May School Accountability Committee (SAC) Meeting Recap
Reminder: Independent parent group — not affiliated with or endorsed by FASD.
TL;DR
The May SAC meeting covered bylaws, parent/student surveys, budget planning, and priorities for next year.
FASD appears to be moving toward approved SAC bylaws — something we seem to have been without since the school’s inception, or at least since charter renewal.
The school’s family survey is still open, with results expected to be reviewed over the summer.
Next year’s SAC work may include survey review, UIP planning, budget updates, and member confirmation.
The meeting again raised my concerns about transparency, parent voice, and whether SAC will become a truly parent-led accountability body.
SAC missed an opportunity to run a FASD-specific parent survey that could provide more actionable insight into why families choose FASD, why we stay, and what we want the school to prioritize.
Parent Recap (What Happened)
The final SAC meeting of the school year was held on Tuesday, May 12. The meeting started a few minutes late and ran for roughly 45 minutes.
Community attendance was again limited. Two SAC members were absent, and there were only a few non-administration voices in the room. The Chair led the meeting, with the Head of School, staff members, parent/community representatives, Board liaison and external consultant participating.
The meeting covered four main topics: SAC bylaws, parent/student surveys, budget planning, and goals for next year.
On bylaws, the Chair shared that the SAC bylaws are mostly final and have been reviewed with Board members. They are expected to be shared with SAC before going to the Board for approval at the May Board meeting.
On surveys, SAC discussed the school’s parent survey, which was distributed last week. The survey includes some changes from the DPS-style survey, including a question about whether FASD fulfills its mission and vision. Because response rates remain low, the school plans to extend the survey window and review results over the summer.
SAC also discussed a student survey for grades 3 and above. Timing is still being worked out because May is already packed with end-of-year activities and assessments.
The budget update was brief. There have been no major changes since the prior SAC meeting. The Board is expected to approve the budget at the end of May, after one more Finance Committee meeting. SAC may have a chance to weigh in later if enrollment comes in above current projections and creates more flexibility.
The group also discussed possible priorities for August, including confirming SAC members, reviewing goals, reviewing survey results and an action plan, discussing the UIP, and receiving a budget update.
At the end of the meeting, I asked whether SAC could post real agendas in advance so parents know what topics will be discussed. I also asked whether SAC would consider hybrid attendance options to make participation easier for more families. The hybrid option was not supported; the explanation was that the bylaws allow meetings to be either fully in person or fully online, but not hybrid, in the name of “equity.”
The “Since You’re Here…” Section
Unofficial reflections — offered in good faith (and with a grain of salt)
I want to be explicit: the section above is my attempt to keep things factual and balanced. This section is my personal perspective.
There is real progress here.
If the Board approves SAC bylaws at the May meeting, FASD will be closer to compliance with a core part of its charter and governance structure. That matters. SAC should not be an informal discussion group or a check-the-box exercise. It should be a real accountability committee with clear rules, clear membership, and a clear connection to the Board.
It is also worth noting how long this has taken. As best I can tell, FASD has been operating without approved SAC bylaws since the school’s inception — or, at the very least, since charter renewal. That is not just paperwork. SAC is part of the school’s accountability structure.
But the details matter.
I remain concerned that the new bylaws may limit parent voice. If parent representatives are effectively selected by the Board or school leadership, rather than elected by parents or meaningfully connected to the parent community, SAC risks becoming another inward-facing committee. That would make it easier to drift into groupthink, polite agreement, and “this is how we’ve always done it.”
The process also still feels too closed. SAC is still early in its development, and much of the meaningful work remains ahead. But the first major test was SAC’s own bylaws — the rules for how the committee operates, how parents participate, and how accountability flows to the Board. Those bylaws appear to have been developed largely offline, rather than through open public discussion about what SAC should be. That may be efficient, but it does not build trust. And for a small charter school, trust is infrastructure.
The biggest missed opportunity may be community engagement.
At the first SAC meeting of the year, there was real energy around better connecting families and building a stronger sense of belonging. That is not fluff. In a small school, family connection is part of the operating model: it helps with retention, volunteerism, fundraising, and the basic belief that we are building something worth investing in.
By May, that energy had mostly disappeared from the conversation.
I hope next year’s SAC is genuinely parent-led. Parent attendance this year has been uneven, and at times there appeared to be more teacher, administration, and community voice than parent voice. Teachers and community members absolutely matter. But SAC should also be one of the main places where parent input helps shape school priorities.
So, yes: baby steps.
But next year, SAC needs more than meeting dates. It needs agendas posted in advance, clarity on public comment, accessible meeting options, parent representatives meaningfully connected to parents, and more of the work happening in the open.
Baby steps are still steps. But next year, SAC needs to start walking.
Please Take the Independent Parent Survey
One final note: SAC missed an opportunity this spring to survey parents with a FASD-specific survey designed to generate actionable insight into what families value, why we choose FASD, why we stay, what concerns us, and what priorities should guide the school going forward. The school-sponsored survey may be useful for broad climate feedback, but it is a lightly edited version of the DPS Your Voice / Tu Voz survey that DPS decided not to field this year. It was not designed to answer the strategic questions facing FASD right now: enrollment, retention, academic excellence, staffing, communication, community, and long-term sustainability. That is why the independent FASDads parent survey matters.
The survey is anonymous, takes about 8–12 minutes, and is available in English, French, and Spanish. If you have not taken it yet, please consider doing so. The more families participate, the stronger the signal will be about what parents actually want for the future of FASD.
Take the survey here.
~ Greg
Resources
FASD Charter Agreement with DPS: SAC bylaws are in Appendix B
Unadopted SAC bylaws (downloaded 3/6/2026): SAC bylaws
FASD’s SAC webpage
