001We're going to get started. I don't have a gavvel to gavevel things in, but I'll pound the table with my fist to say we're getting started. And we are going to begin with the pledge of allegiance. So, if you can please rise and join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. So, after the call to order, we're following agenda here and the pledge of allegiance. Next up is the introduction. So, we'll just start, we'll work our way around the room for those people that are on the board. Um, let's go through the board first and then we'll add folks that are from the SAU, but superintendent, please introduce
002yourself since you're right here. Um, and I I'll start. I'm Patrick OD. I'm the chair of the joint board from Exit. >> Good evening, everyone. Chris Andrew, superintendent of schools. >> Hi, Brian Duffy, Brentwood School Board and Co-op School Board. >> Megan Fitzgerald, Brentwood School Board. >> Uh, Dan Abear, Brentwood. >> Allison Higgins, Brentwood. >> James Brown, East Kingston. >> Kirstston Socco, East Kingston. Uh, Jennifer Scarford, stratum. >> Sophie Sulten Stall, stratum. >> Cameron or stratum. >> Eric Herring, stratum. >> Charl Mcdana, Kensington. >> Steph Schmidt, um, Kensington chair. >> Wendy Larson, Kensington. >> Bobby Pace, student representative. Tim, exit. >> Kate Pratt, exit. Heather Ikeer, exit chair. Uh, Beth York, exit. >> Jane Walsh, New Fields. Bobby Kelly, new fields chair. >> Neil Blake, co-op exit. >> Amy Ransom, exterra co-op, new fields rep.
003>> Tammy Dun, exit co-op stratum rep. >> Aaron Garcia Pics, co-op board stratum. >> Bill Gothier, co-op board exit chair. >> Melissa Lions, co-op board from East Kingston. Um, we also have Don Bullins on uh on a Zoom. She's there. She's waving so off in the distance. Um, so those folks that are here from the SEU 16 administration, if you can just say hello. >> Hi everyone. I'm Arin Petta. I'm the chief equity officer for SEU 16. >> Hello everyone. Good evening. I'm Heather Murray. I'm your chief human resource officer. >> Hi there. Alan, assistant officer for human chief financial officer. Rene Bennett, one of the assistant superintendent and the chief officer for student services. Alison Bryant, the other assistant superintendent, >> our chief academic officer, Michelle Larson, assistant finance officer. >> And today we
004have a a special highlight. Um Allison, I think you're warned about this just a few minutes ago. um that since you are uh officially new here, you've been here for a bit, but this is your first joint board meeting. Hoping you can actually come and use the microphone for those people in TV land that they can see you too. But just to give folks a little bit of more information about your background and then what your role is here in the SAU. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh Allison Bryant, assistant superintendent for systems and operations. I've entered month three here in SAU16. Uh, prior to being here, I was in Rochester for two years as the assistant superintendent and acting superintendent there. And prior to that, I was a middle school principal for seven years uh
005curriculum coordinator for uh for middle school for three years prior to that. And then I taught English at both middle school and high school in Shaker Regional School District. So that's and prior to that I was a PAR professional actually. So um I've tried to tried to experience every role and and I've loved all of them. So here in SAU16, I am the superintendent designate for East Kingston and for Exiter and I also am overseeing grants and policy. We have a meeting coming up later this week and uh other duties as assigned. Um so I'm enjoying my time. Thank you for the warm welcome and glad to be here. >> Great. >> Thank you, Allison. Okay, next up we have uh some time set aside at the beginning of the meeting and if need be
006potentially later too, but for public input. So, we always set aside at at least a half an hour for public input. It's required under state law. And so, I'll open the floor to that. If anyone would like to come forward to provide uh public input, now's the time to do it. Is there anyone that would like to provide public input? Right. Coming forward. So, if you can just introduce yourself, um say what say your name and what town you're from and then tell us what you want to share with us. >> Sure. Put this up a little bit. Pete Dervin, uh, East Kingston. I have two kids in the school system. One at the elementary school, one just started the middle school. And I was I was hoping to give a couple comments in support
007of general diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. Okay. Um, I know this is a a difficult subject for some, but I'm trying to take a middle ground approach and and kind of articulate why I think some kind of incorporation of DEI is helpful and some unintended consequences that can happen uh that can occur um if you have vague or difficult laws that are passed. Um, forgive me, I haven't practiced this at all, but so the so the thing that I think about as a parent right now is artificial intelligence and what that means for my kids' future. How do I prepare them for a future where data, knowledge, analytics is commoditized, right? How do you teach that in education? And one of the things I keep coming back to is well then what's valuable in
008the future where that stuff is commoditized. And I think it's curiosity. I think it's being able to ask the right questions and those are outputs of diversity and inclusion. Right? Surrounding yourself with challenging viewpoints. Surrounding yourself with people from different c cultures, different ideas challenges you as an individual to grow, to be more curious, intellectually curious, curious about cultures, other people, but to develop emotional intelligence as well, right? Those are going to be valuable assets in the future. DNI is vital to building those skills. The second thing I want to get to is is equity. I personally believe in merit, right? Merit is how we achieve the best as a society, right? Holding others to a high standard, competing against others at a high standard. It's also worthless if we don't have equity. If people
009aren't starting from the same set of tools, the the same the same educational goals and curriculum and resources, then merit doesn't mean anything because we don't know who could have achieved what if the if the playing field is unlevelled to begin with. And then my my last point is regarding unintended outcomes, right? consequences of blanket legislation. And so if you're if you're thinking about demographic outcomes, right, as as part of legislation, we have separate boys and girls sports teams. Is that a demographic outcome? We have, you know, my daughter is really due to the great education she's received at East Kingston Elementary, she's really interested in her history now because of an immigration uh lesson that they had last year where she learned about her own history as an Irish American, as an Italian American.
010So, if she wants to start an Irish-American club, is that a demographic outcome where where people are self- selecting? I think the broad nature of the legislation that's out there could potentially discourage some of those things because it's so vague and broad. And the other component that I have that is somewhat concerning is is it just a pretext to eliminate funding for schools? So if you have a boys and girls bathroom at your school, is that a demographic outcome that's enough to rescend funding? Okay. So, those are my points that I would hope that the board considers as they move forward thinking about DEI and the curriculum. Um, I think others here have my contact information if if anybody wants to speak with me further. So, I thank you for your time. >> Thank you.
011Hi, I'm Shy Holmes. Sh, >> what what town are you in? >> I'm in Exit. Okay. >> Um, I have one child attending Main Street and a little one who will eventually go there. >> I actually personally knew the answer to that, but it's it's just to make it clear for the record, so to speak. >> Yes, of course. Um, first I want to thank all of you board chairs um for holding these meetings and making them accessible to our communities. Um, and additionally for the work you're doing trying to support equity work in the district. Um, but I'm here today because I want to urge you to opt into opportunities to openly and vocally support belonging and equity work. That includes joining lawsuits whenever you can. And since the Supreme Court ruled in June
012that injunctions can't be sweeping and they may only affect the parties that have immediately brought the lawsuit, you must ensure that you are included. Not doing so fractures the trust between you and our communities. Personally, I took your earlier decision as an attack on my children's existence because, you know, when they walk into a classroom or any other room, they are the D in DEI. That decision, that decision showed me that money was more important than supporting black, brown, neurodeivergent, queer, and differently aabled children in our communities. You don't know what you don't know. But now you know that it was an improper decision. So moving forward, please consider the recent phrasing adopted by Main Street School, which is all learners matter. Because decidedly rejecting diversity, equity, and inclusion is harmful to all learners. Where
013there is no education, there can be no compassion. So choose education. Choose compassion. Choose all of our learners and together we will raise a generation of kind, brave, smart, upstanding individuals that lead with goodness in their hearts and understanding in their minds. Thank you for your time. >> Hi, my name is Katie Adams uh from Exit. I have two kids in the schools and one will be there soon. Um, I also would just like to urge uh a bolder approach with joining these lawsuits that we are sure to see more of uh with this new administration. Um, I think we're really operating from a position of strength here. We have, I believe, the only remaining equity officer of any school district in the state or if not the only then certainly one of very few
014left. The voters have showed by supporting that position in the budget, by continuously electing candidates who support these issues, by showing up to listening sessions and other community events that like we have your back. We want this. We care about this. We've showed up every time we've been asked to support this work. So, I think you can really operate from a position of confidence that the community supports joining these lawsuits to put our money where our mouth is and protect the values that we espouse. I have seen those values in action in the classrooms and we're very lucky that there are other school districts that have been fighting the fight, but I don't think it's fair to leave them out there on their own. We have a lot of resources and we really do have
015the community support. So, I would love to see us take a more proactive role, whether that's preparing ahead of time to be able to move quickly because I know these things do come up very suddenly and there's a lot of people here who have to sign off. But let's let's take the boldness that we should feel because of the immense support from the voters and lead on these issues. Thank you. any other folks that want to provide public input? Well, if someone comes in later and you know, particularly in the next 15 minutes or so and and wants to say something, get my attention and we certainly can make sure that we provide an opportunity for that. Um, you know, we have next on the on the agenda approval of minutes, but I think it
016would be helpful given the um content of public input to maybe take things a little bit out of order and talk about legislative updates and processes because I think that overlaps um doesn't directly address what the public input was about um but it overlaps with that and might provide a forum to give some updates for people that are curious about that and also might spark some uh commentary by board members. So, thank you for your public comment. Um, coincidentally, last week, uh, members of the senior leadership team met with Jill Bessinette, who is in charge of the New Hampshire ACLU, and we talked about how do we get involved quicker when decisions come up that do affect students, specifically of of groups that are um, most significant uh, in our schools. Um and what Jill's
017explained to us is that um it's very difficult as you see to act quickly with 33 board members. The districts that he has reached out to in the past are single member boards. You know, so there's just one board where they can make actions at those meetings quickly. And you know, from the work of the senior leadership team, we expressed that we'd like to be um at least contacted immediately when issues do come up that we could bring to this board collectively in a couple different ways so that we could have the opportunity to join and and have more numbers when we can fight for our students. Uh so one thing that we talked about is that we can call a um chairs meeting for for all of your chairs of your different boards and
018we can talk about the perspectives that are coming forward and then once we hear from that then we could call emergency meetings for each one of our boards to make decisions. The way that it worked for each one of those schools that were in the last lawsuit about the DI certification there was four schools uh for four districts is New Hampshire ACLU represented them free of charge. However, they had their own legal representation from council to make sure that you your best interests were always being protected. So, that's what I would have to do with this board if we charge we we decided to to join a suit. And it could be one school district or it could be all seven school districts. And again, it could be the same legal firm that would be
019able to represent all of us at a fraction of the cost. So, that is kind of the tactic that we will take. But, it was a nice way for us to meet Jill's. you know, um Arlland works a lot with him in in the nature of her position. Um but we heard a lot of things of how we can actually, you know, do things that have things that have happened in the past. So if this board and we can get more information in October wanted to, we could once the decision comes down before the September 18th meeting on the on the certification, we could write a brief on our position in SAU16 to so it' be attached to the minutes and the testimonies that have been heard. So that that is an option that we
020can have and that we'd be prepared to work on. Um, and there are other opportunities that we learned along that way. So, it wasn't that SAU16 didn't want to be involved. Uh, I think the New Hampshire ACLU didn't know that we could act quickly with some of the ways that we could employ getting this group together in a much quicker basis, but also each board has to be the decision maker whether they want to join and that's their the job as a board members and also certify that they're going to put money towards that for for representation. So again, we I think we have a much better system in place to be prepared rather than be reactionary when things happen so quickly. So hopefully that helps out. Um I'd like to invite uh Dr. Bryant
021and uh Dr. Bennett up because they they've been doing a significant amount of work on some of our legal updates. Um, and I I can't um commend them enough for the work they did to talk about, you know, um the parental bill of rights that they gave you a lot of information on and also our cell phone policy that happened so quickly and we didn't have time to prepare and we actually started school with laws that were in place that we didn't have time to bring to our policy committee to talk those through. So, another piece is that last Thursday the New Hampshire uh Southeast superintendent met with about 15 legislators. It's the first time that we did that and we brought together and that that meeting was facilitated by New Hampshire listens and we
022talked about how we could be partners in the future on LSRs that are coming up and also how the impact will happen when laws are passed in conquered and then we get timelines of July 1st and have no time to get stakeholders to our meetings and then the budget impacts that come with that. So it was a very uh collaborative and collegial meeting. Um, from there I've I've met a couple other legislators have come in and we talked about SAU16 specifically and how we could we could work together more closely, but we looking to do another one in January uh to talk about some of the crossover that's going to happen in conquered at that time and how we can be more involved. And then another update just to give to this board is that
023I was approached um through email um from u Michaela Deer who is a do school board member but she also works um for fair funding project and I'll send an email to you. He's looking to get board members and legislators to meet with Commissioner Davis and uh Governor Aayot to talk about how boards and legislators can actually work on these things because of funding is so important in our budgets in our communities and other uh legislation that's happening. So again, I think there is a conscious effort in the state from the education side to work more with our legislators on the impact of some of these laws that are happening and how they are allowed to happen when uh amendments are made that don't pertain to certain laws and then that becomes an impact of
024the school. So I see that as all positive. I see that as all future planning for us as a district uh and what we can do and it is talking about the partnership that we can have with with our um elected officials. So, I spent a lot of time explaining that and I didn't know if there's anything else uh Dr. Bryant or Dr. Bennett you'd like to add on the work you've been doing um with with some of the laws that have been coming up. >> Just really briefly um in terms of parental bill of rights. So, I think most boards have seen that policy but maybe not all boards. Some boards have um passed the policy, some would like to have further discussion. And so at the policy committee meeting this week, we'll have
025an opportunity just to have more discussion about the parental bill of rights, perhaps adding some language specific to SA16. That was some of the feedback that we received, but that can certainly be a conversation with the policy committee and then we uh members of the policy committee can bring that conversation back to boards to have further discussion. Um so that was one thing. The other thing is we did implement um the the personal personal communication devices policy. um that is going well. We even have uh an opportunity if there needs to be an exception um that's been going really well as well. So um that we're still gathering sorry the policy is not official yet. We're still gathering um parent input and feedback and so um certainly this meeting the policy committee meeting um and
026then October board meetings as well if if parents want to provide any further feedback before we finalize that policy. Yeah, that speaks to the policy of legislation, but I just wanted the board to know a lot of our work behind the scenes for the parental bill of rights was supporting staff, teachers, administrators, school counselors, social workers, our licensed clinical mental health professionals on what their obligations were under the parental bill of rights. And then we have our K through 12 admin meeting on Thursday, which will go over um sort of the frequently asked questions of the parental bill of rights because there's the legislative piece and then there's the lived experience of what does that mean in our buildings. So that's also a lot of the work that Dr. Andriski has, you know, directed Allison
027and I to do behind the scenes. There's policy work and then there's like what does this mean for our teachers and who do they go to when they have questions and how do we get um legal advice on interpreting a vaguely worded law and then what does it mean um for our teachers? So that's that's also sort of the legislative update. Same with um the cell phone ban is teachers are concerned about what is their role in policing it. We had the technical advisory come out from the department of ed around cell phone policy and we've actually had a really great experience in our schools in SA16 around the enforcement of it thankfully. Um but that's the that's the other part of the legislative experience that we've sort of been working on. Are there questions
028for us? >> Yeah. Are there comments or questions from members of the board about anything related to this topic? Go ahead. >> Um I'm so interested in your meeting with the 15 legislators. Um both sides of the aisle. How did they get picked? And >> yeah, we we literally invited everybody no matter political affiliation to come to uh we were in the cafeteria. >> Uh we had the commissioner of education as well as some other uh groups that we'd normally have at this meeting. >> Um and we just it was questions what do we see are or laws that are impacting us positively or negatively? Uh what are some of the time constraints? Um we did some uh small group work and and really talked it through and then shared out. So, I I I
029felt it was a really good conversation and um I think it opened our eyes that just because you have a political affiliation doesn't mean you're always on the extreme, right? Right. And that there are times that they they do want to get to the middle because there were some members like I didn't vote on party lines because I don't believe in that. So, that was refreshing for I think all of us to hear, but it was also a way and an avenue for us to continue that conversation. Um and so this week is when our our representatives have to have all of their LSRs in by Friday. So, we'll know what's coming through and then have a chance to walk through some of the language, some of the proposals that will impact us both on
030laws and how we we govern uh and work with our students and staff and then also the budgets we're putting together. >> Okay, >> Heather. >> Um, thanks so much for that update. Um, and just also want to appreciate also the fact that you all, you know, brought us together as board chairs to kind of discuss this ahead of time. And I know that was something we discussed at the joint school board meeting the last time we met. really appreciate you taking in that um input. I think my question is maybe a little bit more procedural. So just understanding that um we're a big joint school board composed of many individual boards. If we were if there was another lawsuit that um was surfacing, would that vote to and so I understand that each individual
031but board would have to vote on allocating funds for legal counsel? Just I'm seeing you nodding, but I'm also trying to see if I'm correct on this. If um is it possible if not each bo if not every board voted >> to take part in the lawsuit and allocate funds that individual boards could join that lawsuit. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So we would go to each board say here do you want to join and here's what you're joining to >> uh >> for or against and then the board would make that decision and then what is the money that you would allocate in regards to legal expenses for there. So again, if if all seven of our boards do it, that's great because we did talk about numbers going forward, you know, having
032four school districts represented or 107 school districts, which we have in across the state. There is that that that power in the numbers. Yeah. >> So again, if we only have three of our boards, then they say it's exit, Newfields, and Brentwood, those three districts would be named and then that's who would be sharing the cost. >> And then one just final question because I've never I've asked you this before. So is the legal counsel that we would be seeking is it would be was it would it be through the ACLU or I mean I I I know that currently we our current legal council doesn't have expertise in DEI specifically. So just curious sort of what >> you know who Great. >> Yep. So new uh the New Hampshire ACLU would would be would
033be trying the case. Our legal counsel would be there and say hey I'm not sure you want to take this position because it could do this for you. So they would be there to look at liability. Um, and I can ask Dr. Bennett to speak a little bit more because she is also on the Oyster River School Board was which was part of this this lawsuit. So, she was there when legal council was able to give them advice while the while the New Hampshire ACLU was was uh was fighting the case. And again, the New Hampshire ACLU in this case brought in also lawyers from uh the ACLU in Boston and also New York City because this is the the the battle that they wanted to choose. So they had multiple lawyers representing New Hampshire
034uh in this case from from lawyers all across you know New England states. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Good. Dr. Bennett. Yep. >> Without disclosing anything that happened in non-public at another board meeting. Um what the ACLU is really looking for are plaintiffs so they have standing in courts. Um, the ACL does not typically represent school districts on a broad policy because they really feel like their their trend line is to students and and marginalized groups. Um, so that's why they wouldn't offer to represent us as a school board just regularly, but they would represent us as a plaintiff if um it for an appeals court. So they just um they represent their their clients free of charge. Um, but that's why they always ask that you have your own legal counsel because um
035to represent your best interests and explain the process. And having gone through that, it is really helpful because you have your district's attorney, you have some attorneys from the ACLU and as a sitting superintendent, you're you're listening to what is your, you know, what is your best advice? Like, is this is this good for me? Is this not good for me? What questions should I have? Um, and so that's that's really how it works. We did ask um when Dr. Dr. Drisky invited him to senior lift. We asked ACLU sort of do you have attorneys in the state that we could use outside of this? So if a question comes out um we have a question about an implementation of a policy or or an outside agency is questioning us and they really guided us
036towards our local attorneys. Um, and then they asked us to identify who are attorneys that represent us and that they would work through our attorneys to help our attorneys understand those answers and give us really good advice, but they wouldn't be our direct source just because sometimes they're representing students on the other side of these cases or um, again marginalized groups. >> That's really helpful to understand. I think my my I appreciate that there would be some kind of collaboration. I just want to ensure that if you know if we are meeting with someone who's giving us legal counsel in non-public that that person has met with the ACLU and that we're sort of hearing kind of both sides of that equation going forward. >> Yeah, that was really what we got to feel and
037it might not be GIS but there are there are other attorneys that they can direct our attorneys to reach out to answers. >> Okay. So that we're getting we're getting the advice from our attorneys, but they have resources that they can reach out to if that makes sense. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, just uh Neil next, but just to one quick comment just to emphasize this again because I know sometimes there's confusion in the public, maybe not for the folks I'm not addressing the folks that are in the room necessarily, but just public at large that it does get confusing what the power of this joint board is. And just to clarify that one more time, this board really doesn't have a lot of power to act on much of anything. I mean, there's a
038few things that we adopt from time to time related to calendars or or strategic planning or some other things, but decisions about and the budget for the SAU, but in terms of of these sort of decisions, they all happen at the individual school district level. So, we certainly can talk about these things. We can coordinate. we can work out these strategies to get out information quickly. But, um, folks that have an interest, uh, on how it's affecting your local school district community, I would also encourage you to, you know, to be in dialogue with your local school board. Um, so they're they're the ones that are going to actually make those decisions about whether or not to allocate funds and and join lawsuits. >> Could uh the boards meet simultaneously? Could you could they meet
039together and then convene their own meeting and like this but as individual boards and work that way? >> Yeah, we could. I mean, we could, you know, we have a number of superintendent designates to be able to do it when we could then empower the rest of senior leadership team to have that and you could have it in a central location if that worked out timing wise. Definitely could do that as long as it's posted appropriately. >> Thank you. >> You still do have to have public comment. So, you want to make sure that it's available for anybody in your towns to be able to to get there and offer a comment as well because it would be a regular school board meeting. Thank you. Other comments or or thoughts? Okay, we're going to circle
040back on the agenda. Um, took that a little bit out of order, but um, circle back to the minutes next. We were last here on May 19th, and there are minutes in your packet with public minutes. Does anyone want to make a motion to approve the minutes or suggest an amendment to the minutes? >> I can make a motion to accept the minutes. >> Okay. So, we have a motion to accept the minutes. Do I have a second for the motion? >> And seconded. Okay. Any discussion on the motion? All right, then. Let's take a vote. All those in favor? And again, if you weren't here, you should abstain from from voting on this if you weren't at the meeting. But all those um in favor of the motion, raise your hand. Get a count.
041>> It says none of us were here. So >> yeah, I'm looking. >> I think that's the list of absentees. There's a list of attendees above that. >> Oh, not present. Oh, bye. >> Yeah, >> none of you are missing. I remember you were there, Alison. >> That was >> Yes, I do remembered quite a bit. >> Redo it. Okay, >> just raise your hand one more time for me because we had a little confusion. Thank you. One, two, three, four, five, six, 20, 10, 17, 18, 19. Thank you. >> And you got Don as well. >> And I got Don. Thank you, Don. >> She's raising her hand online. I can see her. Um, and any opposed? And then those that are abstaining, six, seven. Great. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. So,
042next we are back officially with the SEO 16 administration updates. So, I'll turn things back over to you, Chris. >> Yes. I'm going to invite Molly up to present the SAU uh FY27 budget. I can do the slides. >> That's important. >> Okay. So, tonight is our first review of the SAU FY27 budget. So, that's going to be for the 2627 school year. We've already reviewed this once with the SAU budget advisory committee. in that committee is typically your school board chairs or whoever your board decided to send. There have been no changes since that meeting. Before we get started, I just want to remind you all so the school boards that have already met, we we introduced this. This year, we're going to be budgeting for grants in the individual school district budgets, not
043the SAU. So, you're not going to see that here. And the reason for that is the individual school districts are the legal owners of those grants. Our goal of this budget was to budget for needs while balancing fiscal concerns of our communities. We've done this by reducing the part-time grant management position and moving those responsibilities to the SLT members daily functions. So, I'm going to show you a few slides tonight, but I just wanted to list what I put in your board pack for you. I put a summary of major changes details on all the phone and mileage reimbursements that people receive. Details on every single person's salary that's in the SAU budget and the percent raise. There's a pie chart that shows the visual breakdown of the budget. I also put a list of
044all account codes. So, if you have questions on where I've categorized things in the major changes or where things fall in the pie chart, you can look on my code that I put in there for you. And lastly, there's a line by line budget that's printed directly from our accounting system. [Applause] Hold on. I'm trying to get to the next slide. >> Okay, here we go. All right, so this is the slide that shows the list of major changes. Overall, there's a decrease of $23,595 or 69%. The salaries are a 3% increase over FY26 actual salaries for all of the staff members. The senior leadership team, which we refer to as SLT, is put at a 2.5% increase. FICA and NHRS which is the New Hampshire retirement system is a function of salary. So FICA
045is 7.65% and NHS is 12.75% for employees. So as salaries go up and down so do the FICA and retirement. For health and dental we put in a 9% increase for health and 5% for dental. However this is a placeholder. So on October 7th I believe it is healthress is going to release the rate. So, if you remember last year, they did away with the guaranteed maximum rate, the GMR, and they gave us the rate. So, when we come back to you in October, I will have these figures updated. Um, but right now, we put in that placeholder. Unfortunately, I have no indication if that will be higher or lower, but we will find out in early October. We did experience turnover with the superintendent retiring last year. The current year budget was made prior
046to that retirement announcement. Therefore, you're going to see changes related to salary provision for retirement and healthc care selections. Due to the decreasing number of grants, we've shifted the grant management responsibilities to the assistant superintendent and eliminated the part-time role. We added $15,000 for public relations in the contracted service line and $2,500 for a stipen for a district-wide SNAP coordinator. And SNAP is a system that's used by our nurses. And lastly, with the decreasing amount of grant money, we've increased the conference line as much of that was previously funded. And in addition, we have additional people attending courses that will receive course reimbursement. Before I move on, I don't know, Dr. Anders, if you want to quickly talk to the public relations 15,000. >> Sure. >> Yeah. We include a couple years ago, we did
047a communications audit for SAU 16 and how we could have better communications about all the the positive things that are happening in in the in the in our schools. As much as we'd like to write and then have someone dedicated to that, we do work pretty closely with a um a firm through New Hampshire School Administrators Association. So, we put in $15,000 and that would cover us for any crisis management um and it would cover us for um four articles a month so that we can control and get the narrative out. So, they will actually be with us on Friday and writing their first article for us uh covering the groundbreaking um ceremony at Strata Memorial School. So, that will be the first chance for us to work with them, get the positive message out
048and and understand the importance of why that renovation project is is so important to to that school and that school system. So, that was one of the rationale and then we'll we're going to evaluate it from year to year to see how that how that looks and if that is something that needs to turn into something more internal or if that $15,000 can continue to be a great placeholder for us to continue to get more messages out. So, most of this budget is related to people. Actually, 92.63% is related to the employee compensation and benefits. [Applause] Sorry. So, the SAU does not have a separate tax rate and it can retain its fund balance unlike your districts. [Applause] The amount to raise in taxation to support the SAU budget is divided between the SA16 districts
049based off of average daily membership or ADM and equalized valuation. This slide has the definitions of what those are. And when we post this, those two links at the bottom are actually the DOE reports where we get the information directly from. So in prior years, the amount assessed to the districts was less than your budget, bringing down that fund balance. So while overall we have a slight decrease in the proposed budget, we plan to keep the overall total assessments to the districts the same as the current year, we plan to do that by using less fund balance than previous years to stabilize the tax rate while also maintaining a level of fund balance for our future retirement liabilities. You will see a fluctuation between the districts because as ADM and EV move in relation to
050each other, but we intend that the overall grand total that is assessed to the districts would be the same as the current year. I purposely did not put the final numbers on this slide because we don't know the health insurance numbers yet, so I didn't want false information out there. But this will tell you what the percentage each district saw in the current year, which is FY26, and the percentage that they'll see in 27. Did anyone have any questions? So, tonight is the first presentation and then in October, we're going to incorporate any feedback we receive tonight and we'll have the public hearing where where we will hear from the public and then later that night have the vote. So if there is any feedback tonight or any requested changes, I'm happy to take that
051and do additional analysis or addition additional presentations to come back in October during that public hearing. >> Could I um just get clarification on one thing? Sure. I feel I feel like I heard that the grants position is moving to assistant superintendent but also that it was moving from the SAU budget to the individual schools. Nope. So well so that is the person within the SAU that helps manage the grants but the appropriation of that grant funding would be included in each of your individual districts as the individual districts are the ones that actually own the grants. >> Okay. So the revenue is not is going to move >> the revenue and expense will move to the district. So there >> it will move at the like percentage that the district receives like the expense
052of will move at the percentage that the district receives the funds. >> So we will take a look at what each individual district receives and we will project that in each of the individual districts. >> Okay. But that expense will be projected based on the amount of grant revenue coming in. >> It won't be like an even split across the districts. >> No. So when we get grant money now, it doesn't go to the SAU. It goes to the individual districts. It just was previously appropriated in the SAU budget. Got it. >> And now it's being appropriated as part of the district budgets. But it will not change how much you t Well, the grant money will change, but what we're doing will not have any impact on how much grant money you get. >>
053Got Bobby. >> Sorry. >> Um, thank you, Molly, for doing that. Every time you do this, I learn something new. Um, I have a pretty elementary question, so if I'm the only person in this room who has this, I I apologize. Um, I always like this graph because it helps me understand, you know, the previous slide with the two 50% calculations, but every year I see this, I always wonder the same thing, and I'm just going to ask it this time. >> So, it makes sense to me. Brentwood School District, East Kingston school district, Exit School District, >> how does I'm looking at the largest percentage here, which is the exit regional co-op school district, which is comprised of the other school districts. So how does that 54 or 54% um get further allocate or
054um >> distributed amongst the districts the other district >> or the other towns I think I understand your question. So on your tax rate there's two sections there's your elementary school and your cooperative school. >> So this would be the assessments that go in each of those budgets. This would be the assessment that goes in the cooperative budget. Then the cooperative budget is distributed to the districts in the tax rate. >> Similarly with those two valuations. >> No, theirs is a different calculation. Theirs is actually solely based off of ADM, but it's the average of the two prior years. >> So it's >> that's a little confusing, right? Or at least it is. But this is half ADM, half equalized valuation. The co-op is solely ADM, but it's the average ADM over two-year period. >>
055I should probably attend the co-op meeting just so I better understand it, but they are posted. So, >> and all of the formulas are documented on the Department of Ed and Department of Revenue websites. >> Okay. Thank you. Questions or thoughts? Anyone else have a question or comment? Or would anyone have any required changes before the public hearing? >> So the public hearing will look exactly like this. >> Well, there may be >> Oh, with the health and dental. >> Yeah, the health insurance. >> There may be additional comments from the public at that meeting and maybe it will get changed, but in terms of what you're presenting, right, it doesn't sound like tonight the board has any other feedback for you. >> Okay, great. I would just say that we appreciate the efforts to
056control costs. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> I mean, that's just the conversation that we had at the >> the whatever advisory meeting. I >> think you guys worked hard at it. We appreciate it. I also think it might be really helpful to get like what the expense of the conference line just like a view of what those conferences are for non sure >> education people just to be able to kind of say like this is why this is so valuable. >> Sorry, we do have some more comments and questions. Go ahead. >> Thanks. I >> Molly, I really appreciate the um detail on phone and mileage. >> What is that account number? the account number uh >> find that in the um >> so in my feed because I see two spots where it says
057miles and I don't think that that's the right one. >> So in the budget there's two sections. There's um function 2320. So when I say function I mean the second set of numbers in your account code. >> Um and then there's a section later on for the business office. So most of the people are in the first section which is the 2320 and then there's just a few of us in the business office in the second section. So on the line by line it it should say mileage directly on it. >> Mileage to meetings and conferences. >> Yep. And then there should be phone. Now the in the phone I believe the actual physical phones in the office are on that line as well in addition to the reimbursements. I was just wondering which of
058the mileage was the mileage we're talking about with the SLT's travels because they don't seem to be around town just going Yep. meeting. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Did anyone else have any questions? >> All right. Well, I hope our health and dental come in low. Before I move on, can I >> Oh, sorry. Yep. There's another comment before I move on. Go ahead. >> Sorry. I had it in my mind to ask this the whole time and then I spaced out about it. Um, we just had a conversation at the beginning of the meeting about um, legal expenses, potential legal expenses, and I realize most of that will come through from individual towns. So, I don't know if there's a a specific >> spot in the SA where they have that or whether that's
059something we're going to be discussing at our individual boards uh, as we do our go through our budget process in the coming months. Uh we do have a legal line on here, but most of the legal will be in the individual districts. >> Is that under contracted services? >> It's actually there should be a line. >> It should say legal right on it. >> It says it's 25,000. first page. [Applause] >> Okay. Yep. Got it. >> Yep. No, I see it now. I'm looking up the summary, not of the detail. That's what >> Okay. So, those of you with the the the budget line by line here, it's uh and a bunch of zeros and there's a $25,000 budget on there. One more chance before we move on. Anyone else have any other comments or
060thoughts about budgeting related um items? Otherwise, we're going to move on to the superintendent goals. Okay. So, we're going to move forward. We're not taking public comment. If you're We're not taking public comment. No, sorry. At this point, we're not taking public comment on those things, but we will take public comment at the October meeting. So, certainly if you want to come to the October meeting, we can take public comment then about anything related to the budget or anything else for that matter. >> Question of this presentation on the website. Sure. That's a good question. Can we make this presentation available on the website so people can see that? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Particularly even for people I was thinking that as we were looking at this for people that are watching on TV, some
061of those graphs are hard to tell on TV. So it would be helpful to have it so you could get it online. >> Um, >> okay. So we're going to we're going to move forward then with the agenda. So next we have the review of the superintendent goals. >> Yeah. So, in your packet, it provided the goals that I submitted to the um superintendent uh evaluation committee. Uh worked, you know, pretty closely with with Dr. Higgins and got some feedback and I know she reached out to members to get it. What I really tried to do is focus on four key areas of of how I could support not only the boards, but our administrators, um how we get our strategic plan plan implemented and passed. And then again, what does leadership look like from
062a superintendent's office through all of our schools? Uh, and how does it impact kids? So, it's really how I took the approach to write these goals. And then I embedded our competency leadership map that we use with all of our administrators in in the SAU. I didn't feel it would be appropriate that I would not be, you know, writing goals that I'm asking all of the other administrators in the SAU to be held accountable to. So, they're a good metric. Um and then and then in there I listed in many different ways and I could demonstrate how we would be growing in those different um four key key areas. Um I'll get into the strategic plan you know next a little bit more because you know we're in a little bit of a lull for
063that and I'll explain why but these were really how I felt in year one um leading uh through the district of how uh I could support in in the multiple areas in the task of this role. there any question on on what was written or how we got there? >> Sure. >> I thank you for this and to the committee. I thought this was very clear and so I just you know I think it's really clear what you're focusing on and it makes sense in terms of sort of the key areas of your responsibility. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> The only question I had and I know it's really hard to do and I know having served on the committee before it was something that we kicked around before is just
064like how will you know if you're successful? So I really under it it was very clear what the goal is, who the stakeholders are, what the action steps are, but like at the end of the year when we go through an evaluation is there and I know it's hard but like how many partnerships or like what's informing sort of a metric or a key metric of success after a a year? >> Yeah, I think that's a great question. What I would uh would say is I I would love to get as much feedback from all the stakeholders that that are represented in our community. So what are the parents saying? what are our students saying? What are our teachers and our administrators saying? What are board members saying? But we're also about those community members
065that don't have kids in our school. So, and again, that's where the strategic plan, I think, comes really in into play because we do have some metrics on on getting their voice. So, I'm very comfortable with with the 360 evaluation and any components. Um, very comfortable with with my coaching sessions with with our administrators and how is that going and getting feedback. I can't grow if I don't know where my areas are not of strength and I can't get better in areas that I think I already do well at. Um so that is what I'm I'm really looking forward to is the feedback that comes there. I don't think that u people are coming with with malice. I I think it's a way to support what we're doing here and how that leadership from this
066role can be impactful. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Bobby, >> um, just to piggyback off of that, and I'm not on the superintendent evaluation committee, so thank you for all of my peers who are on the committee, but, um, back from my teacher days, I do know that, you know, having a rubric of some sort is a helpful tool to use. So, I don't know if there's a way to ra if you're not going to define every single metric with a number because that can be really difficult. Perhaps there's a way at the beginning of the year to set up some sort of rubric where we, you know, we're all either educators or education adjacent here. Um, come up with a a rudimentary rubric or something that might make it a little easier to
067assess when it comes time to assessing. But again, I'm not on the committee, so to whoever the chair is for that maybe have that consideration. Are there thoughts or questions or comments? >> I comment. >> Yeah, I mean we did have these conversations and I do think >> that um you know we there were a couple of is so Steph and Carson both had some feedback on sort of how to measure um and made some recommendations and Dr. and Drisky adopted those recommendations very quickly. Um, you know, I think that it's not necessarily like there's not huge detail in all of them, but I think that we did find places where we felt like, you know, we got away from any sort of yes, no, it happened, it didn't happen metrics. Um, and I think
068in coaching, I do not have my glasses on me and I left for work a long long time ago. um and didn't bring my notes with me so it's not in front of me but I believe that like um in the coaching sessions specifically we added some metrics um >> that is not just that they happened but there that there's a feedback mechanism for them >> um >> can I add one thing to that >> yeah please >> so what we did to address that what we did two years ago is that with the help of he with heather is that we incorporated kind of a 360 >> yes We have >> We never had that before. So, we got the feedback that we really felt like we're missing to address some of those. >>
069Yeah. >> It does have a rubric on it. >> Yeah. >> So, uh >> it has a four point. >> Can I? >> Yeah. Go ahead, Chris. So I I think it's really important to look at this through a lens of efficacy because Chris was the one who made these goals and I think for modeling that with our teachers and with SLT for him to go in to reflect his own definition of success when we make a rubric it's really hard to it kind of boxes him into making more progress than what he might be able to do on his own like on his own. I also would say that because of the three different competencies that he has, each one of those would need their own rubric to actually like nail down. What I
070really like about the 360 is actually the qualitative data that we're getting from all of the um stakeholders in this. You know, that's a hard way to research something and to and draw the line successful. Um my comment to um Chris's was was the professional learning piece was I really want to see how professional learning is being implemented and then carried through because in professional learning oneshot wonders don't work and when teachers are teaching each other and when SLT is teaching each other and that gets rolled downhill that's success because it's being implemented and aligned correctly to the strategic plan of what's happening. So that's our hope that each year, two years ago, last year, this year, this committee has grown. It's articulated itself in a more clearer way to get what we need and
071hopefully that will continue. So I was pretty happy or the team was pretty happy with with the specifics like Heather said, like it was pretty clear and we were just giving some feedback to Chris to make it even clearer. Again, I I would just say it's it's great. I I think it's like words when I see things like a reflect. I can I can read between the lines, but like what is it like if I remember like what is a transformational leader, right? Like what is a reflect like how >> what my definition of a transformation might be different than you know Beth's definition of a transformation. So I don't even know if it has to be in this document, but I think for you to define that for yourself, right, and share that and
072what and when we get to the point of 360 that we're actually looking at some of those qualities that you've defined >> for what you hope to get out of that reflective process and that growth pro like I understand you want to be a leader with a growth mindset and >> but I think some we you I just have done these so many times and we use words right that sound great in education but we have such different definitions of those means. So I would just say as not for the purposes of this document but like as we get into that 360 you know what are the qualities of transformation that you are striving for that you want to ask questions about I think would be um helpful >> and I think from a process
073perspective that's where we are. I think that if I remember correctly, you and you and >> not wholly working through it. >> Yes. You're going to look at that 360 and make sure that it is aligned with the feedback that you want. So, >> so from a process perspective, that is exactly where we are. So, the goals were first. >> Um, then I think that we provided Dr. Anderski the copy of the 360. um we know for sure that there was some language that we missed updating last year related to um the new vision and so there were definitely a few wording changes that needed to be made anyways but we wanted to make sure that the 360 captured the feedback that that Dr. Anderski wants. So we will make some tweaks. I think that's
074our next step. >> Other thoughts or comments? Okay, then let's move forward. Last on here is the strategic plan. >> Yeah, first of all, thank you for those comments. It's very helpful and it helps me keep organized. So, I appreciate that. That's a task in itself to keep me organized. So, I appreciate um strategic planning update. I I wish I could come here today and say we have a strategic planning update and we have a plan done for you, but we don't. And so I brought the committee back together on the 27th of August and I said, I'm really struggling with some of these metrics and how we built them out and if I can't explain it, I don't know how the rest of us can explain it. So I said, can we really dive
075deep into these metrics and can we actually feel comfortable with what we're trying to explain on what we're measuring in the different points with our community? And I could see a collective like a sigh because I think we were all trying to get to a point and maybe rushing through it a little bit. So really really productive meeting uh in late August to we dove into every single metric and I think out of the the nine metrics we had we were comfortable with two as they were written and we needed to rewrite about seven of them and and two of them are going to be pretty difficult because we didn't feel we had enough equity or belonging and those are two of our major core values in our strategic plan. So we we love the
076platform. We loved how things are. We love our core values. We have we um very happy. But the actual measurement, we're still not quite there yet. So what I'm asking is I'm probably be in the next couple weeks at a point where I've rewritten some of the metrics from the feedback that was given to me at that meeting to be able to bring back um first to our principles because our principles had not seen some of these strategic plans unless they were part of the committee. So they gave us some really good feedback because we worked with them uh at the administrative retreat in August. That was really the first time they had seen it and it gave us feedback which was it it it matched some of the work we were doing but it
077also gave us greater insight to um some of the things that we didn't measure well. So our goal is we have our administrators back on Thursday. We're going to go through some of the feedback that the committee gave to them. Take their input. I'll rewrite those metrics from that input and from what the committee gave. Set up another committee meeting in October. Um, and our goal was to bring you a finalized copy for our our meeting in January. So, we can celebrate the first of the year. Here is our strategic plan. Here's what we're measuring and here's how we can all actually explain it and define it. Um, so that's not just one voice trying to explain it, but it's a collective voice of SAU16 like this is what we do. This is how we
078measure success and it's very clear. So, that's that's where we're at. So, I I say thank you for the patience um and thank you for allowing this committee to really dive in deeper because without it um I think we would not be in a spot where we could actually um defend or talk or engage in a conversation about what we were trying trying to truly measure with what our strategic plan was put forward through. And I don't think that takes away from the work that the the community partners, the 100 people that came and did that, they put us in a really good spot. We're just now towing with is is this the right wording? is this the right metric? So, um that's kind of where we're at. So, I'll take any questions if anybody
079has anything. But, um I didn't that's the bad news, but it's also I think really good news that we were really reflective in that meeting. >> Are we this I I may have just missed this. Are we done working now with the consultants that were advising us on this plan or is that contract like does >> So, they willing back it doesn't time out because they're still responsible to give us a platform. >> Okay. and I've been in contact with them. So once we get our metric, they will build that platform and then we're in control of that. Um so they're just kind of on hiatus right now. We're not actively working or having to pay any extra money um because we didn't get to an end point yet. >> Okay, other thoughts. >> So
080that brings us to the end of the agenda. I just want to say um just a quick thought that uh this is a really great turnout tonight and I know it's really difficult people have really busy schedules and it's it's as busy at the beginning of the year as as it is later but um I was really impressed and few people that couldn't attend most of them uh emailed or texted either Chris or me and let us know uh you know one member Dom was able to jump online so it's really helpful if we can you know carve this time out to be here uh we try not to meet unnecessarily and we're also going to try to be efficient. So, with that, I'm going to take a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Do
081you want Did you have something you want to say before we do that? Go ahead, Bobby. >> I just wanted to acknowledge how awesome it is that we have a student rep. Um because I know that didn't always happen all the time and I um so a thank you for coming. I also felt like is there I don't know how how appropriate it is, but I feel like um um is there ever an opportunity to potentially ask if there's any um input of our student rep for the the group here or I I'm just not used to having a student rep on board. >> Yeah, I mean essentially student rep is at the co-op meeting. So they certainly will give, you know, maybe more active feedback there. And and like any other rep, you should
082certainly feel free just to speak up. You know, we I really try to make sure that there's an ample opportunity for anyone to speak and you are an equal member of this board. So you should feel free if there's you have any thoughts or questions just to just to throw them out there on anything that's there. Or if you have suggestions for topics that you think would be particularly important for the joint board to cover that aren't being covered at the local boards or um have bubbled up and would be of interest to all the boards, you also can raise that too. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Okay. So, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Would someone like to make the motion? >> Allison. And do we have a second of the motion? Okay.
083All those in favor your hand. But looks like we have more than half. So that's Thank you. >> Thank you all.