Bay Haven Charter Academy

Board Meeting Minutes

September 7, 2006

 

 

Meeting called to order at 6:04 PM as Walter Woodrick was late. Members present: Charles Byron, Tracy Johnstone, Walter Woodrick, Scotti Haney, and Lewis Howell.

 

Walter prayed, Karen led the pledge.

 

Agenda approved.

 

Approval of minutes from July pending change on page 1 from Judy to Scotti. August: Charles led pledge and humorously need to clarify that Mr. Polk and three pregnancies are not related.

 

Finance reports were given for May, June, and July.

 

President’s report: next meeting October 5th. Walter Woodrick will not be able to attend as he will be out of town on business.

 

Principal’s report: 6:16 PM

8a. highly qualified teachers – info not available tonight

 

8b. 2 mill money – Tim and Scotti went to meeting with BDS Board. BDS will probably drop millage some. If they don’t get the ˝ cent sales tax, they’ll bring the millage back up. 1 mill this year is worth about $17MM. We’ve asked for $2.6-2.7MM for classrooms to meet class-size reduction. All BDS classrooms have been taken care of. Tim said Thelma Rohan did a great job helping the board and Mr. McAlister see that BDS priorities promote classrooms over kitchens and portables.

BDS currently has some schools that are packed and some have vacant rooms and it was stated that rezoning would help them fill their needs with current facilities and free up dollars to help elsewhere. Each board member at BDS will meet individually with Wayne Elmore to talk further.

If new classroom construction started now, we wouldn’t have classrooms until January 2008, so we’ll have to get creative to find/make classrooms from Aug ’07 until Jan ’08.

 

Tim said that we received an apology from the state regarding their omission of the fact that BHCA is ranked 19th in the state for academic performance.

 

8c. 90-day teacher review – Florida is a will to work state and our policy is to have a 90 day review. We already have some teachers involved in improvement programs to help them meet BHCA standards of excellence. Master level teachers are helping in this process. Teachers in need of improvement are aware of their situations and expectations for job security.

 

8d. New calendar – Katie Weaver, computer engineer and webmaster, gave us report of current improvements to website and calendar. She stated she has many ideas in the works to improve the look, feel, and substance of the site.

 

8e. Kelli Liles presented her credentials and capablities as a math coach, reading coach, and as director of the math/reading night. She gave a great demonstration of the online tools available for students and parents to excel more through home study and practice. BDS pays ˝ of her salary and she has some time commitments to them.

 

8f. Honors plaza is not done yet. 2 benches, bricks in oval, etc will look very nice when done.

 

8g. State Education Conference – Oct 2-3 is broad based. Charter Schools conference is Orlando is excellent meeting with several important lawmakers, politicians, and educators.

 

8h. Board shirts – Tim showed the Board the new types of shirts available with school logo, names, and titles.

 

9. Attorney for board meetings – Tim, speaking in Todd’s absence, stated that Todd sent letters to attorneys requesting bids.

 

10a. Holiday leave policy – Walter moved to change the wording in the handbook by striking the sentence stating that the administrator can approve exceptions to the policy. Lewis seconded. Discussion revealed a need to add the phrase “unless verifiable mitigating medical circumstances exist.” Walter moved to amend his motion. Lewis seconded. Motion to amend the motion passed unanimously. Motion to advertise a 30 day notice of our intent to change the language with amendment stated above passed unanimously.

 

10b. Tim stated that we will start meetings with organizations to be the employer for our employees and that they can handle 401k, payroll, and HR. He also recommended that we hire a “person like a CPA” to do financials in-house. We currently pay $185-190m per year to CSUSA for these services and we can potentially do that cheaper. Richard McKinney at Carr, Riggs, and Ingraham is helping guide us on this. $3.4MM of our $5.5MM budget is payroll/compensation.

 

Scotti said that former board members have been asked to give us a photo to have a record of former board members. Some have responded, some haven’t. Scotti has ordered gifts for former board members to thank them for their service.

 

No public input

 

No announcements.

 

Meeting Adjourned 8pm.