Achievement Preparatory Academy Public Charter School

“The board may designate one or more trustees as alternate members of any committee, who may replace any absent or disqualified member at any meeting of the committee. The chair shall appoint the chairperson of each committee, except of the governance committee which shall select its own chairperson. Such committees shall have all the powers delegated by the board except that no committee shall have the power to (a)authorize distributions, (b)approve or recommend to the board the dissolution, merger, or the sale, pledge or tranfer of all or substantially all of achievement preparatory academy's assets, (c)elect, appoint, or remove trustees or fill vacancies on the board or on any of its committees; or (d)adopt, amend or repeal achievement preparatory academy's articles of incorporation or bylaws. Each committee and each member of each committee shall serve at the pleasure of the board of trustees.”

“The organization only keeps minutes on its full board meetings, not committee level meetings. The committees report to the full board, where decisions are then made.”

“After the fiscal year audit and the draft form 990 are complete and delivered to management, the finance committee of the board of trustees reviews the 990 with management and discusses any changes and recommendations with management and the auditors before a final form 990 is filed. A copy of the form 990 is also provided at the board meeting.”

“Each trustee, officer and member of a committee with board-delegated powers shall annually sign a statement which confirms that such person: a)has received a copy of the conflict of interest policy; b)has read and understands the policy; c)has agreed to comply with the policy; and d)understands that achievement preparatory academy is a charitable organization and that, in order to maintain its federal tax exemption, it must engage primarily in activities which accomplish one or more of its tax-exempt purposes. Determining whether a conflict of interest exists: after disclosure of financial interest and all material facts relating thereto, and after any discussion thereof, the trustee, officer or committee member shall leave the board of trustees' meeting while the financial interest is discussed and voted upon. The remaining board of trustees shall decide if a conflict of interest exists. After exercising due diligence, the board of trustees shall determine whether achievement preparatory academy can obtain a more advantageous transaction or arrangement with reasonable efforts from a person or entity whose involvement would not give rise to a conflict of interest. If a more advantageous transaction or arrangement is not reasonably attainable, the board of trustees shall determine by a majority vote of the disinterested trustees whether the transaction or arrangement is in achievement preparatory academy's best interest and for its own benefit, and whether the transaction is fair and reasonable to achievement preparatory academy and shall make its decision as to whether to enter into the transaction or arrangement in conformity with such determination. If the board of trustees has reasonable cause to believe that a trustee, officer or committee member has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, it shall inform said individual of the basis for such belief and afford him or her an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose. If, after hearing the response of the trustee, officer or committee member and making such further investigation as may be warranted in the circumstances, the board of trustees determines that the member has in fact failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, it shall take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.”

“At least annually, the board of trustees contacts other public charter schools located within the district of columbia and inquires about the salary of their executive director (or equivalent), as well as the average compensation of staff educators. The responses obtained are used to develop a market survey which the board of trustees uses in setting performance goals and compensation for the executive director. The board of trustees has delegated compensation and evaluation responsibilities to the executive director for all other employees. The most recent year in which the process for determining compensation for the top officials was 2014.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”