Concord School Board Monthly Meeting 1-2-23

001thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you everyone and happy New Year to everyone this is the first meeting of the Concord school board for the new year and I suppose you're all sitting there wondering why is she at the microphone and why is she starting this meeting but it is by uh practice and by policy of the school board that when you're reorganizing the school board the superintendent opens the meeting and conducts the election for new offices so once that the new officer is elected I will quickly return to my seat I promise you that but um anyway thank you for all for being here I see we have our our two new board members here Cara Meeker and Sarah Robinson and that's awesome to have you join the board I know that the

002rest of the board members will Express their uh their congratulations to both of you for the positions that you hold um but I before we begin this is important since you have new language in your Charter that the community voted on back in November and that Charter uh required certain things of the board and one of them is around um residency and domicile and if I could I'd like to take a minute and read it it was a question two uh on the ballot that we that you voted on in November and um the amendment to clarify residency and domicile requirements for Schoolboy candidates and the process for filing or fulfilling vacancies to eliminate potential confusion in the charter caused by the use of a phrase scooting school voting district to Divine grouping voting Wards

003the first part of the amendment replaces the word district with the word zone so it was that we had so many districts made up of wards and that was confusing since we are a school district the charter commission felt that if we change that verbiage to Zone it would be more clear to folks in the community the second part clarifies that if an at-lage member moves out of the district or if a school voting Zone member moves out of the school voting Zone the school board must immediately appoint a qualified interim School Board member from the district for the either the at large position or from the same voting Zone that that person who was on the board came from so the interim member would serve until the end of the calendar year when they

004are replaced by a newly elected member which would which would occur on next uh November of 23. so in doing so um I think it's appropriate that I given the new language that I will poll the members of the board and I simply want to make sure that you are representing the Zone from which you are elected and I'll start with Mr Richards are you a member of the Zone which you are elected yes I'm a resident of Zone a what's your address my address is 3 Willard Street Concord New Hampshire that is in Ward three thank you um so Mrs Hastings said do you represent the Zone from which you were elected yes I represent zones C and I live in zone C and your address 12 guard about Drive in Concord New Hampshire

005thank you um Ms Walsh do you represent the Zone from which you were elected oh you actually are in a large member and I live in the city of Concord at 7 Hanover Street thank you Ms Robinson do you represent the Zone from which you were elected I do I'm in zone three uh at 30 Max Lane in Warden yeah I had to think about that for a second of course exactly zones and Wards it does get confusing um Miss Higgins um you are also an at large and so do you represent the people of congress I live in Concord at 133 Liberty Street which is right there right around the corner right up the road thank you Ms Meeker do you represent the zone for which you were elected now Zone B uh and

006I live in Ward 7 at 90 Rockingham street thank you Mr Weinberg do you represent the zone that you uh you do represent the Zone from which you were elected yes I reside and live in zone B Ward five at 35 to Mill Drive Concord New Hampshire 03301 ZIP code as well he lives in the Fun Zone by the way I didn't know that um we'll make note of that um Mr cotton I know that you are an elected at large member do you represent the people of Concord I [Music] thank you um so that clears that up I thought it was important since this is a brand new Charter that you now are we got under to to the rules are set for you in this Charter and um we must we are all

007obligated to those so I thought it was a good way to start um to make sure that appears that we have a vacancy on the board and um and before we can um get any further with tonight's agenda it the board really has to make a decision about asking that the vacancy be filled that's part of the process that as a board you would vote you would move to request that the newly elected president and we don't have one yet that that person be responsible for filling that vacancy I would accept emotion from anyone who was so moved thank you second is there any discussion on that matter the only thing I would add in a way of discussion is that when this decision is made that there that it not be a singular decision

008by one person on a nine-member board this is a pretty important thing that there could be some discussion around who that person might be I realize it doesn't need to come to a vote I'm not asking for any of that but it's helpful as as board members to know what's going on Miss Walsh appointed another meeting I think Daniel public input is always valuable for this as well right it is the president's decision fund we're not singular in this any further further comments on the issue Mr Richards yes I am I believe if the policy is is does actually state that it's the president with approval of the entire board so I think that is that but what I really wanted to say was I just wanted to thank Ms West for her service to

009this board and the community and to the children of the district as well as the citizens of our community she has you know no longer residing in zone a but um I just wanted to point out that uh personally I appreciate all of her hard work and all of her contributions um you know we will miss her and her input and that's all I had to say thank you thank you any other comments before we vote on that motion [Music] there being no further comments all those in favor of the motion as presented say aye aye opposed stain thank you so now we get on to the important part so I can move from this seat to my normal seat over there um and um I would open up the floor for nominations for the

010position of president of the Concord School Board um just before we start I'd like to say a little bit of something around this we have a lot of new people and a lot of first term members still on our board Pam you're now a senior member as you're starting year four so congratulations no you didn't do you do one year of yeah yeah starting your fourth year I think at any rate you're the most senior one you were here for a year and then so what's important to remember is we are not a political body um we it's easy to get very politically driven when you're in any public service organization but the students and taxpayers of Concord represent every political party many religions all different uh wage levels educational levels skin colors you know

011genders all of it we our children come to us as pure little children we represent all of them not just the ones whose families follow what we believe politically what does this have to do with tonight you ask when I was first on the school board this whole process was very very driven behind the scenes um the Acting Superintendent at the time and a small group of board members would decide ahead of time who they thought would be the best for each office and it was all set up ahead of time and board members were asked not to nominate anyone else just to support the nomination that occurred at the meeting so after witnessing this for a couple years I asked how do we you know how how can I be on on a in

012a secretary or something and was told by a current board member at that time that that wasn't how it worked that my job was to support the existing members and how they felt the executive committee should exist so a current board member another one a guy named Nick at the time and I nominated each other for a for an office at a meeting and we didn't even get a second and the point we we knew we wouldn't we knew the nomination wouldn't get seconded because that isn't how that board functioned but it opened up a bit of a can of worms because it showed how disingenuous the process was I bring it up because we have to be careful as a board that we're not asking people to run for certain positions or soliciting nominations

013for positions because all of that reeks of political pick me pick me um and I've been you know I've participated in the process myself because it's sort of how it's done if you think somebody would be good as a secretary a vice president or president of the board you simply nominate them and somebody should second that nomination anyone who's nominated should have the chance to to be voted for or have the chance to say no thank you likewise if you want an office and you don't get nominated for it well then perhaps it just drives home the point that we aren't we are not on this school board for what we want we're here for parents of children we're here for taxpayers we're here for what's best for everybody not just us and our beliefs

014so I'm just laying that out there so that we can have an obvious Fair unbiased election thank you oh and with that I'd like to nominate are we there Bob cotton um is there a second to that into that come on now thanks anyway um oh is the floor is still open um I'd like to uh nominate Jim Richards for the position position of President I've only been on the board for a year starting my second year but I impressed with its ability to to lead the board and to conduct meetings in a cordial an appropriate way and I think having him again be president would would place the board in good step thank you Mr carton is there a second to that motion second and by Jonathan thank you are there any other nominations

015for the position of president of the Concord School Board there being none then I will close nominations and ask for a vote for the position of president of the Concord School Board Mr Richards is the only candidate all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed abstains I mean did you abstain yeah and you obscene so there's two abstentions and six um yeses well then it's all you as sir it was a pleasure do you want me to come up there oh yes I do yeah I know my role thank you Kathleen including my name tag [Music] s you know this is down [Music] all right first of all I'd like to just thank you Mr cotton for your very kind words and I'd also thank like to thank everyone on the board it

016has been my honor to serve as president of the board last year and I pledged that I will do my best to do the best job I can for the coming year and with that we will move on to opening nominations for the vice president of the board I would like to nominate Pam Walsh for vice president of the board she has impeccable organizational skills an understanding of of government workings and and how things run and I think she'll do a great job keeping us on task thank you is there a second to the nomination okay thank you Ms Robinson uh are there any other nominations for the office of Vice President I will nominate Barb Higgins for the position she has served the board well and I know that she would you know continue

017to do so and would like to to be in that position again is there a second to the nomination I'll say Goodbye Mr Weinberg further nominations all right not seeing any I will close the nominations and I'm not sure exactly how to do this superintendent do I ask all those in favor for each of the candidates or yes okay first of all is distinctive and you know so uh since Ms Walsh was nominated first I will just do it in that order all right all those in favor of Ms Walsh signify by saying aye I did I think we may have to do a roll call on this one since I didn't I just see if this do that okay uh you want to just go for the second okay let's see all those for

018Ms Higgins signify by saying aye okay and I'll just staying Mrs Walsh you were the vice president as elected by the board I will now open the nominations for secretary do I have a nomination for Secretary of the board I'll nominate Brenda he thinks for secretary I think Brenda would do a superb John and his been a really active member of this board okay thank you Mr Weinberg is there a second to the nomination I'll second that okay seconded by Mrs Walsh further nominations Is there further not nomination for Secretary of the board not seeing any I will close the nominations and the uh call the uh the vote for the candidate um Ms Hastings all those in favor signify by saying aye all right all those opposed any abstentions okay two abstentions on this

019one all right the Hastings thank you and congratulations you'll be the secretary for this year with that I believe uh we do have to go through the appointment of the Deputy clerk could I speak to that yes um we did reach out to our clerk school district clerk Patrick Taylor he did reach out to Roger Phillips to see if he would be interested in this second position and as an alternate should Patrick not be able to do a task that the board needed but at this he he asked him to continue to look if he didn't find someone he'd be happy to do it but he's I know he's probably he's done it for so long he's probably ready to to hang it up but um he did tell uh attorney Taylor that he would

020do it if he couldn't find anyone else so could I ask that you hold off on that for a while until next board meeting and we'll have hopefully we'll have a name for you to to put forth uh I will entertain a motion to delay the appointment of a deputy clerk uh should the board want to make that someone on the board want to make that motion so moved okay Miss Hastings is there a second Ed by Ms Meeker all right um discussion just a point of discussion can we specify specifically will be February board meeting I want to just delay it Mrs Hastings is Miss Meeker are you amenable to that yes Amendment all right so this will be uh delayed one month till the February board meeting any further discussion I will just

021say that Mr Phillips has done an outstanding job he will do it would do an expanding job but uh at the request of Mr Taylor our clerk I will I agree I think this is probably good to delay for one month all right any further discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions all right we will uh postpone the appointment of a deputy clerk until the February meeting and with that I think that is the uh the completion of business for the organizational meeting so I will entertain a motion to adjourn moved by Ms Higgins is there a second seconded by Mr cotton all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed hey abstentions we are adjourned we will start our regular meeting in um just

022a few minutes we'll let anybody who needs to stretch stretch you all right all right thank you everyone that's mine you can get rid of it thank you foreign good evening I would like to call to order the January regular January 2nd meeting of the Concord School Board this is our monthly meeting it is January 2 2023 um and with that uh Ms Hastings would you like to call the role of those in attendance president Mr Weinberg hi Mr Richards here Ms Higgins here Ms Robinson here Ms Walsh here and I am here Hastings and we have one member what how do we we have one vacancy vacancy that has not been filled okay okay we are here thank you very much uh with that we will move on to approval of the agenda as

023um as presented and as published uh does anyone have any adjustments or additions to the agenda Ms Walsh I would like to add a discussion of policy 115 which is the policy around filling vacancies for board members we had previously referred this to the communications and policy committee asking them to take a look at it and I think given what's happening we I'd like to accelerate that conversation and pose an amendment um okay where would you like to in about that [Music] um probably capture the instructional committee yeah probably yeah we're going to move the instructional committee out to my next thing so but probably a position item number 10 at this point um and uh is there a second to making that okay all those in favor of adding that making that addition to

024the agenda signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions all right any uh we'll add that in at number 10 uh other changes to the uh agenda and I will make the motion that we move uh the instructional committee report up to we're going 6A why are we moving that uh I want to remove the before public comments yeah uh is there anything to be voted on yeah then we should have it after immediately after public comment so that'll be item 7.5 is there a second to that motion okay all those and the reason uh for discussion of that um we're doing that because uh Ms Hastings is uh recently you know had I guess back issues and we're yeah back surgery and so we want to make sure that uh if she has

025to uh get up and leave us early that we have covered that item okay I appreciate your accommodation uh I'm happy you're doing so well thank you me too okay uh with uh is there any uh further discussion with regards to that motion all right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions all right we'll make that adjustment to the uh to the agenda are there any other changes to the agenda that we'd want to make tonight not seeing any um uh uh take a motion to approve the agenda as amended by Mr Weinberg is there a second [Music] Ed by uh Ms Robinson and is there any other discussion not seeing any all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions all right the agenda

026is uh set as amended uh next item up will be the consent agenda this includes the minutes of the regular monthly meeting on December 5th as well as the capital facilities meeting on December 7th uh if no one has any issues with the minutes of those two meetings I'll entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda and approve it so moved moved by Mr cotton is there a second seconded by Ms Walsh all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions the consent agenda is approved with that we will move to item number four student recognition uh superintendent will you be presenting this I feel like it's musical chairs tonight you get to sit in all the different chairs of the around the room thank you superintendent [Music] so this evening

027is part of the agenda I would like to recognize a Concord High School student that has really made a difference in the lives of others you know so often we hear about our students and our high school students and our teenagers and sometimes that picture isn't always in a positive light and and you know it when you work with youngsters all the time like we do and um and and we're at the high school and we hear from our uh our administrators we know the kinds of contributions our students make and so tonight I wanted to be able to introduce you to a young lady who has accomplished great deeds and so Alexandria Grappone and she's smiling and I'm glad to see that who's a senior at Concord High School was on a mission to

028alleviate childhood hunger and along with members of the a new club called save the children Action Network Club she started a food drive by engaging conquered businesses to host boxes and in their in their businesses for people to donate food and the and in addition by the way the club is also setting up a coin uh coin Drive where you know our students can drop money into a box at the high school um but what a wonderful opportunity and while she um she did this she was spurred on by a visit to Washington DC and supported by the New Hampshire Network for child to save the children advocacy Action Network and so I was very impressed I think most of you know it was a beautiful article in the newspaper about her accomplishments and so

029what a pleasure it is to introduce Alexandria to you tonight and I asked her if she would speak a little bit about her trip to Washington because it was really pretty neat and um you know not every senior in high school gets a chance to do that and get to meet the people she met so I'm going to let you talk a little bit about it better you than me thank you for having me tonight it's such an honor to be here yeah so I joined scan this past summer when I met Delhi she's the manager for New Hampshire for Save the Children action at work and I immediately heard about their message about wanting to helping children get access to Early Education and ending childhood hunger which is something I'm really passionate about and

030Deli called me up one day and she's like hey we want you to go to DC like all expenses play and you want to come lobby at Capitol Hill I was like yeah I do I have loved politics since I was a kid I'd go with my parents when they would vote and I'd pretend I was Voting with them but so it was really awesome to be able to go to DC to be able to train for like two days and to learn about these issues in depth to get the data the statistics the facts and we talked about crafting your story as an Advocate because you have to align your interests with other policy makers interests in order to bridge the gap because not all the politicians in DC are going to agree with

031what you have to say so how can you make them hear what you're saying and how can it look like a benefit for them for instance every dollar invested in the mckeeve Bill had a six dollar payback on it so for the people who wouldn't agree with the policy a money investment might be a bribing Factor so it was really really really inspirational to be around so many like-minded people who were motivated determined and it didn't matter if people were from Louisiana or if they were from New Hampshire and we all just were working so it's a common goal of helping children and to be able to do it on such a big scale and to talk to adults in the capital I remember I was talking to Jean Shaheen's Aid I'll never forget him

032his name was Carrie he just looked to me dead in the eye his pen kept flying and he respected me and he treated me as an equal which was so cool to hear because sometimes I was like oh my God like will they actually want to hear what I want to say and they do and it was so awesome to do that and I want to thank scan it was such an amazing opportunity and I'm very thankful for that and to be able to run this food drive and to make a difference and to help kids need is just warms my heart so thank you she's doing Concord the conference School District School District [Music] highlighted her work around the country's hands a National Organization and she is rising above and beyond a lot of

033what other students around the country are doing so you guys need to be proud of her I am really proud to know [Music] so I told Alexandria before we started tonight that you perhaps might have a question or two for her and so obviously you can see she's very articulate so go ahead so before I don't have any questions other than how much fun did you have clearly you had a lot um but you know as a board member and a group that works for the betterment of children and making sure children can learn childhood hunger which leads to lots of illness and everything else is a huge limiting factor hungry children have a hard time learning so the fact that you're focused on feeding people who have no ability to feed themselves for reasons

034far beyond them um is wonderful it's just a nice way to channel energy so thank you Ms Welsh where did the food you collected what did you Johnny donate it to yeah we dropped off I believe it was last Monday at um Beaver Meadow School yeah and we actually got to go in their food closet and it was pretty low so it was good to be like okay we're restocking it good I mean you walk down the halls and you see these little kids it's like thank you go ahead Mr Weinberg thank you so much and it sounds like an amazing experience I guess what would you recommend for engaging other high school students to get involved like the way you did and involved with networks like scan and others to go Lobby on Capitol

035Hill yeah I would say look for opportunities in your community if you want to join scan contact Delhi um I would say find what you're passionate about and follow that because typically there will be some some organization out there that wants to support that and anyone at Concord High wants to join scan you're more than welcome good go ahead Miss Hastings just want to say congratulations and well done I'm wondering now that you've been bitten by the political bug what's next yeah I hope to major in political science where I attend next year great good luck you're going to do great excited where you're gonna go I have not but I submitted all my applications [Laughter] thanks thank you Alexandria I was going to mention that as a father of a senior I know how

036busy the fall semester is with all of your applications and not to mention you have to still graduate this year and complete that so uh it is truly impressive um you should be very very proud and I want you to know that we uh in the school district and the school board are very very proud of you so um thank you so much and you know it's not a huge political thing but you know I would hope when you come back you would consider the school board as an opportunity yeah for you to get involved and uh continue your you know your dedication to the students and to the kids here in Concord so thank you so much thank you thank you foreign [Music] youngsters in from our schools and uh so tonight we have

037some students from Rowlett middle school and fixture will send yes I have a presentation so I'm going to try to hook up so you'll have the pleasure of hearing from over here yes Sean Fuller and they have a presentation so I'm going to try to connect here [Music] there we go all right there we go they've done this completely on their own they are they've done a great job I hope you think so too so we're the RMS student council and um and pretty much we're a uh we're pretty much just a group of students ranging from sixth to 8th graders and our goal is just trying to make RMS as fun as possible for the students because schoolwork gets to be a drag sometimes um so we make a bunch of events for them

038to participate in and not only do we uh we're in charge of like fun events for the students we also set up fundraisers and help with rule change if there's something that's suggested suggested a lot by students and some teachers or something that actually like needs to change a lot and we just like overall try to make RMS a great place to be at and we use our money made from everything and so we can reinvest it into more events and save it for the next year and so we can just keep going and going and going and making fun events for the students um and we've made a lot of Passover events already and we're not even halfway through the school year um so we started out um started out with a Halloween Halloween

039themed school dance um where they could buy tickets and they could come and it was kind of just like a full-on costume dance they could bring their Halloween costumes um then we decided to have both of them in the same week we um had a spirit week which consisted of um um it consisted of twin day there's twin day anything but a backpack a day comfy cozy day and teacher and student outfit swap day and we all did those days but we also had we also came up with this event last year and we decided to do it again this year it was just it's our own event we didn't steal it off the internet or something called secret snowman where you could anonymously buy a card and it would be attached to a candy

040cane and you could send it to like one of your friends if you wanted to or you could just send one to yourself you if you had a sweet tooth okay sweet too um here are some pictures of um we get our school um as you can see it was a big hit everybody loved it especially the teachers uh so what events do we have planned we we had a many events we have many more events events planned for the school year we were thinking about a spring dance uh classified Cupid which is basically the same thing as secret snowman but with a little extra sprinkle of Love um a movie night and Hoops night um which is basically basketball and a spin Carnival which uh we did last year um what past fundraisers have

041we set up um we have done a fundraiser um and we have many more um for the future the first fundraiser we had was one of two ways to pay for a ticket uh to the Halloween dance which was food they would come up uh and give the and give us two cans of food uh one canned with one dollar or two dollars to get into the school dance and then we donated all the food uh to a uh to a local shelter um we have many more fundraisers planned such as another food drive to donate to another food pantry we always have room for fundraisers like this as a way to get back to the local community thank you for giving us your attention and we'd be more more than happy to answer any

042questions okay [Laughter] but it's worth saying again yeah so thank you Ms Higgins can anyone join student council yes any student RMS they can join it whether they're sixth grade that just showed up to RMS or in 8th grade that's just about to leave yeah like anybody can show up um and kind of just join awesome awesome and do you have how often do you guys get together to meet uh every week we have two days every week uh there's a Monday afternoon meeting which we just had and then there's a Tuesday morning meeting so we can find perfect yep nice thank you go ahead Mr Weinberg [Music] thank you for the presentation so if someone wanted to support student council and donate money how would they do that so we usually um we usually

043have stuff set up we'll have events and stuff but we'll also kind of implement a fundraiser into it so we can have a fundraiser and the event and then we also kind of then we'll probably also accept like donations for it so could they could they call you right now or could they call um the principal if it's Gerald I uh um what works best like if Jonathan wanted to give you this I wanted to give you my thousand dollars okay all right so can't we just give you the money other comments or questions well done you guys I would yeah I want to say very very professional presentation you all spoke very clearly and very um uh in a very organized and thoughtful Manner and I just want to say thank you you clearly

044care about your community because you're not you can find out that not only can you do a lot of things for your community but you can make runlett a great place to be as well as have a lot of fun so you guys have taught not only your fellow classmates but a few adults I think as well some very good lessons thank you for coming here tonight thank you for having us thank you thank you [Music] the part that they did leave that is that when the group decides on an idea that they have they they schedule an appointment with me and they bring their idea to me and so we have to have a whole formal process that they've developed to get feedback and to you know to get things rolling so it's a

045great group in the school they've done a lot of good they really have thank you principal Fitzgerald is very very impressive young group there thank you all right um let's see next item is item number six recognitions and reports and I believe First up is our uh student uh Representatives report from Mr Brown and Ms Anderson Happy New Year welcome back to school yes happy New Year everyone I hope you all had a great vacation um winter sports have gotten underway and all have had games or meets I think at the winner uh Holiday Basketball Tournament the Concord High team won and uh isn't that right was it yeah okay um and in a few weeks we're gonna have an inter session week to end the semester and students will have a chance to participate

046in different activities and I'll have chances to meet with teachers for remediation and enrichment and activities before we move on to the second semester [Music] hi everyone I'm glad to be back December was a great month especially for the students as I think we were all ready for a good break um today was the first day back and students are resuming their academics as well as preparing for the end of quarter two and the end of semester one that's been mentioned um students are also excited for the added win Fridays which is uh what I need um there's a 45 minute break just an extension to our advisory and different teachers have different activities or extra help plan for those times and I definitely know that students are very excited to have extra ones during

047those months and we have our first one this Friday and then we also haven't added one next Friday and I think we all hope to have a great start to the new year thank you and they um selected the students for the next Gap Exchange program so I thought I'd shout that very good thank you Sophia thank you Finn excellent superintendent your report is up next thank you Mr Richards uh I have a couple of just a reminders for the board if I could tonight um just a reminder that we are moving to Outlook and so if you have not done that and you need some assistance please reach out to our technology department I do have a list of people who have moved over to Outlook and those that haven't so I'd like to

048be able to check you off on this list so be sure and check in with Pam McLeod our technology director I promise to be last um yeah we have a few and the second is remember we're using multi-factored authentication and so we I need you also to participate in that as you know that has been implemented with our staff and that gives us a second level of protection and security when we're on our um our systems here in in the district so and when people are using their uh their uh their computers and so forth at home too so um that's really important and so some of you have completed that task others still have to do that so again if you have a minute and you can stop by and see Pam at the

049technology department they'll get you all squared away so that you have those protections those were just a couple of uh quick reminders um I my report tonight um is really it's brief I won't take a lot of time you have a very busy schedule but I kind of wanted to go over some things that are happening in the district today I met with our leadership team and just kind of reviewed where we were and where we're headed as we open this new year and I I think probably social studies and math and the curriculum department is probably where there's going to be a lot you'll see a lot of work there's been an extensive uh work done in math I I know they're piloting potential materials in Algebra I know in at the middle school

050as well as the high school they have a new algebra program that they're trying out we all also know that we're working on the social studies curriculum that curriculum is aligned to the National C3 standards around National social studies competencies so that work is underway our teachers and our administrators staff are very involved in that process and and when we're ready we will bring those final programs to the instructional committee and then to you for your review so a lot lots of things happening in the area of curriculum also part of that Kim and I will spearhead a committee starting this month working with the Teachers Association in in looking and reviewing at the teacher evaluation system as part of negotiations we agreed in an amendment to that the contract that we would look at

051the process and the tools that we use to evaluate teachers there's been a lot of questions about it a lot of people interested in looking at it and so working with cea I discussed it with Mr macri the president of cea and they've also given us some names so we'll start that process this month and that's really important one other piece that the committee is working on Kim is leading it along with Pam McLeod is looking at a grading platform it's it's trying to find the right tool in terms of helping teachers right now they're using teacher ease they have this pluses and minuses to it we're also looking at what the elementary schools and how they and what tools they could use so that committee has already been working started in the late fall

052early winter and I think you'll see some results of that looking at how we use tools to to do the grading for students they did a great job um I uh I think I'm hoping that John's going to talk a little bit about the equity committee later on but we continue to um work on that equity and diversity committee and in your packet tonight on page 117 you'll see a proposal around the uh we wanted to restart our Equity advisory and so Kim and I Jonathan have been working on a committee uh with New Hampshire listens to create a new Organization for our Equity committee I think it will be very valuable tool so if you take a peek at it it's on page 117 and I know that Jonathan will speak a little bit

053more to that I I have to give kudos out to um Jack Dunn and to Matt over the holiday we were concerned and I know you were too you expressed that in some emails to me around the communication system at the high school there seemed to be times when they that the system worked and other times it didn't work uh the messages were not clear and we can't have that it's not acceptable and so Matt uh Matt and Jack were out over the holiday week last week with a company called TNT and they went through every single room in that building they walked every single room they listened they made an incredible number of changes they took some speakers that weren't working they found some speakers that the wires were not connected to the system

054they found boxes speaker boxes that were empty I don't know what anyone expected from an empty box but um uh we also discovered that the phone system that they used to make the announcements needed to be replaced that has been replaced so I um I think we had really good results last week we still have some work to do um uh Mike Reardon and his team will be testing the system frequently we've asked them to do that I noticed today that they sent out a little survey to all the teachers so if they didn't hear it we could get that information back to us as soon as possible I know that Jack and Matt even discovered some wiring no I'm not an electrician so bear with me but wires that were not covered that that

055were really interrupting each other so you had two why is going to one site and they were I don't know what the right word is canceling or what were they doing shielded yeah and and as a result it caused systems to to break down and messages not to be clear to the teachers in the room so we think we're in good shape with that trust me though you know it's an old system that's old wiring some of the wiring is protected others isn't so they've been going in and replacing a lot of that so I think we're in good places I'll keep you posted on that and we'll certainly bring that to the attention of the facilities committee um in terms of Finance we are working with our principals right now all of our department

056heads to prepare for your budget for the 23-24 school year you know that you'll be tipping off your budget deliberations in February February 14th um and uh so we're finishing up our second round with principals so that we have a good um understanding of their needs and and what the budget will bear so that's ongoing uh with uh under Jack's leadership again I can't say enough about Matt and his team he really gets the Kudos tonight um you know we've had power outages we've had systems that went down and Matt and his team have been Fabulous As a matter of fact he implemented over vacation a building check every morning so we had his team out including Matthew out checking the buildings making sure heat was working their electricity was on all of the um

057the safety measures that we have in buildings were checked so that we knew that when we came back today um that we weren't going to face another issue so um again uh because of the power outages it does funny things to all of our systems and you don't know it you don't realize it right away and so by having that team out and about throughout the buildings over the last week it's been it's been very helpful and by the way we're going to continue to do that when the cold weather comes and what that cold weather can do to our systems um and I we've got to get the we kids need our students need to be in school every single day so um we'll do that is that the is that the system mat

058you can see we're all like on nerve now sounds like my radiators yeah it's only the radiator um uh let's see other than that um we have completed the annual enrollment report which is done every year here I will um share that uh Kim and I and John will share that at the instructional committee meeting this month and we will pop it into your uh folder on the website the school board folder once it's approved by the instructional committee we'll post it so that people can see all the data around our enrollment including student enrollment and Staffing in all aspects of our operation I think that's it unless you have a question all right questions for the superintendent with regards to uh to her report um I will just ask I just want to reiterate

059and I say I appreciate the fork that uh Mr Dunn and Mr Cashman have done over this uh holiday session the announcements at the high school and the PA system is a critical part of our safety systems so I would uh just encourage you to continue with that and to update the board as you uh further test as to the reliability and the you know overall performance with regards to that so thank you um I'll report to that I respect that report probably will go to Capital facilities first so thank you other questions all right thank you superintendent at this point we are at item seven which is public comment the first of our two public comment sessions uh this one is for agenda items only uh I do ask that everyone um who would

060like to make a public comment please adhere to policy 132 for public comment um and that includes please limit your comments to no more than five minutes in length um please make sure it is per agenda items only and if you're going to just repeat what someone else said you can just say that you agree with them and you don't have to go through all of it if you don't want to and uh you know with that do we have any public comment for this evening on agenda items all right not seeing any I will let everyone know that we have a second public comment uh session later in the meeting this is on any topic whatsoever and uh you will you can feel free to make your comments then uh with that we'll move

061on to the instructional committee report uh we will look at I believe making this will be uh last boards instructional chairman or chairperson uh Ms Hastings thank you and um there's a there's a there's several votes that need to be requested that you take you take them prior to the meeting so there's just a lot of information and certainly we'll answer um this career news here to help answer any questions and Mrs Fitzgerald as well so they can help with that if you have any additional questions but I would start with um the first item which is the proposal for a club lacrosse team at roanut um they have done their due diligence they did surveys they've asked parents they've asked students um and they do seem to have enough participation interest to staff two

062teams or to make two teams and um while there is a budgetary cost of about thirty five hundred dollars it was explained and please tell me if I get this wrong but it was explained that that money is already in this year's budget for a coach that wasn't previously used in the fall Sports so although it looks like in addition to the budget it's it's not something that we would have to come and put in now so that I think helps a lot too they have done a great job securing equipment through donations and I've had I I know I've had a lot of people reach out say how excited they are about this option for kids to to participate in an after-school program that's at school as well so um I want to really

063speak to support this as a longtime athletic coach in this district and others um most towns the size of Concord have significant middle school programs in all of the sports what this does is it allows for children that have transportation issues Financial issues social issues ETC to participate at a level that those that can afford a club program can also in looking at just the competitive nature and participation we have healthy lacrosse programs at the high school that's not an issue here but it's amazing what a middle school program will do for the overall quality on many levels not just winning and losing but all of it having a middle school program those you know those coaches work together I just think of the chunk of students at renlet that would do this I mean

064for every current lacrosse player on a club team their best friend who doesn't do it is now going to join lacrosse which means all those kids are busy after school so this warms my heart to hear this and that not surprisingly that group of parents has historically been been really really organized and motivated equipment sharing all of that kind of stuff I remember when lacrosse first came to Concord High was coaching track and I thought I was going to lose half my track team Bill Lacross and I did but I got just as many new kids that never would have thought of doing track because it just opened up a room for everyone so I'm sure you don't mind that I'm pushing you to do this you're saying everything that I was saying that I

065was going to say so no it's perfect yeah that's perfect which is wonderful and your point about more kids will be able to access a sport um that they wouldn't otherwise be able to access that's right there's you know some some Equity there yeah exactly so yeah that was one of the things because we know that we have students who really would like to play but they don't there are barriers and this would be removing yeah and there's nothing better than wearing your school and your shirt you just feel so yeah proud of yourself yeah so with that I'd like to make a motion um that on the recommendation I'm sorry sure questions the the 2800 it's two 2800 times 2. two coaches two separate coaches a boys coach and a girls coach yes I

066believe what stipends weren't used and do we expect that to continue forward next year that I'm not sure we do we did discuss that that was covered in the [Music] K does that make sense uh level K is there I say they didn't need as many as the same sisters yeah okay and um it's the transportation cost covered as well that was the one area that I think was a little bit um murky at this point just because of gas prices and and drivers availability so can you absorb in your budget or four four assuming we can get the drivers which I know is an issue the practices and things like that we we have an agreement with our 21 C bus and our 21c buses and our Athletics so they combine for practices and

067things like that okay and for games I believe that that they had figured that in I'm pulling up the document right now yeah and I'm looking at it says transportation for 10 scheduled away games um and the cost of officials for 10 home games for a total of about fifteen hundred dollars that they felt they could absorb okay that was my question thank you go ahead Miss maker [Music] vein iposal says this cannot obtain it would be assisted by the crush which I think is the community team but it also sounds like we have some donations of equipment that have been secured so I was just wondering um if we could just clarify uh if the equipment is covered for all the students that would be participating in the spring and the what the estimated

068cost would be if we needed to replenish that equipment on an annual or you know semi-annual basis my understanding from coach um sorry that's fuzzy today from coach Owen was that this would be an ongoing yearly as students from crush or other programs outgrow their equipment it would be handed down to continually supplement so it would be a multi it would not be a one-time yes okay yep all right thank you my my only concern is the idea that we get this because of the initial excitement we get this push of equipment but without any kind of agreement then the equity piece tends to drop off if there isn't financial assistance for those that can't afford their own equipment and my understanding was again that they they've planned for that okay they did a great

069job with that and it's in your board book yeah page 116. I'm sorry was field space and things like that they they really did a pretty comprehensive [Music] look at at what the needs were and how they could be met within our existing structures okay thank you other questions proceed Ms Hastings well then with um on the recommendation of the instructional committee I moved at the board vote to approve the request to offer lacrosse as a Spring sport at runlett Middle School beginning the spring of 2023. so moved let's go say move I need a second she just made the motion oh I see second second okay so the emotions motion has been made by Ms Hastings and seconded by Ms Higgins is there any further discussion Mr Weinberg go ahead and just to clarify

070this is a second reading uh this is the first reading or we're doing it in a single reading I just want to make sure this is this is yeah this is not a policy so this would be just a recommendation to the board all right this one no that's okay good question um so uh any other questions or further discussion not seeing any um all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye aye are there any opposed are there any abstentions the motion passes thank you fantastic thank you congratulations can't wait to watch a game yes great thank you the board is invited to come watch some of these games good moving on to item number two uh that also will require about our high school course changes and or additions and

071there are um six of these course editions and changes that I'm hoping you have had some time to look over and was hoping to make a motion to vote for them as a in bulk form but we can always pull them off obviously to discuss things if you pull one or two off or we can do it in different ways but I thought rather than asking for 10 separate votes tonight I would group as much as I could so can you I guess for the benefit well just like a summary of each of the the courses for the benefit of those that are watching at home sure the thing courses would be one was the art of influence which would be a semester-long course with no additional cost to the school district one would be

072a literature of survival course it would be combined with the science of survival to create a learning pathway for students and again no additional cost for staff new would be an AP Art and Design course there is an additional art teacher in next year's budget which would absorb that class which and that would be great and this is a building upon Mr and please help me if I'm missing misinterpreting a building on a course that's already available for a semester but it would allow students interested in going on to art schools to dig deeper and really take a year to expand their their projects and and we had a chance to see some of the projects that students had done and they were spectacular the detail that they've been able to get with extra time

073um and it's a there's writing involved with it it's um it's not just an art creating your art it's studying your art studying people who are known for that kind of art and and then how art can help as they move forward so it was very interesting um new Alta would be a beginning piano class and there's no additional cost to that there are new keyboards already in the budget for next year and these would be keyboards that would be able to be moved around to different parts of the different models with that would be able to be moved around to the building so that students could practice at different times we also have an AP pre-calculus and this one was really fascinating for me to learn about it's a year-long course there will be

074no additional costs new text would be absorbed in their textbook accounts that they already have in line and what we learned that I thought was pretty interesting is that um more there's a preponderance of students who go to college without the right of I'm saying this wrong the right the math courses that they need to be able to go in and start college math courses right away so this would allow for some students who know they want to go into those math Sciences to come in and be able to start right away taking college level courses and not having to go back and do some remedial math in order to then be able to go into the math sciences that they are interested in studying Jonathan I was gonna say if I could I can

075add a bit yes you were there yes um so if students were to start um their first year of high school taking algebra you would have to double up if you wanted to make AP Calculus and what this does is now enable students to be able to achieve an AP course during their senior year without needing to double up so it creates a lot more accessibility and opportunity for that and for the two English courses they're trying to integrate English 11 into kind of different more variety and it kind of provides all the various like media options back how it used to be in the olden days yeah so you so you learn about um subjective media influence and such kind of but it's now um rolled out throughout other stuff as well um wired

076uh course that is through House Bill 1671 and this year it was allowed to be a roll-in course with already with classes that you already have but as of starting next year it needs to be a standalone course offered to students and they really have not given us a lot of Direction on how and what needs to be in there and we do have a course currently um that is taught through the business yeah did you get Danielle's email yes I did yeah and that is taught through the the money management which is more of a when you look at the two classes however the proposed math class and that the existing class they're really pretty much the the same thing they are and all we want to do is is list it this year

077as a Math slash business right of course as long as I'm not creating a second class it is not that at all it would be the same I see a face I was just going to add that this um it hasn't been decided by the high school if this is going to fall into the math department or the business or be a Math slash business and there is a certification that um that the doe has not yet outlined what the certification requirements are for this course so by voting for this well it's it's a requirement so it's a mandate um and by approving this course does not necessarily mean it's approving which department it falls into at this point what we're looking at is making sure that we get it into the program of study

078so we're approving a course that already exists no we're not we're not approving money management the title of the course has to be personal finance okay and the guideline more guidelines are coming out so I guess where I as a former educator in our district and where I get a little nervous is that we have an existing program with teachers that work hard teaching it so if we don't know what we're doing yet or what's required of us or where it's going to fall my comfortable thing is to table it for now it's not going to stop anything from happening until we can actually vote on something that isn't now creating a second class that may or may not replace an existing class and it might be math and it might be business and I'll

079turn it over to Michael you do have guidelines for the for the course okay it's just when we had a phone conversation with the doe Nate green indicated it could fall under economics it could fall under business it could fall under math and that's a decision that needs to be made at the site as long as we won't won't have to say to a teacher so long because you're not going to be qualified to teach class Math slash business that's where I'm coming from we actually had a discussion we being myself Mr Herbert Miss hillstraw who teaches the course this afternoon about this issue as Michelle pointed out we haven't received a lot of direction from the doe yet beyond the fact that we have to offer this um I'm pretty confident that when we

080do get more direction that the competencies and skills that are taught in money management will meet the Criterion that the doe is looking for when we talked about this at the instructional committee the key Point not that I want to go into this now was that um that money management or personal finance or whatever we call it not be taken for one of the math credits we're going to be talking in a minute about raising the credit requirements at the high school and I think our primary recommendation is that we raise the math credits from three to four and that that's uh really what our focus is the money management course we talked about today of possibly making it a semester course for next year it's a full year course right now of doing some

081pretty rigorous marketing around it I think kids at least in my experience are pretty interested in how money works and understanding how they can use that power so I think this the the money management course can still be pretty successful in that format but the key issue from our point of view overall was separating it from being a math course available for math credit okay other questions so to be clear we should we should support it here yes we should support it I just want to do the right thing okay Ms Walsh the keyboards included in the budget is that included in your proposed budget to us or in a budget you already have no it's it well it's he gets keyboards every year okay if if beginning piano goes through if if the board

082supports it he's going to get a different model that will be more applicable to a beginning piano we're not necessarily more than he does he was quite explicit about that okay thank you yes Mr cotton just just a comment not really a question I'm I'm excited to see this literature of survival course good that you picked the the left eye gagne is an excellent book and and I would hope that you guys can figure out a way to get Ty to actually come and uh let's just present to the course because he's uh he does he does well I agree other comments or questions thank you Mr Reardon so I guess at this point I would prefer to vote on these as one whole thing or do you want to separate them what would you

083guys like to do is go ahead is there any preference I was going to ask I was just going to make a motion for the full sleep now second that motion okay motion has been made by Mr Weinberg and seconded by Mr cotton uh any further discussion with regards to the six courses proposed not seeing any all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye aye any opposed any objections motion passes thank you very much okay so next item that we have is um going uh back to pre-covered Mastery of competencies versus acknowledgment of competencies and I have done to explain that I didn't really understand what that was because I wasn't on the board when that happened but pre when covid hit um there was a switch that we had oh

084no no oh okay if you needed any oh yeah no I may there was a switch um from having a 2.5 average on each competency in a class to a 2.5 average of the class in general because students were in and out and things were crazy this is a request to go back to the pre-covered way of grading so that each competency would require a 2.5 average to pass the course and it's something that we could do as as just the instructional committee but thought that it should come to the full board with all the new faces and different thoughts and stuff so this is just procedural and bringing us back to where we were before coping and it would be starting next with next year's year classes not this year's starting with the 2023

085year okay uh questions go ahead Miss Higgins is there a general feeling district-wide that we're ready to be I mean school-wide there that that you know just be we're never going to be the same as we were before kovid so does this so you know where are we now and and is our student body really ready to be there yet not that I'm trying to make it too easy for anyone or anything like that but are we there yet or do we need to look at it differently I think we are there um we never want to put our students in a position where they are not going to be successful um a competency is by definition something uh conceptual understanding a set of skills that you need to progress in that field of study

086so our our decision at the beginning of the covet disaster uh was that kids were under a lot of stress we all were and that it made sense at that point to kind of take a step back and give a passing grade based upon an overall uh 2.5 or above for a course we are suggesting now that well very quickly just as a an illustrative point you a student could could conceivably have a 2.7 for the whole course but still not received credit if he or she hadn't passed one of the competencies we're saying because a competency is by definition something you need to know to progress that we would like um the board to support asking our students to master all competencies in order to receive credit I would also point out that our

087students have ample opportunity and support through things like our wind days and our student reps we're talking about today summer work um right we're back in you can go get help now if you're not stuck in your living room with your computer and you're not to mention singers your teacher after school right right yeah to to get caught up so I think this this makes sense for our students okay thank you other questions so I would like to um move that the board vote to return to the pre-covered Mastery of competencies versus the acknowledgment of competencies okay is there a second to the motion okay Ms Walsh I believe all right any further discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed are there any abstentions the motion passes thank

088you thank you thank you Mr Reardon and the one last thing that I have for you tonight is is uh increased credits for graduation um in October principal Riordan proposed a modest rollout program to increase the number of credits required to graduate from 20 to 24. over a two-year period beginning with a class of 24. a survey was sent out to parents from both runlett and Concord High as those would be the parents that would be mostly affected by this and results showed support for doing that and these all this survey results and everything are in your board book for you to take a look at so the proposal um is that starting with a class of 2024 graduation credits would rise to 22.5 from the current 21 that we have and this growth would

089come from math credits going from three to four and elective credits rising from four to five and social study credits rising from Two and a half to three um there could be an additional art teacher required for this as art is the one course or one section that is almost always um so full that students can't get in and that could go for an elective for some students or or is there primary for for others um the Plus for that it for me is that it would um an additional art class would dramatically reduce the number of students in study halls because we have an inordinate number of students and study halls as one of students can are consistently not able to get into a class then we need to better staff that department anyway

090right so we will it wouldn't affect us right away but it was something we would need to put on our radio radar for the future um and the increased social studies credits would help students prepare for the mandatory Civics exam which is required for graduation for the doe so you know it's it's just giving us more time with students in classes helping them in the class of 2025 graduation credits would rise to 24. science credits would go from three to four and there's talk of an out of classroom requirement and you could get a half credit it wouldn't be 2025 just as a clear I thought it was 27 right yeah I don't know this says 2024 but I thought it was 2027 ninth grade okay yeah I was looking at this and it's like

091that's not what I remember but it's what it says yeah 27. it'd be a busy senior year yeah 27 and 28. so the class of 28 um the credits would rise to 24 science credits would go up from three to four and again that out of classroom requirement uh you could get a half credit for a semester or full credit for a full year and um this is going to need a lot of planning this is this is a proposed um item at this point um we didn't have any Personnel implications for the next two to three years while it gets ironed out a little bit and there has been already I I felt a lot of consideration on the high school team for making sure this is something that all students would be able

092to do you know we know that a lot of our students have other responsibilities outside of the classroom and don't always have the means and supports to be able to maybe do an out of classroom project and I think that there's there's plenty of thought being put into how can we make this doable for all of our students whether that means maybe you do some of your out of class project during your day we provide transportation we there's a lot of thought going into that so I know that that's a concern for people um but at this point it is only proposed and I think that you have a staff and that's really thoughtful about those kind of things and wants to make all students successful so [Music] I would ask I guess that we

093have a discussion about whether this is something we want to do all right do we vote on this or no uh I do yes this is a proposal that was brought from the instructional committee to the uh to the board to uh with regards to the number of credits the only thing that is I think still up in the air would be whether or not uh those credits would include would have to include an out of classroom requirement that has nothing to do with the number right it does not have anything to do with the total number um so uh right I guess indoor for I see it to the discussion I'll make a motion that we uh prove the credit increase incremental credit increase first Concord High School okay question made by Mr Weinberg

094and seconded by Ms Higgins discussion go ahead Ms Walsh um I have a question or I I appreciate how thoughtful this is and I I support a appreciate that you've identified where our students need additional time and energy and focus those credits on there I would like a commitment that there will be periodic reporting as you develop the 28 proposal you know I think the board you know this this out of school credit you need time to work on it I understand that but I want to make sure that it comes back to us and that we get updated on it periodically yeah absolutely that's and and we know we know when we've made this uh proposal the first time that we didn't have the detail around that yet we need to work or somebody

095needs to work on that next year and I think um I think that uh what's going to come back will be a menu of options for kids things like community service Capstone projects obviously college courses and so forth okay okay thank you and for those listening at home who didn't get that that's because Mr Reardon is retiring at the end of this year so I've heard that rumor yes so other questions go ahead Mr Weinberg I guess just as a clarification this wouldn't be for any existing students in the school as well I think just for anyone who's currently um between 9th and 12th grade the credits will not be increased for you so we wouldn't want them to worry if you're an eighth grader but also great information was provided to us that the

096majority of our students already graduate with more than the 21 credits so this really is going to affect a small number of our students and we're hopeful that with the pathways programs that we'll have going it won't be just a number it will be it will be beneficial to them can I ask a question Mr Reardon how does this propose number of credits compare to other districts or other high schools we did a fairly comprehensive um survey of sister schools of similar sizes and and most of them are around 24 to 26 most most are at 24. um a lot of those high schools also have a variety of diplomas that they offer based upon a number of credits that a student might Endeavor to to earn we are pretty uncomfortable with that we think

097that our kids should all be going after the same meaningful diploma and this is the proposal that we're making okay go ahead Mr Speaker I reported about this rollout I think it's a great plan that you have put together and show thought has gone into it I do see in the parent student survey um on page 95 the question of um we are going to raise credits what academic departments do you feel should be increased and I'm noticing that way at the bottom is math and it receives the fewest uh thumbs up from parents I can explain that to you in one in two words my incompetence I left it I left math off and it was most obvious speak out so now it's just that was just in her so you're saying that not

098all parents hate math no it makes me feel a lot better as a future student that would be um you know taking this new increased uh credit requirement um I was curious about that answer so thank you for clearing that up thank you Miss Meeker for an excellent question um appreciate that other questions or comments all right not seeing any we have a motion on the floor that has been seconded so at this point I'll call a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed all those abstaining all right the motion passes thank you very much Miss Hastings announce it thank you excellent thank you very much so do you want to take a quick recess quick step away if you don't mind it I appreciate it appreciate the fact that

099you uh have attended at this point very good thank you thank you very much yeah if you want to take a quick you will take a quick recess just for uh five minutes yeah just to cool down a little thank you we're in recess we are currently in recess for five minutes foreign thank you excuse me foreign thank you very much we are I'm back from our recess and at this point uh in the agenda I believe we are at Personnel superintendent is that correct yes we are good uh will you be handling it yes I will be handling it tonight thank you from Michelle um I have uh two two issues tonight under Personnel the first one is a leave of absence requests that you granted last year um the employee the um former

100employee is asking to rescind that request she asked for personal leave you granted it and things have worked out for her and we were in need of a teacher out at Millbrook and to be a a substitute to cover classes and as you know we've been really struggling finding people to do that work and she is willing if you allow the rescinding of her request to come back and help us out as a substitute long-term substitute over at Millbrook okay um I have a couple questions and I think probably some of the other board members may as well so this uh individual was granted a full year leave of absence that's correct okay and that does not involve pay or does involve pay does not okay does it involve benefits does not okay so this

101person is asking to instead of having a full year leave of absence to just have the leave of absence and now halfway through the year and had to return at uh to be a long-term substitute right it won't be right prior to her departure she was a classroom teacher this is not a position that she's not returning to her current position she's just returning to be to help us out with with long-term subbing we have uh two um maternity leaves out there that need to be filled and so this was perfect at the long-term sub rate that's correct okay that's were the questions that I had other questions go ahead in a second so you have to rescind a leave of absence can't she still be able to leave that happens from a classroom job

102but work for the district as a long-term sub like we don't usually do that once you grant that leave um then to have them come back I mean we've had other people who have asked for leaves for reasons okay so so technically we need to rescind it that's just my that's all yeah I I would I think it would be cleaner if you rescinded it and then just allowed us to continue we wouldn't bring her forward for a position because she's not a she's not like a classroom teacher or a teacher that's holding a particular position she's just helping with a long-term sub right and then she comes back then well um yes I assume she will be back in the in in the uh in the spring uh seeking a position right Ms Walsh

103I just want to make sure that um trigger anything in our contracts with our teachers that she would have to get paid at her teachers ready to pay or be entitled to her position if we rescinded the leave well that was sort of where yeah where Ms Higgins was going I think you know um did she get offered a one-year contract last year and a contract last she was approved for a contract last year then she um submitted a letter to the board as you would you may or may not recall um in the in the late spring uh asking for a leave for personal reasons um and so there's no expectation that she returns at a regular teacher's salary because the position doesn't uh call for that but if but if we send or

104leave of absence as opposed to hiring her as a long-term right are we are we required to cut honor her original contract if we're rescinding her leave of absence but my concern is is that we have well I I don't know I don't know if I want to get in in a public way I think that's a Personnel issue when you talk about um people's situations and that's kind of what's happened here while we are still in public can I ask a question sure haven't we and it's follow on to Ms Higgins question because I I sort of see the same thing I think is haven't we granted leaves of absence from a position um so people go to how they be a math tutor or go to a different position while still on that

105leave of absence and wouldn't we handle it this way yes that's correct but there they have a contract they're going from one position to another with a contract does this person not have a contract so in other words not just not to substitute position her prior position is she's expecting to return to that position again and are we obligated to give her that position at the end of one year Well we did we've granted her a leave of absence you granted her which allows her to return to that position and in the fall okay so I still have the questions that Ms Higgins and Miss Walsh has I personally still have that question if this is more appropriate in a non-public session we can do that or can we word it we are rescinding her

106leave of absence from the district however not from her prior position so that she can now take on this other position long-term sub but it may not be sending any position you're rescinding her request for Relief yes but but she's when you look we were sent to leave it sounds like she should go back to her job so we just have to clarify in there we were sending her her leave of absence from yeah I don't know it's weird this is funny I feel like she should like if she could go get a job in a different District long-term subbing and she doesn't have to re you know I mean like because she's not doing the same job and it's not a contracted position doesn't matter may I go ahead Ms Robinson thank you I

107noticed that um in our board packet it's this individual has made it clear that they are aware that the first grade teaching position has been filled for this school year I think this is just like a paperwork kind of funky thing and um it seems to me that she's fully cognizant of the fact that you know she's not she's going just looking to be oh I'm not assuming she'll suddenly want her job back but that's what she's aware of that I mean the letter is on page 43 and you pack it and so but we want it to be clear because you had granted it expecting that she was out for the year and then all of a sudden she's back in a position it's a PR it's a long-term sub or you know whatever

108have we consulted our legal counsel about whether we have any I did I have not I have not I would ask that I don't feel like there's a problem but I but it's I don't know why we need to do anything about it yes she's back but she's not in her job she's not even in a contracted position and she has a concert he has a contract I thought Kathleen right she comes back right as a teacher that's what I mean and to answer Ms Robinson's question which is good and we know that this person's not expecting it however the union May uh let me do this then let me check in with our labor attorney and make sure that we don't have any problems it we've had this discussion I just want to make

109sure it's we're doing it carefully because we do have other people out on leaves right yes I do I want to clarify I don't have any problem with her taking a long-term sub I just don't want to rescind this and have it say well then she automatically by the maybe you know we modify it rather than rescind it that her leave from her job continues but she'll be that's an interesting one I I think maybe if we we look at it from modifying that her her request rather than a rescinding right yeah um so it's still a lead from her contracted position however she in the meantime can fill in as a sub ject so superintendent we do not want to inhibit you in any way of hiring long-terms or having long-term Subs available however

110I think that you should go back and we should get our legal uh opinion with regard to the contract she currently has thank you and I know you understand that we are we continue to struggle a bit yeah it's wonderful that she's willing to do it so it's a we just need to word it right I guess yeah and the other position is a title one reading teacher um for Beaver Meadow complete the year her name let's see Janine uh tranfa t-r-a-n-f-a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University um in 2019 so we'd like to bring her forward to help with our Title One reading which as you all know is critical so moved okay moved by Mr Weinberg and seconded by Ms Walsh is there any other discussion this is on page 44 of your

111board book If you're looking any discussion or questions not seeing any all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes thank you that's all I have under personnel very good uh with that we will move on to Communications and policy uh I will handle that as Ms Cannon was the the chair of this uh first thing on our agenda is a um a change in a uh for the um with regards to policy number 539 student safety and violence prevention this is uh the bullying policy we had this the uh the committee had looked at it previously and we had sent it back there are a couple of changes that needed to be made with and that in fact are three items that I want to discuss uh the

112first change dealt with the definition of bullying in our current policy uh the 539 it contains the wording that the perpetrator had intended to cause harm to the individual being bullied because that is more stringent I'd say or more strict than the RSA than the legal we had a you know uh I believe a legal question as far as the fact that we couldn't put that in there and it was recommended to be changed to physically harms a student or damages the student's property and that be inserted in its place so that we were in compliance with the um with RSA 193 F3 the second recommendation was removal of examples of bullying Behavior hitting slapping pushing um because uh though negative behavior it doesn't always constitute bullying and may be just a part of Developmental

113behavior and it was felt that to just omit those uh examples and that let each individual situation more or less stand on its own and be considered on its own the third recommendation had to deal with investigative procedures and this was a matter of having to fill out the entire additional five-page investigative form if the uh if the incident was determined to be a non-bullying determination parents of the parties involved would still be notified and supporter measures discussed as appropriate but this would just require a shorter form as opposed to the five-page investigative form so uh I believe everyone has seen this and had an email relative to these changes so at this point I would make the motion that we accept the policy with the changes indicated and also I would ask that because

114we are out of compliance with the law that we do this as a expedited first and second reading which would require the two-thirds majority so with that motion is there a second seconds and then a discussion um a possible friendly absolutely policy 141 which is about the emergency protocol for how to pass the second reading certainly I am more than you know willing to accept that as an amendment so thank you Mr Weinberg now um having been moved and seconded now discussion on any of these items not seeing any I will thank the committee for doing this extensive extra work I know they had wanted to bring it to us in December but uh with that um all those in favor of the policy please signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed any abstention

115that policy passes thank you the second policy is policy policy 651 is a citizen's request for reconsideration of library and instructional materials um we had did I know that the committee discussed the term the definition of citizen at length since we have numerous schools that send their students to um to the Concord High School especially um and this uh this one was a clarification and um with regards to the process I hope everyone had a chance to read that policy and uh the committee brought it forward and made the recommendation that this policy this would be a first reading and then would have a second reading prior to approval at our next monthly meeting um and uh so uh I you want to make that motion or do you want me to make them go

116ahead the motion that the board moved policy 651 onto a second reading all right and I will second that motion now discussion of the motion to uh elaborate I think we were looking at how to have enough latitude while also recognizing um who like falls under the category of citizen I I know when we were seeing what other districts kind of defined under this um there are actually much more restrictive definitions so this provides enough latitude and also gives everyone the opportunity to look at the materials available so that everyone can make their voice heard and I will follow up and then Ms Walsh you may ask the question this was a consideration we looked at this with regards to the fact that you know we wanted the parents of people from other school districts

117who send someone to say crtc for instance to be able to have a say in this but we didn't want to look at it at a point that someone in Utah could actually come and you know challenge our materials um I'll also point out that while a person a Citizen May challenge the materials there is a process by which the superintendent follows to determine whether or not that challenge is you know addressed and how it is addressed and I think I said that kind of close to correct so uh any other discussion go ahead as well because the crowns served by the Concord School District so if they send to the crtc can they challenge material in an English class are only materials in the crtc classes that was part of the discussion and I'm

118going to let superintendent Murphy to verify that one I'm so glad you didn't throw it over to me that's superintendent I think because they have the students are participate in our school and in our programs they would allow that um they have a voice and frankly this board has allowed people from Outer District speak at meetings and over issues so um it doesn't happen very frequently but you have as past practice allowed that so the answer is yes it was a I think part of that discussion to help clarify was the fact that they do pay tuition to send which is comes out of their town or city tax office they're paying tuition to the crtc so where they're not taking our general purpose of although aren't students crtc students allowed Transportation length of day

119and stuff to take classes at Concord High or am I imagining we see that I don't believe that we see that I'd have to talk to Mike but I don't believe that we have that Mr Reardon or Mr Herbert around people wanting to attend Concord High School that are not residents of oh yeah tuition in right got it okay and this uh they do have access to our library which was part of that as well go ahead Mr cotton [Music] um towns served by the Concord School District soccer is a city in there or should it be residents of school districts well they're not residents of the school district so if if you live in yeah I would just suggest that the town is a little limiting it probably doesn't include residents of the city

120of Concord all right so uh we want to amend this to change Townsend municipalities how does that what are the implications has conquered is autonomous versus other school districts are there any well it's it's the definition from my perspective of New Hampshire law there are towns there are cities um you know so images I think we need to use it a term that collects both of those yeah the town right right so this by the way is a first reading so we're not going to vote on the final until and this weekend so that we can go back and uh and have MS Fisher Anderson look at towns versus municipalities well um Bob brings up a great point because I just reviewed all the tuitions you know we do it at mid-year and then again

121at the end of the year so I see all the bills and that come across from the the grants that are through the Career and Technical grants but in addition to the tuition payments made by the districts and there is a city that sends a student here so your point is well taken you know the city of Manchester has one student who comes up for a but that doesn't mean any Resident of Manchester can talk to us about just that family right right that's logical well well actually yeah and I'm glad we're looking at this yeah so you suggesting that anybody from Manchester then could challenge our work you've got kids from Manchester and we're they're paying to send that child to here then their taxpayer just like people endearing are or no Deerfield right

122but there are others there's another policy for parents requests so they're but that would differ so this is wood now you know that would open it to citizens from Manchester well you know I mean my point though was by restricting this to towns we're limitations of the city of Concord yeah and I agree I think we should take a look at changing that to municipalities and then um [Music] we're including towns comma cities whatever you know I think if you just put municipalities it covers all of it I think but I'm not an attorney so but is that broader than you intended as a committee well I think we will review discuss that I think we have some discussion about those policies challenging we discuss this and if there are other thoughts I think well

123we don't have committee setups yet so I guess whenever the communications and policy committee is formed I recommend sending an email to the chair [Music] I have a question yes go ahead um and I apologize I haven't been adjacent to this conversation um how have uh District Librarians been consulted in this process and if so what are their thoughts about the policies do we even have like other than maybe we did we consulted with the high school librarian on this because she was very concerned about challenges given the recent news um around us so um we did that this was important to her great no I'm happy to hear that thank you thank you so uh uh go ahead are there any changes to the procedures for selection and reconsideration of library and instruction materials

124or it's not just a test I think that's information I think we wanted the information purposes okay so I uh I think we take that change uh talk about it have the communications and policy folks take a look at this and if it turns out to be more substantial than just municipalities we would come back as another first second first reading but otherwise we would just come back in the second reading and note that change if everyone is amenable to that approach all right all right and uh that pretty much was everything with regards to the communications and policy committee so um that ends my report from that [Music] next up and let me just jump back here and get to my agenda [Music] uh would be the reports from our our subcommittees our ad

125hoc committees uh anti-racism Equity subcommittees policy policy 115 that's right I didn't have that item right in here so yes okay sorry I stand correctly thank you very much for that one which would be the consideration of um of of Ms Walsh's clarification or changes to policy 115 I believe [Music] thank you to whoever had this forethought I am asking us to consider approving an amendment to the policy and filling a vacancy of a board or a district officer I am proposing after the first sentence adding two sentences um the school board president shall make the nomination public at least 24 hours in advance of board consideration period the board shall allow an opportunity for public comment before voting on the nomination period and then the rest would be the same uh except actually now

126that I look at it it no longer this next sentence doesn't comply with the charter anymore um so it Shall Serve until the next until the end of the year until the next calendar year when voters of the district shall elect a replacement and actually it would be not just from the same district but same zone right yes right to be compliant with that and um well actually it would be zone or District depending on yeah and for the public comment beforehand if it's at a meeting where we have two designated public comments are we looking for an additional public comment no I just just how much there's an opportunity yes that there would be an opportunity for public comment prior to the board voting I believe is the way I understand it did you

127write that out [Music] would you just email it to me all right so the motion has been made to make an adjustment to policy 115. this is us working as kind of a committee as a whole as opposed to sending it to the uh to the uh Communications and policy committee um per Wall Street 141 we will need to have a two-thirds majority for this to pass but first is there a second to the motion I'll second it seconded by uh Ms Higgins now discussion I have no problem I think it's a I think it's a good idea actually I think it's a good change to the uh and and I I feel like this board well this new board and it doesn't have a lot of history with it but all of the prior

128boards have always wanted to try to be as transparent and to have as much public input as possible um in my term and I'm sure miss Higgins can confirm we have uh often asked for more public comment and sought it out so I think it's a good change myself any other I would love to hear it again yes could you please all right um I'm gonna read the whole new fallacy because they are at least a whole new first paragraph because we meet some other changes the school board shall fill a vacancy occurring on the school board the school board president shall nominate and the school board shall elect by majority vote an individual from the same zone or District or if we're placing a same zone or if we're placing a board member who

129was elected at large from the city at Large School Board presidents will make the nomination public at least 24 hours in advance of board consideration board shall allow an opportunity for public comment before voting on the nomination the individual elected Shall Serve until the next calendar year after voters of the district elect a replacement they don't come on right after the no no they changed in the charter this because you came on right away yes yes this Charter yeah this Charter clarified that District District yeah I do have a question yeah as it relates to the letter of resignation it it would seem as demonstrated today that a letter of resignation is not required for a vacancy to it is not required if someone moves out of the district or Zone then it is um

130it it fails to meet the requirements of the charter so let me read the second sentence yeah in this case this is one where it isn't it is actually just a request so that if someone knows they're moving out or no longer going to be a resident of the Zone we ask that they let us know they let the board know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly for a replacement and one of the areas I think that would come into would be if for instance I knew I was selling my home and moving outside of the district and I was listing it I knew I was not going to be here I would and I did that in August I would let the board know so that Jenny let us know she

131was moving to Maine so that right and then Pam was able to run so that the position could be could be it at the earliest possible election it is uh request but if someone had an emergency and just needed to resign that certainly wouldn't be a requirement but thank you for that question I guess the should versus the must right yes yes um can you read the first part again since we had changed a few of those again the first paragraph Just So everybody's clear on that yeah no I'm hoping that I know that Ms Walsh was keeping good tabs on that [Music] foreign School Board shall fill a vacancy occurring on the school board the school board president shall nominate and the school board shall elect by majority vote an individual for the same

132same zone or if replacing a board member who was elected at large from the city at Large School Board president still make the nomination public at least 24 hours in advance of board consideration the board should allow an opportunity for public comment before voting on the nomination the individual elected Shall Serve until the next calendar year after residents of the zone or the city at large elected replacement so I'm looking for Bob's sign up yeah I I I'm fine with that but you know as I read that last sentence until the next School Board election the next School Board we have in the school board election every year they don't take their seat until that's the change let's change the calendar year Shall Serve until the next calendar year because that was the charter change

133yeah yeah so all right yeah I'm fine with your language all right everybody else anybody else have any um changes we can of course come back and revisit this again if somebody finds something but not any further discussion it's been not seeing any uh let's call a vote all those in favor of the and we do need two-thirds all those in favor of the change to policy 115 as proposed in the motion please signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions we clearly passed the two-thirds so please make that change in policy and thank you Ms Walsh I think that's a I think that's yeah I like it an improvement to our policies all right and thank you for not letting me miss that change in numbers and all there with that we will

134now go to subcommittee's anti-racism equity subcommittee Mr Weinberg will you be taking this one I think I'll be taking both of them okay excellent go right ahead then uh not too too much to report as superintendent Murphy wrote about we're looking at reorganization and how to have maybe a coordinating group versus a more General group that has uh a more variety of voices also Quincy has started um as the daij director for the district um currently I don't know when the next meeting is for our Equity advisory I I don't think one has been scheduled yet but I think we're looking at different ways to not phase out New Hampshire listens but find a way that we can have a sustainable operations without kind of external forces always needing to come in um so there's

135been a lot of discussions about that we've been working hard any other additions there superintendent nope and then any questions I guess I just think that having Quincy more involved is a great idea actually I think that's I think uh you know for him to take a lead in this is appropriate and I look forward to it so and I think that's definitely been oh sorry go ahead just one other one other question and I don't know whether it's for you Jonathan or for the superintendent but um I think I saw in the paper today that uh a group of people attended an event at the uh Concord Bank of New Hampshire Bank of New Hampshire stage uh uh and uh you know people young young people from the district both high school and grade

136school levels uh mostly new Americans and I was just wondering if the a school district had anything to do with that or any input on that or was requested to do anything with them nothing come on but there are I I am not sure either from my understanding um there's during um what night is it International night there's a great performance on the stage at the high school as well so there could be like groups like be the change club or project story um a community organization who are like collaborating with them but I'm not sure if there was any direct District involvement well what one of the things that I did do was I invited the new um chair if you will of change Concord feasto and he's going to join me and um

137Quincy next week at our regular because I meet with Quincy once a week so he's going to join us in that meeting and he's really the connection to a lot of those events so I'm hoping that we can bridge that Gap that's good great [Music] any other questions thought statement I'm curious about the graphic um is this just an internal graphic for us to understand the meanings of the equity subcommittee or is this something that would be pushed out to beside this room and if so there's so many acronyms I'm new here no I'm just curious like who who this graphic is for superintendent yeah this graphic was for the committee The Advisory um just to help us with the organization and also to be able to help Quincy and um all of our leaders

138on that committee and Community leaders too to understand the various activities that we want and who we would like to be involved like a student group you know we want our students to have a group they need to have a voice and they and we need to address that um task groups I'm sure it was cell mtssb and PD probably um but those are currently committees in place in the district and we want to be able to integrate with their work the work of the advisory it's really an internal working document for the committee I think on that vein kind of what we could make it more accessible so like SEL social emotional Learning mtssb multi-tier Systems of support and then PD is for professional development so I think that's a good thought for like

139the next iteration of this is just to remove the acronyms and just spell them all right and then I guess for the sustainability unless there are any other questions or thoughts for the sustainability we had a meeting a couple weeks ago um and then the district had a meeting as well with um from what I heard with some solar panel folks I didn't know if there was any updates there with Kelly obit yes yes Jack and I had a zoo meeting it was very informative it's something we're gonna talk further with and I had some other properties throughout the city too that you could participate with net metering so we're going to continue those discussions as we move forward awesome and I think one of the these takeaways from the last meeting was we'd love

140to find a time for Matt to come and speak to the group so I think if the super 10 Matt and I could all find a time to do that that would be wonderful because for all I know Matt knows a lot more than I do and has a lot more of the day-to-day knowledge so I think just continuing to bridge that gap between the city and school district and trying to build relationships is very important very good thank you any other questions for Mr Weinberg all right thank you Mr Weinberg uh other business enrollment superintendent no I think um it's pretty steady the only question I have on this report and it's the monthly enrollment Report with the blue sections in it I John brought that to my attention from November 22 to December

141Deerfield kids it was it it it's it shows a 20 decrease in students that that doesn't seem right so I'm I'm gonna have to do a little digging there uh yeah I'll talk to Michael and I'll talk to Ian Fowler up at the um up at CRT and get some information so this might want to in future enrollment reports correct for going forward the September High School enrollment I think Deerfield was double counted yeah we did chat we did um but it's like continuing every yeah someday somebody's gonna go back and look at what happens with the 1600 students and yeah where did they go thank you other questions with regards to enrollment all right got class sizes I know that's always an issue you always want to pay attention to that but everything looks

142really good and it's well within your class size policy current class size policy very good other questions all right not seeing any let's move on to calendar yeah I could do some help here um on Wednesday we have a capital facilities but we really don't know the committee yet so um I think maybe we need some time to put our your you need some time to put some committees together and um yeah it makes no sense it doesn't make any sense to hurry about anything and and it's right now we don't have a lot to report right um you know the the only work that we did was I know that there's some bills that the legislature I'm waiting to see when they're going to be heard we did partner with some other districts they

143all did reach out to their legislators I contacted them to what degree whether they signed on and sponsored the bill or not I don't know that but they did get a favorable response from their legislators should we move it should we move it that's what I was going to suggest we have an open date on the 25th would it be appropriate to move it to there we could do that so okay the only other thing is you have your board retreat on the on the 14th and I would like to ask from some help from you I have begun begun to put together the agenda I'd like to get it done and out in your hands obviously it's a Saturday morning from eight to two here in the in the boardroom we would like to

144talk a little bit about safety Matt and Jack and I would do a presentation and discussion with you on safety issues um Dean Eckert is coming to do talk about school board roles I think that's always good to bring Dean back and as as your legal advisor to help you with those those things we'd like to also at least update you on funding where we are with Esser where we are with building Aid and adequacy um and um some time to talk about buildings and the status of buildings the concerns that we have relative to buildings so and then other topics would you like I guess that's what I didn't I I don't I it seems like a lot there but it it's not all oh it won't absorb the entire time so it's gonna

145say the original committee hasn't really had a chance to put anything together yet since we've only just assumed positions but uh we have input does as well as you have anything I would love for the board to have a chance to have a discussion and be updated on where our student assessments are and where we think our students are we had a preliminary discussion I think an instructional at one point um where you know coming out of the pandemic we were falling below the Statewide average discussion was and we're going to evaluate this further and get back and maybe you've gotten back to instructional but I think the whole board would benefit from sort of a presentation and a discussion of where we are and what we're going to do about it is that appropriate

146for the retreat or for a different meeting right just because I know that even though you say we have more time we always seem to have little time and we will have some discussion on committees I believe at that I not that I disagree with Ms Walsh I think we definitely need to have that I'm just curious as to the appropriate time whether that's whether you could do that at the time what other things do you want I mean are you you just indicated that you were interested in committee assignments do you want to talk about well we can assign we can go through committee assignments but in the past we have also had committee goals and some committee over reviews I don't know if the board is interested in that but I always thought

147that was I have found that to be very beneficial for the Committees to just spend a few minutes together to discuss what their priorities would be I don't know if anybody else's but I like I thought that was helpful and then I I don't notice anybody else have other items that they would like to typically at our Retreat is a chance for us to one first get together and be organized as a as a board but also to fill in any questions and gaps that those of us who have been around for a while may have as well as those new members may have so any other athletic facilities is another place that is probably an update or a topic that this board will be addressing in the coming year other areas if no pressure

148you can send them into please send them into the superintendent and copy uh the executive committee on that if you would because we will be looking at that at the end of this meeting I would like to to just have a minute with Ms Walsh and then we'll reach out to Ms Hastings with regards to setting some schedules for executive committee meetings and I want to also thank you all for your input and putting together the uh the committee's preferences that you have um as I looked at them once again you know we have a lot of people want to be on certain committees and we won't be able to meet everyone's uh desires but we do want to let you get involved with those things that you feel you can make a good contribution

149or or would prefer being Mr cotton facilities just also scheduled schedules oh uh for the next we haven't gotten even to February good point so maybe we just have it the first yeah yeah uh well could I propose that we do a policy meeting on the 25th sure uh yes because we're going to need to take a look at something before the next board meeting we have no policy meetings 25th late at night how about uh then could we do it on the 30th the 23rd could be flexible as well City and Community you're saying if I were still involved in that hypothetically you're saying we could use that date yes okay so so no Capital facilities on the 25th and we'll plug in a policy committee somewhere somewhere and I'm hoping that Bob because

150well I'm gonna be gone from the 17th all right other other absences I have an idea what about we do the capital facilities of 25th can we do the policy the first and we get rid of that Capital facilities meaning in your back and it's still before the February 6th school board meeting yeah I think that's that works out of time go ahead okay so the 25th now becomes Capital facilities like we just did okay it stays that and February 1st we cancel that Capital facilities meeting because we just had one and we give it to Communications and policy policies um yeah I think that'll work that'll work [Music] on the 6th of February so you have a little bit of time [Music] um we do need to have an instructional committee which we don't

151have I was gonna say yeah we do not until on the ninth oh yeah we can't do it that's right it's before the we can't do that either right well here's the kit here's we've got to be careful now you're gonna start your budget deliberations on the 8th so that's your first budget meeting and then you have budget meetings on the 13th and then the 15th um I just want to caution you that you don't usually add a lot of committee meetings when you're doing budget otherwise you're out three and four nights but I thought we already oh I see so far so it will be the goal of the executive committee to have committee assignments prior to the ninth let's that's the solution we need to have because we're going to start bumping up

152against the budget yeah and so uh I will reach out to the executive committee to schedule something so we have some resolution on committees by the by the ninth typically um as when I in my prior year as president I always you know I know that says the president assigns committee but I have always involved the entire executive committee uh to try to work on this and I plan on doing so again but I think there's no reason why we can't have that bolt together by the night and we'll have to let anybody who's on the instructional committee know that they have a meeting tonight so uh we'll do that as quickly as we can is that okay with everyone yeah because we have a negotiations commission yeah I know it all comes fast and

153furious it does so it does so uh can I can I just ask on the negotiations what is there a contract that's coming up that I can't remember we're meeting Wednesday but we're also the 18th but you've heard nothing I shouldn't say nothing you've heard something so far but we need more correction so that that contract is on our our radar agenda for this year good question though thank you very much so for the rest of that month and I think we're fairly filled with with meetings so we do have the 30th as a if we need something on in January yeah January 30th so we have that's open right now if we need it okay yep looking into February February policy on the first the school board meeting on the 6th and then negotiations

154we thought maybe we could take at five o'clock and then jump into the budget uh work sessions at 5 30. all the meetings were are from 5 30 to Jack what time do we do those budget meetings till when seven seven seven scheduled till seven yeah um and again budget again on the 15th I would tentatively set the legislative breakfast on the 17th that's after my understanding the governor presents his budget so we now can talk to our legislators about what's what's on the docket um and that's followed by an executive committee on the 20th so you have a busy time now once you jump into budget okay all right anybody have any thing they want to call out with regards to the calendar all right uh yes we do but prior to going into

155non-public I need to uh ask for a public comment session I believe we're at that point I have to jump back here yes we have the final public comment session if anyone out there would like to make a public comment please step up this can be on any topic and uh just state your name thank you Tony sure excuse me Tony chanella Little Pond Road in the district [Music] um so some Kudos and some critiques first off Kudos um as and I will comment as a member of the working press I want to thank Kathleen and her team well we're now in a new year so I want to thank Kathleen and her team for their access and ability to get back to me quickly on a number of issues last year it's um in

156the time that Kathleen has been here at Franklin bass as well there's been a lot more um uh accessibility for the public and the press and we appreciate that very much and I wanted to say that publicly while school board members or School District employees may not always like what is published in the Press I appreciate people getting back to me quickly I have a lot of work to do um as many of you know I try really hard not to speak at public meetings I it's a it's a very difficult role trying to do my job but also be a parent a voter a taxpayer a resident everything else um but um I I want to commend Barbara for her comments earlier because many of you weren't it let me see how did I

157say this in a better strategic way so I've been back in conquered almost 21 years before that I attended a number of school board meetings when I was a kid and um if you ever see Roy schweiker at City Council meetings you you would have loved his dad who used to come to school board meetings all the time talking about every issue I learned a lot from his public testimony as a young man um but I was struck by what she said um before the vote earlier this this board while you all are individuals and and can't be um are all great people individually you've been working very hard to rebuild your credibility in the community over a lot of things that have gone on in the past 19 18 years um it goes back

158before Howie Leon um and um it's not it's a new phenomenon to have um a school board president be the school board president for three four five six years that was done um about 20 years ago when a certain School Board member and a certain school superintendent were very very close their families would have dinner every Friday night at Hermanos I know I ran into them a lot because I like to go to our models too and they kept people out of the loop duly elected people of this board out of the loop on some of the things that were going on I don't have to remind any of you who are here for the Howie lung situation that only two of you knew what was going on for months because there were only two

159people in the leadership who knew what was going on it's not right it's a new Phenomenon with the exception of Betty hoadley who was always the default president because no one wanted to do the job because that's a lot of work and but it used to be a revolving thing it's also not really good and I was really struck by it that it really seemed like your vote tonight was an inside job and I wouldn't necessarily make that accusation without having more information but when she said during the comment period you know everybody should be nominated and everybody should be seconded and then you can lose not by not being nominated but by being voted out um that's a valid point whether or not Bob wanted to serve as president or not or anybody else

160um the courts really frown upon um what's called chain organized voting circumventing the open meeting law and I'm not saying you you did that but circumending the open meaning law to get to a conclusion on a vote none of you are the mayor right the mayor's job in the city of Concord is to run the meeting you're all nine equals traditionally the leadership positions have always moved around every year up until about 2004 when that that school board member got elected and was very cozy with the superintendent as I said before um School Board member a camp called School Board member B to say how are you going to vote on this and then call school board meeting c and d and e along the way that is that that's you can't do that you

161have to have your votes um in the in the public session now it's a little bit more you know it's a little bit more complicated when you're voting for the position and Kathleen is running the meaning and everything so um but you know it it's I hope you don't I love you Jim you know that you and I are in really good terms I don't even want to say this this way but I hope you don't run next year and I hope that you find either somebody else who sit down and pin to run because it's really not healthy to have people in leadership positions for three or four years and it wasn't healthy when it was before when two people knew what was going on on this board and seven people didn't and the

162public didn't know because the seven people didn't know I hope you understand what I'm saying and I hope you understand the concern that that I'm raising um not that any of you circumvented the open meeting law not that you that you did a trail for votes but that from out here it really did look that way and I wouldn't have necessarily said anything except that Barbara said you know everybody who gets nominated should be seconded and then you didn't second it when it was like kind of like you know pretty obvious to do so um that's and I as a voter and as a parent and as somebody who has one-on-one relationships with a bunch of you and no and knows you and knew you before you were on the board um you know I

163I found that disappointing and and I I really think you are working so hard to get Beyond um some of the other things and you know and I'll say this one one more thing if you wonder why only three people show up to a budget hearing it's because out there they know it's a done deal when 12 people come up to a working session for a 200 million dollars middle school and then you wonder why it's because out there they think the fix is in and it isn't always in but that's what they think and I you know I just know how hard everybody has worked on this board to get Beyond some of the issues before um and I hope that what I've said is taken in the way that it said and not

164necessarily the way it was presented so um thank you thank you Mr chanella and I don't take any offense to anything you said I I agree that you know a dynamic change in transition and uh is is very beneficial [Music] um and we at least from my understanding and at least from my point of view you know I want to be very transparent and assure you there's no fix in but uh you know and we will continue to try to be as open and answer as many of your questions from the media part of your statement as we possibly can and thank you for coming for your comments are there any further comments from the public tonight not seeing any we will move on and I will need a motion to go into non-public session

165pursuant and I don't have I gotta flip back to my [Music] unless someone else has that in there Colon's 3C yep three C Personnel thank you very much sure all right uh do I have a second okay seconded by Ms Higgins all those oh this has to be a roll call I believe so uh I'll do it Brenda's not here okay thank you otherwise I would do it uh Mr Clinton yes Jonathan is consistent um Mr [Music] Richards yes Ms Robinson yes Ms well Walsh especially Welsh and I say yes unanimous all right uh we will go into non-public session uh for those watching on the television uh I believe the only thing that we will do after we come back from non-public session is adjourn does anybody have anything else that we would do

166before that then that's all we will do and uh that won't be on uh conquer TV or the streaming services so we can end that now um we are in non-public sessions thank you