Yeah, I have one meeting whole thing, and then the other person I have no idea.

Oh, you are moving for I don't understand technology.

Oh yeah.

Things are ready to work.

And then I think those are you just saying board that I'm on, and you know, it's it's helpful when you can record it and then transcribe it, but it's like, oh wait, we spent the first five minutes just like catching up.

This doesn't need to be part of the the record.

Oh yeah, we can go ahead.

Cool.

Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting of the Indianapolis Charter School Board to order here.

Um we do have a quorum present.

We're not going to call the role right now, but if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself, um we can go around the room real quickly.

Welcome to everyone here.

Um this evening, we're looking forward to the presentation.

We'll start with Markham.

Uh my name is Marco Dominguez.

Um Central Grey Union uh here in Indiana.

Uh Bruce Nougay, uh CEO for Bloomstone Investment Group.

Thank you.

Mary Ann Sullivan.

Aria Maestra, the writer and founder of Spanish for entities and Lives Right.

And I'm Alison Ackerman, I'm the founder of Courtland Consulting.

Okay, Jaina.

Um we did just introduce everybody, but also a special welcome to Alison and Maria because this is their first meeting joining us.

Of course I forgot that.

Um welcome, so appreciate your willingness to step up and do this work.

It's great.

I'm happy to have met with both of you and look forward to working with you.

Um so tonight, um, as you all know, is an informational update for the charter school board.

Um, there's not going to be a vote, there's not any specific action being taken, but we are going to get to hear tonight from Believe Schools.

Their application for their second Indianapolis school received this board's approval in 2022, and they're now on track to open in the fall of 2026.

Um we've done this before when we've had some uh adjustments in an application from approval to opening.

Um we felt that those things are worth sharing publicly.

Um so given that it's been a couple years since that approval and that there have been some meaningful, um, I think pretty exciting developments in the plans for the school.

I just wanted to make sure that the board and our community were fully informed as we approach that first day.

Um so we'll talk a little bit more about those things specifically in a moment, but I did want to uh kind of this is the time when I would walk you through whatever the processes that we're discussing.

So in this case it's pre-opening.

Um but I'm actually a little excited as well to get to talk through kind of all of the the different things that our team does with schools once uh a board would would vote on approving an application.

So um in this case, much of the nine months prior to school opening is spent on working out all of the big medium and small details that are necessary for school to be able to launch.

Um so the first quarter of this year usually is spent on kind of regular touch points with the school, um, understanding what enrollment looks like, what staffing looks like, um, what kinds of changes maybe have occurred since approval.

Then we kind of ramp up those touch points and getting to more of the compliance-driven um kind of even like building specific things as we head into the the late spring and summer.

Usually we would do a um a facility walkthrough in the summer as well.

Um in this case, as you'll hear, um, this facility is already prepared to be a school, but in in a usual case, we would be ensuring that all of the different safety standards are met, that the building and all of its materials are ready for students and staff to be there before school would actually begin in August.

Um, and our and in our process, that is also meaningful date because that's when a charter is signed, it's right around school opening.

Um so this kind of uh just summarizes what I just said.

Um, but I think kind of speaks to all of the work that both myself and really members of my team are doing with school teams leading up to um leading up to the first day.

Um so with that moving pretty quickly tonight.

Um, if we have anyone who would like to see to the board tonight or comments, see no one, I think we're moving off.

Great.

So I think we're ready to hear from a accelerator.

Um, as the belief folks uh get ready to come up here.

Um I'll just say just a few details kind of up on the screen about this school and you know, also the school that they already operate over on Capital.

Um, as you'll hear, they originally designed this application to serve kind of a broader group of students, but as they've gotten closer to opening, they've identified a more specific need and really focused and sharpened their plans on students in our community who I think need what they have to offer most.

Um the Believe Indie Accelerator is really designed for those students who need a clear path to graduation and are looking for a more accelerated opportunity to achieve that.

Um, but what we really appreciated as we were um reviewing this application and kind of working with Believe as they kind of made that targeted focus over the last several months is that it really retains everything about the original school model that we think is strong.

Um, you know, particularly their commitment to rigorous college level coursework, um their efforts around building a really strong culture within their building and within the groups of scholars and staff to ensure that students, whether they're there for a specific you know, college focus or they're looking for more career focused programming, are really receiving the support that they need from the staff and people around them in the building to get them where they ultimately want to go after high school.

Um, as you'll hear, um, another kind of key update I just wanted to highlight from our review.

The school will be co-locating with the existing Believe Circle City High School.

We think that offers a really great opportunity to launch efficiently and to take advantage of all of the existing um both staffing and programming opportunities that already exist at the high school.

Um it also allows them to really focus the model and keep things kind of smaller earlier when working out some of those newer program, working out some of those newer programs can really benefit from an opportunity focus on a smaller student population.

So the enrollment projections you'll notice are also smaller than what was initially uh proposed, but that also is very much in line with kind of an efficient launch and really answering the question not you know, not who do you know who do adults want to serve, but what is it that kids in this community actually need.