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Welcome and Call to Order

The meeting will be called to the order, beginning with the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence.

Approval of Agenda

Quote for football helmet- *This line item was added after the Agenda was shared publicly. There will need to be a motion to it to the agenda*

Approval of Minutes from Dec 14, 2020

Prestige

Presenting JICHS monthly Financial Statement.

James Island December Financial Reports Narrative  

 1/25/2021  

We are 6 months through the school year meaning the overall percent remaining you want to see is 50%. The below notes highlight some of the individual budget lines that may stand out or lines that have been adjusted.  

Revenue:  

- Page 1 – Education Finance Act (EFA)  

• We have increased the budget for this line by $445,475.59.  
• The annual EFA allocation is based on a formula that multiplies the weighted average daily membership (ADM) of students as of the 135th school day, by the amount you received per pupil.  
• Average Daily Membership (ADM) – The ADM is similar to enrollment. It measures, on a daily basis, how many students are at James Island High School via the Powerschool attendance system, and the average of each of the first 135  days of the school year is the school’s 135th day ADM.  

- The original budget projected an unweighted ADM of 1550 students for the 135th day. For reference, last year’s 135th day ADM was 1507. The 45 day unweighted ADM for this school year was an impressive 1590.  

Therefore, this budget for EFA increased the projected 135 day ADM to  

1565. While there is usually attrition from the 45th to 135th day, we don’t foresee attrition to the level of lowering to 1550 to be likely.  

• Per Pupil Amount – The Per Pupil Amount is the amount the school receives from the state/district per weighted ADM. James Island Charter High School is part of  Charleston County which is a local school district authorizer. Local school district authorizer’s per-pupil allocation for their charter schools is determined by taking the total audited general fund revenues the district received the prior fiscal year and dividing by the weighted ADM of all the students in their district. CCSD’s prior year audit was finalized in the last month or so and resulted in a per-pupil amount for charter schools of $8,669.16, a 5% increase from the prior year. The original budget had an expected 2% increase accounted for. The differing 3% is what is factored into this EFA budget update.  
• The increase of 3% increase to the per-pupil amount multiplied by the 15  unweighted ADM increase is where the new EFA annual budget allocation comes from.  

The projected operating budget balance for FY21 is in the black $701,097.99. The actual Total  Operating Net Income through 12/31/20 is in the black $1,601,041.94. 

Review COVID DATA

JICHS COVID Connect- 39 cases at JICHS

CCSD COVID Dashboard- Rate is High because of Christmas break and activities outside of school.

DHEC Data for Charleston County - Rate is High in both categories.

AVID

AVID Student Application

Avid is created to have a school-wide atmosphere. Avid's mission is to close the achievement gaps.

Leadership Team Recommendation- 2nd Semester Instructional Model

The Leadership Team recommends remaining hybrid for the second semester.

20-21 JICHS Second Semester Academic Calendar for consideration

Athletic Report

Presented by Athletic Director Jeremy Holland.

Quote for football helmet.

This line item was added after the Agenda was shared publicly. There will need to be a motion to it to the agenda

Reconditioning 15K in the athletic budget. The Zenith helmets will be buyback for 9K. 35K would be needed to be taken from the general fund.

Maintenance Report

Presented by Mr. Thorn

 Jan.25th,2021                                                                                                                                             

-The gym floor received a second coat of urethane over the Christmas break.  

-We have received a certificate of occupancy for relocated mobiles #1(We Care) and #7(TMD) and are now occupying them. 

-Plexiglass covid screens were installed on all classroom desks and common instructional tables over the Christmas break.          

-Mastercraft performed their annual bleacher and basketball goal safety inspection last week   

-JICHS facilities maint. dept. has received and processed 64 work orders from Dec. 14th, 2020 to the present.  

        Marty Monette

        Facilities Director, JICHS

Executive Session

• Contracts- CCSD
• Personnel- Staff Issue
• Legal- Pending Legal Case
• Student Privacy-  

Public Comment

Our Public Comment period is for members of the public to address the board. Each member of the public may sign up to comment at the meeting and will be allotted two minutes. The board will listen, but may not directly respond to any comments. Our meetings are open to the public and public record. As such, if your comment is about a private matter, please contact the board via email, or speak to the board chair privately.

• No Public comments

Leadership Report

Presented by Leadership Chair Sheli Ballard.

LEADERSHIP TEAM: 

• The LT and admin teams have begun to unpack the AVID “standards” and make connections between AVID and other integral initiatives and curricula on campus like IB and culturally responsive teaching.

PERFORMING ARTS:

• Performing Arts Board Report

SOCIAL STUDIES:

• One of our students, Emma Abrams submitted an essay to the Profile of Courage Essay Contest. Emma is one of the top students in the JICHS Junior class and attends this year via the Virtual Academy. Her essay on Texas Representative Barbara Jordan reflects the skills she has attained and developed at JICHS. Please join the Social Studies Department in congratulating Emma on a paper well written and researched. We wish her the best of luck!
• So far this year Ms. Wakefield has received over $4,400 in grants and classroom supplies for her classroom.
• IB Anthropology students have been conducting small fieldwork assignments to apply the content we have been learning in class and to prepare for their IB Internal Assessment due in April, which requires extensive fieldwork. Examples can be viewed here, and here.
• AP European History students have been learning about the French Revolution and Napoleon. One of our assignments on Napoleon required them to create a timeline on Storyboardthat (a new resource the SS department purchased for our teachers this month) to describe his rise and fall. 
• AVID students interviewed Dr. Mike, an ER surgeon from LA.  He spoke about overcoming a learning disability and an aimless youth by using the support of family and friends to achieve his goals.  He explained that there were times that he struggled and that he had to incorporate strategies such as forming study groups and creating detailed timelines in order to reassess his goals.  Dr. Mike encouraged students to reach out to their support groups, whatever they looked like, in order to get help and to achieve success.  In addition, he spoke about several career paths in the healthcare industry.  A student representative was tasked with introducing him and also asked questions posed by students at the end of his discussion.  Students practiced listening, attention skills, and note-taking. 
• Law Education had speakers from the Law and Criminal Justice field speak with students over the past month. Students took notes on each speaker's career and then wrote a paragraph explaining which career interested them the most. 
• Speakers were: SGT Frishkorn (Army National Guard), Ms. Ashley Coleman (Federal Parole Officer), SRO Hamilton (Police officer), Ms. Stephanie Nodine (Immigration attorney), Mr. Dan Boles (Criminal and civil defense attorney)

SCIENCE

• (IB Sciences) The IB Sciences hosted an IB Cookie/Snack day for all students taking at least 1 IB course.  It was set up on an Orange Day, a Blue Day and will be set up during exams for Virtual Academy students.  This event was an effort to allow students to stop by for snacks and take a break from their work day.
• (Lyles) Earth Science had visitors from the SC DNR SCORE Program to discuss the importance of oyster reefs.  Students were able to dissect oyster bags to learn about organisms that use these reefs as home.  We had the classroom windows open and there was a great breeze coming in from outside!  It was almost as good as being in the marsh. 

• (Lyles) Earth Science did a lab to investigate the properties of water.  One task was to float a paperclip on the surface of a beaker of water.  The students had a great time trying to make this work and one pair was able to get 2 paperclips to float!  The first picture shows to the 2 floating paperclips and also includes some paperclips that didn’t make the cut!  The second picture is from the pair that were able to get their paperclip to float first.

• (Lyles) IB Biology HL Year 2 performed research on micropropagation techniques and made infographics to explain how this works.  2 examples are included here:

Virus-Free Strains

Rapid Bulking

• (Lyles) - The books obtained through the Donor’s Choose award have come in!  We will be using them in the Spring.

• (Lyles) Sgt Frishkorn with the Army National Guard visited Earth Science classes to discuss MREs - nutritional content, use in conflict and natural disasters and the rationale for the types of food that are in each.  Students were able to eat their MREs when the presentation was completed.

• (Crawford)  - This semester’s Forensic Science classes are completing their capstone activity - Learning the basics of the procedure of autopsy and then performing them on fetal pigs in order to gain appreciation for the process as well as expanding their knowledge of comparative anatomy.  
• (Evans, Reeves, Lyles) The Best Teacher Grant funds have been received and we purchased a weather station!  It will be used with classes this spring.

• (Evans) Marine Science students completed a fish dissection last week and are completing their shark dissection this week. For the fish dissection, Joe Evans, a fisheries biologist for the Department of Natural Resources visited the students to demonstrate the dissection as well as present to the students about his job at DNR. 
• (Yannetta) IB Physics students performed a lab: Conical Pendulum. In this experiment, the students measured the speed of an object that comprises a conical pendulum and showed that the net force is centripetal force.
• (Yannetta)IB Physics students measuring the radius of the circle of a flying pig

• (Epps) Integrated science students read Nyxia this semester and participated in a Zoom call with the author Scott Reintgen organized in conjunction with the library. We discussed what kind of research Mr. Reintgen did to make his sci-fi novel scientifically sound and then augment that universe with captivating fictional aspects. The students all had their own questions to ask Mr. Reintgen and he was an engaging guest speaker.
• (Lyles) Earth Science finished reading ‘The Martian’.  This has been a semester long project that has had students learning about the requirements needed for life on a plant, space exploration and the requirements for colonizing Mars.
• 

ROTC:

• On January 14th, after months of delays in equipment delivery purportedly due to COVID, our ROTC unit’s new co-curricular air rifle marksmanship team was finally able to conduct some live fire. Marksmanship is a sport. It teaches competitors how to properly aim, control, and fire accurately to hit a distant target consistently. To be proficient, this skill requires concentration, discipline, and patience. Please refer to the following link on the JICHS website for more details:  https://www.ccsdschools.com/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=42&ModuleInstanceID=1352&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=26954&PageID=77

• On January 16th, ROTC cadets participated in another community service project in support of the Town of James Island.  The project required the placement of notice medallions on storm water drains in two neighborhoods--Bayview Farms and Harbor Woods. The medallions serve as a notice that storm drains flow to the waterways and marshes and therefore, not to pollute by pouring liquids or dumping trash into the storm drains. Cadets had to scrub the concrete of the storm drains with a wire brush, then apply adhesive to the back of the medallions and affix them to the concrete.

WORLD LANGUAGES:

• Mr. Tucker has a new student teacher from CofC, Lexi Sweezy. 
• Vaiana Brown has been working hard to prepare to take over for Cathy Miller after she retires at the end of this semester.
• The French & Spanish National Honor Societies will be working together next semester to create a timeline of artwork by French & Spanish artists from different periods. Their paintings will be hung above the lockers in our hall.
• The Spanish National Honor Society will be working with the Pulsera Project again next semester. “The Pulsera Project is a nonprofit organization that educates, empowers, and connects Central American artists with students in more than 3,000 U.S. schools through the sale of colorful handwoven bracelets or ‘pulseras’ in Spanish.” For more information about this organization, please visit https://www.pulseraproject.org/
• Ms. Lowman’s Spanish 3H class recently wrote their own children’s books in Spanish.

GRANTS & ACCOLADES:

• This back to school season, Ms. Wakefield joined a team of nearly 1,000 teacher leaders to participate in the DonorsChoose Teacher Ambassador Program. For the remainder of the school year, Ms. Wakefield will be representing your community as a DonorsChoose Teacher Advocate. As a volunteer Teacher Advocate, Ms. Wakefield will be working with teachers across the state and at James Island Charter High School to increase the amount of funding that you are able to unlock from DonorsChoose partners and our network of supporters. The work that Teacher Advocates do is above and beyond their classroom duties and shows their commitment to public education, their school pride, and their unwavering belief in the potential of all students.

School Leader Report

Presented by Mr. Thorn

Principal’s Report January 21, 2021

Charter Goals

Goal #1 Show an annual increase in the percentage of graduates that are college and career ready as defined by the state.

Goal #2 Show an annual increase in student participation in additional rigorous coursework through positive relationships, community building activities, family engagement, and student support.

Goal #3 Show an annual decrease in the achievement gap for historically underachieving populations (SPED, ELL, socio-economically disadvantaged, and minority students).

Academics/School Update of Events

AFROTC

After nearly two years of hard work, Col. Remington and Sgt. Britt have finally started a marksmanship program at JICHS. They worked with another high school to get the rifles. They then obtained the other necessary equipment themselves. The first live-fire occurred Thursday 1-14-21. Congratulations to Col. Remington and Sgt. Britt for what you continue to do for our cadets.

Professional Development

The focus of PD during the first semester was on teaching in remote and hybrid models. Typically, certified staff must serve on a committee or action research group that meets once a month (Equity and Access, Technology, etc.), but that was voluntary for the first semester. Our goal was to support teachers as much as possible at the time by removing whatever we could from their plate. At this time, we feel we are ready to resume our PD plan from last year, which was a focus on Culturally Responsive Teaching and to resume committee work. We are using the AVID CRT model as our basic framework for the PD. The second and fourth Wednesdays are now dedicated to Staff Meetings/PD.        

Plexiglass Project

Plexiglass has been installed in all classrooms. There are issues with fogging and glare, but the students and teachers appear to be managing the situation well. We hope to increase class size once the Covid numbers stabilize.

Covid Vaccinations

• Charter schools are included in CCSD’s vaccination plan.
• Phase 1B will include the following individuals and perhaps others:

-Teachers who are working directly with students

-Other school staff who interface with students 

• MUSC is working with CCSD on logistics for providing vaccinations for all eligible staff
• Four sites are under consideration:  Stall, Burke, West Ashley High and Wando.  Scheduling arrangements will be announced when finalized; may require e-Learning day(s)
• Vaccinations will be free of charge and voluntary
• CCSD will be ready whenever the vaccine is available (cannot predict time frame yet)

CARES Act and Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF)

We will receive $381,756.88 funding through the CARES Act and $160,699.92 from the CRF. As stated before, these funds must be spent on additional costs related to the Coronavirus. Ms. Chisholm, David King, and I are working with CCSD on documenting these expenses.    

School Choice

See below the important dates related to the CCSD Magnet/Charter online application cycle for the 2021-2022 school year. Due to COVID-19 regulations, paper applications will be mailed upon request (More information coming soon)

January 26, 2021 - Online and paper application window opens at 12:00 p.m. (Noon)

January 30, 2021 - Virtual Choice Fair 9:30 am to 12:30 pm

February 4 - 18, 2021 - Application Assistance Nights 

February 26, 2021 - Online and paper application window closes at 6:00 pm.

April 2, 2021 - Families notified of acceptance.

April 22, 2021 - Offered seat must be accepted by 11:59 p.m

2nd Semester Virtual/In-person Request (Drake Report)

S2 Model - # of Students

Hybrid - 1094

Virtual Academy - 432

No Team Change - 1294

Unconfirmed - Submitted VA Application - 0

Move to Virtual Academy - 114

Graduating - 9

Move to Hybrid - 153

Program School - 36

Pending - 10

Withdrawing for S2 - 1

Total - 1572

Enrollment by Team - Updated 1.22.2021

A_Orange Total - 531

B_Blue Total- 534

E_Green Total- 481

Total Enrollment - 1546

Human Resources

For next school year, we need to consider adding two teaching positions. Last year, the board approved a Spanish position, but due to the late timing and oddity of starting remotely, we chose not to fill that position. We attempted to fill this position midyear, but we could not find a viable candidate. 

Next year will be the third year for AVID and we will be adding another cohort (grade-level class). These sections primarily come from the English Department or will. In addition, I plan to allocate one section per semester to an Equity and Access Instructional Coach (duty period). This duty supports all three of our charter goals. If we truly value equity and access for all students, we need to provide support through money, training, and staffing. Based on the loss of FTE’s, we may need to add an English teacher.  

We will analyze enrollment numbers and student requests this spring to determine the need for these positions. If the data continues to support the additional positions, we will make a recommendation to the board.       

Technology Update

JICHS IT has been working with the CCSD building project managers to better define which entity is responsible for what expenses in regard to the new gym and new wing. eRate funding is one of the more complicated aspects of the project.  As we move forward, the existing campus needs to be able to support and stay on par with new technologies that come along with building programs and network expanse. 

In-house our focus has been on the maintenance of existing Chromebooks and technology used to make learning more accessible during COVID.

Safety Update

• On January 12, 2021, we conducted our second required lockdown drill. The drill was different than normal. The students watched a seven-minute training video followed by questions and answers with their teacher.
• Mr. Edwards has repaired many of the outside student partitions, which continue to work well.   

Construction Update

The CTE project was about a month behind due to some issues below ground, but it is still scheduled to be completed by December of 2021. The new Gym has always been phase 2 of the project. It is expected to be completed by March of 2022. 

We are still waiting on the Office of School Facility (OSF) to approve the plans for the outdoor science classroom. However, the project is still moving forward at this time. The project is expected to take four months to complete.

Backyard Inspection

The stadium inspection discovered structural issues with the press box. The left side of the press box now has a 2-inch or more gap from the grandstands. CCSD is working with structural engineers on the issue. We hope to have this issue resolved in time for spring sports.        

Board Training

The PCSA of SC virtual board training dates (https://www.sccharterschools.org/).

• February 2 - 6-9pm
• February 18 - 6-9pm

JICHS Board of Directors Meeting Dates

2020-21 Board of Directors- 5:30 pm on the third Monday of the month.

8/17/2020, 9/21/2020, 10/19/2020, 11/16/2020, 12/14/2020, 1/25/2021, 2/22/2021, 3/15/2021, 4/19/2021, 5/17/2021, 6/14/2021.  

2019-20 Finance Committee- 4:00 pm on the second Monday of the month.

8/10/2020, 9/14/2020, 10/12/2020, 11/10/2020, 12/7/2020, 1/11/2021, 2/8/2021, 3/8/2021, 4/12/2021, 5/10,2021, 6/7/2021. 

Motions From Executive Session

~

The Meeting was Adjourned

The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:17 pm