Board of Trustees Meeting
June 29, 2015 @ 2pm
730 Neely’s Bend Road (Admin Building) Madison, TN 37115
Meeting Minutes
Trustees in Attendance: Dr. Teresa Merriweather Orok, Jacqueline Mitchell, Eunice Bell,
Margot Deschenes, Dr. Gwen Watson, and James Holzemer.
Guest: Lekita Stevenson, Marshall Tabb, Janelle Glover, Allison Driver, Larry Clopton, Michael
Joseph, and Sister Sandra Smithson.
Dr. Orok welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 2:16pm. Meditation period was
led by James Holzemer concerning good stewards. Following the meditation period, Dr. Orok
motioned to elect Board of Trustee Member James Holzemer as the Board Chaplain. This motion
was seconded by Dr. Mitchell. The vote carried unanimously. Dr. Orok asked everyone to review
the minutes from the previous meeting silently. Dr. Orok motioned to adopt the minutes and the
minutes were adopted by the board unanimously.
Dr. Orok officially motioned to remove Margot Deschenes temporarily from the Board of
Trustees allowing her to serve as the interim Executive Director for Project Reflect. This motion
was seconded by Eunice Bell. Vote carried unanimously.
Interim Executive Director’s Report by Margot Deschenes – Margot Deschenes is currently
working with auditors on closing out the financial records for the fiscal year and finalizing the 20152016 budget. 15% of all BEP funds will be allocated to administration. The remaining 85% of the
funds will be used educational purposes. Sister Sandra Smithson, along with Mrs. Glover, clarified
there are no requirements for reporting a budget to METRO relating to BEP Funds. All funds that are
remaining in at the end of the year will carry over to the next fiscal school year. Budget schematic –
internal leadership should record any issues regarding the budget, and at the next meeting, the board
can discuss a strategic plan to address those concerns. Dr. Orok thanked Margot for all of her hard
work on the upcoming budget.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Educational Committee Report by Mrs. Janelle Glover (Hard copies provided.) – The
recommendations from the Education Committee are as follows: PREP Director should report
directly to the principal and the principal should staff the PREP program after deliberating with
Education Committee, Executive Director, and the Chair of the Board. Dr. Orok noted that all hiring
and terminations should be authorized by the Board Chair. Dr. Orok also noted that upon sending out
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employment matters to ALL staff members, current and incoming, for the upcoming school year,
there should be a position clause that states that all positions are contingent of funding. Mrs. Driver
volunteered to update all offer letters and employment letters. Mrs. Glover also reported that the
school has been working hard to replace four teaching positions and has hired one full time Special
Ed Instructor. Mrs. Glover also suggested that Larry Clopton be the Instructor for morning PREP
program from 6:30 A.M. to 7:30 A.M... Mrs. Driver made note that it costs $140 per student for the
Let’s Go Learn Program. ($70 per student for math and $70 per student for reading, making our
annual fee $38,500 for 275 students.) The only concerns the teachers had with the program
effectiveness, was concerning adequate training and the continued growth for Reading portion.
Teachers would like to be trained on how to effectively use the software and acquire data via
reporting. Some training was given but not for the entire staff. Dr. Mitchell recommended that we not
to assess judgment on the effectiveness of the software until proper training has been provided and
true academic growth measurements can be obtained from the reporting.
Program Committee Report – The Program Committee Report will be tabled until the next
meeting. Dr. Orok suggested that the board should determine how the program committee should be
restructured for the upcoming school year.
BUSINESS SESSION
 A review of the organizational chart needs to be added to the agenda for the next board
meeting.
 Dr. Orok would like for the Education Committee or school Principal to provide a good
overview of our customers (students) at the next board meeting. This should cover the
demographics, academics, strengths and weaknesses, ethnicity, sex, and parent info. Mrs.
Driver made mention that the majority of this information can also be found our 20152016 School Improvement Plan which she will send via email to the Board Chair and
Executive Director.
 Community Eligibility Program (CEP) allows for 100% of our students to eat free. 92%
of our students actually qualified for free breakfast/lunch.
 Mr. Tabb presented the finding of his internal audit. (Please see attachment.)
o Resources are driven by all of our daily functions. Quick Books is our key
operating system for recording and accurately storing all of our vendor, customer
and employee information. But most importantly, this is the hub for record
keeping as it relates to all of our accounts receivables and accounts payables.
o Dr. Orok recommended that Mr. Tabb stay on board with Project Reflect to assist
in the preparation for the upcoming fiscal year. He would be in charge of
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establishing and implementing financial policies and procedures. This also mean
that we would need to review the contract that we currently have with PHB in
order to see where this change would fit in place. The reason for this
recommendation is that Dr. Orok feels Mr. Tabb is qualified to help build our
capacity financially and train our in-house appointees.
 Quick Books training is necessary.
 Bookkeeping should be brought in-house totally
 It was recommended that we table the discussion of hiring Mr. Tabb until
the next board meeting, that way once the budget is complete, we could
then determine if funds are remaining to pay Mr. Tabb for on-site
consulting.
Dr. Orok brought our attention to the report from Mr. Stan Savage. It is highly
recommended that we have doorbells or a paging system installed.
The board review and adopted all seven amendments with two corrections noted.
Each amendment was motioned, second and approved by the present board of
trustee members. All votes carried unanimously. (See attachment.)
Margot Deschenes motioned that a 2% increase be given to all teachers and
support staff, proposal being contingent that MNPS approvals the increase in their
budget, in order to keep in line with Metro’s salary chart. This motion was
seconded by Eunice Bell. The vote carried unanimously.
Dr. Orok mentioned that Margot Deschenes has already met with Sr. Staff. It is
recommended that Margot obtains email approval from all Board of Trustee
Members concerning the salary increases for Mrs. Driver and Mrs. Stevenson
effective July 1, 2015 for the upcoming fiscal year.
Margot also brought to the Board of Trustees attention that unrestricted funds
budget was not met last year. It is highly recommended that fundraising becomes
a part of the Executive Directors job description.
The Project Reflect Board meeting held on June 29, 2015 was adjourned at 5:36pm.
Project Reflect board meeting minutes were respectfully taken and submitted by Mrs. Lekita
Stevenson.
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