Scattergood Friends School Committee
Minutes January 31, 2004

Present:

Committee:
Staff (During open session):

We opened with a moment of silence and went into closed session.

Closed Session:

We discussed the Director's contract for next year, the evaluation purpose & process.

We approved renewing the Director's contract for the next year with a small raise.

We discussed the process for evaluating the Director. We decided to use the questionaire process described in the handbook, and asked the HR committee to develop additional questionaires for students and parents -- possibly a modification of the staff questionaire.

Open Session:

Minutes of Last Meeting

Correction to last months' meeting: David Hoeksema's name was mispelled multiple times... There's no 'c'. In addition, the company is LeepFrog, not LeapFrog. Otherwise, the minutes were approved as written.

There was some confusion about the Student shadowing retreat, as the decision to move it to preceed the january session. Because of the confusion, there was very little participation -- three people came and helped Margie, and she encourages others to do so. All committee members are encouraged to visit the school when the opportunity arises.

We decided to have a shadowing retreat before the March meeting -- Heather suggests the staff is very open to the process and many were encouraging to have it go forward. Please plan to participate on March 26, beginning with Collection starting at 8:25 in the meeting house. Breakfast will be available at 7:40 am. Please inform Anita if you would like to shadow a particular staff member or student. We will plan to gather around 3:30 for reflection and sharing.

There was some discussion of a coffee shop that may be run by students in West Branch - shadow that!

Expect an email from Anita Alwood with details for you to respond to. [Details here are from that email, received after the meeting.]

ISACS questionaire

Handed out the questionaire from ISACS for the committee members to fill out.

Brunch

Directors Report

Academics

PLAN is produced by the folks who bring you the ACT -- it's a 2.5 hr test -- predicts score on ACT -- one step earlier than the PSAT -- good practice for students in learning to take tests and identifies students with particular anxiety related to testing -- there are official processes for providing extra time for college admission tests, if the students have been tested appropriately, and this provides some such info -- also, some schools weigh the tests very high, and our students are sometimes disadvantaged because they have not had the experience in taking tests -- we are NOT teaching to the tests, and won't be.

Our students aim high when picking colleges -- and get in. Sean sees evidence that our students get the confidence to pursue their own goals.

Community and Spiritual Life

Staff feels good about where the school is as a community. There was a good discussion of the MLK holiday action, which provided a great opportunity for the community to learn.

There was some discussion of the Quaker Youth Leadership Conference.

Facilities

There was some discussion of the Farm facilities. An evaluation of the buildings as to repair or replace still needs to be done. Opinions vary as to the value and suitability of the residence.

Farm

There was a breakdown in communication re the formerly planned sheep acquisition. We expect Katahdin sheep this week, as replacements.

Lynn noted that these plans will require considerable support, because of the energy that will be required. Also, as a startup, one should expect to put capital (effort as well as $$) into it... There is already a demand for the CSA program. We will continue to be selling to the New Pioneer Coop as well.

Finances

We are still negotiating with insurance brokers looking for a carrier. There is concern about some of our support sytems (fire alarm, water, etc.) Also, it appears that not having coverage for some time is getting to be a matter of concern for these companies -- fears that we were dropped for risk, rather than simply because the former company no longer insures in Iowa...

The audit report was distributed. The Consultation committee will review and recommend action (approval) at the next meeting.Please review and be prepared to act at the next meeting. There are three recommendations associated with the report that relate to potential changes in our procedures, which are under consideration. One relates to the fact that we have only one person in our accounting office, the others relate to how we handle pledges that have not yet been received.

As requested at the October meeting, we consulted with the lawyers concerning potential changes to the Non Discrimination Policies for hiring and admissions -- they recommend no changes, separate policies and current wording is entirely satisfactory.

There was a brief discussion about meeting ADA requirements. We are only partially in compliance at this time, and are not required to completely meet the requirements as we don't accept federal funds. Bringing the entire campus in compliance would almost certainly be too expensive.

Development

The committee is still conducting a feasibility study for a capital campaign; the latest version of the campaign booklet was distributed.

There was some discussion of differences between the report handed out today and another report distributed. -- after the meeting Margie researched the issue and explained that the large prepaid gift (that was paid in 1999) is counted in the development database as coming the first day of each of the fiscal years (July 1st), while the financial report does not count it until it has been withdrawn from the Westwood account and deposited in the school's accounts. Other, smaller differences come from the financial statement reporting through December (based on the date of bank deposit) and development reporting through January based on the date written on the check.

Note the remark in the report relating to changes due to including information about donations that was not previously in the same database.

There was some discussion of the issue of donor recognition.

The list of "lost souls" from the 1971-77 classes was distributed -- if you or anyone in your meeting recognizes any of these folk, please send contact information to Margie.

Admissions

Sean described his experiences on his visit to Mexico -- the alumni and their family are very enthusiastic supporters of SFS -- we have received 4 applications from potential students as a result of his visit.

We hope to have the new website up in time for the next meeting. There is a plan to have support for Development in an addendum to the site, which will be developed later.

Dan Schlitt was taken with the graphics on the Friends Journal ad.

IaYM(C) young friends will be having an on campus retreat Feb 21,22 on living in a quaker community.

Technology

No significant discussion

Human Resources