[0:22] Susan, you're muted.
[0:26] >> It's me, Alicia Milligan. Hello.
[0:28] >> Hi, Alicia. Welcome. We're glad you made
[0:30] it.
[0:31] >> Oh, thanks. Sorry you have to call me
[0:33] out in an individual text. [laughter]
[0:36] You're probably
[0:42] I've had like a two week long headache.
[0:44] So,
[0:45] >> Oh, no.
[0:46] >> Not Yeah, just decompression room.
[0:49] That's all.
[0:50] >> Yep.
[0:52] >> I still don't see an agenda. Um, Carol,
[0:55] I'm just going to start with your agenda
[0:56] that's on the screen, I guess, until one
[1:00] is sent. C. Sarah, could you try sending
[1:03] one over to me?
[1:05] >> I'll send you one real quick.
[1:07] >> Yeah.
[1:13] it's not in my regular email for
[1:15] some reason or in my Azure Fields email.
[1:20] All right, let's call our meeting to
[1:22] order tonight. It it's at at 7:04 now
[1:26] and we'll start with the America verse.
[1:29] Let me recite it as you listen. Um,
[1:32] thank you everyone for coming tonight.
[1:35] May our feeling penetrate into the
[1:38] center of our heart and seek in love to
[1:41] unite itself with the human beings
[1:43] seeking the same goal. With the spirit
[1:46] beings who bearing grace, strengthening
[1:49] us from realms of light and illuminating
[1:52] our love are gazing down upon our
[1:55] earnest heartfelt striving. Rudolph
[1:58] Steiner.
[2:00] and and our topic for study is not
[2:03] applicable tonight. Nor is our board
[2:06] capacity building
[2:09] um time our public comments. I don't
[2:13] believe we have any someone anyone from
[2:16] the public to make comment tonight. So,
[2:19] we'll move to our review. Oh,
[2:21] >> we do have Susan here.
[2:25] >> Oh, yes. Welcome Susan Owen.
[2:28] Did you have a comment you'd like to
[2:30] make in our public comments time?
[2:32] >> I don't have any comments this time. I'm
[2:34] just happy to join you tonight.
[2:36] >> All right. Thank you.
[2:37] >> Uhu.
[2:38] >> All right. And then we'll move to our
[2:40] review of the minutes. Um,
[2:44] and we have two tonight. Sarah, can you
[2:46] tell us about Did we not review the
[2:49] minutes at our board meeting? We didn't
[2:51] get to that the last time.
[2:53] >> No, we didn't. It was our board retreat.
[2:56] They have been emailed out to people. By
[2:58] the way, Susan, you should have a copy
[2:59] of the agenda.
[3:00] >> I do. I do have Oh, thank you. I do have
[3:02] a copy of the minutes that I've read
[3:04] through them. Um,
[3:07] is there any discussion about the
[3:09] minutes we need to do to talk about or
[3:11] has everyone read through them?
[3:16] » You you don't have the vote in there?
[3:18] >> Yeah, we don't have the vote section,
[3:20] Sarah, for the for the minutes.
[3:23] Yeah, we'll need to vote on both the May
[3:25] 27th and the the June 12th board retreat
[3:29] minutes.
[3:31] >> Oh, you're right.
[3:39] Do we need to add those in now or can we
[3:42] do the vote and have you just keep
[3:43] record of it?
[3:47] >> I can add it in. I'm just pulling it
[3:48] back up.
[3:49] >> Okay, that would be better. Yes. I think
[3:53] [snorts]
[3:54] while you do that, I'm going to print
[3:56] out mine. [laughter]
[4:06] [clears throat]
[4:21] While you're waiting for her to get that
[4:23] updated, Susan, you can ask if there's
[4:24] any comments or questions about the
[4:27] minutes and anything that needs to be
[4:28] updated.
[4:30] If there's any discussion on the
[4:31] previous minutes,
[4:35] » yes. Um, those were sent out in an email
[4:38] to everyone. Are there any questions or
[4:40] discussion that that anyone has would
[4:42] like to have at this time about the
[4:44] board minutes from the May 27th and the
[4:48] June 12th board May 27th board meeting
[4:51] and the June 12th um board retreat
[5:19] Sarah, did you want to just briefly
[5:21] review what was covered in each one?
[5:23] Yes, I can do it. I just got a phone
[5:25] now. I think
[5:30] so.
[5:43] at our
[5:47] board retreat, we discussed doing the
[5:48] oath of office and decided that we could
[5:50] do it in August at the beginning of the
[5:53] year. We had an administration review
[5:55] from Carol where we discussed our ready
[5:56] to miss to open our setbacks, our
[5:59] successes and issue and went over our
[6:02] readiness checklist that we were going
[6:04] with a state over. We also talked about
[6:07] our administration goals for the year,
[6:09] paying our contracts, decreasing our
[6:12] overhead, and making sure that we could
[6:13] manage things. And we also had
[6:15] conversation with Jeff about how our
[6:18] cash flow will be tricky and that we
[6:20] need to
[6:21] um budget very well with that. We had
[6:25] our planning meeting where we planned
[6:26] our dates for the year, created training
[6:29] topics and our starter study for the
[6:32] year. We went over our policy and
[6:34] approved our discipline policy. Um we
[6:38] also approved our data security policy,
[6:41] our hiring firing policy
[6:46] and our we approved our handbooks. We
[6:50] took a break and then we decided to pass
[6:53] the board review on to this meeting and
[6:56] then we did do an administration
[6:57] evaluation of peril and we decided to
[7:00] continue her contract into the next year
[7:03] and then we adjourned
[7:06] and that is the June 12th. I will pause
[7:08] for a minute before I do June May or May
[7:10] 19th if there's any discussion on that.
[7:16] [clears throat]
[7:22] because I think we have to approve them
[7:24] separately, don't we, Carol?
[7:26] >> You think so?
[7:27] >> Yes. I don't see the Well, maybe Carol
[7:29] hasn't brought it down. The motion to
[7:31] approve the June meeting. Oh, there it
[7:34] is down below. Okay.
[7:36] Retreat board retreat minutes. Yes.
[7:41] >> Okay. I guess um is there someone who
[7:43] would make a motion to approve the June
[7:46] 12th board retreat minutes as as
[7:48] reviewed by Sarah Archbald?
[7:51] >> I would move to approve them.
[7:55] >> Thank you, Alicia.
[7:58] And um any Is there someone who would
[8:01] second the motion to approve the
[8:03] minutes?
[8:07] » I'll second it.
[8:09] >> Thank you, Sarah.
[8:11] Um, and let's have a vote now. I don't
[8:14] see because I've got my screen on the
[8:17] review of the minutes. I don't see
[8:18] everyone's face on the the screen. So,
[8:23] let's have let's just go
[8:24] >> stop sharing for a second so you can see
[8:26] everybody.
[8:26] >> Okay, there we go. Good to see everyone.
[8:31] Hi, Thisa and Martha. I saw the others
[8:33] earlier. Okay, so let's have a vote to
[8:36] approve our minutes from June 12th's
[8:38] board retreat. All in all in favor say I
[8:42] or raise your hand. Let's see. We have
[8:45] um
[8:52] trying to find the place for that on my pages.
[8:56] Okay. Um,
[8:59] so we have Susan, Sarah,
[9:03] Marta,
[9:05] Christian,
[9:08] uh, Thesisa, and and Alicia.
[9:12] Okay. The motion has been approved,
[9:15] voted, and approved um for the um the ME
[9:20] board meeting on June 12th. The re I
[9:23] mean the board retreat minutes. Um,
[9:26] let's move on to our May 27th minutes.
[9:30] Now, if you could review those for us,
[9:31] Sarah.
[9:32] >> Yes. So, we had our call opening. Our
[9:34] Steiner study went over Gen Z and Jen
[9:37] Alpha and their question the basic
[9:39] assumptions including seeing the self
[9:41] differently than other generations. We
[9:44] had the board capacity building which is
[9:45] chapter 2, the charter school, board
[9:47] university.
[9:51] Um, we had a review of the previous
[9:54] minutes from April where they were
[9:56] approved. We discussed open meeting
[9:59] compliance, the possibility of deferring
[10:01] opening and various plans for that
[10:03] deferral. We discussed board member
[10:06] recruitment and the June meeting we were
[10:08] planning our board retreat at that time
[10:11] and the need to set up a schedule for
[10:12] this year. We had an admin report, our
[10:15] marketing and enrollment, hiring staff,
[10:17] grants and budgets, teachers and student
[10:20] success app. And then we had reports for
[10:23] our finance community and we were
[10:25] discussing the startup grant and red
[10:27] apple and how we were working with them
[10:29] and we would need to do our budget
[10:32] approval at this meeting.
[10:34] We discussed our marketing and outreach
[10:36] team and we had an adjournment at 8:46.
[10:42] » All right. Thank you very much. Do I
[10:44] have a motion from the board to approve
[10:46] our May 27th
[10:49] um our May May 27th board meeting?
[10:52] >> Any discussion before a vote?
[10:54] >> Oh, thank you, Carol.
[10:58] Is there any discussion or notes that
[11:00] someone wants to share with us?
[11:11] Okay. Uh, Carol, can you put on the
[11:14] screen the um
[11:17] the the things that were added into the meeting minutes for this motion and
[11:22] this vote?
[11:24] Oh, I do have it here. Okay.
[11:28] So,
[11:29] um,
[11:31] if there aren't any comments or s or
[11:34] ideas that need to be, uh, discussed,
[11:36] let's Could I have someone make a motion
[11:38] to approve the May 27th minutes?
[11:42] >> All motion.
[11:43] >> That's right. Thank you, Christian.
[11:47] And someone to second that motion to
[11:49] approve the minutes from May 27th. Thank
[11:52] you, Thesisa.
[11:55] Okay. And we'll have a vote now. um by
[11:58] the members. Um I'm
[12:02] um let's see I see Susan in voting I
[12:07] Sarah
[12:09] Marta Christian
[12:13] Fisa and Alicia. Thank you. The the the
[12:17] motion was approved
[12:19] um to app that to approve our um our
[12:22] board minutes from the May 27th.
[12:26] Okay. Um, we'll now move to an
[12:29] administration review by Carol Gregory.
[12:33] >> Okay.
[12:34] >> We'll give her the time. [clears throat]
[12:36] >> Okay. The main topic um being the final
[12:39] review of the budget. So, I'm going to
[12:41] pull up the detailed report and make
[12:44] sure that it's big enough for you guys
[12:45] to see. Um, so I have a couple of things
[12:49] to compare it to. Um this was the
[12:51] proposed budget from the startup grant
[12:54] that we were working on. Um so we had um
[12:58] $20,000 allocated to tuition
[13:01] reimbursement for Waldorf training for
[13:03] our people. We had my salary. We had a
[13:06] lead teacher um doing curriculum
[13:09] development. We had um our workshops,
[13:11] conferences and training. We had um our
[13:15] contract services for um support to to
[13:19] get we had advertising and and
[13:21] marketing. We had curriculum and
[13:24] development, travel expenses, office
[13:26] supplies, our dues and fees, background
[13:29] checks, and things like that. So, that's
[13:30] kind of what we allocated um in the in
[13:35] the startup. Um
[13:37] >> Carol, do you want to be sharing your
[13:38] screen right now?
[13:39] >> Yeah, we can't see it. Oh, I thought I
[13:42] was sharing it. No, [laughter]
[13:45] >> that makes a difference. [clears throat]
[13:48] >> It's a little easier to follow. Thank
[13:49] you.
[13:50] >> There we go. This is this is where I
[13:52] was. Um, so we um approved this a year
[13:55] ago um as we were heading into the
[13:58] startup year
[13:59] >> with what we were going to be
[14:00] purchasing. Um, so we also throughout
[14:04] the school year, um, decided with the,
[14:08] um, we also were approved for the
[14:12] revolving loan. And so some of the
[14:14] things that we, um, additionally
[14:16] allocated from the revolving loan were
[14:18] some additional people to help us out
[14:21] with the load and get things ready for
[14:24] um, opening, some additional funds for
[14:27] marketing, and some additional supplies.
[14:30] Um so those are kind of everything that
[14:32] we've been working through. Um so we
[14:36] have the instructional services um
[14:39] Chalice, Antonia and Veronica um paid
[14:42] out according to their contracts as
[14:44] contract service providers. Um they are
[14:46] categorized as instructional services
[14:48] because they were doing work for setting
[14:51] things up for the the students. um
[14:54] myself and the registar were our
[14:56] professional education services and so
[14:58] those were our salaries um that were
[15:01] allocated. We then have um the
[15:04] professional training and development
[15:06] from the workshops and um training that
[15:08] we participated in. We did get a little
[15:11] refund um from from one of the um they
[15:14] gave us a discount in one of the
[15:17] programs that we pro did professionally.
[15:21] Um, other contract services was um, Red
[15:23] Apple, their contract for um, helping us
[15:26] manage. We did have the lawyer that
[15:28] helped us review our documents and make
[15:31] sure that they were all um, aligned. We
[15:34] have our website and mass communication
[15:36] system through Edio as well as the
[15:39] initial setup of the website through
[15:41] Ionos.
[15:43] We had um, the work space, the um,
[15:47] office space that we rented this year.
[15:50] Um, and this came in um, a few thousand
[15:54] dollar lower than we had originally
[15:56] budgeted for. Um, so that was good. We
[15:59] have our um, office telephone um, that
[16:03] we're paying for every month. And then,
[16:05] um, we had the marketing um, the
[16:08] different supplies um, um, print flyers,
[16:12] the Scola contract, the um, swag items
[16:17] to hand out at events.
[16:19] um and the different events that we
[16:21] attended. [clears throat]
[16:24] Um we had the road trip expenses for
[16:27] collaboration and professional
[16:28] development.
[16:30] [clears throat] We purchased um a a
[16:33] professional development library as well
[16:35] as training supplies for the teacher
[16:37] workshops. We um also had general office
[16:40] supplies just to be able to run um
[16:44] smoothly in in the things that we're
[16:45] doing and um things like a branded stamp
[16:48] so that we have some official things
[16:49] moving forward. Um we purchased math
[16:52] curriculum from Paradigm High School
[16:54] with a secondary math 1, two, and three.
[16:56] So we have the complete um resources
[16:58] there for that. Um we did purchase two
[17:01] office computers and some um keyboards
[17:04] and and mice for use. Um we had the
[17:08] frontline technologies um that we
[17:10] onboarded with for recruiting and
[17:12] hiring. Um this is where we put our job
[17:14] postings and manage the people that we
[17:18] hire with onboarding. Um we had
[17:21] background checks that we had to process
[17:24] throughout the year. Um everybody that's
[17:26] been connected with us has cleared the
[17:27] background checks. Um and then the fees
[17:31] and dues um just the the processing
[17:34] charges. um for making payments is is
[17:39] just a monthly um that's the service
[17:41] charges there. We also had our
[17:43] membership dues for the alliance. Um we
[17:45] had our tax um exempt application fee
[17:49] and and things like that. So that's
[17:50] where it is. Um and so our final budget
[17:54] um this includes the I don't think this
[17:57] one had the all of the income. So this
[17:59] includes the startup grant and the
[18:01] revolving loan. Um, and so we used um
[18:06] $349,45845.
[18:11] Any questions about the budget and the
[18:13] expenses and um anything here for the board to give final approval on?
[18:23] >> No, I thought we gave approval for this
[18:25] budget already. Why are we doing it?
[18:27] >> So, we approved it at the beginning of
[18:29] the year.
[18:29] >> Yeah. and and then we have to approve
[18:32] the final reconciliation of expenses.
[18:36] Okay, so this was the final
[18:38] reconciliation of all of the income and
[18:41] the things that we purchased.
[18:46] » And so once you approve this, I go in
[18:48] and put this in the state system to
[18:49] reconcile.
[18:50] >> Okay.
[18:52] All right. Um are there any discussion
[18:55] points? Anyone? This looks like what I
[18:58] remember approving. We looked at it last
[19:00] time. We didn't have there were still
[19:02] some We didn't have the detailed
[19:03] breakdown. We had category. Yeah, we had
[19:06] each category that you looked at. So,
[19:08] nothing has changed. We did were able to
[19:10] go through and clean up some of the
[19:11] expenses that were categorized
[19:13] incorrectly. Um, so this is the the
[19:16] clean version and and where all of the
[19:18] details were and there were some
[19:20] questions on what some of those
[19:22] categories were last time. And so, this
[19:24] is the clarification for final approval.
[19:27] Is there anyone else who has comment to
[19:28] make or discussion they'd like to have?
[19:32] Hi Carrie. I didn't know you were with
[19:33] us.
[19:34] >> I'm here. Yeah, sorry I've been eating.
[19:36] So
[19:38] >> I was off camera. Um we had talked about
[19:43] the miscellaneous category in our board
[19:45] retreat and did did we get clarification
[19:49] on that at the end
[19:52] >> when you were just saying I I missed
[19:53] that part? So, there were multiple
[19:56] expenses that had been allocated in that
[19:58] category that were incorrect because it
[20:01] was like $33,000 and that's way too
[20:03] high. So, they've been reallocated to
[20:06] the other categories. Um, right now the
[20:09] so in final reconciliation there's only
[20:11] um three and a half thousand in the
[20:13] miscellaneous category and those are
[20:15] transaction fees and the um
[20:20] the
[20:22] where's it at? um
[20:25] our membership dues for the alliance,
[20:27] the um fees for renewing our um business
[20:33] account, things that don't really fit
[20:35] anywhere else. Um is what's there and
[20:37] it's it's um
[20:42] it's just shy of $4,000. So, we got that
[20:45] cleaned up.
[20:45] >> Great. Thank you so much for clarifying
[20:48] that.
[20:49] >> Yeah, not a problem.
[20:49] >> It looks looks great to me.
[20:52] I didn't see anything on the budget that
[20:54] was significantly different than what we
[20:55] had approved. Was there anything that
[20:57] was more than a couple hundred dollars
[20:59] higher? If it's lower, I'm not too
[21:00] concerned. Okay.
[21:01] >> Nope.
[21:04] >> Okay. Can I have someone then make an
[21:06] emot make a motion to approve the the
[21:08] school year 2026 final budget
[21:11] reconciliation?
[21:16] » I'll motion
[21:17] >> to approve that.
[21:19] And could someone second the motion?
[21:22] Thank you, Sarah. And then let's have a
[21:24] vote on that. And I'll be looking and
[21:26] calling names. I have approved it.
[21:29] Sarah, I see your approval. Marta,
[21:32] Christian,
[21:34] um Carrie, yes. Thesisa,
[21:40] thesa, are you there to approve? Thank you, Thesa. Alicia,
[21:48] are you there to approve our
[21:51] budget reconciliation?
[21:55] » Yes. Sorry.
[21:57] >> Okay.
[21:58] >> All right. So, that's a that's a yes for
[22:00] you.
[22:02] >> Yes. Thank you.
[22:03] >> Okay. Thank you. Our vote outcome is is
[22:05] unanimous. So, the motion has been
[22:08] approved. Um and then I'll have Carol
[22:11] continue for us then.
[22:13] >> Sounds good. Um so the next thing that
[22:15] we need to talk about is kind of our
[22:17] status update and moving forward. Um we
[22:21] did get um support from the state
[22:24] charter school board to defer for a
[22:26] year. Um that deferment looks like com
[22:30] um 9th through 12 9th through 11th grade
[22:33] next year. Um there are some challenges
[22:38] on this. So I'm going to present several
[22:40] different paths of our situation. Um,
[22:43] and there's still some pending
[22:46] information. So, um, the board I don't
[22:49] think needs to make an, uh, a decision
[22:53] today based on all of this information.
[22:56] Uh, my recommendation is that we revisit
[22:59] these options in August. Um, when we
[23:02] have um, access and more answers. Um,
[23:06] one of the challenges is that in July,
[23:09] um, state office people are at
[23:11] conferences and they're rolling over the
[23:13] systems from, um, one fiscal year to the
[23:17] other. And so there's there's systems
[23:19] that are down, so people are on vacation
[23:20] and not in the office for access to some
[23:23] of these answers. Um, so we'll go
[23:26] through just kind of the whole
[23:28] situation. If we continue the current
[23:32] path that we're on, um we have approval
[23:35] to defer open fall 2027. We're approved
[23:38] for grades 9 through 12. Our plan would
[23:40] be 9th through 11th grades. Um there are
[23:43] some budget concerns that we um don't
[23:45] have any additional funding available.
[23:48] Um and there is concern that if we don't
[23:52] open then we're defaulting on the
[23:54] revolving loan and there's major
[23:56] implications for that um in the whole
[23:59] charter community not just us. Um and so
[24:03] there's concerns and conversations to be
[24:05] had with people at the state offices
[24:07] around that. There are also enrollment
[24:10] concerns. Um we weren't able to get the
[24:12] enrollment this year. So, there's a
[24:14] little bit of a question of of how
[24:15] likely is it for us to get that
[24:17] enrollment next year. Will we be able to
[24:19] meet the enrollment requirements without
[24:22] having seventh and eighth grade? That
[24:23] was one of our biggest setbacks is this
[24:25] gap year that families are are leaving
[24:28] the Waldorf model and not staying and
[24:30] not coming back in that enrollment. Um,
[24:34] is our location also affecting that? um
[24:37] can we afford the very expensive land
[24:40] and limited opportunities that are
[24:43] closer to Mountain Sunrise that will
[24:44] make it easier for those families? Um
[24:46] and if we were able to find a way to
[24:48] afford it, would that even fix the
[24:50] enrollment concerns? Um so there's a lot
[24:53] of concern and question about being able
[24:55] to to go through that. Some of the good
[24:57] news is that we've done all of the other
[25:01] work. Um really it is just filling our
[25:04] marketing and enrollment. We have a a
[25:07] really good calendar put together for
[25:09] getting into the junior highs and
[25:11] letting more people know at their high
[25:13] school previews that we are an option as
[25:15] a high school. We have um events and and
[25:18] community things planned through the
[25:20] year. Um so that we I mean I feel like
[25:23] we have a pretty good plan for building
[25:25] that. Our name is out there. People are
[25:27] recognizing us. Conversations that we
[25:29] have with new people are, "Oh, I saw
[25:31] your billboard. Oh, you're that school.
[25:33] Oh, I got your flyer on my door." So,
[25:34] there's been enough touch points that
[25:36] people are starting to get to know us
[25:38] and the word is spreading. Um, and it's
[25:40] just a matter of of completing that. The
[25:43] option for adding seventh and eighth
[25:46] grade. Um, the the most recent answer.
[25:50] This one's tricky. Um, because there are
[25:55] some conflicting opinions on that path.
[25:58] Um and and so we're trying to get enough
[26:01] people into the same room in the same
[26:02] space to get a clear answer on exactly
[26:05] what that process looks like. Um the
[26:07] latest information is to complete the
[26:10] new school application um and kind of
[26:13] start the progress the the whole cycle
[26:17] over and requesting 7th through 12th
[26:20] grade. So really it looks like adjusting
[26:22] our previous proposal to the new
[26:24] proposal requirement format and and
[26:27] adding 7th through 12th grade.
[26:29] [clears throat]
[26:30] Chalice and I started this. I'll go
[26:32] ahead and pull it up and show you. Um
[26:35] we've started this application and um
[26:38] are I feel confident in being able to
[26:40] submit this to the state charter school
[26:43] board. Tomorrow um is the deadline for
[26:46] this um proposal. And Carrie, I see your
[26:49] hand. Let me go ahead and get through
[26:50] this whole section and then take
[26:52] questions if that's okay.
[26:54] Um,
[26:57] so we've got the um and then just
[26:59] adjusting our seats to include um 7th
[27:04] through 12th grade. Um and then just
[27:06] formatting. So this is there um and it
[27:09] should be ready to turn in tomorrow.
[27:12] um I recommend and plan on going ahead
[27:15] and starting this process because we can
[27:18] always pull our application out. Whereas
[27:21] if we miss this deadline and they tell
[27:24] us that really is what we have to do, we
[27:26] don't have another opportunity until
[27:28] next summer. Um so that's um starting
[27:32] the proposal. Um it is unclear at this
[27:36] moment how this process will affect all
[27:39] of the accounts that we've already set
[27:41] up as a school if we start over. Um
[27:44] there's conflicting feedback about that
[27:48] impact and the correct process. Um if we
[27:52] do that process, we're not opening until
[27:55] 2018 and so we kind of just lieowow next
[27:59] year as we complete the application
[28:01] process again. Um, but we're already
[28:05] ahead of the game because we've already
[28:07] been through this process once. We
[28:09] already have a lot of our things decided
[28:13] and ironed out. Um, I would need to seek
[28:16] other employment for this um, next
[28:19] school year and work on the application
[28:22] process in the background. Um, if we are
[28:26] fully committed to this, there's a
[28:28] likelihood that they do pull those
[28:29] revolving loan account um, funds. and so
[28:32] we're sitting with a bank account at
[28:34] zero. Um board members will need to
[28:37] assist in the writing of that
[28:38] application like we did the first time
[28:40] around. Um the good news is that we can
[28:42] reuse much of what we've already
[28:43] completed. It's a matter of adjusting it
[28:45] to the new format and making sure that
[28:48] we're including the junior high. We did
[28:51] learn a lot in this process. I think we
[28:53] have some very clear answers. We have
[28:56] better connections in our feeder
[28:58] schools. um we can get letters of
[29:01] support and and movement in the
[29:04] community to help support this choice.
[29:07] Um the state charter school board might
[29:10] be reluctant about another startup
[29:13] grant. Um I'm not exactly sure all of
[29:16] the steps and processes to that. I
[29:18] actually have a meeting with the um
[29:22] financial auditor and and executive
[29:24] director at the charter school board
[29:26] tomorrow. So, um hopefully some of these
[29:29] unknowns will be answered and resolved.
[29:31] Um but, um it will be a concern that
[29:35] we'll be defaulting on at least a small
[29:37] portion of that revolving loan. Um and
[29:40] that doesn't look good for us. Um and
[29:44] would mean that we will not be very
[29:47] likely to get revolving loan funds in
[29:49] the future, at least not until we have
[29:51] very solid financials for many years. um
[29:54] if we are approved and so that's another
[29:57] part of this process is that we might
[29:59] not be approved um in spring of 2027 but
[30:04] if we are then our opening date is 2028.
[30:07] Um potentially we do get another startup
[30:09] grant but not quite sure what that
[30:11] process is going to look like. um we
[30:14] have policies in place, we have um lots
[30:18] of answers and so I think we can work on
[30:21] a tighter budget in this second startup
[30:24] year if we do this process again and
[30:26] move on into that. Um and we've already
[30:30] invested in um in a lot of things that
[30:34] like we don't have to purchase the
[30:35] professional library again and and
[30:37] things like that. So, um we will be
[30:39] better equipped um to have a wise budget
[30:42] with whatever they allocate us in that
[30:43] process. Um potentially,
[30:47] um this one's like a big if. Um there
[30:50] might be space for requesting to open in
[30:53] fall of 27 under this. um it would be a
[30:56] waiver request, but we will have a very
[30:59] heavy burden to demonstrate that we do
[31:01] have enough students enrolled that we
[31:05] wouldn't need a whole extra year in
[31:07] order to get set up. Um some things that
[31:09] could help us with that is a memorandum
[31:11] of understanding with uh Mountain
[31:13] Sunrise that if we pick up seventh and
[31:15] eighth grade, we have um a clear path to
[31:18] write a um articulation agreement with
[31:23] Azure Fields so that their students can
[31:26] come and then we have um some very
[31:28] guaranteed enrollment ready to go um
[31:32] would be kind of the only path for for
[31:35] that. I I don't know how much I would
[31:37] recommend um trying to open early. Um I
[31:41] think it would just be better to follow
[31:42] the full 2-year cycle for that. The
[31:46] other options that we kind of have is
[31:49] that we could decide to close Azure
[31:52] Fields and find other opportunities for
[31:55] creating a um Waldorf High School in
[31:59] Utah. Um whether it is that we let it go
[32:03] and work on forming a new group and and
[32:07] working in the future um or we could
[32:10] potentially reach out to one of our
[32:12] feeder schools and help them with an
[32:14] expansion to expand the high school um
[32:18] that that then has a clear path for K
[32:22] through 12 in instead of being a
[32:24] standalone school. Um, we still have the
[32:28] nonprofit even if we let this charter go
[32:32] um and decide to disband the current
[32:35] charter of Azure Fields. Um, it's $18 a
[32:38] year for our state registration um with
[32:40] the Department of Commerce for Utah to
[32:43] keep Azure Fields running as a
[32:44] nonprofit. I think it's around $20 a
[32:47] year for our federal renewal. Um and and
[32:52] then there's questions like if we do
[32:54] keep the nonprofit going um do we want
[32:57] to try a K12? Do we want to push again
[33:00] for a 7 through 12? Um that's just kind
[33:04] of so that's my summary. Um Carrie, I'll
[33:08] take your question now on
[33:12] um on this process.
[33:18] Okay. So, I'm hearing a lot from a lot
[33:21] of p a lot of parents that
[33:24] it's very overwhelming to get their kids
[33:26] to Provo 5 days a week and that they
[33:28] would be very interested in like a
[33:30] hybrid program. Is that an option? And
[33:34] do we have to put that into the charter?
[33:39] Um like
[33:41] would that have to be done in that same
[33:43] process? Like do we have an option to
[33:45] have a one of the cohorts
[33:49] be like a part-time cohort cohort? Is
[33:53] that something that's too difficult to
[33:55] do? I think that would
[33:57] >> open up a lot of opportunities for
[34:00] parents and interest a lot of parents
[34:03] because there's a lot of parents who
[34:06] want their children home more but not
[34:08] all the time especially as high
[34:10] schoolers.
[34:11] >> Yeah. It's all those homeschool families
[34:13] that they,
[34:15] you know, they want to homeschool, but
[34:16] it's really hard to homeschool a high
[34:18] schooler and they they need someone else
[34:20] that their high schooler is accountable
[34:23] to.
[34:25] >> So, I I that's just what I wanted to
[34:27] bring up that if that might be an option
[34:29] that could help us. Um, tree I know that
[34:32] treeside did just um, so it would be so
[34:36] it would either be something that we put
[34:38] in the new proposal and application um,
[34:40] or we add an amendment depending on
[34:44] ultimately which path that we take. Um,
[34:47] we I think we always have the option of
[34:50] enrolling students part-time. Um, and
[34:53] so, you know, if they chose to come for
[34:55] just the academics from 9 until 1 or
[34:58] whatever it was, um, or if they were
[35:00] coming just for the electives, um, I
[35:02] think that's kind of always an option of
[35:04] enrolling part-time. We would
[35:06] >> that's always,
[35:07] >> sorry,
[35:08] >> we would need to write a clear policy
[35:10] around how we handle that.
[35:12] >> I think it's more that they want they
[35:14] don't want to do part day. They want to
[35:16] do, you know, half the days. So it's
[35:20] like they only want to be going to
[35:22] school two or three days a week.
[35:25] >> So they want like an AB. So that would
[35:27] change our schedule to like AB days and
[35:29] they only enroll for A days.
[35:32] >> Yeah.
[35:32] >> Um so that would that would be something
[35:35] that we would have to decide what the trade-off is there. Um,
[35:42] >> with the nature of the main lesson,
[35:45] it's harder to do that because you only
[35:48] have that main lesson block for four
[35:50] weeks and if you're only there for half
[35:52] the days,
[35:53] >> you've missed a lot. And and with high
[35:55] school, trying to get the credits is the
[35:58] other portion of that. Carol, I think
[36:02] >> I think it might help more if we had our
[36:05] school move to a location that was
[36:07] easier for them to to get to five days a
[36:11] week
[36:12] >> if we could find one that wasn't $2
[36:14] million for just the land for an acre of
[36:16] land.
[36:17] >> So, I mean, these are the the I'm not
[36:23] disagreeing with any any of that. Um, so
[36:27] another part of of hybrid, so hybrid
[36:30] often means that they take part of their
[36:32] classes online. Um, and and what that
[36:35] looks like. Um, so it it just part of it
[36:39] comes down to um
[36:43] understanding the model that we're
[36:44] offering and and um if that is still the
[36:49] model that we want to offer and how to
[36:53] make that work. Does that make sense?
[36:59] » Yeah. I was just I was wondering if it
[37:01] would be possible to have like one of
[37:02] the cohorts be a part-time or you know
[37:05] what I mean? But that would probably be
[37:07] tricky for our schedule. I mean, if
[37:09] they're only coming three days a week,
[37:12] um, how are like part of it is how are
[37:15] they going to get their credits
[37:17] >> because
[37:18] >> so it's like they would be doing the
[37:19] other part either
[37:22] >> on their own,
[37:23] >> you know, or with their parents or or
[37:27] whatnot. And but that's just the
[37:29] feedback I keep getting is I it's too
[37:32] overwhelming to get my kid to Provo or
[37:35] have my kid that far away all the time.
[37:39] If it was part of the week, then that
[37:41] would be something that I would consider
[37:44] is what I hear.
[37:47] So, I don't know. Just something to
[37:50] consider, I guess.
[37:51] >> Yeah. [laughter]
[37:53] >> Another option. Yeah. But but I really
[37:55] think with a high school, you just have
[37:57] to be there. I mean, I think you have to
[37:59] be there five days a week
[38:00] >> in order to get the credits. Like
[38:02] >> I think that's the part that that is
[38:05] tricky that you're getting credits
[38:06] towards graduation and um I mean I think
[38:10] it can be done and and there are
[38:12] options. Um it just there's a lot of
[38:17] thinking about how that looks. um and if
[38:19] it significantly changes our model and
[38:23] our plan to do it. Um Sarah and then
[38:25] Marta both have comments.
[38:27] >> I was just going to ask Suzanne if you
[38:30] have any um input here. I know that
[38:34] you're at that's the decision making
[38:36] level on this or part of the HR process.
[38:41] What are you guys feeling? because we
[38:44] very much see this as we got our legs
[38:47] shifted quite a bit as during this
[38:48] process because we lost our feeder and
[38:51] we want to do what's right by you guys
[38:54] but we also want to do
[38:55] >> Susan is with the
[38:57] >> Suzanne is not with the charter board
[38:59] she's with the um
[39:01] >> I'm with the association [laughter]
[39:03] >> well what can I sorry I'm certainly
[39:07] >> I'm still looking for advice I will take
[39:10] it
[39:13] Uh, you know, I think when Carol
[39:16] mentioned I I think you have to consider
[39:19] all things and location is key. And if
[39:25] it's not possible to move your building,
[39:27] trying to do a hybrid model, um, it's
[39:31] being done. It's been done. It's being
[39:33] done. Um, but as Caroline and mentioned,
[39:38] if you're going to stick true to your charter, the Waldorf model, um,
[39:45] there might be a little bit of a
[39:47] conflict there in in trying to do
[39:51] something that is Waldorf inspired,
[39:55] but get online and do it. Do you know
[39:58] what I mean? Yeah, that's
[40:00] >> if they're doing homeschool or working
[40:04] at home on courses, that could be a
[40:07] little more um doable, but then you lose
[40:11] part of your funding because if the
[40:13] student is attending your school only
[40:15] part-time,
[40:17] then you only get part of that WPU for
[40:20] that student. So having that many bodies
[40:24] doesn't translate into that many
[40:26] students full-time students enrolling.
[40:29] So it really you want to consider all
[40:32] things for sure. It's not a fun
[40:35] situation to be in. Um I
[40:39] you know I'm kind of at a loss myself.
[40:42] It's it's concerning on all ends and you
[40:47] know I I just I don't know that I could
[40:50] say I would go for that hybrid model. Um
[40:54] I think it would be good and and there's
[40:57] really nothing wrong with putting in a
[40:59] proposal now for 7 through 12. Um
[41:03] because you can withdraw it later if you
[41:05] just decide not to. If you don't meet
[41:08] the deadline to submit, you won't be
[41:10] able to submit this year. So, you know,
[41:15] it's kind of tough because time is of
[41:17] the essence here. So you could just
[41:20] decide to put in the application as um
[41:24] Caroline was mentioning and um
[41:28] then meet and discuss and get serious
[41:31] about that those conversations and uh
[41:35] decide whether you want to move forward
[41:37] with with that application or if if it's
[41:41] something you you really don't feel
[41:43] comfortable moving forward with, you can
[41:45] always withdraw it. And keeping in mind,
[41:48] you know, this first proposal is like
[41:49] the 10-page summary of like this is what
[41:51] we're thinking and we can adjust things
[41:54] a little bit as we go to the full
[41:56] application and we flesh things out like
[41:59] you know this this first one is this is the idea that we're shooting
[42:03] for. Um and the application process is
[42:07] designed to help us flesh out that idea
[42:09] more. Um, so just because we don't put
[42:12] hybrid in or something in in this
[42:15] proposal doesn't mean it can't also make
[42:17] it into the final application by
[42:19] November.
[42:21] >> And you might even consider um, and
[42:24] again, time is of the essence and you
[42:26] may just want to get something put in
[42:28] there so that you have a little bit of
[42:30] wiggle room to make a real concrete
[42:33] decision amongst the board. It's as a
[42:35] whole. Uh, but you might consider going
[42:39] back to view the state charter school
[42:42] board meeting um videos on YouTube.
[42:45] They're all posted. And go go view what
[42:48] the board has said to your school
[42:51] already
[42:52] >> and see if there's anything from there
[42:55] that you can glean. And as Caroline
[42:57] mentioned, it can even whatever you
[43:00] submit this time can and likely will
[43:03] change to a certain extent. And you
[43:05] could take input from the board um if
[43:09] they say, "Well, you know what? This
[43:10] sounds really good. However, we might
[43:12] recommend you do something like this or
[43:14] how are you going to get those students
[43:16] enrolled? Um how are you going to
[43:18] maintain the Waldorf vision?" They would
[43:20] come up with different questions to
[43:23] phrase and financial questions are going
[43:25] to hit you hard in that meeting. I will just be open and honest about
[43:31] that.
[43:32] >> You know, I have nothing to do with it.
[43:34] I'm not on the board. I don't, you know,
[43:36] but but I I know for a fact
[43:40] >> you will have to have your financial
[43:42] ducks in a row and you know putting an
[43:45] application does not guarantee that you
[43:47] would be moved forward for the full
[43:49] application.
[43:51] >> Marta had a question and then Susan.
[43:54] >> Yeah. Um mine is going off on a little
[43:57] tangent. Have you considered this is
[44:01] about location. Have you considered all
[44:04] those new units,
[44:06] industrial units that are being built in
[44:09] Lehi, Saratoga Springs, and Bluffdale?
[44:12] They're all over the place. That's not a
[44:15] full $2 million, is it?
[44:18] >> To rent one of those places. We did look
[44:21] at them and they are high um high market
[44:25] real estate that is very um
[44:28] competitively priced meaning very
[44:30] high-end priced and they're in it for
[44:33] business. They've the people that have
[44:35] built those have paid $2 to $4 million
[44:37] an acre for the land. They've paid $10
[44:39] million to build the building and
[44:41] they're in it to make their money back,
[44:43] not provide a charity for a school. So
[44:46] getting a fair lease option from those
[44:48] buildings, we've looked at it. We did
[44:50] and the roundt funding was really great
[44:52] and we looked at options. Um those
[44:54] buildings weren't initially built for
[44:56] schools. So we're also looking at an
[44:58] initial um uh tag on build out before we
[45:02] could get into it and make it function
[45:04] as a school. Um so we have and are
[45:08] looking and and exhausting all of those
[45:10] um options. Um, and it it just even
[45:14] those spaces are highly competitive and not a friendly price point.
[45:23] » Question.
[45:24] >> The um Carol the um so you're saying
[45:28] that in or in order to add the seventh
[45:30] and eighth grade you would have to wait
[45:31] two years to open. Is that what you
[45:33] saying you're saying? Okay. So even if
[45:36] it's a possibility, it would take two
[45:38] years
[45:39] >> because this year would be the
[45:40] application process and the next year
[45:42] would be the startup year. Um and and
[45:46] there's also the chance that they won't
[45:49] approve us at any point in the process.
[45:53] >> Um like not that I feel like that's
[45:55] going to happen, but but that is also um
[45:58] and when we applied, there was really
[46:02] one other school that applied with us.
[46:05] um one or two and last year they had 14
[46:08] apply. Um so it's a little bit more
[46:10] competitive in um the schools that we're
[46:14] going up against in the application
[46:15] process. Um and you know the the
[46:20] discussions I' I've been in the board
[46:22] meetings multiple times this spring and
[46:24] this the thing keeps coming up of we're
[46:27] going to have to start telling schools
[46:29] no um because there's so many
[46:31] applications. we need to be more
[46:32] judicious about who we go through the
[46:35] process with um and so it will be more
[46:39] competitive and more people will get MO
[46:42] um just because of the the market um I
[46:48] don't know if we go through this
[46:52] proposal process in tandem with still
[46:55] planning to open um with 11th and 12th
[46:58] grade in this process I don't know if
[47:00] they'll allow us to kind of do that. Um,
[47:04] so I mean right now we do have the
[47:07] deferral to open in fall of 27 with 9th
[47:09] through 11th grade. Um, and I don't know
[47:11] if we go through this approval process
[47:12] and they don't approve that if we still
[47:14] have the option to open in the fall with
[47:16] 9 through 12. I I don't know if that
[47:19] would be on the table. Um, Suzanne, do
[47:21] you have any opinions about that?
[47:22] [laughter]
[47:23] >> I am inclined to think they would want
[47:26] you to do one or the other. I don't know
[47:29] that for a fact. I might recommend you
[47:31] reach out to uh Betty Jimenez or
[47:34] possibly um Director H uh
[47:38] >> Stacy Hudson. Yeah.
[47:41] >> So I I would reach out to them and find
[47:43] that out to one of the staff members to see that answer.
[47:47] >> I I really doubt that they would give
[47:50] you because it would require giving you
[47:52] two separate charters
[47:54] >> and I don't I don't personally think
[47:57] that would happen. Great.
[47:59] >> So if we do the deferment just one year,
[48:02] we still have a full year to do
[48:04] advertising and marketing. Is that
[48:06] right? Do we have
[48:07] >> no funding to do so?
[48:08] >> But no funding to do so. Okay.
[48:11] >> Yeah.
[48:12] and and no funding to really like get
[48:17] the desks and get the like I mean like
[48:20] it just is really tight all around and
[48:24] um so I don't think like we need to we
[48:26] don't need to make a decision tonight on
[48:28] any of this. This is really just like
[48:30] this is our situation. I am meeting with
[48:34] um Stacy and the financial person
[48:35] tomorrow um to get more clarification.
[48:38] and I'll be emailing updates to the
[48:40] board. Um, but July is kind of just this
[48:44] time that it's difficult to get a hold
[48:46] of people. It's difficult to get
[48:47] answers. The board isn't going to be
[48:49] meeting to make any decisions until
[48:50] August. Um, so we're a little bit in
[48:53] limbo right now. I don't think it makes
[48:56] a difference on trying to make a
[48:58] decision tonight or in August. And I
[49:00] think letting it sleep and and deciding
[49:03] full fully in August when we present our
[49:06] proposal to the state charter school
[49:08] board and we get more clear answers. Um
[49:10] just kind of waiting until August. Um
[49:14] my my sense is that things still depend
[49:17] on our location. We have to have some
[49:20] maybe a I don't know an investor or
[49:23] somebody who loves our our model that
[49:26] would invest and give us a location. I
[49:28] just think you can find one. Good luck.
[49:30] They
[49:31] >> No, I know that.
[49:32] >> It doesn't happen in Utah.
[49:33] >> I don't know of any school that had
[49:35] that. [laughter]
[49:36] >> Well, actually, I looked up American
[49:38] Heritage did have that in the beginning
[49:40] when they started. But anyway, I just
[49:42] I'm just thinking that I still think you
[49:44] cannot we cannot even market properly if
[49:47] we don't have a location. I just think
[49:49] we have to have a location. That's
[49:50] right. And that's the problem we're
[49:52] having. Carrie,
[49:58] do you still have
[49:59] >> Sorry. Sorry. It just took me a second
[50:01] to get unmuted. Um, I just wanted to
[50:04] make sure I'm understanding right. So,
[50:07] we had talked to Stacy about
[50:11] adding seventh and eighth grade and
[50:14] being able to start next year and have
[50:15] we decide have we found out that that's
[50:17] absolutely not an option? According to
[50:20] the lawyer for the state charter school
[50:23] board, our only options for adding
[50:25] seventh and eighth grade are to be fully
[50:28] established with our original charter
[50:29] and then add an expansion, which is like
[50:31] a 5 to sevenyear process, or to start a
[50:35] new proposal.
[50:37] >> Okay.
[50:39] But conflicting answers from when I
[50:41] reach out to the state that so the state
[50:44] charter board referred me to some people
[50:47] at the U Utah State charter I mean the the big USB um for some answers on
[50:53] how that affects us with where we are in
[50:55] the process and there's conflicting
[50:57] answers that we're still trying to iron
[51:00] out what the real truth of that is and
[51:02] we're probably not going to get those
[51:03] answers ironed out until August.
[51:06] So
[51:09] if we open if we try to open in a year
[51:14] from you know August
[51:17] is there any way to get funding to do
[51:19] that?
[51:22] There is a chance that they let us keep
[51:24] the revolving loan, but we have to prove
[51:26] that we're going to be able to pay it
[51:27] back.
[51:29] >> Okay. And that's the the big question
[51:31] now is you weren't able to get enough
[51:34] seats and and it's a very risky thing if
[51:38] we default on on this loan and and so
[51:43] it's not decided yet, but it is very
[51:46] risky and and there's some challenging
[51:49] conversations to have in the meantime.
[51:52] >> Okay. Thank you. Mhm.
[51:57] [snorts]
[51:59] >> Do we have any other discussions? Is
[52:01] there anyone else who wants to comment
[52:02] on what's
[52:04] >> So my plan is to go ahead and and finish
[52:06] the final edits on this proposal and
[52:08] send it into the state tomorrow so that
[52:10] we have that as an option. We can decide
[52:12] in August if we really want to move
[52:14] forward with that as our option or if we
[52:19] choose to go in in a different
[52:21] direction. Um, I think August is the
[52:23] time to go ahead and choose that. But
[52:25] this will be um go ahead and and finish
[52:27] and I'll email it to the board um as
[52:29] soon as I get the final edits done and
[52:31] get it sent in.
[52:33] >> Carrie,
[52:34] >> sorry, I have one more question. Um,
[52:38] we had talked in a previous meeting
[52:39] about all the unused office space
[52:44] since COVID around the Lehi area. I'm Is
[52:48] it right to assume that that's already
[52:50] been looked into? Yes.
[52:52] >> Okay.
[52:54] And it's I'm guessing more expensive
[52:56] than we hoped it would be
[52:58] >> or or was not suited to our purpose
[53:02] without
[53:03] extensive renovation.
[53:07] >> And we had looked into joining with
[53:09] another school
[53:12] uh like Rockwell or what was the other
[53:15] one?
[53:16] >> Oh yeah. um
[53:17] >> Hearth song or Hearth
[53:19] >> um help uh it was Rockwell um and their
[53:24] director came back and said putting two
[53:26] high schools in the same building even
[53:28] though technically they have empty
[53:29] classrooms, high schools take up a lot
[53:32] of space and and you have all of the
[53:34] elective classes and and it gets very
[53:37] tricky in sharing spaces and keeping
[53:40] your identity separate and um whose
[53:43] responsibility is what and if a student
[53:45] vandalizes something. How do we figure
[53:47] out whose student it was? Like there
[53:49] just becomes a lot of logistical
[53:51] difficulties.
[53:53] >> Do we have any other options of schools
[53:56] that we could share space with?
[53:58] >> What about Hearthstone?
[53:59] >> I'm not looking into that.
[54:00] >> I don't know what Hearthstone is.
[54:02] >> It's the one in Jordan that that
[54:04] eventually wanted to become K through
[54:06] 12, but they're starting at
[54:09] >> They are no longer moving forward.
[54:12] >> Yeah, they are.
[54:15] >> All right. They're not going to open.
[54:17] >> Yeah.
[54:17] >> Oh, okay.
[54:19] >> That's sad.
[54:21] >> I know. Was it a location issue for
[54:23] them?
[54:23] >> What happened with Yeah. What?
[54:25] >> I don't know details. I just know that
[54:26] they're no longer moving forward.
[54:28] >> Oh, wow.
[54:30] >> I think there were multiple multiple
[54:33] things that happened and and the board
[54:35] decided that they couldn't go through
[54:37] with the process.
[54:39] >> Okay.
[54:40] Um, so we the the most viable location
[54:46] that we have right now is um office
[54:48] spaces next to treeide. Um, the rent is really good. Um, includes all of the
[54:56] utilities. It's a it's a third of the
[54:58] price um that we were looking at with
[55:01] the um other building in Provo. And um
[55:04] and this one includes all of the
[55:06] utilities where the other one did not.
[55:09] Um there's flexible spaces. Um they have
[55:12] one whole building that is typically
[55:13] just empty. Um and they would be willing
[55:16] to get us upgrades enough to to make it
[55:19] usable. Um it would have enough space
[55:21] for us to grow into the f the adjoining
[55:23] suites. Um but it is on the south end of
[55:28] Provo which doesn't help with our um
[55:31] main original demographics. However,
[55:33] there are growing interest in this in
[55:36] the Spanish Fork area.
[55:39] um and the Provo area itself. Um so then
[55:43] the question is, do we want to switch
[55:45] the demographics that we're marketing to pull up people farther south? Um how
[55:50] many people can we hold on to from all
[55:52] of these locations? So multiple things
[55:55] to consider. Um
[55:59] but so so we do have a a space that we
[56:02] can continue working from which gives
[56:05] people some stability and knowing that
[56:07] yes we have a location and we will be
[56:09] opening here. Um and there the owners of
[56:14] those buildings love schools and love
[56:16] helping us out. we would have a lot of
[56:18] access to um the Rocky Mountain
[56:22] University and the Norda College which
[56:24] are very excited about um getting
[56:29] students um working with a high school
[56:31] for um career opportunities in nursing
[56:36] and healthcare. Um so our students could
[56:39] get um a nursing license by the time
[56:41] they graduate that fits into our CTE
[56:43] program. So, there are some really good
[56:46] bonuses there al as well as challenges
[56:49] in that location. Carrie,
[56:54] » I was just wondering if it might be
[56:56] possible to
[56:58] adjust our schedule
[57:01] so that it's possible for kids to do
[57:04] hybrid if they're wanting without really
[57:08] like
[57:11] changing so much because there there's a
[57:14] lot of kids that there's a lot of
[57:15] families that don't really care about
[57:17] the credits
[57:19] these days. Like it's it's so crazy how
[57:23] the
[57:25] I guess ideas of education are changing,
[57:28] >> you know, and
[57:30] so like is it possible that we could
[57:34] offer that hybrid program, but it would be like
[57:38] you're welcome to come part-time. You
[57:41] it's up to you to figure out which
[57:43] credits you miss.
[57:45] >> So back to what Susan said earlier,
[57:47] >> that doesn't help our ADA, though. Our
[57:51] Well, and there's additional problems to
[57:54] that, too. Um, so one of the metrics
[57:57] that we will always be graded on is our
[57:59] graduation rate. And and if we have a
[58:02] lot of families coming, they're like, I
[58:03] don't care if I graduate, then that's
[58:05] going to reflect very poorly on us and
[58:07] give us a lot of challenges. um as well
[58:10] as having to um provide space and
[58:14] resources for these people that are
[58:16] coming only part-time, but but also not
[58:20] we're not getting all of the funding. So
[58:22] on on one side, if it's the option
[58:25] between enrolling a part-time student
[58:26] and not having a student at all, then we
[58:29] get partial funding is one way to look
[58:30] at it. But if we're filling up our
[58:32] program and our seats and our our
[58:34] building space with these people that
[58:35] are only coming part-time and we don't
[58:37] have space for people that would be
[58:38] there full-time, um then that creates
[58:41] other funding issues. And then what kind
[58:42] of culture are we creating in our
[58:45] school? Um
[58:52] situations and allowances or whatever,
[58:54] if that makes sense. So like I I'm not
[58:56] saying no, there's not a path for that.
[58:59] I'm I'm just saying we need to like we
[59:03] we've done a lot of work to be very
[59:06] confident in the model of the thing that
[59:08] we are offering. Um, and there could be
[59:12] some conversations around are there
[59:14] adjustments to be made that I mean one
[59:17] of the the core things we started this
[59:20] because families were asking for it,
[59:21] right? We started it because families
[59:23] were saying we like this model and we
[59:24] want it to carry through and we've been
[59:27] very intentional about making sure it
[59:28] really is the model that does all of the
[59:31] things and and there's always a
[59:33] tradeoff. We can always consider other
[59:36] options, but at what point are we then
[59:39] deviating from our core values and the
[59:41] mission that we have established and um
[59:46] and how much like what are the things
[59:48] that we're actually valuing and what do
[59:51] um the families that are intending to
[59:53] come to us really want? And um and then
[59:58] how do we also meet all of the
[1:00:00] requirements to be a functioning
[1:00:03] successful school within that space?
[1:00:06] >> Makes sense. I'm just my my wheels are
[1:00:11] just spinning about it. My daughter is
[1:00:13] in my seventh grader will be enrolled in
[1:00:15] a charter school
[1:00:18] that's two and a half days in person
[1:00:19] next year and they just they do like two
[1:00:23] of the subjects at home.
[1:00:27] So I just wondered if and and up until
[1:00:31] you get into high school with credits,
[1:00:33] right? And and then so I mean one of the
[1:00:35] things that we've been saying is that
[1:00:37] we're an in person. your student isn't
[1:00:38] going to be on the computer all day, but
[1:00:40] if they're doing half of their credits
[1:00:42] on on on a computer at home, like is
[1:00:45] that a part of the model that we're
[1:00:47] wanting? And it does I mean our our
[1:00:49] technology policy is purposeful tech and
[1:00:51] maybe teaching our students how to do an
[1:00:53] online class is a valuable part of what
[1:00:54] we do, right? And providing that option.
[1:00:57] Um but one of the and and so I I assume
[1:01:01] that you're she's just doing those
[1:01:04] credits at home and not on a computer.
[1:01:07] um that's harder to do at a high school
[1:01:09] when we have accreditation and and just
[1:01:12] sending packets home, you know, for
[1:01:15] students to figure things out on their
[1:01:16] own. Like a lot of our families are
[1:01:18] coming to us because we say we're going
[1:01:20] to support your student through the
[1:01:22] curriculum in these ways. We're not
[1:01:24] sending you to do it on your own. So
[1:01:26] those are just the the things to
[1:01:29] consider as as we navigate these
[1:01:31] conversations,
[1:01:33] >> right? Yeah, I totally understand.
[1:01:44] We're not hearing you, Fisa. Oh,
[1:01:46] >> can you hear me?
[1:01:47] >> Yes, now we can.
[1:01:50] >> Um,
[1:01:52] I um I've been working all day. I'm very
[1:01:55] tired. I've been teaching all day and
[1:01:58] I'm in Boulder
[1:02:00] and I'm I've been teaching 27 teachers.
[1:02:04] >> Wow.
[1:02:05] So, excuse me for
[1:02:07] um
[1:02:07] >> You're okay. Keep your phone close to
[1:02:09] you because we can't hear you when you
[1:02:10] put it away.
[1:02:12] >> And my computer's going into the Boulder
[1:02:15] store tomorrow.
[1:02:17] >> Okay. Um but you know there is a model
[1:02:22] where main lesson is every morning for 2
[1:02:26] hours and then or a half a day of um
[1:02:30] with some languages you know and um
[1:02:34] foreign languages and and some electives
[1:02:37] that can be done um where children can
[1:02:42] um you know kind of make their own
[1:02:46] program.
[1:02:48] And um I think that um thinking of
[1:02:51] Carrie, I'm thinking that it can be
[1:02:53] something a little more creative as long
[1:02:56] as you have main lesson and you're
[1:02:59] taking them through
[1:03:01] um the main curriculum. The other things
[1:03:04] are complimementaryary
[1:03:08] » but that would be still every day
[1:03:09] though.
[1:03:11] Yeah, it would have to be every day or
[1:03:13] at least four days a week, however, you
[1:03:15] know, you arrange the school.
[1:03:18] >> Um, so,
[1:03:21] um, and I think for a high school, they
[1:03:24] do need a little bit more of a their own
[1:03:27] program,
[1:03:29] >> you know, and we can talk to somebody
[1:03:32] like Tom about that. the other schools
[1:03:34] have have, you know, um different
[1:03:38] programs.
[1:03:39] And for instance, Jamie York who is a
[1:03:42] math who has a math group there. He has
[1:03:46] uh students in a circle online and he
[1:03:50] puts them in rooms and they um solve
[1:03:54] problems and they become close and they
[1:03:57] have a social life, you know, and it's
[1:04:00] not just um by yourself doing things.
[1:04:05] Um, and teenagers I think want to be
[1:04:07] together. But, um, I just think that I
[1:04:12] think we could look at it more
[1:04:13] creatively, especially if we're thinking
[1:04:16] of seventh and eighth grade to as well
[1:04:19] where they can have main lesson and
[1:04:22] electives like woodworking and really
[1:04:25] things that are interesting to young
[1:04:27] people.
[1:04:29] And that's just what I wanted to say.
[1:04:31] >> Thank you, Tesa. Um definitely worth the
[1:04:34] worth those conversations especially if
[1:04:36] we decide to move forward with that
[1:04:38] proposal and application and the
[1:04:40] opportunity of are we going to change
[1:04:41] things. Um but then also keeping in mind
[1:04:43] that the high school is like we do have
[1:04:46] a responsibility to make sure that the
[1:04:48] students get the minimum credits to
[1:04:49] graduation and um and like we're we're
[1:04:54] offering um a very robust preparation
[1:04:58] for life. Um and and and so ju I don't
[1:05:03] know just kind of reevaluating like this
[1:05:05] is what we're offering. Um and there are
[1:05:07] plenty of people that are interested in
[1:05:09] that. Um, and you know, I think some of
[1:05:12] these concerns Carrie is the distance
[1:05:14] and and things like that and um and how
[1:05:17] do we infold the community in a way that
[1:05:20] answers those concerns while still
[1:05:22] meeting our mission and goals.
[1:05:24] Uh Sarah,
[1:05:28] » I was just going to say I've gone
[1:05:30] through a lot of these programs and
[1:05:32] there's pros and cons to all of them. I
[1:05:33] graduated from an online high school.
[1:05:35] I've been homeschooled. I've gone well I
[1:05:37] haven't gone to Waldorf school but I've
[1:05:38] got through a Waldorf program before. Um
[1:05:41] and there's pros and cons to all of
[1:05:42] them. We are however limited by our
[1:05:45] charter and I think that's kind of what
[1:05:47] we have to do now with Carol is decide
[1:05:49] what we want to do. Um one of the
[1:05:52] benefits
[1:05:54] if we do close things up is it makes
[1:05:56] accounting a little bit easier. We
[1:05:57] talked to Jeff. If we were to close
[1:06:00] today we don't have to do any accounting
[1:06:02] for next financial year. That said,
[1:06:04] that's not where my heart is and I don't
[1:06:05] think anyone's emotionally prepared to
[1:06:07] do that quite yet. And I think we should
[1:06:09] wait and listen to what the charter
[1:06:10] school board has to say for that. Um,
[1:06:13] but since we can't really do anything
[1:06:15] right now, I would suggest we brainstorm
[1:06:17] like crazy for the next two months, but
[1:06:20] move on to our board evaluation
[1:06:23] because we can't do anything right now.
[1:06:27] I I am in agreement with that, Sarah. I
[1:06:29] think we need to move forward now. that
[1:06:32] we kind of know the options and we're
[1:06:34] going to have to think about everything
[1:06:35] and
[1:06:36] >> and I'm happy to have conversations with
[1:06:38] anybody on the board, brainstorm things
[1:06:40] with you. I can do that over email. I
[1:06:42] can do that over phone calls. Um I'll be emailing with the board
[1:06:47] throughout this um process.
[1:06:48] >> Yeah, I was wondering about that. Are
[1:06:50] you going to just kind of let us know
[1:06:52] how things are going with the state and
[1:06:54] Okay.
[1:06:55] >> Yeah. Is that legal for us to just get
[1:06:57] emails from you about how things
[1:06:59] >> if you're not making so there's no um
[1:07:02] don't reply to the emails in a group
[1:07:05] we're not don't don't discuss it over I
[1:07:07] can give youformational updates but it's
[1:07:10] not a discussion and there are no
[1:07:11] decisions until in in meeting um the
[1:07:14] discussions also need to happen in a
[1:07:16] public space so um like I can answer
[1:07:19] clarifying questions but as far as like
[1:07:21] the the work itself we would need to
[1:07:23] wait for the board meeting. Okay.
[1:07:28] All right. Let's let's move forward then
[1:07:30] now to our new business, which is our self-reflection on the board
[1:07:36] throughout the year. Um I think some
[1:07:39] questions apply to us and some don't
[1:07:41] anymore. So maybe we could um Carol, I'm
[1:07:44] going to have you help me kind of
[1:07:46] whittle down some of these so we don't
[1:07:47] spend a lot of time on something that
[1:07:50] doesn't really apply right now to what
[1:07:51] we're doing. So, um, I love the
[1:07:55] questions that you put together for us,
[1:07:56] Sarah, and I know that we've looked at
[1:07:58] these in in the past. Um, so let's go
[1:08:02] through some of the ones that we have
[1:08:03] here on our Do we First of all, Carol,
[1:08:06] we don't need to make any motions or
[1:08:08] vote on any options yet
[1:08:10] >> from me. No.
[1:08:11] >> Oh, okay.
[1:08:12] >> No, none. None of the um I mean, you
[1:08:14] approved the budget and the rest of it
[1:08:16] was really just an update and some
[1:08:18] things to think about and the current
[1:08:20] situation. So there's no other action
[1:08:22] items on on my part.
[1:08:24] >> All right. So let's look at our
[1:08:25] pre-operational report votes. Um
[1:08:29] uh let's see. Did the votes to approve
[1:08:32] monthly reports feel like meaningful
[1:08:34] engaged conversations?
[1:08:38] How are you feeling? How's everyone
[1:08:39] feeling about that?
[1:08:42] Susan, might I suggest a logistical
[1:08:44] thing for each section kind of go all
[1:08:48] three questions together and like any
[1:08:50] thoughts and comments about this section
[1:08:52] that are relevant and and that will
[1:08:54] condense it quite a bit of just talking
[1:08:56] about the areas and these are guiding
[1:08:57] questions and people can propose others
[1:08:59] as well.
[1:09:00] >> Okay. And did our report approval start
[1:09:02] to feel like a mere formality? What
[1:09:05] specific steps can we take to make these
[1:09:07] moments count moving forward?
[1:09:12] This is not referring to approving the previous month's minutes, right?
[1:09:17] That's a required thing, correct?
[1:09:20] >> No, this is Well, I guess I could refer
[1:09:23] to all votes, but I think it's a vote
[1:09:25] approving monthly reports, you know,
[1:09:27] like the financial reports and the
[1:09:30] administrators reports and and other
[1:09:33] reports that we voted on, parts of the
[1:09:36] vote. I just wanted to clarify. Are we
[1:09:39] required to approve the previous m
[1:09:42] minutes?
[1:09:44] >> Yes.
[1:09:44] >> Previous meeting minutes. Okay. Thank
[1:09:46] you.
[1:09:48] >> Yeah. So, we're required to post the
[1:09:50] draft minutes after the meeting and
[1:09:52] we're required to post the approved.
[1:09:54] Well, I don't think I don't there
[1:09:56] Suzanne, maybe you can clarify. There's
[1:09:58] something about the draft minutes. Best
[1:10:00] practice is to go ahead and post the
[1:10:02] draft. um you you post what you're going
[1:10:05] to talk about beforehand, you talk about
[1:10:07] it, you post that this is what we talked
[1:10:09] about, we ratify it the next month
[1:10:11] within 30 days that yes, this is what we
[1:10:14] talked about, that record is correct and
[1:10:16] it's it kind of rolls that way. So, it's
[1:10:18] a part of our accounting and that's a
[1:10:21] part of those um lawsuits that could
[1:10:24] potentially come and cause us problems
[1:10:26] if we're not following that process. So
[1:10:28] the the it's the minute approval is very
[1:10:33] important.
[1:10:34] >> Yes, you do need to uh post your
[1:10:37] approved minutes. You don't necessarily
[1:10:40] have to post the draft minutes, but your
[1:10:42] agendas must be posted at least 24 hours
[1:10:45] in advance of the meeting as does the
[1:10:47] meeting notice. And uh you do need to
[1:10:50] post your recordings of your uh you need
[1:10:54] to make them available and it's
[1:10:55] typically easier just to upload them to
[1:10:57] the public meeting website, public
[1:11:00] notice website. So
[1:11:03] I personally really I'm amazed at how
[1:11:06] Carol and her and the people working
[1:11:08] with her Tanya put together reports that
[1:11:11] were so accurate and so easy to to read
[1:11:15] through and understand. I I think our
[1:11:17] financial and our other proposed um
[1:11:20] budget
[1:11:22] um pages for a pre-operational for our
[1:11:25] meetings were were really well
[1:11:27] constructed and easy to for us to
[1:11:30] >> read through [clears throat] and easy
[1:11:31] for us to understand. So I really like
[1:11:33] that.
[1:11:34] >> Thank you.
[1:11:37] » How is there anyone else who had an
[1:11:39] opinion about that about our what we've
[1:11:42] worked on in pre-operational work?
[1:11:49] No other comments.
[1:11:55] Let's go to our next one then. Uh fiscal
[1:11:58] policy and procurement compliance. Did
[1:12:00] we actively verify that bid thresholds
[1:12:02] were being followed? Did we actively
[1:12:04] verify that dual signatures were being
[1:12:06] used appropriately? Did we rely too
[1:12:09] heavily on trust rather than active
[1:12:11] verification?
[1:12:12] Why have our procurement procedures not
[1:12:14] been formally board approved?
[1:12:18] Uh what is our immediate concrete plan
[1:12:20] to get procurement procedures approved?
[1:12:24] >> I would like to
[1:12:26] >> just put a note on this one.
[1:12:28] >> Okay.
[1:12:29] >> Some of these came from our initial
[1:12:31] setups. So we no longer need dual
[1:12:35] signatures because we changed our
[1:12:36] account type. So that's why the dual
[1:12:38] signatures did not get put through. Um
[1:12:41] all right and the reason we are not
[1:12:44] doing procurement we don't have a
[1:12:46] procedure is because we were using state
[1:12:48] be best practices and I'm understand the
[1:12:51] standing Carol we following those
[1:12:52] instead of having ratified our own which
[1:12:55] I still recommend that we copy and paste
[1:12:57] theirs and then ratify those
[1:12:59] >> much better yes that's that was a good
[1:13:01] decision then yeah I agree with that so
[1:13:05] it sounds like these don't apply
[1:13:06] necessarily
[1:13:09] Um,
[1:13:11] >> they don't they were in our beginning
[1:13:14] documentation.
[1:13:15] >> Um, and that's why I left them in there
[1:13:17] is I thought we should at least have
[1:13:18] that discussion and discuss why we're
[1:13:20] not doing it.
[1:13:21] >> Okay.
[1:13:22] >> Even if we know we're doing the right
[1:13:24] thing.
[1:13:26] >> Is there anyone else is there anyone
[1:13:28] else who would like to have a any more
[1:13:30] discussion about these issues?
[1:13:33] I think I'm going to move forward then
[1:13:35] with number three. Treasurer role and
[1:13:37] oversight. Is the treasurer consistently
[1:13:39] reviewing monthly reports in practice?
[1:13:42] Are the treasurer's reviews being
[1:13:43] formally signed off? Is an independent
[1:13:46] board member not directedly involved in
[1:13:48] preparation checking these reports or
[1:13:51] those reports? And what does the
[1:13:52] treasurer need to be fully set up for
[1:13:55] success?
[1:13:56] Marta, do you have any comments about
[1:13:59] those questions or
[1:14:02] ideas,
[1:14:03] thoughts?
[1:14:05] um because we haven't opened yet, it's
[1:14:08] been kind of hard to determine whether
[1:14:11] um we're following that or not. As far
[1:14:14] as preliminary, um, I do look at the the
[1:14:19] budgets that that are submitted, but I
[1:14:23] can't see much of a change from time to
[1:14:26] time except maybe the what um, our
[1:14:32] guys are getting paid, you know, and
[1:14:34] what's being shelled out to keep us
[1:14:37] pre-operational.
[1:14:38] I don't think we can really answer that
[1:14:41] until we are operational.
[1:14:44] >> Yes. And fullness. You're right. I think
[1:14:46] you're right about that.
[1:14:47] >> Right.
[1:14:48] >> But I can't I I'm pretty happy with how
[1:14:51] we've been doing it so far.
[1:14:54] >> Yeah. Everything's transparent and
[1:14:57] >> and fully disclosed and
[1:15:01] >> and Red Apple has been really
[1:15:02] responsive. anytime that we have and
[1:15:04] anytime we have a concern um they've
[1:15:06] been able to send us those reports and
[1:15:08] clarify um the different things. Um uh
[1:15:12] and and so again like under normal
[1:15:14] operations we're receiving monthly
[1:15:16] aotments and we're having monthly
[1:15:17] expenses and um this year really the it
[1:15:21] we had our um one lump sum um that we
[1:15:25] received. We had you know this is how
[1:15:28] we're going to spend it and and it just
[1:15:30] followed course. Um and and so it is a
[1:15:34] little bit of a different um process
[1:15:38] as we're getting um established.
[1:15:42] So it looks like for number four it's a
[1:15:45] little bit similar in that some of these
[1:15:47] were changed from pre-operational to
[1:15:50] when we were trying to to start op uh
[1:15:52] the operational board. [snorts]
[1:15:54] But let's go through them. Was the
[1:15:55] finance committee active, engaged in
[1:15:57] regularly reporting back to the full
[1:15:59] board? Was the marketing outreach
[1:16:01] committee actively engaged and regularly
[1:16:03] reporting to the full board? Was the
[1:16:05] building committee actively engaged and
[1:16:07] regularly reporting to the full board?
[1:16:09] Did any of these committees exist mostly
[1:16:11] on paper rather than doing real work?
[1:16:14] Well, we transferred marketing and
[1:16:17] outreach to not a committee from the
[1:16:20] board, but we paid Skola and others to
[1:16:24] work with our with Carol on the
[1:16:26] marketing and outreach.
[1:16:28] And we just talked about the finance
[1:16:31] committee. Marta's um Marta's the
[1:16:35] finance um board the finance or the
[1:16:38] treasurer from our board. We we didn't
[1:16:41] put together a full finance committee if
[1:16:43] I'm right about that. Is that true? In
[1:16:46] pre-operational we never had a full
[1:16:48] finance committee. We just had a a
[1:16:51] treasurer. Is that correct, Marta?
[1:16:54] >> Well, it was Carol, Jeff, and I mostly.
[1:16:57] >> Oh, okay. So there was a a committee.
[1:16:59] Okay. Were they all actively engaged in
[1:17:03] your reporting and in your meetings? Did
[1:17:06] you feel like that was you were part of
[1:17:09] that and actively engaged in that?
[1:17:11] Marta.
[1:17:12] >> Yes.
[1:17:13] >> Um as far as far as what I could do um
[1:17:18] in their pre-operational state.
[1:17:20] >> Yes. And we we had a building committee
[1:17:24] with Carol. Right. Carol, did you work
[1:17:26] with
[1:17:27] >> round funding and roundt funding and um
[1:17:30] Sarah was often in those meetings as a
[1:17:33] vote representative um to to stay a
[1:17:35] breast of what was happening. Um so
[1:17:37] yeah, we we definitely worked on that.
[1:17:40] >> I mean I we had regular reports from you
[1:17:43] about your building committee. I do
[1:17:44] remember that coming through every
[1:17:46] month. Did you feel like those meetings
[1:17:49] went well and that you worked through
[1:17:51] those what
[1:17:54] were
[1:17:55] >> Yeah.
[1:17:56] >> Okay.
[1:17:58] Is there anyone
[1:18:03] I would just want to put a note out
[1:18:05] there. Um
[1:18:08] the one area that we did not have
[1:18:11] board connection on was the marketing.
[1:18:14] And while I don't have any problems with
[1:18:16] what Carol and Tanya and Veronica and um
[1:18:21] sorry I'm forgetting his name for a
[1:18:22] second did
[1:18:24] >> I do notice [laughter]
[1:18:25] that that is the one Brandon that is the
[1:18:27] one area that we struggled in
[1:18:29] >> and going forward even if we just have
[1:18:33] one board member that touches bases with
[1:18:35] them weekly if for no other reason than
[1:18:38] governance I do think we need to have a
[1:18:40] established marketing outreach
[1:18:42] committee. um
[1:18:44] >> next year for sure.
[1:18:49] » I was going to say the same thing.
[1:18:50] >> I think we had a committee, but we may
[1:18:52] need a board member a part of that
[1:18:55] committee because we did have a
[1:18:56] committee that worked on marketing this
[1:18:58] year. It just wasn't I I think we
[1:19:01] >> we did have a a board member originally
[1:19:04] in marketing and then we gave that work
[1:19:07] over to to Carol and the board and her
[1:19:11] marketing
[1:19:12] uh representatives and and then the paid
[1:19:15] marketing representative
[1:19:18] later. I was just thinking if we hire
[1:19:20] someone to do our marketing in the
[1:19:22] future, can we have that per person
[1:19:27] somehow be reporting to the board
[1:19:30] >> more closely?
[1:19:31] >> Yeah,
[1:19:35] » that would be nice. Yes.
[1:19:40] » Or would they report to the marketing
[1:19:41] outreach person that's part of the the
[1:19:44] board? What what would you prefer? Would
[1:19:47] you like the company to actually have a
[1:19:49] reference have a person
[1:19:52] the company we hire like Skola? Would
[1:19:55] you would have you have
[1:19:58] >> requested that Claire come to our board
[1:20:00] meetings? We just never decided that
[1:20:02] that's what we wanted to do.
[1:20:04] >> Okay.
[1:20:05] >> But [clears throat] that could have
[1:20:08] >> Okay, Sarah, that sounds good. Let's
[1:20:10] write that as a recommendation. Yeah.
[1:20:39] Okay, that looks very nice. Thanks
[1:20:41] Sarah. That's good to add in, I think.
[1:20:44] All right, let's move to governance and
[1:20:45] administration
[1:20:47] administrative boundaries. Did the board
[1:20:49] stay focused on its highle strategic
[1:20:52] priorities? Did we maintain clear
[1:20:54] appropriate boundaries with the school
[1:20:56] administration?
[1:20:58] Where, if any, did the lines between
[1:21:00] governance and administration get
[1:21:01] blurry?
[1:21:07] Well, I had some trouble knowing where
[1:21:10] to board work going to Carol and her
[1:21:14] work and the people working with her or
[1:21:16] to Sarah. So I now understand better
[1:21:19] some of the administration work on the
[1:21:22] board that needs to be done with between
[1:21:24] Sarah and I and and leave Carol's work
[1:21:29] separately from the board work you know
[1:21:32] in in some respects and the
[1:21:34] >> responsibilities Please,
[1:21:57] for instance, the issue of the school
[1:21:59] website
[1:22:01] and the issue of I'll just label those
[1:22:03] two things, the website and also the
[1:22:05] managing of the um the um board member
[1:22:09] packets, the initiation for new board
[1:22:12] members and their work. Those are the
[1:22:15] things I'm thinking of.
[1:22:28] And this for this um this
[1:22:30] pre-operational year and in into our
[1:22:33] functioning board year um we also um
[1:22:39] had to rely
[1:22:41] we didn't have reports for instance on academic work and and other kinds of
[1:22:47] things happening in you know from the
[1:22:50] school end because we hadn't We hadn't
[1:22:52] started school yet. So there were, you
[1:22:54] know, it was mostly Carol's reports
[1:22:57] and administrative reports this this
[1:22:59] year. There wasn't there wasn't as much
[1:23:03] to oversee because like we talked about
[1:23:05] with the finances, it was our original
[1:23:09] vote on the on the finances and they
[1:23:11] lasted throughout the year, the
[1:23:12] pre-operational year. So there wasn't as
[1:23:15] much to work through as we would have
[1:23:18] had in a normal school year.
[1:23:30] Is there anyone else who has a comment
[1:23:31] about that issue? our roles and
[1:23:33] responsibilities and that of of our our
[1:23:37] director our our um pre-operational
[1:23:41] director of the school.
[1:23:54] Okay, let's see. We're going now to um
[1:23:57] the board composition and skill gaps.
[1:24:01] Um, do we have the specific enrollment
[1:24:04] and marketing expertise needed to
[1:24:06] address where the school struggled most?
[1:24:08] Do we have the financial expertise on
[1:24:10] the board required to navigate the
[1:24:11] coming year's complexity? What specific
[1:24:14] skills or experiences are we currently
[1:24:16] missing at our ta at the table?
[1:24:20] Well, we had Marta who has a background
[1:24:22] in finance. I felt like we had enough of
[1:24:25] that for the the financial end.
[1:24:28] I have more expertise with with um
[1:24:31] curriculum and with um lit literacy and
[1:24:34] other goals. If if we had had students
[1:24:38] and I'd been looking over academic
[1:24:40] reports, I could have, you know, we
[1:24:42] could have had
[1:24:44] um my representation for the the the
[1:24:47] academic work in the school. Um
[1:24:52] uh marketing again maybe again that's
[1:24:54] what we need to mention again probably
[1:24:57] none of us seem to have expertise in
[1:24:59] marketing.
[1:25:04] » It would be very helpful if we could
[1:25:05] find a board member that did have
[1:25:07] expertise in marketing.
[1:25:09] >> Yes, that's right. That does seem to be
[1:25:11] something we may have missed.
[1:25:16] Although that's why I was happy to find
[1:25:18] Skola and to to give them, you know,
[1:25:21] they have the expertise to add to what
[1:25:24] we didn't have. And I I think that was
[1:25:26] our attempt to have the expertise that
[1:25:29] would help Carol to the
[1:25:31] >> And I will say that, you know, we um
[1:25:33] they provided a lot of um they did
[1:25:38] provide a lot of support and gave us a
[1:25:39] lot of direction. and they um helped us
[1:25:42] think about our um our audience and and
[1:25:46] helped us decide, you know, who who are
[1:25:48] we marketing to and where do we find
[1:25:49] them. Um they supported us a lot in the
[1:25:52] tricky um conversations that we've had
[1:25:55] to have in finding a building and
[1:25:57] navigating, you know, all of these
[1:25:58] things. Um and so there's like they they
[1:26:01] did provide a lot of helpful things. Um
[1:26:05] and and I don't know that we can really
[1:26:07] peg any one thing in our system as why
[1:26:10] we didn't get enrollment. Um I I think
[1:26:12] there were gaps all along the way and I
[1:26:15] don't know that the burden one way or
[1:26:17] the other falls on any particular entity
[1:26:21] um in that whole process.
[1:26:25] Oh, you muted yourself, Susan.
[1:26:28] Oh, I still think that our location
[1:26:31] became the the biggest issue we were
[1:26:33] dealing with. And that's
[1:26:34] >> I think our the things that hurt us the
[1:26:35] most is that location and the seventh
[1:26:37] grade gap is mostly what I mean if if
[1:26:39] we're going to lay burden somewhere
[1:26:41] that's that's the biggest challenge that
[1:26:43] we have to overcome
[1:26:44] >> and maybe not on Skola or on you and
[1:26:46] your staff working. You worked so hard
[1:26:49] to in every way that we could have
[1:26:51] >> and we made a lot of progress. I mean,
[1:26:53] the another part of this too, I will
[1:26:55] throw out since we're talking about it
[1:26:56] really briefly, is that um we're
[1:27:00] extremely different from anything else
[1:27:02] offered in in Utah County at the time, I
[1:27:05] mean, at the at this moment. And it
[1:27:07] takes people a minute to wrap their
[1:27:09] brain around that. Um, some of the
[1:27:12] conversations that I had with our
[1:27:13] families in in the deferment, there were
[1:27:15] a few of them that were actually
[1:27:17] relieved that they had an extra year to
[1:27:19] think about getting ready for this
[1:27:21] change in their in their educational
[1:27:23] program. And and so just a little bit
[1:27:25] more time to sit with it and look
[1:27:27] forward to it um is is a good thing for
[1:27:31] several of our families.
[1:27:34] I think it may be important to actually
[1:27:37] figure out where where those gaps were
[1:27:40] and like be able to name them and have a
[1:27:43] plan for how we can overcome them
[1:27:47] >> for the state board,
[1:27:49] >> you know. And I think that we didn't
[1:27:51] have enough follow through with
[1:27:52] >> Scola.
[1:27:54] >> I think it w it really hurt us that
[1:27:56] there was so many different people on
[1:27:58] their team
[1:28:00] >> and not one person following through.
[1:28:02] Yeah.
[1:28:03] >> Sorry, I'm working out. I'm a little out
[1:28:05] of breath.
[1:28:06] >> You're okay. [laughter]
[1:28:10] » Well, that's true. And I
[1:28:13] But even, you know, I'm just saying that
[1:28:16] without a location, you can't build a
[1:28:18] community around uh without the location
[1:28:22] that our community was at, you know, a
[1:28:24] location that they were already there.
[1:28:27] Then you have to have the whole
[1:28:28] marketing campaign of trying to create a
[1:28:31] new desire for this education. When we h
[1:28:35] we in the area of Saratoga Springs, we
[1:28:38] did have more people in the community
[1:28:41] that already understood our model and
[1:28:43] wanted to be part of us. So that was a
[1:28:45] problem.
[1:28:47] >> And then not being able to find a place
[1:28:49] that was accessible to that.
[1:28:51] >> Yes. To that community.
[1:28:53] >> So all right. Um how I'm going to move
[1:28:57] on to attendance and bylaw compliance.
[1:28:59] Did every board member keep their their
[1:29:02] absences to two or fewer this year? Was
[1:29:05] proper notice given for all absences?
[1:29:07] And do we need to address any ongoing
[1:29:09] attendance challenges?
[1:29:16] Well, my first thought is I've we've
[1:29:18] never had to cancel a board meeting from
[1:29:20] attendance issues. we've had we've been
[1:29:22] able in some way to cobble together a um
[1:29:25] a voting um
[1:29:27] >> quorum So I feel good about that. It's
[1:29:30] hard it's very hard for everyone to meet
[1:29:32] and to be present but I was happy that
[1:29:35] we were able to you know find a quorum
[1:29:37] and bring people together for in our
[1:29:39] board. That was nice.
[1:29:43] >> I really hesitate. I don't want to call
[1:29:46] anyone out, but I'm Alicia is not very
[1:29:50] steady in her attendance
[1:29:57] and I and we're grateful to have her.
[1:30:00] So, that's that's the hard part. Mhm.
[1:30:03] >> And I I think just, you know, some um
[1:30:06] specific conversations of of finding out
[1:30:10] like where that gap is and and what the
[1:30:12] reality of her schedule is and um some more she's in a a different
[1:30:19] situation than the rest of us, too.
[1:30:20] We've all been working together for a
[1:30:22] year and then she's coming in. And so it
[1:30:24] it's a challenge of having a new person
[1:30:26] to um how do we get them into the
[1:30:29] culture of what we're doing and the
[1:30:30] rhythm of what we're doing and the
[1:30:32] responsibilities required in that. Um
[1:30:35] and and so maybe um it's a conversation
[1:30:38] for some of the officers to um to work
[1:30:41] with and in that process of onboarding
[1:30:45] and and getting her feedback on how um
[1:30:48] she could be supported in in that
[1:30:50] onboarding process.
[1:30:52] I think she was expecting to come aboard
[1:30:55] and help
[1:30:57] the with with just the general um the
[1:31:00] opening of the school and be part of it
[1:31:02] and not so much of all the struggles
[1:31:04] we've had coming to bring
[1:31:06] >> that's possible.
[1:31:08] >> Um yeah, I think some some conversations
[1:31:10] would would be really helpful around
[1:31:12] that. And she she has been very um
[1:31:16] supportive and and really excited about
[1:31:18] um the with the work that we're doing.
[1:31:21] Um, and so I think there's definitely
[1:31:24] room for some conversations
[1:31:26] [clears throat] and we may want to bring
[1:31:28] more people into our board. You know,
[1:31:30] that's what I'm thinking too.
[1:31:32] >> Um,
[1:31:34] >> I did offer um to our our faculty
[1:31:37] members, we do have a team of faculty
[1:31:39] members that that we um took through the
[1:31:42] hiring process and and the communication
[1:31:45] to them was that you've already been
[1:31:46] through the vetting process. you're a
[1:31:48] part of our community and when we open
[1:31:50] we are dedicated to to providing a job
[1:31:52] for you. Um and in this interim time I
[1:31:56] have mentioned to the to the um faculty
[1:31:59] that we've already approved there is
[1:32:01] space on the board if they want to be a
[1:32:02] part of this their contracts haven't
[1:32:05] started yet and there's no conflict of
[1:32:07] interest until they're officially hired.
[1:32:10] um and that if they wanted to step into
[1:32:12] a board role and help us um help, you
[1:32:15] know, contribute to our community um in
[1:32:19] that way. Um so you and um I gave the um
[1:32:24] board application that's on our website
[1:32:26] to um several of those people that asked
[1:32:28] for it and so you may have one or two
[1:32:30] people at the August board meeting
[1:32:32] interested in joining um to help us move
[1:32:35] forward.
[1:32:36] Okay, let's go forward with Waldorf
[1:32:39] training and study requirements. Um, are
[1:32:42] we on track to have 50% of our members
[1:32:44] hit the 20 plus hour training mark
[1:32:47] before we open? Is the president on
[1:32:49] track to hit the 40 plus hours? Oh my
[1:32:51] goodness. [laughter]
[1:32:53] I did my own training last week for more
[1:32:56] than 40 hours. [gasps] Is the
[1:32:58] >> You're already certified.
[1:32:59] >> Yes. [laughter]
[1:33:00] Is the VP on track to hit the 40 plus
[1:33:02] hour training requirement? Is the PR
[1:33:05] representative on track to hit the 40
[1:33:07] plus hour training requirement? Did our
[1:33:10] mandatory annual Steiner study
[1:33:12] successfully happen?
[1:33:14] So, comments and ideas about that.
[1:33:19] Uh,
[1:33:21] we don't have a vice president. That is
[1:33:23] an issue. I would really like to have a
[1:33:24] vice president with me. So, we have to
[1:33:27] work that out.
[1:33:29] our PR representative. We we took away
[1:33:33] that position from the board and it
[1:33:35] looks like we may need to add that in
[1:33:37] again. But definitely had 40 plus hours
[1:33:41] training. The one the Christian, are you
[1:33:44] still there Christian with us?
[1:33:46] >> Yeah. So he definitely has more than 40
[1:33:49] plus hours training.
[1:33:51] >> Um
[1:33:53] let's see.
[1:33:55] >> And Disa, of course. [laughter]
[1:33:58] So yes, our board has um
[1:34:02] >> has met that 50% requirement. Yes.
[1:34:06] >> Uh our mandatory annual Steiner studies
[1:34:08] successfully happen. So we did do our
[1:34:11] Steiner studies at each of our board
[1:34:13] meetings. So I think that's and we even
[1:34:15] chose the literature that we're going to
[1:34:17] be learning from next fall.
[1:34:20] I have the book now.
[1:34:25] B freedom and form.
[1:34:27] >> Nice.
[1:34:28] >> Yeah.
[1:34:30] Betty Staley. So, is there any other
[1:34:33] comment or ideas for this section of our
[1:34:36] work?
[1:34:37] >> Sarah has her hand up. Okay. Oh, Sarah.
[1:34:39] Yes. Sorry.
[1:34:40] >> Just like to say that I would like to
[1:34:42] see that defined a little bit better
[1:34:45] because while you have teacher training,
[1:34:47] I've also gone to your um trainings in
[1:34:51] the past, Susan. I've gone to several of
[1:34:52] them. So, I would like to have that
[1:34:56] defined, especially with potential more
[1:34:58] parents coming onto the board later on
[1:35:01] what that means. Like, do they need to
[1:35:02] be teacher certified? Can it what can it
[1:35:05] include? And I know we've talked about
[1:35:06] like um community outreach and stuff
[1:35:08] with you, Carol, but I would like to see
[1:35:10] that listed out at some point. It's not
[1:35:12] a right now issue.
[1:35:14] >> It is It is listed out in the bylaws.
[1:35:16] >> Oh, is it all the things that it can be
[1:35:18] part of? Okay, never mind. I'm wrong.
[1:35:21] >> I'm I'm pretty sure. So it's it's um 20
[1:35:24] plus hours that include the alliance
[1:35:28] conferences and the inschool trainings
[1:35:30] and and different things like that. Um
[1:35:32] or a Waldorf certification um
[1:35:36] certificate, right? Like so it is there
[1:35:38] are multiple things listed in there. Um
[1:35:40] and that's in the bylaws.
[1:35:41] >> Did you include those community
[1:35:43] trainings like Julen's and like Waldorf
[1:35:46] like the Wasatch? Um,
[1:35:48] >> I think it's broad in in the wording,
[1:35:50] but it does include like, you know,
[1:35:52] there's multiple avenues to getting
[1:35:54] this. And um,
[1:35:56] >> okay.
[1:35:56] >> I don't know if if at some point we want
[1:35:58] to go through of like how exactly are we
[1:36:00] going to track that? Um,
[1:36:03] >> but are we just going to take it or are
[1:36:05] we gonna
[1:36:06] >> It might be nice to at some point at
[1:36:08] least with some of the training say we
[1:36:10] would like you to attend this training,
[1:36:12] you know, in the future. like the
[1:36:14] Wasatch training would be really great
[1:36:15] to have our board members
[1:36:17] >> or our school was putting our own
[1:36:19] together. So,
[1:36:20] >> yes, that's right. We're doing our own.
[1:36:22] Yeah, that would be
[1:36:23] >> and but I think that is described at
[1:36:26] least broadly in the bylaws
[1:36:28] >> and that would be the place that you
[1:36:29] would codify.
[1:36:30] >> I I remember that, Carol. I remember you
[1:36:32] had that described. Yes. I wanted to ask
[1:36:36] do we have it specified like is the
[1:36:40] board member responsible for the
[1:36:44] financial part of those trainings? Ah
[1:36:47] >> like for for instance like this year if
[1:36:49] we don't have any funding
[1:36:51] >> what are we are we not paying for the
[1:36:54] alliance training
[1:36:55] >> so I mean if you if you take the um what
[1:37:00] the 10 minutes so there's 120 minutes um
[1:37:05] so there's two hours a year that you get
[1:37:08] just at the board meetings
[1:37:11] um a minimum and so over several several
[1:37:16] years, you're you're moving towards
[1:37:17] that. Um I mean, we kind of designed it
[1:37:19] that way that you're moving towards
[1:37:21] that. Um and if you go to one weekend
[1:37:25] conference and the monthly meetings that
[1:37:29] kind of meets that 20our minimum. Um and
[1:37:33] the longer you're on the board, the more
[1:37:34] opportunities you have for that. So
[1:37:36] there's there's I mean getting the 40
[1:37:38] hours, you could do it in a year. Um,
[1:37:41] generally in the regular budget the
[1:37:43] school would I don't think we ever
[1:37:45] defined specifically whose
[1:37:46] responsibility that would be. Um, I
[1:37:48] think we have plenty I mean at the
[1:37:50] moment we have plenty of people that
[1:37:52] already meet this requirement. So then
[1:37:53] it would be new people coming in. Um,
[1:37:56] and once we're fully operational, we
[1:37:58] have a full operational budget and
[1:38:00] that's just a part of the PD budget. And
[1:38:01] the online trainings are really easy
[1:38:03] with the option of if you wanted to
[1:38:05] attend in person, you pay the difference
[1:38:07] um kind of thing. And um so so I don't
[1:38:12] know that at this time we need to codify
[1:38:15] that.
[1:38:15] >> Yeah, we don't need to worry about it. I forget that it's only 50% of the board
[1:38:20] that is required and we already have
[1:38:22] that. So we're not worried about that
[1:38:24] >> currently. Sorry.
[1:38:26] >> And then as we move forward Yeah. And we kind of left that flexibility a
[1:38:31] little bit. Um, just you I I I prefer
[1:38:34] more autonomy for people and I mean if
[1:38:38] somebody is really passionate about
[1:38:40] joining the board and they really want
[1:38:41] to be that board president, I think
[1:38:42] they're going to invest in what it takes
[1:38:45] to meet those requirements and and and
[1:38:48] maybe we encourage some people to take
[1:38:50] that path and meet those requirements.
[1:38:51] So, um I I think we the the distinctions
[1:38:55] are there and and we have multiple paths
[1:38:58] to making that happen. Um, and that's
[1:39:00] listed out in the bylaws.
[1:39:02] >> I do think we may want to in the future
[1:39:05] specify them a little bit more
[1:39:07] >> because we do really want to have people
[1:39:09] that are trained in some knowledge of
[1:39:11] Waldorf education before they're board
[1:39:13] president or all the members lose, you
[1:39:16] know, we lose all the members that have
[1:39:18] had the training and then we end up with
[1:39:20] a board that doesn't understand Waldorf
[1:39:22] education. So that's really important.
[1:39:27] All right. meeting minutes and
[1:39:28] documentation scrutiny. Our board member
[1:39:32] uh recusals clearly and legally
[1:39:34] documented in the minutes. Our budget
[1:39:37] amendments documented with absolute
[1:39:39] clarity. Our report approvals clearly
[1:39:42] detailed for public record.
[1:39:46] Um would our minutes confidently hold up
[1:39:49] to external legal or authorizer
[1:39:51] scrutiny?
[1:39:53] Well, Sarah's helped us so much on this,
[1:39:55] keeping us, you know, with her
[1:39:57] experience and knowledge. I think our
[1:39:59] minutes have been really well written um
[1:40:03] and defined. I think
[1:40:07] um we haven't had recusals or and
[1:40:11] recusals are when um
[1:40:15] when someone has a conflict of interest
[1:40:17] and they have to abstain from a vote.
[1:40:19] Um, and anytime someone has has felt um
[1:40:23] that that was necessary, it has been
[1:40:25] clearly stated and documented, but it
[1:40:27] didn't happen very often. We haven't had
[1:40:28] that issue coming up
[1:40:34] and we've been documenting online with
[1:40:36] the public records all the things that
[1:40:38] we've done as well.
[1:40:40] >> Yes.
[1:40:43] If there's ever been an issue, I've
[1:40:44] always talked to Carol about it. Um, and
[1:40:47] I'd be happy to talk to anyone else that
[1:40:49] has any questions about that, too. But I
[1:40:50] don't want to discuss that positively or
[1:40:52] negatively at the current moment.
[1:40:55] >> Okay.
[1:40:57] >> Uhuh.
[1:40:59] >> Okay. Deferral year strategy. Let's go
[1:41:01] over that one. What specific governance
[1:41:04] habits do we want to completely reset
[1:41:06] during that this deferral year? What
[1:41:09] operational practices should we change
[1:41:11] to maximize this extra time?
[1:41:14] Is there any ideas or thoughts about
[1:41:16] that?
[1:41:23] I think our board retreat when we had
[1:41:25] discussions about these things before
[1:41:27] about our dates and times and about our study work kind of um addressed this
[1:41:34] already.
[1:41:36] Things we wanted to change in our in the
[1:41:38] way we did governance.
[1:41:43] Do you have any ideas about maximizing
[1:41:46] time during this change process, Carol?
[1:41:50] What we what the what you would like to
[1:41:52] see of the board from us during all the
[1:41:54] changes that are going going to be
[1:41:56] coming up?
[1:42:00] Okay. Um,
[1:42:05] I I think that we've been finding our
[1:42:08] rhythm and and that I think, you know,
[1:42:11] some of the things that we've already
[1:42:12] discussed of making sure that marketing
[1:42:14] is reporting every month and that um
[1:42:17] that we have a board member connecting
[1:42:19] with them more often in those weekly
[1:42:21] meetings or whatever whatever iteration
[1:42:23] that is. Um, I think we've already come
[1:42:26] up with all of those strategies and and
[1:42:29] just continuing the work that we're
[1:42:30] doing and continuing to improve our our
[1:42:33] processes every meeting.
[1:42:36] Okay, let's go on to personal commitment
[1:42:38] and transitions. Is each member per uh
[1:42:42] personally ready and able to commit to
[1:42:45] the heavy workload of the coming year?
[1:42:47] Are there personal capacity gaps we need
[1:42:49] to fill? Should we thoughtfully plan for
[1:42:52] a board transition or resignation to
[1:42:56] make room for new skills?
[1:43:00] >> I think that
[1:43:00] >> I might I might mention that in uh one
[1:43:04] of the former meetings I I put it on the
[1:43:08] agenda to you guys be looking for a new
[1:43:11] treasurer. And so that's the only
[1:43:16] thing, you know, if you can find someone
[1:43:19] who
[1:43:21] has at least the skill level I do, if
[1:43:23] not greater,
[1:43:26] um, you know, to move into this
[1:43:28] position, I'll stay until such a person
[1:43:32] can be found.
[1:43:34] >> Great. And Christian, how do you feel
[1:43:36] about going back to being our our um
[1:43:40] marketing and
[1:43:43] uh strategy person on the board, keeping
[1:43:47] that as a title?
[1:43:49] >> Susan, in order to reinstitute that as
[1:43:52] an officer position, we have to do
[1:43:54] another amendment to the bylaws that
[1:43:56] goes through the charter board approval.
[1:43:58] But I I think that um having him as a a
[1:44:02] com the the leader of the committee um
[1:44:06] as just a member of the board um is is
[1:44:10] an easy path for that. [clears throat]
[1:44:12] >> How do you feel about that, Christian?
[1:44:14] >> Well, I'll do my darnest, but um I don't
[1:44:17] have any social media, so I'd have to
[1:44:19] grease the gears a little bit,
[1:44:22] >> which I can do. I've been thinking about
[1:44:24] going back, which is a weird thing for a
[1:44:26] Waldorfy person to say, but
[1:44:29] >> I don't know, you know, in the world.
[1:44:32] >> We'll have to see next year how things
[1:44:34] are going to obviously.
[1:44:40] » Okay.
[1:44:43] Any other ideas about things we you
[1:44:45] think we need to change in general? We
[1:44:48] have talked about trying to find a board
[1:44:50] member with law experience and
[1:44:53] advertising experience.
[1:44:56] >> So, put
[1:44:57] >> just a reminder of that.
[1:44:59] >> Okay.
[1:45:00] >> We we all know that, right?
[1:45:02] >> Yeah.
[1:45:06] » And does the board know where to find
[1:45:09] the the application for new board
[1:45:11] members? So there there's on our website
[1:45:13] under governing board there's a link for
[1:45:16] people to say I'm interested in being a
[1:45:18] future board member and and I check that
[1:45:21] periodically um and interface with
[1:45:24] anybody that comes through there. We
[1:45:26] haven't had many but um so if you do
[1:45:28] find somebody in your networks um as
[1:45:31] you're talking to to people or families
[1:45:33] and and just kind of mention hey if
[1:45:35] you're interested in being on the board
[1:45:36] and helping this happen um and then
[1:45:38] sending them that information. Um, and
[1:45:41] then I'll I'll bring those people um to
[1:45:44] the board meetings as they as they come
[1:45:46] up so that you can um interface with
[1:45:49] them and and invite them to the board
[1:45:50] meeting and see where it goes.
[1:45:53] Okay.
[1:45:55] Let's set some of our goals for
[1:45:57] this coming year. And it's a little bit
[1:45:59] tricky because we don't know what's
[1:46:01] happening during the coming year. But
[1:46:03] one, obviously, we want to increase
[1:46:05] enrollment for in our school. I mean,
[1:46:08] that's an obvious one. Um, and we're and
[1:46:11] I think we've talked about some
[1:46:12] strategies maybe having a board member
[1:46:15] more directly um involved in the
[1:46:18] committee for for um
[1:46:23] uh enrollment
[1:46:25] and recruitment.
[1:46:29] Did we want to look into changing who we
[1:46:31] work with at all, Carol, or are you
[1:46:33] happy with Skola? Um I we don't have the
[1:46:37] capacity to um renew that contract
[1:46:42] >> if we wanted to or not. Um and there are
[1:46:46] a few other options but at this point we
[1:46:49] don't have the capacity to contract with
[1:46:52] someone necessarily.
[1:46:54] >> Okay.
[1:46:57] >> But we have learned a lot from them and
[1:47:02] um have have some resources and and some
[1:47:08] things starting out that that help us
[1:47:11] with that.
[1:47:15] What would be goals that Well,
[1:47:19] one of Well, one of our goals is to be
[1:47:21] more actively involved in the marketing
[1:47:23] team, the board, the board member, a
[1:47:26] board member to be more actively
[1:47:28] involved each month with the with
[1:47:30] enrollment.
[1:47:44] and maybe find a board member. A goal
[1:47:46] could be maybe to find a board member to help uh come on the board and who has
[1:47:54] more experience in advertising and
[1:47:56] marketing.
[1:48:14] Can anyone think of any other goal we
[1:48:16] might want to set for
[1:48:19] this next year in enrollment?
[1:48:28] Okay. Have honest conversations with our
[1:48:30] state charter board.
[1:48:33] Um
[1:48:37] I'm not sure exactly what this means. Um
[1:48:41] do you have ideas Sarah about what this
[1:48:43] would mean?
[1:48:44] >> So it kind of goes back to building
[1:48:47] trust with our authorizer. Um, we're
[1:48:49] going they're going to come back in
[1:48:51] August and they're going to have a
[1:48:54] meeting and we I think we should have
[1:48:56] someone there also from the board to
[1:48:58] show up and ask questions or just be
[1:49:02] really honest with them and say, "Hey,
[1:49:04] we see that we are having X, Y, and Z
[1:49:07] problems. We see that we are risk from
[1:49:09] you. We do not want to hurt any of the
[1:49:11] charter schools in Utah. We want to
[1:49:13] support everyone, but we also want to do
[1:49:16] right by you.
[1:49:18] How can we best do that? Because they
[1:49:21] may want us to
[1:49:23] >> there's a couple of paths for that. Um
[1:49:26] so so yes, there's board meetings and it
[1:49:27] and it's good to be involved in the
[1:49:29] board meetings. Um keeping in mind that
[1:49:31] putting in this proposal, we will be
[1:49:34] reporting in the August meeting. Um so
[1:49:36] we do need to have people willing to
[1:49:37] show up to their August meeting with our
[1:49:40] proposal. Um and and discuss it there um
[1:49:44] after our August board meeting. in our
[1:49:45] August board meeting. That's something
[1:49:47] that we need to um discuss and and talk
[1:49:50] about who is going to attend that. Um
[1:49:52] but then there's also so there's the
[1:49:54] board themselves and then there's their
[1:49:55] office. Um and so there's Stacy and
[1:49:58] there's Betty and there's there's um um
[1:50:02] their communications person and there so
[1:50:04] there's a whole team of people in their
[1:50:06] office um that we can reach out to at
[1:50:09] any time um and building those
[1:50:11] relationships with them. Um, and so like
[1:50:14] you know part of my job as the executive
[1:50:16] director is to work with you and with
[1:50:18] them in both spaces and capacities. Most
[1:50:22] of the time I would say every single
[1:50:24] time I have a meeting with somebody from
[1:50:26] their offices they request a board
[1:50:27] member to be present. Generally that's
[1:50:30] the charter um the the
[1:50:33] um board chair or other officer if the
[1:50:36] board chair can't make it.
[1:50:40] » Okay. Let's could you also I I'll would
[1:50:45] you can write in our goals that I will
[1:50:46] be present for that board meeting in
[1:50:48] August. Maybe the board president will
[1:50:51] be present for that meeting.
[1:50:54] >> Yeah,
[1:50:55] >> I I still think we need to have some
[1:50:58] questions for them in August as well. uh
[1:51:01] because we have a lot of options and one
[1:51:04] of the things that I've heard is
[1:51:08] there's a lot of discussion going on and
[1:51:10] we know that
[1:51:13] they can't make decisions without the
[1:51:15] entire board being present and I kind of
[1:51:19] >> I think we need to have discussions with
[1:51:21] the office people so that we can get on
[1:51:23] the agenda for the board meeting. So
[1:51:26] just showing up at the board meeting
[1:51:28] doesn't mean that say anything because
[1:51:31] their agendas have to be posted just
[1:51:33] like ours. And so the proper channel for
[1:51:36] that is for us to have conversations
[1:51:38] with the office people through Betty um
[1:51:40] who's our liaison that we work
[1:51:42] specifically with with um Stacy as as
[1:51:45] the executive and the other people in
[1:51:46] her office um that we have those
[1:51:50] discussions with them so that they and
[1:51:53] they will know what needs to go before
[1:51:55] the whole board for discussion and
[1:51:57] decisions and what they can coach us
[1:51:59] through. So really it's being involved
[1:52:02] with the state charter schoolboard
[1:52:04] office people um to guide us through
[1:52:07] that process.
[1:52:08] >> Carrie did
[1:52:12] » go ahead Sarah with your follow-up
[1:52:14] question.
[1:52:14] >> I just added follow proper channels to
[1:52:17] be able to get feedback in August.
[1:52:19] >> That sounds great.
[1:52:21] Um, just to let you know, I believe that
[1:52:25] the board meeting that they will review
[1:52:27] proposals for new schools is September,
[1:52:30] not August.
[1:52:32] >> Oh, okay.
[1:52:32] >> So, okay.
[1:52:33] >> So, you know, you can still schedule
[1:52:36] meetings and uh conversations with the
[1:52:40] office staff that um Yeah. But the board
[1:52:44] meeting where you if you submit a
[1:52:46] proposal and you intend to present that
[1:52:48] proposal, that will be in September.
[1:52:51] >> I think they've adjusted their calendar
[1:52:52] a little bit over the past couple of
[1:52:53] years.
[1:52:55] >> Yeah.
[1:52:56] >> So,
[1:52:58] >> we better move forward.
[1:52:59] >> Working with the office will help us get
[1:53:01] on the correct board meeting agenda.
[1:53:04] >> Carrie, do you still have a question?
[1:53:06] >> Yes. I would love to see us find another
[1:53:11] dedicated parent that's local. Like
[1:53:14] Sarah's awesome for the parent
[1:53:15] perspective. Um, but we also need her
[1:53:19] for a lot of other things as well. Um,
[1:53:22] but I'm just like my capacity is going
[1:53:26] to be limited because I am now having to
[1:53:29] do a backup plan for the schooling of my
[1:53:31] children.
[1:53:31] >> Yeah. and a lot of my some of the my
[1:53:35] capacity that's going to the board will
[1:53:37] have to go to now schooling a 10th
[1:53:41] grader. So, I would love if you guys
[1:53:44] think it's a good idea to find another
[1:53:47] parent or
[1:53:50] if you're okay with or or if it will
[1:53:52] work for me to not I can't be giving
[1:53:56] more time than I am right now is
[1:53:57] basically what I'm saying.
[1:54:02] So just a thought
[1:54:04] >> we're adding that into the board
[1:54:06] transitions maybe.
[1:54:08] >> Thank you.
[1:54:12] » And I think so we also do need to get
[1:54:15] more parent involvement from the
[1:54:17] community and I think that will help us
[1:54:19] greatly with those marketing efforts of having passionate. I mean, Carrie,
[1:54:25] honestly, you have been one of our our
[1:54:28] biggest supports and helps in the
[1:54:30] marketing just because you are a parent
[1:54:32] that is connected with other
[1:54:35] uh families that have students
[1:54:37] interested in us. Um, and so the more
[1:54:39] parents in that situation that we can
[1:54:41] get and not just from the MSA community,
[1:54:44] but if we can pull in some of those
[1:54:45] treeside parents, some if we could get a
[1:54:47] Wasat parent like like looking at our or
[1:54:49] a honeycomb cottage parent um or or TC
[1:54:53] someone from these other communities um
[1:54:56] to join us from from parent movement
[1:54:59] side. That's the biggest connection. You
[1:55:02] guys are the most passionate. I'm trying
[1:55:04] to start the school for my kid. you're a
[1:55:06] very strong voice and you're connected
[1:55:09] with other people in that family
[1:55:10] situation. I can share on social media
[1:55:12] all day, but I'm not connected to people
[1:55:15] um with kids that are interested in
[1:55:17] coming to the school because that's not
[1:55:20] um where I'm at in my life situation.
[1:55:22] And so I I'll just throw that out there.
[1:55:26] um that we do need more parent
[1:55:28] involvement
[1:55:30] on the board.
[1:55:33] >> We did at one time start tried to start
[1:55:36] a parent community council
[1:55:38] >> and we didn't have very much nobody
[1:55:40] responded. Nobody signed up.
[1:55:43] >> Yeah, because you're exactly right,
[1:55:45] Carol. Like I need more parents to take
[1:55:48] some of that load so that I can do the
[1:55:50] board stuff and not all the things.
[1:55:54] Yeah.
[1:55:55] So maybe if we could approach it in a
[1:55:58] way of like asking each of those
[1:56:00] communities if they might have a parent
[1:56:04] that would be willing to take on the
[1:56:06] position of like parent representation
[1:56:08] representative
[1:56:10] for that community
[1:56:13] >> like hey we're looking for a parent
[1:56:15] representative from the MSA community
[1:56:18] you know and from the tree
[1:56:21] if you're interested like let us know.
[1:56:23] They don't on this on this marketing
[1:56:26] committee. Not everybody on the
[1:56:29] committee has to be a board member.
[1:56:32] >> Board member can oversee it, but we can
[1:56:34] invite other people to join this
[1:56:35] committee that aren't full board members
[1:56:37] and they don't come and and vote in
[1:56:39] board meetings, but but they can help
[1:56:41] with that work. We can also have a um
[1:56:43] you know, school employees. If we have
[1:56:45] the right configuration, that committee
[1:56:47] can also be our land trust committee
[1:56:50] that can also um do some some other
[1:56:53] things in our community. But we we need
[1:56:55] to get that um that land trust has to
[1:56:58] have two more parents or grandparents
[1:57:00] than any other type of person on the
[1:57:02] board. So, if we have two school people,
[1:57:04] we have to have four parents. Susan,
[1:57:07] you're muted. Carrie, I love the idea of
[1:57:09] having a a representative from each
[1:57:12] school that could help us too. That
[1:57:15] would be great.
[1:57:16] >> Or even like three representatives from
[1:57:19] each school, you know, like and form a
[1:57:22] council that way so that they like have
[1:57:25] cuz I feel like all the parents are
[1:57:27] like, "Oh, well, I want to help." But
[1:57:29] there's no commitment. There's no
[1:57:33] responsibility, you know, and so they
[1:57:35] just don't. Everyone's busy and so
[1:57:39] unless there's like specific things for
[1:57:41] them to do, a specific direction,
[1:57:43] nothing get nothing happens.
[1:57:52] Okay.
[1:57:53] Um
[1:58:00] let's see. Should we just go forward to
[1:58:01] the financial plan? Is is this
[1:58:04] applicable right now or should we just
[1:58:05] put this as not applicable?
[1:58:07] >> I I will share briefly um uh the
[1:58:11] conversation that I had with Jeff on our
[1:58:14] finances and the the bare minimum
[1:58:16] breakdown that we discussed.
[1:58:19] Um
[1:58:22] and and so um
[1:58:28] as as far as our
[1:58:33] um
[1:58:36] the the potential expenses,
[1:58:39] um it it just is really tight and and we
[1:58:42] recorded some numbers. Um we we kind of
[1:58:45] looked at, you know, we need um probably
[1:58:49] 10 to 20,000 for the contracts that were
[1:58:52] already on on contract 4. So that would
[1:58:56] be the website with Edlio, the frontline
[1:59:01] um platform, the um like our phone bill
[1:59:05] and and different things um to be able
[1:59:09] to to get through um depending on um I
[1:59:13] mean so if we're paying a person to to
[1:59:16] do certain tasks through this um I mean
[1:59:19] it just is we so we are having those
[1:59:22] discussions and um and pairing everything down um
[1:59:29] possible. Um and but then that makes it
[1:59:32] really difficult to um
[1:59:37] to Yeah, it's just a difficult situation
[1:59:40] and we are working on it.
[1:59:42] >> Okay.
[1:59:44] >> Sorry, just a thought. Um,
[1:59:48] kind of going back, I apologize, but is
[1:59:51] now the point that we could just be
[1:59:54] honest with our community and say like,
[1:59:57] listen, if you want this school to
[2:00:01] happen, we need some help. Like, we need
[2:00:06] more parent involvement. Like, cuz I
[2:00:08] know there's so many people that want it
[2:00:10] to happen and they just think that it's
[2:00:12] happening, right? And they don't need to
[2:00:14] contribute. But like we're at the point
[2:00:16] that we really do need more manpower,
[2:00:19] right?
[2:00:20] >> And more volunteer um parents. So like
[2:00:23] is there a way to just really um
[2:00:27] positively portray that to the parents
[2:00:30] and to be like
[2:00:32] we like the six of us cannot carry this
[2:00:35] by ourselves.
[2:00:37] You know,
[2:00:38] >> may I interject? We need one or two very
[2:00:41] rich sponsors. Every other charter
[2:00:44] school I've been at has had sponsors.
[2:00:48] Can't we appeal to some of these places
[2:00:52] like Zion's Bank or um some big rich
[2:00:59] educational
[2:01:02] >> or can we
[2:01:03] >> oriented or
[2:01:04] >> or can we ask our community to be to
[2:01:07] look for sponsors?
[2:01:10] Yeah,
[2:01:11] >> I've we've tried a lot. I mean, I've
[2:01:13] sent out emails to personal to people
[2:01:16] and asked them to, you know, to help in
[2:01:19] certain ways, especially with the
[2:01:20] enrollment, and I just didn't see a lot
[2:01:22] of response and there's I don't know.
[2:01:25] >> Utah is not a friendly landscape for
[2:01:27] that kind of philanthropy, and less so
[2:01:31] now than it has been in the past.
[2:01:36] But if anybody can find somebody to to
[2:01:40] do the thing, um,
[2:01:44] go for it. [laughter]
[2:01:46] Sarah and Christian both have comments.
[2:01:48] Maybe
[2:01:52] Sarah, go ahead.
[2:01:54] >> I was just going to say that something
[2:01:55] that I've run into because I've talked
[2:01:57] to other parents about this is they
[2:01:59] don't feel qualified to be on the board.
[2:02:01] They feel like the school board is this
[2:02:03] magical thing that people who know all
[2:02:06] the things go and do and that they're
[2:02:08] just a parent and they can't be
[2:02:10] involved. And
[2:02:13] I think that we need to have a way to
[2:02:15] overcome that hurdle.
[2:02:18] Um
[2:02:20] I don't necessarily be more friendly
[2:02:22] with it, but just being really open
[2:02:23] about this is about being willing to put
[2:02:25] the time and effort in and it's not
[2:02:27] necessarily about knowing everything. We
[2:02:29] have lots of teachers that know a lot
[2:02:30] about education. We have all these
[2:02:32] things. We just need a lot of people
[2:02:34] that are willing to show up and help.
[2:02:35] It's kind of like putting the chairs up
[2:02:37] at the end of the day. We need someone
[2:02:39] to help get, you know, the chairs up to
[2:02:41] go get the kids at a place to go this,
[2:02:44] go do that. Um,
[2:02:47] and I think we need to have a message to
[2:02:50] parents about ways that they can help
[2:02:52] that seems a lot more accessible.
[2:02:56] Well, in specifics about ways to help
[2:02:58] maybe too. I mean, we we do have
[2:03:01] platforms like the c the Utah
[2:03:04] um home school and and other
[2:03:08] communities, the Utah Waldorf community
[2:03:11] Facebook account. I mean, some of those
[2:03:14] we can put things out, but we have to
[2:03:16] have maybe more specific things that we
[2:03:18] need help with.
[2:03:20] I don't know. And I know
[2:03:22] >> how about a a a TV commercial or a
[2:03:25] Facebook ad, an actual video
[2:03:29] um from one of us that can really appeal
[2:03:34] to those types of people. Like Carrie,
[2:03:37] you're so good at that. Um Carol, you're
[2:03:40] good at it. I'm not good at it. I can't
[2:03:44] even talk my husband into $500 extra
[2:03:47] dollars a month for my budget. So, I'm
[2:03:51] not the person to go after financial
[2:03:54] stuff, but I think people, you know,
[2:03:59] like I've been moved by by ads,
[2:04:04] you know, that just when I'm scrolling
[2:04:06] Facebook, you [snorts] know, make me
[2:04:08] want to tune into something or donate
[2:04:13] money or pray for somebody,
[2:04:16] you know, or GoFundMe type things.
[2:04:22] [snorts]
[2:04:23] >> That's just an idea.
[2:04:24] >> Yeah.
[2:04:25] >> Ben has a comment.
[2:04:29] » Were you asking about me if I had a
[2:04:30] comment?
[2:04:31] >> Yes. Your hand is raised.
[2:04:32] >> It is raised. I just didn't hear my
[2:04:34] name. I think you cut out for a minute.
[2:04:35] But um a split second. I'm going to make
[2:04:38] an a suggestion that might be stupid. Um
[2:04:41] has anybody reached out to Bridget
[2:04:43] Swenson? She can do anything. And it I
[2:04:46] mean I I don't know what her kids are
[2:04:47] doing, but I know she's done
[2:04:49] extracurricular things that don't
[2:04:51] involve her kids. Um I think she could
[2:04:54] be a useful resource if anybody wanted
[2:04:57] to reach out to her. She [laughter]
[2:04:58] >> the last time we reached out to her, she
[2:05:00] was tapped out with other things,
[2:05:02] >> but not that we don't visit that again
[2:05:05] and and reach back out and see where
[2:05:06] she's at.
[2:05:07] >> I would suggest that I think she could
[2:05:09] be a real asset if we could recruit her.
[2:05:11] That's all I wanted to say.
[2:05:17] I think there's a lot of parents that
[2:05:19] can be real assets. They just need to
[2:05:22] understand how desperately we need their
[2:05:25] help without us appearing so desperate.
[2:05:29] >> There's a fun way we could do that. Just
[2:05:31] put up a really ugly Facebook post and
[2:05:35] said, "Are you a parent that has Canva
[2:05:37] and can do better than this? We need
[2:05:39] your help. please contact [laughter]
[2:05:42] like get that ugliest brownest grossest
[2:05:44] post and just be like we need help with
[2:05:46] Canva. Can anyone help with Canva?
[2:05:49] Because there's a lot of parents that
[2:05:50] they're like I left doing Canva and
[2:05:52] they'll help us but I think we need just
[2:05:55] a really
[2:05:57] specific
[2:05:59] ask.
[2:06:01] I honestly don't even think we need
[2:06:03] Canva
[2:06:05] >> because AI can do all of that now.
[2:06:07] >> Well, then
[2:06:08] >> so much faster.
[2:06:09] >> Yeah, I'm just saying whatever it is.
[2:06:15] » I think a lot of us are very hesitant to
[2:06:20] use AI in just who we are. And I think
[2:06:24] that that is something that we need to
[2:06:28] get over and and use it more because it
[2:06:32] is our reality right now. And like we
[2:06:37] like AI can help us advertise in so many
[2:06:40] ways and we need to be better at using
[2:06:42] it using that free resource.
[2:06:46] >> Christian, are you still there?
[2:06:48] >> I'm here. I will just vote for that.
[2:06:51] >> Yeah. Um, another good source for
[2:06:54] getting stuff done is Kirsten All Good.
[2:06:57] She was always good at stuff like that.
[2:07:00] So, that's just a couple of MSA parents
[2:07:03] that I remember could do anything.
[2:07:06] >> Yeah, Kristen. I remember Kirsten. She
[2:07:08] her daughter was in my class.
[2:07:10] >> Yeah. So the question with this is these
[2:07:13] are great ideas but what is the action
[2:07:15] item from the board of of who is going
[2:07:18] to take this on and how is that going to
[2:07:21] get done
[2:07:28] » um
[2:07:32] well we already discussed it we we need
[2:07:34] to have people with better better skills
[2:07:38] you know some skills that we don't have
[2:07:40] and try to work towards bringing someone
[2:07:43] on the board with those skills.
[2:07:46] >> Yeah. Appeal to the parent community.
[2:07:48] That's an action item.
[2:07:54] » Or I've done that over and over and over
[2:07:58] again
[2:08:01] » like with anyone that with the MSA
[2:08:03] community at least because I don't have
[2:08:04] connections to the other communities.
[2:08:07] I've done it in the Utah Waldorf page.
[2:08:12] But like how
[2:08:14] maybe they're tired of hearing from me
[2:08:16] and need someone else or someone or like
[2:08:20] we need a way to help
[2:08:23] them understand that it's not like if
[2:08:26] they want this school everyone's going
[2:08:28] to have to pitch in a little bit.
[2:08:37] » It is getting late. I think we need to
[2:08:38] move forward with some other we do have
[2:08:41] some ideas already in that in that area.
[2:08:49] Um let's move forward with um
[2:08:54] >> close the compliance gaps. I don't know
[2:08:56] what that means exactly that.
[2:08:58] >> Oh, you have that governance calendar
[2:09:01] and policy review calendar. Oh, yes.
[2:09:04] That's those are good.
[2:09:07] any any other ideas for compliance? Um,
[2:09:16] uh, board compliance and
[2:09:20] I think those are good things to look
[2:09:22] through
[2:09:23] building that calendar. So we have at
[2:09:26] every board meeting some things we can
[2:09:28] look at
[2:09:31] from policy review and then honoring our
[2:09:34] bylaws completing Waldorf training
[2:09:36] requirements hold an annual Steiner
[2:09:38] study actively recruiting one to two
[2:09:41] members marketing role well that's what
[2:09:43] we were just discussing so let's go to
[2:09:45] build trust with our authorizer
[2:09:50] is that the board is that what we're
[2:09:52] thinking
[2:09:55] Yes, the charter school board. We
[2:09:56] realize that our um failure to open this
[2:10:00] year and some of our financial issues
[2:10:03] will probably cause stress with the our
[2:10:05] governing body.
[2:10:07] >> And I thought it would be really good to
[2:10:09] address how we plan on rebuilding that
[2:10:13] trust because we want them to see us and
[2:10:15] respect us as a school and know that
[2:10:17] they can work with us easily.
[2:10:21] They're going to have to see that we can
[2:10:22] bring in more enrollment. I mean, bring
[2:10:26] more enrollment in some way.
[2:10:45] And maybe we need to bring families,
[2:10:47] Waldorf families to these meetings at
[2:10:49] the board.
[2:10:52] You know, maybe bring in just ask
[2:10:54] Waldorf families to come meet so they
[2:10:56] can see them, you know, and see that
[2:10:59] there there are Walder families in the
[2:11:02] community that really are interested.
[2:11:08] Maybe we have a meeting like just a zoom
[2:11:11] meeting at a very accessible time for
[2:11:14] people that says like if you are
[2:11:19] interested in a school, we need some
[2:11:22] help. Please come to this meeting and we
[2:11:24] can maybe ask for suggestions at that
[2:11:29] meeting.
[2:11:31] >> Mhm.
[2:11:33] or volunteers for different things or
[2:11:38] I'm not sure
[2:11:39] >> attended attended by state board
[2:11:42] members.
[2:11:44] >> We can invite them to any events that we
[2:11:47] have and they may not always be able to come but they're they do like to um
[2:11:54] participate in in things that are
[2:11:56] happening. Um
[2:11:58] >> we can make us look bad. what
[2:12:02] >> it to invite them to a brainstorming
[2:12:04] meeting. That might make us look bad.
[2:12:06] >> No, not necessarily, but but like I mean
[2:12:09] our birthday party or a graduation or
[2:12:11] like they they like to be involved and
[2:12:13] see what schools are doing. Um
[2:12:21] so help help celebrate with them.
[2:12:26] And I don't know that I mean I I would
[2:12:28] say that I don't think we've lost trust
[2:12:30] with the authorizer. Um I I I don't
[2:12:33] think um that it's necessarily a loss of
[2:12:36] trust. They understand the the risks
[2:12:39] involved in starting new schools. Um
[2:12:41] we're not the first school to um go
[2:12:45] through the process of of um deferment.
[2:12:48] We're not the first school to to have to
[2:12:51] potentially put in multiple
[2:12:53] applications.
[2:12:55] um before we get it right. Um and and I
[2:12:59] think they have they do have respect for
[2:13:02] our commitment, for our vision, for the
[2:13:04] hard work that we are doing. They
[2:13:06] recognize that it's messy and not
[2:13:08] perfect. Um so I don't know that we've
[2:13:10] lost trust um necessarily. I think we
[2:13:13] are in a hard situation um and and they
[2:13:17] recognize that and and we're not the
[2:13:19] only one to have been here. Um so so I
[2:13:21] don't know that it's they're not the
[2:13:24] enemy. They they are really excited
[2:13:26] about what we're offering and and we are
[2:13:29] meeting their
[2:13:31] um directive to provide more options for
[2:13:34] education. Um and and that is also a
[2:13:38] challenge that we are so different from
[2:13:39] the other things like you know a lot of
[2:13:41] the models that are out there are um the
[2:13:46] classical education. It's, you know,
[2:13:48] there's liberal arts education and
[2:13:49] there's a lot of online programs um that
[2:13:51] are kind of in vogue right now. Um and
[2:13:54] we are not those other things. We are we
[2:13:57] are a different thing. And then and they
[2:13:59] recognize that that poses unique
[2:14:00] challenges. Um as we try and and get
[2:14:04] traction and and get going. Um so I
[2:14:07] would just say I don't know that it's
[2:14:09] about rebuilding trust. I don't think
[2:14:10] we've lost trust to rebuild.
[2:14:12] >> I don't have a feeling of that either. I
[2:14:15] think we can continue to work with them.
[2:14:18] >> Yeah, they've worked really well with
[2:14:19] you, Carol, as far as I've seen
[2:14:21] >> and and and our whole team
[2:14:23] >> and they wanted us to succeed. I mean,
[2:14:27] >> yeah.
[2:14:32] Okay. I would encourage you guys to go
[2:14:35] look up some of their past meetings um
[2:14:37] especially in the past three or four
[2:14:39] months um and just kind of be a breast
[2:14:41] of of what they talk about and how they
[2:14:44] handle their discussions um and I will
[2:14:48] forward out some summaries um that I've
[2:14:50] been sent from their communications
[2:14:52] person on on like this is what they
[2:14:54] talked about and these are the highle
[2:14:55] things that they're concerned about um
[2:14:58] so that you can get a feel for what they
[2:14:59] do. Um I I'm a firm believer in um
[2:15:04] connection breeds um leads to support
[2:15:09] and community. Um a lot of times when we
[2:15:12] feel distanced from someone, we don't
[2:15:14] know them, we don't see them, we don't
[2:15:16] talk to them, we are then prone to
[2:15:21] seeing them as others, seeing them as
[2:15:22] the enemy, seeing them as against us. Um
[2:15:25] and and it's just kind of a natural
[2:15:27] tendency. But when you see them face to
[2:15:29] face and interact with them, it
[2:15:30] humanizes them. Um, and so it would be
[2:15:32] worth everyone's while to and you don't
[2:15:34] have to listen to the whole board
[2:15:35] meeting, but but just kind of skip
[2:15:37] through some of the high points, look at
[2:15:39] what the agenda is and listen to a
[2:15:40] section of their discussion and and how
[2:15:42] they um how they work. Um, both as a
[2:15:46] model of how a board runs. It would be,
[2:15:48] you know, good for board training as
[2:15:50] well as to get to know them and how they
[2:15:53] approach their work. um so that you
[2:15:56] understand the process of how to um how
[2:16:00] to work through that process. So I mean
[2:16:02] I think like sure having having families
[2:16:05] come and help represent us if we are
[2:16:07] presenting at a meeting is a really good
[2:16:09] thing to just randomly show up at a
[2:16:11] board meeting to you know let's let's
[2:16:13] give a plug for Waldorf education the
[2:16:15] public comments that isn't relative to
[2:16:16] what the board is currently doing would
[2:16:19] actually hurt us rather than help us. So
[2:16:21] understanding the process of how to
[2:16:23] communicate with them, how to go through
[2:16:25] the offices um and following the proper
[2:16:28] procedures for open public meetings
[2:16:30] would would be helpful.
[2:16:35] Um
[2:16:38] so our next the next thought is are
[2:16:40] there any concerns we've brought up that
[2:16:42] we think the board should discuss at our
[2:16:44] ne on our put on our next agenda for the
[2:16:48] um for the August
[2:16:51] a board meeting.
[2:16:55] Um, Carol, I think I would like to wait
[2:16:58] until we know more about what's
[2:16:59] happening with the school before we put
[2:17:01] more agenda items on our
[2:17:04] what how is everyone feeling about that
[2:17:08] for our board meeting in August? I mean,
[2:17:10] I think there were several things here
[2:17:12] that we we talked about in this board
[2:17:14] review that that should be revisited and
[2:17:17] followed up on, right? some of the
[2:17:19] action items that that we kind of talked
[2:17:21] about in in adjusting um for instance
[2:17:29] where was it
[2:17:31] um
[2:17:31] >> oh creating a position again for or can
[2:17:35] we have to do that through the charter
[2:17:37] don't we
[2:17:37] >> right I mean but like the committee work
[2:17:39] following up with the committees and
[2:17:41] making a decision about what committees
[2:17:42] we're going to have for the for the
[2:17:44] school year like that should be
[2:17:46] potentially an action item for August of
[2:17:50] who's going to be on what committees and
[2:17:51] what does that look like. Um revisiting
[2:17:55] the proposal and um and preparing for
[2:17:58] the presentation to the state charter
[2:18:00] board will be a part of that August
[2:18:02] agenda. Um reviewing um so the board
[2:18:06] kind of already decided these are the
[2:18:08] monthly meetings, but revisiting that
[2:18:09] now that the school year has started. Um
[2:18:12] making sure that that um agenda carries
[2:18:15] through. um some of these um things that
[2:18:19] we've been putting in the goals for the
[2:18:21] 2627 school year. These are our goals.
[2:18:24] So, which of these goals is most
[2:18:25] relevant to revisit in August and make
[2:18:29] sure that we are hitting that goal? Does
[2:18:31] that make sense?
[2:18:35] » I just I'm getting too tired to think
[2:18:38] here actually. We've got we got to Can
[2:18:40] you help us put those in? If you think
[2:18:42] there are some that we should put in,
[2:18:44] can you help us list or write those in?
[2:18:47] Have you have you written some of those,
[2:18:49] Sarah?
[2:18:50] >> I'm putting a few in. I was also going
[2:18:52] to say I think we should have a moment
[2:18:54] and kind of think about what we can do.
[2:18:56] For example, I can go on Facebook and
[2:18:59] make a post asking for someone to help
[2:19:01] with marketing. Um, I do think we should
[2:19:04] have a conversation about that. Um, but
[2:19:08] with Carol losing a lot of her
[2:19:10] administration team, we're going to have
[2:19:12] to step up
[2:19:14] uh and do
[2:19:16] >> that's a discussion for that August
[2:19:18] meeting of like what tasks and
[2:19:20] assignments, what committees we're
[2:19:21] actually going to put together and how
[2:19:23] the board can work with those committees
[2:19:26] um to to get that work done. Um, I think
[2:19:30] you talking specifically about which po
[2:19:32] I I I don't know that sending out a post
[2:19:35] today because we talked about we're
[2:19:37] going to ask for new help, but crafting
[2:19:39] those um either in committees or
[2:19:43] discussing that and making a decision in
[2:19:45] the board meeting of of giving that
[2:19:48] specifically.
[2:19:49] >> I like that idea.
[2:19:54] » I think things will sleep between now
[2:19:55] and October.
[2:19:57] >> [laughter]
[2:19:58] >> and and then we can come back with with
[2:20:00] fresh eyes and um not that we're not
[2:20:03] doing anything in July, but letting it
[2:20:06] take the time that it needs um to be
[2:20:08] able to make good informed decisions.
[2:20:11] >> Yeah.
[2:20:20] » Okay.
[2:20:28] I think I think we're here. Reminder of
[2:20:30] the next meeting and the German.
[2:20:32] >> Yes. Let's read our let me read out loud
[2:20:35] the uh the uh verse for our closing
[2:20:38] verse and then we'll make a motion to
[2:20:40] assure. A healthy social life is found
[2:20:44] only when in the mirror of each soul the
[2:20:46] whole community finds its reflection and
[2:20:49] when in the whole community the virtue
[2:20:51] of each one is living. Rudolph Steiner
[2:20:55] is there someone who tonight who could
[2:20:58] make a motion to adjourn our meeting.
[2:21:01] I make a motion to adjourn our meeting
[2:21:04] tonight.
[2:21:05] >> Is there someone [clears throat]
[2:21:06] that motion?
[2:21:07] >> Thank you, Sarah, for putting your name
[2:21:08] in already.
[2:21:11] Okay. And um so let's do a um let's do
[2:21:15] the vote with the members that are left
[2:21:17] for our meeting to adjourn. Um if you
[2:21:22] can um raise your hand if you're in
[2:21:24] agreement to adjourn the meeting
[2:21:26] tonight.
[2:21:28] That's Susan and Sarah and Marta and
[2:21:32] Christian
[2:21:35] Carrie
[2:21:37] and and then that vote has that is the
[2:21:42] out the outcome is positive for our vote
[2:21:44] to adjourn the meeting tonight. Thank
[2:21:46] you all for being here and for all the
[2:21:48] work that you've done. And I do want to
[2:21:51] I do we do look forward to little
[2:21:53] updates from Carol about how things are
[2:21:56] going if she could send us those those
[2:21:58] updates.
[2:22:00] And you're all wonderful. I hope we can
[2:22:02] work things through this summer and have
[2:22:05] a plan. Have a
[2:22:07] >> good evening everyone. We'll see you
[2:22:09] then.