6-24-26 DCS School Board Meeting

001I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation under God indivisibley and justice for all. >> Our board norms are work together and be collaborative. Assume good intentions. Be present and prepared for the meeting. Challenge the issue like be respectful. I will open the public hearing um for the um lighting project school board public hearing notice. The Deerfield School Board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 6 PM in the Deerfield Community School Library to discuss withdrawing $25,728.7 from the building renovation and site improvement expendable trust fund for the purpose of parking lot. Are there any public comments? All right. So, seeing none, we will uh we have a 10 minutes. We need to keep the public hearing open. So, we'll

002move start moving into the agenda. If anyone wants to change your mind and say anything um once we before we move to the next one, I'll check in and see if anyone else wants to comment. [clears throat] Uh the minutes for June 3rd we didn't receive. So we're going to um table that till the next meeting. You have any public comments? Not in regards to the public hearing. >> Daniel Palmer Range Road. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to express serious concern about the idea of offering a financial stipen for families to send students outside of our district's reestablished high school partners, Tamron, Conquer, and Co. Right now, we already have a level of school choice in practice. About 10 students in the recent graduating class chose to attend other

003schools, and I'm assuming their families paid out of pocket to do so. At the same time, and I say graduating class, but seniors, at the same time, over 10% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch, which highlights that many families in our community simply do not have the financial means to take advantage of these options, even with a generous stipen. Therefore, leaving such a stipen to be used by the families that would already be able to afford to pay. With the current trend, you would be asking the the town to pay an extra half a million dollars to fund these families. If the district were to introduce a siphon, particularly the one in the range of $12,000, it raises serious questions about both equity and financial sustainability. Based on current patterns, it would

004take somewhere close to 40% of our current students opting out of our existing agreements just to potentially break even. That level of participation would represent a dramatic shift and would be extremely difficult to predict or manage and potentially potentially damage the existing relationships with our contracted high schools. There are also important legal considerations. New Hampshire law allows limited open enrollment under specific conditions, but it does not clearly authorize districts to provide unrestricted public funds for students to attend any school outside of established agreements. Moving forward without clear authority could expose the district to legal risk. Finally, I asked the board to consider where the impact would actually be felt. Increasing the tax burden to support a program like this will not improve our high schools. It will reduce the resources available for our K through8

005schools. That is a real trade-off and one that deserves careful consideration. I respectfully urge the board to proceed with caution, seek formal legal guidance, and provide a clear and transparent analysis before moving forward. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Julia Franklin, South Road. I have listened to many people criticize the school board members during these meetings online and [clears throat] in letters. Yet, members of the administration and superintendent have made several comments that were untrue and claim to have been have misspoken. It is important to note that the schoolboard members are acting at voluntary capacity giving their time to our community. It is concerning that people that we are paying a lot of money for their knowledge are having a difficult time um with providing taxpayers and dearfield residents with honest accurate answers. I

006do wonder if this is a matter of not knowing and understanding the scopes of the law and your job or just inaccuracy. The taxpayers definitely deserve complete honesty and trust that our paid school leaders are leading by example with honesty and complete transparency. I am also concerned about the continued safety issues at DCS. At the last meeting, we learned that the swings were in very dangerous condition where a child could have flown right off the swing um with the swing. I have seen how high students go on those swings and that would have been tragic. I think it's time for the safety of our young children to be put at the forefront and not just an afterthought or completely ignored. I want to remind the school board that if and if I understand it correctly,

007the superintendent works for you and not the other way around. She acts in an advisory role and not a supervisory role. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay, we'll move on to board discussion regarding public comments. So, I just want to be clear about the high school um topic that was brought up at the last meeting. We haven't made any decisions. we're not moving in that direction. It's something that we have discussed and there's a lot of stuff that we have to work through before it's something that we are considering to move forward. Um, so it's just an idea. We were reporting on what we have been talking about in the high school committee and that's that's one thing that we've been talking about since we brought it up. Um, so we're

008not moving in that direction. We are doing research and trying to figure out if it can make sense, if we can do it. There's a lot of questions that we haven't even explored yet. Any other comments? I just personally I do think it's helpful when I know the committee has just begun but to get some information ahead of time so that you don't come up with a plan and then all these questions and comments come. I think it's good to have as much information as possible when you're going into it is my personal opinion. Yeah, I think that we're I think we're supposed to be reporting on what's going on in that committee whether we have all the information yet or not, I think we're supposed to report on what we're talking about. Um, so

009that's simply all we did and I think we're going to anytime we bring up any topic that people don't agree with, we're going to get a flood of questions and opposing views. So obviously we need more information before we make a decision. So [clears throat] um and then the other public comment um in terms of safety um you know it was brought up about the swings. We have a new facilities director. He's awesome. and he's got a lot of experience and it's no shade on our prior facilities director, but maybe there's things that he's seeing, especially now coming into a new role, he's trying to check all the boxes. So, I think that that's just one example. I'm sure there's several more that Kristen knows about that we don't even know about um that he's

010taken care of um since he's been here. But safety is definitely safety of the students is a huge concern of ours and I think that we're looking at that in a lot of different ways. >> I was going to say the same thing. >> Okay. Um before we move on to the agenda, um we're past our 10 minute mark now. So >> Oh, okay. >> All right. agenda review. There's nothing to add, right? >> Um, no, we will leave it on public. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for asking technology. Sorry, I'm tired. >> Um, okay. We'll go on to review of correspondence. >> What's that? >> Okay. Um, we got a email from um our music teacher or one of our music teachers, Mr. Trum um following up on the um chorus and band um

011and about the music program. There was a um survey that was sent out and he sent us along the results of that survey. All really positive stuff that you know shows about that program. I know you wanted to include it. Did you want to say anything about it? Yeah, just um it was a really lovely email and there was a nice comment from the bus driver for the kids that were going to Trills and Thrills that they were just um I don't remember verbatim, but it was um it was a lovely comment about how great our kids are, how respectful they are, and um just how well behaved they were. So, I thought that was really important to share. That was cool to see. And the the results uh from the survey are in the

012drive. We got an email from Kendra Cohen outlining her concerns about the high school conversation we had at the last meeting. >> I didn't make a copy of that. >> It just got added. >> Okay. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> And there's an email from Joanne Franklin um to the superintendent regarding uh school safety drill records compliance. >> Jess, did that just get added, too? I didn't >> see both of those. Okay. I apologize. I went back to my email, make sure I didn't miss anything. And so I added anything. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion about correspondence? >> Okay. >> Yep. So we will close the public hearing and take action. So I I will make a motion to withdraw the $25,728.70 from the building renovation and site improvement expendable trust fund for the

013purpose of parking lot play. Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? [snorts] >> Okay, we are on to immediate business and we will welcome up our CHS students. You guys all want to just bring your chairs up here? >> Yeah. [laughter] >> So, if you guys want to just introduce yourselves and if you want to share anything in particular, otherwise we'll ask you some questions after that. Okay. Um I'm Izzy Lingo. I'll be a senior next year. Um yeah, going to conquer high school every year. Um I'm involved in basketball team. Um honor national honor society, French honor societies. Um yeah. Uh my name is Mosc and I'm involved in the swim team. I do social club. I do feminism now. um and building awareness club. Um

014I'm Cameron Duboce. I'll be a senior in the fall. I do soccer, basketball, and softball. And I'm also part of the National Honor Society. >> Um I'm Inopore next year and I play volleyball for CS. >> Awesome. Did you guys want to share anything about conquered before you start the questions [laughter] >> or do you just want to get hammered with questions? >> I can talk. Um [laughter] I think that I really like conquered. I think there's a lot of opportunities there. Um, I found that like I feel like there's a little bit of everything for everybody, which I think is really nice because I think coming from Deerfield, like as much I love it, like it's a really small school, so you don't get a lot of like you don't get to meet all

015these different people. Um, and I think at conquered we have a lot of opportunities. Um, there's always like new things being formed. So like the French honor society, like that's new this year. Um, I was elected president of that. Um, but like there's always new clubs being added and there's a lot of opportunity to create clubs if you want to. Um, and I also think that it's really easy for Deerfield people to get involved, which I think is nice. Um, even like going into my freshman year, I was like playing basketball over the summer with like kids from the school. Um, so there were a lot of opportunities to meet new people um, and get involved early. And I also think that there's a lot of kind of diversity with academics. So, you know, for

016somebody who struggles academically, there's a lot of opportunities for them. But also, if you really want to challenge yourself, there's a lot of classes for that. >> Great. [laughter] >> Can you guys just repeat? I know somebody said, "What grades you guys are in? Are you all seniors?" >> I'll be a senior. I'm a senior. I'll be a senior. >> Be a sophomore. >> Okay. I was curious. So, um, what was your name again? I'm sorry. Um, >> so um, the others didn't have the choice for high school, but you did. >> Um, so can you talk about your transition? I know you mentioned it briefly from 8th grade into your freshman year. >> Um, the transition I feel like it was like really easy because there's a lot of people at conquered from Defield

017and I don't know, as soon as I got there, I made like It was just easy. >> That's good. Do you um did you do you ride the bus or did you ride the bus? >> Yeah, I do ride the bus. And I feel like that's like it's a long drive. Long bus ride. Are any of you um involved with the CRTC? >> I am. >> What do you like about that? >> I really love it because um I'm in the education behavior science one and for the first year you take half um like every other quarter you take two sections of it. So you take one education and one behavior science. Um, I'll be And then you like pick your strands at the end of the year for year two. Um, I'm going to

018graduate with like 20 with 24 college credits. Um, yeah. Uh, I'm taking a lot of classes like AP stats. I'll get that through CRTC. Um, a bunch of other ones. And it's Yeah. And then I got a field placement this year and I'll have one next year. So, I got to be in a classroom with autistic kids and just basically go to I want to be an occupational therapist. So, I got to like learn how to interact with kids with special needs and like how it's different from other kids. And next year I'll be in like an OT in a hospital and then I'll halfway through I'll switch to a classroom. >> That's really cool. 24 credits. That's almost a full year. I know it's been a while since you left Deerfield and so I

019don't know if you'll be able to think back, but I did ask the Co Brown kids. I'll ask you, how did you feel that Deerfield prepared you for going on to high school? or do you see areas where you didn't feel as prepared, like things that Deerfield could have done differently for you? Um, I would say that Deerfield prepared us pretty well. I think going into high school, um, I was really worried like especially like towards the start of the year because all these like run kids knew each other really well, all the kids from conquered. So, I was worried that like we weren't going to be able to really fit in. But um throughout like middle school, specifically like 8th grade, um there were like a lot of opportunities to kind of like get

020to know Conquered High and like sort of find your place there even before you left um Deerfield, which I thought was really nice. So like we'd have like nights where like middle schoolers could go to conquered or we'd take the tour of Conquered. Um and so I thought that was really helpful. Um, and I also thought like Deerfield has provided like a lot of like the academics that we needed to kind of like advance well there. Um, I took algebra 1 in Deerfield which allowed me to start with geometry when I got to high school which was really good. Um, because that's pushed my math forward enough where next year I'll be taking like AP calc and AP stats. Um I think one area where Deerfield like obviously like I know we don't have world

021language anymore so that can kind of set people a little behind. Um but I took French one um when I was in eighth grade so that kind of allowed me to skip that like behindness if you will. But it's not like all the runlet kids are like already done with level one of language. Like there's a lot of conquer kids that are still going into level one. >> So did you start at level one at conquer? I started at French 2 in conquered because I was able to get the French one credit um on VAX and then that transferred to one high school credit when I before I even started. >> Um something I thought was really helpful was like Izzy said that we had a lot of nights at conquered but we also had

022multiple nights at Deerfield where conquered kids would come in and speak to us. Um I've come back and done it too. academic for the sports which I think is really helpful because you get to talk to somebody who was in your shoes at Deerfield and has experienced conquered high school in their transition. And I thought it was really helpful as an eighth grader to hear like it's okay not everyone gets the deer kids [laughter] just like I'm obviously very sports oriented and um [snorts] it was helpful to hear like about all the summer opportunities which got me many friends like through every single grade. I had a bunch of senior friends before I was even a freshman, which is awesome. And yeah, I thought it was pretty helpful hearing people like come back and talk

023to how they transition and made it it just made it a whole sorry a lot easier. [laughter] We also >> we also have a week um in the summer where we can go to conference. It's called orientation. Um and then K like high school uh sophomores, juniors, and seniors rising those grades. Um they come back and through the summer and you spend like a week getting to know kids in your grade while the like older kids get to like teach you all about school. You like learn your classes, make food. >> Tie-dye tie-dye. >> Yeah. You go to community college. >> You go to Well, they changed that. Now it's like a field day and you just like have so it's like a really fun opportunity to get to know everyone and like understand the

024ways of the school. >> Yeah. They have specific people there like it's it's like you do a bunch of stuff as a group but then they take your specific schedule and you get paired off with one person and they take you through your specific day. So when you go to your classes the first day you already know where on school before even starts. So, I liked you said that um you came back and you talked to some of the middle school sports teams here. >> Um I went into the eighth grade classrooms and talked about just sports in general. >> Yeah. >> That's awesome. That's really >> I think you all talked about you're all involved in sports. Can you talk to us a little bit more about the athletics favorite parts? What do you

025like about it? >> Um, I really love basketball because I think that it's allowed me to make a lot of conquered friends. I mean, like my best friend, I play conquered I played basketball with her. She graduated last year. We're still really close. Um, and I think basketball's brought me together with a lot of people. Um, and I was really worried that like going into kind of this team that was already established that I wasn't really going to fit in. But, um, it worked out really well. Me and Cam are the captains for basketball now. >> Um, so I was Yeah. Also, that's part of the thing I was kind of worried about is because all these conquer kids, like I was worried that like we weren't going to be able to find like the

026ability to like have a position on the team that was like substantial. Um, but I think that there's a lot of opportunity for Gearfield kids to progress. Um, I'm on the swim team. And there's only about like 15 or 16 people on the team. But it's a lot of fun because it's like a single person sport, but also a team sport because you can come together and collect points, like get points for your team to try to win. Um, but also it just depends on like your time and like you're competing against yourself. The team's a lot of fun and the people are all really welcoming when I first got there and I've been trying to like reflect that as captain. Yeah. >> Um we are division one so there are some highly competitive teams.

027They're also still not so competitive but [laughter] like basketball we're not very good but they make sure to make it still so much fun. That's actually one of my favorite teams um like student and like teammate wise even though we have not won a single game in two years. But [laughter] then I [clears throat] also play softball which we are pretty competitive. So there's like a bunch of different options for you and there are a ton of kids that have never played before and most teams do no cuts. I know some of the boys teams do but I think most of the girls teams don't cut which is really nice. So you can do whatever you want. Um there's always it's always fun to go to like big football games, big hockey games. There's always

028something for you to do. Um yeah. >> So are there freshman JV and varsity teams? >> Um usually it depends on numbers. So like for basketball, we don't have that many people, so we just have JV and varsity. But like baseball has freshman team, soccer has freshman team. Um, boys basketball has freshman team. So yeah, it depends on how many people you can get. And usually they like to keep all the freshman on the freshman team. Unless you're like in the same athlete, you'll be put on varsity. But they put all the freshman on one team so that they can get used to each other. They can get used to this piece. Um, the scheduling. Um, there's always for a lot of the fall sports especially, but really all the sports, there's summer options, so

029you get to know people before you go into high school, which is nice. And the coaches are really good about emailing. Um, fall signups have been up for a long time. I know that. So, you get all the summer schedules, so you can start to see like, oh, this is how high school sports are versus middle school sports. And you meet a bunch of people, you meet the coaches early on. It's like it's just a really good opportunity. >> Um, I did volleyball and at first I remember being like really scared because only two of my friends were doing it too. So, but when we got put on the team together, it was like three differs and the rest were conquered. But like a weekend we got like I feel like everyone got really close

030and we weren't like divided. >> Yeah, that's awesome. Sports is a great way to break the ice and feel connected at the school. >> Not to single you out, but I got to single you only because the others did not have choice. Conquered was the school. You had choice. If you don't feel comfortable, answer that. Why did you choose conquered? >> Um I chose conquered because um I don't know. I felt like um Co and Penrook were like okay well we toured all the schools besides Co, but I ended up touring Co and I just I don't know like Conquer's like such a big school and I knew that there was going to be a lot of people there. So, it's kind of hard to choose it. And a lot of my friends are growing

031there. So, >> do you have any older siblings? >> Um, well, I have a half sister, but >> did um she go to conquer as well? >> No. >> Oh, okay. I was just curious. You had an older sibling that also went to conquer. >> All four of you are oldests at least. Yeah. And all four of you have younger siblings that questions >> and you and the academics for you you feel you are being had the opportunity to be challenged >> classes >> I would say we have a lot of um classes that you can be challenged um there's also I don't know about other schools but like I would say there's a lot of opportunity to get college credit um like Molly was saying she's getting obviously a lot of college credit um

032but I They also really prepare us for those classes. So like so far high school I've taken like AP static well I will be taking stat physics AP US history AP European history like we have so much variety in every single subject. There's AP classes that you can take and then you can take the test. Um and basically for college tests which is where you can get college credits um you have to get a three to pass and most schools take like a four or five to give you credit. Um, and I've gotten at least like a four or five on all the AP tests I've taken. So, when I go into college, I know I'll get credit for those classes. Um, and a lot of times that'll eliminate like my gened class. Um, and

033also like even non-APs, we have like a college comp class, so that can like if you pass that, um, you can take like dual enrollment with um, and that'll give you college credit. Um, I did not do CRTC. So, this I just started a couple weeks ago. I'm doing something called an extended learning opportunity or an ELO and that basically sets you up for whatever job you want to go into. So I want to go into nursing. So I just started an LNA course. So I will get and I'm going to be taking a college class through NHTI which I can transfer anywhere and I'm going to take medical terminology. So I met with the ELO coordinator and that way I will get college credit and I will get high school credit. And it's just

034another opportunity to set me up for whatever I want to do. I'll be doing shadowing at conquered hospital. It'll set me up for an LNA job. There's tons of different like job shadowings you can do through there. Um, and then there's just like classes at Conquer that are just like street law or criminal justice. Um, I don't even know. Every time I go through the book there's more. But yeah, they set you up pretty well for anything. Is there anything that you wish you could take that you can't or that's not offered? [snorts] >> I can't even think of anything. >> There's like hundreds. >> Yeah, there's so many classes >> and there's like different pathways that you can take to set you up for your future career. I think there's 16 something like that

035of all different pathways. >> Yeah. you can like um they get a graduation depending on whatever you choose. So you take whatever classes it says to you to take and then that way you'll like be set up for your future whatever job you choose. >> Other questions? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Feel free to leave. Next we have Mr. I'd act to follow. [laughter] >> There's hope for our next generation after all. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, ladies and gentlemen on the school board, my name is Donald Gman, 158 Mountain Road. I served 12 years on the school board and recently I have some 20 years of experience with the state legislature which is quite important. I have basically three things I want to go over. I don't want to

036get into details the solutions. It needs a lot of time for reflection input and various uh elements uh to come up with some sensible answer. But I did want to put it on the table tonight so that we all stop and be on the same page. I want to start off with I've had uh couple meetings over several hours uh with our represent SIU superintendent. And uh I can say that I'm pretty sure that the two of us came away with the same conclusion that we can work together. Um straightforward. I like I like her style. It reminds me of a uh a poker game in Nevada. Uh three kings beats by three queens except I got two tens to go with it. End the discussion. Great forward. No hands and butts. I love it.

037So, I'm looking forward to doing a lot of things uh with our uh uh superintendent at the state level because uh in our conversations, I discovered there are some roadblocks uh at the state level in regards to federal funding of special care. He has no control over it. Uh it's at the state level. So, I uh will be picking up that thread and following it on my own because I think it's an extremely legitimate problem that she faces on federal funding of special eds and uh it needs it needs to be brought to light at at the state level. So, uh, I'm looking forward to working with that one. The other thing is, uh, in regards to the, um, question on the S AU, uh, we discussed that quite a bit. I think there are

038probably, uh, three answers, three avenues that we could go down. Number one, leave the SAU. Number two, stay with the SAU. Number three, uh do our own uh SAU in that we would assign SAU functions uh to the principal or somebody designated by the board uh to handle those affairs internally and go on our own. that all three of those uh require a lot of input, a lot of review, cost figures, expenses, um hidden unc uh unknown consequences of taking this action or that action. What's the reaction of something else? So forming that committee to look into the SAU question I think is absolutely vital at this time. So I I commend you all for at least putting that on the agenda and working on it at this point. Um so that will take a

039lot of uh uh diligent work uh to get the best answer for DeField and for it students um here uh in in in the future as we progress that the last one the biggest one that I feel very compelled to let to be aware of officially and this uh information about the comes right out of the house journal. So this is official language. Usually it's uh very diplomatic and wishy-washy and what have you. Uh I [clears throat] was in the uh I was at the state house the day they had the uh concurrence uh uh concurrent uh with the senate resolution. So whole bunch of bills pass the house go to the senate senate modifies or doesn't modify kills or whatever the senate version comes back to the house with the modifications that the senate

040made. The session is dedicated. Do we concur with the Senate? Do we not concur? Do we set up a committee, a conference to set settle uh whatever little disputes there may be? And it's [clears throat] worth proceeding with a very uh intense day at the um at the state house. House Bill 1300. I'm going to read right out of the blurb because I was really kind of taken back a little bit by the the strength of the language. Um, House Bill 32 establishes a school district local tax cap question for the state and general election in 26 related uh to limitations on central office administration expenses in school districts. The House proceeds to the uh Senate version of this bill. Uh but with a uh major compromise, property taxes in New Hampshire are uh beginning

041to crush local local spending. um fewer the um year after year uh the costs increase and there are fewer and fewer students. That math does not work and the people paying the taxes tax bills know it. [clears throat] House version of this bill would place property tax cap question on every statewide election. [clears throat] The Senate modified it uh to limiting question to the 202 20226 ballot. The House pushed back at the uh question. They amended the bill. Now places the question on the next two elections. So that would be local, federal, local, federal. So we're into 27. So uh modifications were concerns uh modified some of the concerns of the DRRA further clarifies that the question must app must appear on the statewide ballot after candidates names. Al [clears throat] local municipalities are not

042burdened with the cost of printing a second ballot. Here's the one that got me. Property taxes are demanding relief and HB1300 gives them the tools to secure. No games, no hidden mechanisms, just a clean question put directly to the voters in keeping with New Hampshire's longstanding tradition of local control. HB1300 ensures that most local voters possibly get to decide that critical issue. [clears throat] I would say given the concurrence of the House and Senate that passed by the way um that there definitely will be a tax cap question on this country November's valid for all local people. [clears throat] I would strongly recommend that we position ourselves in a place that says that tax cap is going to pass. You drive up and down the town, I have four houses that have gone on sale

043on my road alone. Another [clears throat] half a dozen going out 107 to four and go around town. They're all over the place. And like it said there, [clears throat] taxpayers throughout the state are really, really upset about this. So I would strongly think that a tax cap on school spending is coming soon. It'll be on the ballot this this November for sure. Um and voters will decide one way or the other. So my intention of coming here tonight was not to make any suggestions or recommendations or anything but just as a point of education tax staff is coming. Um and it'll be coming for at least the next two election cycles. My guess is the legislature will extend that somewhere in those two cycles and uh I don't know where it'll go from there.

044[clears throat] So um that basically is what I wanted to present uh to the board tonight, but I thought it would be important to get it straight in the horse's mouth, so to speak. And um that's that's the actual verbiage that they use in presenting that bill on the floor. Very very strong language for the so I'll be happy to answer any questions or whatever if you have any you're not in shock. [laughter] Uh the other thing uh just as a footnote um somebody asked me one time, I thought it was a joke. It was serious. They said, "Could you sum up the legislature in one word?" And I said, "What are you crazy?" the House, the Senate, committee, 22 committees, amendments, [laughter] uh, excellent boss, I did I took it on and I boiled

045it down to one word and I said, you take all this hallelu at the call of legislator legislature. It boils down to one word. You've got to listen. One word. Listen. Listen to the profound. Listen to the profane. Listen to the idiots. Listen to the brilliant. Listen to everybody. Try to get in their head. Try to appreciate where they're coming from. Try to have an understanding because you are making law for the entire state. So you are obligated to listen with an open mind to everybody. I applied that question to the school and my word was reading. If you can't read, you're dead in the water. And where did I teach reading? You get a guy in the third grade. And we got one of the best damn teachers in the state of New Hampshire

046sitting on this board. I've been in NY's class from the opening bell to the closing [clears throat] to getting on the school bus. I've watched her teacher. I know how she teach. is a great teacher and I'm going to embarrass her a little bit and say [laughter] I think that she could put a reading program for K through three here at this school where we're not talking about going from 46% to 48% another wonderful achievement we're talking about getting up into the 80s teach our kids how to read 80s 85s 90% that's the goal because these 40s and 50 percentiles in math reading if we have to run the state including unacceptable and that hasn't been written into a bill yet but I'm hearing it all over the halls of it's unacceptable and they they

047are really working on changing and getting scores up. So [clears throat] that's my opinion. But I love this lady. I've been in her class. I know how she works. I know her ability, her qualifications, whatever. And [clears throat] if you put a bow in her teeth and send it down the road, I think get out of the way because she'll get it done. I know. [laughter] >> So that's my presentation for what it's >> worth. If I can get your phone number before I leave. >> Thank you for the information. >> Okay. >> Any questions? >> That HP 1300 there is >> 1300, right? >> Yeah. >> Definitely do some research on that and then get back to you with questions if we have any. It it is it is it is passed both houses

048now. So it is law unless the governor veto of it. There's no way that's going to happen. But so it will become law 60 days after passage. So we will see that uh in black and white uh come November's election. >> Sure. >> So that's it. >> Thank you very much. >> Hope I didn't scare it. Oh, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. On to the modulars. >> So, I just wanted to give a couple of um updates. Miss Wy, Mr. Greavves and I have talked several times. Um, you know, we put off the fencing projects. I think it's bigger than I think we initially thought it needed to be. Um, so until we get the fencing situation um or project figured out. In the meantime, we're going to install additional

049safety cameras outside um because right now there's no safety cameras between the mods and the building that would pick up kids coming in and out of the doors. >> Nope. There there is you can there is definitely cameras back there, but we're specifically going to want put one in front of the doors and >> have a camera view on the lob on the TV in the office. >> Yeah. >> So, we're going to um add an additional camera out there and we are going to ensure that kids are not walking um unsupervised between the mods in the building. Um that will be something that we will have to figure out how to do. But in the meantime until we get the fencing project complete, um we will make sure that we increase that adult supervision

050and put up the security cameras. Um because we recognize we hear that, you know, safety is a concern and there's other safety issues out there that we're actively trying to solve as well as far as like the water system out there. Um trying to make sure that in case of emergencies, everything is buttoned up and planned for. So, you know, these things have been in existence for a long time and it's going to take some time to fix them all. We can't do it all at once, but uh we are starting there and we will continue to make improvements as we go along. Um and then I we will have to talk quite a bit more about fencing needs andor movement. I know we talked about moving the trailers at one point or thinking about

051if that would even be worth doing. So, there's a lot of things that we need to consider about the mods. um more than just a simple move of kids. >> So >> that's awesome. Thank you. Um so is that camera it's going to face not the modulars but the door where they come in and out from the mods? >> Yeah, there's already a camera that has a view the entire that entire driveway. Um but the camera that will be right at the door. We can still see that, but it'll be a more focused camera, kind of like the camera that's focused on the portigo area. When people approach the building, there's a camera right there, and the office staff have a monitor to monitor that camera. So, when they say, you know, can I help

052you? And they ring the doorbell. They already know who's standing there. But, um, so just having an additional camera. And in terms of unsupervised, we're going to do the best we can. We don't have a lot of additional staff. Um, I know that there are schools that have, you know, city year employees and lots of par educators and lots of staff members. So, we don't have that luxury at our school, but we will do the best we can to um to do the to help with that piece. Um, in terms of getting into the building, so yeah, that camera will be focused right on that door. I we could do either we might even be able to do two cameras. Um, I'm talking to John Leighton, our tech person, to figure out how to what

053would be the best approach. >> Awesome. >> And, um, I think at the last meeting we talked about that second grade class coming. >> Yep. And they will come in. Yep. >> And, um, have have any ideas about how you'll utilize that classroom outside? >> Yes, we're um looking at potentially putting tech lit out there. So, the class that's usually held over in this side of the library, having it down in that classroom instead, um it's middle schoolers coming in and out for six, seventh, and eighth grade. Um so, we're we are looking at that. There have been middle schoolers out there in the past and it's been very disruptive. So, we're going to um figure out how we can make that the least disruptive because there's still a third grade classroom out there as

054well. So, >> right. Um that's so we're going to and the we have some plans of how to what to do with this space um in the library. We're going to be working through the year to maybe bring in some maker space ideas and the gentleman that's taking the digital learning specialist position has done work like that in Franklin. So um we've got some grant money and we we're starting to process some of those ideas. Uh so if we put tech lid out there that will take that space and open up this space so we can utilize it in a different way. Mhm. >> Anything else on that? >> No. No. >> Awesome. >> All right. Uh, next we have schedule summer session. >> Yeah. So, we talked about doing like a summer retreat and

055we just had to set a date on when we want to meet over the summer um to do a more extended meeting around like goal setting, plans for next year and things like that. What are you thinking in terms of um how how long that meeting would be? >> Um I would say probably at least, you know, a few hours. Um some boards do three hours, others do a full day. Um it's completely up to you guys. What are you guys thinking? Would would um I mean I think a few hours would be sufficient for what we're trying to accomplish. >> Yeah. Is that where we would also be discussing evaluation? >> Yep. We have to do that where as well. >> Yeah, I mean we can do it here or I know uh Angela

056offered to take us on a lake somewhere. Silly, but yeah, we can have it wherever. >> Wherever we do have it. Just know that it's a public meeting. >> Yeah. So, >> I think a few hours probably be okay. >> Yeah. [sighs] You want to do a morning session or an afternoon session? What would you prefer? >> Morning for a week day. >> Well, yes. >> Me, too. [laughter] I'm sure >> morning awake and ready to go. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Maybe it's is 9:00 late. [cough] >> Okay, >> I'll put you in >> just that way. >> Going in the morning. >> I I like morning. You know, the earlier the better because then I don't have any problem scheduling. >> I just get the block. I'm there. >> You know what what what

057month in the summer we what day? >> Early July or early August rather. Not early July, early August. >> I know that for me I am out of town. >> Pretty much the week of August 10th. So I mean I could do like an August 10th, but then I'm I'm going to be out of town. So before that or after that gets kind of late. So for me it would be better to be earlier or like the 10th is my is my limit. >> Yeah. What are you have a schedule for? >> We have a school board meeting. >> Yeah. On the So, we already had a meeting on the >> August 5th. Yeah. No, I just haven't looked that. >> Yeah, it says we're back to regular session on August 5th. Um, good. Just

058do it in the morning. >> Yeah, you can change. >> I'm just after taking a break, I would like to accomplish this before we come back into our regular schedule. >> So either my opinion, we either make that our August 5th meeting or we do it at the end of July. >> Yeah. You mean make that meeting instead of what we will be scheduled for August 5th a normal meeting, >> right? >> We can do that. >> We're just changing the time because it's a public meeting anyways and there's no agenda set for that or anything specific. >> Sure. >> If we do July, I would have to meet before the 24th. Um, my kid was in Junior Olympics last week, July. So, I'll be >> Iowa. [laughter] >> Oh, how fun. [laughter] >> I

059think August work best for me as well. Do you want to do 9 a.m. for three hours? Do >> you want to use Do you want to do it here? >> I think so. That makes me >> Whatever you want. >> Has too many flies in a >> boat. I know. Well, we can we can do the right we can figure to be determined on that. >> Yeah, we can say we can plan for here, but if we want to change it location, we just got to let people know ahead of time and post it. [laughter] >> That is something to consider. [laughter] No one's going to be able to find it. So the meeting that evening will be cancelled and it'll be during the day. >> All right, we'll start there and then as

060we closer people take out their phones. I still have [laughter] >> I did a picture of my calendar on the wall and it's my pictures. I don't use calendar. >> Okay, we're on to presentation. >> All right, I'll have Miss Wheeler. I figured she could hop up at the front table there and that way she can see everyone. >> Well, yes, not live. [laughter] Just make sure you talk loud. My voice. >> Oh, yeah. All right. >> Um, so Miss Wheeler definitely helped me out considerably with this. She was the brains behind this operation of finances. Um, this was a pretty lengthy project going back several years to um, look at the surplus. Um, and then Amber felt like it would be a good idea to expand surplus and not just do surplus, but any

061any lines that we have gone that we've overextended over the last three years as well. So, we ended up incorporating both of those things, both surpluses and um overexpendures of lines. And then I'll let you kick off on how you want to set this up. >> Yeah. So, I I thought about that approach because both both pieces tell a story, right? And so really to understand the why of what's going on, you really need both those pieces. And so when I was first trying to think about all right, how can I pull this data so that somewhat makes sense because it's a lot of data. Um especially when comparing three years. So the sheet that you got that you know I'm a color coded person. I like to color code. Um so I thought let's

062look at a few look at it a few different ways. Um so I created a key that's over on the left. I looked at what did we spend that was um more than $5,000 under budget. So we were say it's 7 thou we didn't spend $7,000 when we you know that we could have. I also looked at it as um anywhere between a,000 and $4.99 that was under budget and then I look at the other two pieces that was over budget. This I took the same methodology and said okay what did we spend over 5,000 and then under 5,000. So I colorcoded those individual things. Now, several of these pages, there's a lot of information because I pulled all of the lines that are within the budget and compared and went through um what the

063differences were for each account code so that we could kind of get an idea of the categories that were repetitive in nature of either being over, under, or or at. So, really, the first few pages are your down. If you flip more towards the last two pages, I tried to summarize it for you. And the other piece that I did as a second tool, which I did this um project back in May, which is why the data that is for this current year is for May 26. Now, there's a lot that has changed since then. Um but I didn't have an opportunity to go back and update it because there's a lot going on at year end. So, it's a bit crazy. Uh so but I do talk about it. I put together a also

064a written documentation that I actually pulled together this week. But I thought that it might be easy so that when you walk away not just from the conversation we had today but really breaking down the summary of what the key observations were, what were the categories that seemed repetitive in nature and potentially the wise of each of those areas. So I did create a a somewhat lengthy document as well so that you can walk away with something and I'll briefly go through um the observations as well. So really when I look at it as a whole um for the past three years is a little bit challenging to compare just because the district has been in default for multiple years. And when it comes to default there are certain lines that by statutory nature would

065carry forward even if the district has strategically decided to to cut a line to reduce a line. Um, for example, let's say um one year they didn't need uh a kindergarten teacher because uh the class sizes were low. But it's not that they don't need the kindergarten teacher down the road. They're just choosing to not fill the position. So for the next fiscal year, the the school board votes, let's not fill this position, but we're looking to have it for the following year knowing what's coming through the pipeline. So it wouldn't be in the proposed or voted budget or would be in the proposed I suppose but that amount does carry forward to the default. So even though the school board has cut it in the proposed budget in the default budget it carries forward

066because it's not a reduction of a position it is an unfilled position which are two separate things. So situations like that. Um co-curriculars could be another example. Um and I think you'll notice that is one of the categories that um over the three years there's been in my opinion significant amount of surplus in those lines. Some of the reason is all right well this year we don't have enough play or we know next year because we've done a survey that we don't have enough players for baseball. We're not going to be able to run it in 2425, but we've done a survey for our younger population and we believe we might be able to get it for 2526. So, we're not going to budget for it in that current fis or for the next fiscal

067year, but it does remain in the default because you're not getting rid of the program. You're just not running it for a year. So, because of that, it still remains in the default. So there are some funky situations that while the default can help to um standardize the tax rate a little bit because it's a little bit more standardized budget, it does carry forward some things that will continue to carry forward because it's a baseline. So when the default was first originally created much earlier than when I was here, I've been here 11 years before me, there was a baseline. that baseline carries forward until um it's something that is no longer required. Um so because of that, it does create some abnormalities within this data. So I just want to mention that um some

068of the big reoccurring themes have been salary and benefits. That's been consistent. So, if there's a position that goes unfilled um because we've been unable to hire for that position, I know this district in particular has had that situation occur on m in multiple years. Turnover is also another reason why you might see um surplus. I'm going to call I really I'm going to say leftover expenditure because the the term surplus I'd like to at some point get away from that. I think it's got a conundation that isn't real. Um, I mentioned that to Jess. That that's really not the best terminology. Um, but you may have additional appropriation that wasn't spent because you may have had somebody that has been here for six, seven years. So, they're at step, you know, the highest step,

069the new person coming in might only be at step three. So, just because we had an original person here at step five or whatever it might be, doesn't mean that's what the next person coming in is. So those are some other reasons why you could see unexpended um budget appropriation in those lines. Now anytime something like that happens, it also attributes to the budget the the benefit line. Um anytime you have turnover, you could have had somebody that had a family plan and the new person coming in now has a single plan. So those are the kind of um challenges that presents that doesn't fully tell a picture if you're just looking at the members. um special education expenditures. Um as we know, I'm sure it's constant conversation. Um when we budget for special education,

070we budget for the current students that we have in the services we know that we have to provide. Uh sometimes we know individual students might need additional services for next year, so we might budget for those. or the opposite. Maybe one student had a specific service. We think that by the end of this fiscal year, they won't need it for next year, so we don't budget for it. So, we budget for exactly what we know and what we believe to anticipate. Now, with that said, when the new budget year comes in and we're now we're utilizing that budget, changes still occur. [snorts] Services still occur. Students come, students go. Um maybe the first half of the year they had some type of service but by the second half of the year they no longer need

071that. Maybe if we were providing services in house they were like you know what the services are providing are just not cutting it. We're going to need additional services. Maybe they need to go now out of district. So those are some of the changes that happened. also with fluxation. Um over the last several year, many years I would say often there have been times where there have been significant um additional budget appropriation available [snorts] at the end of the year. Um in those lines it is really hard to anticipate because you don't know what needs to change but we do you know we do the best that we can um and we communicate those you know as we're going along. Um so some of the operational accounts like supplies, equipment, um IT, staff development, co-curricular,

072um those have routinely, if you look at the data I provided, have come below what was budgeted. Some of that is due to potentially the default. Um there could have been some um because really only one-time expenses don't move from year to year. Everything else would make it into a default. So if you have something that you re routinely buy then you would continue to budget for that in both your operating and your default. Um so because the district has been in default multiple years some things carry forward because of that. With that said, I know over the last couple years in particular, um, the district and along with administr SAU administration have worked really hard to go through all of the budget accounts to say, okay, what do we need? It has been my

073personal methodology since I've been here that we go off of a zerobased budget. That's how I think you start from the bottom and you build up because I don't believe what you needed last year is exactly what you need next year. I give that spiel to all the districts. Um, some districts go by it, some don't. Um, some things you have to look back at past um, expenses because they are routine in nature and so you kind of need to know what you're expending, but there are other situations where there's not. Um, often we know if there's curriculum changes. If there's curriculum changes, there's going to be need changes. If you have a staff change that has changed from one year to the next, the new staff member coming in may not need exactly what

074the person before did or the opposite. They might need more. So those are the kind of things we look at, we talk about, but can also drive um a change within these lines. Um so I you know I think specifically over the last couple years we've really tried to strategically look at how can we bring the budget down and we've made um you know significant amount of cuts in the lines that we felt like we could that wouldn't that allows us to still give a a good education to the students. Um, with that said, there are some lines that still have gone unspent and I think that they need further review to see the lie. A lot of the lines that are in here, I cannot personally the person that can give the lie because

075I'm more of the overhead piece. I'm the salary, the benefits, the transportation. Um, I work with the SAU office and the district in regards to special education. um those we can speak to, but supplies, equipment, why those would go under spent. Um I think we need to look at the actual district and and speak with Miss Wy as to why some of those have occurred. Uh so staffing, as I mentioned, that's been one of the largest drivers um for the reasons I've mentioned. Um some of the positions we've had some challenges hiring is special education positions whether they're teachers or paras um with the world language has been an issue the health and wellness has been an issue over the last few years and then there was a kindergarten teacher as well. Um so some

076of those have attributed on top of any turnover that has occurred. Uh so really some of the main factors are employee benefits and elections um for the insurance rates. Uh staff and b vacancies turnovers, special education placements and services. Transportation is also another one where we could find ourselves, we specifically have found ourselves um over the last few years as having additional appropriations and the main cause of that has been because there's been a lack of bus drivers. Uh thankfully the bus company that we that we work with, they only charge us for usage. So we don't run a bus, they don't charge us for a bus. So but we're still budgeting for it because that is the district's need. Um but they're just they just don't have one cluster. Um so that's one of

077them. The other place um situation is is if you look at the regular transportation line, if you find that that's over, it isn't because we've gone over our contract. That is where the McKini Vento students go. That is the homeless students that we've held required by law to provide transportation services to that is regular education, not special education. So that could change literally on a daily basis. Um so for the students that we know of that we believe potentially are going to be there for next year, we budget for. Um but like I said, we could budget today and if the budget gets voted and a month later a student moves and they find stable housing and we no longer need to provide transportation or we get more students that move in. I will say

078in the all of the years I've been here um over the last five years that transportation need has increased substantially in every district. Um there was a time where we have none in any of the districts where it was like very minimal. Now we're seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars um that we are required to pay for that transportation. So that is a big change that's come through over the last couple years that we unfortunately don't have any control of. Um but we are required by law to make sure that these students have a stable environment. Uh let's see here. So let's I'm just going to break down the past three years and kind of lump them together so you can see what's happening in each of the three years. So currently um >> is

079there a specific page we should be following? >> Uh well it's all on this but if you want to look on page two of this written one >> I'm just going to kind of follow through. I'm going to start first with um a summary for the current year. So when I pulled the current data as I mentioned it was as May 26. That has changed. Originally, it was a little over a million dollars that were unspent budget appropriation. I believe the last time I ran it, um it was more like 892 or something like that. Um so, it's going to continuously change right up until we close the books because there are invoices that are coming in um and obligations that are being reconciled um that will not be finalized until right till the end

080till we close. Uh, for instance, um, this didn't happen in this district, but this week I received an $18,000 invoice for a homeless transportation for another district. Um, we had been asking for the invoice for several months. We hadn't received it literally till I think it was Monday we received it. Um, so we knew it was coming, but we couldn't obligate anything in the system because we didn't have a dollar value. Um so that was a pretty big hit u because the district a hit was on a smaller scale. Um and so things like that come up but right actually sometimes we receive them even after June 30th. We are able to still build them to this current fiscal year um and apply it to the year it actually was extended as. But that's why

081the fund balance changes literally on a daily basis. I run your year-to- date reports and I can tell you if I ran it in the morning when I run it at night, it's it's slightly different. Uh there shouldn't be huge fluxations unless situations like I've just mentioned happen. Um it's common but not typically dramatic at this point. Um but that is one of the reasons why it becomes really hard to say, okay, I think you're going to have your fund balance is going to be about 800,000. I am not any somebody that will ever throw a number out unless I'm 100% sure of it because it's important [clears throat] um that the numbers that I'm giving you. But I can tell you the why of why they're changing. Um so the million dollars at this

082point in time is approximately 4.9 of the total operating budget. Um, and so the variables that I'm seeing for this current year are employee benefits. Um, we did just run our last health actually today. Um, and so I'm hoping that after um, we run incumbrances, I will be able to firm up what that what the benefits look like. Um, we are just finalizing all of our payroll this week. Um, we do process all of the payroll for FY2526 in FY2526. We do not process any of that after July 1st. Uh, in the past we used to and we used to roll it back. It was very messy. Um, and so now we actually cut checks a little bit early to ensure that it hits the correct fiscal week. Um, and so we've really cleaned up

083a lot of things. special education costs. Um we're projecting approximately 336,000 under budget. Um unless we receive any unanticipated invoices. Um facilities, you'll notice when you look at facilities that the expenditures are currently under budget. Um one of the reasons why is because the modulars are in there. That's about $30,000. When we created the budget for the current fiscal year, we were in discussion of what to do with the modulars, whether the school board was going to purchase the modulars or what they were going to do. That decision was not made by the school board until after the budget was moved. So, you'll see $30,000 of unexpended budget appropriation in that line. Um, because we don't just not use we don't use it for anything. We only use it for that purpose. Um, so is

084is that going to remain in the default budget? Is that what you're saying? >> No. Um, it for the next fiscal year it would not the modulars would not be in there because now it's a onetime expense. That's gone. >> You you purchased those out fully. >> So that is not that will not move forward. >> Yeah. But you're going to see it in this year as >> May. Right. Yep. Before it was a monthly contract because of that if we move forward to uh let's see here. So there are some supplies and things like that that weren't expended. So we'll have to figure out why that could be. Um there is it does look like we did not fully extend the salaries for custodians. The reason for that being is that the district has

085hired citywide as an alternative or an additional um facility staff to help get the building keep the building clean. Those expenses are build out of contracted services, not at a custodial salaries because they're not our employees. So, when you look at the the contracted service line, you're going to see that it's way over. Um, citywide is part of that. I believe it was like 118 when I looked, it's about 118,000 um that's attributed to citywide. Also, that's in that contracted services are any of your projects. So, for instance, the lighting project, we'll use that as an example. we have to bill it to one of the account lines within your budget, but there'll be a direct revenue um offset that you will see. Uh it won't you won't see it in this line, but you're

086going to see it in your revenue report underneath transfer from trust fund since that was a previous year. So, you'll see the over expenditure, but there'll be a a revenue offset on the other side. transportation, regular transportation remains um large uh on the budget as well. Um special education costs um however are currently projected to be under budget. Um the reason why regular was over was the McKini Mento. I did look into that. Um and that was one of the reasons why um but special education needs have changed since we budgeted and we didn't need as much as we had anticipated for transportation for special education. Uh so you'll see some unexpended expenditures there >> and that was attributed to the change that the board voted on uh previously to consolidate into the big >>

087bus from special ed. >> Yeah. >> High school tuitions are essentially on budget. um as we had projected right as of right now um it was 42 4200 I will say we just finally got the last conquer billing uh this morning so I will be interested to see how much that changed we did have um an estimate obligated in the system so it's not like oh we just received this big invoice it's going to add additional we did estimate how much we believe the costs were going to be so it will just the difference will be the change on what we estimated and what the actual invoice came in. And so the process for that, so you know, there are multiple people that um review those invoices that come in. Conquer reviews it. We have

088two other people at our SAU office that review it. We go through every student to ensure that the students that are listed on there are actual students that are still there. and not even that they're just there, but how many days they intended. So that's why there could be a fluxation in what we estimated for a PO and what the final invoices. >> I don't know if this is it just made me think of it, but um how are we keeping track of high school students whether they actually still live in our town? So, we uh we have a high school liaison. Um she primarily and her role is for our students who receive special education support, but she also manages all of our high school kids. She keeps track of all the building like

089we were talking about. She's the one who will communicate really frequently with Bill Brown conquered PA to make sure that kids actually live where they say they live to um get any paperwork back and forth that needs to come back and forth between the buildings. Um she goes through all the invoices and even to expand what Amber is saying, she pulls every single like IEP and make sure that what's on that bill is what's in that IEP for the durations of times that are on there. So it's we have a multi-checks and balances system but that is the purpose of that position that high school liaison is to do all that management for deer and I will tell you we catch things this past um the one that we received these correspondence actually started I

090think it was Monday when we first received it and it's gone back and forth to today because there were there was at least I think two students that needed to be changed on um so Conquer caught a student and we caught a student. So, um there are multiple eyes on there to ensure that what we're being built for is actually what's happened. >> And if I get any reports for if we get a reported that um somebody thinks the family doesn't live in Deerfield, she's the person that I put on that to double check. And sometimes they may not, but there may be a reason and there may be a reason why we're still paying for tuition to them. So, she's the one who will verify that. And then we also have a bookkeeper as

091well that pays, you know, processes this invoice and she's got a list of students who she's also verified. So she's got questions on it and or if it's significantly over under what we had estimated, she will ask those questions. >> So in terms of that that last billing that you um received from Concrete, what is that? Would that just be a students that moved in or out that would make that number function? It's not the rate, right? >> No. So, they split the billings up, I think it is, to third. So, we have what it would cost for the total year and then they break the billings out into three. So, the billing that if there's any change on that third billing, it would be the fluxation of the students either coming or billing. >>

092But other than that, they're just breaking their billing it up into a third. >> So, we do that review every time we do a bill. So it's not just at the end of the year like we're doing that financial review each semester or trimester that those bills. >> Yeah. I was just I was more just thinking about you know the every swirling about um what's going to happen with concrete tuition rate and stuff. I was just making sure that >> um because you said what you budgeted for versus what the actual difference there. I was just making sure that it was just uh students hang in or out the only >> Yeah, it would definitely not be any tuition changes. They do not change the rate in the middle of the year. >> Once it

093is established, that's the only rate they can charge us and we >> we already have that for next year. >> We do already have that for next year. Yep. We get that in the November December time frame. >> Yeah. So, those are the items that you may see um additional budget appropriation that hasn't been spent. But then some of the the areas of the current budget that we're we're working in, some of the pressures are special ed summer programming, tuition, um we're exceeding that about 39,000. Um special ed pair professionals approximately 10,000. high school transportation um is over by approximately 19,000. Of that 19,000 um there was $26,000 worth of Mckin Vento specific to high school. So really that count is technically under for regular transportation, but the Mckeni Vento has pushed it to be

094exceeded facilities and maintenance services. Um that's what I mentioned earlier. um you're going to see um that is absorbently over spent. Um and you'll see that that has become the case almost year after year and that's because a the majority of that is one citywide and two that is where the maintenance projects go um that the boards approved year after year. But again you would see in the revenue portion um a direct correlation of offsetting that one year um it was last year or the year before it was like we had um I think it was like a million dollars worth that we had pulled from the trust. Uh so that line was significantly over but we also brought in a million dollars of revenue because we drew from the trust offset. Uh let's see

095utilities um electricity and propane have gone oh they've been fluctuating just you know just like our homes. Uh the usage specifically this year um has been a little bit more the usage has been more but it was a really cold winter. Um, so I'm not surprised by that. I know my own house bills I I pay I think almost double. Um, not just on rate but the usage. Um, and the schools are seeing the same thing. Um, we do try to lock in um, utility rates from vendors as well as electric rates as well. We do shop those out and try to get the best rate and try to get a fixed rate so that we're not seeing huge flexations. Um, but usage still comes into play regardless of the rate. >> Does the solar

096not help us there yet? >> Not yet. It usually takes a couple years to really see the payback from that. We also we just um that was I think uh was it last was dece around December last December or so? Was it December? We had just started off January, >> December, January. Um, we did cross over a couple months >> um to ensure that we had electricity, make sure that those solar panels were running appropriately. So, I think it was like a month and a half or so. We had both going for a bit. Um, it also took a little bit of time to terminate that contract. Um, because it was a contract that we were we were under for I think it was still another like six months. Um, but because we went to

097solar, they forgave us and they did not charge us an additional fee where if you had just changed vendors, we would have had to pay a fee. So, they did forgive us for that thing. So, they had to write a letter to to not have that happen. >> So, for the um electricity there's it's is we're involved with Unitil I believe. Yeah. And the other two as well introduce and >> then maybe now you sure we didn't change the unit? >> I don't remember. I >> I know several of my other districts using I'll have to go back and look. >> Yeah, I think I've seen >> I think it is UNICEL. I think that's what it switched to. I'm pretty sure. >> I think I've seen at least three different companies. >> Yeah. named

098on what we're signing check. >> Correct. You are right. It is multiple. >> Surprising. I thought we were all >> Well, you should start seeing that pretty quickly here. It shouldn't take two years. I don't think it didn't cost us anything. So, >> there's no payback. It's just it's all benefit. >> Right. Right. [clears throat] >> I look at reserves. you're you're not going to see the the positive effect necessarily for a couple years until you kind of see what the trends what the trend is. You should have savings in that line hopefully pretty quickly, but >> you won't really know for sure for a couple years you see the trend. >> All right. Um so let's go backwards a little bit. uh FY2324 um the several categories that were not fully expended again were

099uh were benefits that uh was due to staffing and plan changes that wasn't due to unfilled vacant you know having vacant positions more from turnover um any new positions that or new people that came in they had different benefit selections so that's really what that drove that particular year so that was not due to unfilled positions. Uh there were supplies and equipment that didn't get spent. Um there were some uh budget appropriation for it, co-curricular activities, staff development, and then Transportation during that year, um there was a huge bud um bus driver shortage. Um so that's why you're going to see that. We also >> question for you, Amber. Um, is is that a typo there at the end of on the last page of the staple packet? Um, all the numbers. Um, there's >>

100Yeah. That 991,868. [laughter] >> Yes. So, >> deficit, right? >> Yes. But that is due to what I talked about earlier in regards to the maintenance projects. That was the year we had the million dollars. So it was a million dollars revenue that over that over um that made that break even. So we had if you look at if you go to I wish I did page numbers on this um one two three. If you go to page three and go towards the bottom, the second blue underneath the 2324 actuals, the second blue from the bottom, you're going to see under contracted services 001 2640 430 a million 96,000. So that was those are building projects that we did. So we had a million dollars worth of revenue that came in. So it wasn't actually

101a deficit, >> I think. >> So what is that actual number then? Is it closer to zero or is it >> No, because there was there was additional budget um revenue that also came in outside of just um the trust funds. So this is strictly budget appropriation. This does not account for any revenue received. So like Medicaid to schools revenue or special education aid >> adequacy aid none of that [snorts] >> special education aid that none of that is in this this is strictly budget appropriation >> spending. >> So it's what we put before the voters for what we believe we were going to need for this you know the year. So, so just to be to have a clearer understanding of it, we overspent, but we had grants in other monies that were reimbursed

102for that overspend. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> By almost a million. So, they were almost a perfect offset. >> Yes. Yes. And there was then some >> because of because there were projects that were spent on and we got grants to pay for those projects, but we obviously had to pay the projects and then received the grant. >> Not necessarily a grant. A lot it came from the trust fund. >> For the trust fund. >> Yep. And so sometimes we know ahead of time what the project might be. So we might budget for it knowing that we're going to but we would also budget the revenue piece as well at the same time. So there's no direct tax impact uh with this time. So there's at least a budget. So you wouldn't see

103a variance because the bud the projects were determined after the budget was already in place. the way the trust fund is written and because the board or these agents to expend, they can withdraw from a trust fund at any point in time. And so even though it wasn't budgeted, you can still utilize the account line and it then it's noted that it's offset by revenue from a trust and in 23 24 if I'm wrong, but we were in a budget like early on. >> Yes, we were. So the district knew we were going to be >> teetering that line of we may not have enough money. >> So the budget was frozen way early on that year. >> It was in the fall. >> It was frozen because of special education, not because of not

104because of projects. I think that that year was the roof year. The year prior to that was the sewer. Then that 2324 was the roof. >> I'm pretty sure those were the big projects. And that was also um from deliberative session. Somebody stood up and put a million dollars into a trust fund. I think that was 2122. >> I remember that happened the year. >> I have a lot of numbers in my head right now. I can't remember what year it is >> because the building project didn't pass, but somebody stood up and said, "Let's put a million dollars." >> The school board brought forth a certain dollar value um to add to the trust fund. Uh a citizen got up to the floor and added, they did a million. Mhm. >> So, um they

105said, "Okay, well, we have a CIP. We know the project's coming." One of the other thing the other reasons why the board chose to do that, I believe, um is because during that time, the reason why the million was added to the war article for voting is because they were concerned that we weren't um taking care of some of the CIP CIP needs quick enough. Mhm. >> And some of the reason was is there was wasn't sufficient funding to do that. So they're like, "We're going to give you the funding, >> use it, and we want these projects done." So they get a lot of it in that year. >> So the budget was frozen in the beginning of that year, but we still ended up with that close to a million dollar of over

106appropriation. No, it's not a million dollars of Oh, overappropriation. >> That's what it says >> on your page four here. >> No, it's over appropriated, meaning we overspent it by 991 for budget appropriations. It doesn't This does not take into consideration any revenue. This is only budget appropriations. >> Think of it as overexpended. >> Overexpended. I used I should maybe I shouldn't use over appropriated should appropriated wasn't the right word. >> I also think that year I remember it being frozen before I was on the board but I remember it being frozen but I also believe it was the end of that year we received some unexpected money from >> CSR funding again that wasn't anticipated. Yeah, it yes. More money from the state than we thought we would get back, >> which we didn't

107know about, >> I think ESER was done by this time, I'm pretty sure. >> Oh, no. It ended in 23. 24 was the LA was it was the the last piece of >> so it was probably September 23. Yeah. >> Yes. >> So, but we did get we did get additional um IA funding. >> Yes. >> Um I think we might have got additional title funding. There was a couple different areas where we got some additional funding that year. So, we were able to move some of the expenditures that we had originally um used budget appropriation for into towards the grants. >> I think it was adequacy aid, too. We got way more adequacy. >> Y wasn't known >> right until the end of the school year >> and then some. It's usually not till

108the summertime. Uh no not you know adequacy aid we know is either typically two to three times we get communications in regards to adequacy. I think that one you got one in the late late spring which we don't typically and that's where we got the additional funding from. So, usually the the two communications we get typically before that, we're able to realize during the fall, so we can uh we get a second bite of the apple in the fall when it comes to estimated revenues. So, if I know that numbers are changing um during that time prior to tax rate setting, I can take that into consideration. So, it helps to um really ease the tax intact. Unfortunately, that particular year didn't come till spring. So, >> yeah, I have a question, Amber. Um, so

109just this just to make sure that we're using the right terminology here. Um, this being a surplus presentation, I know you said you didn't like that word, but just trying to figure out um so for 24 or 25 >> it was 771. you know, the the date, you know, being 526 for this current year changes that $1 million number to closer to 887. >> Yeah, I think it's around 892 now. Something like that. >> So, I understand what you're just saying about that over expenditure in that year of 23 24 where does that leave that number in terms of this the surplus number or lack thereof? I I didn't >> because it's not really 991. >> Well, it is for budget appropriation. There's a revenue portion that that's offsets it. I can we have it

110in our bottom line like and bottom line >> the fund balance. >> Um I we I can give that to Jess. Um that is part of the budget binder that we give. Um it's in the budget binder that we give to school board during the budget presentation in the fall. We give a surplus history. Um, in that surplus history, it breaks down um what how much expenditures, how much revenue, and so forth. So, it gives you what your total amount that was returned to offset taxes if there was an amount. Some years there are and some years there isn't. Um, I think one year we didn't re we did not offset taxes. I think whatever was remaining to apply to Warner probably was 23 24. >> It might have been. Yeah. Um, but we I'll

111I'll send that surplus sheet to Jess and then she can give it to you guys. >> Okay. >> Um, I didn't know how much time we needed tonight had so I didn't revenue and and budget appropriation are two different thought processes, two different and it's a lot to absorb. Um, so I didn't want to overwhelm which this is probably overwhelming as it is. Uh, so I didn't want to overwhelm you. the what I was presented with is they wanted to know particularly you guys wanted to know particularly what lines we were >> going over or under. So that was my focus. >> Y >> um All right. Uh any other questions about 23 24 >> 2425 um as you mentioned it was under budget. uh we did not utilize 771,000 worth of budget appropriation. Um

112this was in regards to the main culprits or attributed to were salary and benefits. Um there were unskilled positions that year. Um and those automatically also relate to benefits as well. Every year we have plan changes. Um what I mean by that is uh individuals go between one person plan to family plan or because maybe they got married or maybe they had a child with two person plan to a family plan. Maybe somebody got divorced and now they're going to a oneperson plan and then any staff turnover. Anybody coming in could have had a different benefit selection. So that's where those changes happen. uh as well as if any um unfilled positions, we would have budgeted for them um but they wouldn't have come to fruition. So when we have positions that are open, we

113budget for a family plan. So if that position goes unfilled, there's a family plan that has not been that that amount of money is going to stay there. Same thing with FICA, retirement, all of that that wouldn't be spent. And when you budget for the next year with the staff do that you currently have, do you go based on their plan that they currently >> the current selection that they have? Yeah. Because I mean I don't know I wouldn't want to say estimate and say I wouldn't know how many people would change their benefit selection and I don't have it. I don't have the number exactly the benefit selection they have is exactly the number I put in. The only thing that we do do is as I mentioned if it is an open position

114I do a family plan which is the highest risk just because that can add up really quickly if you have multiple open positions. Um I know in particular for our SAU office we had several staff turnover with um in regards to retirements people leaving and the people came in were very different and it hit us hard. Um, and so we always do the highest risk. >> Staff usually pick their benefit package by May when they once they sign your contract, you also have to pick your benefit package. So we, you know, going into budget season who's here, what they are Yep. what they what their benefits are. >> Yep. And so some of the other changes that can happen from year to year as well is um and I don't remember off the top of

115my head whether Deerfield has this or not, but I know other districts have is that when they're during going through the collective bargaining process, they may change um what the plan selections could be. For instance, maybe they had a green plan, but now they're offering a red or yellow plan. So if we had budgeted, you know, at one point to be green, but then a bunch of those green people ended up deciding to move to a red, there would be a savings in the line for that. The other um thing as well is people sometimes have moved in and out of being a buyer. >> So originally they said, "Oh, I don't need a benefit selection." But then maybe they had a family situation, life event, and now they need health insurance. So now they've

116changed from a bio and have selected a plan and vice versa. So that's another change that came out. >> But to your point that there if they select that in May, by the time it hits us, it's that's like 14 months before it hits that. >> So there could be a lot of change. >> Could be a lot of change. Yeah. So even if they select it in May and we budget and then in July they get divorced or whatever that could change or they have a if they if they had a baby they know that's coming. So but um you know other life changes that might happen. Maybe um their husband maybe they selected a single plan and their husband selected their single plan and now their husband lost their job or vice versa

117and now they got two person. So life events happen and when they happen they do affect us. Um there were changes in special ed education services um lower than anticipated budgeted um for IT expenditures. I did notice year on year we're budgeting um in specifically in our um the line in which we do like our Chromebooks and things like that. We're not fully extending some of those. Um I'm not quite sure why. So I think we need to look into that. >> Well, we've tried to lower the amount every single year and because we end up in default, it ends up back at the amount. >> Uh yeah. Okay. Mhm. >> Um so we again underutilized co-curricular. Um some of that is there are programs that didn't run. We anticipated them running they didn't run

118as well as the default played a role in that as well. Transportation savings re um resulted in a shortage of bus drivers. up with it. You know, really that has been an ongoing issue, but specifically CO up until really last year. I think it's starting to >> Yeah, this year has been better. Um, but we did have issues in a lot of our districts here last year. Um, and then unexpended grant appropriation. Um, with that said, some of the confus there are two lines at the end of the budget and it says grant expenditure and food service expenditure at the very end of the budget. Those are 100% offset by revenue. So, for instance, for grants, if we budget $100,000 and um we would get and we only spend 90, we get $90,000 in revenue.

119It is a direct um it nets up to zero. We have to budget it because we have to budget for total appropriation. Same thing with the food service program. That has to net to zero. We have to say, okay, our food service program is going to be $100,000. If we spend $120,000, we have to do a budget line transfer from the operating budget to the food service program because that program has to net to zero. So any shortfall it has to cover. The other thing that the food service program um you cannot cover if you have a surplus. So say the food service pro um program is operating in the green and they have $10,000 at the end of the year that they didn't spend but they have $5,000 in student debt unpaid meals. They

120can't use 5,000 from that$10,000. by law, we have to use budget appropriation regulation. Um, so the operating it hits the operating budget automatically and the $10,000 surplus stays in the food service program and rolls to the next fiscal year. >> Can you talk about what they can use that money for? >> Which one? >> The $10,000. So it could one offset any additional expenses that we're anticipating in the f following budget here. It can also we if you're only allowed to keep three months worth of um what it costs to run your program as a surplus member. Anything above that you have to submit a plan to the to um the state that shows how you're going to spend it then. So we would utilize that for let's say we need a new dishwasher. So

121we would you know try to take care of some of those needs utilizing that additional um fund balance that they have so that it doesn't hit the operating. We don't use it towards, you know, we're not going to say, "Oh, we've got $20,000. Let's hire another staff member." That that doesn't happen. it's it's geared towards typically equipment or covering any shortfalls that that program might have in the following year. So, when we write up we have to write up a letter, we have to print out um what our plan is. We have to give quotes if we think we're going to do a dishwasher. And then every year I if there's been a surplus, I've always attributed some of that um to offset the expenditures for the program. Um because the food service programs aren't

122sustained. They can't run by themselves. We do not typically bring in enough money. The only reason why our food service programs have had what we're going to call surplus um over the last several years is because during the co years we received a significant amount of additional funding. So because of that and because we weren't serving meals for a period of time we were able to have that money it built up a little bit. Um but that's run and dry. >> There's not a lot going on. I think we've had two years of spend down. Yeah. >> Um and and Gail has done a ton bought a ton of new equipment and um shelving and all kinds of things. So, >> but it has to specifically it can only be utilized for the food, >>

123right? >> Can't be utilized in any other >> I think we got a freezer. >> Yeah, we did. We're using the spend down. Any other questions in regards to that? All right. So, I kind of already the current year that we're currently in. I think I really already went over this, so I'll go over real quick again. Um, again, salary and benefits. Um, we had unfilled position. Um, supplies and equipment. There's some appropriation that went unspent. it again um same area changes in special education co-curricular and staff development so it as you notice it's really kind of repetitive in nature I saw the same pattern in each year again some of it is maybe we didn't need something we thought we would need some of it could have been we had a curriculum change so

124we no longer needed whatever that might have been it could have been part of default where we initially tried to cut from the budget, but if they added back in, um those are pretty much the situations. Maybe we just didn't purchase what we could have purchased. I mean, that's how we realize there are times, you know, I try to tell my districts, make sure that you're purchasing early in the year because you said you needed this, you should be buying. when you're purchasing things dramatically at the end of the year, that tells me you didn't need it in that year. Um, so that is the message that I give all of our districts. Um, because it's you needed in that year, you would have purchased it. >> So, I know that was a lot >>

125and there's a couple of other supplementalformational documents Amber end up creating. So those are just going to drive asformational. >> Yeah. And I just went over I won't go through them. You guys can read them. I'll read them to you. Um but the two other supplemental um was in regards to fiscally or projection methodology and limitations. That kind of just addresses the reason why it makes it challenging to say, "Oh, I can tell you today you're going to end with 800,000." I can't tell you that. I would be lying to you. I I won't do that. and they'll never give me something. So, the reasons why or where I think we could be, what I anticipate happening. Um, but I can't I you know, I can never tell Jess you're going to be this number

126until close. >> Yeah. No, I I don't think that any of us would expect that. But I think that what we are looking for is some forecasting. um like you said, we're not going to hold you till that firm number, but knowing that it's a forecast, it's not a >> definite is [clears throat] helpful for us. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Uh I the things I know that are, you know, the main reconciliations at this point are special education, transportation, tuition, and health insurance. Those are really the big categories right now um that would have the flustations supplies equipment that's not that shouldn't happen. All those POS should be done. With that said, there could be some open purchase orders right now that could be liquidated. Maybe they opened it for 5,000 but only needed 3,000. So

127that could release money back in. There wouldn't be more. We're not going to do more, but it could come under um because when sometimes they give an estimate when they put it in the system um but then when the actual invoice comes in it's a little less. So we go through close all the purchase orders. We roll only the items that are we approve only what is necessary. Um and you have to have a quote and all of that. Um, but so that you know, I do have a a timeline for closure for all of our districts and I do a training in May. I put out a huge timeline of when things are due, when's the last time to submit items and a lot of that has to do so that I can provide

128you with numbers that are realistic. So in May, it's like second week of May, I ask that all purchase orders be in the system that are for general everyday purchasing. I asked them to when they're putting their purchase orders in the system to think about what they're going to need between that time period all the way to June 30th. The only thing that should come through between that date, which was I think it was like May 18th or 10th or something like that, uh through June 30th should be an emergency item. Your HVAC system goes or dishwasher goes, something that happens that's unanticipated. Now there are some things every now and then that come through minimal in nature but what I do do is if they come through I don't just approve it. I shut

129off the approval for the principles. I'm the only one that approves it in the system if it is something that I don't believe is an emergency. I send it to the superintendent and I say this came through. Do you want to let this go or do we deny it? we have rejected items because it is really important that we you know that we follow the processes that we have in place there for a reason. Um we also have a secondary cut off um in June for any um board surplus items any money that the board might want to use for any projects towards the end. I believe Jess met with you guys in regards to any additional items for any budget appropriation that you still have remaining. there's the second cut off. That second cut

130off was I think it was the first week of June. I think it was June 8th. Everything had to be in the system by then. So again, it allows you to then run it again to say, "Okay, where are we at?" Um, so there are a few different points in time where I do cut off so I can try to give the school boards the most realistic number. >> And so we do bring the principles and budget secretaries. We have a full meeting with everybody, all districts. Everybody gets the same information. I put together a training packet. They go home with it. I email it out to them so that they have it electronically. I send out reminders. It's coming. No more. I'm pretty heavy-handed. Um I hold to the fire. So, just so you

131know, that is kind of how we work on on our site. >> You know, just a comment, Amber, I I appreciate this tremendously. I think it's a valuable document. It would be nice to see it continue >> where you have the data collected, you know, followed up with the next year and the next year. >> Yeah. >> Because seeing trends makes budgeting for budget season easier >> 100%. >> You know, so so for that I do appreciate it very much and I did I really did appreciate your overview of all that >> you know because that helped me understand it even more even though I I can see the numbers but your explanation on them was very helpful. So I I very much appreciated that as well. And I think like Kadan said, you know,

132Kenan, sorry. >> I've been calling him Kanan forever and I'm trying to get out of that bad habit. Sorry. >> Tomato tomato. um um forecasting and I know it's a difficult thing, you know, but any forecasting that we can get >> helps us to see where we're at, >> you know, and it helps us to see where we need to be. >> Um and it'll help me >> be able to understand, you know, the whole pro the paying process of it. >> Sure. >> So, I appreciate if we can get some of that, too. But this was incredibly helpful and I I appreciate the time and effort, Jess, that you and your office that you put into saying now that we have this >> plugging in the next year should be >> a lot less

133time now it's all >> yeah absolutely know I do this in in for many other things the same type of thing so this would just it's already a document easy to add to each year I can make it part of my year- end process Yes. Well, once we know that something is helpful, >> we'll do it again. So, sometimes we just don't know until the questions arise and then we create something you're like, "Oh, like we should be doing this like moving forward. This was great." Helpful. >> I mean, several of you don't really know who I am and you haven't really seen my documents from year to year, but if you were to really go back and look at presentations I've given over the last 11 years, you will see that they have evolved

134dramatically evolved. Um, and a lot of it has to do with hearing [clears throat] and listening, not just here on the floor with the school board, but also at the at the school board leading the annual meetings and deliberative sessions, they are listening to what's happening and and the information people are wondering about. So, I try to take away as much as I can so that when I get in front of you guys again, present, changing it up. Maybe something I presented wasn't digestible. I walk and read and breathe and sleep this stuff. So if I get up, if somebody gets up and they don't understand what I'm saying, it's no good. So then I'm like, "All right, I gotta modify." So you'll see year after year modifications because I'm always trying to make things

135a little bit easier, a little bit more digestible. Oh, maybe I didn't think to provide that information because nothing was mentioned. But if something is said, then no problem. It's important for me in our in in your district that you understand the why and the information so that you're making decisions, you know, with the with with the knowledge of of why. So, whatever you need. >> To me, it's a value added benefit >> that will help the public understand really what's going on, >> you know, and how to digest it better. the clearer we get and as we go through this more that it gets refined because we find you find better ways of you know of documenting and communicating it the better and even you guys might find a better way for me to

136do it like I'm not in your shoes I don't have citizens I do have citizens come you know approach me but not to the same nature that you do so you're hearing different things than I'm hearing maybe some of the same things but I they don't have my ear like they have yours Um, so which is why one of the reasons why it kind of mirrors the fact where I'm listening to what the public's saying is this other document that I put together in regards to the impact of consecutive years of default. And I and I talked about it a lot today in regards to the effect it has. But I wanted to put something together to kind of, you know, for you to to leisurely read through of what multiple years does. While there's

137a positive effect, there's also a negative effect. and it also plays a creates a roller coaster effect on the text. So, I put something together for you guys to read just as an extra document. Um, I have SB2 and annual meeting down so I can see both sides of how it works. Um, every district is different so I'm able to kind of see a little bit of a whole circle >> and our goal is to get a budget passed so that we're not looking at defaults. Yeah, >> that is the bottom line goal of the board >> is to get the understanding of why it is what it is and that it's real >> and that we need to vote it so that we can have accountability. We can have numbers that line up, lines

138that line up, not lines that are old that are that should be removed. So, it's a this is a this is a huge benefit to getting through to that. >> And one of the I mean one I think a key piece is so say like we didn't need a kindergarten teacher. Let's just use that as an example there. And so we didn't budget for it next year. We believe we're going to need it in the following year, but it ended back in the default. We got default. But if we have budget pass, then we got to go before the public again that second time and say, "Nope, we really need the kindergarten teacher. That's why we budgeted for this year." So we're able to then get in front of them and say, "Okay, our class

139sizes are now 55." Like that's not reasonable for kindergarten. But at least we're able to talk about the why. When it ends up in a default, it it's almost in a way kind of glazed over. Um because we're talking when we get in front of people, we're talking about the proposal. We talk about the fact that it's back in the default, but we're not having conversation about that because really we're we're we're submitting a proposal. If that makes sense. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you very much. Amber, >> you can just leave that. Your name will be right after. Okay. You're putting your surplus for another school. [clears throat] All right. So, um, initially when I started this off, I had a whole PowerPoint presentation prepared and then I really trashed it a couple

140weeks ago, uh, because I didn't think it gave you enough information. And when you do a PowerPoint, you put talking points, you put blurs, you put pictures, things like that. And I didn't think that that would give you adequate information to make informed decisions in the fall when we do budgeting. So I scratched that and went for a moreformational type approach so that you guys had all of the information you needed at your fingertips to refer back to and so that it would be a living document. So, five years from now when we talk about preschool again, we'll actually have information, not just a PowerPoint that had snippets of talking points. Um, so I apologize that there's a a lot of language and a lot of information on here, but similar to Amber, I want

141it to be a living document there so that it can be used as a resource to come back to if you need to. Um, so why are we looking at uh preschool? So the board wanted preschool information to be prepared to make decisions when it comes time for budgeting to do what's in the best interest of our kids in our community. So that is the why of this is to provide this information for you guys so that you can have it uh come budget season. So I started off giving you what a current picture of the DCS program looks like. We currently, most of you know, we have an in-house service program and it services three and four year olds in our school building. Uh it services both students with disabilities and students without disabilities.

142Throughout this um I refer to students without disabilities as typical peers. Each class section of that preschool is about two and a half hours in length. And the three-year-olds and foury olds are generally separated out uh in that program. and four-year-olds usually come Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, uh either in the morning session or the afternoon session, not usually both. And then our three-year-olds come Tuesdays and Thursdays typically either in the morning or afternoon session. So, they're really at school uh three-year-olds two days a week, four-year-olds two two days a week or three days a week, but halftime each each of those days. Um for next year, we are anticipating 37 students for the 26 27 school year. 13 of those are students identified uh in need of special education. We have a wait list for typical

143peers. Um and then you'll see down below that the capacity for the program is 48. And you might think, well, why do we have a wait list? It's because we have to leave so many spots open in case we get more identified students that come in. We have to leave some spots available for our early area agencies who provide services to toddlers up to two and a half years old and then as soon as they hit two and a half they hit that referral stage and they come to us. So we we have babies, you know, we don't just have kids in our building. We literally have toddlers. We have we have babies that we're referring that we're um testing for special education and things like that. That starts when they're about two and a

144half years old. Uh, >> I don't want to cut you off. So, what is that? Um, >> how many spots do you typically hold for >> for, you know, for identified students? >> It varies per year and it really varies based on the needs that our case managers, our people that are working in the program, they work with those area agencies. And so, the area agencies may have an idea of like, hey, next year we're thinking that there may be five or six kids headed your way. So they'll collaborate with those area agencies. So One Sky is the service provider for this area. So they work with One Sky to figure out and plan, all right, we think that you're going to have X number of referrals that come in. You may want to save

145this number of spots or so and we have a contract in place with that area agency that I referenced a little bit later on. Um we're required to have a contract in place with that area agency that talks about how that referral system is going to work, who's going to do what. It's kind of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties. >> When the school year started and you didn't have, we wouldn't fill it because there may be more work is coming in the middle of the year. >> Correct. At any point when a child turns two and a half, we start that process. And so if they turn three in January, they turn, we are required by law to have an IEP in place. And if they need special education services, we are

146required to start those at that time. Um it might look different uh depending on the kids. So maybe the team thought, you know, we're going to have them do inhome services or daycare services for a couple of months because maybe they they turned three in April. >> So maybe we're going to do a different kind of service approach, but then we're going to have them going with us in the fall. Or the team could say, "Yes, we're going to put them in three-year-olds now in April, but then we're going to hold them back and keep them in three-year-olds next year, too." they might double uh dose them for that just because of the way how old they are, their age, things like that. Um so it really just depends but we have to leave some

147flexibility because of those area agencies that we work with and the legal requirements for us to evaluate, identify and provide services for three year olds. So, um, if we're able to fill in more spots, so if we get to a certain point in the year and we're able to take in more kids, they will also release then open up those positions and take kids off the waiting list. >> Um, the program currently at DCS has two teachers, one special educator and one early childhood general educator. Uh, it's got two pair professionals, one special education, one general education. >> Back up one second. So up a couple of lines, occasional student leave is so significant that they may be placed five days per week. >> Yes. So if there is a student with extremely significant needs

148um and we want to provide more services because we're trying to be proactive and provide increased services early on so that by the time they get to kindergarten they're less needs, right? Early intervention. um we may have a three-year-old uh in that situation and we may decide that it's in their best interest to place them in a four-year-old class and do Monday through Friday with that student because we're doubling up the services. They may not join in with some of the kids during that session, but maybe they're pulled off and doing uh speech therapy services, OT, maybe they're doing direct instruction from a special educator. Um or maybe they are in with that group because they need a significant amount of peer interaction and learning social skills. It just depends on the kid. Um that's

149that's not a common occurrence. Um if we do have it, it's like one kiddo or maybe two um per year, but because we have our own I guess on top of that because we have run our own program, we have the flexibility flexibility to do that, which is kind um in our program they we have an occupational therapist, speech pathologist, and a physical therapist that provides students or services to students. the OT, the occupational therapist is a full-time Dearful employee and we utilize them to come in and provide services for kiddos. Um, the speech and language path and the PT and physical therapist are outside contracted providers. Those are part-time positions and it's extremely difficult to hire part-time uh service providers. PT is a little bit different that very rarely you will find a school

150employee with a PT. That's an actual like doctor like a medical provider who usually is working with an outside company or a hospital to provide CT services and transportation is provided to those that qualify for it and require [cough] some of the other things the other non-programmatic aspects that I call it. Um, so like when they're not doing instruction or playing with the kids or teaching things like that, um, the teachers have to have prep time to prepare materials, to set up an activity, like if they have a theme for the week, they have to be able to set up that theme, take it down, um, or maybe there's different activities between three-year-olds and four-year-olds, uh, or the morning session and afternoon. They have to have time built in to do IEP meetings, consultations that

151are required by IEPs, uh, between teachers and providers, evaluations. Um, one evaluation for a student can take up to 10 hours to complete. It's not in one sitting, it's over time. Um, but evaluations are a timely and lengthy process. Special education paperwork, they have to have time to do that. Um, they need additional service delivery time. So, if there is a student with significant needs, they have to be able to have time to pull them aside, provide uh independent instruction for that student. Um, lunch, they have to eat. our teachers have to be able to make it through the day. And then again, just a reminder that these are babies. The a lot of these kids are in diapers. So they're changing diapers on a regular basis in our preschool setting. [clears throat] So then

152moving on to the learning connection. So this is our SAU uh preschool program to give you an idea of what that looks like. Again, it's three-year-olds and four-year-olds, both typical peers and students identified with special needs. Um, our TLC program provides outreach services on a regular basis. And outreach means that they are sending people out to daycare settings to provide services and or parents are bringing their kid in, dropping them off for a service, and then taking them back home right after. They're not staying for two and a half hours. They may stay for 20 minutes, 30 minutes at a time instead of staying for the whole time. So, they have their full preschool program running and they also do outreach. So, they have both things going on at the same time. Each of the

153preschool classes are two and a half hours just like uh here at Deerfield. The four-year-olds attend Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning uh or afternoon sessions. And then three-year-olds attend Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoons. um they don't have morning session currently for three-year-olds because that's where they're doing their IEP meetings, their evaluations. Um and I'll talk a little bit more why in just a minute um their structure for that. Uh there's currently 38 students anticipated for the fall uh with 26 of those students in need of special education. So the primary service delivery for the TLC is actually special ed uh setting and special ed programming. We have such a significant need for our toddlers, our three and four year olds in those four towns combined that we have a hard time being able to take

154in typical peers um who don't have disabilities because of the number of students who are in need of services. Um and that's just the ones who attend the preschool. There's currently a wait list for typical peers. Again, we have to leave spots open. So, even though they can take 48 students, we have to leave space for referrals and move in for the fall. And they'll fill those just like DCS will. They'll fill those if they can fill them with typical groups and take them off of weight list. Um there so none of these numbers account for all the referrals that come into TLC. So because they service four towns in a typical year they evaluate over 50 stu 50 babies for special education. So that doesn't include anything with typical peers that's just kids that

155either community bridges like that's their one sky over on that side you know the next town over it's community bridges is their area agency and over here one sky. So um they get referrals in from community community bridges, they get referrals from doctors, they get referrals from parents. So anybody can refer a child for special education. And on a regular year, uh they get anywhere from 50 to 55 referrals that they do on top of running the full-time preschool program, on top of doing the outreach. So there's a significant number of kids that uh come in and out of that program throughout the year. So a parent can refer their child through >> Absolutely. Y >> and there's no evaluation by a professional. >> We evaluate them. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. >> They still

156get evaluated. Yeah. But the parent can say I feel my student needs to be my child needs to be. >> Oh, okay. I just want to hear. >> No, they don't immediately get put into the program. They still need to vote about it. >> Okay. And if I recall, um, just to be sure correctly, parents can get their own children evaluated outside of your programs. >> They can, that's correct. But then the determination on whether they qualify is the school district specific, right? With their input, obviously. Yeah. Um, there are currently 12 students planned for outreach service. Um, a lot of them have aged out. So, a lot of our outreach kiddos this year were four years old. So they would be heading into kindergartens or other programming or homeschooling um next year. So we

157have 12 three-year-olds who are moving up into four year olds essentially for next year. So the 12 students who are being serviced for outreach um that will more than likely double if not triple by the time this time next year for kids being serviced for outreach. um a lot of that 50 plus referrals end up being outreach service uh provisions. So the number of one of the notes I have here next to that 12 is there will be more referred. Um then the line below that I say there's 48 student capacity in TLC and outreach has no capacity. So when I say no capacity, um if a student comes in and for a referral and we determine as a team with all the providers that the student does qualify for special education services, we can't

158deny them that service even if we don't have the staff for it. So we have to hire somebody and we usually will hire a contracted provider if we can't fill that with our current staff. So we can have a capacity on TLC, but we can't have a capacity on outreach. >> So that can make it a little tricky. >> So TLC is a program. Does it have a physical location? >> Yes. The Allenstown. >> That's the Allentown. Okay. >> So the current TLC program is in the old elementary school at Allentown. >> Yeah. Um the program has two teachers who are dual certified which means they're both special education certified and general education certified. So both of them have that and there's an outreach position as well. So and a lot of the referrals are

159handled ideally by that outreach position. The program has up to five parent educators. It just depends on student needs. Some years we'll have two or three. Other years we'll have five. It really just depends. Uh we have seen a significant increase in students identified with autism and significant autism. Um that has been a recent trend over the last couple years and it is continuing into next year. Um there is a full-time occupational therapist, a full-time speech pathologist and two part-time OT's and one part-time uh speech language path, one nurse that works over there and a contracted uh physical therapist who provide services to students in this program and who cover the outreach students because again we all those people have to cover those outreach kiddos uh which is why there's so many um because we

160have to send these people out to daycare settings, we have to have them available for dropins, all those kind of things. Uh transportation is provided to those that qualify uh and require it and then they have the same non-programmatic duties as DCS, but they're on top of that they're also their own custodians. So they they get to clean up their own messes over there. Any questions about the TLC program? >> Um Is is there it sounds obviously saying there is a capacity they don't seems like they don't have the capacity to take on so I I do summarize that later on but they they could for the physical space um and I believe I do talk about this a little bit later on but physical space yes personnel No, we think of that more in

161a little bit. Um, so why do we need preschool services? I know most of you are aware of this, but putting this out there for the general public. Um, preschool services are preventative in nature. It's early intervention which prevents compounding of intervenable issues later on. Uh, it teaches social skills early. It's best practice and reduces costs long term by providing these early interventions. So the longer we wait to provide speech to a student, the worse that list is going to get, the worse or the harder time that they're going to have connecting speech to thought process to communication to written oral language. Uh so the earlier we can get them, the less they're going to need later on. Uh it's required by law for students identified with special education needs. We're required to offer these

162services. uh and services often include a structured program with specially designed instruction to meet those needs. Uh and I list it's IDA part B. So the um law the federal law that has to do and governs special education is called IDA. That's the acronym. And part B of that governs the early uh intervention preschool laws and rules for that. And then New Hampshire Department of Education determines what these requirements are in addition to the federal law. Uh peer ratios. This is part of uh indicator six from the annual New Hampshire state LEA determination. So I I've linked several things in here so you can go back later on and click and learn more if you are interested. Um so every year we get graded, we talked about this before, but we get graded on special

163education and how well we do with that. if we're meeting certain benchmarks that are set by the state and federal government. And so the part six of that rubric is where it talks about the peer ratios that we have and it measures how good we do at making sure there's a 50-50 split between typical peers and identified peers. um if we don't meet that 50/50 mark overtime or we don't meet the other requirements with indicator seven which is outcomes. How well are they performing? Um how well are we doing the transition with them between the two and a half to three year old? Are we meeting all our timelines when they turn two and a half to three? Are we we have everything in place? Uh that can impact our initiatives, our programs and potential

164grant funding if we don't meet those benchmarks this time. Um, moving on to preschool requirements, rules, and regs a little bit more. Uh, preschool programs are required to provide curriculum that meets the New Hampshire early learning standards. So, I linked that in there for you all. Um, and it's about halfway through the packet is where you actually get to what the standards are, but the first part of it's a lot of the background research, all those things, but then the standards are kind of midway through that um packet if you're interested. Uh, school settings available. So, there's different options that uh we have to place children in in the preschool type setting. um the early childhood program. This is at least 50% of the children identified um and that includes Head Start, preschools from public

165schools, that would be us um and private preschool. So early childhood program needs to meet or aim toward that 50%. So there might be a time where we are over or under that slightly, but we have to continue to aim to that 50% identified, 50% non-identified. Um early childhood special education programs. This is when there's less than 50% of the children uh without IEPs. Um and a lot of this is typically in our separate school setting. So a public or private day uh school designed for children with disabilities. So if there was a special program that was created to uh work with and educate our three and four year olds that are only identified in special ed, that would be that kind of setting. And then others there's several other different settings like the service

166delivery in the home. There's service provider location pro provider location which is when parents can bring in children and do a drop off type service. There's also where we can go out and provide services in a daycare or child care setting. So those would be some of the other options that are available. um idea I linked the federal law there and then the part uh and then the New Hampshire state rules for that govern early childhood and special ed I linked in there as well. So you can go back and look at that and then in addition to that I linked the New Hampshire special education reference manual. So kind of like the rule book for special ed uh in our public schools. So I'll leave that there for you all to look at if

167you'd like. uh capacity. Some of the rules that we have to follow that are linked above uh is that there must be one qualified teacher for every one to eight preschool students. So, one teacher per eight students maximum. There must be at least one qualified teacher and one pair of professional between 8 and 12 students or you can have two qualified teachers between 8 and 12. For every 12 students you have, you must have two certified adults, whether it's teacher or par educator in that uh space with them. The maximum number for preschool students in one class is 12. So at no point are we allowed to go over 12 students in one class. So a morning session can only have 12. An afternoon session can only have 12. You cannot go above that, which

168is where those capacities come from. So, when we talk about having 48 students in a capacity, that's where I'm getting that because we only have two sessions available for three-year-olds, one in the morning, one in the afternoon every Tuesday, Thursday, and then the four-year-olds have them Monday, Wednesday, Fridays to two sessions. So, those added together equal 48 students that we're allowed to have and take into our program. >> Now, how could you you can adapt if that number needed to be increased by adding adding additional classes. Yes. >> So you're not limited to that number specifically except for you can satisfy that number of the students class. >> So anything that gets bigger than that means you're going to have to have additional space, additional teachers. >> Yep. So and that's why I talked a

169little bit about like right now the TLC program we're at capacity but it's only at capacity for staffing. >> We have additional room I saw that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um so financials, talking a little bit about budget. Um so I worked with um Amber, worked with Kristen, Lisa, going through our budgets and added up all the expenses for preschool um in Deerfield with all those positions combined with the part-time speech, OT, PT, um supplies, and the two teachers and two paras. uh the overall expenditures came up to just about $377,769 and then there is some offset because we do bring in some revenue. We are anticipating around $19,000 in revenue for preschool this year. So that'll bring the total preschool expenditures uh to right around $358,000 for preschool at Deerfield. So, can I ask um

170where's the revenue coming from? >> So, we currently charge tuition for typical peers. >> And how many typical peers did that $19,000 of revenue cover? >> Oh gosh, I have to go back. >> Sorry, I didn't I didn't see that. We have it in the first. >> Yeah. >> So, um they're 24. >> Yeah, it would be right around 24, but it gives and takes. So, some of those students joined in midway, so they would only pay tuition once they started. or some of the students may have left midway because maybe they moved or maybe they joined they found full-time daycare and so the parent chose that instead. So it es and flows with preschool. There's a lot of movement in our preschool setting. Uh so moving over to TLC total. So we budget for

171the TLC program as a program in the SAU fund 2 budget. So in fund two, the total of that budget this year was $684,170. So each district gets build out per their attendance rate. So we look at how many students are attending at any given moment and we break out what town they're from and that's the amount that's the portion that they pay of that $684,000. >> Okay? Okay. So, $684,000 the total amount program that is currently running cost >> the budget for the program. Yes. >> And then that budget or that number gets split between the towns that are participating. >> Correct. Only based on usage. >> Yep. >> Per child. Yep. >> Reasonably a tuition. >> Correct. Yep. And then um look, if you go over to the next column, you'll look at

172Allen's Tab ASC total. their expenditures for preschool are 271,000 and uh this includes transportation and other related services that wouldn't be included in the TLC budget. So if you add up Allenstown, Chichchester, Epsom, and Pembrook, you'll find that that actually adds up to around $800 and some odd thousand. >> 824. Yep. So, but that is because they may have students that require additional services that are specific to a student and that aren't part of the TLC program necessarily. So, if they need a onetoone or if they need um an AAC device, a communication device, or they receive specialized transportation, that's going to be specific to that district's contracted services billing, not TLC budget because we budget the program based on what it costs to run that program, not necessarily based on individual student needs. That's

173where that gets budgeted back in the district level under contracted services. >> So to put something into kind of a perspective for me to understand if you can I see the total number you have for for DCS [clears throat] and I see the total number you have for each of these other schools I mean districts. >> Um how does that compare? So in other words, Deerfield's number is almost equivalent to Penrook's number. Yep. >> Is is their student need or amount of students about the same? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Penrook has the highest population in that TLC program. >> Okay. That's what I that's what I >> that's pretty safe assumption. Um and again es and flows like there will be um you look at what was budgeted for these districts for next year and

174those numbers are going to change um and sometimes by 20 $30,000 but it's just based on the attendance. So if we know from our early childhood area agency, Community Bridges over there, if Community Bridges tells us, hey, we know we're going to have 10 students in Trichester next year coming their way, we will change that and we will budget for, you know, a bigger percentage to come from Tri in their proposed budget, just as an example. >> Um would you be able to provide that? um you know not soon so that just the numbers a number of experience for each one >> I can just know that it's going to change like it changes >> yeah no I know it'll >> ref so I know what you're asking is just so we can see a

175true comparison >> y >> okay of this particular year that we for sure. >> Right. What what what each school is basically paying that per student. Y >> and the other thing is I'm curious about is I know with the rules of the the 50/50 match with difficult beers, is there something in place that um some kind of agreement that between the schools that are participating in the program that they have to send some typical peers or >> No. So, you'll notice that um we often receive low marks from on our report cards for some of these districts for the um what do they call it? I forget the actual the environment. So indicator six, we will often get a failing score on environment because we parents find it difficult to get their kids to

176that TLC program because it's centrally located. It's not in each of the towns and so sometimes we'll get dinged from the state for that >> and it has essentially the same schedule. >> Yeah. Which is tough for parents, >> right? >> It's not easy. And so what is what is the ramifications of the bad mark? >> Yeah. So that's what I talked a little bit about in that why do we need preschool? So part of the ramifications are that the state can make determinations and control what we do for initiatives programs. they can um over time if we're a repeat offender, they can basically commandeer our IDA preschool money and say we're forcing you to use this money to do um recruitment for typical peers or like they will say that you have to use

177your money for certain things. So then you can't just use it to offset revenue. in my opinion. >> Obviously, we have a weight list here. That means >> Yeah. >> We have Yeah. We're providing that better environment. >> Exactly. Because you're more local, >> right? that we needed. >> Is there situations where um a parent would would say they didn't want services for a child that's identified or >> Yes. Sometime they can refuse. Yep. And what we do, we call that putting them on child fine. So we just say, "Okay, we know this student qualifies for service. >> We're going to keep them on our radar and we're going to reach out to this family once a year and see if they're interested in coming back until they reach like kindergarten age." And then once

178they reach kindergarten age, we'll give the school a heads up that, hey, this kiddo might enroll. They're now kindergarten. Um, they qualify for an IEP. Here's the information that we have. And sometimes they don't. Sometimes they stay in home school, sometimes they go to a charter school, sometimes they go private. Um, it just depends. But usually we see those students come in kindergart. Okay. So it' be much more difficult to get your typical kids to agree to go to Allentown. Yes. Because if it's hard enough for parents to get them here for two and a half hours to say, "Guess what? Now you're going to drive to Allentown. [cough and clears throat] come back to Deerfield. >> Yeah. And go back to the country, >> which is why we struggle meeting that mark and why

179we get in trouble with the schedule over at TLC. So, and we're, you know, we just had a big meeting around TLC preschool because we're at capacity and we're we're at the point where we either need to expand and bring in more staff to fill more classrooms or we need to have a serious conversation about do we push these preschools back out to the local districts because what benefit are we providing if this like we have to do a costbenefit analysis essentially and so that'll be continued conversation. um going into next year, especially during budget season, is really trying to plan long term for that TLC program because there's so much special education need in those communities right now that we're having a difficult time servicing. >> So, there is the space, it's just not

180the stuff. >> Yeah, >> a little bit of space. We have We have one more classroom that we can fill. So we could essentially bring in up to 24 kids >> if we had enough staff. >> 24, right? >> No, because they come twice a week. >> I was thinking Monday, Wednesday, Friday. >> It would be the three-year-olds. It would be three-year-olds if we open up because we only have one session of three-year-olds. >> So we would open up an additional three-year-old offer. So all right so on to the next part which is different preschool programs and services models. So this is kind of what you wanted to see what options are. So I put together five different options for consideration uh for the board to look into and to think about for uh moving

181forward. So the fully inhouse part-time preschool program which is our current model. Some financial considerations are that uh currently DCS hires a full-time OT entry school uh program utilizes a portion of their time. If there were a different model, they would not they may not be possible to travel during the time that they have allotted. Um and SLP and PT are currently contracted out on an asne basis. The program also utilizes overhead costs from DCS like admin, building supplies, you know, heat, electricity, all those things. So, um, if the if we were to utilize only an out of school program, we may not be able to utilize our OT that we're currently utilizing because they would have to add in travel time that they don't currently have to add into their schedule to service our

182meals. Um, as of spring 2026, based on the case load at the preschool program, um, the preschool program utilizes 100% of a part-time contracted SLP, 22% of a full-time uh, OT, and utilizes 25% of a part-time contracted PT. So, the part-time contracted PT, we also use them to service kiddos at Cobra that need PT. Um, other students in our building here, the K to8 that need PT. So the preschool makes up 25% of their current case load. Uh these services cost roughly around $80,000 between those three individuals. Uh these are estimates as case load numbers change frequently based on need and student population. So again it es and flows. Uh fully in-house uh part-time program. So we option number two is that DCS or not parttime full-time fully in-house full-time program. Uh DCS could look

183at increasing the program for preschool instead of the current model which is part-time. Uh this would require increase in staff and space due to this uh in order to meet all the requirements. This would increase K readiness, improve the overall ability of the district to meet students needs with disabilities, and improve child care for Deerfield residents. Uh, however, we need to follow child care laws and rules, not just public education rules at that point. So there's a whole set of rules that like daycare settings and things like that to provide over a certain number of hours per week they have to follow and we would likely find ourselves in that avenue in addition to public school regulations. We now have to file uh follow daycare setting laws and rules. Um one of the things that

184I learned doing this is that Deerfield doesn't have a whole lot of child care options for families. Um, so this would be a huge benefit for families. Um, I think there was only one preschool in Deerfields, >> so there's definitely a need in this area. Um, financial considerations, the cost of this program would likely double uh what it currently is as the preschool that you learn through this uh would have to hire additional staff to meet those ratios that we're required to follow. So, anticipated cost, my best guess would be around $700,000 to run a full-time uh preschool program in house. >> And we'd also have to find more space. >> Yeah, correct. >> So, we have it's a double. >> It's a It would be a double space. We don't have >> Yeah, you

185would bring in more revenue, but >> So, you bring in more revenue, right, at what cost, >> right? >> And we already struggle with space. >> Um service model only with dropins available. So, this would shift all student programming to drop-in only and would require some services to be delivered at community child care settings, particularly if the IEP team determined the child was in need of treatment with typical peers. Um, the district would still need to provide transportation to families that qualify for students that qualify. Uh, DCS would still need to designate space to allow for the drop in services to occur. Financial considerations. The cost of transportation would likely increase as the bus would be making several trips back and forth during the day instead of one morning, one midday, one afternoon. Uh staffing

186costs would likely remain the same. There'd be a slight reduction in pair of professional needs potentially unless the team placed a student uh unless the team placed student needs uh one in the daycare setting to Oh, that doesn't make sense, man. I I got word heavy. So if we would see a reduction in pair professional services unless a student that the team placed in a daycare setting needs a pair professional to access their learning and services during that time in their daycare setting. So we would still be financially responsible for that para even if the child was out of daycare setting if they needed that. Um even though typical peers would not attend DCS would still have similar expenses and reduced revenue. anticipated cost uh would roughly be around 700 or $378,000 which is about

187where we're at now because your services would remain the same. >> Why would the staffing cost the same? >> Because you would still have to service all of your identified students. So we are basically building a preschool program now based around special education services with the added benefit of allowing typical peers to come so that we can meet other needs in that social emotional area. If we didn't have our own program, we would be in the case where if we have a child in their IEP who needs a structured preschool setting because of their needs, like if they have significant autism, they have to be in a program with typical peers. That's part of that development and those skills that are necessary for those kids. So, we would have to actually place a child and

188pay for those daycare costs because we said that child needs those services. So that's why I don't think we would see a reduction in cost because we would end up paying for things that we don't currently pay for. >> I think we'd about break even. I think it would be about the same. >> And we would still require space for those drop in services. We'd have to have enough space for OT speech and a special educator to service children that are being dropped in. >> What's that space? >> It depends. I It could I don't know. There's no set move on what that's like. Um the next one would be a community-based service model only with no drop in available. So very few Deerfield preschools and daycare centers are available for families. Uh this would

189require them to travel to Cambia, Hookset, Ningham, Northwood, etc. Uh this would shift all services from an in-house model to out in the community, an outreach model. So, this would not require us to have any drop in space in here. We would push all services out to the community. Um, teachers, SLPs, OT's, and PTS and paras would provide services in the community setting versus at Deerfield at all. Deerfield would remain financially liable for these services and the provision of them in the community setting. So, some financial considerations, transportation costs may likely decrease uh because you're not making multiple trips back and forth unless it is required uh at a daycare setting to access special education services. So, if there's a point where a child receives special ed services at that daycare setting and they require

190specially designed transportation, we would still have to legally provide that. Um staffing costs will likely increase. However, there may be a reduction in pair professional support unless again a child needs this in the daycare setting to access special education services and learning. Uh it is important to note that DCS would need to provide mileage reimbursement for staff to travel and distances would vary greatly. So if they were traveling to Candy, it might not be so bad, but if they had travel uh on far side of Lake Noddingham, that that would be some mileage that would be racked up. um there would be a high likelihood that DCS may need to contract out additional OT, speech and PT hours with contracted service providers due to the travel time. So you could only service so many kids

191within a geographic range in so many hours. So if we had 12 kids in five different preschools, we may have to hire multiple people because they may not be able to get to all those kids in a timely manner. Um, and even some of those people because of it being inhouse can be used like some that aren't working with preschool kids at a certain time and work with our kindergarten kids and stuff like that >> if it was here this right. But what I'm saying is we lose that piece. >> Yeah. >> Like we would So we would need people here to cover the services that we can't share. >> Yeah. Um there could also be circumstances where the district becomes liable for the cost of the child care program if the IEP team determines

192that the child requires an early child care program to be successful. So part of the reason we don't have that cost now is because we offer that program. If we take that program away, we may find ourselves in a situation where we have to pay for daycare three days a week for a family because we took away that option near. So it may that's why I don't know that that would be that kind of community based only model. I don't know that that would see any savings. We might find ourselves in a situation where it's actually costing us a little bit more because of the additional contracted services and the likelihood of us having to pay daycare costs for some of those gifts. Um we could join the SA TLC program. Uh this would shift

193students from Deerfield over to Allentown. Uh this would require transportation uh which would be fine. Uh TLC is currently at capacity with staffing needs but there is enough physical space. So we have a classroom that we could utilize. We would just have to staff it. Um TLC currently rents the space they have from the town of Allentown and is currently discussing how long this may be available in the future and try to plan accordingly. So, the town of Allentown has their own plans for that building, and I don't know how long the TLC program is going to be able to physically stay in there, which is another one of the considerations that that group is actively discussing is that, you know, right now it's fine, but Allentown isn't doing the renovations that they're planning for

194right now. Like, when they start doing those renovations and turning that building into something else, we may be out of a home for TLC. We may have to have different options. So, I just I'm cautious about the viability long term of that even being an option for the SAP program. Um, staffing structure would likely need to follow DCS students over to TLC, which is already at capacity for service delivery. Um, if fewer families choose to attend TLC due to distance, DCS would likely need to provide those services in a community setting. So, if it becomes too far of a distance for some of our kiddos, um, who maybe have behavior needs or, um, whatever else might occur, um, we may find ourselves still having to provide the services to your field and not put them

195on a 45m minute bus at the TLC. Um this does not absolve the district of the IU. We recommend that uh transportation util or usage would like to increase. It would be minimal. Um if DCS were to join TLC, there would be no tuition charged to nonidentified students. So your revenue that you currently get would not be there because you would join that TLC program. The TLC program does not charge tuition for typical peers. But we we have a hard enough time getting them. [laughter] True. >> It's it's a weighing your cost and benefit type thing. Uh the anticipated cost would be roughly about I would anticipate would be roughly about where we're at now, $380,000 or so. Uh would likely remain similar to what is now minus the revenue. Um maybe a slight increase

196due to transportation and local outreach services that we provided. Um the next page um I came across an article as I was doing some research um from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Museum. Um, so I could share, you know, regular articles and stuff around state finances um, from them and there happened to be one about preschool uh, recently and I thought that the graphics that they provided and information were helpful just to kind of see statewide childhood care costs. Um so on the left is the New Hampshire child care prices um from 2017 to current 2025 and on the right is the number of New Hampshire child care provider programs from 2017 to 25. So you can see that um costs have gone up significantly from 2017 to 2025 for just the provision of child

197care service within our regular daycare settings. So this is based off of daycare settings essentially in New Hampshire. And then on the right you look at the number of daycare settings available that has gone down. So we just talked about Deerfield and Deerfield used to have a couple of daycare programs, but now you're down to one. So that totals that's counted in that total. So there's been a reduction of daycare programs available and the cost of those programs have gone up statewide. Um, I'm sure that's not a surprise, but even in the licensed homebased centers. So, they even account did account for those that are running daycarees out of their homes and the number of those available have decreased for the last several years. Um, so the average cost per pupil for the current uh

198Deerfield preschool program is roughly $10,000 uh per kiddo. So, I did the numbers, I just didn't include the count. Yeah. >> So, I actually did the price per pupil breakout. Um, so the average cost for Deerfield is 10,000 10,200ish. The average combined cost per pupil for Allentown, Chester, Epsom, and Pembrook is roughly around 16,400 per student. And then the average cost for the TLC alone per pupil is around 13,600. >> And this number for ECS includes transportation. Yes. >> Yep. It's everything. >> Um, >> well, I mean, that's kind of what we need, you know, is those numbers and that's what everybody's been asking for >> from the community. It's like what is the cost and how does it compare, you know, to those? And if we have this data to support that, you know,

199it looks like we are saving money, then >> that's awesome. And I'd rather provide, you know, what we have and have the data that show that it makes sense. >> Yeah. which is why I should which is obviously you know the benefit of having >> and I I'm sorry that this was >> very wordy and lengthy and boring I'm sure but there have been so much conversation since I've been here in four years around preschool that I felt it was necessary to put all this in writing and just get it out there so that way in two year it we can re we can update it it's just an add-on at point. It's not a redo, recreate the wheel. >> Um, and I I had I put all my resources that I included into this

200uh presentation are included in the back. So, if people are curious, they can go look at things. Um, and just a huge thank you to the DCS crew for me bugging them, asking them redundant and ridiculous questions time and time again. So, um, Lisa, Miss Forier, Miss Durkis, the preschool teacher coordinator over at TLC, Miss Witty, and Mr. Greaves. So, I just want to give a shout out to them because I was obnoxious and sure, but >> I'm glad you were obnoxious. There's so much information that is hard to understand at all. And um I just know as a newer school board member I knew there was a lot involved in preschool but I didn't know um until I got into the seat like how much was requirements and so learning that the first time

201we talked about preschool when I sat in the seat I was like okay there's a lot there. This is super helpful to see the various options and you know I think it's pretty clear that we have a great program and for me I think this makes total sense. I I tried to be as objective as possible. Like I tried not to lean you guys one way or another. >> No, I can see you had so much >> but I it's just the reality. It's the reality of what it is. So >> yeah. So for me I think from here now we just need to look for creative ways to >> you know whether it's you know charging some more money >> um to the bro because I don't think that the price has has increased

202in >> a long time. Um, so we have to me we have to make those numbers make a little bit more sense as all of our other costs continue to rise. >> Sure. >> And I think we have space fee. >> Okay. >> So that's that's part of our challenge, >> right? Um, and I think it's it's worthy to look at what we're collecting versus what our actual costs are and and maybe we look at adjusting that number. Again, we haven't even talked about that, but we should we should be reviewing that number. You know, um, you know, there's obviously benefits of being local, benefits to people who are using the program. Um, so there's a lot of things to consider. I I will say that these two pieces of information that you're seeing yourself

203and everybody included that put these together are really the the stuff that we need when we're trying to explain to, you know, our particular choices, positions, >> options, you know, with something real >> or, you know, as close as we can get because I know it's hard. It can't be exact, but at least it's reasonable. And again, if we look at multiple years, if we just do this every year, then we're going to have a database build up. It's going to help us see where if we're saving or expense going up, how much more, how much less, you know, information is data is important when you kind of make real informative decisions, especially when it comes to money. Yeah, I think said these two documents make a lot of things really clear in my head

204about you know the question of that we have raised about preschool and just what the cost is and all that and these options and you're looking through the five options to me you know there probably only is one um in our that being our current model so with like what I said trying to trying to find ways so we can, you know, make it work on a financial um front. But >> super helpful and I appreciate >> I may have only ripped out half my hair in the last [laughter] >> between these two things, but it's done. So >> I'm Is that microphone red on there? >> Yes. >> Oh, it is. Okay. I thought they were normally blue. >> Oh, I don't know. >> Oh, there's a blue one over there. >> Yeah, maybe

205that's what I'm thinking of. Just because the last the last meeting >> is this on >> the uh the audio. >> You can you can press it and see what happens. >> Oh god. Should I >> press the red button? >> Oh god. >> Yeah, I haven't gotten any complaints either. People would text if they couldn't hear. I was like, "Is that on or off?" >> It's a microphone and it's red. >> Too long, [laughter] how >> you know, you know what the problem is? Is you shaved your beard? [laughter] Usually your beard blocks that light. Thank you. >> I just turned it off. >> Oh, you did. >> Just press the mute button here and then >> you're up again. >> Yeah. So, superintendent, I'm not going to read through this. [laughter] I just

206talked for over an hour. But just know that you know there's been a lot going on as they between projects and end of [snorts] the year. One of the things that I have learned uh recently is that this May to July time is actually far busier for our SAU than even budget season. Like budget season has nothing on May to July. This this is a extremely busy time of year between working in two different fiscal years trying to close out a year with all the stuff that Amber was talking about earlier plus all the extra events and things that are going on at the school level and all the excitement and then the new staff hires and there there is just so much going on from May to July. It's incredible. And so that and

207you'll see this is a long report because this is just a portion of the work that has been done with our administration and the SAU over the last month or so. So if you end up having any questions about it, just let me know. But I tried to capture a lot of the activities and some of the duties that we've been each of our offices have been doing over the last month. >> Awesome. So obviously um the one other thing I I wanted to make note of is that we meet the 5050 requirement very >> here you do. Yes. >> Here we do. >> And is every is each school recognized independently? >> Yes. >> Okay. So it's not you the program. It's just like Chai Chester, you know, looked at individually. So I don't

208Uh we're on to policy. >> So I did add a couple policies in there but don't feel like we need to do anything with them now. Um two of them were the request of the board to add in which is policies around um committees and advisory committees to the board. We don't currently have any policies and so when we talk about creating committees or creating advisory committees, we don't have like structured procedures to follow. So I added these in there for your consideration. If you don't want to create policies around them, that's fine, but just put these in there so you could see what some of the sample policies are from the school board association to help guide some of that decision making around [snorts] committees. And then the EDCA is a legally required policy

209for us to have. So we will have to implement that one. Um we wanted to get that now so that we have time to look at that. >> Um yeah as well. I think that question about how we can >> and they'll streamline it for the future. So that way same same practice every time >> public comments. No one here >> discussion comments agenda items for next meeting. That's our summer meeting. >> So, we know we're in a superintendent evaluation. >> You want to set four goals? >> Okay. >> Pizza. >> Um, >> what was that? Pizza. >> [laughter] >> Is is that going in the nonpublic denominations? >> Yeah. >> I will make a motion to go into nonpublic NHSA 91- A3 2- >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Did you say B or

210D? >> B. >> Okay. >> Hey, Trish. Taking it out. >> Are you upset? Did she just not get this? >> She did. Or are you I believe scan and send. >> Yes. Can you just to make sure? I I thought you had sent them. >> I did. I did share them. >> Okay. So, you should be all set. I don't know why they didn't make it in. So I will check again.