BOARD MEETING of the Dryades YMCA JAMES M. …...JAMES M. SINGLETON, so moved H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, second DARREN MIRE, motion by Councilman Singleton, seconded by Ken Johnston to approve

BOARD MEETING of the Dryades YMCA

JAMES M. SINGLETON CHARTER SCHOOL

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

2220 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard

January 15, 2019

Minutes

Contents

Call to Order ........................................................................................................................................................... 2

Acknowledgement of Quorum ................................................................................................................................ 2

Invocation ............................................................................................................................................................... 2

Public Comment....................................................................................................................................................... .

Interim CEO’s Report ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Approval of Agenda for January 15, 2019.............................................................................................................. 5

Approval of Prior Board Meeting Minutes December 19, 2018 ............................................................................ 5

Finance Committee Report…………………………………………………………………………………..........6

James M. Singleton Charter School ........................................................................................................................ 9

Program Updates…………………………………………………………………………………………………31

Important Dates…………………………………………………………………………………………………..31

Dryades YMCA

James M. Singleton Charter School

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

January 15, 2019

2

√ - DENOTES AN ACTION ITEM

Call to Order

A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Dryades YMCA James M. Singleton Charter School was held on

January 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm at 2200 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Meeting was called to order by Chairman

Darren Mire.

DARREN MIRE, we have 6 members present and a quorum, so and I think everyone has signed the roll call

sheet, so I’m going to ask for agenda item II, the invocation by Bishop Thomas Watson.

Acknowledgement of Quorum

Board President Darren Mire acknowledged a quorum. The following 9 members were present:

Invocation

Invocation was given by Bishop Thomas Watson.

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, as we do in some of the meetings, if there are any open prayer requests, we’d

be happy to hear them, in any specific areas, be it school or organizational or whatever.

DARREN MIRE, it was a murder of one of the parents of three of our kids at the school, last week, so keep

them in our prayers, as they matriculate back into school.

Board Members Present:

Darren Mire Barbara Lacen-Keller

Ed Shanklin James M. Singleton

Gilbert Jackson Bishop Thomas Watson

Cedric Patin H. Kenneth Johnston

Wyvonnia Walker

Mary Joseph

Staff Members:

Doug Evans, Interim CEO Tia Robertson

Wanda Talton Jermaine Bridges

Catrina Reed

Board Members Not Present:

Mary Joseph Alexis Parent-Ferrouillet

Carlos Hornbrook Jean Torregano

Guests:

Gayla Mair

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

3


BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, anybody remember the name of the parent?

DARREN MIRE, I don’t know.

DOUGLAS EVANS, Laverne Patent Alexander

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, oh Ms. Alexander

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, let us pray and so Father, we thank you for the New Year and the new

opportunities that you are affording us. We pray for that family at the James Singleton Charter School, who has

lost their parent and we pray that the children will be restored and that they will get the necessary holistic

resources to be sustained in this most challenging time; we pray for the staff of our school and staff of our great

organization, we pray for this board and its constituents in our community; we pray that as we usher in 2019

that you will give us all the resources that we need, the creative ideas and concepts to make what we do even

more improved. This is our prayer in the Master’s Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

ALL, Amen.

DARREN MIRE, thank you Bishop Watson.

BISHOP WATSON, yes sir.

DARREN MIRE, we move to agenda item III, which is the Nomination Committee Report, and I’ll turn it over

to the CEO Douglas Evans.

DOUGLAS EVANS, thank you Mr. Chairman, in the absence of Mr. Hornbrook:

The Dryades YMCA Nomination Committee met on Wednesday, January 9, 2018 in open session with a quorum present. In compliance with the organization’s official By-Laws, and in compliance with Orleans Parish School Board policies on board membership, the Nomination Committee make the following recommendations to the board for board membership:

1. Cedric D. Patin 2. Gilbert Jackson 3. Ronald Sholes

for a term through December 31, 2020.

4. Wyvonnia Bryant-Walker, recommended by school leadership as the Parent Representative for the James M. Singleton Charter School and she’s here.

Continuing…

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

4


5. Barbara Lacen-Keller, recommended to serve the unexpired term of Judge Sidney Cates, through December 31, 2019

6. H. Kenneth Johnston, recommended to serve the unexpired term of Representative Royce Duplessis through December 31, 2019

7. Mary Joseph, recommended to serve the unexpired term of Nicole Lewis, through December 31, 2019

This represents the work of the Nomination Committee and the recommendations of that committee.

DARREN MIRE, okay, so can I get a motion for approval of the Nomination Committee report, um I need a

motion and a seconded to approve.

√ - AI

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, so moved.

JAMES M. SINGLETON, seconded.

DARREN MIRE, motion and seconded to approve these members of the Nomination Committee and the

Committee recommends board approval of the Nomination Committee’s recommendations, any questions on

readiness, all in favor say aye.

ALL, aye,

DARREN MIRE, any oppositions, ayes have it. I want to welcome aboard the members that are here, I’ll let

them introduce themselves: Cedric Patin is here,

CEDRIC PATIN, my name is Cedric Patin and it’s a pleasure to get on board so that we can do what we have to

do to make things better for the school and the community and the students of the Singleton Charter School.

DARREN MIRE, and Gilbert Jackson

GILBERT JACKSON, I’m Gilbert Jackson and I’m glad to be back, it’s my second time around here with the

Y, looking forward to uh, making a better organization.

WYVONNIA BRYANT-WALKER, hi I’m Wyvonnia Bryant-Walker, I have two little people here so I am

glad to be on board and be able to be of assistance in any way I can.

DARREN MIRE, glad to have you, Ronald Sholes could not attend the meeting today, so I want to welcome

you aboard, you guys will be given an orientation packet for the Dryades YMCA and James Singleton Charter

School, and we look forward to you participating and we’ll be adding you to some committees also, so be

looking out for that. Um we’re going to go ahead and move forward with today’s agenda.

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

5


Approval of Agenda for January 15, 2019

DARREN MIRE, can I get a motion to approve the January 15, 2019 agenda for the meeting today?

√ - AI

JAMES M. SINGLETON, so moved

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, second

DARREN MIRE, motion by Councilman Singleton, seconded by Ken Johnston to approve our January 15,

2019 agenda, any question on readiness, all in favor say aye

ALL, aye

DARREN MIRE, any oppositions, ayes have it, Agenda Item V, is Public Comment, has there been any request

for Public Comment on any items on the agenda?

DOUGLAS EVANS, no one signed in, but nobody…any comments?

GAYLA MAIR, no, no comments at this time, but I would like to introduce myself, my name is Gayla Robins-

Mair, I’m the Director of School Performance with OPSB and James Singleton is my school, so I’m happy to be

here today.

DARREN MIRE, thank you, seeing no Public Comments, we’ll move on to the approval of the December 18,

2019 Prior Board Meeting Minutes

Approval of Prior Board Meeting Minutes

DARREN MIRE, these minutes were sent out to you for your review or changes, can I get a motion for

approval of the minutes?

√ - AI

JAMES M. SINGLETON, so moved

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, seconded

DARREN MIRE, I have a motion by Councilman Singleton seconded by Barbara Lacen to approve the

December 18, 2018 Board Meeting minutes, any questions on readiness all in favor say aye.

ALL, aye

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

6


DARREN MIRE, any opposition, ayes have it, we’ll now move on to the CEO’s report, and I’ll turn it over to

Doug Evans

DOUGLAS EVANS, Mr. Chairman my report will address an addition to our staff, uh, you have a printout in

your folder, asking to you to help in welcoming back to the organization Alicia Oliver, who has worked for the

organization for many, many years; because of all the great work that she did for us, the National YMCA hired

her away from us a few year ago, she’s back in our city and she has rejoined our staff in the area of

Organizational Leadership and Financial Development. She’s here with us today we’ve presented you a robust

budget plan that she will be providing leadership on it to make sure that we get there, so I ask you to help me

welcome her back to the organization.

DARREN MIRE, thank you, Ms. Oliver, you want to say a couple of words.

ALICIA OLIVER, it’s great to be home thank you, I belong at the Dryades YMCA, and we’ll get it done.

DARREN MIRE, anything else, oh, okay

JAMES M. SINGLETON, how’s your mama doing? (in jest)

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, how’s your mama and them? (in jest)

ALICIA OLIVER, she’s great, thank you, she asks about you all the time.

JAMES M. SINGLETON, good, that’s why I asked about her

DARREN MIRE, I’m going to move on to agenda item IV, which is the Finance report and turn it over to Ed

Shanklin

Finance Report

ED SHANKLIN, good afternoon board members and Happy New Year, if you could turn to Tab 2, this sheet

looking like this,

DOUGLAS EVANS, you mean Tab B

ED SHANKLIN, yes Tab B, alright everybody looks like their ready, I’ll talk about the total revenue I don’t do

the expenses, I just do the revenue for expediency, but, at committee meetings, new board members, we really

get into the numbers, we have more time to talk about things, so I would urge you to join us at Finance

Committee meeting, to work with these numbers and get the activities of the Dryades YMCA. Catrina here, is

the CFO, and wave Catrina, everybody knows Catrina, and she and I work hand and hand and glove together on

everything, so again welcome. The Dryades YMCA Singleton Charter Consolidated Statement of Activity as of

December 31, 2018, actual

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

7


MANAGEMENT/GENERAL ACTUAL

Management/General

Total Revenue 499,145.22

Total Expenses 977,168.49

Deficit (478,029.27)

ED SHANKIN, I’ll read everything out loud to put into record everyone.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ACTUAL

Youth Development



Change In Net Assets (25,079.86)

EARLY C. H. DEVELOPMENT ACTUAL

Early C. H. Development



Positive 10,584.19

SCHOOL OF COMMERCE ACTUAL

School of Commerce



Change In Net Assets (24,841.53)

ED SHANKLIN, the Wellness Center, which is the pool and all the weight room and everything

WELLNESS ACTUAL

Wellness



Positive (3,932.67)

CHARTER SCHOOL ACTUAL

Charter School

Total Revenue 2,101,521.63

Total Expenses 1,820,734.20

Positive 180,787.43

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

8


ED SHANKLING, the Finance Committee meant with the staff, we had our Finance Committee meeting and

we want the board to receive and approve the following: the Dryades YMCA Consolidated Statement of

Activity as of December 31, 2018; the Singleton Charter Consolidated Financial Statement of Activity period

ending December 31, 2018 and the Dryades Y Consolidated Financial Statement, period ending December 31,

2018, so I’ll do this in global, so I’d like to get a motion.

DARREN MIRE, you already have a motion, you need a second

ED SHANKLIN, can I get a second

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, second

ED SHANKLIN, all in favor say aye

ALL, aye

ED SHANKLIN, okay, turn to Tab D everyone and you’re going to see the 2019 Department Budget Plan

DOUGLAS EVANS, General Fund

ED SHANKLIN, what, oh, General Fund, I was looking at this, the Dryades YMCA General Fund, period

ending, December 31, 201, I’m not going to go over these number because we went over them in committee

meeting, and I will ask that, I mean we’ve already received it, I will ask that we get a second

MARY JOSEPH, second

ED SHANKLIN, all in favor say aye

ALL, aye

ED SHANKLIN, and if you go to E, you’ll see the Singleton 2017-2018 Audit Update, Catrina, I don’t see that

CATRINA, no they’re; not going to have that

ED SHANKLIN, okay then that completes my report everyone

DOUGLAS EVANS, let me just say for the record Mr. Chairman, that the audit was submitted timely by the

auditors and the staff with Mr. Andoh and we did the exit conference, as required, he’s not available to be with

us today, but in February he will come in and discuss with you the audit.

DARREN MIRE, so okay we’ll have a report by the Auditor in February?

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

9


DOUGLAS EVANS, yes

DARREN MIRE, okay, so that concludes the Finance Committee report, we’ll move on to the James M.

Singleton Charter School report, um, Barbara?

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, is the school leader here?

TIA ROBERTSON, hello

ALL, good afternoon, hi, hello

DARREN MIRE, this is our School Leader, Tia Robertson, who leads the James M. Singleton Charter School

GAYLA MAIR, hi, how are you

TIA ROBERTSON, good thank you, thank you, good evening everyone

ALL, good evening

TIA ROBERTSON, so everyone should have in their binders…

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, so behind what tab is it

TIA ROBERTSON, I’m sorry

DARREN MIRE/ED SHANKLIN/DOUGLAS EVAN, Tab 3

TIA ROBERTSON, the information for today, um, the first item on the agenda, was presented last week, was A

Deliberate call to action, this was in follow-up to our from OPSB back in December, myself, along with the

team, came up with a comprehensive plan, how we need to pivot and structure, how we need to pivot the

academic landscape, here at James Singleton School. The report reads:


I. “A DELIBERATE CALL TO ACTION” (FOLLOW UP REPORT TO OPSB)

a. Following OPSB’s visit with the Superintendent and his team on Monday, December 10th, James Singleton Charter School was required to submit a follow up report by Friday, December 21,

2018. I formally submitted the report to Dr. Kelly Peterson by Thursday, December 20th

. Dr.

Peterson received the report and acknowledged our timely submission of the requested

document. The communication thread between Dr. Peterson and myself was shared with Mr.

Evans and Mr. Mire.

b. The instructional framework of James Singleton Charter School must pivot for the instructional landscape to reflect authentic growth. This includes, but is not limited to on-going professional

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

10


development, in depth progress monitoring and consistent rigor in deliverables.

c. James Singleton Charter School will triage the current state of affairs and deliberately address student growth to mastery targets. The following questions must be answered, addressed and

processes implemented:

Question 1: If students are not yet achieving Mastery, are they on track to doing so? The

current and forecasted data suggest our students are not on track to achieve Mastery.

Therefore, we must create an end of year achievement level goal for each student and

create a system to monitor and support progress.

Question 2: What specific blueprints can we coach teachers to develop using a backwards

design, and plan lessons that deliberately address the non-negotiables for student success.

How is the administrative and leadership team going to provide ongoing coaching and

support for teachers?

(Please see the detailed plan attached)

TIA ROBERTSON, in that detailed plan that was submitted, see Tab E, is a series of events that occurred prior

to the visit from OPSB as well as to December, it goes back from what was started in November, it was specific

instructional focus plan, to developing meetings and what was done with the faculty as whole and so it lists all

of the succinct strategies that have been put in place. What was also submitted in the plan was copies of

professional development; activities that our instructional coaches for math and science have implemented and

conducted with our teachers, as well as our ELA and Social Studies Instructional Coach. Also, what was

presented as a follow-up to that meeting was a draft of a school improvement process, and in an effort to save

the trees, we didn’t make 10 copies, but there are some on the table, 3 on this end and 3 on that end. Now, we

were not told that we had to do a School Improvement plan; however, that was my charge to call to action, to

make a change, to pivot the instructional landscape of the school, because it’s a best practice model. So that

was submitted in the Call to Action Plan in the follow-up that was presented to Dr. Peterson’s office. Following

that there was also a series of meetings that took place with Tony Picket, from OPSB, who is um, Dr. Peterson

is allowing her to come in and to work with us, one on one to provide that intrinsic support, as well as they’re

were a series of meetings with Erica Freeman as well as Kenny Francis and Dina Hiastus, I probably

mispronounced her last name, but they are from the Office of Equity and Accountability but they’re coming in

as well to provide support to us, to help us with those growth to mastery targets. So if you then look at Roman

Numeral IV, it talks about the Planning Process for Continuous Improvement, on December 18th

, which was

following the board meeting, that’s on the back of the first sheet, that’s the first sheet from the board report.

II. PLANNING PROCESS FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

a. December 18 & January 8: Development of agenda to begin the SIP process for JS Charter School with support agent: Tony Pickett from OPSP.

b. Development of School Improvement Leadership Team is in progress.

TIA ROBERTSON, since then our School Improvement Leadership team has been solidified and actually our

first meeting is this Saturday, when we look at School..

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

11


c. Improvement Process Elements:

VISION: What future are you pursuing?

PROFILE: What is your current reality?

PLAN: What actions will you take to improve?

RESULTS: What have you accomplished?

(See attached detailed format/stipend availability)

TIA ROBERTSON, this second document, The Planning Process for School Improvement, works hand in hand

with the School Improvement draft, you just don’t write this, you just don’t do this, it’s a whole process. The

individuals working on the Leadership Team, they have to be vetted and vested in this process; because it’s a

very tedious process, because it’s incumbent upon on all of us, when I say all of us, it’s not just the members of

the School Leadership Team, but every staff member, every faculty member, and even us board, it’s incumbent

upon all of us, to ensure that this good work is done, to do best practices for our children; something that we are

now finally able to do, to do the growth to mastery targets for our students, that’s where, along with the support

from our support agent, we will be able to take every student from 3rd

- 8th

grade look at their data from the

interim reports from the LDOE, from the state report, and plot them out a growth to mastery target, where are

we, which is part of the component, which is your current reality, looking at it, where are we and what is it

going to take to move Sally, Jane and Sue, Billy and Bob, from point A to B. It’s no cookie cutter approach,

because each child is at a different level: each child may have a different growth at one area versus another

child not having it, so it’s not a cookie cutter approach, that’s why you have to develop the growth to mastery

targets, to move your students to the place where they need to be. So then from there…

III. ACTION PLAN FOR TESTING BLITZ

a. January 19th : 10:00-12:30, the leadership team will meet with our support agent, Tony Pickett, to develop an Action Plan for TESTING BLITZ for grades 3

rd – 8

th.

b. January 22nd: The Action Plan will be presented to the entire School body at our monthly staff meeting.

c. January 28th- the beginning of April, the Action Plan will be implemented.

d. LEAP 2025 workbooks will be utilized in the core content areas.

e. Workbook materials arrived on 1/8/19.

IV. PERSONNEL SHIFTS

a. Interviewing and screening applicants for Assistant Dean of Students, 7/8th grade Social Studies teacher, kindergarten teacher, and substitute teachers.

TIA ROBERTSON, so I’m grateful to say that we now have an Assistant Dean of Student in place, we now

have a 7th

/8th

grade Social Studies teacher in place and we also have our new Kindergarten teacher in place, we

are still always…you should always be interviewing and hiring because life happens, things happen, so I am

still continuously interviewing candidates, for any possible potential positions, because you have to keep a data

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

12


base, so you’re not just working from ground zero, but also want to have qualified substitutes in our building

because we know people get sick, family, different things and situations happen so we want to have a good pool

of substitute teachers , even if a teacher is out for half a day, instruction can’t stop, the goal has to continue

being driven daily, so those have been dealt with and we’ve accomplished that goal in getting those done by the

end of last week, some highlights to share...

JAMES M. SINGLETON, before you…I just want to make sure I understand, the old way used to be, you

know, you call somebody and they come in and sit in the classroom for that day, from what I hear you saying,

that’s not what you’re doing?

TIA ROBERTSON, no sir, no when you say that you call them and they sit in, meaning that they just baby-sit

for the day?

JAMES M. SINGLETON, yes, and that’s what I wanted to…

TIA ROBERTSON, no absolutely not, we don’t have any time to waste, we’re in the negatives as far as I see it,

so it’s no baby sitting

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, so substitutes are housed here, I think that’s the point he’s getting at?

TIA ROBERTSON, we have one that’s a home-based sub, that’s always here, available in case somebody gets a

phone call and they have to leave, yes, but and even…

JAMES M. SINGLETON, that’s in the building.

TIA ROBERTSON, yes sir, but we also have a base of qualified substitutes, a pool, yes.

JAMES M. SINGLETON, that pool is active enough to know what’s going on in that classroom when they

come in

TIA ROBERTSON, um, yes, because they have to receive a training before they come in and then teachers are

required to leave at least three days of work and instructional plans for their classes.

JAMES M. SINGLETON, okay

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

13


b. Separation of employment with a teacher.

c. Applicants for consideration folders will be submitted to CFO & CEO’s office by COB, Wednesday, January 10

th.

TIA ROBERTSON, yes sir, some highlights…

V. HIGHLIGHTS

IQI ROUND 3 GRANTS RELEASED: MARCH 12

TIA ROBERTSON, the other round of IQI grants that came out at the beginning of the year, one of them that I

did apply for, just to recap a little bit, that was for ZEARN, that was one where we were able to get the ZEARN

initiative grant in our building, that was one of the highlights that we have because the kids get to go to

computers and utilize the computers, also they can work on this at home as well. One thing that we actually did

over the Christmas break, teachers were required to have the children complete a certain amount of lessons for

their ZEARN, they do that on computers and if they don’t have computers, we can give them a copy work-book

page to do. So now this other round of IQI grants has come out and we have until March 12th

to apply for those.

Another part from IQI…and IQI comes from NSNO/New Schools from New Orleans. Another grant that I

applied for, for us was for us to be a part of was TNT, TNT Project, that’s for the new teachers’ project where

they will have experts to come into the building, and go and do observations and provide instructional coaching

and support for our students; actually this morning a gentleman came, Charles came and sat in two of our math

classes, he was able to then come and debrief with me to tell me what he saw, some glows and grows and then,

and then what’s the next step, coming back we’re going to do this, he was able to receive the master schedule,

so we can hit these points, these low points of what we need to do to get that landscape to change for us.

Another grant that we did receive from NSNO was the Guidebook hub for our ELA teachers, where the ELA

teachers will go to professional development on how to properly implement the Guidebook instruction into

those classrooms, so we’re excited that those rounds of grants have come out as well. Also we have coming

up…

SULLIVAN DABNEY MUSIC JAZZ BAND: JANUARY 24: FREE IN SCHOOL JAZZ CONCERT

FEATURED HIGHLIGHTS

TIA ROBERTSON, Mr. Saulsbury, who is our gifted and talented music teacher, he’s a part of this round of

grants, this group and they have offered to come and do a free concert with our students on January 24th

, which

is good because we always want to be looking for those gifted and talented students in music and the arts and

academically as well. Also something that wasn’t on here from last week, we actually have our Scholastic

Book Fair, that is taking place this week, but a way that we strove to get more parental involvement for that, this

morning we had Mornings with Mom and we had a very large crowd of moms and the kids came in and they

had donuts and then from there we encourage the parents to go up to the Scholastic Book Fair because we know

that reading is the driving force of everything and then on tomorrow Donuts with Dads, to give our Fathers the

opportunity to do the same and if I may, show our video…

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

14


BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, before you do, I had a question on Roman Number IV, letter C, the

Improvement Process, and you may have hit it or it may be in some of the other documents, Roman numeral IV,

letter C, Improvement Process Elements…

TIA ROBERTSON, yes

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, so my concern is one of timelines, as the school year will end, what in May, I

guess…

TIA ROBERSTON, yes sir

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, of the regular school year, so what’s your sense of timing to, I guess

realistically, achieve, what you think, needs to be achieved to make the school proficient to reach its target and I

know you didn’t put it in terms of goals and objectives but I think that’s inherent in a lot of what you are saying

here, that you have some goals/plans and some objectives; but I’m wondering what’s truly realistic in terms of

the timelines. And then the second part of the question is, you mentioned your team and that they will be

meeting on Saturday, who is that team and how do you feel about its ability to make sure it helps you to achieve

what needs to be achieved in a timely fashion.

TIA ROBERTSON, okay, thank you for your question, um, as it was shared, the School Improvement Plan was

not something that was mandated; it was my decision that this was something that needs to be done, basing it on

best practices, researched based models, it was, the initial…it was the forefront of my decision, a call to action

of what needs to happen, in order for us to pivot and change the landscape of this school. So we are at the

beginning phase of the School Improvement Plan process, Saturday…, when Tony Pickett came, the

conversation began, of how we are going to frame this, how we are going to implement this, what will be the

infrastructure for this, if you look at this packet, The Planning Process for Continuous Improvement, those are

where those driving questions come from; and then if you look on Page Two of that, it gives you in detail those

target dates of: developing you leadership team, completing self-assessments; because of the series of events

that have to occur. Surveys have to be disseminated to students, parents, community stakeholders, board

members, so this, this is a plan of my…and normally School Improvements Plans are done for a series of three

years, every three years; however, it’s a living and breathing document; so that when changes have to be made

they can be made. Um, in terms of the individuals that are on the team, the individuals that have initially been

identified to be on the team are individuals that I feel have the passion, the commitment and the dedication to do

this because it’s going to require a lot of after-hours work, Saturday work. When we meet on Saturday, there’s

a protocol that will be done, a self-assessment on each individual that has initially been selected to serve on the

leadership team, and from that data, we look at the data we disaggregated and see, just the level of commitment,

the level of wherewithal those individuals have, in order to be a part of this process. So this School

Improvement Plan, it’s not something that’s done in three weeks, it’s something that takes a course of 3-5

months to do, to be ready, fully in place for the incoming school year, however…, yes ma’am, yes

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

15


MARY JOSEPH, no, when you finish, I can wait

TIA ROBERTSON, it’s not going to be completed in May, it’s not completed in May, the process begins now,

but it’s not completed for the end of this school year. However, we know what needs to be done right now, in

terms of developing those growth to mastery targets for our students, to get them to a better place of where they

need to be for testing that starts at the end of April in May.

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, thank you.

TIA ROBERTSON, you’re welcome

MARY JOSEPH, Rev. Watson, in response to what you asked, having sat and sit on the Education Committee,

the Education Committee has been grappling with, over time, what strategies, what initiatives, what

collaboratives, what work can we engage in to improve to improve the academic outcomes of the children, and

we’ve been here for a while and we’ve been strategizing it and I, as you know, am a person who wants to look

at children and their process, monthly, daily, weekly. I had an initiative, here at this school with the Children

Defense Fund, several years ago, where we looked at Dibels on every child quarterly and we kind of knew the

process of every child and then we started to evaluate from there. What this plan does, is, it gives us an

opportunity to find out right now where the child is, because we’ve been grappling in the grass, in the weeds,

trying to find out what’s going on with the children. We will ow have, with that plan, an opportunity to see

where the child is and develop for each child a plan, to move that child along. Right now, we’re pulling them

all on the same rope, and for some they need to be in the front of the pack and being challenged because of

where they are, some in the middle, those, way in the back. We really need to have an intensified strategy and

approach to give those children an opportunity to move up the ladder. Where we environmentally, is that we’re

in an environment where testing is the rule of the day and instead of daily progress, monthly progress, quarterly

progress, the governmental system and I say governmental system is not giving us the opportunity to do what

we need to do with children. She’s telling you, I can’t being them all up, in six months, um maybe fifty, I’m not

going to get them all up, but the governmental strategy that’s in place right now is saying to us all of them have

to come up, and so we’ve got to have some external advocates out there talking about what’s really going on

with children in schools and then we’ve got to support school leaders like her, to do what she needs to do and

we have to fight for her to have the time to do that work.

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, absolutely

MARY JOSEPH, we have to make money now, don’t forget that, you have to print up some money

ALL, chuckles

TIA ROBERTSON, Mr. Mire

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

16


MARY JOSEPH, she can’t do it without some duckettes

JAMES M. SINGLETON, you making a comment, but I think you ought to consider how serious it is what she

just got through saying, do we have the time or she going to be given the time…

MARY JOSEPH, that’s exactly the question

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER , that’s right

JAMES M. SINGLETON, to do what she needs to do, that I think is the key

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, that’s why I asked what is the time span

MARY JOSEPH, do we have the time

JAMES M. SINGLETON, and I’m not just saying that, because I’m saying that, I’m saying that because Ms.

Robertson I’ve been sneaking behind the scenes, trying to figure out what’s going on, and I’m concerned about

whether or not you have the time to do what you need to do, and do we have the time to do what we need to do.

Keep in mind, the problem we have started with the state, and we come back now and OPSB/Orleans Parish

School Board is taking over, but they’re still using the data from the past, not using the data going forward, to

get us where we need to go. Let it stay on there.

DARREN MIRE, well I prefer it not.

MARY JOSEPH, I’m done, I want to just say thank you for the work you’re doing, that’s with the staff and

given all the issues that come your way daily to you and let us not forget that we do have some issues that

follow these children to school, no matter what the teacher does, what the principal does or what this board

does…

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER , that’s right

MARY JOSEPH, we are challenged with those kinds of things, we have three children, we know of recently,

are challenged with some things that will need psychological support, familial support, all we can bring to help

those children and that’s happening all the time

CEDRIC PATIN, I have, could I please…

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

17


DARREN MIRE, Cedric one second, I wanted to um, your question was a very good question, and because

you’re not on the Education Committee, we discussed these things, but I think, it’s important, when you’re not

there, you don’t know, so you can get that answer, it’s important to get that answer, but Mary could not have

answered that, you know given what you just…her testimony, better than anybody’s point, because what’s

really going on is what she said, so I just wanted to…I really just wanted to state you had a very good question

but her answer was good, it was very, very good.

MARY JOSEPH, thank you

CEDRIC PATIN, I wanted to piggy-back, that was a very good answer, but I wanted to piggy-back, not to

belabor this, because I just got here, but what’s the most important thing about childhood education, and

bringing kids along and making it as expedient as possible, is parental buy-in. If you got, and I’m sure you’re

working on all of that, but I just wanted to make sure that if for some reason, you weren’t getting that, if there’s

a plan to work in conjunction with this to be sure that you do get as much buy-in as you can, because like she

said kids come here with their problems, their own set of problems from home and that comes from whether or

not at the end of the day, unless a parent makes a kid do their homework, unless their doing the things they

need to do to find out what information their getting from you it’s useless; and then number 2, um, when it

comes to substitute teachers, do, just trying to get for informational purposes.

TIA ROBERTSON, yes sir

CEDRIC PATIN, do you have teachers or substitutes that have a mastery or people who have the best

knowledge in particular subjects that you get, when you call them or is it just a list of people who can come and

fulfill a…

TIA ROBERTSON, vacancy

CEDRIC PATIN, a vacancy

TIA ROBERTSON, to address your first point, you’re absolutely correct, parental involvement is paramount,

um but I’m so excited that I have Ms. Walker sitting right there, who is our PTO President, and she is a

tremendous asset, to this school, um to me, to the students, um and she has a wealth of knowledge and

information, um like the event we had this morning and that we’re having on tomorrow, Mornings with Mom,

Donuts with Dads, looking for different kind of creative ways to just garner more support for parents, ie: I have

been having, trying to have a parental conference with an 8th

grade student’s mother because of an inappropriate

way that he acted with one of our custodial staff, in the morning. I’ve been calling; I’ve been saying I need to

see your mother because we need to have a conversation: me, the custodian and your mom as to why you said

this inappropriate thing to him, couldn’t get the parent in. Mom was here this morning, so after we had a nice

time at Mornings with Moms, I said mom, can you stay back a few minutes, I need to talk to you, sure Ms.

Robertson, this is what’s going on, this is what your son did, I’d like to call in our custodian, let’s talk about it

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

18


and see how we can shift this and fix this. So that was a good moment, but we have to do more of that,

consistently, to be able to bring those parents in and if…Ms. Walker

WYVONNIA BRYANT-WALKER, a couple of other things, as the PTO president, we’re literally get on the

phone, trying to call the parents as we can prior to the meetings we have monthly, and after that for all of our 8th

graders, because One App is a new process for a lot of us…

ALL, (agree in unison)

WYVONNIA BRYANT-WALKER, I’m working on it, I have three that have to go through that, and because

the 8th

graders are so important, we literally sat down, myself, Coach Bell and Ms. Reese, and completed about

97% of the One Apps with our 8th

graders, because we know that there’s a lack of computer skills or the ability

to funnel through some of those systems that pop up, so we have been one-on-one and reaching out to the

parents and making sure that they know, and the amount of paper that we used to send out flyers…well let’s just

say, it’s a lot of paper.

CEDRIC PATIN, equipping the parents to be of assistance to their children, is there a…some way at the School

Board us in particular…

WYVONNIA BRYANT-WALKER, so on the 24th

, I believe, I don’t have my calendar with me, there’s going

to be a literacy night and one of the things that we’re trying to do is: one, we know that parents are catching a

lot of things because there’s the shut-down with our wonderful government and so some of them are really

stressed out and worried about what happens after February 1st, because they were granted Link or privileges for

medical benefits, so for the month of February, right now in January, and so some of them are really stressed

out so we’re looking for speakers to come in so this will be a great opportunity for the board to use their

support for, not only us but to be able to ease the minds of some of the parents that are coming in that will be

stressed out because the stress doesn’t end when they can, it comes into school when our children aren’t feed in

the morning before they get here and throughout the day, so one of things is, there will be a literacy night and

one of the things is to make sure that if you can’t read the documents that you can bring the documents with you

and we can help you read them, so that if you don’t remember to sign off on some things, some of the things

that we have are so many outdated phone numbers because with cell phones people switch their numbers

change all the time, but we want to be sure that we can keep the contacts of the parents up-to-date, so that we

can have access to all of our parents and our youth, so that when we do have situations or great things that we

want to praise our children, that we can do that.

DARREN MIRE, yes Gilbert

GILBERT JACKSON, yes she just said something about that…but as an excited new board member, I should

say, uh, what I’m hearing here is that you have identified the issues that you are dealing with and you have a

plan to address those issues?

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

19



GILBERT JACKSON, so I guess my question would be, as a board member, what could the board do to help

you get to the goals you have set?

TIA ROBERTSON, thank you

GILBERT JACKSON, for this process and uh and this plan that you have to improve

TIA ROBERTSON, yes sir, thank you, I’m sorry, what’s your name

GILBERT JACKSON, Gilbert, Gilbert Jackson

TIA ROBERTSON, Mr. Jackson, thank you for being here and thank you for offering. I think one critical piece

would be come spend a day at the school; come do a walk-thru; come sit in the classroom; come see how the

kids transition, in and out, from one place to the other, um

DARREN MIRE, come raise some money

GILBERT JACKSON, I know why I’m here Darren

TIA ROBERTSON, yes, raise money, yes, raise money, also if you have

ALL, (raise money/in unison)

TIA ROBERTSON, and also, if you have expertise in a particular subject matter, come and share and do a

lesson with them, the more they see of us, you know, not just in insolated incidences or at events, that’s going to

help us, they’ll know that it’s not just us against you all or you all against us, that we’re in it together. If you

have any, as Mr. Mire said, any resources, to bring like, a science lab here, things of that nature; that would be a

tremendous help. We could get you a laundry, I could get you a laundry list, yes sir, a laundry list

GILBERT JACKSON, I’m signing him up t… I’m going to have to come spend a day at the school

TIA ROBERTSON, yes, please do

CEDRIC PATIN, and I was going to offer, but you always beat me to it, we’re fresh

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

20


TIA ROBERTSON, we know that it’s the year of the woman, you know, we get that, but the more men that we

see in the building, you know, just walking, just do a hand-shake with them, you know, that’s helpful, that’ll

help.

DARREN MIRE, Mary you had something before we go to the video

MARY JOSEPH, well, I’ll come from the advocacy piece and I realize she’s right there at the door of what the

child needs right at the moment, but Mr. Jackson’s influence is certainly needed, board influence, membership

influence, walking and talking, what are you doing at the Y, spreading the word in all kinds of corners you

never know what ear will hear a good word, because all people remember, is what channels 4, 6 & 8 are saying,

you know I’m just being honest, but they don’t hear that personal testimony a lot and enough. We need to, I’m

going to just start by saying, I need to put my face more in, the School Board meetings, I haven’t been going..

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, yea, we haven’t been going

MARY JOSEPH, and I used to go to a lot of the state meetings and that kind of advocacy thing on behalf of

children, we’ve got to start doing that and pushing back on policies that don’t make sense.

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, like that One App

MARY JOSEPH, and then my final thing is, and then I’m going to shut up, until my part comes, is February 1st

is a scary day, for I guess for however many of percentage of students who receive SNAP benefit, food stamps,

because right now they have received notices that say, you’re not getting any food stamps on February 1st. We

gave you some extra ones in January and the letter they sent out said be wise in how you spend these stamps

because starting February 1st, we don’t know what’s going to happen, so we need to brace ourselves and be

prepared as a board to think about the hunger that perhaps may arise or get worse or by then hopefully the

President has changed his mind and got his wall and let those stamps go, but uh, our parents need to

acknowledge that that’s a possibility.

TIA ROBERTSON, and I can also contact Rhonda Jackson, over at Share Our Strength, that’s a nation-wide

program to see if they have any resources, because normally what they do, they fund meals,

MARY JOSEPH, but this is going to be system-wide, this is every citizen, so this is thousands of people…

TIA ROBERTSON, yes, right, right, yes

MARY JOSEPH, that may be impacted, so. In support of what our Parent Leader is saying here about having

to look at all the documents that people have and to making sure that they are filling them out right, just know

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

21


that in addition to the other things that we are trying to do, the educational things, those families are now

scrambling to see if they going to have something to eat.

TIA ROBERTSON, right, right

JAMES M. SINGLETON, two things, Mary just brought up one and the parent just brought up the other one,

the One App process that she’s talking about and I think Mr. Evans said something the other day about family,

and I understand that they break-up family, you send one kid here and one kid here, but if I understood him

correctly is there something in the process that says we ought to be more aggressive in making sure that kids

stay together.

TIA ROBERTSON, they do have, yes, yes sir

JAMES M. SINGLTON, and we haven’t been maybe as active as we could be

TIA ROBERTSON, there is that, they have the Sibling Rule

DOUGLAS EVANS, Sibling Rule

TIA ROBERTSON, yes, that if one sibling is at a school, and even if it’s closed at the grade level where the

other sibling needs to go, they will make an exception, that is in place, the Sibling Rule, because that actually

happened to us, um, on two occasions with two families; so, we were able to take all of the families, yes. If I

may address the other point, this gentleman brought up with the substitute. In terms of with the substitutes,

what we’ve been looking at, um, is um, trying to hire college graduates that have a concentration in a particular

subject area; because most times, it’s either your college graduates or your retired pool that are looking for just

some type of part time work, and the pay is not way over here where their looking for full time work. So what

we normally try to go after is, college graduates who have specific expertise in Math, in ELA, in Science in

Social Studies to come in and be a substitute so that they will be able to go into those classes, if it’s a Math

teacher out or ELA teacher out, and the like.

CEDRIC PATIN, that was the purpose for asking, thank you, I appreciate it.

DARREN MIRE, we have a video

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, I just wanted to ask one question,


Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

22


H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, as you plan develops


H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, as a result of getting information on your students etc.


H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, has anyone said anything about providing additional resources from the system to

help

TIA ROBERTSON, no

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, that’s one of the major problems

TIA ROBERTSON, right

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, you discover a magnitude of problems that One App does not address, that one

Social Worker can’t address, that one Itinerate Music teacher…you know what I mean…

TIA ROBERTSON, yes sir, yes sir

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, if we’re that far behind there has to be some resource provided by the system; I

understand all the work individuals can do and in their lives as well. The system ought to have a process, I

think, of providing you additional resources when you discover a magnitude of problems that with what

resources you have can’t help.


H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, that’s all, I won’t take any more time

TIA ROBERTSON, I agree, the one resource that they have given us is to be able to allow someone like Tony

Pickett, to come in, who’s an employee of OPSB but she’s taking time, her personal time to come in to work

with us to help, as well as Gayla Mair, to come and sit in. They’re offering that type of resource, but in terms of

people who are here day-to-day, um with us, to greet the kids at 7:30am, work with them all of the way til the

end til 4:00pm, no

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

23


DARREJ MIRE, and the way the governance structure is working with Charter Schools before, all the schools

were really a public school system, so the resources were all coming from the public system, now they’re

individually governed, so we govern ourselves so they’re not going to give us help to do it, they gave us a

person, but we’re not going to get the resources that they would have done when you were principal, at all.

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, but you know we can’t let that be.

GILBERT JACKSON, but I think the more I listen we have to realize that we’re in a very competitive process

for resources, you know and in my background in engineering and technology, and things like that, you’ve got

an organization like STEM NOLA, which is a good organization, don’t get me wrong, but not competing in this

category, but we have to identify resources that we can get directly here.

TIA ROBERTSON, yes

GILBERT JACKSON, you know, to support this school and what we’re trying to accomplish here

TIA ROBERTSON, yes

GILBERT JACKSON, it’s doable, but it’s going to take a strategic process to put it in place


GILBERT JACKSON, you know, I’m not saying…I know it’s doable but we have to really dedicate the time

and effort to make sure that…that’s what we have to focus on to get those types of resources and assistance,

directly from these dedicated places where…

TIA ROBERTSON, and, as you said, to be here at the school site because we know that transportation is

another big area.

GILBERT JACKSON, I’ve got a client in town today, I’m going to make sure that they hear some noise

TIA ROBERTSON, so the video right here is some highlights of some great things that actually happened the

month of December, the Saints player…I got a call, they wanted to take about 15 of our kids on a shopping

spree at Wal-Mart, it was a really, really great opportunity, it was Justin Hardee, Marshon Lattimore, Ted Ginn,

Jr., so the kids were really excited about that; also the New Orleans Police Department, they had the Big Bike

Give Away, so we had kids that benefitted from that; then we also had our Christmas Program, December 19th

,

where every grade level performed and participated, we had a huge parental turnout for that, they were very

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

24


excited; I mean every grade level from Pre-K – 8th

grade participated, because we know parents are going to

come out when their children are performing, so it was a great, great time. That gentleman standing next to

Justin Hardy, that’s um, Dr. Kenny, he actually is the mentor to Ted Ginn, Jr., Marshon Lattimore and Justin

Hardee, they all grew up in Ohio together and Ted Ginn, Jr.’s father actually started a Charter School so they’re

always looking for Charter schools to work with, so I had an opportunity to talk with him, exchange his number,

and now we’re Instagram friends. I told him at the Education Meeting last week, when the Saints go to the

Super Bowl…there you all go, Ms. Mary and Barbara, yal missed your photo, you all were out there and Mr.

Carter jumped in. One of those pictures was actually from the this morning with the Morning with Moms; but I

told Dr. Kenny, when the Saints go to the Super Bowl they’re going to take a group of children and I’ll be there

to supervise, and we all

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, I just wanted to say that the Bike Give Away, that’s the First District Police

Station, that’s our partners, they raise money to but all the bikes; it doesn’t come from the Police Department,

the city does not…that’s money that the officers go out and raise from their district to buy the bikes to give to

the children of their district the 6th

District over on Rampart.

CEDRIC PATIN, quick question, how many children do we have total

TIA ROBERTSON, um, 443, that’s from Pre-K – 8th

DARREN MIRE, thank you Ms. Robertson

TIA ROBERTSON, thank you all

DARREN MIRE, can I get a motion to receive the Education Committee Report

√ - AI

BISHOP THOMAS WATSON, so moved

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, seconded

DARREN MIRE, motion by Bishop Watson, seconded by Ken Johnston to receive the Education Committee

Report, any questions on readiness, all in favor say aye

ALL, aye

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

25


Program Committee Chair Updates

DARREN MIRE, any oppositions, ayes have it, we’ll move on to Program Committee report and turn it over to

Mary Joseph

ALL, (everyone thanks Ms. Robertson for her report)

TIA ROBERTSON, thank you all

MARY JOSEPH, thank you Mr. Chairman, I going to be real brief, so I am behind Tab 4, I’ll start there with

the Early Childhood Development Program and ask the staff to come in, Ms. Catrina Reed, is responsible…for

our new board members I want to introduce you to Ms. Catrina Reed, who you saw here with the Finance

Committee, but she’s also has a very important role at the Y as Director of our Early Childhood Development

Program, and she’s done an outstanding job. I’d like to just say that our critical information for you, that’s on

your report, if you just glance it, is that our actual enrollment is 45 students in our early childhood

organizational structure and we are projected to have 59 and we are constantly recruiting. We did not have any

developmental activities in the month of December, but we did have similar exciting holiday activities, and I

want to brag on me and Ms. Barbara, we are sorority sister, we are Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and so we

made sure that all of the children in the center had new shoes and we also made sure that the children had toys

and had a pizza party, and gave Ms. Catrina a couple a hundred bucks to make sure that that happened; so we

are excited about what happened there and the joy that the children had for the party. Barbara, you want to add

anything? Other than that it was great, and I want to thank her for the great work, overall throughout the year,

we’ve been getting great reports from the state of Louisiana about the progress we are making, with our Early

Childhood Development centers, and I’m so sorry I don’t know your name.

Program Updates

Center Activities

Teachers have begun preparations for the Black History program.

Teachers have completed the 2nd checkpoint for TS Gold regarding student evaluations.

Staff Professional Development

There is no center scheduled professional development for January however the staff members are encouraged to check the Agenda for Children website for sessions they may be interested in.

Recruitment 2018-19

Recruitment is ongoing to fill the Child Care Assistance Program seats we were allocated from the LDOE. Staff members continue to encourage and assist parents with the One App process for those

students moving on to kindergarten.

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

26


Funding Source 2018-19 Projected Actual Enrollment Waiting List

TCA 34 33 2

Child Care Assistance

15

3

Fee Based 10 9

Total 59 45 2

Family Engagement

We will have our next parent meeting on January 17, 2019.

Center will have a float contest for Mardi Gras to encourage family engagement.

CEDRIC PATIN, Cedric

MARY JOSEPH, but he brought up a critical issue and point, it’s about what you’re doing with early

development with children; we know and the data shows that early development sets a child on quality early

development, sets the child on a road to academic and personal success, so we take that work very, very

seriously, I wanted to just share that with you. We’re going to go from there to Tab 5, and I’m uh, why am I

blanking on your last name…

JERMAINE BRIDGES, Bridges

MARYJOSEPH, Mr. Bridges, is the young man, who is very dynamic, been around here at the Y for a while,

who is responsible for the Youth Development activities here, and his report is also dynamic and we’re looking

for even greater work in this 2019 year. We have a great Youth & Government Program, that’s underway,

Dodge Ball, that’s on Wednesday night?

JERMAINE BRIDGES, Tuesdays

MARY JOSEPH, Tuesday nights, they say that you can’t find a parking space around here, but if you want to

come and see that. Fundamentals of basketball is going on, Sports Mania, Pee Wee Basketball League, Adult

Basketball League and we have a Dryades YMCA Swim Team, excited about that because the more of us who

learn to swim, the fewer of us who drown.

UPCOMING YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES:

YOUTH AND GOVERNMENT – The Model United Nations Conference will be held February 7 – 9, 2019 in Baton Rouge. Dryades YMCA will have three youth participating in this year’s conference.

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

27


DODGE BALL LEAGUE – Registration is now open. The league will begin on January 15th and will run for five weeks. Games will be played on Tuesday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

FUNDAMENTALS OF BASKETBALL L CLASS – Registration is now open. The class will begin on February 2

nd and will focus on the fundamentals of basketball. The class will be held on Saturday’s at 10:00 a.m.

SPORTS MANIA – Open to kids ages 4 to 8. Give your child the chance to learn the fundamentals of

sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball, and volleyball. Our trained staff will aid in their development

through non-competitive games and positive social interaction.

PEEWEE BASKETBALL LEAGUE – Open to ages 4-12. Come discover what you can achieve by learning

teamwork, building athletic skills, learning good sportsmanship in a supportive environment.

ADULT BASKETBALL LEAGUE – Open to the ages 18 and up. Bring your best squad to the Y league for a

6 week regular season with a double elimination playoff.

DRYADES SWIM TEAM – Currently have 10 participants on the team that are currently being trained to participate in our first meet which will be held in the spring.

DRYADES Y AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM:

We currently have 55 students enrolled.

The students participate in daily enrichment and recreational activities.

DRYADES Y FOOD PROGRAM:

We are currently operating a food program which allows us to provide the children with nutritious dinners.

Currently serving 75 meals per day which includes the afterschool students and members from the

community.

SAFETY AROUND WATER SWIMMING PROGRAM: (BASELINE)

Student Groups - # of Participants Beginner Intermediate Advanced

Second Grade - 10 100% 0% 0%

Third Grade - 15 100% 0% 0%

Fourth Grade - 14 100% 0% 0%

Eighth Grade -14 75% 25% 0%

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

28


SAFETY AROUND WATER SWIMMING PROGRAM: (BASELINE)

Student Groups - # of Participants Beginner Intermediate Advanced

Second Grade - 10 0% 100% 0%

Third Grade - 15 0% 95% 5%

Fourth Grade - 14 0% 100% 0%

Eighth Grade -14 0% 75% 25%

JAMES M. SINGLETON, that’s one you mentioned, they were at $24,000 in debt

MARY JOSEPH, and that moved to a positive

JAMES M. SINGLETON, that’s just one of those money raisers, it was short, now we brought it up

MARY JOSEPH, look down to the bottom of the page of that report and you’ll see a critical number and that is

55 children are enrolled in After School activities and that’s important and that’s something I wish we could

draw…and we need some grants to be able to do that, the more children who stay in the afternoon and are able

to get their homework here, and a snack here and even dinner here, it’s better for some of them and um we’re

excited about that program and hope that we can grow it as well. We are also providing some food to children

in the afternoon under the Feeding Program and again we want to expand that, we have 75 meals per day, but,

the more children we can keep in that After School Program the better. The other critical thing we’re doing,

this year, what we’re doing is trying to make sure all our children in school know how to swim and so we took

this on last year and we’re still doing it and the numbers are there to show you from 2nd

– 8th

grade, what we’re

doing in terms of the children their activities, most of them are at the beginners stage. You see the 8th

grade

75% are at the beginner stage, 25% are at intermediate; so we’d like to least get everybody to intermediate. I

mean it take a… takes less threats off of a water accident, but we do have that going on right now; and you see

the numbers that we have moved, um in the second chart. We…have our 2nd

graders, 10 of our 3rd

graders, 4th

graders our 8th

graders, where they are right now, in terms of advancement, so were really excited about that, is

there anything else you would like to add to your report before we close this out and go to Wellness.

JERMAINE BRIDGES, we did have an excellent Holiday Camp as well

MARY JOSEPH, oh yes

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

29


JERMAINE BRIDGES, we had that went on, we had about 10 students participating, so that went well and

gave the parents an opportunity to have their kids come do some stuff with structure: they were able to get in

the swimming pool, do some of the safety around water stuff, so we want to continue trying to do those kinds of

holiday camps and bring some of the awareness and also we’re gearing up for Summer Camp.

MARY JOSEPH, oh okay, thank you

CEDRIC PATIN, can I ask one question?

MARY JOSEPH, sure

CEDRIC PATIN, this is the YMCA and when I see you have Pee Wee Basketball, and you have Adult

Basketball, what’s happening to the 13-17 year olds?

JERMAINE BRIDGES, well we do do a league, we usually start that around the Spring, in March, and that

would be our Christian Values League.

MARY JOSEPH, Christian Values

JERMAINE BRIDGES, they team up with different churches

CEDRIC PATIN, just didn’t want to leave anybody out

MARY JOSEPH, Mr. Bridges, can you help me on the Wellness Report

JERMAINE BRIDGES, yes

MARY JOSEPH, and our third report is our Wellness Center Report, and you all kind of heard the exchange

between Mr. Singleton and Mr. Gilbert, talking about the Wellness Center. We are monitoring what’s

happening there and it looks good, we keep adding what we call new units and right now it looks like we have

748 members participating in our Wellness Center, do you want to talk about that a little bit.

JERMAINE BRIDGES, so January is usually our larger month and that was December and everybody knows

everyone comes in January, ready to hit the Wellness Center, so of course our numbers should go up from

January, so on the next report you’ll see even more of a spike in the Wellness numbers, where we’ll getting

more people to register for the Wellness Center.

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

30


MARY JOSEPH, thank you, and we will…we reported last month to about Senior aerobics that’s catching on,

that’s for people my age, and we are going over to the Central City Center and we have classes on Tuesday and

Thursdays from 11-12, you want to talk about that a little bit so our new members will know what that’s about.

JERMAINE BRIDGES, the Senior aerobics is done over at the Central City Community Center, so it’s for

seniors…

JAMES M. SINGLETON, that’s the Senior part of it?

JERMAINE BRIDGES, yes

JAMES M. SINGLETON, because the other part their still working on it

JERMAINE BRIDGES, it’s actually through People’s Health, so People’s Health pays us to go over there and

perform a class, Tuesday thru Thursday, so they kind of do aerobics, so it’s kind of light movement, get them all

involved, sometimes about five seniors start off for the first 5 minutes and you look up and it’s an additional 15,

so once you get in there and get moving, they really enjoy it, kind of give them some music, line dancing, mix it

up through the 3 days, so that they’re always excited about what’s going on. We are also now, digging into the

different insurances, we’re looking into that Blue Advantage so we can also begin an office of Senior

Programming here on site.

JAMES M. SINGLETON, but what about the pool, were they participating in…

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, water aerobics

JERMAINE BRIDGES, that’s something that we actually looking at now, trying to get them to come down

here, it’s just the transportation thing with some of them wanting to stay at the center so they’re trying to figure

how they can split it; if they get a group that wants to come down, that’s something that I pitched to them, that

would be great for some of them who have less mobility, even for the chair, that the water would help them out

a lot, even for the some of the seniors who participate in the evening with our water aerobics.

MARY JOSEPH, and the other item on our report is the adult swim lessons with the first responders, I thought

all the police and the firemen knew how to swim but I learned they didn’t, so guess who’s training some of

them…would you like to describe that as well.

JERMAINE BERIDGES, so we do the First Responder for the City of New Orleans, so we uh…they come in

and register for swim lessons and Safety Around Water, so we’re able to teach them, how to swim, amazing to

me as well that they didn’t know how to swim, that’s how this whole thing came about. One of the officers

were trying to save someone and he didn’t know how to swim.

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

31


BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, he did save someone

JERMAINE BRIDGES, yes, he did save them

MARY JOSEPH, so when they come out the water, we can say, oh we taught them how to swim, so any

questions… I know for our new members, it’s a lot of information that we put forward on this report, if not, Mr.

Chairman, I’ll ask that we accept the reports

√ - AI

DARREN MIRE, we have a motion by the Program Committee Chair and a second by Councilman Singleton to

approve the Early Childhood Development, Youth Development and Wellness Center reports under Program

Committee in global, any questions on readiness, all in favor say aye

MARY JOSEPH, thank you Mr. Bridges

ALL, aye

DARREN MIRE, any oppositions, ayes have it, we’ll move on to agenda item number XII which is the

Chairman’s comments

Chairman’s Comments

DARREN MIRE, all I want is to welcome the new board members, all three of you who are here today for

joining us, we realize you are wearing two hats, our Dryades YMCA board and our James Singleton Charter

School board, is one, so we don’t have two separate boards, so you are wearing two hats, we ask that you

understand that when are serving the Y you are serving the Charter School and when you are serving the

Charter School you are serving the Y, they go hand-in-hand, so that’s important for you to know and you’ll get

more about that. The other thing I want to mention is we’ll be gearing up for our Annual Campaign, at the

beginning of the year, we’ll be gearing up for our Annual Campaign, just a little tid-bit we ask all board

members to at least minimum give $2,000 a year, um, give or get $2,000 a year. We understand that everybody

is different, some people raise it, some people raise it, some people give it; but with that, as a benefit, you

become a member of the Y and obviously you have the ability to use our Fitness Center, which is a very good

perk, with the Annual Campaign for us. I’m going to ask management that we get this information to the

School Board today, the information on the new board members to the School Board today. We also some

dates for you, important dates, for you to put on your calendar: January 19th

MLK Social Action…we have a

flyer here that’s right here under your binders, and then February 13th

is the Finance and Education Advisory

Committee meetings and then February 19th

is the board meeting, so I’ll find out your interest and what you

Dryades YMCA



January 15, 2019

32


want to serve on and what committee and so forth, so can I get a motion to adjourn, if there are no, any

announcements

√ - AI

BARBARA LACEN-KELLER, so moved

H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, seconded

DARREN MIRE, moved by Barbara, seconded by Ken to adjourn the meeting, thank you

ALL, thank you

Documents

BOARD MEETING of the Dryades YMCA JAMES M. …...JAMES M. SINGLETON, so moved H. KENNETH JOHNSTON, second DARREN MIRE, motion by Councilman Singleton, seconded by Ken Johnston to approve