001It makes me announc That's call us the order. Um, starting with agenda review. Oh, we get we put the green light, right? Green means go in cash pause. Good. >> Oh, we're good. You lied for me. All right, go start there. Um, so agenda review. Um, I had asked that we add a legislative update to business requiring discussion. Um, and I somehow hadn't noticed, so my apologies to Ryan. Um, but I hadn't noticed that there's a legislative representation item already on there. So, we can kind of um I had shared just a little heads up to the board and I will share that with everybody when we get there. Um, any other items to add to the agenda? I will also note that um under committees we need to add the pre uh prek committee
002to that regular list. I imagine that committee has not yet met but just for future reference we need to add that to the list. Okay ask please. Um do you need a separate item for open enrollment or do you want me to upload it under legislative representation? I think under um legislative representmentation is fine for tonight. And do you need an action item for legislative representation? >> Yes, please. And I will thank you. Yes. So, we will have an action item for the board to consider if we want to consider um language for anyone to represent us at the legislative level. >> Great. Thank you. All right. Members of the public, we'll start with in person and then look on Zoom. Any members of the public who'd like to address the board on items not
003already on the agenda this evening? >> That might be used. >> Yes, please come down. >> Sorry, that's me. >> Sorry. Sorry. >> Yeah. Anywhere like near the edge of the rug. It's great. >> Right here. >> Yeah. Perfect. this. >> Um, >> just state your name and >> okay, >> who you are, what your role is, yeah, where you live, those sort of things. >> Thanks everybody for letting me speak. First of all, um, I'm sure some of you know who I am. My name is Steve Conman. Um, I'm a PE teacher here. >> I should have mentioned three-ish minutes. Okay. >> Threeish. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to stick to this otherwise I think particular or yourself. >> Um, more of representing myself is I guess it's kind of in both senses I would
004say. Um, so again, I'm Steve Condan. Um, I'm a PE teacher here at the Ray School. Um, and full candidness, as I'm sure some of my colleagues will say, um, I'm a pretty quiet person, so this for me is bringing up a little bit of anxiety, but if you threw me in a gym with 40th graders, it'd be like a walk in the park. So, okay, >> I'm going to stick to this as best I can. Um, and I again, I appreciate you guys being here. Apologies for the shakiness. Um, so my name is Steve Conan. I've been a PE teacher here at Ray for nearly 15 years. In my time here, I've had the luxury of working alongside highquality, supportive, and dedicated administrators, teachers, and staff members. I feel so lucky to be a
005part of the Ray community, and it has been a dream of mine to one day potentially have my own children get an education here alongside them. The Ray School is truly a special place to be. Okay, >> great. Go. >> Doing all right. Um, I'm here tonight to speak to you all in regards to a policy I'm hoping our district might consider putting in place for teachers at the Ray School. A policy that would provide current and future teachers the opportunity to have their own children to attend the school which they teach. Um, as I'm sure most of you are aware, Mary and Frost recently put a policy like this into place in order to help retain quality teachers at their school. I feel strongly that the Ray School could provide an opportunity for our
006teachers as well. Having a policy that allows teachers, children to attend the Ray School will not only help us retain high-quality teachers and committed teachers, but it would also help us attract new high-quality teachers as well. Attracting high-quality teachers never used to be a problem here in Hanover. Um, and I'm not here to say that that is or not. However, handover, like many other schools across the state and country, are finding it increasingly more difficult to get as many applicants as we used to. There are other school districts now offering this policy to their teachers. As I mentioned, Marian Cross, our neighboring uh town, Lebanon school district, has also put this policy into place. Um, on a personal note, take a breath here. On a personal note, um, my family currently resides in Claremont. Um,
007and while I do not want to speak on that situation, having there now, um, it has certainly been another motivating factor for me to push for a policy like this to be in place for my family, um, especially our four-year-old daughter who will be entering kindergarten later this fall. Based on conversations just in passing with some staff members, I do have a strong feeling that, um, other current or future teachers would benefit from this as well, and it might help with the hiring of quality teachers. as I mentioned with families that are not able to afford housing in the handover community. Um it would also allow for someone like myself again more of a personal side but um to be available for more committee work after school. Um I'm also being a PE teacher would
008open up the possibility of being able to help coach um or referee or officiate activities. >> Um what's that? >> What's that? I said don't >> treat better. I don't think trust me. >> It's hard to find reps. >> Like most teachers with children that live outside the district, that actually helps me out. I'm kind of relaxing. Sorry for the shakiness. Um I'm normally leaving at the end of the day in order to get uh home and help with obligations for my family. In conclusion, I am hopeful that you'll at least consider putting this policy into place. I want to reinforce the fact that I feel strongly that if a neighboring school like MCS is doing something like this to help their staff and their families, we could do the same here for our teachers
009at Ray. Um I just love the opportunity to have a conversation um and see what we can do as a district moving forward. Hopefully sooner rather than later. So again, thank you for your time. Apologies for the shakes. I'm nervous. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah, Brandy. Yes, I don't do this in PE, but >> you >> Steve, you did much better than I would do in that gym full of fifth graders. So, >> but I was hoping there would be some stand here. So, at least >> I have. >> Thank you again. >> Thank you. >> Um, so, um, board members, I did have a tiny heads up that this question might be coming up. Um, and so I did just want to share a little bit of information on it and then um,
010Steve, just so you know, because it wasn't on our agenda for tonight, we won't discuss it tonight. Um, but it's something that I think we could certainly consider putting on a future agenda. Um, so I just wanted to share with the board that um, the last time this came up for both of the elementary schools, it wasn't considered a negotiation item. That was my first thought was, oh, we have negotiations coming up. This is probably a negotiation item. Apparently um perle legal counsel at the time at least um it was decided that it should be a policy not a negotiations matter which is how Marian Cross got to the policy decision um as well as Lebanon. So Lebanon also came to this policy decision. Um so it sounds like we've kind of gone through the
011legal council steps and they have decided it's a policy matter. Um I will just point out that um while Marian Cross does have this as a policy obviously Hannover does not for the for this evening nor exactly. So, I know when we've had this conversation in the past, one of the questions has been, well, what's going to happen to those kiddos once they hit fifth grade? Where are they going to go? Um, so I think, you know, this is something we probably given the open enrollment questions around the state. Um, and you know, some of the recruitment and retention questions that Steve actually brought up, it's probably something we want to consider putting on an agenda this month. >> Okay. >> So, cool. Good. All right. Thank you, Steve. Again, any other Yeah. >> And
012um so we did talk about this a couple maybe twoish years ago >> and I I personally was was all for it. I totally buy into the concept. It was my understanding at the time with the previous administration who happens to be at the table with me um tonight that I had heard that there was a somewhat perceived lack of interest among our staff at the time under the argument of my kids are already entrenched in their current districts. They have friends there. What happens if I leave that district? Transportation issues. I'd have to get back to my home district by a certain time in order to pick them up. And then there was also sort of expansion issues like would this cover just teachers or all staff in the building? Are siblings grandfathered in
013or is there some sort of application phase? What happens to Dresden? >> Um lots of questions. >> Lots of questions remaining. But if the perceived by my part or possibly the board's part lack of local interest has changed, I would perhaps ask the administration for a survey or a raise of hands of who would directly benefit this from right now because it was my understanding that very few actually wanted to do it. So can I sorry uh so just so you are aware too my my kind of future plan would be to I've already met with Colleen >> um have that conversation with her um and then my plan was to after speaking with you all and kind of submitting this to you as a board would be to kind of do a little bit
014of selfgnering anyways and reach out to some staff and see what the support levels would be. Um, I know it sounded like Mary and Cross did something very similar where once they had their certain number of teachers that were very strong trying to push for this, that's the route they took is to try to garner some support and see how many teachers would potentially even be looking at it um to move forward with it. As like you said, some have students that had gone through um they were supportive. some already had students in districts elsewhere and so they were supportive but also weren't going to pull their students from that school. Um so that's kind of the plan that I was going to take um and just see what kind of support there might be
015around the school. So I do appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thanks. And and I also again you know two years may not sound like a lot of time as we're going to discuss later in legislative years that's like >> an entire century these days right? So, um I think there's probably a reason for us to discuss it as a board purely from a philosophical standpoint as well as this I mean because we don't have it in place for our administrators either. Um so to Ben's point neither teachers nor staff um you know we're always talking about trying to recruit um IAS as well and they don't have access to this either. So it's probably something that we want to discuss as a philosophical item as well. Um, yes. Go ahead. Um, >> can we proactively put
016it or suggest to the Dresden board chair to include it on their upcoming meeting, too, so we can have a sooner >> convers you next week. >> It would our agenda is already set for next week. So, we have to either add it on manually or we could wait till March. >> Still added technically. >> Doesn't get published on Thursday. Up to you. But you couldn't still there. I always miss the Thursday deadline. I know it's still not that day. >> Um I would love to just take uh advantage of the fact we have Mary and Cross folks or you know Norwich folks in the room at the Dresden conversation. So if we could utilize their kind of >> rethought process to then inform our process that's why I would actually end it like >>
017and go ahead. I'm actually kind of curious that Norwich has never brought it to Dresdston in the last couple of years. >> Uh well it's a pretty recent policy on there. But you think that they would be >> speaking as if I was a Norwich person, which thankfully I'm not. Um I would be curious why it has not logically come up at Dresden or policy. >> Well, regardless of that fact, um maybe we could just propose it's on the agenda next week for consideration >> on the spot. Since um previous administration was mentioned, I will put on my previous administrator hat. Uh just to say that in the moment that it was brought up sort of in parallel of what was happening um with Marian Frost, I as the building administrator um chose to support
018it from a recruitment and retention strategy because I myself as an employee of handover had just had a child and did not want to muddy the waters around what I was trying to do personally versus professionally and would like to continue to not do that. Um, so I support it from a recruitment and retention um, standpoint and certainly uh, in that moment because I was not trying to have a conflict of interest with what was happening. I uh, sent it back over to the staff to say this feels really important to you. I need you staff members to take this on and there wasn't in that moment a lot of expressed interest. It didn't end up coming back. Um, but like you have said I think that there are um, times are changing and this
019is a very different moment. Sarah, >> I would just ask that we wait until March because I think there's some legislative action going on right now that will impact this discussion significantly. So, I would hate for us to get too deep and then have the rug pulled out from underneath us. So, I would just say March we might have some more clarity. And I don't know if the law that's being considered right now, if it does get further clarified, which it seems like maybe that's why the vote got postponed because people were asking for clarifications, if we would be allowed to prioritize enrollment for students um of employees uh in the overall sort of larger scheme of things that might be a great way to go about this. >> Thank you. Yeah. All right. Um,
020I think I'm going to move us along. Are there other comments from the public? Okay, Steve, thanks again for coming and for speaking. Um, sounds like there is interest to continue the conversation in the future. So, um, principal report. Do we have Colleen? Awesome. >> Hi. Were you were you able to get the report there? >> Yeah. Yes, I've got it. >> There was there was a little difficulty getting it uploaded this afternoon. Sorry about that. >> Okay. Um I just wanted I also wanted to add a little bit about um the we have a former stu two former Ray students Jacob um oh my gosh I'm dro forgetting his brother's name. >> Jesse thank you. I knew it was a J. They have they have done an amazing job fundraising. They have a um
021project going. They would like to purchase uh and install two new um adjustable basketball hoops on our court um because they have fond memories of playing basketball here at Ray School and they've done a fantastic job uh raising some money for that. So, we're waiting to connect with Tony to um get that hopefully installed over the summer so they'll be ready to go. Um but yeah, they've done a great job with that. And uh we've wrapped up almost wrapped up our data meetings with teachers. Um and we're ready to roll with our second round of intervention and enrichments. And it's been a busy busy hectic couple of months, last two months. I can't believe we're almost in March. And I don't have anything else to add. The 100th day of school was fantastic. I didn't
022get to see much of the fashion show because I was in data meetings, but it was amazing as always. Cats are amazing in the pictures. They are >> uh questions for Colleen. >> All righty, Colleen. Thank you so much. Oh, I will just say um I really appreciate it sounds like this fundraising effort went through you um and through the school as well, which is really great. Sometimes we get um fundraising efforts that haven't gone through those processes and that's a little hard for the school to then say, "Oh, you raised all this money and ah now we have to figure out how to do it." So, I'm really happy to hear that. >> They did a great job. They came and met with me and presented their whole plan and yeah, it was great.
023>> Awesome. So, kudos to them. Thank you to everyone who donated for that and we look forward to hearing more about it. >> Thanks. >> All right. Anything else for Colleen? All right, moving on to final preparations for the annual meeting. Okay, so just want to make sure I took some notes here. Um, we don't have too many articles to present. Um, the Bridgemond Fund article. Marcela, are you going to be there? >> Yeah, >> you are. Okay, awesome. Would you be willing to do Bridgemond Fund? >> Yes. >> Perfect. >> There's a script. Yes. >> Um, there is script. I confirm. >> It's a fun one. You get some people, hey, bring ideas, we'll give you money. It's awesome. Um, Deb, I have you on officer status. >> Okay. Um, I said I would
024do the service staff agreement if you will. >> I will not feed you. >> Feed me information for that. Thank you. >> Um, and then Renee budget. Okay, perfect. Thank you. And I'll help you with that if you want me or need me. Um, >> you might need to like opine on something in the beginning. >> Okay. >> Then I can hear, >> right? >> Understood. Opine. I I like to opine. It's one of my hobbies. Okay, perfect. Um, moving on then to the burn foundation donation for ads. Anyone want to speak to this? I mean, I'll just say thank you yet again for this generous donation. Anything to add on the ads, guys? All right. Um, so we did just have a bunch of policy updates. So, I'll add that. um that were voted
025I think a last month, a month before about AED usage and expanding that um because AEDs, modern AEDs are so idiot proof that like we just want anyone who can get access to it to use it and it'll tell you what to do. So, we have these new um AED machines going in to to help with that um and update the ones that were out of date. I do just have one question about this um with obviously extreme gratitude to the Burn Foundation. Are there grants that can cover this kind of thing or is that not a thing? >> So far in my many months, I have not come across a grant specifically for this. >> Okay. I wasn't sure of like medical something. >> Not that I'm aware of. It may exist out there
026outside of the pools of money that I've learned how to access at this point. Um but I'm not aware of any at this point. Yeah, >> that is fair. All right. Yeah. And I would just like to ask that this be added to the massive list of donations from the burn foundation with a thank you once again to Darthy Burn. >> Sorry. That's Steve. Hi Steve. Hi Steve. Steve. Turn that off. Sorry guys. I will make sure that we got it. Thank you. Let that alarm be your reminder, Lauren. All right. Um, if there are no other questions out there, we'll move on to the school calendar. Uh, so we received a lot of questions about the school calendar. And honestly, probably as many as I've received about any of the many items going on
027these days. Um, and I I had warned Ben I might kick it over to him and to give kind of just a general um how and why we came to this calendar since I he's done a great job fielding some of those questions. >> So, thank you. I think >> you have three minutes. >> Yeah. So, like Kelly mentioned, we we in a chair role have gotten many comments this year, more than usual, I think, about the calendar, but maybe not for the reasons we had heard about in previous years, which was concerns about um sort of religious and cultural holidays and acknowledgement and how to best handle that as a community coming at this from many different perspectives. The the questions this year were more about the perception of does school summer seem to
028be getting shorter and do holidays seem to be getting longer? Which to be fair, we got far more compliments in that regard about yay, it's long as opposed to complaints. But we did get complaints from several different uh involved folks about why is summer sorry not summer break winter break holiday break so long in the sense of we have to accommodate more days off and vacation days and babysitters and enrichment activities and the like and the same thing of how summer seems to be getting shorter. So, we just wanted to reiterate and we as a as a group, I'm looking both members and administrators on this should probably better explain the rationale behind why the calendar is what it is. We also feel a lot of complaints specifically from race school parents about that boil
029down to essence of so Vermont students come, why should I care? And that is a fair question that we might need to clarify. And so a lot of our calendar is based on several different factors. The middle school and the high school, roughly a third of our student population is in Norwich, not counting a couple dozen more that are from other sending districts that tuition in in within Vermont. And we want to maintain continuity. Roughly 90% of our kids have siblings. And so we there's common situation where older kids in the middle school and high school would have the day off or or vice versa compared to the elementary peers. and we want to avoid that facility of continuity, family vacations and things like that. Additionally, right, >> the schools start the Wednesday before Labor
030Day with the intent of what they call a 3, four, five, which I think most of the people in the room know what that means, where it allows both the students and staff and parents to kind of ease into a school year where you have three days, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the following week it's four days, Labor Day being the day off, and then it transitions into a standard regular week. So, we've done that very deliberately. this this for think as long as far back as my tenure on the board goes which is coming up on 8 years now this year Labor Day is late meaning it's later in September I think it's September 7th >> and so doing a 345 at that point would not really be practical this also has negotiations implications for start
031dates and things like that so this year and hopefully this year only will be a which is not ideal but it is what it is additionally we had a calendar committee that several of us were aware of that was, I believe, the 2324 school year. Maybe 2425. >> It was 2425. Thank you, Ryan. >> And even though the original goal of that was sort of religious, cultural holidays, it it delved into a lengthy survey that kind of got at what is of most interest to the population that got by far the most survey responses to date. That was in the four figures. So, all his other surveys are terrible compared to it, I guess. But >> the main take away from that was not 30,000 footage summary is it was not really the concern about
032religious culture holidays as it was why aren't we aligned with Dartmouth? Why can't winter break be longer? Why are there separate February and April breaks? Can we perhaps make those one two week break instead of two oneweek breaks? And so I think some of the concerns we're getting now are more now we're not listening to the survey results and we're making summer too long and making winter vacation too short or too long. Again, we are trying >> but it also has implications where the state of Vermont is trying to standardize days off and now my phone has >> that's not state. >> This is my wife as I hang out with that smile a little bit too much. Um, so Vermont is trying to standardize that and we need to accommodate that for our Norwich
033families as well as we have something called the Hartford area career and technical center which a lot of the elementary parents don't know about. Perhaps you should rectify that. >> But roughly a couple dozen kids and change from the high school go to that and they have their own calendar. And frankly, a lot of the schools surrounding us, Hartford, Hartland, Lebanon, and us actually kind of follow their calendar for the continuity of all those students. And so this gets messy very quickly. And even though we choose our calendar, we don't really get to choose our calendar as much as we think we do. >> And that that 30,000 foot level is why it is what it is. >> That's pretty good. Um, and I'm just looking ahead to 2027 and it's going to be another
034and last year I think we also had the 354, right? No, last year was 345. >> Next year's going to be another one. I suspect it's going to be another 354 would be my guess. >> The only thing that I I would add was >> at our last meeting there was a conversation about the value to parents of knowing our calendar earlier >> in November. before people have to sign up for summer camps and programs that >> turn out to conflict with the start of school. And I think we agreed at that point that is something we absolutely and do. >> Yeah. >> But I did look Hartford set theirs I think I want to say they voted on it in early December. So we certainly could look to moving our decision- making towards the
035December meeting. Um and I and they have a rough draft calendar out before that obviously. So I think we could start to at least give families a better idea. Um because you know one of the questions we got in these emails from people was so is this already a done deal? Like by the time you're actually talking about it seems like it's maybe already a decision and so is it really a first reading? Not really. Right. Um so we could probably have some more like yeah it's a first reading but this is likely what it's going to look like around November. I I feel like um if not October once other districts have started having theirs. >> And to Dev's point, specifically for our younger grades at Ray and MCS, >> the summer camps were
036already announced they were long, sold out already. >> Yeah. >> And so like I myself who got burned by Oh, wait. >> The Wednesday we started my kids supposed to be in camp. So I was lost 100 bucks, you know, kind of thing. >> Yeah. >> Darn fins. But it is what it is. See tonight, I imagine. >> Um, but yeah, just to follow up with that, I think the reverse is also more likely to happen if we're clear about our start dates. Summer programs can adjust their calendar. >> They follow our calendar. >> Yeah. >> You're putting them in a bad in an awkward position expecting them to have programs available when we're starting. >> Yeah. >> Particularly many of our older kids work at them. >> Yeah. as well. >> Yes. Yeah. Um
037so with that said, um we will be taking a vote on this this evening. Are there any other comments on the calendar? Okay. I have Oh, I I did just want to note when I was looking back through the notes for Harper to try to figure out when they they had actually thought about not doing um not taking Labor Day off and then went back from that. So they are taking Labor Day off but that was one of the things they had discussed. >> Um was it Labor Day or President's Day? It might have been President's Day. Anyway, there was something they were thinking not taking off. It was surprising much more prescribed. >> Yeah. Well, in the end they didn't do it. So um no veterans what it was. I apologize. Veterans Day. That's
038something you're not taking off. >> Um and that well their logic was that you could actually celebrate it during school hours and so that was a way to celebrate it. Anyway, um love looking to other boards and their discussions or ample free time. All right, moving on to policy. >> Ben, >> all right, me again. Um >> wait, >> so there are three new policies tonight. All of which are first readings for handover. I don't recall because I wasn't at that meeting. Were these discussed at Tristan? >> No, they weren't. Okay, thank you for that. >> Oh, we did. >> Yes. Yes. Because there was a lot of push back on trying to tell families how they should be physically active. >> Yeah. And also a question about what is nutrition and what is all
039things that policy also dealt with does open up a lot of messy questions. >> Yeah. >> All right. So I have so let me know if I'm being redundant but starting in order of simply IM ah this is the physical activity one at the policy committee level which I like some of this going to be redundant with Dresden but there was some discussion whether we needed a wellness policy at all in terms of knowing that the vast majority of our students are very physically active which we know from our survey data not just in gym which is kind of what the policy indicates but through various sports whether official or not or through the schools or not. There was also some suggestion of having a wellness committee. We decided to remove that request. There's legislativeness
040at the state level whether you need to have a policy committee or not. We decided to >> wellness wellness comm sorry to push somebody button to not have it because we have had one in the past. It did not get much interest. I literally was on it to my first meeting after joining the board and that was the meeting of the wellness committee and that's not met since. Um we did some minor word smithing. We um there was a word that said review. We switched it we changed it to review instead of actively monitoring because we didn't think that was physically practical given we'd have to monitor everyone's physical activity regardless of whether they're in school or not which seemed impractical at best, confusing at worst. and >> invasion. There was some mention here for
041those who are kind of paying attention to the state level stuff of whether this kind of gets at more intrusion of what is physical activity. We are going to judge a physical activity which kind of comes into this one of the policies we're going to talk about in a second. And so we did some minor edits to try to minimize that as best we could. But the stuff that is here is what is required. And I think we toned it down the best we could. But what is left is what probably need to go after. >> Great. >> I'll leave at that for any questions. >> Thank you. I was trying to look back at the Dresdston meeting because I thought we actually were asked to vote on some of this, but am I missing
042>> there was probably more at Dresden, too. There's also the like supervisor students. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. So, maybe one that got out. Okay. All right. Great. Um, are there questions for Ben on any of these? >> And I will move on to JLP, >> which is a danger word here, parental notification of an involvement in student welfare. So, at policy, if I can see you, we go. Um, so we reached out to our principles on this one and thankfully Miss Roy was the only principal who responded. So, thank you, Colleen. Um, giving her feedback on that. It did come with a previous R version and a form to fill out. We debated at the at the policy committee whether those sort of things were really needed. We decided to not put that additional burden
043on the schools and that this is the policy only for the first read. This is again another one where there's sort of some state handing agenda stuff on this in terms of parental notification of student welfare. Everything in here can read fairly innocuously as written, but we also were careful to make sure that we cover and protect all of our students in all capacity. And the wording in here there's some double negatives going on but basically there is a carveout that specific to parental notification aspects that we can by we I mean big picture we can still withhold certain information if a reasonably prudent person would believe that such disclosure result in abuse abandonment etc. So that carba is still there. is at the superintendent level of authorization and so with that policy felt comfortable
044with putting this forth as is with very minor word smithing >> and I'll point out that this policy and the previous one um despite board member reservations are required so um Jeff questions on this one >> yeah there sorry go ahead now you just had more of a general address I'm happy for Okay, hers is specific. Please come down. Sorry, introduce yourself. You know, you know the you know the thing. >> You're an expert now. >> Rene surgeent. I live in handover. Um I guess my was there a I was trying to pull up the policy. Is there a definition of reasonably prudent person from the legal aspect? >> There is not within the policy in terms of regulation and law. You probably know better than Well, >> so I'm curious. Is the school adopting
045kind of like what the state uses reasoning proven person or are they defining it themselves because that is something that could be >> unintentionally. >> It does reference an RSA. >> Yeah. Is that language from the state? Is that where we're getting reasonably confirmed? >> That language is from the state. Yeah. It references an RSA 169 C3. >> Yep. So with the source definition, so you're just to make sure that you guys are choosing to adopt the state's definition of reasonably prudent person. >> Yeah. I'm not sure we'd be able to do a different definition that goes against >> the state. Wonder just making sure from a legal perspective that >> Yeah. Um because if you're saying that you would have to make a disclosure if a reasonably prudent person would but you don't know
046the definition of what the reasoning prudent person would then you're trying to define like if you choose not to make a disclosure >> it's your legal defense. >> Yes. What is there a legal defense? Are you choosing to do so? And in doing so are you broadening what a reasonably prudent person would do and therefore maybe overdisclosing things. >> So my read of this is it's actually the opposite. It's we're allowed to withhold, right? If a reasonably prudent person would agree that withholding is a is a good thing, >> right? So, what that would be what that would open up to basically is then a parent at some point would be saying you withheld this information. A reasonably prudent person would not withhold that information just to make sure why you're do you follow that
047definition. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Policy. Yeah. Just general policy question. It seems like we are, you know, in a context of getting more things from the state that are just required. >> And I'm curious, having not even been on here for a year, is this a typical or Okay, I'm seeing lots of head nods of like, yeah, no, normally >> typical. >> Okay. >> It is becoming typical. Yeah, >> there has been stuff, but it's been pretty like NHSBA has given us language for some recommended policies kind of that sort of um was was the MO in the past um and now it's the state saying you must put this policy you must put this policy >> and or it's you must put in your version of this policy which gives us some
048legal room. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> it's a important question. Hence the agenda item that we have coming up. >> Yeah. >> Um and then the last one, >> there's one more which is I think we'll talk for a little bit longer. >> Um and that is enrollment and enrollment capacities which ties into the open enrollment stuff that um >> Chair Kelly already alluded to. And this one was defining capacity, which is a tricky thing to do because many of the open enrollment things actually get at >> how do we establish we have room? Is it physical space in the building? Is it some sort of teacher to student ratio? >> Is it um lunches available? All sorts of things. >> And so this is a policy that carves out how we are going
049to decide decide. No, it's there's no hard number. not to say it's 500 per building. It's not as nebulous as that, but we have 10 different categories here that we can use to ascertain things that could impact the outcomes of our students pos academic outcomes of our students for things such as availability of qualified educators, classroom size. Do we have specialized space like say chemistry labs for high school chemistry enrollment trend enrollment currently as well as predicted trends? What are the sort of standard standardized caps for certain courses, programs, uh co-curricular activities, student educator ratios, percent of special needs, get them where they need, special space, physically or otherwise, operational factors like bus capacity, available computers, and things of that nature. And it sort of gives us parameters that are data driven and historical that
050help us figure out all these things especially in the context of open enrollment which we know is coming in some capacity. >> So this particular policy does not establish a number. It establishes the criteria that will be used >> right >> to generate that number. >> Exactly. >> Okay. >> There was a number of changes for this but it went through some editing. we actually took out an entire section that we felt was basically had nothing to do with it. Um, and we kind of kept it to the meat of the policy that came to us as written. And notably, as I think some folks may know, um, Hanover and Dresden chose to not put a warrant article on this, and that is because we believe that the the chances for folks leaving the district
051for other towns is fairly low. And we were advised by legal to not have something on it to sort of stay quiet for now depending what's going on at the state. >> Right. That there's zero guidance coming from the state. >> Yep. We asked in their answer list. >> Good luck. >> You have heard what you have in that is it. >> Yeah. >> Um that said, I will say one of the you know one of the questions that this is all opening up is again who determines the capacity, right? who determines how we choose which kids come in. And so there's a lot of questions. Um so these policies will come up for vote next meeting. Is that right? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. Can I just clarify again? Um, I just wanted to
052clarify that the RSA that you quoted, the 169C3, defines abuse, abandonment, and neglect as in that policy, but does not uh define reasonably prudent person. >> Okay, >> just great. >> Not that there isn't a legal definition of reasoning prudent person, but just that the RSA only does abuse, neglect, and abandonment definitions. >> Is there a standard legal definition of it? >> Yes. >> All right. Sending that. Yes. Thank you. >> And I see if there's a federal versus state and I'll let you approve you. Thanks for your review. >> Um, all right. Any other questions on policy? Thank you online. >> All right. See if we can actually question. >> Um, um, Ben, can you tell me what the thought is on the classes that are mentioned? um a recommendation on capacity limitation for
053schools, programs, classes and activities. Do you mean actual classes or do you mean grade levels? >> No, it is actual classes. Uh for example, there is another district that is allowing open enrollment exclusively for German teach or students taking German language because they want to increase the capacity for that specific class. So it is indeed specific classes, not grades. grades could probably work as well. >> Can can I request grades? Because when you read the proposed bill that's floating around right now, it requires that we as a district list the capacity of not only each school, but at each grade level. >> So, I think we probably need to gather that information >> just to be on the safe side. And the other the other thought I had was on number eight. Probably transportation should
054be removed because we're really not we're legally obligated to provide transportation for indist um on the legislation that's been proposed both versions of it. So that's just and it's specifically excluded, you know. So I think it should probably go from our list. It would be work that we don't need done. I don't think >> I would look to the administration a little bit because we do offer transportation for certain towns that are not part of our district if they have high enough counts >> with that. >> And so >> those those are special tuition agreements. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Noted, Terra. Thank you. >> Yeah, that's a good point. >> And policy is meeting um again before um before dur next week, so we can probably squeak in some changes. >> Awesome. I was
055going to say it may become in our best interest quickly to vote this >> on this sooner rather than later. So, >> um Okay, thanks Tara. Other questions or suggestions? >> All righty. Moving on to facilities update. Do we have Tony online? >> Tony will not be here. >> Okay. >> Um >> so I I would just I took notes on this one because it was actually like a really good report. I think it might be one of the best ones I've seen us get like in the past. I feel like there's always been something like I don't know some material the flammable something or rather someplace or whatever and there was nothing. The only questions um >> so I noted we had some distance tools that needed to be moved. That sounds very easy.
056Um emergency line replace gymnasium stairwell storage. I was curious if that was a big deal. I didn't know what that >> uh No, as far I did talk to Tony and everything else. He's been off shuttling in groups. that's why I couldn't get a hold of him earlier, you know, but I caught him here actually and everything else. Um, but he he said that as far as like the report because I had read through it once I saw that it was posted and everything else and um I had seen it beforehand, but um and I had the same highlights just just a few highlights about the staircase and the desk and the things that needed to be moved like rain floor area and all that um and some of the emergency lighting. But as far
057as the storage is, it's often that we have utilizing the space because we may not have it elsewhere. Um, so preferably that stuff needs to be moved. And then the only other thing that was actually somewhat concerning, but I assume it is being dealt with, um, was the fire alarm and sprinkler deficiencies that they noted. And it said that it's it's in the report and it's something that we're dealing with. I didn't um he didn't elaborate. I >> Okay. >> He was more than willing and he did want to say that if you wanted anything, you know, if you wanted to move this move him to the next meeting, he could elaborate more on the walkthrough and everything else. >> Well, maybe just put a note for either you or Robin next meeting just to
058update. That was the other one that I was like might be something I'd like to make sure we're not deficient on. >> Um but the rest seems okay. Other questions on this? Okay. And we can always have Tony call in next meeting, too, if we have specific questions. So, okie dokie. Moving right along. And now I've lost my window. This will happen. What's next? It's the legislative thing. >> Budget review. >> Oh, budget. Thank you. Budget review. So, um, budget review is actually going to be kicked to the SAU level, which is probably the appropriate place for it. Um, but I put it on here just as a placeholder. I I wasn't sure if we maybe wanted to just So the plan is for the um four chairs to meet right before the SAU meeting
059and then formally sort of suggest that committee at the SAU meeting. Um but I wondered if this board had any suggestions for composition or um things that we absolutely want included in that that planning conversation. I wanted to just give an opportunity for that since I think some of the initiative has come from this board on this one. Yeah, go ahead Renee. >> I actually have a question. >> Yes. Um, so there's the SA like the SAU structure staffing committee slash budget thing like there was like a combination committee proposed in terms of language of the SAU one >> and I'm wondering if this is a lot that may just be I will ask what would be your suggestion Well, um I understand so that's the problem >> more than anything else. Uh no, I
060think the budget review committee has to happen. I do think that the way we go about it and they need to feed into each other if nothing else. Um >> but yeah, I don't >> Okay. >> I don't have good answer for you. Um, yeah, Teresa, go ahead. >> Two things. Clarity, budget review committee versus budget committee, how are they different? >> It's a great question. I was doing the same thing. >> So, I I think the idea here, there had been requests from members of this board, but also um the Norwich board um to look at our process for developing. So in like the immediate not kicking off in August not that's the budget process like that's the developing the budgets right but like nowish so in the probably part of the March reorg
061um have a series of meetings in a short period of time to to consider are there more efficient ways that we could be running our budget process and I have to think yes there has to be something we can do that's more efficient >> huh am I able to submit my own personal timeline >> 100% we appreciate that. Yeah. Um and so and that I would recommend sending that um to the four chairs maybe um or to Robin and she can send it to us. >> Um that would work too. Um but yeah, I think that's great. Um and so that was the idea of that. So it says budget review, but it's actually budget >> process review or budget process consider budget revamp. Yeah, >> process revamp. >> Yeah, that makes a lot of
062sense. Um any thoughts on composition before we move on to the next agenda item? Like two two and two. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean I think we need to have um people who have been part of the process and I I feel like that should be the majority. >> I'm I don't want to make I want to make sure that there's knowledge of like what was a challenge and then ideas how to fix it. Um, I think that the the two and two sounds good to me just generally because that's what we're working with as a district. >> Um, >> okay. >> But yeah. >> Okay. Thought we were maybe 21 if that makes more sense to the committee. Okay. >> All right. Any other thoughts on this one? >> All right. If you think
063of anything Teresa, you included, please send it my way and I'm happy to forward along. All right. Now is it legislating? >> Yeah, go ahead. Y >> I'm now recalling. Sorry, I think it was virtual. Um there was a conversation of can because the dynamics of the interstate some of the efficiencies we would love to gain may not be able to be realized. Um and then there was the conversation of well I believe it may have been Neil that was like well if we really want to go down that path we could talk about it. Mhm. >> And that what I think this might be the location to talk about it, what that would look like. And so from my lens, that's more of like a pol I don't know policy leg whatever law statute
064thing, which is definitely outside of >> my numbers expertise. And so if you're thinking about balancing the the group, >> yeah, >> we would want something. >> I mean, that's the compact is definitely it's kind of like the we don't talk about Bruno, right? Like we we didn't talk about the compact, right? Like nobody knows how that like it's this mythical thing. Um yeah, but it is getting harder and harder and harder every year to navigate the different states and so >> Yeah. Oh yeah, we'll put that on the agenda for that committee. Super committee can talk to Congress. >> Talk to Congress. Mission statement talk to Congress. Um All right. Anything else on that one? Moving along. Okay, so the legislative representation thing. Um, what our content summary says, the board will discuss allowing
065the chair and NHSBA representative, so that would be me and Deb in this case, to more broadly represent us at legislative hearings, which is a really general summary. Um and so just a board members know this but just for the public um general context here is it is a fire hose of information coming out right now um as you've seen just in our policies it's constant like okay now we're doing this very simple example where members know we went to approve our budgets we learned oh yeah also you have to put the number of students and your test scores on all ballots going forward and that had just like come out in the last like two weeks and there's no like lead into it. There's I mean fortunately that one's not a huge cost. That's
066not a hu we know we have that data that's easy but there's just constant stuff like that to keep track of um and some of it is really important and some of it costs a lot of money. Um, so one of the thoughts that um, we had had was perhaps asking someone, and I kind of may have asked Deb ahead of time if she might be willing to do this, but having someone who's going to send us, um, BCC emails whenever it fits in your schedule. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit my schedule and I feel like I'm dropping the ball on some of this. Um, so any support we could get on that, I it's very much appreciated. I know Robin and Lauren send us things as they're able to, but I think having that extra
067set of eyes if you're willing to be that person for us would be helpful. Um, and then for members of the public, um, we would, the idea would be to have a legislative update agenda item and attach those emails to our agenda so that if there are three or four emails, they're going out to the public as well as part of our meeting packets. >> Um, so that was the idea there. >> Yeah, one of the there are many many challenges. Um, in this last legislative session, there were something like a thousand bills >> proposed and every bill has to have a hearing and I've frequently gone down to conquer, not this current year to testify on bills and I always make clear if they're about education that I do not speak on behalf of
068the board, but that I am a, you know, retired teacher and a member of the school board. And so I think one of the potential assuming and this is a big assumption that number one they care >> and that they're listening and they're paying attention. Those are huge assumptions on the part of the majority current majority on the education committees. Um, but I it's possible because I've heard other school board members say, "I am speaking on behalf of the board." And I always wonder, how did you do that so quickly? M but another challenge and I don't know if I'm speaking terribly coherently is that um the docket for the general court which is what they call the house hearing meetings and the senate meetings it is usually determined the previous week like on a
069Thursday and Friday you find out open enrollment is going to be discussed on Tuesday in a hearing but then it might get bumped to Thursday but there is just no time >> unless um We look in a grand way at maybe the the worst bills as soon as we find out they've been filed and we still don't know if they're going to be voted in expedient to legislate or if they're actually going to come forward. So there it's like having 27 balls up in the air and somebody really needs to be able to look at the schedule in terms of the timing of actual hearings, but that's different from looking at all that's been presented and the New Hampshire School Board Association tries to monitor the whole, you know, poo poo platter of bills that
070are coming up. So I think it's it's very complex and and I know Ben your >> surveys have shown parents are interested in knowing more about what is coming up but we have to be careful not to say to them and call and show your opposition or show your support >> which is not that difficult to do. I mean, you can do it online, >> but you have to make yourself a cheat sheet and know what time the hearing is, what's the bill number, and what committee's hearing it, and what day. And I don't know how many people I mean, you might know how many people want to take those extra steps. >> I don't even know how many people are aware they can do that. Honestly, I don't know how many people are aware
071they came into >> Well, a lot of people became very aware about this bike bill that came up a couple weeks ago and thousands of people registered online that they thought it was a terrible idea and it died. M >> um and there have been some other bills like that that have gone down >> in a flame, >> but there is so much and it's I mean obviously we're just talking about education, >> but there are multiple bills with multiple agendas. For example, the state legislature just voted to allow people to carry guns on the public campuses in this state. So at Keen and Plymouth, students can be carrying guns. >> Mhm. Anyway, all this to say, I am happy to do what I can to the extent that I can, but it won't or
072somebody else do it. It doesn't have to be me, >> but it won't be perfect. But I think the more people know >> and to the extent that >> I can help contribute to that, I'm happy to do that. >> That's great. I, you know, one of, so one of the things that I think we're trying to achieve with this is responding to the survey requests >> for more engagement with everything going on at the legislative level. Um, and elevating it to an agenda item so that it is easily accessible for people if they want to to gain more information. So um and I know you will already do such a good job following all this. So I'm grateful for information you share with me already. >> Yeah. >> Also ch that some of the
073added difficulties and Deb mentioned many challenges with it but some of the other ones that has happened is the language of a of a proposed article can change so that our position may actually flip depending on what changes have been made >> while they still retain the title and all the other stuff. So, we have to be mindful of that nuance. And I think too that I'm I don't want to admit, but we all at on the board know this as do some members of the public. It's not just the state. We've also buted heads with the town of Hanover on certain issues, and that may happen again as well. So, I'm I'm fully on board with having this be sort of a standing agenda item, but I think it's more important. The other thing
074that we may need to talk about is a standing authorization for someone to respond quickly whether it be the chair or an involved in the legislature type of role at all the boards and how do we best do that where >> generally I generally hand over as the seven of us are fairly aligned on most issues >> but there have been a couple of times this story where we've had five through four through grays or whatever and so sort of balancing that helping get someone to respond quickly while also being like we are indeed seven individuals with each of our thoughts >> and that's a tricky dance especially but sort of a semistanding authorizing one single person to do it. The chair already does in sense of comments to the public or in emails or
075in a newspaper article or something like that but that's very different than a political statement on very short notice. Mhm. >> Um I I will so members of the public um if you look at this agenda item, you'll see a supporting document. There's an open letter um that was initially composed by members of the school board. What is it? The school board uh um >> something network. What's the SBA? >> School board advocacy network. >> Advocacy network. That's right. Um and it's so it's a group of school board leaders um very nonpartisan which has been lovely. it's across the state. Um just really advocating for our school districts, advocating for our kids um and our staff. And uh this open letter ended up with what did I say? >> 23 pages of signatures. 601 different
076signatures um superintendent and schoolboard uh leaders and members um from across the state. And it was part of the reason that state hit pause on the open enrollment. They were going to make the decision last week and put it in for this current year right now. Um and there are so many unanswered questions um about who who can move where, when, how, how does the payment happen. I use the example of my kiddo who, you know, doesn't currently get to play much on his hockey team. What if he suddenly decided, well, Lebanon needs a goalie. I'm going to head over there right now and you know if he happens to have special education needs or disciplinary things following him like I I can then he can come back as soon as hockey season ends right
077with zero zero restrictions and there's just so many scenarios that I can come up with like >> I will point out that there is an amendment at the state that you can only change schools twice a year >> we'll see how that goes you could change for soccer and >> that's depend on the season. >> They come back in between obviously. >> Oh my goodness. So anyway, lots of questions. Um so back to our agenda item. We had two things we wanted to kind of consider. One, it sounds like Deb is willing to help us by sharing your your knowledge. Thank you. Um and we'll we'll share that forward with the public too. Um and then the other one is this this question of um how how to assign some sort of um board position
078on any of these with without holding a meeting in between. Um so I had sent to the board one option would be to have a more blanket statement. Um and so I had sent potential wording to the board um which we could consider. Um, another option would just be to authorize someone to speak on behalf of the board based on conversations. But I think I agree with Ben that that's dangerous. Um, the other option is to not give any kind of authorization like this and simply um, you know, ask board members if they are going to have to speak as individuals and not represent a board. It's slightly more powerful. Again, to Dev's point, to the extent that anyone's listening or paying attention, it is slightly more powerful if it comes from the school board,
079but I'm not sure how much they actually make that distinction on an in-person testimony. I don't know. that >> um I I think that I mean I've looked at this statement and I think that >> which statement >> the she has a statement here in the in the blurry part about the Hannover school board opposes any legislation that weakens local school district control limits access to a free and appropriate education for all students or imposes unfunded mandates particularly when those mandates have budgetary implic ifications after budgets have already been approved by school boards and voters. That sounds like a really good and tight opening sentence and that somebody any one of us could go down to conquer and say on behalf of the school board I want you to know that and then as an
080individual board member and so if it's talking about something curricular and the board member wants to expand upon it they can do that but they've brought that sort imprint if you will of authority with them and I am speaking as an individual member on this and then develop it further. So I think that's that's one option and I like this a lot um because it just keeps going back to the local control the local control and the money global control and money which is very nonpartisan. It's very nonpartisan and it's why when you look at that open enrollment letter, you see towns that would describe themselves as very red, towns that are very blue, towns that are very purple. They're all there from the northern part of the state to the southern. It's really quite
081powerful. Um, something though that I would really love if we could consider and I don't know if it's possible to do in keeping with parents wanting to know more and recognizing that how information is conveyed is limited best is whether we want to talk about having some place on the SAU website that simply says to that says to parents if you want register your opinion on these bills. This is how you can go about doing it online >> and just walk them through the steps so that any instead of saying support or oppose this bill is these education bills are coming up. These bills about parental involvement are coming up and you can tell the committee >> and this is the deadline. I mean it would mean somebody in the SAU office having to update
082the website and that may be too much. >> Yeah. >> So we have there is a full-time person at the district who works on like publicity and the website and all that kind of stuff and when changes have been requested she is on top of it. >> She's great. >> The the bigger issue is that our parents like many parents >> are swamped with everything and do not read their emails. We know that the majority of people that we talk to do not read emails from the principal or the superintendent. >> We know that about only onethird of parents have even looked at their kids grade in terms of whether that's they trust the school just that much or technological or technical problems or some combination of everything. It's just it's very hard to get
083people to pay attention and that's not getting better. >> Oh, you're talking to a retired 30-year high school teacher. So then how do we I'm not even sure and we know I don't know if we have data to show this but how many people actually have gone to our SAU's website? >> Oh hand up. Oh >> I think that's they've gone to the website. I think they're >> you guys are probably more interested >> like as a parent and as a teacher I would very much appreciate a place I knew I could go and look >> and have that information that I could you know that's update updated. >> That's perfect. Hi. Who are you? >> Oh, I have to go say >> we do things by now. We read Steve. >> Hi, I'm Becca
084Sex and I am a parent and a librarian here at the Ready School and I would very much appreciate something like that. And I know there's even in a meeting that we had after school today, there were a lot of us as colleagues talking about where where is our voice and where is our ability and it's hard to keep up. So >> absolutely >> it would be much you and if it helps one person. >> Yeah. Right. started. Um, I would just say that you can't force people to pay attention, but as a person who reads literally every word of every email that's ever been sent that's related to my children or my family or really anything, um, I can say that you that it is important and there are people who do it. And
085even if you only reach one person or at least four people here, um I think making it easily accessible is incredibly important. And even like and just on the SA website separate from Simly because even I find Assembly I'm like okay wait hold on I know you get to the agenda and I've started I just like took screenshots to remind myself of like how I get to things on Simly because it's like I think it's more confusing than it should be. So I would definitely agree that the SE website is the place to go and we can help everyone even if they don't read it. A lot of people talk chitchat among themselves everyone get into the word of mouth stuff is very powerful getting in an appropriate way. >> Absolutely. It's easy to say
086just go to the SE website like that's an easy kind of like >> short clip that you can get out to people quickly. >> So thank you. Great. I'll admit I was not logged into assembly so I could not see the statement that I had written. I don't I understand I understand. I was like wait that for me. Look at that. How beautiful. >> Um all right. So uh pulling us together. Um this is great. These are great ideas. Um, so if I'm going to summarize, I think um, Deb is going to help help send some stuff out when it makes sense to do that and not like for the next, you know, two months that's all dad's going to do, but you know, my mom won't have time. It'll only >> trust you to
087have your time. >> Um, and uh, we are going to consider this statement. Is that right in Okay. Um, I did have a suggestion from Tara to add uh limits equal access to a free and appropriate education. I don't know if that is a word Smith that appeals to people, but our school board opposes any legislation that withins local school district control, limits equal access to a free and appropriate education for all students >> or imposes, etc., etc. My worry is what happens when if something's put on the pipeline that's contradictory. We can >> get to that. >> Okay. Um Okay, great. So if that statement sounds okay, we have I think a motion to that effect in at the end of our business action. >> I can revise the motion. I wasn't quite sure
088what to put there because it was fair action. It's fair. Yeah. Looking at it from a policy sense, there'd be issues like how often do I have to revisit this? If there's ever a change in personnel on the board, if they agree or disagree with this statement, do we have to do a >> affirmatory vote every year? >> What if something comes down the pipeline where there is fundamental disagreement for whatever reason? >> We can put it as part of the reorg too. So, we can accept this statement tonight and then revisit it next month as part of the reorg and make that sort of a standard trigger. the I mean if if we have legislative update this is what we can do if we have legislative update as a standing agenda item this statement
089can be part of that agenda item every meeting we don't have to revisit it unless someone says I'd like to revisit that statement does that make sense just have it as part of the notes each week each >> yeah I'm just I'm looking at sort of from a policy lens of >> if we are having sort of a standardized very political statement and we are coming up with it now. I'm thinking like future boards in the future >> like did they have to adhere to this or do we have to state our intention every meeting and you know kind of all those >> take is one board member saying I want to revisit that. >> Revisit it. >> Okay. Um but I think it's worth noting that confirmed. All right. Any other business requiring discussions?
090If not, we'll move into business requiring action. I will take a consent motion for B through G. Yep. Ready? >> I move to approve items B through G by consent. Second. Second from Demar and >> yes. Um, so we will take a roll call vote. Starting Marcela >> Dus. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Keeny. Yes. Sullivan, yes. Carrie, Russell, yes. >> Blo, yes. >> Thank you. And me, McConnell, yes. It's unanimous. Look at that. Um, and so I think under the legislative representation, um, I would take a motion to approve that statement. I don't know all of the board members, but I don't know that we need an approval for Deb to share information with us. I think that's more of a >> It's an appointee by you. >> It's an appointee by me. >>
091You have been appointed. Congratulations. >> You have been chosen death. Um, but I do think we should approve the statement. Um, so would anyone be willing to make a motion perhaps reading the statement so that it's >> okay refresh? It has been revised. >> Fortunately, our technology director We're still okay. Okay. Oh, I like that one. >> Um, so are we just repeating the statement? >> Yeah, I would do it. I would just read it. >> Yeah. Can I suggest that we >> that the language of the motion not just include the this sentence but that >> a board any board member >> could convey this to the >> legislature. Yes. Because then if you know it can't be me it could be them or >> I think that's greatful people >> multiple people. Point
092of our what about a resolution? >> I think that's kind of what we're doing. like do we want to formally call it a resolution which at least has a standard standard process and then just like with our previous resolutions we can put it on the website we can all individually back it up as needed where this was a formal vote that was made at this point in time >> so I think we're formally voting on the statement I my instinct says let's make a resolution >> for next meeting I don't know We usually do those resolutions, introduce it, >> but we've kind of >> again because of timing, we've had some resolutions where we really wanted to deliver the message. >> We've had special meetings for before it's >> passed, right? My instinct says, let's
093approve this statement as something that a board member can deliver on behalf of the Hanover School Board at the legislature. >> Okay. And then I think maybe we'll put a resolution discussion on the next board meeting. Does that make sense? >> Sure. Okay. Okay. So, so then go ahead. I move to accept the following statement for any board member to make in conquered when appropriate >> on behalf of the board. And the statement reads, "The Hannover School Board opposes any legislation that weakens local school district control, limits access to a free and appropriate education for all students, or imposes unfunded mandates, particularly when those mandates have budgetary implications after budgets have already been approved by school boards and voters." >> Is there a second? Renee, I will point out the amendment that was suggested to
094add in equal. Is that >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> That's okay. That would be adding the word equal before access. I was writing. >> That's okay. Fine. But is is that does that amendment you accept that amendment? >> Absolutely. Okay. >> You second the amendment. Yeah. Okay. So, Deb motion accepted the amendment. Renee seconded. Uh and we will take a little call vote starting Renee Sullivan. Yes. I'm sorry. Ke, yes. >> Nelson, yes. Yes. Carrie. Russell. Yes. >> Blow. Yes. >> McConnell. Yes. That is unanimous. All right. Thank you everybody. Good job. Um support of the chair. Um just a heartfelt thanks to everybody. It's been a lot of work with me. Um and um yeah, thanks all of you. Thanks guys for coming. Um our next meeting will be ah after the reorg so
095or is the reorg right is after our annual meeting so in March. Um so just a thank you to all current board members for all of your wonderful work. I know anyone who's up for election is planning to run again. So fingers crossed because you've been wonderful. So thank you. Um, yes. >> I I just want to say that I have found it helpful to have people holding your sign outside the polls. And this year they elections are at the Richmond School and they go 7 to 7. There's usually a crowd of people in the morning, a crowd at lunch, crowd, you know, from about 3:30 on. Um, and I often am there that holds time on behalf of board members who have to work >> amid amid her busy legislative updates. It's not that
096big. >> Thank you, Deb. Um, yes, and I will encourage everyone to go out and vote for the school budgets and for um our schoolboard members. Um, that's really important. We often get about 400 people, so great if we could get more than that. Um, >> it's fun to say hi to Deb. >> And it's fun to say hi to Deb. Deb will be there all day. Um, >> if she's not, we'll call. >> Make sure you're okay. >> Just fun fact in honor of Kim. >> The last time I was standing at the polls, I had this animated response to somebody coming up to me at the polls who I thought was your husband and it was not. He has a doppelganger. >> And this >> I was I was dumbfounded that it wasn't
097Trev. And this same guy >> this same guy showed up at Northern Stage on Saturday. I was and I said, "Oh my god, I know who you are. You're not tra Please don't vote at the school on what's the date of the vote?" >> March. in like March. Tuesday, March 3rd. >> Tuesday, March 3rd. >> Very soon. Okay. Tuesday, March 3rd. Yes, it is very soon. Um, what are the like what times of day do the most people show up? >> Right after school drop off, right around school pickup. >> Fascinating coincidence, right? A handful at lunch and then in the evening on the way home from >> clarification questions. We're talking about to our >> Sorry, what's the title here? um interim director of curriculum and instruction. Um what what changes at RMS that
098day? Anything or is it like a normal day for them? >> Yes. Yeah, we had a lot of discussions about it >> at the high school. >> Basketball games. >> Yeah, >> basketball games. >> Yeah. Uh that's a discussion for the dress board. Um, >> that's all I have to report. Please go vote. Okay. Um, committee reports. I don't know that we have any committee updates. Budget. Yes. Oh, Renee. >> Oh, not budget. I have >> Go ahead. Whatever you got, go for it. >> Sure. >> Um, because the capital improvement burden committee uh just loves what we do. We met again for a special meeting February 5th. They're getting to the point where we actually have um a report that is like almost done. John Dolan gets so many kudos because he's really done
099a hero's amount of work to pull this thing together. But um the things I want to make sure you guys were all aware of in it is that I did um add a little it ended up being a footnote but an indicator to make sure that whoever reads it knows that the schools are also thinking about capital improvements >> but we just haven't really gotten anywhere yet. So even though the report the capital improvement program committee um is intended to be multi-year right now it's focused on FY27 28 and 29 with a little bit between 30 and 32. Um we know our stuff is going to happen >> probably >> starting during that time frame. And so I wanted to make sure even though we're only looking at dollars for the town during the time
100frame that if we're talking about tax based taxpayers, >> it's going to be part of the conversation. Um, and it indicates that there will be likely something coming to the CIPC in the fall. >> Um, so and I ran that blur by Lisa and Robin um because it was part of kind of SAU conversation. I guess I should have gone through YouTube, but it's benign, but it is in there. So, I want to make sure you guys knew that. Um, I'll share the report with you guys when it comes. Um, just as an FYI, I Yeah. Um, yeah, I think that's that's the only thing of interest there. The there are no new updates on West Va or South Main Street as of now. >> Um, questions. ask question. >> Oh, sorry, >> Renee. Is
101the is the survey still going on? Are they still collecting data? >> As far as I know, yes. Um the town and um firm are the ones running the survey, so we haven't gotten the data from it yet. >> Has anyone tried to take the survey? >> Yes. >> I knew you would say yes. Ben, did you get a success um screen after you finished it? >> I believe so. Off hand, it was a couple weeks ago now. >> I did not when I tried to take it last week. >> So, I am concerned. So, just wanted to state that. And if anybody else could go and try it, it's right on the main town of Hanover website. There's some a link to click through on the revitalization or whatever reimagining of Main Street. There's
102the info and then the survey link is there in between the two bits of info. And if you fill it out and get a success or a congratulations screen, I would love to know about it because I didn't. >> Terra um >> yeah, I was I was just going to say that if if you and if Rene and Tara have access to the survey results as part of your committee work, you know it was me if you're looking at individual responses. we got checked for whether everything went through. >> Um, but I will say that there's been activity at least in terms of the parent grade buying discussion about the survey as well. >> Oh, good. >> Parents are chimeing in with concerns that are either relevant to the schools or not relevant just as
103involved handover taxers. >> I I just want to say I'm not sure the committee will have access to the individual responses. I would assume that we would be provided the summaries and the themes and the takeaways from it and how that's informing the plan. Our goal is more about balancing like costs this year, next year, that kind of a thing, and not like nitty-gritty survey results individually, but we should see the results in some form, which I >> would imagine is going to be part of that conversation, too. I think a lot of the benefits of the survey though Renee is going to be in that open answer question because honestly the survey was not constructed in a manner that allowed the survey takers to really have an additional opinion of their own that did
104not include a bike lane envisioned on Main Street. That was just not part of the survey. So if people did not like the entire proposition, the only place for them to indicate that was really on the free answer. >> Well, I would Yeah. Yeah. >> And there was one free answer at the very end. I think I remember. >> Thanks, Sarah. Carrie. >> Yeah. I This is not about the budget committee. This is more like committee in general. Earlier you had mentioned like oh the prek committee has not like actually met yet and then I just realized I have no idea having been relatively new how those a new committee forms or what is that um process and as somebody that may um be very interested in this new committee. I just wanted to make
105sure that there was some sort of like jump start that should be on my plate to do. >> You haven't done it already? No, I'm just kidding. I'll circle back with you. Um that's that's on me. But yeah, we'll get you guys started. I think we decided you were chair. >> We did chair. Congratulations. >> So I will circle back with you. >> You too have been chosen. >> So uh I will circle back with you and we'll get that going and I'm sorry that's that's on me. So we'll make that happen. >> Thanks Carrie. >> Did have one question on the SPC. So, um, Teresa, this is for you and Lauren. Um, I know that we're kind of in the process of developing our capital improvement like next steps, etc. Do we know when
106we might have even some sense of like these this is when the town should also be expecting bigger numbers from us or this is when we're thinking about starting some of like even if it's not finalized if we had some sort of like hey CIPC this is when we're thinking we might see big numbers from our side of things because I think part of the goal here is that trying to limit the silos right So that it's not them going like, "Oh, we've got a, you know, $30 million project going in 28." And we go, "Oh, funny story. We're building a new building that same year." Right? Want to kind of mitigate those things. >> That is a great question that I do not have the answer to, but maybe Teresa has regrouping. So, we're
107getting past budget. It was kind of put on hold the capital improvement. So, March was supposed to start back up. So, and hopefully we'll gain ground on that and everything else and move forward. Um, you know, meeting and again, we still have um it was put together with people from each of the buildings and stuff like that too. So, we're getting input that way, not just from this level, but from the bottom level, too. Um, so yeah, so we'll I I would say that from the March meeting, I mean, we should be able to at least give some update in the April meeting to at least the direction that we're going. >> That'd be great. I think again just even if it's like this is going to be our big year, right? Like this is
108when things, you know, we might see a little bit of a spike or we're going to put something out to bond or whatever. Like I think that would be helpful for them to have >> as part of the conversation. to compile the word survey gets thrown around a lot. But but I think that that before we even have our March meeting, it's one of those things that compile or whatever put together a survey so that when we're all coming back to the table that we're already have thought of and answered certain questions so we're not doing it then and then yeah great great thinking. All right, any other committee reports? that we talked a lot so I can prepare. Um >> the handover finance committee did vote to support the handover budget unanimously. So I
109just wanted to pass that along. Um as well as the warranted article for the the new contract, the negotiated agreement. In terms of Dresden, the vote was split four to two in support of the Dresden budget. >> Okay. Well, I'm sure look forward to hearing a little bit more about that at the Dresden meeting. Um, that is an important update though. Thank you, >> actually. Uh, uh, and I am going to guess, but I want to say out loud right now, Tara, you profusely thanked them for all their help u throughout this cycle and looking at numbers uh, here, there, and everywhere. Oh, it's not done yet, Renee, because we have another meeting again tomorrow night to finalize the position statements which are ongoing with vigor back and forth. So, >> we will continue to
110say thank you. >> Yes, to them and to you and both Tara and Renee have done a lot of the heavy lifting of this. So, thank you guys, both of you. Um, and Teresa obviously as well. Um, all right, moving on to >> So, my report was uploaded. I'll just highlight a couple of things either from the report or in addition to the report. Um, I wanted to make sure to update you that our principal search um for here at the race school is continuing. We have a what I think is a great process in place and we're moving that along. Um, again, just updating the board that our hope is to come to the March board meeting with a recommendation. Um and so our timeline is planned backwards from that. Um I'm happy to
111share anything else about that in non-public if you are so interested. Um in addition to the principal search, excited to say that we have posted the director of educational technology position which is wonderful. Um and also our human resources position is posted. So, we're collecting applications for both of those, hoping that as we wrap up our principal search both for Ray and Richmond Middle School that then we can move into these um SAU level positions as well. Um, I got to experience the true joy of wondering whether or not I was going to have to make a snow day call this morning. And I just have to shout out to Robin that that is just really such a treat to wake up so early in the morning. And that's a whole bunch of people and
112then make a decision. Um, I'm very glad that I did not have to make a decision after all. um but that I got a little taste of what that is and I'm just very grateful that uh that Robin has taken that on because wow is that fun. Um and then just would conclude by saying that um having u been able to um support Robin during her time away which I'm so excited for her to come back next week. Uh, I just wanted to say how fortunate Robin and I are to work with an incredible SAU staff because in Robin's absence, um, I know every day that I've never felt alone, even trying to fill her very big shoes. Um, the group that I work with over at the SAU for any problem I encountered, any
113um, adventure that I was on, and any question that I had has been really supportive. Um, and when you have a team like that, um, people are able to do the things that they need to do both personally and professionally. So, I just wanted to say how grateful I am and how excited I am to have Robin back next week. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Questions? Thank you, Teresa. didn't do an official like business letter, but I uploaded >> many documents. >> Yes. Um and I figured you'd be interested if you hadn't caught them on the bulletin boards or the paper wherever um the mandatory reports that we had to do the charts >> that we had to submit. But um you'll see the budget book and then you'll see the
114um four mandatory reports. Like I said, one's on the average student um cost per pupil, the average teacher salaries and the average administration salaries. And then the fourth one is just showing what the um the most current school year that just ended 375 what the highest schoolage administrators um salaries were. So these charts that were mandated even though they say that average cost per pupil the data that we have collected over the last 10 years and submitted to the DOE um and everything else uh submitted to New Hampshire education through the DOE reports and other reporting um that data is collected and then it's housed under I platform anybody can go and get that information but the tricky part about these reports is it's not apples to apples is because what happened, what they had
115us do, and this is the state and everything else on the um House Bill 1265 is that each year, even though I would plug in what the true average cost is per the reports submitted, it adjusted that number for CPI given the CPI of that given year. So if somebody was looking at the eye platform right now and look at the little charts on the wall, you're going to realize this is not matching. So it's because it's adjusted for CPI. So they just kind of made it a little more convoluted. >> Is this a new requirement? Another good example. >> Teresa, was that a CPI adjustment for both the student um cost and the teacher cost data? >> Yes. Yep. and even the administrators to a level. Um, and the administrators because you had to
116take the highest four. Um, again we plugged them into a chart gave us the lump sum and that's why you'll see like administrators might start at 400,000. It's because it's all it covers four different but again that was adjusted for CPI. Also the only thing that wasn't is literally the chart that has the 2425 salaries. Um though those are the actual salaries for that school year. So, when I go online and I see the New Hampshire DOE has our um per pupil cost for each of our schools, those are adjusted up from the number that you submitted to the state. >> They're adjusted some were actually kind of adjusted down depending on the the way the CPI went. Um, >> I'm just talking about like the last the the most recent 2024 2025 data like
117so it says Hover High School is 27545 and 15 cents, >> right? >> Is that the number you gave them or is that a different number? >> No. If you're looking at what's put on the warrant article or the ballot, >> those were actual >> that was a little different than the mandatory reports >> um the 10-year charts. Okay. >> Yeah, it wasn't what's on the ballot's not part of the 1265 the House Bill 1265. >> Okay. Because the data online, they don't have um any cost data for Richmond Middle School. It looks like under Dresden, they put elementary and high school. So, there might just be a typo there. >> Right. and and the charts again for like Dresden school district. No, this is not Dresden but for Dresden because um the requirement was
118to do it in an average per district. >> So you won't see a chart for Richmond Middle and you won't see a separate chart for high school. You'll see a and that's the other thing you're going to see a combined cost per pupil and then adjusted for CP. Um, Beck, you know, this question is coming too, but in terms of the administrator salaries, so on a technical level, I believe superintendent, etc. are not Hanover School District employees, right? >> Superintendent, they're part of the criteria was told to us. We we were it was um >> in the House Bill 1265, they're very clear about administrators include superintendents and the other. So they are looking at the top um and in our case like if we're looking at handover you've got superintendents director of curriculum or
119stuff and you might go principal now >> and everything else it could be VA and and in last year's case it would have been the business administrator and then the next level would have been the principal and couple years back the years going back 2020 and before I think where there wasn't an assistant superintendent those positions. So I had to go to the next level. So I was then reaching down to assistant principles principles and then the two at the top. >> But it's interesting from a data accounting standpoint. I understand what you're saying. If the states looking at it they're like wow they have a superintendent and a business administrator for Dresden or here. >> Oh but there's a there's a caveat to that. Yeah. So there there is a notation that says that
120yes, there's a notation that that we were allowed because we couldn't put we couldn't add we couldn't make commentary. We couldn't do anything. We had to just put it as it is, but we could put a tagline that said that if you had a superintendent and others that were spread out over multiple districts, we could put that and I did put that comment. >> Got it. And I think that that's I think I also put it in pretty sure I also put it into my um the other reason why I did the letter. I can't put the letter on the poster, but I can put it next to the poster. >> So this is not the same language that's going to be on the poster. It's all I know this is confusing. It's all >>
121correct. This none of this language could be on the poster. Okay. >> And the poster had to be 18 by 24. >> We had to measure it with the tape and cut the cut poster board down to right size. Right. and it was like arts and crafts and it had to be two pages on that poster board and had to be clearly displayed and the only thing you could do is put your logo for your school and your school name and that was that was it. >> And you need to have the top four positions and their salaries. >> Correct. And that was and that was that one little square that you'll see that had to be and that was strictly the 24 25 school year listing the top five actual salaries. >> So where
122I'm going with this is since the superintendent etc are not district employees. So in that situation it's a percentage. So handover's percentage of their costs >> is what percentage we put we couldn't put in the percentage that was associated with just that district. >> We had to put the whole thing in >> and then make a a note. >> We could we could make a note that their salaries technically just um split over districts. we >> you know, and I will just state for anyone who doesn't realize this that, you know, part of what we see in the administrator line at least is as Teresa mentioned, we added um an assistant superintendent position, now a curriculum instruction position. >> Um and part of why, you know, people say, well, yeah, but that's still administrative load.
123You might get people saying that. However, I will point out it's this kind of stuff that keeps coming down that is contributing to the need to increase these budgets so much when you have to spend time cutting a silly poster board to post it per like that is ridiculous. I'm not go ahead and say that it's ridiculous and it costs time and it costs money, right? And and when when they're not asking us when when they're asking us to put these together and I and I kept it driving me nuts over it because again it's not an apples to apples. If I went to because because I'm going to get the actual cost per pupils that were that were calculated that were that that you can go pull the report right off the ed site
124and then we're plugging it into our spreadsheet that was provided embedded by the state and everything and then it calculates the CPI. You're like, now when somebody looks at that cuz cuz actually Tony from the finance committee pointed it out um and she's like well this says 88,000 for the average teacher here for handover but she said I pulled up the report and it says 92. Yes, >> because 92,000 is the average >> based on for the most recent ending school year. If you're looking at the nominal, the actual, we were talking about this earlier today, but if you're um but if you're following what they're asking us to do, >> I feel like they've just made it convoluted. >> They're not helping us. >> Yeah, we can't explain it. >> Y >> perfect. M
125clarification for the graphs. The the year is not displayed at least not on my screen. >> Xaxis to zoom. >> Yeah, the Xaxis. Yes. >> So, is that just er cut off >> all the ones that are all the ones that are graphs? >> It may just not be in our document. >> Yes, it's probably >> because they're definitely on the they are on the poster board. >> I would imagine that one of the many requirements. >> Yeah, they're want to clarify. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Wonder what I did. >> I think it just it's probably just the scan. Teresa, I wouldn't worry about it. >> Just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. Right. >> But they're also on the web. >> Doesn't know the years. Like you guys might have it, but on
126sibly I don't. >> Yeah, it's it's 10 years. But so what's the most recent year is this year, right? >> It would be 2025. Um the year that just all the years that any any the most recent completed year, school years that they had data for. >> The 24 25 school year. >> Yeah. 24 at the bottom of the chart. And then they didn't say 24 25. They said 24 because the data again I mentioned in the letter the data is collected October 1st >> of each fall for that school year. So >> the $92,000 number for the average teacher salaries for it'll show under the column under it'll say 20 2024 under there. What it means is technically October 1st 2024. So like we can just perhaps rescan, make sure those dates are in
127there for and the viewing public. No, no rush on that. >> Um just when you get a chance. Um okay, any other questions on these reports? All right. Uh in that case, I will see does anyone need another public? Seeing none, last opportunity for the public to address the board. All right. You said you said enough. All right. Thank you guys. Uh agenda items for next meeting. Send them my way. We've had a few. I'll try to go back through and remember what all we said. >> Chair, >> huh? >> Yeah. If anyone wants to be chair, please. I'm seeing lots of hands going up here. You're doing a such a fabulous job. >> Oh, thanks, De. Thanks. I'm just going to keep up pointing people to things. That's great. Good for my ego. Okay,
128perfect. Uh, next meeting, Wednesday, March 11th, reorg meeting. I'll take a motion to adjourn. Dad, I move to adjourn at 8:47 p.m. Second from Ben. I'll start with Nick Sullivid. Yes. Sorry. Kei, yes. Nelson, yes. Yes. Harry >> Russell, yes. The loss are yes. >> Follow yes. All right. Thank you everybody.