Posts made in January, 2014

Admissions and Enrollment Process

Posted by on Jan 8, 2014 in Blog

I’ve listed out the details for our proposed admissions and enrollment process that was explained in the Admission and Enrollment post.

  1. The Academy board sets the capacity of the program, class, grade level, and building.
  2. The Academy board sets the content and format for the admission application.
  3. The Academy board sets the start and end date for admission application submission.
  4. The Academy board decides on the format for the following email notifications sent to parents.
    1. Admission application submitted successfully.
    2. Student has been placed on the waiting list. There was a lottery for their class and they were not selected.
    3. Student has been accepted for enrollment.
  5. The application is posted to the web site.
  6. The application is submitted by the parents/guardians of prospective students after the start date.
  7. The application is removed from the web site after the end date and applications are no longer accepted.
  8. Our school management software application performs the following tasks
    1. Generates class enrollment lists based on age.
      1. If the number of applicants exceeds the capacity of a class, students are selected through an equitable lottery selection process.
      2. The following students are waived from the lottery process and automatically added to the enrollment list
        1. Children of founders, staff, and board members.
        2. Were enrolled in the school in the prior year.
        3. Have siblings who are presently enrolled in the school and who were enrolled in the school in the prior year.
    2. Places students on a class waiting list if a lottery occurred and they weren’t selected.
    3. Sends enrollment accepted and waiting list emails to parents.
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enrollment plan

Posted by on Jan 8, 2014 in Blog

Our proposal and budget contains an enrollment estimate of 135 students. It also states that our current plan is to pursue using the back wing of Lundy for classrooms. In its current state the back wing has seven rooms that can be used for classes. Six of these rooms are large enough to accommodate our class size cap of 15 students. The other one is large enough for 5 students. Using this data I’ve come up with the following numbers for next year.

Room Maximum Students Projected Students
12 15 11
14 15 11
15 15 11
16 15 10
17 15 10
18 15 10
Bonus Room 5 5
Total 95 68

The number of projected students is calculated by taking 70% of the max students. This will allow us to account for not filling up all of the rooms to capacity. The projected number of students for the bonus room is kept at 5 because we are confident we can fill it to capacity.

This gives us a projected number of students for the current layout of the back wing at 68 students and 7 teachers (1 for each room). If I update our current budget with these numbers we have a deficit of $112,687.40. To balance the budget we would have to reduce the teacher salary to $27,000, the administrator salary to $40,000, and remove the aide. If we reach our maximum capacity of 95 students we will be able to keep the proposed salaries and staffing with a surplus of $45,404.95. We need at least 88 students to keep our ideal salaries and the aide.

Students Teachers Surplus Teacher Salary Administrator Salary Aide
68 7 $4,247.20 $27,000.00 $40,000.00 No
88 7 $5,106.90 $34,000.00 $68,000.00 Yes
95 7 $45,404.95 $34,000.00 $68,000.00 Yes

I’m going to recommend to our board that we initially cap our enrollment at 95 students. This will require us to do minimal interior changes to the building during our first year of operation.

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Admission and Enrollment

Posted by on Jan 6, 2014 in Blog

I’m going to start formalizing our admission/enrollment policy. ORS 338.125 contains the requirements from the State. Here is my proposal:

  • The children of founders, staff, and board members are waived from the lottery process (dependent on the ODE accepting our waiver).
  • Our board will annually decide on and approve the following items
    • Capacity of the program, class, grade level, and building.
    • Admission Application
      • Content and format.
      • Start and end date for submission.
    • Content and format for the following email notifications sent to parents
      • Submitted successfully.
      • Placed in the lottery and was not accepted. Currently on the waiting list.
      • Accepted for enrollment.
  • Application will be submitted using our web site.
  • Notifications will be sent out from the web site.
  • The lottery will automatically occur once the application submission end date passes. The selection will be performed automatically by the web site software.

 

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policies added to web site

Posted by on Jan 5, 2014 in Blog

I’ve updated the RONR Guidelines page to include information on resolutions. This information was taken from Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised 11th Edition.

Our compensation policy has been added to the web site.

Our Conflict of Interest policy has been added to the web site.

Our next step is to forward written notice of our proposal being approved to the Oregon Department of Education. I emailed Walt asking him about this and he said we should receive it later on this week.

 

 

 

 

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Conflict of Interest

Posted by on Jan 5, 2014 in Policies

Adopted: 12/30/2013 
Reviewed: 6/27/2017
OSBA CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY

Resolved by Mountain View Academy, That the following conflict of interest policy is adopted and will be followed.

Article I: Purpose

The purpose of the conflict of interest policy is to protect this tax-exempt organization’s (Organization) interest when it is contemplating entering into a transaction or arrangement that might benefit the private interest of an officer or director of the Organization or might result in a possible excess benefit transaction. This policy is intended to supplement but not replace any applicable state and federal laws governing conflict of interest applicable to nonprofit and charitable organizations.

Article II: Definitions

  1. Interested Person: Any director, principal officer, or member of a committee with governing board delegated powers, who has a direct or indirect financial interest, as defined below, is an interested person.
  2. Financial Interest: A person has a financial interest if the person has, directly or indirectly, through business, investment, or family:
    1. An ownership or investment interest in any entity with which the Organization has a transaction or arrangement,
    2. A compensation arrangement with the Organization or with any entity or individual with which the Organization has a transaction or arrangement, or
    3. A potential ownership or investment interest in, or compensation arrangement with, any entity or individual with which the Organization is negotiating a transaction or arrangement.
  3. Compensation includes direct and indirect remuneration as well as gifts or favors that are not insubstantial.
  4. A financial interest is not necessarily a conflict of interest. Under Article III, Section 2, a person who has a financial interest may have a conflict of interest only if the appropriate governing board or committee decides that a conflict of interest exists.

Article III: Procedures

  1. Duty to Disclose: In connection with any actual or possible conflict of interest, an interested person must disclose the existence of the financial interest and be given the opportunity to disclose all material facts to the directors and members of committees with governing board delegated powers considering the proposed transaction or arrangement.
  2. Determining Whether a Conflict of Interest Exists: After disclosure of the financial interest and all material facts, and after any discussion with the interested person, he/she shall leave the governing board or committee meeting while the determination of a conflict of interest is discussed and voted upon. The remaining board or committee members shall decide if a conflict of interest exists.
  3. Procedures for Addressing the Conflict of Interest:
    1. An interested person may make a presentation at the governing board or committee meeting, but after the presentation, he/she shall leave the meeting during the discussion of, and the vote on, the transaction or arrangement involving the possible conflict of interest.
    2. The chairperson of the governing board or committee shall, if appropriate, appoint a disinterested person or committee to investigate alternatives to the proposed transaction or arrangement.
    3. After exercising due diligence, the governing board or committee shall determine whether the Organization can obtain with reasonable efforts a more advantageous transaction or arrangement from a person or entity that would not give rise to a conflict of interest.
    4. If a more advantageous transaction or arrangement is not reasonably possible under circumstances not producing a conflict of interest, the governing board or committee shall determine by a majority vote of the disinterested directors whether the transaction or arrangement is in the Organization’s best interest, for its own benefit, and whether it is fair and reasonable. In conformity with the above determination it shall make its decision as to whether to enter into the transaction or arrangement.
    5. Violations of the Conflicts of Interest Policy
      1. If the governing board or committee has reasonable cause to believe a member has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, it shall inform the member of the basis for such belief and afford the member an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose.
      2. If, after hearing the member’s response and after making further investigation as warranted by the circumstances, the governing board or committee determines the member has failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, it shall take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.

Article IV: Records of Proceedings
The minutes of the governing board and all committees with board delegated powers shall contain:

  1. The names of the persons who disclosed or otherwise were found to have a financial interest in connection with an actual or possible conflict of interest, the nature of the financial interest, any action taken to determine whether a conflict of interest was present, and the governing board’s or committee’s decision as to whether a conflict of interest in fact existed.
  2. The names of the persons who were present for discussions and votes relating to the transaction or arrangement, the content of the discussion, including any alternatives to the proposed transaction or arrangement, and a record of any votes taken in connection with the proceedings.

Article V: Compensation

  1. A voting member of the governing board who receives compensation, directly or indirectly, from the Organization for services is precluded from voting on matters pertaining to that member’s compensation.
  2. A voting member of any committee whose jurisdiction includes compensation matters and who receives compensation, directly or indirectly, from the Organization for services is precluded from voting on matters pertaining to that member’s compensation.
  3. No voting member of the governing board or any committee whose jurisdiction includes compensation matters and who receives compensation, directly or indirectly, from the Organization, either individually or collectively, is prohibited from providing information to any committee regarding compensation.

Article VI: Annual Statements
Each director, principal officer and member of a committee with governing board delegated powers shall annually sign a statement which affirms such person:

  1. Has received a copy of the conflicts of interest policy,
  2. Has read and understands the policy,
  3. Has agreed to comply with the policy, and
  4. Understands the Organization is charitable and in order to maintain its federal tax exemption it must engage primarily in activities which accomplish one or more of its tax-exempt purposes.

Article VII: Periodic Reviews
To ensure the Organization operates in a manner consistent with charitable purposes and does not engage in activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status, periodic reviews shall be conducted. The periodic reviews shall, at a minimum, include the following subjects:

  1. Whether compensation arrangements and benefits are reasonable, based on competent survey information, and the result of arm’s length bargaining.
  2. Whether partnerships, joint ventures, and arrangements with management organizations conform to the Organization’s written policies, are properly recorded, reflect reasonable investment or payments for goods and services, further charitable purposes and do not result in inurement, impermissible private benefit or in an excess benefit transaction.

Article VIII: Use of Outside Experts
When conducting the periodic reviews as provided for in Article VII, the Organization may, but need not, use outside advisors. If outside experts are used, their use shall not relieve the governing board of its responsibility for ensuring periodic reviews are conducted.

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