Future Meeting Schedule
01/13/09 at 7PM
(Please note, second Tuesday of the month due to holiday season)
02/03/09 at 7PM
03/03/09 at 7PM
04/07/09 at 7PM
05/12/09 at 7PM
(Please note, second Tuesday of the month)
06/02/09 at 7PM
07/07/09 at 7PM
ATTENDANTS: Elke Miller, Kami Cotler, Jose Gonzalez, Luci Fowers, Kirsten Paul
Meeting called to order at 7:26 pm by Elke Miller
AGENDA ITEM 1: DECISION TO OPEN SEPTEMBER 2008 OR SEPTEMBER 2009
At the last board meeting we decided to make the decision to move ahead for September 2008 depending on the following items being in place by today:
Lease, letter of intent
72 students committed to enroll
2 German teachers secured
Money to bridge gap between now and Walton Grant
Principal: can we get her back
ENROLLMENT: Target and break-even point were 72 kids, 70 committed parents as of today, 41 Kindergarten, 11 1st, 4 2nd graders, 14 3rd graders. We had 99 applicants for Westchester. We expect some attrition so we have to some outreach in that neighborhood. New neighborhood has good schools and a number of religious schools. Considering recruiting people later in the year is that the nature of the student body shifts to more difficult students. German teacher can’t teach unsupervised until they have their emergency credential, so we would have to have a credentialed teacher in the classroom with them.
TEACHERS: We have recruited 2.5 German speaking teachers but unfortunately they have not yet taken their CBEST and would not be able to teach without another credentialed teacher in the room until they will have passed the CBEST.
FACILITY: Robertson/Pico, with 4 floors with 4 rooms each, boys and girls bathroom, office, small outdoors but there is a park (which would mean crossing two big streets). Craigslist price was $ 3 per square foot and they wanted to rent out the whole building. We only need 1 floor, put an offer to the landlord, they came back with a counter offer: $ 4 per square foot i.e. $ 12,000 gross. We gave another counter offer of $ 9,500 and did not hear back for 4 days after that.
BRIDGE LOAN MONEY: Loan money that has been offered will enable us to bridge the gap between now and Walton money arrival.
PRINICPAL: has been in a holding pattern, waiting for GICS to be a certainty, for months. After Westchester site fell through she committed to return to her job at Albert Einstein Academy. Her first work day there is August 25th She has also registered for her last semester for her Administration Credential. She is truly conflicted, ethically she has committed to Albert Einstein. Because there are still so many unknowns for GICS, she would need her GICS salary guaranteed for the first year.
Luci Fowers explains the level of involvement and workload required to open GICS in such a short period of time. It would require 50 volunteers in addition to Greta, Luci, and 2 paid helpers. The school has to look and feel like a school for the portion of families who are not invested and expect the school to be set up.
Opening 2009 with 4th grade: charter was written with a timeline that says 2009/2010 says K – 4th grade. 4th grade would need an adjustment, it could not be 50/50, but would have to be 70/30 or 80/20.
Miller motions to postpone opening of the school until September 2009.
Paul seconds motion
Motion carries. Elke, Kirsten, Jose and Kami voted in favor. Nobody opposed
