Welcome and Call to Order

The meeting will be called to the order at 6:44 PM by Vice-Chair Eboni Chillis.

Approval of Agenda

Public Comment

There were no public comments at this time.

Approval of the following Meeting Minutes:

• June 14, 2018
• August 20, 2018

Principal/Superintendent Update

We officially moved into the new classroom space this morning. I would like to thank Angelia Howell and Kelly Pierce for their support in helping to ensure that the move happened with minimum disruption to student learning. We were in the building as early as 4:00 am in the morning in order to make that happen.

Our current enrollment numbers are at 72 students. We are currently actively recruiting students.

Financial Report - Pardes Suliman wanted to know why the current financial performance section of the Comprehensive Framework was under 70 percent. Dr. White explained that the total was all that could be given at the time due to the impacts of the budget. After meeting with Nataly Gonzalez and Alina Chester regarding budgetary items that impact the amount he is certain that SLAM will be able to reach the additional 30 points needed to meet the 100% mark. Dr. White will send the Board the SCSC framework that will explain the percentages in more detail.

Ashltrenesha Ervin requested to see one of the Data Binders that had been completed and Dr. White said that he will have a binder available for review on Friday. She also inquired about the availability of first wave of baseline line data and Dr. White indicated that the information had been completed and was available for review but he did not have the information with him for the Board to review at this time.

Dr. White informed the board that the GKIDS information was almost completed, that iReady had been completed and that they would be doing the 2nd wave of testing on January 7-23. ZEARN was being used by all the teachers and that he was setting up training for all the teachers on Reading Wonders.

Dr. Greene wanted to know who administered the Benchmark tests. Dr. White indicated that each teacher did their own Bencmarks.

Security/Janitorial position challenges with proper cleaning of the building. Dr. White suggests that the hours be adjusted from 7:30 am - 3:30 pm to 9:15 am to 6:15 pm . This will allow this person to clean the building in the afternoons after Culture Club activities are complete so that we will have a fresh clean building to start out each morning. Culture Club ends at 5:30 pm and there is not enough time to mop the floor in the Fellowship Hall prior to 6:00 pm.

Security - we need to ensure that we have security coverage for the back hall ways particularly during church events (funerals and repasses) that happen during school hours. Church guests can depart through the back of the Fellowship Hall and enter the far back hall way of the building. Because we do not have access control check points on the doors yet, we have to ensure that someone is stationed in the back hallway to make sure that visitors do not come into the hallway where the classrooms are that will give access to the students and teachers.

Academica Update

Facility Update - We finally received our Certificate of Occupancy on this morning. We now need to move forward with requesting renegotiation of our current lease agreement to include a longer lease term. Karen should send another meeting request to the church asking for a scheduled time in order to discuss the renegotiation.

Tiger Flowers property - is owned by the City of Atlanta. The property title is being transferred to Atlanta Public Schools. The property is currently scheduled to be appraised. This is a potential long-term solution that would be available for a 2020 occupancy date.

Property close by that was sold by the Catholic church is currently tied up legally because the current owner is in prison. We are currently trying to connect with other family members to see if there is any possibility of us obtaining the property. Currently right now we have been unable to make contact.

There is another potential property that is about 3.7 miles away that has some potential. The property would only allow for us to house 300 students onsite. We are continuing to do due diligence to look for additional available options for facility space.

SLAM still needs an additional classroom to house the first grade students are still currently in the accordion classroom space in the Fellowship Hall. This is not a permanent solution because every Wednesday we have to relocate the class due to the noon day Bible Study and whenever their is a funeral and repast we have to do the same. This is too much of a disruption to the students to continue to do each week. If the Church would allow us to use the Prayer Room, which is the current space that we are having our Board Meeting in today that problem would be solved. We would move the current 3rd grade class in this space and move Ms. Holton 2nd grade class into the space where the 3rd grade class is currently and then move Ms. Wren first grade class in the room that Ms. Holton is. This option allows all of our classes to be housed in a secure classroom where all the classes are together on one hallway. Angelia has invited Deacon Chambler to come and visit the classroom so that he could see the proposed layout and show how it can easily be flipped to suit the needs of the church.

Full use of the first floor will only give us the ability to house 150 students and that would mean we would need all available classrooms spaces on the first floor including the classroom in the Fellowship Hall in the back near the stage as well as the accordion spaces. We need the church to consider a 5-year lease. Angelia has spoken to Deacon Chambler about the possibility of extending the current lease and although the church has not provided anything in writing Deacon Chambler has communicated that it is the vision of the church to have a long term relationship with SLAM.

Dr. Chillis added that we needed to identify additional areas in the building to hang signage. FASTSIGNS has provided a quote for all the additional signage that has already been selected for printing. Dr. White will have to go back through everything to make sure that it is what he wants and then give final approval for printing.

Dr. White also indicated that had several bulletin boards to help bring a more educational look to the space. One will be located in the front lobby, main hallway and the back lobby.

There was some conversation to do the Open House and Ribbon Cutting at the same time but it was suggested that we do not want to do the Open House that close to the beginning of FTE.

The Parent Open House is now scheduled for September 13 from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm. Dr. White is doing a Calling Post to invite all the Lotterease parents who signed up with interest in SLAM but did not enroll to come to the Open House. Jasmine will do a social media push on Friday to get the word out and there will also be personal calls made to the parents in Lotterease to personally invite them to come to the Open House.

Dr. Greene indicated that we should have pictures of students in the new space posted on the SLAM website as well as the social media sites. We should be showing the new classroom spaces off to the public as much as possible. We need to ensure that we have all permission slips singed giving the school permission to post students on websites, etc.

SLAM Ribbon Cutting - A Doodle Poll was sent out to the Board for a time to host the Ribbon Cutting on September 25th. The proposed times were 1:00pm and 4:00 pm. The Board unanimously decided to host the event on September 25 at 4:00 pm.

Adri will handle the Press Releases. The Board will send their recommendations for special invited guests (political officials, state officials, church leaders, etc. to Angelia and Dr. White will also compose and send his proposed invited guests.

Upcoming SCSC monitoring visit - Kelly and Angelia sent a great update on the upcoming SCSC visit. The information that was sent for our review included schools that were monitored last year as well as some who have already had their visit this year. Both Kelly and Angelia are working on putting together Data Binders that will house all of the printed information that was already requested to be uploaded by the Commission as well as other additional informational that will be helpful for the visit.

SLAM Foundation Update

We would like to thank Jennifer DeSousa for visiting and working with Dr. White and his team.

Now that we have come through the construction successfully it is time to make a change from Operations to Academics. Based on baseline tests that have already been done we know that the baseline data is low. There is much work to be done but it is within our reach to make positive impacts with the right focus and tools in place.

Reading - 22% of students are above grade level and 53% are below grade level. 25% of our students are 2 or more levels below grade level

Math 6% of students are on or above grade level, 61% are at least 1 level below grade level and 33% are 2 ore more levels below grade level.

Pull in and pull out interventions are necessary.

On September 11 Alex Tamargo will visit SLAM and further break down all the data and also do a full diagnostics review. Once ruberics are in place will will start progress monitoring. All lesson plans must be in place and on point.

Classroom walkthroughs should be done 2-3 times per day. All gradebook data must match testing data. Once all data has been reviewed and complied each teacher should set short and long-term goals for their students. In mid to late October we will re-evaluate everything and see where we are at that time

Amend the Student Discipline Policy

Amend Parent/Student Handbook to Include all newly approved policies.

• Discipline
• Testing Policies
• Parent Complaint Policies Procedures
• Promotion/Retention
• Volunteer Policy

Approve Amended budget

Updates to the amended budget include:

TRS Employer percentage was increased from 15% to 20.9% for the 2018-2018 school year. The new amount has been reflected in the budget.

School insurance costs were reduced to $12,000 and this new amount is also reflected in the budget. This was a cost savings over what the costs were originally projected.

$150,000 loan was included to cover the cost of the construction project.

The ESE Para Professional position has been included at a cost of $15.00 per hour.

If the Board approves this budget today this is one that Alina will upload into the portal in order to satisfy the required budget upload date of September 21, 2018.

Renewal of Lotterease

The biggest change with the new agreement is that Lotterease have moved to a unit count for all applicants rather than just waitlisted applicants. This change reflects the continued investment into infrastructure and personnel to stay ahead of our growth and provide the best service possible. As a result, for a school the size of SLAM, the fee will be about $1,814. However, if you pay for the invoice before the due date, we will honor the current unit rate at last years pricing of $1,050. We can also purchase multiple years at one time. If we purchase 3-years the 4th year is free.

Go Into Executive Session

Resume the Public Meeting after the Executive Session

Announcements

• SCSC Visit on 9/13

The Meeting was Adjourned

The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:44 pm