001[Music] Um, call a special school board meeting for May 8th at 6 p.m. Member Bolier. Member Stokes present. Member Cormier here. Member Wigan. Member Bellows present. Member Papis here. Member DS here. Member McGawan. Member Harrington here. Member White present. Member Kusamano. Member Camry present. Member Kees present. So I just want to let the board know that member Wigan, member McGan are both virtual. Um, I'm not sure if they heard us. We're muted, aren't we? But we're muted. Did you say McGowan and Wigan? Yes. Should be able to come on. At the bottom that white. Yeah. So, you have to unmute so they You have to unmute so they can hear you. Yeah. So, Sean and Kelly, are can you hear us? Yes. Okay. Are you guys Can you guys put your video on, please? Kelly,
002can you hear us? I can hear you, but I don't know how to turn on this. I don't know if I can. Okay. Are you guys in a room by yourself? Yes. Okay. All motions tonight will be uh roll call votes already. I I do have my Okay. Okay. All right. Kelly, if you can just continue working on trying to work on the video for us. If not, we'll just we'll make it work. All ready. The next item is 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. Next item is public comment. Any member of the public may address the committee regarding any items before them for five minutes. Those speaking will state their name,
003their residence, and the item on which they wish to speak for the record. Members of the committee may not respond to the comments of the public at the meeting. Publicly communicating false statements about people that defame them could subject a speaker to both criminal and civil liability in the state of New Hampshire. In that vein, statements made at public hearings are not immune from potential consequences. Furthermore, the fact that the public body does not prevent these statements from being made does not excuse or endorse those statements. It just means the public body in that in this case the school board recognizes and respects the right to free speech enshrined in the first amendment to our constitution. So stating that anyone from the public wishing to address the board please comment for 5 minutes. I also
004would like to let everybody know that uh we will be only having in public comment for 30 minutes just in respect of the staff's time and we have a lot of work to do as a board. Okay, you ready? Yep. Can you state your name and address please? My name is Charie. S H A R I. The last name is Crowder. I live at 54 Healthc Care Drive in Rochester and I was here on the 21st and I spoke and I have been, you know, I've done a lot of research on the SAU 54 U concerning conflict of interest. And I just do want to say regardless of how it appears, it is not a direct conflict of interest for someone paid by the police department to be also paid by the school board unless
005they were directly compensated for something that they were actually uh introducing or something like that. So regardless of the fact that it may look like a conflict of interest, it is not a conflict of interest. And I felt like I should say that because I I thought it was a conflict of interest. Uh but according to the statute it is not. Uh myself however if I were in that position I might recuse myself from anything that involved the police just to kind of like not be uh cons just not to portray that there might be a conflict. And uh from what I understand, the Rochester School District has more than twice the expulsion rate of the average state. And I want to, you know, what drives this? Do we know what drives this? Do the
006reports indicate what drives this? I mean, I'm I'm curious. I'm a a transplant here from Louisiana. I don't know anything about y'all's system, but I have one child, one grandchild that's in this school system, and I'll have two more that fallen. and I want to know how it works, what happens, you know. Uh, and I I the current superintendent I thought was brought here to try to correct some of the the issues with the expulsion rate, but uh she's not allowed to do her job right now. And I don't know anything about that, you know, and I'm not privy to that and I don't need to be, but I would like to know kind of what's going on with the investigation. But I guess y'all will finally tell us at some point. Uh on the
007the 320 recording that I saw of the school board, I want to know why the police are so are pushing for the uh prosecution or the finding of parents. I mean, are our coffers low? Do we need the money? I mean, what's the deal? Uh and there were also some wording that was not in the uh document, specific wording as to what constitutes an unexcused absence or or when the parent is not cooperating. I want specifics. My granddaughter Mave and her K5 year had chronic asthma and she was in the hospital for like a week and then every time she had an asthma flare, we had to find a doctor excuse, you know, even though we had stuff to give her a breathing treatment, we could treat this at home, but if we didn't have
008a doctor excuse, it wasn't considered an excused absence, you know, and nobody wants to get fined for their child being absent too much. Now, in the 421 board meetings, I noticed there was a vote not to file a complaint against Miss Keynes, but a complaint was filed anyway. I mean, is that is that protocol if the board votes not to do so? I mean, y'all answer for me. I or somebody tell me. And in the ethics violations that were named, everyone that I'm talking to in the city's like, well, there's no specifics. We don't know. I mean, yeah, they tell us the the actual rules that they're saying that they're violating, but we don't know what's happened. And I question, why is the city attorney investigating this? Why don't we have outside counsel? you know,
009because everybody in the city is saying, well, you know, they just want to control the outcome and it just doesn't look good, you know. And one thing I want to say in my quest to gather the information that I've tried to gather and try to teach myself what's going on here, I have been told to STFU, which y'all know what that means. I have been called ignorant and I have been called a lunatic. Now, that's not a very welcoming uh reception to somebody moving here from another state, you know. I mean, I'm a newcomer. Do you not want me in your tax base? You know, and I guess that's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening board members. My name is Tabitha Davis. I live at 39 Milan
010Grove. I'm a little nervous for tonight as there's an issue that I need to speak about. may get a little bit emotional because I am worried about retaliation. And the reason why I'm worried about retaliation is because I have dealt with it before with my child as an advocate for my child through these years. And you all know that I advocate for my child. Sorry, I'm a little shaky. To go off to your comment about conflict of interest. Yes, there is a conflict of interest. There are different policies and procedures and between the board and the staff and stuff like that. I have a copy of it. I saved it on the 21st. There is a conflict of interest between the chair, Mr. DS, while him being a school board member and a police officer.
011If you'd like a copy, I can sure send it to you. I was at the board meeting on 21st. I spoke. Some of you are still here. Obviously, board members are here. We all know Miss Stokes has a big mouth. We can hear her a mile away when she speaks. It's great because, no offense, when we there's a meeting here, we really can't hear any of you guys because we're sitting over there and you guys are over here. So, it's very hard to hear any of you guys. We hear her clearly. Sorry. Um, I saw the complaint that Mr. Mr. Kuzamano did um no offense. I was over there sitting. I didn't hear anything that Miss Sto said about the election um about whatever he said in the complaint. Also, did you guys know that
012Mr. Kusamano also tried to get Miss Stokes off the football committee board when they were on the board together? He wanted her to get off the board because she probably didn't vote for him and didn't do what he wanted. He's very well known for that. You all know I call board members out when you guys are not doing your job correctly. Been doing it for years and I will continue to do it. You guys have done a great job. Starting out fantastic. No complaints. Superintendent that you all hired. I was the community board member to hire her for interviews and that great candidate. She's doing amazing. But you guys are investigating two board members, Mrs. Stokes and Miss Kees for supposedly speaking or whatever talking to the public about investigations. I am asking tonight there
013needs to be an investigation on Mr. DS the chair. After the board meeting on the 21st, Mr. DS called me 9:55 p.m. He spoke for 15 minutes trying to intimidate me on the phone. Was very upset that I called him out. Mr. DS, like I said before, when you were a regular board member, you did a fantastic job. you cared about the students, you were passionate about it. But again, as I stated on the phone when he became a chair, I said a couple words that I cannot say on here. He also spoke about the investigation, stating, and I quote, "Miss Annie, what she posted in Fosters is absolutely false information." That's talking about the investigation. Am I correct? So why is there no investigation going against Mr. DS? The reason why the retaliation is
014because he's also a police officer. I have older children who drive vehicles that are mine and my husband's registered in. Is a police officer going to pull my children over who, by the way, don't have a record? I have one that works for the government. He could get in trouble. Retaliation is real in this city. It needs to stop. You board needs to focus on these children. There are laws that protect children with IEPs. I know. I know these laws. You all know I know these laws. You broke the laws with my child in middle school and the principal did not know. And you all know this because I had a meeting and he flat out said, "I'm sorry. Sorry. You don't need to say sorry to me. You need to say sorry to my
015child." To this day, he still has not said sorry to my child. Thank God my son's going to the high school because Mr. Rory is fantastic. All right. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to adjust the board? Quiet. All right, seeing none, I'm going to close public comments and we'll move on to item B, district health insurance. Turn over to Dr. Brent. Thank you. I'm actually going to turn it over to Katie Kio who's been uh working with our district on our new health insurance plan and just we um just need approval from the board for for one piece of it so that we can move forward. Absolutely. So the one piece that we are asking for your approval is um we'd already uh through the EOU process when we exited from health trust to work
016directly with Anthem uh you guys already agreed to pilot a new program which is a higher deductible plan. Um what we're asking is that that's covered at 90% versus 80%. Uh but to be able to do that we just need the board's approval. So that's what we're asking for at this time. uh it is not and actually even at the 90% what the the district's contribution is is still less than if someone took the lower deductible plan at 80%. So the district is not incurring an additional cost to do this. It actually saves us a little bit. Um but we can cover it at 90% versus 80%. question. Is this something that needs to be done as sort of an agreement with the union and have an MOU between the board and the union or
017is this just something that needs a simple vote? We already did the MOU and in the MOU it says we will cover it at at least 80%. Um but we're asking to cover it at 90%. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Adrian, if I may ask her Allison. So obviously it sounds like just to confirm the budget would be fine with our submitted budget um to cover the increase question. Yeah, I'm not sure I understood we're going to go to covering 90% versus 80% and it's going to be less expensive. So we have always offered a plan that has a $1,000 deductible. Um for the employee, we are adding an additional optional plan that employees can take which is a $3,000 deductible. Um however, so what that does is it lowers the monthly premium for the
018employee and for the district the overall plan costs less. Uh so we can cover that at 90% with the same contribution as that lower deductible plan at 80%. So that's what we would like to do. Any more questions? Uh, Mr. Tan, thank you. Does this go into effect under the new teacher contract or is it in effect after May open enrollment? It would be effective and open enrollment for all employees, not teachers. So, it would be offered to all employees districtwide. And we already have the MUS with all all the um uh collective bargaining units to allow us to do this. So are we approving theou this evening? Just the 90%. Okay. Yeah. Move. Um if I may address this to Kio, did you mean to say not just teachers or is this apply to
019everybody but teachers? This applies to everybody districtwide, including teachers. I got you. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Yes. Make a motion we approve the request from Mission by Mr. Pap. Discussion none. All those in favor. Roll call. Mis call. Member Harrington. Yes. Member McGawan. Yes. Member DS. Yes. Member Stokes. Yes. Member Kees. Yes. Member White. Yes. Member Wigan. Yes. Member Bolier. Member Camiri. Yes. Member Kusamano. Member Bellowos. Yes. Member Cormier. Yes. Member Papis. Yes. Pass. Thank you. All righty. Um, seeing the next item is other. Um I'm going to request that we move that under um nonpublic for after nonpublic. Is anybody have an issue with that? Okay. So we'll move other after nonpublic. All righty. So the next item would be nonpublic under non RCA 91- A32C. Yes. Roll call, please. Can
020I make a motion to seal the minutes from tonight's nonpublic motion to seal the minutes by second? Mr. Bellows. Thank you. Second by Mr. Papis. Discussion. Roll call, please. Member DS. Yes. Member Papis. Yes. Member Stoopes. Yes. Member Kamir. Yes. Member Hington. Yes. Member Bellows. Yes. Member Bowley. Member Wigan. She's not. She's not here anymore. Member. Member Cormier. Yes. Member Kees. Yes. Member McGawan. Yes. Member White. Yes. Motion passes. All righty. Uh the next item is other. Anybody have another? All right. Seeing none, um for a motion to adjourn. Second by Miss Sto, second by Mr. White. Uh overall, member McGawan. Yes. Member Bellows. Yes. Member Papis. Yes. Member Camry. Member Wigan. Member White. Yes. Member DS. Member Cormier. Yes. Member Harrington. Yes. Member Stokes. Yes. Member Kees.