Flagstaff Academy Charter School

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Annual Meeting

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(a.k.a. “State of the School”)

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April 19th, 2016

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2040 Miller Drive, Longmont, Colorado 80501

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Pledge of Allegiance

Board of Directors

Neal Enssle, President

Debbie Nelson, Vice President

Caren King, Treasurer

Angela Groeninger, Secretary

Danielle DiDonna, Director

Brendan Meuse, Director

Chris O’Hara, Director

Administration

Wayne Granger, Executive Director

Robin Lowe, Executive Principal

Terri Long, Assistant Principal (ES)

Katie Gustafson, Assistant Principal (MS)

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Welcome to guests

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Public comment*

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* Regarding public comments: The names and statements made by those speaking during the public comment period may be recorded and entered into the meeting minutes, thereby becoming part of the public record of the meeting. Those wishing to make a public comment should plan to limit their remarks to 3 minutes or less. The Chair may authorize additional time for any speaker at his/her discretion.

Our mission

“Our mission is to develop students �who are equipped to be well-rounded, �ethical leaders in the world community

with a foundation based on

science and technology.”

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Annual Meeting

Flagstaff Academy Bylaws: Section 3.2:�

“A general membership meeting shall be held in the spring of each year and shall be known as the Annual Meeting for the purpose of receiving a report from the Board and committees and other information exchange.”

State of the School

• Public charter school in good standing with SVVSD.
• Completing our 11th year of operation (est. in 2005).
• More than 900 students (Pre-K through 8th). More than 100 staff.
• Governing board and administration function as a team executing toward goals defined in a Strategic Plan.
• Strong academic track record with high-performing teachers (100% of teachers are highly-qualified).
• Very strong financials: Balanced annual operating budget of $8.3M. $2.8M in reserve.
• Positive parent involvement and active, supportive volunteers.

Academics

• PARCC: Met or Exceeded Expectations

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• 19% better in ELA and 16% better in Math than the state.
• Flagstaff outperformed District on 13 out of 14 assessments.
• Flagstaff 4^th grade scored 3^rd in the district in ELA.
• The MS scored in the top 3 in all tests given.

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Academics

• Evaluating the curriculum:
• Math
• ELA
• Science
• Re-aligning the math sequence.
• CKLA being implemented successfully.
• Curriculum development planned for the summer.

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Finances: FY 2016 Budget (final)

• ~ $7.8M total revenue
• ~ $5.8M per-pupil funding (PPR)
• ~ $980K Mill Levy Override funds
• ~ $8.2M total expenses
• ~ $4.0M salaries
• ~ $1.2M PERA (retirement) and health insurance
• ~ $1.1M land & building rental
• Reserve spending: ~ $400K
• Balanced budget: $9.5K surplus

Finances: FY 2017 Budget (draft)

• ~ $8.3M total revenue
• ~ $6.2M per-pupil funding (PPR)
• ~ $900K Mill Levy Override funds
• ~ $8.3M total expenses
• ~ $4.2M salaries
• ~ $1.3M PERA (retirement) and health insurance
• ~ $1.1M land & building rental
• Reserve spending: TBD
• Balanced budget: $270K projected surplus

Finances: Reserves

• FY 2016 starting reserves balance: $3.2M.
• FY 2016 reserve spending: $400K.
• Longevity bonuses: $173K
• Security system: $40K
• Branding initiative (BrandED): $40K
• CKLA curriculum: $90K
• FY 2016 ending reserves balance: $2.8M.
• FY 2017 reserve spending requests still in progress. Reserve spending requests will be reviewed and approved by the Board in May 2016.

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Finances

Finances: Bond refinancing

• Refinancing will bring in a very substantial amount of money to the school and substantially improve our overall financial standing and financial security.
• $13,505,000 of tax-exempt bonds issued in August 2008 to fund construction of current campus. Currently outstanding: $12,905,000.
• Annual savings for refinance estimated at between $200K and $325K.

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Enrollment

• Slight dip in SY 2015-2016. (District-wide).
• Rapid response and improved marketing and enrollment efforts (BrandED) have proven effective:
• Overall enrollment increase of nearly 50 students schoolwide projected for SY 2016-2017.
• Still have room in K-1st but added K-PM class will increase pipeline into 1st grade next year.
• Projected: Back at full capacity in 17/18 school year.

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Accomplishments: Organization

• On-boarded Executive Principal Robin Lowe. Hit the ground running with very positive contributions in year one!
• On-boarded an interim MS AP (Katie Gustafson), a new Communications Coordinator (Lisa Trank-Greene), and a new Network Administrator (Richard Raehal).
• Retained key leadership roles of ES AP (Terri Long), Dean of Culture (Kevin Pugh), and key teaching staff (89%).
• Ms. Gustafson has been hired to the full-time MS AP position for SY 2016-2017 forward.

Accomplishments: Organization

• Vision of the Board’s Organizational Design Advisory Committee (ODAC, 2014) achieved:�
• Dual professional leadership structure in place: Both an Executive Director and an Executive Principal have been hired and are executing extremely well as a team.
• “We are one school”: Alignment is improving between ES and MS; Pre-K-8 curriculum “arcs” are being developed and implemented.
• Significant operational improvements in business office, finances, facilities, safety, community partnerships freeing up teachers to teach.
• Board role has a self-conscious emphasis on being strategic and directional vs. tactical and involved in day-to-day operations.

Organization

Mr. Wayne Granger

Ms. Robin Lowe

Ms. Terri Long

Ms. Katie Gustafson

Volunteers

Business, Operations, Finance, Facilities, Security, Strategic Partnerships,

Head of School

Academics, Curriculum Development, K-8 Alignment, Professional Development

Oversight, Governance, Strategic Planning

School Operations,

Curriculum Implementation,

Teacher Development and Evaluation, Discipline

We have the right team in place,

and executing on our mission!

Accomplishments: Admin

• Substantial work with the Board toward updating the school’s Strategic Plan. In progress, with a target of May for approval of an updated plan.
• A branding and marketing initiative was undertaken (with BrandED), helping to understand, solidify, and improve Flagstaff’s enrollment pipeline.
• Updated the Family Handbook and the Employee Handbook consolidating policies and improving communications with membership.

Accomplishments: Admin

• Media push: Longmont Times Call: Hour of Code, Mayan Art Installation, Rosa Parks Living History, STEM Fair winners, article on Robin as new EP.
• Partnerships: Joined Longmont Economic Development Partnership; continued strong relations with Colorado League of Charter Schools; asked to sit on the Colorado School Safety Resource Center; partnered with SVVSD charter schools on contract and bond negotiations; recruited businesses for K to Career.
• SAC Annual Family Survey, Annual Staff Survey: Outsourced to UNC Social Research Center.

Accomplishments: Events

• Pingree Park! Moved the more than 300 students in our MS to the mountains for 3 days.
• 2nd annual Farm-to-Table fundraising dinner.
• 2nd annual K to Career Expo: 12 local businesses and service organizations
• National School Choice Week Rally: Student Council Treasurer, Caleb Serrette, delivered a fantastic speech on the steps of the state capitol about the positive impact his education at Flagstaff Academy has had on him. 9News interviewed him!

Accomplishments: PTO

• Harvest Days: Jodie Popma, the PTO, and the SVVSD Nutrition Services team worked to secure a Chef Ann Foundation grant to allow all students to experience 4 “harvest days” and learn about how vegetables are grown.
• Fall Festival! Carnival games, a petting zoo, climbing wall, and of course, our deliciously fun cake walk.
• Dragon Dash Jog-a-thon! Raised $45K and Dean of Culture Kevin Pugh ran 263 laps.

Accomplishments: PTO

• Halloween Dance, Middle School Dances
• Festival of Cultures: More than 11 countries represented and lots of great learning and entertainment.
• Gala! More than $30K raised for needed classroom materials and in support of the “classroom of the future”.
• Hospitality committee: Break time, snack time, and support for our hard-working teachers!

Accomplishments: Facilities

• New security system installed, along with improved emergency response plan and training; coordinated safety drills with FRCC.
• Climbing wall installed in gym, thanks to PTO!
• Network overhaul completed over the summer -- faster network speeds throughout the school.
• Electrical upgrades: LED lighting in parking lot (cost savings); stage lighting for performances upgraded.

Accomplishments: Students

• Our MS newspaper, the Dragon Spectrum went online! Thanks to Lisa Wilkins for her help, and kudos to the student editorial team!
• Hour of Code! Flagstaff went above and beyond and did something no other school in the state did: Ms. Terri Reh recruited our MS students to help teach programming throughout the entire school, in every class in every grade.
• National Junior Honor Society inducted 16 new members!

Accomplishments: Students

• Our MS Advanced Band played in front of hundreds of educators at the Colorado League of Charter Schools Conference and was one of only two middle school bands to perform at the Silver Creek Band Festival.
• Hundreds of works of art on display at the district art show, K-8th.
• Students learned history through acting and over 40 community volunteers and SCHS students presented Junior Achievement though our Xilinx funded educational ecosystem partnerships.

Accomplishments: Students

• STEM Fair!
• First Place: Julia Curd, "Proteins and Their Relationship to Cancer Tumors".
• Honorable Mention: Siddhartha Bhushan, "Environmental Statistic-Based Home Control System"
• Honorable Mention: Hunter Barchers,"CHESTNUT - Controlled High Speed Driving in Heavy Traffic".
• Robotics! FIRST Robotics competition in Arizona: 2 teams made up of current and former MS students, many awards, qualified for nationals.

Accomplishments: Staff

• Angie Swanson (English Language Development teacher) and Brittany Brown (1st Grade) had the highest growth in English Language Development of the entire State of Colorado!
• With our day of coding, Terri Reh brought coding to the entire school, including Kindergarten!
• Laura Munnelly and Katie Gustafson presented at the Google summit!
• Teresa Ewing won the Woodie Flowers award for First Robotics mentoring!

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Accomplishments: Staff

• Tim Baldwin and our band played for the Colorado League of Charter Schools conference.
• Robin Lowe presented at the national conference for the Association of Middle Level Education and at the Colorado League of Charter Schools conference.
• Wayne Granger, in addition to his regular duties, drove the development of a new Strategic Plan, launched a marketing and branding campaign to improve our enrollment pipeline, forged essential community partnerships, and executed on a bond refinancing.

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Looking forward

• What’s next for Flagstaff?
• Updated Strategic Plan for SY 2016-2017 and beyond.
• Modified block schedule in MS.
• Addition of French to our foreign languages.
• Addition of an Innovations Teacher in elementary school to push into classrooms for engineering / robotics.
• Enhancements to our math, science, and reading curriculums.
• Facilities improvements: Science Lab (!), entryway.
• Volunteer coordinator hired.

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Amazing every day!

• 45-60 more minutes of instruction than other district schools.
• 55 minutes of mathematics instruction for each student.
• 30 minutes of physical activity via movement breaks.
• 60-90 minutes of character education taught each day.
• More than 40 Dragon Links awarded each day to reinforce positive behavior.
• 650 Chromebooks in use.
• 80 students participate in before- or after-school enrichment activities via DragonFlight.
• 200-300 cars move safely through Driveline. Twice.
• 40 hours of volunteer support every day.

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Special thanks to

Mr. Tim Baldwin

MS Music and Band

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Mr. Baldwin will be retiring at the end of the school year after 42 years of teaching music. We thank him for so many amazing performances and his countless hours of dedicated service to our students and our community. We wish him all the very best!

Special thanks to

Ms. Lisa Wilkins

MS Language Arts

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Ms. Wilkins will be retiring at the end of this school year after a long career in education teaching history and language arts. We thank her for her countless hours of dedicated service to our students and our community. We wish her all the very best!

Thank you!

• Our amazing volunteers: Thank you for the countless hours you dedicate to our school, inside classrooms, on committees, and out in our community.
• Our fantastic PTO: Jog-a-thon! Festival of Cultures! Amazing monthly teacher appreciations! Box tops! Eco-Dragons! The Gala! Thank you for all your hard work and many, many positive contributions to our school.
• Our passionate, dedicated, skillful teachers and staff: Thank you for long days, late nights, and weekends spent working to ensure our kids are safe, engaged, challenged, and have only the very best learning experience.
• Our parents, guardians, and families: Thank you for trusting us with your children’s safety and education.

Thank you!

Candidate Forum

Board of Directors

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April 19th, 2016

Candidates

Andrea Kawulok

Elizabeth Lenski

Mary Maguire

Kumar Navulur

Paul Shoning