Hanover School Board 01/21/2026

001Go How to look conversation. Super. Thank you so much. No. Okay. Um, welcome everybody at 711 calling us to order. Um, agenda review. I know we want to add believe a motion for that same committee. So, um, yeah. So, we just need to add a budget review committee motion. Um, was there anything else to add to the agenda tonight? >> We have not I I would like a nonpublic. >> Okay. >> Staff. >> No updates on service staff. So, if that has been >> I have I have a question. >> You have a question? Yes. >> Um, >> what's your question? >> Okay. So, my question is with the very real potential for ICE coming into New Hampshire, I wonder if we should be developing a plan or if it has already been developed and

002if there's a way to know about that or is it secret? And I asked because they're in Portland, Maine as of today and my do granddaughter's school initiated their citizens watch group asked that we make that part of the superintendence update. Would that be any reason? Perfect. >> That would make me feel good. Feel better. >> Committee on >> Well, and I'm sure there are elements of it that are public and probably elements right be nonpublic. Right. Right. >> Okay. Uh, anything else to add to the agenda? >> Okay. If we >> Yeah. If we think of anything else, we can certainly add it if we need to. So, um, at this point, I will let the members of the public address the board. So, Sarah, you want to kick us off? >> Yeah. Hi.

003>> Don't take your last name and spelling me. >> Oh, yeah. Um, my name is Sarah Ukerman. That's ue C MN. And I live in Hanover. Um, I am here to encourage the school board's efforts in developing a preschool program by providing historical information and suggesting a possible venue for the preschool. So, first some history. According to a 2024 article, the town of Hanover provided a partday preschool program at the RWB Community Center called Play. It had six children enrolled with a total capacity for 10 children. In listening to the discussion about the SAU preschool program, I have not heard a real awareness about the past existence of this play program, nor of the town's 2024 proposal for a full day program. Um, after talking with the parks and recreation director, John Sherman, I learned

004that the play program ran for two years, did not operate at capacity, i.e. they never had a weight list, and struggled with staffing. Uh it seems to me that a strong proposal for an SAU preschool would include lessons learned from the town of Hanover's foray into running a preschool. But having said that, I would like to suggest that the school board investigate seriously hosting an SAU preschool program at the RWB community center. I suggest school board members tour the second floor of the RWB and see for themselves the beautiful classrooms of this community resource resource. I've spoken with Mr. Sherman to determine the utilization of these spaces and of course protecting ongoing programming would need to be a priority which is why I have provided or will provide the school board with current scheduling. The

005handout also shows that room 214 uh is available and restarting a small preschool in room 214 with SAU staffing seemed like a possibility to Mr. Sherman. I'm an independent person. It's not endorsed. I pro a program in room 214 would not need to be broken down at the end of each day. >> I believe a preschool at the RWB would scale more efficiently than the program involving building a temporary classroom at the race school with some creative scheduling. I believe that room 206 and room 212 at the RWV could be used for part-time preschooling programming if the preschool equipment could be broken down each day and stored offsite. The multi-use gym on site at the RWB might be too busy for preschoolers to visit in the morning, but it seems reliably empty during the early

006afternoon and could mitigate the lack of a playground on site. My understanding is that the town and SAU currently pay each other rental and custodial fees to use each other's spaces. I estimate that each room at the town owned RWB would cost the SAU $30,000. I don't know. That's my estimate. And rental fees for a part day preschool program. I also believe that there is room to renegotiate the existing reciprocal fees as part of the budget cycle if the preschool program serves the town of handovers, the SAUs, and the handover voters's mutual interests. While there would be considerable logistical hurdles to overcome, such as a busy parking lot at times, rental fees, existing classes, and other scheduling, I believe that the SAU has been successful in standing up a quality preschool in the past and

007should consider the RWB facility as a venue. Increasing the utilization of these beautiful existing spaces is fiscally responsible. This would be a win for the handover taxpayer and would support the RWB as an essential and vibrant intergenerational hub. So, I just brought you guys some flyers. >> Even though they say HPR, I just printed them off on the website. It's not an endorsement. >> Thank you so much. >> Um, thank you for keeping the ball rolling and for taking a vested interest in this. We appreciate it. >> Yeah. Well, thank you guys. I just wanted to inject some enthusiasm and encouragement even if this is a really bad >> thinking. Thank you. Yeah, we appreciate it. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Other members of the public who wish to address the board at this

008time there's anybody online. >> Okay, seeing none, we will move along um right into our principal report. Do we have online? No, she is actually presenting at a conference and so she must be to send her regards. She did upload her report for tonight. >> Okay. Um are there any questions about the report that we got here? >> Yeah. Yeah. Um no nothing to report on uh enrollment. It looks like it's going to be up one last time. I'm dramatic. Okay, cool. All right. If you have questions for Colleen, please send them either way and we will move along to our special education update. Brett, I made some copies of very last year or one year it didn't work. >> System you're welcome. You going to plug it in and turn it on? >> Is

009it? I don't think it's better. >> Probably also. So for anyone who is watching online there the documents are available in assembly. >> Yes. >> I don't know lady. Wasn't she? >> Yes. Yes. I'll talk about just my viewers. This is very topic about speaking language and language. Oh, you mind just turned it off. >> On the other side, >> Yep. holidays. Here's two mirror. Okay. Anybody want copies? Uh so for most years um I provide a presentation about special education. I'm Rep Derek. I'm the director for student services. Um and this coincides with the budget. Uh as you'll see as I go through this, the special education costs for are substantial part of the budget. So I feel like that warrants an opportunity to share some information and also address questions from the board

010and community. If there are questions as I'm going through this, please just stop me and interrupt. I'm happy to expand or provide more information. Um, and so to start, um, really just the the background of why is there special education? uh the federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDA, um that ensures that all students regardless of ability or disability are federally protected to ensure that they receive an appropriate and adequate education the same as any student would. So, there are laws in place and there are protections for those students and school districts have to abide by those. Um we also do it because it's the right thing to do for students in our community. So a few basics. Uh FAPE is a free appropriate public education. That's a component of the law that

011requires uh we make it available to all students. We can't charge families of a child with a disability um additional cost because their child may cost more to educate. Uh LRE is least restrictive environment. that principle um is one of the foundations of IDA and that really aims to have schools educate students with disabilities with their general education peers. Um and it says right in there to the maximum extent appropriate. Uh so we should only be taking students out of the general classroom and working with them in separate settings when it's absolutely required to do so. And our aim is really to keep them in the classroom with supports with services as much as possible. IEP is the individual individualized education program and that's the document which describes how the condition how the disability impacts

012the student's learning, what the school district's going to do and how we determine if it's working. There's measures, there's goals, we progress monitor. Uh and then a few couple other definitions. Uh special education is defined as specially designed instruction again at no cost. And that term speciallyesed instruction means adapting the content. So really like the what are we teaching the child. The methodology is really the how. Do they need something substantially different in the way that instruction is provided? Uh and then the delivery of instruction. So where are we providing that? Is it a one-on-one setting? Is it small group to make sure we're providing that child with the education they need? The special education process is governed through the regulations and there are very strict and structured timelines both for the parent and the

013child's sake so that school district can't delay the process of evaluating and completing this eligibility piece. and also for the school district that we can't be rushed to do an evaluation within 20 days and it's not going to be comprehensive or sufficient enough to give us the information we need. So it all starts with a referral. Uh that can come from a parent, can come from a teacher in New Hampshire. It can actually come from anybody. Most referrals come from parent or they have a letter from their pediatrician or a teacher or the team here at the Ray School has some concerns that they bring. Uh once we get that referral, we have to hold a meeting within 15 business days with the parents and a full IEP team and discuss and determine whether or

014not the concerns warrant the need to evaluate. There are lots of supports at the race school for students who have some additional learning needs that may not rise to the level of specially designed instruction. Um but when it does we have to evaluate and complete assessments and the team has to make that decision within 15 minutes. Uh if a team determines we are going to evaluate we then have 60 days from the date that parents sign consent. We can't do anything in this process without parent agreement. And the 60 days is to complete all the assessments for the team to meet and to determine if the child meets the eligibility criteria. And I'll get into more what that is in the next couple slides. There are three components that the team considers. One, is there

015evidence of an educational disability? Two, is it adversely affecting the child's educational performance? And three, do they require specially designed instruction? There are a number of students at our school that have a condition whether it's ADHD, anxiety, diabetes, um that may impact their learning some and there are support plans for those students that can be covered through section 504 of the disability act. Um there are individualized health plans that the nurses oversee. Uh so there are a number of students that may have a condition that don't require a substantial amount of additional services and support. Um so if we determine the child is eligible that really means that they they need something substantially different than what the other students are getting in order to meaning meaningfully participate in their school day. Once that decision is

016made, the IP team has 30 days for when we say yes, the child is eligible to reconvene again and develop that plan. It's a pretty hefty document with the intention of letting anyone that works with a child in the school and the parents know exactly what is it that's causing the challenge. How are we going to address it? How are we going to know if what we're doing with it? Every year, uh, that IEP document needs to be reviewed and updated. uh it can be done more frequently than a year, but it can't be longer than a year. And then every three years, we're required to complete a new comprehensive evaluation to assess student progress, determine if they're still eligible, if there are additional needs. And again, teams can decide there's some change in the

017student's functioning. We can always say, "Hey, we want to move up that evaluation, or there's something we didn't assess last time, but now it's presenting, so we want to dig a little deeper into that." uh and all those decisions are again are with the parents and the school team collaboratively. Special education has its own categories of disability and they don't correspond necessarily with medical diagnosis or DSM5 um mental health disorders. Oftentimes those may fit into one of these categories. Uh so each of 13 uh each of these has their own requirements for what assessments we have to complete. Uh for instance, if we're looking at specific learning disability, um we need to complete a cognitive assessment to see uh how the processing is working in the child's brain. We have to do an academic assessment.

018We have to check their vision and hearing to make sure that their challenges aren't just because they're can't see the letters properly or they're having some hearing challenges. Um then just moving into a little bit of what it looks like once we have that IP in place. Uh again, teams make those decisions. lots of a lot of that is um led by professionals of the school that are certified special education teachers who we call learning specialists um and deciding okay here's the information from the evaluation how are we going to address that student's need and so the the model the the various models can be pushin so that would be least restrictive the child is still in the classroom and our specialists or our speech language pathologist occupational therapists school psychologist ologist are working with

019a child in the classroom meeting those needs within there. Pull out is where one of our specialists removes a child from the classroom but do some direct instruction that may not be suitable to be done in the classroom. Uh one example is maybe a student who's working on some articulation needs. Uh having a speech pathologist in class trying to do that separate from what the other students are doing just doesn't fit well. uh some students who have learning disabilities and are substantially below grade level. They need, you know, a struct structured language instruction program that is very different than what's being taught in class at that time. And so they may be working with somebody in a small group or one-on-one in a separate setup and backfill those skills while they're still accessing the classroom

020content. Collaboration, co-eing, uh we don't have that as an option at the race school currently. That's where we have a class that's co-taught by a special education teacher and a general ed teacher. Uh we've had that at the middle school or sorry at the high school um a number of years ago and we had a cohort of students that really needed a program designed like that and we've had it at Maring Cross as well. Um and then academic and behavioral support uh is provided by our pair professionals, our educational assistants, and that's really you look to the the focus of instruction. Um that's really support the students in the classroom so they can participate with their peers, they can access that grade level content uh and it really works towards increasing their independence and require

021less support in class. Some students require small group sometimes referred to as a shared head assistant where there may be a staff member in class works with three different students on their various needs to help support them. And there are other students that require one-on-one which would be one educational assistant assigned to work directly with that student and only student. Uh this all plays into when we build the budget and we look at what is what are our staffing needs? How many special education teachers do we need? How many pair of professionals do we need? All of that comes from the students IEPs and the service page which details this student needs this number of minutes for instruction and reading. They need this number of instruction instructional minutes in speech, language, and assistance support in

022the classroom. That's how we come to those FTE numbers. And then we have to factor in scheduling and how we place students thoughtfully across all of our classes. We don't clump them in one class just because it's convenient and it may utilize less staff. Getting into some of the specific data for our school district and the race school. Uh so this graph shows as it says although every time I read it it sounds a little odd but it's a percentage of students from the total number of students uh how many of them have IEPs how many of them are in special education. So that top line is the state average and they only have numbers available through the 23 24 school year but as a state um they're at 19.8 eight and I included the

023right school which is at 15 and then the other three schools in our district. Uh the elementary schools tend to have in general tend to have higher percentages of students with IEPs. One of the focuses and what we were doing with having a conversation about preschool is early intervention um is really effective in addressing students who are lagging behind may have a condition that's impacting their learning and they may not need that same level of support as they get to middle and high school. They may start with an IEP and they improve their skills sufficiently to then maybe only need some accommodations to address a learning disability in middle or high school. Uh this slide breaks down this is just the race school. Uh so handover students prek through fifth grade and it breaks it

024down by the percentage of students by disability category only from the students with IEPs. So roughly if you look at all these purple lines, they would mostly add up to 100%. Um, but I only included the the five disability categories that have the highest percentage. So there may be a student that has a intellectual disability, but it's 0.5%. So I should include it on this graph. And what I'm trying to see here and how I use this is annually looking at are we consistent or are there things that are atypical in where we're finding students eligible. Um the the first thing I'll point to is the ASD which is autism spectrum disorder. Um that trend of students being found eligible with an autism spectrum disorder is consistent across the state and the nation. Uh so

025that trend that we're seeing um is also apparent in the state data over the past five years across the state of New Hampshire. There's been about a 2% increase every year um student of autism. Our largest one is SLD, specific learning disability. That's consistently where we find most of our students needs presenting. Uh this year you can see there is an increase. uh there's not a significant increase in the percent of students with IEPs, but just that category. And so students with OI, other health impairment are down this year and also speech language impairment. So when I'm looking at this, it appears just to be a cohort and not a systematic finding that we're overidentifying students with a learning disability and underidentifying in other categories. uh but it is something that I work with the

026team on and assistant directors we balance looking at student referrals eligibility criteria and how are we being consistent in those determinations DD is developmental delay that's a category that is for our youngest students up until their ninth birthday I believe at that point when they're re-evaluated if they're still eligible that developmental delay LA category would move into another. So if a student's four years old and they're showing some, you know, real self-regulation strategies and submit attention, they may be found eligible under developmental delay. Then when we do our further evaluation, they may translate into other health impairment because of some, you know, potential executive functioning self-regulation condition that affects So then moving into the the impact on the budget uh expenses in this handover school district budget are the operating costs for K through fifth

027grade. So all the students that are at the school that have special education needs that's our staff contracted services. We have students who have needs where we don't have a staff member such as a behaviorist or a student with hearing impairment. We would contract with a teacher of the deaf um or a educational aiologist to help work with those students and then materials and equipment. The cost the expenses also include early childhood special education. So that's for our preschool students starting at age three until they enter our school here as kindergarteners. if they have disabilities that require an IEP, we provide those services, the tuition, the private preschools if needed and our service providers go to those locations. Extended school year uh for most students um are services that may be provided over the summer

028months. Each individual student's team meets and determines whether or not that child requires services over the summer in order to maintain kind of where they are from the springtime to when they return in the fall. And every year there are a number of students whose teams say yes, you know, without reading instruction for the two months, um that's really going to put them in a substantially worse off spot in the fall. So they need some continuity of the learning. And then the the last one and I think one of the biggest components is the out of district schools for handover residents. So for students that are of handover, grade school age or middle school or high school age that live in handover, if they require placement in a a different school outside of our district,

029those costs, even if they're a 12th grader, come back to the Hanover school district budget. Norwich students go to the Norwich school district. Um, on the revenue side, uh, there's not too much New Hampshire, but we take what we can get. Uh so every year there's an uh IDAB grant which school districts get. Uh there's also one for Dresden, but for handover uh this year is about $110,000. Um for most of my time here that has gone towards paying for a portion of our special education staff. So I think we have three special educators here where a portion of their staff is funded through this grant. um and we carry that forward um so we're not incurring those expenses back onto our district. And I know there's been lots of conversations about closing of the

030DOE at the federal level. Um none of that has impacted us or come to fruition yet. I think the latest I've heard is um there will be some preservation of these programs which may be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. I try not to think or worry about that too much. Uh and then there's also special education aid. It used to be called catastrophic aid that works um as a reimbursement mechanism tied directly to student costs. So we track some of our high cost students. Um and I think the threshold this year is about $76,000. But if student costs more than that, considering all our costs, um we start tracking, there's a calculation that the DOE uses that we're reimbursed, um 80% of the amount between three and a half times the

031average per pupil cost and 10 times and then after 10 times the per pupil cost, the state reimbures 100%. So we keep track of all that, we monitor and then in July we submit our costs to the state and then they provide those reimbursements of their questions and assets. Uh so it's directly tied to how much we spend on those students and so that varies quite a bit. Uh and so during fiscal year 25 we receive the money the year after. So these costs were incurred in the 23 24 school year and then the state reimbures usually in the winter of the following school year. So this past year we got about $365,000 back. This winter I just checked with Teresa and we got back about 619,000. Yes. Um, is this increase related due to

032more states giving us more given the recent politics involving special education or is it more our need is significantly higher than last year >> for special education? >> Yeah. So why is the 3625 all the way up to 619 >> because we spent more? >> Yeah. Okay. Guess it was based on >> Yeah, it's not based on uh very sporadically they reook at how they determine the IDAB grant funds and there are poverty levels factored into it and I think it was last updated over 10 years ago. Um but we've been consistently getting about that amount. Um we were getting more and now Dresden gets more because the sixth graders are now counted as Dresden instead of handover. So, we get the same amount of money just split differently between our two districts. >> Thanks.

033>> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You may have said this, but there's a bit of a lag, too, right? So, it like >> it catches up the year before. Yeah. And so that the money we received, I think Teresa said first week of January maybe we got the funds in were for costs that we spent during the 24 school year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And so uh I send Teresa my estimates like this budget year what I think based on how much I think we can spend on the students and how much we get back. I think we think that's a little bit over what we budgeted. I think we're you budget like 590,000. So >> that was a suggestion by both the DOE um and the DRA to be a little more on a

034conservative >> because again they say you you know we're going to give you minimum >> but depending on the claims you could end up at that minimum. >> Right. >> Thanks for more slides. appreciate everyone's attention. Uh so we're looking at how much we spend uh on special education out of the total handover budget. Uh you can see this year it's for the current year it's about 27.9% of the whole handover school budget is spent on special education. Again, substantial part of that is those Dresden out of district costs. Um, but it's been that's been consistently a part of the budget. The 10-year average is 28.9. So, it tends to be pretty consistent in how much we're spending for special education. The big fluctuations that you see in this graph, um, the variations really due

035to differences in out of district cost. And then this last slide just kind of shows a little bit more concretely the out of district cost just from the special education budget. So you see like the same spike here correlate to a big increase in out of district costs for special education. So there's more volatility in this portion of the budget than in the K through five operating cost. Um, >> can I share one other thing if there's no other questions? Um, so there was this slide >> that was shared at the previous meeting talking about the >> the the reading scores based on the state assessment and there was a question about like this includes students with IEPs or how does that factor? Uh and so I just wanted to share a little bit about

036that that all students in our schools take the state assessment whether you have an IEP or you don't. Um and there are measures that school districts have as part of the states they call the state performance plan and there are 20 indicators that the state looks at on district's performance regarding special education ranging everything from are we completing our initial evaluations in 60 days. They track that and if we don't we're out of compliance and we have to correct that. >> They also track our students with IEPs performing at a certain level that's commensurate with how your students your general education students should perform. So there are I think we'll look at reading first. So they have measures that look at reading proficiency rate for children with IEPs. They only look at grade four because

037that's only when they administer the state assessment. Um, and so they have a target, a state target of 18.68% of students with IEPs across the state should be scoring proficient on the reading assessment. Our data, LEA, local education agency, um, we're at 40%. So, we meet we meet that target. We're above the target. Uh where things get a little interesting is they also measure the gap between where students without IEPs are reading and where our students with IEP are read. So while this top one shows we are well above the state standard in the number of students with the percentage of students with IEPs that are proficient that three or four the reading level >> but because we have such a high number of students I think it was 80 >> at the three or

038four level >> yeah such a high number that gap is is larger >> and so part of what I um aim to look at is is that something systematic or is that just the nature of having so many high performing students. Our gap has been wid. But I also want to look at are there things in our general instruction and how we teach all students that needs to be reconsidered. And I think it's a perfect timing with the new PLA curriculum to really look at consistency of practice and instruction. And it's my only other slide was it's the same for math. So we're uh 36.6% of students scoring in the proficient range. Um but then there's a large gap. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah. Any questions? >> I just have a and you

039may not be able to answer it, but um I was trying to like quickly look at like overall school population over those years that you showed sort of the percentages um to see if that was driving any of the you know from 1617 it was a little lower to like where we are today and it tracks with the state. So I >> um sure that one or the other slide. Um yeah, that one I I'm just curious. The numbers have stayed al like the raw not the percentage but the actual numbers have stayed pretty similar as well, right? I mean I'm trying to think our population hasn't >> right because percentages can change if the population changes significantly but I don't think that's driving. >> No, it's been pretty consistent. I did look I was

040uh digging into the data a little bit and the current fourth and fifth graders were in kindergarten and first grade during >> so that closed in March then the following year and we had students back in schools there was a lot of stuff going on masks and barriers and all all that >> so that's just something that I think keeping track of you know may there be a slightly higher percentage of students that were identified because of lagging skills skills and are they now caught up in what wasn't a disability but presented as one? So, that's information that we're still kind of teasing out and looking at when we do reevaluations or students being found no longer eligible. >> My other question, sorry. My other question, um, do you, so I was in the schoolboard,

041um, advocacy network meeting today, um, with other, uh, schoolboard leaders from around the state and, um, it occurred to me, are you guys in a similar sort of, um, special education directors around the state? Because there's a lot, there's always a lot, right? But like it feels I mean with open enrollment I know we were talking about the funding of special education if like who's responsible and the open enrollment which by the way is likely to pass now they're saying um potentially for next school year which is super fun. Um and no right no admin guidelines no right who's who's legislating that who's Yeah. Yeah. Uh so yes, there's a statewide agency, the New Hampshire Association for Special Education Administrators, >> Nasha. >> Uh and then we also have regional groups. Okay. So I meet

042in New London um once a month with >> ranging up from Lime over to Hillsboro down to London area. And so I think we're called West Central is our regional group. Um and so there are statewide monthly meetings uh and also there's um le legal groups blanking on the name but there's committees that look at all the potential bills coming through what should we be aware of and what's actually going through what changes parental bill of rights came through like that organization but I know also superintendent and school >> board so there are those there's also one in Vermont regional group and state one >> one of the things we talked about that you know as a as a body were kind of thinking about well how can we push back as a as a

043group of schoolboard leaders how can we push back a little bit on this misconception of over identification and I'm sure you guys are working on that too so just to let you know that that you know school boards are also talking about that misconception at the legislative level which of course drives them well we're just going to underfund it right that like that's kind of the reaction which does not solve >> there are um >> anything >> advocacy groups separate from those organizations, but there's also a >> when you have people advocate the state leveling. Yeah. And there is a branch of organization that has that >> attorneys for both school districts use but also the organizations contract with. >> Yeah. >> Um when there were those >> lawsuits against the state of New Hampshire,

044there were school districts joined and attorneys that we work with. >> Yeah. So I feel well supported and informed. Um we go through each month all those components. >> Awesome. >> Check frequently about did you hear this or I got did you also get that? >> So yeah we coordinate where needed. >> Thank you. >> Also wanted to chime in that board member Rene Sullivan who I think is seeing this for the first time wanted to chime in. Thank you. Super helpful. >> Great. A few other things. for those of you that have been on the board, it's just kind of repeat that is essential information. >> It is it is >> it's significant um expenditure as well. So it's you know that's part of for those watching that's part of what we have also

045talk about. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Any other questions on that? >> Thank you Rh. And thanks for your flexibility and delaying. >> I think this would have been a little bit too much at the >> Yes. All right. Uh policy policy. Thank you. >> Okay. >> So there is a second reading of policy JA which is the threat of surgeons. We have talked about it previously at handover and dresdon. There were no recommendations requested previously. I to be honest I'm not sure why Dresden policy is bared in here. Just a mistake. >> Yeah. That's okay. So I think it's GS I J O not the others. Okay. Any other? All right. So it's just that one. >> I think so. >> And second reading. Any questions? Okay. Any questions from members of the

046public? >> Okay. Oh, you know what? Actually, maybe because we say Bredon, Hanover, and Norwich, even though it says res, >> we talk about all Metro. So, I'm comfortable moving forward if we feel that type. >> So, we are going to vote on these on all of them plan. >> I we've definitely seen them. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think it I don't know why it got put under that but they saw the dros for which and these are policies by law policies. >> Yes, I think so. >> All right. Any questions then on the other policies? None. Okay, great. Um the reason for the funky highlighting in that one is just Which one? >> I think just didn't get taken out and after revision. Got it. Okay. So, it's kind of green light and like

047got it. >> Following that subtle. Okay. >> All right. We'll move on. So, we'll take a motion for that later. We'll move on to the draft school calendar. I've received probably more emails about this than anything else. Um, so >> concerns about the start of school with Labor Day being so late and this then meaning that we'll have three, five, and four days to start off the year. >> Um, I my response has been I think we're trying to align with the Hartford Tech Center. um >> and make your calendar that I'll also note that it makes us again off sync with the the February holiday. We're always off sync with no the February holiday, right? >> President's Day. Thank you. That's the February holiday. >> Yes. All this was an issue for some people

048back when I was teaching, not here but in a different district. I felt very strongly that if sports teams were starting and games were beginning, we should be starting school. >> So I think the calendar in terms of an easy transition, you know, which it it is three four or three whatever three four. Yeah, that's a heck of a lot better than just whammo for sure. I will point out part of the concern then is that um pre-season will be starting around the 10th I think 10th or 12th of August which is pretty darn early for your summer. So that was part of the concern from some families was that like basically chopped summer quite a bit. So that was for the high school families concerns. Maybe I'm incorrect in this, but that is a

049decision about sports. It's not a decision about the calendar. >> What's your point, Deb? >> My point is that learning comes first. I I'm the other comment though that I do I do feel compelled to make prematurely is about the impact of that February vacation on our annual meeting which we don't know yet because we haven't done it for the first time but it seems like it's likely to be really a disaster. >> Yeah. >> And and there's a part of me that really challenges that February week. I understand it's for Hartford, but and I I I'm not devaluating their educational experience, but is there any wiggle room? >> It's really hard because if we move the week, it means two weeks of missed classes basically better off, >> right? So, okay. I And I

050I don't want that. Is there a window for Bartford students to to trade the week they have off? In other words, what if they had um you know, we went back to our other law, which meant they would miss four days at Hartford, but if we made optional a bus that runs and takes them over if they want, I'm only trying to think of >> a win-win situation, understanding that they would then say, "Well, wait a minute. We lost our week off." >> And I and I get that. Yeah. And it's hard because they do usually we end up losing some other days, too, with um you know, teacher >> Yeah. >> conference days, things like that. Teacher um professional development days. So >> it's it's hard when you start talking about two potential weeks

051of this classes even in saying we could provide bus or you know it provide I I feel like that's an unfair burden on families that have students who are in the program. >> So yeah I I got it. >> When do they set their calendar early? I mean, we've been talking about it with the Hartford and area career technical center since I would say October, probably October, November, maybe there. Okay. >> So, >> they set theirs a while ago. >> Yes. >> And is Hartford set as well? Very. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Hartford set as well. >> Um, okay. Yeah. So, my request for future years is would just be that we bring this up with them. perhaps those that I mean I was the Hartford person from the district >> and they don't really

052care >> because they're going for the majority of the kids and the majority of the kids come from Vermont >> and this works for the majority of kids >> and so Leb and Masoma >> and Hanover all have to just kind of Got it. I mean I I don't want to say they don't care but they're going with the majority very clear they're not controlling it is what basically they're saying right >> and Vermont last year was trying to align trying to align the state totally with the calendar which also made it complicated. Um okay my second request um for this then for future years would be if to consider whether we can move up our timeline um whatever that time whatever that the end calendar is going to be. I know that the hospital

053a lot of departments have to get their days off in by the end of January. >> And so when we're not voting on it until February it makes it really hard for those families. I I don't see a problem with that because we sent this out to the administration I think two months ago. So >> I I'll talk with Ryan about it because she always works on this. But >> yeah, if we can move that up to December, I think that would help you >> because then we could fully firmly approve it. >> Yes. >> That's one doctor. >> Hey, Sergeant, hand over. Um I third or fourth whatever about um DHMC's vacation needing to be planned and when you're going to throw off kind of what has consistently been the start date for years

054and years and years and years. Um that makes it really hard because and also camp signups is also happened in January. And so the issue is like are we trying to find coverage for a week and a half? Are we trying to find coverage for two and a half weeks? Um, and so if we could have the schedule set prior to camp signups for those parents who need summer air for their children, that would be super helpful as well. >> Well, feel free to sit down. Sorry, I'm going to announce you, too. Um, those of you with young kids. >> Yeah. Are how is the August cover? Are we are we putting you all in a big bind with this calendar either on the front end or the back end? I heard some scuttlebug at

055the last meeting that I didn't really tune into about there's no camps for this time and >> end of August. >> Rene has picked up >> you're >> August is hard. Those last two weeks in August are are really rough. Um and I think this year it's like there's actually like two and a half weeks without camps. I mean like I'm just thinking of like the handover parks and wreck. like if we're really like that's like the consistent one. Um I haven't looked into other like specialty more expensive camps for that that time. But yeah, the end of August is like a really tough time. I think frankly this calendar starting on the 26th of August doesn't sound terrible. Um if but like I think the conversation is actually more with the town of like

056can you please just have more weeks of camp? I don't know if that's a schoolboard question. >> Yeah. Okay. Um but it sounds like to that point starting later is maybe not a helpful thing, right? So I would say the only reason it would be I agree that it's not helpful. It would be a lot more coverage for us to try to figure out for our young faith. At the same time, um, we've kind of like already planned to cover it because school has always started >> the Wednesday after Labor Day. And I can't say for all the years since my husband was little, but really a lot of them. Um, so that would just be like a change. It doesn't feel last minute, but like to some people who's taking vacations and scattered stuff

057like it would feel like a last minute change. Mhm. >> And then the other side of it where many of the camps are already sold out >> for the summer and some of them have camps on the first day of school. They typically don't do it. They don't know when we're doing it. >> So I had to sh >> Yeah. >> So there's a gap that bins the 24th through the 29th. >> 24th through the 26th. >> I assume start the following week. A lot of people depend on bus making decisions faster than me do. This is ridiculous then we it's so easy to put it in the fall and it would actually be really wonderful to have >> and I'm not suggesting Ryan she's still on the call >> but I think it would

058be a easy thing for somebody and I don't mind doing it just calling Vins and the Munchire and and saying okay we're gonna we're talking about the calendar what are the dates that you're looking at and Hannah we're wreck and Just making sure we all line up. If we can't make it work with program that neighbors, >> those are the things that stores >> bins of bins. >> Another thing for that is I know that camps have a hard time staffing as they get later into August because a lot of the students go back to college or go back to high school or whatever it is. So I think that is kind of their balance as to when they cut off as well is that they lose the majority of their staff to go back

059to their own schools or wherever they are. >> All right. >> Um so Ted, this is a first um read, but I and we don't have to approve it tonight, but I would just um I think are we we can't really make any changes on this for this year. Correct. >> That's my understanding. Yes. Thank you. At point kids at unfair disadvantage, honestly. >> Yeah. Including the two weeks off at Christmas seems like a long time. >> Uh in fact, I mean I have all but >> Yeah. Obviously, we um so we've gone round and round about that as you as you know, Deb um about this the time off and and the general feeling from people as I recall was that is generally enjoyed to have >> okay a healthy chunk of time off

060around the traveler. >> Yes. Around that time of year, people appreciate having that time off to travel and get where they're going. um has been my sense. I'm also looking at this particular I mean we you could potentially go to school Monday, Tuesday, half day, Wednesday and there are definitely districts that do that could potentially do that um instead of starting on that Wednesday in August. I don't know. And that probably wouldn't mess with their career back. So too much. Those kids could start Yeah. in those three days. If you know >> I I've also gotten a lot of really positive feedback about the two weeks. I've not heard any kind of negative about it which is unusual to hear so much positive feedback about >> around. Okay. Sure. Renee >> I think that I

061two weeks is always expected and therefore we figure it out. right to say that there's like nothing negative about the two weeks for people who work both parents work full-time and don't have jobs that shut down like the hospital or the court system um like two weeks is hard but again it's expected and so we figure it out and sometimes kids go to work with mom and dad and we figure that out but I don't know that there's zero negatives to it >> right okay so this is technically a first read. Um, so if there are members of the public, if there is feedback, please feel free to send it. That said, I think my understanding is that will be the start date is August 26th. Um, with very little room to wiggle at this

062point, but we will keep it in mind for future years. And it should revert back, right? I'm just trying to think calendar wise. At some point, we're going to boomerang back to the other. >> Um, okay. Annual meeting preparation. Um there's a lot on here. Um for articles, we have the election of officers, the bridgeman fund, the officer stipens, um service staff agreement, which Ben, you're doing that one. >> I'm not. >> He's not going to be there. >> You're not going to be there. Right. Okay. That leads to my next question. Um an operating budget. Um in terms of presenting articles, we have a script for those members who are new and maybe have not done an annual meeting yet. There's a script. You literally read it. It's not if if the moderator doesn't

063read it for you. Um, so we assign people to each article to present, but it is a very very light lift um on board members. Um, so I'll just ask you to let me know if there's one you want to present. More importantly, I sent an email twice now that nobody responded to, which is okay. Um, asking if I'm going to be there. >> I have a list. >> You have a list. Okay. We have six people who have confirmed >> Dresden. Yes. >> Okay. So >> handover just >> that's fine. That's fine. I think I f like are you going to be there? I >> think so. >> Okay, cool. >> If you're going to be there, then all is forgiven. You will be there. >> Rene will be there as well. >> Renee

064will be there as well. And I think I think I will be there. >> I think I will be there. I think I was because you was a no. >> I was upset possibly. I need to check but I think it'll be there. Okay. >> Transportation issues. >> We know about Tara. >> I believe she's online. >> She has Yes. >> No, she she's online. >> She want to chime in? >> I can't remember. I don't >> I was likely not able to attend and I am still in that category. That gives us one, two, three, four. >> We're missing. >> We don't know. Carrie, >> right? Yeah, >> that's it. And I will check on her. >> Okay. But if you are definitely good. Okay. I will I will solidify. So, um, if if

065anyone has strong feelings about presenting one of the articles or not presenting one of the articles, >> I think typically we let the newbies do the easy things like >> Rene. Rene and I are going to talk about the budget. So, Renee, you and I are going to somehow do article five. >> I'm fine with doing whatever you need and as bad as you need. I don't, >> it doesn't matter to me. If you want Demi want to do three and I can do this, >> right? I know. All right, we'll figure it out. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, board annual survey. So, this is a survey we do of ourselves to assess our progress on our board goals. >> We're trying to move it up like we normally do it. We typically could do it

066with first new people in March which was the question of why are we surveying right people >> right right >> oh it does raise that question >> yeah so trying to >> so this is the bold one correct >> yes as I recall Ryan said these are the ones I could find >> okay >> because I think honestly we didn't do it last year is my we try Jay tried to put it out and like two people just bought it right >> and then we were like you know But we have so many new people and everybody's got so we just didn't we skipped it basically. >> Yeah. >> It was one of those things where it was in the superintendence. >> It was like there was no one else to do it. >> Yeah.

067>> So the sensitivity possibly the answer is kind of stuff and it's pretty >> with certain people it's frankly pretty easy to tell who's saying what if you think about it >> just ownership. >> Um so trying to move it up. I don't I mean if anyone has again I I don't know that I want to spend a time on it right now. If you have thoughts you have the a sample here. If you have thoughts about um length or content that you would like to see added things you think are not important please let us know. I know there have been general concerns about process um boardwise um meeting efficiencies boardwise. So if I I don't always know that some of the questions are required. There was a couple weird ones on. >> Yeah,

068the two statute ones. Um but I don't always they're usually the least helpful in my opinion, but as is often the case. But if there's any, you know, any way that you think we can reward things to more um directly get to concerns or issues, um please just send it along and I'm happy to to entertain those changes. So, I will try to move it up. I guess that means to February. Who would have creat >> uh this because it's for Dresden 2. I feel like Gina would be really good at helping us figure out how we want to assess our strengths or areas for improvement. So, I know this is like handover meeting, but like I would >> perfect good shot. I I think she has just been volunte. >> Yeah, she I I

069this is the kind of thing she would be excited about. Yeah. >> So, in answer to your question, I think it typically comes out of the superintendent's office. That said, >> um you know, we have >> we have Gina, we have Ben is maybe O over subscribed on general and surveys specifically. >> Meeting in the board. >> Yes. So, I will not I will not I would not dain to voluntel to take this on, but um feel free to lean on >> um board members, but I think it does typically >> get sent from the super. >> Um okay, the last item on items for discussion um is the just keeping the conversation going. So, I'm glad we've had this from Sarah. Um, and I'm gonna Sarah, if you are somehow listening to this meeting,

070um, please send this document to myself and to Robin so that we don't lose the document. Um, I'll reach out to her, but um, I don't trust myself with paper anymore. Um, so this is just I I wondered if we wanted to create a committee, a preschool program committee at the board level um that would um and budget process we can talk about that separately. Um that would not the goal would not be to take over the wonderful work that has already been done by the preschool committee and the members of the preschool committee, but rather to elevate that um to the board level to make sure that it is getting um continued attention, keep the ball rolling, that we're approaching it for next year and the next budget cycle with um you know the

071right um incorporation to make sure that we're we're putting in the right place to have the best chance for success. Um, and so I wanted to see if there was interest in putting that on the board's docket, creating a committee um, for moving forward, not necessarily to kick off, you know, next week. I think we have some things to get through in the short term, but just to create it um, for future developments. What do we think? >> Yeah. Um, are would there be board members who would potentially be interested in serving on that committee? I don't know two weeks maybe. >> Yeah, I thought Marcel and Carrie might be willing to. >> Okay. Um, perfect. So, when we get down to um items requiring action, I will take a motion to create that committee.

072Oh, it's already in there. Lovely. Um, >> got a lure chair. If it's a specific function, it's not a priest advisory committee. You would assign the chair. >> I would chair >> ongoing thinking policy. >> Then they would choose their own. Oh, I did not know that. Interesting. Um, yeah, I'm h Does anyone want to be chair of that? >> Wait, wait. Does Carrie sounds like she might want >> Okay, I will check in with Carrie and see. That would be my initial thought. >> No, no, no. >> And Marcel is a very evil. >> That that would be my sense. So I if we um if if Marcella and likely Carrie will hash that out here with you guys. Okay, perfect. Um and then the other piece is the budget process redesign committee. I'm

073okay tableabling that conversation until the next meeting. Um I'll just put it in your brains to think about. Um, I know there has been interest in in again just making sure that we're looking more holistically at all of the budgets at the same time considering how they feed into one another. Um, making sure that we're keeping a better eye on revenues. I think we've tended to focus solely on the expenditure side of things. Um, and there have been some surprises not just this year but also in years past on the revenue side of things. So just thinking through how can we collectively as a body of 13 people not 12 12 people um do a little bit better in um creating that and hopefully not overt taxing our administration who are working on those budgets

074as well. So, um I think we can wait until next uh meeting to to add that committee, but I would love for people to think about whether they might be willing to serve on that committee for the next meeting. >> Okay. >> I mean, we're we're doing B through E. >> Um also, we we need to add the budget review. >> Yes, we add the budget review for anyone listening. The budget review committee is a special committee that was just voted uh on at the Dresden level in our emergency meeting earlier this evening um to quickly and expediently is the same thing I don't know um look at the current year budget this Friday efficiency efficiency right um quickly and expediently look at the budget this Friday um primarily the revenue side of things so

075that is separate from the redesign thing that I just mentioned. That's a separate um so we'll add that. And your question was um consent agenda so expenditures minutes uh non-public minutes policy >> and those policies are correct otherwise. >> Okay. Policies are correct and the preschool program duty. So we'll do all those. >> Okay. >> Um and then uh we can just vote on the other ones separately. Okay. So I will take a consent agenda. I move to approve items B through G by consent. Second. Second from Ben. Uh we'll do a roll call vote. Starting Marcela Dless. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. >> And online we have Terra. >> Lozer. Yes. >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Yes. So that is unanimous. And I will take a motion for the creation of the Hanover Budget

076Review Committee. Um, which will run concurrently with the Dresden Budget Review Committee. >> You did such a great job. >> I know. I'm trying. I move to approve the creation of the budget review comm the handover budget review committee >> to meet as soon as possible and by Friday January >> 23 23. >> Wow. >> Yes. And uh the makeup of that committee was outlined in the previous emergency meeting. >> And do you want me to identify people? Sure. If you have it written down, go. >> And the review committee is composed of Mu Odell, Renee Sullivan, Theresa Taylor, Kasm, and Rob Steiner. As well as a representative from the Hover Finance Committee 2. >> Is there a second for that beautiful motion? Yes, Ben. Awesome. And roll call vote starting with >> Dathy. Yes.

077>> Nelson, yes. >> Kei, yes. Tara, >> those are yes, >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Yes. All right. So, moving into communications and reports. Um, so I I mentioned it briefly. I did attend the schoolboard advocacy network meeting today. I have over five or six people. People are busy I think right now. Um but there is interest as uh from that board to um potentially write a letter. Um there are significant concerns about the um open enrollment bill that is that has passed the Senate and is headed to the House or vice versa. Anyway, um they're expecting the governor to sign it in uh in March even. Um the latest uh guidance that these other school leaders were talking about mentioned no cap on the exit rate so that you could not control the number of

078students leaving your district. Um the amount of tuition um was to be 80 to 100% of the receiving districts uh tuition. There was wording about if it exceeds or if it's below and how that works, but um yeah, so that's fun. Um and then um the the really interesting parts had to do with um special education. There is currently one school that is um receiving or one district that's yeah dealing with this and they are having a heck of a time figuring out who's paying for the special education costs and who owns that responsibility? Um because if the district is tuitioning in already, does that then transfer the responsibility to the new and who's who's going to legislator go after the money if they're not paying the special education money and who's paying for the

079admin costs that are associated with chasing down that money? And so, um there's so many um real issues with dollar signs attached to them in all of this. so many unknowns. So people are are very rightly concerned. Um the other piece that they talked about um was at the at the legislative level um this idea that you know Vermont just embarked upon and then pull away from but district consolidation um >> control by the state and so there's been conversation about well is New Hampshire going to now try to consolidate districts and apparently the the sort of general rumor is that the sense at the state level is well no the districts will just consolidate themselves naturally through this process >> which again is hand argument >> which you know then leads to all kinds

080of concerns about like the facto segregation happening and and who has the mobility to get to a different school and any anyway it's it's a real it's a real um problem. So all that to say um this group is working on composing a letter um that they may be circulating um they are also individually from their boards um planning to do more testifying on behalf of their school districts on behalf of their boards um and wanted us potentially to consider in general wanted boards to consider if they would be willing uh to give broader latitude in some way to um board chairs, board vice chairs, devs, um who might be interested in going to um testify on behalf of the school district, on behalf of the school board with whether it's with an officially approved

081statement or just, you know, Deb, we we trust you, go speak on our behalf. So, I think that would be something good for us to consider um in the next board meeting. So, I'll probably add that to the agenda. So, sorry that was a longer report, but Kelly, I and I apologize, but um I have frequently testified down and conquered. I identify myself as a board member, but I always say I am not speaking on behalf of the board. >> Right. Absolutely. And they their suggestion was their boards have started to move forwards. Let's think would be great. And one of the things they said is, you know, when I make I I present a prepared statement that the board has seen and approved, right? When it comes to Q&A, I say, well, board does

082not authorize me to answer that question, but I'm happy to give my perspective about that. So, a lot of it, the value of a lot of it depends on the timing of schoolboard meetings and then the calendar >> and that's what they were saying that some of this is just such a fire hose of legislation at this point. Y um so uh I would love for us to entertain that next meeting so that we can then forward um and hoping that's not too late but maybe we do it at the rest of get to it. Um thank you. Moving on to committee much is probably all reported out at this point for the budget I would imagine. >> Um budget wise yes I do have one uh update from CIPC. So, um, >> um, uh,

083so I think a couple of us, uh, were at the meeting at the library last Monday or Wednesday, Tuesday, whatever day it was. I don't know. It's all blending together. Um, there's kind of I think a recording of that. So, I I think believe there's some people in the town that are trying to like dissect what are the big takeaways of that South Main Street conversation. Uh, if you have not gotten your voice heard or you know somebody that has not gotten their voice heard, the homepage of the handover website should I actually am online. I should actually look at it now. Um, it should have a link to give your input. Look at that. Reinvisioning South Main Street for everyone. Um, so some of the concerns that were raised were around moving from uh

084angled parking to parallel parking. What does that do? How do we get people walking, cycling, driving, etc. on this street? Um, so there's a lot of conversation about like what it looks like, less conversation about how it's paid for. Um, at this point, I've heard a couple times that tiffs are off the table, but I haven't seen a proposal of actual like payment, so I don't actually know if that's true other than like what's been kind of talked about. Um, so more to come on South Main Street. West Wheelock is also kind of that big ticket item that we talked about 10 months ago. Eight months ago, really, it's only been eight months. Geez, you guys. Um, it's wild. So, that is still kind of in conversation with Dartmouth and the town and figuring out

085like, okay, who's paying for what? How does that look? We have even less information at CIPC on that. Um so those two big things still kind of not a lot of information. Um the third thing which we do have information on um the kind of everything else that was not those two big items. Um CIPC does have uh recommendations and kind of review on those in a report that's coming out I believe in February. We have a meeting February 5th. Um I think it's like I don't know if it's officially on the calendar yet. Um but that is when we're going to be kind of approving that report. So I'll get that out to you guys so you can see at like a town level the dollars that are um being recommended or I guess

086we're I don't know. I keep on forgetting like are we recommending things or we're just saying this is this is good and then the select board actually decides what what actually happens each year. Um but the report will have dollar signs attached to it which will help us as we think about our own dollar signs as a school district but we just have to remember the biggest dollar signs of South Main and West are not in the report yet. So >> right >> this is not related to C. >> This is um assuming that we're talking about the meeting at the how where they presented all that stuff. I was there did explicitly ask about the tiffs and reminded them pleasantly. We have discussed this before. I think we'll probably discuss it again and their

087answer was that they at this point in time they cannot confirm or deny that tiffs are involved but special finance consultant is on the zoom call listening and taking care of the notes. >> Okay. >> So yes, >> TVD. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um I while this committee is not listed, I do represent as does Tara the board on the staff development the SDC committee and a couple of weeks ago we had a meeting where we entertained applications for enrichment grants and as Lauren knows I'm pretty fierce about the fact that the high school and the middle school faculty are great at coming up with wonderful proposals that allow them to travel to fun places and do work that they bring back to the classroom. But the race school faculty somehow limit themselves to things

088like I will go to this conference about reading >> or I will do this with another colleague and we'll improve our reading skills. And I have reached the point where I said to Colleen, I want to come in and talk to the faculty because this year there was a wonderful there were two applications for something called Project Dragonfly and it's science and if you go to Borneo or maybe Namibia, it all depends on where you go. There's a middle school teacher and a high school teacher who both applied and I would have given my right arm if a Ray school teacher had also been part of that team. So I really want to help encourage >> more imaginative and enrichment >> as in your individual teaching. >> Um that involves some fun travel. >> Yeah.

089So anyway, TBD, >> they're being responsible stewards, but perhaps too responsible. >> Well, no, I just don't think that they perhaps have the time. >> Yeah. >> To think about the possibilities, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Um and maybe this is the time to do it for next year and over the summer. And I don't mind helping. >> Perfect. >> Okay, that was my report. While you're talking, do you have any NHSA updates? >> No. Okay. Uh, and last but most certainly not least, Tara, do you have anything from finance committee beyond what we've already discussed this evening? >> No, I think we covered it well. >> All right. Thank you. I would agree. Okay. U moving along the super report. >> Okay. I wanted to thank Rhett for his presentation. and the OS does

090a great job making all of the work that he does in special education understandable to all of us because it's all encompassing and he just does an amazing job every day. So, I'm so privileged that I get to work with him. Just wanted to say thank you for the presentation. Um, I wanted to update you on the warrant article tax assessment that we've been talking about. Teresa and I did meet with Robert Houseman um at the town office last week and Ellen who does their finances there to talk about what we could potentially do. And Ellen and Teresa have been talking with Jamie Dow at state too to find out how we can recoup the tax taxes from the um warrant articles. So now it appears that our option at this time is to potentially

091adjust the tax bill for the second half of the building cycle which would occur in June usually. And then we found out that this would not cause any crossover issues. That was one of our concerns with the tax years the based on how the assessments are adjusted each November. And so what we will need to do, we already have I've already lured right into this and prepared, you know, we're getting prepared for February. Um Jamie, I mean, Teresa and Ellen are going to talk again. They're going to gather any kind of documents that they need and then we will have to go through the following steps. I'll prepare letter on behalf of the board and we'll bring it to the Tresen board and um we'll ask for the town select board to make an adjustment

092to the tax rate for the second billing the amount of the warrant article shortfall which I think is 366,000 correct Tesa and then if they approve that then they will do step two which will be to um will send out the question to the select board and if they you know agree to it they will have to then write a formal request to the commissioner of the DRRA to do an adjustment to the tax bill in June and then that has to be the commissioner by April 1st and then the commissioner of the DR will then either approve the adjustment to be done or dislo the adjustment after that. So that's the timeline is that we're looking at this point. Do we expect the adjustments to be made? I mean, is this a t like

093typically I don't know if there's any typically here, but >> I know I don't think there's anything typical, but when we met with the town manager and Ellen, um they were very menful to helping us. So the steps. >> Okay. >> Yes. Okay. Mhm. >> Um at some point, and it doesn't have to be right now, I would love to just sort of stress test this and understand like what does it mean if it doesn't go through when we don't get that adjustment and >> what are the you know what are the outcomes for that. It sounds like >> right now this is our option and we hope for the best. It also sounds like that no could potentially come in June. >> Yes. >> Which again I just like to understand what happens, right?

094Um so maybe you guys could think that through and you just give us an update at some point um for the you know the decision trees I guess what are the what are the outcomes. >> Okay. And then um I've still been spending quite a lot of time in the schools as much as I can probably less now than I was previously but I have my monthly meetings with each of the principles. So I've been meeting with Colleen and we have our leadership um team meetings once a month. This month we were at the Ray School and I've told you that we've been looking at different types of observation data, instructional coaching data. This month we took a look at productive time data and we sent various people to different rooms around the school. And

095really for me, this is always a highlight because we're actually putting what we would like to see as a practice into place and it fits so well with the work that we've done in instructional coaching over the past few years and it's actually giving us tools that we can use as administrators in the classroom and we can align those. So that for me has been a really positive change this year. I am going to survey the administrators to see if they have feedback for me, if there are things they think I should change or, you know, if they like the format of these leadership team meetings. Um, in terms of the ICE protocols, we do have an ICE protocol in place for the Ray School currently. It's interesting because we were actually just talking about

096this today working with the other schools to expand and have a similar protocol in our other schools as well. So we are in that process now. So um and I think that's it for my tonight and then bunch bunch of budget. >> Awesome. I will just say if there's anything obviously that the board needs to do or approve on the ice plan or safety plan. Yeah, obviously we're we're happy to, you know, have those conversations. >> Um, any questions from the board, Robin? Yeah. >> Well, and I >> the reason I brought up the protocol was because my son-in-law indicated that he was part of a community involved and I would imagine that parents within the schools will want to be equally involved. um he cited and I'm not saying that's what we're doing or

097anything. I don't want to >> uh mess anything up, but he spoke specifically to them being observers and encouraged to be present and to be watching and to be visible. Um and I thought that sounds very smart and >> put me on the list. We've been talking about the same thing on the Vermont side, too. Yeah, there's been a lot of work with the attorneys there situation too. >> Great. Uh yeah, I sergeant hand over. Um two things. The first was a question regarding the committee for the principal search and if that had been created and if so if the members of that committee were going to be made public. >> Yes, we actually worked on that this week putting the committee together. So we'll be notifying people it in the next two days I

098would say and if we we're limiting it to a certain number for each group. So if the people don't get chosen for the committee and literally I'm just trying to do it very fairly like taking whoever signed up you know what order that kind of thing but um if people don't get chosen for the committee we will have other opportunities at the second round of interviews. We're going to have um you know we'll have stakeholder groups meet with the candidates. So we'll have parent and community groups. We'll have um staff members, school board members. So we'll there'll be opportunities made to the events. >> Great. And will the initial selection committee be made public like who those people are? Okay. Um, secondly, I just wanted to remind you when you guys are talking about ICE

099that the Grafton County Sheriff signed on to the ICE. Um, and obviously that is can be concerning to some people. Uh but just to um as a public defender in the criminal justice system here in Grafton County, I have insight onto how the county um policing is going and collaboration collaboration with ICE. So if anyone has questions and want to talk about that, we can do that offline. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. We've had really good audience, you know, engagement in tonight's meeting. >> Indeed. Indeed. >> Uh we will move on to the Thank you, Robin. Sorry. The director of curriculum and instruction, the interim director of >> Lauren. Hi everybody. Keep the engagement going. >> Um so I've submitted my report to you a few updates around grant work. Um, just a

100real gratitude for engaging with me and the ELA committee in the adoption of arts and letters. Um, I updated you in my report about our K12 lighting. Can't see you on the I don't know if you care. I can hear you. So, >> sorry. You're doing great. >> Yeah. um updated you a little bit around curriculum work and so I wanted to highlight if you're really interested about our collaborative units with Mary and Cross that we created around NGSS they are now live and posted on the curriculum web page ready to go take a look there um and then uh just updating the board as well around some work that I'm doing um across all of our schools for data collection and housing around our mult multi-tered systems of support. This has been an ongoing

101conversation for years and we're finally making some headway determining across our schools the type of data that we would like to collect, the tools that we can agree on to collect that data and where we will house it, which leads to conversations around how we can use it in a K12 manner to support our students longitudinally. Um, you already know this, but I have the pleasure of working our tech with our tech department now. So, if you have any tech related issues or questions, feel free to send them my way. I will either help you or direct you to somebody that can help you. Um, and then just as Robin mentioned, we're continuing our push to be in the schools, which is really a a joy. And especially on hard days, it's nice to walk

102in, we were talking about this this morning, when I used to walk into a kindergarten classroom and just sit down on the floor and read a story or go into a high school class and be immediately drawn into a conversation in Spanish where I can practice the skills that I used to have. and actually speak to another student and be involved in what's happening. Um or jump into like a middle school science classroom and be part of the lab. Uh it really can ground you in why we do the work that we do even when it's really hard. So um continuing with that visibility and meeting with our associate principles as well um to support them, collaborate with them um and consult with them around any problems of practice that they're facing. I am really

103enjoying this job and I'm happy to answer any questions. Great questions for Lauren just one day. >> Um, one of the things that's been so great working with Lauren this year is there's just been such a seamless transition and um, it's been so rewarding to me for her to take on some really big projects like the MTSS and, you know, really begin to move that forward and and bring the ELA program to a finish line. So, you know, I just have um I'm so appreciative of all the work that she's doing. So, I just wanted to say that how excited I am about all of the things that have been happening in that realm and taking on make technology. So, thank you. >> Excellent. >> Thanks, Lauren. All right. Business administrator's report. >> All right.

104So, I've uploaded um the financial report. I also uploaded just a draft just for review only of um the warrant articles and everything else. And on the table it's no back to you. Um so regarding the um financial report year to date so far um for our budget of 16,561770 so far at this point um the anticipated revenues um each of the district assessments the state revenues and everything else we're anticipating obviously um to be paid in full. Um, with that being said, the year-to- date expenditures that we've actually spent are 7,634,923. Um, and what we have encumbered and projections out to the end of June right now is potentially looking at another 7,42,159. If things were status quo and stayed the way they were and we didn't um end up spending some of the

105higher the lines that we have a higher balance on, we'd have a potential of 1.5 surplus and expenditures alone. But we already know with special ed where we have a surplus right now and I don't want to use I don't really want to use that word because the potential for the $958,000 could be gone tomorrow if we had one student Mhm. >> that went out of district or something like that. Um but a lot of the um a lot of that savings right now is due to um a low out of district expenditure. Yeah. And then um some of the other cost health insurance we already know is obviously driving up a lot on the expenditures. And then um on the custodial we still have about 201,000 that's not encumbered. But again, the potential, we

106already know that there's projects in the works. That's um so I think that that will be driven down also. Um so where we're looking at right now, the potential is that about 750,000 at the end of the school year if it was status quo. Remind me how that compares to what we projected. Well, right now, because of the projection that we were doing back in October and November, we were anticipating maybe about 980,000 at the end. Mhm. >> But um so again with more savings if there's potentially more savings in the end because again I'm projecting out that certain departments will spend more um but if not um we go back to the concept of the um retained earnings because of the tax bill the the health insurance assessment right. Okay. >> Yeah, Renee, >>

107thank you. >> Um, thank you for this, Teresa. Uh, where would we see that like extra um amount for school care for this year? What row is that in? >> It's it's split up in a bunch. Well, I say in a bunch, but for the most part, because it had primarily to do with teachers and that staff, um, you're going to see in the 1100s the regular instructional programming and others, but if you have vacancies or anything like that, which we did have some in um, like the special ed and stuff like that, you may not necessarily see that large amount in there because we have vacancies that are kind of offsetting it a little bit. Interesting. Okay. Thank you. >> Other questions? Thank you for this. Okay, there's nothing else. We'll take a motion

108to move into non session. Um, and I think so, oh, I will just note for the public, we mentioned it, we will not be voting on the service staff contract that is under item nine. So 9B, we will not be voting not on that. Um, which means that once we return from public session, we should have no action items, no more discussion. It'll just be hearing from the public again. Um, and then a journey. So, not worth sticking around potentially. Um, all right. So, I'll take a motion to enter non-public uh 913 to C personnel. Is that right? >> Were we also going to do 91- A2 I consideration of matters related to preparation efficiency functions. >> I will not. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I just didn't know. >> Yeah. Did you want to do

109any of emergency preparations composition and nonpublic? >> I think so. Okay. So, just person. >> Yeah. Come on. >> Make a motion. 4C. Did you say >> Okay. I >> move to end tell me she is. I move to enter into non-public session at 8:51 p.m. under RSA 91-8 32C. Second from Ben from Dad. Sec. And roll call by Marcy. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. >> Terra. Yes. >> Sullivan. Yes. >> I'll call you in. >> Sounds good. Would you care to make a motion? >> Yes. I move that we adjourn at 9:01 p.m. >> Is there a second? >> Then seconds and I will take the role. Pot start. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. >> Renee. and McCall.