Board of Directors

Purpose

The Board of Directors is the elected governing body of Yinghua Academy. The primary responsibilities of the Board are to develop the vision and mission of the school; to select, support and evaluate a chief executive; to ensure effective planning; to set policy that will ensure the school’s ongoing viability; and to oversee the monthly and long-term financial management of the school.

2024-2025 Members

The Board of Directors consists of up to thirteen members who are elected by the parents and staff of the school. The Board consists of accomplished people who represent one or more of the following constituencies: licensed Yinghua teacher; Yinghua parent; community member. Yinghua’s bylaws require that it have at least one person from each of these three groups on the Board at all times. See Board Member biographies here.

Meeting Calendar and Minutes

School Board meetings are held in person in Yinghua’s Library. Committee meetings are via Zoom. Check the Google Master Calendar for Zoom meeting IDs. For best viewing results, we recommend you download the Zoom app prior to the meeting. You do not need to have a Zoom account in order to join the meeting.

The minutes of charter school board meetings are public information. Click here to access the minutes of the Yinghua Academy Board of Directors meetings starting in November 2005.

Please note that minutes are not posted to our website until they have been approved, which usually occurs at the next meeting, so there is about a four-week lag time. We have explored many ways to post the minutes sooner, but we cannot legally approve minutes via email due to Open Meeting Law, so we have to review and approve them at each subsequent meeting.

Committees

All board members must chair or serve on at least one committee. In accordance with school bylaws, committees do not have decision-making authority. Rather, these active working groups conduct research and make recommendations to the School Board at Regular Meetings of the Board. Committee chairs are encouraged to recruit members from the Yinghua parent and teacher community and from time to time may also recruit from outside the Yinghua community if special skills or expertise are needed. Committee meetings are open to the public in accordance with the Minnesota Open Meeting Law and as outlined in the Yinghua Academy bylaws. Descriptions of Yinghua’s committees and a list of current committee members can be found on the Committee Overview Document. Please note that Personnel Committee meetings can only be attended by members of the School Board. Check the online master calendar for meeting dates and times or view the one-page Yinghua Academy School Board 2024-2025 Calendar.

Elections

Parents, staff, and community members are encouraged to run for seats on the Board of Directors. Each member is elected to a three-year term, and as such, only a few seats are up for election each year. This provides stability and continuity for the Board. Elections are held annually in April and May. A call for candidates is sent home at least 60 days prior. Candidates are announced at least 30 days prior to the election.

2024 School Board Election Results

The following people were elected to the open seats on the board:

Paul Landahl
Yinglu Zeglin
Ying Zhang

There was a tie for the fourth board seat between Bryan Huang and Cindy Moeller. At the May 20 school board meeting, the Board asked that both candidates serve a three-year term.

Bylaws

See the current Bylaws, Approved August 2019

Board Copy List

All board member correspondence is public. As a courtesy, the board also maintains a “board copy list” which is copied on any substantive emails between a quorum of board members, i.e., special board meeting notices, agenda and board pre-reading packs for regular board meetings, and any other board-wide correspondence. If you want to be copied on this list, please enter your email address here. Please note: You must renew your interest every August when requested to do so, otherwise your name will be removed from the list.

Yinghua Building Company

According to state statute, charter schools cannot own their own buildings. As is common in Minnesota among charter schools, Yinghua Academy formed an affiliated nonprofit building corporation, called Yinghua Building Company (YBC). According to Minn. Stat. 124E Subd 3(b) (3), via their websites, charter schools must share information about any affiliated nonprofit building corporations.