Sept 10 2025 School Board Meeting

001Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order. Can you please rise for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty andice. >> I apologize. I forgot to state the time. Call the meeting to order at 601 now. Okay. We have a public hearing in the building and maintenance expendable trust fund referral for the water corporation project. Yes. So, >> thank you very much. Uh we're bringing in copies regarding the last um water testing. We provided that for the board last month, but we thought it would be helpful to have that again as a reference. Um, we also have Michael from Second Wind. He was delayed a little bit in traffic. Um,

002however, he's supposed to be here any minute now. And, um, so the public hearing. Um, if you would like, if you could. >> Okay. In the essence of time, we're going to have we're going to move our Eagle Scout up to now. >> All right. >> Carlson has Oops. Okay. Okay, while we wait, we are going to um I'll entertain a motion to accept the me the minutes from August 13th of 2025. Have you guys had a chance to look those over? Okay. Would I anyone like to make a motion to accept the meeting minutes as written? Heather has made a motion. Do I have a second? >> Samantha, is there a second? Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I'm going to everyone was Yes. Go ahead. Uh my name is Drew Ber and I

003am here to present my legal project and ask you guys for approval. My idea is the path we have from around the end of the parking lot on that end of the school to the count offices need some clean up and maintenance and other work done. And my goal is to fix the trail so that we can use it for haunted walks and Halloween Christmas walks and those planned and evacuation. So, some of the trailing that needs to be done is cutting back logs that are extending on to the actual path itself, cleaning up trash and other just basic trailing up stuff like raking and stuff. True foliage also needs to be done where we want to cut back some leaves so that when people are walking on it, it doesn't get in their face

004and get in their eyes. And we're also trying to make it more accessible to wheelchairs and strollers by making the path wide enough to wheel them through. There's a lot of culverts that have been blocked by leaves causing a wall on the trail. I'd like to clean out those culvers, get the leaves out in the forest, not blocking the culvers, and fix the wash up with PE stone and a 12T bridge on the wash out. The entrance and exit of the trail are uneven to have a big drop off from the tar, which makes it really difficult to push yourself on a wheelchair or push another person on a wheelchair down it or push a stroller down it. So, I'd like to get down or something to lay on the ground for the layout and

005make it easier to roll those on. And I've come up with a couple possible future ideas which is completely up to the school in the town and it's right now I know part of the evacuation site school is the church and there's no real safe way to cross that. So if the town something like that that would occur there's a huge dead pine tree that's going to fall probably fairly soon that if taken out correctly cause a lot less damage and there could be a story walk along the trail. Uh I've I've walked along the trail a couple times, looked at it, see what needs to be done, come up with all of these things and I'm just here to present their mission. Firstly, great job. You did a really good job. >> So, any

006thoughts from the board? >> So, sounds like what he's asking for. Is there permission? I'm guessing there's no cost impact to the school or the town. >> You guys don't have to do anything. I'll do all the work. Any extra money will come back to the school after as well. Does anyone want to make a motion to allow to move forward with the histo project? >> All right. So, Kelly's going to make a motion. Do I have a second? All in favor? >> I >> Thank you. just >> now that I have it approved, we are going to start work on Saturday from 1 to 4. >> Yes. 1 to 4. >> Are you asking or allowing volunteers to be with you? >> Yes, we are. We'll have volunteers from my voice. >> Well, anybody

007>> Well, anyone who wants anyone who wants >> What do they need to bring for supplies if they have them? >> Nothing. We have supplies. the emotions for gloves. >> Can you like race? >> Would you like children rates and things if they have furniture equipment? >> We have contact with someone who can bring us rates and law firms and other tools. >> I can obviously not. >> So come as able bring what you have. >> Yep. also >> 11 >> and then in two weeks on Sunday from 11 to 2 >> the 28th there will also be your name. >> Tell me those dates again. >> So the September 28th from 11 to 2 and then what's >> the 13th of September from 1 to 4. >> Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we

008are going to move forward with public input for right now. Um, we are going to have 15 minutes with three minutes for each individuals. We have spoken with um the school association and have been encouraged to not give responses right away um so that we can get you guys the information you want. So, we're I just want to give you guys the information that we're respond right back. But we'll take any input and then we'll get you guys answers for any questions that you have. >> Roxan, I think your hand on the first. Sorry. >> Sure. Um, so I guess there was a question at the last school board meeting as to where the salary of where all of you the school board gets paid out of that would be out of the line 2310

009school board services. The line it says wages. So, it's $700 just confusion so that everybody knows what that line number is. Um, but I do have quite a few questions. So, I don't know, don't want to pee on anybody's time, but um the one article that got passed in the special election in there special stuff, did that include was that just salaries or did that include NHS, FICA, federal taxes, and everything? Oh my god. Um, >> all right. So, did it include taxes like that? And that's that was your >> I just want to know what are there any deductions coming out of that? So, is that just salary? Is that 60 66 and just salary? >> Salar because my concern is is now we didn't account for those, you know, the deductions for New

010Hampshire NHRs, which is probably about 25% of that. have to come up with that amount to put in along with federal FIC. Um so my next question is under special education how many people are paid out of the wages line? Um I guess I have a question regarding all the health insurance lines all fairly a lot. Um do you not Do you want to do anything? You just take what's for health insurance like I can tell you special education that went up 65% the health insurance regular programs went up 43%. Um under the guidance it went up 26%. So just that's pretty large chunks of money there. Um let's see the guidance of revenue hire this year and how many people fall under the guidance services. My only concern I ask that is because again

011health insurance if it's one person we're paying $37,000 for health insurance. Um maybe it's more than one person. I don't know. So um see and then the there was a question that came up or discussion that was at the last budget committee meeting about something about the nurse the health services and it was talked that the person was going to join I guess my understanding watching a video is they were going to join the governor um bargaining I don't understand how that could happen but someone said And um yeah, so I don't know how that could that could happen in under educational education meeting services. Is that a new position that we hired for this year? Because we didn't have any money in there for last year. And the line that's under school board services

012for dues and fees the 3,710 is up for that gentleman that was here. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Under school board services there's a line that's called dues and fees and it's 37 $3,710. Is that for just that uh NHSA? I think he attended the gentleman attended the meeting in June. Um the office of superintendent that's just one my contracted services it increased 5 and a half% is that a contractual increase but yeah you If it's easier, if you want to email them, that's totally fine. And then we can get back to you with all of them. Make sure I don't miss something. >> Right. And I don't have a problem with that, but I think she shared with the whole community. >> Exactly. >> Absolutely. >> Um, and I guess on regular transportation it

013looks like that went from 42,500 to 67. I'm guessing that we had an additional bus driver, but assume. So if you want to email them, what we can do is come up with a response and then we can have them at the board meeting the next time. >> Can you have them available for the budget committee? You can see how the question you would ask the budget. I >> think it's a week away. So we'll have them ready for the next school board meeting and then they can bring them there. So, but I guess my biggest question I guess is under special education is a professional pupil services line that um line went from 152,000 to 248,000. So, 63% increase. >> What line was it? >> What line? >> That's a professional pupil services. Then

014there's the underneath all special education in three months. Tuition other LEA um that went from 130,000 to 1755. So it increase 45,500. Then there's the tuition private line which that line we no longer have in our budget. Why did we get rid of the private tuition? All right. >> I think we're probably talking somewhat on the same thing. >> Okay. >> So, back in June when you had the um voting, there was a bill submitted for the ballot clerks, the moderator, and the supervisors. How come some were paid and the two of us were not? I'd like answers on that. Um, a message has been sent from Andrea who was a supervisor. She sent the bill out and she received payback and did not know that we hadn't been paid. So when I mentioned it

015to her, she sent a message out to a Teresa >> Teresa >> and she said she wasn't sure how to process it. So you just ignore it. Is that how it works now? Um, then she sent it to you, Kathy, and she came back with that Christine needs to fill out a form uh 9W or something and she already has my information, but yet I have not been paid. So, she has the information or she needed information, she should have gotten it. It's not fair that she segregated some out and did not pay them. And I'd like an answer as to why. Okay. >> And I'd like my check. >> We did the work. We deserve to be paid like anyone else. And it's the idea of it that we feel like maybe because we're

016on the budget committee and we ask questions and we got people that don't care for us because of that that we get segregated out. I'm sorry you feel that way and I'm sure that they will be I think that isn't something necessary that comes from the school board because it's okay but we will follow up and see if they can get in touch with you to go from there. >> You're welcome. So for the budget from looking at it, my understanding is each line has more of a more of a breakdown. Um, a more of a breakdown of each line. And I have asked, I don't know, Bonnie and I have asked for years now for like more of an itemized breakdown of the budget. And then I actually I requested a couple of times

017and then responded back trying to clarify what I was looking for. And I've been told that it doesn't exist. I'm just a little concerned that this is like the most breakdown of the budget and that that's all that we can get because it's not as transparent as I would like to see. Okay. So, so that make sure your question is answered. What is your actual question? You want of a breakdown of the budget. >> Can I can I >> She's looking for what is charged. So like if you have salaries right in your education at first line and it shows that um you suspended out of it say $54,524. We want she wants to know what makes up that 545 247 the detail behind what has been expended. >> We can ask and see what

018the answer So, but the my frustrating thing is is we have been asking for years as a budget committee for this and every school board rep has come we've asked for it and been blown off and then a 91A request said not once but at least two or three times and then try to reexlain everything of like what I'm looking for and then to be told like it doesn't exist. It's pretty frustrating and it's not very transparent and that's all all I want. >> Okay. >> Um so my questions u the same questions I asked last month. um you said that you would have the number of residual money that came back from last year's budget at this month's meeting. So I would hope that you can answer that you said that's on. >> So

019what was your question >> from the previous month? Yeah, I grabbed your question. Sorry. the residual money from last year. What's the total? What is that number? >> So, the year isn't closed out yet. So, they don't have that number yet. >> No, you told me actually Kathy said last month she looked at the number this month. I asked is that a normal average amount of time She said yes and she didn't have it. So what is it? >> I'm taking my key from the board chair because I I need to follow the procedure but she gave me permission. I had to ask for an extension to do the DOE 25 which is closing out the fiscal year. So I have asked for an extension for 30 days which I'm allowed to do. I just

020didn't I haven't been able to finish the work yet. So the DOE 25 and you will be closed out by the end of this month. So I do not have a number for you. I I haven't been able to complete the work. >> Okay. My next question um goes back to the um of course I'd like to have the number because it kind of justifies the question but this bogus video that was sent home um and if I recall correctly uh last month you guys all sat there and and um said that none of you had anything to do with it and this and that. Maybe maybe I misinterpreted that, but uh so let me explain that I'm not a computer savvy person. So I reached out to a bunch of PE people that um

021are pretty at um none of them can find it. But what I keep being told is that this video was sent home on something called uh Childare Parent Square. Do you know what I'm talking about? >> Um, you hang out at Parent Square. >> Parent Square. Okay. So, the video was apparently sent home on that. I'm assuming you all know that it was sent home on it. You just don't want to. But, uh, Dr. Caroline, I can't read your last name. I apologize. But uh aren't you responsible to uh to view and approve anything that goes home on that? So yes or no question. >> Um I do. >> So yes, parent square is our online platform for communicating with parents and teachers use it, administrators use it. Um sometimes we things out on behalf

022of the school board. Um, it's my understanding some videos were sent in the spring around the budget time. Um, I'm not prepared to tell you who sent each parent square post. >> I'm asking specifically about a video that said that this school is in a budget crisis. I'm sure you all know the one that I'm talking about. I'm sure you know who made the video, which is my next question. And um who authorized that to go out? Now, I have been told that it was the the principal uh nice young lady here. Um was the one that sent it home. Um, you know, obviously I can 91A uh everything that he approved to be sent out, but I really don't know why I should have to do that when I have the superintendent of the

023SAU that this town makes a lot of money to. That could just simply give me the answer right now, however, chooses not to. You people ran under the banner of transparency. Hold on. I'm not finished. >> I I hear that you have questions. You will respond to your question. You don't have anything to answer. >> I certainly can make a statement and that's what I'm trying to do. >> But we have to move forward. >> You spoke longer than this. I think I should have had my fair time. >> I'll tell you something. I sit on two boards myself. Okay? So, I'm pretty busy. I take the time to come here and you people don't answer any questions and now you're trying to cut me off short. I can't even ask. >> This isn't productive

024to moving forward with the school board meeting. We're happy to answer your questions. We will see if we can get a response. This the we I don't have the information to give you. >> Yes. >> So, I'm going to move we're going to move forward. >> Let me ask my what you >> how much moving forward. How much do you make? >> We are moving forward because we have few minutes. >> We're going to move forward because it's been more than 15 minutes. >> You can vote to go forward. So, you're just going to ignore the public. You can vote for unless you send it by the board. >> Right. So, if they like your question, >> keep going. If they don't, I didn't get shut off. This is not productive. The kindness that needs

025to occur at the meeting is not occurring. We are here to help. We're trying to help. I understand there's been a lot of things in previous years, but we are trying to move forward, but continuing to bring up negativity from the past doesn't help productivity for >> if you would answer my question. >> I don't have an answer to your I don't have an answer to your question. >> Of course, you have the the answer >> that I don't have the answer to your question. and we will get it and we will send it to you and we'll post the information. That is the best I can do right now. So we can extend the time. We have to give 30 minutes of public input. So we can move forward and extend now as a

026board if we would choose to do that or we can stop the public input for now and continue with 15 minutes at the end of the meeting. Does the board have any time in now and >> Okay. Do I have a second that? Thank you. All in favor? >> So, we're going to go ahead and extend for 15 more minutes. So, we will go till 6:45 for public input. There will be no public input at the end. And I'm going to move forward with the next person. Um, I'm not sure who the other person >> Tracy. Tracy left. Um, I just I'm really floored because you guys won't answer questions. Again, transparency. We had new members run on transparency. Jim came to the last month's meeting, asked questions, waited a whole month, and now still

027no answers. So, what purpose is coming here, asking these questions? Another question. I learned something in the lobby. It's blown my mind. We as Middleton residents elect Linda to be the treasurer for this town. I learned there's an electronic signature. She doesn't see squat. She just got a bag at the end of the year. So, you're telling me there's no checks and balances. What's the stipen for? I do believe she gets paid. And why is that occurring? And I would highly suggest that it stop immediately and it be a hard signature. She has to see every single check. It's really been addressed. it's been addressed with the public. I'm asking right now because I would like to know what's been addressed here and then also I did go to the last budget meeting in August.

028I brought up to Heather that I asked in July of 24 for an itemized detailed list. I would hope that that night she went home and messaged Kathy. That should be coming up. It was demanded last year of the town and of the school. Our documents like 400 pages. It's a lot of work, but we send it every month. >> Any other request um in addition to getting the expenditures, can we get a revenue report? I know when I was on the board, you used to get a revenue report as well. And that would maybe the budget questions that other people are having about where's you know, coming in. We have a revenue report. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that we know so we can do what we need to do. >>

029My turn. >> Yeah. So, as for Jim's question last month and this month regarding the video, I can speak to it because I addressed it immediately um at the school board meeting and had discussion. It was Mr. Bronson who posted it on parent square and he posted a news asked by the school board to post the video on behalf of the school board and the budget. It does have a budget crisis on it. It was also shared on social media by both Heather and her husband Tim. Um I you spoke to it. You even spoke on how you said that you you felt that we were in a budget crisis even though Kathy confirmed that we were not in a budget crisis. I just if you want to hear kindness and you want to have

030an open discussion, it takes both sides to be open. And the behavior that is going on right now is not productive for the board. And as per Bonnie's question and comment about our paying, I'm going to tell you right now, I feel as though I am being targeted. I feel as though I've been targeted by a selectman and I feel like it's come over onto this side and it's because well, there's a husband that's a selectman and there's a wife that's a school board and I go out. >> So, I'm going to ask you a question for Stephen. >> Well, I guess it's not even a question. as a statement that I wanted to clarify that you could have spoken to what Jim's question was about the video because you answered it a couple of

031months ago back in January or February and to behave like you are right now and last month and avoid just answering the question is just it's wrong. So, I wasn't here last month until the last five minutes of the meeting. And this month, because of things that have occurred, we have been encouraged to provide you accurate documentation after the meeting. So, that is what we're going to do. >> Go ahead. >> Your salaries. I asked that question last week as well. >> Last month, >> what's that? >> Yes. >> Yeah. And I I don't have the exact numbers. We have the total number but I want to get you the direct number per person so that that number will be coming to you. >> Well, I would also like to answer is is there an

032increase from last year to this year >> in our salaries? >> Yes. >> I No, I don't think the salary change has changed the entire time I've been on the school board. >> See how easy it is to hand it. >> It's amazing. um >> the not for the school board. So there were certain positions that were voted through, but I think >> Yeah, it was the moderator. But let me I I don't want to give you incorrect information. I want >> that makes sense. >> Yeah. >> See, that makes sense. >> And we're not trying We're not trying to not be transparent. I just I'm I'm really tired of not being able to give you guys exact information. and you don't have it. >> When do you give us >> how can you even

033say that when you all know what was on that video? Who made the video? Who asked for it? Do you know all of that >> and it's also been pointed out to me and you can correct me if I'm wrong because I really don't know. Uh because this is what happens, right? When you don't answer questions, then I start asking other people and you get who knows if it's the truth or wrong. I would rather get the truth from you. That's why I'm here. But I was told that this isn't the first time these little videos have went home to jin up the boat and that you guys were told the last time, oh, oh, we took it down and we won't do it anymore. You just did it and it cost us almost $600,000.

034Okay. So, this time I want some answers and I think the town deserves the answers because it's a lot of money. You got people now wanting a basketball court put out there, which I think is a fantastic idea. Okay, I'd be more than happy to help any way I personally can. But the fact of the matter is where's the money going to come from? Because now there are people questioning and scrutinizing every penny that's coming in here. I promise you that. So um you know um I don't like to be like this. I'd like to just ask a question and get an answer. It's simple. I hear you and I will we will review and clear. I I honestly it was months ago. I wouldn't want to give you incorrect information. So I will go

035back and we'll review the meeting minutes from them and go over it. I I we issued a public statement when there was concern brought about the way it was that the the messaging that went out but I don't remember if we asked for anything to be posted. I I don't remember. So I want to review it and get back to you. Well, a key thing is I want to know who made the video and I want to know if it cost us any money. Now, the last time every time I asked a question about it, you looked to Heather and she said no. But obviously, if somebody made a video of saying we were in a crisis and we weren't, then I'm not going to take anybody's word unless you can prove to me that

036it actually didn't cost any money. And and like I said, I apologize for my >> frustration. I trusting you, but you kind of earned it. >> I I hear your frustration. So, we will review the minutes and see if we can get information because I don't remember this any of the school board saying anything. So, I don't want to tell you no, we didn't because I don't remember. We'll pull that up. It did not cost anything. The video was not anything that we paid for. So, there was no financial cost at all to the video. >> How do you know that if you don't know? >> Because we didn't make it. So, we would if we paid for it, we would know that we paid for it. We didn't pay anything. >> But you don't

037know who made it. >> I I don't know who made I not 100%. And I don't want to give you information that I don't know is factual. >> I do have one more question. >> Rebecca, >> kindergarten teacher here and it's great to see you guys. Um, welcome to the school year. Just wanted to share um some positive news from kindergarten. Um, I know probably in Ivy's wonderful Middleton report, um, we're happy to share that we're going to be going on our first kindergarten field trip of the year, um, to McKenzie's farm over Milton, New Hampshire. Um, and actually that'll be coinciding um, and sorry, Ivy, just to include that um, in your report just about open house and um, school board members um, if you'll be attending open house on um, hopefully I will

038be including that. I bet you will um would love to have you come pop by kindergarten. A lot of their um work that they will be that they've been working on over the last month in kindergarten um as well as the activities they'll be doing prior to Mackenzie's farm um will be included in their classroom and we'd love to have you in. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I think Tracy >> Oh, Tracy, sorry. And I told there's five minutes left. Something really quick. I would think that if we're asking questions, I find it very frustrating that you don't know the questions that were asked the month before. Are they in the minutes? You don't have to answer tonight. You can answer next month. But Jim had questions and you didn't know what the questions

039were. So that is extremely frustrating for people in the public. Just to let you know, and shouldn't should it take more than a month to answer questions? I mean, I'm hoping that the minutes will show every question that's been asked tonight. I would love to know the questions for Rock Sands. >> The answers. >> Yeah, the answers. Sorry. And the questions. They should be in the minutes. So, next month I'm going to come back and I hope they're all read all the answers. >> Just quick observation. I can understand you're reluctant sometimes to answer a question because if you don't have the information, you don't want to make it up. So when that type of question comes up, it's totally appropriate to say, "I'm not sure. We'll find out. We'll let you know. We'll have

040an answer for you next week." If somebody's asking the question that you have the answer to, don't just say, "I'm sorry. We're not giving out the answers today." That that that doesn't work that way. If you want to be transparent, if you know the answer, if it's a very simple thing, answer it. There's no fault in saying I don't know. And as far as posting the video and stuff, I never saw it because I don't have children. I'm not a bunch. But it's become very common place. Old phones like me don't post a lot of stuff like that. But now with the days, everybody's just posting everything, posting, posting, posting. And maybe the school board needs to set up a policy as to how and when things get posted and who has the authority to

041pass on it. When we wrote the policies, however long ago was, we built the school, that wasn't an issue. But it's an issue now. I think you need to address it. It'll save you some grief in the future if you establish a policy on what gets posted, who has to know true things, how it gets posted, who pays for it, who doesn't pay for, who makes it up. Somebody's got to hear these things. So, just for your own sake, thank you. >> This an easy one. >> Sure. >> Should be quick. Who would have advised you not to answer questions? >> Who would have advised? So, the schoolboard association has encouraged all of the school boards to not respond immediately so that we can give accurate information and make sure >> that's incred. >> Is

042this is it raining out today? I don't know. I'll get back to you. >> Yes. 15 minutes. I promise it won't be upsetting. Um I just wanted to let it let people know that the PTO we are up and shutting along. Um the 23rd is our next meeting. Um it's at I think 5:00 at County Hall. Um, anybody who wants to come and join in are welcome to. Uh, we will also be joining together with the recreation committee and helping out with the trunk or treating. Um, and we are going to be set up. We're renting out a table for the pract November 1st. I'll come back and announce it, but we've got a lot of ideas, a lot of projects going on. So, Hope to start having some fun. >> Christie, do you know

043what he does? >> Which one? >> Tuesday. >> One minute. One quick thing off of that kind of um so for Christmas the recreation is um talking with someone and I know Drew is going to be cleaning up this trail and I know the property is mostly on the school belongs to the school. So we would like permission for the wreck to have a lit trail through the woods there at Christmas time. >> Yes. >> Is it something that you have with the entire time or is it like a one like Um, we do it for a few days probably. Okay. Um, we've got to figure out electricity and stuff. We'll probably have to have generators. We know there's some electricity with a shed, but I'm not sure exactly what that equals. So, um, after

044he gets some work done, we're going to go out there and look it over and see. Um, but we have a guy in town who uh has a lot of knowledge with lights and stuff and he's going to help us to to do it. So, if we can get permission from the school board, that would be awesome. We just at night, >> right? >> Yeah. >> I I think just to add to it, I think it's similar to what they do down next to the police station >> Christmas walk and it's only like several months from the season. >> Yeah, it's like it's two nights on the trail. >> Yes. Yes. >> Are you guys prepared to respond now or do you want a little bit more co information? I mean, I won't have a

045problem with it. I just don't know if we might need some more information. >> That's why we're saying it early. >> Yeah. No, for sure. When's the meeting? >> Our next meeting is I think the 24th of this month. >> Is that when the person from the lighting is coming? >> He actually came last week. >> Oh, okay. >> Um but he's going to help us with it. We're kind of like guiding it. And >> do like a walk through. >> Yeah, it's going to be like a walk through lit walk through that um like she said kind of like the Farmington one. Do you can we'll put it on the agenda for next month. Can you just get us some more data so that we have everything to report? I mean, nothing that we're

046against. I just >> Yeah. No, that's why I just wanted to put it out there now. So, um, if we need more time or more, we can do it. >> Perfect. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We're going to move forward from public. >> Um, anyone who did have specific questions, feel free to email them as well so that we make sure we didn't any part of it and you get all of your questions answered. Oh, hey, we have our filtration gentleman has question. >> We're now starting to hear >> I apologize. >> Thank you. >> I do know how many folks we have. It looks good enough for everybody at the table. Just grab one from each pot. I apologize. I don't have any for folks in the audience today. I

047want to state the mic voice if you're okay with that. >> All right, give me two seconds. I made a very official statement. We are opening the public hearing regarding the building maintenance expendable trust fund withdrawal for the water filtration project at 6:46. Thank you. >> You're very welcome. Um I'm Michael Hley here. I'm with second water. Uh we work with a lot of schools. This is my fifth school board meeting in the last 45 days. Um so we have a lot of experience in working with budgetary constraints, the specific regulations that schools are subject to, and frankly arsenic, which is what we're talking about today. Not just arsenic, but arsenic with a high pH, which becomes problematic for remediation. I'm going to try to not dive down the rabbit hole too far. Please feel

048free to stop me. I'm from California. I talk really fast. I'm slowing myself down, but don't be afraid to ask me if you got to clarify something. So, you have arsenic in your water. and you have a treatment system that kind of does its job but not really well. Um, it's a technology that we would not use now that we probably wouldn't have even used 20 years ago, but we've been sort of limping it along. We're at the point where something needs to be done and something better should be done instead of doing the same old thing again. Uh, in simple terms, what you have is one tank. It functions very much like a water softener. So, it's got these beads in it that have a charge on them. They pull stuff out of the

049water. They pull out positive stuff. But it's also got the opposite kind of anti media which pulls out negative stuff like arsenic. But there's only one cubic foot of that anti medium in this 4 cubic foot tank. The other three cubic feet are pulling out the hardness of iron but not touching the arsenic. And it's only touching one kind of arsenic. There's arsenic 3 and arsenic 5. That's about as nerdy as I'm going to get. You have to attack them differently. Three, it's very difficult. the technology that you have and what we're proposing to sort of amend the initial piece doesn't touch arsenic 3. It passes right through. It pulls the fiber. So, what we're proposing is two pieces that I think are a really wise decision and an option for a third that can

050either be done in conjunction or you can sort of hold as a reserve to see what the efficacy on the initial two components that I'm suggesting are going to be. First thing that I'm going to suggest is that we take the media out of that conditioner tank because it's really old and it's barely doing anything and we replace it with all annion media which pulls out the Rs5. We're not going to put softer PV back in there. I don't think that's going to be problematic for anything in the school. That's followed by a piece of equipment you already have. You don't have to touch it. It's a neutralizer. It just makes the water not corrosive. When the water first comes out of that annion conditioner, right after it regenerates with salt, just like a softener,

051it's corrosive for like the first 5% of that cycle, all the alkalinity is gone. So, we have to protect make the water less corrosive so we have to pull lead copper out of the pipes and get that into water. The way that you could make that piece of technology, that annion conditioner, pull out all the arsenic, is you turn the three into five. And you do that very simply with oxidation. You have a portable feed pump about the size of a lunch box sitting on a tank about 30 gallons and it injects food quality bleach just like the communities like in Manchester where they inject bleach into the water for disinfection. It also oxidizes arsenic 35. So now that we've done we have this feed pump going first injecting chlorine into the stream just a

052small amount like.3 parts per million way less than it will convert the three to five the annion conditioner which we will have remded with just an media will be able to pull all of that five out and that is that that's the thesis that I think really needs to look at today because your pH of your water is high which is normally a good thing it's like 7.7 means your water's not normally corrosive other than when it comes out of the acquisition. But it also means that almost any technology we try to use to remove annions are going to be problematic. And I can't get solid numbers to guarantee that we're going to pull all of the arsenic out based on what the pH is. I think we will. I can't even the media manufacturers

053can't even guarantees outside of certain parameters of water quality. And unfortunately, they're kind of outside of those parameters. So, and I get it. I I've been on works for not for profofits for years. I owned a business for seven years. I had to balance my own budget. I understand the challenges of trying to balance budget. And with that being said, I think the two pieces that you should absolutely do would be rebet the RC tank, which is $5,780. And then on the last page, add the chemical feed, which is $9,825. And what that does is keeps the last piece which I haven't gotten to yet which sort of be the belt and the suspenders. It would go at the very end and it's an add. So whereas the N conditioner breaks in salt water periodically

054and it dumps all that arsenic to drain and does its thing all over again and it can do that for 10 or 20 years. An absorber doesn't. It has a fixed capacity for whatever it pulls out. It pulls it out as the water goes through it. It has no moving parts. It just has media inside a tank. But eventually that media reaches its capacity and it can't pull out the stuff that it's designed to pull out anymore because it's just full. So the redundancy would be this big ticket item 18,000 and change and that would be an ad sort of go last in line as your backup to make sure that if the commissioner isn't pulling everything out because of the pH, this last step is going to give you that redundancy. I don't know

055if you want to do that now. I don't know if you want to come back to visit that down the road. I don't know if not even located at all. But the things that you really need to do is you really need to revamp that conditioner and you would get a lot more efficacy for frankly fairly short upfront costs and probably very significant removal if you included an oxidation step with a chemical pump as well. >> Yes. >> So you talked about the four cubic feet you are removing that's doing other stuff. What is that doing? So it pulls out hardness and iron in many things. You have about 3 grains of hardness in your raw water, which is generally that's where you say you might want to look at a softener, but you don't

056really need to. It's you get well beyond that, five, six grains of hardness, that's where you start to have problems with infrastructure. Generally, the heat exchange. So any place you have a mixing valve where hot water is mixing with cold water. Any place you had an electric heating element, whether it's on a water heater or a coffee maker or a dishwasher, those are the places where that part gets sort of precipitate out and coat those heat exchange areas and age those components prematurely. And that's something that I spoke of over the course of trying to keep an eye on but I didn't see any signs of any kind of hardness issues currently there. Um, and I think the three the three grains creeping through would probably not be compliment. They might I can't buy them,

057but if they were, you'd be much better off having a dedicated software sitting next to a dedicated conditioner versus having mixed together in them. The chemistry just interferes with each other. Just neither of the pieces work as well as they would by themselves, even if they were just in separate things, right next to each other. >> Is the maintenance cost the same maintain in terms of So the the I am exchanging for lack of a better term the software/an conditioner PMS would be the same. We're not changing any machine. We're going to use the same valve head. We still recommend that we come out and service it once a year. That's just manufacturers recommendation. Um the chemical feed pump would add probably ballpark $600 a year in preventive maintenance costs and you might spend $100

058a year in chlorine. It might so you might call it and $700 a year. >> Question. So would there be monthly maintenance versus just the maintenance that you would come out to to service it? There would be additional there wouldn't be any additional work to be done. >> Somebody at the school would need to maintain solution in the day tank and that would be a facilities >> but it would be very analogous to them of having to add salt to the salt tank which they're already doing. So, we would add a small um I'll go out and I'll say they might have to spend 20 minutes a month. >> I just I just wanted to ask to make sure that that was known that that would have to be done on our car versus >>

059correct. >> In our normal course of operating the system, if we notice a system needs bleach in the day, just >> so a lot of the time the folks on site don't even have to touch it. Normally, I Any questions? >> So what's the total the total recommended like what you're recommending? What is the total math? So it's >> 15,65 total project would be $31,29. So, >> and the rebate cost on that $18,000 tank that could go at the end to replace that media when it's time to do so that could easily be another 10 or 12,000 and it could be in a year. It could be 15 years. >> That's that was my question. How soon after would you utilize that? >> Normally, under normal circumstances, I can actually reach out to the media

060manufacturer, give them water parameters, give them tank dimensions, usage, and they can crunch all those numbers and give a fairly accurate projection. They won't give me a number. I can ask. >> Now, if we only did the recommended amount, how often does the rate for the aborter go up? >> Yeah. Like would that rate change in like a year? >> Oh, you mentioned the cost increase. Um I don't believe that I think it's Americanmade tanks and American made have tariff costs that car So I can hold this number for 30 days and then I do have to kind of compute generally speaking I don't see more than a one or 2% change in like one component cost but if we looked at this in six months or a year we could see significant cost question

061what is in our federal in the As of 6:30 in 2025, there's $270,92 in which I'm guessing what is how long would the project take? >> So, if I got a commitment um and we would we would take a purchase deposit and we work with you for a long time, I'm probably looking at 60 days of completion because my calendar right now about six plus weeks looking at the lead for approval from DDS. My boss reviewed this design who runs the whole drinking water division at DDS. We had three schools with IPH that we were trying to figure out the smart way to help not break the budget by using 30 pieces of equipment. So, she's already familiar with this job. I anticipate to get approved. might be able to turn into six weeks, but

062I would say if it's safe and I know that that might impact your testing schedule, but once the state knows that you are in a motion towards a solution, they ease back. You still have to post, you still have to follow protocols, but they don't harass you to move. So, they know you're moving. Does it affect like anything with the school schedule? Meaning besides testing lines, would you have to have the school shut down? >> You have an atmospheric storage tank. So your well goes to your current treatment and then goes into a big nonpressurized storage tank. So we'd simply be interrupting the flow in that tank while the tank was serving the school. We'd have the tank down supply-wise for about an hour. The school would never notice a difference. That's Yeah, that was

063just my >> What are we doing right now for like washing dishes? I know you have um fountains or bubblers for the kids to drink with and stuff, but what are we doing for like washing dishes and like that? >> Um so the kitchen staff is using disposable um trays for kids. Um they are bringing in bottled water for cooking um and for anything that they feel is necessary to keep kids safe. We have not exceeded the limits for the state. We are doing all of this because we kind of in talking with Michael anticipate that that is coming. And speaking from budget committee, where is the money coming out of for that stuff? The bottled water and stuff. >> Oh, the bottled water. Where are you getting the money for the bottle? >> We

064just started. So, I don't think we've seen an invoice. Yeah. Or >> Okay. Which line are you going to take it out of? >> To be determined. >> What is the answer? >> To be determined. >> Okay. >> I'll look at either water or >> Okay. Because you know they're going to ask that Monday night. >> So, >> to be determined. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Have um we contacted or have you contacted any other filtration companies and gotten other quotes and Yeah, I don't know the answer to that one. So, let me have some at the request of I think the community and the board. Um, we do have one other hope. They're going to be here on Friday to take a look and they will get us those figures. We don't have yet,

065but there there is one other company coming out. And we also operate the school, so we manage all of the compliance. And because we're a company that the folks that we send out not only know compliance and sampling, but they also know the treatment technology. I feel like we provide a more comprehensive umbrella for for your water safety and your water infrastructure, keeping it under one roof. Of course, I'm biased, so I would have that opinion. But in the schools where we either operate and someone else did treatment or someone else did treatment and we operated, there's always sort of a disconnect. I think too many codes in the kitchen and sometimes the person on site can't solve the problem. >> So, so given that we are on Friday, so will you be having another

066a meeting earlier than your next meeting to make a decision on this because I think this is probably a high priority for the schools. >> I would agree. This is I didn't know about the meeting that's coming Friday. So I think we need to decide that as a board. >> I think we I mean my thought would be to make a motion to approve the 15 605 and see what the other >> So you're looking to make a motion for an amount not for to plan to move forward with doing something to correct the problem with the amount that we have here or less basically. So this would be the the cap that we place. Do you want to reward that just so that we have it pretty? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> You can

067make a motion to authorize the SAU to move forward with this amount or less uh as a withdrawal from the building and maintenance expendable trust fund. That was great. >> And I I would try to clarify that they're giving you an apples to apples proposal because there are so many moving parts here. There are there's a lot of different ways to scan this cap and we put a lot of thought into trying to come up with not only the most effective but the most cost. >> I think my only concern with doing an amount is that we don't have any say on what the other estimate looks like. So we're just approving dollar amount. We're not getting any say I I don't know how everyone feels about getting together again after they get the information

068from this other company to see what their solutions look like and having another meeting. >> Are are we planning to take all the money from the expendable trust fund that was motion? >> Okay, so we have a motion. Do we have a second for that motion? Also, so discussion. Again, my concern is that we have no input. So, we're literally giving a dollar amount and asking the SA to make the decision based off of the other proposal as long as it's less without them having any input into that system. >> Nope, that's right. Um my concern is you know once we give the another potentially eight weeks before the work will be done. So the longer we delay we delay this to have another meeting in two or 3 weeks then we it's just going

069to keep delaying it which is going to cost us more money on the back end by purchasing all this water. So I just want so you put you put out there to the public how much she is bidding. So now this other company is going to potentially watch this and say, "Oh, well, I can do it for $15,000." And then is the SA making the decision to go with a lower bid, >> right? Well, that's my concern. I don't just want that decision. I mean, >> if it's Yeah. So that's that's my concern. I mean, somebody could easily say, I'll just put a batch over, which is that big $18,000 tank that I suggest putting in. They could just do a smaller one of those that would have maybe a 2-year capacity and they could

070do a quick sale for X,000 and in two years you solve this problem. I'm not saying that's going to happen. >> When we invest in this system, am I you said 10 to 20 years of what we would expect out of the system? Okay. I mean, I'm all I'm all for quality. I I have I mean, you get what you pay for. I just I don't know what the other company is bringing to the table. And I would hate to make a decision to not go with something that was $50 more expensive because it was $50 cheaper. if this is a better system and the life expectancy of this is 10 to 20 years and the other one is less like I don't really get data and I'd like to follow the data you can

071amend the motion and still authorize the SAU upon consultation with the board chair >> fantastic I'm fine. That makes sense. So that there's some [Music] >> I'm sorry. >> So it you're currently handling all of our water. >> I'm sorry. >> Colleen LeBron, >> thank you. >> You're currently handling all of the water system as of now. Correct. >> We do the sampling and the state compliance when the state wants to walk around every 3 years. We do what they call a sanitary survey. We accompany them. A letter comes in, it gets sent to us and we take care of it. So pretty much nobody at this table has to deal with anything that has to do with water except what we're talking about. >> So you've been doing that for us a long time.

072>> I've been with the company for four years. I don't know how long we've been working with this school, but I think it's been a longterm relationship. >> So is it something after we get this consultation from this other company that you're willing to look at and say, "Is this comparable to what you're offering us versus just making that decision?" Are you willing to do that with the chair or as soon as it happens so that we can move forward right away? >> Sure. Absolutely. Ultimately, I'm here in public health. You know, I'm not a sales guy. I'm here to solve problems. I want your problem to be solved and I want to be solved correctly. I'd like to be the one that does it, but if someone else is going to do it, I

073want to make sure they're doing the right thing because we're all going to have to deal with the repercussions. >> Great. >> Any other questions? I think the amendment is fine. >> I agree with the amendment. I think that's totally fine. I have no problem discussing and looking at both those and going through if everyone is comfortable with the All right. Go ahead. >> Is this an unusually high level of ar >> New Hampshire has a very low what's considered the maximum contaminant level, the MCL. The federal government sets a level at the EPA level and states have to comply to that level, but they can be more strict if they want to. They can regulate things that are not regulated by the federal government if they want to. They can't be more lenient. So

074the EPA says you can have 10 parts. New Hampshire can't say ah they can have 20, but they can say you can have five, which is what they did with ours. So we have much tougher standards than any of our surrounding states. >> Any other questions from the public? Any other questions from the board? >> Did you say no? Oh, that's going to Okay. So, Heather, do you have Heather's um motion that has Can you read it just so that we have >> Do you want me to read it? >> I was going to make it better later. That's You can totally do the You have to read it word for word to authorize to move forward with that amount of money or less to withdraw from this in consultation with >> after receiving the

075secondary code. Good. >> So, we had Do we have a second for that motion? Nicole, all in favor? We roll call. Sorry. Samantha, >> hi. >> Heather, >> hi. >> Nicole, >> hi. >> Kelly, >> hi. >> Rebecca, hi. >> Thank you. Okay, we are closing the public hearing at 7:09. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Agenda review. Sorry, guys. We're out of order tonight. So for agenda review, is there anything that anyone wanted to add? >> Sorry, >> I did review. >> I did not review. Is there I think was there anything that you wanted to add? Okay, we've accepted the minutes and moving into the superintendent report. >> Thank you very much. Uh we will start with a Middleton Elementary School update with principal. Thank you so much. Hi everybody. Um I

076like Carlson and the principal. Um we are off to a great start at Holton Elementary School. We've had seven days of school so far. Um we've had happy kids come hallways and lots of learning happening in our classroom. It's really amazing start to the school year. Um, and I just wanted to say a thank you to all of the community members and families who have welcomed me um over the course of the summer and when school got started, I got to finally start meeting people. Um, as Rebecca Lebo shared, we are looking forward to our first field trip of the year. Kindergarten will be going to McKenzie's on the 25th, which is the same day as our open house. Um, everyone, not just families, but everyone is invited. That is from 5:30 to 6:30. And

077it's going to end, and we're very excited about this, with our alpaca pals PTA offering popsicles on our playground. So at 6:30, there are popsicles to share, and we would welcome people to come and join us there. Um, along those same lines, I've been working to enhance communication and share information with families. Um, and we've been I've started up a every two week newsletter to share information and keep people up to date with important dates and happenings. Um the PTA did share that there is a meeting coming up on the 23rd at the old town hall at 5:30. Um and all are welcome to join with that as well. Um I think I have hit all of the most important things. Picture day will be coming at the end of the month as well. Um

078and that's always an important day too for our school. So thank you all. Thank you very much. >> Picture babys. >> We had the Eagle Scout presentation earlier in the agenda. a fantastic presentation and really looking forward to that project. And finally, financial reports. So, if anyone has questions for us, please let us know. We've provided that in the packet. Do you have the responses to the budget question? I think it would be good and you want to go ahead and do it. >> If you want to split it up. >> All right. >> We we talked about it. So we just so the public is aware we have formed um a finance committee which mirrors sort of the two people who are sit on the budget committee um and we go over the questions

079that are asked by you want to skip that because we have that >> sure yeah so again what we talked about the budget committee which is the question or the finance committee leaders questions presented at the budget so the we were asked if we were putting a water resolution out today. We did do that. So, we have that um and discussed that. The ballot clerk supervisor is not receiving their payments yet. That was discussed. Um what we were told is that in order for a person to be paid, they have to have the paperwork necessary to be listed as a vendor under the school. So, that's the paperwork that you're going to need to fill out and sign in. She says she already has my paperwork on that. >> There's one other question. >> She

080doesn't have hers, but she had mine. >> And she could have reached out and asked if she did not have it. >> Okay. Um, but that we were told the hold up was for getting the payments out, which basically had to do with the paperwork that was necessary to come back. Um, let's see. We we were asked by the bus driver salaries were over budget by 45%. We have two root root drivers one special education driver and one spare driver which is fully encumbered. Um so that was shown as the maximum exposure that would be due uh to the district driver needs. So there are two other students that were bus um with the governor workforce >> out of district. Um, so that's the reason for the over is that those they're allotted for but

081not necessarily paying an actual. So that's the budgeted amount. So it's over budget because we're budgeting for an extra bush that we don't necessarily pay but we need to have available. So the actual versus the budgeted is where you'll see that difference. The school gas listed on the town side of the budget. Um it has listed as a line item for 2,800 and we were over budget by 4,900 and a little bit more. So when the Middleton buses fill up using the town pumps, the town is generally supposed to fill us quarterly. We do pay those when we get the bill. I don't know if they're being recorded and refunded or shown as being paid by the school, but we are paying that. And so if we're over budget, we hope that the town when

082they're doing their budget will up the amount to reflect what we're currently spending. >> We go by the number of GI budget, >> but our budget is different than no separate line in the budget that says school fuel school. So whatever you budget here in this in this report is what we carry over into. >> Okay. So then go ahead. No, I don't want to get in the back and forth. It's an accounting thing. I just don't know if the town is is taking the check from the school district and applying it to the expense line or are they applying it to a revenue line. >> Okay. >> If it goes to the revenue, then you're going to show the expenditure way out there. If you apply it to the expenditure line, it's going to

083offset it and launch it. >> Sure. I mean, it's probably not quantity, >> but I'm just saying we get no quarterly. >> No, right. But I mean, but what we put in in the town budget is what is refer. >> So if you guys are able to get us the invoices then we'll be able to more accurately put it in our budget because we're going by the invoices you send us. >> Make sense? >> Okay. Um wages for the grounds brought up. I think what that was was misreading the budget. So the line where it has all the capital letters It says the description is actually applies to everything above it, not below it, which is counter to another. It's done. Um, and so the line items were actually for bus drivers, not the ground

084proof because the line items were ground up. All right. So, the insurance costs um we had indicated that they were over budget 44%. Um, an explanation as to why. So the health insurance is only over by 0.04%. Disability is over by 30.39%. Workers comp is over by 44.93%. So the disability was budgeted last November based on the budgeted amount for the wages, new staff and the CDA. So this is the increase in the disability with the increase in unanticipated wages. workers compensation went up because of the claims and that has caused the increase. So that will be adjusted when we budget to work out that so those are the questions that the budget committee has asked that um we provide we will provide that to the budget committee as well and I believe Kathy has

085sent us the the list of the descriptions of what each of those codes mean and we will forward that to the budget committee if we haven't done that yet. Um make sure you have what those codes stand for and what they mean. >> So if anyone has insomnia, >> are there any other questions that I wanted to I totally understand appreciate that. >> Anything else that you Okay. So, looking into the chair portion of the report, um we have heard the public and we have um moved forward as a board to set up some committees to kind of address some of your concerns and get you answers um more exponentially and accurately than we feel you have done in the past. So, one of the um committees that we are um planning to bring forward

086is the academic affairs committee and I will let um that those individuals speak to the academic to the academic affairs committee. So that would be Kelly and so just at the first meeting we kind of looked over the schedule for meeting and talked about the procedure for how um we look at policy and the SAU um presents C c policies and um we look at them and then list them for the entire board to look at and then all of the policies need to be voted on by the full board. And um we just talked about uh which policies were required by law and which ones we could change. And um Um yeah so um >> um so in addition to that we have we've reviewed a large number of policies um we are moving

087we are going to bring to the October 8th meeting for the board 10 new policies that we'd like to adopt um two policies that we would like to reaffirm and six policies that we would like to um revise and those will all be brought to the October 8th meeting for the first read for the board. After that, they will come to the November 12th meeting for a second read where we will make a decision. >> Oh, >> and the policies when they go in front of the board will be on the agenda. And then if anybody in the board or anybody in the public has any questions about them, then they can send email and we can look at them before the board will >> the policies that you guys are going to be proposing

088where those policies being adopted from are where you get that information to create the policies. >> So you currently have a policy manual. We look at your current policies and decide if there's something missing, something that that needs to be reaffirmed, revised, or withdrawn. Um, but now that you're members of the New Hampshire School Board Association, they have a database, a whole bank of policies written by the attorney. So many policies are the law and um so they write uh the draft policy and we um bring that to the committee first um and then uh we put them in the Middleton format for the community and for the board. A lot of them are just the polic and we're able to use the legal um documents already created by special education association and then there

089can their legal um team help some if we need to adopt some so that we don't actually have to use any of our our attorneys and encourage additional fees. >> Yes. Attorney is included in perfect questions. Anything else for the academic affairs? >> Okay. for >> that's so next is our finance committee which Heather and Nicole have been working with um which they we also continue to work with the budget committee so that they have the ability to get you guys answers and then let Heather speak to her. [Music] >> Uh okay so during the finance committee meeting today we schedule a few um our next couple meetings. We've uh decided that we're able to accommodate the budget for these requests to have a school budget present presented to them during their November 17th meeting.

090Um so we've had to move some things out to accommodate that. Um so due to that we have a preliminary budget to the board at our next meeting on October 8th. And then during our November 12th meeting, the school board will adopt the budget and then we'll be able to present that to the budget committee on 11:17. So, our next finance committee meetings are on September 30th at NES at 2:30 and then before our next board meeting on October 8th at NES at 5:00 p.m. >> I'm going to move us a little bit out of order just to keep in um order of the committees that we were started. The other committee that we are setting up will be the public outreach committee. So that we will have um a couple of board members. We

091have not decided what board members those will be. So I would love to hear um either people wanting to be a part of that committee um or nominated to part of that committee to where we need to change the name. >> What would you change? >> What was it? Community relations. >> I like that. So for that >> first proposal would be to change the public outreach to what was form a community relations committee. >> So our motion you wanted something relations. >> Yes. Just for the public, the goal is exactly what you were talking about to have dedicated people their job as part of this committee would be to make sure that they set the policy on how the public messaging occurs and what the formats are being used, make sure the websites are

092up to date and checking up on all of those types of things. So that that you heard that concern, it's been on put on the agenda to form that committee so that we have people who are going to focus on that and partner with the SAU and the principal office to make sure both the school website and the SA website for matching all the information gets out and then committee can decide if they want to engage or not um in terms of getting that that information out and how they get the information out. So basically an organized method of being able to communicate everything that's going on with the school to the town. >> Perfect. So who would like to make a motion to create the community relations committee? >> Heather is making a motion.

093Do I have a second? >> Samantha is second. All in favor? >> Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor? Oh, >> I perfect. Now, who wants to be on this? >> Samantha would like to be on the committee. Is there anyone else that would like to be on? I'm happy to want to if that's okay. All right. So Samantha and I will be working to get you guys updated information to help you so you have answers and a revenue to be able to or an outlet to be able to to obtain information. Perfect. Moving back in order, we are going to talk about meeting framework and public discussion. So I reached out to school association um to see what um public input needed to look like at our meeting. So I was told we have

094options. We have to give 30 minutes per law. Um but we can do that either 15 minutes in the beginning and 15 minutes like at the end like we have them. we can open for just 30 minutes. Um, and give the time to just make sure that we open as we're opening for public input and stay open for 30 minutes. Um, so just trying to get some input from the board and see if there's something that we might like to change. Um, if you don't believe that there is with 15 minutes and 15 minutes. Um, so wondering if there's anyone that would like to make a change to what we're currently doing. My only thought is that I never understood why we did two 15inuts and every other board does half an hour at the

095end, but I know that I just seemed odd to me. >> I think you tend to take more questions at the end of your agenda. >> I think um someone had wrote to me that um Some people only like to come for the beginning of the meeting. So that was the I guess the advantage of having to um I do agree that we don't often get much public input in the community relations committee and the public about what they Um, it's not public input, but I'm going to let you take a quick statement. >> Exactly the point I want to make. >> Sometimes there are things that you're discussing that people are like on this before you vote and it may not be, you know, may not be appropriate like this guy. I mean, people

096might have had questions. That was a public hearing. So yes, we can ask questions, but there may be other times where you're discussing something and the people in the audience really want to have something to say. And I think you should consider that if somebody raises any evidence, would the board consider five minutes of questions at this point on this specific topic because you'll end up voting on something and done and to complain about it. meeting is is they're going to cause you to have to revote next next month or just disregard it. I have seen other boards, larger cities mostly, where they do put as part of the voting process where you have a board discussion and then you have the public input like a fiveminut input at the end before each vote is

097made. Um so you know you have your first your second your board discussion your public input and statements on that but that reduces the total overall time and still minimum or maximum three minutes per person you know they it's timely input you're talking about this now I have something I have really important question I need to ask before you vote so >> I mean this side I don't know I mean I I feel like it was a productive conversation as far as you know something that needed input. I would never have a problem with the input anyway. I don't know how I would take that out. You know what I mean? Like how would I take that out of the 30 minutes because it would be different each meeting. [Music] >> We have to have

098a minimum of 30 minutes. you can always have more. >> So I I can just say I can I can appreciate why when they give guidelines because most towns and cities are much larger than ours. I can say as a resident and then even being on the select board of everything else, I always appreciate that it has always been pretty open to where at any time people could raise their hand and ask questions. Um, I appreciated when I was on the board because people spoke up and said things that I didn't consider. So, it kind of changed my decisions, but then also I felt as a resident that I was actually being heard and that my voice mattered. And I think where we are such a small town, a small community, um, it would be

099nice to see the school board continue the spirit of that. All the other boards, I know the planning board, if you were to come Thursday and at any point raise your hand. We we welcome the conversation and questions. So I think we revisit the structure of how we're going to do public input. We can get some data from the community and go from there. The other part which I just we want to make sure that we're giving you guys the answers and I think that not we're not trying to not be transparent but we feel like sometimes when we answer a question quickly we don't have all the data and it appears as though that we're not being transparent. So that is why we are going to go to the model of taking your questions.

100You're welcome to send them ahead of time. If you get them to us more than a week ahead of time we can try to get you the answer for the meeting. Um, but we want to make sure that we're giving you guys accurate documentation because we feel that when we're not or you're feeling or we're hesitant to answer because we're not sure that there's just so many concerns. So, just study that ground rule of just saying if you want to get them to us a week before the meeting, we'll try to get you the answer for the meeting. Otherwise, we would get them after and then we will figure out where they're going to be posted because we want you all to get the information. I think for next meeting, I think that we will

101read them um and then we can figure out from there and we'll just have that part of the meeting. All right. So, is there anything else that we want to talk about before we move forward with a framework or public discussion? Okay. So budget discussion that you have nothing else on that one responses and you know I'm glad that everybody's on board is making sure we can get our budget approved by the board in time to get it to the budget. >> Okay. So I know that was a huge concern. So our our plan is to get that to them by when >> we I've asked it be put on the agenda for the November meeting. So November 17th is the budget committee and hopefully the budget accomodate the school to make our presentation of

102our budget to them at that time. >> So we need to vote on it before. So we'll be presenting it to our board preliminarily at the next meeting. Okay. So the finance committee meeting will have two between now and next. >> Okay. The next meeting. >> Perfect. So the preliminary budget will be presented at the November school board meeting. >> October. Oh wow. >> Vote on it and then Okay. to have people present. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> What the other ones are doing, but I thought that this was important for transparency. Make sure we have time. It has to come back to us. I think this is a little bit more because the budget committing too. So, and the other, you know, towns are or the other committees in the town are giving their

103their preliminary motions in September. We're still way back on the curve, but they're preliminary and they change theirs and we have to vote on in order to present it. So, >> got it. >> I thought that >> perfect. Thank you guys for being willing to jump in so quickly and get back to us in the next, you know, three weeks. Okay, moving into activities with advanced planning [Music] as advertised. The middle school open house. I guess that wasn't advertised. The Kingswood Regional Middle School open house will be on the 10th. It's had two nights, so that already happened. The high school openhouse is on the 18th at 5:30. Uh, the Middleton Elementary open house is on the 25th at 5:30. Correct. Excellent. Um, and the next school board meeting is October 8th at 6 p.m.

104Perfect. Uh, we already did our public input earlier. Um, I'm going to entertain three minutes quickly. Does anyone have any questions, but I don't want to cut you guys off. Go ahead. I just want to announce that um the craft fair that we had uh when was it? May. >> May. Yeah. >> Um we will be having another one here November 1st. >> What was the date? >> November 1st. >> 11 to 4. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate the use of the microphone. >> Thank you very much. You are very so nice to hear everybody's voices. Do you [Music] passing it down. >> No, we don't need to. >> Okay, perfect. I just want to make sure that we >> Okay, any closed comments from the board? I'm going to pass this down to

105>> I'm sorry. I cannot see your hand. [Music] >> Okay, that's okay. Thank you. I did not mean to. >> Um, I just want to thank everybody for coming. I appreciate all of your input and we are working to try to address all of the concerns that the town has. Um, I'm also, although he is no longer here, I'd like to thank Drew for coming. I really enjoyed this presentation. I'm very excited um for the reparation committee's Christmas walk. My children love going to the farm, so I'm super excited about going to town. Thank you. So, following the election, it was brought to my attention that there were a lot of negative comments that were directed at myself and my family. I just want to say that my children knew why we were here that

106day. They asked about we said it was for teacher salary raises. They asked well of course they should get rates. They do so much. Why would people not agree with that? So we talked to them about all the reasons people voted against the collective bargaining agreement. We talked about taxes. We talked about um you know salaries and comparative towns. We talked about the fact that there are people in this town who believe the school is in the best interest of this town and they obviously get very frustrated. They can't vote on something that so directly impacts them. So we talked about other ways that they could participate. And so after 8 hours in the blazing hot sun on that day, they came here to this school where they attend and they helped break down tables

107and chairs like they've done at countless other meetings. And they were called a nuisance. They were called a distraction. They were accused of violating election laws. And I have to say it really is disheartening. The level of conversation in this town has reached an unacceptable level. And I thought long and hard about how I want to respond to this meanness that we seem to be communicating to one another with. We only have less than 20% of our town coming out to vote in midterm elections. Why do you think that is? It's because children are not engaged in the process. And how do you get children engaged? It's not by saying children should be seen and not heard. It's not by making them feel unwelcome at these events and in public spaces. It's by bringing them

108into the room where government happens. It's by giving them a task at the town hall, letting them stuff envelopes so that they get to hear what's happening and what business of the town government actually looks like. They hear questions. They hear the answers from our elected officials. They come to meetings and they watch what happens. So that the first time that they see a ballot is not when they show up at their first presidential election when they're in their 20s. It takes a special breed of hatred to vilify children for participating in the government process at the level that they are capable of. And my children have been made to feel unwelcome in these public spaces where they generally come. And they came here that night with joy in their hearts, happy to be of

109service. And I'm watching the way we speak to one another in our meetings, the way we post on Facebook and the responses, the way we communicate. And I have to say it is not the Middleton that I was told this was. I was told we were a small community of people who worked hard and had kindness and cared about their neighbors. And I am not seeing any of that. What I am seeing is a genus and I'm seeing aggressive language that is used to excite people and to rile people up and I thought a lot about my options and there are there are options and I've decided that the best course of action is to challenge all of us as a community. Every time we speak, we have a choice. And that choice is to

110either extend a hand or to wage a war. The way you speak talks to your character. And if we focus more on what that message is coming from us instead of how it's going to be received and what the response is going to be from the other person, that will improve all of our communities. So rather than focusing on accusations and speculation, let's focus on facts. Rather than having an emotional reaction, let's focus on the intellectual argument. Let's try to elevate the discourse in this town because all that the ugliness is doing is causing further divide. And guess where we'll allocate for that in our taxes. So let's try to do better together because we have shown the worst of Middleton. I really start seeing the best of us. So, let's be better and let's

111do it together. Thank you. Checklist. I will be happy to work with you and else to figure out how we can bring the election process, how that works to kids. >> I think it's pretty obvious. I have a big background in working with children. I get accused of well you've never had a kid so you don't know please I've run events with 200 60 year old at the same time I had an experience so I'll be more and I'm really sorry that happened and I wish you had come to us because technically that election when an election happens it belongs to the supervisors and the checklist and the moderator >> these were comments made generally on Facebook not specific, but Mike is not on here. >> I don't remember anything happening that >> no formal

112complaints for just Facebook comments >> or boards and I was sassing you about where we're uh but yes, I'll be happy to work with the school >> with the school board with you personally with the town with the member on ways that we can bring election thing. I I know some big cities give kids ballots where they vote for different characters on election day and they have their own little voting booths that they go to and whatever we can do I'll be happy with. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank you all for being here. I want to thank you all for understanding that we are trying to build a better school board and better communication with all of you. Not one of us have appeared maliciously or has ever had any malice attempt

113to bring any confusion or failure to provide information to the town. We hear that it's not happening. We are working diligently as a board to fix it. Um and we appreciate you guys working with us to do so and trying to let go of some of the past because we can't fix what happened in the past. All we can do is learn from it and move forward to give you guys what you're asking for and that's what we're we're trying to do. Any other comments? Thank you guys all for being here. I will accept a motion to adjourn the remaining non tonight. All right. I will accept the motion to close the meeting at 7:47. All right. Second by all. [Music]