Dresden School Board 11/18/2025

001We're doing okay. >> Okay, we'll call it at 707 with apologies. Agenda reviewed. Does anyone have anything they need to add, subtract, or edit to the agenda? Right. Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If anyone wants to public comment, wants to comment on anything not already on the agenda, now is the time to do it. If we have an agenda item, please wait for that. Yes. Name and who you are and if you're representing any particular group. >> I'm Pam Kuster. I'm a social studies teacher here at the high school. And I do have comments that I wanted to share regarding this a little bit, but I have to first state that I am not a resident of this district. >> And can we wait until Charles will talk about that? >> Is

002that okay? >> Yes. I just wanted to I didn't know if I would be allowed to since I'm not a resident. So, I thought I'd share that. you are an employee and that would qualify for >> Thank you. Thank you. Dr. >> Any other comments on your move right along then to reports? High school rep is Ian alone tonight. >> No. >> Um any other speaking? >> Um so um I just wanted to say we have on tomorrow's agenda a familiar topic. um graduation requirement for community breakfast is coming back. It's going to be advisory, but you know, this is something that long has been talked about in Hanover High School. We the board has reviewed it in 2018, so look forward to more of that. Um they've also um just been looking at the

003uh executing equity committee is looking at and seeing how the school uh and students might be able to use their voice to talk about New Hampshire with the public funding. And um and then I think you heard about the pledge notion um where Mr. Murphy brought formal language um and is encouraging people to think about what values do we stand for at Canberra High School. So we've had a couple short meetings so the agenda's have been rather short but and I understand I just want to tell everybody to the public I hope you schoolboard members are taking tours of the schools and getting council member to follow around. So it's very exciting to have it. So thank you Thanks, Linda. Anything for Linda and her acting st as >> Yes, Renee. >> I just got

004one of those emails today from the council and it like brightened my day. >> I am so excited. >> I've been it's all on my list, but I think it's helpful that somebody proactively reaches out >> because it actually gets it on the calendar. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anything else for Linda much to the RMS principal's report? Anissa, what's going on over there? >> Good evening. >> Um, my apologies for the delay in my report. I had a little bit of writer's block this weekend and then I thought like, embrace the middle school and just do six. >> As I was working that, I was like, oh my gosh, that's a lot of things. But I think it captures our school and the fun of middle school. um which yes I am

005um one of the tasks that I am helping out with currently is serving as our student council adviser and that was we were having like that great middle school discussion about sphere days what do they want to have a 67 day the 67th day of school >> but other than fun things like that we're doing uh a lot of great work uh we have as I mentioned in the report we uh have formed an MTSS uh team this year and we're working through uh formalizing those tiers of support. Uh something that you all have identified in the um strategic plan. Uh certainly we're doing our regular grade level budget meetings. Uh just this week uh as I we attended team meetings, we talked about the survey which you all will look at this evening. Just

006thinking about ways and strategies that we could use to um shift our practice to better meet some of the items that are uh mentioned in the survey. I don't have questions. >> I'm just having a little PTSD at item number 64 about the brain. Are they still creating those >> representations of their place? >> It has sh the practice has shifted slightly, but yes, students do create some sort of it doesn't have to be a model that their parent go down and buys lots of supplies for. >> No, I didn't touch it, but it just was made out of bread dough and it kind of expanded overnight and it was >> a very big brain. I don't know. >> Some things you don't forget about your children's rich. Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> It

007was great to see that we got a blue ribbon. >> Yeah. That was my Yeah. last little bit that we um >> had were selected. I knew uh prior to him leaving that we have been selected as a national blue ribbon uh school. Um the application that we completed last March and then the beginning of September it's formally cancelled as a program. Um, but the state of New Hampshire has invited us to a dinner uh December 2nd, so they'll be attending. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Anything else for Thank you, Mr. PL and the 67 methods >> and then seven and just 13. So >> Anisha, did you want us to talk about the handbook at all or is that just >> you have an action item later? Do you have questions about it?

008>> Any questions for the handbook? Anything you want to highlight for that? >> No, it's pretty close to what you saw before, I believe. >> Gina, not a question, but I thought the update on the injury was great, which that we talked about that last time. And there's a blank page five. Oh, I don't know why. >> At least the one I saw. >> Yeah, >> I know the one I looked at wasn't, but maybe in somehow in translation page break. That's funky. Okay, >> that's what I think it is. >> I just wanted to find it. >> Okay, I will double check that and we'll get up on the website if you all read it soon. >> Thank you, >> Neil. >> So, did you want to talk about the handbook now or when

009it's up for >> We're open to discussion. Would you like to talk along now? Um, so I do have a question based on two things. One, what we uh heard from the last meeting and secondly, because some of us have been getting requests from parents outside of the district looking to participate in our sports program. >> And I noticed under eligibility there is the statement there that says students who reside in Hannover or Norwich who are home who are homeschooled or attend another school may participate in athletics at Richmond Middle School. Is that am I correct to read that that would allow a student from line >> to pardon me? >> I think >> that's how I read it. >> Yeah, I think what it what it could be is there maybe should be another

010comma after attend another school, so I think it's more if you are a resident of Hanover who go to a private school would still qualify to be a athlete at RMS, not students who live in other towns besides Hanover. >> All right. Jarrett say your hand up. >> Why are we It seems to have just popped up earlier. Why are we making such a big deal of listen not allowing line to participate in RMS even if didn't they just pay a fee even? And >> so the argument that I've heard is that they not they are not taxpayers for contributing to >> they pay a fee like they did at HPR, right? They always fees. So wouldn't that be a revenue opportunity for the district just to charge them fee? The argument there and speaking

011off the cuff would be that there are several schools that attend sending districts to the high schools. Let's just say Heartland and then what about capacity? What happens make sure there's enough people on the team and like we talked about the film chairs just now numerous liability type issues as well with deployed. >> Uh Neil, um I would like to make a recommendation to the chair that we actually talk about that issue at a future board meeting, preferably the next one. Any further insights, Kelly? >> Yeah, I I so I I think um we have a lot I'll just state I I agree. I think we should talk about it more fully. I think there are a lot of um potentially unforeseen items that we need to discuss. Insurance, busing, there's a lot of things

012that might go into that that we would need to look into if we were going to entertain that um space, all kinds of things. And it's different for different sports. There's just a lot of different things to consider. So, um yeah, I I agree. And I don't know if that holds up approving this now. I know they're eager to get it in place because basketball is starting. So, um I think we may need to approve this as is without live streams for the upcoming season and then revisit it the future. It means that >> we have also heard that there were lime students that signed up through the RMS portal to sign up their athletes for basketball this year, which I think was made pretty clear that that was not the intent and that we

013had also heard from Hannibal and Reck that Ryan had plenty of players last year for their own teams. They just had more players than the Hover team did. Yeah. Any other thoughts? Melissa, do you have any thoughts on this? >> No. >> I appreciate that. Um, you all have the policy that you have in place that allows uh students who may be homeschooled, but our district or attending school, but our district residents to participate. Um, even before this went for the voters, I remember having a conversation with a crossroads parent who lives in handover and wanted to make sure our sports move forward that her child would still be able to participate. >> I said, "Yep, that follows our policy." I think that's key for me is really just thinking about what our policy is,

014how we follow that. >> Well, that also gets into the guidance from the state. We're not eligible. So, we're not really innovative in that particular regard, >> right? Don't hear any thoughts that we can talk about this next month. So, we'll add that to the agenda item. But I I do think given the time that Kelly mentioned, the timing for this year seems problematic at minimum given that they're having they've already done signups for a couple weeks. They've already doctors into play. They have tryyous in a week and a half. So, that might be a little challenging to do this academic year, at least for winter sports. Great. Everyone good to move on? Anything else on the handbook since we're talking about it? >> It's just the athletics handbook, right? >> Yes. >> Sorry. Neil,

015one more time. >> Um I think when we heard from the athletic director last week um week that for some sports there is a try out and a potential cut. >> That is true for basketball. At least I don't think they've announced the >> is that outlined? I will admit that I skimmed the policy pretty quick. Is that included in the follow in this sorry in the handbook >> specific to basketball? It was in emails to parents in terms of how the structure would work in terms of triyouts and things like that. In terms of the actual handbook, I do not recall specifically if it's in your am not to jump too much or am I hearing an argument that perhaps athletic affairs committee should have some insights and thoughts into this process? I mean,

016I just I think about it from a transparency perspective. I wouldn't want somebody to think that they were, you know, getting one thing and then end up with another. >> And so, if we know that that is the the practice, um, at least for some sports, I don't know that we need to call them out by name, but just, you know, simple sentences that says, you know, some sports would require tryyous and students may be cut. There is some language even in communication about triyouts for given this season. Um again it's on page three last sentence of communication. There's other trials in the end of the first paragraph. Okay. So, just we can have Brandon come to the December meeting. We can talk through more of these things. >> Anything else on this? >> I

017think this since we've asked we've had delays almost two months in a row now. >> That we should probably try to make a motion on this tonight since sports will be starting in a week and a half. >> I guess we'll move on. Thank you, Anissa. Moving on to the high school principal report. I see there's a vignette as well. Really? >> Yeah. So, leave time for the vignette. You have the report. If I were to point out anything on it, I feel like it's a hard to be a teacher at Hanover High School in your first or second year and our music people who are all brand new have knocked it out of the park with their fall concert. So, that was exciting to see. Um, and then in terms of the sports piece

018here, as you can see, participation is high. Um, and it probably is keeping up with the all the new students we have this year in terms of numbers are all participating if you want to look at it that way in winter sports. So, um, yeah, busy place, lots going on. Um, we're really proud of this program that's been developing. So, I'd love to have them chat with you about it. >> Anything specific to Julie before we have our vignette? I didn't see any. All right. Thank you, Julie. and folks are going. >> I'm gonna turn the screen on us if you don't mind. >> Introduce yourself as well. >> I want to say I have to leave the meeting early. It's not personally. So, I will stay as long as I can. >> Where does

019it start? >> I'll introduce myself. I'm Matt Buck. Um I'm a ESOL teacher here and then I also um kind of coordinate aspects of the hub. That's the peer tutoring center and I'm I'm also now wonderfully connected to some of one one portion of our ELOs's that are available here in high school. So that's me. >> Yeah. And I'm Julie. I'm new to the position this year, but I'm the RTM case manager. response training tier 2 intervention program and um also for the personalized learning program department um which ELO is a growing part of and I'm super proud to have you guys here. >> Hi everybody. Um I'm Luis Bango. I'm a new teacher to at Hanover High School and I'm the extended learning opportunities coordinator. There's a lot going on here. >> Yeah, sure.

020I put this together and not that you can necessarily read it, but I made this actually for the MTSS. Um, also to explain to people what my job is when they ask conferences lately and I'm the PL coordinator. And so um this is our department which includes uh PE and health which are social emotional learning the health hub and the ELO's as well as um we have study strategies course and academic coaching which is an intervention um at the tier one level and this is the program I work closely with the response to need which is at risk 12th graders a nic intervention program single day shortterm interventions uh special ed referrals they didn't they spend time with me. Um and then in school suspension restorative justice also at the tier 2 level we have

021504 and um ESOL which um so I just we're highlighting this area tonight. >> Okay. Um I'll speak to ELOs's in general and then then hand it off to Matt and he'll talk about a subset of ELOs's. Have you heard of ELO's? >> Yeah. >> Yes. No. Yes. Um, it stands for extended, not not electric light orchestra, but extended learning extended learning opportunities. Um, it's a thing throughout the whole state of New Hampshire. And, uh, what it really is is, um, working with students in their personal interests to personalize their learning, to kind of honor what their interests are, and to bring that and build a a learning plan around many of the things that they're active in um, outside of school. So it can take place beyond the classroom, but we have a lot

022of kids working on campus with with teachers here in with uh ELO's. I think maybe in the past we just called them independent studies, >> but independent studies are really just a small part of what an ELO can be. Um it's credit bearing. Typically here we treat it as elected credit. And I asked our our our director of counseling recently, how many credits do does a handover high school student usually graduate with? And I'm hearing around 24 credits, 25 credits over the span of four years. An ELO is typically a half a credit or one credit and maybe as many as two credits. So, it's a real small fraction of their whole handover experience. Um, and we have a lot of kids, like I said, uh, leaving the campus and maybe walking across the street

023or down the road and and really networking with with, uh, community partners, could be a small business or an NGO or the the college. So, um, we ask all our ELO students to create this one sheet just to start off and it's we call it a project bio. So, here are some examples of these of just a few of the project bios. When you leave tonight and make a right outside these doors, we have a lot of project bios up on the wall and you can stop and take a look at those. But, um, uh, these are just some examples of what ELOS could be. So, internships or externships, which is a little lighter than an internship and more of a a job or career exploration, community service, independent study projects that take place here

024or off-campus. Um, we have plenty of students participating in Matt's program with of learning assistants that he'll talk about in just a second. um people working with our science department as lab techs and um also work-based learning and then um typically it's fluid but we kind of contain it within a semester and sometimes within the academic year and I I think of our yellows as having kind of three seasons and um so getting started up and then up and running and then wrapping it up at the end of the semester or the end of the year. So, we build a learning plan. We co-design a learning plan with students. Uh they establish learning goals kind of big big ideas. what's the enduring um understandings and the essential questions and uh they create the project bio

025which you saw and uh we're working on creating a project rubric that's using our portrait of a learner as kind of the the skills that they're they're striving for in addition to other specific things. And then during up and running I check in with them on a regular basis. sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, and they're also completing um kind of a weekly reflection that they turn in through schooly to us. Towards the end uh when we wrap up the the whole experience, we we end it with a presentation of learning. So, we'll have we we have something scheduled for the first week in January before the midterm week and trying trying to get kids excited about coming in and demonstrating what the experience has been like and and what they've learned.

026And with that, I'll hand off to to Matt. Um yeah, I the ELO's I feel like I get the opportunity to kind of craft one piece of this vibe and those are learning assistants. So, uh a learning assistant I think is what you would traditionally think of a teaching assistant. But the way that we've kind of crafted the idea of being a learning assistant is that um 90% of what they do is going to be in the classroom working with uh maybe Miss Kuster and they're going to be in the classroom with working with students throughout the entire semester. Um and so that's where the practice comes in and they're working with students and the LA's really has to do with being an active learning environment. they're not going to be in there rating uh

027sitting back but the idea is that they are engaged in learning. So if you're say anywhere from a 15 to 18 year old understanding how to be engaged in lead learning is kind of a difficult thing. So one of the aspects that I get to kind of come in is through the LA here in the middle is that I I get to work with them and so we go over like what is pedagogy and um and we have last week we had the way we're kind of working designing this is we're it's called pizza and pedagogy. So uh we have four lunchons within a quarter and we ask them they can choose to attend three of them and that's kind of how we have it set up right now. But last time we what we

028have for these we have guest teachers that come in and I'll show you in the next slide but we talk about like how do you ask uh how do you ask questions to lead a discussion? So you're not answering the question for them but you're you're kind of relating and getting them to think and create thought and we have somebody coming in to talk about like the the science of learning. So they're going over brain biology. It's uh Megan Sass, our school psychologist, is going to join me and talk about here's how a thought is created and here's where it goes into the syninnapse and into the prefrontal cortex. And so I get to kind of dabble in that, but that's like a very small bit of their experience because we want to kind of

029plant seeds here for these students and we want them to take it back and work on in the classroom. And the preparation comes with their participating teacher that they might find some time outside of class. So I leave it up to them when they can kind of schedule this because everybody's schedule time is of the essence, right? Um so they kind of craft that and I give them some ways of doing some goal setting like they talked about the project bios that they work at the beginning of the year and kind of uh setting some objectives. So if they want to be in charge of creating introductory lessons in Spanish class or like warm-up activities or in um there's a student in comp one, I think they're going to be uh teaching for like two

030days straight. like that's what their end goal is before the semester is over. So, um that's kind of what an LA is within this. And this is just our pizza and pagi. These are the first four that we've kind of have set up and who's coming. So, we talk about um teaching with purpose. Brain bio is our next one. Effective communication when you're working with a student and in in aspects like this, especially when it's peer-to-peer also. I think that's a that's I don't experience that in all my life in in in my teaching. I'm working with them. And then the last one, which we're still I wasn't going to put someone's name up here without talking to them first, but uh using classroom discussion in in active learning environments, you know, how it can

031really be turned back in the learners and learners seat. So, um and please feel free to ask questions whenever you have it. And um oh, that was our first discussion there. That's Miss Sbert. she was up front and and uh that those were all the students that attended that. Those are LA's and uh it was also some of our helpup tutors because they're very much kind of in that same realm of actively working with kids on a day-to-day basis. So, thank you so reminds me of co-ops a little bit at Nor Eastern. I'm just curious, >> are the kids doing the their experiential piece during school hours or could they do it after school? >> Some of them are are doing it during school hours and some of them it's it's after school. We have

032a student for example um let's see probably spends more time in a dance studio than they do here on campus with us and and he's a senior >> and so um seniors have that flexibility to kind of once they're done they can go and >> he's learning he's continuing his study of dance but he's also teaching young students as well. So, um, we have a student at Northern Stage currently involved with the the Peter Pan production that they're they're preparing for in late December. Um, so yeah, it's happening throughout the day. >> It just seems like a really cool potential partnership for the school within the community. And like I can imagine small businesses seeing this as a neat opportunity also to tap into talent and to build, you know, like not internships necessarily, but

033I'm Yeah, >> I run my own business. I would love to have a high school person that for me. I mean, I I don't know. So, like, how do we um how can we support you in getting the word out about this very innovative program? Yeah, just let's let's >> talk more and and we want to grow this and scale it. You know, currently there's about almost 40 students involved in in one flavor of yellow. And I think that like Julie's vision is to scale this up and and uh so >> yeah, I really want to make sure that these walls feel like permeable to the students and they feel like the community >> is a place where they can learn as well and that we acknowledge that learning through through this program. >> That's

034great. Thanks. Any other questions? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Just curious about the process of designing an ELLL like in terms of what makes it, you know, Brook, you know, student hooks up with in terms of what is an acceptable EL, you know, like the components that are related to >> Yeah, >> I'm I'm coming here after 21 years in Vermont and I I had I was doing similar work in Vermont and so I had some some templates that I brought, but to be honest, I think New Hampshire has a lot of great resources. Julie on this first week of school, she gave me this big binder from 2016 and she goes, "Here's the handbook." And I was like, "Wow, there's like a handbook in New Hampshire for ELO's and it's it's really welldesigned." And so,

035um, there was a template that the school was already using in the spring and I've continued to use a lot of the documents that were already here in handover. And so, there's a planning document to answer your question and we sit down with the students and we have a conversation. We say, "What do you want to learn? What is it? What is your interest? And now let's put it kind of design it within this framework." >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah. Are you able to accommodate all the kids that want to do this? >> I think so. So far, yeah, I try to um we've had a couple ninth graders come and not and and I'm like, you know what, you're a ninth grader. They're transitioning from Lime or RMS and you should

036like explore all the clubs that are authored here and you should like get to know this new community that you've just stepped into. elves. Even though I think our handbook says it's okay for nth grade, um I try to honestly I try to discourage it at least until second semester. And so, um I think they'll have plenty of time. Ideally, um in Vermont, transportation was a big issue, and this is like the perfect place where that that's not as big an obstacle. But I'm I'm thinking about older students that has more flexibility in their schedule. Um so 9th and tth graders tend to have more prescribed classes. Uh but then things start to open up in 11th and and 12th grade. And that's really where we went. We start thinking about career exploration, life after

037handover. You know, if you're interested in engineering, maybe you should see what it's like to be an engineer first, you know. Um, my my son is a junior engineer student in Boston and I wish he had the chance, you know, to spend some time with a firm or, you know, doing something like this before um before he went to the office, but it's tough. >> Can students, you may have already asked this, but can students be paid and get credit through this program? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So there's workbased learning, >> but sometimes at sometimes I categorize it as work-based learning. Um, and they still build a learning plan around it, >> right? And um we still talk about like all the transferable skills that they're learning and um but uh yeah we

038have a student that had a summer job in one of the labs at the college and they wanted to hold on to him and so he still goes and spends a considerable amount of time and for that one I don't call it workbased learning because it's it's like very chemistry specific you know so it's he's in a chem lab and he's like complicated chemistry, you know. So, >> great. >> And I'm assuming there's wellestablished safety protocols for protecting them from physical labor or things that are if they're underage for, etc., etc. >> Yeah, we have we follow everything that New Hampshire dictates and and it's um so especially for things that aren't um employment. >> So, It's a it's a grayer area for us when a student isn't getting paid and isn't an employee, right?

039And they're they want to do an internship, but it's unpaid and we have to be very careful about, you know, where they are, who they're with, things like that. >> There's seems like such a cool opportunity for kids who are on 504 plans who might thrive in different types of learning environments, particularly like more experiential or hands-on versus classroom. Is there is there any um do you know like I'm thinking of like sometimes people with ADHD or dyslexia might thrive in a different Yeah. >> environment than a straight classroom. So I'm curious is there um cross fertilization between the 504 team and your team to identify ways to give those kids different ways to learn. >> No. >> So yeah. So this program is accessible to all Swedens and uh >> I know Louise works

040with some case managers when they have specific students that they want to connect to it for projects. However, um I think the idea and this, you know, Amy Good worked really hard last year um with Matt Prince and others to kind of move this program so that we have a full-time eL person so we can start to really think about learning and that's really what New Hampshire with all the 306 and I don't but that really is like the competency they're looking towards skills and that's that's part of the flavor, right? So, so we're leaving this open for everybody and really want to encourage uh maybe kind of a shift a little bit in um you know what is your passion right and talking about that these bios out in the hall really highlights a

041whole breath of spirits right many on plants many are you know headed off to the IVs right so um I think that as this program grows we're going to see that all students are interested and that they're talking about the cool things that that everybody's doing. So maybe sort of classical is cheap. So I'm hoping that we become a school with a lot of culture where people are talking a lot about different interests that students bring in passion projects. >> Kelly one more bring us home. >> Yes. So hopefully it will kind of I'm curious if any of these have come out of Martian intensive experiences. >> Find the questions. That's right. >> I don't know. Don't know about I'm going on my first March since I finished. Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm I'm trying to

042think. I think that um what actually probably I would I would make a wager that some of these students will design a march incentive based on their field or other way around. Um, so we can >> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Julie, did you have anything else or are you all good? >> No, we would love it if um we got to capacity and we want to grow it. Okay. >> Um, you know, we Pam was mentioning to me like we're doing a little bit of diploma pathway work. you know whe wherever that goes with the snack we'll find out but we're hoping that the you know ELOs's will be part of that pathway and therefore kids will be forced to do them right if they choose to do

043a pathway so I think we're we're hoping to make it so Louise is pulling his hair out >> like you have any numbers concerns that that they're too low or no No, no, no. Because um right now it's actually 80%. Right. We have Louis doing um some study strategies. Um so he's actually 60% yellow in the fall and 100% in the spring and and doing other work to keep him full-time. Um but we would, you know, I think the part of that was wanting to grow it. And I think even just the boards out here, there's stuff that's going to go into program of studies. Um it's more it's becoming more visible. Um, like I personally had two children who each did their own ELL, but it was really quiet. Like people would say, "I

044didn't know that you could do that." And I feel like Louise is really sort of making it um much more public. And so as as students walk by the boards, see what other students are doing, they'll come up with ideas. And I think they'll be over busy moving forward. I think right now it's the right busy, but it, you know, we like to be busy here. We're designing an advisory lesson to talk about the LS so that the spring that'll be the 10th and 11th graders will have that as part of their advisory. Um I know talking to my advisory they're like wait a minute what who can do what you know some ideas and I know speaking next semester um with project ideas. Great. >> Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. >>

045We're going to shift to business required discussion. It sounds like there might be a familiar face coming down the pipeline as a deputy treasurer. You want to walk us through that, Cher? >> I want to see what challenging boy questions. >> Good evening. I'm excited to see all you face to face. Haroldenberg and I've been the Dresden treasure I think since 2010. So >> that question about the treasure very fortunate. >> Someone asked who are all these people on these emails that I don't know was that your >> Yes. So anyway, I thought I would come tonight in person so I could say hi and let you see me and uh discuss a transition that has occurred. Um Elaine Waterman, as I mentioned, is been a long time uh she was a teacher for 40

046some odd years, first of all, and she is a great Norwich uh resident and a community service type person and she's assisted me for many years. Um she's at a point where she turned 80 and said, "I probably should step down and let somebody younger this." So, we talked about it and uh of course I talked to Lily and now you know that she's accepted uh coming on board. So, um happy to answer any questions if anybody hasn't or >> Lily is a familiar face to most of us. Any questions for Cheryl? So seeing none right >> we're gonna shift now to the funness medical word to the fund policy. We have second readings for seven different policies. We've talked about them all before. Uh this includes both March intensive and the so-called cell phone

047communication device policy. I'll highlight those in terms of the second readings for the unauthorized use of communication devices or JICJ there. There should some green text where we did some word smithing. We also clarified the literal bell to bell was not a thing at the high school. So we indicated that that meant and I think that was probably the only one that really jumped out in these changes from the first reading and everything else I think we've talked about already specific to that policy. But happy to have more discussion for the March intensive stuff. We had um some nice specific comments from a board member that gave us more um ammunition, but more things to describe in terms of accountability and post March sort of how things went, things we can improve upon. So, we

048added a lot of that language or thinking to that board member. And I think that's most of the additions to those things. I remember we had a comment from the public who had a question about the phones. Any other questions or comments from board members before we get to public comments? Terara, >> I think um we had just suggested at the previous meeting that the printed name line be added for the name based scholarship application and I don't see Jack. >> So you are referring to it. >> Can you repeat that? I couldn't hear. >> People couldn't hear what you said. Oh, we had just uh talked about adding a printed name line under the signature line for the scholarship application for clarity and um and I just didn't see that it made. >> Okay.

049Right. We can make that and that's yeah minor enough I think that we can still squeeze that forward thing. >> Right. Thank you for that too. Gina >> um really nitpicky thing. >> Can you clarify which policy you're talking about? >> Uh I it's one the one that has the word chaperone in it. It's still I think the spell check must >> okay >> think chapron is spelled chaperon >> yeah I saw that on fix it too is under the title up on top if you look at the name of the document >> we fix that >> we talked about that this morning okay >> yeah we will fix that line by line correct spelling workshop in the staff me >> maybe it's in the staff intended. It was maybe that one. I just noticed

050it. So, I was the agreement form. >> Yeah, it's the it's one of the wordier ones. >> Okay. Thank you. And Neil and then Garrett. >> I want to thank the philosophy. I was the one that made recommendations for changing the March intensive policy which they entertained today. And I do notice that um a lot of that stuff is folded in, but I am curious um the policy committee's discussion over the evaluation and accountability. Um I think I had one bullet item in there that specifically referenced um doing a trend analysis of course participation based on so socioeconomic um details and also IP status. And I'm curious why policy we decide to >> move more actually that's a great question. There's more that we actually expanded it wanted to count for things like grades, gender,

051religion, students participating in sports and so not restricting to just soio economic or or IEPs and several different groups that might be of interest for future planning especially in participation rates such as athletes who may not be able to participate as much. >> Um I appreciate the explanation. I think though without um providing some clarity around what those things are by making that bullet item broader it's removed some of the specificity of the request. >> Okay. So you were asking to put in a more direct thing to a soio economic variation among students participating. >> I mean I would recommend all the things that you just um uh said that the committee um thought ought to be expanded or added to that I think would be appropriate to include it. And just to make clear

052everyone, if you're looking at the very bottom of this is the bullet point that is third from the bottom. So maybe more direct context of why we're referring to participation or not students. >> Sorry, I'm trend analysis that one. >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. It's the >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> There's other groups pondering. Robin, >> one thing we'll have to be careful about is the number of students in specific groups because if we don't have a big enough cohort, we will not be able to to eliminate that information. >> And many of these margin intensive courses are single digits. So, >> we'll have to identify specific students. >> Just so you're aware of that. >> Um, I thought your hand was up. >> Yeah. So, this is a question. I apologize. missed the meeting

053this morning. But um with regards to the March intensive program, I guess it comes back to the original question when we put this whole policy in place because no one really knew exactly what the rules were behind the situation. But I guess I'm kind of wondering, so it says all students are required to participate and then we've deleted the attendance policy that says participation is mandatory unless otherwise excused by the principal. And then we said that March intensive be listed either successful participation or not non-participation which I know we had a lot of discussion around not wanting to make march intensive punitive and not wanting to you know basically hurt kids if they don't participate with grades and making it into some stressful situation. But I guess what I'm reading here is is is it

054basically the policy that if a child doesn't want to participate in March intensive that they just I guess approach the IM director and say I don't want to participate and then they just don't then they just get a nonparticipation and they don't care about participating and they don't care about I mean I guess for an underclass minutes they basically lose their their line right their position online for getting some of the higher ones, but if you're a senior, you'd be really care this is like part of our school and they're like I guess but otherwise do they just have five days off or they go somewhere else or they go skiing or something? I mean, how's it like? So, if I'm understanding your question correctly, it would be that if the student is not able

055or not willing to attend for whatever reason, that it would fall into the regular attendance policies of what governs successful attendance or not or successful participation or not this program or any other program at the high school. >> So, they just miss like five days. So if a student pulls out for five days for whatever reason, March intensive or sick for family vacation or what have you, right, there would be the typical protocols of possible repercussions and those would fall into separate policies based on attendance. >> Uh Kelly, >> um it's a minor detail but maybe worth putting in there. Um where are >> eligibility still? Okay. Um, homeschooled students we haven't specified residing in the district and probably should. >> I think that's a fair point. So, homeschooled students within handover and marriage. >>

056Yeah, that's fair. Thank you for that. >> I don't I I think that would be a minor word smithing issue if that if the intention of it, but that's >> any other comments before we get to our public comment. Pam, did you still wish to speak? Go for it. >> We're all listening to Julian Tentley. >> I You want to talk about the cell phone? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to go for it. >> Well, >> yeah. I don't know what to say about the march and pencil thing. I was trying to understand you. Um, right. It's four and then it and there is an NP on the transcript. >> Right. So, there's boxes on the transcript and so that you put in SP or MP. So do we find that a lot of

057kids just don't participate like would you seniors do this? >> I would say when we don't and this is what will which will make what you've asked for a meal successful is we'll report to you on that and it's usually better than a regular school day in terms of absences except maybe Friday. >> Yeah. >> Sometimes Friday is like a regular school day. So, I mean, there's different regular school days, like the first day of school versus like next week on Monday and Tuesday, right? So, it's definitely never as bad as that. One week for Thanksgiving, I'll keep on going on that. Yay. Um, but but the uh the I would say in general is better than a regular school day. >> I think last year there was it was about 12 to 13 per

058grade, but it was slightly up among seniors. was about 30 seniors I believe got an NP uh last year which was a higher percentage than the other group. So I do think that the lottery postman hold I also think we were in a little bit of a unique circumstance where some seniors did not get weren't there they but they were limited by the winter sports calendar they play their teams did not play so they couldn't sign that they necessarily would have been their first choice um and so and that that's my explanation or understanding of it but but I think it's fair to say that slightly higher nonparticipation amounts even >> and we still also give nonparticipate to kids who get sick during March intensive. And so what was pretty painful when we were doing

059the placements this year was going, "Oh, that person had the flu, right?" But >> then they lost their place. >> They lost their place. >> But for seniors losing their place, I don't care. But I guess it's kind of like all adults in the room at the end of the day if they want to participation, don't want to do it, that's their decision and they're all adults and they can go, >> right? I think it's it's sort of like any school day and unlike Vermont where whether your parent calls you in or not, it's an unexcused absence. There's they call it as like unexcused but we're not chasing you because we know you're not going down 89 type of absence but it's still considered an absence. Right here we're much more if the parents say

060we're taking the kid out until it gets extreme and sometimes we say we're going to choose to not count it as excused. But in general, we tend to believe parents would excuse their kids and give that >> give that to the parents, right? Like to allow the parents to make that call. Um, but it does count towards their we have a 10520 rule with absences. So even if they miss 4 days and then that adds to their 10, they'll get a letter saying you've missed 10 days of school, they'll have a meeting and they miss 15. Right. >> Right. So it counts as that. >> Our standard 10. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Great. >> And then for the cell phone one, I just wanted to let you know we had a conversation yesterday. Dev was

061there for Rob there for it. >> I missed the cell. >> Oh, you Oh, why? Um, so but the in it we had um we had talked about not confiscating phones and then letting the main office know. Then when we talked about it on the ground with all the humans, um it seemed like it's not going to be the problem. So, so you know how you guys crossed off let the main office know we're just going to confiscate them because it will be you know what is your name and Deb says I'm Julie Cook right like that like it'll start to be a game and it's like okay I'm going to have the assistant principal go see Julie Cook and it wasn't Julia Cook's phone and it'll just be a mess so um we're just

062going to um have them confiscate the phone bring it to the main office we'll decide if it's first offense second offense third offense decide ide whether it goes at the end of the day. We're calling the parents who are putting in the warning. Um but we think that it doesn't seem feasible to do it the other way. So sorry because I think that might have been I don't know what that was. It might have been a request from us. >> You're asking for a shift from the first offense which as written is reporting to the principal for documentation and you want to switch it to at the first offense confiscation of >> confiscation and the and the principal will document like we're going to do the same consequence. It's just to ask teachers to send

063emails or you know whatever call down and say so and so has a phone. Will you come get it? It just doesn't seem like it's going to work. The issue they talked about is having, you know, the administrators will know if the student has been brought into the office before for having their phone, >> but teachers won't necessarily know that if they, you know, come upon a student in the hallway that has a phone out thing. So, >> and our parents only spend like one fourth of the day with teacher, right? So, >> it's so it's not the same as like you're all in the same class. Like I don't think a kindergartener is whipping out of phones, but like you would be with them all day mostly and so you would know that that

064was the third time they did that. >> And one thing I'm thinking of too is that this is not just the high school team. >> Exactly. Yeah. >> At the elementary schools where this can and has happened. >> Yeah. >> Would this be of equivalent thing I see on this is not as well. Well, if you're okay with us doing whatever in that section as long as we're following the warning, >> take a, you know, till the end of the day parent, we might do it a little bit differently. Like I it it to me it doesn't need to be written there, but I just wanted you to be aware. >> You might discuss this a bit. Kelly, >> uh, as a teacher, it would make me really uncomfortable to be in a position to

065take a 17-year-old's phone. the confrontation aspect of that the oh come on I just I was just checking a message from my mom I was just I I don't know I think that's asking a lot and potentially I I vastly as a teacher I would vastly prefer a phone call to the office I just saw so- and so with their phone administrators please deal I I as an educator my job is to educate not enforce device policies I I don't know that I it makes me really uncomfortable especially with the child I don't have a relationship with >> and with a reminder that the state themselves is grappling with this where the technical adviser basically said teachers are our allies they are not the enforcers and that said our teachers were enforce >> and I'll

066you know I'll go further to say like I think most of the kids in this building are safe in that sense like as you know that's certainly not true in all buildings and again not knowing all of the kids in this building there might be something I shouldn't actually confront and say that's it. Give me your phone. Right. I don't I don't like it. >> No. Anyone else particularly people with other schools or like other characters? Renee, >> I'm just considering like uh what has been the discussion around like what a substitute is teaching and like how do they interact with this policy? Um, >> yeah. I mean, I was a teacher in a school when we confiscated cell phones, it was part of my job and I did it and students understood and were

067there some students over the years that I taught who were scary and maybe I wouldn't have confronted them but would have gone right to the office. Oh, yes. >> But that was before cell phones. Um, I think that the council has had conversations about cell phones. Students on council have understood that they have a role to play helping to model. Um, students have talked about pushing back and then realized, you know, that's not going to be very effective. >> So, my hope is, I mean, one of the unfortunate elements of all of this is that we're now closing in on the end of November. It's the first quarter and now the rule is going to change and it would have been great if it could have been in place the beginning of fall. I think

068there's going to be some stumbling, but I I'm going to hope that for the most part people understand that nobody really created this situation and we're working with it and we're doing the best we can. And so I, you know, I hope that that's what faculty and students do. >> Terry. >> Yeah. I mean, I think the language here doesn't say who confiscates it. You know, I guess my piece is like the phone needs to be compensated at the first defense. And to me, that's can be determined at school level in terms of how that happens. I don't know that that's us like just that that first is >> there's a warning that like because it doesn't say who >> she's proposing. She's yeah it I mean it doesn't say teacher will confiscate or principal

069will confiscate. It just says confiscation of the device. I mean and I realize that's crossed out. So but I think it doesn't for me specifying a role is also problematic because like what if it's not a teacher who sees it? Do we not want parah educator you know like I don't know like whose role is it in the building? Is it whatever the adult is? is that's the entire staff's I just think to me there's a little bit of like how granular we need to be other than like the step is a confiscation of the phone if a student challenges a certain adult perhaps then like yeah go to the office and have a conversation with the next >> words I don't yeah there's a piece for me that's that feels like perhaps not the

070most important thing for us to get stuck on and not >> I'm sorry so as a member of poss Julie just told us what she wanted. So why aren't we just writing what she wants? Because they're the ones that are in charge of we're saying why why aren't we discussing this? >> Well, because it's our job to create the policy and see if there is but we're all arguing over the consequences and how it's going to be enforced from a school and you have told us how they want to force it. So why don't we just need right they made their decision. I'm not trying to argue with anybody, but if that's how they want to enforce it, then I'm assuming they know how the best way to enforce it in their building versus all

071of us trying to think about >> are they going to confiscate? I don't even know what I'm a little bit confused. Maybe you want to write it or for us on the policy, but I'm still I'm actually confused now. Are we actually confiscating the phone or we send the kids to the office? I don't even >> Well, I think part of the confusion is that this was been discussed that policy for several months including by teachers and we're hearing >> because of how to make the consequence >> well and also that's this is one school alone two for this district but among four for the policy itself also consistency across the school and this is why we're talking about it and maybe we'll have the public chime in as well since we're here >> you

072want to go first >> yeah I was just to say what we were talking about is school. We were we did it with the last policy rendition and then confiscation got taken off, right? So that that's the but when we were talking about it, we were trying to go with maybe confiscating isn't the thing for the teachers to do because the policy said teacher but we just then realized to this group of people that >> you can't have 750 or 700 students and two people running around to confiscate all the phones. like it just the policy will fall down and so that was the you know that was the issue in terms of that but but even if it's just like it remains in the office and a warning and then we could figure out

073who confiscates it because we need it for the other schools too. So I don't want to be the one that >> then I implementation like the who and the how they do it this this that it's not going to be here >> right >> and then see a second member of the public. Oh, and so sorry you're going >> I'm sorry. >> So when I read what I read in green Yes. >> Um in this policy from an RMS perspective and we're not HHS. Um the way it's written in green works for us as a school community because it isn't necessarily that Chelsea or I are going to go to the classroom space and get the phone. >> The teacher's going to say, "I need you to take that off." >> Yep. >> To us.

074when whether that's for documentation uh turning in for the rest of the day or that third offense where the bigger conversations happen the adults come say and do that >> sorry just elaborating on because I you know this this comes up in in my world during like final exams I have colleagues who take the phones and put them all up at the front they have them fall behind the thing and then the person's phone is scrunched in the blackboard going up and down like these are expensive devices and that's you know And I'd like to think a lot of the things we talk about around here is like well yeah that one student that one time this policy unfortunately is not that right like this is going to be a hard habit to break I

075think for some students in our buildings right and so I can see this coming up more than the average poly that we're discussing. Um, and I I don't know, again, like that $1,200 phone, I want to be responsible for taking that away, making sure it gets safely to the office. Like, I don't know. I it it again, as a teacher, it would concern me to be have that responsible, >> but I'm maybe inventing problems that don't exist. >> I mean, yeah. I mean, part of the thing, at least as a policy committee member, my big thing is is if we don't have the students have their own agency and controlling their phone use, this policy is not going to work because we're not going to be able to sit here. I'm all about not having

076phones. But if the kids don't have their aren't able to put their phones in their bags and not do that on their own, then it's just going to be better help for teachers and principles and stuff. And I know you're saying, well, of course, we never used to have phones, but at the end of the day, this has to come back to the kids to basically want to also be responsible, right? That's the only way this is really going to work. >> I agree. >> And we also the buying is from parents is to enforce and enforce and enforce. >> And the reminder of the numbers at handover high school, we're at 100% for having some sort of film in some sort of way. And at the middle school, we're at 59% having film. period.

077>> I just have to I mean I I think it's good to think about the exceptions. It is working like a three milestone. Harford there are knocks. There are incidents but it is just not a big deal. It is the rule. It is the law. It is happen like I think yeah I just yeah if it's the rule and everybody knows it's the rule and this is what's happening. It's amazing how non-complicated it has been. I mean like just >> it's and what's a consequence there? >> I mean it's the same sort of thing. Um and I couldn't speak exactly to it because I don't remember all the details and I'm districtwide but um um and my office is no longer right there but it's very similar like it gets confiscated. You don't have to

078turn it in. You can have it on you as long as people don't see it, you know, like you can have it with you all day. But yeah, if it were to get scratched in the office because it got confiscated, that's a choice. you made a choice to have it out in a time when you didn't know like >> you're a high school student like yeah it sucks it's expensive but you know the rules and if you chose not to follow them there's consequences um you know it's just it's not been a big deal I guess would be my summary it just wasn't I mean there are of course incidents but it just is not a it hasn't been this crazy thing. It just is a change everybody knows is coming and it's >> that

079mic drop. >> Yeah. >> Again, I'm Julie and I had long conversation today anyway. about this and um >> the adolescent brain. I don't want to lose sight of that and the why behind this. When students ask me why are we doing this? I think that's one of the best questions students can ask and we ought to be able to give them an answer. Why are you doing this? Let me tell you why. >> What's missing in so much of the discussion from reading the minutes I think is the why behind this. There were legislators who read the anxious generation who read the coddling of the American mind that informed this. We are not here as teachers to try to punish students by taking their phones away. They should be conse confiscate. I think that's

080a natural consequence and it's also so clear, so direct. The visual of the phone confiscate, go away. That's a direct correlation to the action of taking the phone out. What I would prefer, what makes us different is our off-campus. And I'm not and I want to be clear um that I am not suggesting for a moment that we should be policing the off-campus. It's hard enough to police this already in the building. The number of students smartwatches, the increase in the number of students with smart watches. You know, I put my phone in the bin, but I'm seeing this activity in class and it's the tugging of the phone, the beeping of the phone, and they're doing this, but you know, and they're reading their phone, trying to hide it under the sleeve. The phones

081that are on their wrists also have to be considered in this policy as part of that >> deployment they are. So they'd be part of this confiscation thing. >> Absolutely has to be part of that. Um but for me I instead of saying we can't police this off-campus I think we should be asking how can we do this? What are the possibilities for changing this culture especially given the adolescent brain? We have an opportunity to let students discover who they are without their phones. I want to see them have that opportunity. If we can't find a way to fully disconnect them from their phones, I think we're depriving them of that. >> What a joyous school that would be to be in where students absolutely cannot access their phones, right? and to hear the noise

082that we would hear, I think, from student conversations all over the building by not having those phones be the center of their identity, the center of who they are. >> Yes, we're saying you're going to put it away. I don't think that's enough. I came to the policy committee meeting, you kindly put up with me when I came and spoke there. Um, I strongly advocate for the yonder pouches. I realize there's a cost that goes with that, but if we look at the data, I think there's value in looking at the data. When you look at the data on the Yonder website, specifically the website they have just for schools, all 50 states, I think it's something like 39 countries that are also using these locking pouches in schools. Given adolescent brain development, that tug,

083that pull, right, to be able to get the phone, the device, the connection, being able to put it away in that locking pouch would prevent them from being able to do that. And it would apply universally to all students. Yes, there would be students who would I'm sure violate that, slip a calculator in instead of the phone or something like that, but the student becomes responsible for that phone. I'm not confiscating. I'm not touching it, right? The student keeps the phone with them, but it's in that lockable sealed pouch and it only gets unlocked when they're leaving the building. Our students, I worry, are going to, with this policy as written, they're going to step across that very busy driveway that we have just so they can get one foot onto the Quaker meeting house

084lawn to be on their phones. They're going to be on the sidewalk right out there on their phones. What will be the impact on the, you know, revenue for the calf, especially when freshmen get off-campus privileges second semester coming there, right? It's going to be all everybody all 750 kids practically are going to be headed to the co-op, right? So they can be on their phones. We have to recognize the why of this policy which brings me back to those books that Jonathan Height wrote when he spoke at Dartmouth a few weeks ago. He said we're no longer talking about correlation. We're talking about causation in terms of the negative impacts on adolescence. I would love to see something we did I don't know probably 20 years ago maybe more than that. There was this

085fantastic book that came out about the disruptions coming to schools through technology and we had a schoolwide book read on that for parents, for community members, for teachers, for students, for administrator. I would love to see this body generate that for this community. Let's take the science. How far do we have to look to see how science is being completely disregarded in our society today in terms of informing public policy? Let's use the science that Jonathan Height has put together since the early 2010s. Let's read those books. Let's examine that data. Let's form those book groups. Have those conversations with parents, with students and with administrators, with this board. Bring this community together around this larger issue than informed this new law. I want to see students have the opportunity to see who they are

086without the phone being the center of their identity and their relationships with other people. So I have those concerns about off campus. I want to say one more time just because I want to make sure Julie hears me say this publicly that I am not saying that we should be policing off campus. We can't do that. But we need a policy that can fully disconnect students from their phones. And I think the Yonder pouches are the way to go with that. There are plenty of other schools that have done that. Claremont did it last year. Valley News did a follow-up article in August this year saying one year, how did it go? Right. And I think they're what they shared in that article matches what's on the website. So, thank you. Thank you for your

087comment. um brief response on the yonder issue for those we we talked about this briefly at one meeting about this last time. We talked about it more in depth at policy. I realize I'm the only policy committee member left standing right now. >> Happy coincidence. Thank you, Eric. But that the decision that we made was the implementation of how to do that sort of thing which is obviously going to vary by school in terms of percentage of students at the phone and all those other things is certainly within the individual school's prerogative to do so. And I don't say them in the policy that would limit or prevent them from doing so. So it would not surprise me if one or two of our schools go down that event actually. But we do not explicitly

088want to name a specific company, a specific brand, a specific style of enforcement within this policy that applies across the whole district. Any further discussion from board members on any of the above issues or policies? Right. I just want to kind of pick up on that thread of I don't know if it's book group or conversation but the I think one of the big things about the intentionality behind this policy >> cell phone sorry yes the >> I don't think it this language but the idea is that it we're we're trying to do something in the schools because that's what you control but we know that this spans all aspects of our lives adults too and you know I love my in-laws but they're as attached to their phones as I think probably >> let

089me put my phone so I just >> um but I I do wonder if there's a world for >> broader discussion and I I don't know if that's in the realm of the board to initiate but that is I I like that idea because I think it if it becomes pervasive in the community that this is just the common language that we know we understand the kind of connection of social media, cell phones, everything on mental health of our youth, then it it is a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer in and out. And we get to actually have more nuance discussions about, yeah, Apple Pay at the co-op's totally cool. And I I can responsibly use that as opposed to I'm taking it out at the co-op to do Apple Pay and also like sneaking on

090my Instagram, you know? It's like it's a it's the ability to have that conversation continue at home, I think, in the same way that it's happening at school. So, I don't know what the board's role is in initiating discussion. echo their prompts discussion which is one of the things we did hope to do as sort of a society conversation starter on what to do there. I will remind this board that some of the students who came to policy had the idea of enforcing this on the staff as well which would probably become a negotiations issue that we decided not to broach at this time. But some of the students reflecting some some of the >> Neil >> um procedurally what are we voting on these policies tonight? >> That is the open expectation. Yes. >>

091And so when we do that there's been recommended changes in language for both this cell phone one and the March intensive one. Uh yeah. So that would be something that I think we do need to figure that out now, especially in the form when it comes to the suggestion by the high school and I haven't seen an an obvious overarching consensus on that particularly for the issue of enforcement and confiscation. So if the conversation ends naturally, I think they're stick with the current language unless there's an as amended or we'd have an overwhelming or urging of it bring it back to policy committee. Go for it again. >> Um, I don't have an urge to bring it back to positive committee. I do have an urge to make sure that whatever we pass tonight is

092as close as possible to the actual enforcement procedures that we can get. I don't want to get into a scenario where policy says one thing, enforcement does another, and then we got a whole bunch of students or people here grieving that uh we're violating our own policy. I'm right there with you. >> To that end, do we know what the recommended language for that first offense should be? >> Julie, do you have anything specific in wording? I'm looking it up. We wrote it the other day and was done. >> And I would just remind this is fairly unorthodox. They're doing this for that second meeting discussed this in September. >> Neil again, >> but but Mr. Chair, I will argue right I mean this is the board's job, right? It's a craft policy and while

093it may be unusual given past experiences as to how these policies have gone, it is certainly not extraordinary. Um, and this type of work happens at board meetings across the country every single day. >> Very true. >> Yeah, Terry. >> So, just to recap, for this uh device policy, we're looking at changing the number B1. >> Yes. First offense >> to the effect of students phone will be confiscated for the remainder of the school day. >> I think the original language in pink the confiscation of the device for the remainder of school since not just phone students device will be confiscated. So that's the the basically the content >> we're waiting on Julian. I believe that's in essence where you're going with >> read this out loud or do you want to send it to

094>> I think it'd be helpful to read out loud given the timeliness of it. Yeah, if you don't mind. >> Right. But keep in mind this is just the case, right? Like I don't want to mess up. They're making policy for everybody. >> Okay. All right. I I just don't want to mess you guys up if So what we had was um Okay. We just said anytime a phone is taken by an adult, it must be brought to the main office as soon as possible. If the adult is unable to bring the phone, main office then should send out another adult to go pick it up. So that but then this is first offense. The adult will confiscate the phone or will ask the assistant principles to get the phone. the student will need to

095report to the main office and speak with the AP before they can get their phone. This will be reported in incident reports. So, it's kind of like what you have there minus the confiscation, right? And then the second one is the adult will confiscate the phone and we'll ask the APD or ask them to get the the phone and the student will need to report to the main office and will not be able to get their phone until the end of the day. It will be reported in incident reports. And the third one is the same thing. Confiscate or ask someone to come get it and then they'll um their parents will be asked to come get it. >> Call the parent to pick it up. >> Yeah, Kelly there. I'll chime in. Can >>

096can we solve the problem by saying first offense the student may be asked to report to the principal or associate principal's office and the phone may be confiscated. like will that solve >> I think that will head shaking that there will one of the arguments that we heard a lot from teachers and staff that there be the perception of favoritism >> in terms of what the student was doing or how often the student was a troublemaker and if there's the evidence of this may happen >> right but >> that will raise its own problems >> I understand that I'm just trying to create space in our policy our blanket policy for the whole district >> for anissa to say in my school if for our handbook this is the policy And for Julie to say

097in our school for our handbook, this is the policy and the the overarching board policy allows for both of those. That's what I'm wondering. Right? Because I we don't police this policy. No matter what we put on this paper here, we don't police that. They have to police it. So as long as our policy creates space for that person to come for agreements and us to say look they're following the policy as written or their handbook. You have no grievance here. You have no standing because this is it is to it it corresponds to the state requirements, our policy and the handbook policy for your school building. I was my my was going to be that the description as as Julie stated it I thought was very granular >> and it puts the onus to

098pull the associate principal or whatever it is they're doing and they obviously very busy full day to go get it from the student pretty much close to immediately from my interpretation of what you were saying >> and for their documentation and an incident reporting kind of a general escalation for the first offense >> and that seems concerning. to me. >> Can that be their business though? That's what I It's a genuine question. >> Yeah. I'm just curious if more from a policy perspective as opposed to procedural, which is what they're working in. We just outline that this handbook needs to clearly articulate. The expectation is the handbook has clearly articulated a three- tiered approach, >> three level approach to as opposed to saying what tier one, tier two or like offense one, offense two, offense

099three is like >> just really not get specific in terms of our policy. Just our policy states that each school needs to have a clear a clearly detailed process procedure for their school. Um I don't I don't know if we can do that. I don't because I haven't seen state I mean I'm not on the dug into this the way you have but um >> because I think it's possible like what I heard from Julie which I hadn't heard the first time is that they're going to do the first warning is documented and there's a conversation and then you can get your device back as long as you've had a conversation with some administrator and then the second time it gets confiscated for the day. So, there's a clear >> escalation. Um, but that's not

100necessarily what Anissa is going to be able or choose to do at the middle school level. And maybe the middle school gets confiscated the first day. They're younger and they're just like, let's I don't know. Um, >> any more? I I think that that is right warning end of the day parent pickup could just be like how we decide to do that is up to each school. I mean it's not an escalation to do logging it because we log all conversations when a kid comes to the office because there's so many of us that we don't ever want to be like oh nothing ever has happened with you because we have no clue, right? like we we like to look it up and so we even put warnings in to our documentation system just so

101we know that that kid has been warned before so it's not really an escalation because it's what we do for things that aren't phones right >> which and what you're saying right now doesn't sound off from what is as >> right so I don't think the confiscating versus kids walking down the office is that's like that's sort of seems like you're saying granular for policy policy can just say >> the three tier I could see if you didn't write down third parents come to pick it up, there will be a number of parents who are really irritated that they had to like leave their job to come and get it. Like why is the middle school doing that and the high school's just like do whatever you want, right? So, because our three tiers are

102different, like I could I mean I think you really do have to say somewhere that one of the tiers is the parents coming because that's going to be your main complaint when people are like why is one school having the parents come and not the other >> as written the policy does not sort of the parents are required to physically come to pick up the phone. We don't have that anywhere in here. >> Okay. >> This is not the fact that they're notified. >> Okay. Yeah. We haven't procedurally. >> I think we we need to somehow move the conversation forward. And I I I do think that we want to look at we need to create a policy that gives the schools the ability to manage this differently for different age children. I mean, if

103you do that with every single aspect of our education, right? I mean, I think what happens with that policy? So am I hearing a request to bring this back to policy for school by school variation? >> No. I I just think it needs to be broad enough. >> Yeah. >> Handbooking to do here. I think that was the intent. I think if we just add something about and see the handbook and each school will have that approach. >> When which makes me wonder if we go back to the the second mini paragraph under Dar's consequences for violations >> is um there's mentioned there the student code of conduct which could help us get at this to undo that language as well is a possibility. Sure. >> I would also support being, you know, referring to

104the the handbook and the three- tiered approach and if you have concerns about parents being put on notice saying escalation may include involvement of of parent. Yeah. I mean, just so for full and fair notice so no one's going to be like, "No one ever told me, you know, so parents can't get." I would I would say something like that. That's why these sort of subsequent incidents where we didn't have a number on >> generically because it's going to look different at every school. We did not split it out. >> So I would get rid of one through three and just say three tiered approach as documented in each school handbook may involve parental, you know, parental notification and or pickup or the handbook, whatever. And if we can't do that on the fly, then

105I would suggest this go back because just for the sake of time, >> Daniel's thoughts on that. A suggestion made to bring us back to policy, get more granite, perhaps some school by school variation. Maybe >> I would not recommend the granularity. I don't think anyone here with all hand shaking recommends for the granularity. We recommend the opposite. I would say generally. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Just be clear. Make sure I'm I'm on the right page here. Is not granularity but still three tiers with school by school variation per separate codes of conduct. >> Yes. >> Just to me that that sounds like it's making it more complicated, not more granular. >> Neil, >> I would um I I hear where you're going, Ben, but I think the recommendation is that you make the

106policy language um broad enough not to reference individual schools. but merely reference, you know, a set of steps or processes that are available at schools for for enforcing this which pulls back to the other thing of if we hear this conversation which gone in many different directions all which I very much appreciate. Is the language as written in green enough to hold us to those thoughts? I see some thumbs up actually from both schools. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think so. And then so maybe we are fine there. >> As long as we don't mind if anyone complains about us. >> It's the only way we could make that happen. >> But the green is fine. The green is broad enough. >> I think Julie does that the if the green is fine. The only thing

107I say that in step one you should have reason to hold that confiscation. kid refuses to talk to the assistant for the full >> unwilling to have a check-in has a sporting event and so leaves campus like right I don't know I think >> well and car I'll stop right there there is separate language in the code of conduct that if a student basically says no or I refuse like that that changes everything and they have the separate code of conduct policies that get right at that >> all I was trying to say is in the first one it does not mention confiscation and so if at some point a school administrator wanted to confiscate and it was the first warning we could have I mean if we're on that train of getting that specific

108in here. Um it doesn't mention it in tier one and so or in step one. So I yeah, we're going to leave the green. I just want to make sure that um that feels comfortable that it doesn't mention confiscation as a piece of the first offense. >> No response to it. >> It means something's being confiscated. They're in Pam's class. If the student has to leave the class to bring their phone down and talk to Pam, we're confiscating them out of class. So, I almost would rather confiscate the phone so they can finish class and then have the conversation because they're coming to get their phone, right? So, like I but I think that's just a way of looking at it, >> right? Because either way, like that person is walking to the office, whether

109their phone's in the office or something, but they're going and it's more disruptive, I think, to send them to the office when you really want them to finish math class >> because if the phone becomes the thing here, like we're not giving a lesson, right? It it might be fine in a week or two or three, but I think you don't want to be sending kids down in the middle of class to the office to talk to, but we want them to tweet in class. Um, so I think they'll just grab the phone and say, "You can get it in the office after class um or whatever it might be." So if you feel like the generality puts us at risk if we take the thing and it breaks or whatever, then I wouldn't be

110all >> Yeah. But I'm okay. I'm comfortable with the Dre, but you might not be. >> I will say I'm tired of the conversation and ready to be done. Um, and like all joking aside, I'm ready to be done with the conversation. However, I do worry to Carrie's earlier point, right? If it's in our language that that phone can be confiscated and it does get broken or something, if it's that first warning and we don't have in here that it can be confiscated, I worry about I mean it's my putting my ligious hat on that worries me, right? And I want to protect you guys. Like I'm fine with you confiscating phones. I'm fine. Like whatever y'all want to do, I'm okay with it. Um, I want to make sure you're protected and I worry

111that this the green language does not protect you in that instance. But >> Steiner wants to chime in. >> I think we can solve this by doing what you said before. For the first offense, we say warning and the student will report to the principal or associate principal's office for documentation of the incident and phones may be taken. >> Yeah. >> Or how about just and confiscation of the device at the end? Yeah, it could be something on it. >> Yes. So, what is looking back just at the first number one add into the end of the sentence and confiscation of the device? Would that settle all parties concerns all seeing no head shaking? No. And if we're okay with that, I would take a motion we get to it to be as amended specific

112to the form policy. Right. >> Just want to be clear. What is then the difference between the first offense and the second offense? >> I think I agree. The difference is uh will be confiscated and that could be for the 20-minute conversation you have to have or it could be for the remainder of the period and step one whereas step two is clear for the rest of the day where it just is mentioned in the first one. that that's how I >> if it is a helpful distinction all good. >> Okay. Last call this on any other policies. All right. Thank you all. We appreciate that. I take a breath. >> Now we'll move on to the budget update. This is a nice getting started. Okay. Teresa, you want to walk us through what's been

113going on here? And I see there's some discussion of already teenaged as well. >> No. So, click on the thing that says I'm a human and it'll let you right back in. >> Good to establish humanity, right? >> No, I'm a human. Oh, it literally says I'm a human. I think it's like it's hearing our conversation. >> Um so basically right now we are pretty deep in all the meetings that we've had and everything else over the budgets. Um wrapping up trying to finish getting all the documentation. a lot of documentation already in the folder for Thursday's meeting and everything else. Um, so I'm wrapping up a lot of that and everything else. Um the tax uh documentation has been uploaded for tonight's meeting for the approval of the fund balance which we're at by

11425 was 511,000 and we have the extension is $11,28. Sorry. Um for the fund balance retention and that was partly because obviously we had the $565,000 school care. Um the intent was that we would hopefully um not need the retention, retain time balance um and that enough revenues from our um tuition in students and everything else would help offset that cost that we have to pay. Um, recently schoolare offered, I don't know, some Mike said this the other night, some might know it, but schoolare decided that after a lot of uh turmoil that as long as we pay onethird of the assessment that's due and we pay it in December, then the other two/3s they'll let us pay over the next six months and interest free. Yeah. So, we won't pay. So, we went ahead

115and signed that and did that right away. Um, payments were actually processed. um this week very famous. Um so hopefully the tuition like I said we have an extra about 15 students we have had for unenrollments um actually three and then one student that moved into handover. So no longer a tuition student. Um so hopefully that offset revenue will um offset the assessment. If it doesn't, then by April or whatever, we'll we'll kind of know a better idea of where we're at, whether or not we have to actually have a special meeting to actually use the retain balance. But hopefully you will. >> And I know that there were some concerns mentioned earlier that Dresden doesn't do retainage. So what are we talking about? Do you want to >> We do retainage, but we can't

116do like capital reserves and things like that. But we definitely um they voted at some point I forget um when when the warrant RFO and everything else in and it must have been in the last several years because we can retain 5% which the old rule was two and a half. So obviously it was renewed to put back the warrant to voting. Sorry, brains are snickering. I'll break them down. Um, >> snickering. It was pride in my warrant article. >> Any comments on what Teresa said regarding budgetary updates? >> Neil, um, I'll just add, so for those astute board members, which I know are all here that are at the table, if you're still here, you'll note that the overall Dresden budget increase is currently coming in at 9.06% 06% which is just uh >>

117a tad over 3% higher than we asked for in the budget guidelines driven primarily by that 25.8% increase in health insurance premiums. Back when we developed the quick model, we had a uh sort of a figure of 18% was what we thought would uh happen. >> Um as you can see 25.8 is not 18%. there's a bigger far greater than that. And so that is what is pushing um the current uh expenditure budget well over what the budget guidelines were. We have budget committee meetings uh both handover and Dresden this Thursday where we'll be going over these items in more detail. So um if you're interested in all the nittygritty details, please um come on down to those meetings. We'd love to have you. Yeah, that's a dual meeting with at least five of us

118there, I think, acting official >> plus the um plus the handover finance committee, I believe, will be in attendance as well too. You know, an opportunity for us to share information with them >> um and for them to ask questions as well about the the budget building process. Um you know, as as Teresa noted, um we've still got a lot of work to do on these budgets. So, this is not the the last time we'll be talking about this is since early on in the cycle. A lot of work still left to do. Um but uh we'll we'll get through this. >> Thank you for that. Um yeah, was your hand up? >> I just wanted to um maybe I'm the only person who's still figuring out how to use Simply, but if you drag

119down under where it says Dresden Schoolboard type of meeting, you'll see budget committee and there are a whole lot of documents that are already uploaded. Yes. Friday, Thursday's move sign. So just as a place to get up to speed. >> Thank you. >> Then can I ask a question then for Teresa? I was just looking at the retainage amount. >> Yes. >> So the form is uh proposing 511208 for the retainage amount. Should should I be seeing that appear somewhere in the MS25 because the form references >> um not in MS. Well, yeah, it is. It's on um right at the top section like line 36 or so. Right around um right around line 3236. You'll see in that section that it should say the 511 >> 208. >> That's on line 31 >> reserve

120incumbrances. >> You know I'm telling >> 32 32. >> There it is. >> Am I right? of their line. >> No, the 511. >> It's probably over on the right. >> It's line 32. If you look at page one, >> and it's rounded up to the dollar. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. >> Any other clarifying questions or comments knowing that said we had more meetings coming? >> All right, then. Thank you, Teresa. Move on from there. Everyone's most unexpected thing in the night, the survey. Timing aside, apologies for the late night on this one. So, we've talked about these surveys numerous times, both in their inception as well as some initial discussion. I sent these around school by school as I finished them to all the board members. So, I don't think they're new

121in that regard. And given that we're talking 69 questions per school and approximately 2,500 free text comments, we're not going to go into that in great detail tonight. Although we certainly can if board members wish it, but I just want to do sort of some key takeaways and on what we've done with them to date, what we're planning on doing as well as things that we board members should know about. So posting for a few minutes and all the survey information is on um this document. I'm going to be looking at the one that is up on top called survey 592L formatted final which is the PowerPoint presentation across all of the schools and we also have to repeat the conversation I need to district given this. So we first want to highlight that again

122this is we're not going to go slide by slide question by question sort of like the big takeaways is if you look from between from questions 12 to 15 there's a big takeaway that parents want more communication about their specific child and more specifically about that their academic performance which is something that they've complained about and we've heard them I think very clearly on this survey and on others and in addition addition to that, they want to hear about grades and similar academic performance in emails directly and not through things like you have an update in schooly, please go find it and things of that nature. We've heard parents loud and clear. There's something like a 70 to 80% approval on this which in a survey like this is extremely high. Uh Ramen, do you

123want to talk about other things that we're doing as a result of that particular aspect? Um, one of the other things that we've talked about is just communication in general overall for the SAU and at the school level. And so when we started talking about survey over the summer, I tried to make some concrete changes based on the feedback that we've gotten. And so now publishing the newsletter once a month and putting information in that about some of the issues that have come up in the survey, too. So we're trying to do some direct responses to that and the schools are also working with it now taking the information from the survey results and saying okay what can we do as a school to meet the needs of some of these requests in the survey

124too. So I think it's been for me really helpful in coming into the position this year just in thinking about what we could do better as a district. So, >> and speaking of the communication piece, we have also heard a lot of clear from parents that they don't necessarily know a lot about what we as a school board does. If you look at the survey question that asks what do you think and what you just asked fashion these different aspects of the administration, teachers, special teachers, principal, town office, etc. The biggest category for us is I don't know what they do. So in terms of our own outreach, I think we need to work on that both in what we do, why we do, decisions we've made, decisions we're pondering. And so you if you

125think talk about this for a study, a different context, the four chairs have taken it upon themselves to actually write in Robin's newsletter to the community, not representing I, myself, Ben Keiny, but more like updates from the school boards that are may that are maybe applicable to 30,000 foot level. I owe the administration a little essay about these surveys themselves. We'll be talking about budgets, elections, things of that nature. And then shifting topic slightly as well, the parents want to know more about legal issues relevant to the school. Very high support, 80 plus% that they want to know more about actual law changes that have occurred, how they're coming down the pipeline, how we're going to implement them. still significant support, healthy majority about proposed law changes and what it means and don't mean and

126doesn't mean open enrollment, district consolidation, things of that nature, as well as mixed support roughly 50/50 for whether the schools should themselves be more politically involved and Rob is going to is talking about that as well in these encounters across the schools. By the way, feel free to interrupt me at any time to or jump around really quickly in the qu in the mid20s of the questions and which I I'm a little surprised by, but across all four schools independently, there was the most dissatisfaction in terms of the amount of time spent per subject on science. All parents across all the schools want far more science for their kids. That was far more than math, ELA, languages, time outside science. We'll take that as as you will. Um, on languages, there is some consistent support

127at all school levels of adding Mandarin, Chinese as a language at the high school where it was a very strong third place after Spanish and French and that is not currently offered at the schools and all parents across all the schools wanted that for the high school. Um, among our student population, over a third of families have reported that their kids have had math tutoring, which may or may not be surprising to us all that tutoring is high, which we knew from previous surveys, but this survey we actually asked for what subjects are you getting tutoring and why are you getting tutoring? And math far and above was the most popular subject. And the reasoning for the tutoring was very expansive, lots of fine on different things, but most of it was concerns about their

128child was struggling. Not necessarily the teacher or the methodology, but that they were struggling academically in the course. Um, we had to move around quickly. More than half of parents want a later start time. what that means in terms of by school and how late are we talking about. There was some variation, but there was a majority of folks across all the schools who wanting a later start time. Slightly less support at the elementary schools, but still a majority. We have made one thing we've discovered from these surveys as well is we have done I think it's safe to say we have some very positive outcomes across the surveys that actually ask the same question over several years. the drop. There's been a substantial drop in the percentage of students that have a seeking need

129for mental health treatment. Three years ago, it was 45% of our student body was either actively seeking or already in mental health treatment. That has gone down to 30% or a drop of one-third, which is great. And um that that includes folks who are trying to get treatment, having trouble succeeding. If we're talking about actively in treatment, it has gone down from 23% to 16%. Should also drop about a third. Gina. >> Oh, quick question. I was looking at the slide 40 with question 42. >> It's the one about the time because I was curious about that. It's still the majority's happy with 8 to three. >> But so are we reading it though that because 34% want 8:30 to 3:30 that people want later starts? >> One second. Joe, you're looking at question 42.

130>> Yeah. I guess where I was going with that is if you add up all the people who wanted 8:30 or later, it adds up to approximately 56%. >> Um, but if I guess the way I'm reading it as if 41% of people are happy at age three, are we okay? >> That'd be a plurality. So the the single biggest category was keeping it the same. Yeah. But if you add up those who wanted to be later in some capacity, it adds up to majority. >> Okay? And if you look at the previous question, question 40, it's the same thing where 47% want to keep it as is, but 53% wanted to be later in some way, shape or form. >> Just that doesn't mean all the 53% will be happy if their particular time

131slot is >> that's the problem. >> The largest number of people will be happy to keep it from the age. >> Yes. And that's before gets to the interpretation issues where both those arguments can be made where the biggest categories keep it the same >> but adding up all the other ones indicate there's more appetite for a change. >> All those were starting later >> quick move on. >> Yeah. Now shifting to AI, there were mixed responses and strong feelings in many different directions about AI, but parents were generally supportive that AI should be taught in schools as appropriate and with proper barriers, but a lot of great comments on that particular subject. We've also made improvements. Um if you look at the question question 56 about the biggest challenges in the schools in both

132surveys several years apart the balance of time commitments was exactly 29% across all schools going back multiple years but there were large drops in mental health concerns for our children and everything just fine improved quite a bit as well in the question about what are your biggest academic concerns everything feels just fine as now the top answer and as folks who were on the board at the time may remember there were lots of concerns about curriculum and standardization across schools and stuff which was a huge issue at the time that has dropped substantially >> as have concerns about class size which dropped twothirds of the >> in terms of student support there were huge drops in concerns about stress and mental health and time management as a top issue that was 43% 3 years ago

133now it is 13% Can I stop you? Is that I mean because I was clapping for Robin, but we know that curriculum is in a very different place from where it was three years ago. And I just wonder um h thinking back to the presentation we had earlier today and the hub and these efforts to expand ways for students to learn and to do things and make their way through the high school which is probably the place of the greatest kind of intensity of emotions. Um, not to disparage middle school emotions, which >> I remember well, >> not my own, but Julie, would you say that you are seeing that change in and are there other factors that might be influencing a change like that at the high school? I think the regular ed supports

134right and they you can we just the report that we have really good regular ed support so you don't have to just and that's been growing you don't have to just have to find more IEP but there's good places for that um you know our counseling department we're shifting a little bit to the ninth grade teen um versus their desk I think that's been helpful Uh, let's see. I'm not thinking on the slide here. That's okay. I don't mean to stump you, but I think it's it's good to sort of stop and think about the, as Pam >> said earlier, the why. >> Yeah. And to get at that point, we will be Rob and I will be presenting this to the staff at the high school and I think roughly two weeks and change.

135And I think we're working on scheduling for our middle school right now. Probably be watching this in maybe January, February. >> Yes. You okay if I move on? Yes, please. >> Just being new, I'm just curious how long like some of these three years ago with pandemic is such a unique uh like moment in time. I'm just curious how far back these surveys go to be able to have preandemic. >> So to get at this level of detail or these surveys that were I guess prompted by for the most part that was the first one. >> Oh okay. But I would point out that that first survey was done in 20 spring of 2022. So still two years post the initiation of the pandemic. >> Yeah. I just I mean >> mass already done at

136that point and all that sort of things as well. So we've done this we did this in 2022 2023 and and of the questions maybe 10 15 have been repeated each time. But it also gets more like one of the reasons I've done with this is also the need of this on a regular basis. We see what's changed like mental health and stress and what has stayed the same which leads me to the next question which is concerns for your child during school. Everything feels just fine was at 34% in across all the surveys over time. So that's a consistent thing. But there were large drops in concerns about pressure and intensity of academics of of social life of business of of extracurriculars. So we've had improvements on there as well for concerns outside of

137school. There were huge drops in concern for sleep and time management. But a new category added concerns about the current political climate was one of our top choices and that we did not pass before should have. >> Uh the final thing I wanted to point out which is the question about five-year initiatives where expanded practical subjects such as home economics and things like that was our most commented asked at 39% exactly on both times we asked this question. So I think there's something we might want to ponder there on how best to do that. I know that was a big Jay as well back with his tenure. >> And conversely, but none of these seem important was also at 7% each time we've asked that question. >> So I think there's a lot of lot

138of support for how best to expand practical subjects and what that means. And I know that was the highest one at the elementary schools as well, even though it's somewhat more of an older kid type of class. went through things very quickly. Had to talk about anything but >> get too into the weeds. Gina still >> I have two communication ideas. Take it or leave it. Um one is it comes from doing employee engagement surveys and wanting to show action. So it's great that we've been communicating before the next survey. I would recommend doing a since the last survey you told us this we've done this um at like a month before. So, I think it helps show all the action. Maybe that could come from the board and Robin together to help with the

139board comps. >> The other thing, you might think I'm completely nuts, probably anyway. I think it would be great to create a podcast version of your updates and um I say this because Substack is a really popular platform now and you can very easily add audio and you just can read what you wrote and a lot of people then you can subscribe to it as a podcast and a lot of people when they're driving or walking can listen to your words and you might we might have more people understand what we're doing if we do that than just reading. I think people get drowned out by email. >> Yeah. >> No, that's good. you have a really good voice. >> So, >> and we have responses to both of those where communication piece I'm fully

140in agreement with you. That's one of the things that I'm overdue on to craft that to the community where we were talking about things we've done as a result of this one and previous ones things we've identified. >> The language to this survey like the introductory language and some of the questions actually have said this has been identified as an issue and we have done this what should we do now? Mhm. >> Um, so we did get at that, but we have not done a separate like prelude to the survey coming out. I think that's a good idea as well. >> In response to your podcast issue, this is before your time on the board. We actually did do a podcast with the four chairs. It was Jay and four of us. So, it was

141Kelly, myself, I believe it was Garrett, and yeah, actually the four current chairs. Um, we did do I think we had three episodes and it kind of petered out after that. I don't know what happens if there's a counts issue or a logistics issue. >> I don't mean interviews. I mean literally Robin takes her newsletter and reads it and that's the podcast. And this way if I don't read email, which is I guarantee more than 50% of the parents, um it's I can subscribe and listen to it and then I can listen to it. I'm driving to work or I'm driving to the co-op or I can put my AirPods in at the co-op and I don't want to talk to anyone and listen around. Right. >> So just be in your ear. >> Yeah.

142It'd be it's a very painless, very cheap thing to try. You would just get microphone and you can try it and if it doesn't work, just >> also you don't have to do it. >> We got lots of comments about email. >> Many of the things if it's not an email, I didn't read it. And so it's not if I'm not going to go into school year or whatever from my kid ever. I guarantee it versus I get one email a month and that's way too many. Stop bugging me. I hate you know kind of everything in >> Yeah. So, Deb, >> well, I'm I bet you could do an ELLL with a student who was really interested in the tinkering and the microphones and all of that stuff. >> Yes. I never Yes, I'll

143get I heard ELL. I was like, oh, English language learners extended learning. So many are >> yeah Robin >> I'll just mention a couple of other things that have come out of these surveys and one is related to the mental health piece we spent a lot of time with the nurses group that was my K through2 meeting that I've had for the past couple of years is with that group and they talked about you know we have gotten this feedback about mental health and increases in needs for services and they were seeing it in the nursing department and we talked about earlier having a book study around the ancients generation and we actually did that with that nursing group last year to look at you know really the research around cell phones and all of

144these things that we've been talking about and the impact that that has on mental health and then they did end up doing some um some workshops and things like that as a result of that flip study last year. So that's just one thing and then with AI this year the tech department has taken that information too from the survey and has been working even even before taking the information on an AI policy and also talking about how we teach about AI. So a lot of that has actually come from the survey too. So I just want you to be aware that there are some other areas that we've looked at fairly closely in different departments and are making changes based on those things. >> We also got comments from spit AI. We got questions or

145not we got free text comments from people who identified themselves as prominent experts in their relative dark fields offering to help us out on that regard as well. >> We got many fantastic comments from parents on this. we scroll through the text stuff, it's like 160 pages or something like that of specific, tangible, helpful information. So, we want to thank the parents as well for this input. One, the last question we had, which was new this year, was to actually ask the public what questions should we be asking and we got lots of great feedback on that as well as 60 plus questions that Robin and I will go through again when we start crafting the next survey probably around spring time. So um Linda do you have a question as well? >> Actually I

146don't know how clear I'll be um but one thing I was thinking about the NIA experience they did three surveys um that we were obliged and they were freely offered to us and we can repeat them and one it was in many cases the same questions some weren't um but it went to parents it went to students and it went to staff. to high school. >> Yeah. And it was really interesting to see where there was agreement and when there wasn't and if there wasn't, what did that mean? >> So, this is a great thing to come from families and I really appreciate it. But then I'm wondering what would staff say or what would students say given the same questions. Um, and then that sort of hinges on another thing that I mentioned um

147actually in a meeting I was at this week way back when we had the quality of ed committee. The school board did that. Some of you may have remembered that or seen it rather than I think I've mentioned it before in our conversations. Um they there was the whole board involvement was community involvement and what we looked at was qualitative quantitative ways to look at what kind of quality how do we measure what we're doing here and I was on the qualitative one and we looked at what Victoria Burnernhard who is someone who looks at spheres of reference and sort of like you know the big idea is when you're looking at us and you're trying to grow schools that are progressively improving you look at data but you also want to connect the results

148you're getting to the processes in other words your question then what are we doing here to see these changes that we're seeing >> and so you know I immediately go to the students they are actively talking about well-being we they got one our one student council got a $7,000 grant you know to to help build their wellness center uh I see across the board teachers thinking about learning you heard it from ELO it's like how can we meet our students where they are talking about universal design and learning I mean I feel like there's been a whole shift and intentionality about that. But what we're not getting at yet I think is you know there's some certainly reference in me ask but it's a toone to read way too much to sit through. I'm trying

149to think how we can bring that and highlight the processes that have changed >> to better reflect it. And then if we could also get input from students and staff too and see how there's correlation there. >> I think that would be great. And then another plug here is looking at our students who've already graduated. Julia used to do that survey where we would at time I keep going back to that because I think how many times it comes up in our conversations with talking to our graduates our visa graduates to say so what do you what are your what is your perspective now that you've left the high school so >> all great comments all all >> I know you both love that >> so um on the alumni one I also would love

150to I'd love to do sort of a sort of an out exit interview type survey as you learn when you graduated 5 years ago >> how did things work out for want to learn invest what you wish to learn more of etc. >> Um so we have not done that to date I would certainly be interested in doing that. >> Yeah. >> In terms of staff you may not remember but in the first survey we did in 2022 we actually did offer it to staff. >> Yeah. >> And we did not get much uptake. Roughly 30 people across all four schools responded. So it it for us it kind of muddied the waters a little bit. Wasn't too helpful. We got a lot of free text comments that were very interesting and very opinionated, which

151was very helpful for us to hear. A lot of uh quite a bit of sniping around individual other teachers that were named. >> That was interesting in a redaction sense. Um and then for students, the state of New Hampshire is adding more and more restrictions for our abilities to reach out directly to students to fill out surveys. And so it needs to be more of an opt-in parent permission type thing. So we didn't we did that a little bit in the first survey where some of our students replied I think acting on behalf of their parents and actually identified like I'm a senior or something like that >> but we deviated away from that due to those legal concerns. >> I would certainly be interested to hear what they had to say but it's a

152little trickier now >> but thank you for that comment. Any other questions on the surveys? Right. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any further questions or comments on the existing one or ideas for a new one. >> Yeah, >> I just want to stop for a minute. Sure. This is an extraordinary amount >> and I appreciate the fact that it's something you're good at and you do with your work sort of somehow related. No. Okay. >> Even better. um that you do these surveys, that you spend the time to collate, redact information, present it in different forms, prepare us to understand what we're looking at, and then do your dog and pony show to different groups. Um this isn't the first time you've done this with surveys, and it's an extraordinary

153amount of time. And I just want to thank you. >> You're here. >> Yes. And uh thank you all with that. Um everyone good to move on? >> That was pretty good. Thanks everyone. >> And now business requiring action. Um can I get a motion to do the expenditures, the minutes, and the handbook? Hope they're fairly straightforward. If wants to pull out the handbook, please let me know. Deb, >> I move to approve items B through D by consent. Was that it? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Do I have a second? Second by Kelly. One question. Um, do we need to I know we said a lot of I think it was non-s substantive changes in the handbook. Do we need to specify as amended for that or not? >> It was just some minor

154words from the already. >> I thought so. Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah, >> I think we're good on that front. That will probably that might change for a different for the policies. >> But that's good. >> Um although so I note that Michael was with us online. He has since left. We've also lost Lisa and Garrett dropping that flies tonight. Um but so I think we can do any blue hands up vote. So all those in favor in all it is unanimous 87. Um yeah. >> Um >> okay. >> Yeah. This language is really funny. I move to retire Elaine water and appoint Lily Traymond as the deputy treasurer for the Dustin school district. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor, hands up, please. Again, unanimous 8-0. Thank you, everyone. And now for approval of

155the policies. I'll note there are seven of them. If any board member wish to withdraw or pull out those, please let me know. >> Um, but there are seven as currently existing. I heard it as amended for JJ and the other not change. >> Yeah. >> I move to approve policing policies. JICJ as amended. I MIP GMIP IMIP- SA GM MIP- F GB GBA and LDA is presented. >> Nailed it. Thank you for that. A second by Renee. >> All those in favor? >> That is unanimous. Thank you everyone. We appreciate that. And lastly, one for Routine. We need that exact number. I have since lost it. It was 500 something. >> Thank you for that, Renee. >> Uh I move to retain funds in the amount of $511,000 to $511,28 um as presented. >>

156I think that's seconded by Deb. All those in favor? It is also unanimous. Thank you everyone. Swimming on to reports. Um, the only thing I have to add apart from what we've talked about tonight is we will have a more detailed budget presentation on December 16th. I may or may not have a conflict that night is still to be determined. Um, so Neil, would you be able to chair that in mystead as needed? >> Very small fee. Yes. >> All right. We can discuss that fee later. Uh, public. And additionally, um, negotiations are moving as scheduled with the Dresden and handover service staff. It's a little early on, but I would say no. I need progress and we'll leave it at that for now. Then committee reports. I think we might have some updates on

157CSDC. No. >> Sure. >> Yes. >> All right. Representative. I appreciate that. Any updates from council? >> I think Linda did it all earlier. Baptist 9:13 is really uh Carrie, anything from you on HACC? >> Yeah. Um Robert and I went uh was that Thursday of last week to HACTC and I see in your report that you also have some of the documentation. So I'll speak to things that you have highlighted. >> Um they shared some fun updates of classes which Robin has more detail like the graduating class of last year than they are. um talked about budget and um sort of what the fees will the tuition will look like next year and the hope is that it'll be stable but this meeting was on the 12th and they hope to have those numbers

158by the end of the day the following day the end of the week so we did not have those numbers yet but they um what they say 7.6% six% increase for insurance. Um but hoping that tuition will stay about 20K a kid. Is that that's Yeah. Um which seems like it's a little bit pretty similar to what it has been. Um >> not a big change. Um >> changes at the state level in terms of graduation requirements was discussed a bit. The two state the states redistricting things that are happening. Um, yeah, just trying to figure out and it's just been unclear in terms of like what those graduation requirements are going to be and how the tech center can both support and maybe incorporate what they're doing to help students get those graduation requirements

159and if requirements and if there are new ways in which the tech center could develop additional coursework. Um, we talked for a while about um, uh, sort of just what the breakdown is in terms of enrollment and all the different programs. they shared some of their documentation which I haven't anyone who's definitely interested um you know talked for a while about their STEM programs and why those numbers haven't been what they had hoped they would be and how to best get the word out around their you know pretty engineering focused intensive work. Um, yeah. >> You mean enroll in? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Like just And we talked about, you know, like a lot of schools have STEM programs and like how do they differentiate what they can do and what they offer as a

160tech center. And um, one of the big things that I didn't realize is that the STEM program you can do for one year. So for seniors that are like sort of kind of done >> already um doing STEM through the tech center could and if they know they're going into engineering could really build up that um piece of work but a lot of students don't realize that you can do it as opposed to most tech programs are the two-year model. >> Any issues with the original thinking that the future consolidation stuff in Vermont would be centered around the tech centers and that kind of got pulled away. Well, that was talked about as like something that had come and sort of gone. Um, but this meeting was on Thursday and I think when was that?

161Yesterday or Friday that the the news about the task force being poo pooed or whatever um happened. So, this was this was pre the uh task center being uh the task force being um so I think there's I mean there has been continued conversation about going back to that. Yeah. Sorry said it could go back to that Matt. >> That was your >> I just wondered if we're um if the calendar came up for any conversation did. >> Yeah. >> Um Oh, did miss that. Um yeah, and the talk about the start date being August 31st. I think there's a couple things that come up. Um >> is that Wood Woodstock's district, Mountain View, um they have in their teacher contract that they can't start more than three days before Labor Day. Um but Labor

162Day is really late this year and so starting on the 31st means that that first week of school is a whole week which is very different than what many districts have done recently which is the three-day week then the 4 day week then the um but Labor Day being so late is really so Erica the director was going back to the you know that was sort of um because I sit on administrative meetings in the Harford district I know that like that came out of the Harford lots of conversations in Harford Um, so yeah, she is going back to the drawing board to bring that to the Harvard team tomorrow. >> Deb again, >> it was less about the start date and more about that February vacation that has thrown us off now requiring us

163to have a Saturday >> conf. I mean, it it really I think a lot of folks are going to miss that day. the February break that moved later to align with the rest of Vermont which it did us the same this year. >> Yeah, it is staying the same. So it would be >> people are not the last week of February >> and >> Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's that aligns with many more districts on the other side of the river. Yeah, >> remind me for the February presentation to the town one where they do it in an auditorium. >> Is that a meeting where we require a quorum? >> Uhhuh. >> Yeah. So it's a meeting of the board. >> Yeah. >> So I've already heard that several people will be gone. For context,

164that is the second Saturday of winter vacation of the February break >> and it's a morning. So, right, is that February 28th? >> Yeah, Neil, you brought this up. >> No, I brought this up. So, I think the issue is and it would typically be I think on a Thursday night, right? Yeah. >> Um, but if a Thursday night falls over a vacation week, then it gets moved to the S. It gets moved. >> Um, but I think the move didn't really help much because people are still likely going to be on vacation. >> I brought all this bad idea. Yep. Right. >> We are. >> But I think >> as part of that bringing it up, I think we realized like we don't have legally many options because of the like there strictctures about

165like when you have it in relationship to something, right? I think there was some constraints like three days before something like that. Yeah. >> As we have it as handover at 11:30 a.m. and Dresden as 12:30 p.m. >> on Saturday, February 20. I will not physically present. Not >> I don't guess there might be a few of them. >> Can we do it by Zoom? >> No, I do not believe do it by Zoom. >> No, definitely are. >> The sad thing is that we never get more than maybe half a dozen people from the public. It's a Saturday. >> Yeah, they're now born to sacrifice. So something for us all to ponder. >> This is why I was hoping that maybe we could >> get some grace from Frankart for >> it's not I

166mean >> um I mean I think >> was about this year >> it aligns with most of >> Oh absolutely. >> Yeah I understand. I was just hoping >> I wasn't being realistic. I was just hoping you were going to say, "Oh, they don't like that. They want it to be the only district in >> Gina, >> an empathy point is the reason that Vermont is a week later is so that people in Vermont who work in the retail and the ski and the hospitality can actually enjoy their state on a week when Massachusetts and Connecticut, New Hampshire are not there, which when I heard that, I think that's actually like kind of a nice thing to think about." >> I don't know. I I like it as a vermonter that we like except that

167New Hampshire >> doesn't have the same we is a joint school with New Hampshire. That's like our problem, not loss. >> Yeah. I'm just saying that I think there are a lot of >> myths about the vocation. >> I mean the big the big conversation was the start date and the holiday the two week holiday too. That's another tension point. Like some districts want the two weeks, some don't. And that allows for different flexibility as well as all the districts that go to the tech center have different numbers of PD days and just different things related to contracts that are really different. >> Folks remember our calendar survey totally unrelated to these previous surveys. There was I think some healthy appetite, right? One two week vacation rather than two oneweek vacations for February and April.

168>> Like the March like March intensive if you >> Yeah. >> Well, I think Yeah. and Harford is in a negotiation year which also impacts so they can't those numbers around tuition certainly will have to do it and they're negotiating everybody's contract letters this year so >> probably trying to remember that >> um wishing committee I'm not sure if any of you have met in the past month >> I was just thinking sadly that we probably have to dial that up at some point this budget for the first sort of reveals tuition and having all year >> there are some >> is so I think um we should avail >> and there are some non-public things steing that I think will come up in probably in a month maybe January that will prompt some further

169discussion within that committee nothing there we have to move on to new superintendent report >> yes And I did actually add some more information about Harford. Um, based on our meeting with them, I asked Erica to look at the handover students specifically and I included that in the report. And this also relates to what we talked about um, regarding student surveys. So these students were surveyed at the end of their experience and you can see at the end they talk about the internships that our students from handover did as well as what the class of 2025 is currently doing those who attended the um career technical center. And then they also surveyed parents to find out their satisfaction level too. But we had 20 students who engaged in 13 work-based learning experiences, 26 industry recognized

170credentials, earned 60 college credits, 23 memberships and student leadership organizations, and then the other information. So, I did want to share that with you. Um, also I mentioned at our handover meeting that I did meet with our town manager recently in handover. So, I'm trying to open communications along those lines. And um we talked about some really important things for our school district, including cell service in this area and the work that they're doing. I've connected him to our technology department so we can collaborate on some of these conversations and um connected with them about Simil recently as a followup to our handover meeting. And um also we are continuing our work with the leadership team. This month we met at Mary and Cross on Monday and we looked at engagement data and I'll be

171sharing some of that data with you too because one of the things that I'm happy to say over time that we're seeing as we do these walkthroughs in each of the schools is we are seeing very high levels of engagement. That's what we're finding in the data and we talked about that over and over on Monday with the um with the leadership team members who are in classes observing. So I think that's really great positive. I'm trying to give that feedback also back to the schools and to the staff members so that they know you know we're doing this as a practice learning gathering data and then these are the results so that they can see what's actually happening too. Um, I did attend a superintendence meeting in New Hampshire on Friday and we've been

172spending a lot of time talking about New Hampshire legislation this year. And as you all know from my updates that I've been sending you, there is a lot of discussion about open enrollment and you know what we will need to do and looking toward that over the next couple of years. And also again on the New Hampshire side, the SAU consolidation, I have been consulting with our attorney about that. We consulted with them last year about the Vermont changes and I think it will be similar in New Hampshire based on our congressional um agreement. So I'll keep you updated on those things. I've been preparing for snow that. I just wanted to have everything in order so I was prepared for snow days. I sent it out in the newsletter last month, but I've connected

173with both the um the town people to have their phone numbers. You know, we'll connect at 5 in the morning. I'll get an update from them about the road situation and then we'll be able to make a call from there with the with our bus um transportation company and then also just I've been running through the scenarios of floating everything right narrow and letting the television crews know and things like that. So that's all underway. We had a meeting today to you know just go through the whole process again. So, I want to be real prepared for that. And that's my report for today. >> Thank you for that. Any questions for our superintendent? >> I know you're all excited about snow days. >> I'm not this year. >> Interim director curriculum and instruction. >>

174Well, I'll just start by like really glad that we didn't have to make our first delay or a snow call when Robin out of the country. >> I was really attending to the weather forecast and lovely didn't have to get very nervous at any particular point. We would have made it better, but >> and I've been wanting for like two weeks. >> February may be a different story. We'll figure it out then. Um, so I chose to take tonight to uh sort of frame what has become kind of a natural buckets of work that I've been reporting on um in each of the board meetings previous to this one. Um, and so I took all of those themes and kind of buckets and then decided to update you and formalize um, my goals for the

175year so that you know how I am measuring my progress um, in this position and also how Robin can offer me support and feedback um, in meeting these goals under this position. So, I would be happy to answer any questions about these goals, but you can expect in the future that I'll continue to report in each of these categories as pertinent for each of the meetings that I'm a part of. Um, and then you'll get a formal report towards the end of the year as well. >> Thank you for that, Lauren. Um, I did have one minor question about the revitalizing the safety committee. >> Yes. >> Sugar excited. Is that is that the board safety committee that has board members on it and we reconstitute it or is that an internal safety committee? So

176I think there's been both off and on. Right. >> Right now internal and it's um two different things are happening. So one is at the SAU level um just like at all of the school levels uh there is a specific safety team. we have an emergency operations plan and so the things that are functioning um under that for the SAU but then similarly we've also revitalized our joint loss committee that falls under that as well um and I'm working uh with Amy on that project too so multiaceted but not a board level at this point >> unless you really want it on both of them so I I don't know if I need another one Thank you for that kind of welcome. >> So welcome. >> Any other questions for Lauren? >> Do we do

177tabletop exercises in the school district like a Dartmouth? Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah, we do. >> They did one fairly recently service day. >> That's right. We have some others planned both at the individual schools and then bring back together. >> Any questions? >> Thank you, Lauren, as always. And then uh Teresa, any further updates from the VA's office or are you good over there? >> Uh no, just um we did get the adequacy aid um numbers and everything else on Friday. >> Okay. >> Um so our our particular adequacy aid is like 737,000. So little um you're at like 741,000 this year. So, and um then our tax rate was that I was going to say >> all on Friday. >> Initial takeaways make us smile, make us frown, make us cry. >> I

178mean, just like they're all over the place. >> It's all my bills online today. >> All right. Any questions for Teresa? Thank you. We look forward to hearing more. There is in my right where there's no need for a nonpublic tonight. >> Correct. >> For so go us. >> Right. We're back in public. We have a second opportunity for public comment on anything that was not further discussed already. Seeing none, if you have any agenda topics for the next meeting, maybe send it to Neil depending on how I get. And that next meeting is Tuesday, December 16th. There are other school events going on that night. So you might want to check your calendar just in case and that is the last Tuesday of the before winter break. >> Interesting. So lots of things going

179on in that time period. Otherwise I'll take a motion to adjourn at 9:31 which frankly isn't too bad given all that we talked about tonight. Gina >> I move to ajourn at 9:31. >> Seconded by Carrie going around the horn starting with Neil >> yes. >> Donia. Yes. Sullivan. Yes. >> Oh, Nelson. Yes. Russell. Yes. McConnell. Yes. >> And Keiny. Yes. We are adjourned. Thank you so much, everyone. We got through a lot.