ELA Board Meeting

Ensign Leadership Academy, UT · · More Ensign Leadership Academy, UT meetings · More Utah meetings

View original source →

Transcript

Download: Text · SRT
AI TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person — it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.

[0:00] Let's go ahead. I'll start recording. We do need to call to order and then very good Mr. Parliamentarian. Let's go ahead and call the meeting to order and let's do a roll call. I'm the chair for Bramble, Howard Stevenson here. David Erickson here Richard Moss here and Stephanie Hill. So I believe Stephanie will be joining us.
[0:29] We do have a quorum, so we will commence with the business, and I'll now place the motion from David Erickson to approve the minutes of February 25th, 2026.
[0:43] Do we have a second, Mr. Stevenson?
[0:46] My second.
[0:47] Discussion on the motion.
[0:50] Seeing no hands, I'll place it all in favor of approving the minutes. Say aye.
[0:54] Aye.
[0:54] All right.
[0:55] All right.
[0:56] Motion carries unanimously.
[0:59] Now, since we're being recorded, we have several items on the agenda.
[1:06] Item 6, A through F discussion and review of policies, retirement plan approval, review
[1:12] of marketing actions through March 1st, the board calendar for fiscal year 2027, and then
[1:21] discussion and action regarding RFP for EMO services and other items.
[1:28] Unfortunately, we will still have a quorum. I need to leave. I have a client, a tax client that came in unexpectedly
[1:34] that it's going to take me the next couple of hours to deal with.
[1:38] So, Howard, if I could turn the gallop to you as the vice chair, I'm going to sign off.
[1:44] All right. Thank you.
[1:46] Thank you, Mr.
[1:53] Vice Chairman, Howard, it is now your meeting.
[1:56] Okay.
[1:57] So let's go to the discussion and review of policies.
[2:04] Do you want to lead that for us?
[2:08] Just this will be on the agenda for the next several meetings.
[2:11] There's no rush to get this done.
[2:12] It will be part of our pre-opening task that will be due this spring before the opening in
[2:18] of 27, but it's just the policy manual for the board to continue to review, make the
[2:24] edits, send those to me, I'll make the adjustments, and then when we get to a final draft, I'll
[2:30] produce the final draft with all of your edits. So this will be an item just for discussion and review
[2:36] for several meetings, and that way that keeps that link fresh for you to make any edits or comments
[2:43] each meeting that I need to be aware of.
[2:49] Okay.
[2:50] There's no required action on this item, Mr Chairman.
[2:53] Okay, everybody can open the link from your own email of this.
[3:01] You can't click on the link on this screen because it's not, you know, it's just an image.
[3:07] So is there any discussion or questions about what's contained in that link?
[3:13] or anything that anyone wants to make sure we note in future meetings regarding that link on policies.
[3:24] Seeing none, thank you for that report.
[3:29] Let's go to item B, retirement plan approval.
[3:37] So I will take that one, there's two parts, and I believe Jordan might be prepared to speak on the second part.
[3:44] The first part is really simple.
[3:46] By state law, charter schools have one chance to jump into the state retirement plan.
[3:50] They have to do that before formal signing of agreement and such.
[3:55] And pretty much every charter school opts out of that.
[3:57] For the simple reason, the expense is exorbitant.
[4:00] Whatever the salary is, it's a formula that I believe is 27 or 28% above that.
[4:07] So if you just imagine our budget, take our personnel, increase it by roughly 30%.
[4:11] And that's what we would pay to get into the state retirement.
[4:16] Pretty much every charter school has a motion to not opt into the state retirement.
[4:22] And then after that, it puts us into the free market of retirement plans.
[4:26] And then with charter one, and this is what Jordan may be ready to speak to, although at some point we'll have a formal detailed presentation of what the retirement benefits are.
[4:37] There's options that the board would approve and such, but Jordan, do you have anything you'd like to add to that?
[4:42] I actually don't, Matt. The only thing that I have to add is I will be able to get the benefits team to come and give a formal presentation to the board on what our plan and CISO consists of.
[4:54] than everything that is entailed there.
[4:58] Can you just tell us briefly, though,
[5:00] before we wait for that more full discussion,
[5:07] what Charter One does with the 401Ks
[5:11] is it simply matching what the teachers contribute
[5:14] or is there something else going on there?
[5:18] Yeah, there is an employer match.
[5:22] I don't quote me on this because I don't have in front of me, but there is an employer match. I think the employees can contribute.
[5:31] I think we'll match up to 3% or 3.5% to get to a total of 7%. But I don't know the exact numbers.
[5:39] And I apologize I wasn't prepared to give those details here.
[5:44] But it is a robust plan just given the economies of scale that Charter 1 has across multiple
[5:50] states, multiple schools.
[5:53] We oversee the employment of thousands of employees and so just given the magnitude
[5:59] and our footprint that we're able to get really good rates and be competitive in the employment
[6:04] market.
[6:05] So is it no no employer contribution until and unless an employee makes the contribution and then we match it up to three and a half percent.
[6:18] I can't speak confidently enough to answer that, Howard. So I'll get back to you on that.
[6:22] Okay. Well, while we have a member of the public with us, I we failed to acknowledge at the beginning in the meeting if there was any public comment,
[6:32] but I would like to invite David Sharat to tell us what APA does as far as retirement,
[6:39] just so we have some comparison with other charter schools and their teachers. Would you be
[6:46] willing to do that, David? Yeah. Let me grab our HR first and then also come back to it in five minutes.
[6:53] Say that again. I'll go grab our HR first and then also come back to it in five minutes if you can.
[6:58] Oh, okay. Great. Thank you.
[7:03] I just think it would be while we're talking about this, but the main question that we need to decide in this meeting is whether we want to opt in to the state retirement system.
[7:16] That would be far more expensive than a three and a half percent match.
[7:25] So emotion would be appropriate to decline to opt into the state retirement plan.
[7:31] Right. That's what I'm getting at, but I just wonder how
[7:43] much the cost is, for example,
[7:48] for charter schools that are just doing the 401k, what percent of teachers actually contribute,
[8:00] and how many of them are so strapped with living paycheck to paycheck or credit card
[8:07] dad or other kinds of things that they don't see a way to match. I just wondered what percentage
[8:15] there is a participation because with the state retirement system,
[8:25] everybody participates, basically.
[8:28] Do you know, I know my experience is that probably half of the teachers opt in.
[8:34] And a lot of charter schools, they tend to do like a three or four percent.
[8:39] And it's either dollar for dollar or it's two to one.
[8:41] So like if a teacher puts in six percent,
[8:43] the charter school put in 3%, so they max out at 9. I know some do that, but the incentive
[8:49] is definitely the teachers have to participate.
[8:56] David, do you have any comments on this because
[8:58] you have dealt with this in other charters doing their finances? Yes,
[9:07] I think it's pretty much
[9:11] a given as to which where we're going to go, but it's worth talking about.
[9:15] And the question I would raise is how much of a competitive advantage of the give in
[9:23] the marketplace of finding teachers if we are on the on the state plan.
[9:32] I don't know if Matt can answer that or not.
[9:35] Yeah, so a charter school that I work with is the one in Spanish for it and they opted into it.
[9:43] And they don't have, you know, the theory that they're going to have the core of the very best teachers because they have the state plan is just not accurate.
[9:52] You know, it's other determining factors as to the staff that they assemble. So.
[9:56] Is that the ALA at the end Spanish work?
[10:00] Correct.
[10:02] And they opted in.
[10:04] That was the very beginning.
[10:07] 20 years ago, I drafted their charter.
[10:09] Yeah, so what is the contribution rate for the charter school with those employees?
[10:16] It's like 27 28% of their salary. So 50,000, we put in another, you know, it's going to be
[10:26] 15, 14,000 dollars on top of their salary. Well, how are they going to get before you when you're ready?
[10:33] Okay. David Erickson, do you have anything more?
[10:38] Well, no, that was just a question and a math answer that pretty much.
[10:47] It's an interesting point.
[10:49] I'm surprised that that's the answer, actually, but that's what it is in the fine.
[10:55] You know, the basics, if that's a deciding factor they want to buy into the state system,
[11:00] Pretty much all of those folks are going to end up with the districts, because they're
[11:04] going to have that as well as they're going to have other economies of skills.
[11:08] We lost a teacher once, who is maybe the best math teacher I've been around, one of the
[11:13] very best, and she taught our calculus, pre-calculus as well as calculus AB and calculus BC for AP classes.
[11:22] We lost her to the district for other reasons, plus the retirement, and I should say other
[11:27] reasons not the retirement. They could offer a full calculus department where she was a standalone
[11:33] calculus teacher. So those would be some of the conversations we'll have. I've just never heard of
[11:38] we don't lose them because of state retirement. All right, that's fine. Good to know.
[11:44] With bridge elementary that I was on the board for or helped to organize from its application
[11:52] state, we did not participate and we did not lose teachers at all unless their
[12:05] spouse was moving to a different part of the country and they were of course
[12:10] moving with their spouse. Part of the reason too is that they had 15 hours of
[12:15] prep time every week that they really appreciated being able to look at
[12:21] data and hone their preparation time.
[12:26] But let's go to David Sharat.
[12:29] If you don't mind, if you have that person to participate in.
[12:36] I just called them.
[12:37] So we do a 4% match at APA.
[12:40] And I will say, with my experience with the RIS,
[12:45] I think it's a competitive advantage
[12:47] to offer a free market for a 1K. A lot of our teachers, they don't plan to
[12:53] teach forever. They plan to have babies have families and having a 4K with
[13:00] fidelity they can take wherever they want or you know not you know just have it in
[13:04] the free market. That seems to be a competitive advantage to a lot of our
[13:08] people. First you had a ramp up period for besting?
[13:15] Yeah it's a question I didn't
[13:17] ask so sorry I don't have the answer to that well I don't think so because if 401k is owned by
[13:24] the person who creates it yeah and they would they would be fully invested in their own
[13:30] contributions of the course but but I think we used to ask and charter one seems like I remember they
[13:41] They had an investing period of five-year investing period for the matching portion.
[13:51] I'm not sure how you, I wish Kerr-Brambo were still on with us.
[13:55] I don't know how you do that from one tax year to another tax year, how the employer holds
[14:03] on to their match.
[14:05] And maybe there's a way to do that, but I wasn't aware of that.
[14:08] But David, Eric, Senator, are you, have you seen that where the employer actually?
[14:18] Well, I thought the charter one did that.
[14:22] So what technically happens is, you know, charter one, the military academy, APA, technically
[14:29] what you end up doing is signing because this is Wall Street stuff, right?
[14:33] You have to have a Series 7 license to invest in Wall Street and manage investments and all
[14:37] that.
[14:37] So the charter school will go ahead and do a contract with an independent firm and that firm is the one that will actually
[14:44] Take the funds set up all the accounts and then you know take the matches and do the investment and so it's that private entity that becomes
[14:52] You know fluid between different entities and you know with with with charter one they might be large enough.
[15:00] If I don't know this, Jordan might know this, that they may have their very own investment office with individuals that have series sevens. But it's that, you know, it's the fact that you are going to different entities that allows you to, you know, very easily go from one place to another with your 401K.
[15:19] And then how I was able to phone a friend in our HR department. So I have some very high level numbers. I won't be able to answer the investment question of David's bottom.
[15:30] Essentially, our most typical plan, and I say typical because it is up to the board's
[15:35] discretion.
[15:37] So when we go in to determine the 401K plan, there is some flexibility where we can kind
[15:44] of adjust the needs of Cambridge, not Cambridge, enzyme to the needs of the campus.
[15:51] And so ultimately, our most common approach to the employer matches $0.50 per dollar up
[15:57] to 6%. Employees can contribute as much as they want, but after they go above 6%, we would
[16:08] cap our match to be at 3%. We heard earlier 3.5 to get to 7. Who was that that said that?
[16:23] So it varies and that was, I said, don't quote me on that, sorry, I was trying to remember
[16:30] some numbers there. But we do have some varying campuses where there's a campus in North
[16:39] Carolina that matches a higher percentage or they match closer to the percentage that
[16:47] the employee matches rather than a decent on the dollar, it could be higher than that.
[16:50] I don't know those details, however, there is a level of discretion that the board gets
[16:57] to have when a proven 401k plan.
[17:00] So our HR department benefits team when they're putting this together, they'll give a very
[17:06] thorough presentation to the board, let you guys know your options.
[17:11] We do market analysis, so we'll understand what.
[17:14] More details will be shared with what the state pension plan looks like, as well as
[17:20] what our competitors are doing, and so if APA is doing 4%, and that's the competitive
[17:24] market, then they might come in with a recommendation to be competitive in the Utah market.
[17:34] Thank you for that.
[17:37] So Matt, I think it was you who said that the state retirement system is 24% or is that what
[17:47] you said?
[17:48] I've heard 27, 28 since I've never actually done it.
[17:51] I don't know, but it's generally everybody quotes that range.
[17:54] It's extremely high with the defined contribution plan.
[18:03] And what share of that is the employer is the employee that I don't know.
[18:09] I've always I think it's a rule that I do have a screen shot.
[18:15] Um, so based on my understanding and again, I have not done this research
[18:20] And I would kind of rely on our benefits team to give you more solid numbers here, but
[18:25] based on my very, very short understanding employee contribution rate is less than 1%.
[18:31] And the employer contribution rate is 10%.
[18:35] And so it leans very heavily on the employer and the employee doesn't have to contribute
[18:42] very much.
[18:44] That's what you taught.
[18:48] That's what I thought it was more in the neighborhood of 10%.
[18:52] Well, and that may have changed when you folks started going from gas P to gas B and defined contribution not defined benefit.
[19:05] So if it's only 10%, I'm not comfortable making a decision at this point to not opt in to the state retirement plan.
[19:18] And we have time to study it more fully so that we make a fully informed decision.
[19:24] That would be my preference that we move this to another agenda so that we can have
[19:31] all the facts in front of us.
[19:33] And I agree with that and we should get Jordan's presentation from his retirement group
[19:44] So just as a lead up to that decision.
[19:48] Yeah, they'll be able to share what exactly the numbers are for the state pension plan,
[19:53] as well as what we can come in and what our competitive advantage will be.
[19:57] They'll be able to highlight some existing campuses and how we've been able to still be aggressive
[20:02] and recruiting top talent and kind of filling our bench with employees.
[20:08] So I'll just reach out to them and when we get a new board meeting on this schedule, I'll
[20:14] make sure that they're prepared to present that to the board.
[20:16] Now, the next question is, and I think I probably know the answer, but it needs to be asked.
[20:22] And that is, if we opt in to the state system, does that mean that everyone is required to be in it?
[20:29] We cannot have a mix of state and private.
[20:32] Correct.
[20:34] Once you opt in, you cannot opt out.
[20:36] Well, that's not the question.
[20:38] Question can you have a mix, a mix of state and private?
[20:42] Yeah, we'll get that answer for you.
[20:46] I'd like to also know if you can find out Jordan, why it is that once you opt to not
[20:53] participate, that you cannot opt to participate in the future, I don't get that kind of standard
[21:01] or vice versa.
[21:03] I think it's pretty kind of a little ridiculous, just either way, if you're already opted in
[21:10] And then you can't opt out and vice versa, I feel like flexibility would be more beneficial
[21:16] to campuses to kind of keep track of their finances if they need to make an adjustment
[21:22] because it's costing them too much.
[21:24] They should be able to do that.
[21:25] But can you get the Utah code references, get your benefits team to give us the code references
[21:33] so that we can look at those before their presentation?
[21:37] Absolutely.
[21:38] The code references that prohibit opting in later or opting out once you opt in.
[21:45] Absolutely.
[21:46] Okay, great.
[21:48] Thank you.
[21:49] Are we ready to move to item C?
[21:54] If there's no objection, we'll move to item C, review of marketing actions through March 1st, 2026.
[22:02] And next, next meeting, we hope to have a more full description of what marketing plans are going forward so that we have full enrollment by fall of 2027.
[22:21] Go ahead, Matt.
[22:22] Okay, and now I'm just waiting one moment. Well, so what idea does it reach out to Melody Hudson who is our marketing heads the whole marketing team.
[22:31] And once you put together is all of the marketing activities that have taken place since we begin this, the very end of July 1st week of August until roughly March 1st.
[22:42] And so you can see some of the basic numbers.
[22:46] So we've had 882 leads.
[22:48] We've spent about 18, almost 19,000.
[22:50] We've had over 18,000 clicks, 1.3 million impressions
[22:54] and a reach of 122,000.
[22:57] What are impressions?
[22:59] So impressions means that it showed up on various,
[23:03] so 1.3 million different times these ads were seen.
[23:08] And I'm not quite on.
[23:11] Correct, correct. And then the ad clicks, so they clicked on it, went to our site, and then our leads of, you know, the next step after that is the leads of 882.
[23:23] So what does reach mean?
[23:26] That number I'm not positive of.
[23:29] So we basically paid a dollar per ad click.
[23:33] Pretty close.
[23:35] No, we had 1.3 million impressions that showed up, that popped up, on social media, for
[23:44] different people, for whom, who fit the criteria, basically a geographic criteria.
[23:52] We paid $1 per ad click, which produced 882 people actually expressing an interest.
[24:08] Those would typically have an average of two children, so if all of them followed through,
[24:17] we would have more than our capacity for the first year already, but not all of them do follow through.
[24:27] Lots of things happen between fall of 2005 and fall of 2007 or 25 and 27.
[24:38] And keeping in mind we're a full year ahead and getting, so two things, getting parents
[24:43] to like it, super excited, you know, a full year in advance is a challenge.
[24:48] And to have this much response, a full year plus in advance is like pretty significant.
[24:53] The other one, I'm not a marketing expert, I've done this for, you know, going on 20 years.
[24:58] The one thing that I've heard from marketing experts is that people need to see an ad
[25:03] an average of seven times before they even stop to think about what they're looking at, right?
[25:08] So they'll see the hamburger add somewhere in number 678. They'll stop and think that's actually
[25:12] a hamburger. And then they start thinking, is it juicy? Do they like bacon? All that kind of stuff.
[25:17] So the very repetitive nature is important. And so what's going to happen is we continue to run ads.
[25:25] We're going to see the rate of click-throughs, you know, generating leads will just increase over time.
[25:32] So and and melody when she does that full presentation next next month she can go into a lot more detail but you can see like the pattern down here.
[25:42] Of just daily and like like why we have a spike right here I have no idea.
[25:48] And of course it started off pretty hot and heavy but.
[25:51] And then if you can still see my screen hold on just a second I just wanted to comment that that.
[25:57] before the internet direct mail was how people got their messages out and the
[26:05] research showed that you needed at least six direct mail pieces from an
[26:12] advertiser to get people to for
[26:23] any direct it
[26:29] was but it was much much less than
[26:31] percent. Yeah. Okay, so let's go to what the ads were. Yeah, and so you see the style that they've
[26:42] found great success with you if you now start paying attention on social media to schools that
[26:47] do advertising like I had a style that I did with the military academy that was super effective
[26:52] and but it had a different audience and so what they've gone with is this approach and they fill
[26:58] their schools everywhere they go with. And so it's a very simple clean message, simple fonts,
[27:05] simple colors. And, you know, so those are the basics. And you even see, I hope you can see,
[27:13] we've got two of them running now. Join our interest list, two different versions of it.
[27:18] Now, as I look at that, we're committing to an opening on a date. And the first question that I
[27:27] would ask regarding that is what's our progress on that piece of land so that
[27:34] would be a closed session conversation and there's you know there is some
[27:39] updates on all of that but and we do that then before we've done here today yeah
[27:45] that's what it is to go into a closed 50's okay thank you so can you go down
[27:53] and that's the end of it. That's just those, those four things popped up. No, there's a lot more
[28:01] to show you. Melody's pretty awesome. So here's the next one. And this is a presentation. This,
[28:09] when we were doing the information sessions, this is what was created. So it's just some background.
[28:15] It was updated as we worked with the state and updated, you know, to the 1535. And you'll notice
[28:22] right here. Locations, Saratoga Springs, West Lake, Eagle Mountain,
[28:25] Cedar Valley. Once we have a campus, then all of our advertising is going to
[28:29] change to more exact. And as we get more exact information, the responses will go
[28:34] up. There's everybody's beautiful picture.
[28:38] Yeah, we lost you there. We lost you there, Matt, for
[28:40] probably a second or so. David, let's go through the chair.
[28:48] Matt, did you know that we couldn't hear you?
[28:51] No, I apologize. I was not aware.
[28:56] Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can hear you now. So start over.
[29:00] Okay. This is a slide deck that we put together and we were using a version of this for all the
[29:06] open houses we did. It's been updated to the numbers approved by the state. I believe, but anyway,
[29:15] so you can see, you know, the, I'll just skim through this really quick. But you can see the focus,
[29:21] right? Patriotically years, rigorous academics, college readiness, extracurricular and service projects.
[29:28] We go over the curriculum. And it's a question for Melody as we have a location we get into
[29:35] that year. Melody will point out that the standard, the successes that they really begin the
[29:42] aggressive marketing a year before opening. So this coming August, September, somewhere in there,
[29:47] Melody is going to start doing that. I'm not positive and that's what she'll
[29:51] present next month like if they change their ads up to where they're
[29:56] addressing like curriculum and add specifically on curriculum.
[30:00] One specifically on extracurricular. Um, but those would be great questions for melody. And so the raise values, of course, we always put those everywhere. And then we have a little embedded video, but I'm not going to play that. Um, and then a some sheet.
[30:18] So, and then this young man right here, LaLonnie, Hunsaker's joined us. And so I'm just going to brag up LaLonnie and her boy. Her boy got picked. He was recruited by BYU, but he got picked up on a full ride in NIL and all that by the University of Pittsburgh.
[30:31] but he is a graduate of ALA and their athletic program.
[30:35] And so he has a little video that he does
[30:37] and he talks about his experience at ALA
[30:39] and how it really contributed to where he's at now.
[30:43] And so, and then we have,
[30:45] this is my son-in-law's Facebook page.
[30:48] So, if you see up here on the go auto,
[30:50] that's my son-in-law.
[30:52] Anyway, but this is just an example.
[30:54] They're not an example.
[30:55] If you go to enzyme leadership academy,
[30:58] you'll see that, you know, this is what you'll see.
[31:00] we have all these pictures here and each one of these pictures, it's a photo collection inside
[31:05] Facebook, but you'll know that all of these correspond with all of these postings.
[31:11] And so the what charter one does in their marketing is, as you can see, Martin Luther King,
[31:15] the year of Christmas, they always keep a steady stream of activities posted on social media.
[31:22] And then when the school is open and we have, you know, students get scholarships or athletics or
[31:27] back to school nights. They'll have different ads for that. So they keep extremely busy,
[31:32] but they do really sharp ads. So they're constantly delivering an enzyme message into the community.
[31:38] And then they have a corresponding
[31:42] Instagram page. And so when they publish, I'm not positive on this, but when they publish on one,
[31:48] it'll show up on the other. And I think if they publish on Facebook, it automatically shows up on
[31:52] Instagram. I'm not sure if it's the reverse.
[31:57] Don't scroll down. Can you click on that more?
[32:01] Over. Toys should free more. What do we see when we click on more?
[32:08] Oh, forgive me. Oh, right here. Yes. The more. See Voters, videos, and such, continue with
[32:15] faces. So it takes us back to Facebook. Well, so it would just be the same phone. It's not anything
[32:22] more than just that? Correct. So Facebook owns Instagram, and so there's this seamless connection
[32:29] between the two. I know that, but well, the more now shows, join our interest list, which did not
[32:38] show before. Okay. Is there a reason that we don't invite them to join our interest list
[32:46] before they have to click on more? Well, and there may be, but as you can see, if you can see the
[32:51] log in and sign up. This is like kind of a generic public account. My guess is that once
[32:57] you've logged in and it's like your Instagram Howard, some of these links will probably
[33:02] be active as my guest. Because clearly like, well, not clearly, but I, I mean, like an
[33:08] interject. Yeah. Yeah. This is a computer view. Instagram is meant to be a mobile device.
[33:15] And so just the way it's set up on a computer is not very reflective of how it's going to
[33:21] show up on your phone. So I just pulled it up on my phone. You don't have to click
[33:24] more, and there's a link that we click.
[33:27] To sign up to the interest list.
[33:30] Yep. Great. Terrific. Thank you.
[33:34] Good deal. Thanks, Jordan.
[33:37] Okay. So you can see all those. And then these right here, if you can see these.
[33:41] So this is where we started the information center. So we had them at the barn, the broadband
[33:46] community center, and Lehigh them back to the barn.
[33:48] And so every time that we did an activity, we posted melody and routine posted one of these they create the add the post and they pay some money. I don't know how much melody will know that and blast him out into the public.
[34:00] And so our interest list, which is broken a thousand, I believe, families, you know, it's primarily almost exclusively coming from these social media contacts.
[34:13] And then I have right here, this is more detail on the actual information sessions.
[34:21] And so you can see, and to Jordan's point, I'm guessing the reason you have all the
[34:26] gray on the left and the right is that, as Jordan says, this is designed for like not
[34:32] first desktop computers.
[34:34] And so I could see how this would fit really nice on a smartphone and it does have the click
[34:39] here to RSVP.
[34:41] Okay, so I'm on our Facebook page and the two top lines and sign leadership academy
[34:51] coming soon to the Saratox Springs Eagle Mountain area are all shown and then
[34:56] you have to click on more to see the tuition-free K-12 public charter school
[35:01] join our interest list.
[35:05] Do you know is there a limit of two lines that are that's
[35:11] That's a great question for Melody.
[35:12] I don't know.
[35:13] Maybe Jordan knows.
[35:17] If there's a way of getting join our interest list to show up without having to click on
[35:23] C more, that would be valuable.
[35:27] But let's move on.
[35:30] Okay.
[35:31] And then, and actually that's the information.
[35:33] So your request, Howard, what have we done thus far?
[35:39] And so as of now.
[35:40] And so then what melody is preparing is she can answer all the questions on this, but she's going to lay out a pretty good road map of what will happen all the way through the first day of school probably through August, October 1, which is the last data register for schools of 2027 correct.
[36:00] So are we doing anything for pop-up ads between now and you say in August
[36:14] will begin in earnest? Are we doing anything between now and August?
[36:23] I know that they still have and I'm just going to my Instagram right now. I know
[36:28] that they still have, it still shows up on my feed periodically, and that tells me that
[36:33] they still have some kind of active things going on.
[36:39] But that's how we add active Howard, we don't want it to go cold, then we want to continue
[36:45] growing the interest list as we continue to grow.
[36:48] The August reference is really just when we're going to increase span and go really hard with
[36:54] advertising.
[36:55] So, we'll have some more dates, we'll start advertising for open enrollment, encouraging
[37:00] families to stay tuned.
[37:04] As we make progress towards opening as well, secure land, anything regarding the facility,
[37:11] we want to be timely on those, so we're not going to wait till August to announce anything.
[37:16] We want it to be organic.
[37:17] So, as we kind of pass milestones in this opening, there will be posts that will be associated
[37:24] with those milestones just to continue and keep the interest alive and keep building.
[37:31] So, for example, if in the next four weeks we get a site
[37:38] and we actually have that site secured, we would then have a pop-up that would say
[37:46] and signed Leadership Academy Location announced and then say all this other stuff and
[37:53] join our interest list. Yep, we're excited to announce this is going to be our location.
[38:00] Just stuff to keep people engaged and to keep them following and to show that progress is being made
[38:04] right now. Parents don't have a lot to go off of other than hey, we say we're opening in 27,
[38:11] but questions are where are you going to be opening?
[38:15] What is the building look like?
[38:16] How am I going to drive there?
[38:18] Is there transportation offered?
[38:20] All these questions are lingering,
[38:21] and so people will get on the interest list to stay tuned
[38:24] for those questions to be answered.
[38:27] So we definitely want to keep the interest list alive
[38:31] by giving updates to those.
[38:33] So not only will it be like a pop-up or a boosted post
[38:36] through social media,
[38:37] but we would also send updates to the interest list
[38:39] through our constant contact, which is kind of a distribution email service.
[38:44] So that anybody on the interest list gets newsletters and updates as we make these checkpoints.
[38:51] That's great.
[38:52] So, I imagine there could be a place when we, there would be artist rendition when we get
[39:00] that ready of what the campus is going to look like and that kind of thing.
[39:05] So every opportunity we have to announce something new, we will.
[39:09] Yes, that is, that's how we typically do it. We want to, we want to be timely,
[39:14] we want to take advantage of those organic moments that generate interest.
[39:18] So like when when Charter One brings to the board and you hire the school leader, you know,
[39:23] Charter One hires a school leader, but you, but one like that person comes online, they'll do a blast
[39:27] just on them. I've seen them do that with school leaders and they're just really good at keeping
[39:32] and that buzz going? Yeah. Right now we're opening a campus in a Apache
[39:36] junction Arizona and the directors are about every other week they're doing
[39:43] social media updates where they're just following each other with their
[39:46] iPhones and they're giving campus tours of the construction. Hey look at this
[39:50] our gym floor is going in how exciting is that and it's just the intent is to
[39:55] keep interest very very high and and just let the community know what's going on
[39:59] and so there's not as many questions.
[40:01] Well, I love Apache Junction.
[40:03] I've written horses on superstition mountain
[40:07] right there at Apache Junction.
[40:09] So maybe when I'm down there writing again,
[40:12] you could kind of incorporate that into the announcement.
[40:17] Just, you know, let's do it, Howard.
[40:19] If you fall off the horse front page,
[40:22] we'll just have to put you in an ALA shirt.
[40:24] Yes.
[40:26] Okay. Any other questions about marketing, anticipating that we're going to have a more
[40:33] full description in our next meeting? No.
[40:41] Okay. Do we still have a quorum?
[40:45] Let's make sure. Yeah. We do. Okay. We still haven't heard from Stephanie.
[40:51] I have. Stephanie's airplane. Her flight was delayed and thus she's in the air. So I'm getting a text about every three minutes from her, but I'll brief her when she's lands.
[41:04] I thought her executive jet had a Wi-Fi capacity.
[41:10] one. That'd be awesome. Never mind attempt at human again. Okay if there's no other comments and
[41:21] I don't see it requires no action. Let's go to item D board meeting calendar through 2027 and here's
[41:31] what you would get if you clicked on that link. Is that correct Matt? Correct. Hopefully it's showing on
[41:38] screen it should be an active, it's embedded in the agenda if that's what
[41:42] your referencing. Right, but not on your screen. I couldn't click on your
[41:47] screen that you just showed us to get this to show up. That's what I was pointing
[41:51] out. So any of these dates you think that we need to be concerned about, I think
[42:08] I'm thinking, does the July 4th celebration with people traveling and that kind of thing,
[42:15] I guess to do it the following, Wednesday would kind of be just as close to the July 4th
[42:24] weekend that had just passed, so this will be the July 4th weekend before it, any thoughts
[42:30] about that?
[42:32] I'm thinking that on any given date as it comes up closer to it that a board member can say,
[42:41] hey, I've got an issue there and we can do a one-off change if we need to, but I wouldn't suspect
[42:49] that we can go through this whole list and do that now. Yeah, okay, good, good advice.
[42:55] So Matt, I have never been able to get an ELA meeting populate my calendar without
[43:05] going through some extensive work. Is there a way that is it just me or is
[43:12] everybody else does do these meetings? Populate your calendar and you see it right
[43:17] there and you accept it on your calendar versus your email.
[43:22] Do you know why he came out this time?
[43:24] It was one of the first for me, Howard, where I could click.
[43:28] It did populate in my calendar outlook.
[43:33] So if I can speak to that as well, since our managed schools are under the G Suite, Google,
[43:40] Gmail, all board members, if you don't already have one, you should be getting a board email
[43:46] address.
[43:47] And we'll make sure our IT team sets you up with those.
[43:52] At a certain point, we'll transition from Zoom to Google Meet's, since everything speaks
[43:58] very cleanly with each other through Google email, Gmail and all of that.
[44:03] And so that problem would be taken care of at that point, Howard, where whenever we have
[44:08] these board meetings, they'll automatically populate under your calendar, thank you.
[44:12] So that means we will need to shift to Google Calendar instead of the Apple Calendar that we might be using.
[44:22] Or just sync your Apple Calendar with the new Gmail.
[44:26] So I use Apple on my Apple devices, but all of my emails are Gmail sweet owned and automatically syncs up.
[44:35] And so we can make sure that you guys are hooked up so that when you do get an invite, it populates on your calendar so you can find it.
[44:41] Can we ask you, before our next board meeting, to get with each of the five board members
[44:49] and make sure we are synced that way?
[44:54] Yes, that's just somebody from Charter 1 to do that.
[44:56] The RITU team will be reaching out with your emails and...
[45:00] And instructions on getting those set up. And then if you need help, we can have them give you calls as well to walk you through it. David Erickson, you had a comment? Oh, I just did pretty much go that same route and say we're all a bunch of old old school guys and we need help with that. So, Jordan's going to arrange that. That's great. I'll see if we're not screened just to be yourself, David.
[45:27] Are you saying you're your computer nerd already?
[45:32] No, not that great.
[45:35] Jordan, what were you saying?
[45:37] I was just saying we're no strangers to setting people up and making sure that they
[45:42] understand how to use the Gmail and that it's connected to their phones and connected to
[45:48] their calendars.
[45:49] So we want to be able to have everybody on the same platform protect the board through
[45:54] a board email so that your personal emails aren't tacked onto any board or school stuff and so
[46:01] we'll take care of you. Great. Thank you. And I'm anticipating that we will be able to get
[46:07] these dates to populate well in advance of the board meetings. Maybe the whole list
[46:14] populating so that as well as the first Wednesday of each month, it'll be a recurring meeting
[46:19] that we'll go through and it will be set up and managed.
[46:23] Any alteration to the board meeting will be able to go in and update that.
[46:30] So if we need to change the date, it'll be reflected on your calendar.
[46:34] And we'll just be compliant and all the aspects of that.
[46:38] Okay. Let's have you work with Matt about transitioning to Google Meets
[46:44] for our future meetings.
[46:45] what point we're going to do that, so that's a smooth transition.
[46:49] After we all get up and running, regardless of our age,
[46:53] on making this transition.
[46:58] Absolutely.
[47:00] Okay.
[47:01] We do need a motion on this item.
[47:04] Okay. David, Erickson.
[47:07] A motion to do what?
[47:10] Just to prove the calendar.
[47:12] here. Oh, okay. Let's have a motion. That's approved the calendar. I move. Okay.
[47:21] And Richard seconds. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I'll place the motion. Those
[47:27] in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. The motion passes unanimously. So we're back
[47:37] Back on other items, does anybody have any other items before we go into our closed session
[47:49] to discuss the RFP for AMO services and potential property purchases?
[47:59] Go ahead.
[48:00] No.
[48:04] Okay.
[48:05] Good.
[48:05] But then we need to close or do we go into recess on this meeting because we have to come
[48:13] back in the official meeting before we end.
[48:18] So Matt, what is the proper protocol for going into executive session?
[48:26] What the standard is is I'll go ahead and read the closed executive session statement and
[48:32] And then we will state the purposes that we're going to executive, then we'll go into executive
[48:36] session with the votes, and then when we come out.
[48:40] So we don't need to recess, we'll just be okay.
[48:47] So in reading the statement, the board will consider a motion to close the meeting to hold
[48:52] a strategy session to discuss pending a reasonable imminent litigation and or to discuss the purchase,
[48:58] Just purchase exchange release of real property and or the character.
[49:02] Professional confidence or physical or mental health of individuals in conformance with 524204.
[49:09] And it should be noted that we are going into discuss contracts and properties and such.
[49:17] Okay. Does someone make that motion?
[49:22] Or do we just do it?
[49:23] You just say, I so move.
[49:26] Okay. I so move.
[49:29] and Richard. I second that motion. We have a motion on a second to go into closed executive
[49:39] session. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. The motion passes unanimously.
[49:46] So now we will end this recording at about time, 459.