SAU16 Joint School Board Meeting 01/27/26

001started. >> Um, >> we're going to start actually with the pledge of allegiance. There's a flag, as you can see, that's placed over by Dr. Andriski. So, if you can please stand and join me in the pledge of 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. [clears throat] >> Okay, welcome to the joint board meeting. We are going to start the way that we usually start, which is with introductions, but I'm going to have a slight variation because we have a number of people sitting at tables. Um, traditionally we just start with the schoolboard members first, but we're going to start with going through each table and if there's someone from the SEA administration

002that's sitting or or one of the schools that's sitting at the table, if you can also introduce yourself at that time, that will probably make sense. So, we'll start with this table. I'm Patrick OD. I'm the chair of the joint board. >> Amy Ransom from Newfields on the co-op board. >> Kate Bonafiti from Brentwood. Michelle Larson, assistant finance officer. >> Don Bolins, co-op board exit. >> Allison Bryant, assistant superintendent. >> Brian Duffy, Brentwood and co-op board. >> Kathleen Peek, Stratum board. >> Beth York, exit board. Steph Schmidt, Kensington Chair. >> Dan Abear, Brentwood. >> Pam Carr, principal, Sco School of Technology. Melissa Lions, co-chair in East Kingston Co-op. >> Good evening. Ellen Riska, assistant officer for student services. >> Megan Fitzgerald, Brentwood. >> Tim Reed, exit. Renee Bettin, um one of the the other assistant

003superintendent for SAU16. And we also have Jennifer Scrawford on um Zoom and she's on her way in. >> Molly O'Keeffe, the chief financial officer. >> Paul Doyle, East Kingston board. >> Kirstston Sokco, East Kingston chair. Uh, Bill Gothier, co-op, exit. >> Sophie Sulten Stall, Stratum. >> Tony Navy, principal of Exit High School. >> Wendy Larson, Kensington. >> All right. Heather Ikeer, exit school chair. >> Uh, James Brown, uh, East Kingston School Board. Arlland Petta, chief equity officer. >> Drew Baristo, principal, CMS. >> Erin Garcia J. Pretty's co-op board. >> Kate Pratt, exit board. >> Jane Walsh, Newfield's board. >> Chris Andrew, superintendent of schools. >> Neil Blake and co-op board exit. >> And then if we also have any members of the administration that are in the audience, if they can also stand and introduce

004themselves. I think if we don't have a microphone over there, we can get one to you. >> Hi, I'm Jill Lizier, chief academic officer. >> There we go. >> There's a couple >> come [snorts] some other folks. >> Uh Karen Berg, curriculum administrator at Cooperative Middle School. >> Sonia Ro, special ed director at the middle school. Diana Donley, the assistant principal of Lincoln Street School in Exit. >> Hi, Lyall Hamill, curriculum administrator at Exiter High School. >> Great. Well, welcome everyone. So, we have an agenda here. Um, first of all, I just wanted to take a moment officially to recognize the folks at Julia's. We just had um a real treat that we were able to enjoy and also enjoy each other's company, but the the food and the preparation and the professionalism of the

005students was just amazing. So, if we can just maybe give them another quick round of applause. [applause] Um on our agenda, we have a note here about public input. As part of the state law, we provide at least 30 minutes for public input. So, we'll start that time now. It's um see if I can get the time where it is right now. Right now it's uh 6:17. So at least for that amount of time, we can extend it if needed. Um is there anyone from the public at this time that would like to provide any sort of comment or input? I don't see anyone, but if that changes in the course of the meeting and someone were to come in, if you can get our attention, we can incorporate that into the meeting. Next, we

006have approval of the minutes. were last here in October. So, if folks have looked at those minutes, um I'd look for either a motion to approve them or to make an amendment to them. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> I heard a voice in the wilderness. Who was that? [laughter] Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All right. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Okay, then all those in favor if you can raise your hand. Got it. Is there any opposed? [cough] Is there anyone that's abstaining from that? Okay. All right. So we had that vote. So obviously that passes. So, next up we have the SAU 16 administration updates starting with the superintendent's midyear goals. So, I'll turn things over.

007Thank you, Patrick. In your um packet, you were able to see a report that we put together from each member of senior leadership team. Also included in mine was a midyear check-in on my goals that I compiled to you back in October. Um before we get started, I just want to make sure that we thank, you know, not only the administrators and the people that are in this room that are going to present tonight, but also the other 10 members that are in this SAU hallway. We can't do the work without them on a daily basis. Uh and then as you've seen over the last two days, our our technology department, uh our support services, and most uh recognizably our facilities department so that we could actually get to school today. um they worked uh

008uh countless hours of uh getting to our buildings to ensure that we could get in, that it was plowed, and it was safe for upon arrival. So, just want to make sure that that's highlighted in today's meeting. Um in in my goals, um you can see the large focus is about communication, uh supporting our boards, um really getting our message out of of what we do in SA16. Um, and then completing the strategic plan, which you'll hear more uh from all members on the strategic planning committee. Um, a large focus, you know, is is that communication and and there's two pieces to that. Um, I think we've really been uh highlighting what our staff and students do in some really neat unique ways with our 60 and 16. Uh, thank you to uh Eric Chelis

009who produces all of those. But we've seen our our view rate, as you saw in my report, you know, it is about five times to six times more being viewed by our public than it was when we were doing written reports or we're doing, you know, our our bi-weekly superintendent report. Um, so again, it's our schools and our teachers and our students telling the message of why SAU16 is so important and all the amazing work that's being done there. Um, so we'll hopefully continue to that. Um, when we get into our budgets, you it's been a long process because we start that in August. But we felt that what last year we probably didn't give you as much information you needed as boards or to our community. And really proud of the work that Molly

010and her team and all the administrators in our different buildings did to get uh those seven budget videos ready as well as an open enrollment video that we're going to have for the co-op as one of our warrant articles. So again, we are really trying to flood our residents that might not be at our meetings, you know, the all school employee here tonight about what we're do and and what's important uh in regards to our values as based on the strategic plan, but what we do on a on a daily basis. Um and then finally, it's looking at how we can empower um our educators to continue to grow learning uh their own learning as well as the the staff that you had here. So, in in our reports, you got to see a new

011section that talked a little bit about the the groups and the affiliations that we have outside of this work. And you can see a lot of us uh are not just coming here for our our daily duties, but are involved with other organizations where we're trying to tell the message not only in New Hampshire, but about what SAU16 does and the importance uh as well as tell telling it nationally through either blogs or presenting or sharing information. So hopefully my report and my evaluation uh and my self uh rankings reflected that. And then you know one area that I did put in there is an area growth. You know the incident that happened back at the the high school when we're talking about communication and and something I owned and reflected upon now that we've

012debriefed for about two weeks of how we get better. um is to really think about how we are communicating with the public during times of of emergency but also times that are really good and telling. So that's something that I want to continue to grow on and think about as my message is going out to the mass commun community uh when we have to send any type of mass message. So I'll I'll take it if there's any questions for my part of the report or the goals that I embedded into my uh my report for tonight. Okay, you guys are full from dinner, which is part of the purpose I did that today. So, if there are no questions, and if there are at the end, I'd be glad to. But, um, you know, we

013decided that each member from SLT, we talked about this back in in September, would just come up and give a quick two-minute highlight of their report. You had it both, uh, in writing, but, you know, so that they could highlight it, too. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bennett so she can talk a little bit about the the things that she's doing in her role as a uh assistant superintendent also um overseeing uh special services a little bit shorter uh so as you'll see in my summary or my joint board report a little bit about myself which I thought was a really interesting task that Chris assigned all of us is that we had to tell a little bit about ourselves and then we had to go into our annual reports Um,

014you'll you can see that I spent a lot of time writing outside of SAU16. There's my my blog and Chris had me put some examples in that. [snorts] Um, I told you a little bit about myself, but also if you dive into my goals and my midyear report, what you'll see in there may not explicitly stated is how valuable my partnership is as a um chief officer of student services with Jill, our director of curriculum and instruction. And so one of the things Jill and I did last year and we're doing this year is our presentations to all faculties around the systems work of MTSS and the the conversation that Jill and I are trying to promote and reiterate is how interdependent her role is with my role and how that works to build a

015sustainable system. So you'll see some artifacts in my annual goals related to that. Um, and then I do want to yield some of my time to our awesome team over there that is going to present on some of the work around the competency review cycle. But does anyone have any questions for me? Great. This is this is easy. We'll feed you every time. So Heather Murray uh would be here tonight, but she's on her plane back. Um so she um gives her condolences for not being able to share with you, but she did put into a report and and again I think Renee highlighted we tried a little bit different format in our report and we wanted you to tell we wanted to tell a little bit about us so you know who we were

016as individuals and not just the the title that we have every day. So hopefully you see us also as you know parents um um partners uh and and lifelong educators and not just the roles that we have every day. So hopefully that's gives you a little bit more insight to either some of the craziness that I I take in account for who I am or or how we we get through our our struggles every day. Um I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bryant and ask her to talk about her update and then after that we will move into Miss Risa. Good evening. I had the longest walk, so sorry for that little pause there. Um, one thing I just wanted to highlight is some of the work I've been doing with our grants.

017Um, so in my report, I included a little chart that shows you a number of um, citations that we received. Citation sounds scary. Um but really it's just uh when we were monitored last year four of our districts were monitored exit er uh the co-op Brentwood and New Fields was monitored just to see how we were doing with our procedures related to the grants. And um there were some citations that we needed to to clean up. And so that was really the work that I was doing beginning right before I came on through December really was a lot of looking at the procedures we have in place that maybe weren't formalized um or if there were procedures that we needed um to to write those procedures and submit them to the state. So those were

018all done in collaboration with our administrative team. Ellen Risa did quite a bit of work with me on those. So um that was really good work. It was a great way for me to learn the district and learn um what we're doing well and and again just some areas where as as an SAU um we can streamline the work that we're doing and make sure that our procedures are consistent across all districts. And then I also just shared a little bit of policy work with you. Um, if you're on the policy committee, I appreciate the work that we've done on our Thursday evenings and really trying to get that work. Um, I know that there's an interest in having um, themes for our meetings. So, really trying to balance that with uh, just policies that

019are coming up with all of our um, required new new expectations. Um, making sure we have the the policies in place that are required as well. And I think that's about it. Turn it over to Ellen. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. So, I would say if I'm thinking about the work that I've done thus far this year, I would um categorize it into the themes of incorporating innovative and equitable practices throughout the various um jobs that I do here in SEO 16 as our assistant officer for student services. Um, I had the very good fortune of going to the PLC, the professional learning community conference in San Antonio this past fall, um, with some staff from New Fields Elementary School as their superintendent designate and it was invigorating and very insightful and informative

020and I learned a great deal of information. Definitely, it was the best conference I've ever been to. So, super inspiring. Um and you know in terms of some of the highlights there it was really about um you know seeing Anthony Mohammed speak who is a national nationally renowned um speaker with regards to school school culture and climate. Um that's just I think one of the highlights. Also we learned a lot about um giving effective feedback. There was a specific session for what PLC's look like um in small schools. So very applicable to our work here in SU6. Also just as invigorating and exciting was the procedural work I did with Dr. Bryant for Mckin Vento um so that we could make sure that we have equitable practices throughout our schools um in terms of helping

021our students who lack adequate housing and our families as well. Um and then lastly, I will give a plug for our community outreach work and our community outreach committee and our first or not our first but one of our events um is happening right now as we speak at Main Street School. And that event is around executive functioning from kindergarten through graduation. So in the past we've had some of those events mainly at exit high school and at the middle school, but we've expanded our committee, Dr. Dr. Bennett and I and we have representation from most of our schools here in SAU16. So keep an eye out for those events. There's more to come. And we continue to collaborate not just through that committee but also through student services in general in terms of our

022um collaboration with SOS mental health youth services family promise just to name a few. Any does anyone have any questions? Thank you. Next up is going to be our chief equity officer, Miss Arland Pitta. >> Thanks, Chris. So, I feel really fortunate to be highlighting positive things about equity in a time when we are in a really challenging moment in our country and across the world. So, equity highlights feels really good. Um, a couple of things. I could highlight a lot of wonderful things that are happening in all of our schools. I want to um acknowledge the equity chairs. So, we have equity chairs in all of our buildings and those folks are really spearheading the work in their communities. I meet with them once a month. We do a lot of self-reflection. We do

023a lot of building of our own content knowledge around equity inclusion topics and they also work really hard to get things going in their buildings. And so, I'm super grateful to that team. um they do a lot of hard work on top of their already incredibly complex jobs. So the equity chairs, the other piece I was talking about with my table is our restorative practices work that we've done with great schools partnership this year. So we've been working with them. They are an organization out of Portland, Maine. We've done some curriculum work with them in the past. This year they're working with us on restorative practices. We have 70 plus staff members um attending a series of trainings with great schools partnership to increase the capacity uh around restorative practices in our schools. So a

024lot of our schools are in different places with how we use restorative practices as community building strategies as repair work with students and staff. And so having this um comprehensive training where everyone comes together has been really really incredible. Um, like I said, we have building level cohorts, almost 70 plus staff members. We meet four times a year and two times virtually with great schools partnership facilitators. Um, and we also are building on the work that's been happening um, at a lot of our schools with Mariam Levy who is one of our consultants and Stephan who works at the middle school. So, I want to highlight that work. It's something that's really important that's happening across the SAU. And I think the third piece is our I'm I'm toying with with W. Student work is

025always the most important. I always want to center the student work, but this is sort of a combo. So, our uh outreach to different organizations. So, in my report, I highlighted some organizations that we've been partnering with for a while now. I talked about um racial unity team and the ACLU of New Hampshire. I named a lot of them in my report. I would love to highlight our ongoing partnership with Riverwoods, the residential community. And this also involves students. So we started partnering with Riverwoods last year offering um workshops for them and them offering workshops for us. So it's this really beautiful intergenerational partnership. Our last one was Riverwoods hosted an experience for our students, some of whom were serving you earlier, um on age related disabilities and our students got to think through and

026participate in activities that helped them develop [snorts] some empathy around age- related disabilities and then residents talked about their experiences and we'll go back to Riverwoods in March to host a dialogue with that community. So those community partnerships feel really important. That's one that we're really proud of that it's been ongoing um and that we'll continue to work with them. We also have interest from Riverwood's residents to come in and talk to classes and there's just been a lot of enthusiasm from their equity and inclusion committee. Um I think the last piece that I would highlight is some along with what Ellen said, we've I've sort of linked up with the community engagement committee this year and last year we held a community dialogue um at here at SST around current events and topics that

027were coming up in the community. We also held a restorative practices event for community members and we'll look to host many more community events so we can be engaging folks beyond SAU16. Thanks. Any questions? Okay, thank you. Next coming up to the stage is Jill Lizzier, our chief academic officer and her posi. Jill travels with a posi for presentations like this. So Jill and your team, please come on up. All right, everyone. So things are dropping. Um, so in the report I I like to write, so there was quite a bit of information in there, but one of the most important pieces of information um was the updated 5-year competency review cycle. So tonight we're going to talk about it. The reason that um we're going to talk about it tonight is because it affects

028all of your towns and all of your students. Um so tonight um we have our some of our curriculum leaders across all of our buildings. I'm going to introduce them um because they're amazing. We have Karen Berg from the middle school, Julie Lambert from Lincoln Street, Lyall Hamill from Exit High School, and Carla Putney from Main Street School. Yay. Um, I just want to make it known that um, every building has a curriculum leader and if they're not able to have a curriculum leader, um, I go to that building to, um, support those buildings. So, what we're going to do is just talk a little bit about the competency review cycle. Um, and this competency review cycle was also mentioned in policy J this year. And so anybody that was on the policy review committee

029um might remember this topic. So what is it? What is it? Um a competency review cycle is a structured multi-year um way that we use here in SA16 so that we can update our competencies and performance indicators across all of our content areas. And these content areas are aligned to national and state guidelines. And rather than reviewing all of those uh content areas every single year at once, the cycle allows us to stagger those content areas because we do have representatives from all of our districts. So we have our specific phases and that will allows us to keep our curriculum current um without overwhelming staff and pulling too many people out of the buildings. All right. So, as Karen mentioned, it's a multi-year process, our curriculum review cycle. Phase one is the evaluation phase. And

030it's during this time that teams of K through2 educators come together and evaluate our existing curriculum, our existing competencies, and our performance indicators. And we're really looking for alignment between SAU16 documents and the state of New Hampshire's 306s. And so we complete crosswalks to identify vertical and horizontal gaps that may exist and also areas of strength. In phase two, that's when um commonly revisions would take place. And so we work to revise and refine our competencies and performance indicators. It's also during this time that um teams of educators work to identify um what we call the essentials or the non-negotiable um skills and knowledge areas that um we want for each grade level or each course. In phase three, the instructional impact phase, really we're starting to look at student work samples during this time

031and also assessments. We use various protocols to examine these things and we look for a progression of skills, a pro progression of rigor and um see basically we're saying does this all make sense? When we lay out work from kindergarten through 12th grade, can we see how a particular competency is reflected in the work or the assessment from kindergarten through 12th grade? It's a really powerful process and I know that's something that we all um enjoy engaging in. Um after these three phases, if it's determined that a new that new curriculum materials need to be reviewed or something along those lines, a new committee would be formed to do just that for schools that it was relevant to or what have you. Um and then finally, the teams do not meet during phase four and

032five. Those are a time when um the work is implemented and monitored and preparing for phase one again a couple of years later. Thank you. So why do we do this? Why is this important? One of the major benefits of having the SA16 competency review cycle is that it helps facilitate our compliance with state requirements as well as alignment with national standards. For example, as you know, uh, New Hampshire legislators recently updated the ED 306 rules, which govern minimum standards for public schools, including in the area of curriculum with a recent focus on competencies, especially in terms of updated graduation requirements. The SA16 competency review cycle allows curriculum leaders and educators to come together in order to update our course level competency maps as well as the competencies in each course and look at associated

033teaching resources. This helps us to remain nimble in order to respond to any new legislative updates that may be coming our way. So much of what's already been said in this final couple of slides, we are 11 schools across six towns as you well know in this room. Um, preK all the way through grade 12 with over 10 content areas. So, I'm going to just lift up a little bit the elementary level because we are all in different buildings and do not have the opportunity to see each other regularly. These competency committee uh cycle meetings allow for teachers who teach grade levels but never see other colleagues that teach those same grade levels to share ideas, resources, um strategies so that we really stay grounded in the common goal of highquality instruction for all of

034our students. So our presentation to you tonight is just back to that policy of making sure that we're really affirming that that's where the center of our work lives. um so that it really um it doesn't matter which town they're in, we are all pointing our arrows in the same direction towards those goals. All right. And so to wrap it up tonight, we just have a phrase um you might hear often either from your principal or your superintendent designate, but it just helps us stay guaranteed and viable with our curriculum. Um, and that guaranteed and viable phrase is just about equity, consistency, alignment, alignment, focus, and clarity. And so during the competency review cycle, which is laid out, it holds us accountable to make sure that we bring our teachers together and we're not just

035making these decisions in isolation and we are using the most um up-to-date, rigorous standards and competencies for our students in our multiple towns. So, thank you for listening tonight. Um, and if you have any questions right now, I'm happy to answer them. Um, or later on, I'm happy to answer them or anybody in our buildings are as well. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Jill and team. That was well done. Appreciate it. Uh, last to come up from senior leadership, I'm going to bring up both our chief financial officer and assistant financial officer, Michelle Larson, and Molly O'Keeffe, to talk about all the great things they do in our business department. >> All right. So, Michelle and I, we get all the bills paid. Um, [laughter] yes. So, we we spend a lot

036of time doing payroll every week. We run payroll for at least one district every week. Um, and then the other week is always the accounts payable for the same district. Um, that is an ongoing cycle for us. And then I know you love working with us on budgets every year. Um, and so Michelle takes the lead on a lot of the payroll stuff, a lot of the payroll supervision, a lot of the costing and negotiations, and then I typically take the lead on budget related items and measuring the progress against your budgets. So, so yeah, we we see you guys every month in all the board meetings. And so, does anyone have any questions for us? >> Just a shout shout out from me for all of our other staff in the business office and

037down that hallway because we could not do for what we're doing for you without them. >> Agreed. >> All right. Thank you, team. And hopefully you found that highlight and the report very helpful. Um I just want to say thank you to all of you u for allowing this amazing team to do the work that we do each and every day. But I also want to just highlight, you know, some of the important parts. And I want to highlight equity because we are the only New Hampshire school with a chief equity officer in in a public education. And we were at a superintendent meeting back in just a month ago and another superintendent said, "Thank you for always being the voice when it comes to equity or topics or leading in the state." And we

038couldn't do that without the support of the board members here to keep that position and how important it is. and it really is the crux of our strategic plan and what we do with our staff and students every day. So, I just want to say thank you for allowing us to do that work and continuing to support us to do that work because it is making a difference in the state. It's not making drastic because we need more people to do it, but we are helping surrounding towns surrounding SAUS to understand that work and dig into it further. So, thank you very much. [applause] All right, we're going to move into the strategic plan. So, if you haven't noticed by now, I'm much of a a visual learner. And here's our visual team, right? So,

039I cybersttocked them. Someone did give me their their their best video or picture, but that's our team that's been working through it. And and again, to say thank yous, I I appreciate that the joint board didn't didn't rush this process, right? We said we weren't ready back in September and October and we needed more time and really appreciate that because this team came together multiple different times to get to the point where we are today to be able to give you a finalized strategic plan and look at you know some of the um the metrics that we'll be using to uh report out to our communities and then I'll also show you what that will look like forward facing and then behind the scenes so you can understand it a little bit better. Oops. Sorry.

040So again, the rationale behind our strategic plan, the last strategic plan um expired in 2023. So we've been living without a strategic plan. And really the strategic plan is the the vision of how you want to grow and the supports that you want within your organization and the schools within that organization. And by having a clear and consistent message, we now can relay that back to all of our schools and our communities of what we're trying to do in our schools and what our outcome is. It's much like our compet review cycle. Where do we see our students when they enter our buildings to the time they walk across our stage and are they prepared for that next step of life? We believe that the strategic plan again with the support of our administrators, our

041teachers, support staff and and most importantly our our students as well as community members really help us build that because they gave us the framework and then we were able to build it behind the scenes. So, if you recall about this time last year is when we had the community event, we started getting input from over a hundred different people uh in all of our communities about what a real um robust strategic plan would look like. Here's kind of the timeline, and I won't read it through you, but you can see we've had multiple meetings starting back in September 2024, moving all the way up to where we are today with different timelines, different check-in points, with both IBIS and Qualrex. IBIS was the um vendor that we worked with to help facilitate and run

042the strategic plan. And Qualrex is uh a partner of ours and their expertise is building questions and survey questions that we'll use with uh different parts of this strategic plan and then be able to collate it in a non-biased way that we can get it and report it out uh in a very strategic and um pinpointed way. So, here we are today and I'm going to turn it over to different um um strategic plan members who have worked in pairs to kind of present the different overall plans of where we're at. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Roach and Miss Alen Stall uh so they can talk about our our our first metric which is thriving learners and then the indicators behind that. So, Dr. Roach, Miss Alen Stall, It's just water.

043>> Okay. Um hello. The first metric that we're looking at is special education compliance indicators. And we the state monitors special education. Um we get what's called an LEA determination report. And one of those areas is the um it measures least restrictive environment. We always want to guarantee that every single student has access to a guaranteed viable curriculum um in the least restrictive environment. So the goal that the state sets is that 80% of students are in the least restrictive environment for over 80% or for over 80% of their day. Um and so that we're going to kind of measure that because it's a good look at equity. >> Sure. Go backward. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um the next well the next couple are kind of uh speak for themselves. There are test scores. So

044um that's one metric for thriving learners. And then the holistic student assessment is just a yearly student survey. Um and we haven't I don't think Chris we haven't come up with those questions yet have we? >> We still create that baseline. >> Yeah still creating the baseline for that. For the holistic screener, we're looking at a measurement of how many students are opted in because you have to get parental permission. So, the goal is to measure how many students are taking that first and then we'll go from there. Um, the multi-tiered system of support, there's a rubric that has been developed and we're really this year collecting data uh from each school on where we measure on that rubric. >> The rubric was very long and complicated. So if any of you would like us

045to explain it, I am unable to do that. But it was multiple pages of uh incredible detail to measure how the MTSS system is being implemented and um yeah, how effective it is. >> I think we were just looking as a as a team that we need to kind of measure the health of that system um and get a baseline of where we're starting. No, I think that's all KPI being key performance indicator for the things that we're measuring. >> So, this is in their packet is too. So, you can see the back end of how we're going to um measure those metrics and be able to report it out. So, that's what uh Sophie and Dr. Roach were talking about is the back end and I'll go back and forth for each slide so

046you can see where those indicators are and we'll take any questions obviously at the end of our presentation. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Dr. Roach and Sophie. Up next, I'm gonna have Dr. Donnelly and Miss York come on up, and they're going to talk about the second um measurements, which is our empowered and supported educators. >> Hi everybody. So, we are the actually the three metrics that we're talking about are we're forming a baseline in June. So, a lot of the things that we're going to be talking about that's going to be forthcoming. So, the first Oh, you're going up there. Okay. So, the first one is um personal learning satisfaction and this is a baseline year as I said. So, starting in June, uh there will be a survey to all staff about

047how meaningful they felt their professional learning events were. that were offered by the SAU, the district um as far as building and as well as job specific like unified arts teachers and related service providers. How did we help and make them learn um or help them learn as professionals? >> Um so the second metric was is also something that we need to capture a baseline for um which would be a staff wellness survey. So that is also um going to be happening in June as well at the same time. Um more thoughts around the actual questions but some of the um questions to ask are around feeling supported, valued, enjoyment in work. So are are um educators feeling enjoyment when they come into the buildings? Um what's something that's most satisfying about your job? Um

048and what would you change? So any sort of opportunity to voice have their voice heard? um in a survey. Uh again, this is a baseline year because this will be the first time that we're going to be doing this type of survey. Um and then the last um metric is really retention. So engagement and retention is really the theme of this KPI. So um retention will be measured basically based on how many contracts um are signed and educators are going to return based uh divided by how many contracts were um issued. So, this is another baseline metric that we're going to be capturing this year. So, those threes in the rubric will change as we get the information back towards the summer. >> Thank you. >> Who's next? So, up next would be Stephanie and

049Jeff. They're going to talk about our third sets of metrics. We didn't practice. >> Hi. All right. So, this um focus area is about engaging our community, both our school community and sort of nonchool community um and strengthening partnerships. Um and there's three indicators for it. The first one is a special education parent involvement um which involves a um a yearly survey. So, a survey is sent out to parents with students in special ed and it's asking for their satisfa satisfaction with the IEP process. Um, it's an anonymous survey. It goes out to all those parents and right now our participation in the survey is in the 30 to 39% range. So, of course, we'd like to see that higher. Uh, the more feedback we get about students and parents satisfaction with the IEP process,

050um, the better that we can make it and the more involved parents are, the better the outcomes will be. So, that's the idea behind that one. Thank you. All right. Our next one we're looking at is attendance at SAU16 school events uh such as celebrations of learning, openhouse, gateway celebrations and so on. Um we have a lot of anecdotal evidence but this will be our first year in which we will uh start taking actual attendance just so we have a better idea as to uh what our baseline is and then we can move towards a a larger goal as we progress uh through the years. And then our last one is about um increasing participation in the each town's um each district school budget. So the indicators will be the total number of people who

051voted through their ballot at the March vote or at their annual meetings depending on the town. So for Stratam and Brett when it's at the annual meetings and then we'll take that as a percentage of the total registered voters in each town. So, um, the idea behind this one is sort of the more people that are coming out to vote on school issues, it's will mean more people understand the process, more people will be kind of invested in the process and they'll understand what's going on um, in our how our schools are being uh, run. Um, and right now the baseline is 27.7%. So, um, we will see that that was from 2025. [snorts] >> Thank you so much. And then the last metrics we have are Dr. Carr and Dr. Bonafiti. >> Can I

052can I ask a question before we move on? >> Sure. >> Just I I just didn't understand this part. I'll be the first person to ask a question. Uh just on the two of the metrics just I don't understand the scale um on the first metric and the third metric because it looks like so number two has sort of a five percentage point span. I'm look so I'll start with the first metric. it has the lower than 25 then it has 25 to 29 so that's sort of five percentage points then the other categories are 30 to 39 so roughly 10 percentage points and then 40 to 49 so 10 percentage points so just curious about the rationale for having that two column be five percentage points instead of sort of equal to the other

053ones is 10 what the what the thinking was with that and then the similar question is also on the one with number three because number three has less than 20% then it has a 5 percentage point span 20 to 25 and then 25 to 30 and then it has a 31 to 39 so sort of a 10 percentage points uh span under number four again just differences that are there and what your thinking was in terms of why why those would be different why that would make sense. Yeah, great question. I can take it and someone else wants to. You want me to? Okay, great. Um, so when we were working through the metrics with IBIS and Qualrex, I was recommended by by their research and their data based on the different metric pieces that

054they had. Some we were very high already. So to move a 10% from a very high metric like in in reading where we're already at 84% to try to get to the 94% that's where they recommended 5% growth. Some were much lower where we could we could establish a 10% growth much higher. So that was the rationale behind and the guidance behind when we were creating this the backends of the KPIs uh Patrick with Ibis of of their recommendation for those those scales. I think I understand that. So that so the so the third one in particular for example that the number you consider to be low. So you're the goal will be to try to get a 10% growth. Um what about the the first one? Because I Why is the There's a 10%

055span in the middle. It's not a sort of a 5%. >> So are you talking about thriving learners? This >> the special education parental involvement. >> It goes to 5% for number two, but then a 10% span and a 10% span for three and four. >> Yeah. Again, um they they saw it as a higher number over that 70% range. So they recommended a 5% in in that growth area uh where it was a higher percentage of of what they recommended or some of them like when we get down to um like the 30th percent and that's when you can get see the higher percentage rate. So let me go down here. So right here under special education it's very low. Right now we're under we're in that 30 the 39% range. They recommended that

056you could get to a 10% growth rate much quicker than you can if you were at that higher rate of the 79 to getting to an 89%. So, it was a recommendation. It's not something that we have to settle on, but that was a expert recommendation at the time um of of what we went with. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah, Chris, I just had a question about the reporting on this. [clears throat] You keep saying backend and you might have mentioned this at the beginning, so I'm assuming there's going to be some sort of like dashboard that this is reported out on. And then like when will those dashboard login be available um to us? And is there also like some sort of public uh reporting dashboard that's available just through a URL or something?

057>> Yes. Yes. And yes. Um so I'm going to get to that after we have one more presentation. You'll get to see the back end how that gets loaded. But so that everybody knows this will input data June to June and and it's for a couple reasons, right? because we're collecting staff data that's collection over the course of a year plus also our um our state testing results don't come out till June. So we're going to do it all in the June time frame. Then we have that year-to-year growth measurement. Um and then after Dr. Bonafiti and Dr. Caros, I'll I'll show you the back end and also show you the forward facing of what it will look like when we when we log in. >> Awesome. Thanks. Sorry for jumping ahead. >> Nope, no

058problem. It's all you Dr. CL. >> Okay. So, um our section is in and around career connected learning. Um which, uh our strategic planning group found to be an important KPI for us to follow. Um and then there are then there are two separate areas that we'll measure on that. And then one so one of those is actually career connected learning activities that students are involved in and finding that number in which um over the span of K through 12. So activities from kindergarten to high school students and career connected learning. So, for some examples of those things, um last year we had a futures day at Main Street School where um high school students visited Main Street School and talked to them about some of their career connected activities they've done in high school

059to help um elementary students um find and explore some cool things that they might want to do as they um move along. there is oh the wellness day at um the cooperative middle school and there are there's multiple things across so so identifying those things and then um and then seeing how they grow over time K through 12 so that's one and then the other thing is um our gateway presentations so um our gate gateway presentations happen um for the different grade spans and those are our students talking to an authentic audience about their growth at school um in a variety of different ways. Um so sometimes it's parents, it might be um it might be a studentled conference that happens at the elementary school or it could be um a portfolio presentation at Seco

060School of Technology where students are talking about all of the competencies that they have um grown in over the course of their two-year program at SST. So there's different um there's different ways that they can show that. And so again getting students first counting the students who participate in those things and then showing depth after that once we reach a certain goal for having total student participation in those gateways and then we'll look at the depth in which those presentations um occur. >> John, any questions on that section? >> I do. >> Okay. >> Um your gateway pre presentations you said are SST. Are are gateway presentations required at the high school also? Can you give me [clears throat] some examples of what that looks like? >> Sure. So, yes, they are. They've been building

061it out. I'll turn it over to um Principal Nei. She can talk more about that, but they would be required grade 5, 8, and 12 moving forward and part of their presentations at SST. So, it will be a continuum across our grade spans to report out >> and Oh, sorry. >> No, go ahead. Um, so, so when do you will they be seniors starting that this year? Will they be required to do I was going to use the word capstone or presentation or portfolio, whatever we want to call it. Um, requiring every senior to do that. >> So, you can want to give me the timeline on that, Miss Neie. >> Yeah. And actually, Lyall and Jill probably have some more information on that piece, but no, it's [snorts] okay. when we because the 306

062has changed and we had to make some adjustments. It is a requirement for graduation rolling up with the the current eighth graders that are going to be freshmen and it is nonredit bearing but it will be part of the expectation that will be built into some of their coursework and through advisory. >> Is that correct? >> And all all SST students um starting years ago >> do that. Great. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. All right. So, let me just show you the platform. [snorts] Okay. So, this will be the forward- facing platform. So, it'll be our portrait of a graduate. It has our strategic priorities and that it has our core values and then it has the rank rank rankings for each of the different metrics that we have. So one is that

063we're failing to beat that expectation. So after this year after we have a baseline after everything is set then we'll go in year after year and then we'll say are we not meeting expectation or are we going above it and again we will have a baseline so we know are we falling below that are we right at that or we going above that. So that's your one through five scale and it will go for each one of the learners and so you can see here um they people won't see this area they'll see the u the three and it meets expectation but to get there there's a backend where it's all right here so each year either myself or members from the team we'll go through and we'll we'll get the data and then we'll

064input it. So for special education, I can click right on each each year. I already have a baseline. We're meeting expectations. And then at the end of this year, I can go, hey, we jumped up five percentage points. We are now significantly meeting expectation. And you'll be able to see that progression as a community member for the time that we have the strategic plan. So again, June to June public facing. So every June we'll put it out. Our our strategic plan has been updated. And you know, to go back to kind of Patrick's question about the metrics, if we're exceeding and hitting everything, then that would be a chance for us to readjust. If if a 10% is just not going to make it after a couple years based on the recommendations, we maybe go

065back and adjust that 5%. Or if we're hitting it at the 5% every year, we need to readjust so that we can hold ourselves more accountable. It's not about just meeting the expectation. It's about learning from the growth and what we're doing well and what we're not doing well. So that's really been the intent behind this. And you know, finally, I'll just say is that hopefully you heard from all the members of the strategic planning committee just how of a collaborative process it was getting information um they brought to every meeting, but also the administrators when we went back the the three times with our K12 administrators to hear how this would work in their buildings to make sure that we were on the right track. That was really helpful throughout this process. So before

066I end it there and and bring up for questions, um does anybody have anything specific? Megan? Yeah. So I just this that was amazing. Like that's a lot of amazing great data to use. My question is whether your team has the capacity in June to aggregate all of the surveys and input all of that data and analyze all like that's a lot. And so do you think will that kind of be spread amongst the team or like that's just a lot of there's a bunch of surveys. We have to create the surveys, get them out, read them. So that's where we work with Qualrex and then Qualrex gets the information. They they aggregate it for us and then send it back. >> So you're just input reading the data. Correct. Inputting. >> Yeah. We worked

067with them for what questions we thought were important to go on that survey. Then they create a survey link. And for those parents that are in here for uh middle school and for K5, you're going to get a similar survey from Qualrex under the report card. That was something that we had asked to do so that we' be ready for May. Very similar. you'll get a survey link go on it'll be um one person per link they'll be able to to answer that that information goes to Qualrex we don't see it >> we then they go through and that's that's the service we pay for then they aggregate it for us send it back to us and say here you are based on the metric we built with them um we have the ability at

068some time if we feel we have the capability to host it on site and do that >> probably not over this fiveyear strategic plan until we get really good at it >> them for five years >> yeah good question yeah Dan Um, if one wants to drill down and figure out like why we're not meeting expectations or why we're exceeding it in some area and Qualrx is already doing all this work to aggregate these reports on all these different levels like can we request that uh they allow us to access that by clicking on I want to drill down on this and then have that shoot out to a report on state test results or whatever else or can we have those reports live somewhere where we could access them and even if it's like

069manually drilling down into it. >> Yeah, I think it will be twofold. So, we'll have that and they can pinpoint based on the type of question that they ask how deep they can get into that. But also that's kind of the work that we do once we get these results that becomes how we build our our agendas for our administrative retreat both at the SAU but with all of our administrators and that's how we build our goals yeartoear. So, for the last three years we've been really working on how we um step out multi-tered system of support. You heard Dr. Bennett and and um chief academic officer Miss Lizzier talk about that's become our focus and they've been going to each school. All of our schools are in a little bit different place, but we're

070all going we can use a rubric to assess ourselves. Then we can say, okay, so um Newfields Elementary School, why are you so far advanced than exit? And then what do we need to do to get those resources back to exit? So that's becoming part of that collaborative collegial conversations that we're digging into our data ourselves along with the support from Qual to really look at comprehensively what we're doing well and what we need to improve on. >> Yeah, I I love how you're reviewing it all and like analyzing it and taking action on it. I think my question is just more of a basic one like for us here and for like the public in general. Like I feel like we just get so many questions about where do I go to get this

071state test data or this and they're trying to like figure out answers to specific questions, right? And so it seems like an opportunity for me if Qualrex is like gathering and compiling all of this amazing data. Uh is there a way to have some sort of like summary of that data available in a central location um either to us or to the public in general? Um, I can definitely bring that back. Um, I'll bring that back because I'll have to work through that. There's a lot of thoughts going on in my head of what I want to release out to the public that they might not understand. >> Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. [snorts] >> Like some of it's obviously available to the public to begin with, right? State test data. You can go find

072it and dig it up, but you know, not necessarily in a format that would be >> and and our ballots this year will have our state test data on it. So, >> right, >> they're going to see that every year. I'm trying to solve for the problem of like I got to go here to find this, there to find this. Like we're bringing it all together like finally this is great. >> Yeah, it's a great suggestion. I'll ask him for sure. Cool, >> Heather. And then is that Beth back there? >> I was just going to respond to something that that he said as well. Sure. Like some of the conversation that we also had in the meeting was for example like proficiency testing, right? Like say we're 70% like proficient, which like any sort

073of layman would look at that and be like, "Wow, that's like really terrible." But really we're like a leader in the state. So having links to some of that like state sort of comparison is something that we did talk about that would be important to help educate the public on what they're actually looking at. >> Thank you Beth. Heather, do you have a question? >> Yeah, I I was thinking glad you brought that up. I do think about sort of how we are transparent sometimes there's misinformation out there to the public and so this many ways helps to have the data. I just was curious with this dashboard and since to Patrick's to your response to Patrick's question of like it sounds like the metrics like the KPIs may be iterative right as you go

074you may adjust them and so as you're looking at this over time and you say meets expectations significantly exceeds expectations what those mean are shifting over time and so I'm curious like is there a similar dashboard or like a click through right where you see the metric like significantly exceeds expectation the bar for that might go higher or lower but in this presentation you wouldn't necessarily know that digging through all the archives and so I just I was curious since the metrics themselves the actual percentage goals are shift could shift over time how I guess for this dashboard you are making sense of that over time presentation just >> Yeah, good uh good question. I think it's how we would communicate that out, you know. Um I don't see it changing for a couple years

075so that we do get a baseline and we can then compare oursel over year after year. But if we're, let's take, you know, our our ELA test scores, those are pretty high, right? And if we're getting at a 100%, we have to change that metrics and we'd put an asterric. We'd have some way to identify that this metric has changed due to the data that's going in. Um, and I think that comes back to myself, our offices of how we're communicating that with the public. >> Yes, Patrick. >> Yes, I was not involved in the committee obviously, and I really do appreciate all the good work that's being done. I'm trying to just think through some of the things that were being said, and I appreciate the comment about if we're doing really well in

076an area, let's keep pushing. let's sort of set a a strategic goal to keep improving in that area. So I understand that part. I think that makes a lot of sense so that we can sort of keep challenging oursel. I would hate to see us though do too much on the other end of the continuum that just uh you know we're not doing as well in something so we just keep down adjusting the goal the other way so that we're always in the middle because I think sometimes it's okay to say that you know we look at this and like hey this is an area that's just we're just you know for whatever reason we're not as good. We don't want to adjust the indicators constantly in a way so it just sort of covers

077that up. uh if we realize we have more work to do there then you know we keep we keep the goal we look ways of sort of aligning our resources if we think it's a fair goal and we you know we try to work hard to achieve where we think it needs to be you know I think it's easier when as Beth pointed out some of the things that are tied to state or national metrics that we can the one with special education that talked about 80% of the special ed students 80% of the day it's easy to sort of tie back to that one because it's a little bit more normed. But the ones that aren't normed where we're setting baselines for ourel, I think it could be really tricky for that number just

078to slide, you know, maybe too slide a little too much at times. >> Sure. >> Um, so I just think we want to be mindful of that as we're thinking about this. And I like what you said, Chris, about that it it wouldn't shift for a couple of years because we'd want to really make sure we had a good understanding of where things are if it wasn't just an outlier for one year. But I I do worry about that other end that it just if we shift in a way that sort of covers up if we're not doing well in an area, we want to recognize that and figure out how to address it. Not just Yeah, I'm not saying anyone would intentionally cover things up, but we don't want to shift the number in

079a way that doesn't really uh give us that information so we know how as board members how to devote resources towards things that are real needs. I think that's a fair and very valid statement and that's something that we talked about as a group that if there are areas of improvement, how do how do we improve on that, right? So, thank you. Because oftentimes that's going to be resources, money or people if we need to solve something. So, thank you. And that's when we bring it to the board. Any other questions? Is that it? So, I just if we could give a round of applause for the strategic plan. They gave a lot of time [applause] to a lot of work. And then Patrick, we would just want to have a formal motion to to

080approve the strategic plan as outlined tonight. Um, if the board is ready to do that so that we can move forward and we can start uh continuing with with our process on a couple other backend stuff with with Ibis and Qualrex and then start to be able to share this out with the community of what it will look like and have some answering questions for anybody that wants to dig in. >> Okay. So, would someone like to make a motion to approve the strategic plan as presented? Okay. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> A second by Heather. Uh, any discussion. We already had a little discussion tonight, but any discussion about the motion in terms of approving the plan? Okay. Then I don't see any, so let's go

081forward with a vote. All those in favor, if you can raise your hand. >> Great. Chris is a very quick counter. I I have your checklist there, so I'll just go through and I know who's here and I can now that it's unanimous, I'm good to go. >> Yeah. Any Were there any that were opposed? Wasn't looking around the room the way Chris was. Any any abstensions? Okay, then obviously that motion passes. >> Thank you all very much. All right, one more piece for me and then you're done hearing me talk for the night. So, in your packet, you had a calendar for next year that we would like to have you approve. in this calendar. This has been a calendar. It is one more year before we start uh before uh Labor Day. Um

082moving forward that we might not have that option as that's on the table for the 2027 school year. Um but as you see, our first day in the calendar that would be there uh for staff would be on August 25th with the first student day on August 31st and with our students uh ending on June 11th. And then depending on the number of days that are in the teachers contract, their staff would either end the 14th, 15th, or the 16th of June. Um, we did walk this through um at our executive board for SST because if you remember, you can only have 10 conflicts with your surrounding towns at SST. This calendar has nine conflicts. So, we are there. We got under it. Um, so, um, I know it's putting you in a precarious position,

083but I'd ask you to approve it as presented. then that way we can bring it to our individual school boards at each one of our towns if they want to make any modifications um with with uh days. But I'd ask that with the most of the professional days that are built in this calendar, there's only one that we could really move um at your um local boards and that would be the October 9th day um because the other days there's voting in our schools. So therefore, we have to have those days open. So September 8th is voting, November 3rd is voting and March 9 is voting. So we cannot move those um because we use our schools for voting in most of the places. Any questions on on this calendar how we got to these

084numbers? >> I have a question. What what's the story around I know we I I had proposed last year we consider moving till after Labor Day. We have the SST conglomerate. But um >> so we looked at that Kate. We talked about that SST. If we started after Labor Day this year, we would start on September 8th. >> September 9th, excuse me. So we would not get out until the last week of June with staff. So that is why we did not even bring you a calendar because it's so late because of voting in September. >> And so it's going to be considered next year again. >> It is up for legislation for the start of the 2027 school year that every uh school in New Hampshire would start after Labor Day. >> Okay. But

085besides that, if it doesn't pass, then would the end >> we can definitely bring it forward at all of our meetings. And again, >> still like to push that I'd rather end in the end of June and start in September. I think it's better for the actual summer that happens in New Hampshire. [cough] >> Can I just be the Grinch for a second? Is it's a half day December 3rd. Is that just for um >> 23rd? >> Yeah, the that's what I meant. Is that just for kicks because it's a >> Yep, that is for students because teachers are required to work the whole day per their contract. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Go ahead. >> We have been talking about legislation possibly forcing us after Labor Day for next year for this

086county. [laughter] >> And that's not on the table. >> It's not on the table. So they they said the start date would be the 2027 calendar. So we're good with this calendar. That will not affect it. Yep. Good question. >> And Jame, >> how many sorry snow days are built into this? >> I know that we have a couple snow days and then then a couple like, you know, remote days. What's that look like? >> So we can we every year we talk with principles about snow days and the number of snow days that we'd like to have. Typically we base it so that students can end uh no later than on a Friday because coming back to school for a Monday is not usually uh a valid choice for students for one day. Um

087staff have to because that is work days. So in this in this calendar with them they'd be right up on June 11th. They'd have to come into that next school uh that next week anyways. So I usually work with the principles to say how many would you want? Um, looking at the storms this year, two is a really good number. Um, with what we went through yesterday and also what's projected to come in on Sunday with a possible another large snowstorm coming in. Um, so again, we probably wouldn't go more than than two, but that would be on the table for us to recommend uh with our with our um staff and students. If we did two, that would allow that teachers, if we did two SNAS, those that work 186 days that their last

088day would be on that Friday the 18th. >> [cough] >> Yes, Heather. >> Typically, I'm noticing the ETH when we So, we're coming back to school for four days and we have a five weekend. Do we typically have that teacher in service right after >> New Hampshire primary? >> What's that? >> New Hampshire primary. >> Oh, it's the primary. >> So, no, we typically do not. >> [laughter] [cough] >> Can I ask another question around the Labor Day thing? >> The start of sports preseason, is that set by the start of school or is that set by the state? Uh it is set by NHIA when you can come back and start your first official practice for varsity level sports. Obviously middle school we don't start till we get kids back anyway. So you would

089you'll be pushing back their start time a couple weeks. >> Can I ask a question please? >> Um you have all these circles right the 25th 26th 27th 28th. That's not for every teacher. That's depending on when their CDA starts. >> So this one, um, yes, they do have some flexibility, but if you take one of those days, you have to add it to the end. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Good to know. When we go do our own calendar, >> correct? Yeah. So the only day like we hold for us is the 27th. That's when we do uh convocation with all so we know everybody. There are some schools that do not um have a inservice day on August 28th, but they'd have to make that up um one extra day in June. So we

090have to have in our own calendars we have to have the four days somewhere. >> Yeah. You could do three but then you add it back in June. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because the goal was not to decrease student days less than 175. This this is 175 day student day schedule. [snorts] >> Chris, I'm I'm slow to process things. So I'm circling all the way back to question that was asked at the beginning about if we started after Labor Day. Mhm. >> Um, right now it looks like the kids would start on August 31st. >> If it correct move to after Labor Day, the first day they could start would be September 9th. Is that >> right? Correct. >> So that's uh uh a week and two days later. Why? I guess I

091don't understand. That's a week and two days later and right now the kids are getting out on the 11th. >> Yep. >> Why would it push things back to the end of the month? >> You'd have teachers in that following uh week, Patrick. So your kids would get out the week of the 14th. your teachers would be in session till because uh until you they would get the holiday the 19th or the day after for Junth in a lot of our contracts. So you might not even be able to come and work on the 21st. So it put teachers probably the 22nd 23rd and that that week. >> So be the I I see. So it's not the very last week but it' be pushing them to the 20th 23rd somewhere around there. >> Correct.

092>> Okay. I misunderstood what you said before. So I thought it was that they said it was going to be at the end of the month, >> but it pushes certainly later in the month. >> Correct. >> Okay. And is the conflicts that we have if we were to change the start and end date, is that create a conflict with other schools or or is it the dates that are in between where we're taking our inervices and whatnot? Or the you said something about we can't have more than 10 conflicts. >> Correct. it. So, yes, it takes into account um professional learning days where when they're not in session sending our kids to SST. >> So, Pam and her staff, they have nine days where they don't have the all all schools coming together, right?

093>> So, they piece it together. They have small small portions of classes throughout the day. >> So, if we were to change the date, the start date, that would add extra days because all the SST schools are starting on the 31st. >> They would send mo There's a couple that don't, right, Pam? And that creates a conflict because they don't start on the 31st with you. >> Actually, the right now the the way the technical advisory is worded is that they don't count until after Labor Day. So our nine days already start after Labor Day. So we're already conflicting couple of days before Labor Day. [snorts] So moving it after Labor Day if if we were to move it after Labor Day doesn't create new conflicts, right? Is that what you're saying? Okay. >> I

094think it just we don't have a motion. I know we're asking questions, but I think that one of the things that strikes me is that I hadn't noticed this until Heather pointed it out that with the five days off, it's it's a little odd for students to come back for four days before Labor Day and then have five days in a row off and then start up again. I know that's part of it's just a strange thing this year with the way that the calendar works out and the, you know, election cycle and whatnot. So that's not anything we have control over, but it's it's just it's an a bit of an oddity in terms of how that would work out. It's correct. >> They usually have four days. >> They do. >> Yeah. >>

095But that but that one extra day and it's just it's just Yeah. So it's just an extra day >> question with all the work that they put into this manipulate it to be a little there. I think >> I guess my argument is that this was brought up last year. This is this is a weird year, right? Like it is very hard for kids to go to school for four. Like they're in the middle of their summer, they go to school for four days, especially young kids, right? Like early elementary, then they go home for five days. So, and you know, and then they have then it's like, oh, you have your first day, then it's like a first day of school all over again, except for it's not so exciting. Now, you know, you

096have to kind of be in school all day, you know, so then you have that, you know, I just >> then they go for a three-day week. >> Yeah. For [snorts] three days and then, you know, and it's just like such a, you know, hesitating start of school. I think it's it would be better to like have three-day week and then a weekend and then go. And I am a huge proponent of starting after Labor Day. Like, I think that it is just, you know, August is summer and and June 11th is, you know, very early to get out of school. >> Do we know how that um do you have any sense, Chris, is this something that the uh committee looks at in terms of summer [clears throat] camp opportunities and those sort of

097things with the timing of I I'm sure there are so many different options that I don't know how that factors in. you know, I know some parents start looking at, you know, summer camps starting in certain times and certain sorts of experiences. Do we have any information about that >> right now? I >> I mean, I I don't I know that there's oftent times some camps will put out when they're available based on what our calendar gets released. Um, so I think it's a two-way street. >> Um, but you look at any sports camp, they they're offering camps, you know, the the first and second week of June all the way through end of July into August. So, >> keep offering them. >> It it it depends. This might be a naive question. I mean,

098I am also in favor for this year afterensing that teachers want to go that late. Um, I think the the longer you have teachers in school without kids in here and you get closer and closer to July, um, the morale in that building is not going to be particularly great and the the effectiveness of of the work that there's going to go through will not be the top quality. Um, I also would recommend thinking about our kindergarten, our first grade kids coming back to school and jumping right into a large week. you know, the 4 day weeks really helps out with their stamina for a kid who hasn't gone to school from 8:15 to 3:15 every day. Starting out four, there kids, some kids that are still getting naps through the summertime. Uh, so it's

099I would also just urge this this group to think about our youngest learners and the the the um easing back into a schedule uh for this year. And you know, we again the committee looked at it. Starting the the committee overwhelmingly said starting on the 9th and pushing us back to the third or or fourth week of June would not be our recommendation. But that's what we put in front of you today. I' I'd also be cautious about pushing the start date into September when a lot of families rely on camps and other forms of care that are rely on college students to man those programs. I think there will be a pretty big lack of opportunities for care during those late August weeks. So, I think it in theory it sounds great to be

100after Labor Day, but I think families are going to find fewer options for uh child care in those late August weeks. on that five day weekend thing. It won't happen again and then it's 2035. years that primary situation >> and maybe there's the September 4th date. Is there I I guess the question would be is there a flexibility to move that without the complex like move that to the Friday before Memorial Day or something? Christa, what's the um I think one of the pieces of feedback I heard prior to coming to this meeting is is why we adopt the calendar so late because I know that going back to the camp question, I know of some of the camps you had to make commitments as of January 1st and so folks were trying to lock

101in for that stuff before we hadn't adopt a calendar for the SAU. Is there a way that we can move this process up so that we could um adopt a calendar earlier in the year? So at our October, November, whatever meeting. >> So yeah, I mean we we could I mean we don't meet November as a joint board or December. So you would have to make that in October >> which means that the um executive board members for SST would have to start thinking about that in August or September. So if that's the will, we can bring that back. Pam and I meet with them in March and we can let them know our timeline has to move up significantly. Um but that is something that we could definitely bring to them. >> Is that

102will we have the information to be able to make an informed decision for that committee to make an informed decision at that time? >> Um we will if we'll know when the law passes if we have to start after Labor Day, which would be very helpful um moving forward and then we can plan accordingly. So that's whenever that gets released. Um, if that's July, then we'll be in very good standing. If it comes late August, it will be a little bit harder, but obviously we have some really bright people to work through that that problem. >> Are there other questions that folks have of Chris before we uh take a motion and decide how the board wants to move forward? Okay. I don't see any other questions. Would someone like to make a motion regarding

103the calendar? >> I'll make a motion to approve the calendar. >> Okay. We have a motion to approve the calendar. Do we have a second? >> Second. Is there any discussion in the motion? >> I have a question. >> Um, do all the individual calendars at each school have to hit 175 days? Are we doing seat time? >> We do do seat time. >> We do time, right? But >> we'd recommend. >> Yeah. Yeah. would recommend I mean we've lost over the last 5 to 10 years you've lost about six days with students even though we can do ours so I just 175 was a number that we felt comfortable with our kids in our buildings with our teachers getting the experience that they need and that's our recommendation if a individual board wants to

104do less that is up to that individual board but we again our recommendation is 107 we would not go below that 175 >> but so I'm my follow question is, can the individual schools also ask for more professional learning days or add early release days? >> You can. Every professional learning day you put into the calendar after this would be a reduction in a student day. >> Yeah. Right. You have to add on the other end. >> Other discussion about the motion. >> Okay. I don't see any. So, let's take a vote. All those in favor of the motions, raise your hand, please. >> All those opposed. >> Thank you. >> Did you get Jennifer over there by the way, too, Chris? >> Yeah, I'll get an accurate count. I got three uh opposed, right?

105Okay. Any abstensions? >> Okay, so the motion pass. Thank you. All right, thank you for that. Last thing that we have from us is some uh policy updates. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bryant. Thank you. We have two policies, both of which each individual board has already seen. The first one is uh policy DAFF, administration of federal grants. It's that very long one. Uh this was actually a a an audit finding from last year. They're requiring that all of our boards adopt this policy. So I I actually don't anticipate that the joint board will necessarily need this policy because our grants are now all going directly to each individual district. But in the event as things continue to change, if if funding comes to the SAU, um federal funding comes through

106the SAU in in a way that we need this policy, we will have it. It's exactly the same one that the policy committee reviewed in November and I think boards looked at in December. So that's the first one. Any questions about that policy? And then the other one is policy BEDH public input at board meetings. This also went to the committee at uh the November meeting and then to boards in December. Most boards have adopted um the the revi the the policy with the recommended revisions with the exception of Brentwood which um has a policy that reads just a little bit differently and East Kingston which adopted Brentwoods with some unique revisions there as well. And then Exiter is still um looking at that policy that will be reviewed again at their next board meeting.

107But the remainder of the districts um adopted the the revised version of BD Beedh. So again up to the the joint board which if you want to make any revisions if you want to keep as is um but most are going with the the current one with the recommended revisions. Any questions on that one? >> Okay. So, we need a motion to approve these um these two policies, the federal grants and the public input policy. Someone like to make that motion. Okay. So, we have a motion and second and second. Okay. Any discussion about the motion either policy? Okay. Let's take a vote. Raise your hand if you're in favor. Any opposed? All right. Any abstensions? Okay, then that P passes as well. >> Do you want me to do some legislative updates? >> And

108then just quickly, some legislative updates. We're still paying attention. Uh we're we're trying to track everything over 300 bills right now. Um the big ones, of course, are open enrollment. So, there is a bill um that we're watching that would make every public school an open enrollment school, which would sort of uh take over some of the other the bills that have been um introduced. And then, uh but there's also a commission to there's a bill to create a commission to study open enrollment and just kind of put a pause on everything that's happening with open enrollment. Um, and then the other one that we just wanted to bring to your attention is the some of the legislation around SAU consolidation. Again, nothing really new there. Uh, a new except for a new bill to

109potentially create a a commission to study whether or not that makes sense as well. That one doesn't seem to have as much uh, how do I word it? Open enrollment seems to be taking up a little bit more time, I think. Um, so that's we're tracking both of them, but just wanted to bring those both to your attention. Anything to add, Dr. Bennett or >> I would just put a plug in for Senate Bill 101. If you can go home and look that up, that's the open enrollment bill that is getting a lot of attraction and the Senate has finalized Senate Bill 101, which basically is looking to remove local control. So any articles that school boards could put forth would be no void in making every public school in New open enrollment school and

110it's getting a lot of traction and it's moving into the house and it's really attractive to the house in the general court. So Senate Bill 101 is the open enrollment one that is really popular right now. So just looking looking into that if you can [snorts] >> in preparation for Senate Bill 101 and for open enrollment as it stands right now. You will see on the cooperative ballot warrant article number three is an open enrollment um warrant article which identifies uh the exter um regional cooperative school district at cooperative middle school and extra high school to be open enrollment schools which you have to do by law with us receiving zero students and sending zero students. So we have a video that will explain that but the reason why is that um we don't want

111any money going out that we can't control or any money coming in. So, that is warning that you'll see there um so that we can continue to uh look at the liabilities of the financial burden of of students that would be leaving our district um that that we would not have under the the uh current legislation for open enrollment. And for those that don't know, there was an open enrollment school that was developed that is online. So, it's not about just driving to become an open enrollment school anymore. any student in the state of New Hampshire could go to Granite State Academy and we would have to pay 80% of that tuition rate for them to be an online school. This competes and is is actually different on how GBEX I mean um VLAX is

112run. VAX is run as a recognized charter school where the state pays $6,800 per students that go to VLAX. So you don't lose money. In this instance with this open enrollment in Granite State Academy, we would be on the hook for close to $16,000 per kid based on the average of tuition costs. So, um it's something that we put out there to protect uh the liability and the financial burden on the cooperative school district because Granite State Academy is accepting students 7 through 12. That's why I identified those two schools. We also did a uh enormous amount of work with other superintendents in the area. there is no uh elementary school in the southeast region from the superintendent that had an open enrollment for receiving schools. So that's why we did not do one that

113are individual school boards for this year. Again, we'll continue to monitor that um as as we move forward um in in future years. I just wanted to to get it out there when you see why why does uh the co-op have that warrant article. Um and you know the board has done a ton of deliberation about that worked with council to to craft that that language that will be on that warrant article. Any questions on what Dr. Bryant uh Dr. Bennett or what I just presented to any of you? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh we don't have anything else on our agenda. We don't have uh non-public session. We have our next meeting on April 20th. And I think location to be determined, but probably back at the high school, but potentially elsewhere. And that's

114it for tonight. We'll adjourn. Good job. >> Yes.