Board Meeting Minutes 10/22
Odyssey School Board Agenda
Date: 10/22/2025
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: In Person
Centering: Centering activity focused on brainstorming ideas for engaging the community in posting reviews on Niche and Google Reviews to help drive enrollment and further positive brand positioning for the school .
Next Meeting Date: November 19, 2025
Approval of Meeting Minutes- last month’s minutes approved
Public Comment - Rush
No public comments brought up at the 10/22 meeting
Head of School Report - Anne and Peter
Elder’s Day Report:
Recap: Event was a massive success with high participation from elders and family members for students across all grades. L+L marketing activities successfully engaged families and the PTO-led craft stations added further infrastructure to the day for ways for the elders/family members to engage with students during their visit
Opportunities: For Elder’s Day this year, high school students invited family members to join them for lunch and it worked very well (6 family members attended). We are exploring hosting quarterly family lunches for high school students to build on the success we saw on Elder’s Day
Action Items: No immediate action items at this time.
Meeting with UNCA
Recap: Rush, Lauren, Anne, and Peter had a very positive meeting with senior leadership team members at UNCA. The meeting was much more collaborative than previous meetings and the UNCA team expressed interest in deepening the partnership and establishing student programming across UNCA and Odyssey. The timing of the meeting was ideal given that UNCA is back at square one with their development planning and their planning is completely open for discussion at this time. The group also discussed the lease and starting with a 3-year lease as the foundation for a longer term solution
Opportunities: Define student programming initiatives between UNCA and Odyssey. Continue to build on the relationship with the UNCA team members that we met with and grow a positive relationship from there
Action Items: Maintain communication with UNCA regarding lease terms and set date by which we would like to have the lease signed by to guide our follow up conversations with them
MNA and Uplift Program
Overview: Last year we began work with the Montford Neighborhood Association to create a grant called the Uplift Grant that provides funding for neighborhood disaster support. The grant has been successfully funded.
Opportunities: Through the grant, Odyssey will have access to professional conferencing camera, microphones, speakers, and TV to further enhance our technology options for meetings and student use. We will also receive funding for bike racks.
Action Items: None at this time.
Finance and Budget Report - Jen
Recap:
2026-2027 tuition proposals will be presented at the November 19 board meeting for review and approval
There is a family that owes the school $8,800 that the finance team is working on. The issue has been escalated to small claims court with a tentative court date of November 13 at 2pm.
Opportunities: None at this time.
Action Items: Peter and Jen to stay in touch regarding small claims court date and legal support Peter can provide on the issue
Key documents for reference:
Admissions and Enrollment - Anne
Recap:
Enrollment and recruitment: Our current enrollment is at 118 students. New enrollment includes a 10th grader who started on 10/21 and two potential new students (one 8th grade, one in 4th grade). Our tour activity has been strong with 14 scheduled tours in the month of October. Upcoming recruitment activities include the Rainbow High School Showcase on December 4.
Re-Enrollment: The early bird deadline for re-enrollment will be December 18. The incentive this year will be that the re-enrollment fee of $276 will be waived for those who re-enroll by December 18. We are continuing with incentives as we have seen those work well. Last year’s re-enrollment rate was 86%.
Opportunities: Engage high school parents for upcoming recruitment events to help provide perspective/interest in the high school program
Action Items: Any board members who are high school parents are encouraged to participate in the upcoming recruitment event
Marketing
Recap: Peace, Love, and Wellness campaign exceeded $30,000 goal significantly. Student-led approach with classroom incentives proved to be highly effective. Next marketing event will be the Friendsgiving Chili Cook-Off on November 22.
Opportunities: Re-thinking overall fundraising strategy based on success of Peace, Love, and Wellness campaign, specifically exploring doing fewer events with tactics that drive higher returns. This would mean eliminating smaller fundraising events in favor of two major fundraising events as key fundraising tentpoles during the year (Peace, Love, and Wellness and Odyssey in Bloom).
Action Items: None at this time.
Upcoming events and further notes are noted in marketing report below
Human Resources - Peter
Staffing Updates
Recap: Mariel, Student Counselor, resigned. Her resignation has opened the opportunity to explore a more impactful approach for counseling for the school. Part-time model deemed ineffective for school counseling needs. Until the school is in a position to hire a counselor full-time, Anne and Peter will take lead on Mariel’s responsibilities. Leila and Lindsay will take on more admissions and website management responsibilities that have been Anne and Peter’s responsibilities until now.
Opportunities: Continuing discussion on need for full-time counselor and slight concern of Heads of School serving as counselors and if that might be difficult for students to feel they have a completely neutral resource to turn to.
Action items: None at this time.
Staff orientation and professional development
Recap: Robin Skeen and Andrew Rabin present Best Practices presentations to teachers. Robin’s presentation focused on Responsive Classroom best practices. Andrew’s presentation focused on Assessment and Grading best practices
Opportunities: Teacher-led best practices sessions proving to be beneficial to the teacher community. Will continue doing the sessions.
Action items: None at this time.
Curriculum and Instruction
Recap: MAP Scores for 2024 - 2025 are available for viewing. Our results demonstrate strong academic standing with reading far above average (consistent historical pattern for Odyssey) and math scoring in the 60th percentile.
Opportunities: We are planning to share our results on social media to help promote the school’s academic strengths. Other measures discussed as measures to highlight to the public were showing the success rate to college applications and average scholarships received
Action items: Curriculum committee’s first meeting will be on October 29 at 4:30pm
Building and Facility - Clay and Peter
Recap:
Three new filtered water foundations have been installed. Classroom water bottles being discontinued.
Van purchase is complete at a total cost of $30,000. We paid cash and continuing to explore financing options should we need to do that. The old van sold for $12,000.
Old Business - N/A
New Business
Yearly Calendar and Board Sign Up (see below)
Action item: Board members encouraged to sign up for events they are able to attend. Name tags to be provided to board members to wear at school events.
Website
Action item: Ava to present draft of new website at November 19 board meeting. Board to determine scorecard for assessing website based on school’s strategic goals to make sure that the new design and feedback align with the school’s strategic goals
Strategic Plan
Action item: Continue diversity & inclusion discussion in next board meeting on November 19. Need to define what diversity means to Odyssey and set conservative vs. reach goals for diversity & inclusion.
Board Norms
Action item: To be discussed at next board meeting on November 19
Name of our school
Action item: Need to determine scorecard for assessing best school name option and align scorecard to school’s strategic goals
Calendar for the year - No further discussion or covered in meeting notes already
Future Agenda Items - No further discussion or covered in meeting notes already
Announcements - No further discussion or covered in meeting notes already
Adjournment - No further discussion or covered in meeting notes already
Closed Session Items - None
Odyssey School Board Contact Information:
Chairperson: Lauren Milling
Co-Chair : Rush Battle
Secretary: Erin Bowman
Marketing Report for 10/22 Board Meeting
Peace, Love & Wellness Campaign – A huge success, raising nearly $50,000 and generating exceptional community engagement. The campaign set a positive tone for the year and reinforced Odyssey’s mission of whole-child wellness and connection.
Learnings:
Have classrooms submit their incentives before we launch. Incentives created by kids really drove massive participation.
Smoother concession process and healthier concession offerings.
Elders Day Celebration – Attendance exceeded expectations, drawing nearly three times the number of guests anticipated. The day was filled with warmth, storytelling, and intergenerational connection — a true reflection of our community spirit.
Learnings:
Capture guest emails for ongoing communication and stewardship (and future campaign asks)
Encourage families to RSVP for their attending elders to support planning
Consider renaming the event to something more inclusive, such as “Special Grown-Up Day”
Positively Odyssey: Friendsgiving Chili Cookoff Saturday 11/22, 12-4p– A community event in development, honoring Odyssey’s past chili cookoffs while reimagining the experience for broader participation. This low-ticket, family-friendly gathering ($5–$15 per person) will feature a chili competition, potluck-style desserts, voting ballots, and fun activity stations including a bounce house, face painting, temporary tattoos, and s’mores kits for sale. It will feature communal style seating in the gym, solo stoves outdoors, and a musical performance by our school staff band.
The goal is to keep the event accessible, festive, and connection-focused—without an auction or fundraising component. Discussion points include whether to offer alcohol at the event and how best to highlight community contributions.
