News & Announcements

School updates, important dates, and other notices.

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: April 14, 2016

  1. Call to Order, Roll Call and Recognition of Visitors and Board Co-Chairs
    1. Yelena Hardcopf: Present
    2. Oksana Cox:Present
    3. Natalia Kormina: Absent
    4. Elizaveta Lindman: Present
    5. Christian Schmidt: Present
    6. Ben Wallace: Present (8:20pm)
    7. Alex Brusilovsky:Present
    8. Paul Kinsey, Executive Director, ex officio board member.: Present
    9. Visitors in attendance: Whitney Nash, Nicole Larson, and Jim Redfield.
  2. Approval of the Agenda for this meeting
    Approval of the agenda.
    Motion by: Christian Schmidt
    Second: Oksana Cox
    5-0-0
  3. Read the Nasha Shkola Mission and Vision
    1. Read by the director.
  4. Open Forum for members of the public wishing to address the board
    Mr. Meerovich requested to be a part of the school’s email list so that I can know about all dates of meetings. Board members directed Mr. Merrovich to the school website. Mr. Meerovich replied that the website does not have up to date information. The board said they would look into this and it was determined that out of date information was on the website and that our technology person would be contacted so that information is entered into the website in a timely manner.
  5. Reports
    1. Co-Chairs Executive Report- Yelena Hardcopf
      1. The annual meeting is coming up on June 7th and the board must prepare for the meeting.
      2. IQS contract renewal will be done before the end of the year.
      3. Surveys of teachers and parents are being done.
    2. Executive Director report, Executive Director Paul Kinsley
      1. Current Enrollment: 127.39
      2. Present Challenges
        1. The director discussed options to reduce expenses to contractors.
        2. Budget with Lisa Hasledon.
        3. A door has been installed near the entrance to segregate the school from gym and volleyball facilities.
      3. Student Achievement
        1. The school is preparing to take MCA tests. Lots of anxiety and excitement due to our low scores and need for growth in individual student achievement.
        2. We have given greater attention to support struggling students through title services and reading corps.
        3. NWEA will be given again in May.
        4. Grade retention and course retention notices will be delivered to parents. Teachers have collected data and parents will meet with lead teacher to explain concerns about students needing to repeat a grade. Most students will be able to avoid retention by enrolling in summer school classes with a local school district and will be given a test at the start of the year to check for readiness for the grade the student is entering.
      4. Staff Update
        1. Staff retention surveys.
          1. Teachers are getting back to the lead teacher with their intentions for next year. The lead teacher has heard from three people; most teachers seem happy where they are at. The school needs to begin the search for a middle school language arts teacher.
          2. The school should hire a licensed staff person as a para contract worker to help decrease substitute teacher costs.
      5. LIT (Yelena Hardcopf)
        1. The team is still at work coordinating LIT duties with other school initiatives such as curriculum alignment.
    3. Financial Report
      1. Monthly Finance Report, Lisa Haseldon, Designs for Learning
        1. Fund balance is currently $116,630
      2. FY 16 Cash Flow Update
        1. Revenue for March is $926,326 and expenses totaled S946,911 with a deficit.
        2. Despite the deficit for march our school is doing well financially and not spending foolishly.
  6. Consent Agenda
    1. Minutes of March 10, 2016 Board Meeting.
    2.  Financials for March 2016.
      Approval of the consent agenda for the meeting including minutes for the March 10th, board meeting, and financials for March 2016.
      Motion by: Christian Schmidt
      Second: Oksana Cox
      5-0-0
  7. Old Business
    1. Nasha Shkola enrollment projections and programming needs. Director Kinsley explained some goals that the board should look into with regards to enrollment and programming.
      1. Our school should avoid enrollment projections that are beyond our current situation.
      2. Our school should have a projected budget for 124-127 students for 2016-2017.
      3. This way our school will have a cushion if an overly optimistic projection does not occur.
      4. Currently we have 15 new students for next year with 11 in Kindergarten, two in first grade, two in fifth grade and two in sixth grade.
      5. Our school should also find some young educated Russians who would be willing to spend a year at our school.
    2.  Strategic plan of action for 5 years.
      1. Annual meeting is planned on the last day of school.
      2. At the annual meeting the schools voting members will select three teachers, three parents, and three community members to become board members.
      3. The board needs to recruit more candidates for all positions but especially the community members and parents.
      4. The board also needs to follow up with Cindy Lovarato about how the positions will be staggered.
      5. Board members brought up the concern that few parents will attend the meeting as it is a Tuesday and many parents and children may not show up for that shorten week.
    3. Review of Action Items.
      1. Finance training for board members around the time for planning the budget in March.
      2. Plan annual meeting and recruit more candidates to run for the school board.
      3. The school needs to send a letter to eighth grade parents about the school’s decision not to open an 9th grade next year.
      4. The board should continue to search for a reading corps replacement.
      5. Board members need to send Yelena and Oksana their plans for the board with regards to commitment to further service.
      6. The board should review and comment on the strategic plan page 1 by the end of the weekend.
      7. Look into developing a safety plan for school lockdowns especially how staff should communicate in case of an emergency as our school does not have connected classrooms.
      8. Look into heating issues.
      9. Investigate schoolology
      10. Contact JMC to discuss what we can do about creating more detailed grade reports from JMC.
      11. Contact JMC about parent portal and how to get parents hooked up to this.
      12. Contact Ros Sotrudnichestovo to with information about candidates for staff.
      13. Move the Mike Lynch presentation to the fall.
      14. Parents night is scheduled for April 7th at 6:30pm.
      15. Parents survey should be online and mail in.
      16. The teachers survey should be online and anonymous.The above action items were reviewed by the board.
        1. With regards to security of the school we should see about activating the video camera system and purchase handset “walkie talkies” for teachers and staff to communicate for any situation.
        2. The school will stick with JMC after discussing the pros and cons of switching to schoology.
        3. Parents and teacher surveys are in the process of being distributed.
        4. The board discussed surveys for staff and teachers.
        5. The school needs to contact JMC to schedule training for staff on all features of the JMC program.
        6. The school did not have a parent’s night on April 7th.
        7. May 15th should be the candidate deadline for board elections.
        8. Open house on May 19th 6pm-7pm.
  8. New Business
    1. IQS monitoring review and paperwork.
      1. The school is ready for the audit that should occur any day.
    2. New building to Tour-Kevin Peck
      1. Kevin Peck search is currently on hold.
    3. Completion of Strategic Plan
      1. The new board in July will complete this.
    4. Vendor bids-
      1. The school should have bids ready by the net meeting.
  9. Adjourn
    Christian Schmidt moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:42 PM.
    Motion by: Christian Schmidt
    Second by: Ben Wallace
    6-0-0

Action items:

  1. Letter of resignation from Natalya Kormina
  2. Open house May 19th 6pm-7pm.
  3. May 15th is the candidate deadline for open board seats.
  4. follow up with Cindy Lovarato about staggering board elections.
  5.  Check JMC to see what option we have for training staff on the full use of the grading websites features.
  6. Activate the video camera system?
  7. Contact tech person to ensure information is being entered in a timely manner 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