Dresden School Board

001Okay, let's get started. Uh, the discussion phase of the Dresden School District annual meeting of 2026 is called to order. Uh, the following warrant articles apply to the operation of the Dresden School District, which includes the operation of the Francis C. Richmond Middle Francisc Richmond School and Hanover High School grades 6 through 12. Grade 6 is Hanover Town students only. The legal voters of the Norwich, Vermont Town School District, and the legal voters of the Hanover New Hampshire School District are hereby notified and warned that the two phases of the annual school district meeting will be held as follows. discussion phase Saturday, February 28th, 2026 at 12:30 PM at the Hanover High School Auditorium, Handover, New Hampshire. A virtual option will be available to attend via Zoom link and the information will be shared via

002the SAU70 district website at sau70.org. The meeting will also be streamed on JAM. voting phase. Uh, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 from 7:00 am to 7 pm at in the Richmond Middle School gym in Hanover, New Hampshire for handover voters and in Tracy Hall in Norwich, Vermont for Norwich voters. Absentee ballots are available now. During the discussion phase, the voters will shall have the opportunity to discuss the following warrant articles and to transact any nonsubstantive business that may legally be acted on during the discussion phase under article 7. All voting on warrant articles 1 through six shall be conducted by secret written ballot during the voting phase as provided in the Dresden School District procedures for Australian ballot. The Dresden warrant for handover was posted on February 6, 2026 by Terresa Taylor, the designate of the

003Dresden School Board District Clerk at the following locations: Hanover High School Gymnasium, Municipal Building, Richmond Middle School, Hanover Food Co-op, Ray Elementary School, How Library, Etna Country Store, Etna Library. Uh now Superintendent Robin or sorry Superintendent Steiner will introduce the board and administrators. >> Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for being here today. I'd like to begin by um introducing our board members. To my right is Neil Odell. He will be presenting our budget today. To my left is Carrie Russell, Deb Nelson, Renee Sullivan, Kelly McConnell, and Gina De Con. And they've been working extremely hard as you'll see all year on the budget. We um began the process really before September and then have continued through January. So, a big thank you to all of the work that they put in. No one

004has any idea of how much time they actually spend doing this work over the course of the year. It's um it's really unbelievable. We have so many meetings after school in the evening that they devote their time to. So I just cannot tell you how grateful I am to have such an amazing board to work with. I feel extremely fortunate. I'd also like to um introduce our other administrators who are here today. We have Liz Murray who's here representing the high school and Anissa Morrison who is our interim principal at the Richmond Middle School and then Teresa Taylor who is our business administrator. And also a big thank you to them. Again, they've spent just countless hours going through all of the budget documents, updating everything, and working on trying to be as fiscally responsible

005as possible in a very difficult budgeting year. So, thank you everyone for being here. Uh the two districts in handover are the Hanover School District and the Dresden School District. The Hanover School District is responsible for grade grades K through five. The discussion phase for the Hanover School District was held today, Saturday, February 28th, in this room at 11:30 a.m. The Dresden School District is responsible for grades 6 through 12, the Francis C. Richmond School with grades 6 through 8, and Hanover High School with grades 9 through 12. The Dresden district includes Hanover and Norwich students in grades 7 through 12 and Hanover students in grade six. The Dresden School District was the first interstate school district in the country and was created by one of the last bills signed by President John F. Kennedy

006in 1963. Our meeting guidelines. The moderator, me, will recognize speakers before they allow they are allowed to speak. Speakers should walk to the microphone and state their names and addresses for the record. All comment should be directed to the moderator. The moderator will not allow cross talk among those at the meeting. Everyone will be allowed to speak before someone has a chance to speak a second time. Speakers should make every effort to be brief and not repeat comments that have already been made by other speakers. All speakers should be courteous and respectful. Speakers should be certain they are addressing the business of the meeting. This means staying on the topic of the warrant article being discussed. It is the moderator's intention to recognize board members to speak to warrant articles before allowing members of the

007public to comment. The moderator shall rule out of order any speaker who does not respect these guidelines or who acts in an univil or disruptive manner. Let's get started. Article one, to elect by written ballot for one-year terms, a moderator, a clerk, a treasurer, an auditor for a three-year term, a two-year term, and an auditor for a one-year term. Those who filed for these offices are for moderator Ryan Flattley, for clerk Carol E. Bibo, for treasurer Cheryl A. Lindberg, for district auditors. There were no filings. I've been asked to let you know the district auditors are a historic remnant of the original interstate agreement. We now have uh external art auditors and apparently to change that requires a literal act of congress. So uh is there any comment from the public on article one? Seeing

008none, let's move on to article two. Shall the Dresden School District determine and fix the salaries of school district officers as follows. School district school board members $1,000 per member with an additional $300 for school board chair. School district treasurer $2,777. school district clerk $500 and school district moderator $300 in accordance with article 5A of the New Hampshire Vermont interstate school compact and further raise and appropriate the amount of $15,877 to fund these salaries. The Dresden School Board recommends this article and appropriation and we're going to have Gina uh speak to this article. Hi. So, this article sets the stipen for the positions of district clerk, moderator, treasurer, and board members. The district clerk and moderator duties are instrumental in a district's annual voting processes. Together they officiate and record annual meetings, set the official

009ballots, monitor v voting procedures and the polls, direct vote tallying, and ratify results. The treasurer receives a small percentage increase between 1 and 2% each year. Their duties are mandated by the New Hampshire RSA. I have to tell you, I don't know what the RSA is, so if you ask me, we'll have to ask someone else for help. They are charged with the oversight and independent balancing of all district funds. They review expenditures weekly and balance bank accounts monthly. After the review of expenditures with the board, they sign all district funded checks. Each board member is expected to attend monthly meetings from August through June. In normal years, meetings are suspended during the month of July. During budget season, additional meetings are often required. I would say are definitely required. In addition, board members participate

010in many committees such as budget and filliance, athletic advisory, central staff development, evaluation, negotiations, policy, program, and procedure, and the HAVTC. A small addition was made in the 201920 budget year to add 300 voters to the board chair statement. As the chamber participates in more meetings than other members, they are instrumental in setting the agenda in constellation consultation with the administration. This article's effect on the tax rate is negligible. It's less than 1 cent. Thank you, Gina. Any discussion on this one? Seeing none, uh let's move on to uh article three. Shall the Dresden School District vote to approve the cost items in the three-year collective bargaining agreement reached between the handover service staff AFSCME local 1348 and the Dresden School Board, which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits for the year

0112627. Estimated increase over the status quo one thou $11,89 for the year 2728. Uh estimated increase $99,100 for the year 2829 $92,784. And further shall the district raise and appropriate the sum of $11,89 such sum representing the estimated increase in support staff salaries and beginning in for the 2627 fiscal year brought about by this collective bargaining agreement. Majority vote is required. The Dresden School Board recommends this article and appropriation. Note one, the sum necessary to pay the so-called status quo salaries and benefits for the support staff if this article is defeated is included in the operating budget in article 4. Uh note two, a favorable favorable vote on this article shall be considered the approval of the cost items in all year of the proposed collective bargaining agreement. The school board recommends this article and

012appropriation. And for this one, we're going to have Kelly McConnell discuss hi again everybody. Um just wanted to clarify that this is the service staff not the support staff uh agreement which is I think we did support staff last year if I'm not mistaken. So, um, so in January, the Hanover Dresden School Boards and the Handover Dre Dresden Service Staff employees reached a tenative agreement for a three-year contract, um, covering the years that were just mentioned. Um, this group of employees in handover includes 4.5 custodial positions and in Dresden, 8.5 positions at the high school and 4.5 positions at the middle school. Um, so I'll just go ahead and skip to the most important part. Um while we value their contributions immeasurably and they contribute to our schools um in in incredible ways, it is

013a very small impact on the overall tax rate. Um the handover piece is less than 1 cent and the Dresden piece is less than 2 cents. Um so a couple details on that. Uh the agreement includes the following language clarifications. The name of the health insurance company was removed uh along with the requirement to offer two plans in order to create more flexibility. Uh we all agreed to a graduated cost share increase for health insurance over the next 3 years. Uh there was some change in vacation language to align with other contracts. On the budgetary side, um the service staff will receive a 5% increase on the base hourly wage scale for each of the three years of the contract. A new level of longevity pay was added for 35 years. Workers will receive $3,500.

014uh agreed to increase we agreed to increase the medical opt out from uh$,750 to $3,000. Um and if you're interested in reading a more complete overview of uh this agreement, it can be found in assembly on the January 27th meeting under item 2B. In order for this to pass, it must uh pass both the Hanover and Dresden school districts districts. And I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who was on this committee, especially uh Ben Keaney who represented the board. Uh any comments? Seeing none, let's move on. Oh, sorry, one sec. We will uh have Carrie Callahan from the handover Finance Committee speak on this one. All right. Uh, thank you, Ryan. Uh, so just quickly, the Hannover Finance Committee is an appointed town committee composed of Hannover residents charged with reviewing school

015and municipal finance matters and offering guidance on those matters to public officials and residents. Uh although the Dresden Finance Committee has been inactive, um the Hannover Finance Committee still makes every effort to understand the impacts of the budget on both the Hannover and Norwich communities and we very much look forward to the day when the Norwich finance committee could be uh potentially empowered to work together with us to form a Dresdston Finance Committee. Um, with respect to the article at hand, uh, the at a public meeting on February 5th, um, the Hannover Finance Committee voted unanimously to support the collective bargaining agreements with the Hannover Dresen staff service staff, um, amounting to $11,89 in the first year, article three. And I would further note that these increases are intended to retain recently hired personnel that

016have helped to fill more than a half dozen open custodial positions with local hires, thus pairing back the use of outsourced services. And again, we support this agreement. Thank you. Thank you, Carrie. Okay, now moving on to the next one. Uh, article four. That's where we are, right? Shall the Dresden School District raise and appropriate the amount of 33,75,19 for the support of schools for the payment of salaries for the teachers and other school employees district school district officials and agents and for the payment of the statutory obligations of the district for the 2627 fiscal year. This sum does not include the sums appropriated in any other articles. The school board recommends this article and appropriation. And for this one, we will have Neil Odell speak. >> Oh, thank you. Um, for the folks on

017Zoom, am I sharing? Is the right screen being shared? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to get it to do the other you. Sorry for the technical challenges, folks. They're probably still just getting presenter mode, right? >> Okay, thank you. All right, thanks everybody and sorry for the delay. Um, just a quick overview of the agenda today. We'll talk a little bit about budget process. We'll do some budget summary. Um, and then we'll talk about the three main components that make up the Dresden School District budget, which is the district-wide portion. Um, and then those pieces associated with both the Richmond Middle School and the Hannover High School. Um and then we'll finish up everything with talking about um the net assessment and then a couple of other pieces of information um that I've

018squeezed in at the very end. Um while we are all here today to sort of talk about um the the final budget proposal that will be going before voters uh next Tuesday, um the path to getting here actually began months ago. Um back in September, um the budget committee met on three dates in September, uh initially to take a look of developing the budget guidelines, uh the document that serves to try to provide some guidance to both the board and the administration as they build the Dresden budget for the uh for the next fiscal year. Um those meetings uh continued throughout October uh and November. Um, in December, um, the full board, the full Dresden board got the first budget presentation. Um, the board then continued to review that budget and refine that budget throughout

019January. Um, finally uh landing on a finalized proposal um in the middle of January and the 13th. Uh we did do one um additional budget review meeting on the 23rd of January and then uh next thing you know here we are today um for the budget presentation for the public and then voting I say it's on 33 I think that's the right 33 or 32 33 okay perfect just a brief mention of the membership of the Dresden budget committee I want to thank all of the board members so Renee Tara um who served on that budget committee Um, in addition to Robin, Teresa, Julian, Anissa from our administration that helped us work through the process. Um, and then once again, uh, just to review with folks, the role of the budget committee, um, is to

020work with the administration to draft, um, that initial budget that best supports, um, our students, but also our community. So, balancing um, educational need versus uh, community support for the budget. um if these goals conflict, then we get out our pencils and we do all of the hard work to try to uh balance those uh two scenarios. Um ultimately it's the board um that decides whether or not um changes to those guidelines need to be made or changes to the budget. Um but then at the very end of the day it's all of you. It's the community that gets to decide whether or not this is the budget that uh that you want to support um and want to bring forward to our schools. So, as I had mentioned before, um, budget guidelines are what

021sort of kicks off this entire process. This year, the Dresdston School Board adopted budget guidelines recommending an increase of 6% or less for the expenditure budget. Um, uh, excluding, uh, union contract negotiations. um as you had seen um in the previous presentation and what was just um discussed just moments before uh those negotiated labor agreements end up as separate war articles on the ballot. Um so while we do count those in the overall expenditure budget because they show up um as a separate voted item on the ballot, we sometimes push them off to the side. Um we will talk about those a little bit later on in the dress and presentation, but that's the reason why we have that um notification that that uh that item uh noted in the budget guidelines. All right, we're

022going to move on to the budget summary. Um while we collectively talk about the budget, um when you head into the voting booth, as we mentioned before, there's going to be several different warrant articles that you'll be voting on. Only one of which the one that we're talking about right now is the expenditure budget. by state law. There are other aspects of district spending that are voted on separately but ultimately um considered part of that overall budget. I drew a little line around the expenditure budget and board and officer salaries because a lot of times we bundle those two together despite the fact that they're two separate articles. So when we talk about budget-to-budget increase, uh a lot of times we'll combine those two. Um as you just heard from Kelly, we do have an

023a labor agreement um budget article that's on the warrant this year. Um, and then there are a couple of other warrant articles as well. All right. So, if we take a look at all of the money articles and their impact on overall spending, we started with article 4, which is the expenditure budget. We add to that then article two, which is the board and officer salaries. And as I mentioned before, we frequently couple those two together when talking about the budget. Um so if we take a look at those two together, we can see that we're looking at um just over a 6% increase. Um an addition of uh almost $2 million. Um so coming in just a little bit over our budget guideline of 6%. Um we add to that then the uh labor

024the negotiated labor agreement. Um, and as Kelly mentioned before, that adds another $101,89 to overall expenses. And so you'll see at with that article added, we're looking at um a 6.42 increase um just over uh $2 million. Um and so all said and totaled up, um that comes to a full-on dress expenditure of uh $33,822,795. Breaking down the Dresden budget in a bit more detail, we can see from this pie chart that salaries and benefits contribute to just uh 80% of the overall budget. So changes in these two items can have a substantial impact on the budget and we're going to see that a little bit later in the presentation. Um, and when we talk about the Dresdston budget, as mentioned before, we're actually talking about three separate components that make up that Dresdston budget.

025We've got the district-wide portion of expenses, uh, Hanover High School and Richmond Middle School. And you can see, um, how all of three of those contribute to the overall expenditure budget. So, let's take a look at each of these items separately, and we're going to start with districtwide. Um, the district-wide portion of the budget is up just over $48,000 this year or 1.73% to 2,839,520. Let's take a look at some of the details for this portion of the budget. The biggest change that we see districtwide is an increase in the superintendent services. This increase here is attributable attributable to three um main drivers. One is a need to cover a deficit in district-wide expenditures from last year. Um second is an anticipated 10 to 15% increase in health insurance costs. And finally, some wage adjustments

026for some administrative staff positions just to better align them um with the market and with our uh peer institutions. Moving on to the Richmond Middle School. Richmond Middle School budget is up just over $750,000 or 7.23% to a total of 11,135,232. Digging into the significant changes for the middle school, uh we can see that regular instruction is up uh $643,447 due to um salary increases which was the result of a previously negotiated and approved labor contract. And um for those of you that were here for Rene's presentation, a whopping 26.2% increase in health insurance. and we'll talk about that a little bit more uh later on in the presentation. Um co-curricular is up just over $200,000. Voters may recall um that a separate war article was passed uh last year to add a middle school

027sports program. um this year and going forward. The amount um for that program uh is included in the base budget for the middle school. Enrollment at the middle school is projected to be 363 students, down three students from the current year's actual. And you can see the uh the year-over-year trend here since 2018. And the final bar here just notes that that's a projected number. The rest of these are actuals. In terms of staffing, uh we are proposing an increase in regular education and classroom teachers and library specialist position, but that is mostly offset by a decrease in special education staff. This reduction um in special education ed assistance and ESOL is based on an anticipated decrease in student need not representing a decrease in the services offered. Altogether total staffing at the middle school

028is decreasing by 1.22 FTEES or fulltime equivalents. While the budget guidelines called for a maximum 6% increase, the initial budget proposals that came before the board uh were a bit higher than target. So, as a result, the board asked the administration to develop a list of potential reductions to get the budgets to that targeted increase of 6%. At the final budget hearing that we had back on January 13th, uh the board decided to make some reductions to the proposed budgets for both schools. The list shown here are the reductions that the that the board decided on for the middle school. They come to a total of just over $200,000 in reductions. All right, moving on to the handover high school portion. Uh, the high school budget is up just over uh $1 million or $6.12%

029to 19,7419 million, sorry, 746,234. digging into that. Uh similar to the middle school budget, the high school is seeing the biggest increase in regular education um due to the same factors due to uh increases related to a negotiated labor agreement um and also that 26.2% increase in health care costs. Enrollment at the high school is expected to tick up slightly to 709 students next year. Um you can see however that our total enrollment has dropped um by just over 40 students since 2018. Staffing uh at the high school remaining relatively steady with certified staff a decrease of 0.5 uh FTE or full-time equivalents while other staff is decreasing by 2.67 67 FTEES uh putting overall staffing down almost two FTEES or full-time equivalents. Similar to reductions made at the middle school level, the board also

030approved reductions at the high school. Um those reductions are listed here coming into a total of just over $400,000 in reductions made at that final meeting in January regarding that healthc care insurance increase. So, uh, as Renee had mentioned, um, during the handover budget presentation, uh, this came as a surprise to the school district, um, shortly after the start of the school, s shortly after the start of the school year. Um, but the impact was both in-ear, um, as well as for next year. Um, and our understanding based on the explanation from the health insurance provider was it was mainly driven by higher than projected utilization of GLP-1 drugs. Um it's our understanding that the insurance carrier has made adjustments to the plans and their coverage of these drugs to mitigate the future impact. Um

031but as Rene had mentioned be as Renee had mentioned before um we are spinning up a budget review committee and uh we will be looking at other carriers and comparing pricing um for some potential savings in this area moving forward. Um that being said though if we take a look at the trends of health care spending as a percentage of the overall budget we can see that things have been decreasing. So um from uh the 222 2223 time frame where healthc care spending was accounted for 22% of our budget that has now grown to 30%. Um so to address this and other concerns as I had mentioned before the board is going to be taking a look um at this the trends um it's certainly an area that needs to be uh investigate a little

032bit more and see what we can do. I I will note though that this is not unique to Dresden. Um this is happening um statewide in both states. So while that 26.2% increase on this side of the river was significant, we are seeing challenges in healthcare expenses on both sides of the river. All right, now we're going to move on to talk about revenues. Um, looking at revenues, total revenue is down uh 5.2%. A good portion of the decrease is due to a lack of prior year carryover money. And this is where the money went to cover that current year increase in the health care um costs. Um because the health insurance carrier is required to maintain a certain level of reserves. Uh Dresden along with many of the other participating districts and this insurance

033carrier was responsible for that makeup payment this year to get those reserve levels back up to uh where they needed to be. So, um, when typical years we would look at a balance carry forward, um, going into the next budget cycle, that money was taken up almost entirely to be able to cover the increased cost of that health insurance payment in year. With all of the revenues considered, the total net assessment is increasing by 8.75%. Now, the amount that is assessed to each town is based on the 2-year average percentage split of Hanover and Norwich students in the Dresden School District. And this year, the percentage ticks up slightly for Hanover and as a result down slightly for Norwich. So, when we're determining the amount assessed to each town, the numbers work out like this.

034Just over 21 million to Hanover and just over 9 million to Norwich. And I know that this is mentioned before, but it's worth repeating. Since Dresden does not have its own tax rate, these amounts are added to the respective school budgets uh or the net assessments in both towns to determine what the local tax rates are. All right, that was a lot on budgets and numbers and stuff. What do you get for the money that you spend? Um while these results are just one indicator of how well our students are doing. Um I would also mention that the board has heard directly from numerous student groups throughout the year. Um they come to board meetings and do what we call little vignettes and those sometimes are the most interesting part of board service to hear

035what our students are up to in the school districts and we really value that. So, we've had um presentations from the RMS robotics team, uh the climate action group, as well as the HHS ballooning project over the past year, and those have been super interesting. Um and it's phenomenal to see the engagement of the students and the and the great work that they're doing uh both within and without the school system. Um when it comes to student performance data, this was pulled off of the New Hampshire Agency of Education's uh website. Um, you can see that Dresden students uh rank well above the state average in math, science, and reading scores. It says math, science in June. That should say math, science, and reading. We'll make that notification. Um, and just to give you a

036sense of where Dresden ranks in the state. So, the uh our percent proficient in math of 74 puts us 12th in the state. Uh, rankings in math. um fourth in the state on science and and first in the state on reading, not June. All right, I really wanted to end on that last slide, which was the positive note about things, but there are a lot of significant changes in public education being considered in both New Hampshire and Vermont that could have dramatic impacts on our interstate school system. And I think if you're like me, I I think a lot of us can take public education for granted. um we just assume that it's always going to be there. Uh couple that with the unique setup that our moderator had mentioned early in the meeting about

037our status as an interstate school district and understand that changes to that structure require an act of Congress. We can think that we may be isolated from potential changes to public education. And while that may be true from a governance perspective, I actually think it's the financial piece of how both New Hampshire and Vermont fund education that's likely to put a strain on our system, on our setup. There is legislation that is being considered in both states that could have substantial impacts on our ability to fund our existing system. And while the Dresden board will continue to monitor the situation and do what we can to advocate for public education, I hope that all of you here today and watching um online will also stay informed and monitor the situation. Legislators do listen to their

038constituents, but only if you reach out. I want to say thank you very much. Uh, thank you to our administrators, to to Julie Stevenson, principal at the high school, and Morrison, principal at the Richmond Middle School. Uh, Robin Steiner, our superintendent, and Teresa Taylor, our business administrator, for getting through this process. Um, it's a lot of work, um, to get to this point. And, uh, all of those folks, in addition to my board colleagues, chipped in, and it was, uh, a great effort this year. Um, but most importantly, I want to thank our broader communities of both Hanover and Norwich for supporting a strong public education system in these two towns. We could not do this without your support and I want to acknowledge that. It is greatly appreciated. And with that, I will turn

039it over to the moderator. >> Thank you, Neil. Uh, and next I believe we're going to hear from Peter Soulberg from the handover finance committee. >> Oh, >> okay. I'm Peter Soulberg, a handover voter. Um, thanks Neil for that great presentation and summary of all the great stuff here. Um during a public meeting on February 5th, the handover finance committee voted to support the article that we're talking about. We did for a relatively first time not vote unanimously, but voted 42 in support of it. And I'll talk a little bit about some of the concerns that were raised. I I just wanted to just go through a few of the numbers again just for us to remember. I mean, what we're talking about is a 7% increase, a little bit less over last year's assessment.

040um which as Neil said translates for the two towns to 7 and a half% increase for Hanover and 5 and a half plus percent for for Norwich. um compared to the New England CPI of 3.3%. We all recognize and and I we have to say the Handover Finance Committee recognizes that more than anyone else the the boards and administration here recognize that this is an unsustainable thing for the long term for our voters because the because if we do the math uh we're going in a in a bad direction. That said, we were very supportive and we recognized that administration made a real effort as Neil said to look at the numbers and to make further reductions to try to reduce what was originally really a 10% increase uh in costs. Um uh and with

041again overstating everything every uh overshadowing everything was the 25% uh increase in healthcare cost which no one could anticipate and really has made this an impossible year in which to move forward. We regarding inflation, if you do the math, if we kept increasing our our taxes, as we're discussing, uh we would actually double uh we would double in around 11 years the sort of rate of taxes. So that's that's not sustainable. We all know that. And so we also recognize and the finance committee has been talking about the fact that we've got all these other things that are also headwinds. Infrastructure projects, increases in county taxes that we don't really control. Uh for handover taxpayers, uh the school budgets are about 2thirds of the total of our taxes. One-third coming from the town and the

042and the county. And those things are going up, too. We all know that there's some infrastructure projects coming down the road for the towns and stuff that will also impact on our taxes. So, the finance committee's only recommendation as we fully supported proceeding with this article was that the administration and staff really work on some structural changes for the coming budget year. And as Neil mentioned, as the folks mentioned before with handover, I think that's already planned. So, new budgeting process already in the works, but we really think that the budgeting has to be started much earlier. We believe that we're going to have to keep talking about a multi-year budget rather than single-year budgets. Um uh we we do think that there's there's going to be need for some structural changes uh to contain

043some of the costs that we've heard about here and and we all know that the the really big challenges are in salaries and benefits. We have a very big union contract negotiation happening in the coming year and it's recognized that that's going to be critically important as we try to figure out how to bend the cost curve in the coming years. So again, uh just in in closing, the finance committee really looks forward to working with the school board SAU70 and the Dresden administrators and we're really thankful and appreciative of the group that has put together this budget. They clearly tried to protect the core project of our schools and the great education that we know and we know that our taxpayers on both sides of the river really appreciate. So that is well recognized

044and we will continue to work with you guys to refine. Thank you. >> Thank you Peter. Uh any additional comments from anyone? Seeing none, let's move on to article five. Article five to see if the Dresden School District will vote to ratify acceptance of the following privately donated trust funds for the purpose of providing student awards and further to designate the trustees of the trust funds for the town of Hanover as the trustees to hold the funds in accordance with NHRSA 31 sub31 majority vote required. The William Murphy Lamp of Learning Award Scholarship created in 2008 from a private donation uh income earned to be used for an annual $100 MURF award for outstanding achievement in the field of history. The Emily Rube Photography Trust created in 2002 from a bequest income earned to be

045used for an annual Emily Rub photography prize. Uh, the Jeremiah Ice Hockey Fund created in 1975 from Bequest for the benefit of the hockey team with the interest only expended each year. The DW Bruce Prize Fund created in 1971 from Aquest. Income earned on the gift is to be used for an annual American history essay prize. Any comment on that? Seeing none. Oh, sorry. Deb Nelson will discuss article five. >> So this is one of those cleanup warrant articles. uh the William Murphy lamp of learning award scholarship originating in 2008, the Emil Rube Photography Trust in 2002, the Jeremiah Ice Hockey Fund 1975, and the DW Bruce Prize Fund 1971 are funds that were created between 1971 and 2008 to provide scholarships to students at Handover High School. The intention was that the trustees of

046the trust fund for the town of Hanover would be the designates to hold the funds in accordance with NH RSA 31 col31. The funds were never approved through warrant articles which is required. So we're doing that now. Uh the details of the trust funds can be reviewed on assembly in the January 27, 2026 Dresden schoolboard meeting under item 2B. And because Dresden is comprised, as you know, or composed of two different towns, we're required to have the district's constituents vote on which town should be in charge of investing and managing the funds. Vermont school districts are not required to invest funds outside of the district's account. New Hampshire does have this requirement and because Dresden is a New Hampshire district, it makes sense to vote to have the New Hampshire towns trustees manage the funds.

047RSA 3131 trust funds for districts says except where otherwise specifically provided in the charter of a city or by special act of the legislature whenever a gift legacy or device deise I don't know what that word is shall be made in trust to a school district village district or any subdivision of a town and accepted by it the same shall be held in custody and administered by the trustees of trust funds of such town or in case of districts embracing two or more towns by the trustees of trust funds of that town which the voters of said district may elect. So, so this is an important housekeeping if you want to use that term warrant article. Are there any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you, Deb. Uh so moving on to article six which is

048the petition article question non-monetary JV hockey approval. Shell SAU70. The school district and/or handover high school recognize, support, and endorse a privately funded and administered boys and girls junior varsity hockey team so as to enable and authorize such a team to play intercolastic junior varsity hockey under New Hampshire intercolastic athletic association rules. This obligation would be sustained and open-ended, but does not require the SAU, the school district, or Handover High School to pay for ice time, equipment, fees, insurance, or any other outlay, nor to field a junior varsity hockey team if a privately funded junior varsity hockey team is not privately mobilized and created. At present, Hanover High School does not field a JB hockey team. However, there is significant demand in the pipeline for boys and girls h high school hockey. There are enough

049players at present and for the foreseeable future to support a boys JV hockey team and possibly a girls JV hockey team. Understanding that the school district is not yet prepared to support JV hockey teams financially, local families are ready, willing, and able to fund and administratively support a JV hockey team through private donations and per player fees. However, in order to play against other New Hampshire high schools in the New Hampshire intercolastic athletic association, a privately funded JV hockey team would still need to be operated under the opices and authority of Handover High School. The proposed warrant article would require SAU70, the school district, and/or Handover High School, to endorse and support such a team such that it would be able to play other JV hockey teams under NHAA rules. This article is not intended

050to infect the budget as the team is intended to be privately funded, supported, insured, organized, and coached, albeit under the final authority of the Hanover High School principal and or her design, which is a requirement of the NHIAA. Players would be required to meet all NHAA eligibility requirements. Any discussion? Sir, you come up and your name and address, please. >> Does this work? >> Yeah, >> I think I got it. >> Jeremy Egleton, 33 Mile Road in Edna. Well, I am sort of a voice crying in the wilderness. I think there's um I think I see three members of the public other than myself here today. Uh everyone else is school board related. Um but first I want to say thank you to the whole board for all the work you're doing in particular on

051article 4 and the school budget. It's a bear every year. I'm very pleased to hear about uh an effort to approach structural changes or at least look at the structural issues. Uh and the reason is this. Um you know this this school district supports and promotes some amazing opportunities for kids. um you know stuff that doesn't show up all the time in the budget or uh on our radar screen include uh the music program which my daughter participates in which is a statewide uh juggernaut. Uh if you look at Handover High School's participation in the All State Music Festival, for example, um we are far and away the largest high school that contributes to that. And that's the kind of thing that um our voters have supported and we're super appreciative of. And it's the

052kind of thing that people focus on uh when they're talking about budget cuts when the reality is the drivers of these large increases have nothing to do with a music program or a special education position, but rather uh salaries and health insurance and in particular health insurance. It's going up for everybody in the private sector and the public sector. Um and so I'm pleased that we're looking to tackle uh the stuff that matters. So, thank you. First of all, um I'm here to speak on article six because it is a non-monetary budget item. Uh it is not a budget item at all. It's one of those things that um as somebody with uh relatively significant municipal meeting experience uh ends up being the most controversial uh because it has nothing to do with money and

053passions get raised. Uh we're seeking a JB hockey program. What we learned last year uh is that you can create a privately funded JV hockey program and um uh have it uh funded by the community. Uh and all that is required is for the NHIA and your opposing teams to be able to call the high school and say, "Hey, is this an authorized team?" And uh that's that's all we're looking for here is for the school district to say yes, there needs to be somebody at the other end of the telephone line when that call comes in. Otherwise, it's going to be privately supported. And there has been discussion uh including in the Valley News today about the uh potential slippery slope. And that's what I wanted to talk about. Um the argument that uh

054you know this is just the camel's nose under the tent and soon we're going to be asking for more built into this question is a restriction on the slippery slope argument. So if the community if the private funding doesn't come through and the community doesn't present a team to the school district then the school district does not have to fund it. Now I can't speak to what's going to happen three four five years down the line. Um, obviously if there's a team every year for five or six or seven years running that's being privately funded, I think it's equitable for the board to consider funding it. But that's not what we're asking for at this time. So, this is a nonmonetary budget item. It will not affect the budget. It's just giving kids an opportunity

055to play hockey at the JV level. That's important for the varsity team to the extent that matters in our thinking. Um, most of the other team sports at handover high school have a JV component. Hockey does not. And so this would rectify that. It would restore a JV team that existed for many, many years. And it would return us to the format that we had prior to, I think, 2019 when we had a privately funded JV hockey team. So, we're just trying to get this thing going again. And uh that's the purpose of the warrant article uh here. Lastly, I want to speak briefly to the equity question. Um anyone who has had kids go through a hockey program or really any team sport these days knows that there are uh private leagues and private

056schools. And a lot of kids get shuffled into those uh private leagues and private schools and they're driving all over the state for elite experiences. And these kids end up coming back to Hanover High School because we have here a storied hockey program. And so kids want to come to take advantage of an awesome high school, great education where they get to play hockey that's been going on in this community for a hundred years just about. Um, and so but they all come having garnered this awesome experience somewhere else and those kids make the varsity team. uh the kids who stick around whose families maybe don't have the resources or the the desire to drive all over the state looking to enhance their kids hockey at eight or nine years old end up taking a

057back seat. And so this JV program is for those kids who might only want to play JV hockey or might not be big enough to play varsity hockey at some point. Um, so again, a non-monetary, non-budget item and we're asking for the support of the community. Uh, and thank you very much. >> Thank you, Jeremy. Uh, anyone else? Seeing no other comments, let's move along to article 7 uh to transact any nonsubstantive business that may legally come before the discussion phase of this meeting. Anything else? Seeing nothing. Uh, this concludes the discussion phase of the Dresden DIS Dresden District annual meeting. Uh, the voting phase takes place from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3rd at the Richmond Middle School gym. May I have a motion to adjourn the discussion phase of the

058Dresden annual meeting?