001agenda review. Anything we need to add agenda agenda? >> No. Okay. Um any me? Oh yeah. >> Uh we can withdraw 6B the cost payable approver. We did that. >> Love it. Anything else you want to take on? >> Okay. Uh the AP approver, it's B and Ben going forward. So, thank you for those who were doing it before and we'll move on. >> Okay. Um public are there any members of the public who would like to address the board on items not otherwise on the agenda? Nothing online. All right, moving right along. Principal's report. Do we have Colleen? >> Oh, she's unzoom. >> Yes, it was supposed to be uned not there. It's okay. We can move on. We do have her report in the attached insembly. >> N is with us. >> I'm
002here. anything you'd like to highlight for us in the report tonight? >> Can you hear me? Okay, >> I can. Thank you. >> Sorry. Hi there. Um the So, I don't know if you saw Well, no, it's probably dark when you got here, but the playground installation is done for the time being. We have a couple things to finish up on the wall and the surface, but that will have to wait until the ground is slightly less frozen. Um, we have uh the library installation going on right now. You should swing by and take a peek at that. Things are looking really good in there. Fourth grade is or fourth grade is headed off to the basketball game at Dartmouth tomorrow. Um, and yeah, we are in full swing getting ready for the holiday break.
003Everybody is busy, busy, busy. >> Awesome. And that game will be on ESPN Plus if anyone follows ESPN Plus. So, if you want to watch, it's a pretty fun game. It's just madness. Awesome. Any questions for Colleen? >> No. >> The three new students joining just after the new year. Are they included in the numbers, Colleen? >> No, not in the current total. So, it's three students in addition to what the December 1st number is. >> Okay. Do you know what where they're going to what grades? >> Uh, what? first, fourth, and second, I believe. >> First, and second, >> thank you. Little group of 60 moving through 61. Yeah. >> Awesome. All right, Colleen, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And can we move Tara over? >> She's not. Okay. All
004right. She's a rabbit. She's listening. Um, great. Renee, we're gonna move into the budget presentation. I know it's we see we're cruising right fast. >> There are a few documents attached. I think there are what like 20 do 8 16 documents attached. Um, so um if you are following along on >> there were an hour or so. Yes. tell me that that's more than there were an hour ago. That is correct. >> Um I think that read updates um the the and some of them are so it gives you the entire process as well. So you'll see there are some of them from like December 10th and so so it's if you wanted to see the history of kind of where we've been and Rene is going to run us through highlights of some of
005that history. Um, it's been a process and so if you wanted to go back and look at, you know, the history of what we've talked about, that should all be findable here now, which is good news. Um, and we have we are still um in in process on this budget. So, what you're going to see tonight is um where we're at. We're we're very much getting there. I would say we're almost there, but we have some decisions to make tonight um before we finalize things for the January uh presentation. So, and adoption of that. Do you need help? >> Yes. >> Last time I plugged it in, it gave me a should be able to slide it over, right? Okay. >> You'll say the same thing on your second. Um, it's funny. Yeah, that's all
006right. >> Okay, >> maybe we should see time save. >> That's fine. >> Here's where we are. >> Um, uh, which it said that the slides that we're going to talk through right here are for kind of just like context and discussion. Uh, they I did I spend no time on design. Uh, so don't expect that. Uh but I want to do a presentation because I've scaffolded some of the slides so you can kind of follow along. Um so first and foremost uh thank you to the entire budget committee. Everybody you put on a sweater so you're wondering purple. Um so there's been a lot of folks uh in the room for our budget handover budget committees. Um so I Rene Sullivan I am the chair. uh Kellen McConnell, Ron Sagner, Teresa Taylor, Paul Roy,
007Nan Parsons, and Dela Delu and um Dela makes a really great muffins if anybody should not sample. >> Um there's been a lot of engagement with the board on the budget content already to date. So, we've kind of listed out past and then future um conversations. This was made for last week, so the 10th into 15th of December, then we're good. Um there's been other meetings that have happened. I know that admin wise there's been a lot of discussions um that kind of Kelly and I weren't in part of all of those. Um but we were part of a bunch of them. And then another big piece um of our kind of conversation enabling uh that we're trying to have around this budget cycle is our lovely morning brew and budget review conversations. Um we've
008had two so far. Um there's going to be continu continuing January. We've had like I don't know a half five or six people. >> Yeah. So this summer um show up which is great. Uh and we'll come back to that later. But that's just kind of the context of what we've what we've done so far. Um we want to start off with a summary that is not too shocking I think given other conversations that are happening in Dresden and the SAU been following along. Uh costs are way up driven by healthcare and we are seeing kind of a revenue that is slightly down within the handover school district. Uh it's a different discussion elsewhere. Um ours is dered slightly in there but we'll get into more of that detail later. As a budget committee, our
009goal um is to smooth the volatility and taxation as best as possible without sacrificing our key improvement initiatives and minimizing the impact to educational experience and programming for our students. That has been the driver behind the decisions that we've made that we're going to talk through. So at a very high level few months ago the budget guidelines we based on the pick model we targeted a 3 to 4% overall increase um this year what's changed uh healthcare um both the assessment for this year and next year's increase. So, just as kind of the this is where we're going in this conversation, we are looking right now um we do nothing different than what we proposed is an 8.31% increase where our expenditures that are um that the budget committee focused on are under uh our
010upper 4% target overall. But then when we found out about net net assessment uh shortly that combined gives us a much larger increase than we were targeting. So you can see here we are fully acknowledging we still have work to do after tonight. We are looking for input and dialogue from tonight to lead into that discussion. Um a little bit more information because we think transparency is helpful. Um so just that context a little bit more of a nutshell. Our 3 to 4% budget guidelines were a conversation between September 10th and 23rd. We asked admin to explicitly target the 0% increase in non-personnel costs. So that is what has kind of grounded the initial version of the work that was happening between September and October. Um and then in November we had a discussion where
011we reached that target admin reached that 0% increase for non-personnel and then the overall goal 4%. But then came aim school care um and that was the assessment for this year's increase and next year's overall 26% increase which pushed the budget at the time we're looking at to 6%. So back to the drawing board uh at that point in time we said okay let's outline five different scenarios we have to start talking about cuts at that point in time in the budget committee meeting we talked about the fact that we have to start talking personnel so the five the different scenarios we looked at um really looked at different combinations of personnel some actual classroom FTE some um ed assistants that were some were held vacant for multiple years. We looked at tutors. Um all
012of these scenarios were then costed out and then discussed amongst um admin and budget committee and again with that overall goal of how can we make a selection that really makes sure we're not decreasing the impact or not um decreasing the educational experience um of our of our students. So that led to our December 8th discussion of that 3.91% of expenditures which is the number that I showed you on the previous slide and then came the additional revenue revenue discussion um which then put us in this conversation of okay our net assessments are at a shortfall we know we have more work to do on that uh so this is where we are today or December 15th where we have our increase of 8.31 where the expenditures in that assessment shortfall um are in there.
013I put a little asterisk because the net assessment shortfall assumes we're looking at a $1.4 million balance carry forward. We'll get into all of that with some additional numbers, but ultimately that leads us to a discussion today around what's in that 3.91%. So, we want to talk to you guys about what we've gotten to um in this discussion. What is what is the expenditures um that we are investing in? What are we actually cutting from those conversations? Um and then we have to discuss options for the um net that assessment short. This does not include conversation about warrant articles. I want to call that's a specific different um agenda item today. Kelly I think I skipped ahead. >> So with this lovely context um we are going to look at enrollment and mtees expenditures revenue
014and assessment and all our discussion and we'll we've been talking about next steps so we could get there too. Um, these numbers are no longer current. Love that. But it's great. Love more students. Um, so next year's enrollment based on November projections uh was looking at about 452 for next year. Um, our current year is now 456 as of January 1, which is great. Uh, so roughly similar. It's not a drastic swing that's being projected here. Um as such the initial conversation was not anything about increasing or decreasing um our overall FTEES which is the first bullet point here. So, previous discussions uh within this budget um cycle and that we brought to the board talked about the reduction of student needs within the ESL space and the special education space which are about one
015FTE in ESL and about half an FTEish um in special education. On top of that, we talked about the um the other scenarios. So, the social worker conversation, um, I think at one point in time we talked about adding a quarter of a social worker to all of the budgets, um, all the school budgets that based on conversations with other school leaders that we've of sourced information from as well, uh, led to taking this position out, um, because we're all facing that pressure. So instead of again I think removing the human that currently exists in our schools the concept was we haven't started this let's let's remove it this year we want to keep that idea um as a thing that's weird the screen which will get >> technology in any case uh so it
016is no longer in any of the budgets that you'll see that are being proposed at this points. Beyond that, uh the committee landed on I believe it was scenario five. Um if you look back at u the budget committee notes u from last month, you'd see them there all listed out. But the scenario that we landed on in terms of kind of the next step of reductions to get to the 3.91% is uh reducing five FTE general ed EAS and then uh there's a reduction of two interventionist or tutors. Um, and I know that Colleen's on the line and we can get into kind of a lot more details about why those are the choice, but ultimately the biggest um, I think logical the logic behind um, the ED assistance is that those five positions
017are targeted for our upper grades. They have been vacant for a long time. Um, this seems like a reasonable way to begin to capture some of the reductions that we need to look. >> Can I just add to that? So the reason the reason they have been vacant is not a lack of wanting to fill them. Um we just have not been able to consistently fill them and and so we've had a bit of a revolving door in those positions. Um so it's it's not even that um you know they have permanently been vacant. It's just that fill it and then we need to use that person in a different capacity for something else. And so net that that position has ended up being vacant over time. So yeah, good comments. So um there's a
018lot of documents that are uploaded to simply that get into more detail than this, but we wanted to just share at least based on numbers that we had uh as of last week what the biggest changes in our budget are. One of the big things we want to emphasize is that it's not just a cut next year. We actually are continuing to invest in our teachers. So we know benefits um that's a thing that's that we are investing in. We want our you know we haven't re addressed any of that um writ large I think in in Dresden we're saying let's continue uh with what we are talking about here in terms of benefits and then instructional salaries we investing in our teachers >> currently because sorry we are in the third year of our
019current contract agreement. This is the third this will yes yeah yeah we are currently yeah you know what year is it >> we are going into our third year so this budget reflects the third year of the contract >> um >> so that's kind of the biggest drivers up there the SAU assessment which we talked about in other meetings um that is coming through that increase um is not insignificant for us in Hanover um there's custodial conversation we've had a conversation I think in other budget committees but there's contract custodial services which we need. Um, and then the most interesting part here, which I want to make sure we get to because it definitely connects to what I think Lauren's been talking about is this ELA initiative. Um, we did want to continue to emphasize
020our investment in that curriculum, and you'll hear all about why later today. Um, so we are increasing, but these are the biggest reductions. Um, so the the kind of special education and ESL teacher um reductions, our ESA positions that we talked about, our interventionists and tutors, and the social worker. Um, so obviously if you combine these together, it's not that full number because this is not the full picture of additions and of subtractions. It's just the big ones uh for sake of conversation. Um, and then from here that leads to there is a I highly recommend we look at the document attached assembly, but it's the kind of more the summary of here's where our assessments are. Here's what the kind of plays out across the our revenues, our expenditures, now what? Um, and so
021we wanted to emphasize our conversation here. You know, this really came to light last week when we met, but our conversation around the balance carry forward being the the main driver being our healthc care expenditure this year, that extra payment we had to make this year um was it is a key driver behind what this decrease um in our balance carried is revenues. A little bit of a decline there um but not the main driver in our conversation here. Um and then overall this is where we get to our 8.3%. though and sorry Rene totally your current current year revenues a lot of that is money is coming from the state um and so that has gone down a little bit some of which is again not a big surprise to anyone who's been following
022education news in our state and at the national level um those monies have gone down a little bit so that's where that um 78,000 is largely coming from out so So the three scenarios we talked through um and we'll be exploring tonight. I think there's attachments. Um basically based on we we say 80.3% is acceptable. We're going to agree that that's fun um choosing moving forward as a board. Uh so we will we could choose that. That's baseline. Um so paying school care with the unspent balance um this year. And uh there's two pieces to that from the board meeting in October that we want to make sure we're clear about including um scenario one, we do have a maintenance reserve. Uh so we could tap into some funds there to help reduce the planned
023expenditures. The 100,000 that we've kind of added in this line, we could change. There's more than that in the fund. Uh but this is just for example. Scenario two um is use emergency reserve funds to cover school care um which is a little bit more nuanced and then scenario three which is let's do it all um and let's see what happens. And so these are the kinds of things that we want to get into today uh with the discussion around okay is this acceptable and if it's not what can we do about it um and then of course if there's you know other questions and comments be able to be discussing that too >> and I'll just find out if it's okay. Sorry, my the building maintenance reserve fund. Our balance is currently at 376,000
024and change. So, thank you. >> So, we have more than the 100,000. So, um so I'm going to turn it over to I believe Teresa to share your part of um where we are. The only thing I will say is that we're going to come back to this, but there are some next steps that we're just kind of codifying um as a committee about okay, well, what are we doing this budget cycle? What are we going to do in future budget cycles? Um and so I'm not going to really go into these here. You'll see them again um in January when we up to it. But that is to say we're tracking our goals for improvement. So >> questions for me before I sit down and turn over >> maybe we because this is still
025more of the same presentation basically right >> I think so >> well you you'll know how separate >> probably >> well okay let's take we'll take questions for Renee are there questions at this point I think we're going to get more details on the revenue is that right okay um so questions on what um Renee has just presented I'm not sure where to have the questions. I think I would one of the things that's concerning for me as a school social worker is these cuts really do come um it looks like from some of our most unique and neediest populations. Our educational assistance, the ELLL um and that need for a social worker has been talked about. My understanding is this might be the fourth maybe fifth year that it's been asked for by our
026um school counselors across the district. And so I think for me I just get worried that we're trying to do a cost saving and what ends up happening is that we burn out our general ed teachers and um the cost is actually seen in other ways later which is really expensive. And so I'm sure you guys talked about this, but from a I think verbatim actually. Um, you're raising the right questions. Um, do you want me to answer or do you want to answer? >> You're the one that actually raised it, I think. >> Okay. I said somebody's going to ask about the social worker because it has Yeah. And and um, so this was a decision I would say that was made districtwide as a cost-saving measure in this particular budget. Um, not in
027the handover budget per se. Um, and I'll yeah, I'll let Ben talk about that one in a second. Um, for the um, ed assistant, I just want to make sure it's very clear to anybody listening that those are regular ed >> um, EAS, not special ed. So, um, special education, whether it's EAS or tutors or um, in this case the ESOL, the the English is uh, for speakers of other languages, um, those are driven by need. And so those were areas that were identified as um cuts because we don't have the need in the building right now. Acknowledging that if that need came back, we would be asked to add those back in. So I'm personally comfortable with that because it's need driven. Um the ED assistant, the regular ED assistants, um is something that
028not all buildings have. I think we were fortunate to have them in our budget and um definitely see the benefits of having those. We have not cut all of them. I think we still have two left in the budget. >> Yes. >> Um and what we were finding is that was the number we could consistently staff. Um and so they have served sort of a float capacity at this point. Um and we've kept those in the budget and that was kind of the decision that was made. That was the the conversation that went into that. But you're asking a little bit question. Do you want to elaborate on the >> Yeah. Um >> social worker? >> Yeah. So for the social worker, for better or worse, each of the four schools independently without the knowledge
029of the others took it out of their budget um for some of the reasons we've already talked about. I'm in full agreement with him that says long-term consequences and we will keep trying. >> Handover was last in that line. I'll just I'll just say I mean I understood the reasons but we were kind of like okay. >> Yeah. So, I want to be careful here and not but I I'm looking at the drivers of the increase >> and we voted the SAU budget before we learned the impact of the health care costs and you know it's an 18% increase and I'm thinking that maybe it no longer is. And so I think that dollar amount I don't know whether it's public information. >> I think that that number there have been some decisions um made
030that may not be public yet. I don't know. Um but that may bring that number down a little bit which would help. Well, the bottom line, >> with all due respect, and I I can only imagine if Teresa is capable of flying across the room and stabbing me that it will be the moment when she does it. But um well, I just wonder I just wonder if we should go back and look at the SAU budget because the schools are where the sticking points are now hitting. And I would rather preserve what's happening at the the school level and look for additional ways that we might find some savings because we weren't we weren't unanimous in voting that budget. So can I respond? I have a couple. >> Let's disarm Teresa first. >> Yes. Yes.
031>> She has some couple thoughts. Um I I think I should have clarified. I think that we're actually going to see some positive >> um uh movement in the bottom line for the SAU in this current year. Um which will help us with some of that balance carry forward. Okay. >> Um conversation >> two or three days. >> Yeah. Okay. So that will be coming out soon. Um and I will I just I know I said this at the SAU budget and I know I said it to you too. Um it is 18% is a big percentage but when we look at the actual number the 110,000 is not if we were to shave you know even 10% off of that it's not going to be the thing that >> I understand I'm thinking about
032members of the public >> looking at for better or worse the parts of the complex that are more independent from what's happening in the classroom >> and I feel like I can best defend what we do but in terms of budget at all levels if at every level we're talking about you know trying to save some money and I feel like the timing of this unfortunately is hitting the three school the four schools because I'll take the crossable Um, and I just think the pain, the conversation needs to take place. If we don't have that conversation, I feel yucky. So, do you mind putting up this the slide about um changing process going forward? >> Oh, yeah. um because we mentioned that, but I I think you know part of what Renee has has very
033rightly pointed out here is the alignment of discussions and figuring out a way for us to stop having the conversations in silos, right? Um as I said, the social worker thing came to us at the handover level and we kind of said, "Okay, well, we can't we can't really discuss hiring a quarter of a social worker anyway, so I guess we'll take that out of I mean, it was kind of a non-discussion point for us at that at that stage, right? Not to blame the other boards, but it's just kind of the the nature of our budget process as it currently exists. Um, and I think you're right. At this point, I don't personally think that there's um going to be much appetite to reopen a budget that doesn't drive a lot of the dollar
034amounts. And I will say, and this is my axe to grind, just this Kelly, this is not a board perspective. This is my perspective. I think we need to be really careful about um valuing work that is done behind the scenes. Um even though it's not child-facing, I think, you know, none of the work that happens in our district can happen without some of those overarching, you know, data gathering, reporting, paying people, payroll, right, hiring people, all of that stuff. And you know, I know you know this has to happen. And so, and we need to value those people as well. and we had a whole committee that was charged with developing a strategy to value those positions and I think we're trying to kind of follow those strategies but I think we need to
035bring the discussion back up which I know is what you're asking for exactly because I am fully aware of and appreciative of everything that is done. Well, I'm not fully aware probably but I'm certainly appreciative of what happens there. I'm thinking from the public's perspective, these are conversations that we would do well to be better at having >> and to rehab. I think, you know, we had them probably three, four years ago, I think we had those conversations. Yeah. Um and and in open public meetings, but I think then the results kind of got baked into the pie and not necessarily shared um out in a a real public forum. And so I think that's probably some next steps. I know that's something that the finance committee asked for at our joint budget committee as
036well. You know, can we can we re have the ORC chart? Can we rehab the sort of what does the SA structure look like? So that um what we're sharing in a public facing um venue is clear, confident we confident that our we are confident that our staffing is right and that our compensation is right. but making sure that all of that is um perhaps a more um open and deliberate conversation with the public and I I hear that request. So, >> thank you. Thanks, Steph. Um other questions. Okay, Teresa, you're up. Renee, thank you. pretty. >> Oh, please ask the sugar. previously just >> so I will point out while Teresa's finding her place in this um we ended up I think with perhaps two um different levels of the same concepts um this
037so this presentation is also available in uh assembly and goes into kind of some more detail of what Renee just presented >> um there's a lot of verbiage so if you're looking for more detailed information on some of those higher level things. Um, this version of the presentation will provide some of that detail. >> There you go. They were sent to me >> in a threeack on my screen. Um here this is just an introduction of um the administrators and the handover school board. Um Robin Steiner, superintendent, Colleen Roy and principal and Parson's assistant principal business man I don't know if I say that right sorry services day director of plant Bryant Patton direct and technology and then from the handover school board we have Ellie McConnell chair Marcella Deassi vice chair Penny Vancini Deborah
038Aen Nelson, Erie Roso, Renee Sullivan, and Peraza. And then I just kind of grabbed a couple nice little pictures. Um, and then I know that the mission on the website on the school's website, the writing school provides a nurturing and exclusive learning community that inspires excellent excellence. and their vision is to be one way focused on empowering students to dream, create, think creatively, and contribute to the greater good. They look like they were having fun in here. Um, this next slide is probably one of the busiest slides. Um, trip now. I don't need these anymore. Um so basically the guidelines that we were put forth were trying to balance and come up with a with a starting with the zerobased balancing of the budget and trying to reach a target of no more than 4%
039for the FY27 budget expenditures. Um and that did not include any warrant articles or anything like that. Um, we were encouraged obviously to be very strategic about our goals. We need to make sure that we're still addressing the educational needs of the students by all the old term being fiscally responsible. Um, we move beyond um to move beyond the status of the nature and you know the model projections. Um, we were asked to also look at our strategic plan and to go through that and also concentrate on the areas of the strategic plan with the budget building. And so I just noted like the English l English language arts that's one of the focuses and those program materials that's one of those higher expenses and so that is something that is being included in the
04027 budget investments in multi-ter systems that's just constantly on work in progress. Um the hiring of a 1.0 no social worker that was going to be shared that at this time has been suspended due to the budget restrictions restraints and the buildings and grounds improvements. Um we had during the process we had put additional funds in there to do certain um projects also roof maintenance and stuff. We did have to trim the budget back, but we still have the funding to move forward and make sure that the roof maintenance and repairs and other necessary repairs are done. Um, the construction of the orchestra space, um, currently that's something to be determined. The expansion of the cafeteria and other discussions that have been ongoing, those are also being discussed and to be determined. And then the
041development of our preschool program is uh going to be put forth as a warrant article. Um the student enrollment you'll see um and I know that Rene spoke to it earlier that we're holding roughly around about 450 students. We've been kind of fluctuating a couple years at a time, but for the most part, we're holding steady. Sounds like we're going to gain three more, which is great. Um, so hopefully we'll keep trending that way. Teresa, before you move on from that, um, so a couple things just uh for the public's knowledge. Um, Renee mentioned this, we did sort of high level talk about our is our FTE level for classroom teachers at the right level. Um you can see here that we had projected 468 for this year and came in uh sorry yes 468
042came in at 452. Um we're now a little bit above that. So we were a little lower than our projections. If you kind of look back to 2425 you'll see we're at 440 and the taxpayers very generously um approved two additional FTEES um for that upcoming school year because we had very full classes at that point. we were looking at the projected increase and going and so we asked for two extra teachers. Taxpayers supplied that and we were grateful for that and it turned out to be really important because we actually came in even higher than the number we had quote unquote feared with our current staffing, right? Um, so we wanted to acknowledge just publicly that we recognize when those uh enrollments are large and the taxpayers generously authorize additional staffing, we need to
043be responsible if those numbers start coming down to look at our staffing and and is, you know, is our current staffing the right level. Um, and so I wanted to um just sort of publicly state that we had that conversation. Um, we are confident that for next year this is the right staffing amount, but if you kind of look ahead and you see that it looks like it's going to start to decrease going forward. Um, that is something that the budget committee, the board and administration are looking at and keeping an eye on and aware of. Um and I think next year when we come to this and we see where our enrollments ended up if we see that downward trend um continuing and especially with the lower projection um going forward in 2829 I
044think we'll be looking at um probably a reduction in classroom teachers. So um just wanted to to state that while brother's slide >> leads to our next slide of FTE >> um at this point um based on a lot of the again going back looking at the um the reductions that we need to make and everything else for the budgeting purpose. Um, it was a lot of hard lot of hard work from staff and and administration to really really kind of look at positions that obviously open and vacant positions that you haven't filled for two or three years. Um, were were one of those areas that would first be of ideal to be cutting those positions as as they weren't being filled. Um we did have an increase in occupational therapy for necessary needs. Um
045the decrease in ELLL specialist is a one. So the total FTEES that we have for certified staff is 56.73. So all in all it's reduction of just a point8. And then as far as other all others um there is an area of preschool education assisted not directly related with the you know startup of a preschool program but um that one's a.5 increase that we had and then tutors we've had a decrease of 1.48 and the educational assistance that we were talking about is a decrease of 5.04. So all in all at this point we've got all other staff um 38.73 FTEES and then um the reduction was a 5.94. So overall we've reduced 6.74 FTEES for this FY17 school year question that 0.58 that is special education driven correct. Yeah. And if the warrant article
046on preschool were to pass, would that 58 >> that would most likely want to read? >> Okay. It would be rolled into that warrant article. Okay. Thank you. So the summary by regarding for the expenditure budget summary um the very first column the expenditures just listing out you know the rate operating expense prek of then I categorize the special ed tuition expense then the capital expense site and building improvements debt service and income transfer out um here in FY 26 Um, our operating expense for the prepaid 5 is 14,57391. We're looking at for FY27 15,49084 which is an increase of 9816 excuse me $993 and we're looking at a increase of about 6.29. Um, so although there is an increase of from 6.29 29 for the 27 operating versus the 26 operating. There's still reductions
047in the expenditures that were related as I just showed you between um FTEES. Plus, in this case, the special education expenditures, you'll see that the private 9 to 12 actually decreased $392,000. Also, the preschool went down 8,600 prediction. um the the out ofstate 912 did go up, but there's still um a great deal of savings. And then transfers out. Um in this particular case in FY 27, we discussed not putting $100,000 into the capital reserves, but um so that would be a reduction again. And then um so at the bottom line for the operating for FY26 16,561770 and then there's 27 we're looking at 17 million124 388. Um it does not include obviously negotiated items and certain warrant articles like the prek. So our net change would be 562,618 looking at a 3.4 4 and
048Z could fluctuate on board 3.414. >> So, can I one addition to that? Um, I just wanted to point out those um reserve funds that were not we're choosing not to build up in this year. Um, we need to discuss on our maintenance or sorry, our warrant articles. If we're going to put a warrant article for any excess funds, I'm not anticipating that we'll have a lot of excess funds, but um we can talk about the warrant article. Um, and I just wanted to make sure voters are aware that um, through the support of our community, we're comfortable currently with where our special education reserve funds are. We have 350,000 and change. I think Teresa has that on the separate slide. So, we're comfortable that that would fund um, extraordinary special education costs that might
049be unanticipated um, should they arise. Um, and similarly, our building maintenance fund is actually pretty healthy right now. Um, hence our discussion about perhaps drawing down from it a little bit to offset some of these costs. Um, but that's part of why we're not asking to add to those funds right now. So Teresa, I'm looking ahead at some of these slides and there's a lot of numbers and a lot of words and I'm looking at the time and wondering if we can try to summarize perhaps because I know Renee kind of hit some of the highlights in terms of the big drivers. Um so just as we're going through if we can kind of think about like what are the like the big things that we need to talk about here. Um >> um this
050one just kind of um goes back and summarizes the prior slide where we're just looking at it. The top section is just breaking everything down just group by the actual function code sort of like the department and then the bottom section is then taking it by the object code whether it's salaries, benefits and stuff. Um and I will point out that you will notice that the benefit side that the increase is like 54,000. That's probably our biggest driver. Um, honest budget due to unforeseen insurance expenses. Ben had a question. Sorry. >> Yeah. Theresa, I just wanted to sort of clarify the nomen a little bit, especially come presentation at the public meeting in February where at the 2300s for school board and SAU services for 670 on the first column that the school board itself
051is less than 1% and so just I I know it's that's a long-standing title. It's unclear that >> I can break it out. know that we are taking $100,000 salation >> of that. >> Yeah. >> And then kind of the same thing on the 500s in the object uh line where where it says field trips, travel, and tuition. >> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean specific to this district is that 99% of it is special ed tuition. >> Um when it comes to tuition for the most part, yes. >> Tuition expenses out. Yes. So we're not spending 2 million on >> $2 million field trips. >> Um so if we can clarify that at least public facing I think that would go a long way in towards avoiding grand >> otherwise we should
052have pictures from some of those field trips Indonesia >> paper by ourselves. >> There's the safari. This one's just briefly then taking the budget and breaking it down into a pie chart to just basically show you that 70% of the budget itself literally is regular instruction and special ed instructional strictly instructional. Less than 30% of the budget is all everything else and and out of all the other categories, no one category is bigger than 5% of that budget. Overall, >> I have one clarifying question. Is special ed transportation, including transporting students to the um the private schools that is that under special ed or is that under transportation? >> The transportation itself would be under the 2722 transportation code for special ed. Okay. >> So, it is broke out completely separate. >> I mean like
053on on this figure, where would it be? It's not this this particular slide and the prior slide all the 2700s put together. >> So it's considered transportation. >> Yes. >> Okay. Right. Thank you. >> There's that school point 5%. >> Yeah. Let's rephrase that. This one I I won't go too I won't go all into it, but this slide deserved its own. It's this literally is about the medical insurance. So the big increase and just to kind of highlight this is the biggest change and increase that we're experiencing um to the budget. >> Yeah. The next slide goes again just kind of showing you other significant changes. I've listed out the different categories and on the right hand side is the comments basically giving you um the reason for that increase or decrease. >> The
054next one, the district revenues and net assessment. Um this particular one you'll see that the the FY2526 as voted um our prior year voted all articles inclusive our budget was 16,561770 um what we carried forward for the fund balance was 1.37756 and then any local sources of revenue that we've received um any state funding has been taken into account funds from Bridgemond. Um if we had drawn on the reserves, we would have seen that. And so then our total current um year of revenues leaving us with revenues and fund balance amounts of 3,38. And so the net assessment um to the town basically was 13,52375. And so when we're looking ahead to FY27, we're looking at a 17,124 388 budget than more articles for um schoolboard and bridge Bridgemond Trust, which is not tax affecting
055because it has um because we have a income and an expenditure for the 75,000. So it there's no bearing on the tax rate. Um so our budget proposal at that pace would be 17,209363 and then again if the assumption is that by the end of this year we have 980,000 to carry over um with our current year revenues and everything else then the net tax assessment to the town would be 14 million 646406. That's an increase of 1.2 2 1.123 million and again almost 600,000 of that is due to medical insurance increase and so this is important because I think I was misunderstanding this personally um the 980,000 includes the amount that we put into the reserve fund for extraordinary expenses. Correct. And it includes returning that to the taxpayers. >> Yes. So, um, yes,
056this is something I figured out in our latest iterations. Um, so that means that if we were to use that to spend down on the, um, healthc care bill in the current year, it would it would Yes, it would drive up the tax rate for next year because it would decrease that 980,000 that we have currently said we're going to give back to taxpayers at the end of the year. So, essentially, it's drawing into our savings account if you think about it. um in normal people terms, right? Um to pay that. And so the the long story short is that we have to pay a bill and that costs money, right? That money has to come from somewhere. So this is where and um if you Teresa, if you wouldn't mind while I'm just on
057a roll here, um switching to slide 14. Um this is where if we are to dip into our building maintenance reserve, that is actual money that we don't owe anybody. we the taxpayers have put that into a trust for us to spend on building maintenance. And so that is an area where we can increase the revenue stream essentially when we look at that um because or or in that case it' be decreasing our costs because we're getting money to spend on our building maintenance from something other than current year taxation. So that is a mechanism we can use to help smooth out that tax rate um in a responsible way because it's money that the taxpayers have earmarked for this purpose. >> Yeah. So since it's earmarked for building maintenance, it would be for things
058like custodial work and >> it it's not like painting this room, >> right? It's not. >> I'm just thinking of some of the revenue sources where it's not supposed to be things that we should be paying for anyway. This doesn't really matter. >> Correct. That's my understanding as well. And it's not your marked for capital improvement, which is how I have been thinking of it as well. And it's not. It's you're marked for building maintenance. um also um not earmarked for extraordinary catastrophic kinds of things that would be covered by insurance anyway. >> Um so this is really its purpose. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I mean I'll still call it a capital expense but not necessarily capital improvement right just in case. >> Yeah. Um, first, uh, Noah, board member Tara Blosso has a
059question, so can you move her over? And then while you do that, um, uh, Teresa, can you clarify for our new board members as well as the public why we're getting almost 200,000 from Hover Public Waterworks. >> Um, I might not be the best person because they've inquired about this and I've asked it several years. >> It wasn't clear to me. um because I did inquire about um the project or whatever that happened and >> where's the >> there was some effect on the school. So that's the best I'll probably explain why I get the civics statement. >> Yeah, we can get next week. Yeah, >> sorry. Um, I I raised my hand a long time ago when Deb was talking and all I had wanted to say was that um I think that it
060is uh it should be a priority of the board to do the work moving forward to make some significant structural changes to allow for a budget that is not going to rely upon one-time cuts or one-time revenue sources. And although I can tell it's obvious that a lot of work has been done to get to the point where we're at with this particular budget, I'm not sure that's the kind of work that has been done. um the the kind of work that will lead to a a long-term longstanding uh standard of fiscal health for for the the budget for the handover school district. Um I feel like at this time a year from now the discussion may very well be um quite the same and we would have made no sort of significant long-term process
061toward getting to a position where we didn't have to have this conversation more often if the say health insurance pressures continue. we have we we won't be in a better position. Um in fact, we may be in a more difficult position because we may have fewer reserves on hand if we choose to tap those and we will have less of a a carryover for the next year because we are really trimming some areas um of the budget that have resulted in carryover funds. um in previous years. So, I just wanted to say that and and the part of um the part of Deb's comment that I wholly support and sort of philosophically feel the same way is that in many organizations um like nonprofits, there's a philosophical, you know, besides the optics that Deb talked
062about for for public digestion, there's also a philosophical standard that applies whereby every dollar that goes directly to service is usually considered a win as opposed to the overall dollars that are used for the infrastructure operational costs. So direct service percentage of dollars, the higher that number is, which would be the the dollars that we spend in the school, in the classroom, um is an indicator of a higher quality operation, um at least philosophically in a lot of organizations like nonprofits, which we um in the school district sort of resemble um in many respects. We're kind of a hybrid. So those were the things that I was going to say. Thank you for for letting me chime in. >> Thanks, Tara. Sorry, I didn't see you earlier. Um, did you debating? >> I I have
063a Yeah, I'm debating which one thing I want to say. Um, I just think uh I will plus one to what you said before, Kelly, about this the support that central office provides. I think I'm having a hard time just like where where would this conversation go because I don't know what right size is. >> Um and I think that was one of the things that the that came up is like let's talk about what the right staffing is. What are the needs of the you know the SAU and are they currently being met or not? And given that we are an interstate school district it adds additional burden. Um, and so we know we can't totally just compare to others that are exactly next to us, but ultimately that I feel like that has
064to be part of the conversation. Um, but my specific question is about the maintenance reserve fund. And if I'm looking at slide seven where it says capital expense >> site and building improvements 152,250 for last year and this year >> is that like our max for what we can then spend like we wouldn't withdraw more from the fund than we would use. Correct. >> Can we use some of it this year and some of it next year? Like what are our options I think >> um >> for that? I'm I'm just curious to >> it's I mean those bonds can be drawn on it then you give it time. >> Okay. >> Yeah. You would just make a board decision and vote on it >> because once they're in the reserves pulling those out theoretically
065has no tax impact again because we've already collected it. It's sitting in but we wouldn't take out more. Thank you. We wouldn't take out more than we would spend. Correct. And I don't know if that's >> Yeah, thank you. My timing on this is bad, but I was going to say that in terms of your questions about roles and functions, sort of the philosophical discussion of the SAU is that came up in four chairs right before this as well. And I anticipate that Robin will have answers for later the January SAU meeting. >> I say that for her as she leaves. >> We have them too. uh that the one the meeting tomorrow is an add-on to approve a donation. It's a standardized meeting. >> Got it. >> Okay. So, um we kind of skipped
066ahead a little bit. Um Teresa, can you just summarize for us the um tax rate projection and then that will lead us into our war article discussion. Sure. Um basically at this point our um getover assessment for this year is at 13 million.5. the Dresds in assessment is 19.577. Um you will see a little red message um because when I just want to state um that when the documents were sent to the DRA um the document that I sent them was the correct document except I didn't realize that it didn't have the warrant article uh amount on that paper um when I sent it everything else. So it didn't get included. So the 366,000 is still something that currently working with the DRRA, currently working with our attorney um and of course with the town
067and that um I don't have a direct answer at this moment on what the process going to be but for the most part it's something that will probably capture in the spring billing and and um and and that only impacts technically right now only impacts the FY 26 school year because those are revenues that we would receive. for this year. Should there be some reason that we don't collect them or the town or however says, you know, we're just it is what it is. Then it would be something that we would obviously not collect those and our fund balance would again look smaller, our ending fund balance, >> which would have packed rolling over next year. But at this point, if um it doesn't seem like it it seems like we'll be able to just
068um correct this in the spring building is how it's being um discussed right now. But our so that Sorry, go ahead and finish your sentence. >> I'm sorry. I was just going to say for the FY27 based on the budget and everything else being put forth and based on the D addressing budget, we're looking at again 14.6 million for handover, 21 million for Dresden, um 35 million, six, and that overall amounts to about 7.82% increase over FY 26. And then when we look at the tax rates down at the bottom, the local tax rate is 7.33. I put a star next to that because again, I kind of linked it up with a red thumb up above. Um and again the bottom because originally was estimated to be 7.23 or calculated to be 7.23 23
069we already got our tax rates. Um but it's a 10 cents difference on that um amount. >> And um so for FY2627 currently as it stands we're looking at literally $9 tax rate which is of a 54 cent increase. Um and then it amounts to 6.38% overall increase. Okay. Um 6.38 year-over-year and that includes the 10 cents that was not in our current assessment. Right. >> Correct. >> So it's interesting because that year-over-year now looks less shocking because in fact the current year was higher. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Um >> but the year-over-year is less is a little bit lower. Um okay. Should we look at the word articles now or should we have this conversation? >> Uh can we have this conversation? >> Yes, let's have
070this conversation. >> Um so conversation think >> Overall budget. Yes. And then we can move on to the word articles. Um Teresa, thank you for that. Um so I'm going to look kind of at the board. We need to decide what percentage we're comfortable with if we want to work to smooth that year-over-year by drawing down some of the building maintenance reserve. I think that's kind of where we're at. Yeah. Go ahead. >> You want me to finish these or you don't want >> um I think we're going to pause on the warrant article for right now. Okay. >> And have this conversation and come come back to the word articles in just a second. >> You need your computer. You can see >> I can leave it. Mr. >> So, um I don't know
071if anyone has any thoughts on that, Renee. If as board chair, do you want to or as as chair? That's me. >> As budget chair, do you have thoughts on that? Um, uh, so the things that I think about are like of all the iterations we've gone through and kind of the pingpong of great, we got it down, now it's up, now it's now it's like, okay, well, what >> I think we're all a little tired, but I don't want that to like cloud, I think, where where we are. Maybe it's just me, but that's fine. Um it does it seem it seems like a high enough percentage increase to me that we should have a discussion like what can we do to bring this down. I don't think we leave it and say we're
072good. Um I think we need to we need to try something. Um and I don't know what that something is but we do have the the maintenance reserve seems like the easiest thing to to look at and tap into potentially to smooth the lumpiness. Um again without impacting educational quality. we wouldn't have to have opened another budget conversation at SAU. Um, but I I think a question I have that would help me is like what is 1% in the tax change like what if we took the 152,000 or whatever that was from slide seven or even just 800 what like is that going to translate to a 4% tax rate increase? So every h 100,000 is approximately 3 cents. Thank you. >> That's a thousand. So >> um so if we take that 10 cents
073there for example on a $500,000 house that's going to be about $50. >> Okay. >> And so >> that's that's the increase. >> That's the increase in this current year. Correct. >> Um so if we were to draw down 100,000 from the building maintenance reserve that would translate to about a 3cent increase on a,000. So, it's a $30 savings. >> Okay. >> On the on >> Yep. I think there are two challenges. One is the number that that people see that's an increase >> that can you know the closer we get to a 10% or the closer we get to where we are right now the more alarm I think will be prompted >> at the same >> the other challenge or not challenge is that when you start talking about >> this is $30
074on a half a million dollar house >> and then people go Oh, but the more that one arm just keeps going up. This is the percentage arm. >> I'm an English teacher. The entire one. The more this hand goes up, the harder it is to look at this one that's just saying, "Oh, it's pennies. It's not that much. It doesn't add up to that much." Right? >> But this is this is a not a good place to be. So I my personal view is that we absolutely have to grab that maintenance money, but I would love to look and see how where if there's anything else that we can do and I don't I don't know. >> So that's I appreciate that. I think that's an excellent point. I would add a third sort of
075arm. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. >> I finished my leg. >> That's right. >> Um and I think that is are our costs right? are is our is our budgeting correct, right? Are we at the right staff levels? Are we at the right numbers for supplies for the new ELA program for um the the field trip numbers? Right? Are have we done the right things building the budget? And I just I think we lost in this particular iteration of the budget, but anyone else who anyone who's watched our budget process over the years knows that the race school starts with a zero budget process. So they really build from what's our core mission, what are we trying to achieve with our educational programming and what will achieve that, right? What's the staffing? What what are the
076supplies? What are the field trips that drive our core mission, our core goals, and what do we not need? And I think lost in our summaries because you know you do have the detailed budget here and the year-over-year changes by line item that you can look through. But what's lost in this is there are a lot of things that have been cut right >> from one year to the next because they decided this is actually not driving our core mission. Um and so I really want to thank the the race school staff, the entire staff for that very thoughtful process. um and also acknowledge the work that was done to try to make thoughtful cuts after that thoughtful process was done. And so, um, I think I feel having gone through, you know, the hours
077of meetings with these people that that we really have gotten to the right, um, cost levels, the right, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, the right line items, right? I think they've done a really thoughtful process with that. Um and then I think similarly my question is and it kind of brings up what Tara was was saying um do we want to drop like regardless of the year-over-year which is on some levels just a number as you're saying that right it is and as you can see one little thing can skew that balance you know year-over-year that percentage right so it's not the end all be all if we're doing the right things right it's more that sticker shock value and smoothing things out right um and making sure that over time we're not
078creeping too high and pricing people out. But within that, I know Teresa has said that the maintenance uh reserve fund needs to periodically be used otherwise why do we have it, right? And so from a philosophical standpoint, tapping into those reserves probably makes sense regardless of where the year number is at. It's probably a wise thing to do. Is that I'm paraphrasing, but is that a that's fair to say? Okay. >> Wasn't it said in a budget meeting that we actually have to use it within a certain time period? >> That you can have it in reserves, but at some point um it's it's my understanding it's always been five years, but within five years you have to tap into it >> and and not >> you essentially ask the taxpayers for the money for
079a purpose. Yeah. But then you're sitting on it. So there comes a time that you need to pull it out and utilize it otherwise you give it should be given it back. >> Do you have a sense of the percentage that needs to be used to qualify that? >> I don't think there's necessarily a legal qualification. It's good practice. >> It's responsible stewardship. >> Yeah. It's not an emergency fund. It's a maintenance fund. >> Yeah. It's it's absolutely >> Yeah. and we haven't tapped into it because we've been planning our maintenance and you know spreading it out and you know doing a good job with that side of things. So thank you to those people as well. Right. Um, okay. So, I'm sensing that the general consensus from the board is that we should roll
080that 100 >> 150 150 150. Okay. >> I think my only curiosity is and who we haven't heard from are the facilities folks like are there like I feel like there was a meeting not too long ago where there was talk about all the >> facility needs um and so being newer to the board and not fully know it. Yes, Renee, that looks lovely. facilities document up that's uploaded that breaks down all of the different like part of it is literally what they're paying for with the budgeted funds and then um well it's all budgeted basically but whether it's in the 2600 codes meaning regular maintenance or the 46 and the 4200 meaning building and then um site >> improvements and stuff but so they do list that out and we have gone through actually
081had cuts comes back in cutting the budget. >> Okay. Um so just to summarize, taking this money from the maintenance reserve fund shouldn't change the scheduled maintenance that needs to be done. >> Right. Correct. It wouldn't it wouldn't change at all the regular scheduled and all that. >> Okay. So as a side conversation, making sure that we're getting the maintenance done that we need to get done. But this is happen. Okay. Okay. >> All right. Um so we will do that in our next iteration of the budget process. >> Um thank you guys. Um and warrant articles. So um the warrant articles I had asked um Ryan to upload and I apologize I didn't see what finally got uploaded but she did. >> She did. Okay. So just so everyone knows what is uploaded here.
082um especially for our newer board members to be able to see is the warrant articles that we voted on last year. So these these are last year's warrant articles um that went before the voters, but I wanted everyone to be able to see sort of what that looks like um when the voters see them. And also because a lot of them are perennial um warrant articles that we don't need to discuss really right now because they don't change the school board members the salaries um the um uh there won't be what what uh remind me sorry what negotiation are we in this year >> and service so that will be on there as a multipleyear contract >> we hope right um it will be I Oh, >> it will be um the full budget and
083then at the end you have those um we have the Bridgewin fund as well and then at the end um there's that funny article that we may want to talk about um with the um what to do with uh excess reserve funds. So whether we want to pull them into the capital reserve fund um for education of persons with disabilities or for the maintenance fund that we're now depleting. Um so um that's kind of a high level overview of what's on the warrant article document. Um and then for this evening's conversation um we have a couple of specific warrant articles. So Teresa, I don't know if you want to switch to that slide. >> Well, you can. >> Yeah, please. I just want to point to board members screwed out at the wackiness of the
084scheduling of the meeting to the town this week that this year that's going to be on a Saturday morning during our February break >> that several people will be gone and will not be able to present including both Kelly and myself. So >> we will be asking um in January probably or coming through tonight who's going to take point on those. Same thing for for Justin as well. any that you might as board members to take on any of those items. Same with a smile. >> Sure. >> Um so this is the um proposed >> the top one is just um just our standard for the bargaining with the service. >> Y um and then the other one is the preschool article. Um and Rhett, I don't know if you want to speak to this
085right now. I will just set it up by saying um adding a a prek program is something that has been in discussion for many years, >> many years at at the sort of race school um SA administration level. Um and they put together a formal proposal this year. Um it is partly to serve our prek population that qualifies for special education and early childhood um education benefits, but also um to create um a mixed classroom environment for those students. Um and ultimately we would love to be able to provide um increased access to um prek education for our residents. There's a shortage in the upper valley. So I, you know, everyone that we have circulated the concept with says, "Yes, we need more early childhood education options um for the upper valley. Um but what
086does that look like practically speaking? What does that look like for space? What does that look like for cost? What does that look like for staffing?" Um and so these guys have put together um a presentation. We asked to put it into a warrant article instead of putting it into the primary budget given the challenges of this year. um but also to acknowledge this as new programming. Um and so to ask if the board decides to put this board article in front of the voters and that is that is what we have to decide um if we want to do that and I think we decide that in January. So this is not a final decision tonight. Um but if we decide to put that in front of voters, it is essentially asking voters to
087put their stamp of approval on this um and vote to raise the tax rate in order to fund this program. So specifically, we have very deliberately not taken anything out of the main operating budget um in order to accommodate this program specifically because we wanted it to stand alone at this point, right? but goal would be to roll it then into the budget for future years. So acknowledging all of that, Red, I don't know if you want to give a >> I think that was a great summary. >> Okay. >> See, I listened to review. Um, you know, a committee was formed during the 2425 school year which included parents, educators from the Ray School area, um, private preschool providers, covers most people. Um, and their task was to um, gather information about other public
088schools in New Hampshire, about our preschools, what it look like, what our current model is, and then kind of put forth, which is where all this came from. Um and then came the the budget challenges with the health insurance and all the other things which just now is a much harder discussion to have. Uh I did do a presentation in October to the school board. Those slides are available in Simly. Uh I know we discussed it at least a couple times at hand committee meetings. Um and then two friends ago during a coffee conversation we had a discussion and I think the turnout was good for the coughing conversation >> and we had a follow-up discussion and question and answer period. Uh the only update since then uh is we did update the document that's
089in Simly the RA preschool program information uh to reflect the current estimates of what staffing would be. When we previously got those that was prior to the health insurance change increases and so now the amounts in there for 1.0 0 FTE early childhood educator and a 1.0 FTE educational assistant for the classroom reflects the accurate estimates for their staff analysis. And also in that document we projected out u if we were to expand the program in three four number of years down the road what those additional costs would be. uh and you'll see it um it's an initial investment and then following that if you were to charge some tuition that would great reduce the cost of the running the program year-over-year. And so one of the things as you'll see on the slide here
090um that we're we are asking the board to sort of consider tonight um is whether we want to consider a warrant article that includes that proposed revenue offset or if we think it's more prudent to simply put the full cost forward to the voters. Um I have some thoughts on that. I did just want to say I also hadn't noticed the name. >> I don't know if you just added that, but I love the name rising. >> And I'm also happy. I was like perfect. >> I hadn't noticed it and I love it and I wish I noticed it earlier. Um making a face that this is your creation. >> I love it. >> Somebody on the committee. >> Okay. >> I don't know. actually. >> Um, yeah, >> I have a question that I
091think came out of the um there's a lot of I think conversation of the coffee chat. Yes. >> One of the things that we talked about was um the like these kids will benefit the most if they're truly integrated into the school, which would include like specials and things like that. Does the like estimate you have here include their time with music or PE or art or things like that? >> No additional FTE factors were considered for special teachers. Okay. >> As an increase into the budget, >> do we think we have I don't know if this is who the answer is to but like is there space is there capacity for that within the specials staff currently? >> I can't answer that. I think able to answer that. Okay, she's on. >> I wouldn't
092believe. >> Sorry, can you hear me? >> Sure. >> Okay. Sorry, I have my headphones on. Sorry. Um, we have not talked about prek working with specials at this point and I'm not sure where we would fit that in right now given that that they are servicing six grade levels a day. I don't know that there's really any time in their day to be able to do that. So, that's something that we hadn't talked about at this point. So, we would have to we would have to look at the schedule really carefully and see how we could make that happen, but I'm not sure how we would do that. Thank you. >> Can I Yeah. I'm curious about the tuition rate of looks like $5,000 and I don't know like last the pres presentations I've
093had hadn't had a number and there is a number in this. So I'm just curious where that number comes from and how it got landed upon and >> great question. uh part of the committees were looking at what is the range of tuitions um in public schools New Hampshire ranges from free programs to up to about um $4,000 for a 4 day a week 4 hour a day program. So the program that we're putting forth will be run at the same school day schedule as the race school. So it be a full school day program. Uh and so that was a estimate of a tuition amount that uh we just put forward. It wasn't decision made at the board level or administration of just an idea that was put out there. Um it is less
094than what some of the private preschool programs in the area charge for not full day school length program. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so if the other discussions that we've had where uh charging tuition sounds like would be a reasonable amount $5,000 um to offset some of the program costs, but we'd have to have a mechanism to ensure that it's not costing out families um children who don't have those funds available and really would memor. So some preschool programs have sliding scales or they use free or reduced lunch as a mechanism to identify those families who can't pay the full tuition that shouldn't come with their access. >> Um and if I may just share so the most recent coffee and conversation public info session um was attended by a quorum of the board and so
095we did um it was published it was available to the public um and we did publish minutes which are available in Simly. So um people can see those minutes as well which will be helpful to anyone who wanted to follow that conversation and wasn't able to attend. Um and one of the the things that um came up was yes we probably could charge more tuition. I think that was, you know, um also at the same time for this first year where you where we would be talking about serving approximately 16 students, um half of whom give or take would be um qualifying for special education services on of some type of some level. Um the conversation around people who attended that coffee was really focused on um who would most benefit from this opportunity. And
096so in that context, it didn't sound like these would probably be students who would be paying tuition. They would largely be free and reduced lunch um students or um students who um are uh from um who have ESOL qualification, something like that. And so this the vibe that I was getting, for lack of a better term, from that group was perhaps we don't count on tuition for this first iteration and putting forth um a proposal, a warrant article for voters to vote on that we perhaps pass forward that entire cost. Um again, as a is this something we want as a community at this stage? Is it something we're willing to put those tax dollars behind? >> Yeah. So my one of my big concerns is has nothing to do with the merits of providing
097strong preschool programs for kids. But it's something that I spoke to that Friday, the the meet and greet and chat and I sorry I had my back to you but I just really think we have a terrible absence of ways to convey information to people who might come and vote about you know the thinking and the process and the planning and how we convey so that people can make a thoughtful decision >> is a real challenge to me because I you're absolutely right people in the room but there weren't that many thought you know this should not be a tuition a source of tuition and I completely approve of that decision but people in the community might say well we're willing to do this but we do want to consider tuition the more nuanced this
098gets that's the harder it will be to figure out what people really want. And obviously we're going to have to make a decision what we put on the warrant. But I don't feel like >> if we put the word forward, right? I just want to make sure that you have >> if we decide we have to figure out what we want it to say and it's so hard to assess the thinking of the public when yes we had a well-intended coffee but it was you know a 2-year-old both her parents and maybe folks from four other non board related households which is not really >> going to help us get that message out. Yeah, Carrie. And then I know Tara is on the line with a comment. I just want to talk. I think um
099I am very pro preschool. I'm very pro like the neediest folks need early intervention and I also and maybe this is building on what you're saying from a tuition perspective. there's a piece of me that knows that within this community like if we had a higher tuition with um you know what a pay scale a sliding scale based on need for me I think that that's where my brain goes we are a very well-resourced community and perhaps the community has an appetite to know that like you know we're paying $8,000 that's still potentially $15,000 cheaper than any other full daycare care >> you can find. Um and >> and so there's a piece for me that just wonders in this year where we are talking about cutting positions >> and um not creating a position
100that's been asked for for years, not looking at things and it is all new. >> Um is there any cost analysis about that? do like $5,000 feels like a nice round number that made sense to plug in, but really being thoughtful about like what is that dollar amount that is relational to the current market um when it is with a sliding scale and I am not a budget person so I don't even really know what I'm asking but I think there's there's some more finite financial information that I feel like could be dug into around that and and I don't know that it's off-putting if we know that it's a sliding scale with the idea of, you know, >> there may only be two kids that end up paying full, you know, tuition, but I
101think it's um it's just something I'd be interested in exploring when we're looking at so many cuts and other areas. Ben, >> welcome in with survey results, >> surveys. >> In terms of the list of the top fiveear initiatives at Ray School, that adding prek was number three. about a fourth of respondent saying that was their top priority. >> So I think the the demand is there. I think as a parent with still youngest kids, I'm with the general consensus that tuition needs to be part of this conversation because if we don't offer tuition, the demand will be very overwhelming and then we'd have to also work on how are we going to prioritize the students who are not free reduced lunch who do not have IEPs but just our sort of general student body
102will have high demand for this type of thing. particularly if the conversation shifts to let's get the specials involved. You can have full-time race school staff teaching your three-year-old. I think the demand will be very high. >> Not worried about filling it. >> Yeah. Not worried about filling it. So, but also think having to parse it down. So, okay. So, all this who gets in >> just think we talked about sort of that prioritization question is going to be a big one on people's >> for children or >> nobody children siblings you know all the other possible criteria. staff 71. I'm not I don't we have a question from Terra as we all take first. >> When we're done, we also have a question for a member of the public level. >> We have our
103finance committee >> and both members in public too. Feel free to raise your hand at any any point if we have >> Tara and then Renee >> and but uh public member we see you. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, my brain is having a really and I I love the preschool proposal of having a preschool program. My brain cannot process and accept the 15 student number. It just I'm falling down on that. And I'm also sort of curious as to the um because this is an educational program. And Carrie said something really interesting. Carrie said daycare. This is not a daycare program. This is a an educational program. So I am also having a hard time reconciling a two or threeyear-old having an entire school day um of educational program and being able to really
104um you know maximize the potential of that rather than I think at a previous meeting we had really discussed you know the the the logistics were sort of amorphous at that point. Why could this not be a half-day program so that twice as many children could participate? A morning class and an afternoon class like most educationally sort of um caned programs do for for kids this age. So the thank you um valid valid questions that definitely came up in committee as well. Um I think the target for this first crew would be primarily four-year-olds um and possibly three-year-olds depending on the situation. So it would be mixed to three and foury old. So not going down to two I don't think >> um and then the conversation around full day versus half day. I think
105there were some partly practical considerations and then um partly what was um most beneficial to those students that qualified for early intervention that we were trying to serve. I think that was kind of one of the driving factors in that decision. Um but I think again four-year-old was kind of the first target. Right. Right. The proposed model was a mixed grade sorry mixed age preschool program which is three and four. Our respon our responsibility for uh preschool age students who have special education needs starts at their third grade. So we we wouldn't include any students prior to turning three. >> Okay. And that was Tara um just to reinforce what you said that was definitely something that came up with the coffee. Um and part of it, you know, in the initial conversations, as Colleen
106said, this budget proposal does not or this board article proposal does not include um physical education, uh FTE. It does not include any kind of music for right now. Um, and we did have a comment in the coffee that you're going to be in this room with three and four year olds for a full day without any other that sounds like a lot and you probably need to rethink that. And so um that is a very it's a very valid uh comment and I think yeah something that is still being discussed >> and just to respond to the half day and I think you're good catch there. I think I misspoke with the daycare and I'm sorry about that because you're absolutely right. They are not the same. Um and um there is a move
107away from the half day. There's some like equity pieces around um parents ability for who can access when half day happens. And I know that um >> that half day preks are not as common as say ones where there's a shift to full day kind of general. Um um Renee, >> thanks. >> Sorry. >> No, this is really um I think a very helpful conversation and I'm I'm sensing this like tension which I think I'm feeling internally of like prek this sounds wonderfully like like a wonderful thing for our school, for our community. we could bring the students that were already serving into the school, have them experience Ry and like grow and learn maybe even a stronger way than they currently are being served right now. However, there's also this tension of the conversation
108we just previously had with the bigger numbers >> that we are currently facing and it feels a little tonedeaf to me if I'm just going to be like la 8% prek sounds great. They're not the same, but they will have the same they will be presented to voters in the same budget cycle, right? >> Um, so that feels like an important thing for us to think about just like what are our priorities as a district and is this rising to the level of like supplanting something else that's currently there and therefore we need to cut more within our overall budget to kind of think about how we fit this in. I don't know. Um, but I'm also hearing in this conversation it doesn't feel like the proposal is necessarily complete yet. Um, there's this conversation
109of like what is the number amount? Uh, I think we also talked about like we're not trying to create a revenue generating thing here. >> So what is the right number? even if we think gosh as an individual I paid like 10 times that in my child repairs you know like but like we also don't want to like I guess overinflate or underinflate that kind of a thing the the survey piece I feel is really challenging because both it's like it's good data and also it's in a silo right so we we're asking people in a moment like what are your priorities like yeah prek sounds great it's like well what is it going to cost who is it going to serve you know what are the other trade-offs that we have been making around
110maybe our roof. Um I know we've originally talked about that in our like early budget conversations and that's kind of just been put aside. I know that for good intention uh the the idea to have like intentionality around a capital expenditure program being like let's let's start that after this budget cycle which I think was a good idea Robin. Um, but that is a thing that we could have chosen to invest in this year >> that we didn't and I don't know if that's also part of our, you know, overall discussion. Um, but the other piece that I just want to layer on here that Tara mentioned earlier on, which is I'm like really reflecting on is what are we comm we did not commit to cutting things that will create a structural change for
111us moving forward. But if we commit to prek, we are essentially doing the opposite. We are committing to a structural increase moving forward. We have people and stuff. And we haven't talked about how we're impacting the band and the strings and what that looks like, which I know is really important to the students that are currently in Ray and the families that are currently in Ray. So, I feel like there's there is a lot going on here even with like the awesomeness that this program could be. And I know we've talked about visions for expansion like at Marian Cross like like that would be great and yet is this the year and I I have strong reservations. So >> that is what I would say. >> Thank you Ben and then we bre and then
112finance but given your five minute warning. >> So I hear you on all those things and you're not wrong in any of those things. I think part of it too is seeing that this has been an issue for many years and every year it's been a complicated thing. Every year we go through this and this is I think one of the first times that maybe not the very first time that's had some momentum where we've actually cost it out. We've given some illustration of our plans. We have a budget. We're pulling in personnel across multiple schools and giving feedback. So I guess not to push back too hard, but I would say this has been an ongoing structural concern and it's not going to go away. And if we push it back to next year,
113it will be the same thing. Something will come up that will make it problematic. Budget will go up next year as well. And just that when do we it's much more of a when do we take sees that moment that we can and expand where there is a established need for it across several different cohorts of children rather than what's like at this exact moment and then quick clarifying question I've heard it not too much is this intended to be a full year thing since we serve a lot of IEP students year round intended to match the school year itself >> school year itself >> okay that's a great Yeah. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Add a little bit more to that. I just add two more things. Yeah. >> There are students that have
114IEP that do require some services over the summer. That's the same for a preschool student or a student in fifth grade or sixth grade or 12th grade. Those decisions are made individually. >> Students team. Um the only other two quick things. Uh, I don't want a lack of information or clarity to be a reason not to put the warrant article forward. I want it to be based on does it make the most sense for the board with the current budget situation that we're in. Um, with that know that there's not going to be an infinite amount of details that we can provide about the specifics of every aspect, but if there are things like um, you know, box schedule of the day, what that look like? I hope people have a better understanding of like
115how you structure preschool day everyone get dressed for the group now right there's nap time so we can put that together that's helpful or if there's other pieces that the board or community members feel like would be helpful so that the decision can be made of like yeah you're nay if you want to put it forward but not nay because we don't >> and that's the very nature of the warrant articles that we put it separate aside is like this is a whole another thing it's not part of a standard budget things like do you approve this budget, yes or no? This is it's a new additional program. Reminds me of the middle school sports program we did last year >> where it went through it passed but you know not 100% or anything but
116substantially and now did not have necessary details that you' think of like oh middle school sports okay which sports you know we did not answer that because there's that delineation between we as the board our general mindset is policies and budgets. It is not implementation. It's not how the staff do it. It's more can you do it and will it gives you money to do so. So, a lot of these nuances we're talking about are key and important, but they're not necessarily within our direct purview. >> Yeah. >> I wanted just to ask, is there a real need for this? Because we're currently meeting the needs of the students that we are like required by law to serve. And so, I would actually posit we don't have a need as a board to move forward
117with a prek. Now, as a community, we might value it really highly and so the community would like it and we want to prioritize it for that reason, but I don't think there's a specific need and I'm welcome to be, you know, please correct me if I'm wrong here, but like we are meeting the needs of our kids that we need to be right now. >> Yeah. No, Renee. Renee, I just raised my hand because what I intended to say was the reason why I am intently interested in the logistics of this particular program is when you do the math, this is obviously not an efficient use of resources because we are serving our need-based population already and we will only result in a $30,000 plus, you know, positive impact and $170,000 negative impact. So,
118so the logistics and the details do matter in this case. If we are going to start a program that we should not at all contemplate starting unless we are going to support it over the long term >> and I want to make sure they can go to art and things. >> It feels really important to include the cream of crust. >> We're pulling this Henry. >> Yeah. Hey Red, can you ask a quick fact-based question for me? Um, among the districts in New Hampshire, what ballpark, how many have preschool programs at the moment? >> Yeah, we're we're actually one of the last remaining three out of 177. >> This number >> there's 173 roughly public elementary schools and 144 of those public preschool programs in our in our region. Um, us are they already >>
119schools that don't have preschool programs? >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> Why is it because we are a wealthier community and therefore our families can afford all the different opportunities there are for prek and therefore we are like we don't need to have a prek here because there's other opportunities more so than there are other places in New Hampshire. Or is it that every other place in New Hampshire also has the wealth of there the very few daycare opportunities and pre-k opportunities that exist as handover and they just have more kids with special needs and they need a prek for that or is the prek and like what who are the kids being served at those other preks? Is it all special ed or is it like so I'm very concerned about how all of it
120comes together if we're going to communicate it to the public. I've had conversations just this is coming from like my personal conversations with other people in the town being like well what if we are the last like what what do they look like elsewhere and why >> yeah so I don't know Robin you can answer that >> I mean there has been a move in across the country to increase access to prek and that we see in New Hampshire with the number of schools that have added prek over the past decade two decades um and I think over time it's increasing in number too. Not only in the districts that have added it, but they've added more classes, more programs, and it's because the research too on prek and the impact that it has overall
121on students movement in school. You know, it's just it's a beneficial things for students to have the access to prek. >> But I hear you that research, some of that research might be helpful. I think we need to be able to justify it when >> we when we talk about this is like before the last one it's like okay well is it like >> what are we not getting >> yeah and I I I mean I think your question around is it because we are wealthier so families >> by and large can find the can afford I think it's very similar to why we didn't have middle school sports in my like right because so many families can access so I think >> so true I think I think there is a point there. I
122think the concern that I have and it's the same thing that I've had in the whole conversation is right despite the resources in this community. There are folks who do not have the resources >> and >> I think it is at the same time of understanding that we don't have these things because we are so resourced. It is also shocking to be such a resourced community and not be able to offer a prek to not have a dis a social worker of any kind in a district. Like I think I think there's there are two ways to look at that that are shocking and um >> I think yeah without an answer of how to fiscally afford it. I think for me that >> that feels stronger like how how can we be such a
123resource district without some of these vital resource programs. All right, last comment and then I want to get >> Robin. I I do Robin does we have two members of the People as well related to the specials. When we did start the program at Mary and Frost, we did not offer specials initially either. And part of that was, you know, we developed a schedule. We used a lot of the outdoor classroom space which we could use here as well. So when we're thinking about kids being confined in one space for an entire school day, I don't think that's an accurate perception. You know, there's still opportunities for the students to go to >> whether we use a teacher there or not. >> And so and even now, you know, they do have access to specials
124and it just depends on the schedule, you know, what they have access to. Like this year they don't have PE, they don't have the time to put it in the schedule. But I think those are things that would evolve over time based on you know what our resources are. So >> and that is nice to hear that because I think it's the first time we actually talked about it tonight that Marian Cross does have this as well and I think it's gone >> and it's happened over time again. two points I want to make and then the aggregation one is this costing concern was exactly why the costing out committee was created two years ago now and this sort of tension debate happened then as well and Hanover as well as Norwich has this perception
125stereotypical and not of of athletes but we know through that study which had that people respond to it that ballpark a quarter to a third of all Hannover residents are indeed financially struggling and are paycheck to paycheck. They're having trouble making ends meet. They cannot afford things that many people have their hand workers take for granted like the ability to do sports and other things like that. So, this need is here within handover whether we like it or acknowledge it or not. Second, in terms of the argument about special education, this actually just came up last week when Kelly and I met with the commissioner of education of every district is claiming that both special needs kids are moving into their district and raising budgets. Everyone said that at that meeting, right, in case you're
126wondering. And we c we know from our surveys and confirmed by the administration that roughly a third of our students are on IEPs K12 heavily focused on younger kids which is standard for IEPs. Across the whole state it's roughly 25 27% something like that somewhere in the mid20s. So we're a little higher but not dramatically so. And as the race school, our special education budget is a roughly 28% of the total budget. In other uh school districts across this state, it can be over 50%. >> And tests. >> Yeah. >> And so we are not, at least as far as I could tell, and as far as we could tell that meeting, we are not jumping out one way or the other in terms of our special education costs. And what was my last? Thanks.
127Okay. All right. I'm done now. Uh we have hands from Karine is still a member of the publication. >> Respond to that. >> One you say a third of our students at the very school. >> No across the whole thing. >> It's not applied to me but >> um I as J about that and he confirmed it as well. It's been a couple years though. >> Okay. That might include also students with 504s and >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, it's 504s plus IEPs combined. Thank you for that clarification. >> And the same the same thing as at the commissioners argument. Glad you're here. >> Um, >> all right, Pauline, and then a member of the public. >> Just to piggyback on the conversation about specials and preschool, I would argue that private preschools don't have
128specials. Art and music are and reading and books are built into their programming. That's what they do. Um, they go outside, they play, they build, they learn. It's not they don't have specialists that come in. um unless they have authors that come in or volunteers that come in. So, it's not something that's different in public and private. So, just throwing that out there as well. >> It's a good point. Thanks, Colleen. All right, Rachel. Gilmore. >> Yeah. Noah, can you move over, please? >> Hi. Can you hear me? >> We can. Thank you for your patience. >> Okay. Yes. So, I just wanted to say, so I am a parent of a grade school kindergartener and then a two and a half-year-old. I was at the um Friday morning meeting and just reflecting on that
129meeting and thinking about it and this discussion of like what should you charge? I personally feel that for, you know, general affluent handover parents with kids without special needs, you should be charging market rate. And I'm all for, you know, a sliding scale to ensure that, you know, families that don't have as much resources are able to access it, but that, you know, if a family has resources, they should be paying a market rate because, you know, there's going to be fierce competition for these slots. And as a taxpayer, a parent, you know, if my kid doesn't make it in, why should I be subsidizing another family who can afford to pay in addition to paying for my own child to attend preschool? And vice versa, if I am so lucky as to get into
130the race school, public preschool, which as a parent, like I personally think that that is better than any of my private preschool options, um why should someone else whose kid didn't make it in, you know, and who's essentially equivalent to me be subsidizing me? So, I just want to say in my opinion, you should be charging market rate at the top of the sliding scale. And also a lot of great discussion tonight that I really agree with and appreciate. So, thank you all. Thanks, Rachel. Appreciate that perspective. Yes. I'm so sorry. Remind me your name. >> Sarah Uberman. >> Sarah. Yes. Um I just wanted to share my experience uh when my kids were in preschool that it was one of the most negative experiences having to go through lottery systems. It felt like college
131applications. And as a new parent, it really set the wrong tone, I thought. Um, and on the one hand, I'm fine that the private schools put me through that. But as a public school, I think you guys have to consider the culture that you would be contributing to. Because I think Rachel's absolutely right that you should think just as much about the large number of people who did not get their students placed in and what that feels like for them >> because I still can remember thinking this feels really unhealthy. Price preschool is not college. Why am I feeling this way? >> Thanks, Sarah. Right. >> Rachel, do you still have your hand up? >> Okay. Thanks very much. All right. >> Finance committee. >> Thank you for for listening. Speaking of members of the
132public, >> you're very welcome. >> I'm Greg Snder. I'm the chair of the handover finance committee. Um, and I appreciate this opportunity to make some remarks. I'll keep them very brief mainly because uh I think that there is a communications subject that we need to address and that is um I'm not able to u make any comments at all about the budget presentation tonight because we didn't have the information to to prepare or or know anything about it since the November 20th meeting, we have not received any updates. The uh December 8th meeting, we didn't receive any updates. Didn't didn't have the information. So I understand that we have uh been going through a period of transition and we're completely u sympathetic to that but I can tell you that if we were able to
133go back to the format that was previously used which not only told the story from a big picture standpoint so that anybody would be able to understand it but then uh got into the details uh nicely uh uh depicted what the headwinds were, the tailwinds were and all of those things, then we would be as committee in a much better position to provide good advice. So um with this with the current situation what we really need is I I suppose a tutorial on simply because I can't find the information. Um that that would be a practical thing for me to uh I'm not attending a Dresden meeting tomorrow but other of my colleagues are. If I were to tell them where to go to get the information before their attendance at the tres meeting, what
134would I say is I I I I went into where the meetings are on the site and I see that there's there's some uh uh information about what the agenda is for the Dresdn meeting, >> but I I I see that there are certain u items that look like they have attachments and that there are other items that would be the major presentation a budget presentation one in specifically it does not have an attachment so am I to tell the other members of the committee that it's not there it's not like they're not it's not like they're missing it >> it's not there is that correct >> it's correct it is not currently there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah, you're right. So, so I mean this is a >> this is a major item
135>> that needs to get resolved. >> We need to know where the information is. We need to receive it on a timely basis in order for us to do to do our jobs. Specifically on a couple of things that have been talked about. the DRA matter was brought up and it was mentioned that the um uh the matter will be uh uh dealt with in the spring uh tax uh payment cycle. I would ask what the decision-making process was for for that to be said. It's right now we the committee does not have the information to provide any kind of uh consultation regarding that whole subject. the maintenance cost um the the uh the reserve funds to smooth the the expense increase. Am are we to understand that um I understood that there were uh
136roof repairs that needed to be made to the building at the beginning of the school year. Have all of those been taken care of? And this reserve that you have for maintenance, is that still all extra money that um is sitting there and that could rightly be used for the purpose that you were talking about? And are is the answer to that question within the materials that are in assembly? the roof. >> You see what I'm getting at? >> Yes. Yeah. >> I like >> So, we're just kind of flying blind here. >> You brought up the communications um subject in a different context, but it's kind of the same thing >> where um uh you know, we need to we need to be able to tell the story >> and that's so I'm not
137here to harank. I'm just telling you what the facts are. And so um that's that's it to be we have um uh in the schedule. The next uh important meeting is to be on Tuesday the 13th and and Wednesday the 14th of of January where the public hearing takes place. Mhm. >> We as a committee um met past week and we specifically um said that our our next meeting was going to be on the 8th of January so that we could be ahead of the public hearing so that at that point we'd have all of the information so because we would be attending the public hearing >> all of the information so that we can you know have a discussion and be able to um hopefully come to a resolution about passing the uh the
138budget later on in the year. Um so and at our u meeting on the 8th, we would be starting the important task of writing our letter, >> drafting that letter. Mhm. >> Will we be in a position to have the information in order for us to start that traffic process is >> is the fact >> uh because as Ryan said and there are no exceptions to this, the deadline for that document from us is January 23rd as it is for everybody else and we intend to keep that. So anyway, thank you very much for your attention and and um um I look forward to your determining how how things can be improved. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Any questions for Greg before we Yeah. Rene, can somebody just inform me about this letter? >>
139Oh, sorry. Yes. >> What is the letter? The letter is that the the finance committee um opines >> okay >> on on the budget >> and there is a formal letter that is put into the annual report >> that states what the U finance committee position is >> and there is also and we do this >> we do this for for both the handover and the and the Dresden uh districts um very often too In addition to this letter, we have a letter to the vendor to the Valley News that uh is kind of a a summary of what we put into this letter. And we do the same thing for the town too. So that the letter is our opinion regarding the uh the budget for the town is in the annual report. >>
140Thank you. So if you look at the annual annual report from last year and the years previous you'll see a letter from >> in there. Yeah. >> And we used to send them out which we're just speaking about this four chairs. We used to send them out to every household and the cost of that and it like shiny book and the cost of that just became >> prohibitive and felt somewhat wasteful. So now we send out a letter you know a onepage here's where you can find the full annual report online as a cost-saving measure. And then there are physical copies always available in town hall and uh at the SAU. >> Cool. >> Thank you, Greg. >> All right, let's ended the budget. >> Yes, >> 30 minutes. Super efficient. >> I saw this.
141>> Go right to 30 minutes. >> I I I saw this agenda. >> Okay. Silver lining fund. Um, so the silver lining fund, which I know is why Sarah's here. Sarah, thank you for sticking it out. >> I know. >> Um, I would love an update on hopefully where we're at with the silver lining fund. Do we have an update on how that mechanism is happening? I know there's appetite to create it. >> Yes, we do have the silver lining fund at the middle school currently. So I think we have the mechanisms of place to be able to offer that and Colleen is supportive of it as well and I think Teresa just too. >> Yeah. >> Can we do can we just like create the account? What's the time frame on that? >> Yeah.
142I mean that's that's the easy part. >> So like can we can we like tomorrow? Can we create it? Like what's the Okay. >> Yeah. Very interested. Yeah. And and not only that, but I Yeah, I know they're very interested. And I'm also thinking sort of fiscally, right? End of year is coming. It would be great if people want to give in this fiscal year to be able to or calendar year, sorry, to be able to do that in this calendar year. Apologies, but in the fiscal year a lot. Um, so can we do that like before the break like like >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's not I don't know how how they can ask that it's >> Teresa said it would be easy to >> No, it's I mean creating the accounts the easy
143part. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So if I am um Sarah say for example or any of the other people that she has um spoken with who want to donate to this what is the mechanism like on Friday if they want to give a check what do they do? >> What I would recommend is that you're bringing it most of the time they're bringing it to the schools. a lot of those particular payments and everything else and then the schools will just literally >> um write up and deposit those and then code them >> so that you know at the central office um what particular code so in the meantime I mean that that wouldn't hold up >> um you know if somebody wanted to donate tomorrow or do something tomorrow that's not going to hold
144it up >> okay so they can write a check tomorrow and bring it to >> okay for silver linings >> yes I think what you would want to do is make it out to the Ray school >> and then in the memo line say silver lining >> and then because that's what they do at the Richmond School. Hanover High School has a fund >> and it should actually be um the handover school district. >> Okay, tell me what I should write. >> It should technically be like handover school district school district. >> Yeah. And then you can put in your memo what the purpose is. Can we add that to this or docs in the quick summary abstract just to add that as a note in there so that it's easy to find if somebody's
145looking for that? And then in terms of distributing it the people inside the school would the school nurse have access to the funds? >> I don't really >> it would they would they would decide that internally like who's who's kind of going to oversee that or something. A lot of times there's with the silver linings at at the other schools, there's usually not just one person. I found there be a couple people that are kind of with decisions, but like >> probably internal work. >> So, Colleen and the school nurse could figure that out. >> I see Colleen's hand is raised. Colleen, do you want to go ahead and share? Um, I know that Nan's been doing some work on this and so if somebody has something in writing about a blurb that I can
146put in the rays of sunshine, I'm happy to include that in this week's Rays of Sunshine um about how it works and who to send checks to and all that stuff. We can put that in. >> Thanks. >> Sarah's going to write something. Sarah, >> no, she just nodded and looked at her and told supportive of this. >> She sat here for two hours. Let's give her >> Well, we should have told her at the start that >> library members step up. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Lauren, just a reminder that we have policy around gifts to the school, monetary thresholds that other things into place. If those monetary thresholds are rather large, but if people are making certain levels of donations towards this in a restricted way towards this particular cause, we need to outline
147that for people as well. >> Yes. and just walking into this conversation but also get caught up and also split individual classrooms. So there's a big sort of interest to a specific class that would have to go as well. >> Right sir I have a question um question. Yeah, I think that um the implementation uh can be the principal specific, but I am kind of uh interested in how this aligns across all three schools. Um and you've talked a little bit about how you have alignment issues of these siloed accounts. And because this is the elementary school, I just want to point out that this is such a big opportunity to have a sea change of what the culture is, of how we support our students, not just at the Ray School, but at these
148other schools as well. Um, and I I'm saddened that the social worker has not been included in the budget, but I'm hopeful that over time programs like this will help us be aligned. >> Good point. Sorry. Um, can can I actually I'm sorry, Robin, to do this to you, but can I actually >> this one you're plate to coordinate perhaps with Sarah if Sharon would like to be involved and make sure that this gets out >> hopefully this week. I mean, I'm I am mindful of the calendar year and that we've been Sarah's come now for two meetings and this is such a great thing and if it really is a matter of just, you know, signing up for the account and opening it, I think we should get it moving quickly. So um yes
149ma'am >> I just wanted to briefly say that um in the information I received from the high school and from the middle school all the processes are are a little different to date. Um and if we are going to unify this can't happen by Friday that we really need to sit down and really look at what do we what are we saying as a district we value and we need for our children and how will we allow people to give and to access that information. But presently we're not unified um to date. >> Uh Renee and then mine um builds on what you were saying. It's like what is the purpose >> because I think you could say silver lining fun and everybody's probably generally in the same thing. But like let's be really clear
150what that is because I feel like that's going to be really important for the use case as well. Oh, I was just going to point out that um again missing some of this, but if there's enough differentiation at the individual school level where there's a need for it to become a formal policy committee discussion, >> we are prepared and at the ready when presents itself. >> I was hoping to think of policy that >> Oh, you know, I'm always >> I was thinking that but just hadn't said it yet. But yeah, sure. Well, I was going to add that um since I've been here, some of some of these accounts like especially at the high school, some of the student activity and some of these special reserves, something like silver linings, a lot of these
151accounts were were created so long ago and then some are kind of dormant. So they've been for the last year and a half a task of um making sure that every single fund has a paper on file that says and no new funds get created without this piece of paper that says what the purpose of it is and how it's going to be used and what happens if it goes dormant or somebody it decides to get closed and there's funds in there. Where are those funds going to go? So whoever I I know on this particular case when you've got a fund where multiple people are donating, they're not filling out this piece of paper. This is just to establish the account for the most part and everything else. And so in this case though,
152donors, there's probably should be some kind of consideration that says if you donate these funds and then all of a sudden becomes dormant, are you okay with it going to blah blah blah or or do you want it back? Sometimes we have to ask that too. Well, by Friday, >> by Friday, it sounds like we can create the space for money to be donated and then kind of work through the policies for how it gets distributed. Um, and making sure that we are between those thresholds in mind. Thank you, Lauren. >> All right. Thank you, Sarah. >> Thank you. Um, yay. Okay. Uh, moving on to the fee for a little policy. >> That's you. It's not Oh, it's not actually a federal policy though, right? >> It's these are first reads. >> Okay. >>
153Um, >> the high level. >> All right. So, noting the time with apologies. There are four first reads to them. >> Um, the first one I JA field trips and excursions. The changes to this are not necessarily too aligned with handover districts specifically, but we wanted to have it trickle down to everyone just for continuity. The changes um this is a standing policy from it was last adopted during early CO times and the changes are mostly related to international trips. There was an incident as you may recall in Dresden a few months ago and that prompted these changes where previously international trips were not approved by board members. We are now asking for that change to avoid any future problems as well as setting out some specifics of how and why and what for the
154trip is designed to do as well as things like insurance and that sort of thing. and um clarifying that all field trips must be sponsored by the school district or a member of our staff and not come in through an outside group as well as some security updates about going to certain countries where the control of our devices may be of issue whether it's under advising at the state department and things of that nature as well as some words once it is for I'm not sure what's happening there but we're still working on it but um yeah so there's that one. >> And then can someone mute their >> mute themselves? >> Maybe. Yeah. >> Thank you both of you. Uh Gab, do you have a question? >> I I just want to be I
155think it's there in the policy, but I think it's really critical that the chaperones must always be with the group. >> That would >> it looks like it's there. But I agree with you in general consensus or think about nights that might not be able to be true >> if they're with a host family for example. Is that what you're thinking of? Or in a hotel situation, >> right? No, I I mean like the a chaperon can't go away for the weekend while they're >> in another country. >> Okay. um >> the chafferon expected to be a part of >> they're expected to participate right they must remain with the group the whole time they cannot go to an you know over the border >> I I think that I would if you look at
156the list of chap things I think that would fall into number one and three in terms of they will follow all the rules and expectations determined by teacher >> as well as following the itinerary and things of that nature. So I would I would hope that would be >> well and and apply to the teachers as well. >> Yes. Um the language specific to teacher behavior would be separate because they're employees and not shaper rooms and so that would fall into code of conduct as well. >> Right. I think we have the basis covered. >> Okay. I think it's three. The final sentence the school administration will ensure that expectations are established to volunt. Thank you. If >> it's okay, I will go on. >> Okay. >> The next one on the list is JLCJA,
157which is sports related injuries. So, that one is updating the the forms and the medical things we ask about when athletes again. So, again, older kids primarily have to fill out and attest we do not have seizures, we have not had broken bones and things like that, right? So, it's covering those things as well as establishing that we have a protocol at all the schools for how to handle injuries because there are athletics that happen in the building all the time that are not school sponsored things, but we still have to make sure that conditions are safe and no slipping and an emergency. The policy committee did review those emergency response plans. They are um not public getting the specifics of how we handle that, but we've looked at it and tested to them. I'm
158sure the administration can make those available as needed to individual board members. Seeing no questions, I'll move on to the next one which is F L I A and that one is tabs being open. So that one has been shifted from previously a recommended policy which none of us had and now it's a required policy and this comes up to hand over first and that is because of the changes in the the statutory law 306. Thank you for We're uh there are changes in the law now that it changed how this policy would be done there. >> Sorry. Deb, you have a question? >> No, I have a Serbic comment, but there's no reference to guns in this policy. >> I mean, I know you're feeling that one. >> I know. Um I know I
159Especially after the last >> last 24 hours. >> Yeah. So, JIA is it's said it's newly required. We did not find anything that we wanted to change. It is boilerplate language and policy somewhat rarely. Did not have any suggestions for that. >> I I concur. We did not specifically bring up specific weapons and as we talked before with the weapons policy that guns have a unique reputational situation within our state. >> Yes, I know. That's why I said asserbic. >> Naturally, you didn't get much out of there as you know it. >> No, that's me being >> adderic. It sounds better than snotty. >> Noted. And then I'll move on to the last one. JLCK. If you look at it, this was um we added a lot to this policy. It would used to be
160very very short and a lot of things were missing or bleak and now we have added in a lot of things and NHS actually put a lot of this language in somewhat surprising by my part given the current political situation a lot of things about social emotional learning being explicitly called out no one noticing that. So we'll just whisper now and that uh the policy committee had a discussion with the superintendent to confirm that a lot of these things such as nutrition, social emotional learning, the availability of certain staff are indeed available at all the schools and it is our belief that yes they are. There was some initial concern by me in item 2C which I read initially as so we're required to hire a social worker now. That seems like something we should
161know >> roughly a couple hours ago. >> But we looked at the individual laws that we can clarify this more that we can hire or contract with counselors, psychiatrist, psychologists or other qualified personnel. It was not initial and social workers, which is how we initially read it. >> I think that was it for that one. And then we have two second readings that did not have discussions last time as well as rescending one policy that is woefully outdated from the 1960s >> and has long been superseded by more recent policies including as recently as last year. >> Oh, thank you Ben. Sorry. The school director ethics, >> that's the one that's rescended. >> It's rescended. Okay. >> And you can see if you look at it, it's very very very old. We had a BBBA
162that was done a few months ago that got into board member behavior and expectations that long superseded this one and I'm sorry 1970s60s. >> Okay. >> So look it looks like it makes sense but we have more we have more relevant language covers all these things. >> So it doesn't say that it's being rescended on here. Um which is fine. It would just be good for us to note that >> rescending. It's a retiring. >> Yeah. Sorry, I misspoke. >> Oh, it's in the >> Yeah, if you're looking the summary above. Got it. >> Oh, there's the one that got replaced by BB BB A B A. I'll cover it if more relevant language. >> Super. Thanks. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Ben? >> I speak fast. I'll >> All right. Thank you
163very much for all that. This is the part of the meeting where Lauren walks across the stage. >> I gave this uh lovely presentation or a similar version of it um over in Norwich. My word lovely. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. But um yeah, I thought I would just start by saying uh naming kind of the elephant in the room. Budget is really challenging right now. So to be perfectly clear and transparent in this, it is a little bit hard to stand up and talk about this, but only just for a second. Um, this is something that has been worked on for years through our ELA committee. It's part of the strategic plan and has very clear metrics that we would measure success by. Um, and this is really important
164work. Um, so I hope that I can lead you through this presentation, give you a little bit of the background of the why before diving into the recommendation that committee and I are bringing to you around the specific program. And the real purpose for this presentation is kind of twofold. Um, one policy says for making big curricular changes, you need to know about them. This presentation needs to happen one month before you take a vote on it. So it'll be presented to you today. We'll answer as many questions as I can this evening. Ones that I can't, I will get answers for you for the next meeting. Next meeting we can discuss again, but it will be an action item. You probably noted that there's no action to be taken on this tonight. Simply discussion.
165Um, and then also to give you those budget numbers and potentially, you know, a couple paths forward for you to consider that of course have budgetary implement implement or uh implications. So with that, we're just going to dive in. The presentation is in assembly for you to view as well. So tonight we're talking about a universal this is a tier one program adoption and ELA and this is a direct connection with multi-tiered systems of support MTSS that we talk about universal programming is programming for all students. All students in our school in every classroom in every grade receive this universal programming. This is true of illustrative math as well. So the why and the what. Um you have this presentation and it's not my intention to read all of the slides because I have broken
166my rules around how much text you should have in each of the slides. But I was trying to give as much information as possible for you to also be able to take away and digest over the next mark. Um, so there's just real rationale for universal instruction in the adoption of a program or this curriculum and it's really around universal access for all of our students as well as alignment to standards and evidence. This idea that it's systematic, explicit, and rigorous. Um, so pointing out some of the challenges of homegrown, very early on, this committee took a look at all of the amazing instruction and the curriculum that is currently happening in our kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms at both Marian Cross and the Race School and identified that despite the fact that there is
167incredible programming that's happening, there are gaps that exist, um, there are repetitions that exist, Um, and there are some real challenges in having a homegrown curriculum. And that includes this idea of a Frankenstein effect, piecing together lots of resources. It creates hidden gaps and lacks the systemic rigor that we're looking for. A validated curriculum program comes with that work already done. Um, there's this idea of a curator trap. So, we're spending so much time as educators hunting for the materials that we need creating all of this content instead of being able to internalize highquality lessons so we can navigate content and pedigogy together. So, right now we're doing like a lot of creating and curating, but when we switch because that work has been done for us through this program that we're looking at, we
168can really talk about content and how we're teaching together. Um there is an emotional cost. This idea of letting go to our favorite units. It's painful, but it's often necessary. Um it's hard to say as an educator myself, right? Uh I have some really loved units. Um but the intent is not to devalue the currents and the current work in place, but we do really need to shift from what what I like to teach to what students need. Um, and we did consider early on in this process, what if we took all of our homegrown stuff and said, "Okay, we're gonna commit together to redo all of this and align it and give up some units and create new units, and we're just going to do it all all by ourselves all together." Um, and
169for a number of reasons, our educators realized that that was going to be extremely hard and challenging. Um, some would have to give up more than others. uh it would require a lot of conversation and agreements and compromising and so there also is this piece of you know what we're all in this together we're going to move forward with this new program together we're all starting from the same point um so this was discussed at large and early on in the ELA committee >> Lauren did I miss this who was all on the ELA committee >> um so we had various reps from various groups from both Mary and cross and the school. So, we had teacher reps, um our library and media specialists, instructional coaches, uh Robin and I were part of it. Um
170we had representation from various uh grade level teachers as well. I think that hits all specialist main groups. Yes. Yeah. Our ELA coordinators from both of the schools. >> Uh no, not today. >> Well, we did have some that are also teachers >> educators. Tricky. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. Good question. >> Um, you can review this at your own leisure, but this idea of alignment is really important. It's horizontal and vertical alignment. Um, as it stands right now, you know, our students can go gradeto grade. And even within the grade they're a part of, they may have a very different experience in ELA than the teacher next door. And sometimes that's wonderful, but overall that's really challenging. And we are trying to avoid this idea of like the tooth lottery. So, we've got the horizontal
171alignment, but then also thinking about the vertical alignment. Um, especially important here is our students are joining together at the middle school. This was a big driver when we were talking about math as well. Um, if we're if our kids are coming together in middle school, um, this idea of being able to horizontally align across the schools as well as vertically align across the schools for our students feels really important. Um, and again, you know, we've talked about MTSS a bit, but what we're talking about if we were to situate this program that we're looking at is this green part of our tiers of support. So, all students are receiving this um curricular program and then layered on are different levels of intervention as needed. This is for all students. Um, couple extra points. You
172know, we're looking at closing gaps, scaffolding up, and creating shared language. And if you um go to the SA7D strategic plan document, some of this language here also exists in the strategic plan, too. Even though it can be a little bit a lot of it challenging at the beginning, the idea is that we really are empowering educators. where streamlining planning creates opportunities for professional learning together. Um, and we can really focus on collaboration, data discussions and PLC's um, share professional learning communities. So, places where we can have these conversations. >> Okay, here it is. Drum roll at at North Hawks and confetti and I forgot them tonight. So, I'm really sorry. I'll bring them next time. Um we uh took a broad view of lots of different programs that exist um existed. Ran some of
173those um most uh used and popular programs through things like ED reports and several other trusted resources um to then come to the table with three programs to take a deeper dive into. And then we eventually landed on arts and letters. Um, at any point I would be happy to talk through why we didn't go with the other programs, but that's not necessarily the purpose of this presentation. So, if you have questions about those, let me know. I can run that through uh I can run through that with you. But, uh, we landed on arts and letters and I'd like to say for all of the reasons that I'm about to talk about. So, this is a comprehensive kindergarten through fifth grade knowledge building program. Uh, you should also know that it does go all
174the way through 8th grade, too. So, I'll just leave that there. >> Um, they claim this evolution of excellence. I kind of love that. Um, but this is important for you to know that if you went online to do lots of research around arts and letters, you may come back and say, "Wow, this is really new. Why would you go with the newest program?" Well, it's actually not really new. This is the evolution of something that has existed for a while called wit and wisdom. So they took wit and wisdom, made all of these changes from um stakeholder feedback, educator feedback and came out with this new program, this revamped arts and letters program. Um it is a knowledge building program. It makes um high quality text and rigor accessible to all of our students.
175It's this idea that you know matters. Um, but there's lots of teacher friendly designs and tons of accessibility features as well as we're thinking about all of our students. Um, one of the hallmarks are authentic trade books. Happy to share more about that in the future, too. Um, and just really great links to science and social studies. If you want to go to the website, I just like popped in a link there. So, again, over the next month, you want to learn more, you need some light reading, like look at the website. It's pretty interesting. you'll learn even more. Some of the core components to highlight um is that there's a teach book and a learn book. The teach book is for teachers and educators. The learn book is for students. Um there's lots of
176visuals that go along with it, including this knowledge deck with visual aids and art cards. Um, and then for every lesson there's uh prologues as well, so educators can educate themselves about what they're going to be teaching before they dive into this great content. Um, the prologue also gives opportunities for educators to sort of pre-teach some of the more complex concepts to any students that would benefit from that type of scaffolding as well. Here's more information about the teachbook. not gonna read it all. Lots of good stuff there. Read it at your leisure. And then the learn book. I do want to spend a second on this because one thing that I feel like I hear every time we talk about new curricular programs is workbooks. We don't want our kids doing workbooks. Workbooks take
177the joy out of learning. Workbooks are terrible. They call this the learn book for a reason. And you could say, well, you're just, you know, rebranding the idea of a workbook. But no, the learn book is a curated set of materials that support the curriculum and the programming that's happening. How it exists now is our teachers have these incredible lessons that they create and then they have to create the things that go with it. You know, the graphic organizers, the you know T-charts that they want to use, um the journal prompts and then the lines that have to go with it, right? So they're creating all these things. our students are working on paper doing worksheets sometimes, not all the time. The learn book >> brings that all together in a way that teachers don't
178have to create it. So, um you know, when when we look at the learn book, too, you might say, "Oh, what a drag." You know, kids are going to be flipping through this. No, this is actually a portfolio of kids work um and their progress throughout the year. So, um I also spoke in depth with one of the um reps about this problem because we heard a lot. I know the blood is sitting today. I'm glad I get to see that. But um we heard a lot from teachers about sort of the concern around workbooks. We don't want to take the joy of learning out of it. Um and I felt really confident um in in the explanation of what the learn book was is the idea of like a portfolio and this is actually
179already happening. But now we have it all together in one place and it's um high quality material as well, not things that we're just pulling from various places. Um, a great thing about a program adopting a program is that there are instructional routines that go with it. So students and teachers are going through sort of a predictable trajectory of a lesson and a unit as well. And that just frees up your brain to not wonder like what's happening next. Um, you know, it's predictable so you can really focus in on the learning and the content. And then I'll just bring you back to this idea of scarbor's roof, which is not a new concept, but to ground us in what I'm talking about tonight. We're talking about this part of the reading room. This is
180the language comprehension strand. And this program here hits all of these marks. This is good for you to know because this is going to end up being a separate program in the future. this word recognition program. We're gonna have to partner with the language comprehension program that we're talking about this evening. So, right now we're focusing here, but guess what? You'll get to work with me again in the future because we'll be thinking through the word recognition um programming as well. Currently, what word recognition looks like is like um foundations and he a lot of times. >> So, are we maintaining that? Sorry to interrupt, but >> yes, right now for right now. Yeah, it um for a variety of reasons, budgetary and then also just the >> workload of having to do all of
181these things. Um we decided not to do it all together. >> And that was one area that we were already aligned in between schools, >> right? >> Okay. >> I should have said at the beginning I was lucky enough to like pick up this work from Robin. So, Robin should jump in at >> fill in the little gaps that we have here. >> All right. Um, one part that we really appreciated about this is that it's a complete literacy block in that part of the rope that I was talking about and like this core instruction. Um some of the other programs that we looked at it was like you know 60 minutes of the the reading portion of it and then another 30 minutes for the writing portion of it and then and then and
182then and actually one of the programs was like yes to be successful you need two hours every day and we were like thank you we love that but also um that's not for us right now. Uh so arts and letters serves as a core knowledge building program and covers all of those pieces of the rope that I was just showing you. Um and then it's again important to note that we will have to look at um the explicit systematics systematic phonics program in the future which you know may or may not change. We already do have one in place right now. >> Can I jump right there too? >> Yeah. Um, so the 60 to90 thing I just want to point out to everyone that that is what's currently being taught in terms of number
183of minutes >> at both schools and curious enough the surveys identified in English ELA as being this the one that where the student excuse me the parents have the most support of that time spec specification compared to all other subjects. >> Interesting. >> Yeah. Um when we look at sort of back to the why again um when we look at uh this core instruction block what we find in the data because you know kind of at any point and we've said it even here at this table um we're scoring really well on SAS data like why the urgency why are we doing this now if you really drill into our maps and NIWA data which is now we've transitioned to I ready and you really look into um our SAS data our scores in non-fiction
184as well as writing leaves something to be desired. So while the overall score is looking pretty good, there's some real opportunity here and the data is suggesting it which also leads into sort of the metrics of success in the future, but um this curriculum can provide a solid solution to these these uh potential gaps that we've identified in our data. >> You all are lucky you get version two. I didn't do this cold for the first time for unfortunat here here are some of uh the modules that you should be aware of. So in every year for all grades there are four modules. You'll notice here that there's the sort of the title of the module as well as the type of writing that happens within that module. um you know as we do some
185implementation uh hopefully next year of this um we've been fortunate enough to talk with some other local districts including the Lebanon school district elementary schools um and one of the things they said if you're feeling you know really pressed for time is that you can actually cover everything that you need to cover by strategically choosing and implementing three of the four modules. Um I know that was a big concern on the Marian Cross side. Um and and here you know we would want to uh mirror what's happening at Mary and Cross but there is some flexibility there and that was also confirmed by the reps that we talked to. Um what you don't want to do is every year missformational writing right you just have to be really strategic but that work would be done.
186The teachers would not have to do it. We would say we're doing these three we're doing these three. As I said, this goes to eighth grade, but I took a screenshot only up to fifth grade. >> You could look on the website and find more. >> Um, one thing when we when we spoke to the rep that really stood out was that the rep talked about this program with like a lot of a lot of joy and enthusiasm. That wasn't the case across all of the programs. Um, that was pretty special. Uh and then this idea of like really going deep into a topic. So students are staying in a topic from 37 to 40 lessons which is pretty amazing. Helps build a deep knowledge base helps build a rich vocabulary. Um and by the
187end of the year whether it's three modules or four um if you're choosing strategically uh students have covered all essential ELA skills and standards. Again the website highlights that alignment as well. And then it brings in art, history, social studies, science, and more. I mentioned before this idea of authentic trade books. They've really curated some beautiful books um that are relevant and you've heard talked about here this idea of um uh mirrors and sliding glass doors and windows to the world. to the ability of um our trade books to provide students with opportunities to see themselves, see the world and understand. Um and the curated book list here, which I'm again happy to share. I don't know how much detail you want. The curated book list here is is pretty beautiful more that you can
188read on your own. Won't worry about that. And then just the idea of um that uh arts and letters is really proud of this program being really integrated and not isolated. So through knowledge and texts, all these other pieces of ELA um are are on a daily basis being practiced through the lessons that they've created in these modules. This was one of our reps. This was Caitlyn. She was looking so enthusiastic. Again, screenshot. I asked if it was okay. Yeah. >> Um, and we're just really building skills here. Uh, using authentic texts and trade books. This helps with vocabulary. It helps with fluency. Students are building their oral communication skills because they have all these presentations and academic discussions. Um, and then of course the writing bit as well, developing their own grammatical styles, conventions,
189expressing their new knowledge. And then >> straightforward question. Sure. What's a trade book? Um, a trade book is just the fancy way of saying like um we would call it like an anchor text. So a book that you read to all of the students course making me um that then guides the other discussion and the learning. So typically we would call this like an anchor text, the thing that we ground the learning into. >> Cool. >> I totally misread that as everyone gets their own copy of a book. >> They train it to read. You may be on to something >> in like five years if we evaluate the implementation and it's just not going well then maybe you have an idea >> at the high school level be the book everybody reads together like
190capture the rock or break >> in five years maybe we'll have an idea >> okay I'm excited >> okay good okay so let's move on thank You know, I've already read all the stuff. >> I feel grateful that you did. Thank you. Okay. So, here's the implementation roadmap and we are right here. Word presentation and maybe adoption next next month. Um and then just the emphasis on training, implementing and monitoring. So, using grant funding and other funding to create really valuable PD time for our teachers. Um making best use of inservice time and this would be uh working collaboratively again with Mary and Cross. um and making some opportunities available throughout the summer as well. Uh one thing another thing that we really love about this is there they have robust professional learning. So in
191order to do this well our teachers need to be equipped with all the skills and support that they need and um arts and letters does this very well and in spades as verified by other districts also that have implemented this. >> So here's budget implications. So I have two versions for you. This is a full K5 roll out which is what the committee recommends. >> That's specific to Ray or both? >> This is Ray only. >> Okay. >> And if you if you wanted to see what it cost for Mary Cross, this presentation except for Mary Cross exists on assembly for the last Norwich board meeting. Um so this is the cost and what it includes for year one as well as the ongoing renewal costs in the future. How does uh the ongoing cost
192compared to what we currently have is ongoing cost because it's all government. It's like things. >> Yeah. So um we've had a lot of one thing I always felt challenged by is uh when we were doing budgeting there were a number of lines for like every department or grade level that was like book costs >> and um and those book costs made sense for the year that that we were in and the teachers who were delivering that programming. Um but also um you know we have we have lots of books and we're kind of like always purchasing books which is important but perhaps more of the purpose of like our library right >> um so one thing that I could uh commit to do between now and the next you know budget presentation is to
193work with um administration to really understand when we're looking at all these book lines >> what could we remove because now we have this >> um I don't have the offset cost this evening though. >> No, that's okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Dad, >> are you ready for questions? >> No. >> Okay. >> Um and if you remember illustrative math as well, you know, we originally like thought about ongoing costs and then as we got more and more into it, we realized actually like kindergarten didn't benefit from the illustrative math workbooks. So, we don't buy illustrative math workbooks. So there's this is the ongoing sort of allin what they recommend but as we move forward we may also see you know we ordered also we ordered this much and now we have this many
194extras so we don't have to buy as much for future years okay and then if you care here's uh a phase implementation plan just because budget is um tricky right now so if we were to phase this into two years then we this would be our recommendation um we would start with K through three, there would be an estimated year 1 cost that's a little bit less than full implementation altogether. And then in phase two, we would add in grades four and five and then have the renewal costs for grades K through three. And so estimated year two costs would be almost 36,000. That's over two years. Yes. >> Question on that. Is there any pedagogical benefit to doing it that way to focusing first on those, you know, rolling it out slowly and first
195focusing on these four years and then adding those other two years? No. Okay. Oh, you want to answer that? Sorry. I just wanted to add something else to it. Um, you know, we did the same process with the IM with the math program and one of the nice things about implementing everything at the same time is that everyone is getting the professional development, right? >> And so we can really focus on that for the entire school year. >> I figured it was more of a target question. I mean we the preference obviously is to do the K through five implementation but >> see reasons to start one and then you know >> you know it's not that you can't do it that way pedagogically >> when you think about all the P and everything it's
196becomes more >> right just sort of offered up just so that you know but when we looked at this it didn't really change the cost too much either >> almost done almost there okay so then as The current budget includes money for those books that we were talking about and curriculum materials for ELA. Um theoretically this money could be removed from those like one individual team budgets. Um and we could look at that uh in the future for um offset for this too. >> Um again recommending the full K5 implementation and then a reminder that you're going to hear from us again that we're going to talk about the phonics program potentially. the the the committee will talk about it and if a change is going to be made then it would come before the
197school board as well. I'm happy to entertain any questions. >> I have a question. I have one question I think and then I have stuff to say. Sure. >> So can I ask my first question? All right. >> Is this connected in any way with Lucy Caukins? >> No. >> Good. >> Thank you. Just checking. >> Thank you for loving that one. >> Just wonderful. Yeah, >> fun fact, her sister was my college roommate. Um, but anyway, um, so I just want to talk about how I how important I think this is on all different levels to fully fund it and go I spent 30 years teaching English in a program that put a lot of value on horizontal and vertical alignment. And it made my job as a teacher, whether it was at the
19810th or 12th grade, so much easier because I knew what students had done the previous year and I could build on that. And when they acted like they didn't know how to do it, I went berserk. Um, and especially if I taught them in the previous English class, >> but I I can't say enough for horizontal and vertical alignment. I think it is so important. I also think that one of the biggest problems we have as a school district at upper level grades, perhaps at the Ray School too, is that it can be very hit or miss kids getting a teacher who's really terrific at this and not at that. And I just think it's so hard for the child who's who's in the miss rather than the hit category. And I've looked at some
199of this material and the art images and the integration of art makes my good museum Vivian lad um instruction person just so happy. I used to integrate art with all the English I did and this is really good stuff. I also think that um I oh shoot I do have a couple of questions. Um, one of them is over the years I've been on the board, I've served on staff development and seen people apply to do this professional training with reading and this professional training with reading. And as a board, we've seen people >> um apply for Bridgemond Funds and for this for this set of books and for that set of books. And I really like the idea not of losing teacher autonomy because I don't think that's really going to happen, but of
200having something that works that you can do and you don't have to go home and create all your worksheets and stuff, which for reasons that are probably um really exciting for a therapist would be knowing why I didn't throw out everything that I created over the years and still have it. Six years after I just I just couldn't let it all go. But anyway, I'm I'm a big fan. But I did have a question. Um Oh, shoot. >> I guess I don't. >> Oh, but yeah. Okay. If you feel like >> if anybody thinks of anything, I can make sure to address it too like between now and the next meeting because we'll get to discuss this again. So you send it my way and have to air it out a little bit more next
201time. >> Robin, I'm just so excited. I must say this in the beginning, but this has been two years worked to get to this point. And a lot of the work that happened before we even got to today >> involved around really training in the science reading get everyone on the same page looking at what the weaknesses were in our curriculum. Um the horizontal and vertical alignment was a major piece and now is the major piece with math and science too and why we've done all of this work. It's been a big part of the strategic plan for the past five years. I mean, this is really when I came in to start the curriculum works. It was looking over, you know, these five years what we would try to implement over time. So, I
202know we're in a terrible year financially, but I'm just so excited that we've gotten to this point and teachers are supportive of it. It provides our new staff members with actually having a curriculum and not having to create everything from scratch. It's different from >> Yes. from their grade level team members. So anyway, I just I'm excited that we're at this point, but I also understand where we're at with the budget. >> Deb thought of her question and it wasn't a question. It was just one more point I wanted to make, but I remember when we started out with this whole process of aligning the curriculum. It was I thought just so important to remember that you know at the high school you would work on the math people and then you worked on the
203social studies and then you worked on English but here at the race school it's the same people every year have had to do homework and to give them >> something that they seem enthusiastic about and willing to use and excited about >> just to me is a no-brainer. I and I want to say that in the budget process, never once was cutting this funding discussed. I think you know people this is like the definition of being pennywise found foolish, right? To not invest in our ELA programming. Um and it's really cost-effective for the number of children that we're serving with a $90,000 investment. Five 500 kids. Like that's >> Yeah. Um, we're in full support of this, especially with the accolades I'm hearing from across the table. So, thank you Lauren and Robin for your
204efforts. >> Um, I do have one small concern, but it's more related to the work sheet slashwork portfolio component of this. >> Sure. is one thing that has happened at the school, both Ry and RMS, that I've dealt with as a parent, which I've talked to the principles, including you, is there are some teachers who have are so much to do >> and they're overwhelmed and busy and all that sort of stuff, but the worksheets are not necessarily graded. >> And so the kids do all these worksheets and then there's no comments besides, I acknowledge you did the worksheet, but they're not told if they did anything wrong. And if I go through them as a parent and I get this several weeks later with the kind of the trickle time to get it into
205my house and I look for like, oh, they were wrong on this, this, and this. But then it continues where the following day they were still wrong and third day they were still because no one was correcting them. >> And then it kind of it's reinforcing this thing. And the push back I got was teachers cannot realistically do this for all kids on all day. It's just one subject which they do multiple times a day blah blah blah which I totally get. It's a huge time commitment, but I do have concerns that it will propagate this continuing >> not correcting this issue. And that's not this particular program. It is sort of the worksheet style in general makes me concerned. >> And I'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I think um
206I also so I'll just I'll speak in general one advantage of using a program is that you do have access to answer keys. standardizing. No, >> depending on what the what the thing is, but yeah, >> I mean, one advantage and and pure editing and pure feedback and I mean, a lot of that is built in whereas in a in a non set program, it often does come back to the teacher to evaluate. So hopefully some of that will be built in where the teacher can use some of those answer keys strategically with especially older students um to avoid some of that fossilization. Yeah, I was >> And I think to your point um you know on a nightly basis, weekly basis, weekend basis, there is so much right now content creation that's happening like
207I'm spending my time getting ready for my lessons tomorrow because I have to create them or this is what I did last year and now I'm thinking about like how I have to make it different for my students tomorrow. There's so much time being spent on that part that it doesn't leave as much time for these conversations with your teammates to talk about the writing prompt and what came out of it yesterday and really look at the work that students created and kind of run some protocols around talking about student work, really looking at the data or being able to go home and scan through these books and say, "This student's got it. This student does it. As a class, we're going to have to review this thing, but I'm going to run a targeted
208small group here." Right? I think we're moving in the direction of um freeing up some of that time away from content creation towards collaboration and the focus on those either assessments or those formative pieces along the way. um you know a potential sort of success measure because that's around buyin too for teachers but a potential success measure is that students and families are uh receiving more feedback about the work that's happening on a daily or weekly basis in classrooms because more time can be spent on that. Um oh yeah sorry go I was thinking uh since budget evening conversation too like knowing that there is there's focus on vertical alignment and I'm cur like just how do we be planful around you know if there is the 68 portion of this you know I think
209about you know what is the >> 912 like that's a curriculum that pairs nicely and how do we budgetwise not with that mind. Well, >> you can dream. >> I can dream. Um, but anyway, just thinking about the tie in between that sort of thing and not the surprise conversation in two years of like, oh yeah, we want to do this for the middle school. Um, >> very good plan >> and just yeah, >> while we're thinking about systems, now we budget thoughtfully, >> which started the habit of illustrative math in sixth grade as well. >> Yeah. And this is this has really come out of like when you look at what race and Mary cross committed to do to achieve um these measurable outcomes in the strategic plan um adopting an ELA program was
210one of those things. Right. So, you know, I would anticipate if there were an appetite to do this in other schools or we were to create an appetite to do this, um the the vehicle by which we make this really transparent is through the strategic plan. And you know, we have a strategic plan meeting tomorrow, but these conversations happen. We commit to doing a thing. We have a process for it. Um and then it's also uh not a surprise when it comes up for conversation with um budget committees or school boards. Thank you, Lauren. >> Thanks everyone. Yeah, comments. >> All right, we are moving into communications and reports. Um, >> oh no, you have business require I was already down. Business required action. Sorry. Should be hopefully a quick one. Um, I will take
211a motion to approve items B through E by consent. >> I I need to make two corrections to the minutes. Um, the first one is they referenced Sarah but did not have her last name and she just spelled it for me before she left. >> And so in the minutes it talks about Sarah and the Silver Lining Fund and her last name is U E C K R M A N. And the other correction for the minutes is that um Dr. Ke's last name is spelled with K E N E and that was misspelled by one letter. >> Super. Thank you so much. >> Yep. And so I move to approve items be through D by consent >> as amended >> with as amended. Thank you. >> Got a second from Renee. So motion by
212Dev, second by Renee. And we will take a roll call vote starting with Renee. >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Gina, yes. >> Russell, yes. Nelson, yes. Earlier yes. >> Yes. So that is unanimous. Thank you guys. Communications and reports. Um we have our um big meeting coming up Tuesday 13th uh to formally and adopt the budget. Um I think there's work to be done on the budget before that. So there will be probably budget meetings in between. Um so I don't have those dates off top of my head, but stay tuned for those. Okay. >> Um I also wanted to highlight for the members of the public that um Ben and I attended a meeting with the commissioner of education Caitlyn Davis um Friday as part of the schoolboard advocacy network which is a group of
213chairs across the state um that are just trying to look at one of our some of our common issues. Um and I sent an update to the board which I will put into um board docs as soon as I chance to do that. Um but the the key topics were um local control um open enrollment and rising special education costs with declining special education funding from the state. Um and those are common challenges that are facing all of our districts across the state. Um it was a great meeting and we are going to be having another meeting sometime in the spring um with the rest of uh Commissioner Davis's staff at the DOE. So, um, if you have thoughts or questions or specific, um, things that you would like to know about, please let myself
214or Ben know. That's all I have to share. Committee reports. I think we have for Nate and Cara on handover finance budget committee things. Sorry, tell them CIPC. I can definitely chime in for CIBC first. >> Okay, >> you're right. >> So, uh, attached to the agenda is the flyer for their South Main Street information gathering public stakeholder engagement. >> Sure is. >> Oh, >> right before. >> Sure. Was completely accident. >> Uhhuh. >> So, um, the self street project has, uh, been a little bit delayed. Um, this stakeholder engagement session was supposed to be earlier this fall. It is now for January 13th. Um, I strongly encourage you to share the information about it with uh others, you know, other stakeholders, you know. Um, the I that's all I know about that. the the
215CIPC at this point uh in our cycle is getting the place where we drafted like the recommendation for the town um based on our input and the it appears that the South Main Street project and the West Lock project will not have comments from the CIPC because we don't have information to include. Okay, >> so there's that. Um, the other piece that I wanted to make sure I looped in here, um, is that, uh, I hear from from Rob's was great conversations with Robin. You guys are having a great time at Applebee's. Um but the the key thing that um he mentioned was the conversation around uh kind of capital improvements at the schools >> ultimately would be flowing through the CIPC just like any other capital improvement project that the town would be undertaking
216anyway. And so I'm anticipating that kind of coming out of that work that the to be committee committee puts together. Um like I I would imagine like I would either help bring through or tear whoever um we kind of help shepherd into and then have a discussion about it there. Um so >> that's great. So that would kind of be one >> big town capital improvement discussion not siloed. >> Yes. Seems to be the name of the name of the game here. Okay. The um it is important I think just to name though there was a a discussion about what is the purpose of CIPC at the last meeting >> um and there was a debate between are we this kind of strategic planning arm are we like budget management are we just like this
217project looks cool in a silo go forward um it's a little bit about accountability because there is a process now to say here's what our plan is here's what our costs are for the plan and enable a dialogue Um I think everything else on top of that is not necessarily clearly defined for the committee yet but is intended to be part of our final report which will be drafted and sent out January through March for when we actually need to submit it. Um but I think that will also help us as we are thinking about bringing kind of capital expenditure proposals from the school. It's like, okay, well, is this going to be does the CIPC is the CIPC's role to say this school thing over this non-school thing or is it this school thing
218sounds important? This should be considered >> irregardless of anything else that's going on. We and then the select board really is the one that kind of says here's the balance of stuff we want to do and when. So, um, and I think that'll help us frame how we bring things as well. So >> it is it is an interesting um I know our friends over in Norwich have been concerned about sort of who does the wagging and who does the you know and so it does sort of beg that question right that ultimately we sort of hold the responsibility for making those decisions about school and school funds. Um but much like finance committee giving their sort of opining I'll say opining on our budgets right I think it's that kind of spirit of making
219sure that we have the full picture headwinds tailwinds that sort of thing and when we're making those decisions >> thank you um okay other committees oh no did I just close my No I did not >> do you really want to hear anything about ZD DSC or the handover finance committee. I mean there's I guess briefly there's great news that the CDSC I mean great and sad at the same time that the sbatical proposals that we got were not approved. >> Okay. None of them were the committee did not recommend to elevate any of them to Robin and Robin would have then had to elevate them to you know the rest of the school boards um depending upon which school was impacted with the sbatical um staff member. And so I mean good for the
220budget but bad ultimately for you know sort of the state of that particular program because last cycle two years ago we also had concerns about the quality of the proposals although they were higher last time. So I guess as a body I would recommend that the various boards start rethinking especially in advance of the negotiations for the next teacher contract. What can be done differently to inspire staff members to bring proposals for a sbatical that would reach the level of approval by the CDSC committee. So, or maybe those funds could be used differently. What our suggestion was for the folks who applied this year and we didn't raise their proposals up to Robin either of them. We said, "Hey, either one of these would be a great enrichment grant." So people in their various schools
221were going to go back to those staff members and suggest that. So maybe this is an opportunity to discuss a larger pot of funds for enrichment grants. Who knows? That's that handover finance committee um consistently has asked me questions and for documentation that I have not been able to provide in a timely manner in advance of meetings and um I am the broken record of apologies. So maybe we can do something to change that moving forward and if so I would appreciate it. >> Um thank you for taking the brunt of that for us. Um January 8th is their next meeting. So, it sounds to me as if it would behoove us to get them um usable information in advance of January 8th. >> And just just to to to put a data point in
222perspective, the town has been doing a fantastic job of providing all documentation in advance. And in fact, they've even provided to HFC um advanced information about our potential financial missteps even before we've talked about them as a board because they have visibility. So that makes life super interesting and fun and I invite anybody who would like to go to these meetings to actually attend as well. >> Well, it's good to know how courteous they are, Terry. I appreciate >> What was that? >> It's good to know how courteous they are. Everyone is very courteous and Greg is my neighbor. >> Tara, do they have a meeting before January 8th or is that the next meeting? >> That is the next meeting. But I will tell you there will be a bazillion emails potentially because there
223is this unmet data need, right? So there will be emails and questions in between the meetings and whatever we can do to serve them with some data in advance which they reasonably would like the opportunity to review and discuss in advance of making recommendations either to us or to the townwide community. They were also um when I was talking to Greg Priv, he mentioned repeatedly that they really want hard copies sent in advance of the meeting as well. >> Actual hardies. >> Interesting. >> Yeah. >> I mean doable but also doable. >> I think it's more likely probably just purely made with simply >> Okay. Well, we can we can talk that about that. But um >> well um yeah we don't those meetings don't have people with um computers necessarily sitting in front of
224everyone during the meeting. So >> and the town sends people to give formal presentations right and we have been requested previously to send someone to give formal from the administration to give formal presentations. So that should also be on our radar screen moving forward. I know this is not the year for that but future years that would be appropriate. Yeah. Okay. All righty. Any other committee reports? I think that covers it. Thank you. We did want to hear that. Thank you. >> Um NHSBA is kind of quiet right now, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I will I will >> I was part of the the um sbatical. Yeah, that was my question. Yeah. Um so what happens now in terms of a sobatical if we decline it are we under any responsibility to like
225make one happen negotiation or anything? >> No no we've already taken it out of the budget. >> Okay. >> Um yeah >> um I going to say oh f Sband meeting that you were just at. It was mentioned that NHSBA is now viewed as has been sort of labeled as a liberal organization which actual >> which is making you smile right because that I was I'm thinking the 10 years I've been on the board. >> I will say that at the risk of making this meeting longer. I've been going for I think four years. I don't know how long I've been on the board, >> but when I first went, there was a lot more >> divisiveness over many of the issues that's not there anymore. And I think that the school board, I think
226it says something about the school board members who are in attendance are much more likely to be concerned about the same issues. whether it's open enrollment, whether it's the 306 rules, whether it's um >> public lunches, you know, free food for children. I mean, they're all kind of >> in the same place. So, it's really interesting. I don't think NHSA has changed at all. I think the membership has is changing. >> Yeah. >> And I would agree with that at the Friday meeting with the commissioner as well that Yeah. for being a a meeting where it could easily get very political even if you weren't trying. The members should do a very good job being non-political and emphasize that like we are very apolitical structure. It's we are there to change these things that >>
227children no divisive issues ever really came up but at least from our perspective >> people were very friendly with one another. >> Yeah. >> There's a sense of like fiscal responsibility while feeding, caring for and educating children. >> Yeah. Universal issues. Yep. Um, all right, Robin. >> Okay, I'll keep it brief. Been an exciting time in the schools as we approach the holidays. As you can imagine, I've been spending quite a bit of time in each of the schools here at Ray. My monthly meeting with the principles has been around supervision and evaluation and doing walkthroughs. And we did have our leadership team meeting today. Normally we did a whole thing in the schools and then I realized oh I scheduled for the Monday before break maybe that's not a good time to take time
228on tests data in classrooms. So we ended up having just a general meeting today and about you know pressing issues in schools I'll be a second that's happening. So I just want to thank everyone before we go on break for all the hard work. I can't believe we're almost to January already. the years flying by and I just appreciate all that the work that people have put into all these committees and um teaching and Lauren for moving this ELA program forward. That's been a huge undertaking. So, thanks to everyone and getting the budgets underway. I feel like we're making slow but steady progress. So, thank you for all of your work on that, too. Florence. Um the document I uploaded was to let you know some things that I am doing to hold myself accountable
229for work this year. Um you'll notice, you know, that the ELA curriculum program is not on here. So it's not limited to this work. I'm um just really thinking about from a systems perspective as I settled into this position and uh and learning from uh Robin as well as we're moving forward. And I would just add on um a little bit of celebration. The science curriculum units that we work so hard on are now being posted on the website. So uh I would invite you to go to the race school's um curriculum area and click on science and you will see we're just missing one grade, but I should have that by the end of the week. They're just making a couple of final tweaks. Um so those are those are posted which is really
230exciting. Um, and then I give uh as well just a happy holidays um with a heart of gratitude for all the work that we do together um and all the work that you all do on behalf of our community and our students. So, hope everybody enjoys some time away doing whatever you need to do to have a happy break. >> Likewise. Thanks. Um, and I will before we move to Teresa, I will just point out Rhett um, originally was scheduled to do a um, sort of full report on uh, the status of special education in our district as he does for us every year and we decided to pump that to January. Um, telling him you're all right. >> He's still he still so kindly stayed the entire meeting. So thank you rep for being
231flexible >> with the continuation of this budget discussion going into >> January >> meeting in January. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll chat. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> I don't want to >> Yeah. >> It's important information but I don't want to >> overburden it's longer than a >> Thanks for >> uh Teresa. Um, >> anything anything else? >> No, I have a lot of thoughts, but um anything for tonight? >> Okay. All righty. Um, I don't think we need to hold, right? >> No, I had something to talk about, but I can do tomorrow. >> Well, can you is it interesting thing or >> it's it's it's both. It could go tomorrow. Are we going to be shorter tomorrow? >> No. Tomorrow as we have also as well. We'll do quick not public. It's it is
232relatively quick, right? >> It is is informational. >> Yeah. Um so I will take a motion to enter non public session under >> uh negotiations, right? >> Yes. That was here. Uh >> negotiations. It would be under a this negotiation >> A3 >> negotiation. >> Yeah, that's litigation. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, a All right. Yes. So I will take a motion to enter non public session even regretfully. >> I will sure go for it. >> Move to enter into non-public session at 9:27 p.m. under RSA1-8 38 2A. >> I seconded Bev Nelson. All right. Roll call. Starting with Renee. >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Yes. >> Russell. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. All right, we'll be back. Look how old they are. >> All right, we are back in
233a public session. Who wants more cookies? >> Just try four hours. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much. any other members of the public who would like to address the board now be >> there officially outlast the um agenda items for next meeting please let me know it's going to be the budget so >> you should start meetings in January >> yes heads up that we do have two meetings in January so we have the public hearing and then the uh and budget adoption and then we also have a regularly scheduled >> and two addressants Yes. Did I say the 13th? Birth on the 14th. >> Okay. >> Dresden is the 13th. >> Yeah. 1314 and then >> Yes. Sorry. So I misspoke earlier. >> I Dresden budget is the 13th. Handover budget is
234the 14th. So >> next day. >> Yep. And then we get an extra meeting after that. >> So yes, >> we'll be hanging out in January, friends. >> All right. Thank you all so much. I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjourn the meeting at 10. >> Nope. 9:55 p.m. >> So much earlier. >> Yeah. I'll take a second. >> Okay. Second from Carrie and uh Russell >> Sullivan. Yes. >> Yes. >> Russell. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. Thank you everybody. >> Remember tomorrow at 6. Um surgery areas