Pinnacle Board Meeting Minutes
April 16th, 2026
Attendees in person: Kelly Cunningham, Pam Kaplan, Michelle Strasburger & Beth Marquis
Attendees via zoom: Kristen McQuaide, Alex Roosenberg, Kathleen Reardon & Kurt Simione
The meeting was called to order by Michelle. Meeting minutes from April 9th were approved.
Agenda Items:
Financial Update:
We will be closing on the Bank of NH loan tomorrow (April 17th), securing immediate cash flow. If we file the report a week early, we will be reimbursed with $11,000 in architect fees.
Our current bank balance is $16,000. Matt is fine with waiting to be paid. The lead inspection has been paid. We have $5,000 fund held by the fiscal agent we can use on non-reimbursable funds (that is in addition to the cash we have in the bank.
We will need a Capitalization Policy. It’s policies under the grant and general policies. Caitlin will summarize financial policies at our May 15th meeting. Anything $5,000 and under is considered an expense. For the first year, if we capitalize and depreciate those expenses (mostly technology stuff). This will avoid a big P&L loss in year one. June 30th is our year end date. We will be getting quarterly projections to show how much we need to fundraise. We will be receiving the funds from the state quarterly (possibly by the end of October).
Pinnacle Timeline:
$11,000 in architect fees are covered by the grant. There are some things in the 2nd phase quote that may be covered by the grant as well, possibly more if it can be proved that certain things are being done for safety purposes. The local official that does the certificate of occupancy may be able to sign something to get it covered. It’s our hope to get $20,000- $30,000 of the architect fees covered by the grant.
The two biggest priorities right now are fundraising for the school building and student enrollment. Michelle posted an enrollment post on the Pinnacle Facebook page. Beth will be working with Kathy to do two mass mailings…one for fundraising, and one for enrollment, that focuses on highlighting the schools AI and Tech components. Kelly would like to design this.
Pinnacle Operations:
If we use Questco’s 401K plan, all fiduciary responsibilities will be offloaded to them and Fidelity. There is a 90-day waiting period after hire, to give employees the option to opt out before they’re automatically enrolled. There are no direct administrative fees, and the participant fees are standard.
Pam made a motion for Michelle to enter into a 401K contract with Questco. Kelly seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Targeted Updates:
Technology- The first laptop has been shipped to Beth and should arrive by Monday or Tuesday. Kurt will be getting an invoice for this.
Inventory System- Alex spoke with Caitlin and she said many charter schools use excel spreadsheets to track inventory, so that is an option if we want to save money. The board agrees that for accurate tracking and auditing purposes, we prefer to us an inventory system.
Alex has done the research and recommends Asset Panda. You can start with up to five users. You can also have view-only users for an additional $10 a month. The $7,200 package links directly to Quick Books.
Kelly made a motion to have Alex sign the contract with the inventory system Asset Panda for $7,200. Beth seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Applications/ILP/Tutor Bot- We’re in the process of onboarding with Alma. We need to start orienting ourselves and putting things in the school calendar. There are four parts to the onboarding process. There will be another meeting with Alma soon. The API’s through Alma will be used to implement the ILP’s and Tutor Bot system. Beth will then start inputting student and parent information into the system.
A comprehensive AI acceptable use policy is needed for students, parents and staff. Michelle will provide a draft to Alex for finalization.
Alex says there have been some negative articles in the media about tutor bots. Kelly explains our tutor bots won’t be using data for training. They will have restrictions and be tightly controlled. Pinnacle’s classroom teachers will govern the use of AI by assigning certain lessons to the tutor bot.
Marketing & outreach- Already discussed earlier (Facebook ad for enrollment and mass mailings for fundraising and student enrollment). Tori will be offering a donut or drink of the month for the month of May, and all proceeds from that will be donated to Pinnacle. Michelle has been in touch with North East Powersports. She wants to talk to them about doing an ATV raffle like Kiwanis does. Also discussed doing a golf tournament with a donated car from Don Noyes as the prize.
Pinnacle hiring-Michelle had a meeting with someone who is potentially interested in the Executive Director position. She will be sending her resume to the hiring team. The hiring team will be conducting interviews for teaching positions soon.
Interpretation Services- Green Linguistics is reasonably priced and can translate over 100 different languages. They have apps that can be used for different services, such as phone and video per word translation. There are no fees to contract with them, they send a bill at the end of the month. They charge $50 an hour. They have a 1-2 day turn around time for 2,500 words.
Pam made a motion to have Alex contract with Green Linguistics to have them translate the website and all associated enrollment documents for no more than $5,000. Michelle seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Fundraising and Grant Acquisition- Ha is working on the title grants. They haven’t heard back on the Home Depot or food grants.
Insurance- We need to bind the liability insurance for the loan closing tomorrow. Michelle received a quote for the liability insurance, which is $3085.38.
Pam made a motion for Michelle to sign the property insurance in the amount of $3085.38. Kelly seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Curriculum Development- Two reviewers are currently providing feedback of the curriculum. We need to research and select a curriculum for Social Studies and middle school English. Alex will see what Discovery has to offer and some education websites.
Other Business:
Tori will be contracting with us to provide school lunch. We will investigate offering free and reduced lunches for those who need it.
All board members need to complete a 90-minute training. Rather than trying to do it as a group, the board decided to do it individually and send an email attestation to the board as proof of completion. There is a PDF in the shared drive and a link with 5 videos.
Pam will research construction loan options with Bank of NH.
Kelly will meet with Casey in the morning and provide an update by email.
Kelly is going to discuss ordering VR headsets with Kurt.
The NCQE Boards 3-month extension with being able to be combined with the Pinnacle Board has expired. We can extend the combined board status to July 31st. This will maintain NCQE’s legal status, which is required to apply for the 501 (c)(3) status. The application for this must be submitted before dissolving NCQE, to ensure donor tax deductions are retroactive to its founding date.
Pam made a motion to extend the combined board status to July 31st, 2026. Beth seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Next Meeting:
The next Pinnacle Board Meeting will be on Thursday, April 30th at 5:30
Adjournment:
Kelly made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Pam seconded the motion. All were in favor.