Regular Meeting
Odyssey Charter School
6201 Noble Ave. N.
Brooklyn Center, MN55429
October 16, 2002
6:30 P.M.
Call to Order A meeting of the Odyssey Charter School Board of Directors was held on Wednesday, October 16th. The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.
Roll Call The following Board members were present: Karen Johnson, Nathan Disch, Jeni Holm, Steph Dess, Lori Bona, Rick Wolf and Lyle Clemenson. The meeting was facilitated by Karen Johnson.
Additions to Agenda Rick Wolf asked that a closed session of the Board be added under section 9.3 of the agenda. He added that the meeting would be regarding human resources issues.
Acceptance of Agenda Motion by Nathan Disch, seconded by Lyle Clemenson, to accept the agenda dated October 16th, 2002. Motion carries.
Approval of Minutes Motion by Nathan Disch, seconded by Lyle Clemenson, to accept the minutes dated 21st, 2002. Lori Bona asks for time to read them. Motion carries.
Consent Agenda None
Community Comments None
State of Odyssey Corey LeGree presented the attached Special Education Report. Lori Bona asked how students with special needs are identified. Corey stated the process starts with the teacher, who refers the child to the Student Assistance Team (SAT). The team brainstorms ideas regarding how to help the student. Those accommodations are then tried for two weeks. If the accommodations are not working the student is referred to the Child Study Team where it is determined whether or not further special education action is required.
Anne Lindgren added that the school is obligated to identify those students who would benefit from special education services. She said the Child Study is the mechanism through with students are identified. She said that parents can make written or verbal requests at which time Odyssey is required to skip the per-referral step and go right to Child Study.
Karen Johnson asked how we compare percentage wise with the Osseo school district. Anne Lindgren stated that that data is available, and that we about average. Rick Wolf added that Odyssey has a higher percentage than other charter schools because we do better with the process of identifying students.
Anne Lindgren stated that once Odyssey identifies a child as qualifying for special education service the school obligated to serve that student. She added that if the student has an IEP when they transfer into Odyssey, the school is required to work with it. She added that it is a federal mandate that is not fully funded. Rick Wolf stated that if Odyssey has a student who is visually impaired and needs Braille books to read, Odyssey is required to provide that opportunity. Lori Bona asked if Odyssey is obligated to have a parent advocacy board for special education. Rick Wolf replied that is required of regular schools but there is no legislation requiring charter schools to have such a board. He added that other charter schools do not have such boards. Lori Bona asked if it would be considered best practice and Corey LeGree replied that it might be, and that it would be helpful to parents because they would be able to find support there.
There was then some discussion about the percentages in the report. Lori Bona asked how Odyssey would know if they were serving a student in the best way. Corey replied they using the student’s IEP, they would be able to measure growth and progress.
Old Business 6510 Building Update
Lyle Clemenson met with someone interested in renting 4,500 square feet of the building. He stated the prospect of renting the space looked positive. He said it would be a long-term situation and they may consider finishing out Odyssey’s lease. He went on to say he had asked for two months rent up front. He said the interested party has asked for new carpet. He stated that he would prepare a proposal from the interested party. He stated that he has spoken at length to the interested party and they were a business similar to Hunington Learning Center. He stated that they seemed very organized. He went on to say that he has the company’s business report and it seems sound. He stated he told the interested party rent for the space would be $5,300/month. Anne Lindgren added the party might be interested in a sublease agreement. Lyle Clemenson stated he assumed Odyssey would use the same language with this interested party as with Excell Academy.
Lori Bona asked if the amount quoted for rent covered the remainder of the space at the 6510 building. Lyle Clemenson stated that the interested party is interested in renting 4,500 square feet. The remaining 2,000 square feet are in the middle of Excell Academy. He went on to say there is currently no income coming to Odyssey from that space. Rick Wolf asked if Odyssey needs to rent the remaining space from a financial point of view. Lyle Clemenson replied that it is not critical that we rent the remaining space. He went on to say that renting 4,500 square feet at $5,300/month would greatly improve Odyssey’s bottom line. Lori Bona asked if Odyssey is paying $12.23/square foot. Anne Lindgren said that Odyssey does pay $12.25/square foot in addition to cam costs. She added that Excell is currently paying all utility costs and cam costs. Lyle Clemenson stated the Board may need to call a special meeting to get something on paper with the interested party. He added that he would like to rent the space out for the remainder of the lease. Lori Bona asked about the length of Excel’s lease and Anne Lindgren replied the length of the lease is two years.
New Business Subcommittee Reports
Finance: The finance committee presented the attached budgets. Steph Dess noted the October proposed budget includes merit pay to be paid out from last year. There was some discussion about the fund balance. Lori Bona asked if the fund balance was the clean up payment and Anne Lindgren said that it was. She added that because there is merit pay to be paid out Mary Beth Frank has made her best estimate about what the balance will be. Nathan Disch asked why there was such a large change in the proposed lease aid amounts and Mary Beth Frank replied that in the Spring they were estimating fall enrollments, and they were basing those estimates on the assumption that Odyssey may be using the 6510 building for student use, thus generating more lease aid. She added that because that didn’t happen, the amount of lease aid generated will be less. Steph Dess stated that in October Mary Beth Frank will pay back the line of credit. Mary Beth Frank stated that when the state pays Odyssey, they combine lease aid and general education funding. She added there is nothing projected under lease aid because she doesn’t split the amount until she gets the check. Steph Dess stated that there are not positive numbers in some cases because the amount coming in doesn’t always keep up with the amount going out. She stated that the fund balance will remain positive even though cash flow is negative. She added that the finance team would like to look at increasing the line of credit, getting more grants, renting out the remaining space in the 6510 building, increasing Odyssey’s number of students and talking to Thorpe about making a late lease payment if necessary. She said they would also like to look at talking to Osseo about making a late lease payment as well. Steph Dess stated the finance committee would like the Board to move on the revised budget, and they added that the Board may need to do so again in January when the committee has a clearer picture of Odyssey’s finances. Lori Bona stated that $25,000 seemed like a large amount of money for the fundraising team to raise, and asked if that amount was expected to come from student fundraising. Mary Beth Frank stated that the amount included monies that would be coming in from field trips and other sources of income.
Motion by Steph Dess, seconded by Lyle Clemenson, to accept the revised budget as presented in the right hand column. Motion carries.
Human Resources: Lori Bona stated that administration had asked for clarification of the personal time off policy. She stated the committee had put together the attached recommendation. She went on to say that the committee would like the Board to make a recommendation to administration. Jeni Holm asked the committee to clarify what would constitute too many days off in a year, and who would determine that? Rick Wolf stated that the committee did not want to put a specific number on it, but they also didn’t want it to be abused. He went on to say that the Board needs to trust administration and professional staff to be good judges and to make reasonable requests. Anne Lindgren stated that it seemed as though the committee was granting permission to administration discretion to make the call regarding how many days staff may take for professional development. She went on to say that she came to the committee because she needs a specific number. She stated that it is not equitable in some cases as the school covers the cost of the substitute as well as the cost of the conference the staff member attends. She went to say that it has not been clear in the past what Odyssey’s policy is. She added that because the administrative structure has changed it is difficult to make a judgment. She stated that she needs clarity for universality.
Jeni Holm stated she would like to look at designating a certain number of staff development opportunities that are available so staff can decide for themselves. She added that the benefit to the whole school should be weighed. Anne Lindgren stated that administration needs a more specific number because she has to work within a budget.
Lyle Clemenson stated he was looking for a request form so administration could determine how much money is being spent and it can be monitored. Rick Wolf stated the committee could rework it and try to determine what is reasonable for professional development. He stated there needs to be a financial cap. He went on to say they need to distinguish between personal professional development and something that would benefit the whole school. He stated that he would like to request that when staff attend training they return and share what they learned with the greater community. Karen Johnson asked if the Board had determined if the associate principal would process requests rather than the director. Anne Lindgren stated that administration didn’t need anything that prescriptive. She went to say that administration had notified staff that the situation with professional development days may change. She added that there are staff members who have submitted many requests already this year.
Steph Dess stated that the staff was asked to fill out a form at the beginning of the school year to describe how they want to improve this year. She then asked what Odyssey’s responsibility is to staff regarding professional development. Jeni Holm asked if it would be possible to bring people in for staff development. Anne Lindgren replied that it would be very expensive to do so. She added that we could do a combination of things such as utilize opportunities offered by Osseo or charging staff for professional development opportunities. Rick Wolf stated that Odyssey needs to look carefully at how they approve requests as this could have a large impact on Odyssey’s bottom line.
Personnel
The personnel committee stated that for the next Board meeting they would have a drug policy for the Board to read. Lori Bona stated that by the next Board meeting the committee would have a draft of an evaluation for the Executive Director.
Educational Programs: This committee reported that they had not met. They stated they would wait until after the November 20th meeting to get a better idea of what the scope of the committee will be. They stated they would like to talk about it at the upcoming Board retreat.
Administrative Report
Anne Lindgren presented the attached administrative report. She stated that she wanted to make to Board aware that Odyssey is applying for a grant through the Walton League targeted to expand established programs. She stated it would focus on EIC to help provide teams time to plan, for student to travel to the environmental center, to purchase curriculum, etc…. She stated that part of the grant required the Board be notified of the application being made.
Motion by Steph Dess, seconeded by Lori Bona, to accept the expansion grant as it has been presented.
Motion withdrawn by Steph Dess, seconded by Rick Wolf, due to possible conflict of interest. Motion carries.
Motion by Nathan Disch, seconded by Jeni Holm, to accept the expansion grant as it has been presented. Motion carries.
Anne Lindgren stated the goal setting meeting, scheduled for Saturday, November 2 from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. would take place at Odyssey Charter School. She said the staff and Board collectively would discuss goal setting. She added that MACS would be there to facilitate the goal setting.
Nomination Update
Anne Lindgren stated that information about Board nominations had gone out to all families via mail. She stated that she has also done a draft of the ballot. She stated that although there have been two community at large Board members in the past, she put three on the sample ballot. She added that this could be changed as it was a Board decision not an administration decision. She stated that she would like to get back to staggered terms as written in the bylaws. She added that Odyssey has a waiver from the state exempting Odyssey from having a majority of licensed staff or teachers on the Board.
Anne Lindgren stated that the sample ballot reflected the nominations that have been received. She stated that she has been trying to contact other members of the community who are interested in charter schools who may be interested in serving on the Board.
Steph Dess stated that she would like to increase the number of teachers on the Board, and she was glad to see that so many people were interested in serving on the Board. Anne Lindgren stated that administration would like direction about what categories of people the Board would like to elect (teachers, parents, community, etc…). Jeni Holm asked if we have two community members, two teachers and three parents. Anne Lindgren stated that the bylaws called for two community members. Jeni Holm asked if the sample ballot could be changed to show just the number the voter would need to vote for. Nathan Disch stated he liked keeping the community members separate, otherwise they wouldn’t be elected because no one knows them. He stated that everyone else could be put together on the ballot. Lori Bona stated she would be in favor of separating the two community members and putting all the rest together.
Motion by Nathan Disch, seconded by Rick Wolf, to group all candidates into a single group and with the top community members voted for getting elected and the rest elected based on number of votes. Motion carries.
Osseo Signage
Anne Lindgren stated that her expectation would be that a new Odyssey sign would take a while. She stated that Odyssey does not have permission to proceed with other signage at this time.
Testing
Anne Lindgren talked about the book The Truth About Testing. She stated the book urged readers to take test results with a grain of salt. She also said it talked about the destructive element of focusing so strongly on test data when that information is only a small part of who those children are. She went on to say that Odyssey is getting better at looking test data and implementing teaching that tailors to addressing test scores. She added that Odyssey is working on identifying needs the of high risk/high need students by implementing study groups, tutoring, etc….
Lori Bona asked if the staff has been educated regarding how we are looking at test scores. Anne Lindgren stated that there will be professional development around using testing data and helping at risk students. Ed Kossmann stated that Odyssey has added test score data to LEP forms. Lori Bona asked about math scores and Ed Kossmann stated the math task force is looking at the available options.
Adjournment: Open meeting adjourned to closed meeting at 8:41 PM.
Next meetings: Next Regular meeting is Wednesday, November 20th , 2002, at 6:30 p.m. at Odyssey Charter School.