Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen

Board Meeting Minutes

Page 1

Meeting Date: March 19, 2009

Meeting Location: RMAE Middle School Building - Spanish Classroom
Meeting called to order at: 06:36 PM by President John Morrill
Board members in attendance:
John Morrill (President) Bill Tomasi Ryan Lucas (non-voting)
Jeff Wilhite Nancy Fiore Jeff Robertson
Karen Hines Mike Novick Jon Tesseo
Seanna Mulligan

Others in attendance (from sign in sheet):

Dina Walton Kimberly Darrington Ann Hushen
Heather Burbacher Sharon Hughes Kelly Stark
Valerie Tomasi Carol Yarcho Cherie Mazurek
Ned Parker Roland Luce

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:

• Jeff Wilhite – Spoke about the school budget and how it applies to our current and future
expenses
o Budgetary Income $3,273,000 (required to operate the school)
o Out of this budget amount,

58% is applied to salaries ($1,898,000)

22% is applied to Operations ($720,060)

20% is applied to debt and reserves. Increasing reserves are as follows:
• 09/10 = $650,712 (20%)
• 10/11 = $814,634 (25%)
• 11/12 = $978,290 (30%)
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RMAE is currently paying about 8% interest on our Bond debt

o 410 students * 6,400 per student = $2,624,000 gross income per year

The rest has to come from Fees and Fundraising
o Having a foundation is going to be an important component to our long term solvency
because a Foundation can:

Invest money

Own buildings

Carry a balance from year to year

Earn interest on the required reserves
• Heather Burbacher – Heather handed out a letter that was signed by teachers stating that they
support the changing of class sizes from 23 to 24 students in K-2 and 23 to 25 in 3-8.
• Ryan Lucas - thanks Heather and Katie Offerman for serving on the budget committee
• Sharon Hughes – She read a letter to the Board from her and Kelly Stark regarding a pay
decrease of 33.24% per month that they have been informed will impact them next year. If
their hours are cut as is being discussed this would turn out be an additional reduction of 25%
or approximately $700 per month. She discussed that RMAE instituted an $11/ hour base
salary for TAs this school year but that she and Kelly were exempt until next year and now
they feel they are being targeted because of their tenure. Wouldn’t it be better to cut
everyone’s salary equally? All of the other existing teaching assistants are getting a raise and
they are getting a pay cut and she would like to know why? She mentioned that RMAE is
talking about cutting assistant hours back even further but she indicated that they are
struggling to get all of the work done as it is and that this will put an extra burden on the
teachers. Lunches are going back into the classroom and this will eliminate an important
planning period for the teachers and the assistants can help this but not if their hours are cut.
She has been here 8 years so far and feels that this is being overlooked by the budget
committee and feels that this is a slap in the face.
o Ryan Lucas commented that both Kelly and Sharon are valued members of the
school. And stated that in 2007 they were given a contract based on the incorrect
number of days a year which caused the unexpected bump in their salary compared to
other TAs.
• Kelly Stark – Agrees with Sharon but she would be losing $600 per month of her salary. Her
husband works in banking which is a risky job now so her family relies on her salary. She
would rather not leave RMAE as she loves working here and is willing to add more hours to
offset the salary issue.
• Kimberly Darrington – Kimberly discussed an important distinction to consider when
evaluating expenses items in the budget: Needs versus the Wants. She ties the family budget
process to RMAE and feels that we fulfill the Wants of the school way before the Needs of
the school. She also states that RMAE has a tremendous staff and staff retention is important
with regards to building and establishing trust with the children. She wants the Board to
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keep salary and benefits (which she categorizes as needs) well in front of the wants (like a
new math curriculum). She would love to see us build up a cash reserve and use a portion of
the $30k RMAE will spend on a new math curriculum on something important to RMAE
o When asked to identify what she feels are Needs, she indicated the following:

Space

Cash reserve

Retaining teachers
o Ryan Lucas Stated that Kimberly is an amazing teacher and a tremendous asset to
RMAE.
• Ann Hushen – Ann wants to remind the Board to take into account that benefits are vital to
teachers…even more so than pay in some circumstances. She also states that aides are
indispensible asset to the teachers.
o Ryan Lucas stated that Ann Hushen and Karen Hines are one of the strongest
teaching team in the school and thanks them for their dedication and efforts to make
RMAE a success.
• Carol Yarcho – She was on the master schedule committee and part of the work that they did
creating the proposed master schedule. She wants to say that the committee put in many
hours and would like the Board to respect the effort that was put in even though it is not
perfect it is the best schedule that could be made and that it takes into consideration a lot of
interdependencies and constraints.
o Ryan Lucas stated that Carol does a tremendous job for RMAE and has proven her
commitment by making things go very smoothly in very difficult conditions like not
having a classroom.

Consent Agenda:
• Minutes from the 2/4/09, 2/9/09, 2/10/09, 3/11/09, & 3/18/09 meeting were read and
approved.
Motion: John Morrill motioned that the minutes from the 2/4/09 meeting be approved as
written; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 8-1 (No one against; Jon Tesseo abstain)

Motion: John Morrill motioned that the minutes from the 2/9/09 meeting be approved as
written; Jeff Robertson seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 8-1 (No one against; Jon Tesseo abstain)
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Motion: John Morrill motioned that the minutes from the 2/10/09 meeting be approved as
written; Jeff Robertson seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 7-2 (No one against; John Morrill and Jon Tesseo abstain)

Motion: John Morrill motioned that the minutes from the 3/11/09 meeting be approved with
the correction made to identify Jon Tesseo as an attendee on the first page of the minutes
(check box next to his name); Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 7-2 (No one against; John Morrill and Seanna Mulligan abstain)

Motion: John Morrill motioned that the minutes from the 3/18/09 meeting be approved as
written; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 8-1 (No one against; Mike Novick abstain)

CBE / RMAE PATH

• Nancy spoke with CBE representative regarding the path between the buildings and stated
that there are 3 issues remaining
o Maintenance. Who is going to maintain the path and cover the costs like snow
removal, etc?
o Easement. Do we need a formal easement or could we get by with just a Use
Agreement?
o Building costs. Who is going to pay to have the path built?
• Nancy stated that CBE has a snow removal service and for an additional $20 they would be
willing to shovel it.
• Jeff Wilhite asked for an explanation where the path would go.
• John Morrill stated that if Springboard doesn’t go 5 days a week then we could lose up to 5
families currently enrolled or looking to enroll in our Pre-school program.
• Seanna Mulligan asked how much does it cost to get a formal easement.
• Jeff Wilhite suggested that maybe we could negotiate a Use Agreement instead of a formal
easement that has to be filed with the county.

Motion: Mike Novick motioned that the Board approve splitting the maintenance and
building costs 50% / 50% with CBE for the path between our campuses; Seanna Mulligan
seconded the motion.
Discussion: None
Vote: 9-0 (No one against; No one abstained)

MASTER SCHEDULE
• Ryan Lucas informed the Board on how the Master Schedule was developed
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o Initial schedule was designed by Ryan and then distributed to teachers.

o The teachers provided feedback on initial schedule. Ryan then created version 2 based
on this feedback.
o Staff representatives (Jessica Le Blanc, Carol Yarcho, Gretchen Moritz, Amber Lichfield,
and Tony) were selected at a staff meeting. The representatives worked on the schedule
as a committee and this is the version that will be presented to the Board tonight.
• Ryan handed out 3 sheets that explain the new master schedule and the Board and audience
members went over the master scheduled. Lengthy discussions were held around the Master
schedule, resources like rooms, planning periods, and lunch.
• Bill Tomasi asked Ryan if he researched getting temporary building(s) from JeffCo yet? Ryan
said that he walked the entire site with the JeffCo and it would cost about $125 to $160k just to
move the buildings in and then there are the monthly rents on top of this amount which makes it
a very expensive option.
• Nancy Fiore stated that Ryan presented this master schedule to the AAA and there was a lot of
negative feedback about student assistants so she suggested using laptops on a cart instead of
having a dedicated technology room which would free this room up to be used by other activities
and remove the need for student assistants. Lengthy discussions ensured around the use of
student assistants, what it would take to eliminate the SAs from the schedule, and Ryan’s past
experiences with using SAs (all positive after the initial year).
• Carol Yarcho stated that she used the library in the past with 25 kids and it is not effective since
the students didn’t have anything to write on.
• Seanna Mulligan asked if using the student assistants as classroom cleanup would be a good use.
• Jeff Wilhite stated that the middle school teachers have 120 contiguous minutes without contact
with the children so he asked the elementary teachers in the audience how much “free” time they
have during the day. Kimberly Darrington and Ann Hushen state that they have about 25
minutes.
• John Morrill asked if the middle school aide handle the library time.
• Seanna Mulligan stated that she sees opening the extra 5th grade class creating the need for
student assistants. Ryan & Nancy both state that this doesn’t go hand in hand because even
though they would have ½ of the existing lunchroom they still don’t have the staff to monitor
and support all of the rooms.
• Ryan Lucas stated that he considered using parent volunteers and that they are great but they are
not reliable enough. The teachers in the audience agreed with this assessment.
• Ryan Lucas stated that he needs 1400 sq ft in order to accommodate a lunchroom for students.
• Ryan Lucas stated that he appreciates the effort that the entire staff committee put into this very
tough topic.

2009 / 2010 Budget Presentation and Adoption

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• Roland chaired the budget committee and presented the 2009 / 2010 budget to the Board with
Jeff Wilhite. They handed out 3 documents to the Board and the audience and Jeff and Roland
went over the documents. Some of the highlights from the discussions are:
o Ryan stated we have 410 FTE which equates to 434 bodies in the school because we only
get half credit from the county for the Kindergartners
o Increasing class sizes in the K through 2nd grade from 23 students to 24 students
o Increasing class size in the 3rd to 8th grades from 24 to 25 students
o Eliminate the exception for teacher children.
o Open the second 5th grade class 1 year earlier than originally planned
o Seanna Mulligan stated that if we were to reduce the proposed class size to the following
we would remain competitive with the neighborhood schools. This would reduce the
income by $57,600 which is equal to 1.5 teachers and all of the annual giving campaign.

K = 23

1 = 23

2 = 23

3 = 23
o Mike Novick stated that even though we strive for smaller class sizes, we have more to
offer and RMAE will continue to be a good option for families.
o Kimberly Darrington stated that having bigger classes is not ideal and no teacher would
ask for more students, but in light of the budget constraints she supports the proposed
class size increase.

Motion: Mike motioned to accept the class size as recommended by the budget committee; Jon
Tesseo seconded the motion.
Discussion: Jeff Robertson stated that it would be better to wait for the vote until after we have
heard all of the other options. Dina Walton stated that if the Board doesn’t pass the class size
increase, the rest of the suggestions from the budget subcommittee do not matter as the budgetary
shortfall is too great to overcome. Ryan Lucas stated that his experience in JeffCo he had 40 to 60
minutes of aide time per day and that we have to look at where our students are coming in from
(Kindergarten) and no other school offers full time aide in the Kindergarten class. This is a huge plus
for our school and gets families into our school.
Motion: Seanna Mulligan motioned to table the existing motion; Jeff Robertson seconded the
motion.
MOTION TABLED.

o Discussions around the opening of the 2nd 5th grade classroom.

This does not impact the fact that students will be eating in the classroom next
year.

This does not impact the required addition of student assistants.

John Morrill asked Kimberly Darrington & Ann Hushen about the impact /
experience of setting up a new classroom. Ann stated that the first year of being a
new teacher is tough. Ryan Lucas stated that our families are real tough on new
teachers anyway.
o Discussions around eliminating staff exceptions.
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Jeff Wilhite indicated that there was some emotion around eliminating this
provision from our by-laws.

Seanna Mulligan provided a rough count estimate that we currently have children
from 7 teachers and from 7 aides utilizing this By-Law exemption.

Mike Novick stated that eliminating this provision may make it tougher to fill
open teacher positions. Kimberly Darrington disagrees as there are a lot of
RMAE teachers who have children attending other neighborhood schools already.
o Discussions around equalizing aide salaries.

Mike Novick stated his concerns that there is going to be a perception that there is
not the same value placed on an aide and a teacher. For example, a teacher who
comes into RMAE with 10 years experience will get paid more than a new RMAE
teacher with 2 years experience but this doesn’t apply to aides. Is this fair?

Discussions around the 2 staff members who are petitioning the Board to find a
more equitable solution.
• Calculate their salary based on a yearly 3% raise backdated to 06/07
school year?
• Split the difference between their salaries and other TAs?
• Is $11 per hour higher than other Charter Schools? Answer is yes.
• Should we go to a merit based pay system? Answer is no.
o Discussions around creating 2 new positions

Assistant Director
• Part time position
• Position would cost $25,000 per year
• Position would aid the Director in daily routines
• Position would have to cover a study hall every day.

Special Programs Coordinator
• Full Time position
• Gifted and Talented Coach. Work with GT students in order to meet the
needs of their ALPs.
o There are ~35 GT students in RMAE right now.
o 13% of the RMAE student body are enrolled in special education
and they require three FTE staff members.
• Position would be a CSAP Coach that analyzes CSAP data and constructs
individualized programs based on that information
• Position would coordinate events like the Science Fair, Spelling Bee,
Geography Bee, Organize school trips
• Jon Tesseo asked if this was a NEED or a WANT? Answer from Ryan is
that this is a NEED.
• Mike Novick asked if having a full time Assistant Director would be of
more use instead than having a part time AD and a full time Special
Coordinator. Ryan Lucas stated that he does not feel this would benefit
either his position or RMAE as a whole.
• Mike Novick stated that having 400 students is the “critical mass” point
and if we still can’t afford a full time assistant director with this level of
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students then we have other issues in the budget. Discussions held around
debt load, salaries, aides, etc.
• Seanna Mulligan stated that the Special Program Coordinator sounds to
her like an Instructional Coach. Ryan disagrees.
• Mike Novick stated again that he feels strongly that we need a licensed
full time AD because of the number of teachers and students. He also asks
what the Special PC would do that the AD can’t? Ryan stated that you
won’t find a licensed Principle for under $65k without benefits, fresh out
of school, so the numbers we are talking about here are way too low for a
qualified person.
o Discussions around middle school aide position.

There is 1 aid in the middle school for all of the teachers.

The middle school aide is being used disproportionally by the math classes and
the other classes don’t get to use the aide as much as they would like.
o Discussions around the budget spreadsheet and the changes in this version of the budget
from the last one presented to the Board.

Original budget of 400 FTE was increased to 410 FTE

JeffCo CDE is discussing reducing the per pupil funding that we receive from
them by about $20 to $40 per student. Seanna Mulligan will research this more
and get back to us.

Dropping Aides from 7 hours a day to 6 hours a day.

Substitutes were entered into the spreadsheet twice.

Increase in the Instructional Materials and Textbook lines. This does not allow
any new classroom materials for any classroom except for the new classroom(s)
we would be setting up.

Motion: Seanna motioned to un-table the existing table motion; Jeff Robertson seconded the
motion.
MOTION UNTABLED.

Existing Motion: Mike motioned to accept the class size as recommended by the budget
committee; Jon Tesseo seconded the motion.

Discussion: None.
Vote: 8-1 (Seanna Mulligan against; no one abstained)

Motion: Mike motioned to open the 2nd fifth grade class next year; Jeff Robertson seconded the
motion.
Discussion: Seanna asks if we should put out a minimum break even class size before we open
the class. Ryan indicated that we have already polled students on the waitlist and we are good to
go based on these results.
Vote: 7-2 (Nancy Fiore and Seanna Mulligan against; no one abstained)
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Motion: Jon Tesseo motioned to accept #3 as written in the Budget Committee Memo dated
3/18/2009; Jeff Robertson seconded the motion.

Discussion: None.
Vote: 9-0 (No one against; No one abstained)

Motion: Bill Tomasi motioned to have the Budget Committee rework the budget to include a
single expense line item of $65,000 which would cover either the part time AD + full time SPC
position or just a full time AD position, and re-evaluate the other changes that Ryan made to the
budget; Mike Novick seconded the motion.
Discussion: Seanna asks where should this extra $5k come from and what are we going to give
up in order to do this. Karen suggested that we can only implement the new math curriculum in
the 4th and 5th grades so that we would not have to buy all of the books.
Vote: 7-2 (Nancy Fiore and Seanna Mulligan against; No one abstained)

Motion: John Morrill motioned that we approve the middle school aide; Seanna seconded the
motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 9-0 (No one against, No one abstained)

Motion: John Morrill motioned to have Ryan, Dina, and Jeff W evaluate the TA compensation
issue brought to the Boards attention tonight and come back with recommendations that can be
voted on in a future Board meeting; Karen seconded the motion.
Discussion: Jeff R stated that since we are paying our aides more than the average area schools
pay their aides, we should equate our base pay for the position to the average area pay instead of
randomly deciding on $11 per hour.
Vote: 9-0 (No one against, No one abstained)

RMAE Foundation

• Seanna Mulligan presented to the Board information she gained while researching the
Foundation concept and discovered that we already have a foundation on file with the Secretary
of State. Some of the advantages a Foundation brings to RMAE are:
o Ability to carry funds from over from one year to another
o Safeguards our real estate
o Allows us to invest our funds and make interest on our money
o Allows us a vehicle for long term planning
o Separates the Boards but allows common goals
o Provides confidence to investors
o This idea is supported by the PTO
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o It would cost us $10 to close out the old Foundation and then we can create a new
Foundation

Motion: Jon Tesseo motioned to close down the old foundation; John Morrill seconded the
motion.
Discussion:. None.
Vote: 9-0 (no abstain, no against)

Motion: Jon Tesseo motioned to use the Charter League lawyer to create a new foundation; John
Morrill seconded the motion.
Discussion:. None.
Vote: 9-0 (no abstain, no against)

Executive Sessions:
Motion: John Morrill motioned that the Board move into Executive Session pursuant to
section C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(f); Seanna Mulligan seconded.
Discussions: None
Vote: 9-0, approved (no one abstained).

• Pursuant to section 24-6-402(4)(f), the Board is going into executive session at 9:49pm for
the discussion of Personnel matters except if the employee who is the subject of the session
has requested an open meeting, or if the personnel matter involves more than one employee,
all of the employees have requested an open meeting. The Board is inviting Dina Walton
into the Executive Session discussions.

Motion: John Morrill motioned to come out of executive session at 12:48 AM; Jeff
Robertson seconded the motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 9-0, approved (no one abstained).

Action Items to be Completed Before Next Board Meeting -

• None.

Board and Public Comment:

• None

Next board meeting scheduled for: March 26th, 2009 at: 6:30 pm

With no further business, this meeting was adjourned at: 12:48 AM

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Motion: Jeff Robertson moved to adjourn the meeting; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussions: None.
Vote: 9-0, approved (No one against, No one abstained)

Respectfully submitted

William Tomasi
Secretary