001calling to order this meeting at any 8:30 p.m. >> And in the absence of our chair, Lisa Christie, I am chairing this meeting. So, if I make a mistake, feel free to tell me. Yeah, I don't take anything personally. So, first we have a an opportunity for agenda review. Is there anything that you would like to reorder? I am going to take it upon myself to reorder the budget presentation if Michael hasn't logged in yet. >> He's with us now. >> He is with us now. Okay. Any other suggestions though for agenda review? >> Yep. Go ahead, Renee. >> I believe we we have a nice nonpublic. Is that >> Yes. Yes, but that's on here. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, hearing none, we'll move on. This is an opportunity for the public
002to address the board. Is there anyone online or in person who would like to address the board? >> Yes. >> Hi. Um, my name is Rich Greger. I'm actually the vice chair of the Hanover Finance Committee. And I guess probably this is best time to get some things out for you to consider. But um I've only been just given a recent update on the the preliminary budgets um that was sent to me this morning by Tara. But uh in more of a general sense I one thing I would like to make just a note of because this I know that there was changes in staff with us now but last year the finance committee did did not get a chance to review the uh SAU70 budget before it was approved. >> Okay. we would greatly
003appreciate that make sure to see that before that is approved this year. Um I realize there were some extenduating circumstances. But that being said, um I also would like to point out that um in the past we recommended zerobased budgeting and I was trying to follow up to see if that was done for the SW70 budget. I know that the Dresden and the Handover budgets were done last year with zero based budgeting. I don't really know if that was the case for the SA70 and if that's going to be the case for this year. Um, and I'm not sure who will be the best to address that question. And then just finally, in a general sense, uh, I would just like to make a note of like the increases over the previous, um, two fiscal
004years, which I was privy to seeing because I've only been on the committee for two years. Um, the fiscal year 25 budget increased 9.6% from the previous 24 budget. And then last year there was an 18.6% increase versus the 25 budget. And the preliminary figures I just saw was uh suggesting a 9.2% additional increase over the fiscal year 26 budget. So the concern I have uh from a finance committee standpoint is the trajectory these budgets are going on. And I would like to just caution that it's not a sustainable trajectory if we continue down this road. Essentially you're going to be doubling the budget every six years um based on these percentages. So, um, having said all that, um, I look forward to working with the finance, uh, committee of the, um, school board as
005well as the school in general and trying to find a pathway together so that we can take care of the needs of the kids, but also consider the taxpayers that are going to be facing a lot of other increases with and greater picture of what's going on in town, whereas I'm sure you're well aware of some major capital projects that are going to down the pipeline. So having all that in context and with the recent reevaluations, I've had many people come up to me and ask what's going on and say there's a lot of concern I think out there in the the general public as to what's going on with taxes in general, not just the school board or the school district. >> Thank you. And and I think as you probably are aware, we
006are going to have a presentation of the budget, so you're welcome. >> Yeah. No, but I I just kind I'm not sure if I can stay for the whole thing. So I I mean I was hoping no was going to start at uh >> I completely thank you so much. >> I don't want to get my comments in the board. >> Right. And and one of the tricky things is that we always have to post an unrealistic beginning time for the second board meeting. >> No, I I so apologies for your being here that long. If there are no other members of the public wishing to speak, we will move into the bud budget presentation. And so is Michael taking care of that? Teresa, I do not know. >> Oh, go ahead, Deb. >> Go
007ahead, Michael. We can hear you. >> Yes. >> Great. Um, and is Teresa in the room? >> She is. >> Great. Um, I'd like to make some opening remarks and then hand it over to Teresa. Um, what we bring you tonight, uh, is work in progress. Uh, in my view, having taken a look at the materials that were published this morning, it really is at this point in time a tale of two budgets. Uh, on one hand, we're trying to be very, as a committee, very sensitive to the need to keep spending in line, right? There are a lot of pressures coming down on the school districts that we serve. There are a lot of pressures coming down on the constituents within the community we live in. There is a ton of uncertainty right now
008in both sides of the river in the New Hampshire public policy environment and the Vermont public policy environment and there's a lot we don't know coming out of Washington DC and so right now it would seem that caution is the best approach to the budget. Um what we did was we set a general goal um with the team with the SAU staff and then we tried to tighten down that goal. We said, "Hey, look, let's not have year-over-year expenditures exceed 3%." Um, once we got there, we then um pushed the staff for specific line items where we felt like that they could potentially identify savings. Teresa will walk through individual line items. There were some onetime expenses that rolled off. We felt like we should not backfill those. Um, to the extent they were for
009onetime expenses, we should let them go. And what you see is an overall SAU budget on the expenditure line that is growing 0.41%. We felt like this represented meaningful work by the SAU team and is in line with our goal of trying to hold the line on spending. Now, why I say it's a tale of two budgets is because within the SAU budget, we've been dealing with um a carry forward problem and a fund balance problem the last couple years. And I'm going to be very candid with my colleagues. The committee, as I understand it, and my participation in it, spent 100% of its time reviewing the year-over-year expenditures in focusing on sharpening our pencils and keeping that number low. And I think the draft we brought you succeeded in that. Um, I do not
010think the committee has fully addressed that fund balance issue. Uh in taking a look at the materials that were distributed today, we now see that to try to address that fund balance issue um would require a contribution increase of 9.2%. Which is the number referenced by the speaker from the finance the handover finance committee in public comment. Um part of that is a historical problem and part of that is in the previous budget there was a bet that there'd be revenue coming in from lime in an attempt to share services with the lime school district. I'm I'm a little bit constrained in what I can say about this because the committee has not fully um discussed with the SAU staff um what options, if any, we have to deal with this carry forward and fund
011balance problem. So, I just want you to think of the budget in two parts. One, year-over-year expenditures where we really we had an initial target of 3%. Um but the leadership of Tara and others, we pushed out harder on that. And then this historical carry forward in fund balance problem where we have to figure out um how to get rid of that um negative balance that's followed us around the last two years. Um I think those are the overview remarks that I would have. Um I would say to the speaker's comment, we did not go full zerobased budgeting at the committee level. I'll let staff speak of how they built the budget, but we did push down at the line item level to try to figure out what is absolutely required. Um, and because we
012felt like it was a year that that demanded that level of attention that we really had to try to keep year-over-year spending down in order to be prepared for whatever uncertainty and costs emerge out of the New Hampshire and Vermont public policy environment. With that, I would hand it over to Teresa unless other people have comments. Are there any questions or comments for Michael? Okay, Teresa, it is yours. Do you have another packet? >> Um, yes. As far as like the zero bank um zero start, um we did that for a lot of our lines and we also looked back like the five last five years and saw what our spending was for certain items for certain line items. Definitely what we could cut back and really reduce even if on the average we might
013have been spending 90% of that line, how much can we still reduce? because we knew that no matter what um again going back because there was a surplus in the funds and those surpluses were from positions that were not filled. So when the budgets were built over the last couple years or so they were built in such a way to again keep the rates down. In order to do that, it was a level of risk in banking that those funds were going to be available. But when you fill those spots or you don't in the case of the um line contract when that did not materialize that obviously left $150,000 shortfall. So that is basically a lot of what um has has come forward and so in doing this and putting the budget together. So,
014well, we could take the next two, three years and we could spread that out and we could still do it and then pay that off, you know, pay off the deficit or we could turn around and get it done by the end of next school year. So, those but what I put forth was if we were to take care of it in one school year, this is what it will look like. So Teresa, is there one of these three documents that you want us to be looking at right now? the PowerPoint or the >> um the summary page, the one that has the little looks like this one right here. >> That one kind of shows you a timeline that will take you from I can see um this one will take you starting with
015FY25 because it usually does go back in that respect. But um in that particular year, you'll see that that the end of year fund balance was anticipated like $21 201,000. But what happened was the reality was 88,000 that particular year. So you're already that already put us on that trail that when we went into FY 25 last year, we only had a fund balance going in of 88,000. And again because positions were filled, there were changes in staffing. Certain um high insurance costs even then was starting to happen um which increased our expenditures then into this school year because at this point um rolling forward this particular school year of the school year we had $150,000 deficit. the the agreement will put us at about 170,000 deficit by the end of this school year. >>
016Does anyone have any questions about this particular document? >> I'm just going to be honest. I was on the committee and what Michael alluded to is that we had not talked about this deficit issue whatsoever. it did not in was not interjected into any of our conversations so that we as a budget committee um for the SAU have more work to do because I think what I'm going to suggest is that we sharpen our pencil some more and to get our expenses um our spending under control because the revenues weren't there that had been a part of the entire picture and without that entire picture you can't win a budget. >> Okay. So, >> thank you. Any other >> So, it sounds like this is a a work very much in progress. >> Yes. >>
017Michael, would you agree? >> Well, I I mean, I think um to put it in baseball terms, we have a bit of a curveball to deal with. Um I understand that over the last two years, we've had discussions as an SAU board about fund balance and carryover. And so um now that the documents have been published um it's okay. Yep. I understand this. I understand that the assumptions we made about revenue from lime. Um but Tara is 100% right. We have not brought we have not discussed this in committee until we saw the production of the and and until we saw the production of the documents um this hadn't come up. And so we have some work to do. I do think that the slide deck that was published um online um provides you know
018some general parameters into what we've been talking about as a committee. Um you know taking a look at slide two there is that projected budget increase. There are some ups and downs both in number of staff and the removal of the capital improvement um project funds. There are of course assumptions about very high healthc care increases which we're seeing across all three of our um our school districts right now. And so we've tried to make those reasonable so they're more likely you know we're trying to make them reasonable in such a way that if they get adjusted they're either they're going to go down rather than go up. Um you know it we have to factor in things like uh personnel adjustments that were done by the compensation committee over the last few years. um
019you know but under other expenditures that's where we really tried to sharpen our pencils cut [clears throat] you know cutting some of the um you know travel expenses and and whatnot some of the cyber um and whatnot. So we, you know, we've made some progress in trying to keep it down, but you know, to Terara's point, we haven't talked about that quarter million dollar nut to crack on the um fund balance and carryover side. So should we be going through this PowerPoint and the slides or how would you like to handle the rest of the conversation here? I mean, I think for us, um, just Deb and I appreciate your questions as chair. Um, you know, getting some right track, wrong track feedback, I mean, would be helpful. Um, you know, the committee makes the
020assumption that it's on the right track, but it represents it is only a subset of the body in trying to keep things really tight. Um I think the feedback we got from the superintendent who's been a good collaborator in this process is hey it's pretty tight already right like going deeper than that um would be tough but of course I think we have to have a specific conversation about how to deal um with that balance. So, you know, I think any right track, wrong track feedback would be good, but I think the committee needs to meet again and reproduce these documents to give people ample time to look at what its real options are and addressing that one-time hole that we've got to that we've got to figure out. >> Okay. Well, what I'm going
021to suggest since they're just the four slides is that we just take a a few minutes to walk through them and give you some feedback if there's anything that immediately stands out. Um I I will say on the first slide just for the heck of it um my understanding Lauren is that you are not technically assistant superintendent of schools. Is that correct? >> So you should be listed by your current title. Um that was the easy one and I took it. So now I'm looking at slide two of the PowerPoint and we do see that 41% increase which sounds really reasonable. Um, but as you look through this, assuming that you have had a chance before tonight's meeting to look through, um, and maybe you haven't, is there any question that arises, a concern, a
022sense that there's something here we should be talking about? You know, I don't >> Oh, sorry, Michael. Go ahead. >> No, no. I would welcome I I'd assume that that question was to your colleagues who are in the room, not to me. >> It is. And Neil, I think was about to answer. Um, well, I was about to pose just interject another question into the process here because I my recollection was is that I thought that there were there were some adjustments that were made to salaries at the SA level based on the work the compensation study committee did. >> Yes. >> And I thought that some of the adjustments that were implemented were might have been partial adjustments, but there was some more work that still needed to be done there. And I'm guessing
023that that work is not reflected in this 41% increase. >> It is reflected. >> Oh, it is reflected. >> The adjusted. >> Yeah, >> the five positions that had been adjusted are reflected in everything, but there were there were a couple more adjustments on that sheet that were not put into the budget. >> Okay. So I think I don't know if there's if that's work just for SAU budget committee or if the compensation study committee needs to be involved but I would like to understand what that gap is what >> involved. >> Okay. >> Is that something appropriate for conversation tonight or not? >> It involves individuals and to be quite honest with you I don't recall the details. I would we would have to go back and look it up. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
024So, that's a can we can kick down the road. Um, anything else on this slide? Yeah, Tara, >> I'm just going to also share something that um that I touched upon briefly in committee that I I hope will continue to be our sort of um I guess view point or moving forward is that because the health insurance portion of our spending has been so substantial and very very hard to plan for you know sort of budget busting events. not one time but multiple times. I think we've reached a point where we as a body whether that be via the budget committees or whatnot need to actually do a very granular analysis of what is involved in the various plans rather than being sort of more standoffish and getting a number from say you know the
025the business administrator or whomever is doing that HR level work. I think we need to decide as a board what's appropriate for us to offer to in you know and it's also a contractual obligation. We really need to get a better handle on this and what the liability points are so that we can fairly address these very lumpy expenses in the contractual process with our various staffs and in our budget process. So, I'm hoping that we are able to do that moving forward. >> Last one. That that was going to be my comment on the side. >> Do you want to just see that mic? I don't know if Michael could hear. >> Just that 18% increase like um in previous organizations I've been at, you take a closer look at what's being offered and
026try to understand how you can and so we can't and maybe that's already been done. I don't know. That's the question I have is how are we looking at it because that's a really big increase and I know that's hitting us in multiple >> areas. I mean >> there's been a lot of work done on it on looking at various plans different companies and everything else. Um also at the same time the market rate and what would being told by insurance companies and as I put on the document we don't have our November numbers yet. So that's usually around November that we'll get it. We'll either get, you know, a not to exceed number or we're going to get, hey, here's your number. >> Michael Drew. >> Yeah. I mean, I think when you take
027a look at the budget, um, you know, they're only the SAU budget is a small portion of the overall budget picture. That is not said to be cavalier about the dollars. Like every dollar counts and we got to be very wise with taxpayer dollars. Um, when you take a look at the SAU budget, I do think, you know, we're really down to people, right? And we did, to Neil's point, incorporate the increases that were discussed with the compensation committee last year, but the only like couple of the only really big hinges is are the health insurance, which to me, I mean, we have to wrestle with across all our school districts. Um, and given our size, we have a limited number of options, but if there was something to dive into over the longer term,
028right, because, you know, things are kind of set up for calendar year 26, but really understanding where we are um in the health insurance marketplace over time is going to be really important. Um, I I think that's true for every employer. And so I that number pops off the page. It does for lots of employers. Um, you know, we need to do our due diligence over time on that one. Well, and as you look at slide three, you see basically it's people and it's insurance. Um, so I'm just going to open it the rest of the slides four and five up to you just for a quick review and then we can I think move on from this conversation because it sounds like more work is needed to bring it back to the board. >>
029Yeah. And you know, I'm going to defer to Teresa on slide four. Um, as Tara said and I opened with, we haven't had an opportunity to discuss this as a committee and so I think it um, you know, Teresa is in the best position to tell the story on this slide. >> Okay. So the fourth slide, the changes in the revenues and the carry forward. Um what I alluded to earlier, the end of year fund balances from the FY24 school year um resulted in $88,000 carried forward. It was originally budgeted with an anticipation of 201,000 because it didn't pay um because there was a shortfall ofund almost $112,000 that carried forward led to a deficit going into FY25. The FY25 school year again very tight. Um and because of again um there were changes in
030positions, changes in insuranceances and the other things that caused it to go another 50 >> [clears throat] >> $55,000 leading into this particular school year that already put us in a situation which which had been discussed. former VA Jamie Teague discussed it over and over that this was going to happen and the fact that if we gambled on $150,000 contract, it didn't pan out with and having one FTE to offset those expenditures, that revenue. um that if it didn't work out, it was definitely going to leave us in a bigger deficit. >> Unfortunately, that did not work out. The minimalist by the end of this school year will um result pretty much with about $176,000. So, there's not much more we can slim out of this particular school's year budget. We don't have funding. Everything
031was taken out before the budget was presented last year for the most part. We don't have training. We don't have anything. Um, we have bare bones. The only way we can reduce it in any great amount would be to get rid would be to reduce a position. >> It's the only way. Um, >> okay. I am going to rest this conversation. Thank you very much, Teresa. I think we all understand the problem and we look forward to being updated on continuing conversations about this issue. And so I'm going to move on to the next item on our agenda, which is a reading of policies. And Ben, I assume that's you again. >> So this is specific to SAU. It's only been defibrillator defibrillator policy which we already talked about earlier in order to information there.
032>> Perfect. So moving right along, we have the strategic plan update. Um so I wanted to give an update on the strategic plan. I've been meeting with the principles and the directors on a monthly basis, but specifically around the strategic plan. I've set up quarterly meetings and so our first meeting we looked at our capital improvement plan and looked at all of the feedback that we've gotten from Trex Collins and we've sifted through that information and the principles have developed their own checklist based on the Trox Cullen feedback and their feedback. And now since then we have the capital improvement plan committee that has started to meet and they have been meeting around what Tony's vision is related to our true x callin plan what the principal's vision is and then taking all of that
033information and trying to put it together. So we are in the process now of compiling that information and I'm working with Tiff's Cullen still to see if we want to bundle some of it into like 5, 10, 15year increments so we can really think long range about the projects that we may wish to undertake and the projects that they feel would be we would be capable of bundling together in one fell swoop. Um, so that's really the next part of our capital improvement plan and the steps that we'll take toward that. At the same time, we're working on all the other pieces of the strategic plan and that has involved I've asked everyone to go through the directors and the principles um over the past few weeks to go through and update all of their
034information. So you saw in our um in assembly we have the strategic improvement plan in place and so you can see where we're at in each of the areas. We have four big components. So now each of the people who's responsible for the components has gone through those and they're starting to update. We're starting to put the targets in. We've looked at what we accomplished for last year in terms of each of the targets and we've updated that and now we're starting to think about this year what realistically we'll be able to accomplish. So hopefully you've had chance to look through that and see the updates that we've made and it's everything from technology implementing you know the federation system implementing looking at software and you know sifting through that and trying to project what
035we're going to need over time. um to things like our curriculum. You know, we've been working on really documenting that for staff members. We're documenting it for the public. Now, we're making progress on that. So, we are trying to really put the strategic plan in place and make it a living document at this point so that you can see the progress that we're making and the work that we still have to do. I think the next steps will be when I meet with the team the next time we looked at the facilities piece. So, next time we've been looking at the curriculum piece across the board. Um, but we'll look at some of those other pieces as well and just make sure that we're keeping up with that. So, I just wanted to give you
036an update on that and to tell you that we are moving forward. We're looking at the capital improvement plan and the strategic plan. And again, I tried to set it up over time so it's not so overwhelming and we're looking at it piece by piece and so that we can actually accomplish the piece that we've put into place with the strategic plan. >> Oh, I'm raising my hand to the people. Um, so my question is simply a quick one about the numbers. Sometimes it's target is 40, sometimes it's 100. So that's clearly not percent. What are what are those numbers? is percent. >> It is percent. >> Okay. So the target is 40% 40% completion >> for that year. >> Right. Right. Right. No, but I mean the target >> Yes. >> The target was
037only set at >> Right. Okay. I get it. I get it. >> So we're putting targets that we feel like realistic that we could actually We don't want to put 100% if we know that we're not going to be able to >> Exactly. That makes sense. >> 100%. So is this document obviously a member of the public who is attending our >> meeting yes >> would with a laptop would be able to see this document but is this something that's also posted somewhere where >> just through symbol but we could potentially post >> I mean I don't know if anybody is interested in going to look but I think it certainly shows work that you are doing and that the board is monitoring and and it may be of interest to people to know >>
038how we're making progress on it. >> Y >> it could be through um Providence newsletter which is roughly monthly and >> board members themselves are chiming in roughly quarterly and the next one is is me coming in on surveys. >> Great. >> And that can be something that we can tie into this as well in terms of progress being made and >> goals obtained and goals on progress. And I really >> going along with that I like this document as well particularly the color coding and the prettiness of it. It's >> a nice succinct way of showing all the stuff that's working on behind the scenes that longer would necessarily notice. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. I do like the color coding too because we can see the progress that's being made. And I've kind of
039done that with our original strategic plan on my own like color coding everything because that's how I like to work. But here we have the >> backup document too. I did that. So I think that's been helpful. Well, the color coding drew me to slide eight, page four, organizational and the goals that are for the board. And I see that we have three zeros for last year, including that we were going to obtain a re legal review to determine options for improving the SA70 governance structure. So, I guess I was curious maybe for the board, what held us back from doing that or what do we need to do so we can have better accomplishment of our goal? >> Good question. more substantial over budget for legal at the SAU level. >> So it's budget.
040So that so that one's budget. >> Um the other one is I was curious when we say we will invest in every team member's professional development just because this is something I think about is the investment literally is it investment in dollars? Is it an investment of time? Um >> it could be all of the above but most likely financial. >> Okay. Those are my questions. >> My question my question was exactly the same as dad. It's like what am I what do the numbers mean? And so I I love the idea of making this more readily accessible mostly because I do think compeller like oh it's great. Um but even putting percentage like at the top where it says target just a little percentage just so we know that that's what the numbers are
041in. Yes, I >> I I agree that clarifying this is good and I would put like the legend at the top of each page or at the bottom of each page those were scrolling >> but I would remind board members too that the specific KPIs and the all the like the actual word choice was set >> when we created this we got very very granular on these several years ago >> and so I don't know looking back to the >> what does this mean won't be too helpful but that the word smithing was done a while ago Perfect. Any other questions or Robin? Thank you very much. This is really quite wonderful. Um, and now under business requiring action. I will take a motion to approve items B through C by consent. Gina, >> seems
042like an easy one. I move to [clears throat] approve items B through C by consent. and Renee seconded it. So, oh, this is the tricky part. Okay, I think I know how to do this. Um, so is Kelly on the >> She is she was not able to join the meeting to tech issues, but she is on the YouTube and chime again quite often on my >> Okay. But she will be able to vote. Okay. So, for voting, we'll start with you, Michael. >> Costa. >> Yes. >> Neil, yes. >> Sivan, yes. >> Yes. Nelson. Yes. Oh, I'm not supposed to go yet. Go ahead. >> Nelson. >> Yes. So, that is unanimous. Kelly is not here. This is exciting. Okay. So, now we're moving on to reports and communications. So, report of the chair.
043Oh, this is going to take a long time. Um, any committee reports? Superintendent, you were going to do it here. >> Yes. So, I did share my goals with everyone and these are goals that I developed based on things that I felt like I hope to improve upon in the district and I really focused around um four big goals and one is the strategic plan and the capital improvement plan. I just spoke about that recently and I'll continue to track that over the course of the year and continue to hold meetings. Um, another area that I felt like we could improve upon is leadership and supervision and effectiveness. And so in working in that area, I've talked with you about this and shared the plan that I have for the year for the leadership team
044in terms of professional development and we've been working on that monthly. And so, for example, last month we met at the Richmond School. Actually, I think it was two weeks ago, a week ago. I can't remember now. It's all blending. But we this time we're looking at different pieces of data through supervision and evaluation. And for this recent meeting, we looked at um questioning data in the classroom. So, we have a common reading. We talk about that. We use a data tool in the classroom together. we spread out. I email all the staff so they know beforehand that we're going to be there. I share the tool that we're using and then the first time I actually provided all of the data feedback that we had. This time it was a limited amount of time.
045So our data was really pretty limited and I didn't feel like it was super valuable data for them but it was valuable for us in terms of the process. So we are doing that every month and again I recorded you know how I'm measuring my success in those areas and obviously you'll be able to do the same thing with me through out the year but particularly at the end of the year. I wanted to build upon the culture and climate in the district in terms of um thinking about teaching and learning and recognition. And so I tried to do that at the beginning of the year by having an all SAU assembly and bringing everyone together and thinking about rec how we could recognize all of our staff members particularly staff members who've been here
046for 10 20 30 years. So I have put that into place and um hopefully that's been a positive change that has been made already. The other piece is um visibility and stakeholder engagement. And for me as a school leader, I've always felt visibility and engagement has been a big part of me being successful as a school leader. So I thought it was important to again be visible in all of the schools. I tried to make that a practice as assistant superintendent, as principal, whatever role I've held in the schools. And so that has involved being in the schools. I have scheduled meetings with the principles at least once a month and those are one and a half to two hours. And I have scheduled meetings with all of our directors in central office. I meet
047with them on a regular basis. Um and then also trying to meet with students and attend some sporting and other cultural events in the school. And so I have started practicing meeting with students. I've met with the council at the high school. I've met with elementary students at each of the schools, the newspaper club, um a group of sixth graders. I met with a sage group at the middle school. So, I've started that process as well because I do feel like I'm the leader of the school district, but my job is to do what's best for students in schools and to try to be a leader for students and our staff. So, I think it's important to get that feedback from all the stakeholders in the building. And I had that put into my calendar
048at the beginning of the school year. And I'm happy to say and fortunate that I've been able to pretty much fulfill my calendar and be at places that I set aside to be at at the beginning of the school year. And again, this is something I put it as a goal and a measurable goal. So, I would be happy to provide you with access to my calendar, but um I have it in there so you can see what's going on. And those are my goals for the year and I'm happy to answer any questions about them. >> Does anyone have a question? >> Like your I like your smart goals. >> I do too. Thank you. And again, I feel like I've required our staff and administrators to have smart goals and so I should
049be modeling that process as well. So, um I did have a couple of other things I just wanted to mention. >> The um well, actually I think I said oh open enrollment. I didn't get to talk about that in our last part of the meeting, but open enrollment, there was a recent decision about open enrollment that took place and one of the requirements is that we have to include a line item in our budget to cover open enrollment costs. Now, we've talked about this and we have added that line item to our budget. We put it at zero at this point. There is only one open enrollment school right now on record. Um it's very small independent school and we are looking at trying to meet as a superintendent in this area with our board
050chairs to just discuss open enrollment. I've talked about this in the past that I've been a part of the NHSA committee, the legislative committee, and this has been one of the big pockets [clears throat] that we've been looking at for the past two years very extensively. There's legislation that is continuing this term and we are continuing to look at that. I think the committee that Deb talked about earlier will be an important piece for our schoolboard members to provide feedback to as well because NHSA has had a voice in providing feedback to the legislators. We've been bringing people in. We've had people present. So, I think they're hearing it from the administrators in the state, but they also need to hear about it from you, too. the impact that it could potentially have on our
051on our schools. And I'm trying to think about it and get ahead of it. So, if it does go into place, we have parameters set up that will meet the needs of the open enrollment legislation. So, I just want you to know that that is it's a continually changing topic that's occurring statewide. >> So, I have a question to ask. When you when you are asked when a district is asked to include a line item in their budget, is this for the student from our school who wants to go elsewhere? Yes. >> Or is it to cover the difference between ascending schools lower tuition and what our school actually costs? >> This is for us to send students to an open enrollment school. >> So what about the second part? If we have a student
052from a school district that doesn't have the same, you know, it doesn't cost them as much to educate a student as it costs us and that student wants to come here, >> right, >> to make up the difference, >> that's that will be what we'll have to deal with once, >> okay, >> if open enrollment does become legislation. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> So, just to clarify for everyone listening, this is coming down the road and the legislature is really eager to I mean the current legislative legislative body is eager to promote open enrollment >> and there were three different they weren't all that different proposals at the board meeting on Saturday. One was ours, one was from Oyster River, and one was from I think I can't remember now which one I could look. But
053they ended up word smithing our proposal and then finally tableabling it and going with the third school's >> I think eight word one sentence, you know, less is more. So it was it's clearly on everybody's mind. Yes, Gina. So I think the question I have is if I use simple math, if it costs $100 for a student to come to handover and the sending district only covers $75 in their district, >> have they determined who covers the extra 25? Like is it parents? Is it the school district? So that's still TBD. >> There is no fiscal note attached to this piece of legislation. So they haven't done anything with extracurriculars. They have >> it's not passed. you know, >> it's not passed and it has no parameters whatsoever. Some of the language we were looking
054at about having to make the line item in the budget said that the tuition has to be at least 80% school. Now, that doesn't sound horrible to me. At least 80% does not sound and as determined by who? As determined by the accepting school or the sending school. None of this clear. You have to wait and see. Yeah. Where the >> right Yeah. >> Okay. So, are there any other questions? My computer says internet update. Is that Did it make that it itself up? >> Internet. Mine doesn't include internet update. >> Internet update. >> Um they Well, we don't really have an internet update at this point. Just a plan that will go into place in December. >> Okay. Yeah, >> that's fine. We'll move right along. And Lauren, you already did your curriculum in.
055Oh, so you're all set. Why are you still here? >> Oh, sorry. Never mind. >> Okay. We love having you here. >> I thought you [laughter] went. >> So, uh, Teresa, I assume that there is no additional business administrators report. Correct. Okay. Now, my understanding is that we do have a need to move into a non-public session. So, I will accept a motion. Ben, go ahead. >> Move to enter non-public session at 9:18 p.m. under RSA 91- A 32C personnel. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> AB. >> Is there a second? Okay. Um, the note taker. >> Michael second. >> Oh, Michael. Okay. Sorry. That was going to happen. So for for this we have to do it individually. So Tara, we'll start with you. >> Yes. Russell, yes. >> Keep Matthew. Matt Michael. >> Yes.
056>> And Nelson. >> Yes. Okay. So we will return. >> Feel free to go home. >> Yes. >> Linda and Lauren, you can go home now. >> Thanks. But we um still miss the same people. >> Oh, I know. >> Let's chitchat the grass also. >> I don't understand. >> But let the record reflect that when I tried to come off mute and non public, I hung up on myself. My bad. >> Um, those chitchat [laughter] let the record reflect when I tried to come off mute and non public. I hung up on myself. My bad. >> Chit. >> Yeah. Sorry. the wherever YouTube is. Interesting. >> So, >> I don't actually know. >> Why don't we just disconnect? >> Yeah. >> And just finish up. And >> I mean, just do it. That's what
057she does. I think um Michael just might need to leave his um Oh, actually, yeah. Well, no, he he's talked before, though. Okay. Doesn't seem here right now. >> All right. We've returned to public session. Um once again, we have an opportunity for the public to address the board. There is no public, so we'll move on. If there are any agenda topics for the next meeting, you know what to do with them. And our next meeting is November 10th. Really? >> Wow, that's coming quickly. Okay, so I will >> come on. Now entertain a motion to adjourn. >> To move. >> Okay, Michael. A second by Marcella. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. [laughter] Now we will So we have to go around the horn. Michael >> Costa. Yes. >> Yes. Gina Deon. Yes. >>
058Keen. Yes. >> Rosco. Yes. >> Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. We are ajourned. Thank you everybody. >> Thanks everybody.