| Name | Status | Arrival Time | Departure Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Womack | present Non-voting Administration | On Time | At Adjournment |
| Altrenesha Ervin | present secretary | On Time | At Adjournment |
| Pardes Sulaiman | present Treasurer | On Time | At Adjournment |
| Tiffany Russell | present member | On Time | At Adjournment |
| Charles Jones | not present member | ||
| Corvis Coleman | not present member | ||
| Mamie Grimes | not present member |
The meeting will be called to the order at 6:33 pm by Karen Womack, Chair
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.
Remove the EIP policy and add the ABC Policy on the Consent Agenda instead and then approve all the attached Policies and Procedures for the 2020-2021 School Year
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
There was no notable discussion on the motion.
There were minor changes made to the Financial and Internal Accounting Policies. The FPP policy was changed to add ACH payments instead of writing checks due to COVID-19 and social distancing. The Internal Account was revised to make sure that it aligned with what is reflected in the actual operations in Georgia. Cash management was tweaked and anything to do with Booster Clubs were removed. Travel policy was revised to include Alex Tamargo, Superintendent approves the Principal travel requests.
The wellness Policy is mandated by USDA.
Infectious Disease Policy was approved in April but updated to add COVID-19 information on what to do if an outbreak happened.
SPED policy reviewed by Lilly to make sure that it aligned with the law.
Professional Qualifications (PQ) - is included in the CLIP. In the past we said that we would waive certification for all subjects except SPED. We changed the information to say that we would waive certification for the 1st year only. After that all teachers will have to have a valid certification certificate.
Lottery/Admissions - we added a cavet that we will not accept any additional applicants after October 16 of any year.
@Pardes Sulaiman I noticed that in the ABC Handbook on the organization chart we have the CFO outside of the Academica structure as though she is not an Academica employee. @Kelly Pierce, in Georgia it is a required state statue to have the position listed independently.
Proof of Residency - It is not longer required to 3 additional proof of residency documents if you have a valid lease.
@Karen Womack , we need to make sure that we have all Board Documents loaded in CharterBoards atleast 7-days prior to the Board Meeting. This will give the Board enough time to review everything prior to the scheduled meeting.
All of these items were approved at one time in the motion to approve the Consent Agenda.
All items listed with letter designations are considered to be routine updates to school policies and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Board Member or Member of the Public so requests, in which case the item(s) will be removed from the consent agenda and considered along with the
regular order of business:
a. Update SLAM Financial Polices and Procedures
b. Update SLAM Enrollment Policies and Procedures
c. Update SLAM PQ (Professional Qualifications) Policy
d. Update SLAM Bullying and Harassment Policy
e. Update Discipline Hearing Policies & Procedures
f. Update Homeless Policies & Procedures
g. Update SLAM Students with Disabilities Handbook
h. Update SLAM Student Health Policies
i. Update SLAM English Learners Handbook
j. Update Internal Accounting Policies and Procedures
k. Approve School's Wellness Policy
l. Approve ABC Policy
Approve the Consent Agenda
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Altrenesha Ervin
There was no notable discussion on the motion.
There were no public comments at this time.
Approve the June 18, 2020 Board Meeting Minutes
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
There was no notable discussion on the motion.
We are finally fully staffed for this upcoming school year.
Parent Engagement - Parent Orientation will take place in person and virtually on the following dates:
Kinder - Tuesday, August 18 at 4:00 p.m.
1st and 2nd - Thursday, August 13 at 4:00 p.m.
3rd, 4th and 5th - Monday, August 17 at 4:00 p.m.
The Family Engagement Policy and Plan as well at the Parent Compact have been revised and updated
Free Uniforms for ALL: All SLAM students will receive free uniforms due to a uniform donation drive that Principal Pierce initiated on June 26. Thank you to Board Chair Ms. Karen Womack for joining in and sharing the the information with her network. The fundraiser goal was $1,560 but due to the overwhelming response the goal was met and overwhelming exceeding resulting in a donation amount of $6,197. Each student will be able to receive 2 shirts, one cardigan sweather and a brand new pair of headphones. The headphones were donated by Creating Your Success.
Academic Achievement - Growth Goals have been set at 85% for kindergarteners and 80% for 1-5th graders will meet or exceed their annual typical growth in both reading and math as measured by iReady diagnostic assessments. Proficiency Goals are set using data from iReady January assessments in combination with the average growth of the state and Atlanta Public School District.
Federal Programs - Title I drawdowns are all up to date. Title II second amendment will be submitted to cover a portion of our Mr. Lee's salary as he will teach Computer Science this upcoming school year. Title IV drawdown is up to date. IDEA Drawdown is up to date. CARES ACT Budget has been prepared and submitted to the state for approval. The budget was approved and we can start submitting approved expenses against the budget for reimbursement. The dollars were budgeted towards nurses salary, counselor salary, PPE AND Facility cleaning. Security Grant - we currently have an issue with this grant. Reimbursement request has been submitted in December but the school never received the funds. Marlene is checking into this issue for us.
Ms. Pierce is requesting an internal audit be conducted by 9/1/2020 in anticipation of a monitoring visit this year. I will need the help of Academica to support this.
Inventory - A proposal has been submitted for a company to come and do the inventory audit for us. Academica will cover the cost of this process to ensure that we are up to date an din compliance due to the number of items purchased with CSP grant money in FY20.
Highlights
@Pardes Sulaiman is the receptionist, Parent Liaison ,NSLP person also being paid by DIBIA payroll. @Kelly Pierce, she is not being paid by DIBIA's payroll. She will only be paid by DIBIA if she works during the afterschool program hours.
@Karen Womack what is her total salary. Kelly, $15.00 per hour. She is working from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. She will be a part-time employee for us. Originally I had to cut this position out of the budget but I am now bringing it back. She will be making $24,202 annually.
The Georgia Department of Education has not approved an overall budget for the 2020-2021 school year as of the posting of this Board Agenda. In lieu of approving a school budget, SLAM will be approving monthly spending allocations until GaDOE approves the 2020-2021 budget.
Approve Spending Resolutions for July and August in Lieu of approval of the 2020-2021 School Budget.
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
There was no notable discussion on the motion.
@Pardes Sulaiman what is the proposed Break Even number and what is the plan to convert applicants to enrollments
@ Kelly Pierce we call and text applicants almost everyday. One mother, a parent of a first grader came into the office today. I think a lot of people are taking a pause just in life right now and I am not sure whatelse we can do. The paperwork is slowly coming .
Millie Sanchez - SLAM Foundation. Alex and I have been working with our other SLAM schools and we are seeing a decrease all over. I think parents are just waiting to see what is going to happen and what their options will be.
@Pardes Sulaiman My main concern is that the Pandemic has gotten worse and we don't have the facility to do proper social distancing.
@Kelly Pierce, we are not just offering in person classes we are also offering Remote Learning Instruction (RLI0 as well. Each teacher will have a webcam and headsets that will be used will delivering instruction.
@Karen Womack how can the Board assist in your recruitment efforts
@Pardes Sulaiman have you thought about doing sponsored Ads on FB and IG.
@Kelly Pierce, yes we have done those ads and they do not work for our demographics. I tried to call the Kroger manager back but he is avoiding my calls. I am in limbo there.
Julio Rabinia we just finished filming some short video clips about classrooms of the future. We will share that information with Kelly so that she can use as marketing agents. Parents are looking for flexibility when looking at their options.
The Board will consider some dates for these two hearings.
Danny Diaz, from what I read in the law, we do not have to meet in person for the two public budget hearings. We should pick the two dates, publish them in the legal organ and have the meetings virtually. As long as we publish how the public can access the meeting virtually we should be OK.
The Board will formally present what the Goals look like at the next board meeting.
To approve the submit the SCSC Corrective Action Plan response for Financial Oversight
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
Table this motion until a later date prior to July 31.
The Survey results were not shared because not all the members had completed the survey.
@Karen Womack we need to revisit the process for bringing on new Board members. I would like to propose that we reconsider adding a parent seat on the Board.
Academica would like to table the facility conversation. We will help Kelly with the teacher survey's and the conversations with the Church.
SCSC Board Meeting - July 29 -- Location: SCSC Board Room, 5th Floor, West Tower
@Pardes Sulaiman we do not space to properly social distance. @Kelly, if only half of our students show up for inperson, we are mandating the wearing of face shields, will have shields for each desk. I believe that we can create a safe enviornment for our students.
@Karen Womack just today my own school district changed their mind on the options they were offering parents. Originally we were supposed to have 3-options but today they changed and decided that we would be 100% virtual instruction. I cannot entertain inperson classes without taking in all the information available on how this virus is spreading. My question is, since we have the ability to offer a quality virtual option why are we not doing that until the numbers are better.
Millie Sanchez - SLAM Foundation. Why don't we allow Kelly to turn in the plan that she put together to the SCSC and not limit ourselves. We can always make a decision to change at a later date. The decision is not set in stone.
Julio Rabina - Academica, COO. I think we need to keep our options open and then make a decision later after we know more a few weeks down the line.
@Karen Womack what about the parents who need time to make plans for how this will impact them?
@Kelly Pierce, 7% of our population is homeless. What about them? Bandwidth is an issue. We have a family who had laptops issued to them but they couldn't access the internet because their connection wasn't strong enough and would always drop the signal.
@Karen Womack how ,any students did we have from quarter 4 that did not sign into class.
@Kelly Pierce we have one student that I haven't heard from since March. 30% of our students were not engaged during Quarter 4.
@Altrenesha Ervin have we checked the temperature of our staff to see if they are willing to come into the building and deliver instruction.
@Kelly Pierce, I sent them the presentation that I shared at the Town Hall Meeting. 3 teachers responded and said thank you. 1 teacher responded with questions about a meeting.
@Altrenesha Ervin I want to ensure that the staff has been given a chance to voice and express their concerns. Will parents and staff have to sign a liability waiver?
Julio, no they will not. We checked with ADP and all the attorney's. The truth is you can contract COVID anywhere. We want to provide options so that the children can be taught.
@Karen Womack do we have Sub's in place to replace a teacher who is too ill to teach.
@Kelly, if they are too ill to teach they will have to use their PTO and sick days. They are entitled to 14-days if they test positive for the virus.
@Karen Womack children can come in sick and not self report and impact a teacher who now has to use their personal time to take off work because they have been infected with the virus
@Kelly potentially we will be in a deficient having staff members out due to illness.
@Karen Womack what about Shiloh? Have we had a discussion with them on our plans. What happens if they are uncomfortable with SLAM being open specially because all of the other Districts around us are closed for in person learning?
@Kelly, they will have to renegotiate our lease if they demand that we not be open.
@Karen Womack
The church does not have to return our money. They will say we are receiving the same amount of money no matter if we are open or closed for in person instruction.
@Kelly, I invited Deacon Chambler to the Town Hall Meeting. He came and stayed for the entire meeting. I have since heard that he shared my presentation to the whole church body
@Karen Womack do we have the desk and face shields already?
@Altrenesha Ervin what is the course of action if a child is consistently not wearing their face shield? I want to ensure that parents are told the consequences of a child that doesn't keep their mask and or face shield on during the school day
Kelly we haven't determined yet what the consequences will be for repeated non compliance with wearing the face shield or face masks.
@Kelly I think it is important that we keep in mind that all of the other districts have a much larger population than we do. We only have 130 students to take into consideration.
@altrenesha Can we survey the teachers, speak with the church and make a special call meeting on Monday to decide what we are going to do?
Julio my recommendation would be to survey the teachers atleast 3-times before opening. I recommend that we move forward and submit the plan that Kelly has prepared and then move forward from there.
@Tiffany, personally, I don't have a problem with the plan that was submitted to us for consideration. I do not have any children. If I did,I would not send them to school during this time.
@Karen Womack My personal issue is the potential back and forth. The whole school will become janitors just trying to keep up with the cleaning schedule and I have a problem with that.
Mille, I don't think that we don't have to say we are open or closed. I think we have to make sure that everyone understands that we are opening one way or the other.
@Altrenesha Ervin When will we know when the State will approve the plan.
There is no real approval or denial they just requested that all the schools submit them to see what the plans were for opening
@Pardes Sulaiman this plan doesn't tie our hands. We should submit it and if needed change our options later.
@Karen Womack when is the deadline to speak to the parents so they can plan their lives around the way we will open. I am leaning towards opening fully virtual. We can go ahead and submit the plan to the State. We need to conduct the staff and teacher survey and then make our final decision after we have the results back. Doesn't it put the parents at a better advantage if we say we are going to go full virtual. I believe that this puts more control in their hands from a flexibility perspective.
Julio, the moment you become indecisive, parents loss confidence in your ability to lead. What do you do with essential employee's? Do you furlough them?
@Karen Womack what it looks like right now is everyone else around us is closed and we are going to stay open. This encourages families to come to SLAM and therein lies the issues. The spotlight would be shinning brightly on us.
Agree to submit the SLAM re-opening plan to the Commission with both virtual and brick mortar options with the option for the Board to change what was submitted at a later date after considering where things are.
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
SLAM's reopening plan was successfully submitted on time to the Commission.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:10 p.m.
Motion to adjourn
By: Pardes Sulaiman Seconded by: Tiffany Russell
There was no notable discussion on the motion.