Dear STEM School Highlands Ranch Families,
Your entire STEM Board of Directors hopes that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break and that you had the opportunity to spend time with your loved ones.
As part of our commitment to our community that we made over the summer, we are working hard at improving our communication with our community. As I mentioned in my October Reflections message after our Board meeting, there are three areas of focus for the Board this semester.
Complete the bond transaction and funding for STEM’s Master Plan construction/renovation projects.
Complete the Executive Director’s annual review and contract.
Review and revise the board’s policies to remove inconsistencies, outdated directives and to codify de facto policies.
Your Board has been hard at work over the past several months, tackling these three items and I am happy to share that we are very close to accomplishing all of these tasks.
Construction is scheduled to begin this month on the P-TECH building renovations and in January of 2022 on the new CHSAA Gym and Building Remodel Project after the successful closing of our bond finance package.
To clarify some misconceptions and discrepancies related to the Executive Director’s annual review and contract, I wanted to provide this update. In the Fall of each school year, the Board conducts a review of the prior year’s school performance along with the Executive Director’s management of that performance. The review is done by the Board’s Personnel Committee.
The Board then votes to retain or replace the current Executive Director during the last year of the existing contract. The Executive Director’s contract is typically for a three-year term to remain competitive with other Charter and District entities. The term coincides with the official end of a fiscal school year, June 30. Our Executive Director’s contract does expire in 2022, so the Board’s Personnel Committee is currently conducting the review and consideration for a new contract.
All existing Board policies are under review to make sure we remain compliant with existing law and our current Charter contract. We are also examining areas where we need a new policy to support our school going forward. This process is also crucial as we move forward with our Strategic Plan and replication of our KOSON instructional model of Problem-Based Learning in additional schools.
I want to thank our entire community for a great year so far. We have much more work to do, but our Board is highly motivated and energized to tackle the hard work in front of us.
I wish you all the very best during this holiday season.
Sincerely,
Roy Martinez, Board President and Chair