Board of Directors
Regular Meeting
Brooklyn Center
Odyssey Board
The purpose of the Board, on behalf of
Membership in Attendance: Tim
Hedberg, Mike Auld, Heather Wincek, Jessica Driscoll, Dorothy Washington,
Notetaker: Sheila Prokott
Absent members: None
Community members/Guest Visitors: None
1. Call to order and roll call at
2. Additions to agenda made at Board Meeting. No
additions requested or made to the agenda.
3. Approval
of Agenda.
Dorothy
Washington seconded this motion. All
Board members present agreed. No
one abstained or objected. The motion to accept the presented Board
Meeting agenda
was approved.
4. Approval of minutes from
A copy of minutes for
Mike Auld motioned to approve the
seconded the motion. All Board members present agreed. No one abstained or objected.
The motion to accept and approve
submitted
passed.
5.
Community comments.
No community members were in
attendance at this Board Meeting. No
community
comments were addressed
6. Closed
Meeting as needed. No closed meeting
was needed or held.
7. New Business.
7.1 Fundraising Policy.
A copy of a
proposed Fundraising Policy from the Community Action Committee
(CAC) was distributed by
Mike Auld. Mike indicated there is no
need for action or a
motion on this.
from CAC and the Board
needs to provide feedback to that group on this proposal.
No actions or
decisions were taken by the Board on this policy.
8. Reports:
8.1
Jessica Driscoll reported on
behalf of OSBO. There is a meeting with
HiMark
next week on
be present for that meeting
with this potential investor. Mike Auld
stated that
HiMark seems very interested
in investing in the purchase of Odyssey’s school
building.
8.2 Community Action Committee (CAC): Mike
Auld reported on behalf of CAC.
This group met on
CAC members reviewed the
current fundraising activities and policy, Spruce Up
Night event plans for
Sept., and organization of people for the upcoming Open
House Night event being
held on
Mike stated that CAC wants
to plan a garden on-site at Odyssey or assist in updating
the school building in the
future once purchase of the building occurs.
8.3
Finance:
A current Cash Flow report
was distributed to all Board members present for
review and discussion. John stated Odyssey has not had to tap into
the line of
credit up to this point and
financially Odyssey will survive without tapping into
the credit line at this
time. John said Odyssey is not in
financial trouble at this
time.
John stated that on
IDEA (Special Education)
monies will be arriving. John said
Odyssey is current
with all bill payments
except for rent due to Osseo Schools.
A clarification question was
asked about the State of
and when the new level of
hold back funds begins. John verified
that the state
funding hold back will be
27% and that this level of hold back of state aid funds
began on
9. Interim Director Report:
9.1 Approach to School Enrollment
challenge; John distributed two current
student
enrollment lists that were
current as of
Projection Chart” and the
other was an “Actual Enrollment to Date Chart”.
The
actual number of students
enrolled at Odyssey as of
the Board that glitches with
the student enrollment process have now been worked
out. John said he
anticipates that as the school year starts, Odyssey will get more
enrollments.
John stated
flyer-information cards to targeted households had been sent out. Open
Houses have been
scheduled. The Open House on
there is a possibility of 10
new enrollments from this Open House event.
The Open
House scheduled after this
Board Meeting is scheduled from
John stated that a letter to
all Odyssey parents was recently prepared, packaged by
Transition Team members, and
sent out letting parent know about the upcoming
school year and student
enrollment openings available. The
part-time Summer
Office staff person has
been fielding many phone calls about student enrollment.
John stated the potential
school building investors want a new 3 year enrollment
and financial
projection. John received this request
from Greg Gredvig of OSBO.
John suggested to the Board to
consider building an updated 2009-2010
budget based on 285. John stated this would be a reasonable
enrollment number
to plan for based on the
current actual enrollment numbers.
9.2
New Technology Coordinator
starts on
person came in on
to a weekend weather event. The New Technology person,
responsible for the school
website and take care of school testing and data
coordinator duties. New
Middle School Math Teacher,
in on
Linda Bladine-Hageseth
resigned from her position as a Special Education
Teacher last week. A Special Education Teacher job posting has
been set up.
Jennifer Make resigned from
her Music Teacher position yesterday (
a job posting for this
position will be set up.
We have one applicant for
the Spanish Teacher position. John
indicated we will
re-advertise and post this
position opening again.
We are
looking at hiring two paraprofessionals for next year. Currently, there
are three full-time paraprofessionals in
place. John stated interviewing for Special
Education Teacher, paraprofessionals,
and a Spanish Teacher will take place next
week.
9.3 Revised
FY10 Budget Discussion:
John presented a
proposed 3 Year Budget based on 285 students for Board members
to review and
discuss. John stated two major changes
in this revised budget plan
are that during the
first year of the budget plan cycle, two staff positions are
eliminated: Office
Manager and Health Teacher. Both of
these positions are
added back for the 2nd year of
the projected 3 year budget plan.
John stated using a
projected student enrollment of 285 students for a projected
3 year budget plan
would allow Odyssey to do the following:
--Maintain a full time
Spanish Teacher position. John stated
parents are
expecting
Spanish being offered to their children.
The Spanish Teacher
position also
fills out the Specialists Department and teacher load/prep time
coverage
needed.
John stated the bottom
line on the revised 3 year budget proposal presented to the
Board today is a 6%
Fund Balance at the end of FY10 is projected.
John stated the
proposed FY10 Budget
assumes the 2010 purchase of the school building and
has the assumption for
purchase of the building in place for the 2011 and 2012
projected out years
with more Maintenance and building cost expenses planned
for FY 2011 and 2012.
Board members asked
questions and discussion of the following specific budget
areas occurred:
--School Nurse. John stated Odyssey is required by law to
have a nurse
on staff . This position needs to be maintained on the
budget.
--Office
Manager. For the current school year,
this position which includes
meeting and greeting
people and answering phones will be divided up among
three people:
School Nurse,
Lunch Supervisor. The Business Manager and Director of
Operations will be
changing
physical office spaces in order for the Director of Operations to be
located in the
Main Office Suite.
--Cultural Liaison,
EBD Home Liaison, ATP and DCD Teacher
positions.
Board Members had
questions about these positions noted on pages 4 and 5 of
budget
proposal. John stated he will re-look
at these positions and email
information about this including a
corrected Budget proposal. John stated
the
Special Education
Plan is for three full-time teachers plus paraprofessionals for
the current
school year.
--Title I: John stated no changes
have been made but there will be changes
coming. John anticipates more monies coming to
Odyssey in this area and stated
Odyssey get 100%
reimbursement for Title I services.
9.3 Revised FY10 Budget
Discussion continued:
School
Board Chairperson, Mike Auld, asked
about when the Board could adopt
an
updated budget. John stated October 2009
would be a good time to adopt a
revised budget because Odyssey’s exact
enrollment numbers need to be given to the
Minnesota Department
of Education at that time and an updated budget could
be approved using more
accurate student enrollment numbers at that time.
9.4 Workshops/School
Opening Calendar:
John distributed
and August and September 2009 calendar. John pointed out
information about
Teacher Workshop week, Open Houses, and planned activities on
the calendars. John invited School Board Members to attend
events and activities
noted on the
calendars.
John stated he has met
with Jan Peplinjak from Metro ECSU on
to work on workshop
week teacher training. Jan will be at
Odyssey for two half days
to do workshops
related to Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).
One half day will focus
on looking at data and
the other half day will be working on developing three
Professional Learning
Communities (PLC’s) that will integrate Odyssey’s specialists
as part of each PLC
team.
On August 31, during
Back-to-School Open House, Middle School students will be
able to choose their
electives classes.
John distributed
a sign-up for Board Members to commit to
being part of
committees for the
2009-2010 school year. Committees for this year that need
Board representatives
are: Community Action Committee (CAC),
Wellness
Committee, Finance,
School Improvement, and Technology Committee.
AYP Plan Discussion:
Board discussion took
place following a questions Board Chairperson, Mike Auld,
asked, “What does
Odyssey have to do because we are on
(not making AYP list). John stated the following steps need to
occur:
--a small team
including Jan Peplinjak from Metro ECSU need to go to a meeting
on
out a plan of
how to improve.
--Odyssey needs
to set up an action plan in writing for improvement and submit
it to the
Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
John stated Odyssey
has AYP
problems related to
--use of
Professional Learning Community (PLC) structure for teachers
to work
together using data to improve instruction and student achievement
during the
coming school year.
Jess Driscoll stated
the Leadership Team and John have decided to implement
Northwest Educational
Assessments (NWEA) three times during the school year
with students in
grades 1 through 8 during the coming school year. She stated the
information and data
from NWEA testing will be used to drive instruction .
9.4 Workshops/School Opening Calendar
continued:
AYP Plan
Discussion continued:
meetings. John indicated that would be possible.
10. Consent Agenda
10.1 Payment
of bills, including payroll.
payroll.
Heather Wincek seconded the motion.
All Board members present
agreed. No one abstained or objected. The motion to
pay Odyssey’s
current bills was
passed and approved.
10.2
Personnel Action:
Tim Hedberg
motions to accept the resignations of Jennifer Maki, Music
Teacher and
Linda Bladine-Hageseth, Special Education Teacher. Jessica
Driscoll
seconded this motion. All present were
in favor. No one opposed or
abstained from
this motion. The motion to accept recent
teacher resignations was
passed and
approved.
10.3 Contracts for Services: No Contracts for Services were presented or
discussed.
10.3.1 Appointment of
an Auditor:
Tim Hedberg
motioned to continue with the current Auditor.
Heather Wincek
seconded the
motion. All present were in favor. No one opposed or abstained
from this
motion. The motion to continue using the
currently contracted
Auditor was
passed and approved.
11. Old Business:
Rochelle Gredvig distributed fundraising
information from an organization called
“firstgiving” to get more input
from Board members. John agreed to send
an email to
Rochelle with information to
complete the “firstgiving”: fundraising project.
Board Chairperson, Mike Auld,
gave all present a reminder that what happens at Board
Meetings needs to stay with
Board Meetings and its members until action has been taken
by the Board.
Board Members made a consent
agreement that an earlier Board Meeting than the
already scheduled
12. Action to adjourn meeting was
made by Heather Wincek. Dorothy
Washington seconded
the motion. All members present were in favor. The Board
Meeting adjourned at
Next Board Meeting is scheduled for