Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen

Board Meeting Minutes

Page 1

Meeting Date: April 16, 2009

Meeting Location: RMAE Middle School Building - Spanish Classroom
Meeting called to order at: 07:16 PM by President John Morrill
Board members in attendance:
John Morrill (President) Bill Tomasi Seanna Mulligan
Jeff Wilhite Nancy Fiore Jeff Robertson
Karen Hines Mike Novick Jon Tesseo
Ryan Lucas (non-voting)

Others in attendance (from sign in sheet):

Dina Walton Ann Lane Rosanne Jalbert

A Quorum is reached with those present and on the phone.

Meeting notification requirements have been met.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance.

Board and Public Comment:

• Bill Tomasi – Bill stated that he and Nancy were present at the staff meeting after school
tonight where Carrie Quinn introduced the concept and format of the Hiring committee and
that the discussion was well received by the teachers in attendance.
o John Morrill stated that he has heard from parents that there is some concern from
parents about having Carrie Quinn running the committee. He does not have any
specifics around this but just wanted to make the Board aware of the potential
situation.
o Discussions were held around the role of the coordinator and if the coordinator would
have an active role in the selection process or not. Bill Tomasi stated that this
discussion should be tabled until later in the meeting when we are discussing the
Hiring Committee and that this was just a public comment.
 Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen
Board Meeting Minutes
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Consent Agenda:
• Minutes from the 3/19/09 and 4/7/09 meeting were read and approved.
Motion: Jeff Robertson motioned to accept the 3/19/09 and the 4/7/09 meeting minutes as
written; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 6-0, approved (No one against; Mike Novick, John Morrill, and Seanna Mulligan
abstained)

Updates:
• Director:
o None.
• PTO:
o John Morrill stated that he and Patti spoke and Patti mentioned that the final PTO
meeting is scheduled for tomorrow and that they are expecting to end the year with
about $5,000 which is ear marked for a few named projects and to seed the
Foundation.
o Dina Walton stated that Ryan’s airline ticket to the National Charter Conference in
DC is non-refundable and that CCA may reimburse us for his ticket. Dina stated that
it would be a good idea for the new teacher rep (Kim Cox) to attend instead of Ryan
but that Patti mentioned that this money (airfare and conference entrance fees) should
go back to PTO because PTO approved Dina and Ryan and another motion / approval
would need to be made to spend the money on a different person.
• Preschool:
o Update - Debbie Caruso sent in her update electronically. Some of the highlights
from the update include:

Hiring the new Director should be done by a professional hiring company
instead of creating our own Hiring Committee. She has concerns about having
RMAE form a hiring committee based on the issues with the last 2 Directors
that we hired on our own.

Enrollment is down and she won’t be offering jobs to the staff until May in
the hopes that our enrollment rises. She asks the Board to think about any
additional advertising ideas to help increase the enrollment.

A flyer promoting the preschool is being developed and will be posted on
neighborhood bulletin boards.

Annual Art Show is on now in the public areas of the synagogue.

Community service day was amazing and they had students cleaning around
the Bergen fire station.
 Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen
Board Meeting Minutes
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The students collected beef jerky and hand warmers to send to active duty
soldiers.
o Preschool Lease –

Ann Lane asks if we should go ahead and get the signatures on the lease
regardless of getting the access agreement signed or should we hold off and
execute both of them together? Board direction is to go ahead and execute the
lease and get this done.

Ann stated that she has not yet seen the preschool lease and Dina will look for
it and send it to Ann.
o RMAE / CBE Path –

Ann Lane commented on the Indemnity agreement and suggested that this
should be included with the other agreements.

Ann stated that there is still a potential issue exists if the indemnity has to
come from Jefferson County School District based on land ownership. If
RMAE has a surface use agreement with JeffCo then we can grant the
indemnity to CBE. She needs to research this further.
• AAA:
o Nancy put a blurb in the GG this week about the elections which are scheduled for
May first.
o Committee is concerned about GT for next year since we don’t have a budgetary line
item to cover this item. The Board requested that Nancy have the AAA Committee
explore different options and come back to the Board with a recommendation.
o Seanna asked questions to Nancy and Rosanne about interpreting the results of the
CSAP tests and applying these data points to our educational plan. Nancy stated that
they do indeed do this.
o AAA will take the 25 issues that arose from the parent / teacher survey and will boil
this list down to the top 5 and will then present to the Board so that the Board can
choose their top 3 for next year’s FOCUS.
o Math Curriculum – Dina questions the comments being made about the costs of new
books being paid for by families and she has not heard anyone actually doing this and
is planning on having this cost come out of the existing budget line item.
• Financial:
o Dina informed the Board that we are on track to roll over the expected amount with
the caveat that we control expenses from now to the end of the fiscal year.
o The bus taking the children to Nick’s Pro Fitness has been cancelled recently because
of the good weather. This helps us remain in line with the budget and control costs.
 Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen
Board Meeting Minutes
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Motion: Seanna Mulligan moved to raise our enrollment fees up by $20 in order to
cover rising costs; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussions:

Jeff Robertson questions if we should raise $40 instead of just $20.

Ryan stated that we have 100 new families coming into our school and they
are used to JeffCo fees which are less than $100 and he worries we are going
to alienate a lot of new families.

Dina stated that she can setup a payment plan that allows families to plan for a
set amount instead of getting “nickel-and-dimed” which will be a lot easier for
them to deal with.

Mike Novick stated that he is against this motion because it is not high enough
and he would like to see the fee raised more.

Dina stated that JA has a very nice letter outlining why we have higher fees
than neighborhood schools and she has a copy. She is going to update the
letter to make it pertinent to our school. This letter will go out to all of the
families at registration time.
Vote: 7-2, approved (Mike Novick and Jon Tesseo against, No one abstained)

Motion: Jeff Robertson moved to raise our enrollment fees up by $40 to $190 instead
of the previously voted increase of $20; Jon Tesseo seconded the motion.
Discussions:

Mike Novick stated that he feels $40 is too high and he would like to see $25
instead

Jeff Robertson would rather see us discuss all of the options and amend the
motion accordingly so that we don’t have to keep opening new motions.
Vote: 8-1, approved (Mike Novick against, No one abstained)

• Facilities Team:
o Bill Tomasi stated that he spoke with the local modular company again and found out
that 5 of the remaining 12 units have been sold and another 5 are being contemplated
by another company so if we are serious about the 14x70 clear span units we need to
figure it out quickly. Discussions ensued around the placement of the units, who
owns the land on which they would be placed, the neighborhoods estimated response,
etc.

John Morrill asked if we could hold the units with some kind of deposit until
we can navigate through all of the county and local issues so we don’t lose
them. Bill Tomasi will follow up on this request with the modular company.
 Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen
Board Meeting Minutes
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o Ryan Lucas stated that we need to make sure we include the neighborhood HOAs in
all discussions once we understand the process with the county if we are seriously
considering going forward. He stated that going to JeffCo with a request and being
able to state that we have already spoken with and gotten the approval from the
neighbors is very important.
• Hiring Committee:
o Jon Tesseo stated that the subcommittee put Carrie Quinn in place to coordinate the
Hiring Committee activities. Discussions were held around the role of the
coordinator and if this person is involved in the hiring process or if they are just
coordinating the activities. Jon Tesseo and Jeff Wilhite will take these discussions
back to the committee and resolve it.
o Teacher hiring – a separate committee will be established per our policies and will
operate in tandem with the Director Hiring Committee. Rosanne Jalbert will head
this teacher hiring committee and will pull in a cross section of teachers to round out
the committee.
o Bill Tomasi updated the Board on the posting of the job description on the following
websites:

TeachInColorado.Org

Career Builder

CLCS

Jefferson County Messenger (starts next Wednesday)

Motion: Seanna Mulligan moved to appoint Rosanne Jalbert as the Interm Director
effective April 13th, 2009 and that this appointment will continue until a new Director
is hired; Jon Tesseo seconded the motion.
Discussions:

None.
Vote: 9-0, approved (No one against, No one abstained)

Old Business:
• FOCUS – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
o Assistant Director – none.
o Facilities/PE – none.
o GT - none.
• Annual Giving – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
• Long Range Planning meeting – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
 Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen
Board Meeting Minutes
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• Board Election Process – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.

• AAA Elections - agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
New Business:
• Firehouse Meeting Planning – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
• RMAE Foundation – agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.
• DB Development Release Document - agenda item postponed due to deteriorating weather.

Action Items to be Completed Before Next Board Meeting –

• None.

Board and Public Comment:

• None.

With no further business, this meeting was adjourned at: 9:10 PM

Motion: John Morrill moved to adjourn the meeting; Bill Tomasi seconded the motion.
Discussions: None.
Vote: 9-0, approved (No one against, No one abstained)

Respectfully submitted

William Tomasi
Secretary