SEVEN OAKS CLASSICAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
27 SEPTEMBER 2016, 6:30 P.M.

The meeting was held in a room on the second floor; both our volunteers commented on the difficulty of finding it. These notes are a combination of the notes provided by Carolyn and Nancy.

Shipp said everything was going well; more is expected of the students; some find it may be hard to do; called it the “honeymoon” period. Priority is healthy school culture, small class sizes, strong faculty. They are working with middle school students to increase their love of learning

Said they are on the cusp of building a community because they sent out a newsletter about creating extracurriculars, parents will have coffee with the headmaster, they are going to have school tours.

He also asked if the board could pay the staff something for their service during the “camps”; Prall said there might be something that could be done. Suggestion was to pay each teacher $150 total for the three weeks of service.

Before meeting began Matt Wolf came to the audience, introduced himself and asked our names.  

Board member Terry English was absent, but his wife was his “proxy.”

Fred Prall has his head down most of the time looking at documents or papers.  He asked for definition of IEP; asked Shipp to stay away from “IEP” type jargon.

One board member came in late accompanied by 3 children, one of which was a newborn. Her other two children were in and out of the room.  Her older son walked the little girl up and down the hall. This board member left the room for a time when the toddler needed her attention.

Expected 200 children; 160 enrolled; Wolf said it was probably the late start that kept them away. Budgeting challenges. Meeting with consultants with the Indiana Charter Schools board (?). Mentioned staff reductions. He’s incredibly optimistic: wait-and-see attitude. Talked about student transfers from other public schools. The charter world favors education choice. They said they are coming from 54 schools. Have openings available.

Admissions: priority in admission for siblings of current students or children of faculty; they will be first as long as they apply before the deadline.

Battle of the Badges Report:  $1000 and $700 from concessions and sales; expenses of $1400 yielded $300; $150 to B of the B and $150 profit

Approved $3,753 for $1 million per directors and officers’ coverage; were not currently covered.

Will meet for IFF loan closing Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m. Plan is to hold back 5%.

Technical support tabled until December.

Must develop procedures for adding new board members and rotation of terms:
Mentioned the Hillsdale Board police wanted balance between parents, business, and community;  staggered terms (all “ha-ha” when Wolf mentioned Keith Klein and
    Sue Wanzer)

Fred Prall said “When we bring them on, we are going to have to expose them to past minutes and information and they will have to have Hillsdale College training. Required.” Each board member will have to have 2-year stint. Matt Wolf mentioned that there will be a “indoctrination” period. “Maybe that’s not the right word.”

Construction approved; flooring. Some rooms still need painting – Wolf said he would ask for volunteers to do this; spent the contingency $ but the cost of the flooring and some plumbing was unexpected; Still needed inspection; and environmental plan; Prall said they were 85% done.

Prall also asked for clarity on the motion for Shipp to form a committee for determining the “division of responsibility in matters of contracts and financial agreements between school administration and board of directors.  Committee is tasked with the responsibility of developing recommendations for board approval. Who will make financial decisions? All contracts are supposed to be approved by the board but two were not approved by the board.

The big “to-do” was when the board moved and seconded Ian Hall to fill a vacancy on the board; Prall strongly disagreed with this procedure; stated the agenda did not indicate that voting would take place tonight; he had a couple of people he wanted to nominate, but had not checked with them if it was OK to nominate them; Prall and Wolf argued back and forth; the other members said nothing throughout this discussion; Wolf finally said Prall was out of order and the vote was 4-1 for adding Hall.

A reporter from the Ellettsville Journal was present; perhaps something will be in that paper on Thursday.

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.