001telling us to order right away. I was so excited we actually had a quorum that I just was like, whoa. Um, so thank you so much for being here for a special meeting of the SAU board. I know we have 54 minutes before the Dresden meeting starts, so hopefully we can make it through this a timely manner. Um, agenda review. Any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, um, the public may address the board. No one's online. Linda, do you have anything to say at this point in time? Thank you so much for being here. Um, moving on, we have two items of business for tonight. Um, we have the opportunity if needed to have a non-public session to discuss both of them. Um, but it I don't know that we're going to need a non-public.
002So, um, let's see how it goes. This will be the longest speech I've given as a SAU chair. I usually try not to say too much, but here we go. Um the there are two items for tonight. Um the superintendent, Dr. Badams, has made a retirement request of this board which we are considering. Um if we choose to accept his retirement request, the next item of business is item 4B, the consideration of the of a new superintendent and the hiring process for the new superintendent. So starting with so I guess what I'm saying is for this portion if we can keep the discussion focused on Jay and his retirement and make that clean and then we can move on to the next part once that happens. um back in March. And one other um apology,
003we were supposed to have attached and this is totally on me. Um I was entertaining many teenagers over the weekend and forgot to double check that the agenda had attachments on it. So I will make sure this happens after the fact, but we had planned to attach Jay's redlinined contract so that the public could see what was actually on it. So instead, I'm going to take a little bit of time to delineate the numbers involved. Um, and just want to reassure the general community and the public that we were not intending to hide anything. It was totally my fault that I did not check over the holiday weekend to make sure that attachments were there. So, my bad. Um, back in March, Jay announced his intention to retire effective March 7th, 2026, providing all of
004us with 12 months notice required by his contract. At the end of April, he sent a note to the board with a request to reduce the 12-month notice to six with a new retirement date of September 6th. In addition, sorry, he has requested a couple of other contractual changes. In 2023, we approved changes to the administrator 1 set of standard benefits that apply to all SAU staff. So, just for the public, the SAU is the staff that sits in the building over there. They are the ones that are in charge of special education, payroll, human resources, um the business office. So sort of the and technology. Yeah. And all and all the building administrator and all the building administrators. So it's the administration arm of the building. It does not include teachers or custodial staff
005or other um pareducators, other coaches, none of those. Um so anyway um we approved in 2023 administrative one set of standard benefits that apply to all SAU staff. Jay is asking that these revised benefits also apply to his contract. The substantive change is in the retirement benefit section. The change approved in 2023 increase the retirement benefit payout from 132% of track 4 step 1 to 150. For Jay, this represents an addition of $18,787 paid out over seven years. Jay has agreed to have the first payment deferred to the next fiscal year since we did not budget this request for this upcoming fiscal year. In addition to this change, Jay is also requesting that the board approve a payout for 25 accumulated vacation days. He would work through the summer months providing support and assistance to
006a new superintendent, ensuring a smooth transition. In return for this benefit, Jay is offered to provide the mentoring and consulting services to this new superintendent for up to $32 a month for up to three months. The cost of the vacation day buyout is $17,81. So total the expenses to the district with this contractual change and the retirement request will be $36,588. And that is the question before us tonight. So, as outlined, pertinent information is there was supposed to be a redlinined document summarizing Jay's contract changes that will be posted later and that the cost of the requested changes switching to administrative benefits and unused vacation is the administrative benefits $18,787,000 and paid for unused vacation $17,81. So our question tonight is kind of three parts. One, there's the request to retire effective on in September
00796. A request to change the benefits in admin admin one adopted in 2023 to bring him equal to everyone else in the building. And request for payout of vacation days contingent upon offering his mentoring and consulting services this summer to the incoming superintendent. So there are three parts. And with that, I will stop talking and ask for comments from the board, please. Anyone in the public listening should not be surprised. We did have a non-public session about this. So, a lot of comments were made before Garrett on the mentoring. I thought that was going to be for a period after September once the new superintendent starts. Right. It is. I thought the new superintendent starts July 1. Oh, no. Okay. So, there Okay. Okay. Oh, that's true. Okay. You're right. So, it's going to be
008And I don't know if we finalized the period, but we're talking kind of Septemberish 90. Well, no, it would start then. I thought it would go for either 90 days or 180 days or something. We had said three months. Yeah. Instead of 90 days. So first of the board. Yeah. Then so just to clarify the the three months of mentoring is um as needed up to a certain amount, right? It is not a for you to claim. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Jay. And I would say I I would never not answer the superintendent's call. Should I be called um regardless of who you decide to become superintendent? Uh for as long as I'm like cognitively able hopefully it will be a very long time. Any other comments? Linda, any questions from the public? Just regret it.
009I wasn't going there yet. I'm Yeah, I'm trying to be very businesslike for this portion of it and just Yeah, stick to that. Okay. So, um before we consider the new superintendent, it feels like we should vote on this, which would be a change to the agenda. That feels I'm looking to Neil. That feels like that's something that should happen first. is that we vote I don't know it just feels cleaner to have a vote approving this before we start the discussion of the next superintendent. Yeah. Um I mean if you're asking me for my opinion my opinion is that under agenda review you should have added an item for yes uh decision on the request from the superintendent or the agenda should have included an item for decision in the agenda. It does 7
010A, but it's not until seven as what I'm saying is I like I should have asked to move 7A up and I'm wondering if I'm allowed to do that now because that seems to make the most sense and how to procedurally do that because I'm could Google it, but I'm relying on your brain. You can yeah if um if somebody just wants to propose that you move 7A early in agenda you can honestly talk about 4B if the consensus seems to be that there's agreement that that motion is likely to pass later and then when you get to seven you can just handle the motion one after the other. Okay. Garrett. Yes. Looking at the schedule before I came here. I thought that yes, this was going to happen. Then we have the non-public and
011then you're let me nonpublic. We were going to vote to approve. Okay. This. So I think you just keep your agenda. Keep going. Okay. So our next item would be the discussion on consideration of a new superintendent. Um it still feels weird though. Yes. Dad, it seems to me that if if I was a member of the public, I would want to know what the possibilities were given that we're talking about a significant shift in dates, given that it's almost June, given that um windows for advertising and filling a job. I I think the board has an obligation to balance those two in front of the public, which I think we were planning to do with this discussion. It just feels weird to have that discussion without having first approved Jay's retirement plan. I'm feeling
012strange about it, but I will continue. No, I think it's fine. Okay. So considering of this new superintendent um with the assumption that we ac if we accept Jay's proposal and he leaves in September instead of March as originally planned when he was planning to leave in March that left us time to conduct a superintendent search. Um yeah, at this point in time, the chances of finding a superintendent um who is qualified for this district and able to start in September are probably not very high looking at what's been happening in other districts with their superintendent searches um and what's going on. And so there have been proposals to um move our current assistant superintendent Robin Steiner into the superintendency um when Jay leaves and taking advantage of the fact that she knows the district
013well and knows Jay well and they have a good working relationship and can work together over the summer to make sure there's a smooth transition. Um, we have also considered doing a search and having an interim superintendent um, for the next year. I think those are the two that we sort of landed on um, when this proposal came to us. Is there anything else that forum members feel is important to say right now before we go into non-public debt? I I would simply add that Robin Steiner has an excellent reputation as a standalone educational administrator that she has enjoyed a very positive working relationship with all the people you would have to work with and or supervise. So quite independent from the challenges of timing, we have an outstanding individual in our SAU office and
014I think the board I don't want to speak for the board, but my sense is that the board would agree with that. Michael. Yeah, I would just support what Deb is saying that I would hate to have someone watch this meeting online or on YouTube and think that any consideration of Robin as superintendent is born out of a position of scarcity. Um, it's more on the fact that Robin is a talented and experienced leader who served the SAU really well and has her fingers on the pulse of it and um offers us a strong candidate as things change as they do sometimes. Yeah. And so I just wanted to second that. I appreciate that. And I also would like to add that in a non-public session last month, we did ask Robin to come and
015meet with us to reassure us that she was if we being excited to offer like that we have a candidate in house who is qualified to do this job. We wanted to make sure that she actually would be willing to say yes or be be considered for the position. and she reass she reassured us that she would like to be considered for this position. So Kelly, that's just a clarifying question. I I see that we are likely to go into nonpublic. I'm just curious, are we hoping are there two separate decisions here? One determining our direction forward and then subsequently determining whatever contract we might enter into for the next superintendent. Those are two separate conversations. Correct. Yes. And I think that that even is sort of three separate conversations because one is the J
016contract, two is who's the next superintendent, and then three is what do we do about the contracting with that person? Yeah. And entering into a a negotiation of some sort with whoever that person is. Our hope tonight is tackle those first two and then probably the second one we would I would propose my hope is that we would propose like two of us would go and be the people that would represent the board in a contracts negotiation. Okay. With whoever we select um for the next superintendency and then come back to the board for the June meeting which there is a June meeting so we could get this done pretty quickly. Yes, ideally. Um and then the other thing is we do have a non-public for another personnel item as well. Um there that is
017separate from this this issue. So Ben clarifying question on that who wrote the administrative content for which you which administrative content sorry for 5D. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other clarifying questions or discussion on the possibility of who our next superintendent will be? Because either way, we're losing Jay either in March or September. So, we have to face that. Appropriate. You can make one comment. Sure. I I I couldn't agree with Mike more. um that uh you not only have a person here working right now who will be a great superintendent, you're you're actually upgrading. You're you're hiring someone who has been the architect of a really massive um attempt to not just document the curriculum, but to actually subject our our overall curriculum to a degree of organization and intentionality that we've lacked. uh
018that was noted over 10 years ago when when NEAS reviewed us and she's reversed that in just under five years and really under three years when you take into account the fact that she started as our coordinator before she could get to the business she was really hired for. Uh in that time she has established relationships in every building. She's in the schools more than she's in her office. And I uh I along with the rest of the staff would would be so happy um to see her in that role. And maybe that's more personal than professional, but um you could not possibly hire off the street a better superintendent in my professional opinion. I can add that I've had people off the street hoping that we would consider so when they saw that this
019item was on the agenda. So for that for what that's worth including at the press game moments ago. Okay. With that, may I please have a motion to move into non-public session? Kelly to enter into nonpublic session at 6:24 p.m. under RSA 91- A column 3 item 2 A and B. A second. Thank you very much, Renee. Um, we don't have anyone on We go around. I just want to double checking now. Neil, yes. Sullivan, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nelson. Yes. Yes. Yes. Russell. Yes. And Christy. Yes. And Oh, that's right. It is SA for you. Thank you. Okay. We will head to non-public. Thank you. Hello everyone. We are back hopefully to finish up the public portion of the SAU meeting so we can move smoothly into the Dresden meeting. And thank you
020all for being here. I noticed there's a big crowd for the Dresden meeting. So, thank you for that. Um, okay. We have three items of business requiring action. Um, may I have a motion for 7A, please, to approve the superintendent's request to retire in September of this year? Rene, I move to approve Superintendent Bam's request as presented. Second. Second. Seconded by Gina. Discussion. I know that there's a lot of things that people would like to say. Michael. Um I just want to say that you know the the boards when they come together to do their work um much of it is in the public eye which is appropriate. There are some limited reasons why we're able to conduct um private discussions. One of those is employment uh and personnel matters. And so obviously there's been
021a lot of discussion about the direction of our superintendent position in private. I think one of the hard things if I were following this at home or in the crowd is that there's really three separate things happening at the same time. One is um a matter of benefits uh for Dr. Bams. Uh at the time there's benefits change made for administrators several years ago. By contract, Dr. Badam should have got that same benefit. There's just an oversight that that did not happen. And so now as we're trying to modify his contract to affect a new retirement date, we're taking the opportunity to fix that. They're not related. One is not um in exchange for the other. It's just, hey, we figured out that we as a board have made an error. We need to rectify
022that error and make sure that one of our team members gets the same benefits of everybody else in that same administrative class. Two, there's a matter of dealing with um personal data, vacation data, which are burned by team members and and within Dr. B's contract. again it's a matter of trying to close the loop on those days not in exchange for um you know the this retirement although we're pleased to have Dr. Adams remain on in a capacity as a consultant and a mentor over time. Um and then the third part is fixing that final retirement date. The school board had a plan. Uh we felt very comfortable with the plan but sometimes life intervenes to change your plans. Um and so we find ourselves in a position where a really strong leader has decided
023hey I need to move on to the next phase of my life um here. And so two weeks weekly, true, we have an enormous amount of gratitude for Jay um as a person, as a professional. At the same time, this does upend our plan a little bit. And so like many people who have sat in our seats beforehand, we need to adjust to that the best that we can. But I think, you know, since not everybody in the public has the benefit of being in executive session and hearing the private conversations, just thought it was important to try to tease out those three different pieces um and move forward with a plan to provide Dr. Badams with uh the exit he is seeking after um years of good service to the school district and community
024and an on-ramp for the next leader um as soon. So with that, I'd hardly endorse the motion to um determine the final date for Dr. Bams. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it. Endorsed with regret. Okay. Anyone else? Any discussion on moving Dr. Vanam's retirement date to September? Thank you. Next. Authorize. Oh yeah, we have to vote. Sorry, it's probably not like I wanted to vote earlier and now I could like Okay. Um, we should we have to we should do this one roll call, right? Or hands up. Neil, should is this important enough for roll call? Or do we? Okay. So, all those in favor of the motion. It is unanimous. Thank you. Unanimous with regret. No. Thank you all. With sadness. Um, next a um we have a rec a business requiring action of authorizing
025the superintendent hiring process. May I have a motion for that? Because now that we've agreed that Jay is leaving in September, somebody has to fill that seat. D. I move to authorize Tara Poso, um, Kelly McConnell, and Neil Odell to begin the process to hire Robin Steiner as our new superintendent. Ben, sure. Any discussion of this? G say one of the four chairs kind of Bill and Michael just with the discussion was behind in the in in the um in the non-public sessions was is just obviously as Michael said we do not have a lot of time to make this decision. I think we had a lot of discussion about whether we do go out with an open process and maybe even have a Robin participate in that and I think it was pretty much
026unanimous that no, as Jay said, we've got a great candidate here. Um, and we should move forward with Robin and there'd be really no reason to. She has committed to at least two years, if not three years, which gives us a really nice runway to deal with this properly. Um, and again, as J said, she knows our school better than anyone else there. I would highly recommend that we move forward with the and I just would like to echo that and also kind of convey the excitement that the board has for this for this particular candidate. This isn't Yeah, there's a lot of excitement that this is happening. Um, and she would be here tonight. She sensor regress she is on vacation with her daughter. So, we we are hoping she will enjoy that because
027No, I'm just kidding. She won't get many more. She's ours. Um so anyway I just and also wanted to be clear on this motion that um the three representatives are negotiating they're entering into a negotiation on behalf of the board and the board will they'll be coming back to the board with recommendations. So that's not that the three of them are just handling this. So that's a lot of that would be a lot of pressure on the three of them. They they will have the board behind them afterwards. Um okay any further discussion on this item? All those in favor for the notetaker that was also unanimous. So thank you three very much for stepping up to do this. Um the next part is approval of the business administrator contract or I think we have
028a kind of new language approving Jay to negotiate with the ad administrator contract. Could I have a motion for that please? J I move to uh empower Jay to negotiate the or to keep going with the business administrator contract negotiation seconded. All those in favor oh discussion sorry all those in favor unanimous for the noteaker. Thank you all so much. Um at this point in time any members of the public may address the board. Okay. um agenda topics for the next meeting which is June 3rd next week. We'll see everybody again. Um send them to me and can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting please? Benjourn meeting at 7:08 p.m. A second. Thank you. Deb Neil yes yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nelson yes. Yes. Yes. Christy yes. And thank you everyone for
029coming to this special meeting. And sorry we're eight minutes over.