Welcome and Call to Order

Welcome and Call to Order by Tamseel Syed, Governance Committee Chair

In Attendance

The following committee members are present:

In attendance

Wanda McKay - present

Janelle Wilhite – present

Suzette Arnold – present

Tamseel Syed - present

Dr. Wanda Brooks-Long, Ex-Officio - present

Angela Rodgers – not present

Guest: Bambo Sonaike

Approval of Agenda

So that there is agreement between board members on the agenda, and the amount of time spent on the meeting, the board shall vote to approve an agenda for the meeting. To the best of its ability, it will follow that agenda, and allow for the chair to move the board through the agenda as specified.

Approval of Minutes from Sep 13, 2022

Committee Chair report

Mr. Syed is behind on emails for new prospective board members.

Mr. Syed also wants to discuss how the committee can assist with Professional Development for DPA Professional staff because there is a lot of back and forth and the process needs to be smoothed. Also, there is a need to establish proper deadlines so we can follow protocol, etc.

Board Action Forms from September 2022 board meeting (09/30/2022)

Per Mr. Syed, all minutes from previous meetings have been added to the Charter Board system

Board Action forms that were not available at the Special Called meeting were forwarded to Committee members on October 18, 2022. The forms were reviewed and will be kept on file as official record.

1-9-30-2022 – part time SRO

2-9-30-2022 – Gabrial McElroy

3-9-30-2022 – SRO full-time contractor for October

Mr. Syed will confirm with Ms. Rodgers whether the Board Action Packets and forms were previously presented for approval for:

Reading Recovery materials in the amount of $28, 617.78 

Principal’s Reading Recovery – Behind the Glass Construction in the amount of $23, 656.03

Update on Tele Health Grant - process and procedure document

Mr. Syed reported that there was an email forwarded to Board Members today regarding the establishment of a meeting date to setup the equipment.

Mr. Syed stated that the Committee is awaiting the process and procedure implementation document from the school.

Committee goals for FY'22-23

Plan to return to in-person activities – Suzette Arnold stated that she received a note from GCSA to caution us not to violate the law by not returning to in-person. Mr. Syed stated that all board committees and meetings should return to in-person in November. Ms. Wilhite added a comment that the board return to in-person meetings in January as another option. Discussion regarding whether “emergency status” to conduct virtual meetings has expired. Ms. Arnold does not want to give the appearance that we are intentionally evading the law. Mr. Syed offered the option of conducting November committee meetings virtually and the Governing Board Meeting in-person. Recommendation to the full board from the Governance Committee to return to in-person meetings in November.

Prospective board contacts for future board members

Emails to 5 to 10 prospective board members will be sent out this weekend by Mr. Syed. There was interest from a parent, Demetria Macon, to become a board member. Ms. McKay also has information for another parent to become a board member.

Discussion regarding a formal process to onboard new members. Mr. Syed stated that the process should be to email prospective members, ask that they join one or two meetings, submit their board member application, and then conduct the onboarding process.

Hopefully, there will be some applications from prospective board members to review in November.

Strategic Plan - feedback and discussion

Mr. Syed has reviewed and has feedback written on his paper copy of the Strategic Plan provided to the Board and school leadership. He will provide his comments via online as soon as he can. Ms. Falco needs a copy of the strategic plan draft soon to advise on the Charter Renewal process and the alignment with the strategic plan. Ms. Arnold reviewed the strategic plan and is concerned that the original items shared in the beginning are not part of the document. Discussion regarding including the Facilities Management policy, committee goals, etc. are not included in the strategic plan. There is a need for the board to revisit the last plan and SMART goals and ensure inclusion of appropriate goals in the proposed strategic plan. Board members will provide feedback to Dr. Brooks-Long and provide feedback to the Governance Committee in November. Discussion regarding the newly proposed Goals 1-5, how they should be combined with previous goals, and provision of feedback to Dr. Brooks-Long.

Annual finance audit report - discussion

Discussion regarding whether Mr. Sonaike should present in Finance or Governance. Mr. Sonaike is amenable to presenting at Governance. Mr. Syed asked a compliance question: When does this report have to be presented to the county? Discussion regarding whether the report should have been submitted to the Finance Committee and then possibly to Governing Work Session prior to the full board. The next Finance Committee is scheduled after the report is due. Discussion regarding how to move forward with the presentation. Mr. Sonaike agreed to present at the board meeting on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, and requested to present at the beginning of the agenda.

Board Operations Manual and board calendar update

Mr. Syed stated that the Board Operations manual was sent to committee members for input.

Still awaiting a list of templates that will be used by the school – assigned to Ms. Rodgers in September 2022 meeting.

Still awaiting list of yearly and monthly important deadlines for all deliverables throughout the year – efforts to be lead by Dr. Brooks-Long and Ms. Rodgers. Historic submissions in the past and Epicenter tool cold be uses as a reference to create this list. The list will be due to the Governance Committee for discussion in November.

Mr. Syed will re-send the draft Board Operations manual.

Hiring for open positions

Discussion regarding HR gaps. Need HR policies.

Need to have job descriptions reviewed and posted online, job posting clippings, matrices, rubrics, HR processed during new hiring practices, etc. for the following carry over positions from September 2022:

School Business Administrator

Grants Manager

School Resource Officer

Discussion on a full-time CFO hiring process

Ms. Arnold stated that we need to status of leadership positions. Specifically, HR Manager and CFO.

Policy review cycle

We are behind on this initiative. Mr. Syed stated that we should have a website or URL/database that houses all of the current policies so that we can have a starting point and can begin policy review and updates. Discussion regarding the Governance Committee making it a policy that we have an established place where all our policies are held and accessible. Plan is to go back and review the by-laws and make it clear that the policies will reside someplace. This repository should be in the cloud. Specifics regarding policy editing and update process were discussed. Possibly in a dropbox. Policies should be listed on the website as a folder, tab, etc. IT should look at the security of this initiative. Need to have policies in a centralized location.

Update on Employee and Student Attendance Improvement Plan Policy

Submitted by Dr. Brooks-Long either yesterday or today. Committee members have not had an opportunity to review the document and cannot comment. This is board action 61-10-25-2022. Dr. Brooks-Long is unable to speak to this issue currently. In the last meeting, a directive was given to send the Attendance Improvement Plan to Legal Attorney Group. Unable to move forward on this item.

Employee Handbook and Student Handbook

Submitted by Dr. Brooks-Long on October 19, 2022. Committee members have not been able to review and cannot comment. Unable to move forward on this item.

MoU with Kennesaw State University

Discussion on revised document submitted by Dr. Brooks-Long on October 19, 2022. Committee members have not been able to review and cannot comment. Unable to move forward on this item.

Contractor for training on FTE/QBE/Scheduling

Discussion points: need to identify school needs, process involved, training hours implemented. Contractor already engaged without board information earlier so there is a need to have a performance review.

This topic was discussed at Academic Committee meeting.

Governance Committee to discuss any compliance issues. Ms. Wilhite has some questions but is unable to speak to those questions currently.

Ms. Arnold raised questions about the contract, scope of service, etc. If this contractor is working to provide training, what are the hours and parameters? Is this a designated training for a specific amount of time? This information is needed to determine if $20,000 is appropriate for this training. More clarity is needed.

Mr. Syed reviewed the information that was provided by Dr. Brooks-Long on October 19, 2022. He reiterated that there are no specifics on school needs and that there is a need to have a performance review for this contractor and to discuss the process for hiring contractors since the board was not involved initially. Unable to move forward on this item.

Annual report due to DCSD

Submitted by Dr. Brooks-Long on October 19, 2022

This is a compliance issue and a recommendation needs to be made as to whether the report can go forward to the Board Work Session and then to the October Governing Board for approval prior to submission to DCSD.

Ms. Arnold stated that since Dr. Brooks-Long is unavailable to answer questions, there is no way to make proposals on the remaining agenda items to the board from the committee. Mr. Syed stated that we could either finish the meeting and table the remaining items or finish discussion for the completion of meeting minutes.

Laptops for teachers - inventory status on all DPA devices

The report has not been sent to the board yet. This was being presented to Academic Committee by Dr. Brooks-Long. Unable to move forward on this item.

Dashboard discussion

Live document submitted in September by Dr. Brooks-Long:

https://dekalbprep-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/wbrookslongdekalbprepacademyorg/ER0q01FuEj5JjAQcxwZfyPkBk7B0uoaUqtyru1cZap6l7w?rtime=guOyK_uy2kg

Live document was submitted in September by Dr. Brooks-Long. Mr. Syed stated that it has not been updated with October data.

Climate Survey questions

Committee is still awaiting survey questions that need to be sent to staff, parents, students. Several comments were made during September 2022 meeting which proves the need for the survey. Ms. Arnold stated that this climate survey is important because the data can be used in the charter renewal whether we use it to create a strategy or to tell our story. This data might be a huge part of the renewal process.

Response on complaint forwarded by DCSD

These are important items that the Governance Committee needs to act on soon. Mr. Syed wants to know if we need to go into executive session to discuss the items:

Response to be sent to Alexis Walton

Forensic Audit Status

Previous response on complaint forwarded to DCSD by the board through our legal team was deemed not appropriate and considered to not be a formal response. We need to have a discussion on how to send the response to Alexis Walton. Mr. Syed is proposing a Special Called Meeting to discuss the investigation of the case and drafting the response as an official action from the board. At that meeting a discussion could also take place regarding the Forensic Audit which we have not yet identified. Dr. Brooks-Long forwarded email communications from Alexis Walton last night. Those are the same things that Mr. Fortson had drafted for us. If a formal response needs to be drafted, we need to start working on it. Mr. Syed further recommended that the board members conduct interviews with all the parties identified in the complaint. That way, we will have a completed survey as well as a formal investigative response.

Ms. Arnold agreed that we must respond to the DCSD request. She pointed out that we need to review everything that was presented previously to ensure that we are properly responding and capturing a thorough response. There seems to be one question that keeps coming up.

Mr. Syed stated that we need an exclusive session to discuss how the response will be drafted. We have discussed this in the past so we have supporting data for other pieces of the complaint. We also need to have a discussion with the Operations Manager or whoever was working under the Finance Office at that time.

Ms. Arnold stated that there should be a sense of urgency to close this matter. Ms. Walton discussed the urgency of closing this item with Ms. Arnold.

Recommendation is to discuss this item in Executive Session at the Board Work Session on tomorrow and if needed, some of the staff will be pulled into the Executive Session for discussion. If the board feels that Ms. Arnold, since she was mentioned in the complaint, needs to be separate from that discussion, we will have to honor that but that is a question that will be asked tomorrow. Ms. Arnold stated that she does not feel that she must be a part of that discussion as long as the facts are properly reviewed and brought forward. Mr. Syed stated that the investigation and recommendation will be appropriate. The recommendation from Governance Committee is to have an Executive Session to discuss this item.

Parent Inquiry forwarded to the board by Dr. Brooks-Long on October 20th, 2022

This item was sent by Dr. Brooks-Long without any context. We cannot have a discussion without Dr. Brooks-Long’s input. Unable to move forward on this item..

Other Topic Discussions

·      Discussion on Board training calendar and training resources for FY’22-23 – invoice to GCSA paid. Mr. Syed wants the board to be aware so that board members can complete their required training during the upcoming days and months.

·      Discussion on PD for DPA staff – this will be guided by the results from the climate survey

·      Employment contract for HOS:CAO- the board is awaiting a proposed amendment from Dr. Brooks-Long. 

·      Grant completion items mentioned by contracted CFO Candy Yu during September board meeting-We need to honor all upcoming compliance-related deadlines

·      Follow-up on public comment from September board meeting regarding vendor for lunch and breakfast.

This is a reminder

·      Finance procurement policies and discussion on overall finance policies –

This is a reminder.

·      Finance Committee out of records compliance on CharterBoards –

• This is a reminder

Per Mr. Syed, these are all reminders:

·      Reminder of employee PTO policy information due to Governance and Finance Committees in Nov/Dec-as per the discussion in September 2022 Governance Committee meeting.

·      Charter renewal submission of initial documents – recommend creation of an ad-hoc committee

·      Request for a comprehensive report on financial and operational overhead as well as challenges in strategic oversight/planning faced by DPA from employee turnover, substitute personnel, resignations, interim positions-request to submit a report to Governance Committee before December 2022

·      LeAnn Major with Charter School Capital was having technical difficulties so the October 12, 2022, meeting would have to be rescheduled to some other time in the future. Tamseel Syed and Wanda McKay to reach out to LeAnn Major for another proposed meeting date

·       Report being prepared by Tamseel Syed on CharterBoards open records compliance and previous incidents – report will be submitted to Board Chair for distribution to the whole board by November 2022. Will include recommendation on creating a workflow on CharterBoards.

·      Need for additional committee members on all committees

·      HR policies on new hires, separations, etc.

COMPLIANCE REPORT:18-week report due to DCSD in December 2022 – to be submitted to the board for review and approval in November 2022

Public comment

No public in attendance

Recommendations to the Board (if applicable)

Recommendation #1: to return to in-person meetings in November 2022

Recommendation #2: to add an Executive Session to the Board Work Session to address the response on complaint forwarded to DCSD.

Adjourn

Motion to adjourn

Motion made by:                    Suzette Arnold

Motion seconded by:             Janelle Wilhite

Motion carries:                     Unanimous vote

The Meeting was Adjourned

The meeting adjourned at approximately 12:23 am