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.

Welcome and Call to Order

The meeting will be called to the order at 6:49 pm by Chairwoman, @Karen Womack Karen.

Public Comment

There was no public comments at this meeting.

Meeting Minutes Approval

Approval of the previous months Board Meeting Minutes;

7/08/21

7/27/21

Monthly Financial Reports

Highlights

• Total Revenue is $1,484,014.16 - Reflected on the P&L
• Total Deficit $21,060.12 - Reflected on the P&L
• Total Cash is $304,600.50 - Reflected on the BS (Operating Cash) 
• Total Long Term Liability $460,461.21 - Reflected on the B&S

$145,037.28 - From Building Hope  

$174,929.36 - From SLAM Foundation (Reclassified from RC Grant to Loan at year end) 

                            $3,742.57 – Teacher Retirement Payable 

                            $15,552 – Pension

                            $121,200 – PPP Loan

SCSC Letter Discussion

We received a response letter from the Commission regarding our ability to obtain the CO and open school on time (September 7). The Commission has requested that we have a contingency plan in place in the event that this does not happen. This is our immediate need at the moment. We should consider approaching the church and asking them for an opportunity to go back if the time is needed. @Karen I personally feel like we need to ask for more than 30 days because with the communication from the City of Atlanta Building and planning Departments I am not confident that 30 days will be enough. We should ask for atleast 90 days or more.

@Danny – we asked Mr. Mapp, the General Contractor to give us his worst case scenario as it pertains to receipt of the CO. Mr. Mapp has worked through similar situations with other businesses.  Mr. Mapp said that he would need 6-weeks time from the time the permit is issued in order to complete the work and we receive the CO. He has done a great job in completing the things that could be taken care of with a permit. I also reached out to the architect, Paul Mussman to ask him to assist us in putting together a timeline of events that will need to happen to help us understand the dates and things that need to happen for us to back into the official date for the CO.

@Karen, I agree that we need to obtain as many letters of support as we can obtain to help make the case as strong as possible but I also think that we need to get a letter from the City explaining how we will obtain the Permit and CO on time to start school by 7^th of September. We really have to approach this from the worst case scenario positioning.

@Ashley for consistency sake I think we need to pick a hard date to move back from the church to Greenbriar. This will give parents time to plan out in their schedules when their children will transition back and will be more organized than just saying oh we moving back next week. Providing a target date will help parents to coordinate better and also assist them  with the transition process.    Perhaps we should consider picking Thanksgiving or Christmas Break as the targeted move timeframe.

@Danny: We could offer a $3,000 non refundable deposit to the church to help to sweeten the offer to allow the school to return back to the building.

@Karen – my concern with the church is that they were adamant about not renewing the old lease. If they really wanted us to be there they would have renewed the lease for the additional time that we requested.

@Karen we are trying to build faith with the Commission as we manage the process of limiting the impact to our families.

@Burkes: When will the non refundable deposit be paid to the Church and what is the worst case scenario we will face if the church says no? The worse case scenario is that we would not have a facility that has already been approved by GaDOE like the Church has been. 

@Angelia Howell I am sure there are other locations that we could consider even other churches but they probably won’t meet the required facility requirements for a K-12 school.

@Addision ; we need to secure in writing from the City of Atlanta a schedule of events that would take place from the time we receive the permit until we receive the CO. What does that timeframe really look like in real time?

@Karen: What will be communicated to the parents? @Addison I  will let the parents know what the expectations are from the Commission and what we are doing to secure a place to open the school.

@Burkes: What has been the correspondence to the parents at this point? I.e. Emails, phone calls, assemblies, etc.? We need to make sure that each and every parent is aware exactly where we stand and what is going on and what is being done to address the situation.

@Ashley: Should we schedule a parents meeting to ensure that they are well aware of what is going on while we are at the hotel?

@Addison: I assume the communication will need to include the impact of where we at the moment?

@Ashely because this issue is so impactful to the entire school (our students, parents, community, and staff), we should meet outside of the Greenbriar location and initiate a whole Rally Cry, Pep Rally so our supporters know that we are fully committed to making this happen in the best interest of everyone. We need to bring everyone together.

Superintendent's Update

Alex Tamargo: I was in Atlanta earlier in the week and I believe we are fully staffed and I’m excited that all new teachers are certified. January 21, 2022 – January 28, 2022 is the SLAM Certification Visit. Please block off these dates on your calendars and look for emails regarding surveys that will start to come around the October time frame. We are starting to host monthly school leader meetings. Each leader will be contacted and asked to identify school growth goals

School Leader Report

The school leader reports on the status of the school.

SLAM Foundation Update

Updates from the SLAM Foundation

Ramp It Up Tutoring Discussion

Ramp It Up Tutoring:

We found a location to conduct the tutoring program at the Radisson Hotel. Kudos for pushing through that time and we are looking forward to serving the children on site at the Radisson.

Pipeline for TFA Teachers Discussion

Karen Womack; how do we become a partner with TFA? I would be happy to see what that looks like for our school. Let’s pursue this option and find out what we need to do move forward.

Board Discussion on alternating monthly between work sessions and board meetings

New Teacher Professional Qualifications Policy

Vote on new Professional Qualifications Policy:  Teachers not making adequate progress on their Professional Qualifications Plan and/or not certified within 12-months of hire must appear before the Board to request an extension.

SLAM to issue Employment Contracts to returning teachers and offer letters to new employee's

Academica Update

Updates from the Education Service Provider

• See notes under SCSC discussion

Announcements

Upcoming school or Board events

Meeting Ajourned

SLAM Pre-K Discussion Start-Up Discussion

Last school year we discussed starting our own Pre-K program but that was prior to moving in to this community and started to build relationships with the local Pre-K centers surrounding our location. We need to continue to nurture these relationships. Thankful to Mr. Burkes who was instrumental in visiting locations and informing Directors about the SLAM Atlanta program. One of the centers has entered into a partnership with SLAM and has informed us through Mr. Burkes that they will refer all of their K-4 students to SLAM Atlanta’s Kindergarten program. We will ensure that we offer a number of transition dates for any new potential K-4 student to introduce them to Kindergarten at SLAM Atlanta.

The Meeting was Adjourned

The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:13 pm