001Okay. >> Okay. First items on our agenda. um agenda review. I actually um had two items that we're going to add to our agenda. Lauren, you're ready? I am. >> Okay. So, and you'll see there'll be a couple items in the document. So, one is we're going to add an agenda item for just a quick update and discussion on the Norwich finance committee just because there's been a few more discussions with the town on that that we can update people on and just at least get a quick review of or at least a thumbs up on the MOU. Second agenda item that we will talk about is um I just found out we just found out we notified that we need to start entering negotiations with our educational assistant contract that was a one-year contract.
002So we have to we should decide who's going to be on that immediately. So those will be the two items that we'll add to the agenda under items requiring discussion. If we refresh >> y Okay. Um any other items for the agenda? >> We'll move on. Is there any uh public comments? Can they address the board comments? >> Christy Mor [clears throat] and also teacher here. Um I am wondering about first actually I would like to address the fact that we have made great strides in our food service here at Marcos. Um I feel like we have a tremendous team of um both cafeteria staff, administration, community members and faculty that are starting to coales around uh food and food systems as a real important part of our climate action goals and also our curricular
003goals. Um and we are composting 100% of our school food waste which is tremendous. Um and we feel really good about all of those kinds of things. However, as we are composting 100% of our school food waste, it becomes clear how very much food waste we're producing. And um I'm looking to apply for uh a generous grant a grant through the USDA um that's between 100 and $500,000 to fund um food school farmtoschool programs. um things like infrastructure. U Miss Alicia has identified, you know, a walk-in cooler would be a really tremendous thing to have to be able to have more local procurement. Um things like ventilation and a lab space so that we could be able to cook more with kids and do taste testing. Um we do cook sometimes with kids and it's
004um there are limitations to what I can safely cook with kids in the classroom. Um, and so I'm asking for the board's support and what my next steps should be. That grant is due December 9th. And um, I just want to make sure that everyone's on the same page. This seems to be a priority in the community. Um, it feels like a priority to me. It feels very much in line with our climate action goals. A full third of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food systems. I think kids in the prek through six space don't have a tremendous amount of agency in being able to impact change um with regards to the climate and so it feels very much in the purview of somebody who's an environmental environmental experiential education coordinator to bring
005these things to uh to the poor and to help kids feel like they have some impact. Um so I just was wondering what my next steps were in terms of gathering information um generally having the support of the administration or board of the SAU and pursuing this grant and um how how to move forward but with a lot of gratitude for all work that's already been done. Um and a lot of pride I think in the strides we've made so far. Um but recognizing full on like we've got work to do. Um, and it only takes, you know, composting a full five gallon pale of hot dogs, for example, to really make that point drive home. Um, so, uh, just wanted to bring that to your attention that this opportunity is out there and and
006ask for your support of our next steps. >> Thank you. >> I guess we should discuss this then. Um, let's discuss this now. >> Yeah. So as far as so the first thing that I would do is I would ask if you have actually worked with our wonderful >> grant person here on this at all. >> I have not I did not >> I would suggest that your first step is to have a conversation with Lauren about this >> and we go from there. >> Okay. is from the chair perspective. I think uh it sounds like it's basically that you're asking to basically get our thumbs up to go for a grant. Obviously, we just put out our budget meeting. It's not going to impact the budget if you get a grant. Um I think
007at least what we've seen on the other side of the river and here right action plan is everything you described fits fully into that. So I can't imagine there's a lack of support that there's full support board to go after that and it's just a matter of yeah getting the grant done. So I'll speak on behalf of the board. I think you have our little support to go after that grant and hopefully you can get it and then smart as how you would write the grand >> I think I it feels very well aligned with the work that we're already doing and the fantastic can't just add anything overstepping this a little bit but if Lauren might you can obviously be in touch with any of the people over that did the climate action plan
008right because there's a group more so at the high school is actually doing the climate implementation plan right that's the other group that's over there I think what they're asking >> cabinet so if you're already in touch with them I mean this seems to me this would be the MCS ex like similar role of capit but here at MCS right >> so I think that The nature of CAP is that there's an implementation team, but Sean and I, I think, are the members of the implementation team at Marian Cross. Um, and I'm in regular communication, but the folks at my high school um and and who are involved in the the private action plan. >> So, first, does that give you what you need? >> I think so. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I've
009already sent an email to get a meeting on the books. >> All right. Can't wait. >> All right. Thank you very much for that work. It sounds like a great work. Um, any other public comments? >> Uh, we have three people joining us online, but I don't see any hands. Uh, that move on to our reports. We have PTA reports tonight. >> We do right here online. >> Hi everyone, my name is Mara Child. I've been last board meeting. and turn paper resident and also coach Taylor. Um the big update is continuing to move forward on establishing a nonprofit running into a few glitches in sense that it requires the work to be able to send the articles and bylaws reviewed and they haven't been collaps. So um I'm creatively finding people in the community
010that could direct us to legal expertise or provide some of it just to do a review. Um and during that process uh we consulted with someone at BLS from the law school who suggested we explore a physical sponsorship route which seems to be >> do you say physical or >> well okay so instead of actually setting up a nonprofit and thenelves they encouraged us get sponsoring which was worthwhile exploring I think but a halt on things then there's that process of now needing to identify potential business sponsors and reach out to them. So it's slowed down a little bit in the past week so that we can review and seriously consider whether or not sponsorship a choice alternative. So, we haven't made a final decision yet, but we'll likely continue to pursue the nonp just
011feels like it's going to take more time to find the fiscal sponsor and set it up than it is to just get a little bit more actually submit for the half to the state basis budget for this. Let's just try and find people that could help us pay for that. Hopefully, by the next meeting, I'll have a update on stats, but Great. Thank you for the work being done by um [clears throat] >> don't know if this is a crazy idea or not, but could the friends of Hannibal Norwich schools be the fiscal sponsor? I I I just they exist. They already support the schools. >> It feels like a good relation, you know, I don't know. There's existing relationships and it might cut through the red tape. So, >> it's not a crazy idea.
012Someone mentioned it to me. that can look at it. And I then had mentioned it to her and she said, "Yeah, that might be something, >> but it didn't sound like they already had that status to be able to set up to sort of have a sub account and run the money through." >> I have no idea. Yeah, but I appreciate >> um you know that's basically we had a couple good also celebration last uh last month and that's all kids love their jars and apple day just trying to bring a little joy um and teacher appreciate event coming up at the end of the month. Um and one other thing that's recently emerged just in the conversations and I had a professor but some parents expressed curiosity about how we might be able to
013use some more community relationship with upcoming stressors. people financially or food insecurity and not necessarily doing day fundraising events but trying to figure out ways that we come together help kids be a little bit more civic minded and recognizing that there's stress around that may or may not impact them directly but affect political leaning or anything we're very conscious of and so just wanted to bring that up meeting on that if we wanted to talk about some ideas a little bit more engaged. >> Perfect. Well, thank you very much for the update. All right. Um, no other reports. We'll move on to our next item which is our business requiring discussion. The first item up is the Roman projections. Teresa, do you want We just reviewed that file in the budget committee meeting. Maybe you
014want to fill that into this chair or I guess you should quickly flip it over to the symbol budget committee because that that's one of four files that's Norland file right >> really quickly just >> not the colors >> [clears throat] >> So, while we're doing that, just kick it off. You want you want me to do it, Teresa? Um, >> I can speak to it. >> Sure. >> So, this is obviously one of two files that we renewed tonight at the beginning of our budget meeting. both of this as well as TV projections. >> All right. So, it should be there. You see it's >> Oh, it's in ours. >> It's what you guys It's what we see every year. >> The cow work survival with what we're projecting for every grade we look
015through from this year. The sections. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um so anyhow the projection um this is the cohort survival method that has been used over the years and everything else. Um the the long spreadsheet shows like a it uses a 15-year average to help um to help determine like the movement of the students whether as a class size move from one grade to the next grade how they're moving um whether they're losing students gaining students on the average. Um this particular one is using a five-year average and looking forward and everything else to the year that school year. Um basically as the as as we follow but just follow the top line with the kindergarten um in the current year we've got 32 and as they move forward the projection is that
016when they move to first grade next year they' be like 35 and that is based on again a fiveyear average and looking at the others that typically we gain roughly about three students as they move forward to that grade. And then again as those first graders at that point move to the second year 2028 completing second grade the typically we um gain another student. So that's the concept behind the cohort. Um, kindergarten is based on a kid because there are no um because there aren't um you could do statistics and everything else and the birth records and things like that, but usually what we're doing is again going back and looking at historically how many prek or things that we had in class coming in. So we'll look at those also and kind of cons
017consistently um move those across this particular school year October 1st and our average to 326 um going forward again plus or minus students we look at dropping a little bit the next school year by about six students possibly but then turn around the next school year after that and potentially gaining 11. Um, and again going forward to the year 2031 sphere, we're looking being roughly around 323 again, which is pretty consistent about where we're at right now. >> Okay. Um and then the bottom section is just showing you that the actual student enrollment per grade um total 291 were 35 preK and then so we have a total like I said 321 students um and based on how many classes sections they call um based on how many we have currently um 19 and the
01823 A classes so we have 21 sections and the projection for next year is still we're using 21 sessions but moving um one or two of the grades around again based on class size and then a little more detail that we discussed in the budget keep here Sean is so right now if you were to add this up and actually I think that 2025 2026 is a little bit different than the actuals but there's there's There's 21 sections currently and next year there's projected to be 20 sections and the idea would be is we' be moving from one building sub to two building cells possible so the FTGS would stay the same that accurate all right Um, so I will add just a little bit more color from the budget meeting that we had just
019prior to this one. So if you actually look at the at the figures in here, if you look at the actual column, so 25 26 on that top bar, you'll see that grade six has got 53 kids in it. We're going to be losing those kids as they as we wave goodbye to them and they head over to the middle school, right? We're going to lose a very large class size and what comes in then at the K level is, you know, a smaller number. So it is possible, right, that our projection of 320 students for next year by the cohort survival model may be a little bit overstated from what we actually see. Um so I just want board members to keep that in mind as we go through the budgeting season. This 320
020number um might be a little high. Okay. was all that. >> I feel like I should know this, Garrett. Do we have a minimum or maximum of class size that we aim for? >> Such a great question and we have a policy on that. Um, >> and yes, so it is under policies. I'm not going to go off the top of my head, but yes, there absolutely is. And we we I think it might have been before you joined, we actually revised that policy >> to give us a little bit more flexibility um with regards to being able to make some of these decisions as needed >> without you know too many issues as far as we're just completely >> up in the class sizes. But we did increase the range a little bit and
021that that's why also when um when the folks from state come in like looking at where we stand up our class sizes are actually like in our guidance is actually larger than what the states recommending sometimes to some of the judges stuff. Yeah, I think well so the origin of my question is looking at potential class sizes over 26 27 there's a quite a range um from 12 up to 24 25. So I was just curious or and I think there there must be a typo. There's one that says zero which um for grade six that must be well 35 to I2 would be like 17, right? So um >> so those all fit in the guidelines. >> Okay. Um, and I mean Sean can speak to this, but part of the challenge is obviously
022it's just a math problem and we have this problem. We're just dealing with this in the budget and dealing with the public sometimes is, you know, when you're dealing with just two and three, when you go from three down to two, you're going from maybe 12 to like 20 where your mouth just doesn't work. And then, but that's why we tried to make the guidelines a little bit more flexible. Yeah. And then as Sean would say, it sometimes also comes down to a judgment call that he makes with regards to kids in class and the teachers teaching that class as far as what they can get. >> Okay. >> Not all students are >> right more support could be fewer kids but they have greater needs. Yeah. Additional. >> Thank you. But yes, when we
023get into the budget discussion, we're going to be very much looking at the class sizes and the TEES and Neil said, keeping an eye on that sixth grade class moving out and not and of course we're also dealing with the moving the building safely. And that's why that whole idea of having the second building sub, Greg, which is really just a constant that building to be here. >> Fun fact, I've been a building sub before in my life. It's fun. Not here. >> All right. Any other discussion on our questions on our enrollment projections? If not, we'll move on to our sbatical request. Who wants to present this? >> Um, my name is Sarah Risinger. denial but um I I feel like what I shared with you is fairly thorough but um for the general
024public we might not have had a chance to look through the attached document. I'm currently in the graduate program and part of the second year of that program is an internship which given my current role as a first grade teacher here at Maring Cross would be quite challenging to do both and so I'm requesting from the board in the community uh while we are paying soatical to work here under the mentorship of Tracy Martell who is a special educator here. That is all I have to say. No questions for me. I'm just as far as um handling this. [snorts] This is a decision to make a little time. Yeah. Might I make a recommendation to Yes. to the chair to the board. So, um uh as as Sarah noted, right, there is nothing in the
025existing negotiated uh labor contract with our uh teaching staff here that addresses. So, it's an item that's sort of un undecided. Um, but I do know from past experience that this is frequently part of a negotiated labor contract, the use of a the use or the allotment of a sbatical. Um, given that we are currently in negotiation with our teachers union, I would like the opportunity to make sure that we discuss it with them um before the board entertains making a decision on it outside of that that that structure. So I understand how this would work too. Again, just looking at our budget be a full-time paid position and then we'd have to replace we'd have to add another FTE, right, to pay while you're gone. Well, while I was looking at the projections for
026next year, this is where the buildings look brought for the projections for second or first first grade or I should say the same two sections which is not the rest of the presentation that was given just barely. >> Right? So those two sections would stay, but then there's another section the first graders going into second grade is moving from two sections to three. So in theory, we're listening. Uh, does any of our members have questions for Sarah about the actual bus that's going to be happening? What do you think? I I appreciate the proposal. It was really well done. Um, as we try to make so in the Neiel's point, it's not clear to me what decision we can or can't make, but like what's your timeline? When do you have decide? Well, um, in
027my for both when I was looking at this, it was it's was the timeline for for you all was to set November 1st, but apparently that's our address. They have they're tell us where we do not. So, it was a little but my timeline um I need to have this completed by May of next 2027. >> Got it. All right. So, we are not You're going forward. >> I'm moving forward. >> Year one is manageable. >> I'm doing year one and I'm just giving myself plenty of time to work out the kings of what you're doing and and asking for your support as well. >> Right. Thank you. That's very helpful. >> Although I will say that I was slightly exhausted reading the first sentence of your second paragraph that you can balance full-time balance
028lectures, Saturday sessions, and online discussions. So congratulations. [laughter] >> I just want to note that. >> No, it's a lot. And and to think about right now I'm teaching >> and taking course work and then to think about adding that other layer >> internship the internship it seems unsustainable. So we should >> a question not for Sarah. >> Yes. And if it's not appropriate, you can tell me to table it. I guess what is the precedent of any for these kind of requests in the Norwich district and that could be a question for you Sean or for my board members? >> Yeah, I would say there is the first sobatical request that I've seen since and I've been here since 2009. There was one year, this doesn't count as a sbatical, but um what had
029happened was there was a teaching here who I think we were going to have to decrease staff by one the teacher um used it I think as an opportunity to do something else but there I wouldn't necessarily call it a satical but then rejoined us the following year situation Um and I think that we had a gap back and look at the details but I think that there was some arrangement where you know we provided space for them about that it was a one year >> that they were I believe >> they were teaching in Japan I believe that's my recollection at the time. So um but that was obviously that was not a paid situation similar to what we're here you're asking us to consider tonight. But Gina to answer your question there is
030a clear policy for Dresden um for the high school and middle school people for a so it might be a good reference. Wait to be clear it's not a policy it's part of the collective bargaining right >> with that >> there's a procedure >> yeah there's a procedure that they follow so but not in our not not over here y >> yes I'm just again just thinking real time obviously we want to support you as much as we can on this I think we'll um you know have a discussion about it obviously as we said we're in the midst of our negotiation as Well, maybe I as well maybe just said I haven't been on the board now. This is my fourth year of this which is why you can see there's a little bit
031of confusion as far as financial and then obviously the bigger thing is is budget in fact because right now every FT like counts right. So, I guess maybe I would also ask what Neil just said as far as even that. I know probably not ideal, but if we were to do something else creative like create, you know, keep a position open or something like that while you might did this. Um, again, I'm not saying you're not discussing our options open. >> Yeah, I I can be happy to discuss. I'm not expecting an answer or anything but maybe that you know who knows like kind of as you just heard from the discussions we have to budget stuff too as far as what we're think >> I've been a board member school board for four years
032my children that school so I understand the perspective I did take that into consider >> absolutely all right thank you very question. Okay, thanks again. Um, our next item is the Norwich Finance Committee. Um, what I want to do is just talk about that for mostly more of an update. Um, I have included a few documents that are here. I'll just go through the four documents because these these are kind of what have been surfaced over the past couple months as this is coming. Just to remind everyone how this came to a bit of head. So the select board as you may recall had appointed a norance committee and advised us that they appointed the committee. Um the committee at the time was unclear what their charge were and they had reached out to us.
033Um at which point as some of you may recall we actually had anou of the select board back in 2020 which is what the second document for cash is about this it's called the NFCO 1062020 and then the third document attached is called the north finance committee charge. So those two those two documents were approved back when Tom Cannon was the chair and I it was one of my first years as a board member. We had approved that. It went over to the site board and never really got implemented. Mar's finest committee never got formed. Um, as you can see there, most of that originalou had a lot of language about the fact that it was a joint, right? So, it was basically talking about the fact that the select board would appoint it and
034then how you know that we sorry that the committee would be jointly appointed. Um and then it talks about in the charge how you know the March finance committee would review both the school budget as well as the town budget um and provide uh certain information and advice along the way. Um again they reached out to us this year advised us that reformed. Um what happened then was we ended up having a convers I end up having a conversation with Mary L the chair. They given the Norwich finance committee kind of their own charge where they're giving them some special projects to work on. Um which leaves us basically with a Norwich finance committee that is basically just working with us on our own budgets. They're not really going to be reviewing town budgets. is
035just going to be Norwich budgets. Um, sorry, school budgets. So, long-winded way of saying is they had crafted thisou back to us, which you can see is the fourth document attached. It's called the memorandum of understanding. Not getting the whole thing, but it's the word document and there's a markup in there. And what that was is we had they they had drafted that for us basically. So the way this has kind of turned out is is the Norwich sorry the Norwich town the select the select board has appointed this finance committee um and we have I guess tacitly agreed to at least interview the members and make sure that you know we'll notify the select board if there's any issues with them. Um and then basically they will then join with the Hannover Finance Committee
036to become the Dresden finance committee which it seems that seems to be the real focus of the town and this select is to form this Norwich finance committee really for the purpose of being able to form the Dresden finance committee. That makes sense. Um anyways what we did is we went back with a markup of this or we you know a while back and added a bit of the charge to what is now 3.4. Um I have made another couple edits to what they had provided to us. It was originally just 0.1 2 with the red line included. 3 did not exist. And then we added 0 4 which basically took some of the basic charge items from our original charge and entered it into this because the selector was not going to be using
037the original charge document either. Um and kind of gave them at least a task of how they would work and what they would do. um that you can read by letters B, B and C. Um and then we also they had written in F the original four which is now five. That really came from my recommendation and talking to Mary Plate and saying that, you know, it's important given everything that's on Teresa's plate to make sure that, you know, we're all working with information Teresa provides and we certainly don't want another committee um going to Teresa independently and asking for all sorts of analysis that we're not even to. So, we want to kind of keep that there. I think in general at least from the chair's perspective I don't have a problem with the
038north finance committee I think it could be very helpful um it can have a lot of positives um with regards to helping us review and giving us thoughts um so this is where we're at as far as theou goes Neil had suggested that we remove this section that we had put here which was based actually they have written this which was approved nor science committee members will be appointed to membership to the Dresden finance committee just because the Dresden finance committee my understanding is is they will form their own committee and appoint their own members which may be some or all of two committees >> wait one moment on that >> and then which is why I added number three which basically comes from that language actually gets lifted right from um I believe the
039that comes right from our our um our doctrine for the agreement basically for our Dresden agreement. That language is exactly what it says. It says the North Fest may join the town of Canar finance committee form the Dresden finance committee. Um anyways, that's where we were at the MOU. And then the other issue is is I've since been contacted because if you were paying attention if anyone was paying attention to the last select board meeting at end it sounds like there are now six members on the Norwich finance committee and it seems to be there's quite a bit of concern as far as why there are seven members on the finance committee and there's only six members of the Norwich finance committee and how that's all going to work out. I personally have never thought
040there's been tissue because in a day there are seven members of Dresden and five members of the north which is why this five actually seem to make a lot of sense and I never really envisioned and you know I know another thing that you know the Dresden finance committee I can't imagine is going to be the full 75 I think that they would create their own committee again this is just an advisory committee anyways um but trying to get a quorum of 13 people from both sides of the river to even have a meeting seems like a long shot. Um, I guess my recommendation would be is that if the Norwich finance committee wants to be six members, that's fine. At the end of the day, it's not really, we don't really care what the
041Dresden Finance Committee looks like, right? The Nor Finance Committ Finance Committee are going to form the Dresden Finance Committee when they decide to meet. Um, I think that's one question. And then two, we've had some questions because this has been perverted a bit because now we're in a situation where the select board has basically appointed a board that is now really with the sole purpose of overseeing the tabulated school budgets and yet we're not involved in appointing this. So if anyone has strong opinions on that, we should probably discuss that now because we previously agreed that you know they could appoint we would at least meet with them and let them know if we had any issues. To that end I did put the fourth document in which is actually came from Kim from across
042the river on the HFC constitution. So my understanding is is that is how the Hannah refinance committee is formed. And this you see there basically that will be a group of seven I think and it is basically appointed sorry uh sorry I was a second I just opened up again. So it shall consist of seven members. Um, one of which is the Hanover School Board and one of which is from Hanover Select Board. Um, and it says, I'm sorry, right there. New members at Lars should be appointed jointly by the moderators of the Hannover school district and the town of Hanover. So again, I think we have to remember that what they do on the other side of the river is by definition going to be different what we do here. We are not going
043to have our moderators appointing this board. Um you can see here they also list the duties which I did keep in mind. We were putting items one through four on our is just to try to have a little bit of consistency between the two. They go further and saying there's going to be an summary that they're requiring. They're going to present at the annual district meetings which again it seemed like for the andor for the Norwich finance committee maybe more of an advisory role a little less public facing. So that's a long-winded way of giving everyone the overview of where we are. I guess the question is is reading theou that we have in here as redlinined. Do we have any comments or issues with that? Oh, I want to start with Neil because Neil
044had his hand raised right off the bat. >> I do have an issue with this. I I think this would be become way more complicated than it ever should have been in the first place. >> Um I am not in favor of this most recent. Um uh without getting into too much of the details, I believe that the correct next steps forwards is for this committee to be dissolved, for us to return to the original agreement from a few years back where both bodies get to jointly appoint members to the committee and we move forward from there. I guess asking that question as far as the fact that the current committee is up and running, would they just dissolve it and we'll see people reapply and that could happen in a matter of minutes. This
045does not need to be a long drawn out process. It can happen rather quickly because we've obviously got bodies that are interested in serving in this capacity. I believe the thing that's gone wrong here is the appointment processing. So just re so reverting back to the originalou. Now the problem is with that I guess is that the originalou I bring that out for a minute. Sorry back to this. The reason that that is going to be difficult there. So I guess the original is okay. the original charge I'm just reading the MOU under the under the opices of the fact that the if you read the original charge right it's going to provide independent advice to the select board and school board on the annual town and school budgets so what they've done is I've
046taken these tasks in the charge and that's what's in our current we kind of brought that into theou and we have crossed out everything related to the town because the town has decided to not have this nor financing committee relief budgets or anything like that. They are giving oneoff tests. So it's >> but theou as drafted the originalou I think >> could still work because it talks about it's just based the numbers and the terms of how the vacancies have worked. So here's what I would say is um I believe that a healthy finance committee is good for this community. I believe that that finance committee should have perview over both the select board budget and the schoolboard budget. I believe additionally because of the articles of agreement from Dresden that that body should come
047together but the Norwich finance committee comes together with the handover finance committed form of the dre that is all established in the article disagreement of the dress compact. There's nothing the liquidity needs to redo there. If the select board so chooses that they would not like to have a finance committee overview their items, that is their choice. If the select board believes there shouldn't be a finance committee at all involved with their operations, that is also their choice. If that is their position, then I think that we go and look at the scenario where the school board appoints a planning committee and they can have the charge that we've previously discussed in the morning and take it forward there. The point that we are at right now is the select board is asking us to
048agree to anou that is a modification from the original document that we signed back in 2020. And I it's just too compromising. It's asking us to agree to things. Basically, I feel what has happened here is the select board may have made a mistake in how they approach this and they're asking us just to agree to some minor modifications to cover up that mistake. I feel that's inappropriate at this moment in time and we should just I would dissolve the existing finance committee. If the select board really agrees that a finance committee is a right thing and it's good for overview of their work then let's agree to the originalou or the original with some slight modifications and move forward from there. And then if we agree to the originalou that doesn't really talk about
049duties, right? That was this that was the charge. It was two documents. We could that be fleshed out. We can handle that. So we have our own charge that would basically just be a norish sorry school board charge for the norish lines. >> Yes, that would be accepted. Okay. Do I have any? I'm just one board. >> This is I'm just trying to understand because theou that we got again theou that's in the word dock that came from the select board and no joke I'm talking the most recentou that the one that says the school board can interview these people and raise any issues if we have any. I think that thing needs to go away. >> Right. And again >> I am not I have zero interest in signing that. >> Okay. So that
050in the history there everyone knows that came from the select board. It actually was missing point number four entirely because they basically giving them like what's the se what's this finance commission going to do. Right. Right. They didn't even know what they're so that's why we kind of melded in the MLU with these charge items. Now obviously that's become more complicated is now they're changing the membership and >> okay okay so that's Neil's view Michael you had a comment my view is consistent with me um as a general matter I I struggle to understand an appointed body body appointed by another elected body overseeing us um but it's my job to abide by the rules Um, for example, while I don't agree with the design, uh, I've found people on the Herord Finance Committee to
051be thoughtful and, you know, I understand their role. Here, my problem perhaps like this is the select board is deciding unilaterally to redefine what this committee does and our relationship to. And I don't understand why if they want to strengthen the financial oversight of the town, they can't just reconstitute it with a charge similar to the handover finance committees where they where they offer advice on the financial condition of both the town and the slate they could fix this if they so choose very quickly and and they don't want to. I don't understand that and I don't think they should dictate terms or they can come run for a spot school. So where that's going to just to go for this because I've had the conversation with the the select board chair is is that
052they are not going to they have already decided not to give a charge or duties with regards to oversight of the town budgets. They're saying that they're Okay. I I don't understand why it's good for the goose but not the gander. Um there are plenty of things that that committee could for example look into the pricing and bridge repairs or myriad. >> They're giving them tax. So I don't know what their tax. So they might say the bridge repairs. >> I guess what I don't understand Mr. chairman please. So they're going to they've made that decision and I think you're faithfully conveying that they're not going to move on that then okay then we can also as a board decide not to sign this. So what happens then two strong votes not to sign >>
053I'm not saying either >> that has all the details as far as how it's selected. It's jointly selected. that's jointly appointed and that then we would provide them with a charge that is specific to the school board in the school budget and the town can give them their own charge. Right? That's the difference than that's the different what's going on over in Hover whereas if you look at that Hover occupant, it clearly is a joint document. So why it's jointly everything in there says town of Hanover and school and town of Hover or town school board and town so town budget and town school budget. Yep. Um yes. So I think what you could do is you could respond back to the select board and say A the Norwich school board is keenly interested in
054having a Norwich finance committee. B we are opposed to your current draft of theou. C we believe theou that dates back to whatever it was 2020 or 2018 is a very good starting point. Uh D, if you would like to update the tasks in thatou that the finance committee should engage in as it um opines on select course activity, you are free to do that in that and then once we come to an agreement both parties can sign that and we can reconstitute a new Norwich finance committee that may ironically look very similar in personnel to the current Norwich Finance Committee. But will we properly constitute be clear that was only a suggestion. Okay. Uh this is not an item requiring action tonight. I think do I have a head not a recommendation? Okay. Um,
055Neil, the only question I would have then is is that just to be clear, everything you're saying I agree with, but just the first implementing this, there really is no charge or any duties of the Norwich finance committee in the previously constituted ML >> as it pertains to the school budget, as it pertains to any budget, then I think this body would [clears throat] the it would be in our best interest to maybe include something and said about that which is kind of what we had done before and appointment we had we had copied in the duties >> we could jar >> I think the original idea had an that's why I blowed it up the two >> we could certainly pull that language into the yes >> and what I did before I said
056actually we did pull that language into the original ML which is I of the four of the at least with regards to those are the exact three or four items from the original tasks the original finance committee charge it says NFC has three primary tasks provide independent advice to the select board and school board cross select board kept by the school board on the annual town and school budgets we crossed out town and kept it with school budgets during the select board and school boards we crossed out select board and kept the school board's process review and budget part of right we those are the three we kept AB and C from our original charge that's I mean if you look at the original says um you know shall have a charge which is attached
057correct >> and identified as exhibit A I was part of the correct >> we want to pull it in the language I would >> we could actually take the original charge I guess and just wipe out everything related to the town budget just make it specific to the school. Yeah. >> Or we can bring in or we could just put in the language that is pertinent to us. >> Hand it over to the select board and ask them to take care of their own matters in there and we'll get together and we'll agree on the final. >> All right Tim sounds good. Um, the other thing actually while we're talking about it, does anyone know how the Dresden Finance Committee is formed as far as diversity? Because that does seem to be causing a lot
058of consternation with the north currently appointed >> uh Yes. And for my fellow board colleagues, if you want to go into Simlin and you go to policies, Dresden policies, right, and you want to take a look at, I believe it's in the introduction section, you will find the articles of agreement. In the articles of agreement, you want to go down to item number L5. There it says there is hereby established the Dresden Finance Committee. So, it already exists. It exists. um as a result of the articles of agreement being created. There exists currently a Dresden Finance Committee, right? It just has been operational without the Norwich piece of it. So, it already exists in statute, right? And it consists of the members of the Hanover Finance Committee and the Norwitch Finance Committee. And there's a
059period at the end of that sentence. It doesn't say that anybody has to appoint members to the committee or anything like that. Those two groups come together to form the Dresden Finance Committee. So when I'm asked by the Norwich finance committee why the handover finance committee has seven members and we are only looking to five what's the answer the answer is the number of committee members that end up on the norance committee are all members of the finance committee >> and the question is is why do they get seven why are we not going to appoint seven to our put over to them says five right the original. So five I we can talk about this um offline um but I believe the original provided for varying numbers of varying numbers of membership on that
060committee. What it did was specify what is a quorum given the number of members that are on the committee. So I thought that it went up to possibly seven. Um, you have to understand in the con the context at the moment in time that that was drafted was this town had a very hard time getting people to commit to serving on that committee. So, we made the membership numbers very, you know, low because we were worried and concerned that we wish we would get enough people that were willing to do this job. Right? If we're now in a different era and and the landscape is different and we want to entertain setting a specific number of community members, >> we can do that. >> So someone that has been unfortunately looking at this exhaustively, the
061original says that the sorry I just read it. Okay. the Norwich finance commission of a charge which is attached and identified as exhibit A by which the Norwich is permitted to appoint up to five members who would then be joined by the town of Hannah finance committee to form the Dresden finance committee. However, if you read the charge, it says that there may be five to seven members. So the mu charge actually >> so it set an upper and lower limit. I person's personal uh uh thoughts on this is I I am less concerned with the number of members on the committee >> and how that compares with the number in handover than I am that the committee actually exists. >> So we could just say that >> it is advisory in nature. >> Yeah.
062that now that advis I understand they need to take votes on that committee but um you know one would argue that when Norwich is responsible for onethird of the dresden budget that maybe those number might ought not be >> but I well that's why when I origin again said before but when I originally talked to Carrie who used to be on this board and is now over on the select board he actually was the same point that five seven seems to sense because it theoretically never addressed nor I was a little bit confused myself because the original charge the original NYU did say five the original charge then said it actually said comprise us three to seven so I think that's every time too also state of confusion >> I think there was originally five
063over there appointed then they just added one more six so at least existing interest of people and I think we can figure out okay. All right, moving on. Assuming there's no other discussion uh on to our next item that needs discussion tonight. So, I was sent an email by the support staff uh negotiations committee advising us that there is need for another round of negotiations coming up. Um, so we do need to talk tonight as far as who would like to serve on that committee. Um, I did ask Ryan to send me our infamous >> chart chart and in our Google sheet. The two people that are on that are Gina and Neil. I think Neil has his plate overly full at the moment because he's on the Dresden budget, Norwich budget and the negotiations
064for teachers which means that another one of us um should help us. So I think there's two questions. Who wants to be on that committee? And then two, should we also utilize Mark in this? And then how how do we bring in someone who has some experience on committee to negotiate this because this one is a little different, but some discussion on that. >> I did support staff for Dresden last round. Happy to do it here. Okay. Um, but that said, my only experience with negotiations is one round um with Dresden, but it was support staff and I'm happy to I'm happy to help and I I feel like I'm yeah, I'm good for time. So, I can relieve me of that just with the fact that like you're getting someone with zero experience and
065someone with one round of experience. So, having Mark or someone um available, I would recommend it. any discussion on this side. >> Yeah, I mean I will just offer I I am more than happy to work with my board colleagues in a consulting fashion on this just to help you. I do think that having um uh somebody like a legal assistance somebody who's familiar with the process >> um would be a big help. >> Gina, would you like your your text on this for you? She's ready. [laughter] >> And I would love to have that marked. >> And just one other thought, um Amy helped with the dress in negotiations last time or never I forget what the official name of it was um and was super helpful. So I if Mark can't um having
066the Amy the HR person for the SAU, she she did a really good job of getting us the information we needed in a timely manner and being available. So I would go Mark first, but we have we have strong bench >> to [clears throat] Yeah, just to be clear, Amy is assisting with the teacher negotiations. >> Oh, she is. Okay. >> So I think well my point being um I think they're really anticipating that they will be called up to assist with support steps. >> Okay. So at least from the board perspective, we'll officially have Lisa and Gina. Neil will be there in a consultant basis and we'll have the email also aware of what's going on as well and then Teresa you'll be copying on these along with um Robin then I'll reach out
067if I can reach out to Mark >> so just um I'm clear responsibilities like who schedules the meetings is that like mine at least responsibility or somebody else does that and they'll invite us you shook your head great >> Neil uh so uh I have in handling that um that aspect of negotiations is the for the teachers. >> Okay. >> So um it's not saying you have to do it the same way. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um but yes, I have been handling scheduling the meetings um arranging for the work sessions um and making sure that the right people are involved. >> Okay. >> So I think either you or Lisa might be a point well there's I I received the email. I I pulled it up here from the individual that has to
068basically do the um they want to basically set the timeline and kind of set the rules set aside the first meeting. So, what I'll do is I'll kind of introduce what I'll do is I'll email forward that to both of you include her and just say K and Lisa are on the committee and they will take the next step to set that rule meeting and that's kind of how >> I I will say last time on the other side of the river Amy handled the scheduling of the weeks. So, I don't know why but but that's just it was it was neither. It was Ben, Marcela and I and we just showed up and we were told to show up. So, Do the game's okay as soon as >> I will work with my board
069just to wrap this up in the right direction. Right. Okay. On to business or planning action. We got We can approve everything here. We've got A through B. We've got the expenditures, the minutes October 1st, the minutes from October 27th and I move we approve items B3. Those in favor? >> I'm sorry. Second, Lisa. All those in favor? >> All right, that is unanimous. >> Okay. Um, on to reports. there. I've actually put the supporting documents here just in case we couldn't upload them quickly enough. Satisfy anymore. [laughter] >> I will say we remember one update from the report from the chair is is as we just discussed at the beginning of meeting, we did have our budget meeting. Um if you looked on, if everyone wants to go back and look at the budget
070meeting, you'll see that there are documents as far as the current budget. The current status of coal budget is actually projecting an increase of six and a half percent. Obviously that it is higher than our guidelines. Um at the next meeting we will what we're going to do is we talk to Sean. I think we at the next meeting um we will hopefully at our next schoolboard meeting have some of the yield numbers and at least have an early read on what that increase might mean for tax rate. Um, we are also looking that by the way does not include kind of three small I call them staffing considerations with regards to the technology um a small potential added to technology a small additional salary versus administration needs and then may or may not reflect
071uh an FTE increase or decrease depending on the prek which Neil talked about earlier. Um, so anyways, that's where we stand there. I think at this point I would just ask the board to look at that budget before our next board meeting because at some point depending theres is also going to go back based on our budget meeting and really button down making sure all of the FTEES and that folks are showing us the budget increases are blown through properly to make sure there's no errors and everything's typed. Um but I think at our next budget meeting or sorry next board meeting December in the Bominated agenda there budget review and I do think that the board at that point would probably be asked to answer Sean's question is is what do you want to
072do? Um I will say there's one other item there that you will see which is a textbook request and that is for our new ELA program adoption. um that is at the higher end but I think the board's also going to have to provide some recommendations perhaps um and Laura reminded me that it will require approval because this is a changing in curriculum so we will get the review on exactly what's being done so there'll be a lot more information when that comes and then I'll also lastly remind everybody that this budget in what showing right now does not include the negotiated settlement which is what we're going on right now. So that is only going to go likely higher once we have the impact of whatever comes out with the teachers on track which
073is currently in active negotiations. >> Neil, did I miss anything in that update? Nope. forward. >> I would just add additionally you talked about the division of a district by social worker being >> that's not >> that's why we also asked Teresa just to make sure that we really have a a button down FT sheet as well as what we just saw. offer the student counts just so we can really get ourselves buttoned down on the number of sections, the number of students and the number of attend. Were you signaling that there'll be additional FTE ads between now and December? No. discussion to add like a point for some technology needs which we've discussed before and we'll have a broader discussion about that um been mentioned but I don't think we discussed the correct and
074then on when you say 600% you just mean expenditures are 600% correct so we haven't got to the part of the conversation where discount But is that the tax rate for our citizens? >> Nothing to do with his tax rate and frankly we don't know our revenues either. So some of that increase is because of some special ed which obviously will be offset somewhat by the revenues. Correct. But what we have done as obviously given budget guidance that is a you know relatively basic had a flat budget with how we negotiated settlement we're at 69% right now. So does the committee my last question has the committee talked about any scenario planning where if the negotiated settlement goes up 5%. then we might have to take other actions to try to get the budget to
075fit in a certain lane. Is has that discussion come up at all or not? Although that's what we've done in the past is once we get into kind of December canary time frame, right? We've given Sean sometimes the direction to contingency plan if things go really severely numbers that we start getting from the state. Right. Thank you. Because as Neil Ry pointed out, until we notice some of the numbers from the state, we really have to know what the what the tax rate impact that this increase has been paid. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Just a a quick reminder for those of you who are into the nitty-gritty of the budget process. Um the SAU budget committee met before the Norwich budget committee met today and on Monday we are hopefully um we'll be approving at
076least for now what the SAU budget will be which will then be allocated to all the districts. So there will be a number um hopefully a little more firm on Monday than it is now. Um but it also hasn't at this point in time it hasn't increased and it does not look like there's a way to get out of that. So just letting you know >> I'm sorry the social worker that's just here at MCS or is that >> it's divided among the schools? >> So it's coming through the allocation of the budget. >> Yeah. >> No individual for instance budget that we just where's that which which >> it was put under guidance. >> It's under guidance. Okay. Okay. >> Fun. >> Yeah. [laughter] Discussions. This is a pen meeting, isn't it? >> Let's
077go back to class. [laughter] >> It's already about six seven. >> Sorry. I teach an important action that you need to take before you look fresh. Okay. >> The wrong report in there. If you refresh, you'll have to pay for the tours. I'm not going to read enrollment because we've done that. You'll note this nice picture of our superintendent comes over often. Give you a nice feelood message. >> Thank you. >> Um I wanted to highlight the safety committee at MCS. We have a really great group this year that's dedicated above and beyond. We recently attended the governor's school safety conference and a number of our team went in fact as the end of the week youth here at the pool and one of the things that we discovered is that we were required by
078the state of Vermont to to do a yearly behavioral threat assessment training which is great. We signed up to do that in my office over a virtual meeting later this month. But I just want to give a shout out because we have a great team who was done a great job of coordinating all of our drills, looking at all of our protocols work working with our SA partners to make sure that we have similar systems across all of our schools to work with. I put a little information about student attendance. Um, I'm really proud of the MCS, at least this year, because in comparison to the end of last year, we've really stepped up getting kids to school. Um, particularly in the tardy area, even though when the bell rings, there is another steady stream
079of friends that come through the door. It is so much better than past years. families read our communications and look at our requests and they see that this one time does help everyone in case it's staff. There was a request to put some information about staff attendance. So I did that. Give a little bit of an overview. This information is broken down. There's a little table between non-union staffs and full staff and teacher staff. Tells you how many employees are in each category. And the first third column is the percent of available paid off that each of those categories has. So myself as a non-union employee of my contract 10.61% 6% is paid the vacation before sick time for personal days. We can see the percentage of our staff and teacher staff and then the
080last column is of that what percentage has been used to date. So the non-un staff used 2.25% all seven of us together support staff 6.01% 01% and the profession stat 6.63% 63% but you trend that out for the rest of the year and percent looking at that I've done a little bit to just think about why my mornings are stressful if staffing are struggling and on average we have about 6.5 people out there's a little mathematical error in the next time she may pick up. On average, we have four full day staff out and about 2.5 partial day staff. We range this year from two staff out to 19 absences. That's total full day absences and part day absences. Our substitute coverage rate is 12.5%. 87 about 7% of our absences require internal coverage if
081they weren't fail. I just wanted to give a little information about how that works. So when coverage cannot be sent to work students still comelessly it's hard to distribute them. We have some services that just don't happen. So special educator interventionist or ELLL versus of our speech teachers are out those services if sometimes we reassign support staff. So we have to classroom. So we take I take staff a support staff person in my classroom then that results in whatever supports students work with that support person do not have space sometimes classroom coverage required multiple adults. So if there's a this we have one enough adults. So we took a little bit of interventionist time, a little bit of a support person's time and then one time this year out of necessity we have combined three
082sections of a grade two sections and that seems to be the least. We rely on one building who was excellent Mr. Street Fry to the either a full absence every day or the equivalent of that. And there is some metadata here is the best solution to the substitute. He knows our kids. He knows the behavior policies across the school. He knows the classrooms function. And on a good day, he can check in ahead of time with a teacher and see what what their plan is and review them. I think best for kids in the current environment requires daily adjustments and limits our flexibility to respond. There are days where we don't cover people outside or we have a few cafeteria issues. Our next steps we're going to continue to create in place that is necessary
083maximize our building substitute which we're great at and maintain communication with HR. So we have worked with Amy to think of some ways substitutes. She's come to events to set up a table, see if there's people interested in subbing, interested more information. She's also advertised on public lists, newspapers, make sure that our school pieces current and it does bring in people today. Jess is on the sub committee that seven people. The issue is of those seven people, none of them are. So there is an issue when you proc there's plenty of opportunity on the other side. So you see in the budget I requested a second building sub to help our capacity. We can continue to expand our efforts to recruit subs. There has been when I talk with staff work times a request to
084look at the sub day to see enough to come in. So it's one thing to see if you want to increase that. we did with the nurse subs. But I thought it was interesting looking at this data that the data of absences to look at the amount of entitled time the amount that's being used isn't excessive when you look at numbers. I think the fact that there people to cover those positions makes it hard. So on any given day when we have six or seven separate people that do things in life, we don't have six or seven people. So my hope would be as we move forward that we think about connecting the the number of entitled space that people have and what that looks like operating. The businesses have plans where they have more
085employees to cover those pieces. we used to have substitutes that don't seem to to exist in the numbers that they once did. So just some interesting information to look at. >> Maybe question you thought and I suspect the gig economy has impacted substitutes where people can do things like do um like you know people you can hire someone to do your errands for you or whatever like through door dash and other things like that right. But you said that that there were seven people who would be interested but they'd rather work in New Hampshire because have we ever considered as a board or school district grossing up the number so it's on par with handover so we're not competing with that is one question >> I believe we pay the state amount it's just when
086the taxes are taken out. >> Yeah. So like would we increase the pay so that the net is the same as handover would be one question because it's probably dollars right but if it's enough of an incentive and that would be one question the other idea I have is I think um getting a call you know um on a Tuesday and a Friday to do work is hard if someone's trying to put work together. Have we ever considered saying hey we want you to be a sub. we know we're going to need you for like a week at a time or four weeks at a time. And that's almost get you're guaranteeing someone's going to make four weeks of pay. It's not necessarily a full building sub, but we're giving based on what you're saying
087here is we're having one sub for every six and a half to seven needs in an average day. So, it sounds to me we would have the abil like we would use the person. It's not like we're we would do you know what I'm saying? because I think there's some more creative ways we potentially as a board or can be supporting having more people in the building without spending crazy money but maybe being motivated. I don't know. >> I'll add that in some of our other district schools um knowing that on a daily basis there's going to be somewhere between three and nine daily absences that to satisfy that a vacancy is posted. is not necessarily associated with a particular job that the vacancy is is posted and it's posted every day for a number
088of days or weeks. People can sign up one of those days, all of those days, and then the morning of the person gets assigned so they know that they're coming in, they're ready to go that morning. They come in and they um are assigned that morning. That can be tricky if they have a preference for older kids or younger kids or this type or that type of position, but it's a a potential >> Yeah. attempt at a step forward >> and it's consistent. I can come to the same school four weeks in a row and it gets to your point of you have more familiarity with the sub and the children and also the person coming into the school more familiarity with >> um the school where I work does that they like you sign
089up to be a sub and then the the administrative student who's in charge of subs places people and that's helpful because she kind of know she gets to know the subs and she knows what the needs in the school are. And so, you know, instead of letting the person choose, she can say, you know, we really could use your skill set in the math class today instead of the library even though, you know, not giving them a chance to be in the library. Like, they just kind of get sent to the math class. And I don't know, it just it it it gives the person who's trying to fill those sub spots more power. >> They'll give it a try. shy and giving you kudos with sticking with the theme of a meeting that feels
090just right for the first week's clock. So start um but I want to make sure I'm reading your chart correctly. Um, you know, when I think of the contract, I think people have 15 days of paid leave, four days of PTO for service business, bereavement lead. And so I think in those second two columns about dates like what what do you that's percentage of what I want to make sure that if I'm comparing those to days, right? >> A little complicated because different categories. So the the non-UN one is hardest because I work 260 days some people that category work 175. So that one is harder. The support staff were 173 days. So that's 13.32% 13.32% of 73 days. The changing staff of 185 days. So the 15.22 is 15.22% of >> So you're saying
091hey out of 27 potential days that people have used half them is 40% of them so far. No, we have not we and ourselves type. Um, so the non section on average seven of us have 2.25% of our dates for behavior. >> It's not the percent of the available. I think you I had the same. Yeah, percent. >> It's not it's not a percentage of the third column. It's the percent of the total. >> Yeah, because it kind of I thought it was the third column too and then ask another way. The teacher MCS is maybe the easier one. So basically they have they basically they 15% of their time is PTO and they've used seven. So they've used half of their time so far. Is that correct? >> No, they use 6.6% of their
092time. Right. So they basically take no data. >> They get 6.63% of that of their but they've got but then they've got so they still have 83% of their available days to take off. That means that the springtime is going to be under health review because everyone's going to be taken off. They've only taken off 6% so far. 83% of the rest of the years. >> Or if we look at the way it's trending, we could we could say if this is the way we will go between now and here and we will keep steady that question. No, I just I I think the message being conveyed is that absenteeism is a problem in part because we don't have substitutes. I'm looking at the data set and I just I don't think it's an easily
093accessible one, but I'm not going to slow us down just because I don't grasp the numerator and denominator. And to be honest, we should get better data that can be she has >> Yeah. >> So I also try to be I have to assume there's at least one person in this town who looks at the website and then looks at the materials without the contacts. They they just simply don't have or don't want to spend three four hours looking at this. And I just, you know, I if I were a van looking at this table, I I would struggle to understand. I'm sorry, but I struggle to understand it. So anyways, slow down for me. And I think the last question I um is okay. So we're talking kind of four full day, two and
094a half partial day equivalents. I Let me just think about this. So I we have 21 sessions which technically is 21 teachers and we basically have 28 I think kind of regular ed teachers that includes our math specialists and other then we have actually about 56 total. So that includes everybody from we have special ed janitors. So when we're talking average absences of six and a half, does that include everyone from like secretary to you to Greg to art teacher to music teacher to our classroom teachers or is this more the regular ed? All right. Okay. Any other questions for Sean on that one? All right, we got actually looking for your acronym. Let me put it right here. Your C direct. I think that's actually Sean would say CIA. But [laughter] um yeah, so
095my my report is posted here for you. just continuing to uh work on grants and as of like 5:47 this evening I finally after months of waiting received approval for their consolidated application. So that is specifics around title one title two um funding um so we can move forward with some things that have been off for a while which is very exciting. Um and then uh just highlighting that is part of title two funding. Um the math coach here just returned from what I hear was a very inspiring intensive instructional coaching institute. Um and I'll be meeting with him to hear more about that. But he noted that um he's learned a lot. He looks forward to presenting to staff here and just being a further support to staff and students. Um and we've budgeted
096for another cross person to attend through grant funding in the spring um if somebody is interested in doing that. Uh, and then we have a very exciting update for our SRSA funding. We've moved from planning to action with our tabletop game club. Um, so you'll see more information in that on that in Sean's weekly updates, but um, the community has been notified and it's on. Uh, gave a brief update here about ELA committee um, and curriculum review. You heard that tied into the budget conversations today. I would just note that those will uh continue to evolve with the hopes that we would be coming um if we have a recommendation for this board as well as the handover board as we've engaged in this work together that we'd be coming to the December meeting with
097a proposal for curricular change and details about that for both boards um to be able to think about and process and potentially approve uh information about district and school safety planning. again highlighting what Sean did as well. Attendance at the governor's school safety conference. Um and then I'll just end by saying that the school makes a mean panini. So [laughter] part of trying to be visible in schools um had the opportunity to deliver some lunches on parent teacher conference day. It's just really great and I would encourage this board in the future to participate on that because not only do you get to connect, you know, with folks around the school, but you may even get a bonus panini or whatever's on the menu. Um, and then I will also say that I've set up
098monthly meetings, at least monthly meetings with all of our associate principles um to continue supporting the coaching and mentoring um of our leadership team here. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Lauren? Thank you. It's good to hear. >> So, thank you for that. >> Yes. >> All right. That concludes our Oh, sorry, Teresa. >> Teresa, >> let's try. >> Um I I just It's pretty short. is very short. This night is just briefly talking about transitions in the office. They're still um moving tasks around so that they're they're appropriately assigned to we should be doing them and everything else. Um the assistant VA is working uh with the auditors and everything else regarding the FI25 audits. Um that's been underway since September. um budgeting obviously become was the swing was working with everybody
099and human resource um I think China alluded to it that um they're trying to get out and get into the schools also at times because it's really hard for some of the staff to actually get to the SAU given the schedule. So, they've been trying to make a presence um and help out. Um their transportation has been pretty quiet, relatively um fun little for the gas leak and um they they responded very quickly and all seemed to go smoothly the outcomes they did. um maintenance custodia. um still been meeting with um meeting with Tony and Matt quite often and yesterday on um basically our maintenance plan and everything else for schools themselves and also we're still actively working facilities committees um the facility team um and everything else in the principal and schools model trying
100to make sure that we fill over with plane and then asked his food service and has another task that has been reassigned over to um the assistant VA to to kind of hit up to see how the program was running because although the schools run the program's individual um there's certain levels of processes and procedures and things that haven't been consistent. You could be a parent, have three kids in three different schools. rules were different and so we're trying to rail that back in. Um and the limit over here should be the same limit at other schools. All schools not not there. So that's um too much for >> regarding the uh sorry regarding the maintenance uh items. I would also that there is a separate maintenance budget that puts to the actual budget for
101125,000 that was in the two file that's the current project. Okay. Um that concludes ouration report and we'll put our regular view name. Um, we do have a need for executive session. Um, at this point, we'll move into executive session. So, there's nothing else coming out of that. There we go. Um, military after it. Um, I will make a motion to move into executive session. This requires a two-step motion under VSA 1381. I'll make the first motion. I will move to uh move into executive session uh due to the fact that premature public knowledge regarding the teachers contract or place the board at a disadvantage because the foring our negotiating strategy. Um do I have a second Neil? All those in favor I a second motion I can make as well. I move that enter
102into executive session for the purpose of discussion discussing the teachers contract under title one section 13A1 second Gina in favor >> I thank you all for attending uh again it's there will be nothing coming I mean five days after the session so there topics any >> thanks for being here child. Okay, back down. >> Yeah, it's full. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. And sorry you had to wait for all of that. >> I always feel like you should give we should give you a book to read. Sure. At least we're in a library. >> Exactly. >> All right. Um, sorry. >> Say we're back into regular meeting. Yeah, >> I was just sorry. I'm just trying to find our next >> December 3rd. Our next meeting is December 3rd. Um,
103if you have any agenda topics, I've got a few already listed with regards to budgeting discussed earlier to agree on. Um, so with that, there have a motion to adjurnn. Lisa second. All those in favor? I I >> I guess I should say a motion to adjourn at >> 855. >> 8:54. I'm giving you 854 again. >> Okay. 853. That's fine.