Regular Meeting
Odyssey Charter School
6201 Noble Ave. N.
Brooklyn Center, MN55429
April 21, 2004
6:30 P.M.
All members present: Lori Bona, Susan Dougherty, Rick Fletcher, Kari Mitchell, Dave Rand, John Sedey, Destiny Sparks, Steve Skramstad.
All motions approved unanimously unless otherwise noted.
1. John Sedey called the meeting to order and called roll at 6:35 pm
2. The agenda was approved as indicated herein.
4. Minutes of March 15 and 31 were approved without dissent
5. No comments from the community
6. Leadership
6.1 Barbara has requested a buy out remainder of the time to her anniversary date. The matter has been referred to an attorney who recommends a "good faith" package that would give her pay for the vacation time (24 hours) she has accrued, 2 weeks of salary, fringe benefits through the end of the month in exchange for her agreement to pursue no further claims against the school and not to disparage the school. The attorney plans to convey the offer to her this Friday. Then she will have 21 days to respond and a 15 day period to rescind. If not rescinded she would receive a check for approximately $4,000. Move made by Susan and seconded by Destiny to terminate Barbara as of this Friday. A motion was made by Dave and seconded by Kari to empower the attorney to make this offer and if the offer is not accepted, to terminate her without the 2 weeks of salary and benefits; passed unanimously.
6.2 Leadership for the remainder of the year. Kari and Rick have agreed to take on additional duties. The Board will make special recognition of their efforts will be considered after the matter with the Barbara is resolved. Motion was made by Steve and seconded by Susan to authorized Rick and Kari to action in the director role for the remainder of the year. The motion passed with Rick and Kari abstaining. David moved and Lori seconded that Rick and Kari be granted a leave from the board through the end of the school year effective at the next regular board meeting. It passed unanimously with Rick and Kari abstaining.
6.3 Leadership beyond June. Rick would like to establish a 3-person leadership team made up of a lead teacher, dean role (discipline) person, and senior office manager. Lori expressed appreciation for staff assuming responsibility for shared leadership rather than bringing in someone from the outside and expressed that they take care not to burn out. Susan stated her sense that the school needed some with education and administrative skills to manage the school. Steve suggested that the process be managed in an open manner to restore needed trust. As many items as possible will be resolved Friday at the staff meeting. Rod Haenke and Steve Dess could be asked to suggest a limited number of leadership models that would be appropriate to Odyssey at this meeting. John suggested that the findings of staff be reported to the Board at its next meeting.
7. Presentations and special reports
7.1 Rick's Acting Director’s report included a summary of the recent b-b gun incident and associated suspensions involving 7 students. He asked for guidance from the Board about requiring students to be witnesses at the expulsion hearing, which is typically done for due process, or not requiring them to testify in which case there might be greater potential for losing if appealed (Rick would testify with the "hearsay" information he has obtain from the witnesses). The general consensus of the Board was that Rick should contact parents to encourage student witnesses to come forward voluntarily and subpoena the least number of students as witnesses needed to effectively support the school's position. The motion was made by Susan and seconded by Destiny to convene a special board meeting 4:30-6:00 Tuesday 4/27/04 to consider future school leadership models suggested by staff and to continue in closed session as an expulsion hearing. He also reported current enrollment is 206.
7.2 Designs contract--David Alley from Designs presented a report with highlights of DL’s current work with the school and noted that a number of services were provided without charge to support the school in weathering changes in leadership. He also handed out a proposed agreement that includes services from DL for 04-05 in areas where services are currently provided and in two additional areas: developmental consulting in a variety of areas to be tailored to Odyssey’s evolving leadership needs; and technology support services. The board agreed to review the proposal, discuss at its next special meeting, and make a final decision at its May meeting.
8. Consent agenda
8.1 Payment of bills, including payroll
8.2 Personnel action (background information to be provided)
8.2.1 Licensed
8.2.2 Non-licensed
8.4 Acceptance of board member resignation
8.3 Contracts for services
8.4 Gifts to the school
8.4.1 $6,000 library grant from Veritas
8.5 Acceptance of Minnesota Charters School Special Education Project as our Special Education Director
Motion to approve the consent agenda was made by Rick seconded by Lori and approved.
9. Filling Board vacancy created by Janice's resignation. Consensus was not to fill the position at this time.
10. Lori presented highlights of a preliminary 2004-05 budget. Several enrollment based scenarios were considered and it was recommended that the budget be based on an enrollment of 230. This will yield a fund balance of 2.82% (approximately $62,000), includes a new salary matrix, no decreases in salary, salary for a director, reduced salary for technology staff, volunteer coordinator position at .25 FTE, and behavior management staff position at .75 FTE. Decisions about the leadership model will have a significant impact on the budget. Consideration of the budget will be added to the agenda for next Tuesday's meeting.
Lori also pointed out some under utilized areas of the current budget that potentially could be reallocated.
11. The 2004-05 calendar was presented by Kari for information and will be considered at the May board meeting.
12. The 2004-05 salary schedule formula was discussed. A salary scale will be established that will "hold harmless" in terms of no staff salary reduction.
12.1 Motion was by Lori and seconded by Destiny that Rick with assistance by Kari should issue letters to staff regarding 2004-05 employment. On Tuesday Rick will describe the criteria to be used as a basis for re-employment. Staff can signup for appointments with Rick to review their letters starting next Wednesday.
13. Kari moved and David seconded approval of food service policy as raised by Kari and discussed by the board; motion carried.
14. By-laws revisions will be considered at a future meeting.
15. Transportation contract will be adopted at the May meeting.
16. On a motion by Lori, the meeting was adjourned by John at 9:50 pm.
Respectfully submitted by David Alley