001Okay. >> I will call to order the school board meeting of Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. If everyone could join me for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, I will briefly recite our board norms which are work together and be collaborative, assume good intentions, be present and prepared for the meeting, challenge the issue, not the person, and be respectful. All right, we have three sets of minutes to review and approve all of them at once. Can you do all at once? You can. January 10th, 2026, February 4th, 20 26 and >> February 7th. February 7th, 2026. >> Okay, I'll second. >> All right. Any discussion?
002>> Yeah, it doesn't bother me, but my name is spelled wrong. >> Every time. Not every time. A couple times. >> What? >> It was probably me. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Nanny. >> Oh, I didn't see that. I was shoot. >> Which one is it on? >> It's on February 4th in the under minutes. >> I don't know. And now in the section six board discussion about public comments there's a C >> one other place to maybe it was just those um there's one on the February >> yeah this is something different under board reports >> the curriculum review board it say Non meeting which one report second thing down report says non meeting >> report just been two because I don't see them anywhere >> where did you see the first one was
003February fourth under section four minutes. >> I second them. >> Well, on January 10th and on the February 7th, her name is called Manny. Shoot. >> Whatever. >> So, whatever people want to call me out of here. Any other discussion? >> If we're doing them all together, I guess I'm just gonna have to >> I wasn't at one of them. >> Do you want me to withdraw my motion and then do them separately? Probably not. I withdraw my motion to accept. Me, too. Okay, good. Good job. All right. So, I will make a motion to accept the minutes of January 10th, 2026. second with the spelling changes if there were any >> that one I didn't see. >> Oh, is that the one when it was Manny? >> Yeah, up top. >> I didn't even
004see that part of it because it usually just says Oh, yeah. At the very beginning, present those present missing a city. >> Yes. I don't have access to those. >> Okay. >> Yeah, those are mine. >> I'm making note. >> Okay. All in favor of approving with that spelling change. >> I make a motion to accept the minutes of Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. >> I'll second. Okay. Any discussion aside from those spelling changes? Okay. All in favor of approving the minutes from February 4th? Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. Then um I make a motion to accept the minutes of Saturday, February 7th, 2026. I will second Nancy Kendra. Um okay. Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor of approving the February 7th minutes. >> I I >> Any opposed? >> Two obsessions. >> Two. All
005right, we are on to public comments. Uh Rebecca Hutchinson, Line Road. Um I'm here because um I had a recent conversation with um select board member Will Hunter who um said to me, you know, we were talking about the frustration that people feel about property taxes and and he said to me um well Rebecca, what would you tell people who are frustrated about about our property taxes? And we know that everybody is incredibly frustrated about the rising taxes and I think many seem to think that the fault is with the school and specifically with you folks, the school board. Um, but I'd like to just take a couple minutes to just address that issue. Um, I I hope more people are learning that um where much of the fault lies because it's not with the
006school board and it's not with this school. New Hampshire is dead last in providing state funding for education. So we have to depend on property taxes more than any other state in the country. And elected officials, including our own state representatives, often say that the state needs to act like you and I do when we sit at our kitchen table and try to make ends meet. So I thought, let's sit at the kitchen table for a little second and then let's sit at the state's kitchen table for a couple of minutes. Um, my dad was a college professor and like many did in the 50s and 60s, he worked and my mother stayed home with my siblings and me. And when they reviewed their expenses at our kitchen table, dad's income worked pretty well until
007we started going to college. And then he was in trouble. We were in trouble. So what did he do? He got a second job so he could earn more money. And they also looked for ways to cut costs. I have this memory of my mother diluting the milk with powdered milk in the middle of the night so that her kids wouldn't catch her doing it and my older brother did one time. Uh so we found about it. So yeah, they looked for ways to stretch a dollar. Um but let's let's look then at what our elected officials do when they sit at the state's kitchen table and review the state budget. Um several weeks ago the state reported that there was a $67 million deficit last year. So they covered that shortage by taking money
008from the rainy day fund. So that would be like us sitting at our kitchen table and taking money from our savings account to cover those expenses. And sure, like our family, they cut costs here and there, including eliminating hundreds of vacant positions in various state agencies. And yes, just as uh my dad chose to get more income with a second job, our legislators are finding some ways to make more money. Last year's budget, which every one of our state representatives voted for, increased fees in more than 100 areas. You've probably heard that registering our cars is costing more this year. They even found a way to take money from veterans after they die. A burial at the state's veteran cemetery used to be $350 and now is going to be $450. Um, so, but here's
009the really, really weird thing. After they knew that we had a $67 million deficit, our legislators sat at the state's kitchen table and they actually found a way for the state to raise even less money. So, how did they do that? Just last month, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to cut the business enterprise tax. Cut taxes. It sounds like a good thing, right? But before you give them credit for cutting our taxes, we should ask who pays the business enterprise tax. Not small businesses. Because businesses that make under $300,000 a year do not pay the business enterprise tax. 75% of that revenue from this tax comes uh comes from big corporations and multinational companies. So they cut taxes for big corporations and added costs for you and me by increasing the cost of
010registering our cars along with 99 other fee and license increases. So how did our state representative uh state representatives vote regarding the business enterprise revenue? Jess Edwards voted to cut. Jason Edwards voted to cut. Terry Roy voted to cut. Jim Splain voted to cut. Kevin Burbill voted to cut every single one of your representatives voted to reduce the income at the state's kitchen table and increase. So there's one other example. They also cut the business the uh interest in dividends tax. And again, you think that's a good idea, but um who pays the interest in dividends tax? You only paid it if you earned over $2,400 in one year from your investments. So, you're back at your kitchen table. You're looking to your income. Did you earn over 2,400 from investments? Probably not. Over half
011of the money that the state received from interest in dividends came from people who earned over 200,000 from investments. That money would have paid for the whole Department of Corrections budget or it could have gone to our schools. So, remember, our state contributes less to public education than any state in the union. and they leave it to us and our property taxes to make the difference. The next time you vote for the people who represent you in conquered, think about your kitchen table and the state's kitchen table. Think about your rising property taxes. Our state representatives, and we have five, have served a total of 18 terms. In all those years, have they ever voted to reduce your property taxes that you face at your kitchen table? Thank you. And I know it's long and
012I do apologize. Thank you so much. >> Wow. And I have company Candy Dav 44 Old Center Road. Um, I couldn't have said it better than her. I have delved into watching Business Week Review on WUR to figure out taxes and what happens with our money. And they stated this Sunday that New Hampshire just passed a small 0.5% cut in the business enterprise tax which would save businesses about $47 a month. Says that probably wouldn't hire any new people because we're talking about people companies that also have employees outside of the state. What do we do? We fight amongst ourselves about our property taxes. left the deliberative session and I want to get the word out to those people who left thinking that people are not for choice and I did sign Maryannne Clark's warrant
013article and I did it to get the facts to say listen we owe not just families in this town but we owe those that are on fixed incomes those that have lower paying jobs the ability to stay in the town of Deerfield who was listening to a real estate agent who says if you want to move to New Hampshire There are certain towns that you just don't move to. I don't want Deerfield to become one of those towns because our property taxes are so high. I am not saying school choice is bad. I am not saying that sending one student to one school is bad. I don't have any skin in the game. What I do know is a little song my mother used to sing to me. Wise man built his house upon a
014rock. A foolish man built his house upon the sand. When the rain came down and the floods came up, the house on the sands fell flat. People attended that meeting not to be against something. They were there to say educating our students at the elementary level is extremely important because if we do not prepare them at this age once they reach high school it's basically content teaching these people and they're good educators and God bless them for teaching high school but it's a lot of the times it's not how come you're not learning this what's holding you back what is your learning style what is not your learning style how can we help prop you up or give you the tools that you it's they're an expert in their content and they're sharing it. So
015if you don't get them reading, writing how to use the internet, how to write papers at this age from preschool to 8th grade, we could spend all the money in the world in high school for school choice and it's a waste of our tax dollar. Again, listen to what she said. Who is not helping us out in our towns? And as we fight amongst ourselves and we point fingers and we do laughing emojis on Facebook, we're fighting amongst ourselves. We're wasting our energy. We need to stomp our feet and tell them at the Golden Dome to help us out more. Thank you. Right on my grandkids. So other public comments. Can I just say one more thing? I'm sorry. I drive home every day and students are dismissed at quarter 3 and there's a mother
016sitting out there at quarter 44 waiting for her child. This is an elementary school student. She can't drive down here to pick up her child for whatever reason like a hundred other parents do. We owe these families something besides an hour's bus ride in Deerfield. Okay. Um board discussion regarding public comments. Anyone have any? Okay. We'll move on to agenda review. We will have a nonpublic letter J. I just got a message that I don't think we I think we can wait till March. Okay. No, not it'll be the later March, right? >> Yep. >> It's on emergency. Yeah. >> Okie dokie. Um, we do need to add underformational. Do you want to add it your superintendent report? >> Sure. Okay. We're going to add superintendent report underformational. We tabled it at the last meeting.
017Okay. Um, review of correspondence. I don't believe there was any. So, that is quick. Nothing for consent agenda. Um, we are on to immediate business. We are on to the stage road committee. Um, I put this on the agenda because I know um the first meeting for the committee was scheduled for yesterday, I believe. Um, so I wanted to hear sort of how it went and if you need any guidance from the board or any any support as you guys sort of navigate the discussion going forward. >> Um, well the previous team including the myself 10 people there pretty good that told us they couldn't make it and then two that just didn't show up and we we basically went around the room. We introduced ourselves. We said what our interest was in it. A
018lot of people said that they had opinions, but they didn't necessarily tell us their opinions. Even when I I opened it up several times, even asked people individually, you know, what what are your thoughts here? And they didn't really say anything. But um what it sort of came down to, and I I understand what um Nick was saying to you, we kind of came out to do not like this was the consensus among the group. do nothing, put it into conservation or put part of it, make part of it in it like an industrial park or commercial to sell it for development. >> Um, yeah, but not necessarily selling the whole thing like maybe selling part of it for a commercial. There was >> sort of what we had the consensus we had come to
019as well. >> Yeah. I mean, we did bring up like I went over all the stuff that came up at the September meeting. So, there were things that people didn't mention that they were interested in like the over 55 community or just residential. Nobody really seemed interested in that. Um, I do think though given what he said that maybe like the planning board is going right now going through a master plan coming up with stuff. So, it might be worthwhile to reach out to them and just say, you know, is there a need for that in the community? So, I I think maybe given what happened, I'll probably do that. But the way we left it was um we said we'll have our next meeting in April. Um different people took I kind of signed
020them kind of delegated but um the person interested in the industrial park I suggested that maybe they talk to the planning board and see what they felt about that possibility if that was needed in the community if that was something within the vision of the community. >> Um I do just want to um say that like the school doesn't have much control >> Oh yeah. over that like if we sell it to be developed right >> we don't really get to say what it will I mean I guess you could put some restrictive covenants or something but we don't really get to designate what type of industry >> I think the idea was a covenants to to put something in there yeah so um and I also wanted to say that we also made very
021clear that this is just an advisory committee they're not going to necessarily decide something this has to come back to the school board that makes >> they're making a recommendation to the school Right. Exactly. Um we started talking about the history and we realized that we really didn't have the history down. It was kind of like well who did this and when was it? Yeah. So one of the ladies um she researched that to try to find out the whole history like um you know which part of the warrant articles passed what happened later on how come they ended up not really building it so that we have that history because we really don't have that. >> There are some newspaper articles that might be a little bit hard to find but there were some
022I recall some newspaper articles about the co-op. Yeah. And there's some there's some stuff that surfaced today that some I didn't get a chance to read every I didn't have a moment to myself today, but >> y >> um and then the other one was uh Haley who was on the conservation commission. She has a presentation about putting land in conservation, what you would have to do, how you would do it, what the process is. >> So she's going to present that to us at the next time. >> Well, she sent some links. >> She did send some stuff. Yeah. >> But I don't know. Was there anything else? I think those are the three things. So just so basically we're researching about putting it into commercial property. What would we have to do if
023it was in conservation? Oh, and we're also going to get a map of all the conservation land in the community so we can compare that with >> you know is there really a need for it. >> Um so that's pretty much where it went and we're going to do a hopefully we'll do a site visit also in April. >> There's a lot of snow ever goes away. Yeah, there was a lot of talk about how ledgy it is and how rocky it is smoke and it's so >> and they also talked about the habitat being very uh really good habitat that's pretty rare in the state some of it. >> So >> well there's a lot of good habitat in Deerfield anyway. >> Well I think it's got it's more than just habitat. It's got
024to do with how it connects with other habitat. >> So like the bear paw >> what's that >> to connect bearbrook? >> Yeah. I don't know if it was just about bear paw. I felt it was more than that. >> Oh, okay. >> But that's a good question. You brought that up, so maybe that needs to be looked into more. >> Yeah, I thought we were going to kind of look into that piece, too. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah. >> So, it it went okay, but I do feel that there were there was a little antagonism between a couple people, you know, did we cover what you wanted? They seemed okay with it. I'm sorry that he contacted you. >> No, I I appreciate >> but I'm glad I'm glad that he did. Yes. Because
025it makes me kind of rethink, okay, like maybe we should ask about some of those other options to the planning board that didn't come up just to make sure that we've covered it. >> Again, some of the things that are coming through today that were sent to me and and through the SAU. Yeah. >> Um it's it's starting to p patch the pieces together of how the flow all came through, right? and who you know there's a lot of people that are no longer with us from that time too that were involved greatly in this. So >> finding people that are still with us if they still have good memory enough that they can recall >> would be a good thing to look into. I can talk to a couple people >> and I should
026also mention that one of the very strong one person viewed their opinion very strongly about not doing anything because they felt that it was schoolboard property it and it should just be left in case in the future 50 years or whatever maybe we need a new school site. I don't know. I don't know how I think one of and that's a good thing about the history because I think when they did the history they kind of found out that that site really wasn't the best site for school and that'll come up with some of the history. >> But wasn't it donated? It wasn't purchased. >> No, we purchased it. >> 375,000. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> That's what was approved. >> Oh, that's true. I don't know. I don't know. >> Oh, that's true. >>
027Yeah. >> Okay. because I thought we had discussed something about the um about the the deed and everything about how it couldn't be sold or I know we were researching that at one point. >> Yep. I had researched it and got um confirmation from our attorney that there's nothing that prevents us from doing what we want >> and then we were very clear about >> Yeah. And then anything that we do if it isn't for a school obviously has to go on war. So we're real clear about that. >> Yeah. I just I just think that we need to be clear about the fact that it like you said it is advisory. But to me more than anything, it's >> helping us research >> and it's coming up with any new ideas that we haven't
028already >> come up with. But the research is really the big thing because that's taking the time off of us to figure out make an informed decision, right? Just because I think like you said I think that there's at least two people that are on the conservation committee that are on that >> on this committee. >> Yeah. Two that are select selected. >> Right. So >> none of them represent the >> I understand. But my point is is that it's a very small committee and it's represented by a few committees. >> Yeah. >> So it's not necessarily a very broad you know >> Yeah. >> picture of >> and one of them is also on the planning board too. So >> yeah, >> any materials or research that you guys find, can you make sure
029to upload it in that stage road folder? >> Yes. >> In the drive >> because that way we can archive everything and don't have to go scrambling again in the future. >> Yeah. >> I was kind of finding things all over the place. So I plan to look at that and try and >> put everything into that drive >> or that folder within the board drive. >> Am I able to do that? >> I was just going to say I don't think she can. >> She sent it to me. I will put it in there. Okay. Yeah, we don't have >> because I think I was looking at something trying to do it and I couldn't do it. >> Okay. Send it to me and I will clearing house it all into that drive. >>
030Okay. >> Yeah. I think what you were saying about the selling it through one of our discussions something came up that they thought the seller had first refused refusal but it's not but yeah you have found but that I do remember that conversation too. Yeah, >> that's why I thought maybe donated or something. >> Some people last night mentioned that they thought that might have been that people talked to the seller and kind of said that but nothing was written. So, yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you for that update and thank you for your work on that. Um, okay. Strategic plan. So I after the last meeting I sent I sent like 10 or a dozen different samples of quote unquote strategic plans from school districts around the state. >> I will say there
031is no consistency between just about any of them in terms of >> how what they're covering what they're what the what the strategic plan is for. if it's for the school board, if it's for the school district, um how it was created, how long it is. Some of them are two pages, some of them are 25 pages. Um so we don't have to make moves on this tonight, but I did want to just if people had thoughts, if you got to review them, if not you were >> I have some favor. >> Yeah. I mean, >> I I think there were three that stood out to me just for whatever it's worth. Um, Manchester, Rochester, and Hinsdale seemed to be the most kind of comprehensive and guiding documents that would be like some vision work
032and some goal setting for a school and school board. So, take that for what you will. >> In sale, Manchester, Rochester, and there were like pages of Google results with these. These were sort of the first ones that popped up that I could easily find. Um, so if someone were poking around and had another they wanted the board to look at, I think that's fine. Um, some of them were just goals like that we've already maybe longer term goals than what we have. Um, but a lot of them were just goals developed by the board. um which is not I think what we were looking for or intending but I wanted to send those out so that people could look at them and see what we wanted to do. Um but I'm happy to sort
033of table the discussion till we have more time to look at them because there were there I mean there were hundreds of pages. >> Yeah, I think I started with the concrete one. >> Yeah, it was so long. >> Not they're not all that long. Some of them are like five pages. That's I didn't get to the Manchester and Rochester ones, but I just saw this week that those two school districts are some massive cuts. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. develop um a district. >> Yeah, that will be a multi-year process, >> right? >> Yeah. >> But again, I I think there's a lot of things that we're finding that maybe we're >> a little bit behind on like the CIP >> stuff. So, it's going to take time. It's not all going to happen overnight.
034Correct. As long as we're moving in the right direction. >> 100%. And I think, you know, if the board has a strategic plan, we would have to worry sort of less about annual goals because a lot of things that we're doing are going to take a lot longer than one year. Um, so I think it would be helpful just to have as a document. It's sort of like a CIP but for our >> part of your strategic plan might be to create a district-wide strategic plan. >> Correct. >> So, >> correct. >> Yeah. >> But that Yeah. like but we put it as an annual goal which I think we didn't know what we were getting into at the time >> but I think it's a good idea and if you're going to do it
035you take the time so you get something that's lasting versus yes we have it done and then a year down the road this this doesn't work anymore so it's better to take the time >> and I did see a lot of them were updated at a regular cadence if it was annually or bianually >> yeah I think just your goals, you need to look at it. But when you say district, >> I'll need to >> So there's a difference between a board strategic plan. So a board strategic plan is like long-term visioning for your board and what your priorities are, what you want to work on, what your goals essentially are, but they're longer term. They're not annual goals. They're longer term goals, but you update them and review them annually. A district strategic plan
036incorporates all the facets of curriculum, facilities, >> uh behavioral supports, like all of the facets of a school and how the community wants to see what is the goal of the education of Deerfield Community School. It's a whole school as a whole and but it would be just see when I think of district too I think yes it's our school but district was not in I think it could It could include high school, but to a certain extent, you don't have a control over what that learning experience looks like, but it could involve what you want to offer them or what you want them to be like a picture of a graduate, what you want them to be prepared for when they get to high school. And so that could help guide further discussions of
037like what schools are we offering? What is happening here? What do we what are we looking for in a school that we are >> which I think is why there is a big struggle in some of the conversations that you're having because it's not there's no defined long-term strategic planning >> for what Deerfield values in education and where they want to see their kids go. Which is why I think there's some of that struggle with like what do we want? I want this. I want this. what what is good for the community for school and I think that's part of some of that struggle around the high school choice >> part of it but I do like I would envision having the high school be included >> well that's what I was wondering because again
038>> I think so often when we're talking budget when we're talking anything >> to make sure people understand our the district because I think lots of times people say well you know the the the school the school budget has gone up but it's not just us we are >> beyond this building so and I think at times that isn't forgotten but because we don't have a lot of say over what happens at the high schools that it kind of >> there there are several boards that have their own strategic plans I could grab some of those and drop them in the folder as well Um because they do look different. >> Yes. >> Than like a school district. >> So I can look for some of those and drop those in next time too. >>
039Okay. Um legislative update. I did think that I would have more to say about this. Um I do think it would be a good practice to have legislative updates every so often. I mean, not that we need to spend a lot of time speculating about what's going to happen at the state house, but if there are bills that are coming down or if things have passed that we need to know about, if there's, you know, things that will change our work or, you know, policies that we're going to have to fix, it's worth mentioning. Obviously, the schoolboard association does draft policies and things after, so we don't have to come up with those. But >> I can I can give you general updates like I can make a spreadsheet keep that updated for the board.
040Um ones that are relative to education and might impact Deerfield, >> right? >> But just understand there's also 800 bills right now in education that would likely impact Deerfield. So, I I'm not sure if I'm going to track it, but >> and I don't know that we need to like be super like knowing every single that's going, but like >> you know there's a bill right now about schools starting after Labor Day, right? Like >> I don't know what's going to happen to that and it's maybe not worth discussing at the board, but it would impact the calendar just approved last week. Um, so things like that. >> Well, I just laugh because we hear so much of we want local control. Well, to me, a calendar is a real easy thing for us to
041have local control over. Why do they want to take that away? I mean, I I'm sorry, that's just Yeah, there's certain things to me that come on. So there, so I did think that there was going to be a hearing about the open enrollment bill last week and potentially a vote on it, which is why I put it on the agenda when when we created this last week, but there has happened. So I don't really have an update about that. >> It is uh I believe on the docket for tomorrow. >> Okay. Well, stay tuned. >> The the thing I and again I could have read it wrong. Um it looks like with open enrollment there's the possibility that there's a top off agreement on them now. >> So the the language in the bill
042as proposed essentially creates statewide top off agreements for all families. So you as it states in the bill unless there's amendments or it doesn't pass. Um and the bill was approved by the Senate. >> Yes. Yeah. Um it says that a school has to pay their cost per pupil rate >> for that a student that would want to go to another school. Um and if the tuition at that other school is more than the sending district's cost per pupil rate, the difference is the responsibility of the parent. So, which is a top off agreement, >> right? >> So, it it sets a statewide mandate for top off agreements >> essentially. >> Except I was reading about I don't remember the town they mentioned as the sending town, but there there was one town it's like
04314,000 or 15,000 per student and if they were to send them like to Bedford, >> it's like 20,000. So Bedford would get the 14,000 if there isn't some way to get the other than Bedford's. >> I mean there's some schools in the states that cost people rates over 30,000. >> Yeah. >> So but I who knows where that's going to go. It's just that is the proposed language in the current. >> Yeah. And you know I thought about this algorithm and I feel like I don't know that it's useful to sit sit here and speculate what might happen. Um, but I do think it'll be helpful once there is action on it or notifying about upcoming hearings. If anyone wanted to go testify tomorrow at the state house, you are welcome to. Um, so anyhow,
044that's all I had for that. >> I can create some kind of resource sheet. >> Yeah, I mean I wouldn't like stress about it because they probably do exist. I think NHSBA might have already. Yeah. Um so anyway on toformational items superintendent report. >> All right so um there's an updated enrollment report from co round in the drive and um that office as well. So that's just for FYI. So you can see what some of the um are for the classes. We talk about that pretty frequently. >> So and this has these are redacted, right? >> Those are redacted. And and can we clarify what homeschool participation is? Is that in extracurricular? >> So homeschool participation means if there is a student who lives in your home school that is participating in like a club
045or a sport program. >> Okay. But not regular curriculum classes >> could be. >> Okay. >> Like if they're taking like one class or two classes over there could be that as well. And then down below it says in after one one. That means any students that transferred or enrolled after January 1. >> Below after we build for those students is it per class if they only take their class. >> Yeah. >> And we there's a rate we pay for it. Yeah. There our responsibility. >> Yeah. But if they were Okay. >> But if they have an EFA though, do you still do you still pay >> if they're So if it's like sports or something where the parent is charged if it's like a paytoplay, then the parent would be charged for those kinds
046of things. Um and they could utilize potentially an EFA for that. I I I don't know. I don't know that coown is set up as a vendor. If the state with EFAs that that's a whole separate system. >> Okay. We are having >> I'm here for you. All right. Um, so yeah, so it's EFA. I that's kind of a beast of its own. So I'm not really I'm not really sure if they're utilizing that or not. I would have no way to tell. Um, okay. And then we get charged for homeschool taking courses, but we can't include them for re partial reimbursement for adequacy or can >> Yeah, we get Yeah. If we have a student who enrolls in us part-time, we get a portion of adequacy. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And that includes for
047high school. >> Okay. >> So, it would be helpful like I know this is why it >> I know, but if we could just have like a number >> number one. >> Okay. Because then do and do we know if we've already paid full tuition or how how much have we paid? >> I believe this was a transfer um from conference. >> Okay. >> And they got in before the deadline of transfer because I they have to go through an approval process with me. So the the parent has to reach out to me and request the permission to transfer. Um, and I will typically grant it as long as it's before the second semester deadline, right? >> Because otherwise we're paying >> Yeah. Because we we will not be paying two tuition. Like they have
048to do that so that way it's prorated and >> it's split half and half. Got it. >> So, >> okay. Sorry. >> On this on this chart where it says regular ed. And it says 10 down there on the 11th grade line. What is that for? So that just means they delineate because they the way that they charge us for um students just general students and then students who are in special education. >> So skills is their special education. >> Okay. >> So we do have numbers in those for 9th and 10th grade but they've been redacted >> because they were small enough that I was not comfortable checking. >> The one we had in the drive >> been removed. Okay. >> Yeah. So, this is the one that was in there. >> Okay. You
049can continue on your >> Yes. Okay. And then the um report that Missy printed off or the superintendent report just a quick update of where all of our departments are at. I mean, obviously, most of January and most of February was spent in budget work for all of our departments. Um, and a lot of time learning some new laws that are changing. I know Dr. Hall has been there's some Medicaid stuff that's happening that uh in the state. There'll be some changes coming at the end of this school year for billing. Um, and that's, you know, out of our control. That's for Medicaid laws that have changed. Um, Dr. Hall has been a part of the professional standards board through New Hampshire as well. So, uh, she kind of reflected on some of her work
050that she's been doing with that. Um, our curriculum coordinator, Amy, has been hard at work with all of our schools, um, helping with curriculum. I know, uh, she just finished up some work with Deerfield and gave some huge kudos to Deerfield, um, with their ELA curriculum. Uh they I would say that Deerfield pretty much has the model of how curriculum should be documented. Um anytime anybody needs curriculum help, I always point them to Deerfield because they do a standup job of documentation, aligning it to standards, sharing it out, presenting it, aligning it, um K to8, like they really do a phenomenal job with curriculum work. Um and so you may kind of reflect on some of that work in here there. The state has changed a lot of their requirements for certifications for teachers and
051requirements. So it's making things quite a bit harder to get teachers uh new teachers certified that haven't gone through like a traditional teaching program. So that's been a big learning curve for some of our teachers that are new baby teachers. Um and for Amy having to learn some of the new requirements with that and >> it says they eliminated alternative pathways. >> Yeah. So one of the ways that teachers used to be able to be certified was it was called an ALT 4 certification. They no longer offer that pathway. >> Um >> yeah we do have a few teachers who are doing alternative pathways. >> Correct. Still fine. It's based >> plans. They switched over. >> But they'll use >> Well, they've had to switch. >> Yeah. >> And for a teacher who's going through
052that process to get um the DOE to look at their plan, it cost them $500. >> Wow. >> That that's not to get reertified. That's just for them to look at the plan and they will send it back. And if you don't return it to them in a time frame that is that they've given you, it will cost you $500 more dollars to get looked at. >> And it's costing our teachers, some of our teachers, upwards of $1,000 to get certified, >> and we don't have that in the budget to reimburse them. We don't have it. It's it's it's really a it's holding people back. >> Yeah. Um, Miss Wheeler, obviously, I mean, most of her time has really been spent um, creating documents and working with budget committees and the boards to try to
053finish up budgeting. So, everyone is pretty much done with all their public hearings and deliberatives and all of the that kind of formal budget process and everyone's off to either town meetings or March voting days at this point. Um, she finished up some work with our auditors that had come in throughout December and a little bit in January. So finished up the 2425 auditing field award for all of our schools and right now we're just waiting on some of the final reports from our auditors that they were still working on from previous years and for the 2425. So we're all the fieldwork is caught up for everything. All that's um good to go. We're just waiting on formal reports from the actual auditing company. >> And is that true for the SAU as well? >>
054SAU I believe a majority of their fieldwork was done. I don't know. I don't think they started 2425 yet on the SAU field work. I think that's their >> but they've done priorities. >> They've done the field work for priorities. Um this springtime I'm going to have Amber do another review for the end of the year to re um look at where everyone's at and update all the boards with the audit processes. >> I do think when the 2425 audit comes in, I would like to review it. >> Absolutely. We just make a um let's see here. >> You're out to yourself. >> I am. I mean, a lot of it's, you know, it's been budget, but a lot of time and effort has also been put into this open enrollment conversations that is a
055a big topic of interest and concern for community members. Um, so even for like Pembroke had a a public forum last night on their budget, but not a single question was asked about the actual budget. It was asked about open enrollment. Most of the time was spent on open enrollment. Um, so a lot of our communities are asking a lot of questions. I know Epsom has asked a lot about open enrollment in Allentown. So that's a lot of my time and effort has been spent on educating our communities about open enrollment and talking with our representatives, commissioner of education, those kinds of things at the state. Um we there's been a lot of work with our leadership team across the SAU to really improve our data review process, our s our support systems for students,
056our general education practices for all students as well. Um so they have been doing a lot of work every month on reestablishing some best practice in that data review and consistent improvement for um education practices for our kids. and we will continue that work for the next five years is the plan. So cool. Anyone have questions about the report? >> All right. All right. We're on to policies. I don't know if the policy screens have been able to meet. >> I had an update from Amber. >> Excuse me. You guys wanted an update from Amber for the amount she would recommend for that came through. Yeah. >> U 5,000 was her recommendation on that. >> That was the one. >> No, the DS. >> We were just waiting for a long >> Well, I was
057just looking it over and I'm sorry I didn't look at this sooner because I thought it was going to be the same. I saw it was there and I thought it was okay, but the KCD that is in the drive is not the KCD that I modified. I think it's just the original, >> right? So, because what we did is we modified the KCB so we match the crowd. >> I think it was in the last meeting that I handed it out. >> Oh, I didn't realize I shared it with you, but you probably didn't see. I didn't make that connection that Okay. >> So, I guess we could just put it off till the next time. But who should should I send this directly to somebody? Because what I did is I did it
058on my drive. >> Yep. >> And then Yeah. No, I just didn't realize that you had made >> I didn't make the connection that I needed to add your modified >> the modified one to the drive. >> What you guys have is the old one and then the crowdfunding one and then we modified one so it would meet the crowdfunding. >> Okay. So I will I can just replace that in the policy drive. You you shared that with me. Yeah. Yeah. Then I'll just >> it's called KCD get some donation then it says modified modified. >> Okay. I'll make sure to replace that. Okay. And then the DI just add that amount. >> So, do we want to approve DFGA and DID with the $5,000 recommendation? >> Um, DFGA. I don't know. I can if
059you wanted to see the change in KCD to see if you were okay with it. So, I'm not sure. >> Okay. >> That's fine. I can stay table all these. >> So you have the original KCD that's in the drive and then you'll get the modified one. So you can see it's basically just changing it. So there's a a line for the principal, then a line for the superintendent and then a line for the board and it's based on the crowdfunding recommendation. So it probably should wait till the next meeting to approve that. >> Okay. >> So we're just moving those to second meeting then. And then um >> did you want to move did forward or No, >> there are two in here. >> I was looking at them. None of them are modified.
060>> Probably the school board association recommended one. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um >> yeah, I mean we're okay. So Oh, yeah. Do just insert the amount. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um, I'll make a motion to approve uh policy DID with the um insertion of $5,000. Any second? Okay. All in favor of approving policy DI. >> Any opposed? Well, anything else from policy? Do I know we haven't met though, so I know we couldn't do any better like the ones with first reading. So like I'm looking at transfer of appropriations. >> Yeah, there's really to me not much to it. It's pretty straightforward. But do we have to go through the having a first reading, a second reading, a third reading or I mean do we have to have met to >> you don't have to push
061it out to three readings. I think best practice is usually to two >> way gives people time to review and >> look at it. Um >> yeah, I mean when I read that one I was like to me it was pretty straightforward in saying that you know superintendent can you know moves money if it um and then we have to hire that to me it seemed pretty straightforward except does the principal have able to do it has to go through you >> it has to go through me or the board. >> We don't usually do line transfers either. We usually >> keep money to the line that it was assigned and that it is appropriately fit that appropriately fits in so it accounts for actual expenditures and you can see if things went over or
062under. It's really best practice not to do account transfers and and I understand that would come up with people when they say, "Well, you have a surplus. You could have used your surplus to do something." >> You can use overexpend the line that it's supposed to come from. Like if we have surplus in teacher salaries, but then we the board decides to use that for a maintenance project. Like that's fine. You can do that, but you would overexpend the maintenance line and leave the teacher line over. You wouldn't necessarily transfer those funds. The bottom line would come out. You want to see where you spent that. >> Correct. Right. Yeah. >> All right. So I guess we can move DBJ to the second reading and then hopefully we can vote on this week. >> Well,
063I think KCD and DBJ. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um All right. We are back to public comments. Okay. No public comments. I will make a motion to go into non-public pursuant to NHRSA 91-J3 section 2 subsection J. Second. >> Uh, roll call. >> Yes. >> All right. That's it, people. >> Thank you, everybody.