11.12.25 Hanover School Board

001Well, that worked. That's super fun. >> Okay, I'm going to call the order. Uh, I see we have a lot of members of the public here tonight, which is super exciting. Truth be told, while we love seeing all the vignette information, it's also so much fun to have people here with us. Might be a secret ulterior motive doing the vignettes. Um we are going to start with a public hearing this evening and then we'll go into um comments from the public as required and then you guys will be up after that. Okay? If that's all right with the board. That's a slight reordering. Okay. Uh so we will begin with our public hearing. We have uh a founda a grant sorry from the burn foundation um with tremendous gratitude as always. Is there someone who'd

002like to speak to this grant for the media room? Anybody? Everybody looking over the screen? Sure. I will speak to it. Hey. >> Um, as you know, um, we received a very generous donation from Dr. Keen to in honor of his wife um to do some rehab of our library media space um and in creating a truly excellent plan to make this library um kid-friendly, much more uh studentf facing. Uh one of the things that was included was um to purchase new bookshelves that would allow for the display of books to be much more friendlier for our students. Um, if you've ever looked at a bookshelf and you just see the spines of books, that's nothing compared to when you actually see the covers of those books. Um, when this whole design came together, uh,

003in addition to the generous donation from Dr. Keane, we also realized that to totally realize this dream, um, we would need a bit of additional funding and our team reached out to the Burn Foundation um, in order to, uh, request this additional donation. Um, and of course, Dorothy Burns, generous as always, was able to contribute a donation so that we could um finish out the part A and part B of this plan for our library. So, it is with again extreme gratitude to Dorothy Burn and the Burn Foundation. Um, and we're going to we're in process already of making our library truly spectacular. >> Awesome. Thank you for that description. And um I Lord mentioned uh how generous this is. All of the burn donations have been incredibly generous over the years. Um, do we

004know if that's public or not? So, we have there is a total that's visible to the board. I'm not sure if it's visible to the public. If it's not, we'll work on making that visible to everyone. Um, but this evening's donation is for $30,000. So, it is a tremendously generous um gift. I think that's one of the largest we've received. So, um, thank you again to the Burton Foundation for the generosity. Yes. And I just like to add an additional thank you to the Burn Foundation. We um did develop a list of all of the Burn Foundation grants and this brings us up to close to $800,000 that the Burn Foundation has given to our schools since 2012, which is just it's been an incredible resource for us and has been used for so many

005different projects. and this is just um an additional project that means so much to the school. So, thank you to the burn foundation. >> Yes, I also add it's meant to preempt what's coming up as well that um the burn foundation support also goes towards some of the funding of this amazing that you're going to hear about later. >> Awesome. All right. Super. I'm >> Yes. And this is not related to the Vern donation, but there is a gap of approximately $27,000 between what you told what you asked for and what she gave. Is that something that will be coming back to the board? I don't know who I should be looking at. >> We sitting next to each other, >> right? My eyes are kind of Um some revisions were made uh based on

006the sort of original plan that included all of the things. So some revisions were made so that we could get to a truly incredible place. And then there was talk about as we move forward how we could cover over a number of years the additional $27,000 in annual purchases to continue to bring things up to space. the bulk of the work to get done um will happen through these two generous donations and then as we work our way forward some of the the bonus items we'll be able to purchase or get regular library budget. >> Thank you. Thank you for that question. All right. Are there other questions from the board members of the public on this particular donation? Okay. Seeing none, I will take a motion to accept the donation. Yeah. Done. I move

007to approve the Burn Foundation funding grant for the media space for $30,000 as presented with enormous gratitude to the Burn Foundation. Is there a second? Okay. Second from Renee. Um, sorry, pausing for half a second. Do you see Tara Boozo on line? >> Yes. >> Okay. Could you possibly move her over as a panelist, please? And thank you. Thank you very much. And with Terra on, we will do a roll call vote. So we'll start with Carrie. >> Russell, yes. Yes. >> Nelson, yes. Tara, are you there? >> I'll say McConnell. Yes. Any intervening silence? >> Didn't switch over yet. There >> Tara, can you hear us? You guys are so good. [clears throat] >> Terrazo. Yes. Thank [clears throat] you. I knew you'd be a yes on this one. This is an easy one.

008Okay. All right. Thank you again, everyone. And we will move on to agenda review. Anyone need to reorder other than what we already discussed or add anything? No. Okay. Moving right along then. Any members of the public who would like to address the board on matters not already on the agenda? >> I would like to, >> please. So, if if you don't mind, I will might get you there, but that would be great if you could just state your name and where you live. >> Yeah. Um, my name is Sarah Ukrain and I live at 7 Stevens Road in Pan, New Hampshire. I have two kids in the Rice School. Um, and I've been a classroom parent for years. Um, so thank you to Renee for encouraging me to come and speak to the board

009this evening. I am here because I would like the Ray School to establish a silver lining fund. I would like this account to be established so that parents and other community members can donate money that would be used by the Ray School nurse to purchase items that would benefit the health of students, especially for those who might be experiencing financial stressors. Uh purchases could include snack food and health related expenses like eyeglasses. Um I have become acutely aware of the need for this fund over the past year. I believe establishing this fund at the Ray School would address a gap that is already affecting students and teachers and other staff members. Administering the fund at the Ray School level would safeguard student and family privacy. In my research of area programs, I found that the

010Hannover High School already has a silver lining fund, which provides funds for stocking the HS food pantry and assist students with some health care expenses such as contact lenses and dental procedures. Donations come from parents, staff, and class committees through checks made out to the Dresden School District. And after talking with the SAU70 business administrator, I found out that the Richard Richmond Middle School has a silver lining fund that was established in 2018. So, I believe that establishing a silver lining fund at the Ray School would benefit not only the Ray School community, but also handover schools more broadly. Having this fund at the elementary school level would help educate elementary school parents that donating to the silver lining fund associated with our school is a way that would take care of the needs of

011children in our community. Um, the needs of children may grow and change as they get older, but our support of them remains unwavering. So, please help me take the next step in establishing the silver lining fund at the race. >> Thank you so much, Sarah. Gave me chills there at the end. Thank you. Um, >> I So, typically we don't interact. I I mean, I think this sounds like a really good thing to investigate further and just make sure we know whether it requires a vote of the board to establish it or if it can just be established. So, we will look into that. Thank you so much for the idea. >> Any other members of the public? Yes. And I should have said you're just supposed to limit it to three minutes, which you

012did. So, thank you. >> Everyone, I'm Nick Seni. Many of you know me as the strings teacher at the high school. And luckily, many of my students are here tonight. So, that's nice. >> Um, I'm Emma uh of playing field, New Hampshire. >> Oh, and I live in White. Um, and I am the K to 5 general music uh, educator here at Ray School. And >> great, we have heard a lot about possibility of a prek coming to Ray School, which is really exciting. And I checked out the budget for that. And it looks like it's planned to go into what is now the instrumental music room, which leaves me wondering where is my program going to go. Right. Right now, there's 75% of the fourth and fifth grade students at Ray that love to

013come to our room and learn music. And it's really an important part of our week, and it is the foundation for like the musicals and concerts and everything that happens all the way through to the high school. So, I wanted to come to the board today and see what that plan was, where we will be, and how prek affects that. And to hear you talk a little bit about like later in the meeting about what your plans are. >> All right. I I know that some of that is planned for later in the meeting. Um, but thank you for bringing it. It's a very valid concern. So, thank you for bringing that up. It's definitely something that's been on our minds in our discussions as well. So, great. >> Yeah. So, thank you guys for

014being here. >> Welcome. >> Any other members of the public like to speak at this point? >> Yes, I am Cooper. I live um at 40. Sorry. An Cooper at 40 and wrote I'm lucky to have first and fourth graders. Um and I just wanted to um support and kind of second the request for consideration of a silver lining fund. Um I think that's special, important, reflects what a supportive community we have. Um and just want to reiterate that likewise um I think the strings program is um unique and special and so many places don't get to have music be integrated into the lives of children. Um so thanks for your >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Um anyone else any other members of the public who would like to speak at this

015point? Anyone online? No. All right. Thank you guys um for all of those contributions. Um we are going to move on into our vignette. Um and rest assured the music discussion will be a piece of what we'll talk about later. So um all right, take it away guys. Thank you all for being here. Can everyone see this? Okay. >> Hi, I'm teach fourth grade as a brace school. And I brought two students from my classroom, Roxy and I will be sharing more later. I enjoy and I teach fourth grade at the Ray School, but I taught fifth grade here as well. And I have five students from my classroom. Isa, Natalie, Aean, Sela, and Olivia. Tonight we're going to talk about a project that started I think the idea started in 2022. And I remember

016when Emily Clarkson, one of my teammates, came in and said, "I have this idea for you. I would like for us to work with a company called the World Story Exchange and develop a photography and writing project. And I remember as they were explaining it to us how excited I felt. This is exactly why you go into teaching, finding ways to inspire children to feel excited about writing, to find connections between their writing and art, too. anytime we can use art to inspire them, it's a huge and it has so much of an impact on them. But also, it allowed them to see that when we're thinking about learning, it's not just within those four walls or in my case, six walls. It's not just in that space that so much of what we do

017is to prepare them for what's out there and it help us investigate well, what is out there. So really excited to share what they worked on. >> Yeah. So Scott and Lindsay are the world story exchange essentially and they have been um done programming throughout the world of all kinds. This is a photography and writing project but they have also done short documentaries and other filming in many places. They are uh vivaceious, excited, really they're contagious. Their excitement is contagious throughout the students, throughout all of us as teachers. It feels like there's a new sense of energy that comes in and we really enjoy having them. So, we're very grateful to them for their expertise. Scott's really an expert in photography and Lindsay does she's sort of jack of all trades. So as we started

018to develop this project, the main piece that we ended up landing on was the Connecticut River wershed. Throughout fourth grade, we end up coming back to this pl this idea of does place matter? How do how do we have our relationship with our space? And what is a relationship? Oh yeah, it's back and forth. So let's look at that relationship. In addition to that, how can we use photography or any piece of artwork to inspire our writing? So sometimes when it comes to looking at a blank page, you look at it and you feel stuck and you still feel stuck. When we have something like photography or any piece of artwork, it's easy to hopefully come across some ideas and maybe in the case of my students, you start with a story and then you

019write a poem and then you go back to the story and then you write add more to your poem. You know what? I like my poem a little bit more and then you realize that writing is a journey and sometimes you go back to it and that's okay too. In addition to that, we wanted to connect to some of the ideas that they learned about in third grade. They read the text one well and we wanted them to see that it doesn't just end there when we're thinking about our watershed. How do we protect this watershed? How do we protect our trees? So, that was where we landed with regard to developing this project and working. >> We had just add one more. >> Yeah, of course. just thinking about um the nature that surrounds

020us and it really gives them the students a moment to slow down and really look at things. So often in our daily lives we're busy, we're running around, we're this is a deliberate let's slow down and look around us and so and it's beautiful to see what the kids come up with and the excitement that they get from it. So just wanted to add that. Um so there were four main pieces to this. The first one is that Scott comes in and he introduces examples of student work and the basics of photography, you know, how to hold your camera. And most of these students, remember, have not held a camera. So, no, it's a digital camera. And so, they're learning how to use that. Okay? So, this is something very new and very different for

021them. And then they go on a walking field trip um down to the Connecticut River. and in that process really explore the area and get to see all kinds of things. um everything from and we talked about the watershed as Nicole said and so that gets explained all the way down to the Connecticut that we're in the Connecticut River wershed and then from there they Scott um for lack of better words sorry I'm on the older end I was going to say develops film but no [laughter] uploads of photographs and um for all of the stu students and then they select on that they really like and they write about it. So they write poetry. We really use this for figurative language for all kinds of writing just for them to really think about and

022describe and you'll see more in just a few minutes. But really some beautiful writing that comes out of this and it just gives them a chance to explore the natural world in many ways hands-on and then coming back and envisioning the new photos. So one thing I would say is um although we do have this one exhibit, I end up coming back to these photographs over and over and over again. In fact, we just used them for our New Hampshire trees project and then we'll use them again for other stories and other persuasive writing pieces. So although we had this one exhibit and yes, it's stunning, it's beautiful, to me being able to come back to this idea over and over again makes this project feel really worthwhile. So install the exhibit for us, specifically

023the photographs here. I will tell you the first time I saw this, I walked out into the hallway and it was just like it brought tears tears to my eyes because it was so beautiful. We had a museum in our school. Um, so this doesn't capture it because truly it's really stunning and really exciting to see this work in our school. It looks professional and our fourth graders did this and that feels really exciting. So, I wanted to give you some closeups and Miss Royy's class will share actually read some of their um pieces and you can see students in my class um ended up falling into this pattern of poetry. I will tell you it doesn't always follow this pattern. Sometimes I'll have journal entries, stories, um I've had students do research on New

024Hampshire and the environment. Um, but this year for some reason everyone wanted to write a poem. I guess I did a great job teaching poetry this year. [laughter] You can see they had their photograph here as inspiration and then they wrote poetry. We have some students that are in public that want to share with you. >> I am Bark. by I Lord. I am bark clinging onto the tree trunk reaching to the sky. I'm as rough as sandpaper. I'm as brown as coffee beans. I live in a forest full of trees, sun, and ferns. Sometimes I rip off my tree and fall onto the ground. Sometimes I bathe in the rain and soak up all the vitamins. My dream makes s I love sap. He's so comforting and soothing. I love to sleep in it.

025In the night I sometimes sleep, but I always listen to the night sounds. I was on coyotes. We have I am a plant by Natalie. I'm a plant. I am as fluffy as a bunny, but I look like a spider. When it rains, I droop. I am a plant. When it frosts, I die. Then a life cycle starts all over again. I am a plant. Watch me grow. Watch me shimmer. Watch me shimmer in the morning. Watch me if you dare. >> This is a poem about David. on a branch. I am sap. I sit on a tree when I am visible. When I am not visible, I am inside the tree acting as its blood. Sometimes I am dry, sometimes I am wet. I sit on the tree all day and night. I'm as

026sticky as can be. I am sap turn red with H. I am saff. I am the spider by Zelda Hapa. I am the black and yellow spider hanging over my vast kingdom of grass and buds like a chandelier. In my kingdom, towers of grass loom over me. I make long invisible strings like a spindle and thread. my long black lace pair of feet. You might think it's impressive how I hang in the air and make my own web, but it's easy for me. Just like how a squirrel climbs a tree. >> This is Lydia, our finale. >> I am River peeking through the trees everywhere. I am a line between Vermont and New Hampshire. The trees are my clothes framing me. I'm hidden. Hidden. No one notice me. My reflection of the trees is priceless

027and can't be sold. I am ground. Pine hides my beauty and they say I'm vain. The pine cones are my jewels. Everyone walks on me. I hate the rain. It muddy me. The heat crumbles me. The bravery. I've elected myself as the supreme queen of all things. And they call me queen. It's an emergency. I am free. You s stand tall and mighty but live in fear. I clothe the wild in majestic beauty with ski skirts and garments. Each garment is unique with the best wood in the forest. Standing tall, we watch over the forest like skyscrapers. I shade the ground blueberry veh. I am light. I am the glue growing the forest, bathing it in glory, lighting the river in twilight. So Roxy and Hazel going to share some student perspectives just to give

028you an idea of yes, we had them produce this writing, but I don't know. I want to know what they think about it obviously if I'm going to continue to pursue it. >> I'm going to take it away first. >> Yes. Unbelievable. This isn't actually my writing. It's my friend who sadly couldn't pick that. Her name is Joseph. She said, "I have gratitude for this experience. I enjoyed Mr. Scott's teaching style and I always looked forward to his visits. I loved walking to the Connecticut River and writing poems and stories. I look forward to the spring when we can do this again. Um, this is Charlie's. He couldn't make it. Also, um, I learned about perspective and light. I have gratitude for Mr. Scott because he used his time and knowledge to teach us. I

029can't wait to work with him in the spring. Mrs. M. Mr. Scott taught me about lighting. When he did, I took three shot amazing shots of a tree. The f front light shot was pretty good. The backlight shot literally glowed and the sidelight shot was indescribably good. This is during the world story change. I learned how to take photos. I am grateful for this experience because I learned so many new things. I can't wait to see them again. Mrs. Daniels, I felt good about this because I like writing photography. [laughter] >> Thank you so much for joining us this evening to hear more about this wonderful project that we hope to continue to do in the future. Please know that we'll also be visiting Webster Cottage. Um the historical society has made that possible for

030the last few years too. Um I'm sure we feel so fortunate to have so many resources that we can provide these friends here. Thank you again before we send them off. Any questions? Yes. >> I have a question. How long is the exhibit up? Please say it's still up. >> Some parts of it are still up. Um if you head down to the fourth grade hallway, although somees have been taken down. Okay. >> Um so check it out. >> So this week is still safe. >> Yes. To an extent. >> Okay. Half of it. Half of it is safe. And there fifth grade pod um area too because I'm even though I'm fourth grade, I'm still in the fifth grade pod. Okay, >> you'll see when you turn to go that direction, there's a bulletin

031board. >> Yeah, >> I just want to say thank you to Miss Bond Mini and Miss Joy Roy and all of your students. I've watched this project over the past few years and I'm always so impressed when I walk through the hallways and see the work that you've done, the photography and the writing. It's amazing. and you can see how engaged you are in the learning process going through this project and I've just been so impressed with the work that you've all done the past few years. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you all for being here and thank you for getting them here. >> We we would much rather listen to poetry. Uh you are welcome to stay for budgets. Who knows? We we don't speak about the

032budgets quite as eloquently as you do about your photography unfortunately, but we do our best. Um but thank you guys so much for being here. Really >> tremendous gratitude. Thank you. >> All right, onward. Hey, Colleen, you get to go next. Yeah, that's a tough act to follow. If you can do your principal's report and poetry for us. >> Take your time break here. Turn it into >> I didn't know you were so high play in your own school program too. >> I would like to school. I'm there by 7:30. >> Thank you guys. All right, Professionals report. Uh, it's been another amazing whirlwind of a month here. How's it already almost December? [laughter] >> Um, we've been so busy. Um, October was another beautiful month. Thankfully, we have lots more time outside to do

033things like the World Story Exchange and all these other amazing projects the kids have been doing outside in their outdoor classrooms. Um, we've got some fun things happening in first grade with our first grade friends. They had their first experience where they mix together all the first grade classes in different groupings and they travel around from room to room to do different activities and things and get to know all of their other first grade friends. So, a nice way to get to meet other students in the same grade level that you might be in class with in the future years. Um, our teachers did an inservice day on October 10th where we spend the day with our I Ready specialist um helping us decipher all of the I Ready data that we gathered in September.

034Um and then we use that data to create some instructional groupings and intervention groups and and enrichment groups for students. Uh interventionists just started working with students in the last week or so. Um and yeah, we're moving forward with that. I already been a learning curve for all of us. Different reporting system, different platforms, so we're learning a little bit as we go. Thankfully, we have the folks from Mary and Cross to help us out with any questions we have as they've been using it for the last couple of years. So that's been great. Um and then building updates. We are anxiously awaiting the installation of our new library. It gets delivered on Monday, December 17th. And I just learned that our new playground structure is coming next week. [laughter] So, you know, construction happening

035right before Christmas. Why not? >> Yeah. So, we're excited about both of those things happening. Um, yeah. Great. Thanks. How about that? >> I was going to ask about the playground, so check it out. Um, any questions for colleagues, board members? >> Yes, that's I just have one. You indicated you have volunteers lined up to help with the logistics of the library. Do you need more people or are you >> You know, I am the Sarah has got a spreadsheet going that I'm sure they would always welcome any more help if you wanted to reach out to them, but she's got a spreadsheet going with like who's coming in on what day at what time. They've got it mapped out. Like it's really really smooth what they've got going on. And we met with Tony

036last week to figure out where we're going to have stuff come in and how we're going to organize it, the in and out of everything. So, I think I think we're good. [laughter] >> Perfect. Great. Thank you, though. >> I was going to ask about job openings. Have we been fully staffed at any point this year or are we still No, still okay. >> Little shortanded. Now, last time we did have her out. So, I will go ahead and put a plug in to any of the listening public if you feel drawn to uh perhaps come uh work in the schools as an ed assistant. Um there are openings and we could really use you. So, >> and substitutes. Always always substitutes. And I will just say you can be on the substitute list and

037do one day the whole year and even that would be helpful. So, >> yeah. Um okay, other questions for Colleen? My only other question was enrollments. Are there any like ups or downs that we should be worried about? I see the numbers are here, but >> we only have one. We should match over in third grade. >> Okay, perfect. And that's >> third grade, man. Third grade. >> Oh, first grade. Okay. >> And one in first grade. We have one in Julie's class and then one on Y. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I know we've gotten a lot of new students in third grade this year, so I can see why your brain went there. [laughter] >> Okay. Super. Any other questions for Kelly? All right. Thank you so much. Um we will move on to

038the preschool program. So um little preamble for this. Um I had asked that we put this on here tonight just so that we can kind of pull it out because it is a new idea. It's part of our budget discussions at this point. Um but it is also a new initiative. Um, we I don't know. Um, the presentation that Rhett was going to do last time or did last time, did we get that attached to last meeting? >> It's on the last >> last board meeting. Okay. So, there should be a presentation about it attached to the last board meeting. Um, we did get a lovely presentation about it last meeting. Unfortunately, we didn't have any recording of it. So um the gist of it is um that they have identified this as an area

039of need in our community um and uh also an area where we already provide um preschool for students who have been identified through the special education process as needing um preschool programming. Um, and so this would be an opportunity to get those students into this building earlier, um, to perhaps have some cost savings that would offset, you know, the cost of starting up a preschool. Um, but primarily there's the educational um, advantages of having those students here with um, peers who are not special education. So there there would be that um, sort of mix of peers for those students. Um, so that's kind of the the impetus for it. Um, at this point we have discussed including it as part of the budget, also pulling it out as a warrant article. Um, and we wanted

040to be very careful in the language. Um, it says here um that the board will give an update on adding a warrant article and we have not gotten to that point yet where that is a we are adding this warrant article, you will be voting on this warrant article. We have not gotten to that point in it. So, um, we wanted to be very careful about that wording and make sure there wasn't any confusion about that. Um B and I don't know if did you want to say anything else at this point about >> there was um just from the budget committee meeting on October 29th I think that same language it was I think it was um the committee has decided to add the article and there was no decision. So I think we

041want to be clear on that especially because I think that the there's a request to um you know Robin and your team to really outline more clear details. here's the vision, here's the financial projections, and this is what it would really cost over time with including that savings that you're mentioning, Kelly, of we're we're doing a lot already with our prek kids that have these special needs in the community already. So, if we bring them in house, there's some savings, but there's additional costs. And so, we we really want to be clear as to what that is. Um and I think there was also a discussion just to be super clear for everybody here that the um the request coming out of the budget committee meeting was potentially developing two separate visions and two separate

042financial plans. one where the vision is a really about we believe we can serve our special education students our prek 3 four year olds better and they will have a better outcome if we have it inhouse which is a different vision different cost structure different approach than we believe in universal prek and that's what we want to build towards and we're just going to start with this set of kids because we know that we're already serving them in the community and so both of those have implications I think for the aforementioned music room potentially space, >> but one obviously the latter has a much bigger implication for space at large. And so we want to be super clear before we even bring it to the board for a discussion about voting yesto warrant article. We

043want to be more clear about those pieces. And so I know that that I'm not saying anything you don't know, Robin, but this [laughter] is something that I know your team is working towards. Um, so >> yeah, >> and I can give you a little update on what's happening with that red and Cindy presented a one-year plan what it could potentially look like for next year for the 2627 school year, but we asked them to look longer term at a three to five year plan and they're working on projecting out for those longer term years and really thinking about how we would build a program. We have had that experience at our Norwich elementary school at the Marian Cross School over the past three years. We've implemented a preschool program there and that's grown exponentially

044over time. So that's something that we are working on at this time and hopefully that would be ready over the next few weeks. >> And some of those outstanding questions are um would there be a cost to families? What would that cost structure look like? Um, how would you choose who gets access to this presumably lower cost option, right? I don't think it's going to be zero cost, though that's, you know, we've talked about it. Um, but it would certainly likely be lower cost perhaps a sliding scale depending on income. Um, so these are all things that I know they are trying to flush out over, you know, a one year, three year, five year um, time frame. And that's basic. Um, and I think you know that no one I will just state this

045right off the bat. No one wants to get rid of the music or displace and [laughter] obviously we're not going to let that happen. So um I think it's just a question of the how and where and when and why and we would welcome your participation in that part of the conversation. Obviously um I will say my three children have been products of the wonderful strings program here. So while trying not for they all stop the strings unfortunately the music program very um instrumental >> in their in their for Kelly [laughter] in their education in the district. So um we have tremendous gratitude for everything that you guys do. >> Yeah. Just want to add that we too valued the instrumental music program school and the one thing the one idea we thought of was

046using this room differently but it was mixed by both of the folks because it was not a proper space. So we are keeping them included when we think of oh what about this space what about this space um so so we want to make sure we are a team doing this we want prek and we want a strong instrumental music program here at the race school. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, >> Lauren, the budget committee probably remembers that this is not a this is not a new conversation. We actually talk about this every year in some capacity is where can we have an assured assigned space for just these folks because I feel like we get to the end of every year there's always this like so are we going to be in the same space?

047Do you know if we're going to be here? And that's not a place that we want anybody to be in. And that has been the conversation for a number of years. So while we're thinking about prek, we're also, you know, using this as an opportunity to really think strategically about a space that is for music so that you don't have to worry on an annual basis. Where are you going to end up? [laughter] >> This was the first year I think I just looked at that budget proposal and went, "Oh, there's a budget for this. It says it's in 704 and there's no budget place for me to be." Uh, and I went, "Oh, I need to go to the >> media." [laughter] So, >> thank you for coming to the meeting. >> You're always

048welcome to meet. Um, yeah, and please know that is definitely part of the conversation. Um, and I a final thought on the on the Warren article piece of it. This is something as a board that we we go back and forth on. We did it with the middle school athletics as well. um when we're putting forth a new initiative like this um we believe in these initiatives and so we you know that that's the one side of it where it's like let's put it in the budget so that it is memorialized in the budget and it's part of it and it's part of our programming and that is definitely where our thought process is. At the same time, um it's nice to have the public's backing and stamp of approval on something that is this

049big and this much of a shift um in creating new programming. So, um that's kind of the the things we're weighing as we think about how to handle this. So, >> anything else on preschool at this point? Okay. Um and we do have upcoming budget meetings, um but I don't have the dates for right now. Do you have those things? >> Okay. Um, thank you. Sorry. >> Good. I got the whole print. >> Oh, wait. I might have it. [laughter] I do have it. No, I don't have it. Just kidding. >> Uh, Thursday, November 20th >> is the next one. >> The next one. >> Um, that is a I the kind of larger discussion. Um, I think I expect some other folks from the town to be present as well. And so I I

050think like that will be focused on a larger budget. I don't know how much detail we're actually going to get into. Warren articles at that time. >> Yeah. I think we'll just continue to talk about this and look at the projections and yeah, >> we do have some potential language for war article. So, >> but um we always welcome participation from the public. If you can't be there and you want to send me an email about concerns, that is uh absolutely appreciated as well. We'll also have morning coffee too coming up in December that will >> you can't make that too much. >> Uh so November 20th um uh at 5:30 in the Hanover High School library will be both the Dresden and the Handover Budget Committee big meeting. Then bright and early next morning,

051in case you're a morning person, not an evening person, um you can chitchat with Princip Roy or uh Superintendent Steiner or hopefully a couple of us. Well, I know I'll definitely be there. Um and hopefully get a couple of the board members there uh just in a more informal setting. It'll actually be in this that space right over there. But that is the kind of the coffee chat. It's intended to be much more informal and just get folks another entry point into the budget cycle, the budget conversations. Uh things look good. Oh, sorry. 7:30 to 8:30 it is dropping. There will be a brief 5 minute kind of presentationish thing around 7:45. But that's all right. Any other questions on the preschool program at this point? acknowledging that we didn't really give a lot of

052specifics, but they're coming. They're coming. All right, moving on to business requiring discussion. So, we have a lot of documents now. [laughter] I did not see earlier. So, um [laughter] uh I may hand this off um first to Renee and then I'll let Teresa kind of share what was added here. Wonderful. Thank you. Um so I think well you know um I'm the chair of the um handover school district's budget committee um being helped graciously by chair McConnell. [laughter] But I wanted to make sure that um our fellow board members had us insight into the things that came out of the last conversation. And so one of the attachments um for tonight is the bottom right one says handover budget committee update- November 12th. So I wrote down um for our references just kind of

053the key things that came out of the conversation um not for me to glance over which I often do. I'm very sorry about this. I want to commend Principal Roy and all the staff for doing a lot of the work around the zerobased budgeting approach to enable that conversation to happen. So I didn't want to forget to thank you guys. Um, and so the the kind of the questions that came out of that really were more around other bigger line items that we wanted to make sure we had clarity on. Um, and we asked uh Teresa to bring more information tonight um and for us to have a more in-depth discussion than we might have because of our November 20th bigger discussion next week. So, we had kind of these outstanding bullet points around benefits,

054um the ESOL teacher, uh some FTE clarification, sbatical, uh the SAU assessment, which is now actually more hot off the press given that we had our conversation on Monday. Um there's some questions about maintenance, which may or may not fall into some of the stuff, but I know I just saw something uploaded from which is great. Um then there's a side of the house around revenues. So, we know budgets are both expenditures and revenues. we didn't get a chance to really dig into the revenues component. So, we wanted to call that out as a thing we wanted to investigate a little bit more. Um, and then the last two bullet points for the board's consideration here are just reminding us a little bit about the things that, you know, big ticket items we talked about

055like prek or just a reminder that in the budget guidelines document, we were aiming for 3 to 4% budget increase and that was really grounded in the fact that we were expecting 18% increase in benefits costs for staff. And so with the overall kind of a zerobased budgeting approach, I know that principal Roy and her staff had aimed for a flat um year-over-year to enable that kind of 18% to be weighed in um and end us at a 3 to 4% 3 to 4% overall increase. That's all context, I think, >> for a lot of the stuff that we see from Teresa, which so hopefully um Yes. So, I literally went down the list of easy just list answering anything else. Um, unfortunately, the first thing I'm going to bring up the bad news um

056which is you'll see the attachments. Um yesterday we got school care uh insurance rates and so we thought 18% was going to be safe and unfortunately it's coming at 26% increase. So that has really really hit the bottom line. >> Um and you guys did a great job with the budget and then we insurance kind of blew it out of the water. Um so that is the bad news. Um because we don't have a way around that. We don't have a way to reduce that in any manner. Um so it's already been I I took that's what I was doing is updating yesterday the um all the benefit numbers and everything else. that way the document that's uploaded the budget detail report that already includes that change in there. Um so when you look at

057the bottom line part of that almost six well not almost but $680,000 of that bottom line is just the medical insurance increases. Um, any questions on that? >> Yeah, please go ahead. >> Can you just tell me where where you are? I mean, I'm looking at school care and I was looking at yours. Can you just tell me where the are you looking now at the changes in budget? >> I thank you. >> Upload a document. Um, >> which detail report? The one she was just referring to. >> Thank you. >> I'm catching up. There's a lot of documents. >> Yeah, I know. Didn't know which one I needed to be in. Sorry, Teresa. >> That's okay. Where is the the figure about I I think that page top of page two is where we

058see the medical insurance increase. Um I'm I will just say I'm far more comfortable seeing this percentage when we had done the last version of it. I think there was like a 2% or something like that and and I went uhuh that's not going to be the right placeholder. So, >> this is a much I mean, not a not good news, but I I feel like this is a more reliable number right now. So, all right. You want to keep going? >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Tara has a hand up. >> Oh, Terra. Yes, Tara. Go ahead. Thank you. I was just going to ask about the cover letter from the school care uh rate, you know, statement mentions an exhibit B that was also enclosed along with that cover letter which also appeared um

059from at least their narrative to review the um status quo renewal as well as some lower cost coverage options. And I would like to ask what that entails. >> Those partial plans are not available to us at this moment, but those plans will be the 2.0's that they're referring to are going to be plans that um that we won't have a choice like the teacher contracts that are in place right now have to continue on the plan that they're on. as we sunset those contracts and renegotiate um will automatically those plans be moved to the 2.0 version that's listed on that document. So there there won't be a choice either for somebody to say well I just want to stay over here. So they will be moving to those plans. >> Remind me when that

060renegotiation is. Are we in year? So we're that'll be year three and then >> contract ends at the end of 2017. So, can someone can is this the um is this the insurance um the contract that had to be switched unexpectedly to a different insurer or was that >> Dresden would that be a separate non the non union staff um and the um service staff were on the other contract where NHIT is and we had to find a new insurance. >> Can can someone just for our edification for the board because this is such a big impact to the budget, can we get a copy of the contract language related to the insurance coverage that we negotiated so that we are all fully informed of what's entailed with our the district's obligation. So, we should

061have that somewhere already. I I am curious if it's perhaps hiding in the board docs simply switch over, which keeps seeming to snag me. So, um Tara, we'll make sure that that's visible for board members. Thank you. That's a good question. >> All right. Um Teresa, do you want to keep going down your list here? >> Oh, sorry, Rene. Um I want to add a caveat. Uh so we understand that the district is on the hook for because of negotiations the way the contract is we are absorbing this $600,000 plus cost >> in this year. This year >> this is for next year. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Sorry about to interrupt your thought. You were on a Okay. Keep going. >> So you were on a roll. Go. >> This is [laughter]

062No. Can I do too late? Um, no. Okay. So, when we are planning for our So, the $600,000 cost, this is good clarification, uh, is something we're absorbing this particular school year. >> Uhhuh. >> 25 26 or sorry, >> it is. >> Yes. >> No. What's in here right now is not. It's the 264,000 that the assessment that was put on us so they could rebuild the reserves. >> Yeah. >> That is assessed this year. >> That's this this particular >> this particular year. >> Um they just just this week sent us a notice that said we're going to because of everything with all the schools, they're going to let us pay over time. So we pay one/3 by December 31st and we get to pay the other two3 over the next six months and

063we jumped on that and signed that right away. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um stuff so not having to work at especially >> I mean it's a big chunk year but it's was even bigger and it >> um so yeah so that but this particular rate does not go into effect until July 1, >> right? For the year we're budgeting. >> So it's for the year we're budget. Okay. >> And in the year we're budgeting for >> Mhm. >> is the year is the last year of our teacher contract. Correct. >> Correct. >> So there is a year where we are absorbing the cost and >> we've made that decision without consulting the teachers to say hey we're going to do this for you but just want to talk about how that's going to impact negotiations

064later on. like is I would imagine this >> that year will overlap, >> right? So we will conversations will be starting as we're absorbing this additional cost. Yes. >> I guess my concern >> is just that the I I would want to make sure that the the teachers are aware this is a thing that is happening and then that is a it's not just expected that we will continue to absorb a massive >> I mean I think it's happening across all school districts in New Hampshire. So I would be shocked if most of our teachers live in New Hampshire and are going to have to pay this for their children somewhere else, right? Wherever whatever districts they live in. So >> it behooves us to do much more work next year though with a negotiation

065and actually discuss it has to be part of the conversation. >> Okay. I don't want it to be >> like now just moving on and then negotiations are totally separate thing. It's like they are actually >> Okay. Yep. >> Thank you. I think with every as we all move forward the insurance um I mean and nationwide and everything else it doesn't matter where it's becoming a very big deal >> and it's getting bigger and bigger and it's getting where it's not >> it's not sustainable the rate it's going >> so yeah so it's definitely I think that >> negotiations is going to you know be part of conversations and and and even going out looking at other plans isn't even feasible because if we're already incurring a 26% increase because of our claims and other

066things, then going to another company who's going to do ask us for our documentation or do the research or they're going to say, "Oh, you're high risk." >> So, >> the alternative right now we're not finding them >> helpful. >> Yeah. >> I But I know that. So I I want to kind of move us along down this list. Um especially since this is one at this point that we can't do anything about. Um that said, I think part of the conversation and the budget committee is going to continue these conversations. Um costs have a cost, right? And so I think it to that extent, this is part of our conversation. Here's here's a thing we can't this is a fixed cost that we can't change at this point. Where else where are we going

067to get that money? Right? if cost goes up, either we raise more money from taxpayers or we make choices elsewhere. And so that I think that is definitely part of the conversation at this point. So >> um yeah, >> and I have to say like we've had lots of conversations about desire for more communication and what that communication looks like. This to me speaks to I mean we look at how many people are in a meeting and this is >> thanks for talking about the budget year next year. Um >> and and what the knowledge is going to be in the town and I think again what is the messaging for our community? Um we have we know that this is a non >> this is a customer event next year, right? So how do

068we communicate that better and more clearly? >> What are you doing November 21st? That's part of that's >> all right. I'm gonna move us down the list a little more. Do you want to keep going? >> So, going further with the documentation now that I bad news. Um, and And point two that I'm leading into is that obviously the overall budget we're targeting 3 to 4%. And um with this I we have to decrease the budget by 620,000 just to get um to that. Um >> okay. I thought you were done with the bad news. >> That's keep going. >> Number three. >> Yeah. the revenues at this time um they're not available anything else um tax rate for the town hasn't been such um just literally this afternoon the dr reached out so I've

069been waiting for them when they're ready after they approved everything and they finally approved the deal and all that fully approved on the dr note sorry they had already done all that the dr setting and stuff like that so um and then the New Hampshire ed our adequacy aid should be released hopefully we'll get the documentation around November 14th. So that's that and then um I just want to note that on the budget detail report um any to date any track advancements that we had received are they're already included in the budget also. >> Oh great. So, and I think they have um till December 1st, I think, if I'm not mistaken to um so they could potentially be somebody else or something yet. But >> um you asked about the ESOL teacher. >> Um

070>> position retiring that has been taken out of the budget removed. The point 25 social worker has been added into there. I put it in the guidance section just um there. And then um I created the line probably it may show may not show on the report as a zero but due to the um house bill 771 I had to create those accounts for open enrollment um the staff FTE comparison report I uploaded that so you'll see that documentation um retiring wage and benefits medical insurance all that that's all in um been included in there Um, we had three three retirees on our list and early the sobatical has been put in there, but that could be some silver lining because if handover to my knowledge will not be having one so we'll at least

071get to take that back out that you know has that been determined yet the >> SDC meets next week. We were supposed to meet this past week, but we pushed it off to get paperwork done. But you would know if >> Nobody from >> No, there's no Ray person. So >> that's what I told. So >> So I can go back and take Maybe that'll help them. >> You'll have to put it in for Dresden probably. >> It's in there. >> Yeah, we put it in. >> Now we only have to decrease by 500,000. >> Let's see. um the SAU assessment amount of 731160 based on um the approval of the budget the other night. I know this doesn't make sense, but it's actually lower than what was in there as a placeholder. And the

072reason for that was because the original amount that was used as the placeholder was based on the um SAU budget staying status quo, but we were tasked with cutting the budget from the SAU. So by reducing that budget and countering it actually came in so that just like Neil asked the other the other night, why is the number lower? didn't seem to make sense because we're counteracting with reducing the budget for the SAU at the same time. >> But does that include the revenue shortfall that we had discussed? Does >> Okay. >> Then the last thing was just um the question on the uh custodial. So the reason why there's kind of like two sections is one is the 2600 which is your normal um your normal maintenance of the building and everything else where

073custodial and your u maintenance repairs your utilities um things like that but then we have here these districts we have 4600 codes. Um those 4600s are used for the primary purpose of the bigger fish sort of like in line with the capital improvement plans things like that. Um one of the things on our list that is in there that I fear now may end up out is um that under the 4600 there was $320,000 worth of um projects. one involving a possible mobile classroom um and then um cabinetry replacement and all that. So that was all put in the budget to be done this during the school year, >> mobile classroom as in like a mobile >> like a modular modular. Yeah. Okay. Is that was that related to a place for music or prek?

074Yes, it was related to that whole reaction just but uh >> you know also proposed that as a solution though in previous years the idea of the classroom because of the amazing >> noise that gets created there as well. So wherever we push >> they all [laughter] >> our last budget meeting was during that and >> wonderful >> glorious consideration. What do you think about where to place that? >> Can I ask a question about that? >> You may. Um, is a modular classroom something that would be like 24-hour climate control? Like cuz we store so many interest in instruments in there >> and that unfortunately would make that it can't just be like a trailer, right? >> So I don't know how it works. >> Definitely make sure it would have to be um

075no different than if you were in the building. >> Okay. >> This is how long I've been on the board. When I first joined the board, we had those out there and then we got rid of them because we didn't need them anymore. >> My daughter went to school in one of the second or third grade. >> Yes. >> I have another clarifying question convers that point that from previous I you mentioned the quarter of a social worker and I know we've seen that proposal twice and that was presented to the board. Is that a quarter? Because the idea is it's being picked up by other because that was not the building share. >> In fact, >> the quarter is a placeholder and it would be actually usage dependent. Exactly. So it would be act

076like chewed up depending on actual usage, but Rhett felt very comfortable that the quarter was a reasonable estimate for handover's portion position. All right, Teresa, thank you for this. This is super super helpful. Um, are there questions from the board at this point? I'll say one thing while you guys citate. Um, [laughter] I so just so that anyone listening knows um, we are still is still in development. I hope that was clear in the conversation. Um, as Renee mentioned, there is an upcoming meeting on November 20th. Um, so any thoughts or questions or concerns um between now and then are more than welcome. We want as much participation before we get to the final stages of budgeting as possible. Um so um this is not not a done deal. Um there are as you can

077tell increases um at the SAU assessment. There are increases due to um just contracted teacher uh negotiated increases. um there are increases in there um due to insurance. So as we look at sort of the whole picture um you know whether it's the SAU um salary increases which are not negotiated but were recommended by um a lengthy comp compensation study that was done by the board that was requested by the board. Um, so that's something that we have been committed to um because we think it's the right um compensation level for our SAU staff who do so much for us. Um so you know all of these things are pieces of the puzzle and as we come to voters um you know we're trying to weigh all this and balance all this and I think

078those are kind of the final discussions that we're going to have where is their give and take um yeah and new initiatives are going to be tough in this year and I think that's true. So, >> yeah. >> Are all of the documents that I can see visible to the public as well? >> I believe so. I hope. >> I just want to make sure. >> Yeah. >> Before you say something. >> No, no, no. I just want to encourage people >> to look at them and become familiar with them. They're big numbers. There are lots of commas. >> Um, >> no. I always assume that they're just public, so I should double check that. >> Yeah, they are. >> Okay. I I thought they were, but you mean like should they be public yet?

079>> Well, I just assume that they will automatically be, but I guess I never double check that much >> that that's the default. >> Uh I just want to say like a couple things. One, Teresa, I'm really grateful for the biggest increases and biggest decreases documents. Um, I haven't had a chance to dive into all of these because of the timing of when >> they came online and my availability, but um, I think that is one of the driving forces be behind our desire to have those what we're calling morning brew and budget reviews. Um, because there's a lot happening and there's potentially big decisions to be made or to not be made and have rationale for that. um if we decide to do prek or not, it is behooen behind I don't know us

080[laughter] >> okay >> to communicate that out. Um and I think um members of the public will recognize like the budget book that we send out which is still going to be a thing I think um however uh there's a lot that I think we can communicate out in words um and face to face as well. So that's one attempt for those. Whereas the I want to be super clear the November 20th uh 5:30m meeting is much more in in detail about very large and small numbers in lines and tiny font. And so um there's kind of a different approach um in need that's being served by those two meetings. [clears throat] >> Any other questions? Yes, please go ahead. Yeah, >> I'm just introduce yourself. I'm sorry. >> I'm live here in Hanover and

081schooler at one school. Um, the children who are currently receiving prek or children with special education needs, where are they currently being? >> That's a good question. Um, >> Robin, you want to go? Go for it. >> They are scattered across school in handover around in the area. pushing in support to >> Yes. So that's part of the complication, >> right? Is we are sending out support to various preschools in the area. >> I think it may be a mix in some years, I don't know about this year, where some of them depending on their level of needs do come here for services. Um if it's a one-hour speech um therapy or something like that, they might come here for that. Um but it depends on the year and the need and we contract with

082local preschools. Yeah. >> Yeah. Please. >> Regarding the ESL teacher, I heard you say that you eliminated that position. Is that >> needed? Yeah. Need based >> and what would happen if students came but we aren't anticipating next year who had that need? So, I believe if it was last year or two years ago, we actually added FTEES to meet that need. Um, I will go ahead and state that that's not necessarily required by the state and so um you know, unfortunately we we want to do that and it's important to our community. Um, and so that was a something that we prioritized in that year. it is not to to my understanding required by the state um in the way that special education needs are required to be met by school districts. So yeah.

083All right. Any other questions on the budget at this point? >> I'm sure I've done Tara. >> Oh [laughter] okay. I'm not seeing Does Tara have questions? Anybody? >> I can't I can't see her. Okay. Um, if Tara does have a question, Tara can ask a question. >> Just do it. >> I'm all set. Thank you. >> Just making sure you're okay. >> All right. Yes. >> I do want to thank Teresa for all of her work on this. There was so much went into this and we were communicating yesterday about the changes with the health care that we just received. So she was trying to incorporate all of that into this information too. So a lot has gone into all of these documents. So >> yeah, >> appreciation for theres for that. >> Yeah,

084it really is like you know fixing the plane while it's flying, right? So like we really do appreciate it. Yeah. Well, and I just want to piggyback on that because many of you don't know that we had our SAU board meeting on Monday night where we were looking at that budget. And so I suspect that Teresa did not have a chance to honor veterans yesterday except in him passing. And so I'm really grateful and I think the whole community should be grateful for the incredible work you do to create not one, not two, >> not three, [laughter] but four very comprehensive school budgets all at the same time. >> And one is now checked off. [laughter] >> Yes. Down. Oh, good. Down to three. Down to three. All right. Um, let's move on to reading

085a policy. And I don't think we have any of our policy committee members here tonight, which is wild and unexpected. Um, so I will just point out, uh, do we have to move? I apologize. No, no, we are not, um, voting on any of these this evening. Is that right? >> Uh, we are. Okay. We are being asked to thank you guys for coming again beautiful music. Thank you. Um >> we are voting on the JJ unauthorized communication devices policy. >> Um so if uh anyone has concerns about those about that particular policy now would be a really good time to raise it. Um otherwise they are first readings of the other policies and so um unless someone wants to bring up a concern at this point with any of them or a question with

086any of them um I will just name them and then we may let our um policy committee members speak to it next time around. Um so let me just say there first though. So the use of automatic external defi defibrillators and my understanding there is that um the wording is being changed to encourage use per um guidance of you know the people who know more about this um that if you you see someone in cardiac distress and there's a defibrillator you should use it I think they're right on it >> the gist it talks to you it tells you what to do um and then the other one is student teaching and internships So Rene questions >> just wanted to clarify I think the first reading for this particular board but we have >> seen

087them where elsewhere wanted to make sure it was not >> Yep. >> Okay. >> All right. Any concerns about communication devices? We did talk about that the last meeting and you know we talked about how it's >> marginally less of an issue at this particular school as well which is good. is that Renee >> I I got an email from a member of the public thanking us um for that particular policy uh and specifically also calling out the social media aspect of it. I know a lot of it is based on what the state has requested of us. Um but I think the policy committee which I can't thank uh [clears throat] directly um did quite a bit of work to make sure that that actually fits the needs as best as it could. >>

088Um and so I wanted to communicate out to everybody that we did hear >> and I heard some positive reinforcement. to that. >> Great. >> And just in line with that, uh for those who don't know, present to not us, we know, but [clears throat] the high school council also sent students to participate in conversation about devices and to offer some feedback and it's been discussed a lot at the high school council meetings. >> Yeah, I did send out for a feedback on me. >> [laughter] >> um about this policy particularly to all the staff members in each of our schools just get a broad array of feedback and we did have great representation at the policy committee meetings on this particular policy. So I feel like we spent a significant amount of time developing

089it and we've gotten feedback from so many stakeholders that I feel like we're you know moving in the right direction. It's um Thank you, Lauren. Thanks, Robin. Lauren, >> I will add to that it is not just, you know, our direct community. I was at my own child's three-year wellch check doctor's visit. I actually ran into several doctors there had questions about how things are going and shared really um positive feedback. They were hearing from families that they serve and attend our schools, too. That's great. Take care. All right. >> [clears throat] >> If there are I lost my agenda. There we are. Um any other further questions about the policies. All right. Seeing none, I will take a motion. Dev, I move to approve items B through D by consent. Second from Carrie. Any

090discussion? All right. I will take a vote then. Starting with Carrie. >> Russell. Yes. Sivan, yes. Nelson. Yes. Tara. >> Puller. Yes. >> McConnell. Yes. Uh report of the chair. Thank you guys. Uh that [clears throat] was unanimous. Sorry. Moving right along. Uh report of the chair. Um thank you to all of the uh budget committees that are diligently working. Thank you to Teresa again. Um Robin, we're thrilled to have you back. Thank you, but also we were in excellent hands with Lauren. So, thank you Lauren for doing double duty. Um, we are grateful. Um, and I did just want to reannounce that we have the coffee coming up, coffee and discussion coming up on the 21st from 7:30 to 8:30. Please come for any amount of time that you are able to come. It

091can be 5 minutes. it can be the whole time. Um, we would love to have as many people there as possible to help spread the good word about our budgets. >> Yes. [laughter] And I think that's all I had. Yes. Do you want just on that? There are specific topics that we are thinking about those times and so you can also pick and choose your topic or just comment. >> And I think this one was in the ray of sunshine already, right? >> Yes. [clears throat] Okay. >> So, be on the lookout if you forget it'll be in the ray of sunshine. Um, yes. Go ahead. >> I'm not getting the ray of sunshines anymore. So, I don't think they're being posted to the board. >> I did get this month, which is interesting. >>

092Yeah. So, >> I this month might have been the first one I got it on this. I'm going to get a different one because I'm a parent, but >> I'm not getting has touched base with every principal in the district, gone into Bright Arrow, and said, "Make sure that you click this, this one, this one, and that one, and then you hit send." So all of the principles including our interim principles now do have instruction about how to do it. So everybody should be receiving them. >> I just realized that oh I'm not >> yeah if that's not happening please feel free to reach out to me or to Robin and we can pass that along to Karen and make sure that's happening but it should be it should have been remedied as of this

093month. >> And sometimes there is like at the beginning of the year we had a glitch with some of the list serves where like Carrie wasn't on the right list. So, there might be something more behind the scenes later. >> Yeah, I just didn't even think that. >> All right. >> Okay. Thank you everybody. Um, committee reports. Uh, yes, we'll start with Deb and then I know um that uh Renee has some nitty-gritty details for us as well. I just wanted to clarify, we it came up earlier, but the um staff development committee is meeting next Tuesday and we'll look at um any district wide or Dresden and Hanover um sbatical applications as well as any remaining [clears throat] um track requests because that'll be our last meeting before the December 1st deadline. Super. >>

094Stay tuned. >> All right. Thank you, >> Renee. Um, all right. So, uh, I'm skipping over budget. Maybe I think we did that. >> Okay. Just making sure you're not expecting anything. >> No, nothing else. >> Okay. Um, so, uh, for the Hovertown Capital Improvement Program Committee, um, there's we met. Wait, I wrote this down because I knew I was washed with a Okay. Um, so we last met in >> October 21. >> Um, so during that meeting, we had a conversation about a subset of all the big projects um that are for consideration. Um so I uploaded to the SIM leave um the FY2728 capital improvement projects list that it's kind of like got yellow and white lines and some blue things. That is the set of big ticket items that the town is

095considering for investment capital improvements that kind of thing. Um, as I continually remind myself, the uh capital improvement committee is about recommendations. It's not about yes, this is going to happen or not. And so our job is to gather and listen in on like what the conversations are and then say this makes sense or it doesn't. And things like the really big South Main West Wheelock um improvements that we were shown in April 9th last spring. Um uh those things have still not yet been discussed in detail, but the update I have for you tonight is one, they are now decoupled. Um so West Wheelock uh is in conversation. I know the town is now talking more directly with um Dartmouth because a lot of the benefits of that project are directly related to their

096improvement >> and new improvements that they have just announced. >> Yeah. So many things. So many things. So many things. So that's that. No, thank you. >> Um, so that's decoupled, but the the kind of the challenge that you're going to see in that kind of blue white yellow document is that they're still together as the second line item in FY27. >> So it's not yet been represented on this particular document. The second line in that though, the South Main Street Reconstruction um is something that the town is considering uh moving forward with. They have awarded the contract to Bowman, which is the other thing that is included as an attachment. It is important that I um shared that because there's a few places where the school board is actually explicitly called out as a

097stakeholder. um which I communicated that was a good thing that we are called out as a specific stakeholder. Um there's a couple areas that are still unclear though that I raised with the committee. One is that there's um for the South Main Street project, there's a stakeholder engagement section in that document where if you are I think maybe it's even a third one attached. Um >> if you're looking at dates clearly, October 22nd and October 29th were intended to be initial stakeholder engagement dates. The committee uh did not hear about those. We were not made aware of any engagements that occurred on those particular dates. Um and so there is followup to be done. Um we hear they happened and we didn't did not happen. >> Okay. >> So it's not that they happened and

098or didn't get out. It's that they have not happened. >> They did not happen. Okay. >> Um and I think I want to say I think the conversation was the intent is that they will happen. It's just a question of when. Um we raised the concern that uh if those have not yet happened and we are still we are still being told that we are on track um it seems like there's a disconnect that needs to be reconciled. Um so no answer there but as soon as I know about stakeholder engagement I will be communicating that out to everybody here so that you are aware also in section three or task three there's also section or that schoolboard has also called out there explicitly for engagement um I raised with the committee a question of

099if this is about collecting input on the direction of the work or if it is just about hey here's the financial options for the work, what did you think? And that's a different decision. Um, and so it seems important to get clarity on all of those pieces. And so that's that's what I've called out and that's what's on my mind. Um, I think that was all the stuff for the big pieces of work. It does seem like there's a lot of momentum in terms of moving forward with this afternoon work. uh even though the capital committee have yet to see documentation and weigh in on it yet that is slated for this coming meeting. So, if you are so inclined on November 21st, maybe right after coffee hour [laughter] and you're ready to go anybody,

100>> we've got those 12 hours. >> That'd be great. >> Uh for 10 to 11:30, we'll see you. But that is that is the meeting time where we are expecting information um from >> and that is the capital improvement planning committee. It is that >> um it occurs to me also as you just alluded to that the type of input that they're looking for might require different conversations slactions from us. >> Yes. >> And what kind of committee we need to scramble to put together or Right. Okay. >> All right. >> Depending if you want. >> Yes. You do at home a lot. [laughter] >> Well, yeah. It's interesting because the date of the document is September 3rd >> and it's now >> November 12th. And >> this makes me very uncomfortable that we have

101not heard anything about sitting down with them. Um, and I I will also say because I have said this to other people, but the this capital improvement committee does not post their agendas. They do not until the day of the meeting and they do not do a good job of alerting the public that they are going to meet and it is I think not being handled well. I am so >> owl. [laughter] >> So like two more miscellaneous things. Um one is directly on that. No. So we raised that and did um and there was other folks in the room that agreed that we need a better way to organize documents. That led to a conversation about well the school board uses this really great tool that is transparent and clear for organizing meetings. And

102I said that is lovely. I will ask about potentially a pilot but there is no way I can commit to anything at this point. I know nothing about how we got simply or what the town and us >> be clear. They wanted to piggy back on our simply right. >> They want to be able to Yes. Yes. >> How much can we charge you? >> I know. >> But I think it's approximately the same tax. >> I know it's like you got tax. >> I know >> that is a really important thing. I think there's um >> the there was also a comment of another committee being interested in it. I can't remember for the life of me what it was and I said let's slow down and put one conversation at a time. >>

103Yeah. Um, but that is that came up and so I'm I'm bringing it. Uh, >> I'm gonna pass that one right on down the table as a >> I mean I I could see I could see some benefits actually for a one-stop shop as long as it's not requiring manh hours from us that do not have. Teresa, do you have anything else going on? >> Yeah, [laughter] just shaking her head. Right. Um >> also on that note there were elections held and so uh I am a vice chair. >> Congratulations. Awesome. >> Thanks. Uh [laughter] >> with Ki as so I do think that it will improve. >> It will I'll be more knowledgeable >> which is >> you're already doing a great job. So there's a reason they made you vice chair and there's

104the reason that I could only cope. That'll that'll teach you to do a good job. Okay. [laughter] >> So, we'll see where they come. That's I think that is all of my miscellaneous things. All right. Thank you so much. Is it Do you have another question? >> I thought you were you were yawning. I thought you were pissed. [laughter] >> Very exciting. >> Um, yes. So, I I um I guess my only question for the board then on this is what does engagement with them on these questions look like? Do do you want to continue to spearhead that? Should that come from Robin to say, "Hey, we've heard you would like engagement from the school district. What form would you like that to take and when?" >> I'm ready to take notes. >> I love

105to not take on anything, but I'm also wary to a very busy and um >> important person who's taking on this thing. So I could my so my intent with all of this um just for transparency I did raise this with um the chair and and the co-chair vice chair whatever um to get their input on when stateful engagement things like that happen. Uh I have not followed up a recommendation to reach out to the town >> specifically on my questions. I could uh there have been other things that have been on my mind as of late. [laughter] >> Yes word stuff. Um, so I think if there's already conversations with the town and it makes sense to bring it in, I do feel like one messenger makes more sense. If there's not >> and

106this is already a venue that I have on November 21st, I can continue that venue. It just might be a slow >> and I have to that in my ready to fly. >> Okay. Super. All right. So at some some way between the two of you um someone will leaz with the town to make sure that we are in fact involved in these conversations and okay super thank you Renee thank you for all of that update um Tara is there anything from the finance committee that we need to know about at this point >> um I don't think so there was a very lengthy presentation by the town uh regarding their budgeting process which was fascinating But it just everything appeared to be in order. Um that's all that's that's about all of the messaging.

107Uh I think that that is required on that >> unless other people have specific questions then you know glad glad to talk about that. >> No that's great. I I know they will be at our meeting on the 20th. Um, so I suspect that's why we're not seeing them here tonight because they're they're gearing up for the 20th and and will give us um their thoughts and feedback there. So, thank you, Tara. Uh, anything else on committees. >> Okay, Robert. Well, quite a few things. Um, one that relates to what Renee was just discussing is I did meet with the Hanover town manager recently just to begin to open up conversations and communication with the town and I've already connected him with our technology department because we talked about some possible technology changes and cell

108phone service and things like that downtown. Um, some work with the college and how we might be a part of that. So those conversations are starting to happen and I would like for those to take place more frequently. So I'm planning on continuing with that. Um in terms of the coffee conversations, the first agenda item that we have for next week is based around budgeting and the strategic plan. And so we'll look at, you know, what parts of the strategic plan have come to light and how we're trying to fulfill the strategic plan also through our budget and through programs and all the other things that we're doing. Um, I've continued to be in the schools. I have my monthly meetings with principles plus, you know, my schedule of meetings to be here. We have

109our next leadership meeting coming up next week and in that leadership meeting we'll be looking at time on task in classrooms. So I'll be sending out information to staff members about that and our meeting I think next time maybe in this building. Got to take a look at that again. And um legislation I've been sending out updates to you just really as points of information for now. There are changes that are occurring, some big things happening, open enrollment, you know, that we've been talking about. We do have a meeting set up with other superintendants and with board chairs that will come about in December and I've sent information out about that as well. But a lot of this again, it's like a work in process every year. um you know we start the legislative session

110there are already hundreds of bills being proposed so it's going to be you know sort of a wait and see and we can prepare but we never know what is ultimately going to come out of the legislature one of the big things that's happening right now is the move toward SAU consolidation that committee was formed and now they've made recommendations that we may see start to bubble up in legis legislation. And again, we are in a bit of a unique situation with our interstate school district, so that may prevent us from, you know, having the same impacts that other school districts are seeing. But, you know, I'm just trying to keep up with all that. And I'll I'll forward that information to you if you think it's pertinent. And again, I know that it will

111change dramatically over the course of legislative session. and we'll get to the end of the session and they'll throw in House Bill two and there'll be some other random things that we haven't talked about. So, if you find that useful, I'm happy to continue that medication. But those are big things that I've been working on recently and I'm happy to answer any questions. I I noticed today that the um the chair of the education committee sold his house and resigned his seat. >> So that's >> it just happened today. He sold his home Monday. Um Glenn Cordelli. >> Wow. Goodbye Glenn. >> He's the one with >> a lot of interesting bills last week. >> I hadn't heard that. Oh, nice. >> But [laughter] his bills are still there. Oh, his bills are still there.

112>> All right. Well, thanks for that little >> tidbit settle that glimmer. >> Yeah, [laughter] little glimmer. >> Uh, all right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, any other questions for Robin? This yes, this isn't actually a question, but this morning from 8 to 9, a policy center at UNH had a program called um what's ahead for K12 public education in New Hampshire. And since I could go in our pajamas, I went um and I noticed that Nan was on the call and a couple other people. It was not a participation, but we got a lot of really good information. >> So, I'll share it. >> Thank you. I'll put it in a little blur. All right. Any other? Yeah. >> Just want to explicitly confirm since you have conversations with Rob. You feel

113good taking on the conversation about like assembly and stakeholder need >> or should I bring that? >> I mean you could talk about it at your meeting as well, but I will connect with him about >> I want simultaneously. Yeah. Great. >> Thank you. Love when it come to decisions. Okay. Um Lauren, let us continue in the spirit of good news. Okay. [laughter] Um similarly heard at Dresden, but just updating the handover board that um after our first round of very very sad grant funding, I am pleased to be able to say that we have also received a second round of allocations that increased our grant funding for both title one and title two. So, what that means for Title One is that we'll be able to um restore some of the positions that we

114weren't able to put in the original grant for the upcoming summer rising kindergartener camp. Um so, we'll be able to restore that to almost what it was last year. And then for title two, we'll be able to fund some additional professional learning and then working with Colleen and Nan to make sure that we make best use of that title 2 funding. That was a pretty significant increase from where else were. So that's really quite exciting. >> Um I gave you a quick update on where we are with the ELA committee and this is of course happening in parallel to all of our budget conversations. So we're moving forward as if this is going to be a hopeful reality for implementation next year. Um and ultimately our goal is that we would be coming to you

115um in December to give you a presentation of the recommendation after all of this two years of hard work that have been done to um implement to vote on and then hopefully implement a new English language arts program. Uh and then you know we'll see what the budget part of this is as well. But that has become more and more of a focus for our committee. Um, in our budget, as currently budgeted, we have $93,000, which would be the cost of the most expensive program should we choose to recommend that adoption. Um, so it could be as high as that or much lower and that would be part of the presentation that we would give the school board for approval of this curricular change in December. Um, always happy to answer questions about that offline

116and here online as well in person. um a little update about school safety. And then in in parallel to what Robin is doing with our principles, I've set up um meetings on a monthly basis and more if requested with our associate principles to provide support, coaching, and mentoring. And that has I've had a a meeting with two of our five so far, but I have several coming up in the next couple weeks before the break. Um and that is also just good for the soul. I'm having a really great time. um working with this cohort of folks and then also planning in the second half of the year uh perhaps instead of doing individual meetings to come together as a cohort because I'm starting to hear similar themes across the school and have a little

117professional learning community with our associate principles. Happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. And good job on the grants. >> We're rolling. Keep it up. It's the direction we like to go. Any [laughter] questions for Lauren? Okay, seeing none. Um, Teresa, anything else to share with us this evening? [laughter] >> Thank you again. Just want to give you an extra opportunity there. Um, I don't think we need a nonpublic unless any board members feel the need for a non-public. All right. So with that, um, any members of the public who would like to address the board at this point? >> I just want to say thank you to Teresa as well. That was pretty amazing. [laughter] So I, you know, the behind the scenes work that sometimes doesn't get lauded.

118And as someone who is very happy with my kids in the school district, I just really want to say thank you. Sounds like you're really burning them in like oil. So >> it's amazing. Thank you for that. >> Thank you. And thanks for sticking it out all the way to the end. Yeah. [laughter] Because the next step is joining the board. Just >> the slippery slope. >> All right. Um if any members of the board, [laughter] >> we want people to come. >> We'll just hand out business cards at the end. Um [laughter] if anyone has agenda items for the next meeting, please reach out to me. And with that, our next meeting is December 10th, so post Thanksgiving. Um and that will be our formal budget presentation um to this body. Um so with

119that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Deb, >> I move to adjourn the meeting at 8:46 p.m. Second from Renee, and we'll do a roll call vote. Russell, yes. Sullivan, yes. Nelson, yes. >> Yes. >> Thanks everybody. >> Thank you, J. >> Thank you. >> And I just want people to know now that we're over