Purdue Polytechnic High School

Opening Items

Call to Order

M.Weber called the meeting to order at 4:05 PM.

Record Attendance and Guests

Guest: Aaron Teeter, Office of Education Innovation 

Approval of Minutes

M.Weber will request a motion to approve the January 12, 202 Board Meeting Minutes.

K.Kobe made a motion to approve the minutes. G.Bertoline seconded the motion. 

Approve Board Financials and APVR

S.Johnson will provide an overview of the Board financials and APVR for the months of December 2021 and January 22022. S.Johnson will provide year-to-date actuals and budget.

S.Johnson reviewed the financials and APVR for the months of December and January and shared that the financials look like we are down by $800,000 but these numbers will be back within budget once federal grant reimbursements are completed. Reimbursements should be completed by the end of March. It was also noted that a school lunch review provided that we have excessive inventory due to COVID and we are working with the DOE to get entitlement credits. K.Kobe noted that support service personnel is way under budget. S.Johnson explained that a small percent of the budget was spent for approximately 2/3 of the year. S.Ward provided that a lot of support staff have turned over since COVID and noted that many of these positions are at the lower end of our salary bands and staff have sought out other employment options that are more competitive. K.Kobe inquired whether PPHS is on schedule or ahead of schedule for private funding. S.Bess provided that PPHS has private funding through the Schweitzer grant and noted that money is sitting in Purdue for Life and we just need to ask for it. S.Bess also noted that PPHS has funding from New School Venture Fund at South Bend and North. G.Bertoline made a motion to approve the financials and APVR. K.Kobe seconded the motion.   

Operations

Staffing Update

S.Bess will introduce the new principal at Englewood, Jacob Pactor. 

S.Bess introduced Jacob Pactor as the new principal at Englewood. Jacob is in his fifth week as principal following an extensive search. 

Enrollment Update

S.Bess will provide an enrollment overview for each campus. 

S.Bess reviewed estimated enrollment numbers for the 2022-2023 school year and noted that Englewood is at capacity and North enrollment is on target. S.Bess noted that South Bend uses a different does not use a common enrollment system like in Indy. J.Zobrosky shared that most families in South Bend will not begin enrolling students for next school year until June or July. S.Ward reported that the South Bend team has done a great job engaging staff and students in the community so that they learn more about what PPHS does and we are starting to see the impact in enrollment numbers. 

Governance

PU Memo & Response Update

S.Bess will provide an update regarding PPHS's response to Purdue's December 2021 memo to the PPHS Board of Directors. 

S.Bess shared that his sense is that Purdue's reaction to PPHS's response to Purdue's memo has been positive. Purdue has been pleased with the steps PPHS has already taken and our recommendations resonated well. G.Bertoline added that once the letters from Purdue and PPHS were sent, he volunteered to meet regularly. K.Warren shared that she has participated in meetings and that they have gone well and feel collaborative. M.Weber added that she met with PPHS graduates on Purdue's campus and shared that her biggest takeaway was how much they sounded like ordinary college freshmen and the concerns they expressed sounded like ordinary college freshmen. 

Strategic Planning Update

S.Bess and K.Reier will present a strategic planning update.

S.Bess and K.Reier presented a draft strategic plan, describing five key initiatives: (1) continuous improvement, (2) innovation, (3) growth and expansion, (4) DEI, and (5) development. K.Reier began the presentation, explaining that the presentation would focus on growth. Through growth, we intend to broaden our impact. S.Bess explained all of the improvements made to the school model are in action; every time we have opened a new school, e have built upon what we have learned and improved. Each freshman class has had a better experience than the last and e are starting to learn from our graduates who are currently freshmen at Purdue. The earliest we could expand would be in fall 2023. Based on the charter application process, in order to open a new school in fall 2023, we would need to submit a charter application this summer. To get that process started, there is a lot of community building to do. S.Bess shared that we held a community forum in Gary where we just listened to members of the community and answered questions. S.Bess and K.Reier presented a timeline showing how and when PPHS learns from each graduating class, creating opportunities to continue to improve the school model and our practices. If a school opened 2023, the first graduating class would graduate in June 2027. S.Bess noted that PPHS does have more work to do, but PPHS would have 4 or 5 years of learning prior to a new school graduating students. 

Innovation Agreement Update

S.Bess will provide an update regarding the status of the IPS Innovation agreement. 

S.Bess shared that Englewood is an Innovation school partnered with IPS and Broad Ripple is not and added that IPS is aware of the strong statement from the Board that an Innovation agreement is a package deal, meaning that Englewood will only be an Innovation school is North is, too. IPS has agreed, but has not yet committed. S.Bess explained a financial benefit of approximately $175,000 for North to be an Innovation school and added that it is not a threat if North is not an Innovation school because we not budgeted for the added funds. 

Board Recruitment

M.Weber will provide a Board recruiting update.

M.Weber reminded the Board that there are a couple of Board positions comin open in Mid summer and added now is a good time to start vetting candidates in case anyone chooses not to serve. M.Weber asked that if anyone has any ideas for candidates to send them to her. M.Quintana asked if we are at a place to bring student alumni on to the Board. S.Bess responded it is something we can talk about.

Development Committee Update

M.Quintana will provide a Development Committee update. 

M.Quintana shared that the Development Committee will be meeting next week and she has been meeting with Kim and Charli on updating objectives and strategies to get in front of the Development Committee. M.Quintana added that we are starting at ground zero in terms of creating a donor list and asked to reach out to Board members to talk to them for abut 15 minutes to discuss donors we should be considering. 

Legislative Update

S.Bess will provide a legislative update and briefly discuss the impact of certain bills on PPHS. 

S.Bess reported that the legislature convened after midnight last night. S.Bess noted that none of the bills relating to CRT items made it through, we will soon have the ability to ask the Department of Education to slim down the number standards, and we will be allowed to use mini buses to transport students to and from their home. S.Bess called out some teachers and shared that through a project, PPHS students testified at the statehouse on HB1134 and WFYI did a great article on them. In the project, students were exposed to ideas and information to develop their onw fully formed opinions. They learned how to read state code. This was a true government class where students not only learned the theory of government, but actually got to participate in it. 

2022-2023 Board Meeting Schedule

K.Reier will present the 2022-2023 Board meeting schedule. 

K.Reier shared the Board schedule for the 2022-2023 school year. 

Academic Excellence

Academic Update

K.Primrose will provide a brief academic update related to:

1. Instructional Delivery Strategies & Implementation preparation
2. Cross Campus Immersion Project Pilot
3. Fast Start Academy
4. New College & Career Pathway Offerings

K.Primrose shared iterations to the school model for the upcoming school year. Curriculum mapping has been finalized and is aligned to state standards, and 3-4 learning outcomes have been aligned to each course. PPHS will be moving away from Edmentum being the primary mode of content delivery to placing and even greater focus on projects. K.Primrose added that cross-campus immersions will be piloted started next cycle in April. 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

DEI Update

K.Warren will provide a brief DEI update. 

K.Warren shared three major areas of focus are building a sense of belonging, curriculum work, and early interventions. K.Warren shared that PPHS is starting empathy groups which are groups of people who have things in common having an opportunity to get together to create belonging. We learned in the pandemic that it is nice to have those interactions..

Facilities

North Update

S.Bess will provide an update on the North facility construction timeline. 

S.Bess reported the Keystone project is still on schedule. K.Kobe asked whether we are losing the space in the Store Front Theater. S.Bess reported that we can stay in the space, but we need more space. 

South Bend Update

S.Bess will provide an update on the South Bend facility construction timeline. 

S.Bess reported that the developer we are working with is retrofitting another building for PPHS that is on the same campus. The space will eventually look like a cross between Englewood and the current South Bend campus. The space will be done next year. 

Closing Items

Next Meeting Date

The next PPHS Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for May 11, 2022, at 4PM

M.Weber adjourned the meeting at 5:50 PM.