News & Announcements

School updates, important dates, and other notices.

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: February 19, 2015

  1. Call to Order, Roll Call and Recognition of Visitors and Board Co-Chairs
    1. Yelena Hardcopf: Present
    2. Oksana Cox: Present
    3. Tatyana Kucherenko: Absent
    4. Ben Wallace: Present (late)
    5. Natalia Kormina: Present
    6. Alex Brusilovsky: Absent
    7. Elizaveta Lindman: Present
    8. Christian Schmidt: Present
    9. Tim Luts: Present
    10. Jake Nelson, Director – ex-officio member: Present
    11. Visitors in attendance: Dr. Stephen O’ Connor, Gedaly Meerovich, Sher Tischner, and Trevis Carletta.
  2. Approval of the Agenda for this meeting Motion by Tim Luts Second: Natalia Kormina Approved: 6-0
  3. Read the Nasha Shkola Vision – What has been done this past month to bring the Nasha Shkola vision to reality?
  4. Open Forum for members of the public wishing to address the board
  5. Reports
    1. Co-Chairs Executive Report – Yelena Hardcopf
      1. Recruitment of new board members There will be an annual board meeting in May. The board needs to recruit candidates from community to serve on the board. There will be three openings available for elections in May, all of which are community representatives.
    2. Director report – Jake Nelson
      1. Enrollment update 128 students.
      2. Student achievement: Students took OLPA in math and reading for grades 3-8
      3. Leadership implementation team/SIG grant: LIT team attended training with the State System of Support. The team is working on selection of an intervention strategy for the school.
      4. Curriculum
      5. Staff
    3. Financial Report
      1. Monthly Finance Report – Sher Tischner, BDKA
      2. Federal CSP Grant Report – Jake Nelson
    4. School New Website Report – Trevis Carletta: The new website was presented to the board. The work is still in progress. The site should be up and running by April, 2015
    5. Marketing Committee Report – Natalia Kormina
      1. School marketing plans: several new marketing initiatives have been developed by the marketing committee; distribution of flyers.
      2. School logo – Yelena Hardcopf: New logo was developed by Svetlana Lazarev with participation of Yelena Hardcopf and Svetlana Kazanecki. The board made some comments for improvement.
    6. Consent Agenda
      1. Minutes of January 22, 2015 Board meeting; January 2015 Financials.
        Motion by Ben Wallace
        Second: Tim Luts
        Approved: 7-0
    7. Old Business
      1. Nasha Shkola 2015-2016 programming: pre-k and high school. The meeting between Director Nelson, IQS representatives (Karen Cadigan, Bob Wedl and Dr. Stephen O’Connor) and representatives from New Horizon (Mary Terrass and Chad Dunkely) took place on February 13th. Both organizations had a chance to meet and learn about each other and the services they provide. The meeting has established some framework for further discussion: HR, physical resources, transportation, programming and curriculum, funding, locations, potential clientele. The meeting went well. Input on the meeting was received from Jake Nelson and Dr. O’Connor, IQS.
      2. Enrichment programs and field trips update: Field trips should complement and enhance classroom instruction. Teachers are to come up with field trip plans for all grades.
    8. New Business
      1. Review and update Board policies: Discuss school guidelines concerning religious activity in the charter school. Board policy committee should develop some guidelines to address the issue. Input was also received from Dr. O’Connor on a discussion regarding the difference between policy, guidelines, and procedures. Board should is responsible for establishing school policies. School leadership should address the issues as they arise.
      2. Upcoming Director evaluation: Board members will fill out the evaluation form. The discussion will take place during next board meeting, March 19th in the closed session.
    9. Other New Business
    10. Board discussion as to what went well at this meeting and what could be improved on: reduce side conversations.
    11. Adjourn 8:32pm

Next Board Meeting: March 19, 2015 – 6:30 pm at Nasha Shkola School

The Nasha Shkola Board meets the 3rd Thursday of each month

The Finance Committee of the Board meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 5:30 pm

Action items for March meeting:

  1. Employee contracts: Review the “at-will” portion of the employee contracts.
  2. Advise the director to attend training on employment relationships and contracts at MACS
  3. Upcoming parents’ information night: director will give a report on school accomplishments and plans for the future.
  4. Provide an update for parents about the upcoming website. Create a survey for parents to solicit their input on what they want to see on the website.

About Nasha Shkola

Nasha Shkola — Russian for Our School — is an academically rigorous K-8 charter school, providing a highly-structured learning environment for students interested in Russian language and culture.

Contact Us

    School Info

    Nasha Shkola
    6717 85th Ave North
    Brooklyn Park, MN 55445

    Phone: 763-496-5550
    Fax: 763-424-8520

    School Hours
    Monday – Friday:
    8:30 am – 4:30 pm

    Office Hours
    Monday – Friday:
    8 am – 4 pm