About 1/3 of the families attended the Corporation meeting last Friday night from 5:30 to 6:30pm, at the Boone United Methodist Church. Children played in the gym while the adults attended the business meeting.

Board Chair Reneé Scherlen talked with the parents about the school’s real need for increased parent volunteerism. Volunteers are needed to assist teachers with support tasks, to maintain the school grounds and buildings, and for committees. Some volunteer opportunities are one-shot and others are continuing. Examples were: volunteers needed for skilled tasks like building repairs; at scheduled workdays for cleaning and manual labor; and for contributions of in-kind materials, e.g., the school needs several truckloads of gravel for the driveways. The parents then moved to ‘break-out’ groups for about 15 minutes to learn more about the school’s committees.

The group reassembled and Reneé spoke with the group about the school’s strategic and financial situation. The group’s discussion included: that hard-nosed fiscal control is the guiding principle of this Board; the Finance Committee believes the projected deficit for the year is now under control with the recent staffing changes; tuition will rise next year by an amount still to be determined; after-hours toddler care was asked about and the response was a 2006 study showed that offering was not able to break even financially; and student contracts for 07/08 will go out in March.

After a round of applause for Scherlen, the meeting adjourned to a pizza and potluck supper in the gym. Thanks to Frankie Haney for arranging for the venue; Allen Scherlen, Shane, Ian, Chaz, Emily and others who supervised the children, and the volunteers who came early to set-up and stayed afterwards to clean up.