Hampton School District School Board Meeting May 12, 2026

001Um, good evening. Welcome to the Hampton School Board meeting, May 12th, 2026. Want to get started a minute late. Oh no. Anyway, um, would you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um Dr. Costa will be joining us a little late this evening. She's off um doing a presentation at an awards assembly, but we'll just get started without her. So um let's begin. I'm going to again shuffle the agenda around, I believe, because we do have Miss Clark presenting to us as a 14-year-old. I said she always looked 14 to me because I'm so much older. But she's going to help um as

002some many of our student athletes are away doing on their athletic endeavors. She's going to present some of the um information of the ortorial contest um that our eighth graders participate in. And Dr. Campbell, would you introduce >> just to give she'll give you the whole rundown on everything. Um but really we're really proud of all of our students and uh this ortorial project she'll go over. um really in-depth eighth grade really uh reminds me of some of the thesis work that I did. Uh it's impressive to see all the work that goes into it. Um but it also speaks to the type of students that we have here who are excelling academically but now also representing Hampton Academy on the field. So um literally every single finalist we have is at a game right

003now. So um with that said, I will pass it over to 14-year-old Miss Clark. >> Good evening. My name is Judith Clark. I'm an eighth grade English teacher here at Hampton Academy. Tonight, I'm here to speak on behalf of our 2026 ortorial contest winners. Um, who've already spoken and been recognized not only here at our final assembly, but also at the Rotary meeting in April. So, that was really great. Um, one of our favorite things about our eighth graders, like we said, is that they have diverse interests and they participate in a wide range of activities. And unfortunately for tonight, that means that our top three finalists are playing softball and running track. So, good for them. Yay. I hope they win. Um, our eighth grade ortorial contest is simultaneously one of the most feared

004and most beloved tra traditions and experiences for our eighth graders that they have during their time at Hampton Academy. Every year the first question that eighth grade teachers get is about the ortorial. It doesn't matter what subject they teach is going to be that. And then we also assure them at that point that they're going to be okay. And every year they achieve successes they never knew they could in research, writing, and public speaking. So this year's topics were as interesting as ever. We had maturity to protest music to grief to the influence of technology on kids to sports burnout living off the grid. Our students produce vi v a variety of interesting informative entertaining speeches to present to their classmates from their classes. They choose each class chooses two finalists. So, we had 10

005finalists this year that were chosen by the students. And then I chose two like wild card picks that I thought like just for whatever reason didn't get selected by their peers but deserve to have a shot in the finals. Our second runner up this year was Emily Leblanc who wrote a speech entitled, "Is it okay to be alone?" focusing on our modern distractions and how sometimes just being by yourself can be healing. The research she cited suggests that mental reset some and some solitude can offer benefits beyond just peace and quiet can also improve a person's self-worth and confidence. Our first runner up was Sebastian Finnegan who wrote about resilience in a speech called Whatever doesn't kill you Makes It Stronger. And he did indeed quote Kelly Clarkson. He drew on his own experiences being

006diagnosed with diabetes at age 10 and how a positive mental attitude and the tools of resilience can help a person deal not only in a tough situation with setbacks but also prepare yourself to be a successful person in life. Um the winning speech was titled overconumption. It was by Ava McQuilin and she spoke about how easy it is to buy things now at the top of a phone and even when we don't need them when we usually don't need them. Need is a strong word. um and how this continued purchasing of unnecessary items has led to the dangers of modern-day slavery and fast fashion. Um and she also spoke about the perceived and planned obsolescence of the technology that we're all used to having in our pockets at all times, like how we always feel

007like we need the next iPhone when truly we do not. Um and all of those things that come with our overconumptive brains and society and how it can be dangerous. Um, we're so proud of all of their accomplishments, of our students, of our finalists, of our top three winners, all of them. I'm sorry they couldn't be here tonight to speak for themselves because truly they are more adorable. Um, but the finals were recorded, so anyone who really wants to see them, you can go to the SA90 YouTube channel and you can find them. And I assure you that like all 12 of the speeches are totally worth watching. And um, I hope you enjoy them. Thank you. >> Thanks, J. >> Thank you very much. Um maybe at the June meeting if those students are

008available just to come and say hello so they could be publicly recognized by us that would be awesome. If they don't want to it's fine but I always like to get a picture with the board and our winners and things like that >> with their families. >> Okay. Thanks very much. >> I do just want to take a moment to thank Miss Clark and Mr. Cavalero. This is a a heavy lift. um you're helping educate students on how to write a thesis statement, uh do research, and then helping them along the way with scaffolding. So, um kudos to them. They really put they really collaborated and put forth a lot of effort. Um >> and so all the success the students had were were largely because of our English teachers. So, just wanted to give

009them a shout out as well. So, >> thank you very much. Okay, we will um hopefully see those students. You know who else I would like to see? Dr. Campbell next time. Maybe some of the winners from the You don't need to come back. So, some of the winners from the um the art show that was at Is it still at the library going on? No, it's no. Yeah, the art show. Any of the, you know, top-notch art people, I'd love to recognize them publicly also. I mean, I would love to recognize every kid in the school because they all have so much talent, but if maybe we could get those artists here, too. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, we will go back to our regular agenda and um budget committee assignments. Does anyone have

010a report for us? Anyone? No. Okay. I have a wellness meeting tomorrow. So, I know that that's and the only thing I can say on professional development is another of those meetings is coming up. But, um I know that mentor training is being worked on which is a professional development opportunity. AI training is obviously being worked on and um most people are in their doing their three-year cycle and so they're starting to really come together and show us well beyond 70 hours of of professional development not only in their subject area but in general education as well. So those are some things that I've been seeing. Anyone else? Um, with master plan implementation, we were recently talking about, you know, all of the stuff, but one of them being public art, that's a big piece

011of the master plan. Um, and we did briefly touch on the idea of getting more involved with the schools to develop some more public art. Nothing concrete, just putting it out there for everyone to know. It is in discussion um as one of the options very lightly. Um and with CI with uh capital improvements plan um committee just we've started the process of choosing dates for those meetings for this year. It's going to be a much more in-depth process this year at least three meetings as opposed to the one um and that committee is going to be a lot more involved in um advis in an advisory capacity as far as our capital improvements. >> So nobody's going to go out and tag buildings yet, right? >> Not yet. Okay. Anyone else? >> Uh, just

012a reminder for everybody for PTA that their spring event this year is a color run. It's a family run. They're going to be doing that on May 31st. You can sign up on the PTA Facebook page. Um, they've got a a a QR code that you can do that. And we're also going to have some information about it at the library. So, that's going to be a lot of fun. >> Yeah. I think I'm going to do it. >> Yeah. I know. All right. You do it. You do it with me. >> I'll do it with you. >> Okay. Yeah. All right. >> Anybody else? We could have a schoolboard team. Um anyway, so that's really great. How about anything from wreck department? >> Nothing big going on. I do think they'd still have a

013few spots left uh for tuck camp if you're looking for something for your kid to do over the summer. Um I think that's the only big thing that they have going on right now. >> All right. Anyone else? No. All right. We're all good on that. Um how about some of our administrative reports? Would you like to come up? >> Sorry. Hang on. >> Oh my gosh. You have a new baby. >> I do. >> That has to be number one. Tell us all about this. Oh my gosh. This is exciting. >> Yeah. Brody Charles Robbitai was born uh Friday, May 1st. So, >> um, we're in the thick of it right now. >> Oh, yeah. >> There we go. >> Oh, wow. That's >> So, we're in the thick of it right now and

014very tired and, um, but mom's doing well and baby's doing well. So, and >> that's great. >> New big brother is adjusting. >> And how old is the big brother again? >> Uh, he just turned three in April. >> Oh, yeah. There you go. So, busy times, not sleeping much, but it's Everybody's happy and healthy. Thank you. >> Obviously, you must be doing a great job cuz you look wonderful. That's it. Nice and congratulations. Thank you so much. >> Let's get a round of applause. That is very exciting. >> We always love new new babies in the >> So, everybody's doing well, so that's good. Um over at center, um just a couple things to recap from before break. I just wanted to highlight the grade 2 concert that took place. Uh Mrs. Mallet did

015a great job getting the students ready and performing over here at Hampton Academy. Um and another soldout performance. So, they did a wonderful job. Um we had our celebration of learning right before vacation as well that was very well attended. Um again a great opportunity to highlight everything that the students have learned and worked on this year and also um have our book fair. And we also uh kindergarten information night was held on April 16th. So we welcomed in many new families uh scheduled registration appointments which have begun um in the month of May. If you miss kindergarten information night, please feel free to call the center school front office um so that we can get you paperwork and that we can schedule a registration appointment as soon as possible. Um so we appreciate all

016our new families coming out and hearing more about our programming. Uh some things coming up at center. It is a very busy month, but a few things just to be mindful of. Um our week of wonder is this is our second year with that back up and running. Uh the PTA has assisted myself with the coordination of the event this year. Um so this week um on Thursday, families will get a slip of paper sent home in Eagle folders and that will list the child's activity and the day of the week that it's going to be next week. There will also be a mass email sent to all families Thursday telling them to check the Eagle folder um so that they know what what item or scheduled event that their child will participate in. Again,

017those days next week, Monday, May 18th, Tuesday, May 19th, and Thursday, May 21st. So, we're looking forward to having those after school activities next week. Um on Wednesday, we have the center school ice cream social. Um so, that will be right after school starting at about 3:20 lasting for about an hour. Um so, we're looking forward to our families coming through um for that event as well. And just a reminder, field day will be here before we know it. That's scheduled for June 5th with a rain date of June 12th. um very big deal at center school. So, I just want to start talking about that sooner than later. Um and I just noted our end of year benchmarks will be beginning now that we're back from April vacation. Um so, we're excited to see

018all the growth and learning that the students demonstrates um at the end of the year. And then we had a lovely surprise over over April vacation. Our staff room teacher lounge was transformed. Um, I want to give a big shout out to Kristen Garside and Allison Wolf and our PTA for backing that transformation. Um, it's was able to remain a surprise for the staff. So, when they came back on Monday for staff appreciation week, they were very surprised um and very grateful as well. It's now a space that hopefully they're proud of um can have meetings in and um you know collaborate and also find time to relax and enjoy each other. So, um, if you're ever by center, please feel free to check it out. It came along beautifully. Um, so we're very excited

019to have that. So, and again, thank you to the PTA for the the backing of that. And I think that those are the highlights of my report. And on little sleep, I think I didn't fumble through it too poorly. So, you did a great job. >> Um, does the board have any questions for me this evening? >> I just wanted to know at this point about how many kindergarteners do we have? >> I believe we're at 76 or 77 at this point. So maybe a few off from last year, but in the general vicinity about the same. >> Yeah. No, that's that's a good start. Well done. >> Yeah, we had a good showing. So we tried our best to advertise it and make sure the word gets out. So >> great. >> Yeah, it

020was a good night. >> Yeah. All right. Good. Anybody? Anybody else? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Get some rest. >> Um how about Mr. Sadler? >> All right. Hello. Um, great time of year. May is busy, June's busy. Um, we're almost wrapped up with the New Hampshire statewide assessment. We'll just have math that'll take place um, next week, I believe, the 19th and 20th, and then a few makeup tests and that'll be wrapped up and out of the way. There's a lot of great field trips and um, extended learning opportunities taking place, you know, after school and during the day as third grade does a lot with the history of Hampton and um, there's a few other things going to be great, but to highlight a few, our Memorial Day assembly will be May

02122nd. So, we always invite anyone from the community. You don't need to belong to, you know, Legion Post or VFW. Just if you are um an active or former serving member of the armed forces, we'd love to have you at our assembly. We start around 10:00. People start to file in our lobby around 9:30, 9:45. Um it's just a wonderful event. Um on May 28th, we will have our grade 2 three information nights. We invite students and parents who are in second grade um to come on over. where they'll hear a little bit more about what they're going to do next year, what life will be like as a third grader at Marston. And then we give the students and their caring adults a little bit of time to explore the school um and kind

022of see it without anybody else in it. It's nice. And then I would just say to the community, the parents, whomever, um just keep looking at Facebook, paying attention to our email, the website, um for upcoming events. We too will have field day in June. Um we'll have our celebration of learning, the fifth grade play, you know, fifth grade farewell, the final school morning meeting. There's a lot of events that take place at the school this time of year. So, um, taking a look at that will help you stay organized. Otherwise, it's just a great time of year. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Up the good work. Great. >> Okay, Dr. Campbell. Hello again. Um, yeah, a lot has lots going on. Uh, Washington DC was excellent. We had

023a great time. Students were couldn't believe it. Um, I found myself being more of a tourist than I thought I was going to be, which was really great. Um, uh, travel was was really smooth and we really had a really great time. Um, some communication. Typically, I'll do a coffee and conversation the Wednesday after, but due to the half day, I'll push it out to Thursday. So, Thursday at 10:45, uh, again, we have the link that goes live if you can't make it in person and I will send out the invitation tomorrow um for everyone. Uh, just a note that AAA and power hour ends this week, May 14th. Um, so, uh, any after school academics, um, that's going to stop for for now. Buses will continue to run as soon as the a as

024sports end. Uh, I know some of our track athletes rely on our buses for after school, so they'll be able to take a ride home. Um, fifth grade step up day was excellent. We're excited to head down to Marston this week uh to go talk at the uh in the cafeteria and answer questions mostly about uh recess and detentions for some reason was last year's bunch of questions. Um the Silk Sixth Raid Silk Road marketplace was something like I've never seen before. It was unbelievable. It was hot and sweaty in here and everyone was was selling everything. I could not believe we had a line out the door. So, thanks so much to the sixth grade um for putting that culminating activity together. Um, our seventh graders following up had a great Renaissance assembly uh

025to connect to their classroom instruction. They they uh the people came in got dressed up in all the Renaissance gear. One guy was some of the students were dressed as knights which was really great to see. Um just a couple of dates. Uh also in uh June 1st to June 5th there'll be a Scholastic Book Fair uh so you can warm up for summer reading. On June 2nd is going to be our band concert. Uh June 5th spring dance we're excited about. June 8th we have our chorus concert and June 9th we have our field day here. Uh June 11th will be our outsiders day and June 15th is our eighth grade final assembly. Um we will also be having our Memorial Day assembly on the Friday before uh which would be May 22nd and

026the last day of students is going to be June 16th. So we will have a board meeting before that. Um, but on June 3rd during our last ear early release day, we'll be celebrating the 250th uh year of uh New Hampshire. So, we're excited. We're going to have a celebration of sorry, of America rather. My fault, not New Hampshire. That too, but maybe a little longer. Um, with that, any questions for the board? >> What day What day did you say it was a dance? >> Uh, there's going to be a dance. Yeah, 10. We're going to get more information out. Uh, June 5th is a spring dance. >> Oh, okay. Great. >> So, thank you to the PTA for their donation. Pizza will be provided. Um I anybody questions? No. I just like to

027add our just while you're here and the other principles. Yeah. I'd just like to add our thank you to all the volunteers that helped make the um teacher appreciation week so great. >> Yes. I know all the schools were just thrilled with, you know, it's, you know, and it doesn't take a lot, but it's the the overwhelming um show of support and appreciation um much more than a lot of communities get. We're very very fortunate that we have such great volunteers who do that. So, thank you to all the volunteers who helped make teacher appreciation week and nurses appreciation week and day all good. >> Yeah, couldn't agree. Couldn't agree more. We have a a great group uh great community that support our schools and a great PTA who helps organize and so feel very

028fortunate to be part of the community. >> Okay. Well, after a week in DC, you get some sleep, too. >> Thank you. Okay. How about um Miss Johnson? >> Hi. um working hard on getting everything set for our extended school year program. It's going well. We are fully staffed. I've been working on creating spreadsheets and sending things out to families so that we can find out who's really going to attend, if they'll be able to join us for all four weeks or just a couple weeks, and whether not they require transportation. Um, we also just got some feedback on our parent involvement survey, which is part of indicator 8. Really, the state will only look at districts who have at least a 20% um response rate. They're really aiming for a 30% response rate. Preliminary

029results tell us we had a 32.96% response rate. So, that's about a third of our families. Um, so we can break that data down and look at the individual questions and I'll be doing that and sharing that at our next meeting. I just need a little bit more time to really go over it since they're still in preliminary stages. Um, I think it's overall we have some very positive results that families are happy with what we're doing, but it'll also help us tailor our partnerships with families. So if there is a spot or an area that we see, hm, maybe our score could have been a little bit higher or people seem to not understand something, it'll help us pinpoint those areas so that we can work on that moving forward. I do believe that

030the way that indicator 8 data is collected will be changing next year. I believe that rather than this one-time survey, um the survey is going to be available throughout the school year and parents will be encouraged to complete it after meetings. As always, we are forward focused and looking at what we can do for next year and what those areas of focus will be. So, the special ed department will primarily be focusing on compliance, student outcomes, and best practices surrounding scheduling and service delivery. I didn't put this in my report, but I wanted to share what an fun day last Saturday was. We had our partnership with um Hatch in SAU 21 for the Children's Literacy Day with Llama Llama. It was raining, but it was so well attended. It was over at the Winnana

031High School cafeteria. All said between um students and parent or kids and parents, we had roughly 250 people show up. Um it was just it was a ton of fun. It was a great day. >> Oh, that's wonderful. >> Celebrate literacy and see how excited the kids were to see, you know, Llama Llama and get some books. and your the ESOL group that you had. Um I think I'm saying it correctly. Um they had an an evening and the kids were here. That was really fun, too. >> That was that was a great night and that was also very well attended. I was able to be there for about the first hour or so. >> Yeah, I was surprised. Every table was full. There were kids overflowing. >> Yes, the family engagement night was a

032huge success. They've they've tended to have really good um engagement for those nights >> and it hasn't always been that way, but but I feel like we're getting more and more Yeah. engagement. >> That's so nice to see. And even some former students came back to say hello. So, that's always exciting. >> Yeah. Okay. Anybody have any questions? >> No. All right. Thank you very much. You did a great job. >> Uh let's see. We're all on that. And Mr. Smith. >> Hello. Um, not very much to add to my board report tonight. Uh, most of our focus right now is renewals for next year, evaluating usage reports on the software and programs that we're using. Uh, getting feedback from our end users, in this case, our teachers, uh, to find out what they like

033and don't like and what they're using well. Um, and then also just working on getting in any of our last minute uh equipment that we can try and squeeze in to update for prior to next year. Um, but other than that, that's most of our focus right now. So, if you have any questions, all right, again, great job. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And Mary. Oh, no. Tim, sorry. Tim first, then Mary. I apologize. Mary. Tim brings his with him. >> Evening everyone. Um, what do I want to talk about? Oh, uh, we had a busy April break. U, we did a had a bunch of contractors in looking at stuff. Um, we sent out RFPs for boiler at center school and windows at center school. So, we had a bunch of contractors over

034there looking at that. A lot of questions. Um, hoping to get the ball rolling on that this summertime. This summer will be busy again. Um, we had actually, uh, Marson school, we had them looking at flooring over there also trying to get some of those replaced, um, that need it in a bad way. Um, oh, I did want to, uh, Mark talked about the staff room, but Kristen and Allison and Chelsea and Jen, they were awesome. Uh, got it together in about 4 days. Um, yeah, even just the paint. If you haven't been over there, check it out. It's awesome compared to what it was. So, yeah, I'll hire her this summertime. She gets it done. Um, what else I got? I think that's it. Not a whole lot. >> Did we get any um

035bids back for those? >> Yes, we did. For the windows, we did. Yes. >> Okay. So, you're all set with those. >> Yep. >> Oh, perfect. Oh, excellent. >> There you go. >> And I think it's this today is Tuesday. It's Thursday. Uh, they are required to get the uh bids back for the boiler. So, I sent that out to about five different contractors. So, and all five came to the meeting, which was good. >> Oh, >> all right. That's great. >> Yeah. Good. >> We'll see. >> Okay. >> Good. >> Anybody else have any questions? >> No. Okay. >> Thank you, Tim. And now, Miss Mary, >> I'm sorry. Jump the gun. >> All right. It's that time of year. >> It is. >> We have to talk about lunch pricing. So, right now

036we're at $355. I was proposing to go up to 375. I think if you see in my board report, I mean, and if you've seen them before, the average cost is costing us about 475,40. It's what it is. It's costing everybody in the state of New Hampshire that to put out a a lunch right now. Breakfast costs have gone high also. Uh we've been at $2 for a long time. So I was going up to$ 250 and that could be a yay or a nay or >> what are your thoughts? >> Yeah. I mean, it's >> Would you like to discuss it now or do you want to put it on hold for a little bit and have time to do some considering? >> Uh, >> I'm okay with talking about it now. >> I'm

037sorry. >> I'm okay with talking about it now. >> Okay. All right. So, >> just just to clarify, up to you said up to 360 or up to 375? >> Up to I was going to We're at 355 now. My suggestion for lunch was 375. >> Okay. I just wrote it down. It's good. And again, the national average is 475 for lunch and 2.95 for breakfast, >> right? >> So, we're still below average. And and some things to take into account, you know, federal nutrition standards like you have in your report, you have to offer fruits, vegetable, milk, whole grains, and lean protein. >> And it's got to be something that kids want to want to have, you know, and that's sometimes not so easy. You have to limit calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added

038sugar. Again, >> limits and limits and limits kind of >> break that down. >> Um, >> federal school lunch reimbursement is 470. Um, >> and that's only for free children. >> But that's free. Yeah, just for the free and free group. Yes. >> Uh um, but that 470 has to cover the food and supplies, labor, equipment, deliveries, utilities. It includes a lot. It's not just food that people need to remind remember remember that, >> right? A lot of plastics. >> Do do we have any information on the state average for lunch? And like I National is great, but I'm just wondering on like the state averages. >> I don't. >> Yeah, for the for the state of New Hampshire, we're running about 479. >> That's the state for New Hampshire. 479. So, we're >> for

039the reimbursement or for the >> I thought you said for I'm sorry >> cost >> what the cost is. Yeah.$4.79. >> Um >> and I don't have the list in front of me but for paid students we don't get we get 59 cents I believe. >> Right. >> So our free is only about 14% 13.5. So, so free we get the most reduced meals close to four and then the paid kids we get 50 59 cents. So we have to put out the rest of the money to cover the meals. >> Mary, where are we at with our debt? >> $5,000 and 25 $5,25. >> That's student debt. >> Student debt. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and I was saying there's there's some families that were on the free meal program last year that they weren't qualified

040this year and they're having a hard time paying the bill and the kids are eating. Not a lot, but there's about four families that were on the meals that didn't get um approved this year. with that. Is there any concern that raising the cost could just put put us further back? >> I I know it's it's >> I just wonder just Yes. No, I >> Well, how much is the cost per meal? 4 >> 475 average >> is our average cost per meal. So, we're already paying the difference, >> right, >> per meal that we serve. So, we're already in a deficit at that >> that we're paying. Mary, maybe you could just speak to for a minute about what it looks like if we don't raise it. Just, you know, because we're sitting here,

041I think we all recognize that the costs are going up and it probably does need to be increased, but um maybe it would be helpful for anybody watching at home to understand what happens if we don't. >> If we don't, then the um general fund from the school picks up that cost. So, Mariah, that goes back to taxpayers. >> Yeah. And depending on if these House bills pass, we're going to have a tax cap and we won't be able we're going to be struggling to figure out how to pay staff and supplies um let alone food service. So right now our average deficit for food service is for the past few years have been over $60,000 that the fund balance covers, right? Um the past four years we have not had to cover that because

042of we have um had a balance because of COVID because CO was paying almost double that for every meal. So we had revenues that covered it. This year will be the last year that we'll be able to utilize that money. So going forward fund balance is going to have to cover that. Um that's concerning um because I have been looking that's what I've been working on um for the past two weeks is doing contracts and putting the new budget in and looking at our budget how we ended this year and um it's it's just the way that the economy is changing and the way that we we've hired and the way that everything has um next year's budget already starts different than we started this year's. budget. So, it's it's it's rough. >> So, for

043districts like exit who just passed, >> that's um a million dollars that is going to be covered by t taxpayers and they >> will that exist outside of the t tax cap or >> I was one of the people that actually fought against that. Um I couldn't go to their delivery session because we were at ours. Um because now you are going to lose they're going to lose their revenue from free and reduce because those forms won't be filled out. So they'll lose grant money. Yes. >> Quite a bit of grant money. >> They are not going to get revenues that that they get because of um nobody putting money in. So the extras that people buy are gone. And they did really well with that. >> Yes. >> Um they are there so many

044levels to that. and they were about the same as us about 12% um free and reduced. Sounds like a lot. Um but then you have maybe after the 12% of free and reduced, you maybe have 6% on that cusp. And if you just put in enough money in your fund balance to cover that cusp, just maybe 10 grand, 20 grand, um taxpayers won't have to cover that. >> Yeah. >> 100 grand, million dollars, whatever. How depending on they didn't do the whole um they didn't put the whole percentage of every student in in their budget. They put 40% of the students are going to eat. So I already think that that's going to be an issue because I think more than 40% are going to actually take advantage of that. >> When we had free

045meals during co 98% of kids ate with us. So I think that's going to happen. >> I think like I I looked at it and looked at it and I'm with you guys. We should feed bellies are important. Like feeding students are important. Um but we're not in that 40 50% free and reduced like we can really just afford to cover the people that really need it. Right. Right. Right. >> Um >> and I don't think that um if we even if we just put it up a a little bit, it will help us be able to cover more of the people that do need the help. That's my opinion on it. I mean, I had that opinion and exit or passed it, right? Like I get it. Um but they passed every bill. >>

046Oh, >> I have a question. Didn't we up the price last year, but we did it for two years, didn't we? >> Oh, >> we did it for two years. >> Oh, I don't remember that. Okay. >> I don't remember. >> I'm pretty sure we did. We can still >> If we all voted, we could still adjust it this Yeah, we can still adjust it, but I just wanted to say that. >> Yeah, >> I think we did it for 5 cents last year and we did it for what? >> Last year we were low. So, >> yeah, >> but things are a little different this year >> logistically or legally. Do we need to change our >> No, you can vote on Okay. >> Um, you just need to vote on what you want

047to do this year. All right. I just didn't know if I had to do something different because we had said two years. Okay. So, what do you folks? What's your pleasure? >> I'm ready for a motion. I'm sorry. I'm ready to make a motion. >> Okay. Does anybody else But I'll wait in case anybody else wants to. >> Sounds like we're ready. You guys want to see that? >> I'll make a motion to raise lunch to 375 and merry breakfast 250. >> 250. >> Effective. >> It'll be effective for next school year. >> Next school year. Next school year. >> Yeah. Okay. Any discussion? Any further discussion about that? Sure. Okay. All right. >> I actually just and it's really not because I disagree. I just want to fully understand. You had mentioned that when

048students suddenly didn't qualify for free and reduced lunch, you saw a lot more that you weren't getting money for or you saw more. So like >> is it I'm just curious about the pattern and the behavior. So, like are you saying that you saw most of the students who previously qualified for free and reduced continue to get lunch and not be able to pay for it or they stopped? Okay. >> I just want to make sure that's very clear. >> Couldn't pay for it and they're still eating with us. >> Adding more to the debt. And I just I just want to make sure that point's really clear. I I it's not changing my opinion on what we need to do in this situation, but I just like feel like >> and that's part of

049the 5,000 student debt. Should we clarify why those students what what changed for those students and their families? >> The income guidelines on those free and reduced uh forms went not the right way. >> Adjusted it. >> Uh and it just we lost families >> medication. >> We did we lost some families that needed. >> Okay. And there's a bunch of new laws that have come out um for next year on what uh food >> the food is >> the food guidelines >> food guidelines change like all of that's changed um and I'm sure there's going to be more because they have a habit of changing things in the middle >> right so it's >> you know >> and there's yeah there's new dietary guidelines so that's impact >> there's going to be some changes

050for next year for sure >> if you look at the income guidelines I mean, it's just awful. A family of, you know, making 65,000 a year with five kids. Oh, they approved for reduced lunches. I mean, I don't know. Don't get me started. I don't know who's making these laws up there, but if you want them to live on $65,000 with, you know, family of five, you go for it in this day and age. So, >> I don't know who does it up up >> up at the hill. So, it's difficult. So if I'm happy to second the motion and I think we do likely need to raise the prices, but given that we have a contingency of people who are no longer who will continue to need the support and no longer have means

051to access it via a free and reduced. Can we make a commitment to investigate a vehicle for people to donate? I've seen other towns do this. >> Um, I'm sorry. I totally I'm totally cutting you off. finish. So, I think via my school bucks. I've I've donated to lunch funds for kids, beraved families in other states, and it's been via my school bucks. I'm wondering if a meeting with them where we talk about a fund that people could anonymously just contribute into or even um like that's one facet of it. I would like a mechanism for people to give should they wish that isn't, you know, sending a check into the school because I think that that's probably a barrier for receiving some of those funds. Um, and I think we need to evangelize auto

052upping your lunch balance as a parent who did not always auto enroll. Um, you know, those reminders can slip through the cracks on your phone, on your email. there's a billion things coming at us all the time. >> Uh if we do a better job at the beginning of the year of saying like look >> this is going to become a headache. It is a headache for us. It will be a headache for you. We don't like to make these calls. Um this is a very tenuous program as it is. Please please enroll in auto renewal for your my school bucks. I think that could likely save us some of the headache of doing these collections calls that nobody likes to make and weed out some of the people who are capable of paying but

053maybe it gets lost in the shuffle versus the people who are that 6% on the cusp who really need the support and are likely very hesitant to raise their hand and say we need help, >> right? >> Um so I think obviously we do we need to fund the program especially in the changing landscape of everything. Obviously, we want this to not be upside down. Um, but I worry about that at risk percentage. Um, and we don't it, you know, it might be even more than 6% because people can be very hesitant to share that they're struggling. Um, >> so just with a clear eye that we need to >> do something there. And I don't know if it's if it's like totally impossible or if we could get creative with that. What I was

054sort of shaking my head about is that, and Mary can correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah. >> When we receive direct donations, they cannot be used to pay student debt. >> Correct. >> Not student debt. We use those for other We use those donations for other >> food >> for food. Yes. Correct. >> Extra food for the children that need it. >> We cannot directly raise money to pay student debt. Okay. So we would have to So someone would have to if we established like a slush account where >> the workers who see the kids daytoday in the cafeteria know that this child is not going to be able to afford it. They could pull from that fund in that moment but could not retroactively. >> So there's a couple things. One is any donation

055no matter if it's $2 has to be approved by the school board to accept and expend. So that's one issue. >> Okay. Um and then the second is food service has law against what you can use revenues for and um it revenues that come in for donations can't be used to offset your debt. So it can be used to offset student debt. But if they want we could utilize it to purchase seconds. >> Okay. >> That's what we do now. >> Yeah. Okay. That's >> so when a business donates it and can't and says to food service, it goes to new food. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Oh, so the people who donate like the woman who >> left. >> As far as I know, the only the only mechanism we have for

056paying that student debt beyond the families paying it is for us using revenues from other areas, our budget >> to pay it off. So when when I was able to donate, it's because it was linked directly to a student and not a fund. Correct. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, and it's not a donation. It's literally >> I mean, realistically, you don't want Mary to have to decide who gets the money and who doesn't because she doesn't want to make a decision on who needs it and who doesn't. >> And by law, nobody should know right >> what the student if it have free or reduced. Nobody should know about Mary, which is what I was going to say. It's very important for everybody to know that that we are so um in favor of that.

057>> And so, please fill out those reports. Even if you think you're just going to need it for a month of help, it's worth it. Like, cuz that will help with our debt and and giving them free lunches. that we cannot have the the staff in the the cafeteria identify >> right who >> it is going to need this and I'm going to get them a free thing everyone comes through >> everyone comes through >> everyone pays >> yep >> and then all the rest of it is handled on the back end >> and the back >> yes >> so now I do believe that in our budget we could put an amount for fund transfer right to cover that fund balance um in case it comes um maybe I talk to the auditors when

058I'm being audited and talk to them how to do that and if it's it's still okay to do and maybe that's what we look at during budget season. >> Yeah. >> Um because I I agree like again >> I feel that we we we in Hampton take care of the students and we try to do the best and not um and and feed them when we need to. Um but that with this tight budget that we might be having >> um it might be something that we look at because in the past we've been able to fund it with the the fund balance but I'm not sure the future depending on what brings. >> I had one last question. Can this group that has been formed, the friends of Hampton schools, can they do any

059type of let's say fundraising and in general it goes toward it would go toward what? >> It has to go to fund balance, right? >> Could it go to the fund balance? >> Okay. >> Or we could establish maybe a vehicle for people to donate directly to them to, >> you know, transfer that money. >> Okay. So, first thing we're going to do is take a vote on um the increase in the school lunch account. >> Do we have I need a second? I'll second the motion. >> Sarah second it. So, the motion is to the motion by Wendy is to increase the price of lunch to 375 and to increase the price of breakfast um to $2.50. That's been seconded. All in favor of that? >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, I would

060like to make a motion then that we establish um and investigate ways to do auto renewal. >> Mhm. >> Does that make sense? Yes. >> Yeah. >> And that we that >> you find a way from the auditors to do >> I'm going to look into putting money into a fund transfer to >> see if that's still acceptable. And then the third thing would be to and get in touch with friends of Hampton schools in order for them to do the fundraising to put into the fund balance. Correct. Okay. So that's a three-part motion. Does anybody want to second it? >> Okay. Seconded by Sarah. So all in favor of those three parts. >> Okay. Great. That's an honor. >> Okay. >> Does that help? >> That helps. That helps. Auto renewal. That's what I'll

061check into. >> And just one quick um note to parents and folks out there, if you have your child and you've got just gotten behind and catching up with what you owe for school lunches, we'd sure appreciate it if you could. >> Thank you. >> Get caught up on school lunch money. That would be great. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thanks. Okay. So, our next person is uh well, Lois isn't here, so we'll move on beyond her. So, I'd like to um take up our consent agenda, if that's all right with everyone, and um get a motion for accepting the meeting minutes for April 14th, both public and non-public. Anybody want? >> Okay. Motion by Wendy. >> Okay. Seconded by Molly. All in favor accepting the meeting notes for April 14th for public and non-public.

062Okay, great. Okay, next thing we have, we have some donations that we would like to make a motion to accept. And let's see, the first one is um like to make a motion to accept. We can do these both together. Box top box tops for education um to center school in the amount of 47.90. And again, uh I think this Yeah. And another one for Marston School for $17.60 for box tops for education um for their enrichment programs. Okay. All in favor of those two. Okay. Done with those. Um if you wouldn't mind, the next thing I'd like to look at the manifest. Make sure nobody leaves tonight until these are all signed. Um, the next thing I would like to look at, if it's okay with you, is the schoolboard meeting dates. Is everybody

063Okay. My only thought and my only thing that I would put out there on the schoolboard meeting dates would be um if you would like to take the month of July, thank you for your all your service. God, well done. Off you go. will still be here, right? >> July. >> Yeah, July. That's what I was going to talk about. Sorry. So, I was just thinking, is anyone have an idea about maybe taking the month of July off and getting two like August 4th and August 11th? So, you don't have the whole month or do you want to just keep it the way it is? >> Do we need two? >> I'm sorry. >> Would we need two? >> Well, we might not. I mean, we could just take the month of July off and

064then when we get to the August 11th meeting, if it looks like it's going to be too much at that time, we could maybe agree to have another one in August. I just need one sometime after July. June, I'll need you to vote on an estimate of what's going to go to fund balance, what's going to go to retainage, and then I get audited in July. So, at some point before I send my DOE25 out in September, I'll just need you to vote in there. So, I'll need June and then one in July or August. Other than that, >> is that something you think we could cover in the August 11th regular meeting? >> Oh gosh. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. How about we just cut July? >> All in favor of >> taking July off.

065>> Wait, wait. I need um Sorry. Do I need a motion? Okay. So, moved and seconded. All right. >> Yeah. So, all in favor? Yes. >> Do we need to do anything related to >> hiring? I mean, I think we usually just provide Lois guidance to let us know that she's >> Do we we make a motion on that? >> I don't know. We did it last month. We last month we gave her permission. >> Okay. >> If she felt it was urgent. >> Okay. So, we're all in agreement that over the summer if something comes up and and Lois has an opportunity to get a really good qualified candidate that um that we give her that you know that blessing to go ahead and and do that and obviously let us know in the

066process but not that we have to have a formal part to it. Um, we have, let's see. Okay, sorry. I have to keep myself organized. Um, I would like to under correspondence, I'd like to put personnel with that if you're okay with that. Um, and we have a um a maternity leave of absence for the coming year. And again, do we need to I don't feel like we need to have a motion on that. No, we don't need to have a motion, but just be aware we have a maternity leave that is happening and we wish that it's pretty wonderful time with with new babies. New babies are always wonderful. And we do have a candidate um for uh a replacement for a teacher. It's a K through2 classroom teacher at um center school. Uh

067the name is Jamie Newman. you've all been given the information on um this person and I would like to and because the superintendent's in charge of that, we don't really have to do anything about it, but I just >> No, but I think she >> I wanted to have you guys vote on it. Okay. It's a teacher. I think we have to vote on um all those in favor of having >> Do we need a motion? We need a motion. >> Yes. Sorry. Sorry. Do I have a motion to um nominate Jamie Newman for the K through2 classroom teacher? >> Absolutely. with pleasure. >> Okay, I'll second I'll second if you don't mind. So again, I'm sorry I kind of blew that. All in favor? >> Okay, so we welcome Jamie Newman to the center

068school staff. >> I also now have a candidate that would be um that we know very well and classroom teacher grade four from Marston School, Emily Moore. Do I have a motion to >> I would like to make that motion. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Going to fight you. I'm going to second. >> Okay. Second. I think Sarah or Candace. Um, all in favor of Emily Moore. >> Great. Like to welcome her. >> Happy to have her back. >> Back on board. That's awesome. Um, were those the only two that we had? Is everything I had? You had one in your folder. Maybe. >> Just want to double check that I've got everybody. Two seconds. Okay, that was Emily, J I mean Jamie, and Now, her name is spelled differently in two

069different places. >> Yeah, it got >> Okay, so we got that fixed. >> That was fixed. >> Okay, so that's that. And we have the other one there. >> Yes, I caught that when I was putting it. I'm like, doesn't make sense. So, I fixed it. >> Okay, we're good. >> All right, so we're good on those. So, those are the only ones we have for personnel. Um, I do not have any correspondence other than what we got tonight. Um, which was an invitation to the Hampton Academy final assembly. And we also have something um, I forgot about this and it was adorable. So, I did receive someone dropped this off to me at the library for the school board and it was to thank us for our support of the Maren U Maple Program.

070And it says, "Dear schoolboard members, thank you for supporting our maple project. I learned that the tree has to be 10 inches to tap it. My favorite part was doing the jobs and working together. I liked that because it was fun getting to do different jobs from Ria and Roman and Miss M. Laz's class, and it's very adorable. You guys should look at it later. It's super cute." >> So, we love those. >> That was my correspondence. >> That's awesome. No, I mean, I wish kids would always do that. Those are great. And we also have an invitation to the Hampton Academy uh Memorial Day Assembly, which is Friday, May 22nd at 8:45 a.m. for any of us that are available. Uh it says, "Please join us in the main lobby at 8:20." And we

071all got from Will and Joe. We all got those invitations, which is awesome. Okay, so we're taking care of that and that. I'm sorry. I have to go like kind of by >> All right. sent an email while just while we're sort of doing all this, Lois sent out an email about the Hampton Beach Village District. Do I remember that? Asking if one of us could go. Does that ring a bell to anybody? It was while I was away. Um, >> okay. >> I don't know if anybody wants to >> What date is that? >> I don't know. This turned out not to be as useful a comment as I thought it would be. >> You did. Oh, would you >> if you just I don't have the email. >> It's possible I deleted it.

072We will track that down. And >> I I didn't >> I don't think I got it. But anyway, Molly, if you could find out the date and if you're available to go to that meeting, that would be amazing. If not, let me know and I will try to make it instead. >> I think I just did. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Save the date here. Great. Thank you so much. That's awesome. Okay, so back around November, December, January, February, right before elections and right after we had done all of our budget work, um there was a lot of questions and concerns about how we were going to let people know things that apparently they didn't, especially with finance that they weren't really sure about. So, we called upon Sarah and Candace to help us out and

073they are ready to show us tonight the finance workshop series, how schools are funded and I am very pleased that you were able to do this. Thank you so much. >> Of course. Yeah. So, the idea the idea of these is just to be kind of a quick hit. So, we're not going to bore anybody or take too much time, but each each month hopefully we can delve a little deeper. Today's is kind of a high level overview of just how funding works and where this came from is um you know times are tough and you know of course during budget season um people see costs go up and we don't always understand what's going on kind of behind the scenes and and why that's happening. Um I will say even after serving in the

074state legislature this exercise was so informative for me because this is um not for the faint of heart trying to understand how New Hampshire funds its schools. It's very complicated. So, um, our hope is to make this a little more accessible for everybody. So, we will make this available after the meeting as well. And there's some great links in there. Fair funding New Hampshire, for example, has some great resources um, as well. So, we can just start. You want to do the first slide, Sarah? >> Yeah. So, like Candace said, even for those of us who exist in this realm, um there is a lot to be learned here and in our research, I was surprised to find that we have been implementing a statewide property tax to fund public ed since the literal 1700s.

075So, it is not a new concept. um people who push back against it. I wonder if they know what a long and rich history we have of using tax money for something that um benefits all of society. So the ball started rolling in 1789 and has continued to this day. There are two really um important callouts. I don't want just want to read the information on the slides. They'll be available for people who want to kind of peruse them later. Um, but in recent history, there have been some lawsuits that have shaped and affected the way that we fund public ed. Um, you may hear them referred to as the Conell cases. Um, but in 1993 and 1997, the Claremont School District uh sued the state essentially. um and their their position was that education

076is a state responsibility and must be funded by the state. In response, um the swept tax, as you may hear it referred to, was created, which is a statewide education property tax. And the goal of that tax was to raise what they called base adequacy funding. Um in 2018 they were again sued. Um and the alleged the premise was basically that the amount of adequacy funding really was completely inadequate far below the actual cost of educating students. Um in 2023 the court finally agreed. However um we've kind of been at a standstill there. So we now see a landscape of funding across our towns that results in a really um inequitable landscape of property taxes because as you'll see kind of throughout this presentation property wealthy towns the towns like the Newcastles of the state

077um need a very low tax rate to approp to raise those funds while other towns who are not as property wealthy like your cuddens for example um they have a much higher burden to raise those funds to fund public ed. >> Yeah. And so I think um you know a big a big piece of this is just really understanding how much of this really does fall back on our local property taxes. Um and I think that's something that not everyone might realize. We think of it as oh the federal government must must contribute a ton of money. They do not. Um and the state must contribute a bunch. They do not. Um, so what happens is we have this baseline. It's the cost of inadequate education and that's defined by an RSA for 2026. The

078amount is 426564 per student. I think we all know even if we don't work in the schools that that's nowhere near what we actually have to spend per student um in order to educate kids. But then that base amount can go up. They call that differentiated aid based on a couple of categories. one is students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, special ed students and also um English language learners. So the amount can go up somewhat. So from that point that amount that has to be met um by the town we have three I guess primary buckets you would look at the first being swept. So that that's what Sarah was just alluding to. What happens there is the state sets a tax rate. it's uniform across all cities and towns and that's where

079you see some of the inequity because while this the rate is the same for all cities and towns um not every town has the same property value from which to draw from it is collected and retained locally so it never goes to the state um and then the second bucket is the state education aid so if a if a town or a city is not able to raise enough through swept to meet at least the equal um or at least equal to the base cost of an adequate education plus the differentiated aid. Then the state steps in and pays the difference as what they call adequacy aid. And then the third bucket is entirely specific to the town or city where you live. Um and that's where you know every town votes and approves a

080budget for its schools. And that again comes out of town and city tax dollars. So I think the the common theme here is we look at SWAT and we look at local property taxes and they are you know by by far and away coming from local taxpayers. So to go a little bit deeper into the history of swept when it was initially introduced in 1999 the premise was that donor towns um which I don't love the language there just even in calling it that it implies that it's some kind of charitable giving which it really was not um the idea was it would it would go into a central fund the towns were never meant to retain any excess and yet a coalition of those towns formed and lobbyed for change um which was passed

081in 2011 essentially allowing the folks who were already advantaged um with a oh fun um those towns are already advantaged basically to hang on to their excess essentially raising the burden for less fortunate towns with lower property values and benefiting the people who um didn't truly need it in the first place. Um, so just to highlight kind of the critical position of this, critics argue that this effectively gives wealthier communities a lower overall tax burden while poorer communities must raise local property taxes to cover school costs. Um, and so when you are kind of navigating things like, you know, why why is this school district why does it cost so much money and and maybe we're, you know, unhappy with something about it. This is the framework that you should be referring back to and

082understanding that a lot of it all of it essentially is outside of local control. So the the math behind swept I apologize if some of this is repetitive but essentially again the structure of swept is the rate is set by the state and it's the same for everyone. It's collected locally by the towns and cities and it's retained by local districts. So it never goes back to the state. Um, in practice, what happens is, um, what they're doing is they're setting one swept rate per thousand dollars of property value that applies equally to every town. The property owners, we all pay this as part of our local local property tax bills. And then the collective swap revenue stays in the community. Again, to Sarah's point, the excess above base adequacy that originally was intended to

083kind of go back in the pot and be spread around amongst other towns, that does not happen now. So um only what we raise and swept is what is counted towards our town's obligation to meet um base adequacy amount. So in summary, this is just kind of a quick snapshot. So you our audience, if you will, um I don't know how many people are tuning in, but hopefully this can be a quick resource for people to revisit if they, you know, just need to foundationally ground themselves in what's what. It's a good place to start. Um the takeaways that we we want people to understand, we are not a donor town. Um at one point in time we were we are now um a receiving town of or we would have been a receiving town

084were that on the menu. Um so just something to keep in mind. We don't want this to be partisan. We have included two nonpartisan resources at the bottom of the presentation. One of which is the fair funding project. Uh you can get truly lost. Everything I think that you would like to learn is there and then some. Um it is a masterclasscrash course in how New Hampshire funds public ed and also reaching higher New Hampshire. Um they have a page specific to funding. They're also a wonderful resource for all things education. So for the people who want to become engaged um we welcome you. We absolutely uh you know I human beings just walked into the room and I think all of our hearts skipped a beat because we're so happy to have people here

085talking about it. Um, we want to talk about it with you all year long, not just at a deliberative session where we're all strapped for time, intensions are high. Um, we want to be transparent. We want to be welcoming and we want people to participate. We hope that this is the first step uh in that process. So, please reach out. I know we're all open doors. You can email, you can call to ask any questions. Mariah is quite literally um I don't know anyone with more expertise on the planet in this area. So if and I know that she is more than willing to share her knowledge. Um so would encourage anyone who wants to learn more and I hope that that's a lot of people uh to please reach out um and come hang

086out with us. I would just add one more thing. If you heard that number $4,200 and you're thinking why is that the base adequacy amount? Why are we pretending that that's enough to educate a student? There was a court case 2025 I believe where it was ruled unconstitutional. But the problem we have is that to do anything about it, our legislature has to act. and as of yet they have not. So we're just stuck with what we're stuck with at the moment. And I think what might be a good topic for us to delve into next week is a little bit more into the education trust fund. And so the piece that the state kicks in, where does that come from? And um how does that work? >> That's it. of what the >> going

087forward. >> Well, it's it's information and I think the great thing is is that this will go out on Friday with the newsletter. This was one of the the changes we made is that we will send out the recording so people will have an opportunity maybe to see this at their leisure. And then of course when you're seeing it, you may have questions and please reach out because um the more informed you are about it, the more we as a Hampton community can take action. Um and and what I've said today at my leadership meeting is never underestimate um really what can happen with collective action. Um I'm I'm really pleased to see that um open enrollment is now been tabled and um believe it or not the C Coast has been given some credit

088for being able to make some changes and some shifts. So, as somebody who is a Southeastern chair, um I take great pride in that and you know, you got to know what you're going to stick your neck out for. And there are some things that like open enrollment was concerning to me as budgets are um tax caps because that impacts our programs and that impacts our kids. So, as somebody who is a superintendent and lives in this community, um take a lot of pride in what we can offer our students. And so when that is at stake, that becomes what we we want to fight for. That becomes what we're going to raise our voices for. But they want to hear from, when I say they, I would say our constituents, those people that go

089and vote, our selectmen, our really, it's our Congress and our Senate, right? Those people, our representatives, they want to hear from um citizens of the state of New Hampshire. They're very used to educators, superintendent speaking, but when you can get other people to lift their voices and raise them, it it makes a difference. So, please um if you have questions, reach out to us and if you have concerns, I would say reach out to those people that can make a difference, the legislators and the senates senators, because those are the people at the end of the day that will will vote one way or the other. And alls it takes is to um make some make a few changes and then other people start to think about why are they making the change like why

090are they not supporting it. Um if people realize that tax caps will impact students and programs, you may feel differently about what that means. and and I think you know your what you presented tonight gives people some history but also how that's all decided in the fact that again New Hampshire is gives the lowest amount of money to public education of the 50 states. So there's some room here for improvement to say the least. But I don't know did they do they have a question? >> Well, I'm gonna >> Okay. Yeah. >> No, that's okay. Um thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This was wonderful. You really put it very Anybody can understand it, including me. Could you talk to us next time about that educational trust fund? >> Awesome. Thank you so

091much again. Okay, do we have Ava or Emily? >> Rowan. Yeah, Rowan. >> Okay, Rowan, come on up. Uh, I'm an eighth grader and I just came back from the DC trip last Friday and I just wanted to thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to go. I loved everything from the Holocaust Museum to tonight's talking with my group before bed. I laughed so hard uh on the trip. Um, and although I'm the only one here thanking you guys today, I want you guys to know that everyone I've talked to had the same awesome experience and loved the trip. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you so much for coming and doing that. That was that's first of all, it's always scary to stand up there and and do public speaking, but thank you.

092We really appreciate it. And from everything I heard and I know Dr. Costa being on the trip, was she did she be behave herself? >> What? >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. for the most part, right? >> A little bit. >> All right. Okay. Well, >> that sounds about right. >> We were We were a little concerned there letting her go, but she did behave herself, so we're all happy. And I'm really glad that you guys had a a phenomenal time, and it went so well. >> Thank you for letting us go. >> Bodess well for the future. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you for coming. >> Thanks for coming. >> All right. Um I guess we'll do your report next. >> Absolutely. >> If that's okay, then we'll get to you. Yeah,

093thank you very much. How did you do at your meet today? >> Oh, yeah. I >> I remember it well. >> Wow. Who is that? >> That's great. >> That's amazing. Yeah, we've come a long way in the last um what 40 years of track program here because >> we started off with about 10 to 15 then it kind of grew up to 60 then it grew up to 80 and now >> and places like Winn Canada going oh good this is great anyway so that's great thank you again for coming we really appreciate it >> good to see you Bowen thanks okay Dr. Costa, would you like to tell us about your report? >> I would, but I you probably are wondering why I came in late. So, >> I did say you were

094presenting an award. >> So, right off hot off the press. Um, tonight was citizen of the year award from the the Rotary Club and they had, believe it or not, 17 nominations, nine people. Um, but the recipient this year is Jenny Bridal. So, I wanted to um just let you know and obviously let the community know and congratulate Jenny. It was it was a wonderful ceremony and um Nancy Styles spoke, myself as did um Nick Bridal. It was lovely and um just congratulations to Jenny for all the work she does in our community. Um the years of service to the school board, but running Village Preschool and she's been a select person and been on the budget committee. So, it was a it was a lovely tribute to her. So, thank you for allowing me.

095>> No, she didn't know. They had they had got her there under a hoax that um Nick was the winner and he was going to get and he was going to give her the money to the village preschool. So, she had no idea. So, it was a complete blind side, which is always the best. >> And you're so and you're sworn into secrecy. It's like I think people you can't tell anybody. You can't say anything. You just have to say you have to be there. I go, okay, I won't. I couldn't even tell Mariah. >> I Yeah. So, it was really nice. So, thank you for letting me go. >> So, congratulations from all of us. >> Yes. Exactly. Um, so in my board report, and you probably heard about some of the things from

096the principles, but this is the this is the time of year that it just gets it's really busy really quickly, right? All the things we got to do between now and the last day of school. But you can see that um you know one of the things we continue to do and talk about is the register educated apprenticeship program reap which is where we can um hire para educators and anyone and help them work on their bachelor's masters or their associates degree. We are actually using this as a selling point to attract power educators to our district. Um, in fact, well, I'll talk about something else in a minute, but anyway, so that's out there and we still have eight staff members that are actively pursuing their degrees. So, it's something that our district does

097do. Not every district does do it, but it's a it's a great thing. So, there's that. Um, we also, um, met with a company named Vector Solutions to discuss, um, this platform as part of our professional development. Um, we're looking to move away from frontline. It's been very glitchy with supervision and evaluation and also um we're looking for something that could offer training that might be a little more um able to track who participates in the training. So we're moving to Vector um next year and so we're excited about that. Um we had provided some some bagels to the bus drivers before vacation and bus driver appreciation. And then on April 28th, Mariah and I went over to the town hall and dropped off some bagels at the town hall and also the Department of

098Public Works just to say thank you um for all the the work that they do and we do together and clearing our lots and just helping us with all the things that they help us with. So, we did that. Um uh over the April break, I met with several people to talk about professional development for next year. That's those are the things that we're already thinking about. We have um Ed Geredity who's going to be our keynote speaker who's from Exit who's going to um talk about the importance of climate and culture. >> He has been around for a while but we have never had him. So um that was that came at the recommendation of Mark Robbitai. So we're excited about bringing him in. I also spoke with West Education who are they are

099the science behind the science standards and they were great. We've got a fairly I thought reasonable contract that I think we're going to be able to use to look at science next year. It'll be a two-year process where we're diving deep. Maybe Mrs. Shepard if you're interested because that is your area of expertise as a former science person. >> I know. And then I met with Kendra Bostik who I had the pleasure of meeting at um one of the events through the New Hampshire School Administrators Association and she is working with middle schools on advisory. So I met with her and I have passed her name along to Amber and Neil to see if this is something Hampton Academy might want to use to bolster their u advisories in the morning. So, she's worked with

100Amherst Middle School and several others and just as somebody who they may want to tap into. Um on this past Monday, um John Nyen from the Chamber of Commerce along with our educational commissioner Caitlyn Davis, Superintendent Meredith Nado, and a group of people met at the trades um center in Hampton to talk about career pathways specifically as it relates to the trades and how is it that we can be more mindful about career pathways with even our preK grade 8 students and how Can we celebrate the trades and make that a viable option for kids that may not be interested in a two or four-year school? And we met with the CTE directors of Exit and Portsmith and um the gentleman in charge over there, John Duff, I believe was his name. And just a

101great conversation about how we really need to as we think about our economy to get more people involved with the trades and how we can do that. In fact, one of the questions comes up is funding and one of the like the REAp is a apprentice program for educators and what it is is there are people that basically look for funds um streams of revenue and then they um make that accessible to people that are getting their degree in education. and I said,"Wh couldn't we do something like that for the trades if if money is an issue?" Um, so the commissioner was listening and people were listening. So, I'm hoping that wouldn't that be great if we could um work to have a program like that to really try to get more plumbers, more electricians,

102more HVAC people, automotive, all those trades that we just can't find anymore. So, that was a great conversation on May 11th, Monday. And then Sue will be recognized on May 20th as a champion for children at that breakfast in conquered the Gapony Center. Obviously, we're we're looking at evaluating the leadership team right now. So meeting with them at their end of the year summitives, looking at their highlights, their challenges, thinking about their school goals, how those align with district goals, where they're moving those next year, and then um obviously trying to get some feedback from our families about what were the highlights of the year, what were the challenges of the year, what do they want us to focus on as we move forward. So that survey went out last week. It'll run through um

103probably the beginning of June. So we can look at that at our leadership retreat. Um, obviously teacher appreciation was last week. Great week. PTA does so many wonderful things for the educators and the staff. It's just a great week. Um, tomorrow is National Walk and Bike to School Day that will take place. We have our final meeting with the wellness team um, which is coming up next week. um health trust will be there to talk with everybody about some of the things that they can offer folks and then of course the mental health team continues to meet to talk about our next steps for identifying resources for tiers two and three support. It looks like we are going to go with wayfinder. There seems to be some consensus for implementing this as a resource for

104tier 2 and tier three supports. So, we're excited about that and that we'll be able to pay for with the Title 4 grant. We're hoping to just kind of looking at some of the curricular focus areas. So, you can see that over the over the April break, I was able to go in and to make sure that everyone was able to reertify and they had their clock hours. And I can tell you, our teachers do a phenomenal job. They need 30 hours per content area and an additional 45 hours. So if you have three content areas like I have a teaching, I have a principal and I have a superintendent. So I would need 90 plus 45 more clock hours to get my reertification. A lot of teachers have multiple um certifications like they might

105have special ed, they might have regular ed, and then they might have English. So it winds up being over 100 hours and they're really great about getting those hours with meaningful professional development. So we did that obviously you know about the the trip. We are looking to um update our supervision evaluation tool to make it be more authentic. Um we are specifically looking at the rubrics of competencies. We're also looking at um portfolios as well as um teacher peer observations. So teachers observing other teachers. And we're also wanting to make sure that people who are not teachers have a tool that works for them. So if you're a school counselor or you're an OT, your evaluation instrument might look differently. So Dana Jensen is working on that because she works with a lot of the

106specialists, right? the OT's, speech and language case managers. So, we're doing that and then obviously extended year will come up. I'm sure Dina talked about that. And then of course end of the year assessments with SAS and STAR just all of the other things at the bottom kind of some of those transitional activities that come up as we get to the end of the year and all of the hiring that we're doing right now. And yeah, I think that's enough. um on your report I believe at the last two paragraphs there end of the year the eighth grade assembly that's on is that on June 15th at six o'clock >> oh uh June farewell assembly on June 16th >> I think it is the 15th it's I think that's on the not that it matters

107I just was making sure that you knew that we knew the >> okay we all it's the 15th at 6 o'clock for the eighth grade final assembly >> and I think you got your invitations from Academy. Great. >> Great. Um, the only other thing that I attached um because I thought you would want to see it in addition to the resources from the Cook Center, I wanted you to see one of the things that we did with our mental health team. So, you have following those two pages, you see what the su the suicide prevention protocol look like. And as somebody who gets those pieces of paper and I sit there at night when I can't fall asleep and wonder what happens to these kids, um went back to the mental health team and talked

108about there's got to be a better way of knowing like what was happened, what did they did. So if you turn the page, you will see that we've actually updated it and and really much more meaningful, much more comprehensive. um so that when there are children that come up I can go back and say this is what we've done here's how we've intervened and here's the followup and action steps. So a a market improvement from what they were doing. So those are the kinds of things that you know refining systems is really important. >> This is good. >> Yeah big improvement. So, okay. Anybody have any questions for the superintendent? I know that you've got a little bit to talk about. So, I would with your permission, I was wondering if we could just um

109switch and do the um the policy review because I think we can do that fairly quickly. And then have you sure? Okay. one right away anyway. >> Okay. Well, we enjoy listening. >> I don't always understand it, but we enjoy listening to you. >> Okay. So then I would um I would invite um a motion for us to accept the second reads which include um DGA authorized signatures, DIIE audits, DK payments uh checks and manifests, EBB school safety, and JLCE emergency care and first aid. Oh, I'm sorry. Which >> J >> last month? >> Sorry. >> Thank you. Sorry. Turned it off a minute ago. So the last one on the first on the second reads list is JLCE. It's right after that and we did talk about it a little bit last month. So

110it's um has to do with >> Okay. So we did not I don't believe we took it up. We or is this just you know >> I think we >> I Okay. I am I thought this was a completely separate policy because it says JLCD-R at the top. It's just part of JLC. >> Never mind. >> It's part of JLC. There's not a whole separate one. But I do have a question. We did I think we were going to kind of check with the nurses and come back and discuss the NAR Narcan issue this month. >> Do we This indicates that we don't stock it. And >> we we do. >> Okay. Good. >> We do. We um we had the conversation which prompted me to have the conversation and then the next thing I

111know they said we have it. We're using it. >> Okay. >> And then um um Chief McMahon offered up training for anyone who needed a refresher. Um and so they were going to set that up and there was only one that might need a refresher. >> Okay. >> But I think they were good with it. So we just need to So on the second page of JLCE there are kind of comments in blue and I think we would just need to pass it with those comments deleted. Okay. So, what I'll do is let's take the JLCE separately for a moment. >> And are we all can I get a motion to pass the JLCe um in regard to stop >> And all the other ones >> um that I mentioned. >> Do I have a

112motion? >> I'll have make a motion. >> Okay. So, Wendy made a motion. Sarah second. Um all in favor of the second reads including JLCE in regard to the Narcan. Okay. So that's unanimous. >> That would be JLC be would be as >> As amended, >> right? Correct. >> So we would omit the blue. >> Yep. >> Okay. Awesome. Then we have to take up the ones that are first reads and we don't have to um vote on those till next time. But they do include authorized signatures. Uh oh no, wait a minute. I think it starts with fiscal management. >> Yeah, I'm missing it. Sorry. >> Yeah, I think it starts with fiscal management. Yes. Fiscal management, annual budget, DBJ, transfer of appropriations, DC, taxing and borrowing authority/limitations. DD funding proposals and applications, DEA,

113revenues from local tax sources. Uh, DFGA crowdfunding. DGB, school district credit and procurement cards. DH bonded employees. DI fiscal accounting and reporting. DID inventory and management of assets. Uh DIH fraud prevention and fiscal management. DJ purchasing. DJB purchasing procedures. DJC petty cash accounts. DKA payroll procedures. D M Cash and School Buildings, DN Equipment and Supplies Sales, JJ, Student Activities and Organizations, and JJ IIB, School Sponsored Athletic Programs. So, those are all a first read. So, over the next month, let's make sure we look through those. I saw the ones for the school sponsored athletic programs had been done, which was one that I had particularly looked at. Um but let's make sure we're ready for those um for next month. >> And and most of them just just to because it seems like a lot.

114Most of them it was legal references that were changed, right? So there weren't significant changes. It was their legal references or it was just a review to update. >> So there were not there were not major changes. It looks like a lot, but it really wasn't. >> Right. It shouldn't take long to just goes through those. >> I do appreciate the changes to crowdfunding. I will say because we had a very simple >> policy before that I actually did not love and it's much better now. >> Yeah. >> And then we have some rescended policies and I believe we we don't have to really do anything. They've just been rescended. >> Budget preparation, dissemination of budget recommendations, budget implementation, gate receipts and admission, depository of funds, cooperative purchasing, local purchasing, vendor relations, and sales calls

115and demonstrations. And that's all due to they're incorporated in one of um >> DF, right? >> DF. Yeah. >> So, we didn't want to have duplicates. >> Y. >> Okay. Great. So, we don't have to do anything on that. >> Okay. I think that takes care of what we need to do. But now we really need to hear from Mariah on a whole bunch of stuff. A whole bunch of stuff. It's that time of year. It's either now and or October, November. So, rather do it now. We're gonna do it now. We're gonna do the ending now and then start all over again. Okay. Um so I have um as of today, everybody other than title one tutors and ESY employees that will be working during the summer have their contracts for next year. So

116contracts are all out. Um budgets in the new the new budgets in the system and I am getting started on the rollover for that. Um with that said audit the auditors are coming for one day in June on the 23rd. They come in and they start um looking at inventory that day and going over process and procedures. That will start June 23rd. Um, on May 19th through the 22nd, I will be um with the Tri-State New Hampshire Asbo um in Vermont for training. Um, and that's like the major things going on in my world. Now, I'm going to start talking about financial pieces of it all. Uh Tim Harrington and I did anou for the abutters of the dam um so that we can have them approve us being able to go in and do

117the vegetation. So that will start this summer um and I think once that's done they'll come in do another review of it and I think that the dam will be all set with the state. So we're working on that. that is getting really close to by hopefully the end of summer being complete. Um, I sent everybody an email on a um videoformational video on 2026 education tax credits, SGOs's that came out. Um, I would love to have you look at it. Um, I want to explain a little bit of it because it will affect us. It will affect taxes. It will affect a lot of things. We are not a nonprofit organization. We do not have a 501c nor can we. We can have an organization that's related to us to have one. So, I

118think at some point we should see if we can get somebody to start that organization. um an organization that already is a part of the school. Um could change what their organization is or update their mission statement so that uh it corresponds with um what this is doing um to help. Um if not, we would have to start a new nonprofit organization with a new committee and um bank account and such and that will take a couple months. But the gist of this is that when you're doing your taxes next year for 2026, when you get to the point in Turboax or wherever you go to do your taxes and you owe money, you can now click a button that will say for a single person, donate to any nonprofit school for $1,700, dollar to

119dollar, dollar to dollar. Um, for married couple that'd be $3,400 to dollar. So, um, we have some nonprofit schools in the area. Um, and that is, um, depending on how this goes, could be millions and thousands and dollars going to private schools. Um, with that said, the schools have been talking BAS and that's why we did this, they did this presentation saying get on the bandwagon, try to see if we can do this. My question was, well, could PTA do that? And they can't because they're a national profit organization anyway. Um, we'd have to set up something separate. So, I just wanted to get out there if you know somebody that's really um interested or involved in making sure that monies do come to the schools too that we could do that. Um right now

120I didn't rush to try to start this because one we just got the information but two right now it's only for scholarships. You can only use the funds for scholarships. Since open enrollment is tabled, I don't think it will affect us, but they are trying to change the law to um be able to use the funds for transportation, tuition, after school activities, and other items as well. So eventually it could be beneficial for us and and if we do have open enrollment, it could be beneficial to us at some point. But um I think that is something that we might want to try to get a committee to look into. Um so that was one topic I wanted to talk about. The other topic is um it's the end of the year. I am looking

121at where our budgets landed, our finances, um food service, federal grants. Um, it looks like that we should get all our grants for next year. May not be as much as we normally get, but it's not going to be horrendously low. So, that is a good thing. Um, but I did give you a little packet with um as today's date as today where we are financially and what what has not been committed for balances. And um I usually take this month to kind of go over the main things and have you vote to have us vote down that fund balance. Um so we have finished the HVAC at center school. We have $50,000 left in that program that um budget account. Um, we had to utilize some of last year's warrant article to cover it

122because we knew we were going to be over from the voted amount. Um, but we did end with $50,000 in that um, account. So, with that money and then the 300 that we have already approved for Warren article that can roll over for next year for the windows, we have $350,000 for windows for center school. We had our RFPs go out and in that packet you will see um the three people that um were there gave us quotes and it should be behind do not in that >> I don't think I I don't see it. I have >> I have budget. I have food food service and I have summary of federal grants and more food service >> and revenue sugar. >> It was in the packet that I gave you the >> Yes, the

123Windows one. >> Oh, she gave it to us separately. Sorry. Okay. >> Yes, separately. Sorry. It's okay. So, um, we had three people. We chose to go with the middle ground for the windows, but with that said, we don't have enough in the warrant article to cover it. So, we were I was going to ask you to um use some of our fund balance to pay the difference of the window so we can finish that project instead of having it split in half and have to ask another warrant article for the difference. Um so, with that said, I'm just going to go real quickly over what we have left. So that's this spreadsheet. And the first account that's on there is our reserved fund balance. That $724,447 is our retainage. That's the amount that we

124vote on every year at the end of the year to retain money. It's taken us three years to put that in there. So, we're slowly redoing our fund balance every year and holding a percentage that we can if the legislation um they have a bill out right now that actually will take this away from us and have us have the town vote on retainage every year. It's a tough topic because people don't understand what the retainage is. They think it's us just padding and holding money and it's not. We can't use this money for just for anything. It It can't be used for salaries. It can't be used. It's emergencies. Um it wouldn't even cover our if we were in school cares situation last year, it wouldn't even covered half that bill. So, um that

125legislation makes me nervous. I think everybody should look at that. Um, so from there it gives us revenues and the revenues to date is $100,367. That revenue will go to back to the town. Um, we still have May's June's interest. We still have friendship money coming in. and we still have some things. So, that will definitely go up, but that's um to date and that I always try to return all revenues back. And then it goes into expenditures. Um and it's broken down all by so there's some over, some under, some over, some under. I could break it all down, but the gist of it right now is 56,325 left in expenditures. That's not including salaries. I took salaries out. That's just normal expenditures. Um my guess would be that because that has FICA and

126it has health insurance and it has um other things that I know are not in there as of yet. I my guess would be that would be around 300 really by the end of June. And then you see the maintenance project expenditure and that's where we have the extra 50,000 and then the 300 we haven't spent yet on the windows. And the 500 would need uh the 50,000 would need to be spent this year, but the 300 can be rolled over next year to finish off the window expense. That takes us into our salaries. And our salaries is got a balance left of 49,541. Why so high? Well, um, one, we didn't hire a psychologist. We didn't hire ABA Tech. We had three teachers take a full year leave off, um, which is an adjustment

127because then we're paying people at a B1, so almost half. Um, we had two teachers take a half year off. We and we had two paras added in the budget but ended we were able to put them in the grant. Um and then just all the other little adjustments in and outs like um if we we put tutor salaries in there sometimes we don't use them. Um those kind of maneuvers. So my my estimate is that we still have three payrolls left. I for sure don't have sipons in for the eighth grade field trip yet because I don't have the names. Um, I'm just starting to finish start closing the purchase orders and I need to make food service whole. So, with those things, I'm guessing that we will have a fund balance um if

128you allow us to use a percentage of that fund balance of 350,000 to 400,000, which would give the town what we averely give them back about 250,000 and the rest could go into whatever it is could go into our retainage. With that said, that would give us an average of 469,800 of unspent funds that I would like to utilize, 350,000 to do the whole windows to get them all done at once. That's that's a total of 650,000. Um, that's over it's about 100 101 windows at center school. Um, and that's with lead removal and all of it included because there's lead in the paint in those windows. Um, and then I would like to request to have the Marston School flooring um that's hazardous completed. We started one little section last year. Um, we'd like

129to finish the down and do the calf. Um, and there was a couple classrooms. Um, that's 119,800. So, that would those two things would um make up that amount. Technology requested if they could utilize the rest of their funds because they have um funds left over to be able to update the academy computer lab and um some two computer upgrades. that would be about 32,000. Um, and then if depending on if these fall through or if we don't have enough money at the end, if instead we could utilize the money um to put a couple extra cubbies in the neck room at Marson School, maybe do a little center school flooring or some small facility repairs or miscellaneous purchases um to get that fund balance down um so that we could give back 250 to

130the town and whatever little left into the retainage. I It's a lot. Um and it's all estimates because I still have over a month of expenditures like I said in three payrolls, but this is my best guess. Did you like that? >> Yeah. >> All right. >> I'll second. >> Okay. It has been moved and seconded to um spend down a portion of the estimated fund balance based on the superintendent and uh our business manager's recommendation. All in favor? Thank you. Okay, >> so that was a lot of numbers and um I will give you updates next month and kind of I will hopefully be better off because I will be bringing to you an estimated amount of what the real fund balance will be once we can get most of the payroll and everything

131completed. Um we will skip July. So, August will need to vote on it because then I'll have the auditors in. It will be completed and I know exactly 100% where I land. And then you'll just need to vote to make sure that you're still happy with that number. >> Okay. And before I actually do the reporting to the state on which way we're going with the funds, um, feel free to come and if you have any questions on any of the expenditures, what's why the overages in certain accounts, why the shortages, what the changes is, the salaries were for positions. Um, please come see me. I can break it down. Um, we we keep absolutely everything, right? I was going to say the same thing. Um, rather than waiting till until excuse me, rather waiting

132until next February and March, if you have questions about a lot of the numbers and a lot of things that Mrs. Curtis just put out. Please ask those questions and do that investigating and whatever you're whatever you're not sure about, come and ask now. Please don't wait until the 11th hour to ask these questions. It would be better to have them explain now while it's still fresh in everyone's mind and while it is evolving and happening as opposed to waiting till after we've done our next budget and we've got elections coming up and whatever. I mean, please don't hesitate to come and ask. We keep the RFPs, we keep our quotes, um we have all those we we try to get at least three quotes. um if we don't have to do an RFP if

133the like the floor rings will have three quotes. Um so we do do that. Um I have started like I said the budget for next year since I had to roll over the system and do contracts. Um it's tough because we do a budget um pretty much a year and a half in advance and you don't know where teachers going to lie and everything. So I think again with this year's budget, we had myself who did the basic rollover, figuring out the contract, what they'd be like, but then that that this year that we're ending was actually the year that teacher agreement got voted on. So the um the lawyer comes up with the amount of money on the overage and the percentage and so I have to take a set amount and move it

134into the where the teachers and the and so I think um I think that also made us have a little bit more in salaries than we normally would have. Um but 2026 27 um we are closer than we've ever been to salaries because um we've we the hiring has flipped and we are hiring people with that have more experience. So our budget's really close in salaries this year already. And I'm I we had a conversation today at leadership to try to get a couple people in the middle so that we have enough money because we don't have a retiree account and that kind of offsets it with the the changes of new hires. So we're working on that. Um I think my biggest concern for 2728 cuz we already are going to have to start

135looking at that is if the two tax cap House bills go through. Um, and I guarantee you if enrollment doesn't go through, one of the tax caps will go through. And they said that they definitely think that the retainage one will pass. So, um, we'll have our work cut out for us next year if that's the case. Can you give a quick explanation about um, the retainage one, what what impact that has on us? >> So, yeah. So right now we we did a warn article 3 years ago that said that we could retain up to 5% of our fund balance, but our fund balance has to be recalculated every year. So you have to take what your um budget was and take a percentage of that budget and you can only have a percentage

136of your budget of 5%. And so the state will actually calculate it for you too and say this is the max amount you can put in your retainage. Every year they recalculate it. We have to recalculate it. We usually only get 25% of what they calculate is what we have in there and it's taken us three years to retain that. So every year we have to recalculate our fund balance, our retainage. So it's not like so like say if next year we still have the retainage but our fund balance is zero I can take that retainage and still give 250,000 back to the town because they're used to it right and have less money in the retainage. So, it can offset leverage for the taxpayers, but it also helps us so that if we have

137a bill like health insurance that nobody knew about, >> our emergency and a roof falls in because of the snow and we didn't expect it, that we can hold a meeting um and vote on it and utilize those funds. It's really an emergency. It's like having a credit card almost because we don't have any backup. we don't pat our budget. If we have three people that move in that um need special services or out of district, we don't have that. We can utilize this um as just a way to to not be in the news truly. So, it's important. So, if now if this law passes right now as it's set, it's we have it. it's in place. We don't have to take it away from us unless the town votes to remove it. But

138if the new law passes, they take it away and the town has to vote on you allowing you to have a retainage every year. And I think that to try to explain retainage was such a hard push 3 years ago. and they still don't understand why we need it. That I think it would be a hard sell every year. At least now it's voted on. It's been approved by the town. It's approved by state of revenue and we can keep it. Tax caps is another thing. Um I think the harder one would be the for um SB2s which we are is that you would no longer have a default budget. So you would make a proposed budget and if that proposed budget does not pass you go to the prior year's budget. So, we have

139union agreements. We have health insurance increases. We have contracts with transportation that goes up every year. We have electricity and other things that go up every year. >> How are you going to be able to do that if you go back a whole year? It's not going to. So instead of being able instead of saying, "Nope, I don't want you to have your proposed. You can have your default," they're saying, "No, you're just having what you had last year, and we're going to leverage it." They think it's leveraging, but it's really underfunding. So, cuz think about it, if if um consumer price index is roughly 3%. You basically are cutting 3% out of your bottom line, which basically will impact students and programs, right? So think about it. Think about what the budget is and

140now think about what 3% would be. >> That's right. Exactly. >> Yeah. So it's it's it's a little unsettling to say the least. Right. >> It makes me very nervous. So I'm already like we we don't have any of that in place for next year for 2026 27. I'm still looking at the budget going, okay, how are we going to really like maintain this so that we can do something so that we're not so upside down to start? But I don't know. >> There's a call from the New Hampshire School Board Association for resolution submissions. I wonder if this is something that we should network with other school boards to propose that be included for when delegations are sent in October. >> Yep. >> Um and maybe like I know that we did some letter

141writing and solidarity exercises with other school boards to oppose >> I don't even remember the slew of things that have come at us. Um, but this may behoove us to just get ahead of um, and lean on some of those connections we made to come out and say, and even if there's in-person testimony where we carve out time to try and be there, >> um, >> I think that type of approach going into next year would be a nice evolution of I don't want to say dissent, but objection to some of the stuff that we're seeing happen. And it would I think be pretty powerful if it were a room full of school boards y >> um that showed up in opposition. >> So uh I was met with a committee in conquered and sat

142down and we um did a table and did raw numbers of what it would look like to each school district of what you would have to cut, who you'd have to cut, like because that's it's employees. >> Yeah. Right. and those kind of things and um so we gave that information so that they could actually talk on our behalf. Um I would I am not a speaker or I'd go speak but I'm not very good at it. Um but I did definitely get involved in that piece of it because it's important this it's very important. I I think we could use our collective talents to make a statement. I do between your knowledge and our backgrounds. I think we could definitely come up with something effective that we could present. Um, and I think we

143have a lot of support from the New Hampshire School Boards Association, the Fair Funding Project that could help us make sure it was articulate yet making the point that we need to make. >> Yeah. I was reading um they shared I was like, well, what what type of resolutions are they looking for? What does that even look like? and you can go into their library and see prior year submissions >> and they someone requested that they come out in opposition to the voucher programs. >> Um so I think you know pull every lever we can find. >> Yep. And I think there'd be a lot of support for that in the southeast is my guess. >> Yeah, we can do that. Thank you very much. A lot of information. >> I told you I had

144a lot. >> Yeah. No, but it's it's all it's good information that we need to know and we need to act on it >> um >> ASAP and not again waiting till October, November. >> It's too late then. I mean, we need to do this now. >> It is. And you when you think about it, New Hampshire is all about local control and they're taking the local control away and they're making it state controlled and that's what's concerning to me. Do we have the dates right now for when they're, you know, their their final opportunity to vote on the tax cap in particular? >> I don't know on that, but I can find that out. Maybe we could meet with our local state reps, too, just to align on what could our approach here be,

145how can we be impactful, >> you know, how can you amplify our voice in conquered? >> Yep. bring everybody in. >> Yeah. >> Could you one of you do us a favor and just find out what that final date is? >> I think between the two of us we could do we can do that. >> Yep. >> Okay. And then just let all of us know so we can >> act on that >> there. I know there's there's something next week which I I think it's bills that originated in that chamber. >> Right. But then we have till June for >> and June 1 is going to come fast. But I wasn't sure if these two things were in that. So, we'll have to look at that. All right. If you could just let us

146know, then we can >> act on those um sooner rather than later. >> We've got a Sorry. Sorry. I was I was looking up on my phone. So, we have a floor date of um May 14th, which is in two days >> or this is we're looking at HB1300. Um, I will say they it looks like it was amended. Um, about a week ago, um, uh, basically taking it from being, >> sorry, I've lost it already. Um, changing it from from being every year a tax cap that had to be voted on every single year to being voted on, no, actually just this year. >> Just once. They basically want every district in the state to vote on whether they want a tax cap in their town or not. >> 1300. >> Is that a

147new one? Cuz I knew they were trying to do a bianual one, too. >> They just amended it like just days ago. >> Looks like Yeah, the it looks like some of the Republicans felt it was they said a little heavy-handed. >> Okay. >> Was the comment. So, just FYI. >> Okay. Any other good news? Um >> I mean that's >> So if they're they're voting that on Thursday it doesn't it only gives us till tomorrow. >> Well we so we should be on our emails and and is that I'm sorry. Is that a house bill? That's >> it's a house bill but I believe the it's crossed everything's crossed over. So it's it's in the Senate right now. >> So we have 24 hours to do sending letters. Actually, I don't think you can

148go into a once it's hit Senate, right? It's you have to send. >> Yeah, I honestly think a lot of the I think all the public comment stuff is done. >> Yes. I think I'm even just talking about like individual emails. Um >> I mean obviously we can send it to or um >> the House bill. So yeah, our four >> at a minimum. >> Yep. >> Okay. We we'll do what we can do. >> Y that's all we can do. Okay. Um so we've taken care of that. You know, at the beginning, I did not see anyone who was out there looking to make some public comment and I apologize because I didn't see anybody. I didn't say anything, but I will open it up right now. Again, I do not see anyone, but

149if there's anyone that has public comment, now's the time. Seeing no one has public comment, I won't make that mistake again. Um, I do apologize, but did I didn't see anyone, so I kind of slipped my mind and I apologize. Um, at this point, >> we had Rowan who spoke. >> I'm sorry. >> We did have that. So, okay. Then I don't feel quite as bad. Um, at this point I would like to have a motion to go into nonpublic um, under my RSA 91- A. No, sorry, that's the wrong one. Where am I missing it? >> It's 91 32. >> 91 A. Yes. >> The normal one. >> Yes. Personal day. So, so moved. Molly, do I have a second? Okay. So, we will go into non Oh, all in favor. Thank you. I

150I I Yes. Good. Um, so we will be going into non-public at this. Okay. So, I believe we have finished all business that we needed to and I would take a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> All in favor? And we are adjourned.