001Are we live? We're live, guys. >> It's just It was dark over there when I got here. >> All right. I will call to order at 702. We just let you know. Okay. Um, thank you everybody for being here. starting in the agenda. Um so as usual we will start with agenda review and I think we have a couple of items um to get rid of that or one item to get rid of but budget process review committee update there is not anything new the documents are attached there so if you want to look that's just what was presented at the last SA70 meeting so nothing new um but that is there and available um >> we we are presenting our final report at the next SA >> at the Next, I say you move
002to June 9th. Okay. Um, our final meeting, while I'm thinking about it, is June 10th from handover. So, final meeting of the school year. Um, anything else to add? Seeing none, um, we'll move into public comment. Are there any members of the public who wish to address the board on items not already on the agenda? not move on. Principal's reports. Do we have comments? Yes. >> Oh my gosh. Yummy. Hi. So, we have so busy. Sorry. Sorry. See, you're welcome to sit. That's totally fine. >> We've been so busy the last couple of weeks. Um it's it's been a whirlwind back in vacation between all the different field trips and activities that students have been doing. We started New Hampshire state testing. Uh fifth grade has finished up. Third and fourth grade are still working.
003We're hope hoping we're finishing up next week. Um we have end of year benchmarking happening as well. Uh the instrumentalists and are getting ready for their concert on the 28th. Sounding fantastic in rehearsals so far. Um, so much is happening >> and you guys need to hear all of it. It's right by right by the office, right? >> It's been it's been really busy. Um, but >> yeah, there's lots of new things happening. So, it's great. >> The new play space is open. Yes. >> We're having a little We're having a little trouble with the excitement about the new study space and how to use it appropriately. Uh, merry gorounds are tricky and they like to go really really fast. We've had couple some tummy trouble on the play. >> We're working on that. >>
004My memories of childhood. >> Yeah, for have gotten called out to the play space a couple times. We'll get it. We'll get it. They'll figure it out. They'll settle down once they get used to it. But yeah, it's exciting to have it open again finally. It's a long time coming. Great questions for Colleen. >> I I just have one really quick question. It's about the vernal pool. >> And so that's post the grant and the plowing it out. >> I don't think that they didn't start that yet. They had to wait because they had to wait on that. >> So that hasn't happened. >> That hasn't happened. You still have a vernal pool. >> We do and all that. >> They have the permit. They're ready to go. They had to wait for I can't
005now. >> I can't remember what it was, but there was some reason they had to wait. >> Okay. Something about the ground. >> Very fast. >> Well, you actually have a pool happening right now. Lots of lots of critters down there that covered. So, >> there's been a lot of rain. Yes, I know. >> Yes. I'm sorry. >> Oh, no. No. Totally fine. Um I just didn't see I saw the second grade went to bins and I didn't um see kindergarten mentioned but I think it's important because they did a cool trip that also involved like the high school the high school kids were there with the whole composty stuff and I that was just really an awesome interage cross district thing that it was >> as a kind and a second grade parent. >>
006Did they did they write advanced transit to that high school? No, no, no, >> no. >> Oh, they went to the event. >> Yeah, that happened after I submitted the reports. >> It'll be in next months. >> We'll stop question. >> Go ahead. >> I was just going and I'll say there we just had a lively discussion about an hour ago with my family about how the music there was an integrated music thing as well with kind of I don't know if it was all grades, some of the great high schoolers. So I I as on that note of like the kind of collaboration across schools is really cool to see when they came to the high school with Mary and promised to be here. So >> all right well thank you on >> to
007business required discussion 75 minutes of Oh not gonna say it. No >> 75 minutes. Here we go. Okay. So, this brings us to Chris and Jim. Thank you guys for being here. Um, so we're we uh for any members of the viewing public, um, we had someone needed to step down from the board. Um, and so we are filling that seat and the process for that is an appointment. So, both Jim and Chris submitted letters of interest, which was awesome. Um, so we're going to hear from them briefly tonight and then board members will have a chance to ask questions and then during non-public we'll decide and pick somebody. Um, so it's just a what is it? Nine-month appointment. It's until the next election cycle. >> Um, so >> thank you both. Do is there
008one of you who'd like to start? >> If not, I'll just go in order on my documents. Chris, go ahead. >> Yeah. Chris Riv. Um, yeah. So, I think you asked to share my interest in running for the board. Uh, and I would assume my interest is probably no different than than all of yours. And I think the the main thing is continuing the legacy that is the Hannenburg public school system. And I think it has two components to it. I think there's u the academic component to it. Obviously it's an excellent school system and the students performance shows that and I think that there's also um the value side of it and what it provides to the people of the community. Uh, I think it's it's a public there's it's a private school education
009at a public school cost. Uh, I sent my own kid to Crossroads for a year and I pulled him out. I didn't think it was any I thought this was equally as good if not better private school. And you know, I think those two things are interconnected. Um, but in a unique way. you know, if you were to just double the school budget, would you get double the outcome? Would it be substantially better? Would it actually translate to real improvements? And I think obviously it's not it's not really true. You know, you at some point there's diminishing returns. Um but I also think that there there is evidence for the opposite to be true as well that they've shown uh that you know to to foster creativity that you can actually that um like scarcity
010foster creativity. So it's kind of mixing it up but um I think that the near future the most important commodities that our children can provide is imagination and creativity. You know I my job I have to use I use AI for programming and coding and what I can do today is 1,000 times more than what I could do before AI. It's it's the idea that um we need to teach our kids to code. I think is just it's like you know maybe at one point we had to teach our kids to to saddle a horse or something. That's just it's antiquated now. It's already we don't really need that STEM education. I was a science teacher for seven years. I lived it. Uh and so I think you know there's there's a a big pressure
011with the town related to finance committee you know and the and the continued budget increases and and I think u ter has a point but you said previously about kind of a paradigm shift of the schools coming to the board and saying this is this is what we need um to run the schools versus the board saying this is what we can give. >> And and I know that if it does mean a reduction in in funding that that's a very unsavory unfavorable condition. But I I think that there's it's not to provide the necessary environment for our kids future. We don't need the latest technological things. We don't need uh all these you know things. What we need are we need to create humans. we need to create imagination and critical thinking kids of
012and so yeah I'm really uh strongly in favor of just know providing a better environment for the kids and maintaining these kind of core virtues of of the handover public school system of an exceptional education at a great value. >> Thanks Chris. Thank you. Um, do we want to ask Chris questions out or hear from Jim and then just ask general questions? >> Jim and then ask general questions. Okay, perfect. >> Hey everybody. >> Mark, but um my name is Jim Tanton. I moved to the area last year with my wife and three kids. My oldest is a kindergartener at the race school. Um, in my previous professional life, I served as a budget director at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC. In my current role, I'm the CFO of Vermont Law
013School in South Roads in Vermont. Um, if selected for this interim position, I hope to bring the financial and budgetary experience to bear. Um, helping the school district live with, thrive in, and navigate these challenging inflationary times. So, thank you. Jim's Jim's working on that 75 minutes, right? >> All right. Um, board number questions or either both. Yes, Rene. >> Um, I I believe what I'm hearing uh is similar kind of like budgetary interest. Um, and I'm curious like a big part of being on the school board is, you know, the committees that you were a part of. Um what do each of you think that you would bring uniquely to budget committee discussions? Um I don't know how to who goes first. >> So I think u well being a teacher at a public
014school for seven years I understand what it's like to be on the receiving side of the budget. uh and I think my in my professional experience as a research scientist I my occupation is doing data analysis and making informed decisions and so I I think those are my two strengths. >> So uh in my experience I'm used to creating multi-year budgets looking at long horizons trying to make good plans based on the best information available. Um, so that budget can survive as the best plan in any given year. We all probably know from experience you have a budget plan, but then the world happens. And so you just need to make sure you're thinking through it as best as you can. Um, so you can act during the end of the year and sort of
015planning out that longer horizon to make sure you're on the right path and adapting is necessary. So, um, that's, you know, what I would bring to the table on the, um, budget side and the financial side. >> Great. >> Yeah. T, um, I'm just wondering what you each think that you might need from the board uh, to have uh, as positive an experience and as productive an experience as possible upon joining. Sure. Um, you know, that's a that's a very interesting question. What do I think I need from the board? Um, I think the you know, it's they're difficult conversations. Um, and I think it's just an open mind and that's it. You know, just hearing people out. >> Yeah. To echo Chris, I think curiosity is incredibly important. Like I said, I'm I'm new
016here. during here last year. I don't know the main issues that are facing the board and the school district right now. So, I think curiosity is incredibly important, getting up to speed on some of those issues, understanding what's driving the inflationary factors in the budget. Um and just just learning how all these factors play in especially given that it's you know a um a multi-state budget and a lot goes into that and synchronizing it to get the right >> uh data all together. I'm gonna ask a different question because I I really >> I'm gonna make Jim go first this time and then >> I really appreciate the no screens and I really appreciate the financial background. Uh neither of which I brought to the board. Um I would love to know what your favorite
017class was in school, particularly in high school. I know this is the Hannover school board, but you'll be K through 12. What was your favorite class or teacher? >> Um, it was ecology. So, and I grew up in Southern California and that's the chaperel, the climate. And it just really brought me to all the nature around and >> um and getting to understand it and what goes here and Yeah. >> And Chris, >> yeah. Uh so I I grew up in the in the shadows of Flint, Michigan. Uh and so the the world uh that I grew up in was was dominated by the auto industry. U our high school produced engineers for the auto industry. Uh my favorite class I would say um was drafting. you know, when I was a I started as
018a freshman on a drafting on a drafting table with pencil and paper and I went from that all the way through um computer drafting and and machine class and and even digital electronics. So, it's very engineering from the beginning. >> I was hoping to hear English. So, >> you had an adequate answer. >> That was fun. >> Okay. No bias. Um I I think Christie may have touched upon this, but I think I'm curious also like Deb, I don't come to this with a financial background, school social worker and social work, things like that. Um I'm curious about when you think of the role of public schools like what what do you feel like are those core values for you for a public school in as a part of your community? And I am also
019going to start with Jim just because he gets to go twice first too. >> Yeah, for me it's you know being part of a community you know going to school where you live with the kids around you. um and that that shared experience as as hard. >> Um yeah, that that's a it's a tricky question and something I like I guess I for seven years and I spent a lot of time thinking what what is the point of this because the kids would ask me every day why why do I need to learn this? What's the point? Uh and you know I and ultimately um yeah I I do believe that um the core thing is to provide these basic skills and that enable civiliz you know society to flourish. Uh, and I think that
020there's been a disservice a lot to a lot of students. Um, where, you know, for as an example, I would get a a kid and they would say, you know, they're they're going to work with their hands. They don't really need to to do science. They don't need to be so, you know, don't have to hold them to high standards. They're going to work with their hands and they're going to be okay. And I would say, you know, try to read the if you want to become an electrician, try to read the electrical code. You have to be an attorney. It's not there's nothing easy today. And so I think that we we really see something else. >> If you struggle to read or to do math, you cannot even enter that thing. Um, and
021so yeah, I I think that was ultimately one of the reasons why I left um teaching was that I just it was a struggle of this is really important, but we're not actually maintaining or not holding it up as important. >> It's a good question, K. >> Any other questions from board members? >> I have one more. Um, Jim again. Um, just time commitment. So, um I know not scare either of you running out the door, but um we it is more than just handover board and I think you know you both have tuned in enough to know that. Um if I just look at the next few weeks, we have the retreat next week. We have uh a board meeting, two board meetings the first week of June. Um so second week of June.
022So it it is at times I would say >> three that week. >> Three of that week. Oh, cool. Okay. three that week. Um, so yeah, I mean I think it works out to what three a month on average plus committee work. So just wanted to kind of >> throw that out there and see if you had thoughts on, you know, availability and time commitments and um times of day that you are more available to kind of lean in for committee work and that sort of thing. All of our board meetings are evenings, but the committee work is throughout the day. So, uh I would say evenings are are my best time having three young kids and having uh a board that I also have commitments to um which are usually during the day. Um
023that's that's the best best time for me. >> Um yeah, I kind of similar I I I my work schedule is uh quite flexible. Um, and I only work at the hospital, so it's not like I go very far. Um, and and oddly enough, I I have a dairy cow, so I have to be home every single day. I don't travel ever really available. >> That is the first time I've heard a dairy cow mentioned in >> Won't be the last. Um, Kelly, can you hear me? Can I chime in? >> Go ahead, Ben. >> All right. Thanks. Um, so I wanted to first give a shout out to the survey which has questions both about AI and about screen time. So feel free to fill that out as parents. If you haven't yet, do
024on Friday. That said, um, I will echo Kelly's comment about the logistics factor where just to be careful. This is we different board members treat board experience as kind of two different mindsets. One is we are volunteers and we are doing the best we can with the resources we have. The other is that we are paid elected officials who are voted into office and have very specific assignments of setting policies, developing budgets and supervising the superintendent. So my my question to both of you would be um what do you envision board life to be and what are you trying to get out of it knowing that according to the law our three goals are what what I mentioned we are supervising the superintendent noting that means the superintendent is supervised by arguably four separate boards
025which share memberships but may have very different goals. You will serve on three different boards with three different chairs. three different goals, three different workloads. You develop policies which largely align with all the districts but may not and you supervise and develop budgets which also may conflict with the budgets of the other boards. How does that sit with both of you? >> Okay, I could >> and just just to be fair, when I first joined the board, I did not know there was more than one board. Kelly did not mention that >> eight years ago. >> Wow. >> Sure. >> Working with three boards I'm sure is challenging has different goals if there are different goals. But I think you know the the idea would to be getting everybody in sync and on the same
026path as much as you can. Um I tend to think the budget process is you know that guide because that shows your shared values. Um, and you know, the it's a it's a big commitment and what I hope to get out of it is just, you know, being part of this community, giving back where I can, um, and ensuring we're working working through issues together and, you know, in a respectable, curious, open way. >> Yeah. It's probably very similar. Uh I would I do believe I would see it more as as like a as a volunteer um service and and providing my unique perspective and and um life experiences to help uh guide the schools um toward as I said the maintaining the legacy that that it has established. Um and obviously it is a
027substantial workload. Uh but you know that's the most important. >> Any other questions from before members? >> I have one more clarifying statement if that's okay. And this goes back to the committees. Like Kelly mentioned the committees are a heavy workload. Arguably you spend more time on them than you do in actual board meetings depending on the specifics of the committee and the timing of the year. But for several of them, the timing of the meetings, the committee meetings are dictated by board members. While there are other ones where the board member has to go to preset meetings that are involving students or involving hourly employees or 9to-ive workers. And so which committee you are on is sort of in consultation with your interests where with your expertise with your passions as well as with
028the logistics of what you're able and not able to attend. So there are some committees where we set the agenda and the timing and others we must be there at certain times such as Wednesday around lunchtime for the high school stuff and other things like that. >> That's all. Thank you. >> Thanks Ben. I feel like somebody has to say this like I work a job that I do not have a ton of flexibility in the day. It is fine. Um it is okay. Um, and there's a good balance I think on the board that allows for different scheduling to make it a doable thing. And there is work that is being talked about and always being worked on is how do we make it feasible for everybody and recognize that everybody has so I
029don't want I don't want that constant scare. Stay tuned for retreat topics. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, any last questions from you guys for the board before we move on the agenda? No. Okay. So, again, um process, sorry, it's a little awkward. Um but the the process is we'll finish the items for discussion. Um and then when we go into non-public, we'll chat. So, understanding if that the two of you have other things tonight that you need to get to. Um but you're welcome to stay obviously. Um so, with that, we will move on to the legislative update. Um I'm going to kind of lean on Tara and Robin and Deb for this a bit because I've had a week. Um, but I know I've seen things coming through about open enrollment that was
030defeated. Um, but >> postponed, but well, yeah, kind of. >> Yeah. So, always still percolating, but currently not, uh, probably something we need to worry about for the next school year at least. Um, and then the >> Yeah. And then the other thing that came through recently was the tax cap >> loads. I don't know if any of you have updates to share on that. >> Sure. Okay. Tara thought you might. Thank you, friends. >> A community member asked me about this bill. Um and I had not thought had any chance at all of passage until I read the most recent amendment. >> And the most recent amendment changes everything. So this is a bill which and originally um uh imagined that each and every town would vote every other November, so every two years
031on whether or not the town was in support of a 6% tax cap increase on school district budgets. Um and then recently and that did not seem like it was going to fly. And then it was modified to be a one-time only vote this coming November >> for um for voters in each and every town in New Hampshire to decide whether or not they would like to apply a 6% increase on their school district spending. >> Max increase >> max >> without >> just in perpetuity. Uh no uh not necessarily. So that were that was a bunch of the objections for the every two-year situation. Um and the complication of this vote would override this normal town meeting process where we vote as a community on a specific budget number for our schools and for
032things like um negotiated agreements with work units. all the bargaining units who have union representation and all of that. So, this would override all of that. So, so right now it's a one-time test and it uh looks like it's moving toward an actual vote. >> So, would it be a standalone special election type vote in November? >> That would be lumped in with the November ball. >> November. Okay. Got it. >> Yep. And there's really interesting analysis by the department of rent new administration in New Hampshire. I can send that to everyone. Anyone who's interested, I can send it. I'm not sure if our Norwitch um you know friends might also on board might also be interested because if we get slapped with this cap, it will obviously affect the budget preparations >> for driving
033us >> between us both. And I I would please do send it and if you wouldn't mind copying Ryan and she can actually attach it um to this legislative update perhaps to the next Dresden as well. >> And if anyone's interested, I have a copy of the proposal in my bag. >> Seven pages long. >> Yes, I know two things. One, I love you for that, >> but just point of clarification. Is it um so if this were to happen in November? >> Yes. Are we voting to say next year's the following year budget is capped at 6% or the following and the following and the following and everything is now capped at 6%. We will have to >> it will take a village to read this and understand completely with the amendment. My understanding
034it is now a oneyear >> it is just for that >> test is sort of a litmus test but if I imagine if it has success across the entire state there may be implications for future legislation. Sure. >> I think I think I'd say all synopsis too of it. >> Yeah. >> So, it's called HB. I believe it's 14 1300 or 14. >> It's 13. >> 13. Thank you. >> And I mean the tradition that we've seen with other bills going through is that there are probably 15 amendments that are going to come before this amendment sees any kind of >> might be really real close to close to passing. Well, another thing just to realize we're coming to the end of the legislative season and so things are being amended to other popular bills
035>> in the hope that because the big thing like one of them is about prosthetic devices and covering the payment for those and they are amending the open carry on college campuses bill to that. Oh, >> and prosthetic devices being covered by medical insurance has bipartisan support. Open carry in dorms on college campuses in New Hampshire does not. >> So open enrollment was attached to um a drug treatment bill. >> So this is how this happens. >> Yes, exactly. >> So just because it does not be an education related bill, it often times very much is an education related. Welcome to New Hampshire. >> And you know, I will just say for everyone watching, but also for the two of you, um this is something, you know, in the last couple of years that we
036have really been begun leaning into and recognizing that um and and that something that's come up in surveys that our constituents really want us to um be involved in the legislative uh matters happening that affect schools. um not in a political way but in a how is this impacting education of our students in Hanover and New Hampshire more broadly. Um so we are we are trying to play a more active role in that. Um I will say today um there was a meeting with Caitlyn Davis um with the schoolboard advocacy network in uh conquered. I was not able to go. U obviously was not able to go. So, as soon as I have an update on what the outcome of that was, I will share that around, but I don't have that yet. Thank you.
037>> Can I chime in, Kelly? >> Please go ahead. >> Um, yeah, and on that survey Kelly mentioned with the political awareness, not political support. That had roughly an 80% um, yes, please, across all four schools, which for those of you who do public surveys and sort of any sort of public analysis, 80% buyin on something is incredibly high. in the real world, you're not really going to get much higher. There was less support for please tell us your specific thoughts and advocacy type stuff as you'd expect, which we I don't think anyone plans to go down that road ever despite the unfortunate name of the school board advocacy network. But, um, we are trying our best, as is Robin, to sort of get the word out on what is happening currently and possibly down
038the pipeline, which is the want the desire by our community. >> Yeah. And I and I will just add to that Ben and thank you that you know the school advocacy network one of the things that's been very cool about that organization is that um or that I don't know what you call it co coalition that that meeting of minds um has been is really across the spectrum politically. It's um representing um uh school boards in towns across New Hampshire with a whole different set of uh budget situations and funding situations and political views and you know um so it's it's a really broad >> it is deliberately apolitical. >> Yeah. Yep. Okay. If there's nothing else on legislative stuff, I will move us along to finalize board calendar and topic template. Um, not the
039complexities that we have seen um around the annual meeting that we've talked about. Um, some of that is necessary uh evils for right now. Um, but there are definitely some um April vacation conflicts. Um, otherwise I think this is our last view of this. Any concerns, questions? >> Yes. >> The only thing I'm thinking about because there's a July deadline for submitting any NHS SBA resolutions, we have it in April, but I almost feel like it should be there for a couple of months, >> but um the bullet point that says discuss NHSBA resolutions, we have it in April, but I would suggest we add it to May. >> Yeah. Sometimes it just doesn't come up that quickly. >> Okay. Yeah, and I will put that out there um for board members, but also members
040of the public. If you have anything that you would like to see our board particularly take on with the New Hampshire School Board Association as a resolution, um always send that our way. That's something that we can >> wrestle with. >> Yeah. Um I know I've said this every time I look at this, the February break with the annual meeting, but just to name that it came up again um last night in town meeting, it was mentioned the importance of attendance of the school. like somebody made a comment um >> that you know no one was there basically um and >> not even your father >> because I think he was the only person there. >> Um and so I think um >> just to reemphasize that um how much having our annual meeting happen
041on a vacation weekend is >> impacts public. Not that people come in for moves like last night the town meeting we're not >> angles participants but >> I think for this it's part of the articles of >> right now so we have flexibility so keep talking about it change the article >> thank you for naming it >> y okay um and uh stay tuned because when we talk about the retreat in a second I'll bring this back up >> um reading of policy I'm glad we have been online. This is a second reading. Ben, anything new to share? >> Excuse me. I'm going offline just for a second, coincidentally. >> Oh, >> okay. >> That was a joke. That was a joke. Um, >> so we had this I think it's it was obviously tied
042into open enrollment and we are keeping it on. I think that was the desire of both the policy committee and of the superintendent just to sort it have it ready to go if open enrollment rears its ugly head again which we all know is more than likely and this kind of continues to cover our bases. We did discuss Tara's point about transportation that she made at I believe the last meeting. We did decide to keep it on and keep it sort of vague in terms of what that entails partially by design. We added the grades that we talked about before. We added a reference that we have already have relevant policies and class size recommendations um from previous years and I think that was it for the total discussion last time >> and this is
043a second >> so are we approving that tonight? Sorry I should know the answer. Yes. Okay, that's what I thought. >> All right, any other questions on this one? All right. Um moving on to the burn foundation donation. So this is under the threshold for required board approval. Um but we always want to acknowledge and thank um the burn foundation for their generosity, extreme generosity. Um so I don't have anyone to speak to this. We have all the details of the agenda. Um, I will just say how much um in all of this um how much I appreciate Chantel Orland's time um and investment in the actual adorable little puppy that is in this um picture um because that I'm sure there are >> huh he's the calmst puppy I've ever met this way belly
044up It's so not an alpha dog. >> So, thank you to her for for this investment of time and love. Um, >> Kelly, can I >> Yes, please go ahead. >> So, this is more with my my policy hat on. I don't think anyone else was on the board at the time except Kelly, but in 2019, there was a policy inputed about animals in the schools. And at that time, this was actually pretty controversial. Took policy committee almost a year to go through these issues. There was a lot of discussion and frankly a lot of antagonism towards dogs in the schools particularly dogs that belong to employees and how much of a problem this was from a safety hygienic kid fear things. We even had to go into the academic literature on this in terms
045of how much kids are or are not afraid of dogs. It's it's limited but at the elementary age it's roughly 20% of children have a documented fear of dogs. And this policy which is IMG if anyone wants to look it up goes into some very fine detail here and I just want to make sure that everyone particularly the administration of Ray has gone through this. This would include um several different certifications and vaccinations. All animals allowed on school property during school hours must be for a specific and appropriate educational purpose and shall be allowed for only the amount of time necessary to achieve the educational goal. It has to be um you know no dog, no ticks, mites, lice, etc. There must be permission granted from all parents and legal guardians before animals are brought
046into a classroom. Reasonable accommodations for all children involved. The animal must be leashed at all times and will not be free roaming in the school housing and al and you have to wash your hands after every contact with the animal. So there is a lot more to this than I than perhaps board members are currently envisioning and I just want to make sure that we have proper plans and protocols for this to happen and it is not maybe as clear-cut as folks were hoping this would be and for very good reason. We spent a very long time on this. Thanks, Ben. That was one of my first thoughts. I I will say I'd love to hear from administration. I'll give you a chance to formulate. Um I I will say I personally thinking back to
047the history behind everything you're talking about, Ben. Um I I love the amount of training and testing and um steps involved in this. And it it did seem to me and I'm curious adding on to Ben's question, it seems like there are multiple exit points where if this is not working, we're going to back out of this. Um, and that's, you know, part of why I was also really glad to see that the investment in Goose himself herself himself himself and Goose himself is a family that that regardless will take this loving animal home if this isn't working out. So, I'd love to hear from you guys kind of >> Yeah. And I think this came about because of the success of our dog. Oh, sorry. >> And it's okay. Some people are easier to
048hear. I think >> I can't hear at all unless you're closer to the mic. So, thank you for coming up coming up. >> Um, this came about from the success of the the dog that are in place at RMS and at the high school right now. And has been talking about it and wanting to do something like this for a long time. Um, and so she did a lot of investigation and learning about what it would take to get a dog certified to be in a school to be able to support students. Um, and so I think that's where we came from. We approached it that way. >> Um, >> and would you say that my statement is true that there are >> multiple >> exit points if it's not? >> It's a lengthy training
049program. He's going to be working with the trainers for over almost a year and I think 15 months I think of total time. He's already started. Uhhuh. >> He's he's A++ in the classroom. >> He's the demonstration dog. >> Yeah. He's doing he's doing a good job and I think he would be a great addition to the race. We'd be lucky to have a dog back home. >> Um I was just I was going to say what Colleen just said in terms of it is an existing program in the high school and the middle school. And my hope would be that like this is a model that we have >> looked at the um reg policy that Fen is >> referencing. Um why things always happens? >> The other thing I was going to say
050is just as a professional >> professional therapist uh yeah dog therapy is amazing and it is an incredibly effective um intervention for children for whom other symptoms don't work. And I just think the power of animal intervention is being studied. There's lots of research and it's pretty powerful um from a clinical lens. There's plenty of evidence. >> This you guys you guys know this is not me until you do your job. Um I I think obviously collecting data on you know giving parents an opportunity to say my child would prefer not to interact with the salmon would be an important step. I don't know if that's in our policy >> but absolutely not. No one will be forced to interact with a dog. >> You need dog. >> There there is something in the policy
051that says um it's item number six if you're looking at it that if any parents or legal guardians object to the presence of an animal, appropriate accommodations will be made. All efforts will be made to ensure students are not excluded. >> Okay. Correct. Perfect. All right. >> I said I'm not I'm not just want to emphat this is not a Ben policy. This is a handover voted upon policy. So just putting that it does exist and I see uh I don't know if you guys are online but Lauren also has her hand raised. >> Oh thank you. Okay. Um we'll do and then Lauren. Um it's it is not important anymore. Lauren >> Hi everybody. I haven't been moved over as a panelist yet, so I'm just hanging out here. But I just wanted to
052echo where this conversation started and what Colleen said. Um, Chantel, Ben, Kelly, and I also lived all through this um, iteration of the first attempt of a dog at the race school, and many, many lessons were learned. And I would just like to assure the board that in this process, um, we thought very, very much about very deeply about that, um, experience that we all had. the policy itself um in order to move forward with a really robust um opportunity for our students through um this grant-f funded opportunity to have a dog at our school. So all of those things that were were maybe concerned about from our previous attempts have been taken into consideration and we have a really strong proposal here >> that is very generously funded by the burn Foundation that I
053do. >> Now you do. Okay, go ahead. This is different. Um, >> is the funding like a one time one need one one time need or are we thinking this is the seed grant and then we're going to need to consider this as part of our budget moving forward. This is just like yeah for the training. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you everyone. There questions. This is not a question. This is just me and the Darthy Burn Foundation >> and acknowledging that to date Darthy Bernie has given $841,000 27 $841,275 to Dresden Hanover and Marian Cross School. And these are in many instances increasing sums of money that are yearly. And I think at some point we need to either budget for those items and not keep going to her and asking
054her to pay for them or we should consider not doing it. And I know that they have implications on a bigger scale. But just looking at all those numbers, particularly March intensive going from an initial request of $6,000 to now $35,000. I think we that's a conversation we should have at some point. >> Um yes, and I would um I'm looking over at Renee. I think um maybe making a mental note as part of our budget process um the the kickoff strategy meetings understanding of those that are not guaranteed for the long term either, right? So um that's probably a good thing. Thanks for throwing that out. All right, moving us on to the prek recommendation. This is going to be so thorough and so fast. I love the length of this slide deck. Two
055slides. So, I mean there's really concise like I've never seen two slides. >> There's really three, but uh so first slide is just to call out the folks who participated in this. Um and Marcela didn't make it on here, but she also was a part of this committee. I don't want to um short her participation. The general recommendation from this committee is that there should be a um we would like to recommend to the board that um there are two prek classrooms starting in the 2027 school year to 2028 school year. Um and that we these two classrooms both have a capacity for 15 students a piece. um that we charge tuition of 7,500 per student um and that we utilize the free and reduced lunch data to offer scholarships and funding as needed as
056well as special education students who um would have a different need. Um, so our hope is that we really wanted to have the board vote to approve that we are committed to this cost. Um, and then allow the administrators to really make the detailed decisions that um, will inform exactly what this looks like. And in terms of that timeline, I think that can be a piece perhaps for some conversation. But um, I'm just going through these bullets and then of course we'll discuss. But the idea is to that the administration team that was a part of this prek committee um would also collaborate with MCS's prek team as they figure out those details. But in terms of the purview of this committee um we did not feel it was our job to say like this
057is exactly how this will look. Um if you click on the final bullet the edunomics grid. Thank you Renee for sharing this lovely grid. you get to see a little bit more of the messy way that I made this make sense in my brain. Um, and these numbers were ones that have been updated from when Brett gave his proposal, I don't know, last year, last year since October. >> Um, >> to reflect increases in salary. Um, and so you'll see the total there is $531,328 and that is total cost the most expensive it could possibly be. Two full-time teachers, two full-time EAs and startup materials per cl two classrooms for any adjustments that are needed to make it prek accessible um of $35,000 a piece. So that would be in our view the most expensive
058it could be. the pieces that we are not dictating as a committee because we really didn't feel it was our purview. Um, in the course of the committee, Colleen and Rhett shared a a couple two to four ways that this could work, things that could happen um in terms of school schedule to make this fit. Um, and some of those have to do with the size of classrooms and um, some smaller cohorts of age groups that are coming and that there could be consolidation of older classroom sizes that would mean that there would be an additional teacher anyway, which would drastically shift the overall cost of prek. Um, but those pieces, the reason why I left that total 531,000 is because to me a commitment from this board is that this is aligned with our
059values. We believe in education. There is endless study that early childhood interventions um save money in the long haul, which um there is data out there that we could bring, but these are all pieces that the committee talked about. Um, but we don't think it will cost that for there's also the pieces that Rhett spoke about that many of us were here for around we already pay special education costs for early childhood kids who need interventions earlier to go to private preks um because we don't have one and so that would be cost-saving for those kids to remain in district. Um, so you can see there's a whole column on costs that you know and as I said before you guys know I'm not the numbers person. But um big things are equity, like a
060really big piece. Um increase the community's capacity to serve families with prepaid students is a massive community need. Like no questions. Um and I think it also really can set up some of our kids with the highest needs for more success earlier in their educational um career. Um, so I just want to name that we're not trying to be obtuse by not giving specifics, but in this committee really talking about like we're going to shift, you know, so there's fewer sections of this particular special so that preK can fit here did not feel like the weeds that this committee should speak to. But those are the kind of shifts that will have to happen for this to fit. There will be a change. There may be some grade levels where the class size increases by
061four to five students. Um, and the these are things that are not everybody's favorite. Slightly uncomfortable um perhaps. And this committee believes strongly that the value of saying that we're investing in early childhood outweighs that that discomfort and some of those changes that may have to come. Um, but nothing would be eliminated. nothing needs to be gone. Like all the specials and wonderful pieces that exist at the right school can still exist with two prek classrooms. >> Thanks Carrie. Um couple just >> can I say some words too? >> Yes. Can I just one clarification? So just want to make sure everyone realizes we are not talking about starting this this fall. It would be for the following fall. So just wanted to point that out. Um and then I I will just say before
062Terra Tara talks that um I appreciate this sort of maximum exposure piece so that we can be thinking about that um as you know if it's a full investment this is the dollar amount so um Tara go ahead sorry >> okay I had to explain this to the Hannibal finance committee >> uh so I want to give that sort of insight and also reassure the folks here that part of this analysis and support of This program for me was very much hinged upon wanting the program to be permanent, longstanding, and be able to be perpetually funded within our normal budget process. Um so one of the things that we did in committee was we reviewed the projected enrollment numbers for the race school and we observed that there is very much a trend uh to
063support the natural reduction of one classroom teacher thereby allowing us to have availability for one classroom for prek. And then we also really discussed that the second classroom would have to be a decision shift um with the school leadership and the board to tolerate at least one classroom with a larger um number of students. Um and based upon you know sort of our analysis of the projected enrollment just being projected we really don't know. A lot of this is, you know, like we've heard, making the best decisions we can get with the most best available information. Um, this seems sustainable. And we also went over some historical enrollment data which shows that there have been years with many, many more students in the Ray School and all of those students had a classroom to go
064to. So adding these net new 30 students should not be untenable for the physical plant to um accommodate. And my last soap box which some people may have already heard is >> it is also time like handover is uh you know we've heard some talk about the quality of the education here. Um and it is unheard of to me that we don't offer early childhood like we need prek. Um it feels like it doesn't match our highquality continuum of education that we speak to in this community. Um so to me it feels like a value as well. There's an opportunity to align with Marian Cross who's having now for like eight years. >> Thank you guys. Any other committee members wanted to >> questions? Yeah, I I will just say in life of what Tara
065mentioned about size of classes, I happened to see the class photo from my daughter's kindergarten class in Portland, Maine, and there are 19 children in the classroom. and it's the classroom with kids who speak English, who are learning English as a second language. >> So, you know, maybe she's never going to learn to read. >> I don't think but um anyway, >> yeah, I I heard an order of 35 like, you know, there's >> Yeah, I'm just saying though, it's 2026. Portland, Maine is a wellsupported school system. >> They have three social workers in the school. Mhm. >> One's whole life. >> Um, I just wanted to uh say I know we're talking about class size here and I I just want to reiterate uh anything we're talking about is still within the range >>
066of any policy. Like that's my assumption. But I do think it's worth stating like we are looking at numbers that sure it might be three to four but it's still within the range that we've already specified as a board in a community that we are comfortable with which is lower than the state's recommend recommendation by a quite a bit >> my understanding. >> So I want to just make sure that doesn't you know nobody's freaking out about us going to 30. Um, and then the second thing I wanted to say is that uh I I I know teacher collaboration is so important and I also know prek is just different enough that I love having an option to have two >> at the same time that in the same school. Yes, we have Mary and
067Cross and that should be part of the collaboration, but they are physically not there and there's just something amazing about being able to go next door and be like, "Dude, can we talk?" And they're like, "Yes." Um, and uh I I'm no longer an educator, but I would suspect that that is um really going to be important for for any new program we start. So, I I love the fact that you guys considered two and figured out that yes, base size could could work. And I think the other big reason for two was that conversation about the community need and that to have 115 person class would mean that um you know and Brett isn't here but he's the one who can really speak to those special education numbers and percentages but because a big
068goal is to bring and be able to serve our three and four year olds in district instead of sending out. That's a big piece of it's another piece of the motivation for this is that those kids would all then be in one classroom as well which you know there's there's a lot of research around like you want to have a diversity within your classrooms and this allows for that as well >> and and just we think Sean who came to one you know Sean was like they wait over in Mary cross like this is >> the spons will get filled the need is there. Yeah. Um, guess just one last thing I'd say to support it is it supports our strategic plan, too. It's been one thing that we've been trying to Yeah. for the
069past several years. So, >> it's exciting. >> And the $7,500 didn't come out of nowhere. Um, in looking at other um Yeah, I mean it is >> laughable. The $7500 is laughable. Yeah, what we are presenting um as a proposal is a 5 day a week school day school hour length program. 7500 is the approximate cost for one of the local preschools for a 3-day a week, three-hour day program. So, is there room for us to increase the cost? There absolutely is, but we felt like we wanted to start at a non-scary number and analyze how does this work for us? We're obviously not in the business of making money. We're in the business of providing service and um achieving better goals by having this early intervention program within the school. So if we needed
070to go up to $10,000 absolutely we could and I don't think any parent would really no especially when it is we would the committee would love for there to be um an option for um you know tuition adjustment based upon need. I want I want to try to move us toward um closing the discussion piece, but I'm also mindful that we're being asked to decide on this tonight. And I will say my reservation in deciding on this tonight is that those details, those number details that I sort of feel um I understand I like the like I said the mass exposure piece. I think that was important to understand and I would feel more comfortable giving a head nod to or a vote to yep we want to move forward knowing that's the max exposure.
071That said, I personally would rather not put a stake in the ground on the tuition amount and let the committee continue to flush that out as they go through the rest of the planning. I would echo Kelly's point um that with this was voted down about less than half a year ago because it was very nebulous. We do set budgets. It is well within our um our need to discuss this kind of stuff. And I'm I'm hesitant to kind of do this. We're behind it in spirit. No one I don't think anyone is against the concept of early education. I was a strong proponent of this for several years. But there were a lot of unknowns and as far as I can tell those unknowns are still there particularly when it comes to where these
072classrooms are going to be. There was a lot of discussion about whether we needed to have um certain locations or add-on rooms, you know, those other types of things. And I remember that we had a lot of concern by other people. And Carrie, I do see your comments or your head motions. So yes, I see those. >> Um but I don't know if those concerns have gone away. And the only reason I'm speaking out of turn is that I don't think people are seeing my hand being raised. >> Yeah. Sorry. No, that we're not. Thank you, Ben. >> Yeah, understand. Yeah. >> No, I think I think my strong push back on that Ben is that I don't think that is the purview of our committee to decide the classroom space. We have been if
073you read through our mans as Sarah just said we have been guarant like we have been the committee walked through how this could be possible different scenarios and ultimately is not this committee's decision to look at the scheduling and say this can move over here these people can share this classroom space so that prek can have this space that is the work of the administration team who is on the ground and is looking at scheduling looking at the number of students in classes the number of kids in each grade level and my concern is that if we do not vote this yes, they cannot then have the convers that we we are invested in saying we back this to start in the 2728 school year. The administrators can't have that conversation and then can't come
074back to us with the dollar amount of what it is. Um that's that's the reason for the push is that this type of cycle of us as a committee or a board wanting that level of granularity I don't think is our place. Um we have been given the numbers and the examples that demonstrate it is very possible and I I don't think that's our perview to make the decision of which of those plans. Um >> okay um Tara and then I have a suggestion to move us forward. So my suggestion to move forward is that uh and I fully agree with Carrie, this program will not happen unless we as a board make it a priority. Um I want to suggest that the board vote on it as a priority with a number of guard
075rails and parameters. Um the first basic understanding being that the board would put this program forward as a priority within the existing budget process which would then be the safety net to determine how much funding would be uh allotted for important things like staff or maybe not the important things as were suggested last time which were you know modular classrooms. Uh the other parameters be safety net besides going through the standard budgeting process is uh I suggest that we give a clear message to school leadership that we want this program to happen with the two classrooms with the 30 students and within the existing footprint of the Ray school um um campus facility building. Um we do not want additional classrooms purchased. We do understand that there may need to be some minor retrofit to
076existing space. I personally see that as a net positive because any more efficient use of this space is better use of an existing asset that the school district one of the most important assets that the school district has. So, um I would suggest we vote in that way, you know, rather than specific dollar amounts. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. Yep. >> Yeah. And to that to that motion, I don't disagree with any of that, by the way, from either of you. But the the motion is to approve the recommendations. And where are these recommendations? >> Is there something in writing what we are recommending? Sorry, but I think it's what what Carrie just presented and what I'm hearing um from Tara that that firstly I was going to recommend as well is that we amend that
077motion to be what Tara just said that we would like this the school administration to implement uh prek sorry in 2027 2028 two classrooms 30 students within the existing footprint. >> Yes. and in the budget process as it currently exists. >> Yes. To be managed within the existing budget process. So we still as a board have the approval process to say no, we are not going to give $500,000. We're really giving you x number of thousands of dollars to >> because now we have a 6% cap% cap. We're a 3%. >> Tar, if I'm if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying you don't want to go through the separate warrant article process. You just want to put it straight into the regular budget. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. We absolutely do not because we are not
078intending for this project to require a significant outlay by taxpayers of budget. Yeah. >> This is going to be, you know, managed within the existing budget process and is largely going to be a reallocation of existing funds and space. >> Rene just the the other kind of bringing that point together from last year. Um I think the experience was that it felt a little fast whereas this seems very deliberate. You guys are offering us in this current school year 25 26 a an opportunity to say yes we agree with this approach for prek and please figure out how to make it work and then next year the entire year we get to figure it out as opposed to I think the conversation a lot of the reasons for the push for the warrant article explicitly
079last year were to get a pulse on the town if we went that route to get a pulse in the town be like listen is this a thing that you really want because this is coming in very different >> um and so I think Now we have the ability to be more fatigued and really think about how to integrate it more directly. So I'm I love the budget so I sentiment but I would want to also I'm hesitant to take it off the separate warrant article because we do need to get that pulse of the town and dollar wise it's not >> the town will support it. I agree the town will support it, but having that separate conversation is important. And in terms of total dollar amount, this isn't too far off from the
080middle school sports in terms of >> equality of Here's the thing, Ben. >> Here's the thing, Ben, is that what you're suggesting as communication to the town is not really communication to the town. What Warren's article is just a general notice. It is not the good work that the board actually needs to do that we actually spoke about in committee, but we don't think it's the committee's job. We think it's probably more the board's job to do a better job of community uh relations and communication to let folks know this is coming so that they can appropriately plan for it and circle back to us with questions and concerns and maybe help to even formulate some of the details, right? Which we have not we as a board do not do an excellent job of
081we need to get better. >> Good. So, um, Tara, I'm gonna ask, looking ahead at the, um, uh, items business requiring action. Sorry. Um, someone had already very astutely pulled this out of the um, consent agenda, which is great. So, when we get to this, if Tara, if you wouldn't mind reformulating the motion. >> Yeah. Either we'll do. >> Okay. Yeah. Yep. >> Um, thank you all for that lively discussion. Um, moving on to the retreat update. Um, this will be very quick. I just wanted to let you all know that we are working on the agenda for the retreat. We do have a quorum for the retreat. Um, it's moving forward. So, next Wednesday, uh, 6:15 we will try to gather to start getting food. Um the start of the meeting will be with
082Will Phillips from NHSBA who is going to give us some crash course on right to know law um and some other uh NHSBA related trainings. Um New Hampshire School Board Association. Um the next phase of the meeting I wrote down my notes. Um the next phase of the meeting will be um more on our strategic plan and board governance. Um and then the third piece of it will be talking uh very briefly in public session about negotiations and some of the history around how we've conducted negotiations in the past, what the committee structures look like, etc. Um and then the last piece of the meeting will be in non-public with our uh with Megan Glenn who was our um legal repres. So that will be non-public for legal consultation. Um so in the next day
083or two, please be on the lookout for um a whole slew of documents to read in advance of none of it's very long, don't worry. Um but just all those things that everyone asked for, getting up to speed on right to know law, um our own interstate compact. Um and all those materials will be available on assembly for anyone else in the public who wants to look at um all of those details. Um and also a 10 question multiple choice three minute survey on um your own sort of working styles. So we can kind of just use that as a fun hey most of us actually prefer to be in bed by 8 o' that is interesting right so just having some of those conversations around um our own working norms. Okay. Any questions on
084that? >> Nope. >> All right. Uh oh, I lost my >> Skip H. Skipping H. Yes. Moving on to appointment of treasurer. I'm in the items. >> Oh, >> yeah. That'll be coming up in the items. Just you want to give us a quick update on it. >> Yes. And Julie is here. being here. >> I mentioned this at our SAU board meeting, but Teresa and I met with Julie several weeks ago. Um, Julie has volunteered to be our treasurer. We're very thankful that she has a history in finance and so we look forward to working with her and we hoping that you will approve her as treasurer tonight. Do you want to say anything to Julie? Um, well, I'm looking forward to it. Um uh as Robin mentioned, I've spent 40 plus years in
085primarily uh university but also um secondary um school uh administration and finance. Um and retired and and looking to do something um in my community. um our daughter u went through high school, maybe middle school and high school and so >> thank you. So all right, any questions for Jul? Um and the last piece of our items require discussion. Steve, thanks for weeding it out. Um, so we back in, help me guys, like two months ago had a request from some of our um, teaching staff at the race pool um, to consider um, what it might look like to allow um, staff dependents to attend the Ray School when they live in a different district. I said that very awkwardly, but you get the gist. Um, and we kind of tabled it because so much
086of this open enrollment stuff was swirling that it seemed like it was maybe not a discussion that was worth having when had that gone through wouldn't have been our decision whether to allow this or not. Um, so now that that has at least for now um gone away then it seems perhaps worth bringing me back up to go forward with that conversation. So um my recommendation to the board and um we can discuss it um is to create an ad hoc committee for this. I personally, you guys know this, this is my soap box. More and more I think um ad hoc committees for this kind of work is the way to go rather than having a big broad uh board discussion about it when really we need a lot of data that comes from
087other people being involved in the committee that we we can't you know we can sit around and say well we need to know this we need to know this we need to know this and we come back the next meeting and get all that information. I think it's more advantageous personally to have a small group of people involving those different constituents gather that data, have the conversations and bring a report to the board. So that is my recommendation, but I wanted to open it up to board members for discussion. >> Yes. How it's a great idea. How many votes do you think that this is going to require? How many meetings? What's the is there a sort of tentative timeline for a report back or for action? >> Yeah. Um those are all in my
088notes that I was going to ask you guys. >> Yes. On all of that. Um and I you know I'm always uh unclear and maybe Ben can help me out with this too, but um amount of board involvement I I mean maybe I think one board member is probably plenty for this, right? Because really it's simply gathering data. I think it's more important to have Lauren somewhat on administration, I say Lauren, Lauren, voluntelling you perhaps um because I know Lauren's been involved in exploring this in the past. Um understanding what Prop School's been doing. So teachers obviously need to be on this committee as well. Um but we need to understand um my notes I have um the history what Norwich is currently doing what our neighboring districts are currently doing with this how it's
089been handled. I know it's been part of negotiations in some districts part of policy in other districts. So understanding how that's worked in other districts, um the number of teachers and students that we're talking about, the kind of capacity that we have, um and the cost differences that we're talking about, um is this going to suddenly mean that, you know, this is not the case, I know, but if we had six kids who were currently paying tuition, who through this would then not be paying tuition, that would be a consideration for the board budget-wise, right? Um, so just kind of gathering all of that data. So that's kind of the what um the who I'll take suggestions. Um, the when I mean we have one board meeting left that is three weeks from now. It
090would be great if that group could at least assemble and maybe define goals for data gathering. Um, I don't know that I see this happening for next school year and I don't know if that's I mean I'm sure that's somewhat disappointing but I I um I don't know so I'm throwing that out there. >> Yes, Robert. Thank you. I would say we have a lot of the information that this ad would need. So I think that part would be fairly easy. Um, and I think we should make a consideration for, you know, looking into it for the following school year, the 27th, 28th school year. >> I'm happy to be part of that, especially if the prek can say what you're saying. >> Yeah, I think the prek committee would stay. >> I don't think
091I've noted your interest for this new ad hoc committee. I I would love maybe this is a good retreat clarification about the virtual joining safety thing but I'd love to understand that >> how we came here >> so forum >> yeah that rule is actually very clear you have to have a quorum present >> and so >> any meeting yeah any meeting um and and what's what that means is that we can have if there are seven board members we can have three who are attending virtually or simply not in attendance. Um, you know, that's it's an option. It and I know in Norwich that's not the Vermont law. They can have a poor >> one person there, >> right? Yeah. >> If it's an ad hoc committee, the a few questions come to mind.
092One is does it need to be a board committee? um we don't necessarily have to have membership and if we're if a board if it is a board committee then it's a public meeting and would be under public discussion and all the quorum rules that Carrie's mentioning would have to come into play. If it's an administrated committee and then reports out to us they meet on their own time and just give us the information to work on. I agree with Taran Robbins point the information and numbers on this has largely been collected. If it's an ad hoc meeting, then they would not have a chair. They would create a chair dually voted on and then that that chair would take point on determining who is in it and the quorum. Noting that I just said
093you'd have to vote on it to have a chair and then to have a vote, you already have to figure out who's in membership. So there's a little bit squishiness in terms of this. Remember the equity committee that Neil stewarded which had I think over 20 people on it which we should never do again. not for equity reasons, but just for logistical reasons because they had trouble meeting a quorum. But that committee, if it's ad hoc, would determine its own quorum ship and who's on it and who's versus an invited guest. And this sounds like a it could be a lot of work, but it doesn't have to be. I fully agree with those who mentioned earlier, this could be a one meeting. Get all your ducks in a row and make a decision in
094one meeting and just move on, report out. I'd be happy to be on it as well, but as Kelly knows, my travel just kind of ramped up right for the next few weeks. Um, so I don't know if I should be on it if we're trying to move that quickly. >> So, I'll ask the maybe Robin, I'll ask you. Is it helpful to have this be a board committee or would it be easier to have it be an administrative committee? And I will just say I think the one advantage to having a board level committee is that it's a certain level of board commitment to engaging this conversation and ideally making some sort of action coming out of this work. Right? >> Not to say that that happen with an administrative ad hoc commission, but
095I do think there's a slightly different level of we're invested in this. We're making a decision. >> I feel like I feel like it should be too. I mean, a lot of times I would say no an administrative committee, but I feel like ultimately you're going to have to make a decision about this. And it also may I don't feel like we need to rush with it because if we're really thinking about 2728, we could start forming the committee now and really dig into it, gather the information, >> dig into it in the fall, and then, you know, we're going to be involved in negotiations, too. So >> thing to think about how it happened over on side too. So we can look at that as our example and I do go through that with
096Norwich. So >> point out that could be a thing for it being a board meeting is the Dresden question is going to keep coming up. >> Um and that and for those in the room who aren't hearing this is right now the handover school district, the people at this table and myself is K through five. It it was K through six a couple years ago. So that this is we can change this as well. But the question is going to happen if this >> happens for let students of um students of teachers and similar come to the school. What happens in sixth grade? Because as of now there is no sort of reciprocity grandfathering whatever process to go to Dresden. And I think we really need to figure this out and talk to the Dresden
097chair to see what we can do. So >> I think it's I think it's easier probably to look at it in a more modular way. >> Sure. >> I don't think we need to have a comprehensive right. We could marry cross does it. We can look at it for our elementary. It's easier to manage. It's a small group. We could see does it work and then we could take that learning to a larger audience and >> as a first step. Yeah. Okay. So what I'm hearing is general yes from the board um that yes we want one board member. Is that right? Is that what I'm hearing? >> Sure. Composition and then um I'm supposed to determine this right. One board member could be there's a couple admins to be on it and they're board
098members. So when one board member couldn't make it the other >> if it's an ad hoc Kelly you just figure out which board member is there and then that that person or someone could be the chair and kind of take it from there in terms of membership and voting and all the other things. I think we want someone from the SAU as an admin, someone from the school as an admin, >> and then one teacher. So, four people total probably have to get three out of four. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah, we can always expand as needed. >> Okay, perfect. All right, I'll look for a vote to approve that then. >> Any further questions, Steve, on that? Okay, thank you. All right, we do. We're pretty close. Okay. Yes. Moving ahead. I'm ready. >>
099You're moving ahead. I love it. Yeah. Move. Do. >> I move to enter into non-public session at 8:25 p.m. under RSA 91- A 3 Roman numeral 2 parenthesy. >> Thank you. Yep. Yeah. And I'll take a second. Yeah. Go ahead. Second. Do we need to do B as well? >> Uh, what is >> B and C? Sorry. BNC. >> BNC. Thank you. >> Um, this is a little wonky out of order because we then come back and do all of the business requiring action after. But it is what it is. So, second from Tara. So, motion. >> Oh, sorry. >> Second from Tara. >> Go ahead. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Renee. >> Oh, Sullivan. Yes. >> Russell. Yes. >> Yes. >> Ben, yes. And Kelly, can you call me in nonpublic? >> Yes, I will.
100And Carl. So we'll enter on the public and we'll come back and do the rest of the agenda. Hey Robin, >> we're gonna start with the schoolboard number. >> Your audio is on. >> Yeah. >> What happened? >> I guess you Happy Now talk to him. >> Ben, can you talk to me so I can hear whether you are still coming in here? >> Yeah, we're we're we're good. Deb, but Noah, can you close the meeting? Or I'm sorry, not Noah. Damn. You close your >> No, can do it. >> I am very justice. It's just And if it if because it says board member I did with >> All right. Reentering public session we get. >> Yep. >> Okay. So re-entering public session at 8:46. Uh and I will take a motion to appoint
101a new board number. >> Okay. Um then I am doing that. >> I'm checking your name. Move to appoint Jim Tatton Taton Tin as a member of the school board until March 2, 2027. Is there a second? Second from Carrie. Uh and we have Ben online, right? >> Y roll call vote starting with Tara. >> Loser. Yes. Mley, yes. >> Sullivan, yes. >> Nelson, yes. Ben >> Keiny, yes. >> And McConnell, yes. Um, thank you. Thank you you both so much. Um there will be an election again in March um for at least one spot. There's several spots I believe. I know I'm up for uh my spot will be up for election and I think one more as well. So um there will be mine. >> It might be death. >> Um so um
102thank you. Thank you both. Um Jim, if you want to swear in and join us. >> Oh yeah, I can do both of you. Oh, wait. We have We have to We have We'll do Okay, hold on. You're good. All right. Approve new hire. >> Okay. Okay. Uh >> yeah. I move to approve hiring Sarah Finario. >> Finario. Thank you. as a classroom teacher for the 2627 school year as presented. >> Thank you. Roll call vote starting with Tara. Yes. >> Russell, yes. Sullivan, yes. >> Nelson, yes. And >> Genie, yes. >> And McConnell, yes. All right. Business requiring action. I will take a motion for items B through G by consent. >> I move Oh, sorry. You have to recognize it. >> Yes. Sorry, D. Go ahead. Okay. I move to approve items B
103through G by consent. Second. Carrie. Any discussion? Okay. Starting with Tara. Loser. Yes. Rosley. Yes. Sullivan. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. Ben >> Keany. Yes. >> And McConnell. Yes. Uh and moving on to preK recommendations. >> Friends. >> Yes. Car. >> Okay. A move to establish to recommend the establishing of a prek at the Ray School for the 2728 school year consisting of two classrooms, 30 kids within the current footprint of the Bernice Ray School and within the existing budget process. >> Beautifully stated. >> I second. Okay. Lo, yes. >> Russell, yes. Yes. >> Nelson, yes. >> Enie, yes. >> And McConnell, yes. >> All right. Let me ask my treasure to appoint Julie Dolan as treasurer as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Go ahead. >> Yes. >> Russell, yes. Sullivan, yes.
104>> Nelson, yes. >> Yes. >> And McConnell, yes. >> All right. You go ahead and do your thing. You do this thing. Aren't they? So, the last thing on our uh MO items requiring action is approval of new committee. >> No, no, we're going away. Okay. >> Should we come back to that one? Move on to committee reports. Great. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Moving on to committee reports and we'll come back to the approval of the new committee. Apologies for the out of orderness, especially for our noteaker. Uh I do have a hand up for budget. >> No, not budget. >> Great. Okay. Uh go ahead, Rene. >> Uh so for the capital improvement. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, so I shared with y'all um the um homework that each CIPC
105member that the nest should do which in short is uh pitch what uh the CIPC's goals the temp but kind of handover CIPC goals should be um and process should be for the upcoming year. The context is that there was a there was significant discussion I think in cumulative throughout the year around what are we trying to evaluate? Are we evaluating um capital improvement projects and saying this is good versus bad like based on our feeling of what we want in the town. Like do we love the sewer that needs to be fixed or do we really want that like really cool reservoir road multi-use path? Can we figure out a way to be better um at assessing projects and evaluating them um against one another? There's so anyway, so that is kind of the
106context as to why we're having this discussion at our next meeting on the 22nd I think it is of May um around goals and process. I think the school board's vantage point is largely grounded in the statute which says that really the whole town um capital improvements should be considered together. It's there's not any like specifics around like the select board must decide what is going on in the schools. It's it's just that these things have to be considered together. And so I think we've already talked about that as well as you know as we were talking about the capital improvements work like okay great the work that's going to come out of that committee we'll just it'll go to the CIPC so that people know what's what's upcoming and we've talked about in our
107budgeting process the kind of headwinds of what's happening likely going to be happening on Main Street on West Mock and how that's probably going to impact our overall taxes um and would be important for us to understand. Do you want to invite them to sit up? >> Come join us. >> You don't get to let him down. >> Um never actually. And so uh so basically there is this need for maybe maybe a land I don't know. Um, I promised you some sort of elevator pitch statement as a draft. I sent it I think um right before the meeting started at 7:01 and largely it was my ability to put words on a page uh for us to react to. But I think tonight um I'm less interested in more ticky tacky wording and more
108just conceptually what it is that we actually as a school district or set of districts need to align with the town on um and want to align with the town on. So there's uh we've established we've discussed the fact that our voting schedule and our budget cycle is earlier than the towns although TBD maybe they'll change in the next x number of years. Um but you know we're looking at August starting our budgeting process. December is when we have um committees budget committees are finally finalizing recommendations starting proposals with the board or accepted by the board in January and then those vote vote in March. The CIPC does not flow on that schedule. They flow on the town schedule which is really February is when we put in our recommendations for CIPC and then the
109May is the town vote. >> Um so let me get one other thing and then please weigh in. Um so I'm just going to read to you the uh kind of some of the things I'm musing on. Um, and there's two proposals that I or well two topics that I want to get you guys to weigh in on. So, I have like given the timing of the school board um acceptance of the budget in January and the school district budget voting in March, the school districts cannot push the consideration of capital improvements to align with the town's approach. However, or town's timelines, whatever it might be, we welcome CIPC to consider aligning with the school districts. Earlier times are feasible. Um assuming it is not feasible to align the Hannover school worker this is the
110following one would be something about uh no consider the school district's capital improvement plans in the October or the November CIPC meeting. I feel like we need to be clear about when we want to ask the town to expect something from us um and not leave them hanging. And I think the benefit of that time frame is that it may give um districts sufficient time at the start of the year to adjust um the schools capital improvement plans once the school's back in session. And it's in context of the budget trajectories and budget process. Maybe looking at you Teresa because I'm going to want you to weigh in. Um, but there's something about if we're not going to align town with schools, then we should be clear, I think, as to when schools are going
111to be part of the town conversation. And then there's a bigger question around, which I actually don't know the answer to and I'm really hoping that they're getting at like to what extent are we needing any sort of prioritization or approval from the town actually, right? So, I'm very worried. stop and halt and catch fire right now. I am so worried about it. >> A little bird told me a long time ago that when the CIPC was formed that they failed to vote on their charter, mission statement, I don't remember their whole purpose of being >> without that being in place and us being able to review it. I would suggest that we not engage until we know their purpose and scope because otherwise it's just going to be a mess. So, and if I
112am misinformed, I apologize and I would just request that we do a little bit of investigation into because I believe they were chartered by the select board. um and I would like to understand their purpose and form function before we engage. So there is an attachment which may or may not get to your full response but um the it's CIBC FY28 goals discussion reread 52126 >> talking about the existential formation of that committee. So, not the one under New Hampshire law select uh help create more thorough and long-term integrated capital plans as part of creating a more interactive and open budget process. >> Is this a report to the select board or is this >> and then it is this is the we just got it. >> Yeah, you this is Yeah, part of John's
113email. >> Is it that's part of John's email? I was looking on the town website trying to find it to see if it had been done since >> I would um I have not been successful in finding things on the town website. >> No. Yeah. Not about this particular committed committee. I'm sure I think there's such Yes. And so there's Yeah. So the top of page So sorry. >> Oh, good. You're sharing. >> Okay. >> Um >> you're sharing in the board stuff. >> This is It won't open. Well, yeah. I know it should be in the board docks, too. I did forward it to Ryan. >> I know. I just mean John's things won't open. >> So, I would suggest that you and I and I take a look at the the original town
114legislation and all of the sort of foundational documents related to this committee so that we understand >> what their charge was at the time >> because there was a whole discussion when you were appointed or when I was initially before you were appointed to that committee. Um, and I asked Kim, "Kim, how does this work exactly?" She said, "Well, if we actually had voted on XYZ, we would officially have a member and an alternate, but nobody ever voted on that, whatever it was." >> So, let's Okay, so they're um >> here I'm going back to her. >> Okay, >> ignore me. So there might be like a a logistical practical purpose and a legislative context, but let's make sure that we know >> what they were tasked specifically with doing and if they agreed as
115a board on that as a as a committee >> as a committee for us. >> I mean on a slide I don't really care. Okay. I just want to say okay this makes total sense. This is how we engage appropriately with this. >> And so what is her what what am I I'm not even sure what he asking for. Let's >> do that. >> Great. >> You did not get that. >> So, um, sorry, Renee. What do you need from us? >> Well, nothing else. >> Okay. >> I'm not sure what the appropriate. Listen, if Neil was on our board, Neil would know exactly what the parameters of everybody involved, right? But we don't have that person. I don't want to be that person. I just want to understand that person. >> And just to
116clarify to Jim that Neil is on the Dresden board and Norwich board. >> Yeah. >> And he understands all of the history of every committee >> from a town from school board. >> Yes. >> Very helpful. >> Okay. Cool. What um I guess there is a question I have which Terry could say like maybe we can table that too but um so one conversation here could be about uh like a thing that we would need to recommend or pitch as a board. There's also another lens of like if if anybody says X that should be a red flag for the schools. Mhm. >> So, for example, the CIBC must approve all of the schools capital improvements, which sounds like a red flag, >> right? Perfect. >> Um, are there other examples of such a thing
117that are helpful because I do think that we're we need to talk to to John who's the chair of this committee. However, uh there's a good chance that we're still going to try and have this conversation next week and I want to be listening. I think an important thing would be communication should be bilateral sort of so to speak or dual that if the town is going to push out information about large increases in the budget they should say to us >> what is your part of this message. No literally >> we aren't going to say something without you having a voice in that conversation too. So they have a public forum. They invite us to participate as as equals that if they are going to do some glossy mailer, they talk to us so
118that we can have something in there too. I mean, the whole thing about education um informing voters that was brought up at the meeting last night suggests that they've kind of gotten out ahead of us in making some um less than uh friendly comments and I but I think we should be prepared to ask them can we do this together rather than As one member of the select board said, our town, our streets, your roofs, and I made a point of, "No, no, no. It's our streets and our roofs." >> I'm just saying moving forward, it would be really good if we could to do this together. It it looks like the CIPC that exists currently is advisory to the select board, meaning that they are concerned about townwide capital expenditures as opposed to schoolwide
119capital expenditures which fall under our purview instead. >> However, there we do to have representation on that CIPC committee because there are things that it makes sense to coordinate on. Just like on the handover finance committee, there is a select board representative as well as a school board representative. However, both of those committees that share representation from both spheres are only advisory in nature. That CIPC committee does not approve a thing. They only make recommendations to the select board. >> Good point. >> So, it's likely suggesting that they make recommendations to us. I would not say so right now. not understanding the scope and the official documentation back to their origins, right? Um, does that all speak to there an opportunity to improve communication and collaboration? I think there are lots of opportunities to kind
120of >> So, go ahead. just from CIBC conversations, communications has has come out as a gap >> in town's uh skill set so far. Um and so that that's broader than just the schools and the CIBC. It's it's how we are thinking about um asking for proposals for or like the town is gathering proposals for projects um and then communicating back out decisions that have been made to various committees outside of us but we are part of that and so I think communication has to be addressed. I don't know if that's actually going to be solved within CIPC, but we are talking about raising it as a thing that needs to be solved and collaboration I think is a is a big output of that. I know you know what that look like, but I
121do think it's um important. So, so thank you recognizing the time. I I just wanted to say and and and thank you and I think this is part of part of what I would recommend saying as your pitch too is that we these conversations were not happening at all two years ago. I mean, bless Kim. She tried to kind of get us engaged in these conversations, but we we really as a board were not having these alignment conversations. And I think some of the big capital expenditures that were both looking at >> um and trying to forecast um are really pushing this issue, which is good. I mean, these are good these are good conversations to be having. So, I think um encouraging, you know, that that we we all recognize that we're all spending
122the same pot of money, right? And so, making sure that we are, you know, mindful of those tax increases um in a coordinated fashion that we're definitely on board for those conversations um but also recognizing the need to maintain autonomy in those decision making capacities, right? Coordination but maintaining autonomy. >> That makes it >> cool. >> Any other committee updates? Thank you, Rene. Um I think just um we'd had some little conversation when we were discussing the prek but I think from the prek committee perspective I think it's um the the need the immediate need is on pause for that committee. I think that goes back to administration and leadership and then once there is the granular piece I think there may probably we'll need to reconvene the prek committee to talk about that like
123sharing out how are we you know how are we supporting that messaging and so I think we're on pause so that the leadership team and administers can do the the work u the details um but I don't think it's done Okay, with that we'll pop that back. Any other committee updates? Thank you. All righty. Moving on to superintendent report. I did submit my report and most of the information is there. I also wanted to update you. I met with the HA today. I have monthly meeting with them and we talk about anything that's going on in the schools that they're concerned about. Um, nothing really came up, but we usually spend a lot of time talking about just general culture, climate kinds of things, and we spend a lot of day talking about how crazy
124it is at the end of the school year and just trying to keep up with everything that's going on. But it's great because I think it prevents a lot of things from, you know, maybe getting out of control or going beyond what we might want things to go to. So, it's a great way for me to find out, you know, how people are feeling. So, I had that today. I also wanted to mention the um there's an article in the New York Times about test scores. We sent that out to went out to the board and I also sent that out to the staff just as like this is big news. Great job. Um because it really is pretty amazing when you look at our reading scores in 2015 were 2.8 grades ahead of the
125norm. And then now since then when most schools have declined because co um it looks like ours are 4.3 grades ahead in 2025 in reading which puts us number one in the state in the top 17% in the country. Um well 17% of schools that have improved in the pandemic. So that's pretty amazing. And then at the same time period our math scores went from 2.8 8 to 3.2 grades ahead which puts us number four in the state. >> So overall just incredible. So I wanted to share that with you as well. >> And just to add on to that the the 17% thing is is any is any improvement at all. Most schools did far worse and not just for the pandemic although certainly a catalyst. When the New York Times did their 2015
126data, it they had it more with a national focus rather than a state focus. And going from those 2015 graphs, Hanover and Dresden separately were both in approximately the top 30 of the several thousand districts nationwide and we've only improved since then. So, go team, go staff, go everyone. >> Yeah. >> And though this is linked in simply for anyone who's been wanting to see Yeah. Go ahead. I was just going to say as a person who um joined the board at the tail end of um a lot of map heavy map conversations, I noticed the maps for despite the challenges that I understand that was pretty contentious within the district. I think that mask speaks to something happening. >> Yeah. Right. >> Can I can I respond to Carrie, >> please? Um, so Karen,
127are you I don't know if you're what you're referring to by math stuff, whether it's illustrative math or the Dresden issues or something like that, but this is specific to handover Ray School. It is not specific to Dresden. >> Oh, yeah. Just Okay. Thanks, Ben. That helps clarification. >> Yep. >> All right. Any other questions for Robin? >> Thank you, Robin. You're welcome. Uh, moving on to our director of clickable instruction. Lauren, still there. >> Can you move over to the panel, please? >> Move Lauren over. >> Yeah, no worries. >> Hi, everyone. hard to top that great news from the New York Times. And I would like to echo that. Go team. Uh you have my report submitted and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Yes, >> I do
128want to add something to Lauren's report point out which is I've never ever heard of this happening in a school, but we had a grant audit recently and Teresa and Janice provided so much documentation and I was so worried about this audit. I was meeting with Teresa and Lauren to make sure we had everything in place um for our title grants and every superintendent that I ever speak with and assistant talks about how much work they have to do after these audits. It's just pages and pages of documentation. We had zero findings >> and a grandmother. So, and all thanks to Teresa because she put some pieces in place when she came that got us through this audit with literally zero findings. So, that was really amazing. And thanks to all of Lauren's work on
129helping put everything together. So, I know she doesn't want to toot her own horn and neither does that or Janice, but they are to thank for that. >> Thank you, Robin. I definitely didn't want to um take up the board's time with things that you could read, but that is certainly something worth celebrating and I'm grateful for you uh calling that out from my report and well done everyone. >> Yeah. >> Can I chime in on one more thing related to the superintendent's report? Yes, >> so just to add more context both both for Jim and for everyone that while we are delightfully and and purposely calling out handover at the handover board meeting that the New York Times reports in the 2015 one Dresden and Norwich and lime were all in the top 30
130within the country and I don't think there'd be much variation on there but Norwich and Dresden are missing from the 2025 report but that might be more of a logistical thing than anything else and that the original source of the data is actually at the New York Times. They just had a very elegant sort of report out on it. It was actually from a Stanford, Harvard, and Dartmouth collaborative study. And like we've talked about in numerous times in numerous contexts, we have a lot of resources in this town, not only in terms of stuff we talked about tonight, but also with experts within the town on various things. And just another note that talking to some of our Dartmouth colleagues who specialize in education and teaching of it would be a good thing for us
131to do. That was the collaborator. I think it was Doug Stagner. So, >> yes, >> just one final thing. We did find the Norwich. It's under SAU70 Vermont. That's what we could find. >> Yeah. >> Are they You expect them to be? >> Uh, they're a little bit old. They went down a tiny bit of math, but up in reading a little bit. Thank you. >> Yeah, if you if you look at the the corresponding article that was more like trends and stuff, New Hampshire was previously I think second in the state according to their metrics and dropped to third with a fairly significant drop off, but it kind of aligned with everyone else in terms of the worsening. And Vermont did significantly worse as a state compared to New Hampshire um in the 10-year
132changes. So much bigger issues than just Norwich and handover. >> All right, moving on to business administrator report. Thanks, Lauren. Oops. Um, I did submit my report and everything else, but I'll highlight on the financials since we're getting to year end. Um, so I'll give you the bad news first. Clearly obviously um Department of Revenue had rejected our request for the um assessment of the 366,000 off. So with that being said, our revenues, if you're looking at those in the reports, you're going to find that clearly I'm showing that the um projected variance is going to be 36677 um lower than we had both anticipated. That's going to leave us with about a 319,000 deficit in the revenue end of it. So we'll be a shortfall of that going down to the expenditures. We have
133actually right now if if nothing changed and everything held its held as it was or is I should say in incumbrances then what we'll do is finish with about $840,000 and a surplus on the expenditure side. So that will net out leaving us an operational fund balance of above just um just under 521,000. We retain 494874. So that gives us a total fund balance of about just over a million dollars. Then when we were doing our budgeting for FY2627, we anticipated at least having 980,000 to apply against and offset tax rates. So we're still in there, but it only leaves us with a surplus of about 35,000, which in the past um we've been close to about 400,000 that we would retained after the fact. Um but I did some more checking in last in
134in past years. I've also attached a document on fund balance historical data going all the way back to 2018 showing that there were years prior to 2021 that most of the time the there were a couple years again we didn't retain anything went fund balance about $300,000 like I said I've attached that um also attached a document just explaining all the the ups and the downs um so I won't go all through for for tonight. >> And the other thing that I wanted to mention that as we go into next year, should something happen, we have our special education. Now, when it comes to special ed, we still have almost $400,000 sitting in that trough in our reserve funds. Sorry, my neck doesn't turn well. So, it's um and then in our building reserve and
135everything else, we have again just under $400,000. So, the anticipation should something happen next year, if we didn't retain anything and we don't and we stay status quo even with doing the 980,000 to offset taxes, then we still have reserves that we haven't even touched for for a bit. All set. Okay. Have we communicated anything to the town in terms of setting their expectations for remitting that to them a certain amount to to offset absence? >> Oh, only the 900. I mean, that's that's what we did to our budget, the 980,000. Okay. And we anticipate being able to meet that >> correct based on if and again if nothing if we what the incumbrances if everybody spent everything that's encumbered now which usually doesn't really even happen but at that point again I mean we've
136got a swing of about 35,000 be looking at that doesn't sound like much but again the incumbrances that are sitting there um usually don't materialize all the way by the end of the year. Okay. So there's not really a significant chance that we're going to find ourselves with a bigger problem than they anticipated. >> No. I in fact I mean from my standpoint it may not make any sense but I'm actually pleased that we're where we're at >> and that what when we're setting what is back because we're we're determining so far ahead of time how much do we want to apply to offset our taxes and anything could have happened. >> Yeah. >> And everything else and then you don't have it. So now you're going to swing the tax rate. But right now,
137right now we can keep it stable. Mind if we don't change that. Can you just remind me at what time of the year we get reimbursed by the state for special ed from the previous year? >> Um it happens various, but um we got ours say it was close to November. wanted to say November, December. Okay, just >> I was just going through that looking at that thing too because I >> seem like I was thinking maybe it could be July. >> That was okay. >> Then the only other thing I guess I'll say is the auditor. So the final audits, the audits are the final review and everything else. Um so hopefully I'll get that really soon. Should be getting that. Um, and then once I review it and approve it or whatever and
138then it can be uploaded and I kind of put that in the notes, but it'll be for you guys to review. And then if you guys want the auditor to come and do a presentation because I know that was asked over at Norwich, um, Tyler Payne, who is our lead auditor, is more than happy to come and do a presentation if you'd like. >> All right. Thank you. But not tonight. Yeah. We wouldn't mind that. All right. Virtual is an option for office for sure. >> All right. Any other questions for Teresa? All right. Last opportunity for the public to address the board. Go ahead. >> A couple things from earlier. Um, one, the the dog thing at the beginning. I was really surprised about the the amount of language around printable but yet on
139any day. So it just seems like a frequency express. >> It's a great point and I know sorry not to interrupt you. Um, I know that there have been messages that have gone out. I don't about that because I remember getting them as a parent. I don't think that it's a policy. So, thanks you for bringing that up. >> Uh, the second thing I was going to mention is to talk about the the prek program. It it really reminded me a lot of uh in Vermont there was the big push for personalized learning plans and it it really there was quite a similarity I thought where it was a very top down thing. The state wanted these things and they said you can figure it out a local level how you do it. We're not
140going to dictate um how it's going to be executed in the schools. And I think that's what you're saying with the prek program. Like we're not as the board, we're not going to tell you how to do it in the school. That's your jurisdiction. And I agree that's a it's a good um perspective. But I also worry, you know, as as a teacher on the other end of it, every year for seven years, we did something different because we couldn't figure it out because it just never actually worked logistically within the school. And I I think it it is a it is an important thing, but I also am concerned the the enthusiasm from the board supporting this and the push downward that it presents onto the school administrator to make it work. And those
141types of scenarios, there's a lot of pressure and it could spiral to cost a lot more and be a lot more difficult than I ever imagined to be. Um, and I know there's don't want to put a number on it, but at the same time, you know, is there a potential limit. Is there um kind of a mindset where there could be the opportunity to say, look, this maybe it doesn't work in this school. We want it to work. Everyone wants to run, but just practicality because I worked in a prek12 school and you get runners, you know, and just the physical layout really matters. And at the same time, um, kids that age, I my kids have gone to, you know, a nursery school. >> Um, the potty system is really important. So these
142are just things like as much as we want it to work you know is I don't want to I wouldn't want there to be too much pressure on the school to make it work and then to have it to problem is the same way that personalized learning plan would not just >> thank you so we don't typically respond but I maybe you guys can connect after if that's okay. Yeah, my only comment is it was presented to us as a proposal from staff. >> Yes, that is true. So process wise >> process wise it it's not a board initiative. >> Yeah, that's a good clarification. >> Just so you know many years in the making there before it came to a good thank you Chris. >> Okay. Um any other members of the public online?
143Do not uh we will move on to adjournment. If you have agenda items, please send them my way. Keeping in mind this will be our last meeting of the school year. Um we always have hirings, but I'm going to say it's the last meeting of the school year. Um and our next meeting is June 10th. I'll take a motion for journ. I move to adjourn the meeting at 9:25 p.m. >> Second for Carrie. Roll call starting with Jim. >> Yes. >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> Yes. Thank you everybody. I see you on your >> welcome.