Hanover School Board 04/08/2025

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Hey, Wolf. us to order, please, at 7:05. Sorry for the delay. Uh we will open with open with quick introductions, since we had a request from the public for that. I am Renee Sullivan, and I think I know some of you guys from walking. I'm Robin Steiner, superintendent. I saw all of you in class today. Very excited for you to be here. I'm Kelly McConnell. I'm the chair of the So, I'm in charge of the Hanover School Board, and I have bigger kids now. I have a kiddo in eighth grade, 10th grade, and a freshman in college. I'm Genie. I'm on the Hanover Board. I'm also the chair of the middle school and high school. I have a kid in third grade here. I'm Deb Nelson, and I have a 6-year-old

002and 4-year-old grandchild. And my children both went through the Race School, but they are big and bold, and they pay taxes. That's sweet. Uh I'm Carrie Russell, and I have two kids here, a second grader and a kindergartner. Who's the second grader? Peter. Peter. I see you like every day. I'm Melissa Lombardi. I have two kids at the Race School, one in kindergarten and one in third grade. Who's the one in third grade? Marcia. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, we will start with agenda review, any reordering of the agenda, and yes, yes, Deb. I would suggest that we place the vignette first. I think that's true. I think we do have to technically take public first. >> Yes. Um but I'm sure Colleen would be okay with us taking the vignette ahead of her principal's report.

003I suspect she would accept that friendly amendment. >> Yes. And can we add approve the updated only FY27 nomination list? Okay. Is that uh nonpublic or is that >> Yes, nonpublic. >> Nonpublic. All right. Super. Any other items to be added or amended? Okay. Um I will just note on the agenda um just in case anyone was struggling as I was, um the tuition rate details are in the business requiring discussion. If you end up um mired in the business requiring action, it's not all there. So, just a heads-up to people, some of the items are more detailed in one part or another of the agenda. Uh all right. Uh members of the public who would like to speak on any item not already on the agenda. Anyone online? All right. Seeing none, there'll be

004another opportunity at the end of the meeting. I think we've arrived at our guest stars. Uh I want to see an abstract. Hello. Tell me the line. Yeah, right over there. Speak to the order. One thing I would have wanted to point out is that this meeting is live streamed and recorded on YouTube. These kids will be publicly facing. So, let the people know that it's being recorded. Awesome. As long as you don't use my daughter's full name. All right. So, our goals where are your goals there? Our goals um Colleen asked if anybody wanted to share about the great learning that's been going on. And our class has huge project, right, friends? Yeah. Listen right now, okay? Our correct I'll tell you when to talk, okay? Our class did a big project on the

005Amazon rainforest. And friends, what was like sort of our main topic with that? Say it if you know it. Biodiversity. Yeah, we're learning about biodiversity. And so they're going to tell you about this whole project which was like a 2-month probably event. Um for our youth works. And then I just point out for anyone watching online that the video that they prepared is attached to the agenda. So it was lovely. Thank you for sharing that video. So. I got two minutes in a row. You You see your name, right? We'll do Ella first. I see it too, pal. We're going to go Ella then Olivia. Oh, Olivia's not here. So yes, you are going to take Olivia's spot. I got four times. Okay. So um we we like took a virtual field trip to the

006Amazon rainforest to like see what it was like and to learn about it. And then we um like picked like an animal to learn about. Um Ella, can you share a little bit about what we built in our classroom, too? Oh yeah, we built like this big Amazon rainforest out of scrap paper and we made animals other animals and a river and trees. And the Anacortes built the tallest tree there. What was that tall tree called? What what like layer of forest is that? Nice. All right, how about number two? You want to read that, Ella? We learned about um biodiversity and how um the issue of the climate change and the deforestation. And we um wrote a note to this guy named Phil. Pause on that one. Let's Let's We'll get there, okay? Cora,

007what happened next? Then we decided to like um like well, um, like a hive for a dog, but like it would it would be connect the dog would be connected to like, um, like the animal that was studying like probably a zoologist could be like a monkey or something. Mhm. And so when we applied for a job we pretended or kind of immersed ourselves in in being part of an Amazon rainforest reserve, right? Some some conservation land. So they applied to be part of that conservation land and work there. Um, and then there's a second part to your What did we look at online? What did we look at some real life Um, we looked at a real life website websites um, um, companies that help protect um, that help protect um, um, the Amazon

008and other areas. Um, and I think and um, areas around the world such as WWF. We learned more about the plants and animals in the rainforest and how and why they're in trouble. To show that we created a calendar, yeah. This is the cover. This is the one Yeah. Everyone is So that's like an endangered animal calendar? Like this is the art. Okay, that would be my house. I'm very protective of my house. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's impossible. That's all right. We finally don't need to show them. Yeah, okay. He did the spider-man and the manatee. Oh, Ella, we need to show them. He did the sloth. He did me this I thought I heard you say you didn't say cheetah. And one of you tell them a little bit about what you wrote. Are

009you going to tell them about it? He wrote like facts about We wrote facts about the rain forest. Like um about that animal and why they're strong and what they eat. Some like interesting facts. Facts. And this is Cora. She made this sloth. And there's a baby sloth. Yeah. Baby sloth facts. Up. Up. And that is the This is my golden Persian cat. Yeah, none of them are colored because And this is the baboon and the rainbow. It's very detailed. Yeah, and he's the best drawing class. Yeah, he He was drawing some skeleton thingies and then he drew a cloud and it was and he BLENDED IN WITH REALLY GOOD. YEAH, it was like red and orange and yellow mixed together with what? Very good. Let's stay focused, okay? Okay. He's the best drawing class.

010Yeah. Okay, who's after Zackary's next. Then we will teach sent us a letter saying he was going to sell the animal for farming purposes. So, he was the first person who was like the photo video of I'm sorry. Part of the good vibes. And Filthy Rich was a liar. Yeah. I just learned today that that was fake. No. Filthy Rich was the owner or like she owned the conservation land for our project and he wrote us a letter saying he was going to sell the land for farming purposes. >> He still wrote it. And that's where Ella, you're up. Oh, so that's where we um we need to convince him. Like Um we need to convince him that like he shouldn't sell the rainforest cuz that's going to destroy the rainforest trees and make money.

011And blah blah blah and it won't have to us. And and so we knew what it was wrong so we we could like we made a video and the whole class thought it was fun. Um um like made they picked their animal and said we bought and then they um wrote about it and then they Mr. Pete um he helped us um no technology uh help us. Yeah, he helped us make the video cuz he's really good with technology and we made um the video. Next Oh, it's me again. So and then like once we sent the video and everything everything blah blah blah. Um so then he wrote back. Not wrote back, he wrote a letter. Not wrote back. Um then he made a video and sent it to my classroom and he showed

012us um the video. Um so and um Filthy Rich decided not to sell the rainforest. It was fun. go. I think he's money for a W the WWF which I don't know what that fully means cuz I have a horrible memory. There is we raised $154.14. Yeah, $14. I got TO MAKE OH, BY OURSELVES. I DON'T THINK WE GOT SPECIAL HELP, do you? Yeah, I know. You all contributed. Mommy, can you tell Now we have water in our class. Declan, do you want to share what we have in our class to show for your donation? We have a little fox. Say hello to Austin. Uh-huh. Yeah. And that's like a class job now is the fox. It's to hang out with somebody. Yeah. Yeah, because we have a job with like what we call true

013foundation. But like somebody on the face Yeah. Yeah, like and um and then they they don't have a job, but we might have and so they get the Yeah, and then he Yeah, he And he has jelly beans on his belly. Guys, thank you so much for coming to stand with us. And I will be there. All right. I have seen I have seen adults come and get very intimidated speaking to us and you guys were not intimidated at all. Very impressed. Okay. Exactly. Now we know, yeah. Now we know. All right, thank you so so much, you guys. We appreciate you coming in. All right. I don't know if they're showing your videos here. We we watched it. It was wonderful. Yes. It's so good. It was so good. I love the green screen.

014Take a little picture of the letter. >> All right, let's take a brief pause. Thank you guys for coming. Crazy time of night. I mean, is this like affirming that it like this is normal? All right. Okay. Shut the door maybe. Just uh thanks Robin. All right, so we will move on to the principal's report. Thank you everybody. And of course if you have questions for Ms. Bashaw, the video is lovely and adorable and please send her the There's a lot of technology involved in it. So, highly encourage everyone to look at that and to send questions if you have them. Do we have Colleen online? >> Yes. Okay, super. Um Colleen, are there any highlights you want to hit for us other than oh my gosh, so much stuff happening? So much. >> Especially

015over the pandemic. And I love the pictures of the lemon technology and cool stuff. Oh, I love watching her moving over. I will note while Colleen is moving over Yeah, Colleen over to the panel. Sorry. Um the enrollment is stable. I checked from one month to the next, so that's good. One month of stable enrollment. Um so that's good to see. Um, Does anyone have questions for Colleen while we're waiting for her to come over? Anything that stood out to people? Let's see questions. Colleen, anything to highlight for us? May not be that we just fire. Unmute. Harry, sorry. Sorry, can you hear me now? Sorry. Um, we had a great staff meeting today with uh Steph Harold, our instructional coach, and Monica and um I can never pronounce her last name. I'm so sorry,

016Monica. Um, they talked about uh supporting immigrant families in our building and it was a really thoughtful and meaningful presentation. Lots of great questions, lots of great resources shared with us, and we're looking forward to continuing that work with Monica and Steph. Uh and uh just really working together as a staff to support all of our families as best we can. Um updated the uh incoming kindergarten enrollment, I think we're at 56 or 58 at this point. Um, so we're we're looking to be about the 60 that we anticipated um again, so I think that's good. And we are at 75 for first grade next year. We've had uh 12 new enrollments on top of our existing kindergarteners. Or 72, 72, sorry. So, we'll be at 72. We have And there were still a couple

017other families that had not responded that were anticipated, so. Matt, as I recall that aligns pretty much with what we anticipate in terms of >> Yeah, that's great. Yep. Thank you, Colleen. Questions? Right. Super. Um, moving on then to tuition rate. Ooh. Um, so we do need to vote on a tuition rate this evening. Um, unfortunately, um, Teresa could not be here tonight. Um, she had a wake that she had to attend, so, um, we have Robin. Yes. Prepared to >> I will try to do my best. Walk us through But I will just point out we have two options to consider. Um, the total price tag is very different from one option to the next. Um, I know I have my thoughts, but I don't know if you want to tee us up a

018little bit. >> Yeah. Yeah, I can talk about it. So, if you look at the two options, option one is, um, our tuition based on our the method that we began using last year to calculate the tuition rate, and that also includes our insurance costs from this past year. That's been added into that amount. So, it ends up coming out to $32,434 for tuition for the 2026-2027 school year. And again, that's using that rate that we ended up the formula we used for Dresden last year, too. The option two is a little bit different. It's basically doing what we talked about in the tuition committee meeting, which is taking our tuition from last year, and um, increasing it by the percent change in the budget. So, with that comes in a little bit lower, and

019then if you look down, um, further, you'll see that the medical cost has been added into that, as well. So, that ends up being $30,537. And then I'm happy to try to answer any of your questions. I have a couple questions. Um are there any legal requirements that we calculated any specific way? Do we are we required to as we've done in option one itemize some of these um you know, special education related costs, capital costs, and back them out in a specific way? Not that I know of. We are doing it different from the state of New Hampshire. Mhm. That doesn't surprise me. They use a different calculation, so just so you're aware of that. Yeah, and I'm wishing that I I could remember exactly why that was cuz I know I've been told

020and I don't remember. And I don't think we've ever used that calculation. The New Hampshire state Tara has a question. >> Oh, Tara. Tell me if Tara remembers the reasons. Yes, Tara. I think the state calculation is lagging because it's based upon actual expenditures which are not yet done. So, that was going to be my question regarding the 26-27 total expenditure number that's listed on option two. How did we get that number? I think Go ahead. Uh I think I think I think I got to answer that. That is the expenditures that were part of the warrant articles that were voted on this year. So, that's the I just pulled up the budget um presentation to the town. So, 3.06 represents our just our expenditure change. You will remember from the conversations this year that

021the revenues were actually the bigger driver, our increase in costs year-over-year. So, I'm kind of I don't know the answer to this, but there's there is a piece where I feel like the 3% is under counting what we actually um have Yeah. Yeah. >> Even the 25-26 number >> Renee, is that all fully baked? Good question. Or is some of that is some of that anticipated? And the 26, 27, none of that is actual. Correct? All of that is imaginary, just on pen and paper planning, not real expenditures because those will actually unfold as we live through next year, right? So, um, I I'm just going to say based upon that alone, I am wholly uncomfortable with option two. It's not a full snapshot of the real status quo. Forget about the real anticipated sort

022of situation. So, that that that that would be difficult for me to process. Oh, dev- devil's advocate a little bit. Um, what concerns me about option one, so what I like about option two is that somewhere along the way in our budget process for next year forecasting out to 27, 28, we will account for whatever weirdness happens between now and the end of the year that's not reflected in those total expenditures through making decisions about some of the, you know, fund transfers or debt service, whatever choices we're going to make, right? Capital outlay, etc. What concerns me about option one is if I look at cuz that's a big increase, right? I mean, that's a that's 10% increase, right? So, when I look at the drivers of that increase, it is the choices that we

023have made, right? It's the fact that we decided not to transfer as much money within our funds. It's the fact and so that's backing out less, right? In that total um amount that the tuition is going to be based on. It's that we have lower special education costs this year compared to the previous year, and so we're backing out less. Um and so that I don't know how to figure that out, but there is some of that like choices we made are backing out less and therefore driving that tuition amount higher. So I'm a little worried that and maybe that is passing up the cost on in a in a fair way, I don't know, but I I just worried that it's we have made choices to keep costs down and that those choices are

024actually inversely causing the tuition rate to go up because we're backing less out. Does that make any sense? >> Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to clarify something. I'm realizing, and I apologize, this is the first time I'm looking at it. The bottom line in pinkish color is actually like in option two, that actually it looks like that includes the medical assessment. >> Yeah, it does. Which I didn't notice cuz I was just looking at the first line. So medical assessment looks like if we went that route, it's the 30,000 >> Right. 537. >> Mhm. Um which I didn't do the math on that, but it's slightly more than 4%. Um right. It doesn't answer your questions, Tara, around like the bakedness of the numbers, but it alleviates at least the medical assessment concern. That's So just

025to clarify on this since I'm not involved in the tuition committee, this is for kids from not Hanover kids who wish to tuition into Ray, Correct. Yep. Do we have a sense of how many kids are currently doing that? I'm pretty sure. We've had a request for one for next year. Yeah, I've had one. One sort of here and there, I guess over time would be the way to put it. It's it's not a consistent thing. And it's my understanding with all the open enrollment business, which looks like it's been pushed back at least a year in terms of actual start. >> Yeah, that's that do we have a sense of how this compares to I guess our competitors for that should have come into fruition? Um we're definitely higher. Okay. than anyone around us.

026And that's not inherently a good thing or a bad thing. >> No. But now It's a thing. >> Like I just spent dealing with this with a potential student coming into the high school. And it would be based on the tuition that the district is going to be paying, they would pay an extra $6,000. And so if we take away these are best interests or manifest or anything like that, if >> Yeah. as of today, parent pays this wreck. Right. And should open enrollment come into fruition as it as intended, the sending school would do 80% and the parent makes up the difference. Well, now not in the new one. That's phenomenal. I said this earlier, but what what is what is it like as of now, you know? 9,000 Yeah, 9,000. Yeah, they're just

027doing flat rate. And the state makes up the difference. No, that's totally No, the state pays the difference. That's the formula. The sending schools yeah, still have to send But I don't trust them not to change that again. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, one second, Renee. Any other board member questions? Tara, did you wish to wish to speak again? Yes, I did. So I wanted to speak to the cost of other schools cost per pupil, which is not exactly the same as tuition rate, but we don't necessarily have the transparency of tuition rate. All of that cost per pupil is aggregated by the state. The most recent data available online is 2024-2025. And just to put in perspective the numbers that we are talking about now versus other towns 24-25 numbers. Lebanon in 24-25 for their elementary

028school that's 24-25 was $32,839 per pupil. So, I don't think it's necessarily accurate to say that the numbers that we are talking about now for 26-27 are out of line. We can also go to Let's look at Lyme. Lyme was for 24-25 $33,556 per pupil at the elementary school level. So, um I mean, it depends on who you want to compare us to. Whether it's surrounding towns or, you know, sort of farther away, maybe economy of scale towns with much different populations than we have. Yep. Uh that this question is a weird one. Um I'm just looking at the medical insurance assessment. And wondering is that I mean, on the one hand, I think we are only being fiduciary fiduciary only fiduciary responsible if we look to cover that cost. But at the same time,

029I sort of feel like, but should that be folded into tuition? And that's just a question. You guys can all persuade me yes, it should be. I don't feel resistant to it. I'm just mulling it over as a a cost that we uh will have already paid before anybody Am I correct? Anybody comes to the school. So in effect, we're asking we're hitting the end of the tuition rate a figure that's a sunk cost already. >> Yeah. Yeah. With a similar comment that some of these things that are budget deductions, meaning that we would not charge the tuitioning students these rates or these costs. If it's a budget reduction, I would say like I'm sorry, say that one more time. >> Where it says budget deductions, we would not be charging tuitioning students those deductions.

030Do I understand that correctly? Correct, right. So for some of these, I would ask why. Why would they not contribute to the cost of a principal or to interest or even even to transportation? We We all as taxpayers pay the transportation rate regardless of whether our kids use the bus system. Uh that's a fair point. I So this is where I ask the question and Tara, maybe you have the answer. I can't This is terrible because I'm on the tuition committee and I just can't remember. Right. You know, there are certain things that have to be taken out according to the state if I'm not mistaken. So it's standard. Yeah, it's standard to take out transportation because a tuition student would most likely not be using our transportation. And the um the debt service and

031such is for capital improvements which are not supposed to be included in tuition. They're supposed to be operating costs. operating costs So those are the reasons why and even in option one, those things are not included in the way that we do we've done the standard calculation since last year which is still, you know, a test calculation. We're still figuring this out. Um what I would say is I hate hate hate and this is to get back to Deb's question. Deb, I hate that what we're we're usually doing is charging tuition and setting a tuition rate based upon a budget because a budget is a guess. It's not an actual accurate representation of what we've spent. And I was the person who, you know, sort of stamped my foot and said, "We need to include

032that unbudgeted significant health care expenditure into tuition this year because last year when we were setting tuition rates, we had no idea that we needed to budget those significant extra funds for to cover our normal operating costs, which obviously, as a sort of responsible party, we would have in advance had we known. Right? Um so, that's why it's folded in now because last year there was no way for us to reasonably anticipate that and to spread out the cost in the that given year. And this is also sort of to bigger picture. Most places, once they set tuition based upon anticipated costs in the upcoming year, at the end of the year, then do a true up. So, in the case that there is a huge anticipated cost unanticipated cost like that health insurance situation,

033they would have sent at the end of the year an additional bill to say, "Hey, tuition students, you owe us some extra money cuz some things came up that we didn't reasonably understand we needed to plan for." So, we don't do that. So, then we have to play catch up and do it the next year. So, that's why that's folded in to the current conversation. So, percentage-wise, just so everyone knows that 30,000 is 5% um on option two. On option one, we're looking at 11.6%. Obviously, that would vary from year to year depending on, you know, the situation. I'm sorry. Renee. Hi, Renee Sargent, Hanover. Do I have to come back with a quick question? Yes. I would have said you're fine. >> I know. Some of us are sticklers for the rules, yeah. At

034the very bottom of that page where it has an asterisk that says, "This is how This is similar to how Dresden does it." That asterisk doesn't apply back to anything. So, which option is most similar to Dresden? I believe that's option two. Okay, so that's just a connection that you're making to Dresden. >> It's option one. It's option one. Option one is the the the the calculation that we have done for Dresden. Okay. I was going to say, so that asterisk doesn't >> Clearly, that's a valid question. It um >> Thank you. Um so, that's interesting, Tara. So, that's what my reflection was, but in the notes for the tuition rate action items later on in the agenda, um it says that it is closer that it's option two. That is closer to that, I

035think. Yeah. Says that option two is in fact the one that is like the Dresden School District tuition rate calculation. >> That doesn't sort of wash with what we talked about before because we did not So, so anyway. That would be helpful. It would be helpful for us to have had this data in advance and gone over it with Teresa if she was not able to be here tonight. So, this is kind of um, you know, we're we're strapping it a bit. It's it's a missed opportunity to have some deeper understanding. Yeah. Because because you know, um Kelly, we're in the Dresden Tuition Committee. We don't go a deep do a deep dive on Hanover because we're more concerned about RMS and Hanover High School, which have significant tuition numbers, much more so than the

036high school. Yep, totally agree on all points. So, I I guess my question would be what is our deadline to set this? I know we're asked to vote on it tonight, and I was told we need a decision tonight, but what is our deadline? Don't know. I just know we are supposed to do it tonight. Mhm. Yeah. Because I I'm hesitating I personally I'm I'm hesitating to vote without having answers to these questions. I don't know where other board members are. And without having had the data ahead of time. Looking around the room. Um When Well, we have our Dresden meeting, so we could >> Last week special call last week. Was 2 weeks. Yeah. >> 2 weeks out? Mhm. 2 and 1/2 it's always 28th. Mhm. Yeah, it's always May. So, it's after spring

037break. Okay. Um Robin, is there any way you could sort of maybe do a little research while we move forward with this? Mhm. I mean, are there any other questions at this point that board members that would help board members feel comfortable making a decision tonight? Yeah, but if >> Before we move on to other >> I've been advised with frequency to see that from one of the districts. Yeah. West Memphis to see yep. Um I think that I'm trying to weigh in my head our time one, two accuracy of the number or maybe explainability of the number, and the fact that we have maybe one student that this impacts >> Yes. next year. And to me uh us getting back together to discuss whether it's going to be a $2,000 difference, I don't know

038is necessarily worth our time. That being said, I do think that it's also very valid to say it is worth our time because we don't know, but I do want to flag like I am I I could be persuaded to vote given that at least some of the numbers that we're seeing do align with the presentation we provided to folks. I can be uncomfortable with the fact that those are what we're using, but like I don't believe we're going to overhaul the formula and true up anything at this point. Uh, so with that, I mean, I I just want to put that out there as a group or not. I would love clarification on what we finally decided was the calculation for Dresden. From a consistency standpoint >> Yeah. since we have two different Well,

039because remember we went through the calculation with Dresden the exact same way, but then we said the easier thing was 5% increase. Yep. I do remember it. >> Which is what we've done in option two. I'm also I'm I'm trying on the fly here to find this in the Dresden Tuition Committee minutes and I'm not finding everything's locked. >> look at that. >> And I'm signed in Do you want me to look at that? >> That would be If you all want to go on, I can go over it. We can yeah. Yeah. Anything else that would be helpful to know if we are asked to make a vote to take a vote tonight? No. Okay, so you I mean, in a logistics sense, if it ended up being slightly lower than we approved, not

040a problem. If it ends up being higher than we approved, it is a problem. Is that generally right? I suppose that's true. >> Yeah. Um, other consideration not knowing what the state's going to do with our tuition rate. If ever there was a moment to make sure we're getting this right in a way that we're comfortable with. This is the moment, right? There is every possibility that the state says open enrollment and it will be based on your 26-27 tuition rate. That's probably what it And it's going to be 70% of that. Right? I I'm making up numbers, but guess what? So is the state. So that that piece of it makes me a little uncomfortable. In any year previous, I would be on board, but yeah, the difference there is probably not worth a

041lot of time, but If we had to move tonight, I would personally push for the higher number just to cover all of our bases. And it is the way that we have done it. I feel like the higher number is more accurate. >> Yeah, it's more realistic, too. Mhm. And more transparent. And it's how we've been doing it, so it makes sense. It's apples to apples to your group. Okay. All right, any other questions or concerns? Okay. You two pipe down, all right. Well, guess what? We're going to move on to call for resolutions for NJCAA. So um the call for resolutions is No, Deb, remind me, when's the deadline? >> July 4th. So but we would need to process, decide if we're going to do something, and approve it here, and send it to

042them. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say if people have ideas for resolutions if you I think if you click on the link Mhm. it takes you to you can see a page where it has the continuing resolutions and um it obviously we Well, obviously we passed one about open enrollment a year ago. It was highly effective. I had to mention to listen to the New Hampshire School Board Association. Nonetheless, I I would say that if there's an issue that you're concerned about and you want to bring it at me and I can try to word smith it so that we have something to look at at our May meeting and can vote on it at our June meeting, we will be fine. If it's more Dresden-based than Hanover, we can look at it at the

043appropriate board meeting. Um And we do tend to look at them at both meetings because we get the two votes. Exactly. Special. Both hands on the table. No, so much fun. So, we should just reach out. Yeah. We should just reach out to him directly. Sure. Not now. Sure. Well, unless you have something right now that you think is super super important and uh Kelly has been traveling to Concord about open enrollment. I've gone to Concord about the latest iteration of the divisive concepts law. Um they're getting sued for the divisive concepts law and it's tied up in the courts. So, this new one is going to get I bet it will. very problematic because the Anyway, my point is that we've been going down and talking to them, but they're just not paying attention.

044They don't really care Mhm. what what people say. Nonetheless, it is a format for bringing forward resolutions and my limited experience is that the body has become more and more aligned with each other and frustrated with the legislature. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. Yeah, more focused on the needs of students and families. Yes. Yes. Um Okay, so unless there's further discussion tonight or someone has an idea right now, I would say send them Deb's way and I would open that up to members of the public as well. Um if there's something that you would really like us to take on um in this app in this venue, then please send that to Deb Nelson. I'm sure she will be thrilled to get that. I will. I like getting them. Careful what you wish

045for, Brenda. Um all right, moving right along although it's very much in the same vein. Um the legislative update and you have my uh a communication I sent to the board uh attached here. And it's something we're going to try to do more regularly, um share updates with the board that will then go to um the the attached into the agendas for the board meetings. Um all of the links are live, so thank you Ryan for getting that uh set up. Um I will just highlight Deb mentioned I did go down and testify in the um hearing on SB 101, the open enrollment uh bill the morning of they actually the senator who proposed it originally came and completely changed the structure of everything in it. And so then all of the testimony was essentially

046done on the fly and so it was very dramatic and totally By the way, my brother tried to watch this. That is not minute 6 second 7, that is hour 6 minute 7. But I I was one of the last people to get to speak because Eleanor came with me and was falling asleep in the front row and they took pity on us and let us speak. So she would like everyone to know that she played a role as a in having our voices heard. Um So uh I also will just point out it's in the email as well, but quietly just after that the following Friday, Governor Ayotte signed a bill that limits the state's obligation to fund public education in New Hampshire to only those subjects that are required. So, yeah. And that

047just kind of quietly went through. Yeah. Just FYI, there's a group that meets Mondays on at 1:00 on Zoom about education and I've been going to those meetings. I sort of tripped backwards into them, but I'm sure if somebody else wanted to come we could talk to talk team or whatever, but it's really very very informative and there's there was a lot of information provided about open enrollment, language around tuition agreements, and how much it's going to cost, and language under language says, "Oh, it's expected to cost $2 million a year." And I mean $6 million a year. And they anticipate that that's underfunding and the number's closer to $25 million a year. Yeah. Uh but just for everybody to know that public education advocacy day is being planned for April 28th in Concord and

048there'll be workshops and it's during the vacation week chosen deliberately hoping that there will be people who can attend. But obviously if people are planning travel and that they can't. But I'm not going anywhere, so I'll probably go down that day and there'll be workshops on open on advocacy, on messaging, etc. etc. So, April 28th. It's not vacation week. It might be for some districts. Okay. Yeah, and you're right. It isn't vacation day. I just wrote it down quickly. Hm? Right. Well, I don't that's way far in the future. And when they said news vacation day, I just went okay cuz obviously everything Well, that's what happens when you happens when you retire. And Who's retired? I worked. I'm 65. We're grateful We're grateful for your service then and now. That's right. But if I

049don't know when your vacation days are. First of all, I want to thank Chair Kelly for going on our collective behalf uh to do this testimony. I know it's it's a big lift for us. >> as an individual. I know you're testifying as an individual. Thank you for your service regardless. I think uh Kelly, Deb, and I have all gone down there in recent months and it is challenging logistically, that that to say the logistics, the challenge of mentally being there and putting yourself in that space as cesspooly as it is. Um Secondly, I wanted to announce that Kelly and I through our roles as Hannah Chairs have been invited to meet with the Commissioner of Education, that Glenn, on May 13th, which is a Wednesday, couple hours before the Hannah over meeting. Um I

050will be out of town that day. Ready? So, um I don't know what Kelly's plans are yet, but then we are continuing to be involved with state level discussions. It is continuing to be what it is, but we are trying our cumulative best. Um I've had Thank you. Any other legislative delightfulness to share? Okay. There's something further down in the agenda, but don't worry about it now. The committee reports. That's stuff there. Okay, perfect. I'm going to do Um school board retreat, this will be a quick agenda item for right now. Um although we So, stay tuned. Um hopefully you all saw my email and if I just We'll figure it out. Okay. Um hopefully everyone else saw my email. Um, we are the four chairs are working um with Robin on setting our agenda

051for the school order treat. We are trying to move it off of the weekend since I'm not sure we're going to be able to get a quorum. Um, I know it looks like Wednesday 6:00 to 8:30 is going to be the sweet spot. So far I have eight yeses for that, though I think that might include Rayan. So seven board member yeses. Um for that. So um for anyone who has not yet responded to the when to meet, um please take a second to look at that and let us know if that time frame will work. Um we're going to stick to that uh 2 and 1/2 hours and any I think you know, we'll set that agenda very carefully. Any items that are not able to be covered in that 2 and 1/2 hours,

052we will cut it off and we will ship those to board meetings. So we're going to we're going to manage that um very carefully. So uh 20 minutes sorry. Just to clarify, dinner is a part of this thing, right? Yeah, that's right. I will get dinner. And at your request Robin's going to come with a chef hat. >> That's right. I'll prepare it myself. That's one way to get at it. You might not enjoy that one. Um So you guys saw a list of potential topics um that were distributed. Um I think we are most likely heading towards board governance questions um and some legal um policy type questions since that pertains to all boards um and seems a good time for us to kind of set some new norms and expectations. So um that

053will be the main focus of that. Um also fits into our strategic plan. Yes. >> So, yeah, perfect. Um, but to be confirmed. All right, anything else on school order treat? Send me topics if you have them. And thanks to those who have sent them already. Uh, donation from Friends of Hanover and Norwich schools. So, by statute, because of this is a wonderfully generous $2,000 donation, um, we do not have to approve it, but we like to hear about it. Speak on this program. I can speak a little bit. Um, this is great because this is we began a program like this in Marion Cross, and so those students have traveled to each of the schools, met with different committees at each of the schools. And so, one of the things that we've been working

054on over the years just really trying to get this going in the three Hanover and Dresden schools. So, this will be a nice addition. And, um, Tony's been involved with this and Teresa. I've been a little bit in the initial stages when they were working on the grant, but yeah, so it's exciting. And it's really student-driven, which is nice. Excellent. All right, questions? Thank you. Yeah, no, no, no, okay. Thank you to the, uh, Friends of Hanover and Norwich schools, as always, for their support and to everyone who contributes to um, those funds. Um, moving on to the school meeting schedule and topic template. Any initial concerns on this one? All right, I don't know that it's worth belaboring this one. If you see any concerns or have questions, please send them on to me.

055So, yes, Renee. Um, is this where, in the topic template, we would have something about, like, negotiations updates? I think that's a really good point coming out of the budget strategy committee meetings, things, proposals. I think there there could definitely be some updates to this. And I would say setting our calendar is a it's a little once that's set, we can shift meetings, but it that piece is a little harder. So, if you look at that and see there are any major holidays, I know Rand does a really good job of checking for those, but if you see funny vacation things or whatever, definitely let us know that ASAP. I think the agenda topics can be great. More as needed, so Yep. Just saying it again. Love it. >> The um Uh sorry. My brain

056is fried at sometime. Um the February 27th annual meeting is during vacation. Oh, yeah. And And I know we have talked about this. It is problematic every year and I know I understand that it is mountains to move that date based on something. I mean, that was not the standard, but last this year was the first year that this has happened. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. But this year when we noticed it, it was this is Yeah, it has to do with the time Days, yeah. for the sun I'll look at it. After the something, but Yeah, it's a great time to start looking at it. I think so. To be fair, Neil pointed it out. Yeah. I second that. Yeah. And it was an unbudgeable Yep. date because um when the voting is The statute

057and it has to be that. Prior to that it was Thursday evenings on like a a totally appropriate Mhm. There is something in our articles of agreement that something like the second Tuesday of the whatever will be the election and within 10 days will be held the something something. There's very specific language to that. This We we We can see if it a I mean Yeah, I just think I mean from a turnout perspective Typical. Yeah, no. I mean only because Renee's in-laws came. Cuz they were on vacation. We would never have expected or appreciated I know we had men from the uh quorum. Yes. >> of us. We had a quorum. Yes, yeah. And then then honestly it's I don't know. It's a little embarrassing. Like I'll just I'll just follow state to state.

058It's a little embarrassing to get up for annual meeting and have like five four you know three of us there for hand over, right? Like there's three or four of us or whatever the bare minimum is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, just some Thank you. Also put on a mid in the dark days before Ryan joined our team. Um some of these things we're looking at schedule like we would have things like scheduled for Thanksgiving, scheduled for December 25th and no one noticed it until way too late. So it it that's why we sort of look at this just as a just in case. But yeah, the we don't have to look as hard as we used to anymore. But thanks to Ryan and Robin for us to rock this team. Um the other thing

059and I'm sorry I'm not orienting very well right now, but we did talk about moving the calendar adoption earlier. Did that make it in here? >> I think she did change that. It's in November. It's in Yeah. So it's a ticket. Yes. Cuz I remember looking at the calendar for the other I'm looking at it right now. I know we talked about moving that up. as early as we can. Yeah, so the first week is November 7th and then approving it is December. Which would be helpful, right? Yes, okay. And I was able to give Ryan the information early this year. So hopefully that continues >> Yeah. next year. Okay. Yes, we I know we added the NHSBA to the in April and May and it's not here. just flew. Which and it it did

060make it. It must be somewhere because it made it into the agenda for today. So, it must be right well, it was on our request. Oh, maybe. Maybe in the So, It should that's a good note. >> It should be in your packet before and now it's missing. Yeah. So, this covers both April and May. Mhm. Yeah, they're approved in June. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Deb. We will move on to business requiring action. Um I will take a motion to approve items B through D by consent. Deb? I move to approve items B through D by consent. Second. Second from Carrie. Yep, and we'll take a roll call vote starting with Renee. Sullivan, yes. Keeney, yes. Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. See what she says. Tara? Those are yes. And McConnell, yes. All

061right, uh the tuition rate. Are we feeling comfortable to make a motion and if so, please go ahead and move. Will we able to find that stuff? Oh, did I couldn't there were no related I mean, just basically said Yeah. Notes are public. So, >> Well, I can see I can read the notes actually, but it doesn't it still just says to decide on the Yeah. Discussion ensued. >> Right, pretty much. Okay. Thank you. All right, I got it. That was nice. Thank you. Ben? Move to approve the 2026-2027 tuition rate in the amount of $32,434 as presented. Second. A second from Deb, and I will just point out for clarity's sake as presented under option one and discussion and extortion. Yep. Um I will take Is there any discussion of that? Yeah. Just to

062say what I think I heard cuz I haven't seen this before. That is the option that most aligns with what we've been doing in previous years. Correct. Okay. I think this for this school, yes. >> Yes. Yep. Okay. Um then I will take a roll call vote starting with Finnegan. Sullivan, yes. Emeny, yes. Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. Good lesson, yes. Dara? For those who yes. And McConnell, yes. Okay. Thank you guys for that discussion and for the vote. Moving on to communications and reports. Um I don't really have any more to say than I already said. Um I Yeah, I think that's all I got. Nice to finally see some days without snow. Yes. Uh I move on to committees. I'm sure I'll talk again at some point. You want to start? Budget well, so

063there's the budget process review committee, which is the last one, but there's also the Hanover budget committee. Which is the first one. Go for it. So, do you Where do you want me to start? Go where the spirit leads you. Yeah. Wonderful. Two weeks ago, the week before the Norwich School Board meeting, um I sent out the budget process review committee April Board discussions document, which I know you've all read and committed to memory. Very much so. Um so, I want to take the time to kind of share with you at least the kind of initial thinking of where we've kind of gone in the budget process review committee. The purpose of this is to get us your feedback as the Hanover School Board on a few questions that we need to kind of continue

064down our process, knowing that even though this is an SAU budget committee or sorry, budget process review committee, um the decisions about what are made have to be adopted by every school and so our individual school board input is actually important. Primarily because we may see differences between Norwich and Hanover decisions. And so I think that kind of keep that in mind as as we go throughout this. Uh and I will do and do an overview and then I will certainly invite Tara and Robin to chime in as members of the committee as well and then we can kind of dive into the questions for discussion. So the first page is just an outline of committee meeting times, how we've been kind of structuring our collaboration so you know what has happened and probably more

065things will happen after this than are there, but that's kind of what we got planned so far. Um the questions for the board and a few questions for administration specifically are outlined as I mentioned to make sure we kind of hit on some things that are outstanding, but I will come back to those for the discussion. Um the draft budget process we want to outline kind of the a few overall philosophy points um that we think align with the charge of the committee in terms of making sure we are making the process more efficient for administrators and ourselves and making sure that we have just smoother budget processes overall. So one of those kind of pieces is the first one of being durable and not depend on any one specific persons. That's administrator side or

066kind of board side that's engaging in the work. Um we want to be able to clearly outline the critical questions to consider and the corresponding materials. So that is to help those people, whoever they might be, not needing to have kind of the background, but they know what questions we should be asking and when. We're all intelligent humans and should be able to engage in that. Um and we want to outline when those things are happening uh within the budget cycle. We want the process and uh all the materials to be transparent and easily accessible to all stakeholders. There things are accessible, things but like as we're experiencing with this two-year budget, it's just not clear. So, we are also thinking about like really how do we actually make it like one So, there's one

067source of truth. We are a small district really when it comes down to it, but we have four districts that are even smaller than the small district. And so, it's it's more complicated than it needs to be. We want to make sure we can kind of make sure there's one source of truth for where you go to get the information for all of the districts. Um we want to allow for reflection and improvements each year. Um kind of how we I think are thinking about our school board retreat, we want to make sure we have essentially a budget reflection moment. Um and kind of capture ideas from the past year so that we can apply them to the next year. Um and then the fifth one is uh I think really important especially as we

068think about all the impacts that are coming down from the state. How do we have difficult conversations? We want to make sure we are not just kind of rubber stamping We don't do this, but like, you know, rubber stamping great, this year, next year kind of a thing. You want to be able to say let's think about how we're using our resources, what does that really look like? A lot of that really does come from conversations we've had with you, Robin. Um and I know that this is something they're thinking about as well. Um but we want to make sure we are enabling those conversations, and so those are also things that we're we'll talk about as we look at kind of the proposed timeline. Um at a high level, three big changes um we

069are trying to figure out some sort of what we're calling enterprise-level alignment. So, that's across all four school boards. So, we have to statutorily all have four budgets at the end of our budgeting process still. However, it doesn't mean we can't talk about what those things are in a more effective way cuz we are all working together um for the students in our communities. And so we want to make sure we're enabling those discussions. If you kind of look at I have it printed cuz I have my eyes haven't died yet, but I'm just waiting for the next year because it's happening. But if you look at the proposed budget process timeline, there's like a pinky color in that top row. So that's really where those alignments we're thinking are going to happen. So that's

070that's all the kind of what I would call key stakeholders. So all the budget committees would be present in that and then certainly the key members of administration in terms of decision making. So the principals are kind of directors obviously superintendent things like that. But we would we're proposing a look back look forward which is that reflection moment. Right now we are intending to take advantage of Robin's leadership team conversation on May 18th and using some of that time. Um the August time frame is a moment to say okay, what's changed? Has anything happened? Now we're going to kick things off. How do we want to move them forward? And then kind of the mid process end of process depending on when in November it happened the strategic budget meeting two is more of the

071okay things that you've made decisions along the way. Now where are we landing? How do we want to align? With the intent of being able to have actual conversations of okay, here's what's happening at the elementary school. Here's what's happening the middle school, the high school, the other elementary school. Like do we need to be thinking about how we're investing one way or the other to better support our students given various pressures. Um so that's kind of the high level change one of this enterprise level alignment. Um The second change here the standardized materials and questions I kind of spoke to a little bit before. This is actually a big part of our meeting on Tuesday. The committee is going to be reconvening uh to say all right, we have a set of meetings we're

072talking about these big high-level strategic ones. We're talking about potentially other um kind of specific district ones. What are the questions we need to be asking at those moments in time? And really hone in on the the key things. We're not looking at making a list of 100 questions cuz that's just not reasonable to look into. It's like what are really the top five, I'd say. Um and I'm I don't know the committee. We may decide something differently, but I think we're trying to make sure that we are clear on the questions we're asking because that will then imply, okay, here's what the data here's the data that we need in order to be able to answer those questions or at least start to answer those questions. Um where those questions would be similar across

073all the four districts and then the data would be the same format across all of those four districts. So, there is an assumption there that there is some efficiency that would be gained from our administrator side to producing materials that are expected, that are consistent, and they are related to specific questions that the board would be asking. The last one is important because we may still have four different budget chairs. I haven't actually looked at the the sign-ups for everybody yet, but um the uh like we don't want to continue to enable a process that has four unique budget chairs communicating with the superintendent and business administrator about four separate different questions, but that are slight they're slightly the same, but not really, and ask you for it in a different way. Like we just

074want to be clear on like here's what the process is. Here's what we think we need. So, that's um that is a big next step, but that is kind of where what we're going to get our next step is. Um and then the third here is just about communications, I think. Um we've got some ideas there about how to do that, but that is uh obviously on our mind and very important given the feedback from our friends in the Hanover Finance Committee. What page are you on? I am lost. I'm going between page three and four. So, there's the process timeline and I'm talking about the high-level changes right now. >> know what you're talking about. Okay. Yeah. Um and I've alluded to this, but what would not change? Statutorily, we have one budget per

075district, um so that has to happen. Um we would have four budget committees because there's four budgets. Um it does not necessarily mean we can't have alignment of people over those committees. That would be an option. However, it does mean we still have the work to do, and so A lot of work for straight us. Yeah. Um crunch time has not changed. That is still the season of work. Um between kind of October to December, um and then roles, uh we really want to make sure that the board is focused on that kind of the guidance and the accountability to the public. Admin are the doers of the work. We want to make sure that is a clear process knowing that with all the change that is up in the air. Um there there might

076that might be like a transition period. Um we want to be very explicit about the goal of where we want to end up. Is that >> like we're governance. So. Um that's that. Uh I will open up the question or clarifying questions so far, and then we can we can talk a bit more about the process if you guys want, but I've, you know, I've said a lot. So, initial reactions, thoughts? I don't begin to have the capacity to imagine a potential model for this other than what you've already described. Have you got something in mind? Hm. Excellent. Because I've been be thinking about this nonstop for the last 3 months. Well, I'm I am I I will say very candidly, I am trying to straddle the balance of my my paid work and what

077I do there with the perspectives of our specific community and the four boards and the people that are part of the committee. And it is not entirely clean, I guess I would say. In a perfect world, we would have all of us working together. We'd be all in the same room at all the same time and we'd be talking about the dollars. And then we'd figure out how to break things apart. That's not the reality we live in, just given our our two towns and the weirdness of everything. So, with that, I have worked with many large districts on their budgeting processes. My work really is more at the strategic level, not at the doing level. And so, being able to say here's what we need to talk about something and here's how it needs

078to be made a decision on we need to make sure we're engaging the principals. It does leak into, I think, a bit more of Robin's role. And so, I'm also trying to like not dictate what you should be doing because I'm very excited about the conversations we've been having. I don't think I needed to go there, but um this timeline does this work does reflect the best of my ability to interject I think is the right thing That's my from the work that I've been doing on this. Because if you put me on a committee, I'll be really good at when it comes to money and budget and finance, I'm not somebody who's going to initiate and drive forward an idea cuz I don't have any in there. I will do my best to pay

079attention and be thoughtful, but I'm not someone who's got the experience to move anything I do in a particular direction. Someone like you or Robin has to say and this is how we're going to do it. I hope. Process-wise, yes. I think what I would say is your expertise though is really valuable would be if you were to be part of the committee, which I'm not saying you are, but I just want to be very clear that like anyone can and should be part of the conversations and trade-offs. And how are we doing our work? What is the right thing to do, which is kind of the pink stuff. Like we need to know how much things cost, but ultimately it's really the what are we deciding to do and what is the research behind

080why it's the right thing to do, which is frankly not a budget thing. Correct. Okay. I just want to clearly delineate Yeah. my strengths but also I I'm hoping that there is a clear model for moving forward with this. So one question just to clarification from what you said, I was trying to read between the lines. Are you are you suggesting that it would be in our interest to have fewer chairs of budget committees to somehow streamline that? So that like Hanover chair would also be Dresden and Norwich chair would also be SAU or something like that? Um if capacity allowed, yes. Um part of that is because brain space and stories across each are really important. The decisions that are being made at one school because we need to make sure that we're, I

081don't know, starting a spring spring program at NCS because parents really care about it. Like that's not a thing that's happening, but like I wouldn't even know if it was a thing that was happening. Right. >> Um and that is kind of the conversation of like, okay, well, what are you investing in? Like, are there tradeoffs that you're making? Like, oh my gosh, you're like talking about trading a pre-K classroom for that. That sounds really hard. Like, for nothing else, there's empathy that can be gained from having those conversations together. So, we're trying to kind of balance having everything together um versus, which I think is actually one of the questions you wanted to ask, like, what is the appetite of our board to have two, three, four of these committees together? And also the

082appetite of our board to try to have a chair that is across multiple. So, I I talked for a minute about this the other day. Um, so, having served on many budget committees over the years, I think I'm curious, I guess. It's It's partly an answer to your question and partly a second question to that. Um, to what extent are there sort of economies of scale if you're doing multiple budget committees? And I think that's sort of the lingering question I have. The way in our current model, and I can tell you as as four chairs, when we sit down and say, "Okay, let's divvy up this workload. Carrie's going to be on this committee. Deb's going to be on this committee." Um, we are very cognizant of the amount of time and energy that

083goes into the budget committees in that time frame for around the holidays, right? Um, and so, but that's partly because the current structure is if you're on Dresden and Hanover, you're there for 4 hours, right? Whereas if that could somehow be ratcheted down through economies of scale, through, you know, collective conversations, through a just a better organization of the whole process, then that might actually be a much better model, right? That you're just on the budget committee for this year. You're going to focus on that. You're going to handle the Hanover and Dresden, but that's all you're doing. And we're going to pull, you know, we're going to hand over other stuff to to Marcella and Carrie this year, you know. Um, so I don't know if that was a helpful answer, but not me

084myself. It also gets into sort of the philosophy of how involved we want to be. Yeah. And like you mentioned feasibility where all of us are either happily retired or have extremely full-time commitments already. And our responsibility as a board is generally three-pronged. It's budgets, superintendent supervision, and policy. Supervising the budget is not the same thing as creating or doing it. We have multiple full-time employees whose job, a busy job, but whose job is to do that. And we as a board are typically more involved knowing that by definition are not involved in other not Hanover not Norwich boards, so we can't test this with certainty, but I think we're generally more involved than other boards are. Is that good or bad, right or wrong? It's up to us, but we are very involved already.

085And like you mentioned, having one person be the chair of multiple budget committees, it might be hard to find that person to do this work willingly. And so it's kind of the balancing of where what do we want to do here? Unless having watched having watched Renee go through this this year. >> This volunteer Renee's my thought process. Well, I mean, having watched Renee go through this this year, you know, there were moments where I thought, well, maybe it would be easier. You know, there are sometimes where it's like, if I could just do it myself, like it would be you know, and balancing that is tough. Sorry, Carrie, I didn't mean to cut you off. >> Yeah, I think um and my takeaway, you know, and I like kind of wear Deb's hat in

086this, right? Like budgeting is not my strength, but I think what I heard you like my like simplification of what you said is to ensure that all the committees the budget committees in all four boards are asking the same questions and going through the exact same process as opposed to Norwich does their budget this way, Dresden does it this way so that when they talk they haven't gotten there through the same processes. Is that like some over simplistic? No, yeah, that's that's over yes, but well roughly, sure, yes. Um, and so I think there is a piece for me and again I think my experience as a pretty distant from the budget in this first year of being on the board has been many repetitive conversations because the nature of and not sitting in a

087budget committee, like just repetitive conversations sitting in three boards. Um, and trying to remember, oh yeah, did we approve that in this committee? Do we have all of those pieces that they do not feel efficient in terms of time to me when you know I said yes, you're all sitting here but there's just how many people are there this time? Like why don't we just talk about it at the Dresden meeting when everybody's there? Like there's a big piece for me that does wonder if the lift is as heavy if it is unified because the level of repetitiveness or need to explain what has happened in a different like the amount of time that happens to repeat what has happened elsewhere especially due to and I I think I have more understanding for some real

088statute. Like the Norwich versus Race School, like there's different schools that I get that, but there's a piece for me that we are all SAU, we are all Dresden, um, and it is hard to think too like when we think about from the curriculum perspective all the work that's being done on alignment between the two elementary schools so that Dresden um, so that those kids are not showing up in different places even if there are slight differences. To me that goes into budget that there needs to be alignment about how we're prioritizing and I know that's happening some like from a purely curriculum perspective, but um, so for me I'm all about finding a way that agrees with statute even though I'd love to take the statute sometimes. So that's fire. But like I just

089I I think it is a heavy lift and I really wonder maybe not the first year that we were to try it but like over time if what it does is become efficient in a way that seems very foreign to how this process has become how we've become accustomed to doing it. Um Cuz I have been surprised this year at the amount of repetitive >> Yep. um conversations >> Totally is. That's not new by the way. No, but it's new to me, right? Okay. I thought it was a brand new board member, right? It's always good to hear that outside. And there is that that balance that you mentioned of efficiency versus practicality versus statute. Yep. And you know, you and and Renee as well as as first time first year people, you know, are

090seeing these inefficiencies. We've identified them. Russ identified the same thing a few years ago. So we identified them. And it's the that balance of um we're all trying to be efficient but there's been things that have been hurdles each and every time whether it's statutory or which chair is the real chair of the time. Like there's been discussion like you mentioned that why can't everything be discussed at Dresden? That has been a thing and we have tried to do that and it usually falls apart in flames for one particular reason or another and it's been and I see a lot of nods that that they do that. We've tried to do it. I think that had a whole or a truth about that. We did. We did. The whole retrieve was how to do it.

091I mean like this. And then it was just weird thing like okay, we still have we still have the four chairs. So it's still the four chairs now. Chair number one does the first hour of Norwich and we wait for Hanover. Hanover doesn't show up. >> Which is Try to time it so that Hanover gets there around the time Norwich ends and then everyone sticks around for Dresden and SAU one night all four boards no repeats Which is part of drawing your ideal board. Yeah, yeah. They don't don't go down that road, right? Because like some things just need to stay separate. And so yeah. And he and he's he's not wrong either. But it's he's right, it's a separate question. But it's um it's the the history is long and hard to get to.

092>> I I I do have some curiosity though about as a district that tradition of the board being so involved, right? Because I also think there are many boards for whom they receive the budget. And I'm not the far extreme the other way is also not ideal, right? That all of this falls on staff and the board is kind of a rubber stamp. Yeah, a very Yeah, volunteer representatives basically, right? Like I get that there is a a spectrum of involvement. Um and and we definitely air on the far end of that spectrum. Um and so there is a piece for me that as these conversations happen and it sounds like Rob is very much involved in those conversations, but other leadership, there's quite a few new leaders coming into the district. Um some with

093extreme background in big budgets, you know, um and so what is our trust in our newly hired administrators who bring a wealth um and where are we willing and able to let go? Mhm. Great questions. Yeah. Yep. And there's been some shifts on the board that way, too, right? I mean, yeah. And there's Tara. I I want I would love to invite Tara into this discussion. You were there and we wanted you, Tara, cuz a lot has been said, um and you are a valuable member of the committee and I would just love to make sure your voice is heard. Um I think the only way to really realize efficiencies on the budget planning side is to make some radical changes, which I'm not sure that we collectively are prepared to do. Um it would

094require a significant shift in thinking. Um and we, I think as an aggregation of a number of boards often times get stuck in detail. And so that's where we seem to be mired down. I have lots of ideas as an individual as how as to how we might approach this, but do I think any of those ideas would have a positive reception from the balance of the board? No, I'm not I'm not sure we're ready for that. I'm also going to say both I I I can't speak for Renee, I'll speak for myself, but I'll I'll I'll make a guess for Renee. People don't want to stay generally in the budget chair or budget committee roles long-term. And that's what seems to be happening is that people like Renee or me or some other folks

095on the Norwich side seem to be the go-to people for budgeting, and um that's not a recipe for long-term success because we are not employees of the district um whose roles and responsibilities include that kind of long-term work. There has to be more of a regular cycle in of other folks. I will say that from a high level, whether I mean, that's not an idea that I I really that really matters if the board is really ready to hear. It's a It's a structure that we have to pursue, honestly. And so maybe we make a rule that one person cannot be on the same budget committee more than 2 years in a row. 2 years and you're done. Uh and you overlap with somebody else who has a 2-year. And then another person has a

0962-year, so there's always some institutional knowledge and there is definitely a handoff. That has to happen. Sarah, can I just respond to that quickly? I I totally agree. Um I think we have had the blessing and the curse of having very strong budget-minded people on the board for the last well, as long as I've been on the board, there's been somebody that we could say, "Hey, you, you're really good at budgets. Why don't you do this?" Um I I know there are many districts that don't have that. And so you're forced to trust the people who are budget-minded in your staff because you really have to focus on the strategy side cuz that's kind of where you're at, right? Like And so I I think I hear what you're saying and I I would love

097to see some sort of wording around that, um even if it's not some you know, as if it's a sort of best practice or a suggestion. But a lot of that comes back to trusting, no matter your ex- your own expertise, trusting the people who are, you know, uh whose job it is to do this. So. And And one one more thing and I will stop and I'm going to mute myself. Carrie's point to how much work we put into this, I think it's because in most districts, you turn to your school leadership and your administration and you say, "This is how much money you have to spend." Unfortunately, our boards say schools leadership, how much money would you like us to give you? That is where we go wrong. We need to say, so

098I will I will share one quick idea as to what I would change immediately. There should be no SAU budget committee. We should say every year, SAU, this is how much budget you have. We will know immediately how to dole it out. You need to tell us within X number of days. If you can't make that, if there are some story, some compelling narrative that you need an exclusion this year on the budget limitation, and then let's move on. There should not be a tremendous number of meetings for the SAU budget. It is a an inefficient use of our time. So, that's what I would change number one. And then, we could have three budget committees to worry about, probably one Hanover, one Norwich, and then have co-leadership of Dresden. And that would be a

099much more efficient model. Does anybody else think the way that I do? Probably not. This is my sort of magic ideal world sort of ideation, but that's how I would do it. I'm muting myself. I mean, I appreciate so I will say you can stay muted if you want, but I appreciate A the radicalness of the suggestion, B the fact that we talked about this year through all this process that the SAU budget is really more a services bill that is getting assigned to the various districts based on population. And so, from that standpoint, I mean, that makes a lot of sense. Like, this is our services budget, right? Coming in from all of the all of the different the three districts. This is our budget for services. Right? And and so, that I you

100know, there are I think that that idea may have legs for the committee to discuss honestly. Yeah. And I would I would point out that Tara's suggestion of sort of a rotating budget thing does have some precedent. That's what we do at negotiations where we have, depending on which negotiation we're talking about, two or three people and we kind of have one or two senior folks have done it repeatedly and we try to build at least one new person on a rotational basis each cycle. And of the 12, I'm doing this in my head so it could be off by one or two people, but of the 12 board members across the four districts, eight of them have been on a budget committee or board in some capacity. So we do have enough council current

101experienced people that we could do it on a rotational basis. Four out of five in Norwich and I might be off by four out of seven in Hanover. So we we could do that and hopefully be more efficient than we have before. Mhm. And hopefully it's not as heavy of a Did you get information you need or do you need more from us? I have one more question that I need to ask explicitly. Mhm. Um Uh and and I apologize for those that may not feel like they have the information to reply, but in general one of the things we've been kind of talking about with the um the the committee is what level of future budget projections understanding do we need to have in order to have the right conversations in our current year?

102Um and so the question that the committee is bringing to each board is do we need a three to five-year financial projection and what level of granularity will we need to for it to be useful? So I'm curious about perspectives of y'all. At all? I'll go first. Uh I I think it would be incredibly useful um more from a strategic priorities standpoint. Um Um and an anticipated maintenance standpoint. Like having those big So, preschool for example, pre-K, right? That has got to be part of the now looking ahead conversation so that when we get to August and we start talking about our priorities and where the tradeoffs, what are we That is in our mind as this is a I don't know, $200,000 item that that we are prioritizing. And if we have got to

103find space for that. How is that going to happen? So, I think some of those like if that's not this year, if it's next year, if it's, you know, how we think that through, um and then that allows us to to kind of slot in some of these bigger state things like open enrollment that is a question mark, but we all pretty much know now is likely to hit the books sometime in the next 12 to 16 months, right? Like that's going to happen. So, um I you know, I I think it would be really useful and I don't know that um a high level of granularity isn't necessary. I think ballpark numbers would be orders of magnitude would be helpful even. Things that would come to mind for that particular question would be I

104want to know historically if we budget out three years, if we have a conversation looking at a three or five year time period of how well were we able to predict stuff that would come up or knowing that things can throw messes and total chaos into planned budgets in that kind of time period for things that we don't know that are coming ranging from open enrollment to COVID or whatever. And sort of if we had some sort of retrospective analysis that if we've done this before, what would we have missed or not budgeted for that did actually happen? Sort of how well can we project this sort of thing? And the second would be this is the This last March was the first time I think in my eight-year tenure that there were no board

105member replacements. It's the same 12 as before. And that is an exception more so than the rule. And if we're talking a three-to-five-year budget cycle, you know, if two people change in Norwich, which happened a year and a half ago, that's a 40% turnover. And those new Those new people may throw a five-year budget plan entirely out the window cuz it's not aligned with their what they want. Or the same could happen here if one or two people change. But I would say that other side of the argument for that, all the more reason to have it. I know, but it kind of gets back to the intervention as part of this. We are a fairly involved board. And if someone makes a stink rightly or wrongly about some X issue, I really like it

106and I want it or I don't want that. That could be challenging to handle as a board. What happens if that person comes That person historically, they have shown up. And what what happens there? At least it's there to react to. >> Yeah. I I right Like right now I'm just thinking Well, no, I think it could show up now, too. Right. And it's just going to be more conversation. Right. Like if somebody's upset about something, they're going to show up. Like it doesn't matter. It just if they don't show up, you have a plan. But it's not being interrupted or I don't know. I have a plan for it. I'm planning. I mean, I'm not against this. Yeah. I think it's good. Yeah. I think it's important and so useful, too. I just think

107about the lift, right? And to really Yep. to really overhaul the system that we do for budgeting, all that stuff is a big lift. And to be able to do it in a way that is strategic and long-term as opposed to like so many of the details. Also, from a personnel standpoint, right? New people we have coming in. I mean, part of our issue this year was that we had new people taking over both on the board and the staff side. And we all kind of went, "Uh, who starts this? How do we start this?" Right? So, the road map's going to be helpful for that, but also having a high-level like hey, this is the this is the plan, and making sure that it's resilient from one year to the next. If the entire

108board gets replaced, something's there, right, for new people to take on. Then I I do think it's very similar to the curriculum alignment that Robin managed to get accomplished because for all the talk of oh, I want independence, I want to do my own thing, the reality is there is so much value to coming into something and being able to look to your left and right and see okay, this is what the sort of boundaries are. I can work within these boundaries. And I think a school board benefits from having that as well. And sure, there could be a rogue individual who wants to push in a different direction, but if but you know, we vote, and then we're all moving forward in the same direction. And and I think it helps somebody who's thinking

109about running for the board to know these are commitments that the board has Mhm. underway. And this sort of you're one of a five-year plan, you're two of a five-year plan. It's less likely that someone, I think, would be elected who wants to blow that up. >> they would have to talk intelligently about it in that process, right? Yeah. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. Ben? All right, I lost the train of thought. Sorry. Move on. Move it on. All right. Yep. Um I just wanted to state uh an assumption that at least I think I've had that I believe we're all talking about the same way in the committee, too, but could be not totally clear. When we say like a multi-year projection, it is akin to a like the one page of the

110quick model to your point Kelly like the granularity big big picture. We're not looking at that budget book right forecast it out over the next few years. Which I think we're all on the same page for but I just wanted to name because it is a different level of effort to get to the latter which would not be helpful than to do those ballpark numbers to enable that conversation. So One suggestion to the timeline. Yeah, please. So you have in May a negotiation look back look forward. I would argue that would be too late in the year. Negotiations are typically done at least at the committee level in January. And then February's when it gets brought to the board and March is when the actual vote is. But if we're discussing I'm looking at where

111it says negotiations look back look forward in the bottom left corner. If so Yeah, in final finish work. The pink blue. Pink at the top black on yeah. Like I would recommend we do that in February where I know we're probably going to do it in May this year with the retreat but adding a standing item it should be earlier in the year cuz otherwise memories will worry dissipate. Good point. Yes. So you're thinking just to get that Maybe as fresh as possible people's minds. >> Yeah, maybe probably probably February. Okay. >> Cuz I can go up to late January. It might be a two-step thing because >> be. There's partly looking at what did we just go through and then they're sort of thinking about what are our priorities heading into the next negotiations

112or one or two. Yeah, the I think this on that like the May 18th just happens to be the time that we have with Robin's leadership team. That also we were talking about gosh this would have been great to have done like right after everything was passed. So it was like super fresh. So yes, I think you're right this this process is for this year moving forward, but I think then there's like the the ideal version we have. >> Yeah, like February 27th is when I think we do. Yes. Yeah, I'll Yeah, good point. You want to say something? I'm thinking about something that has to do with something you said, but doesn't actually have to do with your document. That triggered something for me and maybe it's a retreat idea, but uh not that

113there's time or space. But you said something about like how we talk about this stuff and like having crucial conversations or difficult conversations with budgets. Um and I think that that is it not necessarily what you were talking about when you said it at this time in terms of like give and take, but I do think there's an element of how do we have those difficult conversations when it is there have been those moments of tension um when people weren't in the room and so how to like I think just that piece of as a board what's our value in having crucial conversations in a respectful or I mean you know norms norms, around budget conversations. Yeah, around everything, but just like when it's hard conversations and that give and take stuff. Yeah. And I

114would echo that as well where we actually went through the formal trademarked Crucial Conversations training about a year or two ago where every example I brought up at my day job was about the school board. Mhm. And because we have the added caveat that we're also on camera. Mhm. And now every conversation we've had has lived on in infamy on YouTube. And so that adds an additional metric where my Crucial Conversations was 20 senior leadership type people in a room led by HR, which is a totally different dynamic than probably what we can afford and have the time for in this in this room. This three days long. So I don't think we're going to hit that in an aboard retreat, but it would be an intriguing conversation to go down that line in terms

115of budget and utility and feasibility. Perfect. And then my only last thought, I kind of said this to you, Renee, but looking not to put the cart before the horse, but looking at Teresa's report that was shared yesterday uh today today. Uh there's comments about the capital improvement planning committee having trouble kind of moving forward and it's going to delay things and sort of what what guardrails, what I don't know, carrots, sticks, whatever you want to metaphor you want to use, but like we need that information, right? So, how are we going to make sure that as we head into this August meeting we have information that we have to have to kick those things off, right? What's going to make that happen and backing that out? So, setting certain expectations around who's going to

116be at meetings, when are they going to be there? How is that going to happen? And and making sure that's and this it's going to go back to you, right? But um part of job expectations that, you know, you will be at this meeting on May whatever, that is a top priority because we have to set this for June, this for August, and these are the expectations, right? Um so, making sure that some of that happens. And when will we have those attachments? Right. Right. Yeah. I just want to reflect on um I think the this very last goal of uh the where we're trying to go with what we're not changing of like the roles. Um in my in my working with school districts, that ability to have deep trade-off discussions lives within the

117administrator and their team. Mhm. That team needs to have the expertise, the um the trust, the like history Yeah, like just the the ability to have the the understanding of research that's out there. I think we have a great team. I think that culture may be more urgent now to develop because of all the pressures that we're getting from our state. Um but that is I'm thinking of like difficult conversations, crucial conversations. Yes, I think norms would be sufficient, whatever we decide at the board level. I I totally hear you though and I like being able to include that. And I think it might be warranted to make it clear where the ultimate goal of those conversations should be. What I don't want to have is the board debating whether research A or research B

118is the thing to go. Like I think we should be relying on our experts that we've hired to to tell us that. We can say, "Okay, do we want to phase that in? Do we want to like look at that differently?" Our administrators are going to come with options to phase things in and we're going to say, "No, you're getting K-5 through 5 in your first year cuz that's the right thing to do for our kids." Um but the idea being that the board needing to engage in crucial conversations over the district about the budgets, I actually don't think ultimately should be the where we need the skill we need to develop for the budget specifically. Or perhaps >> wrong here. >> Perhaps it's limited. Perhaps and and this is where I think like clear

119time wise, right? And this is I think how we started off this committee, right? Having, you know, that that whether it's the August meeting or whether it's the look back, look forward in May. This is your opportunity to say, "Guys, I really think pre-K should have gone in this year and I want to see it go in next year." And I really think that we need to expand the strings program. Whatever the things are that we really feel like this has to happen, right? Oral, yes. Whatever those things are. And then once that meeting's done, that's where we trust our administrators to say, "Okay, here's our pot of money. These are where the district's priorities are going to be, right?" And so I think there's maybe a space for that. >> Yes. But then also

120an expectation that that's This is where that stops, right? We're not going to You know what I mean? I think that would maybe be helpful. >> as a difficult conversation to be like, "We want to have Greek cake. Can you figure out how to get Greek cake?" >> I think I think I haven't got to my community update. That's What you got? No, no. I'm sorry. I'm using it just as an example. >> No, no. I understand. >> right. I I So that like in that is >> November, we're not still saying like, "Wait, why didn't that happen?" You know what I mean? Yeah. I I think that will help to have like a space where that Those kinds of big picture reflections happen, but then we move forward. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, cool. Thank I

121think the group conversation. Okay. Um that uh Tara, is there anything else that you were hoping that we would get out of this conversation? No, this is great. I mean, if anybody else has any other questions, they should just send them to us so we can continue the discussion with the other folks on the committee. Awesome. Thank you guys for all this work. And I love how transparent and readable and communicative it is, so thank you. Um all right. Uh Tara, any number finance committee update? Meeting tomorrow about the town budget and the HFC. Because the fun of the HFC is it's not just about the school budget, then we get to do the deep dive on the town budget, too. You all should come. We have fun meetings. Thank you, Tara. It It You

122make it Thank you, Tara. We appreciate your service on that committee, too. Um Deb, any HSPA? Well, you already heard the HSPA. I just want to refer to the other attached >> Yes, please. On here, there are two articles that um I brought. They're They've been petitioned, and we got the signatures to the town meeting and just so that you know one of them they're all they're both part of a statewide effort to bring items forward to town meetings to vote on and we could pick from the five and you know the one is Oh. stop shifting all the costs down to local property taxes. That's a real risky um thing to bring forward and the other one is about um holding the education freedom accounts. I think payments accountable, standardizing uh reporting structures for

123them. And and the whole thing about eligibility and taking away income eligibility or limited eligibility. So I just wanted you to know that those will be on the warrant because we had 20 I mean I had 31 signatures and everybody's on the checklist so it's all fine but they'll probably be at the end of the town meeting cuz that's where they put the warrant articles but they'll be published with the literature people will be able to see them so that's just an FYI. Awesome. Do you remember when is town meeting? May. Uh Early May, yeah. Hold on. I'll look, we'll see. It's on my calendar. Um May 12th. Thank you. You open that up past 1:00 in the morning Back to the list. >> It's Well, a lot voting is all day, 7:00 to 7:00

124and people can vote when they arrive for town meeting but then it starts at 7:00 and then it often goes till 2:00? No, so not till 2:00. But it can go for a while. Um and so these will be at the towards the end of the meeting. I don't think there any other petitioned items but I don't know. But the general mood in in the Hanover will be that for some of these All right. Okay, can you So I'm officially the chair. My first chair time. Very exciting. And I pulled out my the non-paper because of that. We have met twice and the general We met last week. Last week Monday. Sometime very recent feels. Um Um and the general After the first meeting we asked to come back with numbers about how to make

125it possible not for this school year, not for the 26-27 school year that that with the change of principal and just we are in spring did not feel like a responsible push that would happen with intentionality. It was not given enough time. Um and so the challenge was for Uh we needed to get a teacher. We wanted a teacher on it and so the teacher was able to join for the second meeting which was great. Um a kindergarten teacher and we asked full staff to come back with some numbers with like the projections to say like how to with numbers could there be a room for pre-K? What would that have to look like with numbers and the reality is yeah, it's very doable. There's plenty There's space. There will be um And so the

126next ask between now and the next meeting is kind of like what are those trade-offs? There's like the concrete cost of like a teacher a a tech group but I don't I don't know what they're called in those Yeah, an assistant An assistant. >> Okay. You know, one classroom or two classrooms. There is There are plenty of ways to make it happen for two so we could have 30 kids with the idea of census and each room being 15. But what are those not but just the monetary trade-offs? What does that look like? Does that mean that there are fewer sections of something else? How do we balance that and that it is a priority, right? Like there's consensus that this is a priority, early intervention is like the norm like we know that that

127is the thing that helps set kids up for success along with many other things. Um so trying to um so schools have to come back to the next meeting with just some more concrete like this is how it could work, you know, by uh limiting this section to having fewer of X each week, maybe two instead of three sections of this extra or special or that kind of thing, but really concrete ideas of what that would what those would look like. Um and I think the other big theme that came out of it was not at the cost of pre-K, that it's not about pre-K reducing something else. It's about um we as a school district value early childhood intervention, know that that is the gold standard education, and um yeah. And and these are

128hard conversations and I think that this is a like when you're talking about budget, Renee, like there's lots of that happening in this that what is the role of this committee? Like it's not to say we're going to have 25 kids in fifth grade. That's not the role of this committee. The role of this committee is to make a recommendation that like this is this is very possible for the 27-28 school year. Mhm. It's very possible there will be some staffing that will need to be hired, but from a space perspective, um there's no reason why this shouldn't be something that we can figure out. The other big piece goes back to the capital campaign like the capital conversation that ultimately there is a reality that space, you know, should this grow, that space, you

129know, in order to continue all the programming that people really value in Hanover, there may come a time that space is at a priority. If people really want to have super small class sizes that Hanover does have to some degree, we're not at the higher end of the class sizes, but that capital improvement conversation does happen. I think, particularly me, I don't want to speak for the whole committee, feels like those are not waiting for that addition or purchase is not where we're at in terms of holding up on pre-K. The reality of the numbers that we did get in this last meeting is that it's very doable in the space that the school affords pre-K. Yeah. Thank you, guys, for that work. Questions? All right. So, in terms of timelines for when you expect

130to sort of have a proposal to share or I don't It's okay if you don't have an answer to that. I don't have an answer to that. We're meeting again. The goal is to set a time for the week after break. Okay. That's come together. And I think there's an element of it should be pretty soon because there is like that detailed stuff the administration shifts. Mhm. And you know, like and like the new principal will need to be A part of this. integrally involved in this conversation, you know, like Um So, it would be helpful I was going to just for me it'd be helpful to have sort of a I guess from your next meeting maybe a timeline of kind of different deliverables sort of just and it's again, I think some of

131those numbers are going to come out of not your job, right? Like but those numbers come from from other people, but a sense of like we'll have a program, you know, rough draft or whatever by I don't know May by June, whatever it is. That's our goal. And then so that we have that to inform those conversations in August. That's the challenge we get at this point. It's April, so we have like two more meetings and then it's August, right? And so that's like the the challenge we run into at this time of year. And I think in terms of what this committee needs, I don't know that we're or this board needs, I don't know that we're too far away from it because I do think there's a level of detail that really isn't

132for this subcommittee that we already find ourselves feeding into sometimes in any time for summer, but like I think that the cost piece about staffing is really the cost that would impact the juggling of like class size, you know, like you know, Colleen was great and came back with some of those numbers of like option A and option B and how they could how those spaces would become available. Um, but I honestly don't even know that we we need that level of >> You should jump there's space. >> There is space and the cost would be yeah. be staffing and y'all sort sort it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that one of the things I want to highlight is um None of these questions are discreet. Right. And so even though we are absolutely

133acknowledging that like the the the role of a committee like this is limited and and in many ways has already reached a lot of it's the information that it needs, right? Um, but at the same time like in these meetings we talk with administrators and educators and we're told that yes, things can be achieved and achieved beautifully, right? And I think when we talk about the cost, sometimes we're missing out on what that means, right? And so cumulatively I'm worried that we're missing out on how those costs are adding up, not just the budget, right? But like the the time and space Mhm. budget, right? I'm worried that we're we're not hearing all of that always Mhm. because we have wonderful people Mhm. managing everything. And so I just wanted to make sure that when

134we ask for more and continually ask for more that we're also asking to hear what those costs are so as a board we're aware of what might be coming down the road so that we're not ever in a position of saying like, "Oh, well, this is coming out of nowhere." Well, actually, no. You as a board asked us to do 14 things. This isn't coming out of nowhere. This is a consequence of those 14. Right? And that's the ask between these meetings that we did ask, like, what are those costs that are not just the budgetary costs that are potential, right? Like the teacher who might have to teach on their on a cart. The like, what are what are those costs that are >> Yeah. um not undoable Mhm. but also not just monetary.

135Yep. Got it. Yeah, I know. Um also to keep in mind the fact that like the budget for this year cut a bunch of empty or unfilled EA spots and then to be coming in 1 year later and saying, "We're going to hire another teacher and hire an ed assistant." Hopefully, right? Because part of the reason that those were cut is cuz they were unfilled. So, to balance that idea and kind of how that will impact the current staff's like feelings about that, right? Everyone, I think values obviously pre-K uh pre-K and early intervention, but to kind of have some sort of discussion as to this will this is saving in the long run these other education costs and so we're not disrespecting how people feel about all the ed assistant positions that were cut

136this year cuz I think there are still really strong feelings about that as well. But, so to keep that in mind. Thank you for perspective. Um so, if I were to put you guys on the agenda for like a an agenda item instead of a committee update for next meeting, would that be feasible, do you think? Some I mean, it doesn't have to be like we haven't figured out, but >> As the chair. As the chair. Super needy bird. Thank you. Chair Russell. Yeah, feels so fancy. Yeah, you're getting warmer there. All right, I think Think, is that it for committees? Mhm. All right. Thank you, everyone. Um I'm going to go to Superintendent support. We have reports. You have my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. I'm enjoying being

137back in schools. Amazing. Questions for Robin on her report. Oh, and I was trying to do something during this meeting that I ran into a problem that you mentioned in here, and that was the schools' website needing our staff. And so, I was trying to remember what grade these students were, and I couldn't find Basil because it's disappeared. Right. Mhm. And then, so I see here that you have the privacy concerns and the photos, all which I totally get. But then, we had the public video of our of these kids who are naming themselves and are dancing around and doing other things. And then, the community you there I found was a little troubling. Mhm. And so, um what is the plan going forward that even on our main web pages, we have pictures of

138our students? Mhm. I know. We're actually talking about removing all photos because we're running into issues with AI now. This become a very major problem, and we actually just had an incident the other day in the high school with it. Photos being taken from our website and being doc- doctored with it using AI and put out in other realms. And we've also had a lot of They start their own good times, aren't they? We've had a many um phishing incidents that have happened recently, too. And that comes primarily from having our email addresses on the website, too. So, we have just this week removed all the staff photos and email addresses. So, we're working on some ways that we can provide that information. Most parents have the information through School through other means, but um

139we don't want to provide it in such a public format at this time. So I I would just like to remind my colleagues on the board that I was the subject of a Tik Tok Yes. >> exactly. That was not very flattering. Even though I was smiling throughout it. And a lot of the information was from the website. >> Yes, and whatever. Yeah. I know. So, it is becoming a real issue. One thing, just random idea, not that you guys need my tech ideas, but when I was at UVA and still have this address, my email address at UVA is a random, not totally random, but it's an assortment of letters and numbers that you pretty much have to know. I have to give it to you for you to be able to use that

140email. Um you can't just you couldn't guess it. Like if I knew Renee Sullivan was at UVA, I couldn't find her email address, right? It's not easily. So, maybe there's something that could be done in that vein so that at least names aren't automatically associated. This is not This is me. I was just going to say I struggle with that as a person that has to communicate with people all the time. It's really I think about I know. how hard it is to think that It's like the road block and if it doesn't >> I know. by me to reach somebody in the Mhm. Yeah, it's yeah. I know. Trust me, I've struggled with this, too. Right. Like there's something public employees that are, you know, public educators that you want to reach out to.

141And we do have ways to connect to the SAU and to in business office and to the finance office, you know, through generic emails that aren't linked to one person. So, Yeah. I think we're just going to have to go more in that direction. Mhm. All emails through the principal's office. Right. Yeah, yeah. Which is not Mhm. Yeah. you know, great, but And I see that we are nearing the end of hiring a director of technology. Yes, yes. Lovely. Good timing. All right, Lauren. I would rather be director of technology. So, she can be on the page like us. All right, Lauren, you're up. I have my report and I'd be happy to answer any questions that And then I have to say something say something else, apparently, but we'll start with the report. This

142is not a question, but I am just so grateful for the work you're doing about supporting families who um for whom English is or is not a first language. I think that's just so important and I'm really grateful for the work you're doing to initiate that. And I suspect something was going on in this room before us because there are these little Yes. Resource cards here. Yes. Thank you. Any questions for Lauren? So, as So, as of right now, we're not able to access stuff on the website for staff anymore? Correct. So, as of yesterday or one day before that. Are you seeing something different? Yeah, I'm looking at it right now with teachers' emails and pictures and stuff and I wasn't >> That happened the other day when we scrolled through it. So, I

143will double Can I look I'm just I'm not logged in. >> This happened specifically for the race school the other day, too. It's supposed to be hidden. I'll follow up again. This is why I'm not your new tech director. We just play tech right now? Thank you for letting me know. They should be completely hidden when you go to that page whether you Google it or you go to the website and you click meet our staff. You should get a message that says 404 this page cannot be found. When I went and did some recon after I thought we blocked it, I did come up with the race school coming up again and then I thought that we fixed it again. So, guess we have a little more work to do. Thank you for letting

144me know. >> Should I make one suggestion again and I apologize if this is redundant and you guys already think of everything and I may not have read something. However, I think it would be good to make sure people know Yeah. >> that that's happening so that there's not a mass panic about like is the entire district down or 404s are scary. Why is that happening? Yeah. Um yes, 404s are scary when it comes to technology, I've learned. >> Um Yes, I did send out a message to all of our staff the day that we did take it down to let folks know that if they went there, they wouldn't see anything and the reasons behind it. Got some really positive feedback actually including I hated my picture anyway. Um and uh yes, I think

145we're going to try to move towards having a staff directory that's accessible by password only. Mhm. Um because we did talk a lot about like for our prospective families that are coming to the district, it's nice to be able to take a look at the friendly faces that you might see. Um I know it was a useful tool for me as I tried to get to know all the new people that I was going to meet in the other schools that I was working with as I stepped into this position. So, it does have a lot of merit. We just have to make sure that we're locking up that information in a way that is respectful and safe. And this is definitely like a nationwide trend to move away from using pictures generally. This is

146a step towards We continue to talk about this at our monthly tech meetings and we're definitely going to be um working with our new tech director to make sure that we're doing the right things in this um yes, in this category. Yes. >> Cool. I I know that photo is an entirely separate beast, and I totally get it, but I mean in an accessibility and forward-thinking kind of thing, are school employees, government employees, and like names and positions and salaries are all publicly available data, right? This director information, so yes, yes. So like are we're not running afoul of any sort of openness law? Okay. Yeah. But good question, and I'm glad you asked it, and I'll ponder it then not and get into some kind of trouble. Thank you. Yep. I just wonder if

147your page is cached or something because if you go incognito This computer is 1 day old. Oh, okay. Really? Yeah. Okay. I promise, I'm going to figure this mystery out. So I don't see it. Okay, right. I can show you where I found it. Yeah. Well, I I had this recollection, and I just found that the March 19th request to board members for their photo of us for the website. >> Oh, yeah. So I Like 2 weeks ago. So I didn't come up with it. It's March 19th. Um and so I'm now wondering whether what I'm thinking is do we need to respond to that headshot request, or are we already out there? We are public. Every Oh, I know. I just haven't bothered to do it, so I said go delete. But I will

148laugh at you too, cuz they did pictures at least a year and a half a year and a half ago. I got that. There's definitely a picture from last year. There's not. I don't believe they will. I'll look. You said you had something else to share with us as well. Yes. Yes. I am. I'm going to present to all of you the general assurances. Yes, this is the annual thing apparently. This is my first time doing it, but this is an annual thing that I get to present to you that notes some broad legal and administrative requirements that deal with all of our fiscal management and anti-discrimination laws and specific federal regulations. Hopefully you had a chance to read all of the pages. I have to submit this every year on behalf of our district

149and that ensures that we're being compliant with what's being asked and that we can continue to get funding. So here is the paper document and these initials on the pages and your board chair signature along with mine and it's due on July 1st. So if you need more time to read you take it. Dangerous. It's a good way to get it June 30th. Take it until next meeting and then you're really going to come for it. Is it just me? Mhm. >> Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Lauren. We have to note that it was presented at a board meeting to all of you. The folder is from Robin and it was one of my welcome gifts. It's quite beautiful. Thanks Robin. I've been looking for a folder. Thank you very much. All right. See. Moving right

150along. Wow, I have my way up there. Okay. Uh business administrator's report, we have the report there. I will I mentioned this already. The only thing that really stuck out to me is a question for Robin I guess. Concerns about the CIBC. >> Well, I'm already planning on being at that meeting. Brilliant. Love it. I mean that said, it seemed like there was a lot of good thinking that happened with the people who were able to be there. So that's great. Just want to make sure that keeps them moving forward or moving along. Awesome. Um, and then the food service is a similar question or thought, I guess, um, to the extent that that's going to have any kind of budgetary implications. Just making sure that our timeline aligns with getting things ahead of time

151and >> Um, yeah. I know there are plenty of parents and students who'd love to be involved. Yeah, focus groups. Yeah, we have had some students had some parents email. Okay. Awesome. All right. Any other questions, feel free to shoot them over to Teresa. Um, and non-public, I'll take a motion out of non-public. Is this Is this listed by anyone one for non-public? We We don't necessarily have to have a conversation about it first, no discussion. Um, we do need to go into non-public. I'll make a motion. I'll second. I will take a motion out of non-public. Carried. Uh, 9:14 p.m. I Oh, I move to enter into I move to enter into non-public session at 9:14 p.m. under RSA 91-A bullet three. Two. Two. Three. I'll second. All right, thank you, Deb. Uh, you

152still have to Yes, okay. So then, yes. Timmy, yes. Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. >> Russell, yes. Harris, yes. Emma Connell, yes. All right. And when we come out of, uh, non-public, we don't really have any action items, just the list that we'll be discussing. So, Yeah, that would be the only action item. There's nothing Nothing really discussion worthy. Um, I have one thing to say in there. Our old republic and I'm sorry. >> Mhm. >> I think I think we can talk about this after I leave. I want to be the hero and I want to be the one to save the day. Save the day. I always wanted a hero. All right. How about that? Merry Christmas. I'm bored. I will call us to order. And we will I will take a motion to

153approve the updated list. I move to approve the updated nomination list at S. As presented of them the just for clarity the fiscal year 27 list. Um, second. Yeah, second from Deb. Uh, I'll we'll just do roll call quickly. So let me know. Give me yes, sorry. >> Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. Lois, yes. Lois, yes. Lois Cottle, yes. Marcella, just so you know, you're approving the list. I'll abstain. I have a lot of feelings. All right. And this is one more opportunity for public comments. Renee Sargent. Just real quick for you guys and all of you who are listening, I'm sure. Um, the Race Brook PTO is doing a movie fundraiser this Saturday at the Nugget and there are two movies being shown, Milo and Otis, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, which is like

154from that and it's rated G and it's adorable and it is so safe for children. I have two children who are not fans of anything scary. So, um and the second one is The Secret Life of Pets, um which is like all the rage with like the third and fourth graders. It's hilarious and I was trying to figure out a movie um and we would love their support and the tickets you can buy them online pre-sale, which my little organized OCD self would really, really appreciate but we'll also be selling tickets um at the theater and the opportunity also for popcorn or a popcorn and a drink add-on. So. And sorry, the date? >> Um it is this Saturday, this Saturday the 11th. And I will just point out that the middle school fundraisers are

155sold out when they did their fundraiser. >> that was so get your ticket. >> Yeah. Get your tickets like I said. >> We are doing two different movies because trying to find a movie um that is satisfies K through fifth almost sent me to uh mental breakdown. So, we went with two movies. So, I was I bought tickets to see Milo and Otis That's awesome. with my nugget as a fundraiser for the race car. It was a long time No, I know and it was a It's a big risk but it's like it's just so adorable and it's so safe. I just really wanted to make sure that there was a movie that was so safe for even like younger siblings or anything. So, So, we went with it. I thought I thought I'd bring

156him that sheet. I Is this the same Milo and Otis? It is. It's actually Alice, too. It is. And you are you are a saint for not advertising this when the second graders were sitting here. Yeah, I know better advertisement. Um I think the kids all know about it. It was really just getting it out to the parents and to all the um Milo and Otis starts at 10:30 and the Revenge uh Secret Life of Pets is at 10:15. Doors will open at 10:00, but I will be there with my husband starting at 9:30 for anyone who wants to get ahead of the crowd. Hang out. >> Yeah, come hang out, get ahead of the crowds. So, That would be great. >> That's a.m. uh p.m. Absolutely a.m. happening before the doors open a.m. for

157the regular stuff. So, thank >> All right. Thank you. If there are any items for the agenda next month, please send them my way. I think we have some good ideas already. Um and uh with that, I will take permission to adjourn. I move to adjourn at 9:25 p.m. Thank you, Deb. Second from Ben. Sullivan, yes. Genie, yes. >> Nelson, yes. >> Russell, yes. Lessing, yes. The Rose, yes. And I'm yes.