001We'll call this meeting to order. Please stand 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. Is there anyone here for public comment? Okay, seeing none, we're going to begin with the reorganization of the school board. But before we do, I just want to take the opportunity because I have the microphone to say a big thank you to the community for supporting our Warren articles last Tuesday. This is something that we never take for granted. We are always grateful and appreciative when um the town votes in support of our warrant articles. So, thank you so much. We are we are grateful and we will continue to do the
002hard work each and every day on behalf of our students, our schools, and the community. So, thank you very much. At this time, we're going to go through the different positions. Dr. Kasa, I'd like to nominate Andrea Shepard for chair. I'd like to second that. >> Do you accept your nomination, ma'am? I said, do you accept your nomination? >> Do we do anything else? >> You have to ask us to vote. >> All right. Is there anyone else who would like to be chair? All right, then. All in favor? All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, Andrea. >> Thanks, Wendy. >> Appreciate your your service. >> We'll do the musical chairs thing. >> You do, right? >> I'll do it for you. >> That's fine. I just >> Yes, you do. >> Yep. We
003do. We have every single one. Yep. And if you need to look at >> Yep, you got it. >> Right. Thank you. >> All right. The next order of business would be to have a nomination for vice chair. I would nominate Wendy if anyone is not opposed. Yes. Wendy, do you accept? >> I do. >> Okay. So, all in favor? >> Second. Who was the second? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I I apologize. I'm already making a mistake. >> No, you're great. You're great. I we'll get this we'll be fine. Okay. So vote on that and Wendy is our new chair. Uh we now have to take up committee positions. Um so first committee position is >> budget committee. >> I would like to stay on budget committee as long as no one else wants to
004be on that one. >> Oh no. You're perfect. Thank you. All right. So Molly will stay on budget committee. Um, does anyone else want to do We do need a backup for budget committee because that's one to have. Does anybody else want to be backup for budget committee? >> Okay. >> No, I will I will take it, but >> I'll try not to miss anything. >> Okay. So, Wendy is our backup. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. >> Building facilities. I'm sorry. Building and facilities. >> Building and facilities. Who? >> Okay. Thanks, Sarah. So, she's on building and facilities. Um, CIP, >> I'd love to continue that. >> Okay. Thanks, Molly. Um, anyone would like to take over curriculum? If not, I'll keep it. >> All right. So, I'll stay with curriculum. Uh, legislative
005liaison. >> Keep doing that. >> I'll stay on. Yep. >> Okay. So, Candace will do that. Uh, town master planner. >> Is that Empic? Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that one. Yeah. >> Okay. Molly, thanks. New Hampshire School Board Association. That's typically it's the chair. >> Yeah, I will take that. Yes. >> Okay. Policy. Are you two comfortable staying with that? Perfect. Um, professional development. I don't mind keeping it if unless someone else would like to take it. >> No. All right. So, we're all set on that. PTA. >> Do you guys want me to I can actually pick one up. You want me to take PTA? >> Okay. So, we're gonna have Wendy and then Sarah. You'll be back up. >> Sure. >> Okay. How about wreck department? >> I can keep wreck. >> Okay,
006Wendy. Uh, SA90 steering committee. >> It's an easy lift. It's basically goal setting in um August, September. It's maybe two meetings. So, it's pretty easy. We just set goals for the school year. >> I'm happy. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Sarah. Uh, wellness. I don't mind keeping it unless someone else would like it. Okay, I'll keep wellness. And grants. >> That That's a relatively new one. >> Yep. We now need to have um board involvement on the grants given some of the intricacies of them. So, we they've asked that a board u member serve on that committee. >> I have experience. You have time the question. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Sure. >> Okay. So, Candace and Sarah, you take that on together. >> Oh, that's fun. >> Okay. Right. >> Well, we'll put it under
007other. Why don't we get >> Okay. So, our last committee would be other and again that would include something like looking at the bachelor pond. um things that we need to take care of. So, would anyone like to jump on board? Okay, Wendy, thanks very much. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. So, all the committee positions are taken care of, correct? All right. And let it be known that anytime if you can't make one of the committee meetings, obviously, just reach out to any other board member and we can always shift around if we need to. >> Perfect. All right. Awesome. All right. So, why don't we start by hearing um from the principles, please? Mr. Robbitai, would you come on up be good? All right. Good evening everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um
008I just have a few updates from my board report. I do have uh two of my staff members here that are excited to talk to us um about literacy um and a lot of work that center school has done over the last couple of years and also some of the events that we tie in to make it engaging and fun for the students. Um I do have to thank they're going to talk more about it, but I do have to thank all of our guest readers that showed up on Monday for our guest reader and character day. Um it's one of the you know favorite events of the students. They had a lot of great outfits. Um, got around to a lot of the different classrooms. Students ask great questions, very engaging, and they always
009uh they like having the community members come in. So, thank you to all that participated. I'll save some of the other literacy events for um Miss Shaw Ryan and Mrs. Dunham right after. But just a couple other things going on um over at Center School. Just a reminder to uh family at home that are watching that trimester 2 concluded last Friday. report cards will be available in Alma on Monday, March 23rd. Um there will be a cover letter that is sent out uh by myself on that day. Um just so parents have a little more understanding of how our reporting system works. Um but we do also have parent teacher conferences that's happening uh this Thursday on the 19th. Um if families have not been able to get back in touch with their teacher, uh
010please feel free to reach out. Um they're happy to coordinate a conference even if it has not been scheduled yet. Um, and then I did just want to make note too, um, I have been reaching out, um, at least to the center community. Um, and we've been posting on social about our kindergarten program for the 26 27 school year. Um, the more information we have about numbers, the better we can plan for the fall. Um, so if you're listening at home and you know somebody that's going to have a 5-year-old before September 30th, um, please feel free to share the flyer with them. I'm happy to get their information. We do have kindergarten information night on Thursday, April 16th at 5:00 at center school. So, looking forward to welcoming our new group of kindergarten students
011and their families. Um, and that's that's the big stuff for my report. I don't know if anybody has any questions and then I'll introduce our guests for the evening. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Um, nope. Okay. >> Okay. Good. Uh, thank you. So um so like I said we are celebrating uh literacy this month. So I invited um our reading specialist Martha Dunham and our school librarian Kristen Sha Ryan to talk to us a little bit more about um everything reading and literacy that we've done over the last couple of years and some special events that we uh take part in in the spring. So I'm going to turn things over to them and just like to welcome them. Thank you. Hi. Short. Um, yeah. So, um, Mark asked us to come in
012and just talk a little bit about, um, kind of our journey in literacy, um, the past several years. Um, we I think the journey really began before COVID even. Um, but it's been a process, but we have made some shifts. Um we used to approach um our literacy instruction with a balanced literacy approach which is has many merits um and you know kids got great exposure to books and language um but it it left a little bit up to chance um for some kids on learning to read. So we've really immersed oursel in the science of reading and um now really use a more structured literacy approach all year long. Um and so as part of our structured literacy approach, we use fish tank learning um for the language comprehension piece of Scarboro's reading group
013and we use foundations and also a program called Heggerty for the word recognition piece. Um and so with the fish tank units, the kids are being um exposed to new background knowledge. They are growing their vocabularies. We're teaching specific words explicitly. Um we're teaching them how language works, the way sentences are constructed. They're learning about inferencing and figurative language. They're learning about um different genres of writing and um you know concepts concepts of print. Um and then through foundations and heard we're really building the word recognition. So they're working on their phmic awareness, their ability to hear sounds in words and manipulate those sounds. They're working on their decoding skills. So we're teaching phonics in a very um systematic and explicit way. And they're growing that bank of words in their brain that are or
014orthographically mapped, which means they just look at it and they know it. They don't have to decode anymore. They don't have to sound it out. So that has been quite a journey. Um, but it's been lots of fun and um, while we're doing all this hard work, we we are working with the littlest of kids, so we want to remind them that um, reading and writing is really fun, too. So, there's a couple things we do throughout the year. Um, we have these traveling book carts that um, visit a different grade level every Friday morning and they um, the kids can bring a book in and do a swap. They can also just everybody can just come out and grab a book. We are very fortunate. Um we get lots of donations. Kristen weeds out
015the library. So we have a lot of great books that the kids can take home. They can keep it forever or they can bring it back um and get a new one on another week. But I have found that it is just such a fun way to build the sense of community in our school. Like as the reading specialist, I don't work with every student, but I get to meet every kid um as they come out to Bookart on on Fridays and I get to see what they like and what interests they have. Um so it's just a really fun way to celebrate reading. Um and then we also have as we have some grade level unit celebrations that happen throughout the year. Um, as different grade levels finish up a unit of study, they
016have found some really fun ways to come together as a full grade level to celebrate the learning that they've done. Um, for I just have a few examples up there. Um, the first picture so shows some second grade students who are meeting some creatures as part of their habitat unit. So, they got to meet actual live animals. Um, then we have some kindergarten students in the center. Um, last spring they were planting a garden as part of their spring life cycles unit. And then I think this is coming up actually this week or next, our first graders have a yearly visit with a local author and Ivy the dog and Ivy the dog uses a wheelchair. Um, and it really fits nicely into the unit that they are doing on equality. So those are some
017things that we do throughout the year to celebrate literacy. And I'm going to turn it over to Kristen for a sec. I think I'm even shorter than Martha. Um, so bunches of years ago, I was on the enrichment committee and we decided to change the um, traditional ReadAcross America week into a month-long celebration at center school. So, we've condensed it over the last few years into these four parts. Having an author come and visit, our guest readers character day, and then um, the biggest hit probably is the schoolwide reading challenge. So, I'm going to talk to you about those things tonight. So, these pictures, the three similar pictures are of our guest author from last year. His name was Marty Kelly. Um, he wrote uh many fantastic books. Um, things like Everybody Farts and funny
018titles like that which were, you know, perfect for K1 and two. Um, and then, uh, the other author on the bottom is David Bedriki, who's actually coming this Friday to school. Um, and it's really fun and uh great exposure to give to the kids to have them meet these authors and the authors of course take time talking about what goes into writing a book and um you know how it's hard work and one try doesn't get it done. Um and the weeks prior to these authors coming I spend lots of time in my lessons with the classrooms um introducing those books, doing activities about them um getting to know the authors. And so on Friday when each grade comes to um have their own grade specific presentation, they're they know those books well. They know
019the background about the author. They're ready to pepper him with lots of questions and um are really invested in these presentations that um we have. So this is pictures from last year of our guest reader day, which happened to just happen uh occur yesterday. Um and these uh special guests from around Hampton um get invited and one goes to each classroom and um again those kids are prepared on who they're getting and what kinds of questions they can ask them and the guests um are asked to bring along a book that they can read to the class. Um it also sometimes coincides with our character day which explains the creative outfits in the pictures. Um these pictures are from last year's character day. Some um kiddos and some staff. Um and the kids do a
020great job prepping them at home and um you know tying it into one of their favorite books. And the month-long reading challenge um was started last year and I introduced it the first week of March and explained to kiddos that if we can work together as a school to reach 1,000 books read, we'd have some kind of really cool reward by the end of our end of the month at our all school meeting. Um last year it happened to be we got to pie our principles in the face. Um, so the kids went well beyond 1,000 books and read almost 2,000 books because, you know, we either had very dedicated readers or, uh, kiddos that really just wanted to pie their principles in the face. Either way, it was a win-win. Um, so this year
021we have a similar challenge, um, which again they're doing great on, but our reward this year is they get to, um, with the help of a spinner at the all school meeting, they'll be able to dress our principles in um, some silly outfits and the principles have to wear it for the rest of the day. So, we explained to the kiddos, think tutus and clown noses and things like that. So, um the display of the books by 10 is what's currently growing in our hallway to the cafeteria. Um so, it's much bigger than that. That was last a few weeks ago when I took that picture. Um and so they're doing a great job doing tons of reading at home. Um which is, you know, what our goal is, making it fun and silly. Um
022but, uh getting them to read. And these are just some pictures from last year's pie in the face, which was a big hit. And then one last thing we do is we do a program called one school, one book. Um it's really become a great tradition every spring at center school. Um we all read one book together. So every adult and every child. Um, the books get sent home with the kids with a schedule of reading. Um, and we do some fun things at school to celebrate. We have some trivia games and other surprises. Um, this the book is always a secret, so it gets unveiled at the all school meeting before we torture our principles. We unveil the book. Um, and then they will be sent home. Um, these are just some pictures of
023the unveiling. This year's book is called Gooseberry Park in the master plan. It's really cute. Bunch of animals working together to solve a problem. Teamwork, cooperation. Um we have a picture of the some of our trivia winners. Um I usually end up with some giant stuffed animals that travel around and surprise classrooms in the morning um with different tableau like they're in their classroom doing things, characters from the book. So it's lots of fun. And then we do a culminating event at Celebration of Learning. Um, celebration of learning takes place um, usually right before April vacation, just as we finish our one school, one book project. Um, and it involves families can visit the book fair and get some new books to take home and read. Um, and then they visit classrooms to celebrate the
024hard work that the kiddos have been doing all year with their classmates in their classrooms. And then I have some kind of culminating event that ties into the book that we read for one school, one book. So this year families will actually be participating in a scavenger hunt that will end at Gooseberry Park. Um so lots of fun things planned. I don't know Kristen if you had anything. >> That's it. We're just uh doing a great job um investing in our little kiddos and in their love of reading and um ultimately that's our goal. So, and it's a lot of fun doing it together. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Awesome. Excellent. >> Really wonderful. >> Thank you, guys. >> Well, thank you, school board. Uh they I think just to before I go
025just the amount of work the staff has had to do over the last few years um you know coming from Bedford, another high performing district um to Hampton where we already have full day kindergarten uh Bedford had not had it when I left to see where the kids are already at by the time they leave center school um is very impressive. So we, you know, we do ask a lot of the kids, but we do a lot of fun events to make literacy, um, you know, a joyous event for all, no matter where the kids are at in their progression. So, uh, thank you for our time and our presentation this evening. >> If I could just follow up. Um, I you may have noticed that there's been a little more in the news about
026literacy in Hampton, and that is because, um, very interesting. Um, there was an article that came out through the Marshall Memos. if anyone is involved in education. We know that Kim Marshall um who is a local author but also he comes out of um Boston College but he's also developed many supervision evaluation models. His he does a roundup of the most important articles of the week that many of us subscribe to when we get it when a lot of it's researchbased. One of the articles that came across my desk was from it's called the 74 and it wasn't a publication I was familiar with but I it basically said schools that are outperforming their free and reduced rates and so they look at their free and reduced numbers and then what they do is they
027look at what the expected um progress would be in those schools that are outperforming. And I happen just to look at it because it gives every school in the United States by state where their ranking is relative to the scatagram. And so you can you can look at the nation, but then you can drill down by state and then you can drill down by your school. And it's very interesting. And they look at third grade. And we know that because if students are not on grade level by the end of third grade, the risk level goes up for everything. And it was really remarkable to see where our Hampton's Hampton students fell um which was pretty high up on this bar graph. And so I shared it with um Kayla from our publicist and I
028said, "Is this is this newsworthy?" And she said, "It surely is." And I think what we need to do is we really need to hone in on what are you doing with literacy? Um so as a result you may have seen these articles that are coming out these videos that are coming out and they actually were able to join us on Monday at read as we did the guest readers and I think they were really impressed with the things that we're seeing and I just want to say that um the work that is happening at prek grade 2 is really paying off and it's just no surprise when we talk about the US news and world world ranking right where are elementary schools where our middle schools and our schools do really well and I've
029talked about it in my newsletters that you know the middle school is 13th Mars school is 20some. I think it has to do with all the work that we do around literacy and what we see and I know we talked a lot about your kindergarteners last year who were hitting benchmark like 93% if I'm remembering correctly. I think it has to do with the intentional work um that they're doing at all grades. So, I just wanted to say that and you know, it's the outside validation that kind of catches you by surprise that you're not even thinking about it. You're doing the work because it's the right work. Um, and staff works hard every single day. But when you start to see it in a publication and when I'm sitting in conquered and I can
030talk with, you know, even our our commissioner Caitlyn Davis about have you seen this and she's send it to me and she's drilling down into it. I think it speaks really I think it speaks volumes to what you do and so I just want to say that and the science of reading is a mandate that is coming down the pike where all schools must implement science of reading um initiatives by next year 2027 and center school Marsden and Hampton Academy are well ahead of this because they've already been doing it and the fact that we're seeing the results is just really I'm really pleased. So congratulations, I guess, is what I would say to you and to everyone and keep up the good work. It's really it's remarkable and it and it really is paying
031off in student gains and literacy, which is so important. So I appreciate what you're doing. >> I just want to say a quick thank you also as a personal beneficiary of both of your knowledge. I was so excited to see two of my absolute favorite educators walk in the room. Um, my kids are still voracious readers from the foundation that was set at center school. So huge. That was wonderful. Awesome job. >> We're very lucky to have both of them and their guidance. Thank you everyone. >> Thanks Mark. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. Um, a couple of things again, some of the same stuff, but ReadAcross America week. It's a great time to put a renewed emphasis on, you know, reading in the schools, especially as we start to wrap up the Read 100
032program. It ends, you know, the end of April, beginning of May. Um, they just tie so nicely together. Um, parent teacher conferences are taking place on the 19th, so I know a lot of people have signed up, but quite a few haven't. So, just reach out to your child's classroom teacher if you haven't done so already. Um, a few updates. Girls on the Run will be back on Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday starting on March 24th. So, just a great opportunity um for some of the young ladies in our community to participate in that. It's um you know, not just like running and physical fitness, but a lot of character building. It's great. And then, I mentioned it before, our variety show will be taking place on March 25th right here in the auditorium. Um tickets
033are on sale now. So, um we work through all the performers and making sure their caring adults are taken care of and then we start to open them up to the rest of the people. But it's just a great event and a really nice way for our students to showcase some of their talents. Other than that, um if you follow our Facebook page, you probably noticed that we've been working collaboratively with Hampton Academy on some maple sugaring activities. Um one of our third grade teachers has been doing it as an ongoing project. We have trees tapped and sap being collected right at Marston. And then the whole third grade was able to come over in shifts the other day and work with Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Burch um on the process of boiling that sap
034down into syrup. So they got to taste a little of the sap and then the finished product. Um it was just a great great opportunity for our students in that um nature and environment club will continue you know through March, April and May with um a selection of different activities. Some focused on gardening and some just unstructured outdoor play um but just great opportunities for children that we're hoping people take advantage of. Other than that, you know, it's it's March. It's a very busy busy long month, but you know, gearing up for April, May, June, which is um always a fantastic time at an elementary school. So, just open for questions or thoughts on anything in my report. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> All right. Looking forward to that variety show. >> It's
035going to be great. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um, so yeah, I guess I'll I'll start with the pi, uh, since that seems to be a topic. Uh, Pi Day, um, national holiday on Saturday. We celebrated on Friday and, um, we had a pie number competition. Whoever could name the most numbers of pi in consecutive order. Got to pie myself and Miss Mooney in the face. Um, we had Ali Harib uh Laharibb do overund almost close to 110 consecutive decimal uh digits of pi. Pretty impressive. Uh, Caitlyn Curtis did a really good job of uh slamming me in the face with a pie, which was which was great to see. All the kids were student super excited. Um, step up day for our um for our eighth graders is tomorrow. So
036is our ortorials which will start at 5:00. We are excited to have our finalists being judged by the Rotary Club. Our unified basketball team concluded their season with a multi-team tournament and they did very well. Uh was very excited to see everyone show up in the gymnasium for our home game. So, we're excited to see that program go uh grow. Early release, like we said, is on the 19th. If you have not signed up for parent teacher conferences, please do so. Um, we are also excited to be collaborating with Detective Teranzone on an ebike training course. Um, we know several of our students uh park our bikes off campus. However, we want to make sure that they are safe riding through our streets. Um, we will be hosting those on March 23rd or March 26th
037after school from 2:30 to 3:20. So, if anybody needs to take the bus home, they are able to do so. Um if you finish this uh safety course, you'll be able to park your ebike on campus um which will help Lane Library over there. So um on April 6, we are excited to invite and guest author Lauren Wal. Um we are collaborating with Port Smith Booknook for pre-orders of her book and we will be collaborating in a writer's workshop afterwards um for the students who had signed up for that. Congratulations to uh Miss Clark. Ghost Light was an excellent performance. Um it was really great to see a different side of some students, especially some of our eighth graders who decided to join the play for the first time. Very great performance. And um music
038in our schools um again for our eighth graders will be on March 24th. This is an opportunity for students in 8th grade to start meeting peers in the other schools and participate in uh a band uh performance over at Winnate High School. Uh, maple sugaring has just been something that is new to me as as a New Yorker moving up here. And so, it's so great to see the new evaporator that we have and all the excitement that we have from across the schools. Seeing students in the on the playground looking at all the trees and checking all the sap buckets has been excellent. Um, coffee and conversation for tomorrow is at 10:45. Um, we do have a jazz band now, which is very nice to see. We uh Miss Gay has started a jazz
039band and uh we've invited some students back from Winnate High School. They've had two performances in our student lobby as students are entering in the building and they are getting better by the by each performance. Um a lot more to see uh a lot more to say but um you know you have my report. Uh with that I will open it up to questions. >> Uh I believe that you had some information for us on the um eighth grade trip. >> Good information. We have solidified a school nurse. Um we are very excited about that. So um parents of medically fragile children have been notified and so we are excited. Uh this this nurse has some experience uh has a good amount of experience with Washington DC school field trips. So uh we're excited to
040have her on board. >> Great. Could you just expand a little bit more on the performance at Winnate for the music in our schools month? >> Yep. music in our schools months. 5:30 will be the band and at 6:30 will be the chorus. Um so it's an they will be uh over at Winnana High School rehearsing for the full day and they bring in um performers in the band and in the chorus and they merge everyone together and they do a performance later on at night. So they spend the day practicing and uh at the end they have a show. So >> Okay. And just for my benefit, could you repeat the book that the writer's workshop, the book that can be ordered? >> Yep. Um, so we put we posted this on our s'mores
041on our uh uh, you know, in our weekly s'mores. There's a forum for a pre-order book. Uh, the, uh, author is Lauren Wol and, um, she'll be in on May Monday, April 6th. And, uh, everything that you need as far as book and order forms will be on that Google form. So, we plan on sending it out as we get a little closer, but it has been in our weekly s'mores as that goes out. >> And I'm very pleased about the ebike training. That's >> amazing. >> Yeah, >> that's great. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. So, thank you. >> And I did hear a rumor that the unified program might be expanding to another sport. Is that a possibility? >> Hopefully. Yeah, we uh we're in talks. Uh we we're excited to see other schools grow
042their programs. And if we have an opportunity to get our students out and collaborating with uh general ed population and and other students and representing our school, we're going to take every opportunity that we can. >> Anybody else? Oh, thank you very much. No problem. Have a great day. >> Lots going on. >> Yeah. Good stuff, right? Yeah. >> Yeah. Good evening. We are right in the midst of working on a number of things in terms of trainings. So in February, all of the special education department got together and did an annual measurable goal training presented by the New Hampshire Department of Education. So it was just focused on how to make sure those IEP goals are written in a way that is measurable. It was very helpful so that everybody could hear everything all
043at once and just kind of ensuring that everybody is kind of using the same formula that the state is really looking for. Um Jamie Hayward and I went to the NHSA winter conference last week. It was focused on brainbased learning. It was a great time to collaborate with other um people within education. It was held in Portsmith. Um we really took some ideas back that we can bring back to our teams and just some really good reminders about making sure that everybody feels like the classroom is a safe place and that they belong and that their teachers like them. Um that those were some of the key kind of um points brought forth in that workshop. Um next month um Neil Campbell, Emily Fixler, our school social worker, Stacy Bart, our school psychologist, and I
044will be going to the annual law conference in conquered. It focuses on special education law and just provides updates on any um current or kind of newer court cases to help ensure that we are following the letters of the law. Our LEA determinations um our final report from the one we received last April will be going out to the state later this month. The leadership team will be working on finalizing that and then we should be getting our LEA determinations for the 2425 academic year towards the beginning of April. We're also working on transitions. Um so we have a few dates set aside. Um May 26th and June 4th are going to be our optional days for parents and students to meet over at Winnana in 30 minute increments with the Winnate team just to
045do a quick kind of meet and greet. It's not the time to really go into the IEP goals or services. There will be plenty of other times for that, but it's really just to talk a little bit about summer programs and a little bit about schedules and what to expect next year. Any questions for me? >> Oh, great. Keep up the great work. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello. Hello. Um, technology humming along. Um, most of what we're focused on right now is supporting the release of report cards for next week. So, we have to do all the backend work to make sure things are working properly for that. Um and then also focused a lot on rostering and things for the upcoming state assessments. Um one other thing that I wanted to just note
046was uh the ongoing work with the website. We have finally found a updated format for our website that we kind of like. So, we are planning to move forward with uh some updates in that area and should have a new layout set for the start of next school year. Um, so that's kind of exciting. And other than that, yeah, we're just humming along. So, with that, any questions? something that I was specifically asked when we were presenting the budget um specifically to the uh the commission the the area the beach area commission y >> um had to do with AI and I think that people are really interested to know and I see your note about training teachers in small groups as needed. Um, could you expand on where we're at with the use of
047AI in the schools and teaching children how to use AI um and things like that just so the public knows? >> Sure. Um, as it stands right now, the way that we have it set up, we do have a policy that we signed into effect earlier this year that just kind of gives us a basic framework. It doesn't really dig into the nuts and bolts of how we're going to use it. Um, and overall what we've decided on at this point is it's still exclusively intended for staff use. Uh, so that would be your administrators, your teachers. Um, and only in certain scenarios are they supposed to be using it. Um, at no point should it be used outside of the parameters of the policy as it's laid out. Uh, and we are working on
048compiling a list that actually details all of the approved tools that we have in use right now within the district and that will be posted on our website soon. Um, beyond that, there is hope that we have a plan moving forward for trying to begin implementing some of the AI tools. Where it gets really tricky for us is a lot of them are not intended for use for children under the age of 13. So it's more conceptbased and less actual usage. Um but over time I'm sure there'll be more and more tools that will come out that we will be using. So um that's it as of right now. I would say staff usage, administration usage. Um and that's where we try to leave it. The only AI tools that kids currently have access to
049would be in Khan Academy. There is an AI that's built into that. Uh, but the use of that is controlled by how the teacher actually programs it to interact with the kids. Um, and Magic School AI, which we also have a contract with, does have capability, but it's not currently turned on for the students. So, yeah. That's an interesting conversation, Molly, is what I would say as somebody who is also works at a university, um, we talk a lot about it and one of the things that I hear often is it doesn't replace the thinking that goes on in schools and universities. So, I just want to reiterate that um, and that it is a tool, right? and it's a tool that can be helpful for our staff, but it never replaces the thinking of
050the students and the tasks in front of them. So, that would be my stand as well um as somebody who right is as a as an educator and a leader. So, thanks for the question. >> Hi, evening everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um I think since the last time we talked, we had February break. We were able to get um chip away at a few outstanding issues that we had. Uh plumbing, little small projects, that type of stuff. Um we were able to replace some flooring over at center school over the break. Uh the blizzard didn't help with that on that Monday. That was delayed for a day and a half or so, but um we were able to get room 502 up in the main building and the hallway done with this same type
051of floor. I don't know if I tal ever talked about the flooring that we're doing. Um it is uh just way less maintenance. um less cost uh in the long run. Um way less labor intensive, no chemicals, that type of thing. It's just better, looks better, nicer. If you haven't seen it, it looks really good. Um the HVAC upgrade over at Sen School has this. They were in not last, yeah, last week. Just making a few tweaks trying to get everything balanced. Um and that seems to be running a little bit smoother. We do have them coming in April to do um the dehumidification piece of that project. >> Um >> yeah, uh we did have a nice little rain yesterday. Um found a few more leaks in some of the buildings, one here, which
052we haven't had one here yet. Um but I've got some people lined up to come take a look at those things. Um we had a window that was raining kind of inside the classroom, so we'll have people come take a look at that. Um, hoping the snow is behind us. It is still March, but hoping that's out of the way. And, uh, that's pretty much it, I think. Does anybody have any questions about anything? >> I think we're all set. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for all your hard work. >> Amen. March. >> Um, I just want to say I had a great time at center. I was one of the guest uh readers. Uh, and uh, we we it was just a great day. It was they do such a good job
053putting on a a workshop reading for the kids. Love it. Um, other than that, I'm still working with Emily Fixler on our student debt. If you'd like to know the number, uh we're at student debt as of today is $4,358 and that is between 105 students. So we roughly serve about five 560 students a day. So we got 105 students that owe us that money. But we're working on it. We're calling, we're emailing, mailing letters home. They're trying to pay it down and we're doing our best. >> All you can do is do your best, Mary. >> Thank you. >> Keep plugging along. >> Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Good. Thank you. >> Costa. Feels like it's been a while since we've written this report and we're talking about it, but I think it was just
054by nature of vacations and how they all shook out. Um, I guess I want to start by thanking Mariah publicly for taking care of the annual report this year. We all contribute to it. Um, but I know that she bears the burden of putting that together and making sure that it is out in um in people's hands at this time. There was actually a request for more copies of it. I know that Aaron Allen ran over to Winnit in the morning that day to make sure that we had the copies that they needed. So I know people were thanking us for it. So glad that those got in people's hands. Nice to see them as they're hate to see them sitting on the shelf. So that's great. We talked a little bit about our PR
055firm Gilfoil who is helping to get some of the good news out on our district. So happy to do that. Um just the policies continue. they will continue. We have some that are going to come to you um not only this month but next month too. There's just always policy work to do. It is really important. So we just stay on top of it and we'll we'll do them as we can and take care of them so that they're up to date. So thank you to Sarah and to Candace for really serving on that committee because it does keep us busy. I would like to talk about where we are in the last day of school. I can do it now or I can we can wait. >> You go ahead and do it now.
056>> Okay. So, we believe it or not, we've only had one snow day which has been remarkable and we've been really lucky. Um we have had some release days. So, with just one um one snow day, what I would propose is that um the last day of students would tenatively be scheduled should there be no more snow days. Tuesday, June 16th, which would be a half day, and then um the staff would finish up on Wednesday, June 17th, which is kind of nice and tidy because it doesn't get into Junth, which is in of itself a federal holiday and something that we would have to contend with. So, that would be my recommendation. >> Are we all in agreement? Okay, we're good. >> Yep. Do we need a vote on that one? >> All right,
057we're good. All right, we're good. Okay. >> An approved calendar. >> Perfect. Yep. And if there's any more snow days, we will come back to you. All right. Thank you for that. Um, they talked about the report cards. Want to let you know that Suantico and I will be presenting on Friday at the her conference. We're looking forward to doing that which is on Hampton Empowerment and Resilience. Victoria Arland will be the keynote. We're pretty excited about that. And we're presenting Jonathan Heights work. And that comes out of the work we did last year with Lane Library. So, we're happy to be a part of that and to be a part of the day. So, that'll be this Friday on the 20th. >> Can you Where where is that located? >> It's going to be
058at the Ashworth. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Great. >> So, yeah, please. There's a few more seats. We'd love to have you. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, we'd love to have you. Um, Sue Antico has been named the 2026 Southeastern Champion by for children by the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. um you know just somebody who has retired but yet continues to give back to our school. The district very involved with the Hampton Rotary um is working on C the Ria is going to be there tomorrow night during the ortorials is also um helping out with a number of things around town. the soup kitchen. Just a person that's continuing to give back to her community and to all of us and is just an incredible resource who helps out with our mental health team
059and our mentor program. So felt she was really worth being recognized and she was named Southeast Champion for children. So she goes on to the state and there will be a celebration on May 20th. If anybody would like to go, let us know. we'll get a few tickets and go and support and celebrate her. Then, um, under safety, just to let you know, we have had, since I've written this, there have been two substantiated bullying reports. I'd like to just kind of make you aware of that. It's usually in my report, but it obviously was written prior to that. Just to let our families know and the community that we do have a counseling corner with a number of resources. We do continue to be in touch with the Cook Center. We do have um
060families that are accessing many of the resources. It was interesting having a conversation with um staff in the last week and they said that they would like us to continue to remind um our staff of the resources available with Health Trust as well as the Cook Center as it pertains to mental health and that they feel that it's just a real benefit to not just our families but to our staff. So, we'll look at doing something um during our opening in August. So, we've already reached out to the Cook Center. They'll do that and we'll also reach out to Health Trust as well just so that we can make sure we're taking care of um everyone. It might be um something to do uh or something that can be um yeah remind parents during parent
061teacher conferences if we have something um I don't know visual to show them. It's parentguidance.org. >> Yes. >> Okay. So I just feel like we don't have people really taking advantage of this and it's huge. I mean this month's um uh topic that is being highlighted is body image. Y >> and every single one of our students from kindergarten through 8th grade can certainly benefit from >> some discussion around body image. It's huge. So again it's parentguidance.org or the Cook Center for Human Connection. And if we can even, you know, advertise that a little bit more during parent teacher conferences, um that might be something to help parents get on board with it. >> No, thank thank you for mentioning that. I know that um some of our staff members, they actually have the emblem
062in their signature line so that parents can even like just press that and it brings you to the page where they can enroll in courses. They can get um they can get coaching. They can ask a therapist live. I mean, there's just a number of great resources and and we know that, you know, it's not easy being a k a child. It's not easy being a parent, but we can do this together and we can get the support we need. The help is available and we just want to make sure everybody who needs it is getting the help they need. >> And it's free and it's all HIPPA protected. We don't have we don't get any of the information. We don't know anyone. It's just we just want to make sure that people are aware
063of it. >> I wonder if we could put that as a popup on our websites that people just see first thing when they log in. Free mental health resource. Click. >> Yeah, it is there. >> But as a Does it pop up in front of it? Because I've never seen that. >> Yeah. I just wonder if a different channel if we're getting very low engagement might benefit the program. >> Something to look at. >> Yeah. >> I'm wondering if you mentioned parent teacher conferences. Do we do like an info table at each of the schools? Could we put this cal a copy of the calendar on the table? >> I think it's easy enough to do. You know, I know that we try to tell our principles. We try to tell the counselors. We try
064to we try to get it out there, right? So, any little thing we can do. Absolutely. Um, we want to just give a shout out to the facilities for helping with the snow this year. It has been it's been a a year for sure and we really appreciate the snow removal and keeping our sidewalks clear and and our parking lot. So, a big shout out to Tim Harrington and his staff for doing such a great job. So, we really do appreciate that. We know it's been a it's been a heavy lift, no pun intended, this year, but it really has been with the amount of snow. So, big thank you. Um, we continue to meet as a district safety team. It's it's never been more important um to make sure that we're being mindful of
065the physical safety in our buildings, but also the emotional safety. Um working with our our SRO's, working with um our partners, you know, whether it's Hampton Police, Hampton Fire, just in regular contact to make sure that we can do everything um possible to keep our our schools safe. In fact, this summer we are going to host Alice training which will be a a fed it's basically nationwide. Anybody can get on and sign up. But if we get one for every five. So we can have up to or one for every 10. We can have up to five people that attend for free which is which is great. So we'll get some people on the district safety team in for that free training as well. So we've got that going on. And then we have our
066mental health team and staff are piloting materials and resources from Wayfinder. Wayfinder is a tier 2 tier three um support for students who are struggling in schools. So they they may have trouble focusing, they may have, you know, they may be worried about something. whatever it is that's preventing them for for focusing on schools, we do have those tier 2, tier three resources to support those students. So, we're anxious to hear the thoughts on the pilot and as you mentioned the Cook Center. We talk about data a lot and making sure that we're monitoring student progress. This is why we have our report cards coming out. We've got some good data points. You see that um one of the things that Tim Smith did not mention but he does help to coordinate those visits with
067our um leadership team as we look at data points and making sure that we are using the right tool. We have been using Renaissance star to progress monitor monitor students in language arts and math. We are also looking at I Ready and we are also looking at NIWA. So just taking a look at that to make sure star is giving us the right data that we need having a great conversation with with the schools and the principles about that to make sure that this is still the tool we want to use. So doing that talking about extended year already believe it or not that is just around the corner. We have Kim Olsen who's going to lead Camp Invention this summer. We expanded it last year. We had about 150 people come. that is huge.
068People just want to come to that. So, we expanded it to be a little bit bigger. So, that'll take place. And then, of course, as Nathan said, New Hampshire SAS will be coming up very shortly in the next month or so. >> I um the SAS testing, how does that work around, for instance, the eighth grade trip and vacation and all that? >> Yeah, you know, we're very lucky. They give us a window and the schools have the ability to schedule it around everything that's going on. I think it it's it's a big enough window that we can accommodate anything that's going on as all like all schools in we know April, May, June, it's an April May window it gets busy but we're fortunate enough that the windows are large enough that we can
069get in the assessments that need to be scheduled. So, and I also wanted to give a shout out to obviously all the teachers and administrators, but especially the school nurses because I know that the past couple of few months have just been horrendous with so many students out sick. And it's been very difficult, I'm sure, to try to help kids make up, try to get kids into school, try to make sure the ones that really aren't feeling well go home or, you know, so again, our school nurses do an amazing job. And I know the staff as well, um, really works hard to keep our kids healthy and if they're not, have them stay home, but give them that chance to make up when they get back. It's hard. It's hard. We had a pretty
070hard winter with illness, so hopefully we we're on the other side of it, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Questions? Was there any questions for me? >> Okay. Um I think we can do the consent agenda and we need to look at the meeting minutes from January 13th. We could not do those last time because we didn't have the right quorum of people, but we do tonight. So, for those that were here for the January 13th meeting, um if you've looked those over and you're okay with it, then I would accept a motion to accept those. >> I'll make a motion. >> Okay. Wendy made a motion. Molly second. Um, and again, Wendy, Molly, and Sarah, you're the ones voting. So, all in favor? Good. Excellent. We taking care of that.
071All right. The next uh set of meeting notes was from January 30th, and this was a short meeting that we had. Thank you to our administrators and folks. Um, yeah. So, this was again a meeting that we had with a um a member, a town member, and uh so Wendy, Molly, myself, and Candace. Um are we all okay with those meetings? So, I'll make a motion to accept those. >> Okay. And all in favor? Okay. Perfect. >> Shout out Oh, shout out to Karen Mahoney who um has taken on this task. Big thank you. She's doing a great job. Appreciate it. So, thanks Karen. >> Okay. And then we have the minutes from >> where am I? February 10th. And again, uh Sarah, myself, and Candace, are we all set with those minutes? Okay. I'll
072make a motion to accept those minutes. Okay. And all in favor? All right. So, those are taken care of. All right. As far as correspondence goes, >> we do have um you need your non-public from that same hand. >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Are we again the three of us? Are we all all set with the non-public minutes? Okay. I'll make a motion to accept those. And can a second? All in favor? Okay. All right. Um correspondence. I don't think I see anything with checks and all that sort of stuff. So, um I guess there's nothing we need to do there. Everyone has signed the manifest. We're all set. >> Thank you. >> Um new business, the celebration of learning at center school. That has been addressed, right? >> Yep. Uh the parent and
073family handbook is here in our packet you know with any revisions made but could you maybe >> yeah you know one of the things we tried to do is we wanted to do a deep dive into our handbooks and again it's part of our communication we we talked about um we want to streamline it. We want to put links so that so that policies are up to date. So when they connect with a a policy, it goes right to the link and that way as the policy gets updated, we can ensure that things are up to date. You'll notice that it's um it did shrink in size, which was a good thing, but we just wanted to bring it to your attention. We had our it was reviewed by myself, the principles, and then um
074the legal staff. We actually sent it to our attorneys just to make sure was there something we forgot, something we wanted to add. They had very little feedback. Just wanted to give it to you so you could see it. If you had thoughts, please let us know. You can This could be if you want a first read, you could let me know what you think. If you have any changes, we're open to your feedback. Um, but we're also going to do the staff handbook book next and then our guest teacher. So that these are these are some of the things that we were doing this year is just doing a really thorough look at these and um having Erin Allen our new administrative assistant in place. Um you know she's fresh eyes to really look
075at it and say what does it look what are we missing and she's been really great and instrumental and kind of overseeing some of the work. So grateful for her support but wanted to let you have a look at it as well. >> Okay. So we can all make sure we have a look at this and then any input that we have. Let's get back to um Lois with that input. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. And you said there will be a staff one coming out and there will also be a guest teacher one coming out. >> Okay. Y we'll look for those. >> All right. Our next thing that we need to address is the policy BCA which is board member ethics. We all have a copy of that. I'm
076sure we've all been through it a few times. And um if if everyone is is feeling comfortable and really good about that, then before we leave today, we should all make sure and sign and acknowledge that policy. Is there something else >> that I'm missing? >> We're just hearing a beep. >> There's a beeping. It sounds like an alarm. >> Oh, >> maybe maybe Nick wants to take a peek at it. >> I know, right? thoughts. >> Okay, so Nick is going to look at the beep. Thanks. >> Um, that's just the annual signing. We have to sign in and >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nick. Um, so we just have to sign policy BCA every year. It's in my calendar, so I put it um I put it on our board agenda
077and it's just an annual sign. So I will make sure or you all we need to make sure before we leave today that everybody signs this um so we acknowledge that we have read and understand and accept the BCA board member ethics policy. Great. >> Okay. And uh let's see. All right. So this I'm actually kind of excited about this. So given a lot of the I don't know how to even explain it. Given everything that we went through during the whole process of getting ready and preparing um the budget and the concerns and questions that people had, Sarah and Candace came up with a great idea and I would like to leave it to them to explain it to you. And I just hope that everybody's really excited about this because I think it
078will help the public with understanding the whole budget process that we as a board have to go through. So I will leave it to you ladies. >> Yeah. So I would like to echo doc Dr. Costa and thanking the town of course for coming out and supporting our budget. Um, I will say for me as a first-time board member, even after having served as a state rep up in conquered, there was so much that goes into budgeting with the school and with school funding in general in New Hampshire that I learned a ton through that process. And I think um in an effort to sort of continue our facilitation of community uh of communication between the SAU and the town's people, we'd like to propose that we introduce a monthly series where we tackle a
079topic that relates to school finance and our budget. So we'll talk about things like how does how do we pay for schools in New Hampshire? What does it look like to build a budget? What is swept? What is adequacy aid? Um what are EFAs? What are grants? Um and the idea would be that we'd introduce the topic um at a at a board meeting and then um we'd give an opportunity for members of the public to submit questions to us and then we would present on it and then ideally have some materials that we can post uh follow up on the website as well. Um Molly had an awesome suggestion in my opinion to create a committee. >> Yeah, I think um in order to make sure we're managing the workload because I do think
080it's a great idea um and keep it like very formalized. I think >> they are aware of it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um I think the most efficient way to approach it and the way to make sure we're not adding too much to the work of the administrators or like the people in the schools. Um and really taking it on as a board to take the initiative on this communication. If we establish a committee and have a couple of board members voluntarily join that committee to kind of lead the charge and gather information by working with um the parties and getting information from the parties that they can put together that would probably drive it the most um in the most positive direction. Uh and then we know we have accountability and we have
081a division of responsibility and I think I don't know how to do we just if we wanted to do a committee do we just develop one I I also have another suggestion I was actually at um in conquered today for legislative priorities too and one of the things one of the people you heard from was um the fair funding project and they actually have a schoolboard advisor advocacy network. I don't I don't know if they could help us with this because I cuz I talked about this and they said have them call us. We can go we can help them. We can lead them. And I don't know if they they said who would we reach out to? You know, they were excited that you know I said well I said you you would have
082to reach out to the board and blah blah. So they might have already reached out to Candace. I apologize if they did. Um but I said I just think that um they would be able to um help us to you know get the information out there in a way that would help people to understand it better. So I don't know but I thought I So they gave me h how many do you need? I said give me five. So you can you can I'm sorry. No you're fine. You can have one and you can take it, leave it, but I'm just thinking that um it will it will make our it would be an easy lift, right? Does that make sense? So, just something to think about. They said it's kind of in our wheelhouse.
083It wouldn't be as it wouldn't it's stuff they already do. >> Yeah. I've worked with Noah at Fair Funding on a bunch of projects. So, >> definitely would love to loop them in. They have a ton of materials. they have the framework already. I will say that having attended a couple of their public sessions um sometimes the perception is that they are not a neutral party. Um there is like and and that's not a reflection of their actual content. That's more of a reflection of the perception of um you know certain people. Um so I I think we can definitely incorporate it but I think it is important that we are autonomous and owning it and it is just authentic. you know, we live in town, you live in town, we came by this information,
084we all benefit if we speak in the same language and understand these pretty nuanced and complex topics. Um, I I explained and what an EFA is to a teacher the other day and they were shocked. So, I think there are really um wide swings in the degrees to which we all understand this and also the speed at which it is all changing. Um, and it really behooves us as a community not only to understand it together, but also to have an existing dialogue so that when that change happens, we're all in the same place and we can all jump in um with an equivalent understanding. I think it's uh just a phenomenal idea and kudos to Candace because it is fully her brainchild that I support. >> Yeah. And I and I would too. >>
085Yeah. >> So, if we if we all agree and we would like to proceed with this and I'm usually jumps in before, but sometimes I just get so excited. >> Sorry. Um, first of all, are you two pretty comfortable with keeping the ball rolling and keeping the steam going? All right. So, for instance, what would be like the first topic for like for next month? What would you envision? So, I mean, I'm open to any board member ideas, but I thought we could just maybe start big picture and just say, "How does New Hampshire pay for schools?" And just start big picture and then narrow down from there. >> Okay. So, if you were to reach out to this group, >> Yeah. >> get their information, sync it together with the information that the state
086gives. Would you be able to give a short like um infomercial or whatever ne at the next board meeting on school on how our school funding in New Hampshire happens? >> Yeah, I think we could do maybe a five minute PowerPoint presentation. That's exactly what I was thinking. >> Invite people in to talk about it and then if we get I mean if there's engagement and curiosity there and people want to participate we can go longer form and maybe not you know we don't want to make these meetings any longer. I think they're already filled with a lot of important information. We don't overload people. Um, >> and maybe it it, you know, the format evolves. If if it >> is being wellreceived and people are participating, we could look at expanding it and what
087that might mean. But I think like minimum viable is probably just, you know, a quick presentation and then it lives somewhere easily accessible. people can watch the recording, people can access the the document and it'll just give them kind of a tool to understand our very unique framework in the state. >> Okay. So, I'm going to again jump ahead. So, the first topic that you would do a presentation on for about five minutes at the next school board meeting would be how New Hampshire funds schools. >> Okay. And we're going to mention it now. So, anybody that has input or information or questions, this would be your opportunity to, you know, do that now. Question, feedback, all of that sort of stuff. We will also put that on our website so people will be able
088to see it and then if they have further questions or concerns or whatever, they can continue to have that dialogue with you. Okay. Do we need to do a vote on this or are we all okay? If everybody's feels like this is good, right? >> Essentially, we're adding it as a as an agenda item. >> Yeah, that's it. Does not >> I don't think it has and everybody's comfortable with this and I think this is this is a good community service, especially given, you know, what transpired during during the budget season. I think maybe this will help make it a little easier for people to understand. >> All right. So, we'll add it to the agenda for next month and it will be how the how the state of New Hampshire funds public schools. >>
089Love it. >> Thank you. >> You guys are wonderful. Thank you. >> Let me know if you want to um what you how I can support you, right? Let let me know if you need anything and how I can support you. I'm happy. >> Maybe we can share the presentation at the top of the policy meeting. >> Love it. >> And then we can just >> We have spare time there. So, >> I think that's a great idea. That's two birds, one stone. >> That's amazing. You guys are amazing. Awesome. >> Great. >> Okay, so that's a good step forward. All right, our next thing that we need to do. I have enrollment and it looks like our enrollment stays pretty steady. >> Yeah. >> Um, which a lot of people have concerns. Oh, it's
090so low and but you know what? We we have a good steady enrollment that helps us keep things rolling smoothly. we don't have this large influx or large, you know, people leaving. So, I I feel really comfortable um with our enrollment and yeah, I think our it I think it bears out the fact that our schools are doing so well. >> I think so, too. >> You know, in this in the standings. All right. Uh oh, Mariah, are you ready? >> All right. Hello. Um, thank you for voting and passing our budget. I just had everybody sign that MS22 that needs to be to the Department of Revenue um within the 20 days. Everything else is uploaded. So, the minutes of our deliberative, the ballot um the two ballots, the ballot with the final numbers,
091the ballot prior. Um, so all of that will be completed. The only thing that I don't have as yet is the audit from 2425. Um, and that should be ready to us by the end of the month so that I can upload that and then um, Department of Revenue is all set until September. Um, I have asked the schools to have all purchase orders in and completed by April 15th. Um, I am putting the last of the payroll stipens and trying to get everything encumbered so that I have an idea um by the beginning of May where we kind of are um so if we need to manipulate some of the budget um we can have a conversation then. Um I have um I am going next Tuesday to sit with Jerry Fruit and um
092probably about 10 other BAS to go over some house bills. There's um quite a there's a quite a few house bills that are going to affect us if they pass. Um we are a Senate uh SB2 district. So, House Bill 1355 and House Bill 1300 for the default budgets will definitely affect us. Um, and so I am going in with the committee to explain how they will affect our district and um what that would look like. House Bill 1610. We worked really really hard into getting the retainage for our district. >> And if that passes, it will um resend our original vote and um returns the funds that we've retained back to the town. And then if um and part of that that change would be that we would if we wanted to keep it,
093we would have to every year have a vote on it. Um it disheartens me a lot because it took a lot to get that put through. And um if people haven't noticed with this just for example um school care how many districts owed millions to hundreds of thousands of dollars of claims that um school care had to extend to their vendors which were the schools. Um, with our retainage, we wouldn't have been able to pay that if we had that. Our retainage isn't much. We don't retain a ton every It's accumulative every year. So, we're slowly trying to build that retainage. Um, we still return revenues back to the town. So, it that's a harder one for us because if anything happens, we don't have that safety net. If that goes away, um, we can't
094utilize. those funds for anything for the year of our budget. It's for emergencies, for stuff like school care, for stuff like if the roof falls in, for multiple things. Um, so that's that bill is a hard one. I think people really need to look at that. Um, and then also another one was the um House Bill 1823, which is about audits. It really wouldn't affect me. Um, however, it would affect a lot of people. Um, and I understand why. It's trying to get an audit done within so many days after you close the books. And, um, there's only two two real auditors right now that do the schools and it's no, it's I had mine done in >> July and I still haven't gotten the report yet. Like, they're that busy. So, it's not just
095about us not being able to complete them. It's also about like not having auditors. So, um there's just a whole bunch of house bills that we're going to be looking at and um just giving ideas. Extra will be there. Pelum will be there. It'll be a couple um other districts. So, I felt like it was I was asked and I felt like it was a really good thing to um have a conversation on. So, I'll be doing that next Tuesday. Um, my statement, financial statements in there. Um, I think what I'm going to try to do for you, April, May, probably May's um, schoolboard meeting, I will give you all student activities, accounts, and all the credit card breakdown. Um, I usually try to do that near the end of the year, so you can
096have that. Um, it's coming close already to the end. Uh, I will we're cleaning up this month so that I can roll the system over already for next month so we can start contracts at the beginning of April. So, just going to start getting busy again. That's it. Any questions? Do you think you might be able to do um like a brief synopsis compilation of what you talk about at this meeting next week? >> Yes. >> Like maybe the top 10 important. I think that I I think with everything um I think even with our budget, we spent many Wednesday nights, many hours, and we had 40 people look at our videos. Like, it's kind of disheartening that um people say they don't understand it, but they're not taking the time to understand it. And
097offered multiple times to have people come and sit. I spend over a month working on a budget book. >> It's um it's not just um throwing numbers together. Um so I definitely can try to do that. I think sometimes when you try to like explain about House Bill 610, if somebody doesn't understand what retainage is and I give details, the more details sometimes you give, the harder it gets to explain it or it gets more confusing. So, I really try for a lot of things just do like three points so that it's not too much in the weeds. Um but yeah, I would definitely do that because I think that um some of these bills it's I think that um that the world is getting complicated and there's so so much going on with legislation
098right now, right, >> that I think people just shut the TV off >> and forget about it because it's easier not to be involved. So, um, about how many of the House bills do you think would be appropriate like >> top 10 or the top five or >> um my not >> I will do the ones that will affect how I'll try to find the ones that affect us most >> and bring those >> perfect and I can talk a little bit on them >> and it will and it will piggyback well on >> on what we're efas >> but please look at house bill 1610. And if you or >> 1610, if you have a second to go in and um you can actually just make comments on their on their bills and um
099it that is that's helpful. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. They talk a lot today. They talked about how important it is for people to reach out to senators, legislators, and have the conversations and that um it is important that superintendents do that. And it's also important for people in the community and board members to do that. That was one of the things that was really emphasized today when Mariah were at the meeting. Also last Friday, the Southeaster hosted another legislative session and we were able to get um some senators and leg and people from the house in a room in the southeast and we were able to have really good conversations um particularly around how do how does this legislation impact communities. That's one of the things that people are not people are
100not talking about and how how choice in of itself if it were funded correctly could be a good thing. Right. However, the way it's funded to your point and yours um makes it makes it more challenging because there's only so much money. And so then what happens is is that it's basically taking from one school to give to another school, which is not not what anybody wants. That's not why we're in this business. And then they talked about how that fractures your community. And that one of the things that um we know schools do is they bring communities together. And we want to be that, you know, the group that brings communities together. you know, we want to be going to our senior center, we want to be going to our Rotary, we want to
101go to the Chamber of Commerce, we want to be part of the community. Um, so it was just a really good reminder though that the relationships with our legislative is really important. So, reach out, make the calls. you know, you never know what the power of your conversation and words could have and that we should we should all be doing that. Um, so hopefully, you know, there's a chance that we can have a change and an impact and that's that's all we can do. But we sat in a room and we hopefully we walked away with nothing else, more understanding and that hopefully when people go to to make a vote and to decide that they make a decision that is in the best interest of their communities. and it becomes very um important and
102and heightened when it's time for elections and then everybody settles back down or settles down and then it gets lost and I guess I guess we can't let it get lost and that's why what you're helping us do and if you could give us a a synopsis of how you know some of these will affect us then maybe we can keep that conversation going. So >> yes, and to that end, April 8th, we will do another legislative roundt with SEU 21. That will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Again, another opportunity for us to sit down because as um >> is that Winnate? >> It is at Winnate. It's in the media center because crossover is happening. So the bills that have survived are going to house and senate and vice versa. So, it's kind
103of our last opportunity to really have those conversations about what these bills will do to our communities. And um I'm happy to share like the top 10 if you would like me to because there's some ones out there that we're really concerned about. Things like tax caps, things like um you know, EFAs, things like funding, like all of those things matter. Um, and things like Mariah said, retainage, you know. So, yeah. >> All right. Um, I would like to, if it's all right with everyone else, jump over to the policy review number 12. So, we have a number of policies here that were second read. Correct. >> Correct. And some first reads as well. Yep. >> Okay. So, let's look at the second reads first. It was GBCD background investigation and criminal history records check.
104And that one is a second read. So if there isn't any problem with it or nobody sees it, >> can I just bring to your attention that we decided that we were going to require background checks every four years. We didn't want to do it, you know, every year. We didn't want to do it every three years, but we thought every four years. So when you think about it, you know, we're a K8 school, right? >> Kindergarten, first grade, and then maybe again at Marsen School. We know by the time they get to the middle school, we don't have the level of volunteers that we would at Mars and Center. So we went with four years, but if anybody has strong feelings about that, I'm sure we would all but went with four years. Just
105wanted to bring that one to your attention. Is everyone comfortable with that? Okay. So, can I have a motion and a second to accept this policy? >> Motion. >> Second. Okay. Moved, Wendy. Second, Sarah. Um, all those in favor of GBCDs. Okay, that's unanimous. All right. And the rest of them are first reads. And >> if I could just say these policies um the committee met on um and they are they are all required by law policies and they are all based on the New Hampshire Schoolboard Association updates just to let you know. >> Okay. And for public we should just let you know that um EHLB subpoenas involving district students officials employees and or records. The next one is FAA annual facility plan and unused district property. Uh GCC AD leave for uniform service
106members or their spouses. JF enrollment and enrollment capacities. JFR enrollment and enrollment capacities annual school program class activities capacity. AB ADB drug-free workplace in schools. ADC uh prohibition regarding use and possession of tobac tobacco products, ecigarettes, e-liquids in and on school facilities and grounds. DFA investment KF/R use of school facilities JICK bullying prevention pupil safety and violence prevention rescended policies. Uh JLA student insurance program which we do not have. >> Correct. So that one um we're eliminating that, right? Because we don't offer that anymore, right? Okay. All right. So that's all a first read and we will look at those again at the next meeting. Correct. >> All right. So we'll take care of that. Um on the nominations, we voted on those last time. Did you have a reason? Did we need to go
107into non-public on that also? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. We need to do the We have two >> resations. Yeah, we're going to >> I want to go. >> So, um I would like to um have someone make a motion so that we could go into Oh, first of all, does anyone have any public comment and seeing as there is no one here, I guess we don't. Um I'd like to go into non-public under RSA 91- A 3 Roman 2 A through M. All in favor of going. We got to do roll call. Roll call. Yeah. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, we are in non-public. Okay. So, we have um some resignations that we need to look at. And um the first one is a resignation from uh Christina Mercedes, Spanish teacher at Hampton
108Academy. And I she appreciates the opportunities obviously that she's had during her time here. And I would like to invite anyone to make a motion to accept that. Um Wendy. Yes. Okay. And Sarah second. All right. So, all in favor of accepting Christina Mercedes resignation and wishing her all the best in her future endeavors. Yep. Okay, we're all good on that. And the other resignation we have is from Emily Ponopoulos. Did I say that correctly? Again, Emily is resigning from her position as second grade teacher center school. And I we I would like to have a nomination. I mean, I would like to have a motion to accept her resignation. Okay. A second. >> Okay. So, we have Candace and Sarah. And again, all those in favor of accepting her resignation and wishing her well
109in her future endeavors. All right. Thank you. Is there anything else that we need to have come before the board? That being said, I will take a motion to adjurnn. Anyone? All right. Molly and Wendy's second. So, all in favor? And we are adjourned.