Providence Classical Christian School

Regular board meeting, 7:30pm, Monday, 1/16/06

Minutes: approved

 

Members in attendance: Steve Schaefer (chair); Gordon England (vice chair); Eric Boston (secretary); Dave Hatcher

Members not in attendance: n/a

Administration: Mike Adair

Guests: David Erb, Andrew Jensen, Nathan Morris, Dan Taverne, Wally Carruthers, Scott Forrester, Scott Simone, Chris Shaffer, Todd Boze, Chris Butaud, Mark Thomas

 

:: Opened in prayer at 7:30pm

 

:: Regular Business:

-          Approve minutes from December: approved

-          Superintendent Update:

o        Monthly financial review: Mr. Adair talked about payroll issues, including the timing of payroll out vs. cash in timing and how it effects paying all bills. Still looking to send new numbers to the Board soon.

o        Staffing/admin: OK. No expected changes for the rest of the year.

o        Enrollment 06/07: Open house on Jan 24/25. Mr. Adair sees many advantages to this forum and was thankful to the many people who have worked on this whole project, including Mrs. England who has spear-headed the effort. Looks forward to the outcome of the meetings. Open enrollment starts February 8, 2006, so enrollment meetings have not yet taken place. Mr. Shaffer asked about the goals of the meetings. Mr. Adair feels that goals are to increase visibility of school to community, and to meet goal of Dev II to get to 200 kids.

o        Facility: Plumbing taken care of, looking into payment of bills. Heat not working today (Monday) because of technical difficulty. Otherwise, all seems to be in good order.

 

-          Committee reports:

o        Curriculum: no report

o        Development: Mr. Butaud (chairman of committee) talked about the idea of a Christian school night.

o        Philosophy: No report

 

:: January Agenda:

            Policy 9.6 Discussion and input

-          Mr. Schaefer introduced discussion on Policy update. Opened floor to all who might want to give feedback. Mr. Erb began with asking whether town-meeting style was wisest for board to receive input. Mr. Schaefer reiterated that any form of input is acceptable. Mr. Morris asked what the intent of the policy is. Mr. Schaefer read the paragraph of the letter sent to faculty/staff regarding that question. Mr. Erb requested a brief history of the policy. Mr. Schaefer gave recent history, starting with Mr. Hatcher asking for a re-affirmation of the policy, the faculty concerns and input, and the subsequent decision to adjust the policy. Mr. Butaud asked about the timing of the policy affirmation and compelling reasons to reiterate the policy to the teachers. Mr. Schaefer and Mr. Hatcher provided further insight for why Board chose to affirm the policy. Mr. England also explained Board's reasoning for home schooling and Providence schooling. Mr. Taverne spoke about choice and the headship of the father to educate his children. Mr. Boze spoke on facts of working and business, and talked about some rights are given up because of working at a particular place. Mr. Boston talked about identity with your place of work. Mr. Taverne reiterated his feeling that this kind of policy goes against the statement of faith to an extent. Mr. Forrester talked about father's choice to educate. Mr. Butaud spoke briefly about forcing of teachers to keep their kids at the school and how that seems to undermine the responsibility of a father. Mr. Morris asked about why we opened the policy up to home schooling only. Mr. Schaefer answered with the lack of competition with home schooling vs. any other "institutional" schooling. Mr. Jensen asked what is loyalty in the case of a faculty member to the school. Mr. Schaefer and Mr. Adair answered with definitions of loyalty which has more to do with teachers working toward his/her best to for the school, and being a outward or public indicator of positive affirmation for the school. Mr. Schaefer closed time with thanks to all fathers and teachers for their input.    

 

            All-Faculty/Parent meetings

-          Open house near end of month. Making sure that all Board will be at the parent meeting.

 

            2006/2007 tuition changes

-          Mr. Schaefer started with discussion of payroll and tuition increase history and turned the floor over to Mr. Adair. Mr. Adair began with talk about hiring for next year. Mr. Adair produced a number of spreadsheets to provide talking points. Mr. Adair talked through the spreadsheets, addition of staff, increases of salaries and tuition, and loyalty and contentment of staff if stretched to thin. Mr. Schaefer asked about ending the secondary as a possibility and Mr. Adair countered that there are a bunch of factors in place that would negate any benefit to closing secondary. Agreement that secondary is important and necessary. Mr. Butaud brought up issues of honesty of our market that we target and the level of income needed for the average family to keep 2 or more children in the school if we increase tuition. Mr. Shaffer asked about any other possibilities for other adjustments to secondary costs to allow tuition to be not raised more than 10%. Mr. Adair clarified the complications and admitted that there are more numbers that could be run. More discussion followed about education, and imparting of vision of the school, etc. Mr. Adair encouraged that whatever increase we make in tuition, that it would involve the inclusion of the salary and position of DOI.  

 

            Mr. Adair added as ex-officio board member

-          Mr. Hatcher made motion that Mr. Adair be made an ex-officio board member. Mr. England seconded. Discussion: Mr. Hatcher talked about how tightly that Mr. Adair is associated with the board. His input is highly valuable. Vote: 4 aye; 0 nay. Motion is passed

 

Board contact of parents

-          Mr. Boston brought up need for board to contact families to hear concerns and questions and be able to communicate vision of school. Board needs to be more communicative and needs to be kept accountable to making contact with families. Mr. Boze cautioned that maybe a brief outline of conversations with families should be documented and sent to the chairman so that comments can be discussed more objectively. Mr. Schaefer concluded that Mr. Boston be given action item to send call list to Board with intention to call 4 families per month, at minimum.

 

:; Unfinished Business

-          Mr. Adair: discussion for next month about ex-officio membership.

-          Review and revise the 5-year goals for Providence.

 

:: Regular business adjourned at 10:15pm, closed in prayer.