Board Meetings

This meeting took place on May 3rd at Cummins NW in Coburg, OR. The following people attended: Jake Plahn, Dionne Plahn, Kelly Harris, Laurie Cardwell, Kirsten Cardwell, Jessica Cardwell, Tammy Garlitz, Rick Garlitz, Cheryl Neet, Rob Neet.

Agenda

• Discuss Action Items from our last meeting View.
• Review Notes from last meeting View.
• Go through activities since our last meeting.
  • Meetings
  • Questions Answered
  • Curriculum and TSPC registered
  • New domain name
  • Substitutes and PERS
  • Action Items from 4/19 Meeting
  • Budget Process
• Work on our proposal.
• Schedule our next meeting.

Notes

• We spent a lot of time reviewing everything from last meeting. I think the meetings will be more productive if they are work sessions where we accomplish tasks as a group rather than a review of everything that has happened since our last meeting.
• The printouts didn’t work well. It was hard for everyone to follow along. The next meeting we will project everything on the flat screen, so everyone is looking at the same thing.
• Dionne recommended that we add $3,000 to the substitutes cost for employment tax.
• Everyone agrees with the budget process, but thinks we need to keep funds in reserve to buy ourselves out of a lease in case we find better educational services for our students.
• We will submit our proposal to our chosen sponsoring district on September 1, 2013.
• Kirsten talked about the benefit of offering full day kindergarten. We all agreed that this is something we will do.
• We discussed who the founders listed in our proposal should be. Jake will get 3 charter school proposals, so we can see how many founders they list.
• For the founders experience on our proposal we will use the information from our private alternative school partnership document.
• We need to add character training to our curriculum.
• Our school will be focused on “Academic Excellence” and we won’t cut corners to appease parents. You are either in and agree to our stringent requirements for parents and students or your child will not be admitted. We will have a signed contract from parents and students that binds them to our standards.
• The rest of the meeting was a work session for Our Proposal. Here’s what we came up with:
  • Distinctive learning or teaching techniques
    • Reading Direct Instruction
    • Daily Math Drills
    • Focus on penmanship, cursive
    • Spelling and grammar
    • Grammar
    • Character development
    • Core Knowledge History and Geography
    • Delta Science Modules (hands on)
    • Back to basics mentality
  • Projected Enrollment and the ages or grades to be served
    • Kindergarten – 10
    • First through 8th – 12
  • Target Population
    • Involved families in our community interested in educational excellence whose children thrive in smaller environments.
  • Founders and their role:
    • Laurie Cardwell – Administrator
    • Jessica Cardwell – Teacher
    • Tammy Garlitz – Nurse
    • Jake Plahn – IT and technology
    • Rick Garlitz – Budgeting
    • Dionne Plahn – Finances
    • Kelly Harris – Office Administration
    • Cheryl Neet – Community Relations
    • Kirsten Cardwell – Teacher
    • Rob Neet – Conformance
• Our next meeting will be May 17th 10:30 AM at Cummins NW.

Action Items

• Jake
  • Bring cable to connect the laptop to the flat screen. – Completed
  • Add $3,000 to the budget for substitute employment tax. – Completed
  • Get 3 charter school proposals and see how many founders they listed. – In Progress, emailed the directors of Woodland Charter School, River’s Edge Academy, and Sauvie Island Academy.
  • Add lease buyout to the budget. – Completed
  • Add experience to the Our Proposal page from the private alternative school partnership document. – Completed
  • Add work session information to the Our Proposal page. – Completed
• Rick
  • Email Jake relevant experience info.
• Tammy
  • Email Jake relevant experience info.
• Jessica
  • Email Jake the character training information for our curriculum.
  • Create Parent/School Contract

We had our first meeting on 4/5/2013.

Agenda

1. Review our goals.
2. Walk through the Starting a Charter School steps
3. Walk through the Proposal steps
4. Walk through the State Requirements
5. Discuss our proposed start date
6. Distribute Action Items

Notes

• The meeting went well. Jake Plahn, Dionne Plahn, Laurie Cardwell, Cheryl Neet, Rob Neet, Kelly Harris, Jessica Cardwell, Kirsten Cardwell, and Tammy Garlitz attended.
• We discussed why we are here and what skills everyone brings to the table.
• An explanation on the charter school being a separate entity from the Fall Creek Home School Academy and that private schools who charge tuition cannot convert themselves to a charter school took place.
• We discussed that we are here because we feel strongly about educating the children in our community and that no one on the team is guaranteed a job at the charter school.
• We made it through step 7 on the Starting a Charter School page. The page has been updated with our responses. Click on the “Completed” link next to the item to see the response.
• The name of our school was discussed. Kelly doesn’t want the name tied to a location like it is in “Fall Creek Charter”. She is also concerned about the brand/image that will be tied to the name and feels strongly that the name should be easily tied to the brand/image people think of when they hear or see it. Everyone agreed and we brainstormed possibilities.
  • Signify a “new start”, “rebuilding”, “roots”
  • The latin word for “roots” was dismissed because it would be confusing
  • Using a Greek word was shot down because we don’t want it to be confusing.
  • Relate to the founding families of the area
  • Name it after a historical figure that represents character.
• Our next step is to start the conversation with the Lowell School District about starting a charter school in their district. Tammy volunteered to talk to the district. Jake would like to do this with her. We plan on doing this after our next meeting.
• We discussed building options in the Lowell/Fall Creek area. We came up with the following options:
  • Lundy
    • Laurie and Rob discussed the dismal and possibly toxic state the building is in. We decided to not pursue this option.
  • Put modulars on the property by Tumac
    • We like this idea, but are leaning towards the Lundy field because of our plans to convert Lundy to a charter school.
  • Putting modulars on the Lundy field
    • We decided that this is the most viable option for us.
  • Forest Service Buildings
    • This space would be perfect for us, but we don’t think the owner is interested in leasing or selling the buildings.

Action Items

• Jake
  • Start an email thread about possible school names
  • Email the ODE charter school coordinator the following questions:
    • In ORS 338.035 what do they define an “alternative education program” as?
    • Is their any advantage to establishing a charter school from an existing alternative education program?
• Everyone
  • Respond to the email thread with their name ideas.