By Margaret Hopper

Aldo Leopold Charter School (ALCS) Governing Council was larger than usual with two new members Thursday evening. Present were Christa Osborn, A. J. Sandoval, Mary Gruszka, Shauna McCosh, Ken Stone, Dale Lane and David Peck, Chairman. Martin Maxwell was not present. Peck explained later that the new ones were being supported by those who are outgoing soon, but still attending. There is room for them all, as the Council could have more members than it presently does, he said.

Noting that the School Sponsored Activity Policy still needed work, Peck then asked for agenda approval and the ALCS Foundation was introduced in its approved form. The paperwork was finished as a 501 (c) 3 with mission and purpose, goal and strategy spelled out. After the presentation, board members were lavish in their praise for those who created the Foundation and saw it through to the finish.

Daniel Gruszka, student council representative, reported on activities from each class, including the senior trip to Moab, Utah, and the coming plans for Staff Appreciation Day. The staff report was given by Jim McIntire, who also listed a number of school activities and accomplishments. The PARCC testing was finished, but he questioned the eight days it took to do the job at Aldo. Math testing was coming soon. At least 13 students would be graduating.

Possibly there could be an orientation for parents as well as students, next fall. More information and communications were needed for them to see how much was being done with students and do the most for them. The Tour of the Gila (bike race) was also a part of the physical education program and some of the policy needs there were reason enough to delay that topic and finish the work with more thorough effort.

He concluded his report with an event about to happen, an art show, and had reported a donation of $200 from the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District. Pete Rankin had attended the Rocky Mountain conference for experiential education. In time, ALCS should be a member of it, he said.

In the Business ManagerGÇÖs report, Harry Browne passed out the bank register report for March, which showed a deposit from the State Equalization Guarantee (the SEG) of nearly $136,000 for operating expenses. Other minor deposits were from interest and a number of activities. The totals are missing on monthly reports.

His comments were that the budget for the coming year appeared to be not as damaging as first thought, and that there would be a budget meeting to allow for public input on April 21 at 9 to 10 a.m. at the Market Caf+¬ downtown. An earlier committee review at 4:30 on the April 18 should finish it off.

The PTO (personal time off) donations policy is also under review, which would allow donations of time from one person to another. There were minimum GÇ£holdingsGÇ¥ to be maintained, and an 80 percent feature the State expected in the transfers, discussed. That work continues. A Title I BAR (budget adjustment request) was mentioned and later passed. [Author's note: but unclear on the recorder; better arrangements will be made in the future for full reporting.]

The first committee report was on SAC, School Advisory Council, and how it coordinated all the other committees, for the benefit of the new Council members. (SAC had been thoroughly studied in past months, and Naava KoenigsbergGÇÖs report recently revealed reorganization for major improvements.)

SHAC (Health Advisory) has met, Audit is presently inactive, Finance will have a special meeting next week (before the public presentation), facilities is not meeting at this time, Nominating, Policy and Development, plus Risk Management were all previewed for new councilors. Much discussion resulted, but few actual reports.

Under Old business, the Strategic Plan was considered, and line 1.1, Redesigning the DirectorGÇÖs Evaluation Tool, came up for more attention. Input came from the council, student/parent and staff sources, by way of written survey. Looking at the GÇ£three audiences,GÇ¥ some were sure they didnGÇÖt want to write three different surveys; the first one was several pages long. Possibly they could tweak the wording and make it fit all parties.

By using Survey Monkey online, the job might become easier. The hows were discussed and the work is expected to be reviewed again at next meeting. Peck asked that it show up nearly a week before the next agenda is produced, as short timing affects the meetings. He also noted that the format on the Strategic Plan was a good one; you KNEW when the job was really finished.

On the Electronic Information Services Student Use Agreement, more changes were still needed. It would be reworked and tabled from action at this time.

The 2017-2018 calendar was handed out and explained, as some color-codes appearing in gray were hard to read. Behind that work was the extension of the school day for another ten minutes. It didnGÇÖt seem much, but by starting the day at 8:30, that small time change made a difference in other areas, especially in-service days. Staff approval was reported to be nearly unanimous on the new plan.

In summary, there would be 172 instructional days (174 in 2016-2017). The non-instructional or in-service days were 12, making teacher contract days 184. The 12 were GÇ£better spacedGÇ¥ for teacher needs next year, they thought. School would open on August 14 this summer, a week later. The last instructional day would be May 23, 2018. There was enough accrued time to cover GÇ£snow days,GÇ¥ too.

Lottery figures were 51 at this time, according to Wayne Sherwood. Of that number, probably 40 would complete all the paperwork, he said. Twenty-nine were from Silver, three from Montessori, three from Cobre, five were home schoolers, one from Calvary, one returned and eight from GÇ£out-of-town," as far away as Florida. Additional lotteries would continue in June and July.

With 13 to 15 seniors graduating, the net gain would increase by 35 or more, anyway. In charter schools, the lowest passing grade was C, not D as in public schools, he said. And they were looking at class sizes and how to accommodate the extra students. With the present freeze on school funding, WNMU could not continue on its commitment. Joe Shepard could do nothing more, so ALCS would have to be creative.

They had looked into portable quarters, but they were not economical for short periods. It might be possible to bus a few classes to existing spaces at WNMU by Corre Caminos, but for the most part, they would expect to keep students in present quarters. Discussions would continue.

Rather than vote the action items after the proposed executive session, the board voted on the calendar and the Title I BAR first, releasing the rest of the staff while it went into discussions of the directorGÇÖs evaluation, legal issues and limited personnel. The open session ended at 8:00.

The School Sponsored Activity policy, the Electronic User Agreement and the Proposed Salary Schedule work will appear again on next monthGÇÖs agenda. That meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 11, starting at 5:30 p.m.

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