INTERNATIONAL SPANISH LANGUAGE ACADEMY
ISLA BOARD MINUTES
June 26, 2007
CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:05 PM
ISLA BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Karen Terhaar (Start-Up Coordinator), Melody Brombacher, Rolf Brombacher, Lily Johnson, Jenny Brockman, Mark Mathison, Molly Quinn, Sonia Miller-Van Oort, Steve Semler, Michael Valley, Kerry Krawczyk-LeMieux
HOPKINS REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT: Michele Luke ex-oficio
VISITOR(S):
ISLA BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Angie Cabrera
MOTION TO APPROVE PREVIOUS BOARD MINUTES
Melody moved, Lily seconded, passed.
MOTION TO APPROVE TONIGHT’S AGENDA
Moved, Rolf seconded, motion carried.
Patrick tendered his resignation earlier in the day,
MOTION
Sonia moved to accept Patrick’s resignation, Michael seconded, motion approved.
AMENDMENT
Amendment to tonight’s agenda:
Rolf moved to amend tonight’s agenda including Patrick’s resignation and addition of new Board members, Steve seconded, motion approved.
INTRODUCTIONS
Melody – new Board Chair, Personnel Committee
Rolf – Finance Committee
Michele Luke – ex-oficio from Hopkins, returning to previous position
Diane Schimelpfenig - taking Michele’s place as our sponsor rep and will act as ex oficio Board member
Sonia Miller-Van Oort – parent, new Board member
Michael Valley – parent, new Board member
Steve Semler – parent, new Board member, Personnel Committee
Lily – new Vice Chair, Communications Committee, Personnel Committee
Jenny – Finance Committee
Mark – Facility Committee, Personnel & contracts support
Kerry – Personnel and Communications Committee
PERSONNEL
We have very strong candidates.
New staff members, Sarah Petersohn (1st Grade) and Jorge Gonzalez (Music/Phy Ed), toured ISLA today with Molly and Karen.
Briana Boeser (3rd/4th Grade multi-age classroom) has been volunteering and working via contracted services.
Briana has signed an “Intent to Hire” form.
Karen - Details to address regarding Minnesota licensure – currently have licenses from other states/countries.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Mark, Molly - Contracts – Contracted Services, Teacher, Employee.
Specific points to consider when drafting contracts:
Benefits – apart from those that we have already addressed.
-Sick Leave
-Personal Leave
-Director’s Salary
-General Salary Range
-Recommendations for those staff who have accepted positions thus far
HANDBOOK
-include sick leave specifics, etc
-include various policies – on-line source for charter schools/public districts
Karen, Molly, Melody – Continue to have interviews set up for later this week and next.
Fiduciary responsibility – right to review before considered approved by Board.
MOTION
Melody moved that the Board approve Mark and Molly to work on the employment contracts and finalize a contract to be used.
Karen amended by pointing out that there will be two types: contracted hourly basis staff/teachers. Some others, for example Speech, have their own contracts that we would sign in order to enter into an agreement.
Mark noted that independent contractor must be given more freedom than an employee of ISLA. We could possibly owe taxes, etc. Contract is considered acceptable as long as it is a workable arrangement. There are other types of contracts such as that with the sponsor.
Karen is questioning as to whether or not we would need a contract for contracted services.
Executive Committee
-In by-laws
-subject to Open Meeting laws? Need to clarify due to conflicting information.
Rolf asked for specific terms to be addressed in contract.
Michael noted that we want teachers to want to teach, reinforced that we want to be competitive and respectful.
Follow the guidelines set up in the samples provided.
Charter differences may be a longer work year – beginning in early August working through June.
Effective employment dates: consistent with Hopkins School District Staff Requirements.
Independent Contractor Form – they may present something to us but we also need to adopt a form of ourselves.
Contracting Authority - Give Director the authority to contract services pertinent to administrating the day to day business of the school – perform tasks, very limited basis, relatively short form that acknowledges for instance that it will be a 1099 situation.
MOTION
Authorize Karen to enter into contracts for budgeted amounts that the Board has approved, if it goes over that amount then she does not have that authority. Teacher hiring (set parameters) and contracted services (confer with finance committee, make budget amendment) Call a meeting of the executive committee if amendment is needed. Procurement Policy (check writing authority). Authority could be based on the budget.
Executive Committee has all the authority of the Board. Will need to convene in order to get things done.
Technology will be a significant amount – probably enough in our planning grant to cover it since there are areas in our grant that have not needed the anticipated funding. Budget must be modified before our next meeting.
MOTION
Sonia moved that the board give the director the authority to enter into contracts with regards to employment contracts, technology and other contracts that she deems necessary that are worth no more than $30,000.
Mark and Rolf seconded, motion carried.
Employee Handbook – Personnel Committee
-Steve will investigate the necessary policies (MNBSA, other samples)
Mark and Michele will investigate as to whether or not we have to approve with a “Consent Agenda”.
Steve - Personnel and Communications
Sonia - Personnel and Facility
Mark will follow up on how the executive committee will function.
Will clarify Open Meeting Law as it applies to Committees.
Will look into including Board training into our next year’s budget – Board Governance
Karen will put the by-laws on the website.
Copies of the Grant Proposal, Budget, By-Laws, other significant documents will be sent to new Board members.
10 Minute Break
FINANCE
Rolf and Jenny reporting.
Nothing to add as far as expenditures for the month.
No major changes.
Must make some 10% adjustments to Planning Grant Budget and Overall Budget.
Money not used before September will be rolled over into next year’s Budget.
Current budget is from the original grant proposal – some adjustments.
Planning Grant amount was increased by granter (Federal Govt) from $150,000 to $180,000 from the time of the writing of the Grant Proposal to the actual receiving of funds.
This budget is a better budget than the budget that allowed for a greater student enrollment – this budget is set at 108 students. Jenny will be drafting a budget for 80 students to give us a much smaller student enrollment.
This budget was reviewed by MDE – there is a program finance department and rep met individually with each new charter school in attendance (Karen attended every day on behalf of ISLA as the Director and others attended as reps for Board members and finance) last week during the week-long required new charter schools in-servicing at MDE. This is the same group that approved the finance portion of our charter proposal.
Technology was originally budgeted with the thought that additional funds could be raised through fundraising, grant writing, re-furbished computers.
Nurse would be contracted to review records, check in a few times a year, psychologist and social worker would be contracted on an as-needed basis.
MOTION
Michael moved that we accept the budget for the 2007-2008 school year, Kerry seconded, motion carried.
Expense Statement
Insurance: Rolf had wanted to have the insurance policies ready to go for tonight’s meeting – working on finishing these up.
Worker’s comp
Board insurance $1500 for $1,000,000
General Liability Insurance
Contingent on lease
What’s new?
Quote on worker’s comp – was at $6,000 but is now between $3,500-$4,500
Board insurance would be an extra $750
Property and Liability – was at $6,000 and coming in at about $3,000
How much D&O to purchase – last meeting decided to go to the $2,000,000 if cost appropriate.
MOTION
Rolf moved that we go to $2,000,000 in D&O coverage, Steve seconded.
Discussion: have we had an opportunity to review the policy language?
Working with a broker who is getting bids from various entities. Have someone who knows insurance lingo review policy – Sonia will review.
Motion carried.
MOTION
Mark moved that we authorize Rolf to enter in the insurance worker’s comp, directors and officers, non-owned and hired auto and crime coverage, contracts, liability, in the coverage amounts that we have discussed tonight, subject to Sonia’s review of the policy coverage language .the policies that we have discussed with Sonia Van-Oort.
Michael seconded, motion carried.
PLANNING GRANT BUDGET
Modification to our Planning Grant Budget
Need to submit the Grant Continuation by July 15. Basically spells out how we are going to spend the $180,000. The entire amount is accounted for in the budget. Will take the budget which spells out how we will be spending the $180,000 and put it into the Grant Continuation Budget.
There is a narrative that accompanies the budget.
Main decision to be made would be amount of money to be allotted for given areas. Federal Grants require great detail as to how money will be sent and everything must be spelled out and be much more specific. Gives guidelines to show how you are addressing student achievement, list key objectives, and measurable outcomes.
Budget, narrative and budget specific grant.
How to determine funds will be used:
What did we initially note in our proposal and what will we need to purchase in order to meet those objectives.
Our approved budget will also factor into the final Grant Continuation Budget.
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Board Chair, Chair-elect, Executive Director, Officers of the School (secretary and vice-chair)
Will meet to vote.
All will sign it with understanding that any modifications can be made in the future.
FACILITY
Karen will send latest version of lease to everyone.
MOTION
Molly moved that we approve the Consent agenda, seconded, motion carried.
TO DO LIST
Handbook – Policies, Procedures – Michele, samples, MNSBA (cost for policies), websites
Contracts
Staff/teachers
Contracted services
NEXT MEETING
Tuesday, July 24, 2007, 7:00pm Location: to be determined.
Thanked Michele Luke for her support.
MOTION TO ADJOURN
Moved to adjourn at 11:15pm, all in favor, motion carried.