Dear RMAE Community:
Thanks to all who attended yesterday’s
Regular Board meeting. For those not in attendance, we would like to
provide a brief update on the noteworthy discussion and actions taken at
the meeting.
A detailed line item budget was presented to the
Board last night for review. This budget is consistent with the K-8
budget plan approved by the Board at last month’s Board meeting, and is
to be formally approved at the next regularly scheduled Board meeting in
January 2017 (subject to final review and revision as needed). In the
meantime, this line item “pending approval” budget will be accessible
next week via the Board Correspondence section of the RMAE website.
The
Board also heard updates from various school groups such as PTO and
Student Council, as well as various Board Committees including the
Healing, Trust and Community Building Committee, Marketing, Facilities,
Policy, Technology, and the School Accountability Committee (SAC). Most
all of these committees have been recently reactivated and are now
moving full speed ahead in support of the school. However, there is
still an opportunity for you to participate in any committee(s) which
suit your skills, experience or interest; in fact several committees
spoke to their desire to have greater participation from the parent
body. We encourage you to check out the RMAE Committee Sign-up List and sign up to join a committee and to help shape the future of RMAE and support the school as a volunteer!
There
was also discussion regarding the composition of the Board as specified
in the school Bylaws. After lengthy discussion, including input and
advice from teachers present at the meeting as well as the School
Director, the Board approved a motion to modify the school Bylaws to
remove the School Director, the Preschool Director, and the Teacher
representative as members of the Board. These changes were also
supported by prior advice received from the Colorado League of Charter
Schools and charter school lawyers. In tandem with this action, the
Board created the Education Committee, headed by Mrs. Cathy Goodheart
(6th grade teacher). The Education Committee was created so as to ensure
that there is a formal and appropriate structure for the RMAE teachers
and staff to have a voice regarding Board activities and to be able to
provide input and feedback directly to the Board on a regular basis.
Following
this was brief discussion regarding the School Director’s ability to
reasonably manage classroom sizes commensurate with any situations that
might arise which could result in a classroom size larger than that set
forth in school Family Handbook. Though not a formal policy matter, the
Board affirmed its belief that the Director does have flexibility when
it comes to class sizes, provided the Director exercises judicious
discretion and makes reasonable efforts to stay inside classroom size
guidelines.
Lastly of note, the Board scheduled a Special Meeting for next Thursday, December 12 at 6:30 p.m.
in order to fill three vacancies on the Board – two Parent
representatives and one Community representative (bringing the total
Board size from six to nine). As announced earlier this week, Board
Member Britt Gaskell unfortunately resigned her position on the Board in
order to attend to her mother’s unexpected and serious health issues.
As Britt was also Board Treasurer, it is preferable that one of the
newly appointed Board members will assume the Treasurer position. If
you have any interest in being considered as a Parent representative
(including possibly the Treasurer role) on the Board, please submit your
resume/bio to the Board rmaeboard@rmae.org as soon as possible, and/or plan to attend next week’s Special Meeting when these vacancies are expected to be filled.
In
closing, we would like to reiterate our thanks to all of you for your
ongoing input and advice to the Board in support of the school. We wish
you all Happy Holidays and we look forward to working with and for you
during the second half of the school year.
Most Sincerely,
Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen Board of Directors