001[Music] all [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] o [Music] on the S6 joint budget or the on the S6 central office budget here to order at 602 if you could all please join me and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America the rep for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you very much folks we appreciate taking the time to join us here this evening just a quick friendly reminder as well we are in one of our school buildings so we would ask that everybody does please keep their masks on while you're here with us
002in the auditorium again my name is Travis Thompson from stratum chair of the su6 Joint School Board and we'll start with a quick round of introduction starting with my colleague Helen Joyce there at the other end of the table good evening Helen Joyce from stratum I'm chair of the co-op board Kimberly Meer uh exitor seat on the co-op board Bob Hall from Kensington Co-op board Paul Bower Vice chair of the Cooperative board from newfields Bill gothier from exitor Co-op Schoolboard Ted Lloyd from the uh uh Co-op School Board Davis SFA exert Co-op Melissa Lichfield um I'm a member of The Cooperative School Board representing Brentwood I also represent Brentwood and I their board chair Jane Walsh I'm in the Newfield School Board Jackie tassinary on the Newfield School Board Tom Hayward chairman of the Newfield
003School Board Jennifer rans chair of the East Kingston School Board Andy harm East Kingston Elementary School Board Kate Davis stratum School Board Carissa magre Vice chair of stratum School Board Aon Garcia de Freddy stratum School Board lety Bard Brentwood School Board Brian Duffy Brentwood School Board Megan Fitzgerald Brentwood School Board jonath lell chair Kensington School Board Allison Roy Kensington School Board Jennifer Leonard Kensington School Board Heather I Meer exitor School Board Patty seret exitor School [Music] Board Sarah Edwards exitor School Board there you go don bullins chair exor School Board good evening everyone Patrick oday exitor School Board and vice chair of the joint board H everyone Andres Mah director of De Ellen Risa assistant director for student services Renee Bennett director of student services okay David Ryan superintendent of schools Molly o'keef Director of
004Finance Michelle Arison Assistant Director of Finance Kayla Moore admin to the superintendent all right thank you very much everybody appreciate that we're going to jump right into the presentation on the proposed budget so we'll turn it over to M and Dr Ryan and we'll do that presentation then we will open it up for the public input okay tonight we'll be talking about the sa6 FY 23 budget we have reviewed this budget twice with members of the SAU budget advisory committee and I'd like to publicly thank those members from Brentwood we have lety Bard East Kingston Jennifer rans exitor Don bullins Cooperative Helen Joyce Kensington Jonathan lell newfields Tom Hayward and stratum Aaron G Garcia de PES we met twice and we incorporated the feedback from this team as we uh prepared the budget for you
005tonight we've also reviewed the budget in the first joint board meeting held back in September so we'll start off with a year in review this past year we welcomed three new employees now they are not new positions these are Replacements of employees that departed us first the director of Human Resources the director of student services and a new accountant the central office operated in person the entire 2021 school year during the covid pandemic we also held a silent auction raising over $1,000 for a student scholarship we brought in items that were trash to us but Treasures to other and we all bid silently to raise that money to provide a student a scholarship we continue to work on portrait of an educator in the balance scorecard and we also continued enhancing our financial reporting that
006you receive each month in your board packs for our budget these are the Staffing levels for the fy21 and 22 actual levels and the FY proposed you'll see there is no increase to the Staffing levels with the exception of moving the deij position from the Cooperative budget into the SAU budget this slide breaks down the expenses that are in the proposed FY 23 budget you can see this budget is largely based on obligations in employees contracts only 6% is operating expense and that includes such items as audit repair and maintenance phone office supplies and software this slide shows at a high level the increase over the current year budget I made this slide to highlight the deij position the position already exists however it is a change from The Cooperative budget into the SAU budget
007all districts within SAU pay both the cooperative and SAU assessments so it's like deciding to pay from your right pocket versus your left pocket and I'll explain that further on the next slide therefore if we look at the increase before the deij position we're looking at an increase less than 2% to the central office budget this slide highlights how the SAU budget and the Cooperative budget are funded so if you were to go on sau6 budgets in elections page several months ago I detailed out each one of the tax rates in the SAU and did a side side by side comparison and on that comparison you'll see there's two education tax lines one's your local education line and one's The Cooperative the local is your elementary schools and the Cooperative is the Cooperative so what
008happens is in your taxes the town pays two writes two checks essentially one to the cooperative and one for the elementary school The Cooperative goes directly to the cooperative the SAU assessment is embedded in each one of the elementary budgets so after tonight when the budget is decided upon that budget will be divided up into the individual budgets of each of your school districts so the elementaries and the cooperative and each of those schools will pay the SAU the assessment to fund the SAU budget so all the same taxpayers that pay the seu assessment pay the cooperative assessment just a different way so overall the budget is looking at a $4,350 increase on this slide I've highlighted what makes up those major changes the largest item is the deij position again that's not a new
009position it's just moving it from The Cooperative into the SAU budget the next item is the salaries we have a 3% increase over fy22 which is current year actuals an equity adjustment for the human resource director and a gmr which stands for guaranteed maximum rate health insurance came in at 6.2 and dental Nega 1.5% we have a change in course reimbursements and training due to um some folks finishing a doctoral program and other people choosing to take classes the change in provision for retirement is simply just the change in the who is retiring the equipment decrease is because we have a replacement plan at the SAU and we had bought some new equipment in the previous year and it's not needed in this budget the software is our ads replacement plan ads is our accounting
010software which is very outdated at this point and so we're going to look to incre uh to replace that next year but not in the budget that's being talked about tonight we have a phone upgrade project which is going across several districts and unemployment workers comp bills is an increase based off of past actuals and everything else is $1,200 so that would be a grand total of $ 24,35 increase now you'll see in the the bottom corner I do have the grant information because legally we have to have this on here because we have to appropriate the money that is not part of the tax calculation at all and how this affects the individual districts so the SE assessment is divided up into the individual districts based off of two factors 50% equalized valuation and
01150% enrollment and at the bottom of the slide I put the link to the doe the department of education websites where you can find that information and it is the latest published information from the Department of Ed and so this slide here shows the change per District that would be in the tax rate and that concludes the presentation I do want to add I appreciate the work that Molly and all of our Representatives did in working on this budget preparing it for this evening it's gone through several iterations um including putting together the first budget book uh that we were able to send out um I wanted to make sure that and I know our board members are aware of this um that in order to move through this is a draft budget uh that
012includes the draft proposal of adding the deij director's position to the budget um just so that the public is aware there'll be two votes this evening the first vote will come in the public meeting under uh item number four uh when we begin to deliberate and the board decides how to move forward uh and that will fall under New Hampshire RSA 194 C5 Roman numeral 2C which states governing the organization and duties of the SAU other administrative positions may be established but only after 50% or more of the school districts in the school administrative Union unit representing 60% of the total pupils in the school administrative unit has voted favorably upon the establishment of the position and so what that essentially means is um that uh at least half of the boards who make up
013the SAU representing their school districts whose total student population in the SAU when combined is 60% or more would have to vote in favor of approving the position to be included in the budget that you're reading about viewing and ultimately being deliberated this evening the second vote will be with or without that position obviously depending upon the outcome of that vote the second vote will be after the deliberation of the budget uh and the board will uh leave tonight having a budget for this uh SAU office for the next fiscal year so I just wanted to make sure that we were clear on how everything in here remains a draft the presentation you see is stamped as a draft U that includes the approval of the director's position in the SAU budget all right thank
014you very much appreciate that Molly thank you for the presentation now as the public hearing uh continues we're going to open things up for public comment on the budget that has just been presented everybody again please keep in mind for public uh input and comment on the budget we're going to try to stick to 3 minutes we've got a couple pages of people that want to to speak on the budget so if we could please adhere to that time limit so that we can give everybody a fair opportunity to speak that would be great we're going to start off uh I'll present the name of who's the speaker and then who will be following them up so that they can be closer to the microphone Peter lell is the first to speak to be followed
015by Joe Pace so is this like a deliberative where we can ask questions on the budget because normally for a deliberative budget we can ask questions specifically about the budget is that possible here I don't know this format yeah at the public hearing is for the public to ask any questions they have and or any comment they have on the budget itself strictly on the budget exactly okay so the budget includes a retirement annuity that was added who I want to know who requested that was that a board request or who requested that the extra annuity be added which one are we talking over those are uh $1,000 annuities for each of the senior leadership team members uh fringe benefits within their contract so those were already we're already contractually obligated for those those are
016included in the agreement that we uh that we made yes the already signed agreements with them that's correct okay um and then there was a 1.99% um mentioned in the letter that went out what exactly is that that of statutory or contractual 1.99% increase what was that the 1.99% increase would be the increase to the overall SAU operating budget before the deij position is added if approved so in tonight if the approval uh is given to add the position it'll be about an 8% increase if there is not approval given there'll be a 1.99% increase but that that was listed in the letter as as as required through contracts and yet so does that include the 3% salary increases for the administrators yes the any increase would be uh the 3% increase uh to uh
017wages uh for the 18 SAU office staff members but those are not cont I I'm very confused th those are not the the letter said specifically that that was a contractual requirement in other words hey what can we do but those that 3% is not in any contract it's extra money that's simply going to be given uh it it's not contractual correct no no raise is contractual then that 1.99% that was listed in the letter that went out to all the parents as being contractual is not actually contractual so most of what uh Molly just covered in the budget presentation falls under what are contractual obligations but raises are not contractual obligations unless they're built into the work agreement right so so that 1.99 it it simply just is not contractual I mean part of
018that may be cont contractual but but a lot of that isn't all right so I'm going to go on my comment part um I me I have real concerns about the budget since 2018 our our budget has increased 30% if this budget gets accepted it'll be a 30% administrative increase now our rankings are tanking okay tanking I'm sorry going from top 10 to 38th is tanking and the defense that we're only 28th if you use a site that includes teacher pay as ranking you higher that's the equivalent of I buy a car my friend buys a car it's the exact same car but if I paid more I got a better car that that that is ridiculous and whether we're 38th or 28th I didn't move to shatam to be 38th or 28th we were
019top 10 so the idea that with plummeting rank rankings with a 20.4% drop over the last three years in enrollment the enrollment numbers used in the letter interestingly enough were from last year when we have the October enrollments already for this year so there was no reason for that so we are we we lost 20.4% at the middle school after a $17 million renovation that is catastrophic I mean three years one5 of your students so the reward for that is to increase this budget they get a 30% increase over that time period tank rankings tank enrollment increase your administrative cost 30% and we are giving 3% raises um that are not reviewed by this board I I found that astound founding the board was offered the ability to review races which any other board of
020any organization would do for senior roles and it was just no okay we're good we don't have to so Peter if you could try to wrap it up wrap it up so the idea of of this kind of increase uh on top of these results is amazing to me and that 3% is is not at all statutory so Joe Pace thank you and then to be followed by Sean rson uh good evening my name is Joe Pace I live in Kensington my wife and I both attended Strat Memorial School exor junior high and exor High School uh our sons currently attend the Cooperative Middle School we're stakeholders in this budget as taxpayers as alumni and as current parents here in se6 first I'd like briefly tonight to to thank this board for their service and
021for their work during these times of turbulence and uncertainty I would also like to say how how deeply saddened I am that our cherished Civic dialogue here in New Hampshire has been poisoned by some many of whom with no stake in this District at all seeking to sew chaos and intentional misinformation rather than Collective solutions for our community we can have a robust debate we can hold our elected officials accountable we can disagree but threats have no place here and lies have no place here let's do better than that finally about the budget I would like to speak in support of this proposed budget in support of all of it having served 15 years on local select boards I know how challenging it can be to prepare a budget that meets the needs of the
022community as at an appropriate cost to the taxpayer I know in particular attention is being paid this year to the diversity equity and inclusion program here in the district some will say that this is is not needed or wanted but I would disagree when I was a student at exitor high school 30 years ago we routinely used words like gay or as generic insults because we didn't know any better because nobody taught us not to it's uncomfortable to talk about I understand but history should be accurate even when it's painful My Hope Is that our children will learn to know better earlier than we did I can only imagine how many people we hurt back then with unthinking and Casual cruelty I don't want other kids to get hurt because my kids don't know any
023better and I sure don't want my kids to get hurt because other kids don't know any better I want all of our kids to know more and to be better than we were I believe most of us want our children's safety to be guided not by screaming but by sanity I believe most of us want our children's education to be not blind but Broad and I believe most of all that we can continue to conduct our Collective business as we have for hundreds of years here in New Hampshire not with ranker not with recriminations but with respect thank you and I mean that thank you thank [Music] you Sean Bruen to be followed by Mariam Levy thank you apparently a couple of years ago this Administration and School Board decided it was a good idea
024to bring in what eventually would become deij although recent New Hampshire law sort of ransacked the initial plans the position of deij director made it into the budget the budget was voted upon and passed so here we are you could be against this position all you want but he is here and we should let him do the work he was hired to do we should not place any blame on him a position was created the position was advertised applicants submitted their resumés and he was deemed to be the one to be offered this extremely high paid and well-compensated position and he accepted accepted we were told several times last month in regards to this budget that this was nothing more than moving funds from the right pocket to the left pocket not exactly true when
025questioned further in a rare moment of transparency we were told that we we were told what we already knew and that was that the administration's intent is to have the deij director expand upon his work to include every single sau6 school I think we should just pump the brakes for a moment first the director has only been on the job for a couple of months and the school has only been back in session for about 7 weeks yet we're already requesting a salary increase and expanding his role twofold plus by your own admission and something that has already been questioned by members of The Joint board we have absolutely no idea how we are going to evaluate any of this work that he will be doing so here's what I think should happen and what
026I propose the board strongly consider allow him to do his work for a year just like he was contracted to do at the Co-op level set up an independent evaluation process to assess his value create an extensive survey for teachers and parents to complete and based on that revisit potentially expanding his role beyond the co-op one year from now a vote to approve this budget as it is currently proposed is a vote encouraging continued poor academic performance and fiscal irresponsibility 18 years ago today my wife and I closed on our home here in exer we came here for the schools they are now the reason why we'll be leaving every single time our schools have requested more funds in the budget I have without reservation been supportive 18 years not this time thanks for your
027consideration thank you Mariam Ley to be followed by Jen Jones hello my name is Mariam Levy I live here in exodor I have one child at CMS and one at Main Street School I have also been a member of the exer elementary diversity Equity inclusion and Justice committee since it began 3 years ago and have been an active in co-facilitating a parent group where parents come together regularly to learn build community and support each other in bringing our questions around issues of race and in Justice I'm here to request that the board fully support the new deij director position in next year's budget I believe this work is essential and that the money is well worth it I have seen people trying to whip up fear in our district about this work purposely mischaracterizing what
028this position is and making the Dej director somehow the scapegoat of any issue our district is experiencing this is heartbreaking and not productive deij work does not take away from academics it enhances it deij helps to develop a school environment where all children can Thrive by intentionally doing the work to examine School practices policies and curriculum that might be creating barriers for many kids we need to dismantle what's harmful and create more inclusive deij also helps our kids learn from a variety of perspectives and lived experiences that produce more dynamic dialogues in the classroom lead to Deep deep ER understandings of each other and our histories and fuel Innovation and new imaginings I want my children to expand their view of the world and be able to think critically I would love for them to
029hear in social studies about the indigenous perspective and experience of the colonial era in our nation's history maybe this would help them understand some of the continued struggles of native people today and help them understand how we might need to respond to those things I would be so grateful if they read a novel by a black woman growing up in the South what an exercise in perspective taking a chance to learn how we are different and how we are the same this doesn't have to be so threatening we can include others without losing ourselves we will be sending our children out into an extraordinarily Global and diverse world I want them to understand their historical and cultural place in it so they can successfully navigate how the world will see them and they will feel
030confident engaging with people who come from different backgrounds and experiences we owe it to our children to tell them the truth I have been learning about and studying issues of race for a long time it is sometimes uncomfortable and hard work but by facing it and not hiding from it I have been able to get to a place where I don't feel Paralyzed by it I feel comfortable talking about it and asking questions and I have a sense of responsibility and action that is not full of guilt and shame I want the same for our children if we have some courage we can authentically face face these difficult questions and conversations together as we've been practicing all year within our parent group and we can expand and grow ourselves while creating a welcoming School Community
031for all we really can do this and it's time thank you thank you Jenna Jones to be followed by Anna graier hi there my name is Jennifer Jones I live in Brentwood I have two children who go to schools in the SAU I'm here to support sau6 and their deij initiatives and to support the additional funding for the deij director position I want to start by saying that I acknowledge that there are some people here tonight who have doubts and worries about what deij means for their kids I understand many of those worries and I actually agree with many of the things I'm hearing from people who oppose certain extreme Concepts that have been branded as critical race Theory I want to start by saying that I believe in this country and New Hampshire and
032I believe that the people who live here are fundamentally good people I want my children to grow up to see themselves as part of a long and patriotic history of people of all skin colors and beliefs who've been willing to stand up and fight for the freedoms of everyone this is what deij is about moving towards true and meaningful freedom for everyone and when I say everyone I truly mean everyone that includes liberals conservatives people of all ethnicities and skin colors people who are gay straight bisexual transgender those who are financially secure and those who are not those who are religious and those who are not we all have our own opinions and World Views and we all matter I honestly believe that despite our many differences we share basic fundamental values when it comes
033to our kids I don't want any child in New Hampshire to hate themselves for who they are and I suspect everyone in this room can agree with that I don't think that my white children should feel guilty for being white and I suspect everyone in this room could agree with that I don't want any child in this community to Define themselves or others solely based on a racial identity that's too narrow a view for the complex world that we live in I grew up in New England in the 80s and '90s and when I reflect on my upbringing I realized that I was basically taught that I didn't need to think about racism or other forms of pre Prejudice at the same time I've come to understand that I was in fact exposed to racism
034and other forms of prejudice throughout my life and that I unfortunately internalized some of those Concepts I'm not a racist person but I acknowledge that there have been times in my life where I've had racist thoughts I suspect most white people in this room could say the same thing if they were willing to be honest it's not a comfortable admission but it's a necessary one if we want to work towards treating all people with respect dignity and fairness we all live here together deij initiatives allow us to increase our level of honesty with each other even when it's hard full honesty requires us to openly discuss both our past and our present it requires us to acknowledge that racism and other forms of prejudice are real and that they're hurtful if we prohibit or limit
035these conversations our kids will lose out how can we celebrate how far we've come as a country if we can't be honest about our past we need to trust our kids enough to tell them the truth and we need to teach teach them the importance of respect and empathy for others I truly believe we can all agree on that thank you thank you next is Anna graier I apologize if I mispronounce the name to be followed by Leanne Shang Anna thank you my name is Anna grer and I live here in exor I have two children in the high school here I might not be able to say this with as much eloquence as was shared um by a few people before me but I want to add my voice to the mix I think
036that's important I am deeply appreciative of the labor and thought you have put into developing this budget and the work that you do overall on the school boards I support the budget and I wholeheartedly want to express my support for the deij position I'm very excited about some of the work that I've learned about being done under this role to this point but we all have a lot more work to do thank you thank you lean Shang to be followed by Emily Heath I believe lean hi I'm Leanne Shang I'm a mother of two girls that attend schools in the seu 16 and I am a parent of children of color and I can say that this position the de eij position and work is very important culturally responsive teaching is essential I want to
037express my family support in passing this next year's school budget and continuing to fund the deij position thank you thank [Music] you Emily Heath to be followed by patab brammy thank you sir my name is Emily Heath I'm the pastor of the Congregational Church in exitor which me means that uh I have the good pleasure and the good fortune and blessing of uh being the pastor to a lot of the kids and youth in our community and they bring uh so much to us I want to talk today about deij but I want to start first by talking about what we did at the beginning of the meeting we all stood and we pledged allegiance to the flag I didn't see anyone in this room not standing and not pledging so can we go from
038this place and say that none of us is a bad American none of us is a bad Granite Stater we're all here not because we hate America hate New Hampshire hate anything else or because we love it better than anyone else we're here because we're participating in democracy and we're bringing our feelings and we're bringing our respect respectful positions and so let's start from that place I grew up in a family that has served this country since the Revolutionary War in almost every conflict I grew up being taught a lot about patriotism I grew up learning that truly loving our country means knowing its history not just the pretty parts of it but all of it I grew up learning that the sacrifices my family had made were made for different reasons and they were
039often made in the sacrifice of others who were not treated with full respect or dignity it degrades their sacrifices to not know the true history when we're talking about deij here in exitor we want to think that it's just a line item in a budget but it's about investment it's about investing in our kids it's about saying that we love our kids enough that when we send them out at exiter to college to the military to trade school to wherever they go all of which are places where diversity and Equity inclusion are valued we want them to be ready we don't want this to be a new idea to them because if we send them out of here not ready they're going to fall flat and fail if we love our kids we invest in
040them by preparing them for a diverse world a world where everyone deserves inclusion exiter wants to be on the right side of that history the right side of that Trend We are failing our students if we don't do it I'm going to uh I'm going to end with this my faith which is my personal faith I'm not trying to push it on anyone else says that when you're not doing something well you admit it you say I'm not doing this very well and I want to do better and then you change I have certainly changed ideas in my mind that I grew up in that were not ideas that were fair or equal or respectful of diversity thank God for that thank God there were people along the way that could pull me aside and
041say look at it this way instead we have a saying in my faith it comes from the founder of my faith and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free it's a pretty good idea for all of us to live with that truth isn't something that hurts us truth is something that gives us more freedom and so that's what we're going to give to our kids true patriotism true citizenship means admitting what could be better and starting from there and working to make it so that's how we make exiter the place it could be that's how we make our schools even better and that's how we begin to change things for everyone for the better thank you all very much thank you Pat abramy to be followed by Jen bracket thank
042you Mr chair uh patab bramy from stratum I just want to start by saying i' I've met the diversity director he's a nice young man none of my comments are anything against him I I think I'm sure he's going to do a fine job the focus of this meeting is to is the S su6 administrative budget which is one of the few things that this joint board votes on my remarks focus on the proposal to transfer the diversity director from the co-op budget to this budget superintendent Ryan said this transfer is necessary for the director to provide deij support in all of the elementary schools this is the first time each Elementary School Board member has a say in in on this $153,000 position salary and benefits I have heard from many parents and property
043taxpayers alike on the topic of deij this community is clearly split on this topic and I try to personally keep an open mind as best I can so if if I were an elementary school board member I would vote to amend the sa6 administrative budget leaving the diversity director in the co-op budget for at least this coming year and one other gentleman made the same uh uh comment and here's why many parents feel that the discussion with their F K to five uh fifth grade children are best left to the parents and is is not the role of the elementary school Educators and there there is a discussion to be had about the role of the parent versus the school in certain things Mr Ryan Dr Ryan feels that di should be in our elementary
044schools because our children live in a non- diverse bubble I do not agree since from Sesame Street on our kids have been exposed to diversity for many years a couple of a couple in my town who adopted a black African Child reports she is now in elementary school and is treated with respect by everyone with no signs of racism at a young age children are more accepting of each other without judgment that's just the way they're wired they don't they don't judge the question is how does the discussion of deij which highlights differences help at a young age I'm talking kindergarten first grade second grade all parents in this room are for for diversity inclusion and Justice how can you not be and I recognize that progress has been made each year since the 1964
045Civil Rights act however many parents have an issue with the e-word equity instead of of the word equality as an equality of opportunity Per Mar for Martin Luther King discussions need to be had on on that that particular issue Dr Ryan has stated that there is specific de there's no specific deij curriculum until we know exactly what is going to be taught to our kids in K to 5 concerning these topics more discussion is needed K to 5 are fundament foundational years when our children learn Reading Writing arithmetic skills they need to succeed in middle and high school as well as College parents wanted know how much time a student's day will be consumed by deij these children will be entering a world with intense competition especially from China China is not focused on deij
046but on math and science riger rigor and hopefully every school board member thinks about that we want to make sure we have math and science rigor in all our grades Pat if you could start to wrap things up uh yeah another 20 seconds yep thank you finally we have been told by Dr Ryan that deij is not critical race Theory and that there is nothing political about this why then were 200 copies of the book entitled this book is anti-racist purchased early on I read this book which is clearly CRT driven my understanding is that these books have been pulled but leaves many in the room with the the sense that the district was going down that CRT road with many many still wait wanting to this direction my solution and here's my ending here
047my solution is for the joint board to form a deij elementary school task force made up of parents and others from All Points of View and I know that there's been different groups that have been working on this over the last couple of years but I don't know if all points of view on this have been been heard before we move to diversity director to the sau6 administrative budget this coming year all elementary school board members should be given time to assess what the e deij means to the students in their schools thank you Mr chair thank you Jen bracket to be followed by Emily Glick hi my name is Jennifer bracket pescovitz I'm an exitor taxpayer and the parent of an Sao teen I just want to know who here is in favor of
048the work that Andre Mayas is doing and is out here tonight in support of this board and this position it thank you Bo I just want to thank you all for your time and your dedication to our students and your service to our community nobody deserves the backlash you've received in the past couple years and we all have your back so um just know that there's people out in the community that may not always be vocal but we're here and we're showing up so proud of everybody who's here today so I just want to say I would like the deij director position to continue to be funded there are so many families in our community including my own who are concerned about the mental health of our children as these years of living in covid
049conditions have deeply impacted our children's social and emotional development I am so grateful for the tremendous sacrif sacrifice our children and our community have made to keep older adults and other vulnerable populations safe they are all heroes in my book Thank You children if you're watching I truly believe that most adults who work with the SAU and those of us out in the community want more than anything for students to heal social emotional deficits created by the trauma of the pandemic and that we all as social beings understand deep down how important cultivating a culture of Bel belonging is critical to the mental Wellness of a generation who has given so much belonging can be described as that feeling of being physically emotionally and psychologically safe it is that feeling of being welcome and feeling
050heard the timing of having a deij director currently in place couldn't be better as it is rooted in creating a culture of belonging if you understand what that role is the math equation is simple diversity plus Equity plus inclusion equals belonging or if you're more of a vend diagram type where circles are diversity Equity inclusion overlap and belonging is at the center as SAU staff creates plans to include more social and emotional learning to help our students make up for months lost to covid challenges deij is yet another arm of that recovery and repair system to support our students mental health and well-being with the Dei deij director newly in place he is building a toolbox that will serve to support not just individual student needs but help our SAU create a more positive climate
051in which students Educators and Staff feel safe valued and respected in other words belonging and when all students feel like they belong they are more motivated they are engaged they are healthier with this they can achieve so much more the Mayo Clinic says quote the social Ties That accompany a sense of belonging are a protective Factor helping manage stress when we feel we have support and are not alone we often cope more effectively with difficult times in our lives coping well with hardships decreases the physical and mental impact of these situations thank you all who have approved funding for the deij director position last budget cycle you have put us ahead of many communities in terms of laying a foundation that will help to heal our students in need we need our young people to
052feel the strength that comes from belonging so that they can go on to thrive in all the ways this world so desperately needs Lord please vote to put to fund this position in 2022 thank you thank you Emily Gulick to be followed by Deb fornier Emily hi my name is Emily Gulick I am a parent um and a teacher myself I live in exiter I just wanted to say I too stand in support of the deij work and that role as a teacher in this very complicated world we live in I feel like it's essential to have the tools and skills and to understand how best to help write past wrongs that gentleman who spoke earlier about our childhood of of saying things that now just make you cringe we didn't know any better and
053now we are learning and I feel like the deij position is one that supports this growth That's essential to supporting all of our community and all people thank you thank you Deb forer to be followed by Liz Faria hi uh good evening my name is Deb forier I too am an exitor mom I I have two children one in the high school and one in the elementary school um and I'm just here to express my support for your budget and for the deij position um as it's been described um I'm not afraid of the deij work please I don't want you to be afraid of the deij work like support the budget support this position um I my mom used to say to me kids learn what they live I want my kids to learn
054and live equity and Justice that is beautiful and I could not be happier or prouder to be a member of this community um I appreciate all the work that you have done you guys are governing is really hard it's really hard and I so appreciate um all the Care and and effort that you've put into it so thanks very much um great job thank you Liz Faria and looks like is it Brett Ramsdell after Liz Liz Faria from Brentwood uh I just want to make the point that the deij position is already in the budget on I'm I'm asking that it not be moved to the sa that it not be moved to this budget Andre and de no sa6 ms3 thank you Brett Ramsdell to be followed by Devin scarrett it's tough to follow
055that um Brett ramell from brenwood I uh I had a couple of questions on the on the figures here if I could um my first question was in your summary remarks you talked about the insurance being at 6.2% but as I look at this it shows a 22.2 six% increase why would that be so the 6.2 is the gmr which is the guaranteed maximum rate the other change would be the change for the employee health plans between what was selected this past year and what was selected in the upcoming year okay thank you uh the other is the you talked about the equity adjustment for human resources and I look at that line item also it's $80,000 more than um than the last budget so is that the equity adjustment no that is a com
056um a movement of one employee from one line to the other on the human resource line and the clerical uh secretary line and the equity adjustment is about $10,000 okay and the last is under CFO and business administration salaries of 5.41% and now I heard that the raises are not contractual so how do we arrive at a a figure that high compared to the uh the normal 3% that we were paying for our teachers because if it's being based on Merit and taking a look at our 50% 57% Proficiency in math and our sinking uh ranking in the state I'm not sure that a 5.43% is really warranted thank you hi there Devin scarrett thank you Deon you're going to be followed by Peter Fran sounds good uh so I'm an exitor resident uh I
057have a daughter in Main Street and a son who just added in the Middle School uh I come to you as someone who spent virtually my entire professional life about 20 years as an educator largely in higher education uh I'm here to both appreciate and acknowledge their stewardship of the district in these past few years since I've moved here in 2019 and of the budget and I'm here to support the budget including the Moval the moving of the deig position from the co-op to the district so the reason why I'm in support of this position has to do with a lot of the things that other people have said much more eloquently than me today but I think in addition to that I think about some of the reasons that my family moved here a
058few years ago I'm a native New Englander even though I'm from Massachusetts don't hold it against me and my family took a detour down to Texas for8 years and it was a wonderful experience and in that experience as we were thinking about coming home we thought about what kind of community we wanted to move back to and some of the questions my spouse and I had or what kind of a community would be becoming to knowing that some of the more basically the racial demography would probably look a little bit different in exitor than in Dallas Texas and I looked at some of the things that New Hampshire had done some of the Investments it had made for example in things like Competency Based education I was living in a state of Texas that said
059wow we really have to we have to step up to what the next generation is going to expect I now work for an institution of higher education that has made a number of its bets on a future of learning that is based not on butts and seat time but on how we can evaluate students on progress toward competencies and I knew that New Hampshire and I know that exor is doing that and similarly I look at the deij position as an investment in my kids in our schools and in our community I think about the things that employers and higher education institutions ask of young people which is to develop 21st century skills of things like empathy and collaboration problem solving and critical thinking and I believe and my spouse believe that learning about and
060seeing the world through a complex prism that now includes things like diversity equity and inclusion and Justice are important for how I will raise my kids and how our community will educate our kids in the future this is not about teaching my seven-year-old daughter about the Tulsa race riots although I certainly hope by the time my son gets to high school he doesn't have to wait until he's 40 like I did to understand about that harsh part of our nation's history but I do think that in learning about the education that will be provided in this position that we will get a better sense of ourselves and my children will get a better sense of the world that they are growing into not the one that I had when I was their age so for
061me and for them I believe that knowledge is power and love is justice so I appreciate and hope you support this budget thank you thank [Applause] you Peter Frances to be followed by Allison Eberhart Peter Frances from exitor New Hampshire uh first of all I would like to thank everyone who is up on that stage for the work that you are doing to make a high quality highest possible quality uh school district and to educate our children properly uh I am 80 years old so obviously I have no children in your care however um I would like to talk about something that's in this room that you can't see and the thing that you can't see is an elephant a giant elephant that is in this room that will consume everything and that elephant is
062declining School enrollment and that elephant is predicted projected by me and others to show declining School enrollment into the far into the future it will not surprise me in the slightest if five years from now there's half as many children in sau6 as there is today there are certainly many fewer than there were 5 years ago the number of births in this area as well as in the state of New Hampshire is on a decline a long slow decline the number of deaths is rising and now exceeds the number of births New Hampshire's population only grows because people move here from elsewhere and one of the places they move from is elsewhere in the world so New Hampshire is becoming more diverse and it will become more diverse and so I don't have any problems
063with the position that you're producing but I want you to think about the fact that sooner or later you're going to be sitting up there in that stage debating a much much more difficult problem and that is which of your schools do you want to close because it's coming it's just a matter of when and I think the problem is extremely serious and transcends everything that we're talking about tonight so we have written a book called communities and consequences to the rebalancing of New Hampshire's human ecology if you haven't read it I suggest it for your reading pleasure thank you so much thank you uh Allison earts to be followed by Phyllis Mackie good evening everyone my name is Allison everheart I'm a resident of exiter and I'm the parent of two children within the
064SAU 16 School District I'm here to voice my unwavering support for the diversity Equity inclusion and Justice director position in the sau6 budget as proposed the last year and a half have been full of challenges the district has worked tirelessly to over overcome these challenges as a parent I appreciate the continued support for our students to ensure their safety during the pandemic however safety takes many forms and as a district we need to ensure there's a safe learning environment for every student particularly those that have been historically excluded we have an obligation to ensure that our schools offer Pathways to success for all our students and we need to start by creating spaces where students can feel safe supported and seen as the parent of children with learning disabilities I've seen firsthand the power of
065embracing difference and the successes that come when we nurture empathy and understanding and we create supportive spaces for our students last year a majority of Voters agreed that we must take deliberate anti-racist action action with the creation of a diversity Equity inclusion and Justice director position I'm proud of our district for being so proactive and for prioritizing discussions with our children about both the positive and negative aspects of our history continued and open discourse about issues of race with our children and neighbors is the path toward building relationships and a vibrant supportive Community I want that for all our students I want them to feel supported so that they can flourish we all want our students to have the opportunity to meet their full potential as such I fully support including the diversity Equity inclusion
066and Justice position director position in next year's budget as proposed thank you thank [Music] you Phyllis Mackey and then June Faber sorry if I mispronounced that I'm Phyllis Macky I'm from newfields and my children are grown so I don't have children that are currently in the system but I want to thank say thank you to all of you who have worked so hard during these very trying times I can't add a lot to the articulate and eloquent supporters of expanding the deij director position but as a recently retired psychotherapist who specializes in trauma work I've worked with clients who have suffered from the trauma of being bullied abused and not being accepted for who they are let us do everything we can to help students feel safe valued and supported and teach children who don't
067intend to be hurtful how to Value diversity equity and inclusion thank you very much thank you June and then Pat yosha June Feb exitor I've participated in many work groups and also groups working with youth and what I found is the most successful groups have been those with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion kids these days need more in school when learn more in school when their learning environments are based on respect for diversity their future lives are likely to include working and high performance teams that are found the most by the most successful companies who know that the keys to their success include employing diverse people I especially support the new deij director to lead the school programs being developed that will emphasize diversity inclusion and similar values when we prioritize these programs we
068will help our our youth in school now and in the future for decades to come thank [Music] you hat yosha and then the Reverend Nancy Roswell my name is Pat Yasha I'm from exiter I simply want to add my support for all of the eloquent statements that have been made about why we need the Dej position as a member of the raal Unity team in particular I want to indicate how important it is to look at the um well-rounded education for our children and the safety and advancing our curriculum so the parts that have been missing can be included thank you all of you who have been giving this your attention thank you thank you um Reverend Nancy Roswell and then Karen Dedra yes I'm Nancy Rockwell I'm an ordained UCC Pastor I live in
069exitor I pay property taxes here and for many years I was pastor of a church right here in town and now in partial retirement I serve a smaller Church in Newington and I'm speaking because for 17 years I have interviewed on behalf of my alma moer Brown University all the students who are applying for early decision admission from the public high school and the academy and in The Last 5 Years A number of students all not white have told me some With Tears in their eyes of having trouble walking on the sidewalks in town at the end of the afternoon as the Sun is setting that trucks drive up and drivers who look to be about their own age who are male and white lean out and yell at them effing Muslims go back where
070you came from the students I've interviewed have not been Muslim all of them but one have been Christian Roman Catholic or Protestant the one who was not was Hindu and he grew up right here in exer all his life they found this frightening and for this reason I support strongly the creation of this position because these students need someone to talk to when these things happen to them I've talked to the chief of police and I really want to praise you because you have difficult things to deal with them and the story I've just told you is one of those things thank you thank you Karen dear dudra and then Alexis Simpson hi my name is Karen dudra I live in exitor and I just want to say first of all thank you to the
071board members for the countless hours the sacrifice and the pain that I'm sure you have had to endure in these past months I'd also just like to thank all the people who spoke to support the Dei J position I know that my life would have been different as a high schooler in an ear Urban large Urban high school that suffered extreme race riots in the 1970 and I always wonder what it would have been like if we'd had deij on our campus in those rough years so I would like to again say thank you to all the people who have spoken so eloquently and to state that I support wholeheartedly the position of deij and I hope to see it included in the next year's budget thank you Alexis Simpson and then Elizabeth Canada hello
072I'm Alexa Simpson I live in extor I'm also a state representative for exitor stratum newfields and New Market and um and from that place I'd like to say thank you to all of you who have loved and cared for our children so deeply and with such dedication over the last year through all of the ups and downs and I continue to thank you for prioritizing um dealing with their our social our kids social emotional um learning and needs as we continue to be in um a time that our kids are feeling feeling that they have a lot of needs besides just their academic needs so thank you and um professionally I I do interface chapy as part of my job and a few years ago I was um asked with a couple of my colleagues
073to do um a religious diversity training at the exitor elementary schools for the um Educators for the teachers and the staff and um we were asked by the elementary school um to do this work because the teachers were looking for tools and resources and information that would help them deal with real world circumstances in their classroom and on the playground and it was a great experience for us to have a chance to do this work but it was on an ad hoc basis and it was so clear to me that the Educators and the staff were all um hungry for more support and more resources and I think um it's a really great idea to move this position the Dei position to be able to be a resource for um teachers Educators staff students across
074the whole SAU I think it's a great idea idea and I'm glad that you've done that in the budget thank you thank you Elizabeth Canada and then Eileen Flockhart good evening my name is Elizabeth Canada I live here in exer I had an entirely different public comment to share with you about fiscal responsibility that I'm throwing out because I want to focus on the move of the deij role from the Cooperative board The Cooperative uh budget to the SAU and I'm in strong support of that I live here in town with my wife and our two boys so my wife and I are a queer family we're raising two boys who are stereotypically and hilariously boyish they are as boy as one can be and what they also are are very observant in the world
075they notice when the adults around around them recognize mama and Liz when they are welcomed in their classrooms and in their schools as not being different but just having another type of family than what maybe the other students in their class may have the deij role in my perspective is absolutely critical for so many reasons we hear a lot about the conversations about race and systemic injustices which exist which is absolutely true and that needs to happen in all of the classrooms across our school district but also a role like this allows for folks to make sure that we're welcoming and including and recognizing queer families and lgbtq plus students who are in our district we're making sure that students with special needs are getting the resources and support that they need whether it's ADHD
076whether it's dyslexia whatever it might be that we're meeting meeting students where they are where they are and helping them along the way to get where they need to be next this type of role makes sure makes sure that we're adapting school policies that we're recognizing that there are families and students navigating poverty more so now than before especially because of the pandemic this type of role makes sure that we're celebrating holidays from all over the world that we're doing things that are incredibly inclusive and supportive of students and that students see themselves in curriculum in classrooms in pictures in books whatever it might be that they see themselves represented I want to share as a closing something that happened to our older boy when he was younger he came home one day and he
077said Mama Liz there was a bullying thing that happened in class today and we were like oh okay you know we were surprised that bullying was happening maybe that early on and he's a really he had a really excellent Elementary School teacher like maybe the best elementary school teacher I have ever encountered and what he shared with us about what happened he said well what the teacher did was she then talked a little bit about segregation and what happened then and how this is kind of the same thing in some ways and it was really fascinating to hear him talk about that and recognize bullying and being separate from one another and being able to articulate that in an age appropriate way to be able to learn that type of lesson which he will continue
078to need to learn over and over in his life but that that teacher was so well equipped in the moment to help those students that day and every single teacher and family and student should have that opportunity and should have those resources available to them and so that is why again I am in strong support of you moving this role to the sa budget and I hope that you will do that thank you for your time thank you Eileen Flockhart and then Holly dashbo hope I got that right Eileen hi Eileen Flockhart uh I'm a grandmother of two children in your school system here and mother of two daughters who went through the entire school system and I feel the energy in this room and if you look all around every person sitting in one
079of these seats either behind me or in front of me or on the stage is deeply caring about our children and that warms my heart because I know that even if you have questions even if you have concerns the reason you came out here tonight is because you love these children and you want the very best for them and you want even better for them which is one of the reasons we're here tonight and when I think of the kinds of things that we can do better I'm really excited about the potential for the deij position and I also would like to challenge you to think of children at at all ages when age appropriate activities are given that children are smart and they know what truth is and they know what good is and
080they can feel it in their hearts when it works and that we don't need to underestimate young children middle school children high school children and we need to give them credit to learn the kinds of things that we are dreaming that we might have learned as young people people coming up so I strongly urge your support of the deij position and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work that you have done to bring this together thank you very much thank [Music] you Holly dasbach and then Mike Thompson hi my name is Holly dasbach I'm a parent here in exitor I have a senior at the high school here and I want to thank everybody up on stage I think that you have done unbelievable things during an unprecedented time I
081think you've had a lot of nonsense and Malarkey to deal with that nobody deserves just especially considering how hard you've had to work to keep people safe and in school I'm a parent I'm also a monor educator I'm very lucky because I work with two and a half to 5 and a half year olds and every day I spend my time with these short little people who are learning how to be peaceful and loving and kind and learning math and reading and writing and culture and geography because that's what good education is I think that 1.99% of the budget is a small price to pay for a de deij position it's a small price to pay for helping children to feel whole safe and included and for teaching children how to help everyone in their
082world feel safe whole and included I think it's a small price to pay for the benefit of helping children to grow into the Global Citizens they're going to need to be in the diverse world they're going to encounter when they're not in exitor stratum Brentwood we don't look like the whole world so I am in support of the budget and deij and I can't thank you enough for all the work that you've done on behalf of children thank you thank [Music] you Mike Thompson and then I can't quite read the first name of Mr Dawson I believe is it Steven Dawson so Mike hi so since someone already asked the audience let's ask the other question how many here do not want deij in the budget you don't seem to pay attention to that you
083every meeting you have more and more people speaking up against it as they find out about it so just so a lot of you weren't at the last couple meetings that relate to the budget so there's the advisory panel that met a few weeks ago uh at that meeting someone asked a question they said well since we're going to spend more money and move deij over to the elementary schools uh it's worth asking how well received was it when it was presented to the public and this person was told that it was very well received is that the case no that was dishonest it was well it was welled by the people from outside the district that were invited here also at the last [Music] meeting folks folks we've been completely respectful up to this
084point so please he will say his pece and then we'll move on to the next public input but let's please keep your respectful this evening we've done good up to this point also at the last meeting there were about 25 parents at the budget meeting we asked the same question who was in favor of a few things one was deij J one was whether or not Mr Ryan and the staff should get a raise every single person voted no every single one 100% shortly after couple of the board members contacted a few of the people in the public and within hours on Facebook they were saying hey we better get people coming because this happened everybody voted against it so that's where these people come from the board is not looking to represent you they
085have an agenda and they're out to push their agenda that's why these people are here they weren't at the other meetings they're not going to the details of the budget at the beginning Molly said that this was just a matter of moving deij from left pocket the right pocket how dishonest is that she knows that's dishonest the point of moving it to this budget is so that he can be in the elementary schools it's not just moving it from one budget to another that's very deceitful and if they're being dishonest about that they're being dishonest about other things so Mr Ryan enrollment is declining the school is doing worse should he get a raise all right folks let's just if you could start to wrap it up please we'd appreciate it also uh I noticed
086the great thing about video you can go all check take a take notice of who they cut off and who they don't cut off off up here speaking cuz I kept track and the video will show some people go for 4 minutes and you don't say a word I've been completely fair I no you haven't the your sir God so a couple of other things Mr Ryan has in the budget that we pay for him to be a member of the National Association of Administrators and superintendents that's where he gets his agenda do we want to pay for that we don't pay for the teachers be in their associations or in their unions why should we pay for him let him pay for it out of his pocket so mly a question for you how
087much money is allocated for Mr Ryan to be in those associations I don't have that exact information in front of me but we could get that information for you you believe that you believe she doesn't know point of order Mr chair I'm going to ask that the speakers please address the chair that's protocol for our meeting okay so does the chair can the chair get that information before the vote is made it seems that the board should know that it was brought up at the last budget meeting so was it forgotten since that meeting can you pull it up on the computer how long does it take I feel the public should know and why should Mr Ryan be paid for that through our taxes we don't do that for the teachers and finally we
088don't want any more administrators there are less kids in school the schools are do doing worse teachers haven't gotten a raise and it was discussed at a previous joint meeting that we didn't have money to hire a math teacher why are we hiring more administrators why are we giving administrators raises I'll stop there but I would appreciate it if you could get that number on how much money is going to be allocated to Mr Ryan for that Association thank you Steven Dawson and then Lewis D young okay good evening everyone my name is Steve Dawson uh live in brettwood we sent our two sons through both suy school and and uh exra high school I'm here to uh definitely support the board's recommendations for the expansion of the diversity and inclusion role um I think
089there's just just a lot of misunderstanding about what the expansion of this role means it's being portrayed as if it's an opposition or an alternative to math and science it's as if it's something uh that's a that's a package of information that we're going to be uh jamming down our children's throats and I it just isn't that um if we want rigorous Math and Science we need our children our students to feel safe and supported and not have a difference among them be something that precludes them for pursuing whatever they wish whether it's math or science or anything else we're we're talking as if this is mostly or only about race when a few other people noted um there's lots of differences among students and children of of disability of of uh sexual preference of
090just plane being bullied um that it's a this what this program is an effort is is it's just an effort to give children safety and support so that they can learn it's not a thing it's a way in which we can broaden who can succeed I mean I've noticed most how how it must have been 80 or 90% of the speakers this evening were women and and and that's just an amazing thing compared to what it would have been 20 30 40 years ago we wouldn't have heard those voices we wouldn't have heard voices of of um parents of children who um have have two mothers for parents or who has children with disabilities we just wouldn't hear those voices and now we can because of this type of role I think finally we I
091think we overestimate what kids learn in school or from us as parents um they learn so much more from each other from the rest of the world and so the work that I was happiest with of my boys was that in school that they learned how to learn that they can learn how to tell the difference between someone who's trying to divide us and people who are trying to bring us together we gave it a pred Pledge of Allegiance when we started and that flag is about uh one nation under God indivisible it's meant to bring us together it's not meant to take us apart so I'm really pleased that we're expanding this role I think it's I think it's so important that we um we help our children be um able to be safe
092and learn how to learn thank you thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] you leis D young and then Sally Ward Lois D young uh Brentwood New Hampshire uh I'd like to congratulate the group that organized the DI uh de J I would wish we could had an organized group like that for those of us that have other issues um you've you your people read great they had all their paperwork they had everything written for them it was very well prepared the parents and the teachers each one was organized that was super for them but you know what those parents are the same ones that want the deig J they'll delegate their responsibility to the teachers in the school your as parents our responsibility is to teach our children and the classroom is to learn the basic things
093and in this SI that's coming with China coming over over time our children are going to be so ill prepared they mathematically and in science we are absolutely spending money on something that we should be taught at home and DET taught the important things in the school thank you Sally Ward and then Kelly Warner Sally Ward I'm a resident of exiter two grown children who went through the public schools in exiter got a great education and I want to express my support to the boards for all of your hard work the volunteer boards you've given a lot of time and energy and I respect the decision-making process I am supportive of the position I think that uh uh we are an increasingly diverse Society in many respects and race is one of them but it's
094not the only one and uh the position will enhance the ability of our students I think we have an obligation to our children and to our students to learn about diversity to learn how to communicate respectfully to each other especially those who are different from them because that is the world that they're going to go into someone spoke earlier about the demographics in exiter and one of the things we know thank you Peter Frances for your your um education about that one of the things we know is that our young people tend to leave exiter when they uh when they finish their education and they're going to go out into a world that looks very different than exitor and again we have an obligation to uh to teach our children in the home and in
095the school about those differences and how to Comm communicate effectively with those who are different there has been discussion about the declining enrollment and uh I think it's important to separate that from this position because as Peter pointed out the declining enrollment is really a demographic reality it's not certainly not because we're we're trying to enhance diversity and inclus inclusion in the schools there's also been discussion about the uh the declining status or ranking of our schools I'm I'm interested to know why that's the case it's certainly not because we're trying to uh to enhance diversity and inclusion that position didn't exist when the when our our our uh status our rankings begin to decline so uh it's a very important question but separate from this position so again I support the position and I
096think um one final point I think it's important to not get confused about rigor and this position we can can maintain rigor in our schools as we should and also enhance diversity efforts at diversity and inclusion we have a neighbor um uh educational institution that does both of those certainly that institution would no one would question the rigor of that institution so and and they're also very committed to diversity and inclusion and I think our Public Schools should be as well so again thank you for your work and I support the position thank you Kelly Warner and then Anna Bartell hi my name is Kelly Warner and I live in exor and I am not a public speaking sort of person uh I have lived in exor for a good number of years and I
097teach High School in a rural District in Maine and I attended the meeting you guys held last month where you explained more about the Dei position and I left that meeting so impressed by your district and so proud to live here and a little jealous because my district is struggling with gei work and we're really at the beginning of the process of trying to figure out how to make it work for us and we need that work help and so does exitor and so does the rest of this district and I am so um appreciative of all of you and all the work you do as a teacher I understand how hard it's been for teachers and for administrators for board members recently um and I am so proud of everybody in this room who's
098come because they care about this district and they care about the kids and all of the eloquent things that people have had to say and it's just made me feel really good um also just I don't know I didn't mean to mention this but listening to some of the other statements one of the people who lives in my household is um a student at The Cooperative Middle School who's adopted from Ethiopia and she um came up through the exit her school district and I don't think she should have to wait until she enters Middle School to see herself in the materials in the classroom and and she did great and she's awesome and anybody who knows her knows that she's awesome and great and happy but that doesn't mean that she there shouldn't be work
099put into making sure that students at the elementary school are supported and are seen in the um curriculum materials and are supported in the school so I just wanted to mention that but thank you very much thank [Music] you Anna Bartell and then Paul Royal hi thank you my name is sah Bartell I am a mom of six kids five who are in our district we have two high schoolers a middle two middle schoolers one at Main Street and one in preschool still um and I just wanted to express my continued support for our entire school board but um especially express my support for this position and enlarging this umbrella down to our elementary schools um I think that the elementary school age is a lot of our kids foundations are built in those years
100and I think it's really important for um the diversity Equity inclusion and Justice to be included in those schools I know um having raised this many kids and having two little ones right now they're they're not immune to these opinions and to noticing differences in others in fact they're probably the most observant in differences and the most vocal in differences um one of my children is autistic and loves to point out everyone's differences and um I think that it's just such an important thing for him to grow up seeing differences as something that is not bad and that he can love and treat people with kindness and and inclusion and um I just think that if anything that's the most important place to start is in those elementary schools so thank you so much for
101the work that you're doing and again the work that the entire School Board is doing thank you thank [Music] you Paul Royal and then Ridge Benton I didn't come here with any prepared Paul Royal exit or New Hampshire I didn't come here with any prepared remarks tonight because I wanted to listen and listen I have um I do want to open by saying that I do support the board I support the d d position and the migration of the expense I would invite anybody up there who feels capable and is comfortable speaking to it you've been asked the number of times if a raise of three or 5.4% or whatever is deserved the fact of the matter is inflation ended September 21 was 5.4% so you tell me if it's a big raise just to
102keep up with putting sneakers on your kids feet and putting loaf of bread on the table um di also in consideration of what we've just been through for the past year and a half or so uh somebody spoke to that as being part of the healing process and I think there's a lot of that going on a lot of what happens in the schools is probably being re-evaluated in a on a daily basis not only by teachers but by Administration that has has never had to deal with this uh how many people might have run for the board or taken a position at on the administration knowing that they would have to deal with what they have dealt with for the past 18 months not easy none of us have been through it none of
103this has been easy so the criticism is kind of high futin because uh most of us are fortunate to live our struggles a lot more privately than teachers and administrators and I thank you for putting yourselves out there consistent somebody else spoke to saying the community is split I don't think it is I think there's a difference of opinion um but it seems to me that the saus is moving in the right direction and the history will look fondly upon your decisions especially coming at a time that will be remembered hopefully remembered for political division and social disruption and yet you've actually had the courage to move forward with something entirely positive you want to fret about Equity or equality tonight you're split in hairs I believe yeah I was exposed to Sesame Street when
104I was a kid too I also grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood where being a Protestant made me an outsider so don't tell me that Sesame Street and exposure to it is part of the solution for bringing people together it's nice but it's not reality I'd like to bring up a teacher that I know in town I have a great deal of respect for she's been around here a while uh she's involved in a lot of great things she volunteers her time look at De through somebody like her who spoke at the I believe the initial public hearing on deig where you know it's forced her to think about the sources of where her information comes from instead of talking about Africa and using videos or lectures or books written by a bunch of
105Northern Europeans it made her think about hey let's get some sources that have actually lived the dream in Africa sir if you could start to wrap up please you got it thank you I will take one minute less than a brami if I possibly can making mistakes is a necessary step in being courageous curious and seeking out best practices and solutions I expect you to make mistakes I don't expect it to be perfect again thank you going to leave you to with two other quotes I listened to tonight kids learn what they live knowledge is power love is Justice thank you for doing a great job to the best of your ability every day thank [Music] you Mr Mr chair I would just ask that we please um I'm right here Melissa just some decorum
106I just think we should respect all speakers and not take digs absolutely thank you yep uh I believe it was Ridge Benton and then Phil Jackson uh Ridge Benton Brentwood uh I'm the father of a son who graduated from uh uh exitor high school and a grandfather of someone who's in uh the brenwood school district District now um I just want to say before anybody judges me that uh I do believe that we should all love one another and I do believe that we should judge each other by our characters not by the color of our skins or by the mother or father that we have I've listened to a large number of people in support of here proposition uh they were very eloquent uh I I do believe that their feelings are heartfelt and
107I have some sympathy towards towards their positions uh I think they are believed honestly uh I do think though that here's the part that they're going to have trouble with is that they are going to be asked I'm asking them to believe that our feelings uh about deig and the need to assess it further before we reward someone with uh going into every one of our schools we we need to realize that there's a large number of us that have some suspicions that the deij is not what it's built as but is a potential for being misused and uh those suspicions um are honest and they are not founded in evil they are founded in love for our children so that uh I am willing to concede that you act out of a love for
108your children hopefully you will concede that we may act out of love for our children my request is you have someone that you've hired D who is currently working but has only worked for a number of months this is an experiment this you talk about science this is this is a chance to do an experiment let's let this person do his job see what he does see what the program is like and assess the program I don't know how exactly you're going to assess it because apparently we have stories from people who support deig that there are things to be fixed but apparently there have not been incidents in the schools that caused Dej to be developed and put in here no incidence so I'm not quite sure how we're going to assess and Improvement
109in that but we do need to assess it we need to assess what he does how he does it and then he should be welcomed or not welcomed into our elementary schools as well as the junior high school and the high schools junior high school kids and high school kids can defend themselves you start to wrap up for us please they yes I take the extra minute you might have uh given somebody else uh they have the ability to defend themselves intellectually and emotionally the little kids are on their own in the schools we need to know what they're going to be exposed to we need to know what this program is going to teach them and I would ask that you continue to pay him let him do his job but let's evaluate and
110decide next year whether he should go into the elementary schools thank you thank you Bill Jackson to be followed by Eric hering Bill Hi how are you um I think I do agree that everyone has um some passion about some of these issues tonight and I do believe that everyone is pretty much on the same page which is what's best for the community and for our children I noticed that um there are uh different supporters from different points of view we have support sa6 but we also have save se6 and I think um I would ask the people who support the district to think about some of the data that we have brought up here tonight which is are we still the top 10 ranking school system in New Hampshire not really is our enrollment
111going down and our administrative costs going up yes so when I ask I'd like to ask let's figure out what we really support and I would also ask what are those things that we can improve upon to for those who blindly support the district um another thing that has come up is when we asked what the deij position's goal was there wasn't really an answer on the education evening we asked how do we measure outcomes of success there was also no answer we also asked what are the racial crisis that we're going through apparently in this district and there was no answer but here we are and as a reminder the deij position is already here so for those who think it's going to go away it's not the the only issue here is we're
112voting to extend that into the the broader District budget beyond the co-op budget uh so I guess I would like to Second the idea that you know let this person uh put his program in place see how he does make an assessment and and go from there and I would just give children a little bit more credit than we have been I think this idea that has been brought up that our children are are are living in a bubble and they just will fall flat on their face when they leave this this area because they won't know how to deal with a diverse world I mean I give our kids way more credit than that I mean and you know what else we have diversity of opinions diversity of thought uh diversity of interests and
113skills but all we seem to be hyperfocused on is diversity of what we look like on skin color which is really bizarre it's like kids don't look at each other that way um they treat each other as a friend if they get along with each other that's how they do it that's how kids roll so I also I'm concerned about the teachers they're coming out of a pandemic they had to go remote they had to go hybrid they had to go in person and now we're adding all this extra curriculum on their plates as well the teachers um and coming out of a pandemic you would think all the budget would go to more Math teachers more tutors and more education and yet the biggest budget increase is for a deij position where a lot
114of the teachers already took the training they could teach this in the classroom um parents at home we're teaching our kids to be good kids and inclusive of others um so I just think that it's it's at least for now they should you should just keep it in the co-op budget um and I also just like to uh just add a couple of extra uh bits of data um for some reason this this new line of thinking has come from I don't know where it's coming from it's it's it's spread nationally across our country this this notion that we are somehow back before the Civil Rights Movement I mean when I was in school we we did we did Real History we covered Jim Crow slavery we learned about MLK bker T Washington Frederick Douglas
115we had black history month we had black history we learned all these types of things about our real history in our country so the idea that we're not teaching history I don't think that's true um you just start to wrap up please so in closing in closing um I'd just like to give examples real quickly Travis of some of the schools have that have implemented such programs Seattle Public Schools told teachers that the education system is bankrupt it the teachers must be bankrupt of they're all of their privilege and acknowledge their thieved inheritance San Diego School said accused white teachers of being on Stolen lands and are upholding racist ideas and structures and they have to go through anti-racist therapy Cupertino California told students in third graders that they had to deconstruct their racial and
116sexual identities and then rank themselves according to their power and privilege and they told 8-year-old children that they were either categorized as oppressors or oppressed Springfield Missouri they had an oppressive Matrix Buffalo Public School Systems they had a racist policy where States they had to decide what was State sanctioned violence and who might kill them at any moment Arizona Department of Education created an equity toolkit claiming that babies show their first sign of racism at 3 months old and white children become full racist strongly in favor of whiteness by the age of five California school of education it goes on and on right so these are the places that have tried some of this stuff and I'll end with this Disney Ron American Express Bank of America Verizon they're all doing it it's across the
117government how did such divisive policies arrive at our doorstep again let's prove these programs worthy before we expand them across the district thank you thank you Eric Herring and then Josh rulin thank you Eric hering stratum um I I was at the information night but I I feel like I may have missed some of the other conversations because I I did hear a lot tonight about people who seem extremely convinced that they understand exactly what di is going to be taught in the schools and I don't feel like I still have that understanding when it comes to di does it mean to teach history unvarnished yes I am totally for it if you say we should acknowledge that racism persists today I would say yes teach that but if it means making children in school
118fix it on Race I'm not for that if it's about Collective guilt I didn't do anything to your great great grandfather I I don't want to be responsible for that if it's about a toxicity of just being born white if it's about dividing everybody into oppressed versus oppressor I'm not for that those actually aren't my words I'm I'm quoting Bill Maher comedian and host of HBO's show real time perhaps some of you might have watched it Bill Mah he described himself as a liberal other times he described himself as a progressive but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that those are beliefs that are held by just some in the community I think we agree with that regardless perhaps of our political leanings or our upbringing so I as I said earlier I'm still
119not sure what the sau's position is on these more controversial topics that surround di um I don't think there's been a proper debate um when we had the information session previously I felt that we all agreed with everything that we heard that night um these are the things that we already sort of agree on as a community what I didn't hear about and I haven't heard debated is whether the DI program will result in our children fixating on Race feeling shame for sins that they did not commit or seeing the world in a stark class contrast between those that are oppressors and those who are oppressed what will be the second and third order repercussions of that on our children and our society have we talked about that and what Educators in the SAU who
120are concerned about that have to say on the to topic I'm I'm absolutely sure that there must be some Educators who also fear um what some of these uh teachings could translate to for our children and for uh for our society is there a venue for their voices to be heard free of reprisal many on the right left and Center aren't ready to give up on Dr King's vision of a colorblind Society is that what we're being asked to do I don't know but I'd ask you to please make your case publicly Booker T Washington said success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome are we ready to give up on Merit and transcendency in favor of fetishizing
121victimhood again I ask you to please please make your case publicly it's my belief that academ Academia is a critical forum for free speech and debate within our communities when will the SAU take a stand on these weightier aspects of di I think that's really what we're waiting for and if we could have that discussion before um before these activities are being delivered into the elementary school I think it would make many of us much more comfortable thank you thank you Josh fulin and then Rose Bryant thank you Mr chair thank you board um you know I I'm reflecting on what was being said tonight and uh as as I think about it um I took a look around and I looked in this room and said we are living in a bubble it's a
122very white bubble in this room so to we're not is um is falsehood um I'm not sure why we're hearing arguments about there's no incidents um why do we want to live in a reactive world we should be proactive we should teach our children how to include others how to deal with people equally and fairly um these are not divisive Concepts these are Concepts that treat everyone with the same amount of respect the same amount of tolerance to help our children to succeed um the company I worked for rolled out a very large as somebody said um de program last year um it's included in all of our discussions as a manager I use it with my employees it is something we used to help each other have valuable conversations to help each other succeed
123um I hear conversation around our school ranking would I love to say our school is number one of course I would I would love to say our School's number one is our school more than just a single number yes are our children more than a single number yes they are we can't look myopically at Reading Writing and arithmetic as the only solution and the value that our school delivers our school should be delivering a well-rounded education to prepare them for the world ahead of them the world ahead of them includes a demand from corporations from Global economies to understand how to work in a world that is focused on Dej I want my children to be successful as do we all my children can benefit from Dej they're white de andj is not just about
124racial factors it's about how we treat others with disabilities how we treat others of different sexual preference how we treat others with different racial factors every single person in here can take advantage of what is taught and offered through de inj I am in support of moving this position from the co-op to the SAU um budget and I want to thank you again for everything that you've done for this school system for being volunteers for standing up and listening to all of us it takes a lot of personal time um I truly appreciate it thank you thank [Music] you Rose Bryant and then Joyce Kemp hi hi thank you I'm Rose Bryant uh my husband Mal arganda and I have lived in exitor for more than 30 years and I basically came here to tell
125you thank you for the all the work that you're doing and thank you to the teachers I definitely can't add any more to anything that has been said this evening I do uh support and believe that the deij position is important uh and not only is a position important I believe that the concept of deij is also important thank you very much thank you Joyce Kemp and then uh Gabby Gman Joyce Kemp she left is Gabby Gman still here did the Red Sox game start uh Kate Trembley from ex Kate and Then followed by Mike vzy 5 that correctly Kate hi I'm Kate Trembley I'm from exor I have two girls in the exor school district one in fifth grade and one at the middle school and I just want to say thank you to
126everyone who who's on the stage right now you have given up so much time and got us through Co last year but I I just want to say I fully support moving the deij position from the coupe budget to the SAU budget because I think all our children in the school including the K through five kids can um benefit from what we learned from deij so thank you thank you Mike vzy and then Kate Banfield it looks like hi Mike beey parent of to sa 16 kids um I just wanted to add my voice of support um for the DJ position move um I like to look at it I I believe in in di work in the schools I think it's a huge benefit to our children to our community as a whole and
127feel like we can look at it as an investment and it's a really easy investment it's low cost to the individual taxpayer and it has potential for a huge return to every everybody through our children into the community as a whole I can benefit us thanks thank [Music] you Kate Bon or something along those lines it looks like from brenwood and then Kim Leo is Kate here great hi I'm Dr Kate bonati I'm from brenwood I have four kids in the SAU I have two in elementary school one in the middle school and one of the high school so I really run the gamut um I just wanted to um give my support to the deij and its expansion into the elementary schools um part of that is because contrary to what some other people
128are saying in early childhood is when kids notice differences the most and we learn at Early Childhood that it's important that people are different and that it is okay and I agree with what people are saying that this should be taught at home and it should be expanded upon in school just like math should be taught at home reading should be taught of Home spelling should be taught of home um for people um who didn't understand all the Spanish that was spoken before I did and I did agree with some of it I agreed that we should be speaking a different we should be teaching different languages to students and sometimes that's a language of different cultures different differences among people and how you speak around that how do you talk to people who are
129different than you and that it's okay so thank you Kim Leo and then Ela Silva hi I'm Kim Leo of Brentwood I have four kids in the SAU as of next year they will be in the high school the middle school and the elementary um the diversity equity and inclusion and Justice is extremely important to my family because we have kids of Multicultural Heritage I'm not going to call it race cuz really races we're human race we're different Heritage I've got kids with a Heritage of Chinese Japanese English Irish Italian Welsh yeah we're the United Nations and honestly my oldest two have actually faced their peers calling them out for being Chinese or having their locker decorations of the character six which is Leo which is their last name taken off of their lockers and
130destroyed last year before pandemic some of their peers in the Middle School said oh you brought the virus here you're Chinese yes there are people who are still like this in the middle school and it is extremely devastating to our young families and our young kids not only do my kids have a diverse heritage but they also have IEP needs the equity and inclusion matters for those of the children who have IEPs especially ADHD dyslexia disg graphia apraxia of speech I Have a little guy in second grade he is autistic and has a praxy of speech it is not easy for him to communicate with his peers but by having the equity and inclusion we now have a tablet in the classroom that he can tap to show what he's trying to communicate with his
131peers instead of being frustrated and taken away from it and keep and missing those key interactions so it's including him in your classrooms yes this should be going through the elementary school Equity inclusion means the kids who have diverse backgrounds and diverse incomes and diverse brains are all being able to access the same material in equal manners you've got dyslexia and disg graphia you're reading a book and when it comes to your turn to read it loud sometimes you're going to mix it all up and it's not easy I grew up know not knowing I had dyslexia and disg graphia until my kids had their testing done what my kids are learning now because of all the interventions that this district has put in place for them is beyond lifechanging I can't imagine where I
132would be if I had been given the tools that they have given now their peers are more open to the differences of okay my brain works a different way than yours we're asking our kids to be better than what we grew up we should be able to support our community for that if you could start to wrap things up I would also like to include that the dij is also very important for teachers along the way because we've learned so much about certain disabilities in the last 10 years in different ethnicities and cultures sometimes the refresher is needed and I really do do think this is an important thing and I do appreciate how civil tonight has been because even if we disagree we are a community and we need to be civil with each
133other and model that for our kids even if we disagree thank you all for being here tonight thank you Ela Silva and then it looks like Robin tyman hi Ela Silva Brown Hampshire I have three sorry two current students in sau6 I say two because I withdrew my middle school or after an atrocious year of bullying at CMS I'm here today as as others are because you're not paying attention to the actual issues plaguing our schools many of us parents are concerned about the cost the pandemic has put on our children many of us have received Benchmark testing for our children recently parents if you haven't seen it check your children's backpacks or ask the school for them the results I saw astonish me both of my children are way below grade level in math
134and reading and when I say below I mean 25 to 35th percentile I know many friends have said the same the sad part is this is children that were fortunate enough to attend school 5 days a work week in Brentwood because of the school board voting for it I Can Only Imagine The Benchmark testing of other children that were hybrid or remote is this what we're not now calling a free appropriate public education and before you all blame the Pand mic and say all schools are in the same boat I would like to challenge you this during this pandemic you hired a controversial deij position for $100,000 and I'm not disagreeing that that's an important thing I'm just disagreeing the timing of it and I'm not disagreeing that it's already here because I understand it's
135here and I agree that it should be part of our curriculum I'm just thinking that you're where we're focusing our intentions right now are kind of moot point at where our kids are in the school right now um for what we have been told was not in response to any incident in any sa6 schools in fact this position is the first in New Hampshire and we are leaders if you asked me those $100,000 would have been better spent for us to be leaders in figuring out how to catch our children up to meeting grade level I'm not even asking for exceeding grade level I'm asking for a fifth grader not only to be to be capable of third grade work cuz that's where my kids are at right now that that's how we would be
136leaders in New Hampshire I have heard nothing from the this Administration the details that outlines how we are going to deal with this very real problem maybe if you had hired someone to figure out how to catch these kids up why we have had a steady drop in test scores and rankings in New Hampshire not to mention the loss of 400 plus students in the past year alone and how to fix that that person would have been the one calling parents who pulled their kids out of sau6 and asking how you could do better instead of putting that on administrators poor Mr Monahan got quite earful I'm sure that night when he called us all speaking of my child who now goes to a private school because her experience at cm of CMS culture was
137so bad she called me from the bathroom crying she's doing great she loves school again funny thing is they're teaching diversity and inclusion there too except it looks real different from our take on it here in sa6 her first project in world history was to learn all about the Muslim religion their differences and similarities to Christianity the similarities they have with the Quran and the Bible and how so many religions intersect in many places in the Middle East she then had to research the culture created a character and researched what their daily life would be like created a narrative and it culminated in a middle eastern Fair where they dressed sold products and ate like Middle Eastern families would do in places like Afghanistan she told me the food was delicious and she loved it
138she knew more facts about the religion and culture than I do funny I'm guessing you would think a Christian School would be so closed-minded about another religion that's how you teach children about diversity and inclusion you celebrate the differences but you also find the similarities that you can celebrate those and you immerse them in the learning so that they come out of it with respect for other people and understanding of their differences and not feeling bad about themselves if you could please start to wrap things up yep thank you I've been in your shoes and was a school board member not long ago I remember meetings where no one showed up and we would all say I wish more of the public was involved and would come to these meetings and pay attention to all
139the work we're doing well the plus side is of giving up my position on the school board is that I can freely tell you we listened we're here we're paying attention and we disagree with your DEC decisions and please stop trying to ridicule board members who go against the grain and question decisions and push back those are the ones that are listening to us and not appeasing the administration dissension is not something to silence in fear it is what our country was founded on there has to be a middle ground and we currently are way off from it so unless you want to fix that please don't complain about the angry emails and the angry parents you're C your cuz you're caus in this because while you're worried while what that everyone is being called
140by their preferred preferred pronouns I'm over here worried my kids don't even know what pronouns are thank you Robin timman and then Tiffany dabrio I believe hi good evening it's Robin Tiner um exitor I probably wrote sloppy sorry um I wasn't really prepared to speak so I'm trying not to wing it too much but um my late husband was a large part native American mostly Cherokee and uh little Chickasaw my kids have more than enough Cherokee in them to easily qualify for federal scholarships except of course we can't prove it because my father-in-law was born when they were still taking young kids with lots of Cherokee blood out of their homes and sending them to nice boarding schools and changing their names so you they learn to hide things like that you know with not
141having birth birth certificates and not having Heritage that you could track and I get that and my some of my best friends in life are probably my um College roommates two were black one was Filipino and other close friends one Mexican and Alaskan native one half black one half Japanese my mom was a teacher and a principal she worked in some pretty rough District she worked in East LA not Leon Alburn East LA California my sister is also a teacher she currently teaches in a much affluent a much less affluent District than exitor or sau6 she's down in Florida most of her students are Hispanic some of them don't speak English she has homeless students and a lot of immigrants and I so I feel like I have a lot of perspective but I I've
142heard a few people say we have to have D Dei J education for the kids here be so that when you go out in the world and you or you go out in the service that you know how to talk to people and I would tell you that I grew up in Southern Illinois um till I was 17 small town a little smaller than exitor and about as diverse maybe we had a few more diverse people because there was a college but you you know there's pea here so it's probably a wash I had absolutely no training in any sort of diversity and I went off to the Naval Academy at 17 years old and somehow I survived 32 years in the Navy I've lived all over the country I've lived all over this country
143and all over the world six continents I've been 49 states in two territories and um I've lived in a lot of places where I was the minority my kids have gone to a lot of schools were they the minority they went to an inner city school where was 85% black they've been in the DC schools that was more than half Latino probably 55% Latino and over a third Asian that just you name it they've probably been to the school they both had issues with bullying at one place or another and actually for my youngest the worst bullying was probably in the um the most prestigious school they were in but you know we got through it my oldest learned Spanish at age two because the only babysitter I could find that could work the hours
144and take him didn't speak English and she was wonderful we absolutely loved her um and my kids' best friends to this day black Russian Japanese Vietnamese and white and uh I and I think about one my first ship that I went to I was in Indonesia went out for 14 months and there was a a young Merchant Marine that had graduated the same month as I had and his name was Bill and we often had Liberty time off together and I felt so bad for Bill I was like this poor boy he can't talk he just can't speak this poor kid must have been bullied mercilessly when he was in school so I was really nice and I tried so hard to understand everything he said tried so hard and he'd gone to the main
145Maritime Academy so several years later maybe five or six years later I transferred to Maine made some friends up north and went oh my God they all talk like [Music] Bill he didn't have a he didn't have a speech disability you know I just never heard you know such an accent before if you could please start to wrap things up I will thank you so so you know I diversity is so important but I just I oppose this position I really oppose moving into the SAU uh because I reviewed some of the material and I find it really horrifying I've shown some of my friends from other races and a lot of them actually find it condescending and someone else said diversity has not caused all our biggest problems um so why are we putting
146all the money here you know on this most expensive position where the teachers don't get raises we have the third High one of the top three highest paid superintendents but I think this sport should be identifying um focusing on and prioritizing the biggest issues that people have brought up and that's what we should be talking about so that's we have we've dropped from I think number three to 38 in the state rankings we've got a our math is substandard and declining I think it's at like 57 out of 100 that's pathetic kids and adults are scientifically illiterate they don't know where the journal article is enrollment is dropping like a rock down 25% as parents are flocking to private schools and homeschooling critical thinking skills are almost non-existent and I'm someone who hires people and
147I don't care what someone looks like but I care if they can't do math if they can't write if they have no problem solving skills or if they're yes men who just go along to get along and are taught not to stray from The Narrative because if you are in a real leadership position you want people to challenge you you want that respectful disagreement and you want critical thinking and that's not happening so if we really really want to prepare our kids for the future will just be colorblind and not focus on dividing them by figuring out who who's what and really focus on fixing the problems that so many people have mentioned because that's what I would like to hear how you intend to solve with all this money thank you uh Tiffany dabrio
148and then I'm going to apologize Al from Kensington I cannot read your last name but Tiffany and then Al from kensing if he still here yes Tiffany thank Kingston so I have a budget question under Executive Administrative Services you have mileage to meetings and conferences at an increase of 18% the next item would be under the business office services you have mileage to meetings and conferences up 50% so I just didn't know if there was a reason for that if there was new meetings that you would be participating in or conferences that would be additional employees receiving that benefit additional employees MH like how many additional employees receiving that benefit so under the business office that would be the Assistant Director of Finance that also has to attend board meetings Okay um and then under
149the other one you mentioned that would also include mileage for the Dej position so for the Executive Administrative Serv Services that's the deij position that would be the de deij position and okay thank you and right you said it was and yes it's a Dej position as well as an increase to one of the assistant superintendents that has additional boards okay thank you thank you and this is the last person that signed up for public input during the public hearing uh so the floor is yours please keep the deij position as it currently is in the budget uh and not proposed you heard a lot of emotion tonight but sadly short on facts please do not rush this decision there is no pressing immediate need till all the facts have been heard and evaluated especially
150without a curriculum available to the community you speak of fairness and Equity how is this so to the other half of the community without open debate or even facts Dei J as it exist is an experiment with no peer- review studies or results you as Schoolboard members are violating these tenants as well as violating your duties to the community at least without a curriculum review I ask you Martha Luther King changed everything in my life and in a generation why is character over color no longer viable in sa 16 Dej is diametrically opposed to Dr King I asked this question to the school board is our children and Grand grandchildren not safe and accepted today before we experience on this experiment on children and grandchildren with an emotion that we all heard sounds really good
151let's at least have a full review of the curriculum before we start indoctrinating them thank you thank you all right so that ends the public input to the public hear if I if I could just real real quick please um I I wanted to address uh something that was inaccurate that was stated several people back but then I didn't want to interrupt anybody else so I waited till the end is that okay or I do that should we do that during the board meeting or do you want to do that I can do it during the board meeting that's fine that would probably be best so we'll end the public hearing on the budg right now we're going to take a brief recess in case anybody needs to use the facilities and then we will
152reconvene into the joint board meeting uh say in 10 minutes if we could e okay all right folks we could start getting situated again here we can get the joint board meeting started niell all right folks I'm going to call The s16 Joint school board meeting to order at 8:32 p.m. first item on the agenda just to do some house cleaning here do we have a motion to or do we have any edits or revisions on the September 27th public Comm meet public meeting minutes does anybody have any edits or revisions for that Dad you had something yeah I I I do have a comment um I certainly have read about the current popular methods of political discourse including a phenomenon known as cancelling current historical or current current or historical persons whereby the person
153is removed from the record I never thought that would happen to me and certainly not ever at my only second joint board meeting but there it was at our last meeting I made an objection to two of the three sets of minutes that were to be approved in the minutes of the June 14th joint board meeting the attendance noted that East Kingston was represented by m rant Miss lions and Jaimie saucer who by that time I believe had been replaced on the EK board by Andy Harum as evidenced by Mr Harum being referenced in several places later on in the minutes and then in the minutes of the June 28th joint board meeting it was recorded that quote Mr lvll made the motion to go into a non-public session Mr Hall second did the motion
154and the motion passed leaving out a statement of the reason for the non-public session as required by RSA 91a neither of these objectives are mentioned in the minutes under consideration and to my knowledge corrected minutes have not been prepared and certainly have not been distributed to the board therefore Mr chairman I move to have the current motion laid on the table until such time that the superintendent can look into the objections I've made the June minutes being corrected as necessary and distributed to the board and the September minutes corrected and redistributed thank you okay thank you Ted I'm perfectly fine tabling the minutes until we can get those things looked into unless there's any objection from anybody else here on the board okay so we have that noted thank you Ted appreciate it any other
155announcements or any other input Dr R before we go to the public input for the joint board meeting n okay thank you so we do have uh some public input or just public comment as part of our joint board meeting and not the public hearing on the budget but just public comment to the Joint board uh again we can try to keep it to as close to three minutes as we can uh first is Peter lell and then Liz Faria so I I want to talk about accountability and first I want to go back to something you know we've got these 3% raises and people are talking about that's fine and I've heard that the reason that the the uh annuity and the 3% raises are there for the assistant superintendent who whose salaries you
156guys still don't review which just kills me um and that you could by a simple raise the hand um you know we have the number one and number three highest paid superintendents of all of New Hampshire in one SAU one and three and the argument is we have to boost their salary otherwise we could lose them any day that that that that just doesn't wash for me um I'm also at and and so that I wanted to stay up front but then I wanted to talk about accountability because this has been a core problem you know I started in on one thing like a lot of people here and the more I looked into it the more shocking it is to me to not see this Administration held accountable I mean you know saying that
157we have a 1.99% increase that's statutory was not true was not factual we have emails going out to parents the the whole mask Fiasco which it was everybody remembers the last one which was it was a state problem but a number of those emails contain things that simply aren't true but and in fact and excuses that don't make any sense you know the excuse was oh we would create a state reporting anomaly and and we I thought that I had said something different to the boards the administration presented the Mas policy seven times to seven boards I knew the policy you all knew the policy high school kids knew the policies everybody knew the policy and yet they say some some they said things that were completely not true I was in a meeting and
158and we had the joint chair in that meeting was with three citizens and the administ and two administrators and the administration said something that I know to be factually not true I sent document one of the documents I have to show that to the Joint chair and for over two months have asked that it be looked into two months to the Joint chair and the action on that has been that when I brought up this issue and other issues to board members even well- meaning board members what they have told me is oh I see the administration said things that weren't true you should handle that you know how you should handle that by addressing it to the administration that is insane your job is oversight of the administration it is written into law and
159and yet I see no oversight on this Administration I see Administration that just says whatever they want they don't even take the time to to make up good BS because it doesn't matter they are not held to account over and over and over again so the idea that we would reward this with large raises and with other things makes absolutely no sense so on top of this budget in general I would I would beg you to start taking the oversight part of your jobs seriously read New Hampshire lot it's not that big on this it really is your job no matter how you were trained and what they told you when you entered this job you're you have oversight the the administration works for you you do not work for them thank you thank you
160Liz FAA and then Peter Frances Liz F and Brentwood again um I'm going to speak in English this time because I want the people in the audience that are still here to know what this budget means um one thing I want to bring out is that while you all in the administration were all got paid the same exact thing as in your contracts last year when many many many families had to quit jobs stay home or their jobs could not happen as mine couldn't because I was a per DM inperson employee so couldn't be in person so for over a year I couldn't do my job so that affected our finances in my family even though all my kids are through the schools that's when they were uh up there in8 or three or whatever
161the hell they were um the but the administrators from SAU some I'm assuming could stay home with their children um but I don't know how many families here there's very few people left had to give up at least one or half of a job to teach their children because nobody was in school but you guys all made the same thing so to ask for more I think is a really piggy when we're all suffering out here a lot of us um I would also let direct people to the first page of the budget not the uh not what you presented but the actual budget Executive Administrative Services that's 2320 the first one says administrative salaries I'd like people to know that that's three people Dr Ryan associate superintendent Esther asbell and assistant superintendent Chris andrewski
162for that going up to $466,500 and that's only three people's salary then if you go down two more lines you get the de we know that's going 97850 um which hopefully won't be in this budget at all the next one is special ed administrators which in last year's was called student services I believe correct me if I'm wrong on any of these I believe that's two people the new person who took I believe her name is Dr Bennett who took um Helen riss and Ellen Risa is the other person I believe so far am I correct I don't want to be misspeaking am I correct on the salary lines um the next one is human resources which if you can un if you can help us understand an $80,000 budget change would be really helpful
163and then if you go to page two at the top the CFO and business administrator salary that's also two people so in order to put those people together just not the helpers or the assistants or whatever just those people together you have to take three from the first line one from the third line two from the next line human resources and two more so it's kind of deceptive to put administrative salaries as the first one which doesn't look that out of whack except that it's only for three of the administrators so that's all thank you thank you L uh Peter Frances and then Pat yosha they're gone both of them okay thank you Megan parish and then Karen Dedra hi there uh Megan Parish after my son read the book The Skin you live in
164he pointed out skin color for the first time he never did before that he never cared um and our family really only judges character not color the beauty of kid young kids is that they don't see it or care that is how our family likes it a few questions following the DI forum since many parents say this is not a political pushed agenda can anyone answer how many conservatives were on stage during that Forum should be nonpartisan correct if this is about inclusion why are we then silencing the voice of opposition a lot of people are concerned about it seems like no matter what we say up here you deflect and ignore us one word I think is extremely important for people to remember especially you Dr Ryan is the word balance I think everyone
165here would like to hear how you are practicing balance when you receive an email from one of your parents that are concerned about the DI ideology and your response is it doesn't matter what's in my inbox we are going to continue doing the work we would like to hear how that is balance equality and inclusion we were also asked you were also asked how the success of this program was going to be measured you were unable to answer that question we as taxpayers deserve to know how it will be measured considering how much money and resources are being allocated in that direction meanwhile we've dropped to 28 38 what are we doing that's academically driven to B bring us back up I think loosening up Co protocols and letting kids Thrive show their face and
166not miss school would be a good start and we have another question the DI director stated that his work with the BLM movement is separate why then was the seos BLM chapter tweeting out encouraging people to attend the Forum to push back on the parents that are questioning and concerned while while meetings are open to the public I thought the Forum was intended for parents and students I'm sorry while meetings are open to the public if the work is separate how is this not a conflict of interest I think it's important for people to remember that the end goal should be nonpartisan education and that shouldn't be too much to ask for thank you so much thank you Karen dud it looks like to be followed by Steven Dawson is Karen here Steven Dawson is
167left as well Mike Thompson and then looks like uh John Mitchell first following up on the question I asked earlier how much money is allocated in the budget to pay for Mr Ryan's uh participation in professional societies related to administrators and superintendents so the state superintendent association dues are $2,185 and the National Association is $470 total of $2,655 so whether that's a dollar or whether that's $2,600 I don't think that we should be paying for him to be a member of those societies they have political agendas we don't pay for teachers to be a member of their associations nor do we pay teachers to their union dues if Mr Ryan wants to be a part of those societies that should come out of his own pocket uh so I would like somebody on the board
168to have the courage to speak up and question that and also ask for justification as to why Mr Ryan and his staff should get any Rays again teachers haven't gotten a raise and there should be some justification uh the public wants to know what has he done uh we certainly have some things that we think he has failed at um I'll give a few that we've that have been brought up a leader should you unite clearly the communities are not United uh he has driven wedges uh which is evident from every meeting that takes place here he hired two revolutions we all know what they're about um they think that schools inherently along with all of us are racist he hired them they got caught teaching CRT against the law yet they still are working
169here by his choice so so you could say he made a mistake in hiring them but he kept them he doubled down and kept them here um we don't want to give him a raise and I somebody should engage in a debate up there in front of the public to explain why he or anyone on his staff should get a raise again when teachers are not thanks thank you looks like John Mitchell and then Susan Benton both left Phil Jackson is Phil still here and then Kim Leo is our final speaker that signed up for public comment here this evening hi Kim Leo from Brentwood um I just have a couple quick questions it looks like the course reimbursement for staff training and doctoral courses is down for this coming budget season is there a
170reason we're not encouraging our teachers and our staff to do more educational training are we not reimbursing them appropriately with raises and such because I really do value what my kids have had for teachers and who they've had last year one of my middle schoolers had Mr Goodwin and I was beyond thrilled with how he taught the classes and then this year my younger child in middle school has Mr Goodwin and they're still pushing the education and pushing them forward I know um I was wondering why those were lower places there was another one too um no it's on it's on the proposed thing that was part of tonight's thing um um secretary salaries are we losing people are they being replaced I know where everyone keeps getting um staying on things but the the
171course reimbursement is down 33% 33.4 n% right but it's still if we've got people who are supposed to be educating our kids and we expect a lot of them there's a reason I'm asking if if I could just again since in such a simple answer I believe some of the administrative team has completed their doctoral program or their whatever program they were in so that's why that expense would have reduced okay um I see that there's a huge decrease in the technology software and equipment is that just because we've already upgraded or is there no planned upgrade for things or why is that such a huge discrepancy because I know software and technology is always improving and with lots of kids after this past year we're going to have more to catch up again I
172think just a simple answer so I'll certainly address it we made some upgrades last year that we don't need to replicate again this year okay Molly am I correct we don't pass the microphone back and forth all right I think that was it but um I really do have to say thank you guys for all you're doing I know this isn't an easy job and for those that are not happy with where things are at work on talking to your schools talk to your teachers talk to your staff below the teachers it makes a huge difference in the communication between teacher student and family thank you thank you all right and that is the end of the public input for our joint board meeting uh just very quickly moving on with the agenda to the
173S6 Administration reports Dr Ryan yes thank you very much we included in your board packet the SAU joint board report I would invite any board member to ask any questions with regard to the contents of that board report as the members of the senior leadership team are here uh to respond to any questions that you may have thank you any of the board members have any questions on the administration reports that we had all right seeing none we will continue to move on thank you so now on to the FY 23 Su budget approval discussion and process again as Dr Ryan had mentioned earlier in the public hearing at the beginning of our meeting um we're going to have two votes one they need to be very specific roll call votes as well because we
174have to determine which districts approve or disapprove of it's not creating the position it's of having the position at the SAU level or would you you want to explain that whole process again so we get it right for us real quick accurate thank you Travis under New Hampshire RSA 194 C5 2C this law governs the organization and duties of the SAU other administrative positions may be established but only after 50% or more of the school districts in the SAU representing 60% of the total pupils in the school administrative unit have voted favorably upon the establishment of the position and so what that means is that um we would be asking this board or the chair would be asking for a motion uh from this board to approve the director of diversity Equity inclusion and Justice
175to be added to the sa office there would need to be a second there would naturally be discussion and then a vote would be taken uh we'll be tallying which is why everyone is seated as boards this evening uh tallying votes We'll be asking for a roll call vote and we'll be asking members to State their name in the uh uh school board on which they sit uh so the clerk can make sure she records that appropriately and the accounting can be done accurately um if the position is approved it remains in the budget draft to then be deliberated on your next task which would be to approve or not approve the budget uh as is or make adjustments if the position is not approved it's removed from the draft budget and you would then
176deliberate on the budget with that position and funding removed questions on on process Dave yeah so I just want to make sure I understand the process the first vote we're not I mean the position still exist because it was under the co-op we he we did agree to a one-year contract so we're not the first vote is not eliminating the position correct correct that's correct yep well but it's to transfer it to the SAU budget correct also correct right just more to it yep so the first vote is deciding if we're moving it from the co-op budget to the Su budget so just to be very explicit in this vote um a vote to approve the budget would convey the approval of the position however what we wanted to do is pull that out so
177instead of talking about the budget what we're asking is for this board to vote on approving adding the deij director position to the SAU office don't talk about budget we're talking about asking this board to approve moving the deij director position to the SAU office that's what we're asking for okay then the budget will will be the conversation after that and then the budgets afterwards if we want to discuss raises an example yes okay I just wanted to clarify thank you Melissa did you have some other questions on on just on the process correct yep thank you um so in the meeting minutes that we tabled um I have here miss Lichfield is concern that the deij position is dividing the community and is is curious if the deij position can be on a warrant
178article Dr Ryan noted they can seek councel regarding the position being on a warrant I'm just looking for a followup on that in consultation with legal counsel we had that discussion and this is the process that they have outlined for us to follow is it not legal for it to be on a warrant article though it wasn't a question of it being legal or illegal it's not necessary and so he said that we typically would not put this position on a warrant it would be a position that is voted on by the SAU joint board because it's an sa administrative position request so I do want to express nothing to do with Andrea it's just a position in general um I'm just disappointed that a request was put out there and it wasn't answered directly
179okay thank you Melissa any other questions on the process of how we're going to do the first vote seeing none then I would be looking for a motion to approve moving the deij director's position to the SAU office do we have a motion for that so moved uh Jonathan with the motion do we have a second a second thank you Jennifer appreciate that so we have a motion and a second and again we're going to go completely around the table individually Helen if you don't mind I'm going to start with you and work around we have some discussion was going to say about motion of course thank you and may may I speak to it Travis absolutely thank you very much um I totally support moving this to the SAU budget for a number of
180reasons I feel many of the uh discussions that were brought up this evening by by the public with regard to the need to have youngsters in the elementary school receive some of the benefits of this are to me most important um one of the things that came up a couple of times times tonight is that and and in our last meeting is that this is not a position that is wanted by the community and I want to challenge that uh just by sharing with you the results of the election last March this position was put in the co-op budget last year it was heavily debated in preliminary meetings in Back to the candidates nights that were held in several of the towns so the people who were voting for that budget were not only voting
181for the other items but also voting for this position to be created and put in the co-op budget I'm going to very quickly read to you the results of that election Brentwood passed the budget 508 to 182 East Kingston passed it 98 to 81 newfields passed it 471 1 to 115 Kensington passed the budget 260 to 73 exitor 1,55 to 2011 and stratum 544 to 92 a total of 2,936 Voters approved the budget to 744 who were not in favor of it 79% of the voters approv that Co-op budget with the deij position included in it I think that was a mandate from all six towns and I share that with you just to make it clear that I don't believe that some of the things that have been said though well intentioned are accurate
182thank you thank you Helen any other board members yes Carissa and welome M um so I guess as I listened and and I'm making a decision process I I think about all the training that our teachers and our administrators when we just went through all the doctoral program have with children um developmental education uh teaching education um and I think about our younger kids in the elementary school and I want to make it clear not only to the boards but to the public we do at least at stratum have a social emotional curriculum in place and to Define social emotional is teaching kindness empathy and acceptance and from um a developmental a neurobiological developmental standpoint Elementary School is about building fundamentals how many fundamentals what's more important than those and how much are we going
183to present to them because if we do our jobs right they're learning kindness love empathy and we're putting everything into it let's Master what we have now and this is a relatively 3 to five year I mean Esther you can tell me if I'm wrong the social emotional leas and stratum but that is in place so if we collectively and holistically look at our schools and look at the what needs are in the elementary school level at least within stratum I don't believe based upon the curriculum that's offered that that is the foremost um priority of what our children need and and and again Andreas from what I hear you're wonderful so but based upon what I see on your training Child Development neurobiology psychology use psychology those are all things that are culminated together
184to develop a curriculum that we don't even have and we can't assess and I think the idea of hey let's see after one year what is the rush what is I don't understand the rush and I guess the second thing I want to say is if I can think of it because my mind is rushing um is can you tell me I I believe that I've heard that you're already in working within the elementary schools is that true I was under the impression that I was communicated that there is some work being done because I do hear that hb20 teachers need help with hb20 and understanding it and how the lines um and I thought there was work being done already so um um thank you for clarifying that andas so thank you that's just
185my two sons thank you very much yeah hi thank you um I have a few things to say so please bear with me um I just want to say that at the elementary school um I think that I think that people have to be careful because we can't disclose things and we have to respect privacy but I can say that I know for absolute certain that racial slurs have been used in uh sa second grade classrooms from one second grader to another this is stuff that's happening and needs to be addressed School level we teach kindness in every single one of our elementary schools every single one of these elementary schools is fantastic so that's not enough right now um I would also like to uh address some things that um Mr Thompson stated um
186Mr Mike Thompson uh there's a lot of accusation of lies and deliberate misleading not being transparent um he stated that the characterization of the move of this position uh from the co-op budget to the SAU budget was a lie a complete lack of transparency on the part of Dr Ryan and M O'Keefe from the beginning Dr Ryan has stated I mean from the beginning of this discussion I have heard him state that the purpose of it is to streamline the deij work across the entire SAU to specifically include it in the elementary schools to make those resources available to those teachers um that was my initial understanding of why this is happening uh in addition M o'keef speaks only to the financial impact uh of things and when she says it's moving from one pocket
187to the to the other that's what she's talking about she's not talking about the purpose of it she's talking about the financial impact of it these are really important distinctions and it is a complete mischaracterization to come up here and accuse everybody of lying when that's not happening so I wanted to be clear about that also please correct me if I'm wrong on this totally could be wrong but I believe it is untrue to say that teachers haven't gotten raises um it implies that no teachers in the entire sa have gotten raises teachers get raises when they have negotiated raises is that right and my understanding is that one of the contract negotiations was stopped or didn't complete and therefore they couldn't get raises because am I right about that and I so I think
188that point of order Mr chairman point of order the the uh members comments are not gerine to the motion on in discussion ra you you're completely right I'm so sorry when we get to the budget portion it's thank you thank you for that I'm sorry I really am not a good public speaker so I have my list of things um so okay specifically with regard to the deij position and and thank you Mr Lloyd I wanted to address something that was said at our last meeting in September when we were deliberating over the budget and this move um Miss litfield uh spoke up to State as you mentioned earlier that the de deij position is what's been dividing our community um I'll be honest I was really angered by this what's dividing our community it's
189fear it's xenophobia and it's a lot of misinformation to blame the division we are so acutely witnessing on a position designed for the express purpose of bringing people together which was designed to represent and uplift those who are underrepresented it felt like a tactic to me and I found it to be highly inappropriate a comment like that isn't just offensive it's dangerous it weaponizes this position what was the comment I apologize I missed what you said it was when you said that you believe that the deig position is what's dividing our community it's what's C causing division in our community I think that that comment is dangerous it weaponizes the position and I believe it was specifically designed to do that it gives those who are already against the position a new and more sanitized
190way to justify Their Fear and anger it can be intimidating as you can tell from the sound of my voice to speak out at these meetings especially given what we've already been through but we cannot let misleading and inflammatory comments like these slide anymore the comment should not have been meant with silence and I take full responsibility for that I understand that we are trying to lead by example with respect to how we conduct ourselves in public meetings and I understand the value of not taking the bait but I think sometimes silence comes across as complicity and I want to make it clear that I do not in any way shape or form agree with that Viewpoint I want to apologize to you Mr Mahia to the board to the administr to the public for
191not addressing this in the moment I'm not speaking on behalf of the joint board right now but speaking for myself I personally feel that we as a joint board have not been publicly supportive enough of your position or of you personally there's been a lot of Silence here I think a lot of that has to do with us not always being sure when we can speak so that's us needing to do better at figuring out the policy of how this works I want to take you for I want to thank you for taking on this position and express to you how grateful I am as a parent that you're here and how valuable I think you and your position are I also do want to speak also miss Lichfield to um your talking about putting
192the position in a warrant article as Miss Joyce stated well first of all you said that uh it's because you believe in the concept of majority role so I understand why you wanted to do that and I totally appreciate that but as Miss Joyce said this position was in The Cooperative School District budget last year and therefore has already been on a warrant article one which was voted on and approved by all six towns in March majority has already ruled a 79% majority as you stated further there are no warrants for the SAU budget and again I could be wrong about this so please correct me if I'm wrong but we don't put I think we don't put items on the sa budget in warrant articles because the budget is voted on by the board
193and not the public so remembering that we each vote vot according to our own conscience but also as representatives of the residential taxpayers who communicate their wishes to us via email or in person tonight is the second opportunity for majority to rule so we have those opportunities it's you're not being ignored it's not an appropriate thing to do in this case and it's already been done so um and then I also just wanted to my understanding is that um the members of the admin team can't respond to to anything being said unless they're asked to so I just wanted to ask if there's anything you guys have to say with no warning I'm sorry I'm putting you on the spot but if there's anything that you want to convey I would like to ask you
194to do that with regard to this question so I want to know what your thoughts are if you have anything that you would like to say now I'm done thank you okay thanks so relative to the motion that's on the floor do any other board members um I'm going to go around cuz some folks have already spoken one so Patrick yes again to the motion that's currently on the floor I think it's on now okay so Patrick OD exitor um I want to speak in favor of the motion but um explain why I'm in favor of the motion so I don't think there's in my mind there shouldn't be a lot of debate about the value of the position um Helen did a nice job of talking about that um exiter has been involved for
195a number of years at the elementary school level to also see value not just with middle school and high school students but also Elementary School students and for the staff and and for the community because we've reached out to the broader community so uh that's you know that's an important piece to me is that it not just be limited to older students but extend to uh a broader group of students um but I think there's some you know I also really made a point I didn't come in here just to you know with any sort of pre-written speech or anything thing I really think it's important that we listen to public input uh that we listen to each other and um I'm more than willing to continue to do that I did listen to some
196of the public input or all the public input I should say and I heard a number of concerns that I think are legitimate um I've raised some of those concerns before and the reason why I support the motion is because I feel like most those concerns have been addressed but there are some lingering concerns one of the lingering concerns that I have which the superintendent addressed very clearly is whether or not this money that's being shifted from one budget to another is really going to uh result in a net zero increase to taxpayers because that's the way it's being sold to us uh as a board and as a community but this joint board has no authority over what the co-op does so ultimately the co-op could just sort of say well we have an
197extra $154,000 and spend it again and realize it as well that resulted in a 0% increase in their budget but for taxpayers it's an extra $154,000 so I'm relying on my colleagues with the superintendent's lead to really sort of Honor that uh that commitment that you take that very seriously to lock that in because that is an unfair burden to taxpayers if we don't do that um uh the the other concern is um is one that's harder to address right now but it's about you know I I would put it in the category of accountability and I do think there's a shift that's going on here that we haven't really articulated and that's when the budgets are decided at the district level the taxpayers the the boards make a recommendation they put it on the
198warrant article about whether not they approve the budget or not but ultimately the taxpayers make a decision to approve something or not when we move something to the SAU level it's it's taken out of the taxpayers hands and so I understand a bit of why Melissa is asking that question and others are asking that question because as board members I do think there's a little bit less accountability uh to taxpayers and not so much for this year I don't have a problem supporting this for this year I think the the concern that I would encourage us to stay um cognizant of is those broader pieces that were brought up in public input that there's Chang in demographics there's changes in enrollment numbers there's a you know maybe a shrinking number of people that live in
199our communities so I'm very cognizant of the taxpayer burden and you're trying to make choices with limited funds I think the EIG is should be a priority but I also think security should be a priority I also think you know Reading Writing arithmetic should be a priority I think we probably would agree those things should all be a priority so how do you balance those and I think there can be a tend to to be administrative creep so to speak that once positions are approved they tend not to be removed um so I I just think we need to be careful about that going forward I've raised this concern before I feel that the superintendent um and his staff is aware of that and that they don't intend just to lock things in just to
200lock them in they're looking for ways to be um sort of responsive and to keep cost down but I do think cost always need to be a concern as we go forward some people in our communities live on fixed incomes they don't all have just you know discretionary money to spend on these sort of things and we have to be very careful about that but I I feel very satisfied with the answers I've received and I think this should be a priority and I'm I very much support this move excuse me apprciate I'll only take a few seconds Republic input is over was this is the joint board meeting and public input is over by name in public did you have some questions M that you wanted to share with the board sir you are
201out of order a board member called you are out of order sir public input is over she called me out by name public input is over I will take 30 seconds to can pleas is there any way we can turn that microphone off 30 seconds you're both out of order Peter I'm trying to follow the rules you are out of order as well Peter you're out of order you're both out of order R and I'm following [Music] them this is the behavior that's so disappointing in our community Peter right here Ted did you have some question or comments on the motion on the floor yes I do thank you Travis thank you sir um first I want to make it very very clear to everyone that we are not voting on the position the position
202exists it currently is in the co-op budget and the proposal is simply to keep it in the co-op budget for the coming year so all of the explanations why people uh want to want to move it because they're giving explanation that the position is necessary the pos position exists I do feel that this is a bad idea to move it to the SAU budget while that position was was created in the fiscal 2122 budget that was approved by the voters earlier this year doing no small part however to a little bit of a misdirection uh creating a a budget proposal that was a trivial amount less than the default budget therefore causing the the voters that don't pay attention to Simply vote for the lower of the two costs even though it was less than
203a tenth of a percent savings that said the incumbent in the position today was not officially on board until August second a few short months ago aside from the late August deig presentation held in this Auditorium the public has seen very little of him and less of his plans for the rest of the fiscal year oh wait there was the pr campaign of late August and early September which resulted in a number of puff pieces appearing in the exitor newsletter the Portsmouth Herald New Hampshire union leader plus I can guess in a number of well- read local papers such as the carriage toown news that comes free to my mailbox every week I haven't seen any details I haven't seen any factual things that this uh new director is going to be accomplishing I believe
204many parents would like to see a detailed rationale for the creation of this position why was it created what student needs are being fulfilled what specific actions are planned what has happened so far similarly those same questions can be asked of the movement of the position to the SAU budget why is it being moved what demonstrated need exists what student needs are being fulfilled what specific actions will be taken we have no answers to any of those questions since last month's budget hearing emails to our board have run 10 to two in favor of of not moving the position tonight we had a a wonderful turnout of exor residents who were all about 98% in favor of moving it and most of the other residents that spoke were not in favor um so I congratulate
205whoever orchestrated tonight's uh public attendance but I urge the board to not approve the move of this position thank you thank you Ted Melissa did you have a hand up a few moments ago as [Applause] well thank you Travis um I had a a few different things that I wanted to address um first if I could though I'd like to ask a question and then move on and this is relative to the motion correct um I think so U my question is just simply this position um I've been trying to process it and one thing that I don't understand is why is this particular position um at the director level versus a curriculum coordinator that's a good question there's no curriculum that this position is forming or building or implementing so there's no curriculum that's
206available he doesn't design curriculum so he won't be implementing it at any point in time no okay and the and the reason why I ask and this is another concern that I had is I was thinking back to a meeting we had a couple weeks ago um for C ulum and that was talk of we needed another curriculum coordinator at the middle school because the middle and high school curriculum coordinator is just too much to handle two schools and my concern was if we have a director um that is handling all of the elementary schools in the middle of high school I was afraid that this position might grow exponentially over the next few years and kind of Spawn off into other positions so that's my concern is there anticipation of there being others that
207are going to continue with this and add more positions is there an expectation that we'll add more deij positions not in the foreseeable future now okay um and then just a couple of other things um that I did want to address um I know that it was mentioned that elementary schools um at this point in time the the Dej director was not touching on elementary schools at all I have to admit that I have also been a little bit confused because I attended the deij information seminar and our brandwood curriculum coordinator for the elementary school was a panelist that night so it did confuse me why we had an elementary level curriculum coordinator as a panelist that night that seemed just my perception very involved in that work um versus not um the other thing
208is the reason why I brought up the the warrant article I do stand by what I said I do believe that the position is divisive at this point in time I'm not saying the individual in the position is divisive I've heard very good things about him um this is why I did want a warrant article um and it goes back to what Patrick stated where it's been brought to our attention several times in Brentwood that once the SAU budget is voted on we do have a MP Municipal budget committee not just an advisory so they get frustrated with us every year because this cost was just handed over to them and there's nothing that we can do about it we voted on it and we're only five members Brantwood so we easily get voted down
209seeing 32 other people um the other thing is regarding the budget I don't disagree that more people voted for the operating budget versus the default but I believe it was $335,000 less to vote for the operating budget than the default budget which to me just seemed odd that doesn't typically happen um and then the other issue that I have tonight is um there were a great many people that were in favor of the Dei position and I learned a lot I thought it was wonderful to hear I'm glad people came out I'm glad they were engaged um but that being said I know that there were many more people that called me messaged me emailed me reached out to me with their feelings and said how they felt and they said don't use my name
210please because they were afraid that they would be labeled a racist or a bigot that being said I'd like to just take it a step further this is something that concerns me and that is this was put out um last night actually please consider this was to a Facebook page of 2,700 people please consider attending to support our SAU activist alert word has reached us that SAU 16 our district has become a target for extremists from inside and outside our district who oppose our hiring of a Dej director diversity Equity inclusion and Justice and mass requirements to name just a couple of hot buttons they're broadcasting to their followers around the state to attend tomorrow's you get the point so they got their word out there I don't know what was on other sites because
211I've been blocked from those other sites which is surprising to me um simply because I don't usually comment on those sites the other thing that I would just like to address and I haven't for a couple months because it's awkward to address it um but we're talking about deij we're talking about bullying um board members bully board members I've had it on my own political page where it's okay for board members to go ahead and Bully me on my page I have a couple of people here that have posted things that was very disappointing and they knew it wasn't true and when people called them out on it they said pass it along thank you Melissa we had a hand over there as well so Jackie tassinary newfields um so I think de is a
212great idea I think we need to give it a chance at the middle school and high school before we're broadening it to our elementary schools that's a lot to throw at someone especially their first year second year into a position that they're more or less creating we should give them a chance to get a strong Foundation before we're adding to their workload thank you any other board members have any other comments relative to the motion David and then I see Jonathan too oh sorry you want to First go ahead all right um so the motion on the fler is to move the position to the seu correct correct now if again we're not eliminating the position because it's already in there if we choose not to move it to the seu it stays currently in
213the co-op correct yes that would be a co-op conversation then under you know with with Helen leading that conversation as as the co-op chair but yes it would still be a discussion at the co-op budget okay so again if we don't go for if we don't vote for the motion right now which is to move to seu the position still exists it just stays in the co-op okay correct just want to make sure thank y thanks David Jonathan yeah so like Patrick have a lot of concern on the budget um I've seen programs with the district disappear that have been in the SAU so I'm hopeful that if it doesn't work out that that's what is going to happen the other point I'd like to make is I think for three years since Dr Ryan
214has come here he has set the stage and correct me if I'm wrong for this position so it is not a surprise it's been in all all of the presentations we've talked about it we've talked about the Big Goal we've talked about what it would do for our schools um so I don't think that anything is a surprise here this was coming down and I think it's a valuable thing for the for the students and I'm just looking for clarification um because I've witnessed quite a few presentations over the course of three and a half years and this seems to have always been mentioned in there for what we're going to do do thank you did I see another hand somewhere yes hi um so I fully support moving this position over to the SAU
215budget exitor elementary schools have put in a lot of time and effort into developing deij and we want access to this resource I see it as a cohesive move so that our K through 12 students are on the same page and there's some momentum as they go through the school years I know as a parent um of students in our elementary schools and in our middle schools racism exists and racial racial slurs are being used and um I have empathy not only for the children that's directed at but also the children that are using them and they think that's okay it's not okay um I feel I do not sit up here blindly just following what the administrators are recommending in fact we've been part of this process encouraging it to happen and I feel
216like um my exitor school Community fully supports this and wants it um not only from how they voted but for committees that were on together and other work that we do together in this area um the position isn't divisive misinformation is divisive like these mailers that people are committed to it's really I mean if it wasn't so dangerous I'd say it's impressive but the commitment to spreading fear around this work is is incredible and unfortunate and I think that's where a lot of this comes from people keep talking about this training to rev that was last year to rev a training company that will train however we ask them to with this new legislation in place whether I like it or not we're going to have to operate under those rules or within those guidelines
217no training company no person that works for our SAU is going to be able to work outside of that legislation and hopefully with Andre's expertise he can help us you know navigate through this you know tricky legisl um what else um you know just people keep coming back and regurgitating the same questions and everything around this just because the answers aren't what you want doesn't mean it's not true and we just have to get used used to that even if I'm wrong in some instances okay thank you any other board members have any comments relative to the motion yes we'll call back around I see you Bob thank you I wanted to take a moment to talk about my experience when I was a new board member and the Committees that I served on and
218one of them was the Dei which at that time was just the Dei now J committee it was made up of um two board members two principles from exitor elementary we had parents that were there we had teachers we had curriculum directors um there was teachers from both Main Street and Lincoln Street schools there it was one of the groups that I participated on in addition to enhanced learning where teachers from both schools were there and they really had a lot of great questions and discussions about what this meant in their classroom and they were there and felt like it was a safe space to ask questions about what this meant and how they could improve the education in their classrooms how they could improve the experience for students how they could shift the kind
219of books that they were electing to take how they could shift their Project based learning and give children more diversity in the way that they share the knowledge that they learn based Bas on the strengths and weaknesses that students have and they were able to have these open discussions we were able to have different uh community members come and support this group um I believe one of them was from the racial Unity team we also had input uh from members at Philips exitor and I felt like it was open for people to come in a number of different community members to speak and to give their opinion and not only that it was reported at the board meeting monthly by both Steve Adler and Drew Barstow as well as the two board members that were
220on the committee and so I feel like I have sat on this board and we have rotated through um so everyone gets the chance to spend time on different committees that we have heard from our teachers at Lincoln Street and Main Street that they are looking for resources that they're looking to have access to an expert and that we should move this position I believe into the SAU budget we give teachers access to all to math education to everything when we can and by moving this I believe that you would be improving the resources and access for teachers so that they could improve the strategies in their classroom thank you thank you very much and we had a hand over here yes um yeah so I just want to clarify as we're talking about this
221this is not like after this vote tomorrow the position moves this is next school year the position would move right so to me like as there's a really kind of cool opportunity as we're building out this program in our district to start with a plan like even though Andre You' be working in the co-op this year as you're building out your plan like you can kind of if this was moved for next year's budget you can create that plan knowing that you will be working with elementary students so I just think it's a really cool opportunity to kind of start the foundation with the whole big picture in mind rather than starting at the co-op and then fitting in the elementary schools after the fact um so I just wanted to that's it thank you
222very much Bob I know you had a hand up thank Kim I'd just like to say i' just like to say uh as a product of the system and probably the oldest a retiree on on this panel and a retired teacher also I would just like to say that I know no better way to move this school district ahead than to take this deij position and make it part of the SAU budget this is so badly needed by our communities it is a real wakeup call we need to address this we can all grow from this thank you thank you Bob yeah Kim that's thank you for sharing hi I'm I'm not going to repeat a lot of what was already said that I agree with um I will add uh that I do support
223this position going into the SAU budget um it's according to Helen thank you for sharing that that data reminding us it it certainly was a mandate by the voters before um and I feel like uh I want to Bas basically thank you for putting it in the seu budget because it is a philosophy that we're embracing across the district and as we've heard tonight there is no curriculum it's like hiring you know HR finance and facilities and saying only some of our schools can get access to that high level resource and I say that because it doesn't have a curriculum like those areas um so the assessment piece is going to lie in ways that this community decides that we want to assess its impact and it's also a very wellestablished area um many higher
224universities companies I mean this isn't like we're going into the frontier we have ways of assessing whether your community has uh receive positive impact from A diversity inclusion uh position and and lastly you know one thing I love about New Hampshire is that we have so many opportunities to get engaged in the political system and we have so many opportunities to get engaged in our schools which is a separate thing and I really um give our budget advisory committee members a lot of credit I give our board members a lot of credit um we're all here having these discussions I I don't fear that this position is going to be moved from the co-op and then um somehow there's going to be some placeholder I mean there's a lot of people who participate in these
225in these uh processes so if you're if you're not one of them I I invite you to come because there's so many opportunities to hear and as Jonathan mentioned this has been mentioned for a long time so none of it has been a surprise so um I think our advis budget advisory committee members I think our board members um everyone's fully engaged in this conversation and no one's trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes I think that's a really um tired narrative and storyline that um just doesn't doesn't hold true so thank you thank you Bill you H your hand up as well thank you Travis so a couple things I heard tonight there was a lot lot of I I just really Patrick I appreciate your comment so many of you and everybody
226in the audience also one thing that I heard tonight was you know Andre we we want you to continue your work and do it but is there a time that we can kind of like see how the work is starting to help the schools move forward it's only been a couple months that you've been on board but we want to see so after the vote tonight is is the position up again uh over the next year like what what happens is it indefinite and then do we get to come back and kind of say oh we really like this work how do we move forward more are are you asking Bill if this this position if it's like say we vote tonight and it goes in the budget is it indefinite or like because is
227it a term position no it's not a term position but if the if um the position isn't performing then and we'll make reports to the board just like we do with superintendent board reports uh administrative staff board reports as part of the administrative staff he'll be reporting out to the Joint board each time we meet to talk about what's been happening within his work what's been happening within schools and with staff um and if it's determined that it's not going in the direction that we wanted to either adjust it uh we eliminate it or we we we take some other action but um The Joint board still maintains oversight of the superintendent and our work together in determining the staff still continues okay thank you sure thank you both any other board members have any
228other yes done hi so I just um wanted to say you know sort of reiterate what some of my my other board members have said here is that in exitor we've been talking about this for a while um our teachers need help with this I mean I can remember one specific conversation I had probably 18 months ago with um one of the kindergarten teachers and I said you know how's it going how are things going and we started chatting and she said you know she's like it's really interesting I had this parent come up to me and you know she's they they just moved into town and it was a a kindergarten of color um and the parent was very concerned that this child would be the only one in their classroom knowing what exter
229generally looks like as you walk around town um and the teacher was you know really just you know invited the parent in and said you know I I couldn't wait to meet this person and when they came in you know they were surprised to find out that we also had a child in a wheel chair in the class and one of the children lives with his grandparents and not with his parents and these are all the things we talk about in kindergarten and she's like oh my gosh I'm so tired you know we're trying to juggle all these things and that's the point we're expecting our teachers to be experts at everything Reading Writing you know social emotional Wellness supporting them there they need help with this every child who lives here you know it's
230not about race it's about meeting the students where they're at so that they can respect one another and be that community and that's what we see and I have seen as being part of this board for a number of years it's not about race and racism yes that's part of it but it's a part about being accepting of others and understanding that everyone doesn't live like you or think like you or come from the same places you are at and that we need to be exploring this in the schools and the teachers need someone and administrators to go to who's an expert who can help them sort the stuff out so that they don't have to be experts in everything every day so that's my two cents I support this 100% moving to the SAU
231budget so that our elementary schools can to have access to it thank you any other yes Heather and welcome aboard thanks thanks so much um so I just want to also just share briefly my full support for moving this position to the SAA budget um I quite possibly am the newest resident around the table to this District I moved here a year ago with my family I have three children one at Main Street School one at Lincoln Street school and one at the Cooperative Middle School we moved here from New Orleans and we intentionally chose this district for two reasons one was for its strong academic reputation that was really important to us we did copious amounts of research into moving here and that was one of our priorities and the other is as we
232started to do that research moving from New Orleans one of my greatest fears was moving my children from a very diverse Community both racially economically and in possibly every way to New Hampshire I was concerned that moving my children here would actually limit their opportunities that would limit their opportunities to be fully engaged as humans in this world in a time that is like so divisive where we're we're we're we need to be able to talk to each other to not be colorblind but actually to see and recognize all of our differences as strengths and as important to be able to make decisions and have conversations and build community so when I saw that there was a strong and long-term vision for Dei J work I was really really excited to move here um not
233only did I see that then last summer um when during the uprising there were a lot of organizations a lot of schools a lot of communities that were putting out statements in support of Dei and then did nothing to back those statements with action but I was really impressed to see that this District had a d committee um I was invited as soon as I got enrolled in the district to be part of um a parent group that was really interested to ask questions about this work to engage in learning to ask hard questions and then really inspired that this that all of you around this table that this community supported the hiring of the um the creation of the DJ director position I live in a neighborhood that of over 30 homes half of
234them are new residents from to this community and to New Hampshire all with young children all with questions about raising their kids in a world that is diverse and that is global they have questions about this work they want to ask these questions um in spaces they want to be able to support their children in this learning and then teachers need support it's not enough to say well we'll let the teachers figure it out in an environment that is fear-based where teachers are worried about losing their certification if they say the wrong thing they need support um in being able to be responsive in their education um and they need support to be able to align what they're teaching with the middle and high school so I just again um appreciate being around the table
235and just want to give my full support for moving this position to the seu budget right thank you very much any other board members have any other yes Andrew uh I'll make this fairly quick but um all of our schools are trying to do some sort of inclusion or something we've got committees together most of our schools really are working forward to this moving this position over to the SAU is just adding a resource for our schools to use if we don't we're limiting resources in making jobs harder for our schools this is to make all of our schools and the people working in those schools e lives easier that's it it's a resource he's an excellent resource he should be utilized don't limit his utilization for no budgetary reason or otherwise great thank you
236yes Patrick sorry I just have to quickly um just add on to that statement and also to Addam what Don said because I thought it's there are excellent points that I think spoke to some of the public input there was a lot of public input concern about sort of what was characterized as core academics and I thought Don put it very well by saying that essentially not having that resource is it's asking teachers to do more and it and it it doesn't give them the the time to focus on these other pieces when they're able to get this additional support it's not putting more on them it's taking some of that load off so frees them up to handle these other pieces the other thing I want to say is just on the financial side
237of this is that um I was looking at the numbers here and the co-op accounts are about 56% of the students in our district in the broader SAU by having this position for the same cost service 100% of the students are actually getting more value out of the same position so just from a cost perspective this is this is a smart move to do and and we've already spoken to I mean obviously we have some uh experience over the past few years in exitor so it's not just theoretical we've seen the value at the elementary level and not every district has maybe um dug into it as deeply as we have but it's not just theoretical this is something that it's again I I think Don um and the other members of my board did
238a really nice job of echoing that that they've really seen that it's something that the our community at the exitor uh district has really responded to um last thing I just need to say and I'm sorry I don't like to be negative but um I don't think it's fair to characterize the feedback that we got today from public input as just residents of exiter coming forward and speaking that's not what I heard I listened very carefully to who spoke and people identified themselves from the communities that they were part of and it represented our whole SAU uh there were people that were for the the current uh motion if if you want to characterize that way and people that were against it but it wasn't just some sort of political activism uh that happened tonight
239there was there was really good public input um I think it's a such an important part of what we do and I I get disappointed uh when we try to as board members try to distance oursel from that input by trying to say it's just politically motivated because I don't think that's what I heard tonight at all I very sincere beliefs uh from people that live within our SAU and I think that's important that we listen to that thank you Patrick all right any other comments on the motion yes so the concern that I think I've heard from parents that I've spoken with is this is a new position it's been in place for less than two months there are eight schools nine schools in ours how many teachers is this one person on their
240first year in this position going to assist I think they have enough on their plate looking at just the middle school and high school figuring out how that's going to manage and once they're getting it right going teachers have been trained then they can focus a little bit more I think at the elementary school level I think we're just going to be throwing way too much work into the deij within its first two years of implementation okay thank you any other board members have any last comment before we go into a vote on this yes please Dr Mr Lloyd asked for a rationale I had prepared one for this evening so I can share that with you the rationale for the director of deig and sa6 it's no different than what we've been sharing aside
241from the demographic shifts that we shared at our last uh joint board meeting with a decrease in the enrollment of students but an increase in the diversity among those students who are moving to the state Mr Frances and I had the pleasure of meeting right before the pandemic said in and so as a a worldclass demographer he fully understands what it is we're facing when it comes to enrollment but um when we talk about school enrollment and he spoke about it with the number of births declining in the state the number of deaths are exceeding that and so we are facing a numbers issue but within that numbers issue is the 75% increase in multi-racial or diverse families or children within that reduction of uh those students who are enrolling in schools so while we're
242getting fewer students in schools we're seeing more and more from diverse backgrounds and so I thought that was something that we had discussed back in our September meeting what I wanted to share tonight was that moving the deij position into the SAU budget is to provide a comprehensive and consistent approach to all school districts ensuring that all students staff and families feel welcome in our schools while also providing opportunities for students to learn more about valuing and respecting the differences that they and others bring to our Global community the position is based on the foundation of unity and its basic premise is to provide a common and safe space for everyone now from a regulatory perspective the physician's also designed to assist all staff with remaining in compliance with two specific New Hampshire statutes introduced
243in 2019 is sb263 now codified as New Hampshire RSA 19339 known as discrimination prevention policy required the director leads anti-discrimination efforts as outlined in the law and the law reads each school district and chartered Public School shall develop a policy that guides the development and implementation of a coordinated plan to prevent assess the presence of intervene in and respond to incidents of discrimination on the basis of age sex gender identity sexual orientation race color marital status familial status disability religion national origin or any other classes protected under RSA 354a RSA 19339 and that was added in 2019 came into effect September 17th of 2019 as part of the plan we also added an anti-discrimination task force which is currently working on the policy manual audit to determine if any levels of discrimination currently exist in
244our current system policy language recommendations will be made by this committee to the sa policy committee for changes if necessary last spring the New Hampshire house introduced HB 544 which was referred to as the divisive Concepts bill the bill did not pass however some elements of it were included in the amending of the N hampshi Human Rights Act which is the RSA 354a and RSA 193 for pupil which were appended to the 2022 budget Bill known as hb2 these amendments include the prohibition of teaching divisive Concepts and when the budget was signed by the governor on June 25th 2021 it became law this became an additional reason for why we believe someone with the expertise in these areas would be very helpful and assuring that we remain compliant within the law so what I'm asking
245for this evening is is that we provide the SAU office with the resource that we have available to us to ensure that we're not only making everyone feel safe and welcome in all of our schools but that we have someone with the expertise to help us remain compliant in these two recent laws all right thank you Dr Ryan any other comments or questions from the board before we do a roll call vote seeing none so again the motion on the floor is to approve moving the deij director position to the SAU level and we need again to do a roll call vote so that that can get recorded appropriately name and board name and board so Helen could I ask you to start us off and we'll just go around the table and again this
246is not on the budget this is just on the motion Helen Joy I and if you could State the your board as well just so we the minutes are all accurate you're fine Helen uh Kim Meyer I Co-op board Bob Hall Co-op board I Paul Bower Cooperative board I bill Gothia Cooperative board I Ted Lloyd Cooperative board no David slka Cooperative board yes and Melissa you get to two V together member Melissa Lichfield on brenwood and the co-op no and no Jane Walsh newfields board yes Jackie Tasser newfields board no Tom Hayward new Fields board yes Jennifer Rand East Kingston board yes Andy harm East Kingston board yes Melissa Lions East Kingston board yes Kate Davis stratum board no Carissa magre stratum board no Erin Garcia de predes stratum board yes Ley Bard brenwood board
247yes Brian Duffy Brentwood board yes Megan Fitzgerald Brentwood board yes Jonathan Lavell Kensington board yes Allison Roy Kensington board yes Jennifer Leonard Kensington board yes Heather ik ik Meer exitor board yes Patty shet exitor board yes Sarah Edwards exitor board yes Don bullins exitor board yes Patrick OD day exitor yes and Travis corporate board and I would be a yes motion carries all right so that motion has passed to shift or to approve moving that position to the SAU level so that motion has has passed Now we move on to the budget itself so do any board members have any questions or com comments relative to the budget itself yes Ted thank you Travis um I'd like to turn to the subject of the provision in the budget for 3% raises I realize the superintendent
248has stated that when it comes to actually giving out salary increases that it will not be across the board and will not necessarily be 3% I'm glad of that because the level of satisfaction in the performance of the SA Administration is declining to a dangerously low level as evidenced by unprecedented in-person attendance at our board meetings and unprecedented levels of written Communications to the board by a pres precipitous decline in the rankings of SAU schools academic performance a decline in school enrollments notably at The Cooperative Middle School that cannot not be explained by a decline in the school age population in our six towns and finally by continual increases in school budgets despite those declining enrollments Mr chairman I believe that we have lost the trust of the parents and taxpayers of sau6 in the
249administration's ability to provide a high quality education at a reasonable cost I certainly do not believe that the administration is providing a level of Excellence that would warrant wholesale salary increases Mr chairman I move that the board direct the superintendent to reduce the proposed salaries budget first to remove authorization for any increase in his personal salary and that the provision for increases for the remaining positions be reduced to 1 and a half% of the remaining salaries further that the board direct the superintendent to review any salary increases with the board and obtain their approval before implementation thank you thank you Ted Ted just to be clear was that a motion that you were making or just comments that was a motion okay to reduce the salary number from 3% to 1.5 I'll repeat it I
250move the the board direct the superintendent to reduce proposed salaries budget to remove any authorization for any increase in his own personal salary and that the provision for increases for the remaining positions be reduced to 1 and a half% of the remaining salaries further that the board direct the superintendent to review any salary increases with the board and obtain their approval before implementation thank you okay I want to well do we have a second and then we'll have discussion do we have a second anywhere Dave you have a second okay so we have a motion and a second um I want to ask the last part and some of the other board members please help me out here the superintendent is our only employee I don't know if legally he needs our authority to Grant
251any changes in salary to staff or anybody else I mean does anybody have any thoughts I don't that's correct Travis that's what we my understanding so I don't know how that would work I I think I can give an answer to that Travis um true the superintendent is our employee and we are asking him to review with us we are directing him per my motion to review with us any planned increases he wants to implement before he does and to get our approval I think that's entirely within our purview okay any comments from other board members yes I have a couple questions um there this is a very complicated like multi-part motion I'm wondering if we can break it out um because we might have people here who are in favor of one part of
252it and not in favor of another um and then my other question is when we right now what we're talking about here with regard to salary increas es these are budgeted salary increases or rather it's it's a possibility it's not it's what am I right that what we're putting in the budget is not necessarily the raise that someone would get so like for instance if there's a possibility of a 3% raise that we're putting in the budget we're not saying that person's going to get a 3% raise next year we're saying that they could possibly get up to 3% and then whatever they don't get would likely be or possibly be returned to the taxpayers is that a correct interpretation somewhat remember that the SAU unassigned fund balance is reinvested into the SAU office to
253reduce the apportionment the um notion regarding raises is it's a 3% pool dependent upon performance um um I just want to clarify I do not have any authority to give myself a raise um I requested last year not to receive a raise for this year and that was granted by this board uh that is up to the board completely um so I I just wanted to make sure I clarify that I don't have the authority to give myself a raise um just to put that out there thank you T any thoughts to breaking apart the motion or it's your motion so yeah I believe that this board is CA competent enough and capable enough to understand three or four parts to my proposal and they all hang together so I'm I'm I'm not open personally
254to modifying my motion rather people possibly say no to the whole thing if they would actually say yes to one part of it okay well that is the motion that's on the floor then I guess we've got some other hands up I saw buddy did I see a hand over there you're good yes Carissa so I think I'm just a little slow but I didn't get all those parts so if you could just repeat them again so I can process them and understand them because I do want to make sure that could understand what I'm I'm voting on and it did seem a little complicated so yeah no I'd be happy to do that thank you so much I understand you know the the way that we have uh laid out our our um meetings
255it's we're I'm talking to a room without the ability to use uh you know hand out a a handout or show something on the screen but I will read it again and if if anyone has any questions what I'm intending um I'll be happy to answer them uh the motion is that the board direct the superintendent one to reduce proposed the proposed salaries budget removing any authorization for an increase in his personal salary two that the provision for increases to the remaining positions be reduced from 3% to 1 and a half% of the remaining salaries three that the board direct the superintendent to review any salary increases with the board and obtain their approval before implementation three simple things yes so um thank you for clarifying that since this board votes specifically on the superintendent's
256budget as a separate and complete total Committee in line item I think it might be prudent to take that one out considering that is currently in our purview that we do a separate meeting on at the end of the year and is completely within our control my motion is a a motion to amend the budget proposed the superintendent salary cannot be changed until we have that meeting and right now now he has no raise I'm not changing his salary I'm removing a provision for any increase that's all I'm doing correct but that point is mute he's already he's under a contract so he yeah doesn't matter the point's mute that first point can't happen the two other two can's talking I'm sorry that was Jonathan yeah yes um just if I could a couple things
257but first make a suggestion um we have a motion on the table with a second so after discussion we vote on and I know that people are saying that maybe they want part of the motion and not all of it a second motion could always be made after that vote um just a thought um but also I just wanted to bring up a couple of things if I'm hearing you correctly um you're you're looking to change the line item um down in instead of it being 3% Molly would do the math and it would be 0% for the superintendent and then 1 and a half% for the remaining positions but I just would like to clarify when you say remaining positions are you talking just the senior leadership team as in the super assistant superintendent
258sorry talks off the assistant superintendent or do you mean everyone in the SAU budget because I think that includes clerical staff accountants Etc is that correct okay so probably just a question are you looking to amend the budget for everyone in the SAU office then yes that was my intention okay um and then um also I just wanted to note that I had brought this up at our last joint board meeting um where I had asked and it's in the minutes Miss litfield notice noted she's not sure why there is no say in the other administrator salaries um that I was curious if the administrator contracts are available able um and I wanted to know why we don't have the ability to see the other administrators I did see the contracts by the way thank
259you um and Dr Ryan noted the board can make a decision to change the ability to have a say in the contracts so it is within our purview to have a say correct on what what is in their contracts or what they get for increases is that correct it's well within the board's purview to direct me to take any steps that it sees fit and that includes s having me come before the board to review any proposed raises and receive approval for them so and if I could just one more question um I'm making up a number so let's say that um I don't know let's say pretend the budget's 3 million and we amend it to 2.9 Million right now we're voting on a bottom line so do you still have the right to
260go ahead and give them increases regardless of what we vote on as long as it's within that made up $2.9 million well if the board votes for me to come and and review it the board could turn that down and say no you're not going to give them three% or whatever it is um okay so I mean I still I work for the joint board U even though it may not have been past practice uh to entertain what Mr Lloyd is putting on the table I do work for the joint board um and then my other question is um is there I have heard stories of and I don't know how it's possible and I'm not saying you I didn't hear this about you but other districts where Esser funds were used for bonuses for
261example so would there be other ways that the that people in the SAU office would get increases by bypassing this budget or is that not something that could happen I just want to clarify anything about what you're talking about okay so this that's my answer then it you couldn't do it because it you wouldn't have it in this budget correct exra funds are not in the SAU operating budget mind I I got thank you okay can can I just um make have a question or clarification on that the eser funds are going to be audited by the Govern like you can't just spend it on what you want to spend it on there's going to be a pretty strict audit on how those funds are spent um so that's just not I mean that's not
262like the district doesn't isn't auditing it it's an outside auditor that will we have to report how those funds are spent so we can't just spend it on whatever we want there's specific items that it can be spent on is that that's correct right Notre any other questions or comments on the motion before us right now um I'm completely not in support of this suggestion um I feel like there's a real lack of respect for the amount of work that these folks have been doing and continue to do in the face of all of this animosity and they're still showing up every day for our kids community and I think that it's a blatant disregard for the efforts and the work that they're doing all right thank you yes Kim I'm absolutely against this I
263feel like actually this bypass is a process that we have in place which is we have many people around this table who serve on the superintendence evaluation committee and then those members I mean it's quite a laborious process and I don't know how many of you would like 32 33 people evaluating you but that's what happened and um not only do the people on the committee spend many hours but then we they take it back to their respective boards and then the boards deliberate and so at the end of it no one is guaranteeing a 0% or 3% but it's proper prudent practice to put the amount that's recommended nationally and it's actually a modest amount 3% if you look um and so I I I don't like this because it bypasses the process which
264I think is very thorough and then that is also replicated at the superintendent level in his office and all of his respective staff receive the same level of uh performance evaluation so um that's super important and that doesn't even um talk about the amazing job that was done here by all these administrators um who we witness in the office well before it's light out leaving when it's dark out oftentimes I think they sleep here so um I'm not sure I I I I think it was a hard year to make anyone happy in the district I mean it's it's just these are impossible times right now but I know everyone around this table has worked their tail off and has done it for the betterment of the district has it been perfect no can we
265do better yeah the next pandemic I hope we handle it better um but everyone's working hard yes Helen thank you Kim thank you Travis sorry can you hear me now um I oppose this motion on a number of levels and some of it's already been spoken to with regard to the dedication and the amount of work that these people do uh Kim's point is well taken with regard to do we need to do better is there a need for more more rigor probably so yes we need to look at what's happening and take and assess some of those things but I can tell you probably all of the people who are sitting around this table I'm in that SAU office maybe more than anybody else because of the nature of my job and the number
266of committees that I serve on and I serve on these committees with all of the people sitting at this table they put in Endless hours some of the results of what you're seeing that they've been presenting to us the balance scorecard portrait of an educator school safety curriculum work that goes on and on we have had a graduating class from exitor high school this past year that were accepted many of them into very prestigious schools I can attest to that personally we have students year after year in the senior class who are named National Merit semifinalists that does not happen by accident it happens because of a of a program that is established constantly re-evaluated do we agree with everything that's being done no but for us to turn around and say that these people
267do not deserve a raise that everyone in that office does not deserve a raise I I just I'm sorry I'm just really upset by this and I and I feel very strongly that we still have the ability to take a look at what they're being given I do not disagree with the idea that David perhaps needs to share with us what's being given to the assistant superintendent that's not an issue for me but this motion as far as I'm concerned is not one that I will support in any way shape or form thank you thank you Helen any other questions yes comments thank you um just to uh uh agree with Helen um I I do want to say that I'm hearing what's being said in the audience um I am always in favor of
268increasing academic rigor that is something that has worked on over a period of time it can't be done like this and it's especially impossible to be working on that during a pandemic especially when most of the kids are home so I I have had conversations with the superintendent team about this very topic and I I know that it is something that is uh being prioritized absolutely um and and I'm not sure that that has actually been stated so I wanted to state that um uh I also believe very strongly in oversight that's why we're doing this um but I believe that this suggestion is uh not oversight it's micromanaging and I think that we need to be very careful about how much power we give ourselves so um I know that there is a push
269in the external world to start to give more and more and more and more and more power to school boards to micromanage every single decision of schools I think that is a dangerous position and this definitely feels like a step in that direction I agree that I would be willing to discuss um having conversations about the raises being given at the higher level that kind of thing I'm not okay with just saying no raises for anyone across the board um so thank you thank you any other comments questions yes Patrick just quickly I just want to build on what uh Kim Meer said that it's not the appropriate time I'm I'm not in support of the motion because this isn't the appropriate time for us to be making a decision about whether not folks deserve
270raises or not this is just a placeholder in the budget I've you know I've been on the board for 17 years and I've seen raises have been anywhere from 0 to 3% so we'll make that decision later it's not the right time to be doing that um it's not a matter whether that you think they deserve raises now or you don't think they deserve raises I don't think we should be anecdotally making those decisions there's a process um you know I heard I heard the concerns from public input I think that should be taken into consideration I heard some positive comments tonight that should be taken into consideration it's not the time we just need to keep that placeholder in the budget thank you Patrick any other comments or questions from the board yes Ted
271just just one final comment um the proposal that I'm making is not attempting to uh to eliminate increases for any of the staff with the exception of the superintendent it's not intended to um dictate that everyone gets a certain amount it is exactly what the superintendent said at an earlier meeting that it is a pool from which we will use to reward good performance and I'm simply proposing that again with the with the exception of the superintendent's salary I'm proposing that the pool be cut in half that's all we are facing very difficult times the budget is going up and the attendance is going down we need to do something and one of the things we can do is hold the line a little bit tighter than we have in the past on salaries all
272right thanks said yes Bob can we just move the question please okay Bob is asked to move the question I'm having well we're crunching a few numbers here so we can get what that new bottom line number would be if the salary pool was reduced from three to one and a half so we actually have that solid number so Molly's working on that right now all right so there may be some some fine-tuning but it's going to be the ballpark there's a few other things that need to be taken a look at but if that was reduced the pool from 3 to 1.5 just so we know what the numbers are approximately the proposed budget would then become including the 4 million in Grants that again does not affect the taxpayers but we have to
273vote on the whole number so that we can spend those grants the number would drop down to 6, 79 the again 4 million of that as grants so the budget itself would go to 2 million oh 714 779 oh gotcha sorry so that's dropping from the 6 milon 75641 okay so we have some idea excuse me Travis what what was the net change in the in the total 42,1 63 okay thank you yep Noe good question thank you Ted all right seeing no further comments the motion is on the floor before us all those in favor of the motion if you could please raise your hands and keep them raised I see two all of those opposed to the motion that is clearly the majority and is anyone abstaining from this vote okay so the
274motion has failed do we have any other questions on the budget itself that's before us right now or anything else anybody would like to add yes Jennifer um Miss FIA brought up a good point I just wanted to clarify um the budget change Human Resources $80,000 is that is that moving a person from one that's just shifting things to make them more accurate am I right like it's not it's not that we hired a new HR director and then gave her an $80,000 rise no that's moving one person between one line to the other so if you look at the secretary clerical it's down but it's up in Human Resources but it's not the exact amount because of the equity adjustment for the human resource of $10,000 about makes perfect sense thank you um I
275just wanted to ask a question about um the public input that was given about course reimbursement and the person who gave public input was concerned that teachers were attending uh fewer conferences but I just wanted to clarify that this is not the budget for the teachers this is the budget for the administration and I think there was some confusion uh when the person was asking questions about certain areas that were going down it wasn't conference but it was course reimbursement in another area that she was concerned about um but that actually was not about teachers that that's about the administration thanks I just wanted to clarify that thanks okay any other questions or comments yes Ted thank you Travis um September 29th of this year the national school boards Association the nsba wrote a six-page
276letter to the president of the United States asking for quote federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring Across the Nation unquote T I just want to ask is this relative to the budget it it is in relevance to the budg okay I just want to stand point I could remind last time thank you uh the letter stated that quote America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat asking the federal government to quote investigate intercept and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against public school officials through existing statutes executive Authority inter agency and intergovernmental task forces and other Extraordinary Measures to ensure the safety of our children and Educators to protect interstate Commerce and to pre
277preserve Public School infrastructure and campuses air 5 days later the Attorney General of the United States wrote a memo to the director of the FBI the director of the executive office for us attorneys the Assistant Attorney General and the Criminal Division us attorneys quote directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation working with United States Attorney to convene meetings with federal state local tribal and territorial leaders interrup but I'm really unct within 30 days to facilitate the discussion of strategies Ted how does this tie into the budget move the question is out of order and I iar as to how this pertains to the budget I'm sorry I'm I'm just unclear as to how this pertains to the budget is there a line item that this is tying back to or how is this a budget yes
278it was related issue I'm leading up to a motion to look at the entry in our budget for dues to associations okay okay and one of those associations correct that one of those associations that we give money to is the nsba through the dues that we pay to the New Hampshire SBA yes so so Ted The Joint board doesn't that's not a decision The Joint board makes all the individual districts decide if they want to be members and the dues come out of their individual budgets it's not a joint board budgetary item the co-op would deal with it stratum Brentwood exitor so on and so forth but the not the joint board that deals with any of those types of of of dues there is no entry for dues in in our there's a dues
279entry dues and subscriptions right but for NS nhba The Joint board doesn't make those decisions it's each local like the co decides if they want to be a member not at the Joint board level but my motion has to do with all the dues and subscriptions okay okay so in the interest of time if we could it's getting pretty late I'm trying to move us along here a little bit Yeah you you're assuring me that that nothing in the budget that we're considering tonight goes to the nhba I'm not assuring for sure but that those decisions are made at each local board level The Joint board doesn't join any of those associations to my knowledge well wait a minute that wasn't the question the question is is it in the current budget under consideration and
280any of the money going to the nhba so it's just the superintendent Association that those dues go to not the New Hampshire school boards Association so no the answer is no The Joint board does not no there there is no money in this budget it goes pay of dues to the nhba not that's correct Y is there any money in this budget for payment of dues to any association that employs lobbyists the superintendent Association and I would certainly assume they Lobby on state and federal level yep so would be the superintendent association dues I have no idea what their lobbying efforts are but I'm assuming there would be something told by the way talking about are also contracts right so they have to open up the contract oh that's the other thing too so the
281membership in those associations is part of their contracts as well so right now we're contractually obligated to pay the dues for those associations okay thank you yep yes can I make a motion to excuse me make a motion to um approve the SAU budget as presented this evening second we have a motion where was the second second right here second sure okay we have a motion and a second to approve the budget as was presented this evening any further discussion on that motion on the budget yes sir I have a statement um I will be voting against this budget and I hope I can persuade any of my fellow board members to do so also I came to this board late in the process having been appointed to fill a position of East Kingston representative
282to the co-op board for the interim but I made a promise to the selectman who appointed me that I would act to improve the declining quality of Education provided by the SAU schools and at the same time work to reduce the cost to the taxpayers of providing that education Mr chairman I believe that this board is failing in its duty to effectively manage the sau6 superintendent and his administration we are allowing the quality to decline we are allowing the costs to increase this budget is more of the same the public is watching us more so than ever before 12 of us are up for reelection or replacement next elections myself included I believe I act in the best interests of the parents and taxpayers of our our six towns sometimes that will not be in
283the desired direction of the superintendent and his administration I hope the members of the board will consider those concerns in taking their vote right thank you Ted so we have a motion in a second to accept the budget as has been presented to us this evening seeing no further discussion by the board all those oh yes just just something quick um it's something that I had wanted to discuss it's probably a moot point because we already have the motion on the floor but one thing that I wanted to bring up that just concerned me is that we have the line down 20 grand um for software which shows a reduction of 43% um but we also have the 150 something from last year left over that's just sitting out there waiting for us to purchase
284a new system I just want to ask that in the future um the board take a vote on on how we're going to handle money that's left over from the prior year okay thank you all right so the budget has been moved and seconded so all those in favor of accepting the budget as presented please raise your hand and keep them raised for a moment we need a head count I think that's clearly majority yep just keep your hands up just for a second Swit all right all those opposed if you could raise your hands at this point and remember Melissa has two votes all set and is anyone abstaining from the budget vote all right the budget has passed do we have any other business this evening Dr Ryan socks are up 95 93
28593 all right with that we'll be looking for a motion to adjourn atair Mr chairman I had my hand raised when you said is there any other business yes sir um I don't know about the other board members but I'm having a problem properly preparing for these meetings when the agenda and the supporting materials are distributed to us typically on the Friday before a Monday or Tuesday meeting as we all do I have a very busy life outside of SAU business business so Mr chairman to help us prepare to intelligently discuss issues on the agenda I move that the board direct the superintendent to ensure that meeting agendas and supporting discussion items are distributed to the board members no later than the sixth day preceding the meeting thank you all right we have a motion
286on the floor does anybody care to second that motion I'll second it okay we have a motion and a second uh six days before the meeting was that the the time frame you gave six days the sixth day prior to the meeting sixth day prior to the meeting the the current uh policies of the committee um call for the all the items to be added to the agenda be delivered to him no later than the seventh day preceding I think a day is what easy enough time to put together an agenda to give us time to work on that agenda prior prior to the meeting okay any discussion on the motion I I would like to know if if you and Kayla believe that it is enough time um and also would we be able
287to add things to the agenda in those six days because sometimes things come up last minute I mean I understand that we can't do it within 24 48 Hours of the meeting but if it's four days before the meeting can we request to add things or does this prohibit us from doing that at all it should no in no way prohibit additions to the meeting which can always be added by a by a motion to the board at the meeting to amend the agenda this would just be applying to the Joint board and given four or five meetings a year I think we should be able to meet that deadline if it's approved thank you any further discussion Patrick so I I just want to speak in favor of that motion I I think it's
288a good idea um it's something generally that we tend to do at our local boards we tend to put out agendas about a week in advance um it gives good notice to the public if they want to be there if they see something that's on the agenda um to come and to be informed and I think as the motion speaks to it would be helpful to some board members that need additional time so I would support the motion all right seeing no other comments all those in favor of the motion please signify by raising your hand you could keep your hand up for a few minutes I see 20 Kayla you good late okay all those opposed and anyone abstaining from the vote so what were the numbers there Kayla motion passed it looked to
289me like okay yep so the motion passes all right thank you all very much this evening we need a motion to adjourn at sometime 10:39 make the motion to adjourn at 10:39 second we have a second all those in favor I thank you everybody have a good [Music] night [Music] oh