10.28.25 Dresden School Board

001[clears throat] We read the versions. microphone >> and he just has you know he doesn't sorry that's being Is everyone pretty much ready? >> Pretty much. >> Okay. I'm going to call this to order at 6:03. So, welcome everyone. Thank you for being here on what's going to unfortunately be a longer night. My apologies. Uh, I am jammed this evening, which took us a little while for that. So, I apologize for that. And hopefully we got things working on my computer. I'm not destroying YouTube as we speak. So, agenda reviewed. Does anyone have anything to wish to add, change, or subtract from the agenda tonight? Look around. Seeing none, moving right ahead to public comment. If anyone wishes to speak on anything tonight that is not related to the pre-existing items on the agenda, please

002do so now. Um, go ahead. Please state your name, where you live, and if you're representing any particular group. >> Hi, I'm William Ker. Uh, I live in uh I'm I'm a student at Dartmouth College. So, I live at one of the dormitories, Ron Honor 401, and I am representing a nonprofit organization called Not Even Once. >> Okay. >> Is everyone good? >> Okay. Awesome. Hi. So, I'm, as I said, I'm William. I'm representing a nonprofit organization called Not Even Once and we are an anti-drug advocacy organization. And so this is a project that um I started with a few of fellow students when I was in high school. And what we do is we go to local schools and we present interactive presentations about the fentinel crisis and the dangers of fentinel specifically about

003how fentinel is being laced into non-prescription pills and how that can be extremely deadly even in very low dosages. So, we have a very different philosophy from traditional um anti-drug presentations. We try to make it very interactive, very engaging for students. And in my hometown, in my home school district, we presented to half a dozen schools, more than 1500 students to a very positive reception. And so, when I got here to the upper valley, I felt like this is an important project to continue. It's a fentinel crisis is something that exists everywhere in the country, including in my hometown and in the upper valley. And so I just wanted to come here to say who I was, say that this is what I was trying to do. I have my contact information here for um

004I'll give it to you, Cher Keiny, so that you can follow up with me on this if you'd like to. I'd love for you guys to see this presentation so you can see how our philosophy differs from other anti-drug presentations and why I think this work is so important. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments from any members of the public here or online? Seeing none, we'll move right along to the report of the council. Ian, what is happening in your world? >> Early this month, we had town halls. So, each council member presented to their couple of advisories. They shared what council is about and what stands what it stands for and what council is currently doing. And other than that, uh the

005past few weeks, we've had couple of allocation requests. for example, like the wristband allocation as we all made like council wristbands during the summer. And the tomorrow we have also a council meeting. We're going to be discussing curriculum committee bylaw vision um and a resolution of New Hampshire students in support of Claremont schools and fair education funding. >> Any questions for Ian? >> What are your thoughts or the council's thoughts on the current situation? Well, council has been thinking about creating uh allocating this resolution to a separate committee so that they can really focus on it. So, we're thinking about allocating it to examining equity committee. If uh Mr. Dante would like to add anything more >> other questions for you. Hi. >> You mentioned before the meeting started that you had to leave early

006to go to an entrepreneur meeting at the college and I wonder if you would just share a little information non-counsel related about what you are trying to do. >> Well, my friend and I early this summer we were thinking about starting something that really benefits the community and we started Tucson skewers. So, it's a Chinese barbecue le. So, we want to bring our cultural heritage to the upper valley and all the funds in our Tucson skewers, it's like Chinese skewers. All the funds hopefully will go to the Haven to fund their uh food programs. >> Are you going to the Magnus Center? >> Yes. >> Oh, that's so cool. Wow. Nice. >> Anything else for Thank you. >> Um, moving on to RMS principles report. I miss um you got a couple of attachments here.

007>> Yes. So, uh the narrative reports attached as well as our October first sections report. Um kind of the narrative cover the highlights of what have been happening at RMS. I feel like every day we're juggling all kinds of things, but I feel like we're making wonderful progress as community. So, welcome questions if you have questions. >> Yes. Um, this has to do with the student section report and I noticed that a total of 91 students out of 366 are participating in the chorus and my fellow board members know that singing is something I think is super important and so I would like to go on record again for saying I think that number is too low given that you don't need to buy equipment or practice outside of school really. So, I would urge

008ongoing conversations about broadening the opportunity to sing to students, especially since they really don't have much at the Ray School. >> I appreciate that comment. I get to attend course uh sometimes supporting with a student and I just witness joy every time which is Yeah, exactly. >> One of the magic things, right? Like you just get to watch the joy. Yes, exactly. They rehearse. >> Thank you. >> And what was the all school read? >> So all school read happens during uh we block out three or four morning meetings. So we have that morning meeting uh 25 minute block on Wednesdays and really the whole school just has that opportunity to grab their snack, settle in with a book and read for 20 25 minutes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it's like everyone read

009the same. Yeah, that's yeah. >> Okay, >> we've talked about that but not made progress. A couple of years ago, we were talking about doing a school read, but it didn't quite identify what we wanted to do. >> Yeah. >> Are there specific sizes that you're looking for in each section of maybe I don't know, English, math, science? Like I know just coming from the race school there's a lot of conversation about like grade levels, class sizes, and that kind of thing. >> Yes. Um what I what we do when we are scheduling our students is really attempt overall to create this a schedule that is as balanced as possible. And uh one of the values that I hold is when you're in a particular classroom, I want that classroom to be as heterogeneous as

010possible. I don't want all of the chorus students to be absent from that classroom because I know that uh yeah, so that that's really just the goals of our scheduling. Um really for our uh well our sixth grade team is that one single team having just uh handover students and our seventh and eighth grade has those two teams where they share those common 75 students 71 students this year. >> Um yeah, so there's really just making sections as balanced as possible. we don't have a particular target. Um, in the computer system, I try to keep classes under 20. So, for the most part, uh, for academic sections, I'm able to do that. >> Thank you. >> Any further questions for you? >> Actually, you got a couple of attachments as well. A lot of work

011has been done on this front. You want to walk us through it? Sure. >> So what we did have been doing over the past month, month and a half has been looking at the mission from the um committee last spring and last winter and then trying to develop a program that will that that that committee um with the vision that that committee had. Um so the first attachment that I had um it breaks down um the mission and vision of what our program would look like as a if we were developing more of like a competitive high schoolesque program um where competition was our was the main goal. Then uh also more of an exploratory program where participation is the goal. that would be more of like an elementary model and then uh something in

012between which is um where the committee last spring was kind of on and that's where we went for a direction. Um and so what we did from that uh middle mission and vision is we developed a handbook from that. Um if those that mission and vision seem to be appropriate to the committee um we have a handbook made up for that. if this if or for the board if this board wants to go in more of a competitive based program or more of a exploratory participation based program we're happy to adjust that handbook for um those goals. Um and then I've also attached the um RMS athletic handbook which is what we would be presenting to families um that they would then sign when they register their kids for um athletics. >> So then if

013I read it correctly, you're not looking for a decision from us on which of these columns we're choosing. Just you chose the middle one. >> That's where that's where we chose. Yes. But we're we want to have input from the board to say is this an appropriate direction for our program or whether you want to go more towards um more of an elementary model or more towards a high school model. >> Anyone want to chime in on anything? >> Deb. >> Well, because it's a middle school, it seems the middle road is entirely appropriate. So, I like the language of the middle column and I think it's the next step and it's appropriate that it not be high school. >> Greg, >> I agree with that question on the committee. Who is part of that

014committee or informed? >> Yeah. So, so the committee that we had was made up of I believe it's five parents that um submitted a application to to or submitted a letter of interest um to us and then um one teacher um and then uh myself, Anissa and uh Chelsea. >> Great. Okay. >> Y thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Just a plus two to what's been said. I think my favorite sentence is, "We commit to building strong skills, promoting teamwork, sportsmanship, and cultivating leadership qualities to empower students to excel collaboratively and individually on and off the field." That feels really like amazing that we don't have that at the middle school. So, >> nice job, Brandon. Um, in terms of the handbook, yes. Um, I see a lot of information. I like a lot

015of what I'm seeing with speaking for myself. Anyone else feel free to chime in. Um but how are things going on the implementation? Like for example um any coach has been hired yet or is that still an active search? >> Yep. So we've um I've interviewed one coach. He will be joining us. Um his name has not been submitted to the uh SAU yet. Um we I have two more interviews this week. Um both based on their resumes um seem to be highly qualified. Um, we have had a couple one other applicant which I'll be reaching out to this week. Um, and then I've had a couple different people who have called or emailed me but haven't submitted an application yet. >> Okay. Um, a couple things that weren't in the handbook. I just be

016curious from your perspective on knowing that this is still preliminary >> would be determining who goes on which team. I mean for basketball you're you're expecting enough for three teams. Yes. >> For men and women. So six teams total. is how would that work in terms of selecting which team they're on? You're doing triyouts. Is there like an ABC team? Are they all designed to be roughly? >> So the breakdown the breakdown that we have is an A, B and C team based on ability. Um so that would be A team being the um most advanced um and then C team being the more developmental team and B being somewhere in between. Um that I have typ I would typically say is would be up to the coaches. I would expect all three coaches for

017those three different levels to be at tryyouts for those teams. Um, and they would be making the determination on who is on which team uh based on ability. >> Is that fairly standard for the for the other schools? >> Yes. >> Okay. Right. I guess I'll keep going. Um, and then we have heard thoughts or we've heard from some parents about who have sixth graders that are accelerated, I guess I'll say, in one particular sport or another. Where are we lying on the do sixth graders have the ability to sort of move up to seventh and eighth grade if coaches agree or anything like that? >> So, we've thought about that and we've determined that they still have an opportunity to participate and play basketball at the wreck level. um we don't want to exclude

018kids who would be say seventh or eighth graders from the opportunity to bump up sixth graders. >> Um so sixth graders would have the opportunity in wreck and then seventh and eth RMS. >> Okay. >> And if and if the board feels otherwise then I'm happy to hear that. >> I guess um currently we've also heard some thoughts from people who do not go to RMS and do not live in Hanover or Norwich. >> Uh what are your thoughts on that? My thoughts are whatever the board decides is [laughter] um I'm not a taxpayer handover in Norwich. So I that's my opinion doesn't matter on that. Uh >> Ben, can can you clarify what that that >> uh from a from a from a sending school district, >> but not for 67, but that they

019don't go to >> correct. >> They're not at RMS, but there's >> We've had I've had some people reach out to me from Lime um because they go to because high school students attend HHS and we're wondering if if there was the possibility for kids to do sports um there. I've told them that we are that Norwich and Hanover students are eligible and lime is not. And I've also informed them if they have concerns about that that this would be the uh board to bring it up with. >> Yeah. >> Um June >> um I saw I'd love that you're calling out injury reporting. I just want to mention like Julie's team at HHS does a great job of concussion protocol and having had a child who's had multiple concussions. If there's anything to learn

020from what they're doing here to add to this because I've had I think the kids I don't is there soccer well basketball soccer or what sports are >> so basketball is the one that we're offering right now. We haven't um we haven't determined our other ones yet. We will be coming to this group again to uh determine that as we get closer to spring. Um we all coaches um will be concussion trained. So being able to identify um how to or being trained on how to identify concussion signs and symptoms of concussion um and then what to do from there. And >> yeah, there's a really cool protocol for return to play that made me as a parent feel very safe and about how my child came back to sports. So just more of a

021future thing. I think that um we're doing a great job at the high school with it. So maybe there's something to learn there. >> Glad you any other comments from board members on the mission statement or the handbook. >> See, thank you very much. >> So what we would be liking is the board to be able to approve this um and say that this is um the direction we want to go with this handbook. too. >> I don't believe we were anticipating a vote on that tonight. Do you need that urgently or can we sit on it for a little bit? >> Um, we that would be up to you. We are trying to open registration on the 31st. >> Okay. For for the winter. We can post this if you're comfortable posting and then

022have it be open to changes as we go throughout the year. Um, that would be up to up to you. >> Yeah. Rene, >> I would hope there's a just a reflection point maybe in like after the first season if you want to make changes or like after the end of the year. So I would I would imagine it's not a final done deal anyway. Um just want to point out that I think that concussion piece feels really important as I'm sure you're going to learn other things too. >> Yep. >> So I don't know. >> Yeah, we typically approve handbooks yearly eventually. It's one of the first things we do in Augustish. So I would agree that if we move on this tonight or at the next meeting, we're not hands tied to changes.

023>> So if the board's comfortable, we we will attach this on when for parents to sign when they register. >> Anyone feel strongly opposed to that methodology? >> That's good. >> A really quick question. Did we inherit [clears throat] or the Richmond School inherit all direct department jerseys? >> So, um I haven't heard anything about that so far. I know that I've been talking with the rec department about equipment that they might not be >> um in need of anymore. Um but that I >> I mean they still work. They may be really gross. [laughter] >> Well, they're also different groups because Norish kids would not be representing. [laughter] >> Thank you very All right, moving on to the high school. Um, Julie, what's been going on over here? Um, so you have the report.

024I would say the things to look out for, um, potentially coming your way at some point is the diploma pathway work. Um, and then also just in terms of 306 updates, we're probably going to have to bring a our graduation requirements aren't aligning with the state exactly. They they need to change, but they need to change with you. So, >> we'll bring you something as we do that work, which is supposed to take place next year. the 306 stuff, >> the diploma pathways might be on top of that. So, just keep in mind that that may come your way at some point. >> Okay. >> Um, and then class size. Um, we're doing fine. Um, I would say English is our pinch point right now. Um, and a little bit in science, but there's some

025science classes and then a world language is a bit high in some areas, but then really low in others, so it balances out. But I'd say English just because everyone's required to take English um every year. I think that's where we're going to next year have some issues, you know, if we get too many more students. But right now, I think we're okay. >> Okay. And I I forgot to mention that we have multiple board members online as well. And uh Brandon, not to play back up here, but one question that I missed was, will all kids who try out get a spot? >> Um um no, they will. Not all kids that try out will get would get a spot. We one of the restrictions on that is the fact that we need to

026make sure that there's busing, make sure that we have coaches, and it's harder for us versus Wreck. Whereas if Wreck has extra kids and needs to make another team, they can more easily make that other team. Whereas um unless we're having volunteers who are going to be coming in to run that other team, it would be more difficult and recky to make an additional team if there's too many kids try out. >> Okay. Remind me again for basketball lease, how many are you expecting per team? >> Per team your standard would be 12 to 15. Um if that were to bump up to 16 I or 17, I wouldn't be opposed to that. if it meant that a couple kids wouldn't be cut. Um, but if there was, let's say, 60 kids that tried out,

027that would be there would need to be cut somewhere in there because that would be 20 plus kids per team. >> Okay. So, if I'm hearing you're anticipating a a rough maximum capacity of roughly 50 per gender, >> so last So, based on last year's numbers, and again, don't quote me, I don't have them in front of me. Um, I believe there were 46 boys that were on teams and there were 30 34 girls I believe. Um, don't again don't quote me on that >> from parks rec last year. Yeah. >> I'm just thinking in terms of overall percentages of the school and there's so there's what 140 each for seventh and eighth grade. >> Yep. 141. >> Okay. >> 142. And that would be just handover numbers because >> so nor so Norwich participated

028in >> seven and eight >> as well as uh nonrms or non students that live in Hanover or Norwich but don't attend public school. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anyone have any further questions on that? Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. [clears throat] Sorry about that. [laughter] >> And then I think that this is just the numbers and the principles report, right? Not the quality indicators one, >> right? >> Does anyone have questions? >> Yeah. >> Well, my first question should be easy. A lot of the numbers are highlighted in green. And I don't know what why. >> Oh, so a green was I think under max and Okay, so here's the thing. I don't have the colors in front of me. Do you have them up? Okay. So, if you look at the class max on

029the far left, so we have a class max document. We're going over it >> next week for next year, but this these are the class maxes we have. The ones that are a little wonky, you'll notice, are in chorus and band because we don't want to turn away a kid in the schedule if they're the 20th kid and we said it was 18. We prefer not to have 60 kids in every chorus section. Um, green is below max, >> right? >> And blue is above max. >> Got it. >> So, and then at max is no color. >> Got it. >> That just sort of was helping me kind of see what we have above and below. So, like in certain departments, like in world language, I think there's more aboves and belows versus others

030are a little bit more on target. >> Definitely seems like German is quite high. >> Yeah. >> Seems contrary to a couple years ago as I recall. Yeah. So, we have five sections of German and we were going to shut the program down a number of years back. >> Um, and they think they're projecting, which I don't think we can say yes to necessarily, maybe six sections next year. I think we're just going to have to hold the beginning sections to their max and not go over for a few years. She was willing to go over max even though we didn't think it was the best idea in the world to sort of keep German alive. and there were a lot more younger students and so now we're at five. We would have to hire

031somebody else to do the sixth. We have one person within who could do a section and not teach a science class, but I don't know if that's the best use of our people. We might just have to hold to the max in the younger years and it's just some kids are just not going to get into German again. stuff. I have a question about chorus. >> Um, so I noticed that there are 47 students >> singing >> and last year I think there were 31. >> It Yeah. Um, going back >> that is 6.8% of the school population. >> And again, it's just you don't need to do anything except open your mouth. And I know we have talented kids in this school, >> unless something's changed since mine went through. >> Um, my son,

032my daughter is not a part of the conversation about >> Sorry, Alice. Um, but I when was the last time we had >> we had you used to have likeund >> 120 and that's when those chorus class maxes were 60. So some classes would be 10 and others would be 60 to make for this you remember like you go out on stage >> um it it crept down over the years a little bit. Some of it was feeding the theater programs, right? And then some of it was co >> Oh, wait. The by theater program, do you mean the number of kids singing at the Richmond School and >> some of it was that, but also some of it was co and then um and then we had a new teacher and then that new

033teacher started the year. The signups were about 31 at the end of last year and it was a stretch to say we can keep do doing this but we're trying to like we have someone new so let's see if you can build it and between summer and now he's at 47. So we think that's a good >> swing in that direction. I suspect it'll keep swinging up for a little bit especially if our school size gets bigger too. I mean, some of it is there were day there were years where we were closer to 750, >> you know, and saying maybe no to lime students. Those aren't the days anymore. >> So, but we're we're swinging back up, I think. >> Okay. >> Well, but I would love to see them get bigger, too. >>

034Yeah. >> Terra and then back to Deb. >> Let me go back to the languages. >> Yes. Um because I was I was very observant over the years with German how that all went. >> Yeah. >> And looking at these numbers now, it seems that there's not going to be the enrollment to sustain some of the higher level um language >> courses. And what I recall that the high school did for German was they insisted that German four and three combined. >> And if there is already the overage that we're talking about and then the German which she's already >> seven and a half kids over a bit more than 50% over I don't think it really is a valid option to say oh we're not going to hire another person. It looks like you're

035already at the point where you need to address that somehow. >> Yeah. So, we'll see what the signups are and we'll figure that out. Um, we already have combined. So, one beginning German and beginning Latin are level one. Intermediate is a combined two and three and then four and five is advanced. And and as you can see, the one that's the most dicey is advanced Latin, >> right? and Latin's gone from two years of those six sections to four. >> Also, some of the intermediate French classes really look under. >> So, yeah, it's hard if there really are the students who are >> want to do German. >> And if you restrict them at that entry level course, they will not have the opportunities to go into the program, which would probably be a shame.

036>> Yeah. Um, if >> No, we agree with you in a lot of ways, but also it's a balancing act as a principal of a high school to to find a oneif German teacher. That's a hard thing to do to have a one/5if employee >> um is hard, right? And we've done with the Latin, we absorb the Latin teacher into the social studies department rather than letting them go and that worked out fine. But you know, you keep on we can they can be a full social studies member also. It's just can we find a fifth German teacher? So that's all you know will that be a quality person French the same right like we reduced French had 10 sections last year it has nine sections this year it may have eight next year the

037French teacher is now teaching an ESOL class right like so there's a balancing act going on and we're trying to to do it the best we can >> no I understand I just I seem to recall that when the German program was considered you know for phase out Yeah. >> Um really what y'all did was you stopped offering the beginning classes. So it's not like it was a natural attrition at all. It was the students no longer had the opportunity. And the fact that it's really persisted despite that phase of of of course offerings indicates it's probably not going to go away if you know you have to look at it you know like that on the longer scale. So I would start sort of brainstorming about if this is really going to be a

038program that's vital in the the school, maybe it's going to need more resources and how do we scale that up? >> Yeah, I see some guys starting to crop up. Deb was first then Neil and I might chime in as well. >> So I'm looking at personal finance and I just wonder how many people are doing in Prager. We had >> One Prageru the first year. We might have had two >> the second. Like it's very >> small number. >> Yeah. It's a super easy thing to do, >> but I don't think anyone really wants to do it. >> Good. >> You know, unless they're backed into a corner. >> Well, and can I just clarify if they take it at Prageru, will it say Prageru on their transcript? >> I would have to double

039check. It would look like an external credit. I would hope it would specifically say Prager or you [laughter] >> uh >> Julia I'm curious um how the surveys from parents feed into since we're talking about language like that's a big part of it because it's >> across the cuts that >> um I've seen from Ben >> French Spanish and Mandarin are by far >> much more about what the community's parents are looking for >> across all four schools, not just >> Yeah. >> And so, and it's just I'm wondering about I know that German seems popular. Is it popular because there's not another offering that actually is more in line with the community's desires. So, >> I don't think we've started tackling that really yet. >> Okay. in terms of trying to figure that out

040from the survey and can we find a Mandarin teacher and how do we phase out the Latin kids? I mean, right like you don't want to stop >> a kid from taking the upper level if they started to phase out languages in that way. >> Yeah. >> And so, you know, are we ready to do that? Do we have someone on board who could do it? Can we hire someone who >> Right. >> Think you should listen to it. >> Yeah. Yeah. But I'm on board with it. Not like I pull off a band-aid where no more Latin next year and kids are kind of like >> right or you know don't have their thing. >> I had a Latin related comment. Kids with reading challenges often take Latin because >> that's what people >>

041I have a child who does that. So I just think that it should be a consideration that not all children come into high school with to be able to learn a foreign language this way. others are and Latin gives them away to have >> and um as Rene alluded to, we did have some things that say about this on the survey that we'll we're going to plan on get back to this across multiple districts in the November meetings. So, we'll talk more about that then, but yeah, there was a language question. Neil had his hand up. >> Um I I guess I would like to encourage my board colleagues, right? Uh this data is very useful, very helpful. I would like to encourage us on the board though to look at that from you know

042a 30,000 foot level rather than at the individual class size level and cautious listen I know it's it's really easy to dig into the minutia and the details and to reflect on one's own personal experiences to what that did for their kid or somebody that they knew. But I want to caution us against individuals sort of giving advice to administration. Um and then how administration is supposed to interpret that advice, right? >> Collectively the board if the board wanted to nyx German then the board says collectively we're going to cancel German, right? We're going to substitute it with something else. we run into, I think, these confusing scenarios where somebody um would suggest that we want to add sections here or take sections away, add resources here. Well, at the same time, we've provided budgetary

043guidelines to administration to actually make sure that the budget is level funded. >> And so, we're sending in some cases, I believe, some mixed messages. >> Remember, board, we give direction as a group, not as individuals. Our input is certainly useful for the discussion, but then the discussion should be amongst the board, not necessarily directed as individuals towards administration. Yeah. >> And I'll and thank you for that, Neil. And I'll I'll echo that as well. And that came up at four chairs this morning, right before the meeting as well with a reminder to all of us on several different issues that if there are concerns or advice or comments you want to make to a staff member to take it to your relevant chair or to the superintendent as well. Okay. And with that, mic

044drop. Deb, did you still want to speak >> or you good? >> I think >> I always want to speak. >> I think in light of you just said Neil, which was my general overall, there's a lot of green. We are under enrolled like that's just a noticing when I glance at this data and that's just a >> right >> and and the thing I would just say and I agree. I mean that's why >> we provided the data. We don't always we didn't always provide it this way, but we're giving you the the toll sausage, I guess, whatever. But, uh, the there is an issue with um and our and our teachers would say this. We have a number and I think you've gathered the data, Robin, of kids dropping from honors to regular,

045going from regular to honors. So, you try to plan a path and then I've been dealing with the overrides this week from parents calling me where they've said there's no room. Your kid can't drop down. They have to suffer in honors. And then it's like, do you overenroll? But then that other class looks underenrolled. And so there's a lot of I would say the department chairs would love there to be a buffer in every class. That's not realistic. But a buffer to allow the kids who need to challenge themselves more to move or to move down. Of course, the buffer is overenrolling and those are maxes that we put on. But that's an artificial max of what we, you know, in our educational expertise believe, but in California there I don't agree with it, but

046there's 30 kids in every class, right? So, >> and we've heard comments on that as well about wishing there was some sort of middle ground, I guess, between regular and honors. >> Yeah. >> Some sort of >> Right. >> Honors light. >> Yeah. Honors light. [laughter] >> Um, see, we have a question. Uh, Kelly, go ahead. >> I'm driving. Hey guys, >> do that. >> Can you hear me guys? >> I I'm I'm jammed right now and I did that to you. Sorry. >> Can you Can you guys hear me? >> Hello. >> Yeah, we can hear you at least. >> Okay, super. Hi. Um, sorry. I just wondered if we have official class sizes at like in policy anywhere as we do with the grade school at the elementary schools. Do we have that

047at the middle school and high school in policy anywhere? I should know this and I don't. Oh, if you're asking me, we have a it is not policy. It's our procedure at the high school. We have a class-sized document. I don't know if you have board policy surrounding CLA our class-sized document, but we have an internal class-siz document that our um uh committee on policy and procedure or program and procedure CPP goes over every couple years to make sure it's accurate and that we agree with it. >> Okay. All right. I'm asking sorry more for um looking forward some of the state level politics coming out. I I was just curious if we've had one in place. So that's helpful. Thank you guys. >> Sorry. >> Thanks, Kelly. And in a policy sense, we certainly

048do at the elementary school. I don't know immediately off hand if we do at the middle school and the high school. Rob, you want to chime in? >> I'm going to look and see what I can find. [laughter] We'll get back to future meeting for Julie. Thank you, Jul. You're welcome. Okay, then moving along to business discussion. Okay, policy. I want to apologize to the board in advance. We have seven missity. >> Thank you for that. Uh Julie, did you want to chime in on quality indicators at all? >> No, we we've always historically done the profile, which I don't think is a great quality indicator, but I threw that in. We just went through the NIAS process, which those on the board last year got that report. those that are new didn't I feel

049like that's a better quality indicator >> so you have it >> there I yeah I don't have anything to say about it >> 45ish pages long you had any questions discuss but I wasn't too inclined to get into the granular there >> right then we'll move right along then to the policies again um like I mentioned there are seven of them and I think at least two of them will be fairly nitty-gritty I do want to remind the board that this is the first read for all of them. So it will come back. Um and that said a lot of these like the March intensive and and the phone policy a lot of these things are new. Many of them were done sorry many of them were done by um asset policy and are not

050from NHSBA. We had a lot of discussion and buyin from uh many students came to these meetings. uh teachers. Matt was highly involved in the mid in the March intensive one as was as were the principles. We heard a lot from parents. We had questions on this on the survey. So I want to thank all those folks who were part of the room as well as thank for putting all these things together and everyone else involved. So with that said, I think we can go through them one at a time in the order of the attachment and um since they're all on very different things and some of them are probably going to be prompting some discussion, we can do a Q&A kind of right afterwards. So the first one is GBGBA which is on

051the external defibrillators. On that one we tightened up and formalized language. It was a pre-standing policy that was a little curious if you if you took a look at it. Um, some of the language is very out of date. For example, it has the expression when the heart is not working right, the AD can be helpful. So that and we uh wanted to fix that up just a wee bit. And we also clarified where these things would go. Like for example, they are not to be at an office. that might be tricky to find and that anyone can use it if the situation needs it regardless of whether we trained them or not which was a bit of a loophole in the previous one. Any questions on that particular policy? See, run. The second one,

052GMIP hyphen F is the chaperon March intensive application form which clarified the language and expectations and what these chap chaperones need to do before March intensive begins. I do note that um there's a bit of a fairly consistent misspelling of the word chaperon across all these documents and so I wanted to apologize for that. Not quite sure how that happened, >> but that will be amended since editing. >> The third one, IMIP, is the need application for March Intensive based on financial need. We cleaned it up a little bit and noted it needs to be completed now by both the parent and the student and added some qualifying language in that document as well. The next one, LVA, is a separate topic where we had some student teachers sit in on various classes across all

053four schools. And there's always been sort of a handful going on at any one time. We did not have a pre-existing policy that dealt directly with that in terms of oversight and training and who needs to know and not know who these folks are in the building. There were some initiatives taken at the individual staff level that weren't ideal that we needed to rectify and standardize. And now, among other things, um the superintendent and the relevant principal need to approve all these student teachers. They have to follow all policies and a few other clarifying items. D >> as we go. So my question is about the reference to not more than three non-consecutive days of substitute teaching. Am I correct that that's if a teacher knows she's going to be out and she has wants

054her intern to sub for her for bed. Is that what that's clarifying? Because I know UV whatever it's called now um at least used to have a week where the student does a solo week. So that's something separate, correct? >> That is my partial understanding. That is one of the reasons is also to help with staff members putting a a leakage that's not necessarily supposed to be there for an overly long amount of time. >> Correct. So, but this won't interfere with the week that of the solo week that they do. This is if they're being hired for pay to be a substitute teacher. >> That's my understanding. >> That's what I thought, but I just wanted to clarify that. Anything else on the student teachers? >> You want comments on the ones you've just

055mentioned or you're just trying to raise? >> No. Yeah. Yes, please go ahead. >> Um, so on the chap. >> Yes. >> Chaperon >> on the form. >> Yeah. Um, that one. >> Um, just question about the supervised students piece. So like for instance, one of the march intensives last year was a homeay in France with families. So you're not are we thinking of supervise in quotation marks or supervise like I'm always with you >> and remind me where are you exactly on the >> I'm on the form where it says the chaperon I the undersign >> understand that I've been selected to serve as a chaperon >> and then it has bullet point to supervise. So, what does the word supervise mean before everyone signs off and then the homeay kids go stay at

056home with another family overnight and not with a chapron directly watching them? >> Um, I will admit that um home stays were not something that we considered, but it is an important thing to note. The idea more there was to realize that you're not really ever off duty when you're shaping on a national or international trip because things can come up at all time whether you're on the clock or not. >> So, that was more the idea of it. Yeah, >> in terms of when the student is not physically around and is under the care of people that we don't necessarily know like a >> home we can discuss that at the next >> policy then it works. >> Okay, >> the the only on the March intensive form that you talked about the scholarship

057form is has a deadline of November 20th and although that's we like to get the first wave of them in, we'd like to be able to consider requests after that. So, uh, really we take them in on a on a rolling basis. But anyone applying for say like a distant travel one, they would have theirs in by the 20th, but but there's smaller amounts that we come there's needs that arise that we'd like to be able to fill. So, it'd be better not to have a deadline on that form. >> Yeah. And actually, Matt, looking at it, I don't see November 20th on >> I thought I saw it on there when I read the run. I read >> I believe it was on previous edition and that was part Okay, maybe I had the

058other one. Okay, great. Yeah. Don't worry, stick around. >> Right now, Ter logistically have the parents name printed as well in case the signature is illeible and you don't know which parent it is. >> Talking about the application again. >> Yes, we were just on. >> Yeah, that is a fair point. We can add a name in addition to signature. >> Okay, >> that's a good column. Any other questions on the stuff we already talked about? Okay, seeing none, we'll move right along. Oh, and I want to thank Linda, too, for being involved in all of these meetings. >> The next one up is GMIP, which is the staff March intensive program. >> So, that one um which again, this is all new to us, but that's at the requirements and expectations for what the

059staff would be doing, how to submit uh the idea that leads to march intensive. For those who don't know, all these ideas come from staff and not from um students or us. We had we did have to run some conduct stuff by an attorney as well as some issues with safety. We had to do that with the students as well which we'll get to in a second. And there was some a lot of discussion on how to handle these things with elderly employees which kind of adds a whole another ball of wax to these things. Um budgets again with the chaperone title uh typo with our apologies. And this one is is fairly detailed. You can see that although all of this is new, the stuff in pink or the salmon colored were things we

060added but later deleted as part of conversations and the green things were all later um additions. Uh Neil, >> can I ask um >> yes, >> with this policy or I guess in the existing environment, do um employees or community members of chaperones for the March intensives that um require a fee? Do they pay their own fee? >> That's a great question that we talked about and reminding what the answer was. >> No, they do not pay their own fee. So the fees being charged to the students are subsidizing the cost of those community members and staff to to attend. >> Well, well, >> yeah, I would say that always for the staff member, but not always for I would say actually rarely for the uh community member to attend. Usually a community member if

061they're going along, they are actually covering fee. Um but for staff members, yes, it is built into the cost. So to be clear, is that a is that a policy or is that just what some people choose to do? >> That is a great point that we we should probably clarify in policy. >> Yeah, I mean I would say that when they're fulfilling the sort of minimum ratio that we want to have for a staff to student, then it could be possible that their fee is uh is built in. But for example, for the community members who are volunteering, for example, for using this year's program of studies, like they are they are not they are not getting they are actually paying their uh their own portion their fee is not being subsidized by I

062mean they're they're not they're not they're not being covered by the student fees >> right that's because they chose to do so not because policy requires it >> yeah but I would say that's been the operating procedure not there's not a policy per se because there haven't been policy but it's been sort of I would say the standard procedure for marching fences >> yeah okay Um, >> yeah, we'll address that. >> Thank you, Matt. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> As far as sort of course selection goes, and I don't know, I think it's this policy. Um, there's there's an item in here that references is that prerequisites other than age may not exclude the majority of students. Can can you clarify what that how how that how you would apply that? >> Sure. Can you

063point me to where exactly? >> That is at the very bottom of the document under requirements for all MIP. That's the third bullet item. >> Yeah. of it as being is that that we want margin intensives to be open to the vast majority of the students, right? We don't want to have something that's a highly technical skill um that you you know you just get you refine a little bit like we want it to be open to most people in our school, right? Would would be able to have access to that learning opportunity in part because we also want students to branch out and to uh to to try new things. I will say it's uh it's there's no met exact metric like oh 50 we don't we don't know exactly what percentage of our

064school for examples are intermediate skiers or above. Probably pretty close to 50% but but there's no there's no study on that right that we have but we try to we don't want to have a course that's going to again yeah exclude a high percentage of the school. So we a course that would be open to someone who's taken German, French, and Spanish. And so then there's only four kids in the school who could take that course, which means it's going to be a course with those four friends that created it with prerexs that exclude the majority of the school. >> It came up. So the majority the the word majority used in the policy is is referring to the majority of the student body as a whole not the number of participants in that particular

065march intensive. Yeah. Could you offer a course that was limited to students studying Spanish? Well, that would be a that would be a curriculum trip. That would be that would >> we did a French one last year, so it's limited, right? Like we did the French one as part of North Pensive. >> We had that conversation because we had this rule and then >> we we talked about it. We're like, well, there are enough students that it it could be they were only taking eight students or 12 students and a random list of those students would allow enough kids. That's why you said it's not an exact science. >> We tell them about the pottery. >> Yeah. is this this was born out of an experience with we had a class was a great class.

066It was an advanced pottery class and it was only open to students who had taken the pottery class or had previous experience outside of school uh with pottery. Although it was a neat opportunity in reality the enrollment wouldn't support it because there's, you know, we probably only had 40 kids, right, that in the school that would qualify to take it and then those 40 kids were choosing among 50 different courses. And so we didn't want to have something that was going to face enrollment challenges right off the uh right off the bat. >> Majority is the wrong word. >> Yeah. >> Any suggestions? >> Problem solver, but [laughter] ask more question. Yes, please. So, uh, and maybe this was inevitable that we're going to get here. Um, could you offer a course that was um

067that that the majority of students if if they wanted to could not afford it? >> I would say no that we could we would not offer that course. I mean, I would say that we so far we've got a track record of getting kids uh on the courses that they sign up for. >> Right. But I guess according to the if I'm looking at the language in the policy that's been put forward, right, the criteria would be the majority of the student body >> would be able to afford it. So, and right now that's the the number that's in there is $2,000, which is uh you know, they can't exceed that cost, >> right? And so, how do we determine whether or not a majority of the student body could afford a $2,000 trip >>

068because we offer them scholarships. So picked >> I mean that's >> so and and the record that we still have is that literally 100% of the students that have come forward and have stated a need uh that they have ne we have never once gotten a scholarship application where a student hasn't then gone on to go on to the trip. Granted, I know there's the argument that we don't know the kids who don't ask, but I'm going to assume that's not 50% of our uh our our student body. And we have and we've had this conversation before, you know, >> and one of the takeaways that I'll bring back from the surveys was that the biggest responses were keep March intensive the way it is. There was a whole amalgam of where you were on

069that scale, but the big takeaway is people want to keep this going >> and there were concerns about cost. There are concerns about equity and a few other things, >> but that it didn't they didn't want it to go away. Now, in terms of the finance application, we the policy committee spent many hours on this going back several months and we ran everything from everyone should submit this need application to make sure that not not anyone is missed or to catch the people that you that aren't applying at all to your point, but then there were a lot of discussions about staff burden and who's validating these metrics and if you're getting 700 a year every year, >> that's going to be an issue. And then we went the other way like what happens if

070we don't do this at all and then that other problems came to light with that. So we don't I don't think we came to a clear consensus on any way to improve the short of the current standard. >> What can you clarify what you mean by 700 a year? What was that? >> If we asked every student and made us a requirement to fill out and submit this form. >> Okay. Sorry. I want another comment about reform itself. >> No, go for it. >> No, just the the in the uh section on uh program policy and approval. Um it says that when they submit the proposal that the daily schedule would be available. Um I think that's a reasonable expectation to expect for uh you know a travel proposals. However, I feel like for the

071local options that there's a lot of time between March um and and people are working out the details of their program. uh and we haven't had a problem uh with that. So I would ask that that not be uh included in there because the schedules the schedules get worked out. I think my fear would be is that if it were to stay um it would stifle innovation and people would be reluctant to bring forward new ideas because they would still need time to to to flesh out the dayto-day schedules. But you know teachers handle that really responsibly and we've had good results. So I would say I remind me where you are. It's under program proposal and approval. It's in the second paragraph. So all necessary details such as daily schedule, anticipated cost, transportation, off-site

072needs, risk management. I would also say like things like transportation from that can be a difficult schedule because you don't know if you're going to have a group of 20 or you might have a group of 12 and it's going to involve a school bus or if it's going to involve other forms. And so we work out all of those logistics in between, but uh I think October is a little bit early uh to have those details, especially for the local proposals. >> Well, I don't disagree with you at all that October seems really early, literally half a year beforehand. >> But then if it's not due d in the proposal, when would it be due for non for the local stuff? >> Well, I mean, I think that gets eventually >> Yeah. it get

073works out and this I would say by you know typically by February 1st we would have a sense of like a stu of of an off Skype site schedule of course all of that is subject to change because you know weather can change and and plans can change and sometimes someone who was going to come in and present they can't do it on that day so the details get worked out but it's not a uh >> it's you know for some it just definitely not in October I would say February 1st or February 1500 somewhere and you folks may not know there's not an R version on this and that is by by design we we set that back to administration to implement a lot of the R things on this I think this can

074be part of that now >> one more time >> um in can somebody possely explain why under evaluation and reflection at the very bottom why did we strike attendance record That was a conversation we had involving Gary is right now. >> Yeah. >> Attendance is reported to the main office by all of the class. So in a sense the aggregate attendance number is recorded like a typical school day would be and so essentially that information would be redundant because it's been reported every day. That's it. Yeah. >> But we do evaluate it based on attendance every every year. We're like, are there more students missing this year? Is it, you know, are they voting with their feet? So, I I think it's not the staff submitting the attendance record, but attendance record is a good

075thing to evaluate. >> Yeah. And again, they're submitting attendance every day of March 10th. >> Okay. >> Good to move. And so the next one after that is the the actual general margin intensive policy IMIP. Like I mentioned, we've gone through many different things on this. There are sections and discussion points about the selection of the programs, how to apply to them, expectations of behavior and conduct, including things we ran by our attorney in terms of what happens if the trip needs to end as a result of someone's behavior and how to get them home safely yet securely without impacting the chaperones for the remaining students. Issues on the environment and um the cost of attending these programs. And I also want to separately remind you guys that we are also concurrently working on an

076international travel policy which will get at some remaining concerns from other trips that is not being addressed here but will be coming down the pipeline. So there is a lot here. Um like I said this is all new so happy to entertain discussions. that will come back um in the second reading. But we tried to be get at the points we wanted to make in terms of um march intensive expectations and setting but not going so granular as to be overwhelming or burdensome to the administration. Tara, >> it just sounds like that the November 20th deadline mentioned in the enrollment and selection section for financial aid may be problematic if it's not really our deadline. So, to think about it was only four. >> Do you have a concern with with the with the specific

077date or having a date? >> Um, it was just represented that November 20th is not a hard deadline. So, if we put it into policy and that's not the actual practice, then that would be problematic and I wouldn't support that. I would rather have the policy be helpful to the implementation process. So it sounds like November 20th is the hard deadline only for travel. >> Yeah. But even then there's there are times when a student drops out of it and the student fills it is going to need financial aid and so they might be applying in January. So, so you know, you know, uh, >> and if it said something like on aver basis and then like as available, we haven't run out, but you know, if if you know, they're they're late. >> November

07820th or by waiver fun should be sub, >> right? Instead of must. >> Okay. Um, I'm I'm not tied to a specific date. If we if one want to amend is maybe put a series of dates in the R version of how to implement this carefully while still maintaining the the gist of the idea. >> Sure. >> Within the policy itself. >> Um Neil, did I see your hand? >> Yeah. >> Um I have a few. >> Okay. >> Um what does it mean to say all students in grade 9 through 12 are required to participate? >> Welcome. >> Thank you for that, Deb. Um >> are you in the attendance policy? >> Eligibility. Yeah. >> So that address um there was a concern about how march intensive is required or not. Whereas there was

079some discussion about what happens if parents don't agree with the march intensive idea or they want to pull their kids out and do some sort of family program or things of that nature. And this was a reminder to everyone who's reading this is that this is a standard standing required opportunity that is a course where attendance is mandatory just like with all other things on a typical curriculum day. >> Is it required for graduation? >> It is. I don't think necess required for graduation but attendance is required at all regular events and like a day at school. Um, uh, so, so I I did look at the Hannover High attendance policy and I guess I'm having a hard time, uh, interpreting the attendance policy as it applies to March intensive. >> Okay. So, >> um,

080there are a lot of things in the attendance policy that talk about students needing to make up what they missed. Mhm. >> Um there's items in the attendance policy referencing co-curricular activities and the ability to participate in those if you didn't have an excused absence at the school. There's a lot of I guess gray area in March intensive participation and how the attendance policy applies. Um and so that's one area. I guess I'm just a little curious as to how to interpret required to participate. Does that mean that if a student fails to participate then what? >> No, I think it might be more required to participate like they're required to participate in advisory. Like there's nothing there's no grade for advisory. This has more than that. It has a participate or a non-participate. So

081we record it. But if a kid skips out of advisory, we follow through from an attendance standpoint. So when there have been sports during march intensive like the hockey team last year was playing and we had to send out a reminder to everyone like if you don't show up for part of your march intensive you will not be able to be in the state final right and so all of those still apply. There's the 5 10 15 or 20 day rule that where you write home to parent. So if you miss four days of March intensive, that's four days of school mist that then we follow through and say your student has missed. But you're right, like the exact they were supposed to be in maple sugaring and they broke their hip and couldn't come.

082We don't make them make up Maple Sugaring whereas like you missed your chemistry class. You kind of have to make up the chemistry work. So like that doesn't that's not a one for one. But like in terms of co-curricular sports, in terms of expectations to be there, that that piece is is there much like an advisory would be. Um, and then if they're not there, it says NP or UP on the transcript, but they didn't participate or they were nonparticipate. So, it's recorded there. But advisory is it I mean, I'm trying to make a parallel for you. there like things that aren't on graduation credits that we have in school that might >> Right. So I guess I guess where I'm struggling is you know what is what is the line all students in 9

083through 12 are required to say it doesn't by not participating in any or all of those years a student could still graduate correct >> yes >> and we do margin in the attendance part just the one sentence which we slim down used to be a lot longer attendance will follow Hannover High School's attendance policy and if there are some inongruities where we can >> sure >> talk about them. But just like to Julie's point, if something happens where you have a separate curriculum conflict or you're injured in some way, you will not have to make it up if you miss March intensive for that reason. >> Yeah. Um, sorry, different topic. What And what does it mean? So, in order to participate in March intensive, students need to be must be in good academic standing.

084Does that mean just neither expelled nor suspended or is there something else into that? >> Is there something in the handbook about the definition of good academic standing? >> We have for for sports we've had that right where you have to be passing a certain number of classes. I don't think >> everybody participates no matter their academic standing. Like we wouldn't say to someone you can't be take part in March intensive. So like to us that doesn't need to be there. Um, sometimes we have kids who are woefully behind and so we have a few support people here and they'll take half of a day of march intensive each afternoon to stay here and work with teachers to catch them up on other school work. >> So for those kids, we've sometimes excused them from

085intensive to make up other work. >> I don't think that's ever been punitive. I don't think it's ever been a kid like they're going to have to do this. It's usually been they're recovering from a concussion or they're, you know, they've got some other circumstance and they sort of agreed upon that this would be good for this particular student, but but it's a very small number of students and sometimes it's it's it's not any but you know the whole idea is that sometimes kids who are not uh in academic good standing can thrive in March intensive uh and it can be a real uh great week for them. So I think uh we would not want to like use that at all in aative way. It might just be for something helpful. That's >> so

086we don't know why that's there. So it can go away from our standpoint. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. And then the and then the rest of that sentence references no outstanding disciplinary issues. So the the discipline stuff is a is a little tricky because there were non-public examples of situations where staff members and and Julie herself would not be comfortable with certain students traveling due to behavioral concerns. And so that was put in there and it's going to largely be at Julie's discretion based on the conversations we had. >> Right. But would that student otherwise then be allowed to participate in regular classes? I think that would be a discussion with Julie. Right. >> Right. I think that we would find a place for them, but it may not be um in the sword fighting one

087if they have a habit of beating up their classmates. Like, you know, I'm just trying to think of like what they're not too we don't cross this bridge very often. And then we're we're very clear now after some advice to of a misstep we have in the past to um to make sure that if that reason is because of a 504 IEP that we just make sure they have a one-on-one aid with them so they can participate in that one um whatever that one might be that where the behavior might be an issue >> which is a great segue to my next question. So, for students that are on an >> IEP, >> um would they be what I what I hear you say is they would not be denied participation in any march intensive.

088Instead, what might happen is that they would require a one-on-one aid to attend with them. >> And we've had this in the past with a travel one, two, where a one-on-one aid was sent also for a student. Um and we have a family who has donated to our scholarship fund for specifically those type of students who might need >> so the so in that scenario the one- on-one that student and the one-on-one aid would be fully covered by scholarship funding. They would not be required to self-pay for the trip >> for sure. the the one-on-one aid the student if they've applied for financial aid might be covered or might not be depending on if they need aid or not. >> Yes. And that was a large part as well as in the staffing hourly employees

089discussion from earlier. >> Yeah. And one last one of course >> um you had mentioned the the scenario previously where um these sometimes happen during uh like a sporting season. >> I've got a question that's the opposite of what you were talking about before. Could a student that was participating in a sport, so a student athlete in a sport that was actively going on during March intensive, um they have a requirement to remain here for that sport or could they participate in a travel march intensive and not be found in violation of some sort of sporting policy? >> So, it tends to happen that it's the playoff season when this happens if sports are still going on. And so conceivably a student could decide that they want to go on a travel march in pensive

090and leave their sport early. You would rarely find a student who might do that, but that would be a choice that they might make and the consequence would be you're not playing in the playoffs, but they're not here anyway to play in the playoffs. And then there might be a whole bunch of social consequences from their teammates because they're probably varsity athletes and often captains of teams and things like that. So I think a lot of those students, we let them know ahead of time the playoff schedule. They make decisions in the in the past a couple kids flew later like they did their playoff game and then they flew later to meet the group. um you know because they tend to be our older kids and they right so that has happened students have

091decided last year there were a number of playoffs so most of those students just didn't sign up for travel march intensives or if they signed up for m travel march intensives they signed up for ones that started on Wednesday you know and because they knew their playoff game was over so it's complicated when in terms of that I I mean, they're all choices. It's the same thing as we have playoff games the night of the jazz band concert, you know, or whatever it is. And so then students have to choose, are they going to jazz band, which is their class? Are they missing their playoff game? The teachers have to sort it out. It often gets ugly in my office as everyone's trying to figure out who is more important. Um, but >> the reason

092why we put it though in that week in March is because we're trying to find that sweet spot in between the spring and sports season, the spring and fall, the spring and winter season so that athletes have the most choices available. Last year, we ended up when we made our choice, we made our best guess, but we picked the wrong week and it ended up overlapping more. So, winter athletes had fewer fewer options. I'm a parent of a winter athlete, so I can assure you that was not like the intention to do that. Um but uh this year you know we we've actually done it well because uh there's maybe with that first weekend but again plans can be made and there's still a number of options that where they wouldn't have a departure until

093later on and rare cases with you know parent approval and also it works on the trip they can fly late and meet the group after dismiss one day the chair's discussion I have one more question so go for it um a two-part question, does this policy eliminate um independent study? And the second question is um you know, we've had scenarios in the past where families have used this as an opportunity to go on a vacation. >> How does this this policy or does it even address that? >> The we we eliminated independent study anyway. So there are no independent studies this year. um based on feedback from the board, but also we started it because it was feedback from the board. We and then it sort of ran its course. Now we're sort of like

094it's no longer so we're trying it this year with no longer which might take a couple years to catch up because some people who had independent plans, right? And so now suddenly it's like oh I thought my senior year I could write an independent and that's not an option anymore. Like we didn't give anybody lead time on cutting it but we've cut it. Um the other question I think is maybe more your question. >> Sure. >> Um so the question about vacation is that this does follow the pre-existing attendance policy where if students are sick or have pre-existing family commitments or have a doctor's appointment or whatever it is, yes, they can take their kids out of school, but if they're gone the whole week for something like this, it will be noted in the

095attendance. So here's where I think right >> and under transcript as a nonparticipation. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Well, I mean I still say I still maintain that there's gray area then because the attendance policy says they need to make that up. What does that mean in the context of a march intention? >> I think Julia is asking the same thing about advisory. What would that mean in context of advisory? like you would >> well advisory is more of a a require I mean that goes back to the required statement right >> right I mean we do an advisory lessons and I don't when my kids are absent I don't actually go over the lesson with them right for the one that they missed >> right maybe I should um but I don't I don't

096know >> I think a lot of them would be impossible to say they're required yeah if you miss Friday's math class no matter what you will have still missed Friday's math class no matter how much work you I don't think I understand your concern. Are you saying that people may choose to just skip March intensive and go on vacation anyway? And what is the consequence of that? >> Correct. >> Oh, is that Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And the only the only thing would be transcript if you feel like that's a consequence. I I I mean I wouldn't want to have NP on all of my years. >> Yeah. >> Like I I wouldn't want to send that off to a college, but I you know I don't know. Do they care? >> I'm not the

097college acceptance person. And then they have if they're not seniors, they go to the bottom of the lottery. And so a lot of kids don't want that to happen. >> Um but then like any given day and we often have better attendance than a normal school day. Um except for maybe Friday sometimes, right? And so on any given day there are number of parents who excuse their kids from school. If we were Vermont, we would automatically count that as all absences are equal and there's a certain amount that you can a number that you can build up. We've had that conversation in the office today whether we should start just saying it doesn't matter that you're excusing your kid. It's an absence anyway. All absences are kind of equal anyway. If you missed the work,

098you need to make it up. You But we but historically as a school, we've trusted parents to excuse. We have an absent excuse code. It's AE. This today in the office we were talking about changing it to AK, absence known because it just means when it's excused, we don't have to chase them down 89 to bring them back, right? Versus AU, you don't know where they are. Um, but AE gives the sense of like we've excused it. It's fine that you and normally it's fine that you're sick, but it might not be fine that you have a haircut, right? So there's different reasons why people miss, but they miss more for non-Marchch intensive days than March intensive days. >> Just for >> Oh, I would say the big piece of this really is the transcript

099and having it noted on the transcript because I feel like that is it signifies whether students have participated or not and it's almost that would appear like a failure of a class. So it' be similar to not making up work if you're not participating and that is noted on transcript. So I think that does encourage some students to participate as well. >> I mean I think it's the same question that would apply if a family decided to pull their kids out to travel any other week, right? Like you can do that. There are consequences for your child and for, you know, work, etc., >> right? >> But you can make the choice, right? Like, >> and Kelly is chiming in as well. Um, go for it, Kelly. >> I guess I I'm just curious, is

100this like a a really big deal with are there lots of families going on vacation? I mean, I don't know. My kid my kid would never let me pull him out for March intensive. Like, he wants to be there, you know? So, I know that's not every kid, but I guess I know we need a policy. It sounds like there's some really good teeth actually to this. And I I just sort of feel like the one off, if it's oneoff, if it's, you know, 20 people, then let's chat about it. But I don't know. I'm wondering if we can maybe let this for this year at least and move on maybe. I don't know. Thank you, Kelly. >> I am >> Carrie. >> Um, I think this wasn't something I noticed, though. As Neil was

101asking his initial question under eligibility, I do feel like there's two sentences seem at odds, like all students are required to participate, but then they must be in good academic standing or no outstanding disciplinary issues. So, there's something about that language that does feel like it needs some tweaking because it feels like it's saying two different things. You you are required, but if you're not in good academic standing or if you have a disciplinary issue, you're not allowed to. So there's something about that language that feels like it could use tweaking. It just >> I I agree with you. Then Kasan should point that out and thank you for doing so. Although I won't point out that some of the disciplinary issues would be related to specific march intensives classes such as traveling or stuff

102involving >> right and I think there could be something I mean I think it'd be great to have something in there that there's something around the discretion of >> leadership you know or administration has the right to maybe say use discretion based on >> you know but I think those two sentences seem like they're saying two things you must participate and you also must be in good academic standing like well if I'm not in good academic standing. What does that mean I'm supposed to do during this test? >> Yeah, I do recall there were some questions about what does good academic standing mean? >> And it's my understanding from from Julie that there are definitions available elsewhere, right, that would cover that, Julie? >> Yeah, I just think that one probably should go that line.

103Yeah, I just feel like that sentence is if it's something we want everybody, it sounds like it's something you want everybody to participate in regardless of and it may mean your academic standing, your disciplinary status, your IEP, 504, your needs may indicate what is a better fit, but that the school's going to work to find a program that fits with your interest and what's being offered. Maybe that goes into enrollment and selection to your point versus eligibility. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I do know we will address that when this comes back. Anything else from anyone? This Oh, Kelly, do you have hand one more time or is this the same one? >> Oh, same one. Sorry guys. Same one. >> Everyone ready to move on for now? Come back to this with some chest. >>

104Seeing some head movements. Okay, the next one might be a little bit bigger. We'll see. because this is a device and internet conversation. >> So, um we did have some guidance from the state on this although it is by no means uh clearcut from NHSPA. I do want to note again like I said before we have a lot of collaborators on this including uh wish for collaboration from parents and students to have us all be on the same page from this. We did have look at the surveys for this which were pretty much universally in support of a bell-to-bell no device policy. a huge support. Actually, smart watches and other similar devices are included in this. There was a lot of conversation about the difference between on-site at the schools versus off-site, off hours or

105during school hours. What happens during extracurricular transportation and busing? Do volunteers have the authority to take phones away from students? Um, [clears throat] what happened? Now there no social media from the schools including for things like sports and other extracurricular activities which is current practice. So there'll be a change from there. That also did come from the state. The logistics of storing 700ish phones and how to retrieve them in a quick and orderly fashion before the buses show up. whether we need to do some sort of yonder pouch or similar, which for those who don't know what that is, it is a device that a student would carry with them almost like a mini backpack that would actually cut off the phone's ability to work as long as it's locked in the backpack. You've seen

106that at concerts and things like that lately. The what would the violations be if the code of conduct is violated, which has been changed several times if we look at the coloring exemptions to the rules based on IPS, 504s, or some sort of medical need. All these things went through the gamut and we hit what we thought was the best way to address all these things. We did have a lot of students and teachers and faculty and parents in the room during this conversations and we did the best we could. >> So I'm happy to discuss further. There's a lot here of course but now would be the time. >> A question because we have an open canvas. >> Yes. which could come up. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, um, say the kid is at a

107co-op and they're buying fried chicken and French fries. Yep. >> And they want to pay use Apple Pay. Are they violating the bell to bell policy? >> Yes. This exact example didn't come up. >> I mean, I was there the other day. By the way, the co-op should open here because they are literally all there. aside that's that exact thing did come up as did the differences in pricing now between the co-op and the cafeteria here. I think it was a surprise to the committee members that the co-op is actually now substantially cheaper than our own cafeteria which threw us all for a loop but that did come up exactly where we landed on yes that is considered to be use of the policy which would violate the state laws. >> Julie >> and I

108have a problem with it. >> I do too to be honest. Yeah. Absolutely. Like I feel like when they leave campus, we can't police it. I'm not sending people out to check. If the kids are walking through school and we see a phone in their pocket because they're walking out the door, our staff are not going to chase them down. >> Like they they need to use their phones off campus for Apple Pay. >> Um sometimes it's so their parents might feel comfortable when they leave the building knowing where they are, especially if they decide to drive somewhere in the middle of the day. like I that we c we can't even enforce it and an uninforcable law is just like forget it. Like we're we're done. It's like everyone's like he he we have

109it at the co-op and we're violating something. >> Yeah. These exact because you were saying in council cuz I was like well what's bell to bell like bell and you were like just don't worry about it like it's not that literal but like if it's that literal then it's problematic. And that is where we and Robin will chime in in a second here. But that did happen where our open campus exemption specific to the high school. Remember this is a school. This is a policy for all four schools. It's not the high school just the high school. But that example did come up as well as the students driving themselves to a doctor's appointment or something like that. Um, Robin, >> we did say that exact thing that we would not be able to police

110off campus that felt better within our school system. >> There's no way that we would have the manpower to be wandering around >> in downtown mechanism. Like if students leave campus for Mich and then Carrie, we'll have a conversation. This is this is just a question about the fact that the language says from when the first bell rings um when we don't have bells, >> right? >> So I I was guessing that it came from this the NHSBA this way maybe. >> I don't know. I mean I know the law says bell to bell, but if we don't have bells, why are we including reference to that >> in the policy >> in the first? >> Yeah. And then >> well it also says dismissal though >> right and this is one of those things

111where um refresh my memory of Robin and Marcela but this did not come from NHSBA >> right we're not the first one with the policy to actually bring it in >> we took this from some of the um >> the state right >> yeah the state says >> but do we have to >> I think we could say >> start I don't mean Yeah. Then just just remindful this is coming down at as a new state law. >> Yeah. >> So we have that >> to to work with here. >> Yeah. >> But it is so and it is >> NHSBA has not brought forward their own version but other schools um such as Lebanon have >> and so we all are trying to race here and I I will point out there's some pressure

112from the state on this where they are telling us this is the first time they've done this. >> Yeah. that we have to send them our version once it is ratified and they want details and that has never happened before for any other policy. >> Yeah. >> So the state is watching >> I have two curiosities and one open can works that is not for us to get into but just a policy to think about. Um, I'm just wondering if there can be language in the same way that changing like the word bell to like startup and end of if there's language around on campus. Uh, you know, because we will not be the only open campus high school like this is going to be something that other districts are struggling with. I think the

113other thing that comes up for me when I think about Bell, I think about uh social media. I think and then just again professionally my role as title nine person like what happens when something happens on social media during the time that they are at the co-op that violates title N is that on the school because it's during the school day and it's and so I just think about like >> extra like we're not going to police the co-op >> a but it's it's not an answer that I think I have to be perfectly honest it's just a curiosity I have about statewide how are we clarifying because The state law is that they're not allowed access to the devices. Period. If a child if something happens on social media during the school day violating

114the law like I just like >> like what >> ideally they wouldn't know about it. They don't have access to social media. Right. But if they have their but if the phone if it's happening if it's harassment um you know over social media during the school day on a phone and like the school you know I I'm just curious like if we say you can have we're not going to police it because you're off campus but it's happening during the school day. I and I don't have an answer. I'm just curious. >> Well we have students a typical during the school day. >> Yeah. >> Right. Like we I mean these things happen, right? So, you know, they've broken the law during the school day. We consider that a misuse of off-campus, [clears throat and

115laughter] >> right? They're off campuses. >> And then obviously like even if it's at home and there's a social media something, right? >> We try not to we do not want to police social media, but if what they do >> bleeds into the school and it's causing a disruption at school, we address it. Whether it's at 9:00 at night >> at the co-op at the right like so if it's if it's disrupting the school day because it's harassing someone or whatever we'll deal with it and if they break the law when they're off campus we we then take away off-campus privileges for a certain period of time right because they're not using their off-campus privilege wisely. >> Yeah. I just think it might need to be like I don't in this to some degree because

116and not specific to Hanover to be honest. I'm curious about other high school across the state. Like open campus is a common thing and Apple Pay is a common thing, you know, like I just like >> and we we went down several rabbit holes on this. Like we met for roughly five hours on this >> and some of the other things that came up would be like where's the border of the high school and like if someone takes one step past that and they can be on the alto we can do nothing. >> Well, and again I think it's like things like that >> to go back to Neil's point about like every there's going to be a million different situations. I think to ignore off-campus in the policy is to create situations in which

117Julia and Robin are dealing with these as opposed to like is there a way to name something about off-campus expectations more clearly in the policy >> then going at the state guidance I don't I don't recall someone correct me if I'm wrong we've looked at but I don't recall there being an exemption for open campus or they're at a doctor's appointment >> and I don't mean an exemption I mean just a naming it's going to happen >> I think the state is >> when you're off campus And if you break the law, it'll be, you know, you lose the privilege, like something identifying like not an exception, just an acknowledgement that it's >> I I don't disagree with you. >> Yeah. Um, Gina then will >> I think I just have to express a personal

118tension that I have as a board member as a human being is I think I respect that there's the law that has been put into place and that we're there are good reasons for why we're trying to limit the children from using their phones. And I think it puts our educators in really awkward position of being police all day long instead of doing what they're supposed to do. Yeah. >> And so my personal preference would be off-campus is off campus and if somebody like that to me like if someone steals in the co-op is a they broke the law just like they broke the law here and it's not on Julie and her team to deal with and not on us frankly either. It's like at some point part of high school is learning to

119grow up and to deal with laws, right? And be an adult. And um that's just my personal encouragement to our board is that we be thoughtful about making a policy that is supportive yet is not so locking us into things that I don't want our teachers to be police. It is >> Yeah. And we have to be careful that as well. There's a hilarious section in the state's technical advisor that spends a good paragraph making the point of our teachers are our collaborators. They work for us. This is not their job. They need to stay out of this. They're all we're all doing the best for our kids. Then the next paragraph starts with teachers will police these. >> So it's this is a rock in a hard place type of argument where it's how

120much do we blowout or think or think about the various water businessments which are perfectly valid >> versus how much do we follow state law and the state has expectations that we are going to give them a law or a policy that they are comfortable with. >> And how much we were growing up we weren't supposed to smoke in in the bathrooms and the teachers would stop you or not but it was right. It was like again I mean >> then that takes us to the compliance piece of this where this took a and we'll go into this rabbit hole then Neil I know you're still waiting but in terms of the consequences and violations section where the first thing is you have to uh the first warning is you report it to the principal's

121office for documentation of the incident. Second and subsequent offenses will be we take away the device for the rest of the day. There is a third thing that changes it from offense to incident which we were very deliberative with our word choice there which is sort of an escalation of could be anything behaviorally or I'm not going to or I refuse which gets into other code of conduct violations in terms of student behavior where at that point we would notify the parents or guardians and give have a carve out there that we do have the ability to refer to counseling or mental health personnel if it's possibly an addictive type aspect for phones or things like that. So that is sort of the where the concept will be depending on what you're talking I brought

122it to the co-op type of thing where okay that's a we document it somewhere that if it becomes a continued problem there are concerns we're doing for the student there's escalation but that we're not on the first thing >> I would hope in this I I don't want to go I'm not I'm not going to say I'm not going to rabbit hole I don't think we should be in the getting involved with what kids do off campus I I really feel strongly I don't think that this is the responsibility ility of our high school administrators to be >> okay. But >> I will point out that to Julie's own point of Rob, it's that they often have to in in other circumstances >> if they do something wrong with it. If someone goes to the

123co-op and uses Apple Pay to pay for their lunch, I guess I'm having a hard time seeing how Yes, even though it's violating a policy, they're like that maybe that's the only way they have money. I I mean, like it seems like we're can get into like I don't know. They could get cash. I know you can do. I don't want to argue with it. I'm just saying I think it gets into like are we are we focusing our resources in the right way on like helping people not pay for a chicken sandwich and a banana because they use their phone and that's how they typically pay for things versus they're actually doing what Carrie said where they're abusing somebody on social media. Those are different those to me are different situations. Um Neil and

124then Kelly. >> Um for the next reading of this, would it be possible to get reference to the statute that we need to comply with? >> That's a great point >> because as I'm reading through this, I want to make is it and is it just one statute or is it multiple? >> It's one new one. >> Yeah. because there's there's things in here that strike me that are outside of the scope of what the statute might have culp. There's a reference to it says under B restrictions in that third paragraph it says however in no event shall personal communication devices be used in locker rooms, bathrooms or any other location. that strikes me as a different statute and and I just if we're going to include it in here that's fine but I want

125to make sure that I understand you know what things are resolving which statute requirements um and that we maybe don't you know step any further than is necessary >> um for some of these things right I mean I fully agree with others um you know in some comments that are made around the table right I think in a in a more reasonable environment. Like a lot of this stuff, we wouldn't be arguing over off-campus stuff, but we've been dealt a hand of cards by a legislature and we may not necessarily agree with it, but it doesn't mean that we don't have to comply with it. Yeah. >> Right. And I think to Carrie's point before, um, I would hate to be in a situ like, you know, that that Title N situation may pop up

126regardless, but if it pops up in the context, um, where the school district might be somewhat liable because we were supposed to be withholding that device from that student during that time that that student did the online harassment and bullying. We're in a different situation than, not by our own doing, because an idiot legislature decided to make a law that is really not well thought through. was a first time perfect. >> Yeah, Julie noted um Robin and Julie your hands up. No, I'm sorry, Kelly's hand. Sorry, Kelly. All right, go for it when you're ready. >> No worries. Um I seem to recall that students have to sign out when they leave campus, which to me, I mean, if a student is homesick for the day, they're not present at school. they are very much

127allowed to use whatever device they have at home I assume and we certainly wouldn't be expected to police that. So to me, there might be some language where if a student signs out, they are considered no longer present at school, right? I mean, we we wouldn't track we would know that they were gone, but we wouldn't expect them to appear for a fire drill at that point because they are not present at school. Um, and I feel like there might be some loophole there, not in a negative sense, but in like one of the and I I I I like your point. I don't disagree with it at all. I will point out that what happened repeatedly at policy and I think this had a little bit of conversation with the state as well. will

128let me correct me on this if I'm wrong. is the concern that if we keep finding different carveouts in [laughter] whatever shape or form that is um does that get away from the tenth of the law which remember actually has was very bipartisan had a lot of um positive feedback from many people and from the vast majority of our parents >> for sure and I will say I agree that I mean one of the unintended consequences here is going to be that students will be leaving campus to check their phone, right? And grab a chicken nugget or whatever. But that's going to be part of the, you know, part of the outcome. >> I just don't know. And and I get that that violates the spirit of it. And I'm all for this the community

129aspects of this law. I think, you know, we all know there's great educational benefits. There's all kinds of community benefits, right? Um but I also agree with everyone's points that we there's only so much we can police. I don't know how I'd pay for things if I couldn't use Apple Pay. I'm just not that organized a human being anymore. And you know, I I think if they have signed out and they do sign out, right? I'm not misremembering that. >> Yeah. They don't just >> Yeah. They they don't just walk out the door, right? So they sign out, they're no longer present at school. We don't count them in our, you know, current headcount at school. Same with staff, right? like staff sign out too um for the same safety reasons. So >> um >>

130the total told us to have the staff do this as part of negotiations and that went out the window pretty quickly. >> Well, I just meant I just meant the sign out. Sorry, I didn't mean to open that can of worms. Um but I I think that might be the answer. If they're not present at school, right? They're not physically present. They're not subject to the law. But that's my, you know, >> Marcel, >> then I did have a question about, sorry, can I add just um the career and tech center? I don't know how that fits into this and the trans. >> Yeah, but I Yeah, I yield to Marcel. >> They are implementing a self at the tech center this year. >> You said self read. >> Self free. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay,

131thanks Marcel. I have two um two things. So one is I wonder how much of this needs to be in the policy. Um in part because of the spirit of the law and in part because of all of these uh very specific ways in which we will be sort of navigating this as a community differently on different campuses. Right? This is a policy for everyone. And if at the high school students are going and using Apple Pay, maybe that I agree we don't want people we don't want to use um uh people to police this. I think that doesn't make any sense. That's a poor use of resources. I think that there are ways of leaving it out of the policy >> um and still allowing implementation at individual schools to cover these things. unspoken.

132>> I also just want to remind us, I think we got into this a little bit with um the spirit of the of the policy, but this is like making lemonade, right? So, we we're handed this, right? And it's an opportunity to have a culture shift. Um and so if we know that this is better for the students, if we know that this is going to help on all of these different metrics, then I think that trying to find ways to just acknowledge that there's going to have to be a different culture change even at the level of maybe um not using personal cell phones in classes. That came up in policy, right? Like in some classes you can take photos of the board like okay well there are ways around that that aren't that

133hard. Like so I think that those kinds of um patterns might have to change within classrooms and within sort of at the micro level but overall it's going to be better for students. And to that point, and Marcel as usual speaks much more eloquently than I ever do, but one of some of the biggest comments we got in complaints about this are actually from middle school parents, not high school parents. And a lot of the concerns from them in terms of my my kids are looking at it during class. They're watching videos during class and not doing anything are not the same concerns that they have at the high school, which I think is more logistical rather than philosophical. Um, so just to remind folks that this is not just a high school level thing.

134We've I hear a lot of whispers out from everyone's mut. >> Oh, maybe it's Kelly. >> Kelly, can you mute yourself if you haven't? Um, but thank you. That said, there's a lot of questions. I think there's a couple things that we'll take back to policy, but a lot of this, I think, is stuff that we'll need to work with. We'll bring the specific state statutes and the state technical advisory put as attachments to the next meeting, but like Marcel said, this is the hand we're dealt. Any further comments specific to this policy? Seeing none, we'll move on. But thank you guys. That was a lot of policies. I think we did a great job with all of them and we will come back. Okay. >> So, shifting right along for just one second. So,

135now March intensive itself. So, Matt has been waiting very patiently. You want to walk us through what's going on for this calendar specific program? >> Well, thanks for having me. It's amazing how like these months have seen me go by. It feels like I was just here. Uh yeah. So anyway, you were given a copy of the March intensive uh program and studies. Um I'm excited by what we have to offer this year. There's sort of the breakdown in the numbers. You'll notice that we have 520 uh local spots. We have 121 uh regional travel. Some of those are in Vermont, New Hampshire. Some of those go as far away as uh New York City. And we have 84 distant travel. long distance travel is defined by anything that involves a uh an airplane. Um

136what I think it's like most about March intensive is just the opportunities that students have to choose from. So if you're interested in a you know professional career path, you know, we've got March intensives that are taking place at Hypertherm and at DOMC this year. Um if it's outdoors, you know, you can you can hunt, you can fish, you can uh learn how to uh winter camp or crosscountry ski or backcountry ski. uh you know, as far as for the arts, you can see that you'll be able to dance, you'll be able to paint, you'll be able to draw. We're excited that we've got a Calderot winner who is uh volunteered to uh instruct the uh the the drawing class. And then, you know, even with building, um you know, whether you want to build

137a house or you want to build a wheelchair ramp or you want to build a high altitude balloon, um there's actual opportunity to to make things. I think those types of opportunities really uh excite kids and of course the opportunity to expand your horizons beyond the Hanover bubble to experience a different culture or a different city. Um I think those also appeal for kids. One of the things I'm excited about is that I think that we've uh you know boosted a little bit our uh our our options for community service. Um we've got depending on whether that you consider lifeguarding a community service. I kind of do. I'm going to go with the number of 95 local spots for uh community service. Um you know those you know we put in some new partners there

138too. We've got high horses uh is going to do a course where the students learn to both care for the horses but how to support people in a therapeutic uh setting. That's a neat one. Um the Norwich Fire Department, Matt Sweat, reached out and they're going to combine with local EMS services to provide an introduction to uh to EMS which I think is uh excited. um that Trails Alliance is uh is back again too, which is good. And of course, the existing relationships with Haven and the uh and cover. Uh one thing that's also nice is that uh this year uh Youth and Action reached out and uh in their effort to promote service with our students that they have uh generously I it was pending their board approval today but I believe they were

139going to do this uh that they're going to actually uh they're going to pay for the local community service courses. So that's, you know, funding of approximately $2,400 to help make those courses uh so they have no fee uh for uh students. Um speaking of donations, one of the things that also really excites me that I want to include is that last year's graduating class, the class of 2025, designated the March Intensive Scholarship Fund, uh as the recipient of their class gift, which I think speaks to, uh you know, the impact that the program has and the importance they see of the the the options that we uh that we offer. Um there are some changes this year. So one thing that you'll notice is that there are not half-day courses. Um I think that's

140something that we're excited about. It's a learning experience. I wouldn't say it's a it's a policy change, but we have dwindling numbers of half-day courses last year. Enrollments in those courses weren't so strong. Uh and then this year we only actually received a couple from staff. One of them voluntarily turned it into a full day proposal. the other one decided to withdraw it and to sign on to a different full day. So we don't have half day proposals. Um it's going to make the registration process easier. But I think also this is what the student demand had sort of dictated uh over time too as well. The other thing as you'd heard from Julie um we've pulled out the independent study. Last year we had only had nine. Uh while we did have some really

141high quality independent studies, it was sometimes hard to filter what was a family trip and what was an independent study. Um and we've also decided that the the really one of the big outcomes in March intensive is the stronger uh community bonds that get established and you know you can't replicate that in an independent study march intensive. We feel like you know the the relationships that get formed are uh are uh are really valuable. Um, other than that, I mean, I do think that there is reduced uh travel uh this year and uh I'm not 100% sure why that is. I mean, I think it's it's a lot of work, I think, to put together a proposal and to plan that and to get it in at under $2,000, but we're excited about the the

142options that we do have. So, knowing that you've got a big agenda, uh I'm going to open it up, I guess, for for for questions. So, as usual, Matt, I'm in awe of all these programs, pretty much every single one of them. So, I accept my jealousies. >> Does anyone have any comments for Matt on these things? I know we had a much intensive conversation earlier. Sorry, we couldn't get the timing to quite align on that, >> but it is what it is. >> This is actually not a question. I just would like to convey my appreciation for the addition of the carbon footprint that came at the request and the work of the environmental studies group. So, I think that's just a really important to have here. Thank you. >> Yeah, I think it's

143an important thing to consider and a really a credit to them because it was their initiative and and they do the work to to calculate when that will be so students can be aware of, you know, what are all of the costs, right, associated with the course >> and they attended several of the March intensive policy meetings as well. So, thanks for that. >> Anything else for Matt? >> That's awesome. Yeah, I'm excited. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> We'll move along now to budget, which we haven't even talked about yet. >> Um, so Neil, is that you? >> Uh, well, I mean, I guess except that it's I thought um it looks like we're missing attachments. So, the budget committee had met um about a week ago. >> Yeah. Um and uh we have

144a revised quick model and the budget guidelines the budget guidelines didn't change from a percentage increase perspective. So that remains just some of the the details of the document were finalized and and confirmed. Um and unfortunately I'm sorry it looked like those items did not get attached for the agenda tonight. Great. Well, in that case we will move along who else wants to chime in. Seeing none, we'll move on to business requiring action. And this is um not the policies, but the expenditures, the minutes, and approval of the March intensive program as it stands this year. Deb, >> I move to approve items B through D by consent. >> Uh do I have a second? Seconded by Gina. And we do have two folks online. So if Michael and Keller can get ready, I'll call

145in a second. Starting with Neil. >> Um I will >> Discussion. Yeah, I'm still uncomfortable about MRI intensive, but we haven't pulled it out of consent agenda. Um, I will vote yes on the consent agenda, but I I >> Yeah. >> Move to approve items B through C by consent. >> Seconded by Renee. Are we okay on the protocols there >> at this hour? Yep. Okay. [laughter] All right. Um approving B and C by consent or going going by Neil. Yes. >> Yes. Day Nelson. Yes. Russell. Yes. Dasi. Yes. Ros. Yes. >> And Michael. >> Costa. Yes. >> Kelly. Yes. >> That is unanimous for expenditures and minutes. I hear a separate approval for March intensives. Deb. I move to approve the March intensive program. >> Seconded by Michael. Okay. All those. We're starting with

146Tara. >> Yes. Rosley. Yes. >> Nelson. Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Odell. No. Hey. Michael. >> Costa. Yes. >> Oonnell. Yes. >> Yes. Not quite unanimous on that one for the notetaker. Moving right along to reports and communications for the chair. I do have a couple things unfortunately. Um I want to point out that service negotiations began this afternoon and is going well although still in the early stages. And additionally, a group of chairs across the state are getting together and we are scheduled typically to meet with the Department of Education Commissioner uh Davis in December and Telly and I are both likely to attend that meeting in person. We'll talk about that more at the November meeting. And additionally, I had the privilege of going with Deb to the NHSBA national meeting or I'm

147sorry, annual meeting last Saturday and I think Debor will talk more about that in the committee reports, but that was um an eye openener and I want to thank everyone for being involved in that. It was it was quite helpful to see how all these policy affirmations worked at that level with roughly 60 people in the room and took an afternoon doing that. So, thank you for that, Deb. And I think that's all I have. there's any questions for me on any of those things. Seeing none, we'll go to committee reports. How about starting with Deb? >> Sure. So, I want to just give you a quick overview. I think the NHSBA will be sending out updated minutes so you can crawl through, but um the important thing is that pretty much everything we talked

148about voting on as a yes pass. There were a couple motions that didn't get a second like conquers, but there was um I think one important thing is that lowering the threshold for infrastructure projects to 50% plus one did pass. It doesn't mean anything's changed, but it did pass. Um and there was uh the conversation about the special education fund which had five previous resolutions ended up uh with this wonderful pivot and we rewrote one of the earlier resolutions. And you might think that sounds like a mess to do on the spot, but this was one of the most cordial meetings I've ever attended. Everybody was pretty much in agreement on everything and we quite collaboratively fiddled with an old resolution and passed it. So it was really it was really actually very very heartwarming

149to be among colleagues who all agreed. There was also a one of the conquered no she's not from conquered shoot one of the board members Michaela Demiter also works in her day job for fake fair funding and so she passed out a sheet and I'll get copies made for people but it was just inviting people to be part of ongoing conversations about fair funding and a schoolboard member from Lebanon sought out folks who wanted to continue to have conversations about the school care um problem. So everybody was kind of we're here under this context but we want to work together under this one and under that one which was really quite wonderful. So and the only down part for the whole day was on the way home but we were on 120 within about a

150half a mile of my home when I learned that Ben is the same age as my son. [laughter] >> I had a moment. No problem. Um, it was funny to watch 60 smart, educated people, including a bunch of lawyers, trying to word Smith something in real time. >> That was a lot of shouting out. But, uh, any questions for Deb on the resolutions? Uh, Deb, any updates on council or the CSTC? >> Um, well, no. Um, I don't think so. I mean, you had Ian report on council and I was actually not there last week. Um, >> well, they gave PSATs last week, so there was no council meeting in the week before. They changed it to an earlier time. Um, but I will say that, um, we do need to have a conversation about

151a schoolboard level AI policy. >> There is one in the QA policy. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Good. Any questions for Deb? >> Another spicy one. >> Will note that there have been some references in various materials to an AI policy. There have been some that have been done at the school level and run by the IT team, but there has not been a board level AI, >> right? >> Any updates from the tuition committee or the Hartford area career tech center committee? >> Yes, correct. >> HCTC met October 1st. Since then, they have a meeting next week, too. I think the next regional one. So, um, yeah, they said it was great. Uh, Jennifer Opalinski is the new adult ed person. So, she kind of went over her goals and how adult ed is

152working and some of the, you know, I think the ask for regional partners around like they're trying to think about programs that both serve staff and the community. So, like they're doing an Excel one um that really spoke to a need that some offices, school offices had said they need their staff to get trained on. Um, yeah, welding. So, she's excited. She's new to the tech center and so she has a lot of energy. Um yeah, awesome stuff. She's connecting with the Haven to think about how to um support them a little and both their population they serve and their staff. Um then there was a discussion we're going to be talking about the calendar at the meeting in November kind of trying to set the calendar which is tricky. Um, there's something interesting. This

153is not in this meeting, but there's there's some interesting calendar things that are going to be talked about that are being driven by different districts needs and contracts. Um, >> is that related to any of the state level discussion for standardizing the remote calendar? >> Well, that happened this academic year. >> Um, and yeah, and we're on it. I mean, we're on this general one. Um, but this has more to do with the start date. Labor Day is next is late next year. >> Um like it's the 7th and there's some districts. So anyway, there's just getting tech centers start on the same day is helpful and there's some glitches. So the conversation um they talked a little bit about budgets and where districts are with budgets. One of the things that came up is

154that new classroom minimums might impact how many students like districts might keep kids so they can hold up like depending on how those laws >> um >> kind of shake out. They may not send as many kids to the tech center because they need their classroom minimums for >> budgetary. So anyway, just interesting. Um, and nobody had had those conversations yet, um, because they were just kind of going into budget season, but that was brought up talked about more. Um, yeah, I think that's a big thing. Health insurance came up, you know, who's in a negotiation season with their staff. >> Great. Thanks for those updates. We appreciate it. Anything for Carrie? >> They're not covered under the statewide healthcare bargaining. Um they are I think the health insurance was just came up as people

155are talking about what is impacting their budgets was healthcare was identified as a primary thing. >> Yeah. >> Uh anything for Eric. Anything for the tuition committee. Tara Kelly Neil anything. >> No. Right. I guess we move right along to superintendent report. Robin are things going on? >> Yes. [laughter] Would you like me to wait and give my report at the SAU meeting? Okay. You want to talk about your attachment or is that also at SAU? >> I can talk about that at SAU as well. >> De will want to hear that at SAU as well. >> And and FYI that Lisa is not joining us tonight. So Deb will be chairing SAU. I'm sorry. >> In that case, uh Laura, would you like to do the same with your report? >> I'm gonna pull

156reverse. I'm do my report now and then not give a report. How about that? >> Okay, here's my report. My report is attached. [laughter] >> Love it. So people have to shift back >> in the downtown. >> Do you want me to talk about it? >> Just the talk about it. >> Okay. >> Notice there is a >> which will be I think an eye opener. >> Yes. >> So Rob which he has asked for a time or two. >> Yes. So, we Debb has been asking for a compilation of all of our burn foundation donations, which really I was so glad that we ended up doing this in a fairly timely manner. Um, but it's great to look at when we look overall. These are from 2012 to the present. We, the Burn Foundation

157has given the district after we receive our next donation, it will be close to $800,000 over the past >> several years. And you can see each year it's been a little bit different, but we broke it down so you can see which schools have received funding, what the funding has been for. Um, and it's just it's a great document to look at to see the wide variety of experiences our students have been given based on this funding and um just the opportunities that we've had as a result of this funding. It's really amazing and I did send um Dorothy a thank you note just saying how appreciative we are for the amazing funding that we've received over time. So >> you're here. >> Um >> thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you to Dad

158>> and Robin and the administration for pulling this together. And of course, thank you to the Burn Foundation as well. Any further discussion on this item besides just general knowledge? >> Can I just clarify? You said it was from 2012. There's no years on this. Are they separated by year? Is that >> each little >> Yes. Each yours doesn't have the years, but it starts with 2012 and each separation is >> is the next school year. Okay. >> Oh, yeah. Robin's copy has the the dates of the of the gift as well. >> Yes. Okay. >> Thank you for that clarification. Anything else >> in that case? Move right along backward with Lauren. So, Lauren, you're going to go for Dresden. >> Yes, I'm going for >> Go for Dresden. Uh, Mr. Chairman, >> Mr.

159Costa, >> um, may I make a point of personal privilege? >> Sure. >> Thank you. Just trying to use Robert's rules here. Um, since we are running just a shade over an hour late. Um, I have to leave the meeting for about 12 minutes, then I'll rejoin. If the SAU meeting starts, I will be prepared to talk about the budget as soon as I plug back in. >> All right, sounds good. >> Thank you very much. All right, now moving on to Lauren's report. What's going on? >> Um, in moments where sometimes it feels like the sky is falling in education, I'm just so pleased to share with you that we got additional grant funding. So, some of our conversations in previous meetings was around um, you know, the impact that uh, less funding from

160our grants may have in Dresden. And I'm just really happy to share that that news has changed since the last time that we met together. So you'll see that update as well as a comparison year-toear um for grant funding and what we will be planning to do with the additional allocations. I also updated you on K12 meetings and continued curriculum work. We had um a wonderful safety planning meeting uh that involved all of our safety teams from the various schools. we learned a lot together and just a really um excellent move in the right direction around our safety planning for the entire district. Um and then just wanted to say that it is continuing to be such a joy to um be out in the schools making that a priority um learning so much from

161the K12 perspective. Uh being in classrooms and seeing the art of teaching that's happening across our district. Um, and I'm able to now uh dedicate some of my time as well to supporting our assistant uh principles in the schools as Robin continues to do work with both the assistant principles and the principles and taking some lead with the assistant principles which is quite fun too around calibration um and learning the district together. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you for that. Laura and the additional grant money is much appreciated. >> Yes, I'm glad I could do that. Any comments for Lauren? >> I'll just say that my SAU summary just refers you to go ahead and look at all of the other updates that I've sent during board meetings at our other districts

162and you can find that information there and there also a report up that's uploaded there if you'd like to take a quick look. >> Thank you much more. >> Thank you. >> And moving on to the business ministry report. Teresa, I hear there are things happening there as well. >> Right. before I forget packets. I love them back. Any discussion about our school care concerns might any other districts although possibly some somewhatish good news given the circumstances on that while Teresa gets set up. So, we have the manifest and we also have the DOE 25 reports 25 cover sheet and the FMS um the DOE 25 cover sheet and everything else. So, we're all good with that all accepted. Um I want to mention that um my notes. Sorry. Um the big thing that um

163as far as our retained earnings, there was 511,000 on retained earnings and due to the talk about insurance, the school care insurance and everything else. So our assessment is about 570,000 that addressed school districts. These be paid by December 31st. Um, as I said before with handover, my opinion is at this time I would recommend doing a special meeting to tap into the um fund balance. At this point we have we had 149 tuition in students which we had budgeted for about 131. So we had a larger enrollment. We did have four dropouts in the last month, but even with that, we should have roughly about 560 in excess revenues, which would be nice, but it's going to go away. So my re so my recommendation is that if we need to have a meeting

164because they don't materialize for some reason or something but in the spring we have a meeting and say okay we need to request to use our fund balance other than that there's there's no reason right at this one moment to do that. Okay. Um, any comments or questions from board members on that approach to the school fair concerns? >> I just I just want to clarify because I'm nervous now about all big sums of money, but this is this is um this is copacetic, right? We can do it this way. We're not going to get an end. >> Yes, I trouble >> talked to the I before everything referred to the attorneys and also referred to our CPA. Yeah, >> thank you. >> Uh Chris, anything else you want to walk us through? I see

165there's some things here on food service and >> the um one of the attachments is the actual VO report that I kind of it's kind of going around the table and then the other attachment is well the other attachment is just my my memo. >> I like the Starbucks prevention program you're putting up here with our cell phone issue. Great. Any other comments for Theresa based on budgets or school care or anything in her report? >> I guess on the food, when is our contract end with the people we're using now? >> We just renewed for the second like it just reuped and everything else. So, we have like we could renew it three more times within the one. But like um if we wanted to or maybe if we wanted to change from them

166when is the first >> we could decide at any given time technically. Oh, we could like we have a camp. There's no >> Yeah. I mean, we might we might see a situation where we're finishing out the year or something like that, but >> I was at the co-op at 11:10 a.m. a week ago, and I would say there's an opportunity for us to explore a different solution given the number of kids I saw in line in the co-op. And that when I made a comment to the checker outer, she told me that this was nothing, honey. which we already know that it there's a large number of students that go off campus >> because the sales at the at the cafe here have dropped tremendously. >> So, it's it's not going to we've been

167we've been talking a lot with the food service company. They were trying different things. They wanted to bring in the coffee station and stuff trying to compete with Starbucks, you know, different different ideas. Cook higherend food. It's going to cost more. >> Everybody's complaining. I mean, >> the co-op's better food for less money. That's what I'm hearing. And so, I think that's why I'm wondering if this isn't serving our children's needs, then could we look at something else? >> And we and we can. As far as like food service companies around here, unfortunately the competition has now been purchased by the same company that purchased the company that's we're working with cap services. They also um bought in bought out the Abby group and stuff. So >> um but I mean we're looking at different

168they already know that we're looking at different options because it can't sustain like this >> and I let them know that. I said we can't you know Someone's got to give. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, like just to clarify, we're like, not only is this did they buy out our competition, but that group that we initially initiated the contract with has itself been bought out. >> I think had a brilliant idea at the last meeting that we should ask the co-op if they want to install something here and then at my high school. >> Pretty good idea. fast food if there is appetite pardon we could pursue this further >> right >> in terms of want to spin something out or some sort of focus um have we been talking like hard numbers

169like do we know exactly how many students buy or used to buy how much it's gone down have we talked to the co-op how much their numbers have gone up >> yeah I haven't talked to the co-op at all in that sense but um as far like our ours was definitely our sales were weren't even getting like $3,000 a day or anything this last year, but now since um Keith who's taken over and everything else in the kitchen um sales are up, I'm looking at the reports and stuff. So now they're up over $3,000 a day and stuff like that. So even though the kids going across the street, they're there's a lot of kids that are going back to the cafe now. Like I said to them before, you're gonna have a spike at

170the beginning of the school year and that's going to level out. So, we could be hitting that level out. So, I think in the next month or so, we'll really know. Well, >> I'd just be curious um looking at other schools too, like is there a general trend like our in elementary school where it's not kids that can walk across the street are parents sending in more food and not getting lunch? Is there a trend in middle, you know, like just thinking about how it plays out, not just with high school students who maybe want their own choice or their own favorite candy bar or whatever, you know, like I'm just curious how that it looks. the high school that has some unique factors, right? >> I know that I know they buy a lot

171of all cart, a lot of lot of chips, >> the other stuff. So, they're not all running across the street to get the healthy food. >> Um, but >> there is a survey. [laughter] >> Linda probably can see um but because of that, there was a survey I think done. It was last spring because we spoke um Deb Robinson and some students came and spoke and so at that point I you know I was kind of hoping to get some hands on the survey see what was in it but nobody seemed to know how you know really where to locate it at so I know that there's another going around and I don't know >> yeah I don't have anything to add >> but there is I wonder I mean Again, I wonder about the

172district why just because if parents are thinking that you know like the high school kids may want their own choice whereas the parents kids the parents if we're seeing low numbers in our elementary school like is that because the parents are saying this isn't healthy you know like your food is not is just chips you know so I'm just curious like where are >> um I mean the race we haven't it's been over there runs it very well >> um Mary and cross they can't say enough good things >> and it's all the same company. >> Yeah. >> So, I I do I really do think that hate me for it, but the open campus >> Yeah. >> really shoots ourselves in the foot because [clears throat] every dollar that's spent outside of the school

173is a loss to us, not to the company. It's strictly a loss to the school district. >> And remember, as a reminder folks, the RMS is all done in house. It's not really a cleaning company, right? We do it ourselves. >> Correct. >> Oh, sorry. >> This last year they didn't profit private invested. >> Yeah. But I there's a lot of struggle mainly at the upper levels with the the um choice. >> Okay. What's the takeaway there? Any further conversation? Okay, great. Thank you, Teresa. Perhaps we'll bring up the weekend. Okay. Um, if you look at the next thing is non-public apart from the higher and you can take a quick look at a CV here. I don't see a huge need for non-public if uh there will be one at SAU tonight. Sorry. Um,

174does anyone Yeah, we'll talk later. Does anyone have a need for non-public specific to Dresden? Seeing none, we are back in public and I will take a motion to approve a new hire. If someone would like to make that motion. Uh Deb, >> I move to appro approve hiring Inger Quaku as a 1.0 learning specialist for the remainder of the 2526 school year as presented. Seconded by Caris and starting online with Kelly, please. >> McConnell, yes. >> Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> And Keany, yes. That is unanimous, noting uh Michael's temporary absence. So, thank you all for that. We'll have a second option for public comment. Does anyone wish to speak on anything that was not already on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move on. If you have any agenda topics for

175the next meeting, please email them to me. The next meeting is currently scheduled for Tuesday, November 18th. I believe that is the week prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and we will see you then. So, thank you very much everyone. We are adjourned. We'll give us a few minutes for the jam updates and uh we'll see you shortly. Have >> to move. Sorry. >> I have to move. Okay. Sorry, Ben. Uh, >> I move to adjourn the meeting at 8:23 p.m. >> Thank you. Seconded by Gina M. Individually Ron starting with Kelly for the actual school reminder. Yes. >> Yes. >> Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> And Keen, yes. Thank you. Everyone, have a good one. >> Okay. So,