ACES/Arena Community Elementary School Governing Council Meeting Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Arena Elementary School Board Members Present Courtney Norton, Bob Johnson, Kari Gribble, Monica Reeve Board Members Absent Eric Ferguson Guests Present Jean Alt, Karen Wilkinson, Rita Radtke, Deb Miller I. Opening Items Call the Meeting to Order Courtney Norton called a meeting of the Governing Council of ACES to order on Tuesday, October 28 2014 at 6:40 pm at Arena Elementary. Approve Minutes Monica Reeve made a motion to approve minutes. Bob Johnson seconded the motion. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. II. Annual Meeting Appointment of new members Eric Ferguson officially resigned his position as President on the council which concurrently happened at the expiration of his term (October). He had filled 1 of the 3 community member positions. Community member representatives cannot have a student in ACES and can be from anywhere in the River Valley District. We had 2 guests attend the meeting that were interested in contributing to the ACES governing council. Rita Radkte indicated she would like to assist the council in improving and expanding communication within the community. She is not currently interested in serving on the council but would be willing to serve on a Public Relations/Communications Committee and serve as a community communication liaison where she could aid in the writing of articles and newsletters. She could also assist with some additional outreach to parents and the community to ensure that they understand what ACES is and how the change in teaching models could benefit the greater community. Deb Miller is a candidate for the open council seat that was vacated by Eric Ferguson. She was very involved in the creation of the Spring Green Studio School. She has attended numerous conferences and workshops surrounding charter schools and has a really strong background in charter school development. She has specific interest in aiding ACES with technology related items and is currently working on her Master s degree.
A motion to accept Deb Miller on ACES governing council was made by Bob Johnson. Second by Monica Reeve. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. Appointment of officers A motion to appoint Courtney Norton as President was made by Bob Johnson. Second by Monica Reeve. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. A motion to appoint Monica Reeve as Vice President was made by Courtney Norton. Second by Bob Johnson. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. A motion to appoint Bob Johnson as Treasurer was made by Monica Reeve. Second by Deb Miller. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. A motion to appoint Kari Gribble as Secretary was made by Monica Reeve. Second by Bob Johnson. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. Set meeting day and time Meetings will continue to be held on the 4 th Tuesday of each month. Financial Report - Combined financial report and budget $73,154 has been spent thus far of implementation grant. III. Academic Excellence Curriculum/schedule Project Lead the Way continues to be challenging. All students are now rostered and can utilize it. This should become easier as the staff and students become more familiar with it. Legos are going well. The 5 th grade organized the Lego kits and have practiced making levers. All students were engaged and working well with partners. The 1 st graders also successfully have used them. Several other stem activities are also being done in all the classrooms. Jean Alt attended a STEM conference in Madison and spoke with a CESA 2 (Madison) representative. We are under CESA 3 (Fennimore) and were encouraged to partner with our CESA 3 rep about identifying ways to how incorporate STEM into other areas of ACES curriculum. Responsive classroom is going very well. Students are focused and ready to learn. We have received a lot of great feedback from guests in the building regarding the behavior and attentiveness of the ACES students. Responsive Classroom training will be held November 3, 2014 and led by Tina Miller for all of the RV Elementary schools. She visited ACES in the afternoon.
PBIS training was on November 6 and 7. Originally ACES was not going to participate in the training, however, Karen Wilkinson will now attend. We will plan to use the components of it that fit the mission and vision of ACES. ACES will not be utilizing the rewards component. A Teacher Led Building video conference will be held on October 29 with Tim, Dee, Jean, Karen attending. Paul Tweed from Augusta will discuss the development of Wildlands School, a very self-sufficient school model. Teachers are still struggling to find time to meet and collaborate. We discussed bringing in community members in from 2-3:15pm twice a month to discuss STEM related topics that would provide time for staff collaboration. We might consider splitting k-2 and then 3-5 as separate groups or doing a round robin format. * Courtney Norton investigate some potential community members that could come to ACES to present and engage the students. *Rita Radkte will also include a call for assistance in our new communication pieces. Deb Miller injected that the Spring Green Studio School had delayed start every Wednesday to provide collaboration time. Parents supervised the students during this time. Another option could be having scheduled early release days. We will continue to investigate ways to encourage and facilitate collaboration. IV. Development Technology report Tera, Riley, Jean met with Aaron Halverson, technology consultant, hired under the grant to help with immediate tech needs. He may have Fridays free in November and December. They will ask each teacher submit a list of things that they could use assistance with and will prioritize from there. Survey results We reviewed results from all 3 surveys: staff, parents, students. There were responses from 58 parents, 15 staff members and 69 students. The results were mostly positive with some areas for discussion. After reviewing the parent surveys, we noted that parents are willing to help more at ACES but they might not know what areas need assistance or how to get involved. We discussed creating a volunteer coordinator position that could provide parents with a list of opportunities and develop a schedule. We recommend that the communications committee use some quotes from the surveys in their communication pieces. V. Finance - Combined financial report and budget $73,154 has been spent thus far of implementation grant. VI. Governance Report on Meeting with River Valley Administration
Jamie Hegland, Jon Novak, Jean Alt, Tom Wermuth and Courtney Norton met to discuss topics raised in our letter which focused on 3 main topics: custodial staffing, responsiveness to technology needs and the desire for better communication. Custodial times had been originally agreed upon as 6-2:30 by all custodians. As a paid hourly employee, Charlie White cannot volunteer his time nor can he receive comp time or alter his hours without approval. He could, however, take an extended lunch which would allow him to be here at the end of the day. That doesn t address the issue of what happens with vomit or other needs that arise while he is out of the building. We have concerns about teachers needing to leave their classrooms to deal with biohazards etc. *Courtney Norton will email Jamie Hegland and Tom Wermuth to see what progress is being made about adjusting custodial hours. The remaining computers were configured and delivered the day after the meeting so no outsourcing was necessary. The RV admin team was not interested in having an ACES representative attend the RV Administrative meetings to provide updates. Jamie Hegland believes that now he is at ACES on Fridays, he has a good understanding of what is going on in the building and can relay that to the rest of the admin team. Overall communication is better than it was last year. This is still an area where we would like to improve and will continue to seek ways to do that. We are still looking for ways for all the elementary schools to better communicate with each other. One idea is to develop a district happenings newsletter where all the schools can share innovative approaches and school accomplishments. We recognize that this needs to be approached sensitively to not create an our school is better than your school environment. We would like to continue the dialogue about this option again in the future. Trainings On December 5, 2014 Bob Johnson and a school representative will attend DPI training. On November 17, 2014 from 9am 2 pm Courtney Norton and Monica Reeve will attend Governance training in Madison at the ISN office. On November 4 from 9am-11am Kari Gribble and Courtney Norton will attend a video conference on charter school law by ISN. Jean will confirm all the details. Communication Committee Rita and Courtney will collaborate about some of the communication ideas mentioned earlier. They will brainstorm methods for disseminating information about ACES including what STEM is and highlighting some of our activities. Some avenues may include the Home News, creating a Facebook page or updating the current ACES website. We would also like to connect with businesses about doing presentations and/or providing monetary support. We may also want to partner with the ACES PTO to develop some communication pieces. 501(c) (3) status
Bob Johnson did some research about ACES potentially seeking 501(c)(3) IRS status. Under this status all chartable income is tax exempt, 501(c)(3) bonds could be issued and we could solicit donations from foundations that exclusively give to 501(c)(3) organizations. There are a number of costs involved with this including the application fee, registration fee, and annual audit fees. There is also considerable more burdensome recordkeeping requirements. Because River Valley School District is already a tax exempt organization and has approved the use of a separate account for ACES, at this time Bob recommends that ACES stay under the RV umbrella and not seek individual 501(c)(3) status. Community Outreach We are looking for ways to bring talents from the River Valley area into ACES. *Courtney will reach out to some potential willing participants. *Jean will touch base with Cardinal Glass to see how we can partner with them and how they could potentially participate in some ACES activities. We discussed developing a PowerPoint presentation that can be shared with potential partners so they have a better understanding of what ACES is and what the mission and vision are. This could be used in conjunction with tiered approach on how they can contribute.ie. time, talents, monetarily VI. Other Business General comment None Action items *Courtney and Jean will contact some potential business partners or community members that could come in to present and engage the students. *Courtney will email Jamie Hegland and Tom Wermuth to see what progress is being made about adjusting custodial hours. *Rita will include a call for assistance in our new communication pieces. *Kari will send approved minutes to Joannie Harrington to be posted on ACES webpage. *Kari will send prior meeting minutes to Deb Miller at debmiller@cornerstones.org. Set agenda for next meeting Next meeting will be Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Arena Community Elementary School. Preliminary Agenda 11/25/14 at 6:30 at ACES 1. Approval of minutes 2. Budget 3. Governance training reports 4. General public comment
5. Set agenda for next meeting 6. Adjourn VII. Closing Items Adjourn Meeting There being no further business to be transacted. A motion was made by Bob Johnson and Second by Monica to adjourn the meeting. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 9:21 pm. Respectfully submitted, Kari Gribble