001Okay, thank you everyone for joining us uh today. This Irvine International Academy regularly scheduled board meeting today is April 28, 2026. The time is 6:01 p.m. That sounds correct. We are located at 4782 Karen Lane, Irvine, California 9264. Thank you for all those that are here. Shouldn't be too long, but a but a fun-filled evening. So looking forward to it. actually very excited about. Uh, okay, let's start with roll call. Uh, Molly >> present. >> Felipe >> present. >> Brett is present. David >> present. >> All right, thank you very much. Uh, moving on to approval of the agenda for the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy Board of Directors today, April 28, 226. Recommended the board of directors approve the agenda for the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy Board of Directors
002on April 28th, 26. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, David. Is there a second? Second. >> Thank you. >> Molly, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed, please say nay. Hearing none, it passes. >> Okay, moving on to community input on closed session agenda items. Members of the public may comment on items listed on the closed session agenda only. Public comments include email comments shall be limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes of public comment. Do we have any public comments? >> We do not. >> Thank you. Moving on, we'll move to closed session for poss for discussion and possible action involving conference with real property negotiators. Uh we'll be discussing this property uh and we'll be discussing with uh Dr. H. >>
003Good. >> We shall convene in about 30 minutes if not less. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you everyone for your patience. We are reconvening. The time is 6:31 p.m. Uh no action taken from the meeting. Uh next move to flag salute. Do we have any volunteers? >> All right. Thank you. >> Please stand. Face our flag. >> Ready. Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice and justice for all for all. >> Thank you very much. Moving on to community input on agendaized and non-aggendaized items. The public may comment on items listed on the agenda, including the consent calendar, presentation, discussion, committee, and action items. Public may also comment on items not listed
004on the agenda that are within the legal purview of the board of directors. Any public comments? >> We do not. >> Thank you. Moving next to recognitions. Uh finalist for the Mandarin Masters. Got first, second, and third place for kindergarten, uh first, second grade, third and fifth grade, and middle middle school Mandarin Master winners. >> Thank you. Okay, I'll start. Um, good evening IA school board and IA community. Today we're here Today we're here proudly to recognize our students for their academic achievements and for their success at multiple academic uh competitions. So, we would like to start with our finalist for the National Civic B Orange County region division and the winner goes to Alice Ou. Congratulations, Alice. Some of our students, they had prior commitments, so they wouldn't be able to join us here,
005but we're still going to recognize them. And next, we have our third place winner in the National Chinese Speech Contest. That goes to Wen Wong. Congratulations, Wen. And moving on to Mandarin Masters. We're proud to continueo hosting our uh second year of Mandarin Masters. And for our kindergarten group, the third place goes to Sophia Jones. Congratulations, Sophia. And second place goes to Cassie Me. Congratulations, Cassie. And the first place goes to Justin Chen. In our first to second grade group, we have our third place going to Alexander Wong. Second place goes to Jinu Ho. And our first place winner Yang is over there. Congratulations, Sun. In our third to fifth grade group, we have Macy Sh and Zoe Dao, the tied third place winners. Congratulations, Zoe and Macy. Second place, we have Sharon Tan. Congratulations,
006Sharon. And third, first place goes to Tristan Shu. Congratulations, Tristan. in the middle school group, sixth to eighth grade. >> Go ahead and finish with the middle school group. And I have a suggestion where we can if they trickle in, maybe a photo can be taken, everyone can join us. A photo can be taken after Mr. Schmid's report in case it we're running a little early for them >> and then um we can take that photo then. So if they continue to come in a little bit later, let's have everyone have a seat so we can take a group photo >> after the presentation. >> Yeah, sure. We can do the certificates together. Okay, thank you. And the middle school group for Mandarin Master. Third place goes to Alice O. Second place goes to Roy
007Yang. Please have a seat. Our students, please come have a seat. And parents, please sit down. We're going to do the pictures after. First place goes to Ming Huang. Congratulations middle school students. And also this year we had a few submissions uh to the International Chinese Language Festival. And we're very proud. We have two students who won the champions for the International Chinese Language Festival in the themed speech presentation category. So we uh are going to recognize Chloe Watson. Congratulations, Chloe and Benjamin Song. Congratulations to all all our students and keep up the good work. We're going to do their certificates um later. Thank you. Thank you. So, for those families that are coming in, we do have certificates for you. We're just going to see if we get a few more trickle in. Uh
008but we're going to go to Mr. Smitter's update and then we'll take a group picture and give you your certificates and celebrate you properly. Thank you. >> So a big congratulations to all of those that uh that achieve that all the winners takes a lot of support and effort from the families as well as effort from the students. So thank you all for for your support. >> All right, moving on to items for consent. We're going to approve the minutes from the regular board meeting of the IIA board of directors on April 7, 2026. Recommend the board of directors approve consent item A. Is there a motion? >> Motion, sir. Felipe. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, David. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed, please say nay.
009>> Hearing none. It passes. >> Okay. Moving on to items for presentation. We've got a school update. Principal. >> All right. Well, good evening. Um, I just wanted to say, um, first of all, just how fast I think April has flown by. It feels like we just came back from break and all of a sudden, I don't know if you realize it, but come Friday, um, it's May 1st. So, um, with that being said, we're kind of right in the thick of the beginning of the end of the school year events, and there's just a lot going on. Um, just going to give you some updates on testing. Um, we finished our Apple assessments. There's a couple students who are doing makeups. Um, just a reminder, Apple assessments are those for Mandarin fluency. Um, the
010initial anecdotal feedback that we've gotten based on how students are performing and we're observing it, we are seeing a lot of growth in our students. So, significant improvement in our students just from last year. Um it kind of goes into coming into last year the focus was helping the students build a strong foundation and then building off that foundation. So we're seeing that we start getting the official results in about 2 weeks. Um and so we hope to get that in a timely manner because then we want to be able to present that um later this month for our families so we can provide updates on our student progress. Um, also we're planning this week for gate testing uh for our third grade students and then a few other students who have requested gate testing.
011Um, this is a part of our third grade blanket testing. Um, we do alternate tests every other year because one test is more verbal than the other. Um, so if a student tests this year, they can always retest again next year by request. Um, but that's that's happening this week. And this year we also launched our gate program as you know. Um so Miss Jong here has worked uh a lot on that and so she's been providing monthly newsletters um enrichment projects for our students program has started this year. And then lastly for testing starting on Monday May 4th which is less than a week from today we begin our cap testing our state testing. So, our students will be testing um every morning. Um so, that morning, so every Monday through Thursday, uh they'll
012be testing to about 10:00 10:30. So, we'll have what we call quiet hours during that time. So, it's just it's just a reminder to all our staff and our students. This is the time that students are testing. So, they need to do their best to stay quiet, not interrupt classes, especially given our rooms. Um, and so ne next week they start with English language arts. Um, they'll test Monday through Thursday with Friday being makeups. The following week they do math. Um, and then the third week our fifth and eighth grade students are taking their CAST test or science test. Um, we've been working with our students who receive supports making sure that they'll be ready to go. Students who test in small groups or alternative settings. Um, so we've been working with our staff to
013get that all underway. Uh we did a training last week on testing security. Um this is something that we have to provide for our teachers how to administer the test. So um with that being said, we are ready to go uh for our testing next week. Any questions about anything I just shared? >> Something really quick, not real questions, but I know last year there was a not as favorable results. Was it from the fourth and fifth grade or fifth grade or the pass testing? >> Are you talking about students? >> Yeah, the students test. >> Um, it was fourth and fifth. >> Fourth grade, right? >> Fourth and fifth. Yeah. >> Yeah. And so I know you talked about having extra support for that. Make sure what what was done to support that? So
014we worked very carefully with our teachers to provide intervention and support for these students. So reviewing the data providing small groups support for groups of students based on the areas of need. So we looked at the data the data the areas of like the areas that we tested low in and we provided extra support. So it's not something that we're doing now. It's something we've been doing all school year. >> I can tell you that my children at home are working. for practice tests. I think that's good. So, if they're an example of any of the other students that involve, I'm looking for a big >> Yeah. And this year, too, we've really emphasized um communicating to our students and also our families what resources are available out there. So, we had a parent workshop
015on it. We've been sending that out just um different ways if families want to help prepare their students at help as well, what they can do with that. I think they need to know that the value of the cash test where what is it for you know >> it's not just another test right it's now that >> the school and the children themselves >> well it it definitely is is it's a good um for families to know where their students performance level is at and also for our school it's just important too for us because that's something especially given where we're located our community uh that is valued >> thank you All right. Any other questions about testing? All right. Um, next up, I was do a quick follow up on open house. We had
016open house a couple weeks ago. Um, we actually had a great turnout. Um, it was over a couple hours, but I would say we had a steady flow of people coming and um, we had full classrooms pretty consistently and a lot of the feedback we got was very positive. Just from families was very happy. Um, it's just another one of those good events as a community just for our families to come together and just enjoy this the work our students have been doing and the learning that has been taking place. Um, so that was a couple weeks ago. All right. And looking out ahead, we have our end of the year events. Um, so we got feedback from the winter concert in the sense that some of our families were a little disappointed in uh
017our winter concert just by the amount of performances for our students and the types of performances. So we've taken that feedback and we've redone our spring concert a little bit um to and as a result we've had to split it into two separate evenings. So the first one's at May on May 21st, second one's May 28th. Um the first one's TK through 1st and the second one is second through middle school. And what we are doing is our students have about double the length of the performances. So they're doing multiple um singing songs. They're doing a musical element demonstration and they're also doing instrumental type work. So in order to accommodate that um feedback and that type of performance, we did have to split it up into two separate evenings. Um otherwise it would be
018a sixse seven hour event. Um and so um we have plans for that on later later in May. We're also planning our field day on Wednesday, June 3rd u with our teachers. So um I know our teachers are probably going to be looking for volunteers um parent volunteers to help out with that. So more information will be coming out for that. But it was it was a very fun event the last couple years. And then on our last day of school, June 4th, we have our promotions. So we have three promotions. The first one is kindergarten at 8:30, fifth grade at 10:30, and 8ighth grade at 12:00 noon. Um so we'll be doing that on our last day of school. And then kind of looking out again, these are things or these things I just
019went over. Um, but also we do have our last school site council next week, our last ELAC meeting, our English learner advisory committee meeting on May 14th, as well as the spring concert I just mentioned. So, um, we blinked that we're in May and we have a lot of different events going on, um, throughout May and to finish up the year. So, we have our testing and then we'll go right into the end of the year from there. So, that is what I have. Is any questions, comments? Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> Good evening parents and students and uh IA board members. Just as Mr. uh Jado was saying about the CASP testing, the value of the testing. We're here recognizing our students because we see the value of bringing
020up students confidence and for them to have a better um achievement performance when they are being assessed. So here we have our students uh join us at the board meeting. Thank you for your time today. and we wanted to recognize our students um our students academic achievements and dedication in multiple academic uh competitions. So we will start with our first student. She uh participated in the national civics be and is the finalist for the Orange County Civic B which goes to Alice O. Congratulations Alice. And Alice was also the third place in our middle school mentor master final round. So big applause for Alice. Good job. >> Thank you Alice. Next our second student. And this student won the third place in the National Chinese Speech Contest. And this award goes to Walton. Congratulations. And
021then do you have the one more single award? >> Moving on to >> Okay, great. Okay, now moving on to Mandarin Masters. For our kindergarten group at the Mandarin Master, we have our third place winner, Sophia Jones. Congratulations, Sophia. >> And second place goes to Cassini. Congratulations, Cassie. And first place goes to Justin Chen. Congratulations our kindergarten group winners. In first and second group in the Mandar Master, we have our third place winner, Alex Wong. Alexander Wong. Congratulations, Alex. Second place. Congratulations. And first place goes to And moving on to our third to fifth grade group. Third place goes to Zoe Leo and Macy Shen. Congratulations. Second place goes to Sharon Tan. Congratulations, Sharon. First place goes to Tristan Shu. Congratulations, Tristan. Okay, now moving on to our middle school Mandarin master. Third place goes
022to Alice O. Congratulations, Alice. Second place goes to Roy. First place goes to Ming. Congratulations. A big round of applause for our major master winners. Congratulations to Oh, we have one more. >> We have our kindergarten group first place, Justin Chen. Congratulations, Justin. Right on. There you go. Yeah, good job. Let's take another picture. >> All right, let's take more pictures. Okay, congratulations to our students for your academic achievements. Thank you. And this wouldn't happen without our students hard work, their effort and our parents, our community support. So I also wanted to say thank you to our parents for supporting our students academic learning. Thank you. >> First we also need to thank this job for her incredible dedication to the program really helping to inspire these children to really work. Okay, moving on next
023to financial update. We've got Mr. Wasel. Are you there, Mr. Wasel? >> And if any of our guests um are you need to go home and do homework and eat dinner and all of those things, we completely understand. Of course, you're welcome to stay for the financial presentations. Um but have a great evening. Thanks guys so much. Okay. What do you want to do next year? Brian, can you hear me? Okay, >> we can hear you. >> Great. Let me go ahead and Sorry, it's a little hard to hear um on this side. So, I'll turn up my volume as well, but there's any questions um uh please let me know or uh feel free to type it in the chat as well. Great. So, I'm going to go ahead and present the financials as
024of March 31st. Uh, can you let me know when you can see my screen? Okay, >> we can see it. >> Great. So, uh, the financial presentation is as of March um, 31st. And so, these are the uh, financials from July 1st, 2025 through the end of of March. Now, this is the financial summary page uh and really the the narrative portion behind uh the board report. Uh this budget was based uh and approved on February 24th uh with a net income of about 1.3 million and that was based off of an ADA of 565 uh students. Now, the P2 ADA did come in uh higher than that about 572, which is great news. So that will positively impact some of the revenues based on this note below which is about like 15,000 plus uh
025per extra ADA. Now in terms of revenues as of the end of March this is just a snapshot rounding up it came in to about 6 million. uh that is under budget uh where the school expected to be at at this time, but really that's just due to timing of when funds are recognized and received in comparison to the budget. We expect by year end uh those will all catch up and be recognized. Uh in terms of restricted funds, there's about 1.3 million uh on the school's budget and we we work with the school on making sure those are earned come year end. So in order to meet the budget, it's just important that the school recognizes those funds by year end and that's the expectation. In terms of expenses, as of the end of
026March, that came in about 5.8 million or.1% under what was budgeted. So you know, pretty uh pretty in line. Uh but really why is it under by a small margin? Uh that's just due to some of the timing of when expenses are recognized. is not necessarily a savings, right? We expect those to still come in by year end. There were additional substitute expenses and those weren't budgeted for. So those could have an impact on the budget uh come year end, but right now those are being offset right by those other categories that are currently under budget. Uh so we'll continue to monitor that alongside the school uh just to see what the impact will be come year end. So in terms of the net income as of the end of March that came in at
027about 94,000 that is under budget uh based on the notes above but we do expect the school's budgeted net income to be in range with how projections look for year end. Any questions on the financial summary page? >> Questions? >> No. >> All right, moving on then. So, here's the actual the budget summary table. So, you can see this is the total budget about 1.3 and then the total revenue of 9 million and then total expenses of 7 million. So we do expect some of this revenue especially the LCFF revenue to be higher just with that additional ADA. And then as well you can see in this actuals column some of the staffing expenses are a little bit higher and that's just due to some of those unbudgeted substitute expenses. Any questions on the table
028graph? Okay, we're okay. Thank you. >> All right, so then continuing on. So this is the cash flow projection. Uh so as of the end of March, cash came in about 1.7 million. And this projection shows in June there's a drop off of cash and that is the taking into account the school came off the line of credit. Uh so from what we're projecting the school is able to make that payment uh and have still a healthy cash balance uh at the time of payment and moving forward. >> Do you have a payment date in mind in June? >> Yes. So the in talking with the school and with the bank, uh this was discussed to be uh at the end of June obviously, right? We don't want to leave it to the last day.
029Uh so we want to do it a couple weeks prior to that uh in accordance with the bank. Uh so we'll continue to talk with the school uh on that exact timing of that payment. Uh but really anywhere uh mid June is uh where we're looking at. And once that's done, we will have zeroed out any loans, any any lines, right? Okay. Thank you. >> And then moving on to the balance sheet. So, as you can see, the the cash like we talked about is 1.7 million and we compare that to the total current liabilities and that's 895,000. So, some of that line of credit is included there. Uh but the good news is right, you can pay that off and you can still cover your current liabilities. Uh and that's what we want for
030the school is to be able to cover all those current liabilities. If for some reason, right, they all had to be paid tomorrow, would the school have the cash to do so? And the answer is yes. You have 1.7 in comparison to about 900,000. Any questions on the balance sheet? So I I see your liquidity ratio. There's a a color coding there. It's just colored, but is there is there a color code there or is that just a random color that you used? I'm curious. >> Oh, for the liquidity ratio. Oh, no. It's just uh more of like a formatting. Okay. >> With the CSMC colors. >> So where does the you have we have two here. Where does that stand within where you think we should be based on other schools that you're overseeing
031that you would consider to be healthy? >> Yeah, that would be a healthier uh ratio, right? Because you're able to cover this is basically saying you're able to cover your current liabilities. So, it's comparing your cash to your current liabilities. Uh so, anything under one would be concerning. So two is a very good number, right? I recall. Yeah. Liquidity ratio uh is a two. That's a very good indicator. Correct. >> Hello. >> Sorry, I couldn't hear. Yeah. Yeah. Just commenting on your liquidity ratio two and two is a very good indicator and meaning we are pretty liquid. Right. >> Right. Right. That would that's a good indicator. Um and that coincides uh with that information with the cash covering. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Yeah. Great. Well, that is it for the March financials. Really,
032the next information is just some team information and then some key dates looking ahead. But that's it from my side. Any final questions in terms of the March financials? >> Yeah, I do have a question on the revenue and actual revenue is about 200,000 below the budgeted. You said that's due to a timing issue, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, in terms of how funding uh works with the ADA, so the first half of the school year is is funded off of last year's P2 ADA. And then there's the P1 ADA. So that is what funds the school uh from around January, February through the end of May and then June that trs up for P2. >> So when do you expect when do you expect this will even out? >> Yeah. So that those funds
033are expected to come in June and then July as well >> and then through the through the next months as well with uh the the usual payouts. Uh but the true up pay the true uh the true up of payments those come in uh June July. I I if I can add um I asked the same question today um because I know we've done a lot of work tagging things to these other funding streams and said okay so when are we then going to reflect that in the budget that extra funding and it it really is when we at the end as he said in June as we um make sure that the payments um for any specialized funding stream like categorical is paid by the right thing that it comes back into the budget.
034The money is there. It just we don't get credit for it until we spend it. >> But when we uh initially have the budget, get the budget as we actually anticipate that's going to come. >> Yeah. One example of that is um there was a surprise funding stream that all schools got over the summer and um we have until 2029 to spend it. And so we talked about that today is because we are in a healthy budget time. Um I don't need to spend that this year and might as well just kind of put it off until next year and see if there's a need then. Um it is unrestricted so I can use it for a variety of things. But it won't it'll reflect a little bit less because we thought we might need
035to spend it this year and so it's about $100,000 but we're not. So anyway, it won't reflect in the budget until between now and 2029 when we decide and of course we will spend it by the deadline, but it just won't reflect yet. >> Thank you. >> Just one question, one last question. So if we pay off the loan amount, when did you say it was June? >> June, right? So start of the school year next year is August, September, late August. >> The new budget cycle starts July 1, but the school year starts in August. >> August. So I want to make sure that you're anticipating we have enough funding for the start of the school without having to take any loans out. Right. Because of our cash flow. >> Yes. Right. And that's
036with the, you know, the over $1 million in reserve is because, as we've learned, the the the way school funding works is it because we're always paid on the year before and we have higher spending and we have higher enrollment because our enrollment keeps increasing, we're serving more students, buying more materials with less funding until it all catches up in February and then we get a nice then we get a bump based on our true enrollment. But um we believe having this reserve will be enough to get us through where we won't need another loan. >> But >> and we have the line of credit sitting there, but it will have a zero balance after we pay off this 375 and but we don't foresee needing that. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Does the P1
037include the pre K bonus stipen, whatever you want to call that. >> Yeah, the extra money that they gave to TK. Um, which actually I did find out will be for the next three years. They'll continue to even have a little bit more. >> Do you want to answer that question, Mr. Russell, or >> Yeah, I can answer that. Yeah, the P1 does include whatever that bonus was at P1 and then whatever the bonus is at P2. So, whatever the final TK number is at P2, that's the final number that the school will get funded off of with the bonus. >> So, are you seeing it? Are you actually seeing it to understand the calculation? >> Yeah, that's included in the LCFF distributions to the school and the calculator that's used uh in making those
038uh projections and then in the actuals that the schools receive >> is it a separate line item >> in terms of the P2 like how it's reported? Yes, it's reported in a separate line item and then on the CDE website it's also um right the school certifies the report on a separate line item that goes to the CD and then that's included in the determination of funding. >> Is there is there any mechanism to check the math by which the LCFF is paid how it was calculated? Did we do that? Yeah, I could send uh something to to se Stephanie to distribute. Uh there's a a calculation that goes into um how it it breaks down by by grade level and then it includes the bonus as well for the TK. And if I can
039also add um with our authorizers with Anna Day and her team at OCDE um as we have gone through uh well we just certified P2 today and I noticed I reviewed it and saw the extra line item for TK separated from everyone else because of that calculation. But then as we go through first interim and then you've approved second interim and we go through and we go through those approvals on a day is making those calculations as well. So, not only do we have the CSFC team that is kind of giving us the calculations, they actually work closely with OCDE2, the authorizers of their financial department, and they're very good, which come and just make sure we're um getting the right amount and that everything looks right. And then through their authorizer visit, we actually
040had that separate visit with the financial team who was very pleased to say we were right on par with our budget. like within like $20,000. So really doing a good job with the revenue that we thought we would be getting and also the um enrollment we were projecting because some sometimes you're off, you know, but we've been we've been very consistent. So that's been a good thing. Okay, questions, comments, >> Mr. WSO, just want to say thank you for jumping in with both feet. I know you had to go through the transition, so it seems seems like you're well on your way. So, thank you very much. >> Of course. Happy to. And thank you guys. >> Have a great night. Thank you. >> Have a good night. coming at a good time. >> Okay.
041Uh so I'll I'll I'll just give some context here for the next item. I know officially we have a 7:15 start I believe but I believe our first candidate is is already here if I'm not mistaken. So we could even start a little bit earlier if we decide to. So uh the next item uh pertains to board member interviews. The IIA board of directors will conduct interviews in open session with five candidates tonight, April 28, 2026. An additional four candidates on May 19, 2026. First round of interviews will last approximately 15 minutes each. Second round and nomination, if any, will be held on June 23rd, 226 at a regularly scheduled board meeting. So, uh the process is uh uh we'll have five individuals tonight. we've scheduled them. Uh they'll have their own time here. Any
042of the other interviewees will be sequestered and sitting in a different room, so they won't be hearing any of the answers. Uh you've been provided a list of the questions for this evening. If you wouldn't mind returning those before you leave, that would be great. We'd appreciate it just to manage the integrity of the process. Uh we'll we'll be rating just so you understand. will be rating. Uh we'll each we have seven questions we'll ask uh in order. Start with Molly if that's okay and we'll just go down the line here and go back to Molly when it goes back to her turn. Uh and you'll have 15 minutes uh basically for the interview for tonight. >> Okay. >> We'll we'll time it and we'll let you know when it starts and when >> I'll
043I'll serve as like the organizer and the timekeeper. That that's my role. So, I'll give you like maybe a twominut or something like that if I feel like um I'll kind of follow along if you need a little bit more. Are >> you going to put music on like the Oscars? >> Pardon? >> Are you going to put music on like the Oscars? >> Unfortunately, we don't have the music, but I can do hand signals. >> All right. Well, that we invite you to come up if you would like. >> Make sure the mic's good to go. And if you wouldn't mind just state your name. We appreciate that. Just to make sure we're at the right person. I I uh I believe I said your phone as well, so I I wind it up,
044but case. >> Uh my name is Jason Malar. Um as far as my background, um I've been in real estate for about 15 years and I was a teacher prior to that for about five years. Um, in my current company, I oversee uh the finance department, which includes asset valuations, FPNA, budgeting, forecasting, any KPI um reporting that I need to do. Um, I oversee the capital planning of a $4 billion portfolio. Um, aside from my role in real estate, I also hold a CFA charter holder designation, which is one of the highest designations you can receive in finance. Um, and then >> so, so that's great. So, we want to make sure we have enough time to cover to cover all of it. I want to make I want to make sure I give you
045the time that we need. So, first of all, I just want to uh make it clear you you submitted your resume and your cover letter as so thank you very much for for doing that. >> Okay. So, we have got seven questions. We want to make sure we use good use of the time. Okay. >> So, Molly, if you don't mind, we'll start with you. >> Speak speak to your mics. >> Okay. So, this uh question one has two parts. Uh the first part is tell us about your background and what draws you to serve on the board of Irvine International Academy. The second section is if selected, what would you uh what will be your top priorities in your first year? >> Well, I already answered the background part. As far as what draws
046me to serve um the board, it's really to build to be part of IIA's legacy. Um my kids, they just started IIA. They're in kindergarten and TK. And so I want to build I want to be part of organization that um by the time that they graduate is more financially resilient um um than than it is today. And so with the all the growth that I has seen over the past three years um I think I can help in that regard. Uh if selected top priorities um as mentioned my background is in real estate. I I saw the uh position calls for someone with that type of expertise. So, strategic real estate oversight. I don't know what you guys' thoughts on expansion or relocating, but just giving oversight and um advisory um guidance on down
047that path, whether it's how does that impact us financially three to five to seven years from now. Um, another priority of mine would be uh fiscal transparency. I know you guys have meetings with uh I don't know who the party is here understanding um the balance sheet, the income statements. Um but I also think that there needs to be um a deeper level of understanding what are scenarios where we could fall under below budget like what does the cash flow and um financials look for IIA in 3 to 5 to seven years and so my background is in building forward-looking financial models at the company and portfolio level. Um so I think I could provide that that guidance. And then lastly um KPI development. I think it's important to understand how much for every dollar
048that we spend in this organization how much of it is um actually adding value to the student's education either from a per student cost or some other metrics. I'm not really familiar with some of the metrics and KPI development and KPIs as it relates to charter schools, but I think it's important to understand that framework and look at it um with much frequency. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to question two. What specific skills, experiences, or networks would you bring to the board and how would you actively contribute to advancing the school's mission? >> Um, well, like I mentioned before, I have a bilingual background. I was a former teacher um at at a middle school in one of the most like poorest performing schools in Santa Ana. So I understand um from an educator's
049perspective um the the classroom needs and um my other background right is in real estate and finance which I've kind of mentioned the skills and experiences that I have there. But I think more importantly for me having two kids here um I'm just personally invested in this role. Um, I'm not one that just wants to occupy a chair. If there's subcommittees, a finance committee, a facility committee, I want to roll up my sleeves. I want to participate. Um, I I want to make a contribution u to this organization. >> Thank you. Question three, what do you see as the appropriate role of the board versus the school leadership and how would you maintain that distinction in practice? >> Like I said, I was a teacher before, so I have immense respect for those leaders in
050the classroom. Um, but I do believe the board's role is governance. It is setting the vision, making sure that the executive director has the resources she needs to execute her vision and it's also to make sure that um we are a financial fiscal stewards of this organization. First, I just want to welcome you. All right. Uh, question number four. What do you believe are the greatest challenges currently facing IIA and what role should the board play in addressing them while ensuring proper oversight? >> Sure. Um, I'd probably say growth fatigue is um a greatest challenge. You guys grew from 300 to 600 students in the past three years. Um, I' I've looked at some of the financials. It looked like you guys were in a uh a negative fund position a year ago and only
051now becoming profitable. Um I also noticed that there may have been pro projections of enrollment declining in kindergarten over the next two or three years. So just understanding again when I talk about financial modeling and forecasting what are the drivers of that and what happens and just understanding different scenarios um to get us to a position where we are just fiscally fiscally resilient from any type of economic conditions that might come our way. Um yeah. >> Um can you support and uh publicly uphold a board decision you disagreed with and please explain how you would handle that situation? I think it's important to understand that on just one perspective um amongst you know four other board members who have different who share different perspectives on on how things um should be um managed at in
052this organization. So it's just really understanding and respecting each board member's perspective and expertise. Thank you. >> From McGovern's perspective, which priorities should the board set regarding academic performance and program offerings? >> So, I know we recently just received the distinguished school status and to me personally, I like that is our brand and we should try our best to maintain that status. So, it's really prioritizing what are the programs, um, what are the costs that really keep us in that status above anything else. Um, one more question. Question number seven, what are your views on board composition including parents versus parent representation and how should the board approach potential expansion to additional campuses. Um when it comes to board composition when if there's a parent on the board I can understand there's a conflict of
053interest right I'm a parent um in the board I would I wear two hats um one as a parent to two kids and another as a board member um representing 600 students. So, um, as a board member, that board hat of overseeing 600 students trumps my two kids in the household. Uh, I do understand like there just needs to be a balance of this, right? Um, there could be a great representation of a board member that's a non-parent that has the expertise that is needed to take IIA where it is today into whatever vision there is 5 to seven years. So, if there's a board member that has that expertise um and aligns with your vision, um I think there's just there's that balance between the two. Um and also, you know, for a parent
054and a board member in in a board position, for a parent, you're personally invested. For a non parent rep representative, um sometimes it's unclear if they just want to see and want to be able to put that on their resume. I think I just I have five minutes left. >> You have five minutes. >> I spoke too fast. >> So, you're welcome to say whatever you want. Question. >> Sorry. The second half of that question, I think. >> Sorry. >> The second half of question seven. >> Oh, um again, I think it's understanding what are the additional costs to expanding either to a new facility um or relocating for that matter. um understanding what that mortgage or lease payment will look like and from an in net income standpoint, you know, what's our, you know,
055fixed coverage ratio, debt service coverage ratio to um maintain. Um and then again when it comes to forecasting and looking and seeing what the company could look like 3 to 5 and 7 years from now. Um what are the scenarios where expanding to a new facility would be disadvantageous from a financial perspective um as it relates to like enrollment decline. So just being able to give to the board that visibility into where we're headed in five years is where I think I would excel the most. >> Just to ask a question because you mentioned something earlier. You said you were a math teacher in Santa. Curious what what happened? >> Why you decided to no longer continue to teach? >> Um I love teaching. Uh I think at heart. I'm I'm I'm a teacher at
056heart. Uh, I would say I made the an econ economic decision to just pursue something that I felt that I could make a um more wealthy decision for me. So, >> may I ask you one more question just uh Jason so you know if you are to make uh join the board to have impact right and to maybe have some changes you know in addition to overseeing the governance right basically overseeing the uh administrative team. So what what do you see you know what kind of a changes you would like to to have? Um I think I'll go back to fiscal transparency. So I know you guys had that presentation. I would love to see like a monthly forecast of our sources and uses like where's our sources of cash coming from? Where is our
057uses of cash coming from every month? Um it sounded like there may have been some concerns about late receivable rate late receivables of some payments. Um so just understanding what our cash would look like. I I speak three to five years from now, but it's also understanding what our cash would look like in July and December. Um, and yeah, uh, with fiscal transparency, but the budget, it's like one scenario of a of of an instance. I I think it's important to understand different scenarios like what if enrollment isn't where we have it? Like what does our net income look like? Um I think it just helps better us helps put us in a better position to make decisions now in case of those situations. >> Is it really going to more on the financial operation
058side? >> I think yeah I mean that that's where my expertise is. That's where I think I could provide the most value as well. >> Do you want to get into the numbers? You want to you want to get into the numbers as I >> Yeah, I would love to. >> He's a mess. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's what we're trying to get like. >> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, like I said, I love building like financial models. >> Um, I love sensitizing different scenarios. That's what I'm good at. Um, so yeah, >> thank you. >> Yeah, thank you guys. >> Thank you. I I just want to say thank you for your interest. We really appreciate you taking the time. This is a volunteer board. You know, we invest a lot of time and energy. So,
059thank you very much and thank you for I appreciate you guys' opportunity here. So, thank you. >> Thank you, J. >> You don't mind to Tiffany or Dr. Henry take the questions and then um >> Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you. >> Um yeah, let's give like we have two minutes and there's four. >> Yeah. So, we'll we'll transition and then we'll Yeah. And the next on the schedule, I think. Thank you. >> We gave you two minutes in between. >> And then the next one. Oh, the next one is coverage actually. I'm going to make sure and see who I know. >> You guys are 20 minutes early. >> I know. Look at this. >> It's never easy. It's never easy. So they'll tell tell you a little bit about the process.
060We also we're going to have you over here. >> You have a microphone so that because we're recording >> um as part of our discussion and then the question same questions that you have are here just a little bigger. >> Good. >> Hi. >> How's it going? >> Good. How are you? >> Very good. Thanks. >> Thank you for coming in. Albert. >> Thank you for having me. >> Albert correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. Perfect. Welcome. I just want to make sure. So, I don't know if you heard uh we've got five candidates tonight. >> Okay. >> Uh and then we've got four candidates on May 19th. The interviews are 15 minutes. >> Okay. >> 15 minutes and Becca Hend's going to help us time keep. >> I'll I'll give you a hand signal like
061when you have five minutes left just to kind of keep you >> No problem at all. I will I will uh give it a good shot and hopefully it's helpful to everybody >> and then we'll do a second round uh for any of those that advanced from the first round in June June. So just to give you a heads up. >> Sounds good on that. So you have the list of questions and if you don't mind uh on your way out that if you could turn in the sheet that's been given to you with the questions so we can keep the questions. >> Sure. Without taking them out. So we appreciate that. And so, thank you very much. We've got all the board members here. We're g We've got seven questions. We're just going to
062start with Molly and kind of go down the table and then move back around. We're just going to be taking notes. So, you'll see us writing some things down. >> Sounds good. >> Here. Uh, and as I mentioned, you have 15 minutes. First off, I want to recognize thank you. You sent in your resume and a cover letter. So, thank you very much for that. >> Uh, and with that, we'll start with question one. >> All right. So, this question has two parts. And the first one is tell us about your background and what draws you to serve on the board of Irvine uh international academy. The second part is if selected what would you uh what would be your top priorities in your first year? >> Oh okay. Uh yes. So uh my background
063is in IT. So um uh I essentially um have a good background in scalability and just integrating technology in the workplace. Um and of course upkeeping it, making sure everything new is uh learned and um at the same time applied as is needed. Um and I think from my perspective just having that specific background alone would be helpful for IIA. uh mainly because I have not seen a whole lot of technology around here. So I think that with my knowledge I can help uh kind of take it to the next step. Um whether it would be just the overall architecture of how the school um handles technology for the school, for the students, staff, um more like an overall picture of how we can improve everybody's interaction with technology, right? Um and at the same
064time uh dealing with you know we all hear this nowadays AI um uh having u integrated this uh within my company um I have a fairly good understanding of you know what could be beneficial for a school um and what could and maybe is not so beneficial for students. Hopefully that's helpful. are are you uh wanting to be handson with that in the school or to to what extent do you want to be involved? >> Um well obviously as time permits um if hands-on is required and uh both my time is available and as long as the school has the time for me to be on site that's totally fine with me. Um I don't need to sit behind a computer and send out emails with my uh concerns or wishes. Um, I would be
065more than happy to be hands-on and come on site and help any way that I can, you know, as time permits, of course. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Uh, moving on, question two. What specific skills, experiences, or networks would you bring to the board and how would you actively contribute to advancing the school's mission? >> Right. So uh as we touched on the tech technology portion I think that is the biggest skill that I would be able to contribute to the school uh technologically speaking I think adding that portion and increasing uh the the school's uh overall footprint uh with technology I think that would be uh beneficial to pretty much everyone. Um, I've since my son goes to school, my daughter goes to goes to school here as well, I've seen their interaction with technology
066here and um, I think there definitely is room for improvement. Obviously, you know, financially speaking, I'm not privy to that. So, I'm sure there are shortcomings to how things can be made better, but uh at the same time, um having dealt with the IT world, I'm fairly savvy at finding good prices, a good, you know, for for good, uh uh whether it's hardware, software, training. Um I can definitely bring, you know, a hood a huge portion of uh of help u when it comes to IA's expansion into technology. >> Thank you. Question number three, what do you see as the appropriate role of the board versus the school leadership and how would you maintain that distinction in practice? >> So that's a good question. Um uh since I haven't had a lot of time to
067look at this, what I could say is that um I think school leadership um is um I think that's very important and I think the difference between a board and the school leadership um there there has to be kind of a line in the sand where the board has its intentions but I think the school leadership should be empowered to utilize its potential to to grow student uh uh to grow the students growth themselves right so I think as a board we're here to help not here to tell people what to do uh but I think there is you know a portion where our knowledge can guide uh school leadership to you know do better for for our students >> just first of all welcome >> thank you >> and good to see you again
068I see you here all the What what do you believe are the greatest challenges currently facing IIA and what role should the board play in addressing them while ensuring proper oversight? Um so you know besides obviously the technological portion that I see a place where it can grow exponentially. Um I can only you know speak from what my children go through here at school and whether it be just banter around the school um and just certain guidance that students need to to keep focus. Um I I think those uh just those two are very important. I think the board can um be helpful in maybe gathering more parental input into things they see but but their students may not really talk about at school. Um, so I I think it's really important for both the
069board and school leadership to get together and kind of get a consensus of, you know, what what are the uh the pain points that are being missed and how can how can everybody get together at the table and improve those pain points? Does that make sense? >> Thank you. >> Um, can you support and um publicly uphold a board decision you disagree with and please again uh uh explain how you would handle that situation. >> Um yeah, so I think it's important for every individual to have his opinion and I don't think it's wrong for somebody to disagree with the majority. uh sometimes individuals see things from different perspectives and it's important to take that into account. Um obviously it's important to be cordial cordial at all times through that process but I would stand
070behind disagreeing with the board on a decision if I see that there is a certain reason for that disagreement. There has to be proof of meat to the potato meat and potatoes to to the dis disagreement, right? You can't just disagree because you don't like the board or you feel otherwise. There has to be a good reason for it. And I think if that is the reason, there's no issue of disagreeing. Uh from a governance perspective, what priorities should the board set regarding academic performance and program offerings? >> Uh good question. Um I'm not very well knowledgeable in that aspect but what I can what I can say off the top of my head is that uh the board would be well positioned to empower faculty to teach student the process versus just the final
071answer if that makes sense. Right? So, I look, for example, at my son. Sometimes he'll do math problems and say, "Hey, look, I've got the answer to this." And then I'd say, "Oh, cool. How did you get to it?" Well, you just do this, but why? So, I think it's um Sorry, I'm forgetting the question, right? Yeah. Back to the academic performance. Yeah. So I think I think it's um it's important to um create an environment where students understand what they're learning versus just finding the answer to their test. Right? So it's it's it's kind of broadening their understanding of their uh curriculum. I think that's a very important uh aspect that that could be helpful to everybody. Final question. Uh question number seven. What are your views on board composition including parent versus non-parent
072representation and how should the board approach potential expansion to additional uh additional campuses or additional sites? >> Yes. So I I think that falls under what I was saying earlier that getting parental input is very important. Um, as far as uh expanding campuses, are you referring to growing IIA to multiple locations? >> Oh, that's that's wonderful. Um, but I think in order to do that, I think getting that parental input for our current location is going to be immensely helpful into expanding IIA because if we can fix whatever problems we identify here, expansion would be so much easier rather than expand and keep building on what hasn't been fixed yet, right? So yeah, get get everybody's opinion, get everybody's input so that you have an understanding of where some of the pain points are. Fix
073those and then let's expand. Maybe >> we still have five minutes. >> Uh does anyone have a question regarding something that was asked or mentioned earlier that we want to piggy back on or >> just real quick? Um what uh your class So you have two kids here? >> Yes, two kids. >> Talk about second grade. Uh Julia's in uh kindergarten. >> Second grade. >> Sorry, not second grade. Fourth grade. >> Fourth grade. >> Yeah. >> I was thinking you had an extra one there. >> No, no, no. He started in second grade. Yeah. >> Time flies. >> One in fourth grade. And and u have you noticed this is kind of an off question here just is have you noticed how your kids are preparing for the cast testing that's coming up here. You
074notice any that they're working on that? >> Uh well we we do encourage and in fact he's actually doing extracurricular exercises at home. Um, so yeah, they I mean they definitely are being kept up to to the curriculum, right? So extra work outside of school homework is helpful. At least we've noticed that it can help. Um, and I think that falls under one of the questions that we had where, you know, getting some parental input as to what could be done a little bit better even within the classroom for students to understand the curriculum better. Um, I think that's That's a good point there. >> Thank you. I just want to, you know, follow on the earlier questions. Uh, you indicated that you, you know, you a lot of experience. So I can see that
075from your resume a lot of experience in IT and it can potentially be very very helpful to uh expanding and uh you know that to improving uh the school's technology particularly in IT right uh so in addition to that what other impact that you would like to have at the board level um um I would I like to give my opinion on matters that you know are pertinent to our students right I mean yeah sure it is what I do now I've done many of things in my past actually I've done sales and many other stuff um but I definitely would like to be involved in you know making school better for everybody not just a certain grade or a class but you know how can we um uh how can we make school easier
076easier, more fun, but at the same time at the same time have students, you know, actually grasp the knowledge that they pick up here. >> Thank you. My pleasure. >> We have 2 minutes and six seconds. >> Hi. So, you have experience with this the academic systems, online systems that we're using here. Do you have experience with academic programs uh software that things that you might recommend for the school to enhance the uh the enjoyment factor? >> So unfortunately >> frustration. >> Yeah. Um I actually so the short answer is no. I don't have any experience with academic software. Um actually my very first IT job was working for uh Stanbridge University right down here in uh Newport. >> Yeah. >> Uh that's actually where I went to school. It used to be an IT
077school and a nursing school. So I went to school there. Uh and that was uh that was my first job. But what I can say is even working there. Um I have no problem vetting and finding what could be better because that was part of my job, right? And even though it was this and that, there were a lot of applications that were specific towards nursing. And now it's become only nursing, right? So one of the things that I had to do is, hey, you know, we would like our uh nurses would like to teach this. Well, you know, find us some software. Let's see what's best out there. So that's, you know, I I don't want to say it's easy, but very >> questions. 30 seconds. Thank you. I I just want to take
078the time to thank you for your interest in wanting to serve your school. It's a volunteer position. It takes a lot of time and energy. Thank you for being a parent supporter of the school and for wanting to participate in this process. Well, thank you guys for your time and hopefully something comes out of it. But otherwise, if I see you around, I am always here to help. As long as my kids go to school here and pass that as long as they live in the neighborhood. >> Like me. >> Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And you know what? Like I said, parents can always improve perspectives, right? They, you know, we've all had kids. Things >> it's going to be better. >> Thank you. >> I'll walk with you. I'll I'll take those just um I'll
079walk with you because I need to see if our next >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. But I have um so I'll show you here >> and then They'll explain the process to you. And so you'll speak into the microphone because we are recording. >> These are the same questions. They're just bigger so you can read them better. >> Oh, there you are. >> Thank you for joining us. >> Sure. >> Hi. Do you mind saying your name? Is it Selen? >> Sim. >> Selen. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Uh we appreciate your time. So just to give you an overview, we've got five uh candidates that we're interviewing tonight >> and then four candidates that we'll interview on May 19th and then uh we'll make a decision
080on who will advance to the next round which will happen in June. That that that next round round two would happen in June. >> Okay. >> Yeah. All right. So we've got 15 minutes here. uh seven questions. >> Okay, >> Molly will start and we'll go down the line and uh we'll go through when you have that time. Uh you may not notice us writing things down. It's because we're taking notes as you're speaking. So I believe you've been presented with a list of questions. If you don't mind before you leave and go home that you please return the list of questions that you have to to Tiffany or Dr. Henry. >> Sure. >> So we can keep Thank you. >> Okay, >> that's great. We can hear you. That's wonderful. Okay. >> And I'll
081give you five, you know, I'll help count time for you. So, if you're if you're running behind or I'll give you like a little five minutes or something like that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'll start. Uh this first question has two parts. Uh and tell us about your background and what draws you to serve on the board of Irvine International Academy. The second part is if selected what would be your top priorities in your first year? >> Okay. Sure. My background um in accounting and financial um servicing um would be um big contribute for you guys for all the financial budgeting, financial planning uh compliance internal uh auditing and most important thing for my side tax preparation nonprofit companies because I have some clients I have big experience for the nonprofit
082organizations financials and tax filing for our side and at the my actually first year I would I would uh will help to um financial like I would like to see do you have strengthened financial planning? I would like to help and also I would like to support um family engagement because I believe I believe profession school growth when the professionals and also parents work together. I make want to make sure I would like to also contribute strategic growth planning. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I'll ask u well first I'll say thank you for submitting your resume and your cover letter. Appreciate that. >> Sure. uh what specific skills, experiences, or networks would you bring to the board and how would you actively contribute to advancing the school's mission? >> Oh, sure. Uh I'm I'm deeply
083interested in serving uh Urban International because I believe I am the um I work with the German more than maybe 15 years. I work with the Turkish committee. I work with the German company as a biggest one in Germany energy company. Uh I am really dedicated with you know hard work with them and also I am working after moving here United States. I worked eight years mostly for Americans. I know the old regulations. I am very I'm happy working like kind of diversity and I am member of Octa uh Orange County Turkish American Association. I am the board of directors over there. This is my sec third year and I am doing the same all financials. I'm trying to do timely management and also uh long-term sustainability. I'm providing them quarterly financials and end of
084the year I'm preparing the forecasting because kind of nonprofit organization always we have u limited budgets and I'm trying to help them for uh more efficiently use this budget and actually for different to be part of the education especially for Irvine International Academy providing um providing high quality education in Irvine. I am the local I am the parent and also I'm living in Irvine. I value the um role the charter school urban international academy playing in uh high giving providing the students high education diversity um choices and it's actually I would like to be member a part of this amazing community that's I can recognize Question number three, what do you see as the the appropriate role of the board versus the school leadership and how would you maintain that distinction in practice? >> Okay.
085control of the board. Uh I can say accountability and um protection of the mission. Uh also make decision best interest in students and school for leadership. School leadership I can say they would daily management uh leadership being part of stuff and leadership being uh the organization for just management. I can simpl it up like this and uh how you doing things in practice. If I take a role for the board of directors, of course, I can uh help with the with in collaboration for the other directors uh making decision uh accountability and also governance and protect the value of the school and protect the mission of SUK school. And if I take a role for the leadership for the day-to-day management the school I can help for all daily stuff daily organization uh what what
086needs everybody I can help it. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. What do you believe is the greatest challenges currently facing IA and what role should the board play in addressing them while ensuring proper oversight >> okay should be diversity and getting popular and also the suku uh should consider to maintain the secular ship excellent grade for All students also should take care of like um um stuff's uh happiness because stuff if stuff change a lot in the schools it makes uh for the parents something parents can think if something wrong here. Uh it's important for the staff's um like sustainability and also maybe uh growing and also the same problem for limited budget uh using the budget for more efficiently. This is kind of maybe problems and how we can address. I should uh take
087of course we are the board we have members but board make deci makes should clear for the all decision and all all goals uh organized and planned what aim what our goals what next year and second year what is our short-term longs and what is our long-term longs and keep up keep up with them and we can work with all the board directors like this >> make clear decisions. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next question. Can you support and publicly uphold a board decision you disagree with and please explain how you would handle that situation? Yeah, sometimes I encounter the same problem in our uh uh community octa and octa member we have eight person at the same year I don't know how many people directors but some sometimes we are not agree all of
088them we are not the same page but of course respect respectfully I voice my decision my concerns respectfully and understandably and I'm I can explain my points my concerns uh of course our president take the all people's decision and ideas and opinions then we are doing vote we are voting the you know election and then we are making decision of course sometimes I disagree this result but I am I am familiar with working on um collaboration in different diversity people we can respect but all the voice is so um valuable for everybody needs to tell the opinion of course okay thank you >> okay from government's perspective. What priorities should the board set regarding academic performance and program offerings six >> six should be um um should be the priority this scholarship I mean the
089students excellence grades it's very important because in our wine especially Irwine is famous for the schools everybody taking care all the parents I'm thinking the parents side right now uh my daughter Pia uh will started this next next year in Norman International Academy. I'm so happy for her. But the thing is uh the school get purity for safety purity for the uh teachers uh teachers quality uh and because you are providing high quality education the teachers should be there and also the reflection side the students grades should be excellent uh the priority actually students grades And the directors should take a as um clear should be clear and uh take us like uh responsibilities for all the students and all organizations uh succeed. This is because like all people working together, it is not for
090one person's uh succeed. It's all communities succeed together and it's very international urban international academ so famous because of the school grades the only priority I think school pray and financials. >> Thank you. >> Question number seven. What are your views on board composition including parents versus non-parent representation and how should the board approach achieve potential expansion to additional campuses? My news is I strongly believe uh yes expanded because you are providing so unique your selected uh I've been two times I've been here I visit the campus I met all teachers uh individually face to face and love it also admin you are really unique you are really really giving um the supporting the students very very highly very deeply Why you don't expand of course but expand means open a new branch open because
091it's not easy and but it should be more growth our old people all ours individually uh goals to improving ourselves always improving myself every single day and wise to school ex you know should expand but direct ators and also for organiza like um uh the teachers and staff should be ready to grow and give the orientation. It's not easy but amazing decision. I'm always I'm always the help and happy to growing doesn't matter or individually people. >> Do you have kids here at school? >> No. Uh she my do daughter daughter going to Montasuri right now she's three and a half after 4 she got the lottery August August 12th I believe she going to start here >> she's four years old then after June she going to be four I'm so excited >> thank
092you >> of course >> so I just want to thank you for your interest in going through this process and interviewing welcome you to the school for the fall so thank you very much. We'll be in touch with you. >> Thank you. Nice meeting you. >> Thank you. >> So, is your child coming to TKE this year? >> May I take the question? They do questions for you. >> Okay. Thank you. But I'll walk you. >> So, you'll be part of the >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. In the hot seat, we have a microphone for live session. >> Sure. >> Obviously. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. >> I appreciate it. Uh, thank you for coming earlier. Saw that you probably heard a little bit about the process here. What's going
093on, right, five candidates tonight and then four candidates on May 19 and then we'll advance those that are going to move the second round for the board meeting in June. >> Okay. Uh we have uh 15 minutes. We have seven questions. We're going to start with Molly and go through each of the the questions in order. Uh Dr. Henry's going to help timekeep and she'll give you some I think some cues on on the timing. Uh so that I just want to >> She used to ring me in. So >> you used to ring me in. >> I just want to confirm your name, please. >> Sure. Michael File. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you, Michael. And then thank you for submitting your resume. Appreciate it. >> Sure. >> Um, is there a cover letter as
094well or just? >> No, I think it was just the resume. >> Okay. All right. Perfect. All right. With that, we'll start with question one. >> All right. Question one has two parts. >> Sure. uh tell us about your background and what draws you to serve on the board of IIA and also if selected what would be your top priorities in your first year. >> Sure. So I've been a technology professional consultant for the last 25 years uh plus uh currently serving as a vice president for a $25 billion technology integrator uh you know located out of St. Louis, Missouri. Uh my daughter's been in the school for the last four years and I've just loved the culture, the experience that she's had here and I really feel it's something special. Um and I've been
095participating, you know, in different boards and advisory committees over the last year and a half. Um trying to do what I can to, you know, keep what we've done here at special as we grow and experience the the growth that we've had. Um that really is what drives me is making this a great place for my daughter and for other people in the community. um top priorities that I see is as I mentioned explosive growth has been something that's there. It's great to see all of that. Uh but a big part of it is how do we do the capacity planning? Um and we've talked about that at some of the advisory meetings and and other pieces, but how do we you know prepare the school for it? How do we look at like one
096of the other questions is if we were to split the school um when do we do it? Do we do a clone of an existing school where it's based on location? Do we split by grade level? How do we not lose the the specialty that attracts the you know parents and everything that's here? Um along with how do we get the talented staff that we need to be able to support this and bring it across. Uh we want staff that is lining up to work for us. Uh not that everybody has to recruit and go for it. And I know Mr. Schmid and Dr. Henry have been working hard on that. And then the last which is near and dear to my heart is how do we integrate technology and continue to give our students
097you know a leg up with everything that's out there today. >> Thank you. So on the technology piece because it sounds like you're quite seasoned in that area. Do you have experience with academic technology or software or integration? >> Um I actually started my career working for my school system back when I was in high school. Uh continued on you know throughout college and then part of our company does support the sled and and federal side. So I am aware with some of those programs and systems that are you know involved in as well. My direct involvement is with the hyperscalers. Um but I do you know have involvement throughout the company with it. >> Okay. Uh question two, what specific skills, experience or networks would you bring to the board and how would you
098actively contribute to advancing the school's mission? >> Sure. Um so one is an expansive financial you know experience from budget cost control um operating expenses headcount planning you know that comes into it. Um another that is very dear is as you know companies are growing culture is a big thing. culture is what makes companies that are unique. It's what makes, you know, communities unique. It's what makes schools unique. It's the culture that's there. It's often lost when, you know, it's being grown or scaled because it's hard to do. There's constraints when it comes to budget. There's constraints on headcount. Um, and sometimes it's trying to play catch-up, but it's what allows people to be enabled. Um, it's what attracts, you know, new talent. You know, there attracts new families, new students that are coming across.
099Um, and sometimes it gets lost as we're trying to balance everything else in the competing agendas. Um, with our company, it's something that, uh, for 15 years, we've been on for the greatest place to work. Uh, so I think there's a lot of things that I've learned throughout that because I've been part of companies that have bad cultures and I've been lucky enough to be part of a company that's a great culture, recognized for it, and I'd like to continue to use those skills to promote it, you know, here at IIAa and keep everything that we started as we continue to grow and become a much larger organization. to work identical. >> Um so some of it is working with different events that are coming across uh working on motivation you know within you know
100the faculty how the leaders have access to different you know curriculum or pieces that are there that they can use to in turn promote leadership with parents and I've talked to Dr. about this in the past how we work with staff, but that's differing in, you know, opinions or views where they're focused on where they are versus where leadership may be versus where the board is trying to go with the charter to where everybody is on the same page. And it's really about driving trust. Uh because that's the the biggest piece is having that trust that everybody is doing their jobs to meet that end goal and allowing everybody to feel part of that community. Because as you get bigger, it's very easy to be focused on your piece or I'm just a parent or
101I'm just a cog. I can't change that. where a lot of people today feel they have a voice, they have, you know, an ability to participate in change and do great things for the school and we want to continue to keep that type of culture. >> Question number three, >> uh what do you see as the appropriate role of the board versus school leadership and how do you maintain that distinction in practice? >> Sure. Um so that's something I have to do today being in you know senior leadership um I have to set guiding principles of where we want to go what it needs to be keeping us on the rules putting different you know guidelines or or rails on it where school leadership has to execute you know those and sometimes they have to
102come back and tell us when you know a rule isn't working or how we need to update or change or what's necessary to be able to go with that and our way of finding how do we enable them to do that while staying within our rules within the charter that's in it. Um, so it's a balance and it's very much a partnership that has to go back and forth from where we're driving, where we're going, enabling, you know, that we're doing it in a productive and successful manner. We're staying within budgets, um, while also enabling all those great things I talked about previously that's being executed by that school leadership. We want to be an enabler on the board and keeping us on the straight narrow, not an indent that slows down the ability for
103us to have successful, grow, and attractive place to bring our students. Thank you. >> Welcome Mike R. >> What what do you believe are the greatest challenges currently facing IIA and what role should the board play in addressing them while ensuring proper? >> Sure. So I touched on it a little bit earlier. Um it's a great thing, but it's also a challenge. At the same time as the explosive growth of the school, um having been around, you know, 5 years plus, um the amount of students that we've had here has grown significantly. The staff to support that has grown. Uh facilitywise, we're starting to bust at the seam. So that brings a lot of challenges that as the board, we have to look at how do we support the school leadership. How do we work
104with all the partnerships, whether it's Irvine International School District or splitting and working with another school district, what does that do to the students? What does that do to the community? What does it do to the leadership financially? We're bringing on duplicate staff that comes into it. How do we get ahead of that to where we can keep the growth going forward that enables our leadership to be able to focus on the day-to-day which is educating our students and running that um while not losing what we have. Um so it is a looking at growth versus scalability versus maintaining everything that got us here and being very humble about that. Um it takes a proactive look and investment to be able to do it. Um versus working members are working within the confinements. Sometimes it's
105lobbying and working, you know, with those other entities that help support us in that charter. Um, and I think that's one of the biggest, you know, challenges that we're going to have is maintaining that culture, that drive that really makes I different while working with all these entities that, you know, really enable us to be who we are. Any any clarification on that? >> That's pretty pretty straightforward questions. question. Can you uh can you support and publicly uphold a board decision uh you disagree with and please explain how you would handle that situation? >> Sure. It comes down to something I mentioned earlier which is trust and integrity. We have to have trust in our fellow board members and trust in our leadership. And while a decision may not be one that I personally occasionally
106after, I can't always be right. I have to, you know, have that trust in my fellow board members, you know, within, you know, the leadership, you know, the school that is the right thing going forward and, you know, have that integrity that we've collectively made that decision. It needs to been expressed, people, you know, heard those opinions. But at the end of the day, it's just like I have to do, you know, in my role as an executive leader that I have to do what is right and what needs to go forward, even if it differs from maybe a personal opinion that I have. Um, and we have to drive that forward and execute it just as much. it was an opinion that I was very much behind. Um, and that comes down to integrity.
107You have to have that. You have to drive it forward. Um, and you have to be able to be able to make those decisions where if you only go by what's great for you, then you don't belong in that place because you're not making a decision. You're not open to different ideas. You're not driving, you know, innovation and new cultures. Um, instead, you're just doing everything your way in the way that you choose. not somebody that's a leader. >> Okay, question six. From a governance perspective, what priorities should the board set regarding academic performance and program offerings? >> Um, so part of it comes down to our charter. A lot of that is outlined in our charter where we go, you know, what things that we're offering. Um, charter can be updated, you know, or
108changed going through, but we always need to revert back to, you know, parts of that as to where we're going, you know, how far. Uh but it's also enabling ideas of our leadership like the mandatory masters program where we're promoting things that make the school special. It's something that we can do very internally to the school. Um gets a lot of parent involvement, you know, gives a lot of stuff back to our students. Um but also then chasing, you know, those national and state based, you know, areas. Do we need to bring in additional resources? Do we need to increase our steaming capabilities? Is there technology that would enable us to go after those um all the way down to looking at curriculum? um is there a curriculum that is new and challenging um that
109the leadership wants to change or wants to come into it. Um how do we work with the parents? There are certain times where we can look at what the state requirements are, what you know those pieces are versus the curriculum that's being looked at by our educators which are the experts, which is what we're looking for. Um versus what we may hear in the community that somebody is very attached to something. Um and we find out how does it benefit our students? How does it drive things forward? How does it meet all the that are there and it's a guidance um you know it's it's really listening having that feedback to where everybody feels that we're open and included in that culture um so that we can assist in you know our you know leadership
110of the school question number seven uh what are your views on board composition including parent versus non-parent representation and how should the board approach a potential expansion to additional campuses. >> Sure. Um, so I'll start with the first one on the board composition. Um, I don't believe any candidate should be excluded because they are not a parent of the school. I do feel that it's beneficial that you're a parent of the school because you have an extra, you know, involvement and investment, you know, in the profitability of the school, the growth of the school and those factors. Um, but if somebody has the right qualifications, they should be looked at equally. It is about doing the right thing to be able to enable the our values and what we're trying to drive forward. Um, you
111know, and and it really is based on the right candidate for the position. Um, you know, when it comes to expansion, as I touched on a little bit earlier, um, expansion of additional campuses, it is about capacity planning, it is about growth planning. Um, is it something that we've talked about in the past where we split based on grade levels and maybe we do a middle school or something else that's there to something that is just, you know, elementary or we do a duplicate where we do it based on location and these students are closer to this location, these students are closer to this one. It allows us to service, you know, different areas of the community and not be stuck to one school system to where maybe instead of just Irvine International or I'm
112sorry, Irvine Unified School District, maybe Saddleback, maybe we could have VA or something else and we're driving another area that we can bring everything that we've done amazingly here um to those then is that a duplicate is that another you know K through eight um or is it you know a smaller one and that goes back to my idea on capacity planning you know growth you know what is the drive for it because there's pros and cons to both um if you look at cloning and duplicating you're servicing a new area bringing in additional families duplicating what we've done here but there's budget costs and concerns that comes with Whereas if you break it up, you have a cultural issue that you can have where you have a parent now that maybe has a seventh
113or eighth grader and they've got to go to one school because that's the middle school and they've got a fourth or fifth grader and now they're trying to figure out how do we get to both? Where do we go? So there's never a perfect answer, but it's trying to look at the diversity of our students where they are the outside factors like the school systems that we are getting our facilities from and trying to balance those. I wish there was a simpler answer I could give you, but it is a complex one that requires a lot of thought and careful planning. >> What's your view then on middle school being a different site or middle school continuing to be here, but we copy this model, this same grade level? um based on issues that I've
114heard from him on some of the the committees, I I think in our current fashion, it the easiest answer maybe to support the middle school, but it does have some drawbacks to it. Um that is probably the fastest facility issues that we've had working with Irvine Unified. Um there are cultural problems as I mentioned with that we have to work through um and come across and it will be hard on the parent community but sometimes there's additional value in it with what we're doing back how we do staffing and planning that's coming across it maybe different things that we're able to offer with the new space or capabilities. Um I do feel in the future we would need to clone the school as we continue to grow. Um and it could be that we initially
115do a split that's really driven off of facility and our our growth that comes out of it. Um but eventually I thinking m that we've seen some of the other charter schools do is a path that we're heading towards. Um, looking at enrollment, I'd have to look a little bit closer to see where that gap is. Um, we may be closer to splitting and doing a call than I think, but it's one where I've been very focused on just the renewal this year on Dr. Henry's advisory board. So, >> we have 30 seconds. >> Does anyone have a question? I have a question. So you've been here for four years. >> Yes, sir. >> So you've seen a lot of changes. >> I have seen a lot. >> So I'm curious where you see the
116school now and you've seen all the changes. >> Um I see the school uh very similar to when I first came on board. There were some rough patches. I came on board after the first year that that wasn't so good. I don't have any history to speak to on that except rumors and I don't think that's valid to speak to. Um Dr. Bean, you did some great things. Not always, you know, the easiest or most popular hindsight, but it enabled a lot of things, drove a lot of culture that, you know, parents feel really resonated to and worked well with the board. Um, we had some things as things changed and everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Uh, it was very hard. I think that comes back to that trust and that culture that I
117spoke to that people just felt disjointed. That disjointed allowed us to not have trust. Everybody was examining why are we doing this? What is behind this? Where are we going? instead of actually looking at the facts of the decisions that were coming in there. So it was a very emotional response instead of factoral response. Um and and towards you know part of that that's why I got very involved that's actually how I met Dr. Henry the first time as she was coming on board. Um was just speaking about hey these are some things that that was around it. One of the first things you'll probably remember I talked about was just communication. Let's talk to let's make sure everybody knows what's going on. If we communicate clearly sometimes a little bit extra fun it brings
118people back to where it needs to be and I think that's one of the I touch on trust and culture. Um that I feel allows us to do the right things to set the guiding principles to be able to do the growth. Um and it allows people to feel comfortable going, okay, the board's in charge of this. They know what they're doing. The school leadership is executing upon all those pieces and the parents are reaping the benefits and our students are just having fun. They're being educated. They're learning cool things and they're having fun doing it. Um, you know, there was a time here where my daughter was like, I'm not sure this isn't, you know, what it used to be and this year has been amazing for her. She participated very well in the
119manner masters. You know, I've been involved as Dr. Henry and Mr. school this year. Um, and that involvement I've seen, you know, is back and forth where the leadership is reaching out to us as parents. You know, what we do and I met last year. Um, you know, and you know, obviously Philip and I have known each other a couple times. But I think it's one where that involvement across the board has really brought back the community. Um, and that's one where I want to continue to see it grow as part of my focus. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I want to thank you for your participation in this process and thank you for being part of IIA and for your contribution many committees. We we're grateful to you >> and thank you guys for
120giving me the time and audience today. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you, Michael. Yeah, I I do have one qu one more question. I'm not going to put up quickly. Yeah, very quick. I mean, you've been here for four years, your daughter's here. You you mentioned a lot about a culture, right? >> I I like that. But what do you see, you know, the the cultural aspect you'd like to reinforce and uh you know, if you wanted to exert some change, what would that be? >> Um the the biggest part that original outside of it being a multi- language, so who speak English and Russian and now Mandarin with my daughter. Um, that's an inclusion on its own. There's a lot of things that come personally from different people's cultures. We also have a
121big Spanish community here as well. Um, so that's a lot of personal cultures that are involved. There's a lot of learning for kids instead of just what they're used to. So, it's a lot of pieces in that, but the other was the way the teachers interacted. The teachers were very invested in their students and that was something that I enjoyed a lot growing up. Um, I have an older daughter 26 years old and going through the school system that she was in. It was let me just educate you. Let's get you out. It was more a factoring mentality. Um we're here to the teachers were very involved and there's several that I could name that um they cared about the students. They knew about the students. They say hi to this day. Um when we're
122out doing pickups and everything else and they remember, you know, multiple students, not just, you know, my daughter's name. That's a level of involvement where it's not just I'm educating, I'm doing, and I do it because I love it. It's I care about these kids. care about the success that's in there and that translates back to the parents. There's several of them that you know are known you know coming across. There's also several that you know that maybe spoke up and had an opinion that could have been done differently or said in a different way and I'd like to help guide that as well where people feel that they're heard without being disrespectful or being lost in something. Um, and you know, that's what I see it coming back to. It's just that, you know,
123we've got a very open door policy that we can discuss that people feel involved, they feel, you feel being heard. Um, and that allows us to be able to do great things. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate your time today. >> I can get those and then I'll walk you out and I'll get our last. Thank you. All right. Football. Thank you so much. which is great. So, you you have a you have the questions, but they're also taped in front of you like a little bit. >> Okay. >> Um and I'll explain a little bit more about the process to you. Make sure you're speaking. >> Okay. Would you like me to bring one? Yes. >> Welcome. >> Thank you for joining us. >> I have an
124additional topic which is fine. So I don't >> only Thank you. And can you do you mind confirming your name? >> Daria and >> Daria. Thank you so much for joining us. >> Okay. >> Here you go. >> Okay. So, just high level explaining the process. We've got five candidates tonight, four candidates on May 19th, and then for those that will advance to round two, that that meeting will be in June, I think. So, we've got uh 15 minutes. uh uh seven questions. Uh we will start with Molly and then we'll go through each of the questions for each of the each of the board members. Um I wanted to thank you first off for submitting your CV. We have that in your cover letter. So appreciate that. Uh and with that we'll start with
125the first question. >> All right. Um this first question has two parts. Um tell us about your background and what draws you to serve on the board of IA and also uh if selected and what will be your top priority in your first year? Uh so again my name is Daria. I'm uh Russian born moved here six and a half years ago. My son goes to the school. That's like a very short personal introduction. I'm a CPA. I work in external audit at a big four company KPMG. and been with the firm my whole professional life. Um, what draws me to serve on the board is both personally and professionally. So, personally, of course, because my child goes here, I care a lot about the school and its development. I know it's expanding a lot.
126So, I feel like I can bring a lot of value. uh which brings me to my second part of the question which is my professional interest because I work in audit which is financial oversight risk management and I do believe that this qualities are extremely important basically for the um board for a nonprofit charter school right um so yeah that's my short >> answer to that question >> okay Uh what specific skills, experiences or networks would you bring to the board and how would you actively contribute to advancing the school's mission? >> Uh as I mentioned, I work in audit. So pretty much my whole profession is to be in oversight of financial performance of companies, right? So I work with PCOB companies, ACPA companies and I have a lot of experience providing insights and
127guiding our companies and I feel like I can add that value to the board and to the school. Um so how I would actively contribute right so I would be part of every meeting and um share my experience at my network which I have a lot of um like CPAs in my network and you know in accounting and into um both professional world right so like my clients are also in my network um yeah again specific skills I'm also a project manager. So, I feel like that's a great skill especially in our like fast-paced world which it can help you know organizing and uh prioritizing agendas and the items on the on the lists. >> Thank you. Yeah. Question number three, what do you see as the appropriate role of the board versus uh versus
128the school leadership and how do you maintain that distinction in practice? >> Uh well the board's main mission is fiduciary, right? So it's not to manage the school, it's to oversight the management and leadership. And it's uh extremely important to distinguish that right. So the board oversees the whole process of school management. Um so board is more strategic right so it helps and looks into the mission and how to stay aligned with the values of the school and missions. Uh and it's extremely important not to drift into uh day-to-day operations. Right? So it's more of a management role. Um and so how to maintain that distinguish first of all board should be 100% independent of the uh management right so it should not be affected by any of that um yeah that's I guess my
129answer >> thank you welcome Daria what do you believe are the greatest challenges currently facing I and what role should the board play in addressing them while ensuring proper oversight? >> I would say the um biggest challenge is uh school's expansion because the number of students is rising. I should say the popularity let's call the popularity of a school is rising because even in my you know parent network people are talking about the school I see the weight list to the school and all that and um it's extremely important not to lose quality right not to just start uh trying to get more stu students again um losing quality of and culture and values all of that so the board's mission here is just to stay aligned with the mission. Again, just all of the
130values of school should be uh covered by the board and just oversight of management and not to pay too much. So just to be aligned with huge huge expansion that is coming in my belief, right? But again just trying to stay on top of the priorities which is quality values uh of for the students and the whole school. Thank you. Um, can you support and publicly uphold a board decision that you disagree with and please explain how you would handle that situation? uh so in my day work I have some disagreements quite a lot like with clients with my team uh but I am a factbased person right so evidence-based person so that's extremely important to me uh that I you know something should be proved for me in audit we have the saying that
131it's if it's not document or not proved it did not happen right so for me I still would follow the fact patterns and principle based conclusions, right? So I would still want the decisions to be aligned with the mission and strategy of the board, right? So if and I shouldn't say that like you know I am a com person who likes comfort. >> Oh my m it's okay. >> No, it's okay. We for the recording we'll give you mine. >> Okay. >> But um in the meantime we'll change out the batteries. Thank you. >> Uh so >> it's on. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh so again um what I was saying that I still would prefer all the decisions to be fact-based and proven. Um and I'm not a person who likes conflict and but
132also I don't want to just avoid a conflict if I don't believe in something that I'm saying. So I would say that if the decision that I personally disagree for example right there's something um I can personally disagree but it aligns with the principles and values of the school I would say I would hold a decision but again only if it's aligns with um what we believe in as a board as a whole entity. Thank you. >> Okay. Question six, from a governance perspective, what priorities should the board set regarding academic performance and program offerings? >> Um, I would say that the the choice of academic programs and um performance is more of a management function, right? But for the board, what is important is to um regularly review the data like looking into the
133trends, looking into the breakdown of the data by for example English learners, Mandarin learners and all of that. So just to receive the correct and timely data to assess what management is proposing or performing um and um maybe placing some safeguards, right? So some decisions can only be should be only approved by the board. So management cannot make that decision. um carefully and um another part of that would be resources, right? So board should be in allocation of the resources that budget is approved by the board and um correct resources allocated to the correct programs and everything is budget based. >> Question seven, what are your views on board composition including parent versus nonparent representation. How should the board approach potential expansion into additional campuses >> on the board composition? I would say um it's
134great when there is a balance, right? So both parent and non-parent members bring value. For example, parents would of course bring a lot of personal engagement, right? So all of that, but they're not as independent as the non-parent uh members, right? So non-parent members can bring more objectivity to the board. Uh maybe more professional knowledge, expertise uh that some parents uh may not have. But again, I would say that there should be a balance right in the composition. And the second part um potential expansion to additional campuses. Um me as a parent I would love that but as an auditor uh I do see quite a lot of risks in in that right. So um there's financial mostly financial risks and also risks of um you know um losing attention I would say. Uh so
135like losing some of the value that schools bring and um like the just the quality of the education because it's of course it's uh more difficult to manage and oversee multiple campuses. Uh so there should be uh rigorous work before this decision is made made. Um and um again it should be reviewed in many details including the maybe looking into the trends looking into demographics of potential canvases that u the surroundings of that potential canvas. Um there's there should be a def definite very thorough review before even even consider probably even considering the expansion to a new campus. But again as a parent I would love that. because I I'm a big fan of the school. So really wanted to have more kids to have um open their potential in a school like this. >>
136Thank you. >> Okay, that's the seven questions. How many? >> We have three and a half minutes. >> Followup questions. >> Just a quick question. Did you catch um what children you had school and which class? >> Uh, so I have one son. Uh, he is in TK currently. He only started in January just because it was like part of our decision to hold him back, but then we changed our mind and we're a little bit sad about that. We didn't start as we were supposed to start. But yeah, so I had one son and he's in TK right now. Um, before I started school, he only spoke Russian. So, it's like I'm putting him to quite a challenge, but I do see a lot of progress and he I'm he's thriving at the school
137and he likes to learn and he's always at the front row. So, yeah. >> How did you hear about the school? How did you >> um So, again, my son is four and a half years old. Um I cannot answer your question accurately just because I don't remember, but I know that I, you know, had the school in mind since he he was like two years old. because we are in Irvine. I would say probably somebody of some of my friends mentioned it to me or maybe I was doing some you know crazy mom research and you know my child is to um to research all of the schools but that's how I came across but yeah it's >> it always was like top of my list and I was very very grateful then we
138went to an open house tour um to to a tour and um Miss Rose just mentioned why don't you start now probably to get into the kindergarten you might be weight listed. Yeah, sure. >> We're taking the opportunity and so we're just very lucky to end it up at the end of the class. >> We're lucky to have you. >> Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you very much for being a part of IIA and for going through this process and helping to support the school. We appreciate your time and your interest. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll take the question. >> It's okay. >> Do you have all your things? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you again. >> Well, that was me. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We
139shouldn't need that one anymore. >> So, >> okay. So, that was the last candidate. Thank you again to all those that interviewed this evening. Uh, moving on to items for discussion and possible action. We've got approved the stipen schedule for 2026 27. IIA leadership has reviewed and updated certificated stipens to ensure clarity, consistency, and alignment with staff responsibilities. This includes the addition of a PBIS coordinator stipen, an intram mural sports coordinator, and up to three trainer of trainer stipens. The purpose is to recognize specialized duties and provide leadership opportunities for IIA staff. LCAP goal action goal one action one, goal one, action two, and goal one action 15 funding source LCFF funds and ELOP funds. budget financial impact not to exceed 21,000 LCFF funds and 40,000 ELO funds will be reflected in the 2627 budget.
140It's recommended the board of directors approve action item A discussion. Um I do want to share that um the stipen schedule for last year was quite a um quite an approval by the board because we had we approved doctoral stipens and master stipens and those types of stipens after having discussion. Um those are also reflected on the salary schedule. So and they are more um stipens of merit and or enhancement to employee contracts. So we've removed them from this is for more additional duties. Um the ILT stipens are we're maintaining. Um the PBIS stipend was added. However, I do want to share that um we already had a PBIS coordinator. She just logged her hours and um logged well more than you know she needed. We figured having a stipend was agreeable to both our
141PBIS coordinator, our team as well as management. And then finally, the trainer of trainers stipens are were included uh with the approval and their training of thinking maps. So there two people um and actually it's up to three and I'm happy to say the the piece I was missing was the Mandarin piece and I did have someone express interest today. So, we'll I'll be meeting with that person this week. Um, and they're really going to be responsible for well, first they'll be learn how to train new teachers in thinking maps. So, then as we enroll new staff or we want refreshers, we do not need to bring the company in anymore. And then also, they will stay one step ahead with the writing program right from the beginning. So their next step after being thinking
142maps trained will be narrative writing and then they'll help support the staff. So it actually will lower the cost and build capacity among our staff. >> Okay. Questions? >> Is there a motion? >> Thank you, Molly. Is there a second? >> I will second. >> Thank you. We'll take a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Moving to approve direct declaration of need for fully qualified educators for the 2627 school year. Declaration of need known as DAN is an annual document required by a local education agency as a prerequisite for the issuance of any emergency permit and or limited assignment permit. The 26 27 Dawn allows IIA to apply to the California Commission on Teacher Credentiing for the issuance of emergency crosscultural language and
143bilingual academic development e-clad and or limited term assignment permits for teachers. Lap goal action goal one action two funding source not applicable budget financial impact not applicable. It's recommended the board of directors approve action item B. My only comment is is that this is very routine. Um we do not have a need right now. It's anticipating in case we do although um right now our applicant pools are so large that I think we'll be able to get fully credentialed applicants and I'll share a little bit about that during my update. >> Can we approve, you know, similar things in the past? Yes, actually you approved it twice last year. So there was um once that was approved and then there was a modification moved and actually I I do go back and look at all
144the previous board agendas quite often and so I would say yes you have approved it every year and um it it is very routine. >> Okay. Uh is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve. I'm happy to second. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed, please say nay. Hearing none, it passes. Okay. Executive director's report. >> Okay. Um well, I'll start with our um applicant pools. Uh we are still planning for next year, but because this is the prime time, we have flown um a Mandarin teacher pool, an elementary school teacher pool, um we're looking at um having two PE teachers. So, a PE teacher pool and um I I'm very pleased to say also the ED specialist just flying to see what's out there. That was a position
145that was approved. Um although we're still pending looking at our numbers for next year. Um it is quite amazing the number. And then um Mr. Sun, you said something, you know, about us having like the best staff and um that we're really working towards that. I believe that that was a comment that you made. Um within two weeks we were up to in the 80s for our elementary school we had 60 PE teachers apply even for Mandarin we're up to I think it's 13 and that is quite unusual. We also go through and check all the requirements so that you know we may not need that dawn and um a good number of them are fully credentialed and with what they need um it it has the interest um in our school has been quite
146amazing. So I did want to share that when it comes to uh uh people wanting to come here and apply to our school. Um, I on the 22nd of April, I had the privilege of attending Orange County Department of Education Civic Learning Pathway Awards because 84% uh, and that's 113 students of our third, fifth, and eighth grade earned the Pathway to Civic Learning award. This was something that our teachers did. And I have a highlight. Um, we will be giving these awards at the end of the year. So, the students haven't received them yet, but I have them. Um, I went to pick them up that evening as well. But, um, if I could give one quick example, um, our fifth graders were doing their state projects and it's a project that they do every
147year. And so I met with the fifth grade team to really talk about how how do we take a project that we're already doing and enhance it with the civic learning student voice real world audiences. And what they decided to do since they were researching the state is they wrote letters to the governors of each state that they um were researching and they uh talked about some of the issues and things that they um thought were really important or things that they thought the state could do better. And we received a response. So really exciting. um fifth grade student Tristan Zoo. He wrote to the governor of Massachusetts about um preserving uh natural parks uh state parks in Massachusetts and all the resources that they bring. And um he did receive a response from Governor
148Mororrow Mora Healey and um if I could just read like the first line or two, it it it just touches my heart of of what what they had to say. So um she reached out and said, "I would like to, you know, dear Tristan, I would like to thank you for exercising your civic duty and writing such a thoughtful letter. Lieutenant Governor Driscoll and I deeply value the voices of young people like you who remind us of what a privilege it is to serve the beautiful state of Massachusetts. And then she goes on to say more, but it really it that is that is the core of civic learning and that is something that I'm extremely passionate about and wanted to bring here. Um so I wanted to share that success with you and we're
149just going to grow from here. I thought that was wonderful. Um, I did want to share that one of our students, uh, her name's Katie Jang, won a national championship for artistic swim under 12 years old. So, dad is so proud, our students are so proud. I will say that when um, we do become aware of that and it's not the first time. We also had a um we had some students of ours that are gymnasts who actually won a world competition or at least placed in Bulgaria. So u Mr. Smitter will add those kind of highlights to his weekly update. So I did want to share that >> share with you. >> You were going to share with me. I am very aware. So I we're very excited but but please I hope you
150can share in your update as well. >> Um and then I'll just two more things. Yeah, we have offered all spaces. So, we're technically full with a growing weight list. It's growing again after we've offered all the spaces. We're up to 276 additional students on the wait list. Um and then also we are working with our current students on intent to returns just to see if anyone's moving. And um so far we just I think we put it out yesterday we have 172 returned and only uh notification that one person is moving. So um we're keeping our students. We're getting a lot of interest and buzz out in the community. And then finally um I do want to remind us all about the spring fling. Buy your tickets. Supporting PTO supports the school. And I
151know that our PTO has been so supportive of of my personal vision and things that I want to accomplish at the school and so I am so thankful. Uh but we um are will be celebrating um our fifth year families and there are 60 families that have been here all five years and that represents 78 students. >> Yep. And then um also nine staff members. So, uh, that that will conclude my update. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Wonderful update. >> Thank goodness. All right, moving next to the board of directors reports. >> I'll go fast. Go fast. How's that? A >> little short. So, just, you know, I the bottom line is word's getting out, right? Positive word is finally getting out. So, not only are we doing well financially,
152which I'm sure is happening here, right? But you know, just that positive news or that positive reputation is getting out and people are no longer really looking at that first year, >> right? Even the second, maybe even the third, they are looking at what we are now and what we can do in the future. And I think our decisions as a board in the future have to reflect that you know we have to consider that you know something you know as we talk about expansion and things of those nature we really have to think about that that's got to be a big factor for us. The other thing of course the spring fling is coming out as you all know that's a big moment for me because I will be MCing that we have we
153did some research we've been to the facility it will be at Mariners church there and Um, it's going to be a big show. So guys, buy your tickets early. That helps us plan. So make another I make a request to anybody, you know, push to buy your tickets or sponsor events there. Um, Mandarin Masters, you know, I got to give a big shout out to to Tiffany, you know, because this would not have happened as well as it did without her, right? You know, she's a big reason why. Uh I think I think when we hired her uh IA uh expanded exponentially. That's the way I see it. She just took off and is going in the right direction and she's a great asset here and that's all. Thank you. >> Well, um Dr. Harry,
154thank you for all those wonderful years that you shared with us and uh it just uh this family just, you know, we get to know more about the family, know more about our kids and um and I also, you know, just interview these five candidates today and what I see is they're they're they love this family. They love the IA. They want to be part of will do more together. Uh you know, for the students, for the staff um and and I'm just so so grateful and um knowing that that our students are getting into state testing. So I wish all the best for for them. Um but I know we it's going to be a success. you look at the teachers putting their effort in, the parents are uh so I look forward to
155a result just going through this and we're going through with them. So wish them all the best. Well, first of all, I'm very very glad every time you sitting here, you know, see some kids winning some awards and uh it's a very very gratifying and feel very happy about it and uh and today actually I want to share that you know um K on first place right championship the duet and kids below 12 years old. That's number one. That's something truly amazing because someday that's going to be a big event. They're going to say, "Hey, they had a kid came out of IA. I I suggest we should put a banner somewhere on the >> graduate. Graduate." >> Yeah. Graduate from alumni. >> Yeah. remember that that's not easy because I know from a a
156previous experience in southern also uh some people basically graduated that was they actually won some you know top three or swimming and eventually headed to Harvard and Princeton and you said hey I feel you know it's >> so that's really something we should keep in All right. And um today also I just follow on today's interview and also I feel very very happy to see some of the parents you know come out and they're basically applying for for a position. happy to see that because that that's a very good sign strong side and they would like to get involved and to make a contributions you know regardless uh background or personal experience but they just you know take actions to stand out that's a very positive sign right I'm very happy and we take them
157very very serious I really took a lot of notes and carefully to evaluate you know which should go forward. So just don't want to give any initial feedback. I I think you know looking good, right? Thank you for organizing all this. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you for the wonderful news. So many so much so much wonderful news. It's >> it's great. >> It's continuous. We love it. We just love I just want to thank you all. again for your time invested a lot of time and your expertise your stories and just so thank you very much Dr. Henry, thank you. You've been handling a lot. Staff's been handling a lot. It's been a really great situation. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Uh, okay. Moving to adjournment. Recommend the board adjourn the regular meeting
158of the Irvine International Academy board of directors on April 28th, 2026. Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion to >> Thank you, David. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. >> Any oppose, please say nay. None passes. Meeting adjourned. >> Two. >> Yes.