The 19 minute F.A.M.E. Inc. board meeting this Saturday began with the Audubon Charter School’s Principal Janice Dupuy updating the board on her and Assistant Principal Dawn Collins’ recent attendance at the COMPASS School Leader Evaluator Training in Baton Rouge. The training program concentrated on the Common Core, a program that focuses on elevating expectations for student learning and teacher instruction.

“Eventually,” Principal Dupuy said, “all teacher and directors will have to undergo this evaluation process.”

In addition to the training report, Dupuy praised the students and administration on the new baseline School Performance Score (SPS) of 125.3 – an “A” rating- which qualifies Audubon Charter School for Top Gains, meriting the school a  yet to be determined monetary award by the Department of Education. Dupuy’s announcement of the new scores was met with applause as the school’s target goal is an increase of 2 points yearly, and this year’s score rose from 120.4 to 125.3 – a total growth of 4.9 points. Collins also mentioned that next year’s baseline scores would be based 95% on testing and 5% on dropout rate, as opposed to this year’s 90% testing, 5% attendance rate, and 5% dropout rate.

Dupuy was confident that Audubon would continue to score well, but would still focus on a holistic education and not on test scores.

The controversial Broadway construction– scheduled to begin on Monday, November 19– will take Thanksgiving Day off. The timeline has been solidified and construction should be completed for the 2014-2015 school year. However, the master plan for school construction is over budget by about 20 million dollars. The board is confident that the Broadway campus won’t be affected because construction has already began, but it is uncertain whether these conflicts will affect the Carrollton campus. In addition, school leaders and the Orleans Parish School Board are in the process of reviewing Isaac damages and are organizing reimbursement for repairs.

On the academic side, French School Director Elfi Cheynet introduced the French School Project which entails: a pedagogic focus on improving academic achievement and language retention, an institutional focus catering to the individual needs of students, and a development focus to create a professional learning environment at Audubon.

In addition to implementing this new program, students have collaborated in various ways, including an Olympic game contest with the Ecole Bilingue. Correspondence with a middle school in the French Riviera has commenced, and there are hopes to develop an exchange program there. Additionally, many of the younger Montessori students recently visited the Global Wildlife Center to learn more about animals in their natural habitats.

The finances committee revealed that “We still got money,” which led to applause from Chair Person Cornelius Tilton. The planned movement of some of the school’s funds into investment accounts has begun and finances are running according to budget.

The meeting wound down as Tilton requested that the board acquaint themselves with the Hi-bar system that oversees board duties.

The meeting adjourned at 10:27 with the absence of board members Eva Alito and Claire McDaniel.