Two Rivers Board of Trustees Packet 9.12.22

September 12, 2022

Agenda-September 12, 2022 Time Item Topic Purpose Roll Call ● Approval of agenda For information ● Approval of minutes and votes 6:10pm ❖ Executive Executive Director Report 6:40pm Director ● ED Update For discussion Report and information Board Committee Reports ❖ Executive For information ● Trustees involvement ❖ Finance in school-sponsored For information activity and votes ❖ Governance For discussion ● Internal Controls and information ❖ Development Handbook For discussion and information ● Staff Handbook For discussion ● Complaint and information ● No Report For discussion and information ❖ Academic ● PARCC Update Excellence ● OMA (b) (10) Personnel ❖ Closed Vote Matter Session 8:00pm Adjourn This meeting is governed by the Open Meetings Act. Please address any questions or complaints arising under this meeting to the Office of Open Government at [email protected]. Bylaws Next meeting: ● October 11, 2022

August 27, 2022 Call to Order Chair Zachariah called the August 27th Meeting of the Two Rivers Board of Trustees to order at 10:38 AM. Chair Zachariah opened the meeting by explaining that the meeting would be held per the Open Meetings Act and recorded. A motion was made to amend the agenda to move up the first agenda item to a Closed Session. The motion was unanimously approved. Roll Call Present Board Members Present Aswathi Zachariah, Chair Present Malik Husser, Vice Chair Present Eli Schlam, Secretary Present Gregg Treml, Treasurer Absent Jenny Bradbury, Trustee Present Kimberly Eddings, Trustee Present Lauren Hamilton-Edwards, Trustee Present Alvincent Hutson, Trustee Present Michael Murphy, Trustee Absent John Phillips, Trustee Present Derek Pierce, Trustee Present Ben Robins, Trustee Absent Ahnna Smith, Trustee Present Matthew Steenhoek, Trustee Present Penelope Thornton Talley, Trustee Kristina Kyles-Smith, Executive Director and Ex Officio Others Present Aurora Steinle, Chief of Staff Kenneth McCants-Pearsall, Chief Academic Officer Gail Williams, Chief Operating Officer Mary Gornick, Senior Director of Human Resources Tricia Eisner, Senior Director of Development Aziza Temple, Development Manager Fatima Graham, Student/Family Empowerment Coordinator Anya Stockberger, Two Rivers 4th Street Elementary PSA President Cara Williams, Two Rivers 4th Street Elementary PSA Secretary Devin Turner, Middle School FSA President

Karen Young, Middle School FSA Secretary Liz Clapsis, Two Rivers Young Elementary Secretary Closed Session The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to move to Closed Session under Open Meetings Act D.C. Code Section 2-575 (b) (10) Personnel Matter. The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to move to Open Session. Working Lunch with PSA (Parent School Association)/FSA (Family School Association) Leadership PSA Committee members from Two Rivers 4th Street Elementary, Young Elementary School, and Young Middle School joined the Board of Trustees to introduce themselves and share their goals for the coming year. Chair Zachariah shared the role of the Board of Trustees with committee members. Student/Family Empowerment Coordinator Graham shared that the main goals for each PSA are community building and family engagement. Two Rivers Young Elementary is a new PSA looking to model what 4th Street has done. Chair Turner shared the Middle School is setting the foundation and the core values of the FSA (Family School Association). Chair Turner also noted that he had strong goals to ensure the FSA can support students and families in need and can help the school work to streamline communication with parents. The Board of Trustees shared their great appreciation for each association’s work this year and committed to continuing communication and partnership in various ways, including reserving space for dialogue at board meetings. Academic Chief Academic Officer (CAO) McCants-Pearsall started his academic update by sharing Two Rivers’ most recent Instructional Focus, which spans the next three years. The focus is: By the end of the 2023-2025 school year, every student will be able to consistently produce work that is complex, authentic, and well crafted. He noted that the goal is to increase the consistency of high-quality work produced across our entire student body. After reviewing the instructional focus, CAO McCants-Pearsall provided an overview of the EL Education Credentialing model. Director of Two Rivers Learning Institute, Heyck-Williams, noted that in 2014 Two Rivers participated in EL Education’s pilot of credentialing with 4th Street’s campus being one of the first in the nation for credentialing, mastery of the three dimensions of learning and doing it through the EL Education model. All three schools are up for credentialing at the end of the school year. The goals of the presentation were to provide clarity to the board on what metrics are used for each dimension of student achievement (Mastery of Knowledge and Skills, Character, and High-Quality Work) and to spark discussion about the effectiveness of the metrics and goals for increased visibility of progress in each area at the Board level. Trustee Schlam requested that the school leadership team think about building a review of the alignment between teacher grades, in class assessment scores, MAP scores, and state assessment scores. He also suggested measuring student growth in scholarly habit grades and high-quality work outcomes, and measuring how students are scoring in the components of high quality work

(authenticity, craftmanship, and complexity). Further discussion occurred about the metrics for measuring student success and communication with families about the three dimensions. Operational Update Chief of Staff Steinle shared an update on our current enrollment. She shared that Two Rivers is enrolled at 1,058, with a max enrollment of 1067. There are robust waitlists in grades PS-4th, with waitlists depleted in grades 5th and 6th grades. She also provided an update on health at Two Rivers. Two Rivers Young Elementary and Middle School have a dedicated nurse, and Two Rivers is negotiating with Children’s National to provide a healthcare professional due to the national nursing shortage. Executive Director Kyles-Smith gave an update on the budget based on a presentation created by Chief Operating Officer Williams. The presentation was a primer for the upcoming re-forecast that will occur in November and noted that to improve key performance indicators, the school is looking to increase development revenue, restructure staff, or adjust the student-to-teacher ratio. The FY’23 budget includes sunsetting federal pandemic relief funding. Revenue drivers include new and carryover of pandemic-related funding and increased development revenue projections. Expense drivers include fully staffing the Middle School. The New Money Fund ($1.2 million) must be expended by October 2023. Board members discussed the financial update and noted that operational choices will need to be made for the FY24 and FY25 budget. Development Update Senior Director of Development Eisner shared that this year the development team has set a goal of raising $600,000. Foundational grants and special events will make up most of the goal, which is budget-relieving funding. Senior Director of Development Eisner also shared that last year’s gala was important because it was the first time our community was together in person. However, the auction items did not raise as much as they traditionally do. The team is working on revisiting how to ensure the auction returns to its previous success rate. Senior Director of Development Eisner noted that the neighbor in need fund started in response to COVID-19 has dispersed $32,000 and allows for the needs of our community to be addressed. The fund is highly visible, and would like to continue this campaign. Adjournment The Board meeting adjourned the Board Retreat at 2:36 PM. Prepared by: Submitted by: Michelle Kimso/s/ Eli Schlam/s/ Executive Assistant Secretary

____________________________________________________________________________ TO: Two Rivers Board of Trustees FROM: Kristina Kyles-Smith, Ed.D, Executive Director DATE: September 12, 2022 SUBJECT: Executive Director Update ____________________________________________________________________________ PURPOSE: To update the Board of Trustees on enrollment, staffing and events across the network. BACKGROUND/CONTEXT: Each month the Executive Director report aims to update the Board of Trustees on the most current, relevant headlines at the school including but not limited to enrollment, staffing, major events, and celebrations. ENROLLMENT: As of September 6, 2022, Two Rivers has enrolled 1,045 students for the current school year across our three schools. ● Enrollment at 4th Street Elementary is 388. ● Enrollment at our Young Elementary is 375. ● Enrollment at Two Rivers Middle School is 282. To reach our budgetary requirements, we seek to have 1055 students by the count day of October 5, 2022. In the month of August our enrollment numbers swung dramatically between a low of 1040 and a high of 1065. Unfilled seats are spread across grades. To reach our budget goal, we are continuing rapid outreach to families on our waitlists in Grades PS3-4 and Grades 6-7 (we currently do not have waitlists in Grade 5 and we do not backfill 8G seats). We have additionally placed ads in several local newspapers and sought the help of our parent community. STAFFING: To meet the needs of our increased student population, we have implemented a staffing model that employs 205 staff. We are facing similar staffing concerns as many around the nation but are proud to say we are 95% staffed. We currently are fully staffed at our Two Rivers 4th Street Elementary school, with zero vacancies. As of September 12, 2022, we have the following vacancies: ● 4th Street Elementary: Fully staffed ● Young Elementary: Two special education teacher vacancies ● Young Middle School: One 7G social studies teacher, one 7G math teacher, one 8G science teacher, two special education teachers, and two assistant teachers.

● TR network, non-instructional staff: We have two recent resignations but are working to determine our staffing model and if these positions will be filled or eliminated. We have seven active candidates in the pipeline. Our largest concerns are around middle math and science and special education.We are doing the following outreach to become fully staffed: ● Two Rivers has successfully hired nine highly-qualified new teachers, and continues to aggressively recruit, hire, and onboard high-quality staff to fill vacancies across our network. ● Align Staffing and Delta-T, our partner staffing agencies, are actively recruiting qualified long-term substitutes to fill open positions in the short-term and those that may arise throughout the year. ● We are continuing our partnerships with Urban Teachers and New York University to host resident teachers who engage in a year-long teacher training program while earning master’s degrees in education, providing Two Rivers with a pipeline of highly-qualified teachers. ● Our recruitment efforts will continue throughout the year. We appreciate your support with our recruitment efforts and encourage you to direct interested applicants to our website to apply. Until we become fully staffed, we are doing the following to serve our students: ● Highly-qualified school leadership will be reassigned to fill vacant positions until either long-term substitutes are secured or permanent hires are made. As positions are filled, reassigned staff will return to their original positions. ● Two Rivers has partnered with Education Solutions, a local tutoring company, to provide specialized instruction and we will leverage this amazing partnership where needed while we continually work to fill special education vacancies. ● Two Rivers has allocated funds to assign a permanent daily substitute to each school. This permanent position minimizes the impact of unplanned coverage requests. ● We will continue to provide emergency coverage compensation for staff. MAJOR EVENTS Additionally, here are the highlights of events from the Board Retreat to the October Board meeting. ● August 29th First Day of School ● September 20 Back to School Night at Middle School ● September 22 Back to School Night at Elementary Schools ● September 26th-29th North Bay for Two Rivers 6th Graders ACTION: For informational purposes only. ATTACHMENTS:

Board of Trustees September Committee Summary Committee Meeting Date Attendees Topics of Discussion Executive Committee 8/23 Ash Zachariah Malik Husser Finance Eli Schlam Committee Gregg Treml Matt Steenhoek Development Committee 8/31 Gregg Treml ● Internal Controls Policy Academic Jenny Bradbury Excellence Kimberly Eddings Committee Elle Carne Governance Kristina Kyles-Smith Committee Driss Belahcen Gail Williams Saumil Shah —-- N/A ● No meeting this month ● 8/30 Meeting with John, Tricia, Alex, and Kristina to discuss upcoming grant application. —-- N/A ● No meeting this month —-- N/A ● No meeting this month

TO: Two Rivers Board of Trustees FROM: Kristina Kyles-Smith, Ed.D, Executive Director DATE: September 12, 2022 SUBJECT: Recommended Change to Two Rivers’ Internal Controls to Update Prepaid Expense Policy PURPOSE: The purpose of this memo is to seek Board approval on an update to the internal controls manual which reflects a change to Two Rivers’ policy for prepaid expenses. BACKGROUND/CONTEXT: The Two Rivers Internal Controls Manual describes the internal operating policies and procedures to be followed by all employees. The manual supplements the Accounting Policies and Procedures manual for financial transactions and outline our policy on prepaid expenses (costs for services that span across two fiscal years or are incurred in one fiscal year but used in another. These usually include insurance policies, memberships, dues, subscriptions, licenses, etc.). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: It is the current policy of Two Rivers to treat payments of expenses that have a time-sensitive future benefit as prepaid expenses in the financial records and to expense them in the proper fiscal year. Currently, payment of any expense of $100.00 or less does not qualify as a prepaid expense EdOps now recommends raising this threshold to $1,200.00. This change has been reviewed and cleared with auditors. It is recommended that we update this policy to reflect this change before the FY22 audit. This change will save EdOps time reconciling expenses incurred during the fiscal year’s end. This recommendation is being made to all client schools of EdOps. ● Example of this change: A $500 flight ticket paid in the current fiscal year (for instance, May 2022) with the travel date in the next fiscal year (for instance, August 2022) will be expensed within the current fiscal year, per the recommended policy change, rather than expensing it in the next fiscal year.

To update organizational policies to reflect this change, the internal controls policy of Two Rivers would be updated as follows. Current Internal Control Recommended Internal Control Prepaid Expenses Prepaid Expenses It is the policy of the organization to treat It is the policy of the organization to treat payments of expenses that have a time-sensitive payments of expenses that have a time-sensitive future benefit as prepaid expenses in the future benefit as prepaid expenses in the financial records and to expense them in the financial records and to expense them in the proper period. Payment of any expense of proper period. Payment of any expense of $100.00 or less will not qualify as a prepaid $1,200.00 or less will not qualify as a prepaid expense. Reconciliations of prepaid expenses expense. Reconciliations of prepaid expenses will be performed by the Accounting Manager will be performed by the Accounting Manager at the end of the fiscal year. at the end of the fiscal year. BUDGET SNAPSHOT: This policy change will have no impact on Two Rivers’ financials nor its key performance indicators: ● No material impact on days of cash ● No material impact on gross margin ● No material impact on debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) ANTI-RACIST/INCLUSION IMPACT: This policy change has no impact on the operations of the school. RECOMMENDATION/RATIONALE: The board is recommended to update the Two Rivers internal control policies to reflect the changes suggested by EdOps to improve the expediency and operations of accounting practices. ACTION: The board votes to amend the internal control policies to reflect the above changes. ATTACHMENTS: Two Rivers’ current internal controls policies. Page 16 C: Gail Williams, Chief Operations Officer Driss Belahcen, Senior Director of Finance

____________________________________________________________________________ TO: Two Rivers Board of Trustees FROM: Kristina Kyles-Smith, Ed.D, Executive Director DATE: September 12, 2022 SUBJECT: Updates to Staff Handbook ____________________________________________________________________________ PURPOSE: The purpose of this memo is to seek approval from the TR Board of Trustees of the updated 2022-2023 Staff handbook from the Board of Trustees. BACKGROUND/CONTEXT: Annually, Two Rivers reviews and updates the Staff Handbook to ensure that it meets current legal requirements, Two Rivers practices, and recommendations from our employment law counsel, Littler Mendelson. Traditionally, the TR Board of Trustees has reviewed and approved annual updates to the Staff Handbook. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This year there are several updates to the staff handbook to ensure clarity of expectations and refinement of policies to be in alignment with current practices. The updates are listed below. ● Inclusive language revisions throughout the handbook ○ he/she changed to he/she/they ○ his/her changed to his/her/their SECTION 1: GENERAL EMPLOYMENT POLICIES ● S. Work Habits, Core Hours ○ Added specificity that all full-time employees to work a 40 hour work week and provided flexibility with start and end times, as approved by the direct supervisor. ○ Added specific requirements for school leadership to ensure coverage during key parts of the school day. ● U. Communicable Diseases, Policies Related to COVID-19 ○ COVID leave has been updated to a total of five (5) days only when testing positive and one (1) day of vaccination leave to account for potential fall boosters. Any time beyond these days can be unpaid under DCFMLA, PTO, or remote work.

■ DC law still requires unpaid COVID leave under DCFMLA until October 1, 2022, unless otherwise extended. ■ Details on remote work options for different classifications of employees were added. ● Y. Visitors in the Workplace, Employees' Children & Dependents ○ Formalized this policy by adding it to the staff handbook to ensure clarity of expectations. ● BB. Communications & Media Policy ○ Added Director of External Relations to this policy SECTION 2: MAJOR POLICIES CONCERNING STUDENTS ● D. Bullying Prevention Policy ○ Added this policy to reflect District requirements and the corresponding Student and Familiy Handbook policy. SECTION 5: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS ● E. Paid Leave, Paid Time Off ○ Added policy for 12-month staff required to work over Spring Break, who will be given twenty (20) days of PTO per year. ○ Added a carryover policy for instructional staff to address school leadership's concerns around over usage in May & June. ● E. Paid Leave, Requesting and Usage of PTO ○ Updated notification timeframes from 10 business days to 7 calendar days ○ Added specificity for emergency absence notifications for instructional and non-instructional staff. ● I. Remote Work & Telework ○ Updated list of eligible/ineligible staff BUDGET SNAPSHOT: N/A ANTI-RACIST/INCLUSION IMPACT: As Two Rivers seeks to become an anti-racist organization, our staff handbook seeks to support and lead in this work with policies that reflect the diverse needs and circumstances of staff.

RECOMMENDATION/RATIONALE: It is our recommendation that the TR Board of Trustees votes to approve the attached staff handbook. ACTION: Two Rivers recommends that the Board approve the updated Staff Handbook. ATTACHMENTS: Two Rivers Public Charter School Staff Handbook DRAFT C: Mary Gornick, Director of Human Resources

TO: Two Rivers Board of Trustees FROM: Kristina Kyles-Smith, Ed.D, Executive Director DATE: September 12, 2022 SUBJECT: Academic Updates BACKGROUND/CONTEXT: As part of our accountability to both the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and the DC Public Charter School Board, every public school must administer a series of statewide assessments. The assessments help schools to determine the extent to which we are meeting our academic goals. These assessments include: English Language Arts/Math Science English Language Proficiency Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for DC Science ACCESS for English Language College and Careers (PARCC) Learners Multi-State Alternate Assessment (MSAA) Dynamic Learning Alternate ACCESS for English Maps (DLM) Language Learners EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On September 2, 2022, OSSE released the 2022 PARCC results. Due to the pandemic, DC did not administer any statewide assessments in 2020 or 2021. Some highlights of our performance are below: English/Language Arts Math ● TR and each individual campus exceeded ● TR and each individual campus exceeded the charter sector and state proficiency the charter sector and state proficiency rates rates ● Young ES increased proficiency from ● Young ES increased proficiency from pre-pandemic rate pre-pandemic rate ● Proficiency across all subgroups declined, ● SWDs and Hispanic/Latino students with Hispanic/Latino and increased proficiency while others in Black/African-American seeing the largest subgroups declined drops

SY 22 PARCC Achievement Overview State PCS TR 4ES YES MS ELA 32% SY22 30% 25% (-9) 34% 39% (-12) 34% (+6) SY19 34% 51% 28% 20% Math SY22 21% 17% (-12) 28% 36% (-4) 36% (+11) SY19 29% 40% 25% Although assessments such as PARCC are only one way that we measure student achievement, we have several strategies in place to support the academic achievement of our students: ● Developing a clear scope and sequence of common planning time to ensure that teachers are planning thoughtfully, analyzing data, and responding to student needs ● Revising and strengthening our multi-tier system of support (MTSS) to respond to students who are struggling academically and socially ● Bringing back our Data Analysis Strategy (DAS) Loop PD structure with a focus on designing lessons that maximize student cognitive lift ● Hiring a director of math to support grades 4-8. ANTI-RACIST/INCLUSION IMPACT: Annually, disaggregated PARCC data is provided to schools. Below is a breakdown of disaggregated student PARCC achievement. Reviewing achievement data in this manner allows our school to understand better and more effectively improve the impact of our program on different students. PCS TR Af Am Hisp 2 or White At-Risk SWD More TR ELA 30% 34% 21% 29% 50% 72% 8% 5% TR Math 21% 28% 15% 32% 42% 66% 8% 8%

BUDGET SNAPSHOT: N/A RECOMMENDATION/RATIONALE: N/A ACTION: (Describe the intended/requested outcome) No Board Action Requested ---for awareness only. ATTACHMENTS: 2021-2022 PARCC Update C: Kenneth McCants-Pearsall , Chief Academic Officer