001[Music] at 6:03 6:03 p.m. Our first order of business is to rise and say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. You know, I like We'll um do quick introductions. I'm going to start this way. Amy Ransom, exit co-op board rep from New Fields. Bill Gothier, exit coop school board. Uh exit chair. Don Bolins, exit coop exit member on the cooperative school board. Uh Joe Pace, cooperative school board, Kensington. Tammy Gunst exit cooperative board representing student Neil Blanken co-op board exit. Thank you. Uh Brian Duffy Brentwood and Brentwood rep on the co-op board. Allison Higgins Brentwood board. Megan Fitzgerald Brentwood board. Cameron or Stratam board. Uh Jennifer Scrawford Stratum chair.
002Um Sophie's out today and Eric will be here like 20 minutes later. Wendy Larson, Kensington. Charl Mcdana, Kensington. Steph Schmidt, Kensington, chair. Uh, James Brown, East Kingston. Kirstston Sokco, East Kingston. Bobby Kelly, New Fields Chair. Brian Beler, New Fields. Kate Pratt, exit board. Beth Fork, exit. Tim Reed, exit. Aaron Garcia Day, co-op board from Stratum. Melissa Lions, the East Kingston rep on the co-op board. And walking in is Kate Bonafiti, Brentwood board. And I'd just like to have um the administrative team that's here um this evening. Starting with Dr. Andrewski. Let's try to get our go first. Hello everyone. Uh Chris Andrew, associate superintendent of schools. Hi, Joe Lizzier, chief officer of curriculum instruction and accountability. Good evening. Alan Riska, assistant director of student services. Hello. Arlland Petta, chief equity officer. Renee Bennett, assistant superintendent
003in charge of student services. Good evening. My name is Heather Murray. I'm your human resource director. Welcome. I'm Michelle Larson. I'm assistant director of finance. And I'm Esther Asbel, superintendent right here in SAU16. Um I am running the show because we this is our first organizational meeting after um elections. So I would be looking to board members for a nomination of a joint board chair. I would like to make a nomination for Patrick OD in his absence. Is there a second? I'll second. And I do have confirmation that Patrick would accept that nomination. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of Patrick OD being joint board chair, raise your hand. Say I. Opposed. Abstain. Great. Thank you. And because Patrick's not here, I am now going to ask for a nomination for a vice chair
004of the joint board. I'll nominate Melissa Lions for vice chair. Are you seconding? Second. Do you accept the nomination? Yes. Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. All right. Congratulations. Now meeting is yours. All right. So our public input is now open. It's 607. We'll keep it open for 30 minutes. Does any member of the public wish to speak at this time? if yeah, come on up. And if you could just provide your uh full name in town. Paul Royal, Exit, New Hampshire, uh newly elected. It was a heck of a contest to the budget advisory committee. But tonight, I come to you as a private citizen about some concerns. Um, I haven't really prepared anything, but I have a couple of notes on some points that I think are important given current legislation
005and DEI or whatever the courts and litigants choose to call it these days. At last count, I believe 165 superintendent of districts in the state have signed over um saying that they've basically dismantled DEI or changed the name or sworn that they're not going to be in violation of new federal edicts. I do not believe that SA16 has gone down that road yet. And I'd like to applaud that because I think this is one of those times you do wait until the last minute perhaps only as a form of quiet protest. My concern goes greater than that though. Uh DEI can be controversial. I'm not sure why, but I've listened to a lot of views regarding this. But I'm not so concerned about DEI per se, although I do have concerns. I'm concerned about overreach.
006And what is next? If we quietly succumb to this, we may have no other choice in this particular case. But what happens next? Are we told that only certain books are acceptable? Do we have to hire monitors, etc., etc.? So I think this is potentially a slippery slope. So my big concern here too is that if we wind up having to make a decision, and when I say we, I mean you have to make a decision that a lot of people are going to be upset by. I think it's increasingly important that the community be brought in as much as possible and they be informed as much as possible about why we might have to do what we might have to do. And I think you need to let the community know completely what the
007rationale is either for or against. Communication in these sorts of times is paramount. Um the lawyer for the justice department in the current case and I want to get this quote right. It isn't that diversity is illegal. It matters that conduct is. Nothing will turn on whether something is called DEI. The point is if there's a racial classification, it has to survive strict scrutiny. I don't think that's a problem. We should take that person at his word. Um, in this case, without wandering too far a field, uh, and talking about strict scrutiny, uh, the government Paul, I'm just going to ask you, I'm almost done. Thank you. The government must site a clear violation of existing law, which it is not yet done. So in short, basically what I want to give you is please,
008whatever you do, whatever this comes to, please bring the community in as far as you possibly can. Not just the parents, but especially the people that love to call themselves taxpayers. If you're breathing, you're a taxpayer. Um, I've said my piece. I wish you the best of luck. And I have great empathy for possibly difficult decisions that are coming down the road. And again, I just think it's important that whatever you do, whatever you think is best, make sure that you involve the community because if there is backlash, you folks are not the ones that are going to be the ones that deserve it. Thank you. [Applause] Anybody else? All right, we'll keep Oh, come on up. Yeah. Hi, my name is Katie Adams uh from Exit. I wanted to applaud the email that we
009got uh supporting the values of equity. I thought that was a great step and just encourage the district to do more than quietly and internally support this work, but to actually be a leader in the state on this. I think one of the conversations I had with multiple teachers uh at my son's elementary school when I was there for the student led conferences which were excellent every time I said oh I loved this or this is so great I was met with I hope we don't have to stop teaching this I hope we don't have to take this poster down and that selfcensorship and fear-based decision-m is going to be of course rampant in the schools given this current climate I think I'm sure The messaging from the administration and from the the school board
010will be very clear to the teachers about what they do and don't have to do. But nothing could be clearer than for us to take the extra step, which is to lead in the state as a district in supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice work. My fifth grader wrote a terrific essay that he shared at that conference about an informational essay where he had studied um the rights of convicted felons to vote state by state and he had got to choose that topic on his own from a range of voting topics and he learned so much from that. This was totally his own his own idea guided by his teacher. his teacher is afraid that the curriculum that they use to pick that essay might not be allowed in the future. So, I just want
011to say I really support and applaud this work and I hope that the district will continue to really take a vocal leadership position in the state on keeping keeping up the good work. Thank you. Hi, I'm Mary Teagle. I live in exit and in general I am very much in favor of your DEI programs. Um and I think you all know what the good parts of it are much better than I do. But in the current context where we have international students and residents of dubious or complicated residency, I think it's even more important to hang on to the DEI policies of the school district. Thank you. Thank you. Uh any Yeah, come on up. Hi, my name is Jennifer Brackett Pisccoitz. Um, I'm an exit resident and I'm the mom to a 20-year-old young
012adult child who graduated from SAU16 in 2023. I'm asking our SAU joint board and administrators to take a stand against the state and federal departments of education as they attempt to intimidate and undermine our SAU stance on DEI. My disabled non-binary adult child, who is also a person of color, benefited greatly from the specialized training SAU16 staff received under the umbrella of DEIJ. Within the first couple of years of DEIG practices being put into action, there was a clear change in the lens in which many staff supported students, including my child. Our family is forever grateful to the SAU for blazing a trail in regard to DEIJ efforts. Thank you to the many in our SAU community and beyond who have worked so hard to make important changes in how we think and act and
013see one another. This is a tremendous benefit to both children and adults. To have that all slip away because of the fear tactics of national and state intimidators would be extremely tragic and a loss for us all. Please do everything in your power to keep DEI as a part of our SAU's value system. We must fight. Our community needs your incredible courage to continue to be unwavering now more than ever. Thank you. Hi, I'm Jake Kle. I live in Exit. Um, thanks for letting me speak. I I just wanted to express my appreciation for the work our schools have done so far to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. These values aren't ideals to strive for. Rather, they're just common sense baseline. They're essential to creating a school environment where every student feels seen, respected,
014and empowered. As a parent with three children in the SA SAU16 system, I care deeply about the kind of community they're growing up in, the kind of people they're becoming. I want them to learn not only math, science, and history, but also the importance of empathy, fairness, and courage. I was proud of my fifth graders recent essay comparing and contrasting Frederick Douglas's uh movement of abolition with the suffrage movement. and I thought it was thoughtful, nuanced, demonstrated real engagement with difficult parts of our history. I wholeheartedly support that kind of curriculum and the teachers who teach it well. I also wanted to denounce the vague and chilling efforts at both state and federal levels that threaten this kind of education and pressure educators into selfcensorship. Our children deserve to learn about controversial topics. They deserve
015to be challenged and they have shown time and again that they're up to the challenge. The alternative to DEIG is not neutrality. It would be homogeneity, inequity, exclusion, and injustice. None of which belong in our schools and all of which are indefensible on their face. I also want to add that I live and work in this community. And even though most of them are not here tonight, essentially all of my friends, neighbors, and colleagues feel similarly. I don't know anyone who is anti-Deig. I urge this board and our school leaders to continue standing up for what's right. Keep doing the work our kids are watching and learning. Thank you. Hi, I'm Trisha Maynard. come a parent out of exit. Um, and I just want to thank you all. I agree that the email that came
016out around equity and our commitment to it was extremely powerful. Um, as somebody who attended the strategic planning summit along with a lot of you, um, and a lot of you, um, just seeing the community's voice and support around equity and inclusion work was really powerful. And I know when you get into a room it might look like just a subset of the community but the voice seems strong across. So um just to say thank you and that DEI work does not just benefit certain bodies, certain identities but we all um grow, learn and just advance ourselves by promoting this work. So thank you. Hi, Kate Baylor from Exader. I have a student in uh the Exador elementary school system and another one that I'll come and just wanted to kind of echo all the
017support for the DEI work. My husband works in government consulting and has kind of gone through the attacks there on this kind of work and so just wanted to kind of publicly say I hope you all continue to support that in our schools. Um thank you. Hi, my name is Denise Short and um I'm a parent of a child who graduated in 2023 from Exit High School and um I guess two things. uh I wanted to come tonight because um to thank you for hopefully supporting the continuation of um DEI in our schools and in our community and to say I'm you guys are elected and um you have the power you have way more power at the moment than I do but as the One of the previous persons said, "For each one of
018us up here, there's I don't know what, a thousand, hundred, lots and lots of kids and um adults who are watching what you do and the decisions that you make. And I'm asking you to please be a leader and don't um obey before you have to." And um we will support you for that. And then the second thing is um imagine a world without diversity, equity, inclusion. Again, someone else just said, do you want to like picture the United States with no diversity? Everybody thinking the same, looking the same. We're never going to all look the same. But do you really want to live in a community where there's no discussion of controversial topics, where people are afraid to speak out, to have a different opinion? And that feels very real and very terrifying right
019now. Um, equity, inclusion. My daughter was born in another country. She looks different than many of her friends. Um, so it's not just a um it's not just like an extra sort of thing that you can have as a part of your education. Um, it's important. And it's at the core of every single aspect of education is being seen and being allowed to be your whole self and not having to be afraid to speak and be afraid to live the way you want to live. So, thank you and I hope you um yeah, I hope you make the right decision. Hi, my name is Ellen KD. I'm an exit parent. Um, I just briefly wanted to just um talk about how wonderful so many of the teachers are in SAU16 that I've run across so
020far and just say that I really fear the like chilling effect of all of this DEI talk on them, right? and having them be afraid for their jobs or afraid that they're going to be um I don't know censored or um punished for just upholding the values that have already been stated very clearly by this district. Um so I just want to speak for myself and just to say that I hope that you know this community has their backs and um we want to just support them and continuing to do the great work they're already doing. Um, and I do thank you for that um, that message um, earlier in the week and uh, yeah, hope hope the district can continue its good work on this. Thank you. Hey folks, uh, Devin Scarat. I live
021here in Exod. U, I'm going to speak to you as a parent and a professional and a citizen. So, as a parents, uh, my family moved here in 2019. I have a daughter who is in fourth grade at Lincoln Street. Uh, I have a son who's a freshman, uh, here in the high school. And I can't thank enough all of the educators in the school districts. uh being my wife and I being uh people who went through the public schools, it was really important to us to move to a place that had strong and thriving public schools. Um and while I don't think my kids would say they've had a perfect educational experience, um I think that they consistently look to the educators in their lives as people who have nurtured them and pushed them
022and and even inspired them. Um, so whether it's my son in the high school now learning about social movements um across our world and our civilizations or it's my daughter being able to write during Black History Month about Willie Oi. They're both hockey players and she wants to write about the first uh black hockey player. Um I think those are rich and rewarding opportunities. So I thank the opportunity that they've had to learn about that and I think what would be lost if they didn't have that. Uh second as a professional just briefly um I'm like a quasi educator so I've lived around education and I do a lot of work in the innovation space now and when I think about what people in innovation space say that they need what are the 21st century
023skills that we need we need to know how to work together how to collaborate in unique ways we need to know how to come up with and inspire new ideas and those are things are going to happen uniquely with human collaboration through the breadth and the richness of our experience. And when we can't talk about the real lives and real experiences that have shaped our human existence, our American experience, our New Hampshire experience, uh I wonder how we're going to get to the innovation that will be demanded in the 21st century. And then lastly, as a citizen, we pledge the allegiance to the flag and we talk about the values of liberty and justice for all. And I am very somber and soberminded as someone who also works in the higher education space about the
024real risks of standing up to a state and a federal government when things like funding and legislation and legal action are at stake. That's a big deal. I understand the grave responsibility of the decisions that you will have and it is because of our youth and our communities and the integrity of our constitution and the things that we talk about valuing. It's for all of those reasons that I join all of the people before me in urging you to stand forth not just for DEIG because they are good and right and righteous and valuable because they're the best of our country and they're representative of the values of our democracy. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I want to, you know, we don't usually get this kind of attendance, so this is this is excellent.
025And I want to thank everybody that that showed up, and I know you guys are um all here to hear um more of the legislative update um that we're going to receive. So, um if no one else wants to speak at this time, public input will remain open for about another 10 minutes. Um but we'll go ahead and move on to uh approving the meeting minutes from January 27th. If anyone has any changes or make a motion to approve the minutes. Okay. Thank you, Don. We have a second. Thank you, Brian. All right. All those in favor of approving the meeting minutes from January 27th. I anyone you just hold your hand up so we can count? Yep. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 9 10 11 12 13 14. Thank you. Any
026opposed? And abstensions. Just keep them up for a second. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We're good. All right. Uh onto our uh SA 16 administrative report. Thanks. Before I begin, I just would like uh council to introduce themselves so everyone knows why uh Michael is here. Hi everyone. Mike Eden uh with the law firm WBY Star Peters um representing the SAU know your district. So it's great to be here. Thanks. Thanks for having me. So, uh, Mike is here because I anticipate we'll go into non-public to discuss our various options and I assumed you might have questions and who better answer than legal counsel. So, thanks for coming tonight, Mike. I appreciate that. Um, but in a broader sense for the legislative update, I know we've talked about this a lot, but
027I just wanted to kind of um highlight a few a few bills that have been amended. some um as we know that could be continued to be amended as we move forward, but there are really um four right now that highlight open enrollment or a voucher system or um whatever language you're going to you choose to use. So, I'm going to save those for the end. I did want to highlight um that HB297, which is the risk pool um bill. And for those of you that aren't familiar, it's basically asking districts to create a trust fund to offset when we go when we spend too much money on health claims and we have to build that money back up. Right now uh for us, Health Trust and Primex who are like liability and property and
028those kinds of um insuranceances. So both have a risk pool. So this law would influence both of those risk pools. What the um I mean bill what the bill is asking is that districts over a 4-year period build up their own rainy day fund if you will to cover when the in general risk pool goes over. Okay? So it isn't just about SA16. It's everyone that's in that risk pool. That's why it's a pool. So if health trusts can't cover that loss and their amount goes under I believe it's 10%. Am I remembering that right Amy? Seven 7% then they would say districts have to make up to get them back to the 10% so that they are holding 10% in their risk pool their rainy day fund. In order to have that money, the
029bill is requiring that we have 1% of our total health costs and primex in this case for us costs um in a rainy day fund by district. And so I won't go district by district. Um but overall what that would mean is about it's $199,92189 that we each district obviously our larger districts right would be more and our smaller districts are much less. Um but that would have to come out of our operating budget this first year should that pass. Um, we have to start planning for that because they're asking for us to have a warrant to create a trust fund to keep that money in. As as everybody probably recalls, it wasn't on our warrant because the bill did not exist at the time we were developing our um ballots this year. So, there
030would be a warrant. However, you still have to have that money to put in the warrant. So, we would have to build it in build it into our operating um budgets for next year. So, I'm just kind of giving that highlight because I know budget and increases are on everyone's mind all the time. As Paul nicely said, we're all taxpayers. Um, and that's going to impact those percentages that we talk about percentage increases that will have an impact should that pass. I just want people to be aware of that because there's still opportunity to go in as you guys all have access to the schoolboard administrations and either click on that and voice an oppose or four. That's up to you. But I just want you to be informed that that could impact budget creations
031next year. Not a ton for some. For example, um Brentwood is $10,000 and we add this to everything else, right? And we know how that can creep up on us. So, um versus the co-op district is $103,000. So, that's a teaching position. Um so, I just want to make people aware of that one. That is HB297. if you want to jot that down. That's the risk pool one. Um, and I wanted to share some good news, right? Um, so there's SB292, which is a bill that does um require the state to meet that 80% for special ed. Remember, it got reduced down to 67% this year because they didn't have enough money in the fund. That holds the state accountable for staying at 80%. So that would help our budgets. So I just wanted to
032highlight something that was positive. Yay. Um, so the last four bills that I just wanted to highlight to you all tonight are more around that open enrollment piece. And I just want to preface it with I don't have a lot of answers. There isn't a lot of clarity in these bills. Um, so the expansion of the um education freedom accounts is SB 295. That does that did get amended to eliminate that 350% over the poverty level. So, initially it was 400, they reduced it to 350%, now they've taken that out, meaning everyone is eligible for our freedom account funding if that um passes as written. That's uh SB295. As we all know, students if they have choice and they go somewhere else with that um funding, then we don't get our adequacy money because they
033aren't in our enrollment. So, that could impact our budget that way. Um HB771 is another open enrollment bill which allows for non-residents to choose schools and go between any school you want. Um that one does require that we have a line in a line item in our item in our budget for open enrollment. So again that can you see where I'm going with this? The impact and our budgets are impacted. I believe they're going to be impacted um and and not in a way that is going to be helpful, I think, for our citizens and and tax bills. Um another one is HB741 that again is allowing parents to send their children to any district they choose. So again, another open enrollment. What this indicates is that there's going to be open enrollment in some
034way, shape, or form. what that actually looks like. We won't know if all of these pass. I'm not sure how they'll combine them all. They basically are very similar in many aspects. Um you might have questions and and we have tried to kind of categorize what our what our questions might be around. Um obviously we wonder about funding and budgeting, right? The tuition payments. Um how will sending districts calculate and transfer tuition payments to the receiving district? Right now, if you are a sending district, you are expected to pay 80% of the cost per student. So, if we wanted to if a parent of ours currently wanted to leave here and go out of district, we would be expected to pay 80% of that school's cost per pupil. Not the adequacy rate, their cost per
035pupil. I don't believe I know for a fact none of us put a line budget in for tuition because we don't normally tuition kids out. Essentially, that's what it is. It's a tuition line. Um, in addition to that, if they are a um student with an IEP, just like we do now with the charter schools agreements, we have to pay for those additional services. So, if they choose a school that doesn't have, say, a pair of professional that is on their roster to meet our students needs, we would have to pay for a pair professional. We could send one, but we still would have to pay for one. And oftentimes that means an additional person for us because now that person is traveling. So initially that parah might have been able to support three of
036our students on an IEP, but now I have to send them here to support that one because they don't have anyone at the other building that can do that and I'm back down to two and I'm going to have to hire another one here because I was planning on three to be shared. You see how that could work? Um so that's one of the uh uh funding questions. It isn't clear. Um that also indicates what about the impact on the sending district right take some of our small schools our Kensington or New Fields are um they're around 100 to 120 students they lose 10 or 20 students that's two teaching positions that will have to riff due to enrollment and we'll have multi-grades right because not everyone's going to leave from one grade so you're
037looking at some um structural changes that might have to occur almost mid-stream should that happen because some of these bills going to effect January 2026. So, I can tell you that we have had phone calls already from people wanting to come here because they feel like this is already happening or that it's already available to them. Um, another situation that I thought of was that we have a lot of educators that live out of district. If I'm an educator and I can bring my kid to where I work and I love my school, I'm going to do that. I I am I mean I don't know anyone probably that wouldn't if you had that opportunity. It would be kind of not great I think to do that because you love the school you work in
038and you know exactly what it is and now you're in the same school as your student. You have the same vacations. You have you can see their events there in you know because you're here. It's it's logistically easier and transportation is not an issue because you're already driving to the school because you work there. Um, so those are some things we've thought about like impacts that would probably happen pretty readily just for convenience and because SAU 16 has great schools and we have a good reputation. Um, how that's going to impact us. I think financially if we're getting kids in our larger schools, we could probably absorb that, right? We're we're fairly large, especially our middle and high school. However, some of my concerns arise when things that may occur are you live in a
039town and your student has worked very hard to make the elite top 10. As we all know, that's a coveted space at Exer High School to be in the top 10. You get bumped senior year by someone out of district. I'm not sure that's how going that's how that is going to sit with you as a parent. I'm not sure when you don't have a place on the team because you got bumped because you know we're division one and you know many of our smaller surrounding schools aren't. If I have a strong athlete as a family, I'm going to want them to play division one. That's that's what I'm going to want to do. You get more exposure. It's it's more competitive. We know that. But now the student that has been here and was
040made the team now is now JV instead of varsity because we have more students that are coming here that have they're also an elite athlete in their building. These are scenarios that might not occur and they might. So I just want to make people aware that it's not always just about money. Um people as we know work hard and move to this district as was mentioned in some of our public comment for our schools. They are paying our tax rates which we have talked about during budget season are not low. That's going to I believe cause some strife for folks. I could be wrong but as I think about it I can see people getting frustrated around that open enrollment piece. Doesn't have anything to do with money. has to do with I lived here
041and I've been paying my taxes for my kids to go here for eight years and you live in another town. The tax rate is not nearly what it is here yet. You're in top 10 or you took the spot, you took the first clarinet or you took the lead in the play. That's going to impact families directly. So, I wonder about that. That's all. Question. Beth, can I ask a question? Is there a limit to like capacity? like our buildings are only so big and what happens if we're outgrowing the building? So that's area number two. Great. Capacity and enrollment management. Right now there isn't any determination around capacity. What I am assuming which could be wrong is that they will probably look to our school approval laws right our guiding document around schools which
042is I think K through two 1 to 25 and three and above 1 to30 I believe when you hit that maximum you could say we are maximized because we have met the school approval ratio it's not clear if boards can set their own policy around maximum whether that be 20 or you know I know uh stratum has a a procedure where they have some limits on class size that they try and contain. You know, it's not policy, but it is a procedure. Um, but that's not clear. So, I'm thinking if we have to go fast in rules and regulations, they're probably going to look to school approval to make those rules and regulations. Again, that's just a just a guess. Um, another area that we're trying to figure out is transportation logistics. So in HB741
043it it doesn't indicate neither the sending nor the receiving districts are obligated to buy provide transportation. However, they can transport to a bus stop. So if I've got some a group of kids and they're all coming to Brentwood and they come to the closest bus stop instead of having to drive all the way to the school and that's a group of seven students. Now my bus is overloaded. I have to add an additional route to the tune of a single route is about $400 a day. We didn't budget for extra routes. So, that would have an impact on um the budget should that occur. Um specialed service. Again, we talked about that. There isn't really any clarification around that from any of these um open enrollment bills. Administrative oversight and compliance. I'm not sure who's
044going to process what claims to verify student residency to prevent fraudulent claims. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but it's something to consider. Um, the last two areas are interdist agreements and collaboration. How will districts align policies and procedures to facilitate seamless collaboration and open enrollment initiatives? As you know, here in SAU16, we work hard trying to be unified and that is difficult. because our towns are so different. Imagine trying to do 103 districts sauus across the state to get some ease for our kids to move in and out, right? It's about that one really is about how can we support our students when they're moving, right? Um and then the last one is implementation implementation timeline and support. So HB741 sets to take effect on January 1st, 2026. Um I'm we have
045not gotten anything from the department of ed about how we'll prepare for that implementation. So that's why we're constantly asking um and quite honestly we saw them about uh 3 weeks ago I think Chris at executive board was about 3 weeks ago and they I have to say looked pretty exhausted in dear headlights with everything that's coming at them too. So I don't know what kind of capacity they have to really support all of these logistical uh pieces and that's not a knock on DOE. It's just they're at capacity also. Um and then a new commissioner is coming in July 1. So that'll be a different you know a different person. Um so that's kind of the legislative update. The only one left is uh HB2 which is the um budget and included in the
046budget I think it it's 183 pages long. the amendment. So, it took me a while to find it. I think it was 100 number 173 that said open enrollment. So, it's in four different places. So, it's coming in some way, shape or form. Um, which can be a good thing and I believe it will have some budget impacts and some logistical impacts etc etc. So it's not clear and quite frankly uh DOE as we know does not often times give us anything but guardrails and then we have to work through that for example curriculum right like in Massachusetts there's a state curriculum here you go here it's here's the guardrails figure it out I anticipate that'll be a similar approach because local control is part of what's people value in New Hampshire and so that's
047part of why the state operates that So, we are going to have to figure out, I think, what we're doing on our own within guard rails. Um, as someone who sat for 4 hours yesterday trying to figure out the payment for vouchers, um, I'm sitting here saying, what can we do? And it's so hard for me who has access to more information to keep track of what's going on. So in the our role as communicators to the community, it feels like not to not to tell a position but the scenarios, the stories. Um it seems like in some way our role is to talk about those in the community because we can do something but the whole community can can not you know speak to their representatives and their senators. So, I'm I'm sitting here
048with my heart rate going up thinking, you know, we need to do something, right? And that's I think Kate, to your point, that's part of the reason why the board asks for legislative updates at the at the each month and at this board because you can always say because these are live streamed and go on our web page, people can watch them and get more information. We're always happy to meet and talk with people. Um there's so much information out there and it changes so frequently it's hard to put out a mass communication because then tomorrow it could be different. Um so we're just asking people to this is how you access it. We put it in the quarterly newsletter. We'll put it in again. This is how you keep track of bills. This is
049where you click. So if people do have an interest, they at least know how to access that information and then voice their opinion should they choose to do that. Um but certainly all of you can always direct them to SAU or to watch any of these. um and continue to stay informed. It is I will tell you it's at times feels overwhelming trying to keep up and make sure that I'm communicating accurate information. Um so this is what I have today. And it doesn't feel like it's a oneperson job. I mean it does it's not a it's not even a board job. It's a community job. Agreed. Um yeah. And for those of you that can go back and watch the budget tapes, I recommended many many times, get involved at conquered things are happening
050and and kind of went over these and precursored these um because they were they were brewing, right? Um and so now is even more important. It's pretty easy to access that um New Hampshire gov um web page to find out what's going on and when hearings are. And again, you don't have to go. you can click and voice your opinion by writing something by just voting oppose or for um and now they do have to put those on the bottom of the bills. How many are posted and how many are for from those so it it does get seen by legislators um which sometimes can be helpful. Um the other thing in HB2 which is in there is also u most of what people spoke to was about the prohib prohibitions around DEI and um
051there's what we interpret as an SLT and other superintendent as some very concerning language in there around demographic groupings. It's in the second paragraph of that bill. It's not clarified what that means. It could be interpreted by some to mean grouping kids by need. our multi-tered system of supports, which we've seen numerous presentations on. We group kids by academic needs, by gap in skills. We group kids according to their IEPs and what they need. Right? So, this isn't about just color or um it's it's so many groupings that we use to give kids what they need. The language is not clear. Um, and so that's I think most concerning and I'm looking at Arland for affirmation that I'm explaining that or I'm I'm expressing that um correctly. And I don't want to I don't want
052to be remiss in this. And I know I got many thank yous for sending that letter out. I do want to give kudos to Dr. Bennett and um Arrel Petta for putting that together and then SLT working and reviewing that, but they did the yman's work on that message that went out. So thank you guys for that. Um, so all that being said, I would love a um motion to go into non-public to discuss our options around the certification form and what that would involve with legal counsel should the board want to have that discussion. I'll motion to go into nonpublic for now or for now. For now? For now. Because we'll have to pay Michael to sit there. Quite honestly, in full transparency, just trying to save a dollar. All right. Is is there
053any discussion on that? Because I I do feel bad for the people that are here and if then they So, does anyone have any comments or concerns? Public discussion closed? Yes. Yeah, public comment is closed. Um, but we do have additional things that I maybe people would be interested in hearing. But, um, all right, we'll take a vote on that. Uh, all those in favor has to be has to be roll call. Yes, you're right. All right. So, we will we'll start down at the end. I I I I I I I I I I I I Yes. I I I I I I I I I And just to be clear, we're going under RSA 93A L, Legal Council. Yep. All right. So, we will be in non-public and we will open the door
054when we're when we're complete. 7:54 we are back in public session. Esther, did you want to start at all in this or you? Oh, sure. Okay. Um so as we as we consider um the signing the certification or not which is part of what we went into nonpublic legal to be able to ask questions etc etc. Um just would like to highlight some of the things that are important to know as public. Um not signing the certification form indicates that we would not get our grant funding. Currently, our grant funding is over $5 million that we receive in SAU16 uh mainly in the areas of our IDEIDA grant which is special education and um our title one and title two. Title one is based on socioeconomic need and students receiving services that don't receive IEP
055services um but are still have learning gaps. So, we can use that money for example uh summer programming, things like that. oftentimes we use our title one funds. Title two is professional development um which contractually in all of our districts there is language for all of our certified staff to take opportunities in professional development such as conferences, workshops, have speakers come in. Um that total amount often we write in grants things like our you've may heard as boards our professional learning community um opportunities for training so that we have consistency in SAU 16. Should we not get those funds, which is over $5 million, we would have to make that up out of our current operating budget in some way, shape, or form because we still have to supply our special ed students with what's
056required through their IEPs. We still have to provide our professional development that's required through our teacher contracts, and we would still have to supply students that were um had a gap in their um learning. and so that they would hopefully catch up and close that gap. That being said, I am not clear as to how we would make up $5 million out of our operating budgets. As you well know, this budget season, everyone worked really hard to come in and um present budgets that were pretty tight. There's not what I would call any wiggle room in those. Uh meaning that, you know, our special ed lines, as you know, this year have been somewhat over. And um if we have out of district placement etc. we again try to absorb that in different ways. Um
057we budgeted for what we know today. Um and in speaking earlier in regular public, we talked about all the bills that may also impact our budgets, particularly around um universal vouchers and sending and receiving students and not really knowing what that will look like a at all um costwise as well as our risk pool that I spoke of earlier um building that 1% um each year. So all of those things combined, I think that I communicated to the board when considering this decision whether to sign or not sign. Um and so we did have a few options that um are were able to look at. One is to not sign and potentially not get our funding. And based on the aggressiveness for higher ed, um there's an indication that we may get met with that
058same kind of aggressiveness. Should we not sign? Another option is to sign and um add some kind of document that says we are in compliance. We do not discriminate, which we don't. Um in SAU16, we have always complied with title six, which is what this certification is about. in if we can attach something that we are concerned about the vagueness of that language. I think that might be an important thing to do um as the board considers what they'd like me to do. We all I think know that there is a court pending and so Thursday if it comes out that we don't have to sign it obviously that this all becomes a moot point and we wouldn't we wouldn't sign it. So, I think um I certainly would like to wait until Thursday at
0594:59 p.m. um to make that decision that's guided by this board, what you would like me to do. Um so, I ask you to consider what I've presented around impacts on the budget as well as um the language in that certification and give me a directive as to how you'd like me to proceed as a full board. Brian U so I'd like to make a motion that uh should the adjunctive relief be denied in that case parenthesy citation to that case pending before judge McCaffy at the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. uh should injunctive relief in that case be denied or should no decision in that case be reached prior to the certification filing deadline um at 5:00 pm on August April 24th that the superintendent be authorized on behalf of
060all the schools within SA16 to sign that US Department of Education uh request a certification dated April 3rd 2025 as currently drafted um with no modification and that the superintendent further be authorized to release a parallel statement um indicating that the certification has been executed in order to preserve the receipt of federal funds uh and that the certification um is understood to uh certify compliance with existing federal law which is no different from asurances that have previously been signed by the superintendent for previous grant requests. Second. Second. Thank you. Any discussion before we vote or comments? Did you write that down, Brian? Impressive. Most of it. All right. Um, can I just Can I make a comment? Yeah. Um, I've been super quiet over here. Um, I just want to I just want to summarize
061that to make sure that I heard that correctly. And um, we're we're voting on not making a comment. It will go in just as a sign, not amended. The sign the document as drafted because it is consistent with prior assurances that we are we comply with federal law and that she's authorized to make a parallel statement explaining it. So that's my question. Is the parallel statement to our public and not on the document or is it going on the document or attached? as an attached. Correct. So, so I I feel like because we're in compliance, less is more. I really agree. Like I really strongly believe that the less we the less we say and as much as we need to communicate to our community, Esther can do that on her own. But to add
062something, um I would not be in favor of that. I agree. And I think that's I just wanted to make sure that I I was I was hearing you correctly um before we all voted on it. So there is no no statement. We're just signing it or what's on the floor right now. We're just signing it and Esther will make a community um statement with no further space. Yes, that's my understanding. My my intent intent was Thank you. Any other questions or clarifications? No. Okay, we will take a vote. All those in favor of Do you need to count? I do. Get them. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. All those opposed. four, two, three, four. Right. Any abstensions? Thank
063you. I know that's a difficult decision and I appreciate the board um listening and considering all the impacts, potential impacts on student learning. And I just want to say for the public comment that everyone on this board recognizes that this is a slippery slope and that we're going to keep on this and we're going to keep communicating to the community. Um and that may require this board to meet more often or do more um particularly as we come up to asurances in May and you know executive orders and other things that that could occur. So, um, just know that this board is taking this very seriously. Um, and there was a lot of, um, a lot of discussion and non-public. Um, so we will continue to communicate with everyone so that our community understands what
064we're doing. Thanks. Want me to move on? Yes. Uh, yeah. Does everyone want to take like a five minute break or do we want to keep plowing? No. It won't take me long. if you can hang in because I sent everything to you. That's all right. Okay. Cuz I feel like people if you need to take a bathroom break, feel free to run. All right. Moving on to strategic plan. Um strategic plan, just an overall update. We'll have um the full update in May. But just so people are aware that the core planning areas um that have been identified by our strategic plan, which was for um three half days. Thanks, Michael. Um so the core values are academic excellence, equity, well-being, growth mindset, belonging and connection and more to come on that. Um the
065priority areas that action uh theories of action will be built around are thriving learners, empowered and supported educators, engaged community and strong partnerships, and future ready learning systems. So, those will be the priority areas and you'll see um more of that in your annual um quarterly newsletter that's coming out as well as the May joint board. There'll be a lot more on that, but just kind of I want to acknowledge the work. We had over 60 people attend those h those three half days. So, thank you very much for everyone that attended and um the work will continue and so thank you for that. Any questions on strategic planning? Okay. And then we're moving on to uh our goals. I gave everybody access to my updated sheet today and I if you have questions, let
066me know. It's pretty pretty basic um as far as updating and what's been done and I made links to everything. So hopefully it's self-explanatory. But if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me. Um and certainly I would entertain any questions now, but I feel like people are pretty tired. So, I'm happy to answer that at any time. I I I did I was able to peruse it pretty uh quickly today and you did a great job writing up uh everything and providing links and so it was very helpful. So, being part of the valuation committee, we appreciate it. Thanks. All right, moving on to the SA 16 committees uh strategic planning committee. Anything to add on top of uh we met last week and we'll continue to meet. We have a date in May.
067I can't remember what it is that we're going to meet um to continue to get out those uh key performance indicators. In other words, the metrics of how we'll measure those. Um so we should have that that those pieces in set set and to ready to present in May to the joint board. Okay. Uh superintendent evaluation committee. So we are supposed to be meeting tonight. So uh just as a public comment, I guess we are going to go back into non-public tonight. um because the superintendent evaluation process has to be completed and it was decided that rather than doing it at local boards, we were all going to do workg groupoups tonight. Um sorry, didn't know it's two hours ahead of time. Um so, uh besides that, um the 360 is out. Um I don't
068Heather it it has minimal. Yeah. So we've only got like 19 out of 79 responses so far. So we are leaving it open for an extra week. [Music] Um that's it. Sorry to deliver out bad news. Does anyone have any new business or anything else that they want to discuss? Okay. So, we're going to make a motion to go into non-public under New Hampshire RSA 91A 32C. And a second. Allison. Thank you. And we're going to need another roll call vote. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Okay, thank you. Chris, could you could you mind taking care of them shutting off the mics again? Thank you. We are back in public. You're right. You're right. Okay. We don't have any motions to to do coming out of
069here. So, looking for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Second. Second. All those in favor? I I Thank you.