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 (6:37 PM)
   6. Mark Eilers: Present (6:37 PM)
   7. Paul Kinsey, Executive Director, ex officio board member: Present
   8. Visitors in attendance: Sergey Porada, Justin Nelson, and Nikolay Skryunik
2. Approval of the Agenda
   The board moves to approve the agenda for the agenda for September 19, 2017.
   Elizaveta Lindman
   Alexej Abyzov
   4-0-0
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
   1. Parent Nikolay Skyryunik briefly addressed the board introducing himself and speaking about an interest in getting involved with the school.
5. Reports
   
   1. Audit Report:  Abdo by Justin Nelson
      • Mr. Nelson reported that the school received a “clean, unmodified opinion.”
      • The auditors checked the school using tests of transactions, payroll and other areas of the school’s financial health.
      • GASB 68 requires schools to include TRA financial liabilities.  This inflates the revenue and expenses by 31,000 dollars.
      • GASB must be documented by law and has always been a part of the audit but now it must be reflected in the published audit report.
      • The school’s total revenues were 38,799$ under budget.
      • The schools fund balance decreased by $92,468 due to lower ADM.  ADM decreased from 121.86 in 2016 to 99.4 in 2017.
      • Expenses exceeded revue by $89,389.
      • Food services exceeded revenue by $1,731.
      • Community service fund exceeded revenue by $2,146.
      • The board members asked questions to clarify aspects of the report.  Mr. Nelson answered all questions. Mr. Nelson said the biggest concern would be the decreased fund balance.  The board should begin increasing the fund balance as ADM returns to earlier levels.
   2. Executive Director report
      1. Enrollment Enrollment
         • 120 with an ADM of 122
      2. Employment/staff update.
         • All positions have been filled as of this meeting.
      3.  Student achievement and LIT (Yelena Hardcopf)
         • The school will start MAP testing for student growth during the last two weeks of September.
         • The tests will allow teachers to see which students are struggling and allow teachers to focus instruction on those in need of extra help.
         • We will be observed by the state in March of 2018 to determine our school’s performance in meeting the needs of students identified to receive special education services.
         • Robotics will not be offered as it was more expensive than expected and fundraising for robotics did not cover the expenses.  The program was very helpful and could be revisited as a supplemental after school program or as an in-school program if funding can be found.
         • The school will begin scheduling support services.  An estimated 40-50 kids will get supports for the upcoming school year.
      4. Marketing Committee Report (Yelena Kurdyumova)
         • The Marketing director reported that during the Month of August she completed the following related to marketing the school to the community:
         • Met with Brooklyn Park city officials including Jay Strobel City Manager, Devon Montera City Clerk and other related officials at city hall.
         • The city website will include Nasha Shkola on its list of schools in the city.
         • Posters were placed in the city hall, recreation enter and library.
         • Advertisements on Facebook.
         • The director of marketing also was interviewed by local cable station CCX for a local news program and discussed the school.
         • In addition, the directors colleague posted the full interview on the website Run Global Media.
   3. Financial Report
      1. Monthly Financial Report, Mark Eilers – Treasurer
         • The school has a positive balance of $73,776.
         • The school expended $1,262 in August.
         • The school had cash balance of $102,645.
         • The board asked questions on ADM and financing based on student count.
6. Consent Agenda
   1. Minutes of August 22 board meeting.
   2. Financials August 2017.
   3. The board move to approve the minutes for the August 22, 2017 board meeting with the correction to the minutes reflecting that Director Kinsley was not present for the August board meeting and the Financials for August of 2017.

      Motion by: Alexej Abyzov
      Second by: Elizaveta Lindman
      5-0-0

7. Old Business
   1. Wellness Policy revision for MDE requirements.
      • The board discussed the composition of the committee and its duties.
      • The committee would need one parent, one teacher, and one board member.
      • The committee must meet four times a year.
      • The committee should meet before the end of quarter one.
      • The standards for wellness and health come from the state.
   2. School Transportation: concerns
      1. Additional Bus Routes
         • The school had bus routes were changed substantially.
         • Some routes have had student commutes of one and half hours.
         • Some routes that were expected to be shorter increased in time.
         • These issues have resulted in dissatisfaction among some parents.
         • Some parents have asked for bus stops for their child others have been impolite to staff in expressing their displeasure with the issues mentioned above.
         • The school has considered options including setting up a parent run transportation committee to help lessen the problems of bus transportation.
         • Parents must have a stake in this decision as many are effected by the changes to the routes do to the move.
         • The school has added another bus route to help alleviate some of the problems above.  The school now has four buses and one van for transportation.  The van is used to transport local students and makes two trips to and from the school.  The route change is expected to save $28,000 due to offsets from the federal government for providing transportation to a student with a medical condition.  This decreases cost for this route by 1/3.
      2. Committee Development- (transportation & recruitment.
         • The board discussed the need to have a parent run transportation committee to help advise and make decisions on bus routes and bus problems.
      3. Protocol for FY 19 route and charges.
         • The board discussed the protocol for FY 19 route and charges including the savings generated from the use of the van on two separate trips.
8. New Business
   1. School Improvement Plan and ScorecardSchool Improvement Plan and Scorecard
      • The board examined the IQS school improvement scorecard.
      • The school needs to get at least a 3 out of 4 in all categories to ensure a renewal of the charter.
      • The school needs to set reasonable expectations and not make promises that cannot be kept.
      • The school could improve the score for the overall instruction by adding an assessment to measure Russian language acquisition.
      • The school could craft its owns assessment to fit the needs of the diverse set of learners found at our school when measuring language acquisition.
      • The board discussed the difficulty of implementing such an assessment.
      • PLC meetings must be documented and have meeting minutes or notes.
      • The school could consider getting grant money to create assessment tools.
      • The school could revise mission and vision to make sure it is relevant to the achievement needs of all students.
      • WIDA tests are being done.
      • The board discussed the assessment for Russian language acquisition and using the American Association of Foreign Languages and the need for training.
      • The school could also do an evaluation of students as eight graders to gain an understanding of language acquisition of Russian among native speakers, students who speak some Russian or Slavic languages, and students from English speaking family’s other languages.
      • Board members need to look at the IQS report school improvement plan FY 18.
      • Review strategic plan.
      • Make sure all our actions fall together and are not opposing.
   2. Budget revision.
      • The board examined the proposed budget increase from 105 ADM to 115 ADM with an increase of total revenue from ADM being $85,000.
      • The school will need to use some of this money to increase the fund balance.
      • The board discussed the fund balance.

        The board moves to approve the revised proposed budget for 2017-2018 to ADM of 115.

        Motion by:  Mark Eilers
        Second by:  Alexej Abyzov
        5-0-0

      • The board also discussed the need to reward teachers who did not see a raise from last year yet stuck with the school during a transition.  Such commitment and strength of character should be recognized to ensure the school has consistency and quality instruction.
9. Other
10. Adjourn
    1. The board moves to adjourn the meeting at 8:38pm.
       Mark Eilers
       Christian Schmidt
       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. Scale Policy
2. Board members need to look at the IQS report on school improvement for FY18.
3. Paul needs to draft a strategic plan template.
4. Research language assessment tools and find one that could fit our unique situation.
5. Wellness committee must meet before the end of quarter one.