September 19, 2017

Christian Academy in Japan

BoD Meeting
Matsukawa place
September 19, 2017

Attendance

Present

1. Gerald may (TEAM)
2. Kenichi Shinagawa (Member at Large and Educator)
3. Johanna Leenders (Mieke Sasaki) (CRJM)
4. John Winter (SEND)
5. Jaine Yeong Yueh Chung (Jaine Loh)(World Venture)
6. Daniel Sexton (OMS)
7. Joel Peterson (Member at Large)
8. Anda Foxwell (Head of School)

Supervisor-Auditor

1. Sobi Abraham
2. Carol Love

Absent

Grant Buchholtz (ECC)

SY 17-18:1 Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 8:50 a.m.

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SY 17-18:2 Prayer for CAJ (B 4.6.7)

Each member introduced themselves by answering these two questions:

• short introduction of oneself
• what we did in the summer

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SY 17-18:3 Approval of agenda (B 4.3.5.3)

MSC to approve the agenda as amended.

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SY 17-18:4 Greetings and Orientation

• Review of Board Calendar (B4.3.1,4.3.2,4.3.2.1)

- Include 1st week of April for possible WASC meetings

• Review of Annual agenda for SY17-18 (B4.3.1,4.3.2,4.3.2.1)
  

- to be completed by Gerald

a)Policy governance: - owners = each of the board members.

- Read and prepare notes (see pamphlet)

- Online report for all the members to engage ahead of time

Moral owners (as a member of our mission family):
How to encourage the participation of mission heads during regular board meetings.
Maybe let them know our schedule and invite them to one of our regular BoD meetings of their own choice.

b) Committee Assignments and Board Responsibility overview

Policy governance: John Winter

Kenichi Shinagawa

Gerald May

Mieke Sasaki

Grant Buchholtz

Ex-officio: Anda Foxwell, head of school

Gerald May, board chair

Finance committee: Daniel Sexton

Joel Peterson

Jaine

Ex-officio: Anda Foxwell, head of school;

Rick Seely, business manage; Gerald May, board chair

c) Board member responsibility:
- Decisions are made as a group. Outside of this room we speak according to these decisions we had made together.
- We interact to the HoS and staff as a board, not as individuals.
- If approached by a member of the general community, refer these people back to the HoS or to the person with whom they had a problem.

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SY 17-18:5 Team-building with LT

• Devotions: Gerald May read from Psalm 1
• LT roles and vision for this new year:
  

Anda Foxwell:
role: interim Head of School

Damon Ealey:
role: high school principal
vision: - effective facility to assist with WASC
-get familiar with the flow of the year
-address some key scholarly programs
-scheduling
Winnie Langelaar:
role: middle school principal
vision:- how to do things better
-new grade book and reporting system in order to communicate with the parents.
-Formative assessments: ways in which teachers can check what the students know and where they still can improve.
-New teacher evaluation: reflection/journaling about their own teaching
Jacque Willson: absent
role: elementary principal
David Marshall:
role: director of teaching and learning
vision:- help teachers with their professional learning
- review how teaching will evolve in the future
Stephanie Ban:
role: director of development
vision:- key messages: who are we and how will the school evolve
-website: to bring openness to our community, a face to the world
-fund raising
Flossie Epley: absent
role: SSS director
Steven Wilson: absent
role: maintenance
Rick Seely:
role: business manager
vision:- preparing and supporting strategic planning for WASC
Pam Kumate:
role: HR manager
vision: - make the HR assistance at home in her job
managing auxiliary staff
develop work regulations and labor standards elaborate the working systems in the business office
Nate Rudd:
- role: technology director
vision: - increase training and support of the teachers
-update the public websites
-work on documentation systems

• Gerald May shared about our Cambodia retreat
  

• Core Values Discussion:
  

- importance of operating with guiding principals of CAJ

- what it means to have a Christ centered education

• Gensler presentation debrief
  

- we can dream big but we should/can take it in several stages

- how does/can this plan practically play out?

- we need to take the next steps to not loose momentum

- we need a small committee to cover the range of our stakeholders

- make the decisions for a working schedule for the building project.

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SY 17-18:6 Finance and Audit committee report

presented by Rick Seely

- fewer students than projected last year which resulted in an unbalanced budget.
- A task force was formed to deal with this problem.
- Why did we loose students? Some large families moved back to the US, finance problems (tuition increase?) for some households, others students moved to more expensive schools here in Japan but there were no CAJ- related reasons known for their move.
- in order to be able to advertise our school we must be able to give clarity of your core values.
- discussion of the TAP is based on financial need, not on the type of job the parents have. The board need to revisit this and interact on it.
- Discussion of stricter tuition payment policy.
- Discussion of the Navigator’s property availability.
- We should research a longtime financial forecasting.

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SY 17-18:7 Head of School Search Committee Report(B 4.8.4)

-Gerald May gave a report about the HoS-search committee meetings.
We concluded that Anda Foxwell was our first choice.
(executive session)

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SY 17-18:8 Interview with Head of School Candidate

- How do you see your role in the longer future?

- a bridge into the future

- mentoring, encouraging the LT team

- meet with each member of the LT to talk about their goals and how they think to attain these goals.

- we need to think in a strategic manner without losing our uniqueness.

- learn more about the policies and teaching principals so as to streamline them.

- better facility use for the students

- how to attract new quality staff

- keep working on the trusting culture between the LT team members

-What was the biggest surprise in your first year?

- to know how hard this job was

- needs to be careful not to burn herself out and pace herself better

- find people with whom she safely can test new ideas

- What do you think about CAJ?

- Very appreciative and loves CAJ very much.

– Enjoys mentoring and co-learning with the adults.

– Feels ready to do something different, like being the HoS.

- How did last year change you?

-It taught her grace, dependance on others, discipline to prepare herself for meetings and how faith connects with the school.

–Learned to enjoy :) the finance committee!!!!!!!

-What is your family’s reaction?

- It is kind of a sacrifice for her husband but he really helps her and is very supportive. The kids are really proud of what she is doing.

- She never thought she would like to be a HoS, because at that time she had a different view of leadership.

– She likes to be able to get other people’s perspective about the visions she has.

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SY 17-18:9 Head of School approval

- Discussion about the candidate’s interview was all very positive.
- MSC for nomination of Anda Foxwell as HoS from July 1, 2017

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SY 17-18:10 Time of prayer for Anda Foxwell

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SY 17-18:11 Head of School Report (B 2.1.5)

- The theme of school year 2017-18: Isaiah 12:4
- Over 70% of the parents came to the Back of School event.
- Low staff turnover this school year: only two new staff members,
Nastashia Bridges and Heidi Barkman.
- Anda wants to meet with every member of the LT team alone in order to talk about their goals and how to reach them.
- Brainstorming the finance problem is necessary
- Training of our staff in a variety of ways on a number of subjects is needed
- David Bartlett will visit us in November which will be helpful on how to create an assessable policy.
- In November we will have an LT retreat in order to build trust among us.
- Want to get better in bringing information to the board
-Strategic planning in 4 steps : see “Strategic plan to board.pdf”
800px – The board needs to come up with “who we are as a school”.
Who is CAJ and how do we take this forward in the next 3-6 years.

–Joel Peterson will give a report on the Strategic plan he and Damon Ealey will talk about. He will present this to us in Cambodia. We should have a final version by January.

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SY 17-18:11 Core values

a)These three statements reflect well who we are as a school.

1 God is the author of all truth

2 God created humans in His image

3 God created humans for community

b) discussion of the “bullet points”
- John Winter will work on the rewording of these “bullet points” and we will look at it in Cambodia.

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SY 17-18:12 Consent agenda (B 4.3.3)

MSC to approve the consent agenda as follows:

• Finance and Audit Committee Minutes (September 11, 2017)
  
• Financial statements(B 2.7.10)
  
• Signing of the agreement with CAJ’s statement of faith for the year
  

SY17-18(B 4.9.2.2, 4.9.2.2.1)

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SY 17-18:13 House Keeping

• Joint board retreat in Cambodia preparation
  

- last minutes points

• signing of papers

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SY 17-18:14 Time of prayer for CAJ (B 4.6.7)

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SY 17-18:15 Adjournment at 4:50

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SY 17-18:16 Signing and putting seals on minutes(B 4.2.9.5)

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