Minutes – February 24, 2010

February 24, 2010 6:00 – 8:00 PM


Procedural Items:

1. Welcome/Call to Order : Meeting called to order by Chair Naomi Swinton at 6:06 PM

2. Establish quorum: Quorum established

3. In attendance: Governing Council members Naomi Swinton (Chair), Caroline Garduño-Lopez (WLV School Board Rep.), Suzanne DeVos-Cole, Chris Cudia, Sally Flores, Diane Moore, Kim Kirkpatrick, Pat Leahan (Secretary), Marisol Meyer (student rep)

Excused: Cindy McLeod (Director), Diana Whitten (GC member)

Absent: Cat Leger and Jaibo Bailey (student reps.)

4. Approval of Agenda: Motion by Caroline, Second by Suzanne, all approved, motion passed

5. Approval of Minutes: Motion by Kim, Second by Suzanne, all approved, motion passed

6. Confirm date of next regular meeting: Wed., March. 24, 2010, 6-8PM


Public Comments, Student and Amigos Reports:

7. Director’s Report: (see attached)

8. Business Manager’s Report:

We thought Dawn, the new WLV Business Manager, might be attending this meeting, but apparently not.

Important 2010-2011 Budget Hearings (to include parent input) (GC, please attend if you can):

Wed. March 3, 2010 6-7:30 PM at Socorro Site

Wed. March 31, 2010 6-7:30 PM at Socorro Site

Tue. April 20, 2010 6-7:30 PM at Socorro Site

Wed. April 28, 2010 6-8:00 PM ACTION ITEM at Governing Council meeting

May 13th will be the technical review for RGS with the WLV School Board. Diana Whitten will attend to represent RGS.

9. Amigos de Rio Gallinas Report:

Feb. 2 (April Verch Band) Fundraiser Report: successful, raised approx. $1,800

Plaza Hotel Fundraiser: Cindy will speak to morning Kiwanis about possibly sponsoring an event; ALSO Tue. May 4th 7:00 AM breakfast fundraiser w/presentation about RGS; GC members should attend if possible.

SynergyFest Help Needed: April 24th at Melody Park on NMHU campus; Please consider helping ahead of time and/or on that Saturday.

Grow Dome Help Needed: Sat. April 17th is a work day, lots of help needed to put down mulch and help with a fence and more.


10. Student Representative Report: There is a chance that Jaibo may no longer be on the Council but we await official word from him. We assume Cat is still a member and encourage him to attend. Marisol reports that several students inquired about the possibility of a talent show; Clarification was needed re: electives and also UWC involvement at the school, including theatre and chess club. Naomi will look into that for Marisol. Kim suggested formalization of a process of regular school meetings to increase communication between the students and administration. Marisol will talk with Cindy about a formal process, and also about finding a student rep replacement for Jaibo, if in fact, he is leaving the council.


Executive Session: none needed


Action Items:

11. BAR Increase:

Budget Transfers –


71000 2400 55915 to 2400 55813 $1,800

Contract services to employee travel (non-teacher)


71000 2600 54610 to 2100 53212 $8,750

Rental Buildings to Speech


71000 2600 54610 to 2100 53213 $8,750

Rental Buildings to OT


Motion by Kim, Second by Chris, all approved, motion passed


12. Compulsory Attendance Policy: Naomi presented the policy; edits were suggested, enhancements were made; See attached for updated policy

Motion by Kim, Second by Sally, all approved, motion passed


Old Business:

Outstanding Items from Previous Meetings:

13. Governing Council Member Trainings: Santa Fe Training Sat. March 20th 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM; Diane, Sally, Suzanne, and Caroline are registered; Suzanne offered to carpool, though it looks like all will be driving separately due to prior commitments and other complications; For her training, Naomi will do the webinar or will seek having a previous training retroactively approved.

14. Honoring Steve Flores with a plaque and a tree: Stella Cherry Tree (6-8 ft.) was chosen and will probably arrive in April. It fruits in summer. It will be on school grounds. Sally tells us that Steve loved Cherry trees. Abi will facilitate getting the tree planted. Amigos is ordering a plaque that will say (based on input we requested of the family): Steve B. Flores, “A Life Lived for Others Is A Life Well Lived,” 3 August 1955 – 19 October 2009, Rio Gallinas School Governing Council Member, Community Activist

We’re grateful to Steve for his contributions to the Governing Council and the school, and to the wider community as well.

15. Governing Council Members are encouraged to visit the school: Lunch is at 11:30, and we are also welcome to come earlier and sit in on a class. Diane and Sally will arrange a visit together in the near future.


New Business:

16. Grant Writing:

Cindy will appreciate any assistance we can provide in getting grants written. Naomi, Suzanne and Chris are working on this; Suzanne attended a training at NMHU Feb. 24th, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM with Martha Aragon. She learned at the training that we should have access to the grant proposals and we’re responsible for making sure they are fulfilled as written.

17. For March meeting — Director Evaluation and Contract: We are required to evaluate the school’s head administrator annually. That is also the time we decide about rehiring the administrator for the coming year. Naomi provided a copy of the current evaluation that we are required to complete. She requests that we also propose an evaluation form that is a better fit for our school’s goals and policies. A “goal sheet” was suggested as a one-page format for next year’s evaluation of the administrator. Naomi suggests we have a couple of volunteers to develop this over the next couple of months. Naomi and Kim volunteered. Pat is willing to assist as needed. Additionally, we each need to familiarize ourselves with the current evaluation form Naomi handed out, as we will fill it out as a group during next month’s (March 24th) executive session.

18. Strategic Planning Process: Chief administrator of the school should head up a strategic planning process. Cindy is working on a set of strategic thoughts of what the school should be doing over the next 3-5 years. Within the next couple of months, we will have something from Cindy for our review.

19. Plan for Review of Charter: We all need to be familiar with the goals of the charter, and perhaps re-write them to enhance clarity. We need to determine a process by which we will review the charter, a very bulky task. Various suggestions were made, including taking one section at a time. Kim will provide us with charter sections for us to look at for next month’s meeting.

20. Discussion: “Charter School University Book Section 1: A New Kind of Accountability” –

We were given a handout of questions from the first four chapters of the “Charter School University” book which we then started discussing. Naomi will email us some notes that were drafted previously to help guide our work. We will read the second section of the book (Chapters 5-11) in preparation for our March 24th meeting.


Adjournment:

Motion by Chris, Second by Pat, all approved, motion passed

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM