4/20/07 Draft Minutes, RGA PA Board Meeting

ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL PARENTS ASSOCIATION

DRAFT Minutes of a Meeting of the Executive Board of
ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY PARENTS ASSOCIATION

April 20, 2007

A meeting of the Executive Board of the ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY PARENTS ASSOCIATION (“RGA PA”) began at approximately 8:00 a.m. on Friday, April 20 2007, at ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY (“RGA”) in Room 115 at 52 Chambers Street, New York, New York 10007.

The following RGA PA officers were present: Ian Pearce, president; BrendaShrobe, Parent Trustee; Richard Kixmiller, Vice President (Middle School); and Lisa Trollbäck, Secretary. Ms. Trollbäck kept the minutes of the meeting. The following class representatives and alternates were present: Chris Griffin, Reada Bunin Edelstein, Brenda Maloy, Norma Murphy, and Sherrill Collins, in addition to several other parents and grandparents, including, among others, Ayo Harrington, Louis Diaz, Meilyn Soto-Chapman, Robert Fighera, and Michelle Patton. Dr. Stephanie Clagnaz, RGA principal; Erika Ellison, RGA business manager; and Brooke Rogers, RGA Parent Coordinator, were also in attendance.

Nicholas Combemale of the RGA Board of Trustees introduced Mark Brossman, a pro-bono attorney for Ross Global Academy, Mak Mitchell, who becomes Executive Director on May 1 of the Ross Teachers’ Academy; and Dirk Tillotson, Chief Operations Officer of the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence.

The Principal’s Report
Dr. Clagnaz said that the RGA PA Board had made note to her that the new schedule, enrichment clusters, small groups and advisory groups are all significant recent improvements to the quality of education at RGA.

Search for an Assistant Principal
The first item of business was an update from Dr. Clagnaz regarding the search for an assistant principal, which she said, together with faculty hiring, is her current number-one priority. She said that she his currently conducting several interviews per day. Dr. Clagnaz said there are several candidates for assistant principal, in all stages of the interviewing process. She said, and Mr. Combemale agreed, that she must discuss with the Chair of the RGA Board of Trustees whether a committee of parents would be convened to meet with finalists for the position of assistant principal.

Faculty Positions for Fall 2007
Dr. Clagnaz said that it would be inappropriate for her to comment on faculty contracts.

Saturday School Program Progress—How the Program Will Look Next Year
Dr. Clagnaz said that she does not yet know how Saturday school will be improved but said changes will be made through collaborative decisions with qualified faculty.

Summer Program
Dr. Clagnaz said that she will meet Thursday morning, April 26th with the PA’s summer-program committee to further discuss the program.

Parent Coordinator:
Dr. Clagnaz said that she is not aware of a job description onfile for the position of RGA parent coordinator.

School Nutrition
Dr. Clagnaz reported that the RGA administration is working on a few leads regarding piloting its own nutrition program.

Title 1 Funds
Dr. Clagnaz reported that she is not a Title 1 compliance officer and is therefore currently unaware of the status of the one percent of Title 1 funds that a member of the parent community had previously stated are earmarked for parents-determined activity. She said that she would look it.

RGA Newsletter
Dr. Clagnaz reported that she is currently working on a new edition of theschool newsletter, Celebrations.

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Dr. Clagnaz said that the administration is currently working on a schedule for parent-teacher conferences.

Homework on RGA Website
Dr. Clagnaz reported that a homework section on the RGA website had been built by Amy Wright, the RGA director of technology. Dr. Clagnaz said teachers are now required to post the weekly homework by noon on Mondays. She said that parents are now able to find all necessary homework and academic information by looking up his/her homeroom on the website.

RGA Facility Update
In order to accommodate RGA for the next academic year, Dr. Clagnaz said she is in talks with the Department of Education to exchange one smaller room currently occupied by RGA for one larger room currently occupied by the DOE on the ground floor of Tweed Courthouse.

Returning Students
Dr. Clagnaz said so far 135 of 163 RGA families, equaling 82 percent, are returning for 2007-2008. She said RGA’s reputation is clearly growing, since applications are coming in at a rapid pace,. Currently, there are 135 applications for far fewer available seats. The date of the lottery is May 16.

Dr. Clagnaz left the meeting after her report.

Mak Mitchell
Mak Mitchell said her job as Executive Director of the Ross Teachers Academy would be to determine how to build quality teaching and capacity and to build a quality faculty. She said that she is a tried and true administrator from Tweed and from her position as Executive Director of The Urban Assembly (a group of 19 schools). She said that her job at Ross will be to align New York State standards and the Ross Model, and to oversee the professional development of the faculty. She also said she would be reporting on developments to the parents, who, she said, are the ultimate experts on their children.

Questions and Comments from Parents

Ayo Harrington said the principal had asked at last Saturday’s general
meeting, in response to a question about parent-teacher conferences, “Are you expecting another one? Ms. Harrington reiterated a statement she made at the general meeting that parents need an academic calendar. Ms. Harrington said that there is a need to work on the terminology used to reference the children, whom she said the principal has referred to as “broken.” Ms. Harrington said that there is a problem when the terminology used to describe the children is negative, and said that there is “an atmosphere of fear” at RGA and that parents and teachers are afraid to criticize the administration. Ms. Harrington also commented that “six or seven of the best staff member will not be returning in September.”

Mark Brossman said he would like to be invited back to future meetings ofthe Parents Association Executive Board. He jokingly noted that while many Boards suffer from what he calls “dysfunctional politeness,” the RGA PA does not have this problem. He said he felt that he could be helpful in determining the boundaries between the responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the RGA community.

Norma Murphy said that she did not feel her child had learned much of anything this academic year, and said that the Board of Trustees needs to come in to see firsthand what is going on at RGA.

Reada Bunin Edelstein suggested that a Strategic-Planning Committee be formed and that the Board should appoint a trustee to serve as the liaison to the committee.

Robert Fighera asked to be named Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Discussion of the fundraising committee was deferred to the next meeting.

Brenda Maloy asked about Regents-track classes for 7thgrade. Mak Mitchell said that the faculty curriculum committee would meet over the summer and discuss the criteria for populating those classes.

Ms. Harrington said that a number of students with IEPs had not been properly served to date by RGA.

Suzy Yang asked Dirk Tillotson of the Center for Charter School Excellence whether RGA had an atypically difficult first year. Mr. Tillotson said yes. Mr. Tillotson explained that the Center for Charter School Excellence is an independent, nonprofit organization and works cooperatively with New York City charter schools. A primary goal of the Center, he said, is to provide schools with reports and interim assessments on major issues such as governance and instructional baseline, so that schools can clearly measure how they are performing. The Center, he said, also offers grants to charter schools. Mr. Tillotson said that transitions in school leadership yielded a tough startup year, but that the Center has identified a current “upward trend” at RGA. He acknowledged that RGA’s current facility is a constraint. Mr, Combemale said that the Board of Trustees’ approach to the Center for Charter School Excellence is, “Let’s do everything.” He said the Board of Trustees would be delighted for the Center to evaluate the governance of the Board of Trustees, its composition, and issues such as whether key decisions are being made. Mr. Combemale said the Center for Charter School Excellence had just submitted a report on RGA, which he would ask the principal if she would like to have distributed to parents.

Ms. Harrington said that the Board of Trustees had so far failed to provide a facility for sports and wellness. Reada Bunin Edelstein said that parents could be proactively involved in campaigning the DOE for a facility. Mr. Combemale acknowledged that parents can play a useful role in such matters but said that there was a fine line to be observed in this instance, since the Department of Education is not required to provide a free facility to RGA. Mr. Combemale told Brenda Shrobe that he would like to convene a meeting of the Facility Task Force for 4:00 PM on Thursday, April 26th.

Mr. Brossman reiterated that he would like to be invited back to another meeting of the RGA PA Board.

Mr. Pearce adjourned the meeting at approximately 9:00 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Trollbäck
Secretary of the Meeting