MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

SCUOLA VITA NUOVA

December 2, 2006

 

ROLL CALL OF DIRECTORS

 

                   PRESENT                                           

Charles Shangler, President                   Lily Hunsucker

Guadalupe Aragonez                              Anita Rodarte                                                Francis Bisceglia                                    Eve Vargas

Jennifer Hopelain

                                      

                    ABSENT

          Elbert Shores                                                                  

 

CALL TO ORDER   The Board of Directors of Scuola Vita Nuova convened for a regular meeting December 4, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. in the school library.  Charles Shangler, Board President, called the meeting to order.

 

Roll Call               The roll was called.  The response was by voice:  Charles Shangler, present; Guadalupe Aragonez, present;  Francis Bisceglia, present,  Lily Hunsucker, present;  Jennifer Hopelain, present; Anita Rodarte, present; Eve Vargas, present.

 

Quorum Present  The President declared the presence of a quorum.

 

Also present:          Nicole King, Principal

                                                         

                            

AGENDA               Board President Shangler moved to amend the  published agenda to add discussion of forming a committee to study future property needs of the school.  The motion was approved.  The  December 2, 2006 Agenda as amended, was adopted by unanimous vote of the Board members present.   

 

MINUTES              The minutes of the November 4, 2006 Regular Board Meeting and were presented.   Typographical errors were noted on pages 2 and 3 of the minutes and corrected by interlineations.  The minutes, as corrected,  were approved  by the unanimous vote of the Board members present.

 

                            

PUBLIC          The next order of business was the public comment session as

COMMENT      provided by Board Policy 0412.  There was no public comment

                      requested.

 

FINANCE

COMMITTEE:     The Finance Committee did not meet during the past month due to scheduling difficulties for committee members.  

 

                          Jennifer Hopelain advised the board that the Finance Committee plans to meet in November to study and recommend an amount  to deposit in the reserve account fund for the months of November and December, 2006  as well as a fixed amount to deposit each month until the end of the current fiscal year.  The Finance Committee will have a recommendation for January Board meeting.

 

                          The committee also plans to study and make recommendations on how to track and monitor expenses that exceed 100% of annual budget.

 

                          The Finance Committee will provide notice of meeting time, place and tentative agenda at least 24 hours in advance to comply with Board Policy #360 and §610.020 R.S.MO (Missouri Sunshine Law)

 

FINANCIAL  

REPORT:      Principal-Administrator, Nicole King, presented the financial report.

 

                     As an LEA, the school received payment last month from the state of $1, 018,000.  The payment amount is not typical and was larger than usual due to one-time payments for items such as Special Education Management funds.

 

                     Audit of financial condition of school is due by December 30th.  Expect that audit will be complete by January, 2007.  It is anticipated that the school closed it’s fiscal year with a deficit.

 

FINANCE     

COMMITTEE: The Finance Committee was unable to meet in November to recommend amount to transfer each month for the reserve fund. 

 

                     The Finance Committee will provide notice of all future meeting to comply with Board Policy #0360 and §610.020, Mo. Rev. Stat. (Missouri Sunshine Law).  The Notice will include a simple agenda.

 

                     Committee member, Jennifer Hopelain, reports that she is drafting a Board Policy regarding use of purchase orders whan an annual budgeted allotment is exhausted and continuing expenditures exceed budget.  The policy is intended to assist board in monitoring expenditures that exceed budgeted amounts particularly when the excess expenditures occur early in the fiscal year.

 

                    

SCHOOL     

REPORT:     Principal-Administrator, Nicole King, presented the school report.

 

                   The new school brochure and notepads were distributed to Board members.  The brochure will be used for public relations, recruiting and Capital campaigns. The  brochure was very favorably received by the Board.  Printing cost for brochure was $4,000, which amount was unbudgeted.

                  

                   Scuola Vita Nuova was featured in Professional Development materials titled “Revitalizing Teaming to Improve Student Learning.”

 

                   School dance class will present a performance on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 a5 7:00 p.m. in the school gymnasium. 

 

                   The Staff/Board appreciation dinner will be Thursday, December 21 at Anthony’s Restaurant, from 6-8 p.m.. 

                  

 

BOARD

DEVELOPMENT:   As part of Board Development, the Board watched a video prepared by Dr. Jennifer Friend titled What Kids Love/What Kids Hate About School.   Students from three schools in the metropolitan area were interviewed concerning what they loved & hated about school as well as other topics relevant to their educational experience.  Students from SVN were interviewed and appear in the video.  The video is being used in Professional Staff Development.  Video disclosed research by Alfie Kohn that the amount of homework given to children does not have an impact on test achievement.  Translation:  More homework is not better.

 

OTHER

BUSINESS:   Eve Vargas discussed scholarship testing at Pem Hill for some of our 7th & 8th Grade Students.  Once granted, scholarship is renewed each year so long as the student meets academic goals.

 

                   Board Policies for review at the January meeting were distributed for consideration by the Board members               

 

                  


PRESIDENT’S

REPORT:     A committee was formed to explore opportunities for  expansion of the physical facilities of the school.  Committee members are Charles Shangler,Elbert Shores and Anita Rodarte.  

 

NEXT MEETING    The next meeting for the Board of Directors will be held in the library at the Scuola Vita Nuova at 544 Wabash, Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday, January 6, 2007, at 10:00 a.m.

 

ADJOURNMENT    Anita Rodarte moved that the meeting be adjourned.  Lily Hunsucker seconded the motion.  The motion was carried by the unanimous vote of the Directors present.  The meeting was adjourned.

 

 

                                                ______________________________________

                                                Anita I. Rodarte, Secretary,  December 2, 2006