1. Call to Order, Roll Call and Recognition of Visitors and Board Co-Chairs
   1. Yelena Hardcopf:Present
   2. Elizaveta Lindman: Present
   3. Christian Schmidt: Present
   4. Alekej Abyzov: Present
   5. Yelena Kurdyumova: Present
   6. Mark Eilers: Absent
   7. Paul Kinsey, Executive Director, ex officio board member: Present
   8. Visitors in attendance: Sergey Porada, Nicole Nelson from Nasha Shkola as authorizer IQS and Matt Regan of Northstar Bus Lines.
2. Approval of the Agenda
   Motion by: Liza Lindman
   Seconded by:Christian Schmidt
   5-0-0
3. Read the Nasha Shkola Mission and Vision – Paul Kinsley
   Vision: To be an academically rigorous school preparing students for the world.
   Mission: Nasha Shkola will be a multi-cultural charter school committed to academic excellence, provide a highly-structured learning environment based upon education best practices for students interested in the Russian language and culture, achieved through the collaborative efforts of parents, staff, and the communities we serve.
4. Open Forum for members of the public wishing to address the board
   Matt Regan addressed the board to inform us of the transportation services provided by his bus company. Mr. Regan described his business and how it could potentially benefit Nasha Shkola in cutting transportation costs.
5. Reports
   
   1. Executive Director report
      1. Enrollment– 121.5; claiming 115
         • The school claims 115 for money received from the state. This acts as a buffer so that if there is a decrease in enrollment for the 2018-2019 school year Nasha Shkola will not have to pay the state department of education excess money given to the school during the 2017-2018 school year.
      2. School improvement (Yelena Hardcopf)
         • Students took MAP tests to assess growth during the school year in several areas. Overall students are growing in their learning. However, reading is an area of concern. Nasha Shkola has implemented a guided reading program in grade K-8 to help accelerate the growth of our students in the area of reading. Guided reading is proven method used by many other schools to assist students in reading development. Grades K-2 will focus on phonics and fluency while grades 3-8 will focus on vocabulary and comprehension.
           Our students are above average in math.
      3. Marketing Committee Report (Yelena Kurdyumova)
         • I attended Hennepin County Board of Commissioners meeting in Minneapolis Government Center at which I spoke in connection with my application to Citizen Advisory Boards – Human Resources Board and Library Board. In my speech, among other issues, I spoke about the achievements of Nasha Shkola – that it was identified as a “High-Quality Charter School“– among other 40, chosen out of 180 Minnesota’s charter schools. This identification serves the purpose of determining eligibility for a significant expansion/replication grant from Minnesota’s federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant project. After this I answered questions of interested people.
         • Yelena also suggested some changes to the website that will be discussed later in the meeting.
   2. Financial Report
      1. Monthly Financial Report, Mark Eilers – Treasurer
      2. Account Balance
         • As of February 20th, the school had $49,400.94 as a fund balance.
         • Fund one had a deficit of $9,204.
         • Fund two has a deficit of $8,513
         • Food service or fund two is zeroed out in June.
         • $1,400 is the amount owed by families for lunch.
      3. Line of Credit Transfer-$10,000
         • The school currently owes Venture Bank $37,000 dollars to ensure our school has enough money in the bank to pay the costs of the school. The school will need $45,000 to get through the remainder of the school year. After this year, provided enrollment stays at the same level or increases, our school will not need to use short term borrowing.
6. Consent Agenda
   1. Minutes of January 16, 2018 Board meeting.
   2. Financials January 2018.
   3. Approval of new employees’ agreements:
      Stacey Yoakiem 1.0 FTE, ELL

      Motion to approve the consent agenda, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3.
      Motion by: Alexej Abyzov
      Seconded by: Yelena Kurdyumova
      5-0-0

7. Old Business
   1. Strategic Plan revision and update (Yelena Hardcopf)
      • The next meeting is March 6th and will focus on values for our school.
      • The group worked on finalizing the mission and vision for approval by the board during the last meeting. School values is the next step in the process.The board moves to adopt the January 30th, 2018 revised mission and vision statement as the official mission and vision of Nasha Shkola from this date on.
        Motion by: Alexej Abyzov
        Seconded by: Christian Schmidt
        5-0-0
   2. Policy Development and Revision
      1. Wellness policy revision (Alexej Abyzov)
         • Mary Hunn of designs reviewed the Wellness Policy produced by the schools Wellness Committee.
         • Ms. Hunn said that the policies must be revised annually, and the committee must be somewhat continuous. The school also needs to make sure that all required parties are part of the process of policy development.
         • Discussion of food and wellness policy.The board moves to approve the policy on wellness created by the Nasha Shkola Wellness Committee and will begin implementation of the policy after March 31, 2018.
           Motion by: Liza Lindman
           Seconded by: Christian Schmidt
           5-0-0
   3. Transportation services update
      • The contracted bus company is seeking to increase the price of transportation by 43% to Nasha Shkola to pay for costs to the company related to the overall economy.
      • Our current bus company has not provided two large buses to accommodate the numbers of students on two routes instead providing three small buses and one large bus.
      • This has resulted in overcrowding on buses and conflicts between students. Parents are frequently calling our school about issues related to transportation.
      • In addition, the arrival of buses to pick up kids at the end of the day has been unpredictable during the last two months. Buses frequently arrive late. Students have been at school as late 5pm-5:30pm waiting for buses.
      • Some students have not been picked up from some routes for reasons unknown.
      • The company has said the problems arise from not enough qualified drivers and employee turnover. The company has said it needs to raise wages to increase the quality of drivers.
      • There are two options according to the director. The school has 60 days to negotiate with the current bus company or switch to a new company that has lower costs. Director Kinsley also agreed to not take compensation as director to offset the costs of the increase in transportation. The school can also increase the line of credit to avoid this scenario.
   4. Preschool status update
      • The school could not apply before the deadline due to a problem not foreseen in January. The school was not qualified to apply because we must do this through our authorizer IQS.
   5. Future school program development update
      • The director met with church leaders and spoke about signs, feeder programs, and the possibility of building onto the existing building. The issue is a lack of space for a feeder program such as a pre-k. If we can be building on the existing building, we will have enough space to accommodate a pre-k.
   6. School website: update
      • There was lots of discussion about website development and how to best put forward the image of our school.
      • The board looked at other websites.
      • The board talked about the aesthetics of the website.
      • The webmaster said he wanted to put a small bio for board members so that he could keep it to one page.
8. New Business
   1. Nasha Shkola reading program and literacy grant development
      • The school will be applying for literacy grant. The funds can be used to hire a reading coach to work with staff and improve reading instruction. The deadline is March 7th.
   2. Next school year enrollment projections and programming needs
      • The board needs to discuss or make a motion regarding future programming needs such as a high school, classes, etc.
   3. APPL: Russian language assessment
      • The school recently acquired an assessment to measure Russian language skills.
      • The board asked questions about the assessment and how it will be used.
      • This tool allows our Russian language instructors to find out more information on how students are progressing in Russian language acquisition.
   4. Extracurricular activities: Dance class
      • The school was approached by an organization that specializes in teaching ballroom dance to middle school students.
      • The board discussed the opportunity with members saying how it could be a positive activity but may not attract enough student interest as many students may not participate for religious or cultural reasons.
      • The dance class would cost $2,000 for twenty lessons.
   5. New property sign
      • The board talked about the sign, costs, aesthetics, and wording.
   6. Director salary and benefits.
      • The director explained he would not take his salary for a part of the school year to help offset the costs of transportation provided that he would be paid back in full in the Fall of 2018.
9. Other
   1. Planning for March meeting: Director evaluation
      • The board discussed the upcoming evaluation and added Yelena Kurdyumova to the personnel committee.
   2. Planning for March meeting: Draft of next year’s budget.
      • The administration will provide a draft of the budget laying out programming, positions, quotes form bus company and other information to help plan for the next year.
   3. Personnel (Closed meeting.)

      The board moves to close the meeting to discuss a staffing issue at 8:46 pm.
      Alexej Abyzov
      Liza Lindman
      5-0-0

      The board moves to reopen the meeting.
      Alexej Abyzov
      Liza Lindman
      5-0-0

10. Adjourn
    The board moves to adjourn the meeting at 9:05pm
    Motion by: Liza Lindman
    Seconded by: Alex Abyzov
    5-0-0
    

The Nasha Shkola Board meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6:30
The finance Committee meets at 5:30 prior to the board meeting.

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Decisions regarding discontinuing and/or reducing programs and positions.
2. Director Evaluation.
3. Draft of next year’s budget.
4. Review and update annual goals.
5. Next school year enrollment projections.
6. Recruit new board members.
7. Continue working on translation of website.
8. Send a message to teachers to get the profile done, already.