Board Meeting Dates
January 16, 2019-Special Called Meeting
August 29, 2019
September 23, 2019
October 24, 2019
November 21, 2019 (rescheduled)
December 4 (replaces Nov meeting)
January xx, 2020
February 27, 2020
March 26, 2020
April 30, 2020
May 28, 2020
June 25, 2020
All meetings at held at the school at 6:30 PM
Meeting Agendas and Minutes
Meet the East Link Academy Board
Ms. Ramona Schaetzle, Recruitment Sub-Committee Chair
Ms. Ramona Schaetzle has a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama. She is the sole proprietor of RCSchaetzle Consulting, LLC located in Greer, SC. Her primary responsibilities are monitoring clinical trials to ensure that GCP (Good Clinical Practice) is followed. She is a member of ACRP (Association of Clinical Research Professionals) and is a certified CRA (Clinical Research Associate) working with multiple sponsors within the pharmaceutical industry. She has worked in clinical research with varying roles since 2001. Prior to that, she was a research coordinator for clinical trials. She also has many years of nursing experience.
Donnette Baumann, Secretary
Mrs. Donnette Baumann earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Hispanic Studies with a minor in Secondary Education from the College of Charleston. She has taught beginner level Spanish elementary, intermediate and high school students since 2004. She is currently a Spanish teacher for the South Carolina Virtual Charter School. In 2012, Donnette started her own business as a private chef who specializes in food allergies and other dietary needs. She plans to continue her education in Nutritional Therapy to expand her business. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, playing the violin and spending time with her family.
Peggy Stevens is a, sometimes harried, working mother of 3, with 1 child currently attending East Link's 3rd grade, and an off-the-wall bouncing 2 year old waiting in the wings to join the new East Link family when he comes of age. She has been in the field of IT as an analyst/programmer for the last 20 years, but did not originally hail from an IT education based background. She was born in Hong Kong, but raised in Taiwan till she was 3, when her mother brought her to the U.S. to join her father - at which point her mother found it prudent to teach her Mandarin so she would stop telling off her father in the Taiwanese dialect to go sleep in the streets (as she was quite distraught at having been kicked out of her mother's bed) and knew her father did not know a lick of Taiwanese. She grew up speaking Mandarin and English equally thereafter. She eventually attended college at Furman University, double majoring in Asian Studies and Politicial Science, with her eye on possibly applying for USC MIBS program or entering the US Foreign Service. But even though none of those initial mental roadmaps came to be, Peggy follows her belief that life will lead you where you need to go, as long as you walk through the open doors. Even as she worked at her IT career these last 2 decades, she's volunteered as an ESL teacher for adults in the evenings, assisted the Chinese teachers in her children's Sunday Chinese School Language classes, and is generally happy to share her love of the Chinese culture with whomever is patient enough to listen, and adventurous enough to break bread (or rice bowl) with her. Her experience with boards has been limited to a one year stint as Secretary for her HOA, but what she lacks in experience will be made up for in her passion and commitment to see East Link Academy thrive and succeed at its mission of serving its students' needs. She hopes to use her bi-cultural and bilingual background to help the school and board reach out into the the community and garner the support it needs to continue growing. She looks forward to help East Link Academy be the roaring lion it is, for all to see.
Marc is a graduate of Newberry College with a Bachelor of Science degree. While attending this school, he also served as the Director of Information Technology. Prior to completing his college degree, he also had the privilege of serving on the staff of the Washington International School in Washington D.C.—an immersion/dual language school that served over 500 students in Pre K- Grade 12. It was through this experience that he witnessed the advantages of incorporating a second language into the everyday curriculum. He has four very unique children: Chloe 12, Caleb 8, Camilla 7, and Christian 6. As a father of four school aged children, with the middle two attending East Link, I understand the importance of a quality education that provides students with as many advantages as possible to equip them for the future.
Over the past 10 years, he has developed and managed 40-90 million dollar public agency budgets—as Public Utilities Director for the City of Newberry until 2016, and more recently as the Operations Manager for the Greer Commission of Public Works. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency, a 250 million dollar public agency, and understand the importance of a board, the transparency that it must have to the public, and the difficult decisions that it must make. Problem solving, planning, budgeting, and evaluating are all tasks that he enjoys and employs in his everyday work.
Jennifer Plourde has resided in Greenville since 1988 after graduating from Clemson University. She has had a successful career in sales and marketing growing long-term relationships with Upstate businesses for 28 years. She has held numerous volunteer leadership roles at Camperdown Academy, Northwood Middle School and currently serving as a fundraiser chairperson on the PTSA of Riverside High School. She served four years as chapter administrator for Upstate SC chapter of IFMA-a professional association for facility managers.
Jennifer has been married to her college sweetheart, Jim, for thirty years this Spring. They adopted two beautiful daughters from China in the early 2000s. She was one of the original organizers of Upstate SC Families with Children from China in 2001. She and her oldest daughter were the first non-Chinese speaking family admitted to the Greenville Chinese Cultural Association language school in 2005. They attended the school for three years making many friends in the Chinese community while learning Mandarin. Her passion for learning the Chinese language and culture still reside within her today. She believes offering Chinese immersion education in our school system enhances our community and the future leaders of the next generation.
Clarence was born in Singapore and studied mandarin as a 2nd language for 10 years through primary and secondary school years, and is excited to brush up on his mandarin as his kids get fluent in the language too.
Clarence attended Murdoch University, Australia
Primary and Secondary education in Singapore, studying Mandarin as a 2nd language. His professional experience includes 7 years of work experience in the Human Resource field, developing an understanding of organizational processes, people operations and project management. Strong communication skills with experience presenting to senior management and all levels of the organization. He has experience in establishing a Recruiting and on-boarding process, and
writing processes and policies for the organizations. His community work involves being a member of Greenville Society of Human Resource Management, a local chapter of a national organization. He has served as part of a 13-person board of directors since 2016, administering the finances and operational management of the organization. He and his family are members of Seacoast Church.
Jeanne Boughner and her family have been residents of Greer for the last 9 years. Brian, husband, owns Parallel Financial and actively involved in the community in various organizations. Jeanne and Brian have two children, Selah, age 19, graduated from Fine Arts Center/Wade Hampton High School and now attends Boston University. Noah, age 7, is in second grade at East Link Academy.
Jeanne is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Associate Business Analyst designation. She works for DPR Construction, General Contractor, for the past 18 years and works within their Technology & Innovation team. Jeanne manages projects, teams and technology solutions.
Examples of community work/involvement include Board for Living Bread, coaching beginning runners through iRun Greenville/Stoix Runners, volunteering through local church, activities such as – preparing meals for Frazee afterschool children, helping with homework, etc., volenteering through DPR at various locations including Pendleton Place and performing international humanitarian work in countries such as Panama, Russia, and Kenya
Julie Pringle has called Greenville, South Carolina her home since 2005. She graduated with an accounting degree from Indiana University in 1993 and has worked as the Controller for Best Beef, Inc. and Best Beef of Carolina, Inc. since 1996. She has volunteered her time and skills to lead several PTAs and SICs in the Greenville County School System and has served as treasurer for PTAs and various clubs and non-profit organizations.
Julie has been married to her husband, Kraig Pringle, for 22 years and proud to raise twins who started their freshman year of college this year. She is interested in the Chinese culture and language and hopes her past experience will benefit East Link Academy.
Information forthcoming
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Meet the Project Director
Traci Bryant-Riches
Ms. Traci Bryant-Riches is the owner of AVIA Charters. She has been active in South Carolina's charter school community for 8 years. Traci served as the Director of Charter Initiatives at the SCPCSD as well as the Director of Federal Programs. Before taking a position at the SCPCSD, she worked for the SC Department of Education as an Education Associate for the Office of Special Education. After leaving the SCPCSD, she established her own Charter School Consulting business. In addition to her own business, she works for Pinnacle Charter Academies opening dual credit high school around the state. While Ms. Bryant-Riches is participating on the Charter Committee, she is not a voting member of the Charter Committee. www.tracibryant-riches.com