Gateway Lab School
Operations & Sustainability Committee
DATE: January 7, 2015, 6:00pm
LOCATION: Panera Bread, Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, DE
Minutes
Meeting called to order 6:02pm
Present: Zane Gordy, Pamela Draper, Joyce Henderson and Rachel Anderson
Absent: Nate Schwartz, Catherine Dolan
Updates:
Joyce spoke with Donna Johnson from the Department of Education and she recommended the next
steps following the Charter renewal: Discuss Strategic Plan; Goals; Outline plans to measure
performance. Also recommended we talk with Laymont Brown from Eastside Charter School to learn
best practices in these areas.
Action Item: Contact Laymont Brown from Eastside Charter Schol
Discussion: Smarter Balance is requiring 30% of students to pass. Concern about holding Gateway
accountable to a standard that only expects mainstream schools to pass at only a rate of 30%.
Discussion regarding data collection that demonstrates other student progress than Smarter Balance
Exam Scores. DCAS data that was presented for the Charter Renewal was a sampling of the school –
showing all students showed growth in English and Math (100% growth in Math and 95% showed some
kind of growth in English). Some students in the sampling went from scores of 1’s to 4’s overall.
New Business
Motion to add Celebratory Event; Board Training and Advisory Board to the agenda. Seconded and
Approved.
Board Profiles – recommendation to recruit one additional parent to the board to build sustainability.
Board Training – Rachel to conduct a board training, Pam and Joyce will attend to support the training.
The board packet will need to be updated prior to the training. Objective would be to schedule the
training in February.
Action Item: Rachel will send recommended dates to four new board members.
Celebratory Event – discussion about coordinating an event to celebrate the renewal of the charter.
Recommendation was made to coordinate the event with the winter concert. Ideas included having a
sundae bar and dessert buffet (cupcakes and cheesecakes).
Action Item: Check with GFF to coordinate together, they are possibly working on ideas for a celebration
as well.
Advisory Board – It’s timely to resurrect an Advisory Board for Gateway. Ideas included hosting meeting
once a year, involving key political constituents and industry leaders. Possibly holding a meeting prior to
the Annual Retreat Meeting Start (for first hour of meeting) and utilizing advisory board members for
expertise in areas throughout the year.
Action Item: Rachel will draft an overview for the Advisory Board responsibilities and time line with next
steps. Board members will be asked to send recommendations for potential advisory committee
members by 1/31/15 (should send e-mail contact, name and company) and letters will go out to those
recommended by 2/16.
*Additional discussion took place about the list of supporters that was gathered during the charter
renewal process.
Action Item: Recommend to gather into a database format for future use.
Head of School Performance Evaluation
A 360 review on the head of school performance from teachers, board members, and other
administrators is scheduled to begin.
Action Item: Zane and Rachel will also review the current performance evaluation format and provide
comments for any recommended changes by 1/16.
Timeline
 Format (for next year) to be reviewed by OPS Committee Members by 1/16
 360 sections to be sent to Teachers, Administrators and Head of School by 1/12
 Returned to the Board 1/23
 Compiled and Provided to OPS Committee on 2/4
 Returned to Head of School 2/9 for comments
 Meeting with Head of School will take place at the 2/18 OPS Meeting
Action Item: Request that Catherine Dolan, Head of School, provide update on timeline completion, and
update of administrator and faculty performance evaluations.
*Recommended that OPS meetings remain bi-weekly until we meet with Terry Quinn and put in place
data capturing and measurement models systems.
Data Capturing
What the board would like to see dashboard results on a regular basis?
1. Progress on IEP Goals
2. Report on growth from previous school to current MAP, Smarter Balance, Etc scores.
3. Longitudinal data provided annually on alumni and parents
4. Behavior Report or other Social/Emotional Report
5. Enrollment/Retention Report
Action Item: Rachel will find out the name of the database that High Schools or Colleges with Pre-college
program use to track students who matriculate.
Discussion about researching a proposal for hiring a graduate assistant to serve as a data analyst for the
school. Once the modification is approved, and if enrollment goals are met, there may be funding
available to hire temporary staff for data entry as well as additional paraprofessionals.
Alternative Review Team (Task Force)
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Ensure school meeting criteria in alternative framework
Report out to the Board on a regular basis providing updates on those criteria
Charged with designing the database and reporting structure that would be implemented by the
school
Timeline of service on task force would be thru January 2016
Can use the Data Services Center to create the actual database
Motion made by Joyce Henderson : Create an Alternative Review Team Task Force to design a database
and reporting structure to measure metrics for the school. Seconded by Zane Gordy. Approved.
Old Business
Review of the 2015-2019 Strategic Plan for the Operational Sustainability Committee
Discussion Points and recommended edits included:
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Discussion with Dorcell (financial advisor) about pursuing other revenue generating
opportunities (before care, tutoring)
21st Century Learning Center Grant about afterschool opportunities in the future discussed
Grants falls under community outreach committee- that item will be moved
Recruitment Goals component will move to Community Outreach Committee – OPS will still
have oversight ability of the component
School Expansion time line will need to be updated (no longer 2015-2016)
Add component for researching expanding buildings in the future to accommodate growth,
purchasing land or new facility
Keep conduct research for expansion to 1-2 grades (invite DASL to this conversation)
Move Robust Prof Dev Training Budget to Academic Rigor Committee
Develop accountability for action plans for GLS administrators will be moved to Academic Rigor
to create plan and OPS will have oversight
Discussion about Hiring & Growth components – re-word Cultivate Relationships component to
reflect create a student teacher program.
Move Prof Dev Annual Needs Assessment and Ongoing IEP Training to Academic Rigor
Re-word Policy & Procedures
Strike the last line from build and cultivate network.
Review of the 2014-2015 Statement of Purpose; Short Term Plan
Meeting Adjourned at 8:23pm
Submitted by Rachel Anderson