I've learned as a parent and as a teacher is that just because he makes sense to you doesn't mean that it's going to make sense to to them.

[7:46] And I learned that when I was younger, I'm still learning it as an educator.

[7:52] And I cannot tell you how many times I looked at my kids' eyes when they're asking a question about something that we're doing in class.

[8:01] And I think outside the box and we come up with a different strategy and they suddenly make sense.

[8:09] And I've gotten comments from my students from I've never had a teacher that cared enough about me to.

[8:16] So thank you for loving me,

[8:23] thank you for conservation with me, thank you for making

[8:30] jokes because you know I'm nervous and some of the things that have really helped me

[8:36] become a teacher that you need.

[8:40] And I've stretched myself kinds of directions to find out, to learn more about how I can

[8:48] teach them better or how I can approach a subject or a skill or anything that we're doing

[8:56] in class in a way that is going to make sense to them. Even if I know it and maybe as well

[9:02] as I thought I knew it, my goal is to make it make sense to them and to love it. I want

[9:09] them to develop but love for learning. And that's not going to happen if I don't love them

[9:16] and spend time with them.

[9:22] She means what she says.

[9:26] She's absolutely the kind of person that she describes

[9:29] and the teacher that she was inspired by is the teacher she's become.

[9:35] We had a program a few years ago in one of our areas delta

[9:39] that was really struggling for students.

[9:41] lose rallied that community and got 30 students enrolled there made the

[9:46] campus into a really nice beautiful place for kids to come and a program

[9:53] that we thought was that was maybe in danger of not making it was rescued and

[9:58] continues to move forward because of her so we're very grateful for her. Our second

[10:05] teacher is also a teacher who has a beautiful, wonderful classroom and a philosophy of helping students

[10:14] that we really appreciate. And that's Christy Davis at the Treemonton campus. And I would love

[10:20] for Christy to share kind of her philosophy about teaching her kids.

[10:26] Okay. I want to reiterate what Lou said about getting to know your students, getting to know them

[10:32] and let them know that you love them and knowing a different learning style has been the biggest

[10:39] thing for me. Another thing that I really implemented this year is just trying to get them to

[10:47] understand that they can learn and that they are capable. Like we did a lot of growth mindset things.

[10:56] A few years ago I had a little boy who was just really struggling in one of my classes and

[11:01] He said, I'm just not smart like there, I can't do it and that really impacted me.

[11:08] And it took everything, I just focused everything on helping him learn that he could and he

[11:14] was smart and he was capable and me believing in him and then him believing in himself.

[11:19] And that's a big thing with my students.

[11:22] I just need them to know that I believe in them and I help them to believe in themselves

[11:26] and it makes a big difference in how they learn.

[11:28] We so appreciate these two teachers, we were able to provide a little stipend to share appreciation for them in the countless hours that they spend preparing the lessons they provide for the students, but the most important thing I think is a love that they emanate from their from their personalities towards these kids and we really appreciate that.

[11:52] We serve some kids who have some severe needs and come with a lot of challenges

[11:58] and these people know how to reach them and I'm grateful for that.

[12:02] So appreciate them and give them one more round of whatever kind of applause we do.

[12:13] Thank you both.

[12:14] and I just want to say something really quick.

[12:17] I know you have a tight schedule.

[12:20] I just wanted to thank you and thank all the administrators

[12:22] and other professors that have helped us be able to do this

[12:27] because you've given us the ability to really teach in a way

[12:31] that I've never experienced anywhere else.

[12:33] Thank you for giving us the trust and the above.

[12:38] Thank you, Luz.

[12:40] My pleasure to work with you.

[12:42] Thank you.

[12:45] The other thing I think we're going to bring up just to your attention, we're really excited

[12:50] to have a new administrator join our ranks.

[12:54] Samantha Sproul is our new administrator, our newest addition to the team that way and

[13:01] we're excited to invite Sam to join us.

[13:04] She's on there with us today in Sam.

[13:06] If you wanted to say hello and tell them where you're at and maybe share your philosophy

[13:12] to be helping kids that love it.

[13:17] I'm Samantha, I'm Sam.

[13:19] Call me Sam.

[13:20] I'm a Muslim in trouble.

[13:21] Then you can call me some of the...

[13:24] I'm up in Tremont in...

[13:26] I live in Perry, Brigham City area.

[13:30] I've been a teacher for 10 years

[13:34] and I've been going down the administration route

[13:37] with my education recently

[13:39] and so this was a fun fall into.

[13:42] I think getting to know students and knowing their background is one of the highest things that you can do to have student achievement because if there's no trust, there's no success.

[13:58] And so that's one of my biggest philosophies as you got to know and love your students.

[14:06] Thank you, Sam.

[14:08] I'm excited for the year.

[14:10] Thank you so much.

[14:11] We're excited to have you join us.

[14:13] She's going to be a great fit in our in our group of leadership.

[14:18] So thank you for right now.

[14:20] I think that's that's the main thing I have about academic.

[14:24] We're starting the year.

[14:25] So we'll have some more progress as we as we collect some data and so forth.

[14:31] And then again Natalie has some information for you about a math initiative.

[14:35] We're hoping to get our grant. We're hoping to work on it and a person that's come forward to really provide some assistance to our school awesome. Thank you and and thank you to all our wonderful teachers and new administrator. We're looking forward to another great year and I know I hear fantastic things both of the teachers that we honor tonight.

[15:00] So thank you so much. Okay. Are we ready to move forward with financials? Yes. All right. Let's go for it. Before I start, I've got to tell Dallas, I'm a little jealous of the beard, man. It's looking really good. So I see we share the same haircut. Yes, we do share the same haircut. All right.

[15:29] Right, just to start off, I just really appreciate everybody on the Athenian team been involved

[15:36] in audit prep, and we have such a great team just going through this process and getting

[15:45] documentation, and we're still in the middle of it, but it's just been phenomenal to reach

[15:50] out to our team and have the support through this process.

[15:56] It's just a fantastic group here.

[15:58] So in the past couple of months we've been really engaged in audit prep, we've had a lot

[16:04] of work sessions, reviewing transactions, going through the GL, going through all of the

[16:10] financials to wrap up the fiscal year which ends June 30th and then FY27 starts July 1st.

[16:19] We're going to start our build work part of the audit in the upcoming week and we'll continue

[16:27] to fulfill all the requirements that we're being asked of.

[16:30] We held a meeting with our benefits providers to review and finalize our August in service

[16:36] and open enrollment and something that Jared and the team decided to do is to up the benefit

[16:43] coverage from 77% to 80%.

[16:47] And we will also be working on pulling draws.

[16:51] We finalize pulling the draws for FY26 and we are going to be in the process of submitting again for FY27 for grants.

[17:05] Just a couple notes on the balance sheet, our total operating cash is just a little over 1.7 million total liabilities or 753,000.

[17:16] and our income statement, our net income for the year is $243,000, $61,000, and of course

[17:25] we're 100% of the fiscal year for June.

[17:30] So that's just kind of a quick report on the finance, unless anybody has any questions.

[17:42] Let me see what's in the chat there.

[17:45] Wow.

[17:46] Thank you for both.

[17:46] Okay.

[17:47] Okay, yeah, I don't have any questions, board, any questions?

[17:55] Okay.

[17:56] Let me say that we're grateful to have this increased capacity with Arthur joining us.

[18:01] It's really nice to have some additional support with the new accounting system the state

[18:09] has in place.

[18:10] It's added a considerable additional workload to our school.

[18:15] and so he and Rebecca and all the work together really well with our assistant that helps us as a kind of a third party audit that's ongoing with Mandy that helps us and it's been really, really helpful with the bond with the cruel of or taking on Moab it was a challenging year last year to get all the finances put in the put in the right places and categories even the company that we work with had to do some.

[18:45] kind of rearranging and he's been relentless in his approach to making sure things work.

[18:51] I always ask him when I see him each morning, did you go home last night because I'm worried

[18:57] some nights he didn't.

[19:01] All right,

[19:05] awesome.

[19:07] Any other questions or comments on that financial report?

[19:10] Okay,

[19:14] my agenda kind of came in really funny, but let's we do have a facility's update before we get to public participation.

[19:25] So Margo, are you on here?

[19:31] Yes, I'm here.

[19:33] Okay, I'll just say a couple of quick things.

[19:37] First of all, I said this before in prior meetings, but I am consistently and constantly

[19:44] impressed with the quality of our teachers and administrators, and tonight just the icing on the cake to have these two wonderful teachers that we honored.

[19:57] Through this summer, there were a lot of projects completed, some kind of big ones, specifically I'm thinking of Moab, but in a lot of other locations,

[20:09] There were many projects completed that brought additional safety issues in line and a lot of things were done just to make the campuses more appealing.

[20:24] And I think that's really important for attracting new students and keeping your students safe and happy.

[20:31] And again, it was done by these administrators and the help of the staff on those locations without everybody pitching in and doing that, it just would not even be possible.

[20:45] So big thanks to everybody. Did you have more to add, Jared?

[20:51] I think Margo has been working really hard with our team and we got some new floors put in some places we needed to.

[20:59] We just continue to chip away at the problems and needs of the schools.

[21:03] Malab looks really good with some covers on their decks.

[21:06] The sun there is brutal to the outside structures and so forth in the decking on our locations.

[21:14] And that was a lot of that was carried out by volunteers.

[21:17] but with support from Julie monitoring that and making sure that things went well and like Margo said all of these administrators contribute a large amount of their own personal efforts to making these places look great and so I just appreciate the team.

[21:34] It's been it's a very inspiring team to work with.

[21:39] Awesome. All right. Any questions on that?

[21:44] Okay, Zach, any public participation requests?

[21:49] No, nobody has signed up for public comment.

[21:53] Okay, that is going to take us to our...

[22:02] I'm assuming this is a... Sorry, my agenda is coming through really, really weird.

[22:08] A board action, which is the ULEED grant proposals?

[22:13] Yes, I will go ahead and tell you about that.

[22:16] Okay.

[22:16] Natalie.

[22:18] So I was actually approached by a couple of teachers at our Ogdom location and they had

[22:24] found this grant and I was very excited about it because it's not money that our school

[22:32] has to come up with the what it is is it's called the You Lead Innovation Grant and what it

[22:39] does is it allows teachers to try and implement innovative programs in their classrooms.

[22:46] And so there's different things that they can do.

[22:50] And what they're doing in Ogden is there's a lady we have connected with Dr. Bonnie Jones.

[23:00] And she has her and our education specialist in Ogden connected and they got talking and

[23:06] And they realize that they had a lot of theories and philosophies on education in common.

[23:16] And we have a very unique program with our hybrid program where people are educated

[23:22] at home for part of the week and they come to our school for part of the week.

[23:26] And they got talking about this.

[23:29] and Dr. Jones has been in education for a very, very long time.

[23:37] She specialized in mathematics and even computer programming.

[23:42] Being one of the first female computer programmers in the 80s.

[23:46] And then has been in education and teaching.

[23:49] And she has recently completed her doctorate where she specializes

[23:53] in the anxiety that is around education.

[23:58] And she has looked at a lot of it as like the anxiety that people, like students have, but also she's

[24:06] found that a lot of teachers have anxiety in teaching and specifically mathematics.

[24:13] And as I've been doing this research trying to understand our homeschool parents, I've also found that a lot of parents will homeschool their children

[24:24] because they had really unpleasant experiences in education and in their going through school.

[24:33] And so then they they decide to homeschool their students. And then they are what we're finding

[24:40] is that they're kind of transferring that anxiety that they're feeling to their own children.

[24:46] And so we I was connected with Dr. Ronnie Jones and she we are talking and we realized that we had we all had this line like Jared and Pamela and I and Dr. Jones.

[25:02] We realized we had very similar philosophies and this desire to be able to help families.

[25:06] And so we are implementing this unique program in Ogden where she is going to be working with she has this really innovative program where she implements games and things like that to try.

[25:22] And that's something we've been trying to do for years is trying to game if I math, but she has been doing a lot of research on the subject.

[25:28] So she's going to be doing it in a lot more intensive ways we were having a meeting at the office and it happened to be our new teacher training and she just volunteered to teach our new trainers or sorry to train our new teachers on some of her fun innovative ways and they were doing these coming up with fractions and math and it was just so fun and it was like you could see the benefits of teaching teachers but also what we have to do is teach parents and so she's actually had a

[25:58] to several of our parent nights in blended ed that we're having and she's going to be starting

[26:06] to help parents address their anxiety that they have in teaching and specifically in math,

[26:12] but just in teaching in general. And so her and Julie Johnson, our education specialist in

[26:19] Ogden, came to me with this grant proposal and what they want to do is, and there's two parts

[26:25] in the grant there's two separate grants, so $5,000 each because the grant

[26:31] allows each classroom to apply for the grant and then what they'll do though is

[26:38] they'll work together. So part of it is a lot of manipulatives hands on kind of

[26:45] this gamified math and then the other part of it is setting goals and working

[26:52] towards these challenges to be able to see that they can do hard things. We're seeing

[26:58] a lot of our kids have anxiety that they don't feel like they can do hard things. And so

[27:02] between these two grants and unfortunately they are having their back to school night

[27:09] tonight and so they weren't able to come here and discuss their grant because I'm sure that

[27:14] they could do a lot more articulate in the plan that they want to be. But as I've heard

[27:21] them discuss it and as we were meeting and as I've been reading through their grant proposal,

[27:25] I'm just so excited and we're going to be looking at this Ogden program as a pilot program

[27:31] that we might implement throughout our whole school if it's successful. So they'll be tracking

[27:38] the data very, very closely. They'll be using accadiants testing and some other assessments to gauge

[27:45] how the students are doing and their performance.

[27:47] We will get parent approval for all of the students

[27:52] before we begin using this program.

[27:55] But we're still following the state standards

[27:58] and I don't think it's such a radical idea

[28:02] that anybody would be really turned off by it.

[28:06] It's an innovative idea, but it's kind of when you listen to it,

[28:12] it's like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.

[28:14] just doing these hands-on things, doing little steps of hard work to demonstrate that you can do it

[28:21] and tailoring the things so that it's engaging and appealing to the students and their interests.

[28:31] So the way that the grant works is they have proposed it, I shared.

[28:36] Zach shared the grant proposals with you. I know Tanner had expressed some concerns that he couldn't

[28:44] see all of the grant. I'm not sure if you guys were able to. I don't know if his because

[28:49] is having spotty service or something like that, his the PDFs didn't completely download.

[28:54] But all of the grant in the PDFs that we sent out, it was completed. It was like all of the areas

[29:01] are covered. So we take this grant and if the board does approve it, then we take it to the state

[29:08] and we say hey, here's this potential grant. Are you willing to give it to our teachers for one

[29:15] year? They can request an extension in the future if it works, but it is for a one year, $5,000

[29:22] for each of these two teachers, so a total of $10,000 to try and innovate some different or implement

[29:32] and some innovative practices in their classrooms.

[29:37] Jennifer, Pamela also met with Natalie and Dr. Bonnie

[29:42] and Julie as well.

[29:44] And Pamela, obviously, for those of me

[29:47] not know is our academic director.

[29:49] And I believe Pamela's excited

[29:51] to have some support in this too.

[29:52] But Pamela, do you want to weigh in or add anything

[29:55] in terms of your support?

[29:56] Do you have any concerns, or do you think this is

[30:00] This grant will be a good thing for us to do.

[30:13] I was trying to unmute myself, but I'm not doing a very good job at it. No, I'm pretty excited about the plans. They sound like they're they're based in research, which is really important to me that we're not just trying something new, but we're actually following what best practices and some effective ways to get students to enjoy.

[30:40] math and to stop fearing it, so I'm really excited about the parent nights because a lot

[30:46] of the research that Bonnie has done is about that math anxiety and as she was explaining

[30:52] it to in our new teacher meeting, it felt very good that I could feel some of the things

[31:01] that she was saying that I had felt as a student and as a parent and so I'm really hoping

[31:07] that parents also feel like they're getting to be understood and that there's something

[31:12] that they can do to help their students. So I'm excited about it. I think it'll be really great.

[31:16] We'll see how it turns out.

[31:29] So I think Jennifer, I think they have to have

[31:32] potentially a motion from the board to be able to go ahead and pursue the grant. Is that right, Natalie?

[31:36] Sorry, I was muted. I was just going to open it up for questions from board members.

[31:46] I had a question. I didn't get to read all the way through this, but I did notice that

[31:52] If I understood the right, this right, I'm looking at the

[31:57] innovative math application that was done and

[32:03] you're planning on doing some after school opportunities

[32:08] like you're going to incorporate in one of the classes

[32:11] one day a week but then after school and I was just wondering

[32:15] is that, I mean, how are we covering the cost for

[32:20] that after school stuff, as far as the teachers go,

[32:24] are the teachers being compensated for that?

[32:27] Yes, and this would be part of it.

[32:29] In our blended education program,

[32:31] it's a little bit different.

[32:33] So they marked it since it's after school,

[32:35] but it's really, we have our,

[32:38] in Ogden, they're gonna be meeting twice a week

[32:41] and kind of approaching,

[32:46] they're tackling things.

[32:47] And so when it's marked after school, it's meaning it's outside of those two hours or those two days, they're going to be their goal is to do a lot of like Phil trips and things like that and and go but but Dr. Jones's philosophy is not just like, oh, we're going to go on a Phil trip and then the kids are just they're observing they're going to be active participants in it.

[33:14] So if they're going to go to a farm, they're not just going to walk around and see the

[33:19] farm animals.

[33:20] They're going to be there doing some hands-on things like seeing how this is how you

[33:26] integrate math.

[33:27] This is what you would be using in a real-life situation.

[33:31] And so while it does say it's outside of the school, it really is more outside of the epic

[33:39] day hours.

[33:40] But yes, the teachers will be compensated for that.

[33:46] The requirement for blended education

[33:48] is that they do go on field trips once a month.

[33:51] And so that's part of their, that would be part of their hours.

[33:55] But this would just help pay for either transportation costs

[34:00] or fees to go to these locations

[34:03] and like entrance fees and things like that.

[34:06] Thank you.

[34:09] What is our estimated number of students that this is going to impact?

[34:16] Well, as of right now, we're looking at about 20 in Ogden.

[34:20] And we're actually hoping that this new program will be a really good recruitment tool to beef up that program because it is struggling a little bit.

[34:31] Our Ogden location is kind of, I don't want to say it's weird,

[34:34] But it's we're kind of serving a different demographic than most of our other locations because it's our most

[34:40] urban area versus all of our rural areas and there's a lot of different charter schools. So we've really struggled with

[34:48] you know defining ourselves and what makes us unique in Ogden and we're hoping that this program will help

[34:56] set ourselves apart from the other programs and be a recruiting tool. So right now it's 20 students. We're hoping to

[35:02] it will attract more and then eventually if it's really successful will implement it at other locations.

[35:12] We did a survey of parents and teachers as to what kind of with their perceptions were of math and

[35:20] Pamela did an excellent job of building a very comprehensive survey.

[35:24] What we found in that survey is pretty much what Dr. Bonnie Jones suggested in that

[35:31] There's so much anxiety around math that the teachers avoid it sometimes and parents avoid it sometimes and

[35:41] That serves really no one very well and so we're hoping that we can build some confidence in in everyone's

[35:50] Abilities to understand it to make it more relevant

[35:53] I think one of the biggest challenges is sometimes is to make math relevant and to make it visual it seems it seems sometimes like it's so

[36:00] conceptual or something that they can't visualize and so that's one of the things that this

[36:09] professor or this not professor but this doctor does is finds tools to make it more visual

[36:15] and so that's representational they can see why the numbers add the way they do or subtract

[36:21] the way they do and so forth. So we're really excited. She's really kind of volunteering her hours to

[36:27] teach the kids at the location. We're paying her to go out to the locations to do the parent meetings, but

[36:35] she's volunteering her hours to put a small cadre or a small cohort of students that she has

[36:42] with ours and do the teaching together with them. And so it's a great opportunity. We feel like

[36:48] to get some specific expertise in an area that we're trying to understand better.

[36:55] and Pamela has done an excellent job with it.

[36:59] In fact, we're right on par with what Pamela's already done.

[37:04] The challenges is Pamela's stretched already so thin.

[37:08] And so to have some more support is really helpful.

[37:12] I'm just, I'm not questioning the grant itself,

[37:20] but as I look at the two different grant applications,

[37:22] questions, I would expect them to be very, very sort of looking for almost identical.

[37:29] And yet they're very, very different.

[37:31] Is that intentional or is it just because when you're pulling them in as a PDF, they're

[37:36] not coming?

[37:39] The idea is that they're different because they're two parts of the same program.

[37:44] Okay.

[37:45] That makes sense.

[37:46] I think if they were identical, I think they were concerned that it would only get the

[37:50] one grant, but because they're hoping to be able to get the two grants and then work together,

[37:55] which is why they're each addressing a different area. Got it. Then this may just be because the

[38:00] PDF is going kind of weird, but on the one that has Bonnie's name first, on page seven,

[38:10] at least on the one that I'm viewing, it seems to be missing a good chunk of it just stops.

[38:22] And so maybe it just didn't like pull that completely.

[38:27] So she does have the curriculum and then instruction materials and then there is a spot

[38:33] for Christian curriculum justification and materials link which on the application those are optional.

[38:40] Just like right right on mine. It says they also incorporate play which science has shown is important for learning up. Oh, yes, I do see that. Yeah, yeah, you've had you've had this to the full. Yeah, I just have. I requested an access to it, but I haven't gotten it. Yeah, and like I said, they're at their their parent.

[39:06] they're back to school night and so she wasn't able to.

[39:09] I just didn't want us to submit a grant that was.

[39:16] And honestly, I'm not even sure if this is a new thing for me.

[39:21] I'm going to contact the you lead thing and see if they need to submit this.

[39:26] But I think this is actually so here it says this form is intended to be a supportive resource

[39:33] but is not required for an application to be approved. So this form is more for us

[39:41] than it is for the state. Interesting, okay.

[39:47] And so that is, I will say that's, unfortunately,

[39:52] that's a gap in the grant, but it's very possible that just in the sharing of it, it got deleted.

[40:05] You're not going to turn it off.

[40:07] It's just, they're all on their own sensor.

[40:10] OK, board members, let's talk this out.

[40:17] I've for word that, oh, for it, I think it can be

[40:22] to do to them with understanding math.

[40:25] It's a good together with something that always made me anxious

[40:30] that I think I've maybe lived with myself because I've been so worried about not understanding it,

[40:40] so I think it would be with itself great.

[40:47] I agree. Anything that can help, I mean,

[40:50] just trying to do math with my own kids when we were at home doing their homework. I think that's,

[40:56] I mean, every Quinn laughs because everyone's experienced that frustration and so

[41:01] Yeah, good opportunity. I did have one question for Natalie if if both of these is still going to work if we only get awarded one of the applications rather than both?

[41:14] Yes, it'll still work. We were going to kind of fund this program anyway. This just gives us a little bit of flexibility in being able to do so.

[41:26] Thank you.

[41:27] Okay.

[41:32] Well, I think to move this forward, it would take a motion and yeah, I've had to make a motion that we move forward with the E lead grant.

[41:45] I'll second it.

[41:47] Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we move forward with the E lead grants.

[41:55] Is there any additional discussion on these motions?

[42:03] Mary Nunn will proceed to vote. All those in favor? Please say aye.

[42:07] Aye.

[42:10] Any opposed? Say no.

[42:13] All right. That motion passes. So let's go for it.

[42:18] Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. And then I will make sure that when I'm working with Bonnie and Julie before we submit anything to the state that everything is completely 100% filled out and that there are no gaps.

[42:30] So, thank you so much, Natalie.

[42:34] Appreciate that.

[42:35] Yep, I appreciate that.

[42:37] All right.

[42:38] We do need to go into an executive session primarily.

[42:46] We have two items that need to be handled, but primarily we do need to discuss.

[42:55] Teacher certification isn't quite the right word, but help me with the right word, Crystal.

[43:02] credentials. Yes that's where so we like to discuss that in closed session just

[43:08] because it is a staffing issue so for those of you who have joined us we

[43:13] appreciate your time you're welcome to stay in a holding room while we go for

[43:20] go through this and then we can bring you back if you'd like or you're welcome to

[43:23] sign up for the night and we'll see you at our next board meeting and we

[43:26] appreciate all you do it's your choice just let Zach know what you would prefer

[43:31] And we do need a motion to go into executive session.

[43:36] Jennifer, do you want to indicate who you'd like to stay on?

[43:39] I mean, obviously the board members, Dallas Ryan.

[43:42] Yeah, Dallas Ryan, we need Crystal.

[43:47] Zach here.

[43:48] I may be Rebecca as well with HR.

[43:51] Oh yeah, Rebecca, sir.

[43:53] Without people having their faces, and I know I'm just guilty too.

[43:56] But I'm just like there's so many names on my screen right now.

[44:00] Yes.

[44:01] Yeah, I think that's probably about it.

[44:03] Thank you.

[44:07] Well, that's a big emotion to go with the executive session.

[44:11] Thanks.

[44:12] Okay.

[44:13] It's been moved in second that we go to executive session.

[44:15] This is a roll call vote.

[44:18] I'm going to call your name, please indicate whether you support going to executive session

[44:22] or not.

[44:23] Dallas?

[44:24] Yes.

[44:25] Ryan?

[44:26] Yes.

[44:28] Okay.

[44:28] That passes.

[44:29] as we will go ahead and enter executive session.

[44:32] Thank you, Dawn.

[44:34] Thanks for that.

[44:35] All right, this is the executive session

[44:38] for Athenian eAcademy Board Meeting,

[44:41] the date is Thursday, 27th of August.

[44:44] 20

Board of Directors

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