3-19-25 DCS School Board Meeting

001[Music] to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all hey before we start our public hearing um we do need to select a board chair for the evening so evening of the year um I'll take at right other nominations all right we'll take action on the first motion all those in favor um for KRA to be chair I suppose all right I will hand it over to you okay um I'm going to open the public hearing for withdrawing funds from the school building repair Expendable trust fund you want to no we um posted the amounts for each project in um the paper um m is here um if anyone has questions or you want him to speak to

002any of these items um during your public hearing he's happy to do that so can you explain what happened again um so that's for that yet so this is last February this is last year okay fine we will get update yes okay I'm still no no this is fine so this is from the repair for the boiler last year in addition to all these other things okay so this is money so no it's so it's been paid and we're getting we are required to have a hearing before the board takes action to remove the money from the trust fund to cover these items so the the public so if the public has anything they would like to share or questions concerns um we will open up the floor Ed cross um there con Road the

003appeal obviously um just to pardon me for my ignorance but I'm if you could explain what this fund is able to be used for just so I can make sure it appears that this all qualifies for that but it would be nice if you could just explain that so the school building repair exteral trust fund is for any repairs in the school I mean I think most repairs in the school um so obviously these are for um existing HVAC systems that are here um and roof exhaust fans so that's all repairing the building as it is and are these items already repaired and you're looking to fund them through this correct they've already been repaired paid for we're transferring the money from the trust fund back into the operating budget so then the repairs were

004approved to be done you already paid it through the operating account so you're utilizing this fund to reimburse the operating account correct is the purpose for that yes and that is a legitimate that's why that's why the trust funds exist and why we you know put in money from time to time in case there are things some of these things we did know we were going to do so like the um the exhaust stand replacement that was a plan project that we wanted to do the boiler from last year obviously not a planed project so the trust fund can be used for any repairs whether it's unplanned or planned thank you for explaining that I appreciate itad Tri Street uh can you identify the balance before the withdrawal and the balance after the withdrawal [Music]

005anyone oh I did J yes please uh 386,000 88 and that's before so you'll be just around the 300,000 Mark just under that was or was not replenished at the it was replenished there was 250,000 yeah um right so that's that's for big projects and small correct yes and we yeah we have some big projects in in the plan but you know we don't have enough currently in the fund to fund any of those big Pro keep adding to years of savings can't wait and I was delighted to see that you have restarted uh using the town website for your announcements public comments sh public comments oh for this notice for this notice yeah yeah you're I'll come back and say it again public com I would also encourage you to use your local newspaper

006for like this said [Music] about it wasn't yes if there's a if there is an a fund balance at the end of the right so that 250 is only correct and so the what part of it was planned in the budget before um so wasn't in the budget oh okay yeah so we sometimes plan projects knowing that we're going to utilize the trust fund okay yeah so we don't put it in the budget because we're going to cover the that Mak sense um I think the I don't I think the only thing was smoke detector maybe service and Ro exhaust replacement any other public comments on the public hearing okay see not do I need a motion okay I'll make a motion to you Clos the public hearing at 607 can I ask one more

007oh um is there um and I don't know what the um was it the I know on our goals there was the unit ventilators is that integrated with this at all no no that was a separate Capital project that we had planned for okay so those systems aren't integrated at all no to make sure nope all right um motion to close at 608 okay uh any discussion on closing the public hearing okay all in favor of closing the public hearing hi okay um before we get I know we're all very excited about science presentation but can we action on so we close that up CL I will a motion to withdraw $887 from the school building repair Expendable trust fund for the items listed in the public hearing notice second it uh any discussion okay

008all in favor of withdrawing the funds I I any opposed okay um I am going to move one agenda item because um we have our facilities director here I don't want him to have a stay all night so I'm gonna move the boiler update um to right now so we can get an update on the boiler situation before the science presentation if you wouldn't mind joining us Chris evening evening anybody welcome thank you um would you guys like a quick recap of the boiler yes I will say I think that most of the probably has no idea besides the email blast from about what happened okay so literally pick up on a Friday before vacation last year last year last year 2024 the boiler had an issue that ITW out too much of the heating

009fuel and it didn't ignite so it keeps doing that keeps doing that and keeps doing that until it either says I've done it too many times and someone needs to reset me or it gets lucky enough and it ignites well when it ignite all of that fuel just shot off and it created a really a lot of smoke coming out of the stack so we get everybody out of the building you know um fire alarms were pulled and I had gr State Plumping and heating come in to assess what was going on with the boiler and at that time they had determined that it was a a lever wasn't riding up it was dry so it was catching and that what was causing the excessive oil to be put into the burn chamber we also

010had to have the stack cleaned at that time just as a precaution for S buildup so upon cleaning it um the company that we had inspected found a deterioration in the line and at that time it was deemed possible that carbon monoxide y carbon monoxide could leak into the building we have detectors in that Boiler Room so we would have not we would have been notified prior if before I got worest so at that time we thought we had everything all set with the boiler we replaced the entire stack over this summer been operating fine all went along except for one week after we get back from vacation on drop off that it decides to throw out too much heating oil and it ignites and once again we get the huge plume of smoke causing

011us to have to to pull the fire alarm fire department is called in again and scroll is cancelled the alarm actually went off by itself so the fire alarm system did what it was supposed to um imediately called Grand State Plumbing and heating they came in they asked me why the barometric damper isn't connected the way I found it when I got here I assumed someone knew that it was the right thing to do well apparently not that could because what's happening is that just on the right day in February we get some type of a draft that'll actually suck the flame out and allowed for that heating oil to keep in to keep being put into the burn chamber and then it finally ignites so we have a we have um signed a quote

012from Grand State Plumbing to come in and install barometric vampers so um that's been ordered and we're just waiting for that to be installed and that that should take care of our problem we should never see this issue again we had to also shut down the heat which on a freezing cold you know March day and so that's one of the reasons why the fire department instructed us that we have to send kids home because we would have no heat for the remainder of the day and they couldn't fire the boiler back up until everybody was out of the building so um all students and staff were gone students were gone gone by 11:00 staff was gone by 11:30 did the fire alarm go off because of no because of the no the smoke the

013fire alarm went off because of the smoke yeah we did have last year we put in extra carbon monoxide detector all around Y and in the rooms as well and none of those were activated he clearly said smoke detection activated so there was something that wasn't install it was never installed it was installed at one point prior me arriving here okay but why they uninstalled it or decided to cap it I do not know but we're getting it I guess I'm not a boiler specialist I guess every heating oil burner should have a barometric damper on it which I know now so we're making it right this time and the boiler is inspected every year yes it is yep when does that happen December okay so it was just inspected in and so when the

014first time that Grant state was out they didn't notice that the damper wasn't connected they did they asked me and I went like this not knowing I just assumed someone did it correctly before I got here and so we just left it as is and now that's one of the one of the culprits and and also now that I'm remembering when the heating oil was was sprayed into the burn chamber they have different nozzles and the nozzles were too high for what the manfacturer recommended so we actually dropped the net nozzles down from 5.5 to 3.5 so that should help make it more efficient and take care of that excessive oil being burned so between that and the barometric damper we should be good so are they the ones continuing to service yes they are

015okay so once it's fixed we kind of you know make sure that they that everything's up to Snuff before you know they walk away because it's something that I mean really last year they should have told you you're not the expert they are yep they should have said oh no this has to be done yep you know other questions they probably AR the ones that installed it when the school was built no because I I believe we have brand new Boyers don't remember the age of them and then the entire piping was changed out at that time to at least the horizontal was changed out um so why they decided to not install them when they should have I think Granite State was you you brought Granite State on board yeah so they weren't here

016when previously yeah other questions okay thank you appreciate it um for those who don't know who plasic is going on downstairs so if you hear booming and noises lots of fun basketball things happening okay we'll move on to the science presentation you would like to join us up here you yeah sure of course um yeah of course please do um all right uh the school board has requested um a presentation of science at Dearfield Community School um the science committee C committee got has got together over the course of the last couple of months I guess um the last two or so months we started to work on a presentation Nicole serto is our seventh grade science teacher this is her third year here um she just got recertified she's experienced educator now and J

017Kahan will be an experienced educator this year as well get recertified getting recertified they're both Jay Kahan has been with us for four years same same y we do that the same we have to do that I had the option of thinking seventh or eighth grade I think I looked up so Jake hulahan is our eighth grade science teacher so um I welcome them they did the committee has put together a great presentation and Nicole and Jake we really appreciate you both being here to do the presentation I am here if you need me I will aside and turn the show over to you I think you covered introduction for us so right into it maybe it's not all right so our agenda for tonight is to talk about the New Hampshire SAS data that

018we've been looking at over the past couple of months overview of SAS prep and strategies so both fifth and eth grade take the science s test so we're going to look at how they prepare for that uh new Data Tracking System that we're testing out this year hoping to get schoolwide next year uh what digital resources we use what science looks like at DCS action steps for professional development going forward and updating competencies for next year when our curriculum will be reviewed all right um so believe Amy Parkinson at the seu has put together SAS data for all the schools in seu 53 um we can take a look already open at here specific SAS data so I think this website is posted and available to anybody in town um we're skip through some science

019is only down here because it's only done in fifth and 8th grade and these are the SAS scores over the last well 2017 to 2024 we sassed upcoming may this year um and obviously 2020 we all know what's happening in the world um which so obviously science s isn't the greatest we'll talk more about some of that in a second um the scores wise and the fact that it's only done every three years but this is available for viewing um so we FOC on like the fifth and eth grade performance metrics um just to show all of you I don't know if want to cooperate for us um just so you have an idea of what our students are looking at when they log on to take the SAS um the New Hampshire SAS has

020done it fit for science specifically has done at fifth 8th and 11th grade sure go ahead um so yeah like sign in Select Grade eth grade yeah just say [Music] um they do take math reading and writing every other year first questions show and scoll Y um you actually at home can go on and look at any of this stuff and just yeah select and play this the sound should be off I think there's a box to check you scroll a little bit I can play video and sound this is what our students go through every time they have to log into sass can on the side of the board you can test all right so now take a picture of this on a small Chromebook screen if it wants to cooperate which it was

021has not sort of been W to do maybe not yeah I don't know it's been miss guess we should have taken screenshots uh yeah so what they get is on the left side of their screen they get a column which is content information graphs information pregiven to them by the SAS test on the right hand side is a is where they get their questions um and it's not just like one question written out um it is a usually a scroll bar of questions based on the contents given to them they can be asked to manipulate variables and select data and run trials and then based on their trials and data answering the questions that follow um it's awful lot to look at um for kids who only see this a couple times a year Ela

022and math look similar but not the same the science one is kind of information overload so like this is oh yes so as you scroll down the side this is the information that's given to them right and tells them what their task is to do right here you can drop down menus and change all these variables and run trials but you're limited to four trials you can delete old trials after you've done them if you just decid this didn't work the way I wanted it to um more trials um and then we get some multiple choice questions but a lot of this is based on information you see based on how your trials are run um and I mean this this one goes down to Part D some of these go to Part B and

023F not every question looks like this some of them is like Aur information some pictures and then a question you move on but frequently especially in the e8th grade science SAS this is what they're looking at on their com screen right back to sorry okay continue so um we as teachers try to prep our students specifically for the staff test we know it's not something they're used to they don't see it every day um so I've talked to some of the fifth grade sence well they all teach science in fifth grade um some of the things that they do in preparation for SAS um they do the Starbase program which they started last year which is a like a field trip where they go over the course of three or four days they spend number

024of hours there doing it's really the Department of Defense which is really cool um and they do a lot of really cool stem challenges and science content where they're getting lots of good hands-on experience from like professional scientist other than just Mrs Hannah or myself um St activities so science technology engineering math right lab experiments Hands-On stuff in class we work on their science vocab they get their formative assessments things like homework classwork um they have Interactive Science notebooks we try to connect things between multiple subjects elay math science um and just familiarize students with the SAS test because like I showed you I show all the students what SAS looks like um we run through some practice problems together as a class so that it's not brand brand new when they get to taking

025the St test um then we eth grade we do more in-depth Labs as you would expect as you move on very little through science you get deeper into the content which means cooler labs they might opinion um we work on scientific method applications so taking information trying to figure out how we're going to answer questions what questions we should be asking based on the information given to them U we integrate some more Technologies some digital resources which we're still doing in fifth grade um and we've talked about a grade level refresh where there are sixth grade science teacher will come into them in eth grade before the stas test and we'll kind of run through the basics of some of the topics they talked about in sixth grade because they don't take the science test

026every year it's broken up between sixth seventh eth grade so two years ago it's a long time to remember all those nitty grey specifics we having like Mrs Hannah come in and start talking about some of the subjects she covered same thing real world problem solving and reviewing St format with that so this year we started a this is open you um a data tracking sheet that we modeled off of the ELA department so science unfortunately doesn't have Specialists that can make this for us but we decided that this would be a valuable way to see the data outside of the SAS test since it only takes place for Fifth and eth grade so we've been playing around with this a little bit this year to see what this looks like so you can see

027sixth grade at the top here seventh grade down at the bottom and then if we scroll we'll have eth grade at the very bottom and it's just showing us the different summatives we've had um I think it's most of the year at this time um and seeing where students fall in the confidence So based on what scores they're getting as a class as a whole is going to be those different percentages we've set it up where if I believe it was over 75% of the class gets a three that's going to be a bright green color showing a successful summative or if there's a higher than 20% of ones then we'll know that's an area we need to focus on more or even reassess them on so we're playing around with this our goal is

028to have this be something we use across the school next year right now we're just looking at it for the middle school to see how it works since we're the ones giving more summited and one of the like positive of this is that as we roll This from year to year um when students come from seventh grade to me I'll be able to look back at like okay these topics they did well on or weren't their strongest it's like okay we revisit these or how do we reinforce what they were learning in seventh grade um and also like it helps inform our practice for the following year even if we want to like continue to work on some of the stuff because we weren't happy with how their scores turned out it's like all right

029let's spend some more time doing this compies compy based grading let's reassess them on this and see see if we've done any better so using this spreadsheet uh gives us more data beyond the stas we have our day-to-day data that we're looking at constantly but this is a place to put all our summoned data so that we can look at it year to year we compare it um we're also looking at at comparing the three dimensions of ngss to look at different data points including disciplinary core ideas which are the actual content areas what our current competencies are based on science inquiry practices so that's the actual Hands-On exploration Labs activities that happen in our con every day and cross cutting Concepts which are those real world connections um and these are just the the

030standards that we are using by grade level so like kindergarten first grade second grade um and there's a lot of overlap between the grades right they build on the content year after year Earth Science space science life science this is all right from nss's website next one this is what middle school looks like so Middle School is different in the fact that it's not broken up by specific grade level um it is just middle school so it is supposed to be taught over between sixth seventh and eth grade which makes the S tricky as well because like I said they can get the state doesn't know that they're going to get get cells in eth grade so they should ask them questions on cells they'll ask them questions on plate tonics from seventh grade or

031the weather from sixth grade which is part of the reason we've been talking about how do we keep this information flowing between the grades um there's also this engineering design which is part of the middle schol competencies which is really like building handson right real world connection stuff and how do we use those in our day-to-day so some of the digital resources that we have access to and that the students have access to or Discovery Education they have t tons of different activities and programming that we can use fet simulations which yeah um I use fet simulations quite a bit they're from like University of Colorado um I use them specifically with chemistry but there's a ton of other science content that's on there um like balancing chemical equations and stuff because it it gives

032them a simulation where they physically can see what the molecules look like as they're balancing them so they can count at specific elements to make it all work I mean they do physics math right it's everywhere um they're really handy they're really simple they're easy to look at um but they've helped a lot with students understanding concepts sorry yeah it works it works really well especially with chemistry which is such an abstract concept where students are constantly trying to like visualize something it gives them a nice easy visualization we also do one we're talking about um our different states of matter and you can increase temperature and pressure and watch what happens to different elements as they turn from solid gas what's happening with the molecules then we have access also to magic school so

033this can be used um it's an AI program so it can be used for a variety of ways there's a new science lab feature that we' be playing around with so that gives us a lot of flexibility uh infino which neither of us have actually used before but that's another free resource we actually just learned about this year so we're always able to try out new things and Implement new programs uses in the scope specifically to look at space and then PBS learning is also really effective free website right so what's going on with science DCS these are just some actual pictures from our classrooms on a day-to-day with Hands-On activities what students are learning doing um so in kindergarten they do observations with pumpkins around Halloween time like pumpkins will they sink or they

034float when they put them in water they do their math practice estimation of how many seeds and stuffer in them they also bring in like wild animal encounters um so students get a fun time experiencing that first grade uh for caterpillars they grow caterpillars into butterflies and they release them they also spent a lot of time outside making observations in our absor classrooms which is really awesome and that translates across all of the grades which is really cool beaver dam beaver dam yeah so they were telling us that they practiced making beaver dams which is really cool and I didn't know that they did this until recently so they actually pull the materials together outside to make that's a be mask not part of the science but definitely Arts um so in second grade um

035they also do some work with pumpkins in estimation um they do stuff with plate tectonics which is like Grand crackers and marshmallows which cl to me I think they're making butter um in that photo and they also go to the SE Co Science Center and do some cool Hands-On experiments and get to hang out on the beach like rock stations formations really cool oh so for third grade as everybody's probably aware they do a massive plant sale every year so they actually grow and raise these plants in their classrooms under a grow light which is really cool I imagine they probably starting them pretty soon to prepare for the spring um yeah so that's an awesome way to implement science in the classroom uh fourth grade so they do um snow observations or snow science

036they're making observations and doing measurements um estimation a good way to get them outside involved yeah um fifth grade they do lunar Landers so I believe this is a stem challenge where they actually get to build those lunar Landers and then test them drop them and see if they can land safely uh this spring we got to post an eclipse watching party but yeah last spring it's not spring yet tomorrow last spring we get to watch the solar eclipse that passed over New Hampshire that was really cool so we got like 300 pairs of eclipse glasses donated from un and the whole Middle School got to watch together so that was awesome that yeah a nice job that in sixth grade um an example of one of their like handson so they do the save

037the Penguins so it's all about like temperature modulation and heat regulation for penguins and like the climate which is really fun and they like have like a heat lamp on a box and they kind of take temperature readings to see how well they can affect temperatures in environments seventh grade this year we spent a lot of time outside in the fall uh especially being having this lovely pond on our property so we got thr the pond of it we sampled macro invertebrates which was really cool so that's like tiny bugs that they dig up out of the Muff in the water um in this picture here they're looking at lyans on trees that was a new lab I tested out this year that was really cool because they're all around us and nobody knows what

038they are so that was really fun um and then in these pictures on the top here we made need some interactive food web so each student was acting as a specific organism and seeing how many connections they could make with the fall of Yar across their group we do a pumpkin stand stem challenge every year where they try to build the tallest strongest stand that can actually hold the pumpkin for the least amount of cost and then this year we also got to do uh debates in actually a Wind Block that was mixed with the ELA teacher as well um getting to debate really common science topics that are commonly debated in society today so that was really cool letting them have a stance on that then grade we also spent a lot of time

039outside in the fall we're trying to plan something for the spring we took water samples and looked like the pH of the water the temperature we looked at like ammonia nitrate levels um did the same thing with soil um we've been recently doing cells our microscopes and I have some images of things we've taken of the microscopes where I play a guessing game with students anyone wants her to guess if they're looking at up here feel free uh so we got broccoli we've got a cray and a piece of popcorn um and then at the beginning of the year we did a unit on climate change and they did whole grade presentations where they had a comp product that is supposed to mitigate in some way climate change or help our environment and then you

040we're getting we're getting there frog dissections is a classic middle school science experiment it is so much fun the kids love it sorry you're squeamish um like so this was a female frog you can actually see all of her eggs which we had pretty common we found like a V or a mouse skull in one of the stomachs of the Frog along with some crickets it's a blast I enjoy it I had kids crying and laughing at the same time what's happening um chemistry Labs if we just kind of finished up the kids get to do a variety of different chemical reactions or determine whether or not a chemical reaction has happened based on the results um and they get to build models of molecules based on Gummy Bears and topigs which they love to

041get to eat at the end um so looking to the Future where we're planning to go on a science committee uh we're looking at doing some summer PD work to prepare for our renewal of our ccul next year um we're planning to make some changes to our curriculum and our competencies that we actually assess the kids on so we want to look at that more in deep uh in depth to make sure we're ready for next year um um we looking to also Implement that new tracking system into the lower grade so still testing out how that's working for sixth seventh and eighth grade and making sure we want to use that in the lower grades as well and we're trying to work on aligning our rubrics to make sure we're all looking at the

042same data across grades and assessing them consistently and then we're going to prepare a timeline at some point for what those updates will and so we're looking at updating those competencies which is what parents see in aluts what we assess them on so we're keeping like our right now they get assess on Life Sciences physical science Earth and space science design and Engineering I think that covers all of them um and but that's not all of science so much of Science and like what they're seeing on the STS is how do you take information apply it manipulate it and get results answer questions so we really want to kind of evaluate them throughout the year on this and this is one of those things we're going to try to build into that tracker so as

043kids come up from sixth seventh grade it's like all right they do really well asking questions and defining problems but they're not so great at planning and carrying out investigations so we're going to focus on this this year um we won't be this many things we're going to kind of meld some of these into a much a simpler form um so it'll probably look at like four or so out of all of them like analyzing interpreting data and using mathematics and computational thinking like one together um but that's part of our plan for the sum PD work is to kind of figure out what's the most important how do we word this appropriately and get it approved in our curriculum and for use next year with our classrooms so thank you for listening to us

044r on about our favorite talk thank you thank you lots of um great things I love to see people outside and all the great work does anyone have questions or I few um the grade level refresh when did you start doing that that's a wonderful idea it's not something that we've implemented yet we we''ve been talking about SAS data and looking at all of this stuff and talking like B Nicole and Kira who's the sixth grade science teacher they don't ever see the science SAS test because they don't administer it so I showed the science bream committee I pulled it up on the board where I just showed all of you and they went wow this is a lot I like these kids haven't seen it so we started talking about how do we get

045these kids to continue and that was kind of one of the ideas we came up with which I think is a great idea love having Hannah come back in and teach him for a day I was also I don't remember when is the SAS state test is it in spring or may okay that's good so we should have the whole eth grade to do that yeah um and I was wondering I I love that you put all the competencies in to look at the units and see how they do the competencies and and maybe that's probably fairly new right yeah because I was just thinking you might want to also think about um some you're doing great they're fantastic and some they're not doing so well so maybe the idea too is also to look

046at um the way it's being taught like other methods of bringing that confidency in like I just remember um when I was trying to teach kids density oh my God I did everything but you can't imagine I so hands on doing this they didn't get it they didn't get it and then I found this lesson plan from science Teachers Association it was the little guys GI guys and you make a little life vest and you do it we still have the hand totally got the concept so sometimes it's just the unit that you're using that they don't get the concept so it's just yeah I changed up how I taught chemistry this year um because last year I did a lot of stuff we the balancing Chemical Equations which is like every eth grader least

047favorite unit that we get to um we started the unit this year with these little Snap-on blocks that click together they were actually in the secondy grade photos um but it allowed them to see how many molecules and physically build them and manipulate them um yeah and it it really helped a lot of them have these little Snap Cubes where they can just even be like all right I've got three of this color and four of this color and this represents hydrogen this is oxygen and to kind of figure it all out and be like all I need the same number to start and I do at the end we get better this year definitely than last year which I don't have last year's data in the tracker but two other comments great are you

048do any mentoring with K through five a lot of times teachers come in and science they like totally we've we've talked about it a little bit um and it's one of those things that like we talk about we talk about and then we to end of the year and then we roll in the next year oh we should have done this um because like I have as eth grade I have the only official like science lab in the building with sinks and the tables Kira or things in the space and I've tried to figure out a way of offering up that space to have grades come in like during my free blocks and do science and stuff because we've talked about like wanting to get them more Hands-On with some of their science and out

049of their classrooms yeah and I mean they can do handson in their classroom they don't have to have s and all that stuff they can do it it's just a matter of understanding it and I know like I mean I used to teach of course at un which which was for elementary science teachers and they came to me not know any science and they would do lesson plans that had huge misconceptions in them even though they're supposed to do the research so I'm just saying sometimes that mentoring is something that will really help um and then my last comment is hey I think third grade gr pumpkins sounds like pumpkins a lot in seventh grade you pumpkins last year because you had all the pumpkins that were carved outside and they were they kind of

050ratted sat there and then we start to get pumpkin sprouts it's just you used three different gr nice job together Point like if you saw two years in a row of the same topic that's no B yeah I'm curious and you probably don't have the answer but I'm curious if the Elementary grades especially K through four feel they have enough time to incorporate science because I mean when I when I taught here um and I was one of the teachers that came in thinking how do I teach science I don't have a clue and then ended up loving teaching science when I first started we basically had time almost every day that I could incorporate science I also Incorporated it into my literacy I Incorporated it into everything as time went on I felt that

051time was being taken away from me not for not important things but for other subject areas so like win and other things I'm right that's my personality I'm sorry um I wonder now granted what they learn in kindergarten is GNA probably long forgotten before they have to take the test in eth grade months four but the investigation part is the huge part you can work on with the younger kids so I guess as you're going through your redoing of curriculum trying to help find time that they can actually be teaching science we went to science camp we went to Summer science camp for what five Summers yeah we had had a teacher from every grade level go and yeah and other school years in a row yeah and other schools were like you can teach

052science every day and because at the time we could they were lucky if they got it once a week and I I feel that there are ways to incorporate it and I hope that you can do that for the elementary schools because I I think in the long run it can help you because if they get the investigation skills down when they're young that would be a good thing I agree is there anything that you guys need support from the board for when you're looking at when you're thinking about improving your curriculum or changing things um if there are you don't need to answer right but you can always feel free to reach out for the liy or if the board can help in some way we'd love to we' love to hear awesome thank

053you so much all right we will move on to minutes um there is an error on the agenda we don't approve the February 8th deliberative minutes so we're striking up from the agenda so it's just the February 19th minutes that we have the minut excellent any discussion I see I may not finished under 11 informational items mdon would like to have a discuss make that change anything else all right all in favor of approving the February 19th minutes with that uho um okay finally com oh cross th Road um uh just comments based on the issue that you were having with the boiler and how that would concern me as a as a taxpayer okay uh a a barometric damper is nothing more than a vent with a pin through it it's got a flap

054on it that flap is controlled by a weight and this is the Layman's version of of this okay and what that does is that controls the draft being pulled from your boil if you have a wind whip across the top of your roof creates a vacuum in your stack and if you don't have a damper that opens up with that draft and it pulls air in from the room then all the air is being pulled in through your boiler and that's causing your problem with snuffing out your fire that element is basic it's required and I can't believe it wasn't hooked up okay so as a business owner renting retail space I have the responsibility of maintaining my hbac system okay and as the maintenance on that I have to hire a company because that's

055not my expertise and I hire a company and I contract with them and I pay them to do their inspections and the maintenance if that company doesn't maintain that unit the way that it needs to be maintain and that unit blows up now I have to spend 30 or $40,000 because my responsibility is to maintain that unit and so if my contractor isn't doing his job I fire him and I find a new one who does because that element is so basic it's code it's so basic for them to look past it or even worse they recognized that it wasn't connected and they still didn't do anything about it they would be gone and I would be finding somebody who's much more capable that's my compy thank you so much here here that's I can't

056believe the the damper thing it's crazy uh so um but I was asked to come back and and thank you again for for including the town in your your your notices be great if you could do it all the time it would be great and I I don't know how hard it but it's not super hard but I try my best well um and I also wanted to remind you that four times a year you can get a message out to the 70% of town that isn't here every day um more 7 um well 7% of household don't have a dog in the H okay 30% do um but 100% have a dog in the tax on and so having them on board is a think you have an opportunity to talk to people through

057the Gazette uh and it'd be great if you could thank you more North Road so uh first off i' like to welcome our new board member um and uh I really hope that now that the dust is settled after elections um the school board really looks at the results of the warrant article votes and um especially looks at the margin of how things passed and how things failed because every single vote is a very direct message from the town right and if something just gets blown out of the water um that's that's a pretty strong message right so uh please consider that moving forward looking forward to uh the increased transparency and communication that's going to be coming in the next year and uh really hoping the board puts some emphasis on what to do

058with the modular for the best solution for those um really taking a look at overall safety in the school and uh maybe some cost cutting measures KY davit um I need to first of all welcome the uh gentleman who fixed my barn stone walls fall on the neighborhood kids I don't if you remember yeah was a tough one I appreciated it and you dealt with my daughter with Sam so that was a good thing uh second I would like to and welcome to the school board I'd like to apologize to Nate Oxnard and to you as members I thought I'd have one more chance to say goodbye to him and I didn't so if you could just bear with me as I to you a letter that I have sent to him that I wanted

059to read in the presence of the board when he was here I'd like to take a moment to thank Nate Oxnard for the time spent on the Deerfield Community School Board it was a privilege to be the recording secretary for approxim approximately six of the nine years that Nate served as recording secretary I could always count on him reviewing my minutes Trish and correcting them he always the proposed policies and the changes that he thought should be presented I'm sure you're not going to forget those times PTY as a taxpayer I appreciated Nate's perspective and there were many times I saw him wanting to return money to taxpayers while other members were looking at many needs of the school when it came to finding a high school Nate and others spent hours researching crunching numbers

060and talking with all surrounding high schools he and the others tried to enticed several schools to take our students with minimal tax into impact which I appreciated as a taxpayer Mr Oxnard wrote a warrant article asking for direction from the community all taxpayers regarding regarding school choice he wanted to do what the people of the town of Deerfield wanted his hard work his kind Manner and interest in his community in Deerfield community school has had a positive impact on educ education in Deerfield and my family personally appreciates his gift and time to our community thank you thank you other public comments okay all right we move on to agenda review um we will need a non-public session and we move the updates I think that's the only other change um review of Correspondence um there

061was a letter now that I'm thinking about that is not in this packet that we got just before our last meeting it was probably in that drive and didn't I'll I'll have it yeah so we'll move that over um it was from Kevin bille it's here yeah that's a new one there was another one oh wait no I'm thinking of the other okay um this one from Mr Vero about Nate Ard um and his time on the board and then sorry I didn't copy that no no okay yeah um we there was another um email that the majority of members got from Mr verville but it was received after the agenda and packet were already public last at the last meeting yes so one Dayo so it will have to go in the next packet

062because we publish the packets I think on Friday or Monday so if things are received after that they have to go and um and then there was another email that we received about supporting putting putting art and music in the mods from Linda I think that was it anything to just about those correspondents proce okay uh consent agenda up that so that's on the agenda right the modular uh consent agenda a yeah yeah sure and I I have actually a little addition because we got a little bit more information um so um the Roberts family uh Rose Roberts um have a rose Robert scholarship fund um and they would like to use the REM they've over the course of years pro uh offered a scholarship to a eighth grade graduating student um but at this

063point they've I think 10 years they've been doing it so all the remaining monies they would like to put into a scholarship fund to donate an AED which is a I don't really know what it stands for def defibrillator machine uh currently we have one and it's downstairs right as you walk in the front door it's right there against the wall like just to the right um we currently have one in the main lobby having a second one in the back of the school or even upstairs would make it accessible for outdoor sports should it ever be needed most schools of this size have more than one within the facilities the Roberts family has awarded a graduating DCS student annually over the past 10 years with a scholarship in memory of Rose who was a

064student in Deerfield and passed away unexpectedly the summer after her graduation of 2014 the cross country start line is marked by a granite post with her name a beautiful representation a reminder of a sport that she loved being recipients of a second AED for school would not only be a smart way to use the remaining money by helping others simply thoughtful way to honor her yet again please consider approving the donation of this life-saving device so we have double the chances of helping others who may fail victim fall victim to the cardiac arrest and an additional note um Z Plus AED package which includes the AED the carrying case the adult def def pads and uh kit batteries both will both be good for five years ready kit wall cabinet 3D signage sticker um it's

065about $1,615 so they we weren't sure exactly how much money they had um but we would either offset it or um figure out a donation from some somebody and they've also offered to pay the difference of whatever that might be um from rescue one will take a few weeks time to purchase free shipping and handling to schools and N nonprofits and just like our current AED machine it will be registered with the state when you come in the building there's a sign right on the front window that says AED on premises or so people know that there is an ad80 here and we are registered for the state so if anything ever happens in anywhere in this community you know the nearest ad is right here at Deerfield Community School um so that's um at

066the we're just looking to the towards to the board to accept this donation of an ad machine in honor of Rose Roberts who I never knew but I wish I did um I I would say too I bet anything if um they don't have enough money to make the pro now we could easily sure sure yeah very quick yeah so is there a motion that needs to be made accept any discussion um I just have a logistical question are all staff trained on AED usage or is a particular sty uh we offer a first aid and CBR um every three years years two years yet so um I would say easily over a half our staff are certify I'm not mistaken there is reported voice that soon as you open it all up awesome all

067in favor of approving this donation all right we are on to immediate business High School transportation Miss H welcome back up you didn't realize you're still working here and I got your good side on camera Witnesses okay the last time we had this discussion we came up with a few potential ideas um and asked you to sort of investigate um two potential ideas which are one having one bus do two conquer High School runs and then having one to go to C Brown and then the other idea was one bus to conquered one bus to coob Brown and that coob brown bus would then do a partial DCS run as well correct what I know you provided times and pick up things what do you what do you think that's only another question um I

068think there's a lot to consider with everything um I think doing one-on-one busing one to conquer one to Brown again it comes down you guys having to choose who's going to get on that bus and whether you like the roots or not and there's averaging um looking at the kids that do ride every day and the Freshman stuff there's averaging five kids per at each stop which is why I lumped them together where they did based on their Logistics of where they live um option two doing two buses to conquer one to cbna you're going to increase your budget and you're still only limited yourself to 51 students to that to cound um and the other option to that is that we are picking up from D basically to the school on 107 there's roughly

06925 students on Griffin old Center in meeting house Hill that will not be a signed a bus that Kelly and I would have to then put on already overloaded buses and extend rout possiblys because we have to account we have to pick up their students right there's no there's no time for that bus coming back from Co Brown to do that entire route because that is it's already a long route doing it now without adding C to that because she starts I think her first pick up is over here at um the store and I think that's at like 6 45 647 if she did it reverse like she goes to rever because that would be right on the way back it would be but then we still have to pick up from Old Center

070down the store and there's no place to really turn around right there for the bus safely well even that we can't we can't pull in to 43 and make that turn the bus is not was traffic in the morning so is is there still a sth DCS bus in the budget it's just there's no driver for it so would there be would be guaranteed a driver if we would not be um Dale is is short 15 drivers across the board with all nine accounts that they cover so even if we Sol list and say hey we got conquered and one to go ground it's still so this is factored in the buses that we currently have so the one for DCS and C is utilizing a of DCs bus that we currently but because it

071would be a short route for DCS as she was just saying there's several roads that we wouldn't be able to cover on the current route so we'd have to put them on another route um we' have to look at the it becomes a numbers game it's also a time thing it's a time thing to of trying to get in the door by 750 is on a good day no accidents no weather no trees know no kids running to from the house to the bus you know that's in a perfect world everybody's outside they get on the bus they sit down and the bus gets moving right often do that happen maybe once a week we have so the idea of the cbna bus um to help with the special ed CS well I think it

072came up because there were a lot of parents who go have kids at cbna who wanted a bus um and then it then it sort of came to light as we were doing the budget that we would save money on special yeah I would say the incentive was we were trying to listen to people who who have been demanding a CBN yeah and I understand that but we you know part of it is that um it was decided with with Co Brown being added that there would be no bus right right so there has to be some acceptance of that so to me unless we're going to save money by busting those um you know by incorporating the special ed cost of that you know and be Prett substantial savings so we ended up taking

073I mean I don't know if this matters anymore because the operating budget was not approved but we took $100,000 out of the special ed transportation because this would save about $100,000 for special addressing to CB so we did that prior to assuming that the operating budget was going to be approved I mean that I mean we just did it while we were creating the budget because we thought you know I think a little bit we thought that the busing situation would be easier to solve than it is it is um you know because I think there was an assumption that about half of the kids are going to be at cown half the kids are going to be at conquer so why would we just have a bus to both um which we can but

074there's an issue that we have basically too many students to fit on two buses so do we just have one bus to conquer one bus to co ground and figure out which students get priority for busing or seems like that's the only option I mean I would be hesitant to like really move around the DCS bus route because that is our mandatory bus we have to bus K through so I would really hesitate to make those trips longer I mean the Buss in the morning are already very long so I wouldn't want to see those get extended and so I think in my opinion the only sort of fair way to do this is one bus conquered one cown and then we just sort of figure out the priority of order of who gets the

075US pass I agree I don't really see any other option you can't I mean adding a third bus isn't an option whether it's a driver or another 90 grand right you know yeah and I mean you're we struggled with this question because when we offered Co Brown as an option we did make it very obvious that there wasn't going to be bus however I think the idea of that was more acceptable to people than it was in practice so then when people had to start going we got many many emails I know there were there was a group of people trying to figure out their own transportation their own busing um so I me we are trying to accommodate the choice but there there will have to be some sacrifice in terms of who is

076who gets a bus ride well I I just think that the only the only way that we make that available is if that cost savings for the special ed you know make as long as that makes sense MoneyWise then and I do think it makes sense yeah because because all the kids that are going to cob around right now without a bus they're getting there right you know and that was kind of the big thing was like you know Community people like you know carpooling and that was what they signed up for yes so and I do think we have to make it clear that um for most kids going to C this will be the special ed Transportation so to the extent they're getting special or you know I don't I don't know what

077the current situation is how they're getting bus but this will be the up for most of them they're not going to have individualized pickup at their house so I'm a little confused now with it because I'm listening you know to what you said and you said that parents kind of knew that I mean even way back when when it was conquered there wasn't a bus so there was a bus that you paid for for you paid for it and there was only one bus and all that so I get that piece and again I think as a board we always wanted to try to provide transportation not even for the savings part but just because we want our high school kids to get to school you know they're the ones that they can't get there

078they don't go and they don't want that we want them at school my confusion though now is when I guess I kind of was mis misunderstood a little confused with what you said like do you want to see us do one bus to each and kind of decide who gets to do what or were you thinking it's not something we need to do yet does that make sense yeah I just don't know what the what the savings is with the special ed but it sounds like you know you did the math already it makes sense so I think to me that's the only option is one to cbna and one to conquer and we have to establish some kind of preference now the 100,000 yes is we took it out for the new budget Yeah

079but I didn't def so it's Nota it's still in default not not the amount that that you cut but it doesn't impact Opera the fact that you lost the operating Bud doesn't the special Transportation be so it is confusing because we cut things out of the operating budget and then it looks like the operating budget and the default are very close but as a default has extra things in it like special busing that we cut out of the operating budget corre I think if you're if you're going and Lisa might be able to help I'm not sure because she's not really in charge of the high school but um I if you decide to do the cobr on bus and you're using it to save money for the specialized transportation that we're currently providing it

080would seem that you legally have to provide the specialized Transportation so if you decided to do one-onone those students we guarantee the seat and then you'd have to figure out how to assign the seats to fill that bus right correct and not all students can necess it's an individual decision who requires specially designed Transportation a smaller bus or a different way to get to school um but the majority of our students should be you know able [Music] to regular bus is available and I just want to ask you a question about the members I think you did this last time but just um so the total number of yes for CHS is 59 these are the people that gave you a yes and then you broke down FR senors right correct unaccounted as 37 people

081that didn't get back to us corre and you kind of know for a fact that some of those you think we need Transportation absolutely um and even some of the incoming seniors um on the coner buses we still have a few kids that yeah they have that's young they right and that's one thing I worry about going to 101 is these kids that didn't have a choice correct you know and we're told they were going to have guaranteed transportation and this is their only way to get to conquer because of you know Financial hardships in the home for some families that and the bus can hold how many for 51 51 for high school students so I think the issue is like we talked about earlier you don't have a driver for the bus with

082the financials we could make it work and redirect don't and will there be an influx of people training over the summer who knows Mrs McConnell do you know what bus is going to cbna right now for specialized Transportation you know that more than one Transportation Company yeah not all of our current students are transport on one bus multiple smaller vehicles but did you mean that if we did have a bus going to ground and we put we were using it for a special ed kids first right they did you just imply that all of them would be able to ride on that regular bus no actually an individual student decision I would say the majority yes I'm not saying that it would completely eliminate perhaps a a attracted smaller vehicle but that that's also the

083case for conquer correct and I I think that's probably even the case for DCS there's always going to be specialized Transportation needs outside of the regular l so so the 100 is does the um does the cost for the kids going to cvna exceed 2000 no the um I guess I don't know for special ed right now is that you're asking yeah I don't think it currently does because we don't have that many kids at CBM this year because we're doubling population so right now we're only providing Transportation toing special education who are in the ninth grade the next year we'll be transporting our identified students in nth grade and 10th grade y so you know we anticipated we would obviously have to have more transportation and it's it's transportation is a guessing game the

084The Daily rates fluctuate from company to company from day to day yeah it's a very unpredictable and difficult to um budget estimate you know get close they're all kind of and sometimes it's you have to shop around um multiple providers until you find one that's available to do that particular because they're Regional I don't know I I I see what you're saying Amy about the kids that are Juniors and seniors that didn't have this choice but um I feel like we're kind of handcuffed here by the need to um provide transportation for these special um students yeah and I don't think there are enough like the special students would not filled the right but it's but it's you know the bonus for the C students you know that just kind of comes along with it

085like we're not we're not trying to do that like you know I think like I said before I think those those students made their choice and those families yeah so it's like it's they're getting the perk of something that you know is really a need right for the other so yeah and I think you know there's obviously arguments to be made about we don't have have to provide any High School transportation right but I think cost savings wise it's a good idea always because a special Transportation I think we I don't think we would ever go down to zero buses um but how we manage it is the question do we do we charge for a bus fee which then also makes me feel not great if there's people who you know this is their

086only way to get to school because of financial hardship do we even charge them for the bus does I was just gonna say it doesn't seem like there's an option unless you're willing to basically tell some conquer students that they don't get to ride the bus and like the issue is I think we just talked about those students went to conquer being told there was Transportation so always and I think even either way they didn't get to the Juniors and so whether we were providing that yes um not but I do think there's an argument to be made that the Juniors and seniors currently at conquer were told that they would have transportation they were yeah and the sophomores and the sophomores right so I mean you could leave things status quo and revisit this

087next year I mean make's a contract here for Dale anyways yeah I mean I'm I'm personally curious to see how many people actually commit to riding the bus and whether this will in fact be an issue um well people can commit but they may not ride it every day and that's that's G to be the key piece is figure out who is going to need this bus every day every day right that's the part we need because some will use it two days a week three days a week you know where they don't use it during Sports there was a kid that got on conquered one yesterday and it's the first time he's written all year right that's smart right and like we can't necessarily hold a spot for that kid they don't plan on

088actually riding the bus and like another situation is we had a kid who had a um he actually had a medical event at school and can no longer drive and he's back riding the bus so there's and he's a junior this year yeah so there's you know there's that aspect too because he just kind of showed up one day he FS between our two buses depending on which parents going to right so then do we fill it to Max Capacity or do we and that's and that's I mean like will these parents know that they have to call Kelly at Dale and see if there's room for their kid to get on for whatever reason and like this kid like we don't know how long he's going to be on the bus because he was

089just told by no this not drive right so do we know if the if the number of students that we think are gonna need um transportation of cbna next year do we know if that number is going to exceed 100,000 100 like that money you said special special Transportation um we we cut I think it ended up being like 80,000 out of the special ed budget but we need to pay that one way the other whether it goes to the in the bus regular bus line or the special education so you have I mean you have an extra bus in your budget I think usually can get a bus right so we just I mean use that money right we just use that money to to pay for special education Transportation just leave it as

090is for right now so we could yes and two buses to conquer next year and then zero buses to co yeah I do think people will take I do think it will take issue with that only because during budget discussions and budget building we did say this was our plan um so then you know we let people I think reconsider where they wanted to go to high school because then we were going to like one saying right because then we were going to offer a bus so one only one person changed their mind because of the bus so I think we' need to reach out to that person individually just you know explain all right that's good it's just one person make a decision here like very very soon it's not like they're getting there

091or it's right during the summer or something like we definitely do have buffer and I I haven't honestly heard from that many people in the community since the beginning of the year I I do think it was a shock for people who went to co Brown and then they were like oh my God this is actually taking more time in the morning than I anticipated um but we haven't really heard much since we started talking about this um from the community so I don't think we need to make a decision tonight I do think we should decide between the options that we're considering so from my perspective I think option two is sort of off the table which is using a cbna and DCS class I think if you're not I'm I'm worried about the

092parents think they you could I mean you could tell them that you're still trying to work this out it's a possibility but now that we've have the signups completed it looks like we won't have enough room it's like at all possible that you figure you could do DCS and cbna that would be to me the answer if you can do it otherwise I don't think it it's a timing thing because cbna doesn't openly conquer agreed to open early they agre to open 650 and you just stretch to help but they open their door 15 minutes Superion yeah so in order for the cbna and DCS L to work we would have to shorten the DCF current group and shuffle all those kids onto other bus right and it's a numbers game again you know that's

093it's always our I mean blue bus is is a big bus it used to be the cover South Road now we can't it past High meows from but Corner packed it's packed that it's packed yeah Green Bus is a long route that's another full bus and that's a busy bus you know so pink bus has got a really long route not a lot of K pink bus is not full but long but long right cble bus is full and long so I would I would love for us to be able to provide transportation for all our high school kids didn't say that we got kids sorry just rephrase it I think High School transportation is important if we can provide it effectively I'm concerned that yes we we thought we might be able to do

094it for next year to get a bus to co Brown and the savings would be fabulous I'm concerned we're not going to be able to do it well and that we would probably upset more families trying to do it half can't say what I want to say um you know yes you half way thank you um and so I guess I agree with Canon in that maybe we just for this year leave it as is and keep exploring to be able to provide transportation to co Brown to we still have more kids at conquered right then Co eventually that yeah for theer grades none of can drive correct but I I just think we got to come up with an answer I don't think we can keep waiting so I think we had we tried

095we looked at it it's probably not going to work this year to be able to provide it due to various reasons if we could get another bus driver you know and you know that could maybe be the answer for us but that's probably not going to happen if they're 15 bus drivers short across the bo we find Ellen that's what you want to do in your time we're GNA get you certified as a driver so I guess as much as we try to do it this once we introduce that cbna bus have to stick with absolutely so I think we kind of work towards either phasing out one conquered BS if that's what works with the bus so there's only one eventually once the families that are there are you know moved on and then

096and do one to each that's our goal you know if not you know get a third driver and have two to conquer and go around and that makes sense okay I'm I'm just prepared for the backlash I know it's better to get the backlash now than to keep stringing everybody talked about this for a while and it just doesn't seem like it can happen we've tried a lot of different ways of doing it Amy's been you know exploring a lot of different areas we're just not it's just not getting there and and I guess I look at it as we have a new set of eyes just coming in who hasn't been through all the discussions that we've been true maybe you've listened to them you know but and you're seeing that it's a dilemma

097that it's not something we can quickly solve so I appreciate the new set of eyes looking at it and saying probably not this year but let's keep working towards it I do I would personally like in the beginning of the year to get an update on ridership to conquer because if we're finding that only 45 kids are riding the bus between the two buses we can always make changes so just saying that we're not going to do it now doesn't mean we can't make changes if the m has Chang yeah I do think we should keep a short leash on it because in my view like if we could do both that would be ideal yeah yeah we should start talking about some kind of policy to in terms of that ridership right so that

098it's not fluctuating like crazy for so you know because those other families could be served right you know we might want to think about doing like a a c you know Pass bus pass that they get they sign up for it I think you still wanted to do that either way right it would be helpful just because like when we do have off drivers and like or sometimes if I have to drive here for special letter or whatever and Don's picking up all the kids he doesn't know all the kids like I've had the luxury of you know being here and knowing them and so like for him it's harder like if Tom is up there our you know trainer again he doesn't know all the kids so it's hard to know and like today

099like we actually had a conquer kid just get on cuz she thought she was just going to go home with her dear he friend like you know so it's hard yeah so I think we need to figure out how to address that problem having a bus pass or whatever um that money would help us pay yeah do we have it people pay for who's collecting the money I was going to say I I mean I'd be okay with like charging $10 a month for your bus pass but obviously you have scholarships well you could I think you could give them the you don't necessar charge pass pass you said work on a policy and if the board decides if you don't ride the bus this many days in a row you're going to lose your

100the other thing with numbers right away in the fall is we have soccer and a lot of times kids have two backpacks um soccer starts in August in high school um so a lot of people don't see kids until like November because maybe if the parents work in conquer they get dropped off and they're at soccer after school and the parents picking them up on their way home so we don't we can get numbers but just know they're not going to be completely accurate because we don't know how many kids Deerfield kids because um and conquered freshman have their own team so the Deerfield freshman that are going to play soccer get on the soccer team will be gone and then the upper classman as well so we can get rough numbers in the fall

101but probably not being accurate till like after they would be better to analyze during the winter break yeah usually um October November is a good time um because it's you're kind of like between soccer and like that basketball season with your track starting swimming starts gymnastics you guys want numbers you know now like I will R numbers for you guys and I can email the p and she can share them so that's what you guys want just let us know the morning numbers are probably more accurate the afternoon numers yes so the morning numbers well we can get afternoon because again we have those kids that are dropped off parents on their way to work and then they if they're not in a sport or drama club they take the bus home right so we

102can get numbers for both we can run up there's schol what do we need to do do we need looks like we need to make a policy yeah I yeah I you can work on the policy I think we just need to decide what your message is going to be to families to let them know that it's a logistic issue right now you're continuing to work on it but you just want to let I think you want let people know now um okay so the consensus of the board is to do two buses to conquer we might get a third driver right Miracle could happen we would still have to DCs first because we don't we're not fully sto for DCS cles that's disc for another day um okay another driver because we have seven

103yeah there's six seven budged six are running we could dos yeah find all right Miss's going to add it on you know a lot of people all right Miss's on it we have somebody for you Dale but it's got okay um so I guess we will this sort of parlays into our committees because we'll need the policy committee probably to start looking at um a busing policy so um the next item in me business is board reorganization so thanks Amy all right so there are a lot of um commit positions that we need it really is it's usually a little bit pulling teeth of people to volunteer so we can go to nominations we we can we do need to vote but you can you can kind I think what you're getting at you can

104kind of fill it in and vote you I don't think there will be a lot of fight Contest no don't um but you never know um okay so we will start with Vice chair anyone interested um I will say that but didn't have to do do not have to do that much but if somebody else wants to do it I'll open I will say this year will be different because I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy so someone will have to do multiple meetings probably without me so they'll have to shair them um so I may lean a little bit more heavily on the vice chair this year so who wants it I'll do great um NBC really fun would like probably the funest thing you can ever do I was thinking of it but

105I worked Tuesday nights so oh that's um does that person go to Every NBC meeting so this okay I'm proposing actually I've been thinking about this a lot because it is an incredible amount of work to go to every single NBC meeting and we also have full SA board meetings we have a bunch of budget meetings it is an extreme amount of meetings my proposal would be for the first person to be to only attend the school the school NBC meeting so the first half of the NBC meetings are focused on the town budget um and it's interesting and it's great and you get to vote on Town stuff but it is an insane amount of meetings because I think you meet every single week from October to January basically um so my proposal would

106be someone attends for the town portion and then someone presents the school budget and attends the school one and obviously people are welcome to attend the um it's just it's it is an extreme amount of meetings coupled with all the school board meetings and all of the SAU meetings it it ends up so why is the the first half what is that that's stff yeah so we get a seat yeah so we get a seat on the NBC we can vote on all the town staff just as the town representative gets to vote on all the school stuff so it's not super relevant to the school always um and it is interesting um and it's great to learn about the budgeting process and I think it's a like if you have never been to an

107NBC meeting I think it's a really great place if you wanted to learn about budgeting and building budgets yeah I mean I've done it for two years now I would be happy to not attend personally but I am comfortable doing the School portion if if I needed to i' be okay is that can we do that we do that you have a seat on the NVC so you would need to send your alternate yeah to the meetings that you wer going to go to so you b so pandra would be the main person on the seat I'd be the ultimate but i' question if that's what she that's what you choose to work out okay okay you I'm fine does anyone else want to do the school por it's really fun you do such a

108good job you do a lovely job you really do a good job I've gone and watched all the meetings when she's there doing the school stuff she does great job so you're willing to keep it Kendra and Ellen the somebody else wants be the someone wants want do it it's a lot of meetings it is it is a lot of meetings um it is really important and I think the one thing to keep in mind about the NBC is that it gets challenging because you're representing the board so you are of course an individual but you have to sort of vote and proposing from what the board would do um so it can get a little confusing um but anyone else want to Vol here okay then I guess we will keep it uh executive

109board another really fun assignment oh I don't mind staying with that one wow I don't I think though we need to make sure we have an alter an alterate that has voting rights in case I can't make the meeting so because that we sent Kender to a meeting last year that I couldn't go to which was fine but she couldn't vote she got there and I was like oops so she was there and listen partip so it' be nice if we had an that could then vote so the SAU executive board meets um roughly every month not always every month but generally on the third the Wednesday when doesn't have a board meeting yeah okay so we have meetings the first and third the second um Wednesday and it's in pemo at the SAU I

110do think it's a really good experience to learn more about the SAU to get involved in sa budgeting which is always a Hot Topic um because the sa the executive board creates and ultimately sends to the full board for approval the sa budget um the SAU full board is all of the board members from all five of the districts in the SAU so you will get to attend those even if you're not on the executive board um but does anyone want to be ny's alternate or you could fight Nancy to be the yeah I mean again I'm I don't want to take anything from anyone that they say oh I'd like to do that this year go right ahead but I am saying I'm I'm happy to continue with that if there's nobody else I'm

111not um I like being yeah you learn a lot about the other are we gonna have to start staying for the area you're not part of it so it's out the exact me and you guys can leave right I knew that but I didn't know because we have kids going not yeah I mean it's usually a pretty quick meeting I again I'm happy to keep and the things that are discussed are usually hiring s staff reviewing sa policies um anything that comes up that requires input re say you yeah it's not they're not usually J they're not you know and it's not often I can't go to one but it's just yeah any you want me an alternate no well I guess I'm gonna have to not I can be your alternate um I'll try

112not to use you'll beate I'll try not to that too I will drop off my baby with you okay I would be happy to make you said we have a deal then um negotiations so this is going to be for the teacher contract so the teacher contract is up this year so the negotiations team is going to have to start meeting when this summer no typically people don't want to meet summer it's great if people can but typically August August invol how time involved in it's negotiable the time is negotiable usually yes usually it's around 315 um it really depends on how things are going the first meeting you'll set a calendar and you'll set frequent meetings to hold the date but if things are going well and you finish up early then we can

113cancel meetings and sometimes if there's no proposal ready you have that meeting it really just depends on how things are going and how much how many items are on the table to discuss I'm sure I would love to not do this but I can if need that's a time and I can usually do it I'm usually free yeah it's usually like for the the Paras they're flexible when Missy and I met with the Paras it was generally in the afternoon like 3 or 4 yeah and it would be you know for a half hour and you did it with the Paris already so you have that experience right I did we have to go in order no think about yeah I would be interested but yeah was that's because we had the special election in

114September so the timing was a little bit off earlier than that um it would be later because we it basically needs to be firmed up before we start bu okay so yeah so it needs to be done by November not by Statute but that's the goal is always to get it done and that I will say I would love for the people involved in negotiations to also come to at least one ofc meeting where we're discussing the contract did you just volunte yeah because it's it's not set in stone what days that we would have a negotiation because I do work on certain and I think we can work around that yeah um I'll curriculum review board I'm happy to keep doing that I actually enjoy it actually other things are very in um okay

115any objections to anyone else really want to be on the curriculum revieww board we could probably could an Al people it's not like it's a voting thing it's just information okay we'll move on to manifest review so the Manifest um this is all of the expenses and payroll so two people from The Board review all of those items every week yeah um um so you review it you sign off on it I will say it's pretty important that whoever is doing manfacture review reviews it pretty promptly like same day like same day so you need to check your email every day because there's really not always a Rhyme or Reason when it Rees like it's not like every Tuesday you get it it's there's a flow um so we can't releas bill we can't pay

116bills until everyone that signs has signed off off so when the SE gets it out the like Treasurer has to release the F you know you can't send any check so it gets held up in any one of those spots think yes Trish just Trish will be after you for I wondered what had been happening now because we're Nate oh I'm on it temporarily oh it's you I don't think Iber but yeah it's coming to me this yeah yes yeah it is important it's it's really easy but right it's done on your computer you don't have to go to the right no yeah all a doc sign and then you can open the document and see what all the checks are and what's I will say the other very important part of the Manifest review

117is that you will from time to time learn very confidential information and student particular information so it is very important to remain very confidential just not all public just the register yes yeah yeah the email comes you open they'll say like Amazon $451 that's it's just the detail of every Bill we need to pay that week you can't say I don't want to pay this no no I'm just wondering because like somebody brought that up before too it's like what would you know what what would be a red flag I think a wacky like if you saw u in the Manifest something made up to Amazon for $500,000 that would be a like called the sa and why is there manifest request for or you saw a payroll that every week you release payroll and

118it's 500,000 and this week it's 750 you might want to say like why is payroll so much higher this week never seen anything no it's pretty it's pretty straight forward but there could be a mistake you know so you do want to just like breeze through it and make sure everything looks yeah so there are multiple eyes on it the treasurer has to look at it and then how hard I tried to beat Nate to sign it before I think he must have done it like at 6 in the morning look at like a seven and it was already sign and in the in the beginning any questions too you know if you said well why why do we pay this company then email one of us and we'll get right back to you you

119feel comfortable understanding are you interested not particularly but I I have other ones that I wanted to sign up for further down the list I feel that I haven't signed up for any yet wait yeah back yeah we can I mean I'm happy to come to the number two yeah um okay facilities so I don't think the facilities group had to do very much this year um but I think ideally you would work with Chris to see if there's issues I don't know what yeah if you're putting bids out in our that one of those people would be part of the committee to rank is there a second Hampshire schoolb Association delegate oh I'd be happy if somebody else wants to do that actually it's actually really I don't mind doing it again I have

120no trouble keeping it again it's just one Saturday of the year it's interesting because it is all the different policies um that the association comes up with the Hampshire School Board Association and so you go through them all and you're like the Delegate for this district and you vote on it and I mean it's interesting to go and hear what everybody has to say so it's an interesting day I don't mind if somebody wants to do it I've done it for two years so it's just kind of a nice kind of view into what's going on in policy in education in the state some else wants to to do it but that's all it is it's just that one day you get fed right else anyone's jumping continue um communication so this is the Facebook

121page um the town page talking Arrow um Kendra's done that all I haven't done any I just assume my name off it that's fine I do like to have a second person just to have the Facebook password in case I don't know who knows um you know if I think if we were going to come up with a flyer that we wanted to send people in town it would be the communications team that works on that together um yeah I don't mind I'm not always the promptest at posting but I try to remember it most of the time um and I'm fine with continuing unless someone really would like to take over so you need second person though I ask yeah really alen didn't have to do anything I didn't have to do anything but

122I feel guilty about not doing anything well my computer knowledge is not real strong communication real right so but I don't mind helping with it but if you want me to try to post something I think it's fine as is um I'm happy to keep doing it yes but I you know I'm I'm happy to help with it but yeah I I was going to see where I landed with the rest of these and I'd be willing to do that one as well I just want to see how many I me well if you don't get enough we'll be I'll negotiate that um High School matters negotiation so this will be a pretty big role this year because the current High School contracts expire the following year so we're probably going to have to set

123up something to vote on in March so whether that's continuing the current contracts whether you know you're working at the board's you know desire so the board will sort of decide where we want to go with high school stuff and then the negotiations team will be dispatch to go negotiate um with whatever schools the board wants to Pur so it it may be a time leftt I don't know how much you guys spent on that or it might it might not be it have with automatic extensions in them so you choose it will depend on what you the board I thought it was interesting though that one of the candidates for superintendent said he was from barington and he he said that um you really need to make sure that in your contracts that you

124limit how much they can increase it and like look at how we got hit with conquer how they increased it so he said that's kind of what they found so they started to have a really big problem of choice because the schools kept increasing increasing increasing so I guess in my mind that's something that we really really need to be aware in renegotiations how much they're allowed to increase Co Brown will negotiate their board of directors simply will not negotiate it's the same for everybody who goes there yes yes so it is fair in that way yes right but I'm just saying that's not that's not something you have to worry about probably just extend an for you guys probably spend more time with cown we didn't have a relationship with so we met with

125them quite a bit to talk because we were very concerned we want to make sure that they would take all our kids we want to make sure they take kids with behavior issues you know special heads because that hadn't been how it been in the past so we worked with them quite a bit on that um conquered we met a few times but then you ended up doing most of the work as far as the final negotiations it really just finalizing everything and the agreements and once you guys decided what we were doing but we but it was a lot more work last time too we had a lot of questionnaires looking at where people want to go we were contacting schools we were trying to figure out you know yeah so there was a

126lot might less work this this will be a lot less work really just dealing with I mean I'm assuming cup is probably going to be pretty straightforward because they just charge br's pretty straightforward it's really the concerete I'd like to do that anyone else I mean I guess I can do it with the Cy because I have the experience yeah that' be awesome that's fine oh you got turn I don't think you have to do anything though this we didn't do anything it was Danielle Do It um sick Bank not heavy lift I think we've had two requests this year so the sick bank is basically um if you want to participate in the sick Bank you can donate um PTO PID time off I don't know if that's what you probably here um into

127the sick bank and then if you for some reason needed an additional sick time you can apply to the sick bank to get you donated hours or days that you might need so if someone was going on maternity leave and they needed an extra 3 days of leave they would apply to the sick bank and then we meet as a committee and decide um whether or not we're going to approve that request I think we've had two this year not a very heavy LIF and it can be a Google meet doesn't have to be in person it's a contractual item though it's in the teachers contract that a member of the board an Administration and then um some um negotiating um DEA members are part of the so it's a it's contractual it's laid out

128for you I think I knew that Y and it's so so your example was they would have no more sick time that's they run out of sick time and they need three more days to get through their maternity leave so they don't have to go unpaid lose their health insurance all the things so it's a it's a worthwhile um it's a worthwhile grp to be in it really is not a heavy LIF your right there are not many you want me to take that one off oh sure and we try to work with your schedule Nancy yeah I got a rough one you aren't available yeah we can yeah yeah um speci committee or you were probably the last one was a teacher here yeah years um you want to say on yeah sure um

129transportation committee do we still need the transportation committee well the RFP I think the RFP goes out this year oh see I would have someone just in case there's anything sure got a person I'd love for someone else to take them I've got some pretty heavy HS I don't really think that I don't think you've done anything no you were I mean I was on the solar Transportation was on that that's all I did yeah okay and there's not like a set number of things that you need to do it would just be it might be nothing might be nothing um the yeah we about the contract do that so we yeah we would the sa would send out the rfps and I can just tell you for many many years we've only received one

130response so it's not like you're GNA have 10 companies to rank and R consider but maybe buing a bus school bus company in the next year um started talk about that all the time policy committee so this is kind of a heavy committee I know and I'm gonna miss Nate not saying others can't but Nate had such a handle on doing it man we you know we got together several times either at his house or my house to do it and it was like with them up and just the way he could read them and think about it it was like okay yeah so I mean I'm willing to keep doing it I don't feel I'm an expert at it but it's that you have the experience I'm has been part of polies I mean

131I'm happy to keep doing it I mean we only review policies at business meetings so the first meeting of the month require three readings three readings so right so you probably won't have to review the same policy a bunch of times and somebody makes comment changes I do think last year and I don't know if we're going to continue with the huge list of policies yeah I mean some of it is just trying to get 1990 I think you're caught you might have one or two left in the 90s and some of those don't even exist in the School Board Association manual anymore so they're simple resend them and then some that are really easy required by law right when you get when you get the updates from like legislative action you don't have a

132lot of choice okay and space needs so um we're keeping that right I thought a couple meetings ago talking yeah I mean it's a it's a good question because I don't know what direction sping comme will take I think it's worthwhile to have people on the committee that if you want to propose something for the board to consider we could consider it and then if you want to take over from there you can yeah I'd be interested okay we're going back to manifestor how do you feel you want to do it see that's why I how many times you I'm not very yeah mine is I'm not I kind of don't know I don't have the same day every day it's crazy so I just don't think I'd be reli why I'm not signing up

133for it and I'll be looking for a bus driver as well so there's two people on it and whoever gets to it first that we have to yeah and there also the treasurer so like Eric signs it so there's three that have to sign I mean it doesn't it doesn't take long I mean it really doesn't take long it's just a matter of checking every day checking every day you really should log in every day to see if it's there because there was one time I didn't for some reason log on every day and it was like three days out and I got a little reminder saying you need to you know I don't know why I didn't but I just I usually get up in the morning and log on and see if it's

134there and if it's not I figure I'm safe for the next day to log on so and it's just really and if you have it on your phone you can do it right you can do it on your phone I did one here and it was fun I did get a lot of reminder emails I get a lot of emails um so I was not the best at remember open my schoil there's 10 emails in there so can your it's it's really not no it's just you know my schedule is just like day to day exactly czy yeah and if there's like as long as I can do it like I'll have time at some point in day they send it at 6: am and I I don't do it by no that's it's same

135day is awesome and yeah same day is great and even if you aren't till the next day that works it only it's only a problem every one of you is waiting until the next day your we out and no I mean yeah there's sometimes I'm not checking it till like oh I didn't check this morning so go to B check and if you go on vacation or something we can get something to cover for you I've covered for she's covered for me for sure yeah yeah and if you know sort of if at any point it becomes too much or your find you can't keep up it we can also redis it I mean you you know we don't have we don't get together to do it you just go on your computer okay so

136you want to go through them and just read yes okay um Vice chair Canon NBC representative Kendra and Ellen sa executive board Nancy and Kendra negotiations Ellen and Missy curriculum review board Ellen manifest review Nancy and Canon facilities Canon and Missy nhsda delegate Ellen communication Kendra and Nancy High School matters negotiations Canon and Ellen sick Bank Nancy sabatical committee Ellen Transportation committee Canon policy committee Nancy and Ellen space needs Missy and Canon that consistent with else okay so I will make motion to approve the board members and committees as I just second okay any discussion all right all in favor I I any opposed okay done request to publish the Manifest yes so um Amber has been working really hard in our system trying to find a report that met your parameters um and there

137isn't one that's perfect but I have some options for users you have printing them and changing the day ranges and changing the the options and what you can't do is unselect the vendor so she can't make a report that is like a weekly register that has no vend name but she can do um so the expenditure reports that she runs that's a very easy report to run um the issue is that it run you know she would just have to change it for a monthly basis instead of like what we've expended for the whole year she can put a date range so the for the full you know if you have an able leeting you'll see the month of March what got paid it has every single account line in the budget that's kind of

138the cumbersome part um but if if the you know that's as transparent as we can be like if that's what they want to look at you know I can't simp yes and I can't we can't simplify it the only thing we can simplify is to do it on a monthly basis so that it's not like whole year um but that meet your needs because it has by account line so it's like you know how much do you spending teacher salaries this month and it gives them the amount and what we have encumbered what thinker in a spend makes that report yeah um that we can publish there's no personally identifiable information okay interested Amber can R the report and puts not away anything that I mean that was the part that concerned me was just

139because when I look at the Manifest to sign yeah student information yeah that's what we were trying to do is she really wanted to figure something out that was like a more like a check register but you can't do it has all the information on it so it's great yeah okay sure okay we will trial it and then um well I didn't put it on the agenda so if you don't mind I just want to give you your balance for right now um so Amber did the first um Surplus report so she can run expenditure reports and that just shows us what we spent um but when we get a good chunk through the year she starts to um she creates another column and will'll say like well um not only have we spent this

140we are at the point where we think we know what we're going to spend to June and that way it kind of creates a balance in all the lines for you it is absolutely going to change but as of today um the anticipation is 56861 so that's what the projection is um barring anything coming up barring health insurance plans we still have three full months in the budget year um but this is around the time of year when she starts to kind of see where she thinks she going end that will change but this is the money that would fund the warrant articles that the 250,000 and then if we have any remaining amount we can vote to retain some for our emergency fund or return it and or return back to the town for

141tax for tax is there a time that we can like look at that a little more closely in that well I what do you mean like my little notes so I was looking through it today and there were some areas that we were over by a lot orose to it yeah and I was curious and then there were some that we were way under which was nice too but like there were two places I mean just one that I out was contracted Services there was one and if it's in parentheses that's mean we over okay yes making sure I got it right so like we had one contracted service that was like over by 450,000 plus and then there was a second one that was again like 111,000 one of them is Chris's line one's

142Chris's line okay those are that's a great point but making sure board members understand with that report what what it all means and some of it like last year you would have seen an overage of like hundreds of thousands because like your question we had to pay those repairs and the projects and then the trust comes and reimburses your operating so Chris's line is going to be offset by the trust we just but but the contractor services that there's always changes you know and least at least and know this best um you know there we might have budgeted a salary in um an sa line for a school psychologist you couldn't find one so we had a contract for one so we had money something else but now it's making your um contact Services look

143way over budget but those are things you should ask have absolutely so is there like is it worth putting it on like because I mean yeah I've been on a year but it's still as I'm looking at I mean I I was pulling out my cheat sheet from when I met with you to go through okay this number stands for the you know but again it would be helpful and I think you know for for Canon and probably a good review for all of us because you know again I was like okay I was wondering about like teacher salaries if you look at it it says the remaining budget the budget balance is 3.17% shouldn't it be like 30 you still have another third of the year to go like what am I not understanding

144sometimes though they encumber the salary like the the the whole amount that they think they'll do a PO for their or the system does it automatically so you might just have an extra 3% at the end of the year that you're not going to spend because they've already inced okay okay yes that's a stuff I don't get it's an incredibly complicated report and we live those lines every day so I really appreciate the fact that you asking want to understand was before the meeting it was like okay I and I saw we were over on High School tuition so is that because we had students coming to probably probably I think we had additional students high school students joined within the past few months yeah I mean we're over 144,000 a lot yes and we

145don't have a trust fund no no trust fund so that's just money we're finding somewhere else so for me it would be helpful if we could go over that a little more yeah yeah I mean I think prob ask yeah and I don't need you know I mean it's not like I need detail but it's just you know again when you look at different like the teacher one I kind of figured out because you might have hired a new teacher that didn't have as many years experience and stuff on the pay scale so there that one I could figure out but some and sometimes you'll find mistakes you know there was um someone ran a report for another district and someone said why why are my special teacher line over $100,000 I didn't hire anyone

146new it's the same people and it was oh that teach yes the account number was entered incorrectly and they should be paid on a different line so there can be no that'd be great thank you and I do think um you know last year we did sort of a budget overview sort of in the middle of the summer I don't think it's very worthy to start thinking about things you want to talk about for the budget over the summer because if we want to have big discussions about Staffing or you know a lot lot of these things it's hard to wait until we get to budget season and so if we want to talk about making changes anywhere or asking questions about subscription services or anything like that I think we should start tackling those

147discussions over the summer yeah and even breaking it down to even smaller chunks at a time because I mean even when we did the space needs presentation and everything part of that that could affect budget is classroom sizes and number students yeah so but that to me it was all tied in so maybe just to focus on that one part of it I mean that was one of my other little notes that I did before I went through and just focused in on classroom size the actual physical size of the classroom how many we can fit in it but if we could talk about that yeah little chunks we understand it more we can do it all of that relates to the budget and sooner we can start talking about the budget the better um

148I say sort of in just we just got done with the bu but now we're back on the horse um okay anything else do you need any action okay um okay so this now we are on to modular for art and music so this came up as as a comment yeah um so I think the comment was that we should consider moving art and music into the modulars moving and using the current spaces for the third grade or whatever grade we want to tr around um would love to hear from you Kristen if you have thoughts before we sort of di then right um so we met as a Administration [Music] team I'm such a St person on um so pardon the handwritten part Mr grieve thank you for filling that part in I had

149originally had insert square footage and then forgot to change it so um so I did a brief overview of our art and music programs and uh how rich they are currently um and then I um Administration team went through and considered some of the pros of moving the art and music out to the modular and um some of the cons um so the art and music program at DCS provides students with a rich and dynamic education experience fostering creativity critical thinking and artistic expression the music program includes General music for grades K through 8 as well as band and Chorus for grades 5 through eight the dedicated music classroom measures 1,8 Square footed square feet um and we have 200 of that square footage is dedicated to instrument space so um that that's it takes

150up the instruments take up a lot of room it's essential for accommodating an average of 40 band students and storing variety of instruments including drums keyboards ukuleles guitars orphs and a piano it's this big I can show you after huge we can do never heard of this all right well you have to Google it um proper space allocation ensures that students can engage on in Hands-On learning practice effectively and perform at their best the art program follows a choice-based model which allows students to explore different mediums and Artistic Styles in a self-directed manner both art rooms are equipped with sinks for easy material cleanup clay traps and proper workspace maintenance additionally as you know the Kiln is an essential tool for Ceramics instruction and it's safely housed in a dedicated storage closet ensuring accessibility and

151safe usage both programs are highly dependent on their dedicated spaces that they currently utilize as they require specialized facilities storage and room for active engagement relocating these programs to modular space would present challenges in terms of storage space limitations Acoustics and accessib ility maintaining their current locations ensures that students continue to receive high quality Arts instruction in an environment designed to support their learning and growth um and just as a side note the modular are 725 square feet so if we took 200 of that for instruments that would leave you a space of 525 square foot feet for for students um and if you you you if you were looking to turn this into a classroom you'd have to move everything out so that they could have the classroom space does that include the clets

152uh no I did not include that this is and this is a rough guesstimate you know is not exact so some of the pros for moving uh for considering moving art and music out to the modular is that it does free up indoor classroom space that would allow for additional grade level classrooms or other instructional needs inside the main building um we would have a dedicated Arts area out in the modular which create creates a separate defined space for music and art art without impacting other classrooms um there is potential for customization the modular space could be designed specifically for Arts use with soundproofing or flexible seating arrangements there would be less disruption in the main building sort of loud music practices particularly with band and percussion instruments might be class might be less disruptive

153to other classes and some IAS would be on the first floor which is something that I know we are trying to we've been grandfathered in but kindergarten through second grade technically should not be coming upstairs for IAS but we are grandfathered in uh and then the last Pro would be that all grade level classrooms are back in the building some of the cons that I broke up for music would be that there would be limited space for instruments a modu a unit at 725 square feet would not be uh enough room for large instruments hanging storage or the necessary organization of soundboards and Equipment there would be insufficient space for band students a smaller space may not be comfor may not comfortable accommodate the number of students practicing a participating in band um there would

154be acoustic and sound issues because the modular walls are not as soundproof leading to poor Acoustics sound leading into neighboring spaces and for art uh we considered the Kil accessibility it's currently stored in a dedicated space in the art room moving it to a modular classroom would require relocating the Kil which is not feasible due to ventilation safety regulations and space constraints and really the biggest thing for art would be there's no access to syns Art classrooms require easy access to sinks for cleaning brushes rinsing materials managing projects involving paint Clay and other media modular classroom does lack built-in sinks or water creating logistical challenges and limiting students ability to engage engage in Hands-On learning so just those cons alone would really change the uh structure of of Art and music in this building as

155it stands currently um in addition both art and music there's no bathroom access in the modular so it's uh wouldn't be a problem for oper grade kids but our younger grade our younger students early kindergarten first grade uh we have had second graders out there in the modulars last year younger students would have to leave the modular unit to use the restroom requiring additional supervision or in frequent um disruptions there is no additional art uh adult support a second adult would be needed for younger students needing add restroom breaks or additional assistance um and then less integration with school Community students and staff may feel dis connected from the wrist of the school uh impacting collaboration and participation in schoolwide events our art and music departments collaborate with all grade level teams um in addition

156to less integration the music and art rooms really are on opposite sides of the building upstairs which would lead to a complete organization of grade levels up here and one member of One some grade level would be left would be isolated from the from the other so we would have two grade levels on on this side in a music room room in a music room and then the other there's three grade levels three teachers per grade level so that person would be all the way on the other side of the building in the art one of the art rooms um so just pointing that out that and in addition to that we would be have to reorganize all the grade levels up here um and there would be a need for classroom conversion because the

157modular space would need costly modifications to function as an integrated Art Space so that's those are some things that we discussed as a as a um Administration team in the building um I I open it up to you okay what what does the board on discuss to me the the main reason we're thinking of this is to bring the classro in because it's not going to get rid of the modules which I think way back when the talk was how do we get rid of the modules so we don't have them at all so that's not helping that it's just bringing all the classrooms into the building that's how I'm trying to think of it as some people might think as a pro so yeah I can I can understand that but there's there's two

158things I think of one if you ask the teachers that are in the modular there's some that are very happy out in the modular and really don't mind being out there um they don't feel isolated they have their other teams out there they like the AC when it gets hot you know I mean and they you know I mean I I've talked to many of them and it's like we don't mind being out here it's not us trying to get in we're good I understand it's an issue with kids coming in and out of the building for the bathroom I get that but if we move art and music out there then every student in the building is going to be going in and out at some part of the day so rather where you

159just have your third graders now that come in to go to the bathroom or come in to go to their IA so you're talking 60 kids I don't know what the number is you're now now taking all students from kindergarten up and making them go in and out which to me that creates more confusion than just having the grades I think that's just my thoughts because again to me the whole purpose was trying to find ways to get rid of the modular that's where I thought our whole discussion has always been for years and years people think those trailers need to be gone but it I don't see that moving those programs out there is is helping it's not gonna I don't see it as a help that's just my opinion I struggle to to

160you know to figure out what we would really gain from making that big change because we're still having lots of kids going outside I don't know if there be I just want to say one pro is though that right now we've got kids going outside in the morning going to their classrooms and outside in the afternoon we're going to the buses in the morning we have cars that are going around and you know that's been a thing that we've been worried about whereas it's during the day the classes then it's not as much of an issue see it's like it's more of an issue with morning and the afternoon that but um I'm also wondering you know there's other I agree that it definitely we'd have to put money into upgrading the modules for the

161and I was thinking about that too water is a big problem to not have water in heart but there might be other solutions to come to know I think the reason I it appealed to me when I heard it was you have said many times you want all the kids children and I know that a lot of the teachers are very happy I've talked to themo but um I think that's where I was thinking you said you wanted the whole school in one place and as far as I understand like art and music feeling like maybe they're not as much Community well right now third grade's not as much of the community and I think it's more important to have a third grade whereas our at least both our teachers are there they have that

162community and both music teachers are there they have that I was also wondering if like band I mean is there somewhere else band can rehearse I don't know probably not the library in the library just kidding we have the stage which we haven't used but then that if band is practicing while PE is having classes right which is only difficult when they're giving instructions but they make so one of the biggest concerns that I've been hearing from people is that it's the third graders that are out there so it's what I've been hearing as a suggestion is putting the oldest kids it could function um because I know the older kids rotate teachers used to be is it fifth grade is the highest grade that has dedicated like one self one teacher so even even

163the difference of that two years you know because I've you know heard a lot of people suggest why aren't the a graders out there you know talking to teachers and stuff it's it's because it doesn't make sense with the transition right so but even even you know two years older you know a little bit more awareness um but I don't I still don't think that's the answer but um you know I don't know I just I I have a lot of ideas that I know aren't going to be popular but um I don't think that I don't I definitely don't think that moving music and art out there solves any of the problem um and putting any money into renovating mod [Music] but yeah I mean I just I I think that there's we really

164need to like kind of I know what you were saying like Biz stuff but at the same time it's like it's really is there's so much of it that's big picture that it's you know like this is just like this is I feel like this is like a compartmentalized part of it that realistically um you know I think things that need to get addressed are you know stuff like I said that isn't popular like maybe band being an after school program like it used to be instead of you know during the day I mean all of you know that band equipment could still be stored in one classroom and not used until that space is available for b um I just I think there are other ways um to address those space needs um I

165just don't yeah I don't think that and I think that's fine we certainly can discuss um I think this came up because someone you know suggested it and you know we try to honor you know if people make suggestions have discussions openly about them and and get as much information as we can I mean I think there are things that principal wiy brought up that a lot of us would not have thought of when we're thinking about these things or maybe the community hasn't thought of I think people didn't realize until recently that there's not running water in the modular and so you know it's important that we have the discussion even if we don't decide to do it um if there's bigger things to talk about that's totally fine um but I do want

166to honor the suggestions that people bring to us and have the discussion and make sure that you know if someone sees you at blooms and Bru and says why don't we do this then we can say oh you know we did we did discuss it at a board meeting and these were sort of the reasons that we didn't do it these are some ideas that I have going forward um but I mean it yeah I think we there's definitely more to discuss yeah I just think there needs to be some more like flexibility and like obviously it's not going to be easier or fun to go rearranging you know students in different areas of the building but we have to use the space that we have in the most efficient way and I don't think

167it is right now um so there has to be some kind of flexibility of moving stuff around yeah and not being you know and I you know I I do think we are fairly flexible there was you know we brought one of the second grade classrooms back in this year because we didn't have a kindergarten teacher so we are utilizing the kindergarten room for the second grade that had been in the modular now there's a reading specialist yeah math math specialists in the modular um so it is something I know that they look at every year to figure out um who should be out there and regarding the oldest class possible we did used to have fifth grade in the mod um you want to talk that Brian has he this is yeah uh so

1682018 yep Nelms yeah uh we had Nelms committee New England League of Middle School um committee come in give us a lot of suggestions on how we can improve the Middle School Etc um one of their their biggest suggestion was bringing fifth grade into the building so they can start that process of they were out there for how long 17 years long time 15 something like that and there was a very big disconnect of when kids left fifth grade and came to the Middle School um to the point where they didn't even know what an art room was even though they've traveled the art room for eight years um so that essentially led to that idea of let's move fifth grade into the building um and the idea of moving middle schoolers out there never

169really uh worked out just because of the square footage um to put 20 eth graders in 700 square feet um it just wouldn't work you know so that that's essentially why it was fifth grade was a I guess at the time the decision was made because they were the smallest of the bigger kids you guys ever done an assessment after moving them in if it does work do we feel like they're more part of the middle school I um do matter yeah I don't know to right the um fact that there's no water out there is a big thing for not having out out there in the first place and not putting any more money into modular that are modular and they're getting close to the end of their life cycle possibly I know that

170they've been I've been told that they've been kept up very well so they've lasted nicely that's good um and I know that there's been talk of getting rid of them all together and I understand that too but while they're still here and they're still usable and functional and they're not falling apart thank goodness um I think that we should be able to use them for something something and maybe it there's different ideas not necessarily art music because is again the water issue um there's lots of things to look at so use them well you can as long as you can right and there's lots of factors you know um Brian brings up the nums the board at the time paid a lot of money to have that NS group come in and give some feedback

171and some suggestions and that being one of their biggest suggestions of bringing the fifth graders back in the building so we weigh a lot of things and we do try to be flexible with our thinking in terms of what makes the most sense and um you know it's not going to happen overnight fifth grade I think is definitely feels like they're more part of transitioning their kids to the Middle School however it might be worth it to have a conversation I'm just thinking a lot of schools are set up for their K through and then they go to complet different six or eight so i ns Nels is looking at it where a lot of schools are also five through eight so they might be looking is it worthwhile to be doing that yeah because

172I I do agree that a concern third grade and second grade kids being right so I guess the um are we looking at the age of Kit like that's I know that's been a concern right and so what is the real issue what do you really want out there do you yes I'd love to have all the kids back in the building I'd also like to have maybe an expansion you know that's not going to happen anytime soon unfortunately so we do have to use the space the best way we can and I I mean we have we have hashed and rehashed and reorganized and tried our best we have lots of little spaces that can't be used for anything except for what it's being used for um so it's you know we try to

173be open I as I'm as we're developing the pros and cons list it does look like there's more cons than there are Pros because that's a hard space to to fill and teachers do love being out there that is for sure you know if if the if you just want older kids out there so that we have older kids out there fifth graders can get hit by a car like a third grader can hit hit by a car right I that has luckily never happened and it's we actually ironically we had um a Homeland Security visit um just yesterday and they were asking if we had a gate that blocked off um the the playground area as cars were coming in and I said unfortunately we don't that has come up a couple of times

174we we've you know that it would be an expense it would be and then you know you've got your One Fire Department police department one wants one and one doesn't want it because of you know restrictions and access exactly uh so we had to chugle over that um but when we went outside for a look around outside for security um assessment the gentleman that was doing the assessment said oh well you have the those delineators up there as long as something is up there to tell cars Do Not Go pass this because he said a car can Barrel through something like that just as well as they can Barrel through a a gate so um I just I I that was reassuring to us um as a as a as an Administration team and as

175a school to know that at least we have something out there um unless the kids are moving it to play football but um we always try to just the ones in the back just the ones in the back okay um so yeah I I we we have considered a lot of things we've been given a lot of advice we've been given a lot of suggestions um and um just try to make the best decisions we can with the information that we have yeah and I mean we don't yet know what's going to happen with kindergarten y um if we're going to go back to four kindergartens over P3 so there's potential movement again that we may have to as there was every year I 18 years I worked here we were constantly moving classrooms around

176just part what you have to deal with yeah I managed to stay in the same classroom for like I don't know 12 years so I was like the only teacher that hadn't moved and then because nobody nobody wanted the cafeteria room and then I moved every year for the seven years every year they move in so you don't like doing it but do everyone has been very flexible we moved to kindergarten down so we could get a second grade in this past school year that I mean they they they'll pack up and do what needs to be done we we will move people if we have to um it's not a lot of fun to pack up a classroom and have to move it but it seems like for tonight though the discussion is do

177we move art and music out there and the other things we can you know they can discuss which grades but if that's what we're talking about now I know for me I see more Cons with moving them out there than I don't I don't think it's the right thing to do that's we're trying to decide tonight or yeah I mean I don't think we have to vote on anything um but I my vote would know that it's creating more problems than it's solving is that was that what you were thinking yeah I don't think that that's a solution I kind of look at this as like the whole bus issue it's like okay we got to make a decision for now but it's still on the front burner is something to talk about and see

178if we can figure out for the decision right now do we move art and music out there what are you thinking Miss see no like I said the water issue right off the bat it's not it's not worth start throwing more money into these Margies again they're their life expectancy and they're not even ours we don't know them putting money into rented modular just keeping them as well as they have apparently is you that's been a good thing but no I don't think that solution right now all right so we will move on um you know and this is a good reminder for anyone if there's ever things that you want to put on the agenda if you want to learn more about stuff email me and if we can add it to the agenda

179I can get you any information that you need yeah about a week so we publish the agenda we finalized the agenda on Wednesday before the meeting so a week in advance would be but can you can also say can we add this to a future agenda and then we can add it and would like um if there was like public comments that we wanted to address would that be in the next meeting so typically yes so we can address them but I like to have things on the agenda so that people know that they're up for discussion so if people bring things up that are really important discussion we can have them but I prefer to give people notice that like the board is is going to be discussing this way in attend the meeting

180yeah so you can be part of the discussion I I had something that I wanted to with what Ed Ed mentioned I wanted to say something but I thought it was like somebody else came up after but yeah because it's very related to the topics that we discussed with the the boiler and yeah and public comments are a little challenging so we don't typically respond they're very challenging right very challenging because we don't want to get into like a back and forth discussion or debate or like again bringing up things for discussion we I mean we could certainly if you wanted to add something about that you would welcome to it is on the agenda for tonight the boiler issue um yeah we typically don't respond because it's also complicated because we a lot of

181times the board hasn't fully discussed it so the board doesn't have an opinion or a position on something so we can't one person can't say oh the board feels this way about it um so it's complicated but is there something you wanted to add about boiler yeah I just like when I kind of when I when I mentioned to um Chris and I was asking the questions about that um but baffle it was it was you know that's kind of what I was trying to get that is exactly what Ed said but you know he he kind of like deflected it and I didn't I didn't you know really press him on it but I'm not putting it on Chris he's not the professional it's the company that we hired right right and they shouldn't

182ever put us back in service without making sure it was up to code and um so to me like that when Ed said that very plainly it's like yes that that's something that you know and I don't know if that's something we need to talk to ch about who how that works but it's I mean granted stayes a you know reputable company but like either he needs to talk to them about that because that's cting am money so it's like either he needs to address that with them it right sure I don't know if they're the ones that did the work that left the B off but it right and then that's why I asked them like are they the same company that does the annual service on it as well yes so okay so

183you're here twice and it still failed after that came the same thing right so to me I don't know like you know if we mention that to Chris or how that works but it's like just a yeah CH and I will follow up with that y I didn't I made a not okay okay of stars yeah um okay we're on to the treasurer so unfortunately the elected Treasurer um col unable to serve as the treasurer due to professional obligations um that are new since she signed up to Rome for Tre so as you may know Eric gross was formerly our Treasurer and typically the treasurer serves until June 30th because that's when the fiscal year however Eric also won his election to be the moderator and the moderator and the treasur are incompatible offices so

184he can't serve until June and also be the elected moderator um we have tried to find a work around there is that one that we were able to find so either way Eric was going to have to transition to out of the treasure to serve as a moderator before June 30 um we have a temporary solution I think a will continue on as Treasurer and step down for the moderator position and then we will reappoint him or the clerk will reappoint him to be the moderator after we fill the treasurer position so what we're gonna need to do is the board has to appoint a new so we will put out a call for applicants so you can disappoint Eric to continue okay that's why we that way but in the meantime we still need

185to find find permanent yes exactly so we can appoint Eric to be the treasurer for now but we also will put out a call to people to apply to be the treasurer so basically what will happen is say the next meeting we'll say if you're interested in becoming Treasurer send us a paragraph about yourself why you want to do it and then we'll invite them to the meeting and then they can give a little Spiel and then someone will make a nomination and then we vote on them so Eric can go back as moderator because when I read that letter I was like we got to get another moderat and then I got thinking I bet there's a way you don't need a moderator for a while we've been working I've been working with our

186school counsel since this whole thing came to be to figure out how we were going to get our bills paid and checks that um and Eric was very gracious and said you know the priority is payroll and and manifest so um he submitted his resignation today from moderator position so um tonight right now you can appoint Eric to continue as your Treasurer so that we can Eric gr um retains a position of tre temporarily second um and it is with the understanding I hope the board would honor it that it was a temporary resignation on his part um through circumstances that have nothing to do with him he's willing to step up and help us so um I hope everyone will uh reappoint him when when necessary um okay all in favor of appointing Eric

187as the interim Treasurer until we find a replacement okay um do we need to come up with like the blurb of like how how do we let people know we have um a very simple form that we used when you were advertising for board an open board seat I remember right so maybe we can just modify that to be looking for we're looking for a treasure instead of we're looking for a board member and I'll send it to you Lexi edit it send it to you and if it looks good we'll post it and send it out over the place we'll post it on the town page I'll post it on Facebook page okay do you have do you have addition oh too late um yeah anyone who wants to apply there's no specific qualifications

188except for that you can't be the moderator cor right um You can't work for the SAU you need I mean you do have some you need to have some business background being able to reconcile and all that stuff and I Eric had actually given me a list of his typical tasks as the treasurer so I'll see if he would be comfortable with me publishing that um because it does give an overview of what tasks he does how much time he does spend on it every week um which is important because it is you know it's not just sort of a a title in name only it is like a very important part of our reconciliation process um okay that works for everyone we will move on border reports I don't see PTO keeps executive Bo

189you have a big actually hired a new superintendent I mean people know yeah Jess Bickford who is currently one of the assistant superintendents her Focus was on special Edge student services student services so they will then be advertising to fill that position so um and there's another executive board meeting tomorrow yeah um principal report yeah uh so this covers February 20th to March 19th um before I begin I do want to uh let you know that um our kitchen staff or uh Gail dantony our food service director was able to um use some spend down money so D will have have to help me with this but as I understand that during covid lunches were 100% reimbursed lunch and breakfast 100% reimbursed and so we ended up with a surplus in our food service budget

190line that then and then I think it was we ended up with three years of no three you can't carry more than three months of operating expenses in Surplus so the Department of Education had us we had to submit a spend down plan the whole state had to do it so every school was in the same position where you had extra money you getting more money for reimbursement and they every school had to submit how are you going to spend down this this excess money you can't keep this much in your pot anymore so so we our spend down plan included 37,000 $520 45 so our um Gail was able to purchase all kinds of things now the Nancy and Ellen probably remember the pots and paint they probably came from George B white I'm

191I'm thinking they did uh so she got all new pans all new pots all new utensil like serving utensils um a whole bunch of new supplies to the tune of about $166,000 um she was able to purchase a new three-door fridge which has a Frid our fridge probably came from George B white too um so it was the it's not it's not the walk-in fridges that we had the problem with that we got that all fixed it it's just the stand it was like a two door you open it up and she stored water and fresh fruits and vegetables in there the things that were used every day um so she was a that is on the fritz ofate we come in and the entire thing is down and so we have to throw everything

192away but that has been replaced brand bank and new um she got a new snap bin cart because as you know she sells some snacks um for to the kids you know all all um healthy snacks that are federally approved um she got some new serving carts she got a utensil holder a commercial kitchen floor scrubber so they don't have to bring the mop in and slash that around so they worked with Chris kufos to purchase a floor scrubber dedicated just to the kitchen because they have to clean that floor every single night before they leave um and uh she's very excited the I think the thing she was most excited about was her electric can opener true story and it cost ,000 $1 thousand wow yeah it was no joke it's like it's and

193it's not Brian said it's not that big I it's not big at all no but it saves your arm from falling off because they have those big cans right so they that was the thing she was most excited about we would do the spaghet Y you can appreciate that then for sure you'll be excited about it too um she did look into purchasing the freezer because that you know that's something that we talked about using trust fund money for um but you H it has to be spent down by a certain time and there's no way we can get that that work done by the time this money has to be spent so um so she's in the process of still you know they can buy lots of things she's looking at buying a new

194desk that's been there for probably from George B white so um a new filing cabinet just things like that that just they can spend on just about anything um there were are some restrictions but um I think she wanted to get new ceiling tiles they said no you can't do that so um can it be spent for the repair um I don't think so I I'll ask for you I will find that out yeah uh so I just want to make sure I mentioned that um because the it's important that the board knows that we had that money to spend and um so you know when we're not asking for a new you know why now because we were able to purchase one so um just to go through um the month of February and

195the the into the middle of March on Thursday February 20th right before February vacation our Middle School had a pep rally we tried to do a pep rally with just our middle school every couple of months um usually right before a vacation and they had a t teacher vers student basketball I'm pretty sure the teachers won no well I had to go I had to leave so that might be part of it oh yes I do it SMI all so oh that could be that could be okay the buzzer that you were not the buzzer beater the students might want um Friday February 21st we had our annual Hearts uh kids heart Challenge and that includes Jump Rope for Heart and the hoops event um that's been an annual event for years that Mr ruest

196and Mrs Radcliffe plan and the kids really enjoy that um entire day they raised over $122,000 for the American Heart Association which is just a huge fundraiser and so great um happy February vacation vac um have you back to be for vacation into march on Tuesday March 4th it was our emergency dismissal um Wednesday March 5th uh we did have a superintendent candidate visit number two right before vacation the first candidate came for a visit um not that it matters anymore but we did have a second superintendent candidate visit toward the building um in addition our preschool did a meet and greet so they try to do that every year in the springtime as they're starting to look at enrollment of uh preschool students for three and four year olds so they did have a

197meet and greet um Brian stopped in to to say hello um Thursday March 6th was the community forum for Superintendent at Penbrook Academy um and then on Friday March 7th um I had lunch with the Deerfield House of Representatives and presented that the school board would like to have them come to a school board meeting and they were thrilled about that um and they are we did a so we had a little planning meeting they um are have rolled out a few really cool things I won't steal their Thunder um but they just wanted to check in with Administration to make sure some of the things that they wanted to do were um okay and approved um and again they're looking forward to their visit I told Mr mccab who's running the um House of

198Representatives probably May um in the May meeting because we have some curriculums in April as and I think we have one in may as well but um if we have two meetings maybe they can come to one of them um he asked how many I said they're probably all going to want to come because they're just that group of kids so I'll I'll let you know what we just what what ends up um where we land uh we have enjoyed the class of the week over the course of February and March um Mrs Omar second grade Mrs Taylor second grade and Mr ferdinand's thirdd grade class is the class of the week this week um and I have been able to visit advisories with Mrs Hannah Mrs Cortez and Mrs Helm both in seventh grade

199and Miss kesar's um advisory last week and this week I visit Mr St Germaine um on Monday March 10th deer field parks and rack Hoops Classic began and that goes through forever no just kidding um March 23rd I think or something it feels like forever for I'm sure it feels like forever for them too um they do a nice job though coming in and this is the 20th anniversary so it's a big deal this year uh Tuesday March 11th we had our SAU professional day uh we had a keynote speaker Sarah Sherman who did um at the very that was the first one that we went to from 8 to 9:30 the entire uh SAU 53 met in pen Brook's uh Auditorium um and Sarah Sherman did um a a a Keynotes on on trauma

200informed practices so talked about kids coming in and what happens to the brain when kids have under have gone through some sort of trauma um and how we can um adjust our instruction to help them and support them the best we can um there was a throughout the day there were 45 minute sessions that sa that teachers all over the SIU were presenting lots of different choices and um they were either doing 45 minute sessions or 990 minute sessions there was also a viewing of the movie anxious nation which was really well done if you haven't had a chance to see that I think you can get it on Prime um I don't think it's free um but it's not very expensive so it's it is worth a watch um U we ended the day

201with a job alike so Nancy and Ellen are probably very familiar with what a job alike is but basically all the kindergarten teachers got together and all the first grade teachers got and all the um music teachers and all the art teachers um Amy Parkinson a big shout out to Amy Parkinson who did most of the heavy lifting um along with some uh several of the SAU staff and I got lots of positive feedback from our staff about the day that it really was well run and it was beneficial this is our first day back an sa upd day since the pandemic so that was our last time we were together was March 11th or 12th or something 2020 so um most of the March PD days have been in house it was good to

202get everybody back together again um and on Wednesday March 12th uh the PTO delivered first of three they're they're helping us celebrate nutrition month so they delivered some uh nutritious snacks um on March 12th that was the first of three snacks they're coming they came in this week and they're going to be back in next week as well uh we also started our read Across America activities which is always a big um a big event here in in at school so March 10th through March 22nd is when read so will end this Friday um but we've had a battle of the books um with a guest uh reading with Mr wiy Mr wiy was reading with Mrs wiy and I think it might be the only way I might win I'm not sure yet I'm

203up against I think Melissa Davis so you are and scones and yeah and she's reading scones and we read it's not Little Red Riding Hood so Mr wiy came in as a a pirate character and as Pinocchio so I think I might just having him there was just an extra boost I needed every year I try to win and every year I don't um coming up uh last week we had dress as your favorite book character and this Friday is read my shirt day Tuesday March 18th um PTO delivered their second uh nutrition month snack um and then yesterday I mentioned that Administration and Mr kufos participated in a school security assessment uh so staff from the New Hampshire Department of Safety were here from the homeland security Emergency Management they visit every three years

204or so every school in the state of New Hampshire um so uh one of them uh the gentleman that was here his name was Kevin um he reviews the emergency operation plan um that's been uploaded to the state uh every year we have uh you have to upload your emergency operation plan to the state um and so he goes through a series of uh questions he checks to make sure that we have everything that we need to have and if we don't then they just let you know what things that are recommended things that are you have to have in there suggestions that they um would like to see in there uh and then uh we did go through a a series of questions regarding security measures like how many cameras do you have in

205the building do you have a monitor that has the camera view do you have all of those things that um we have we're always reviewing um they will provide a a report for limited release in U probably 30 to 60 days is usually when we get the report uh so I'll make sure that Patty gets that and um it's not for public consumption it's it is spec it says right on there for limited release so only um only the board will have a chance to to view that oh I don't I think it's just you and I honestly oh I'm pretty sure it's a very secure I'll find out but I think Homeland Security last time said that we can't you can't even forward the email it's pretty loed down interesting I think in nonpublic

206we could go over some things that we want to focus on sure they don't they won't let the rep the last time we had the last time we had this done it was during the summer and so they didn't see the action of the school and so this year they came back they were here yesterday so they got to see kids coming in and out of the building and parents coming up to the you know to ring the doorbell and they checked uh they they saw how people get into the building and the buzzer systems that we have and we also talked about the security upgrades we've done based on the last time they were here um we did use the security grant money to purchase or to upgrade some of the um the film

207on the windows and the buzzer system to get into the into the office and you need a fob to get through the office through the vestibule area into the office so those are some of the upgrades we did B talk about them after we do them because you don't want to talk about like oh we don't have a yeah right right right you know hey we got a safety Grant and Chris did these upad so yeah um and um today we had SIU leadership upcoming uh next week Nelms conference and the board is always very generous and uh we our most of our staff are able to use their professional development money already um but we uh the our Nelms we have five or six people going six people six Middle School teachers will be

208going to the Nels which stands for New England league with middle schools Brian spoke about that a little earlier um and so they will go down on Sunday uh they to stay overnight Sunday Monday and they'll be back on Tuesday last year when we had a bunch of Middle School teachers go when they came back we had a opportunity at one of our PD Wednesdays for them to share the sessions that they attended U talked about some changes that we want to make or improvements we want to make to the middle school so we'll do the same again this year upcoming Maro Vista info night on Wednesday March 26th our just our sixth graders are going to Maro Vista this year last year seventh grade was there then sixth grade came there was an overlap

209for one day um but just sixth grade is going and that will be a sixth grade trip um to marav Vista which is the nature camp and don't forget the talent show on April 3 it's usually right after February vacation but this year we pushed it off a little bit there will be a pizza pizza night right beforehand and followed by the tallent show it'll be fun it's always fun it's always fun to see kids get up there and they're so brave andc thank you any upates from no we haven't had meeting since the last one I recorded we're GNA have one in April yeah okay we will policies um so the first one PC is kind of a leftover um that had been edited a couple of times but we needed on for third

210meeting um but there has been any changes since the last meeting so stra um I will make a motion to approve policy KC um any discussion you know Canon sorry you're sort of jumping in on third reading which is not ideal but I didn't get to see it policies typically are introduced as a first reading and then if we have changes we will make those during the second reading and then they get approved after the third reading um and the the middle part of that approval process you're welcome to submit suggestions so we always take Board number suggestions and then we just save it in the drive as like it'll say Canon edits so people can see what your proposal was um so the policy committee which we just established for the first time last

211year generally takes the first stab at making a recommendation to the board of how they what they think of the policy if they have um changes or recommendations and then you know we can submit further changes but on the policy and there's a lot that are required by law aome and there's a lot of them that you know it's required by law and so we kind of have to do it this one we did change up a little bit yeah and I'm glad you did see that we posted yeah um and the naming of the policies are very confusing and don't actually correlate with I mean they correlate in some ways with the content but um they're hard to search and find they don't the coding system doesn't always or lend itself to easy find

212yes like you'll you'll figure out that like some categories of policies will start with Jay or start with J um board ones I think typically start with actually so like how we run board meetings are the BS and things and there is a bolder yeah on the drive gave me I was going to say but a lot more than it is I am trying to be helpful but it is a lot of information um okay so motion to approve policy kec uh all in favor I I and if you want to abstain you can ab if you have participated or hav't read it that's fine um but you are welcome to um so that was five any no any okay J is approved jjic so that's the one that I needed to submit to Dean

213um because we we had some changes in um regulations recently so um it gets confusing I know when there's so many different cross outs and changes and highlights um but Dean did submit and I it was in the drive and color so that you can see where he made changes um like for example it the um first draft from School Board Association said students original birth certificate um and because of the new the regulations changing Dean suggested students official birth state so it's the official birth state um and then he made a couple of other minor suggestions um but the original strikeout R was done in the last reading and that made it more dear specific um and then um need a change on the back superintendent or design he added he didn't make that

214yeah um any comments where was the uh is this the part the part two is that the deer field specific part um the Deerfield specific was letter D so in the academics um like the eligibility piece and the physical piece because there's the physical piece under C was high school students so that's all crusted out you don't have a high school um and then some of the eligibility stuff does not apply to middle school so that was all cross out so the red strike through on the under C and D was where it was la there everything else was suggested at the School Board Association and then Modified by our attorney because the regulations and these requirements are they're in the school policy right the actual re yeah is this our third reading yeah yes

215um that was the only part that I was confused about was that the the stri out part that so that just won't be in there okay so does that mean that um girls can play boys say out yes I believe because the regulations are specific to boys playing on girls teams it doesn't go the other way likee y That's why it was right I move that we accept this policy I see okay I will second any further discussion on policy JJ I there are there are a lot of um requirements for like academics and academic probation and stuff all spell they're not in here there are a lot of requirments Su and um um okay any other discussion right all in favor of approving policy jjic okay and then AC policy is incredibly obnoxious I

216even know how many pages but every time the title mind regulations get changed you have to update your um your policy and this policy AC AC is um the title is prohibition of sexual harassment policy and reads procedures um so there were several tit Title Nine policies updated but the note from the School Board Association attorney was you should wave your readings and adopt this right away um because right that's what that was that one and then the others we can put on a future agenda but this is the policy that has all the legal language that has been updated V well we did but then you got a new title line update on oh okay and so it's just saying we should just go not even in the boulder yeah mine I'm online right

217now oh so we had you're right in your memory because we have the title line policies the title line regulations changed so we adopted that and then they reverted back so now we have to go back to to this and it's very long but it's just because it's all legal language right do we have coordinator y That's Jess mford that is Jess and it said something about training the ball districts yes everyone we are trained by um sometimes our attorney and sometimes um a different education law attorney um every year you have to be trained to be you have to be trained both in title line as an employee and the administrators have to be trained on how to conduct investigations and staff it is all staff both two separate trains teach y so um

218Jess Bickford comes and she did like to train the prer model so she comes to every staff meeting in theu at the beginning of the year and does an update updated um title training okay I will make a motion to approve policy ACAC I'll second uh any discussion okay all in favor I'm 41 there something else time it wasn't showing up in your drive specifically yeah no um okay informational items the only item that I have is that there is a full SAU board meeting on April 9th um I don't know what we're talking about at that meeting um we're gonna talk actually on Thursday about the need to have that because we are we're required to have one in the spring but you just have one um a superintendent and there's no new business

219other than that so we might be able to turn that into an exec board meeting I remember what what we talked so that could become just I got to keep it on we're back to public comments don't all Rush up at wake us up I I told I was like it's not gonna be over before 9:30 so I'm it's a long one tonight I you should P it my [Applause] little okay the only comment I'll say by no means did I put any pressure or negativity on Chris it was truly the contct make my I was a little heated that's fine thank you um any other public comments okay so unfortunately our work is not done but you guys all have to I'm gonna move to go to non session purum to nhrs 91a col

2203 section two uh letters B and C okay anytime you go into no discuss you do a roll vote so I I [Music]