001Sorry that actually came out loud, didn't it? Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, discussion first. I have a gall. Hi everybody. I am sorry to start one minute late and I'm sorry because we have so much to do in the next hour and the Dresden meeting starts at 7 and I know that Ben will be kicking me under the table to be like let's move, let's move. So, my job tonight um as chair is to balance the fact that there are some incredibly important things that we're discussing tonight with the fact that we have a lot of meeting time ahead of us between now and probably 11 p.m. So, I am going to try to to let the the good discussions in a lovely bubble of time there. That's how I will describe it. So, the first
002thing is calling to order at 602. Um, agenda review. I know Ben just told me he has something to add. What do you need to add? And a policy committee update if you please. Okay. Well, we have committee updates. Do you want to just I think we do. No, we don't. I don't know if we do special. Oh, we don't because it's a special meeting. Okay. So, can we do that after the discussion? Okay. Is that okay? Thank you. Any other changes to the agenda? And do we have people online? Some people are supposed to be calling in. So, if you could just look for them, that would be great. Okay. I think they're at kids sporting events would be my guess. So, um Okay. So, at this point in time, um the public may
003address the board. You have three minutes, um to comment on items not on the agenda. If you're here for something that is on the agenda, if you would just wait for that moment in time, that would be great. So, is there anyone here that would like to comment on something that's not on the agenda? I know. Okay. No one online. Okay. So, yay. Moving on to our one item for this meeting on Earth Day. Um, and it's great that I I feel really good that we're having this discussion on Earth Day, and that is the SAU70 cap. which stands for the climate action plan. And this plan was put together by what's the official name? The envir the environmental club is that the Hannover High School environmental club and it's like okay um they have
004been working with our board over the years. It's been amazing the things that they've done. We've had we've had presentations on composting toilet plans and um wastewater removal and this last time I unfortunately had to miss it. I was on vacation. Um I was hiking if that counts. So I feel like I was being an environmental steward. Um but I had my time off from my job and I was in California hiking so I missed the presentation but I've heard it was amazing. And so we're back today to talk about that. And um Jay has requested being the person that sort of teased us up. And then um we have members of the environmental club who graciously agreed to be here today in case the board has any questions um any comments and then we
005do plan to take a vote tonight. So take it away Jay. Sure. I just want to thank the environmental club, Jeanie, Deb, and Hannah for such outstanding work. I mean, and and as the board considers whether to vote uh to adopt the S7 climate action plan, I think if you've read it, you'll note that they were so thoughtful about how they identified near-term, midterm, and long-term um implementation strategies. And they they did all of them with the the keen awareness that the board has acute care responsibility to the people that you represent. and and while the the plan asks us to make commitments, it does so with the qualification that we we need to do so in a way that's fiscally responsible and that's throughout the document. Um, but when you read what what actions
006we're being asked to commit to, they're not ridiculous. They are common sense in a lot of cases. They are I think in some cases will actually save us resources as well as funds. And those things that do require a commitment of resources are clearly identified. And uh so I I don't feel that there's anything in this plan that will bind the board in any way. Um, I think the board will always have an out if we find ourselves in dire financial circumstances and we have a choice to make that that we'll have to make that choice sometimes in the compromise mode. But um, just the the thoroughess of the research, the citations, the uh, reference to the activities and actions that are taking place at at the national state level and and even in our
007two towns that represent these commitments to ensuring that we have a planet that might survive. um are are just laudable and I strongly urge the board to support this. And with that, any comments or questions for the board? For those of you that um were a little bit late, we're I just thank the environmental club for being here in case we have questions for them and for their work on this plan and also over the past couple of years. So, you didn't miss much. Okay, Deb, I I want to begin by saying I can't see you if I have glasses on. I'm going to begin by saying how really impressive I found this and um for the benefit of everybody who's not written it down like I did the graph on or table on page
00821 with the me near long near what anyway I think that's just excellent and I just had one question about that um and it it's about the final item that you identify as a long-term measure but it says procure the balance of electricity from renewable energy sources. And I know that it's possible now to get residential electricity from renewable. Is it not for businesses or institutions like the school? Because I would think that's something we could do now. Am I wrong? I know that the sustainable handover has been working with the town to procure renewable energy, but my understanding is that the it's not in the best interest of the school to get in on that um contract that we have that there's that there's a better way to go and I don't know what
009that is. I would have to talk to sustainable however, but I think that's why we had it on the long term. Okay. I'm not a part of that because for I forgot. Um, but when I had to renew my electricity thing, I could just go and shop and find one that was 100% renewable. So, I just wondered if the school district could do the same thing. But anyway, that would be really cool if we could move it from longterm to short term. Yes, that would be fabulous. Or near-term. Near-term. That's what it is. J the other challenge I have and I don't know if the challenge is for the board or for the environmental club or for both is that uh as we move forward things are going to change and they're going to change
010quickly. Um even even within the short amount of time I've been working with the club uh we had items that we had wanted to include in the strategic plan that became outdated and had to be removed or revised because technology changed or the measure that we were using was no longer validated. So I think it's going to be a challenge for the board and for the club to in fact I would say it's a challenge for the club to keep the board informed um as as the science develops as as technology becomes more refined um to to make sure that we keep this document uh up to date and and relevant for for decades to come. So so this is a great foundation. Yes. Um, seeing this for the first time is awesome. I'm totally
011going to read through the whole thing. Very excited. Um, he's new. I'm very new. It's your first meeting. Very excited about all the things tonight. Um, I was just wondering is there was there like an analysis that accompanied this about like projected costs. Usually there's like, you know, you have to invest earlier and then you'll reap benefits later. Like were there any projections like that? Is there anything that's actually baked into our budget? like how does all this Renee makes her debut and actually I want to do it all but introduce just briefly introduce yourself and I know you don't have this on yet. Uh I'm Renee Sullivan. Um I am recently appointed to the Hanover School Board. Uh and I'm so excited to be here. Welcome. So, I think um the quick answer, there's
012nothing baked into the budget yet from this because we haven't yet approved this and the budgeting process has already been voted on and approved by the voters for the next school year. That is not to say that there aren't things in this that fit under what's already been, you know, under general maintenance. You don't like I don't know the the technical answers to that, but the official answer is not yet. Great. That's fine. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments from the board or questions? Neil, um, going forward, how do we track progress? Glad you asked that question. Follow and a followup if I know. You You want to do the follow-up first or we talk? It's going to be true followup. Um, so there are a if you look at each of the elements of
013of the plan of these suggested reduction measures and so forth, um, we're going to have to create a system for for monitoring. And, um, it's going to take some fraction of an FTE to to track this stuff. And I think down the road, we need to be looking at making this part of somebody's assignment probably at the SAU. um as as really a lot of that that work we've discussed before it would be almost more like accounting work um and uh and so that that could be a potential additional cost. I see it as a a fraction of somebody's already assigned job um in at least in the short run. Maybe it will take on more a greater need maybe within the facilities department at some point. Um the other other way that this this
014will be quantified and quantifiable is um as we we move into the the capital we've already had meetings uh with the architectural firm that we're working with Collins and we'll be convening a meeting of the sort of executive group that he he's putting together for that particular project where some of that work will take place and and then that's when the board will start having trade-off decisions As we start to think about things that we need to do in our buildings, I I'll use the example we've been beating like a dead horse around here. We know we have roofs coming up, we also know that we we're keenly interested in rooftop solar. And so that'll be a decision where we'll have here's here's what it costs if we don't do rooftop solar. Here's what it
015costs. If we do rooftop solar, here's the pay here's the the payoff. Um and and then we'll have a decision to make. But there's nothing in here that says you have to do it. So, but it it puts it out there as a priority for the board to consider. Can I have two follow-ups now? Of course. So, to that last point, um, in your view as the superintendent, what happens when we don't meet the goal? So, I used the word compromise before. Um, I I think there in some cases we might have to be satisfied with progress toward the goal. And I'll use another example re in recent history. We had a really fraught budget process in Norwich. Um we were getting all sorts of conflicting guidance from the state. At one point we we
016thought that we had an opportunity to make some investments in infrastructure that we thought were very important. We had a a bestcase scenario that that looked at replacing oil burner oil burners with um I think we're looking at a yeah we were looking at a hydro system and um the cost for that was in excess of a million dollars. We ended up choosing a a middle step. we chose to to go from oil to propane and uh being a little bit better in terms of our overall emissions but not going as far as we might have if we spent more. So that was one of those trade-offs and I think we may be base with others. You know, we might not be able to do all the roofs with the solar arrays, but maybe we
017can do some, but we'll have at least we'll have that as part of the there will be an offering from TRX Collins. It'll say here's what it'll cost if you do rooftop solar and here's the long the long-term payback and then return on investment and here's what it would cost without it. Um, so I think there there will be several occasions. Um, I remember when we we we looked at this project. I think it just started might have been 2018 or 2019 and even then we were looking at rooftop solar or we're going to do rooftop solar and then uh solar car ports in the in the drive in the parking area. And so we ended up with a single tracker unit to be used educationally uh pending the the ending of the life cycle
018of our current route. Uh so so I think I think as long as we have this as our guidepost and and when we have situations where we're looking at investments in infrastructure particularly that we do it with this document in front of us. Your next followup um and this is and this is a procedural uh one for the for the chair like I will still um we are once again bound by our district configuration approving this at the SAU level. Um, I'm while important, I'm not sure that it it's important. The real issue though is this needs to be approved in in the other individual districts because there are 90% of this is building level goal work and you need to have those other individual boards also buy into this and approve it there. just
019approving it at the SAU um is good from an umbrella standpoint and making sure that we've got overall district oversight on this, but those individual districts need to approve this as well in order for it to be we have a board chair on Thursday and how to make that happen. Yeah. And I I guess to go along with that, I just want to make sure people understand like because the it seemingly this document makes commitments for those individual buildings. And I want to be clear that while the SAU supports that, we are not tonight committing those other districts and those other buildings to do this. That's going to come in a later vote in those districts. Um, thank you all again. This is amazing. I particularly love the picture on the front and I love
020how much you've involved younger kids because partly to the points that everyone's been making here, you all are going to leave us sadly in not too long, right? And so it's super important that this keeps going, right? And that momentum while it will come from us and we're making a commitment hopefully tonight to do that um it it also is going to still come from the environmental club, right? the future generations of the environmental club that are going to keep bringing the new ideas and and um so that's really really awesome that you guys are bringing in the younger kids. Um, and I just wanted to put a plug in for us our our experience with the TIFF recently, which I know we're going to hear about um, at our next meeting. Um, I think
021um, really highlighted for me the importance of coordinating with the town and their the handover handover town and also um, Norwich as well, but their capital improvement plans, right? And so I just want to put a plug in for us to kind of loop them in on these discussions as well at some point down the road and make sure that you know what we're doing because as we learned as we discussed in the meeting, it's our students, it's our sidewalks, it's our solar, it's our right, it's our roof, it's our roofs, right? So making sure that we're all kind of working together to to move all of that forward in a thoughtful way. [Music] I saw both your hands at the same time. So I Michael and Carrick are both on remotely and we have
022offered to join the panel waiting for them to accept. And Michael has a question. Michael, do you have a comment on this or is it more just making sure we see you? It's just making sure that you see me. Hi Michael. Hello. Hi Garrett. Yes, Deb. I we would be really remiss if we didn't take advantage of this opportunity with Jeie wrapped here to congratulate you on your recognition by the state for the work that you've done and also um to kind of celebrate but mourn the fact that you're retiring. I was going to finish with that. So, I hope I hope that the high school is hiring someone with a a daughter who is a consultant. Is that part of the job description? Yes. Yes. Oh, it could be a son. Yeah. But thank
023you very much. And I want to say that also as someone whose daughter took your course, majored in geology in college and is a geologist and consultant in an environmental consultant. So I I attribute that in no small part to your influence. So thank you. Thank you. That's very kind. And I think we should also take advantage of the fact that you guys are here um in a minute like once the board has had a chance to comment. There's time for you all to comment as well. Um one thing that occurs to me as I listen in particular to Neil's questions and Jay is about you know tracking this and making sure that we follow this. It occurs to me that the place that this lives is with the facilities group of the strategic plan.
024And at SAU board meetings, we have periodic updates to the board and the public about the status of the strategic plan. And so I would hope that on those meetings, members of your club would continue to come um and be available to help us make um guided decisions with the research that you all have done because I certainly have not put the time in to do this. So I greatly appreciate that that somebody did. So um just would like to put that out there for whoever you know the next group of students and whoever the next advisor is. Yeah. So okay. Um, any other comments from the board before I open it up to our audience? Any comments from the public on this? You don't need to. Well, I guess I would just like to
025add that can you stand and just sit for people that don't know, say your name and um No, I think I'd just like to add that I'm hoping that uh what started in the year before CO was a climate action plan implementation team we called Kapp and um Jay was on the board and the pre principal was on the board and there were energy and students and teachers and it was appro 25 people and it was just really helpful to have all these different people um you know representing all these different factions from around town uh put together ideas about how best to implement this. So I think a climate action plan implementation team is really key uh to make this successful. Um and also I just want to mention that and I don't know
026whether people know this but on May 22nd um the Monire who's been working with the uh environmental club is putting together a community forum and so on May 2nd uh we're going to be working with Hannah and um Dr. Badams and the students to put together uh sort of a list of questions that we want the community to sort of grapple with at that on that night. So, the kids are going to do the presentation of the climate action plan um to the community and then Chrissy Mley from the Marian Cross School is also going to bring her students in. They're going to actually make a community dinner for everybody that attends which is really nice with her students. Um and they're going to talk about their food composting program. So, there'll be these two
027presentations. Are we a community dinner? These two presentations and then the second hour will be a time for community to work in small groups to come up with some ideas about how uh how we can how they can help us implement this because it's a it's a pretty major undertaking like writing it was a major undertaking but implementing it of course is just a whole another level. So that's just all I want to add to that. What's the date again? So uh May 22nd the community forum at the Mont. Thank you. A month from today. Yep. Any other comments before we make a motion to vote? Seeing none. None on. No, we're good. Um, may I please Well, actually, no, we're moving on. I forgot we had the addition. I hadn't refreshed. It's okay. No,
028no, it's fine. I just hadn't refreshed. Now I refreshed. Um so the next item for discussion is um from the policy committee and it's listed here as a calendar committee update. So take it away Ben and just thank you all again. So really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm stra I'm just changing it to policy committee update. Thank you for this time chair. I know late tonight. Typically when we have a policy committee updates to present a new policy and reason I added to the calendar is that we added this to this calendar not the other calendar is that we are not anticipating a policy update on the previous calendar discussion that's been discussed on and off for a solid year and a half. Policy committee had a unanimous vote to recommend we do not make this
029a policy. Um and I'll go through the specific reasons in a second. The calendar committee, as most of us remember, met for a great deal of last academic year that had several of us as um members of the panel, including Jay. I was I was there several times in a survey capacity. And they gave us that committee gave four action items that they recommended that we investigate. And I'm going to go through each of those in a second. The first one was to list major world religious holidays on the SIU calendars. And when we looked at that at policy, it quickly became fairly obvious that it would be extremely unwieldy to do so. Both in a formatting sense as well as an acknowledgement sense. The calendar committee gave at least 11 holidays that they wanted
030us to take action on both in an acknowledgement sense as well as to ask the various boards to observe the following best practices around those minimum 11 dates. Refrain from scheduling any major school events including in the evening. Avoid scheduling field trips, exam, tests, or any significant assignments on those dates. Avoid beginning to teach new content on those dates. Avoid using those dates as due dates for extra project or large projects and to advise coaches and other extracurricular activity directors to take these dates into consideration in their planning. 11 dates is over two weeks of academic instruction. It is approximately 6% of the academic year. And we also crafted an additional list of major holidays using various religious and college recommended major holidays. I use major quotation marks because we already see the problem. Well,
031how do you define major? That list is four pages long and includes several dozen holidays, including one that is acknowledged on the TV screens as we walked into the meeting today, a holiday which is not on their list. And it's actually not even on the list that we created that's four pages long. it's an additional holiday. So, in terms of the logistics of asking our teachers and every student, let alone other schools in an athletic academic weekend sense, let alone that for several major holidays, there are legitimate concerns that Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are all important day, cultural, religious interests, depending on who you're talking to. it quickly became this is very unwieldy to implement as a formal actionable policy we'd all have to take. Those are two of the issues. The third recommendation is
032that this is an a negotiations topic when it comes to talking to union representation come negotiation time. From the board perspective, we are representing the financial interests of the town and its taxpayers. It is not our job and it shouldn't be to tell union representation for staff and support staff and service staff how to help them. They are they are more than welcome to bring this up on their site come negotiation season, but it is not what we are telling them to do, nor should it be. The fourth recommendation was to have this be an ongoing survey topic on a semi-regular basis, which I believe the policy committee is happy to do, although we'd probably trip it to the relevant survey people, which I think in this case probably the superintendent and myself. What we
033did suggest to do is not in a formal policy sense, but to have each school promote inclusion, cultural, religious holidays and events in ways that are appropriate to the school. For example, Hanover High School already includes notable holidays on their TV screen and sort of acknowledgement throughout the day. the race school could do an equivalent thing for like the blackboard as you walk in through the building and equivalent things could be done at RMS and Marian Cross. We also recommend that a form be created or amended to ask students or families at the beginning of each year kind of at the the registration forms that we all fill out fill out each year if there is a specific date either day of the week or time of the month or certain calendar day that you
034wish to have your child not be in school for personal cultural religious reasons. We accommodate days off all the time whether it's a birthday or sickness or a doctor's appointment etc. And we do not anticipate those to be problems. And one second Jay Marcelo, did I miss anything? Well, so part of the reason for um I just wanted to clarify part of the fun thing. So we are very sympathetic to the idea that it shouldn't be students jobs to educate their teachers necessarily about cultural practices fully on board. Um and so we talked about this a lot. This is multiple hours. And um what we came up with was this idea of like kind of like self-reporting but without asking people for like the religious content like tell us what you need and there can
035be like a relationship of trust. Um and we can work based on that rather than like justify it. How holy is the holy day? Like not we're not doing that. That's not our interest, right? Yeah. Um, just a question. I think I missed what point three was. I I think you negotiations. But what was the recommendation? The recommendation was that you introduce it. We introduced as a negotiation top. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. I just was sort of like I couldn't I just heard the reason not to and I couldn't remember what the recommendation was. That's not what I heard you say. What I heard you say was if if they wish to bring it to us as a negotiation topic, we would be open to that, but that it's not our job to
036say, "Hey, you want to offer days off, which is why the recommendation was not our job to advocate for them." Right. Okay. Understood. Thank you. I guess you sort of like Yeah, there was a lot there and I was on the committee and I couldn't remember what the third recommendation was. So, um Okay. Um, I had one question and then I I just kind of want to put it out there um and then open it up. Um, about the unwieldiness of the four pages of religious holidays. I get from talking to Ryan that it's just hard to do elect on any electronic version. Like it's just hard to attach to the website. However, I'm wondering could it every school, as far as I know, has a student and a parent handbook. It feels as if
037that might be something that could easily be inserted into those handbooks because they come in a print and a PDF version. And is that something that the policy committee discussed might be a way to get those to help the kids not have to be the advocates and to have that be in front of all the teachers, all the parents, and all the students without making Ryan do back flips to have it be on the website. Yes. So my response to that would be and I don't mean to make this a what aboutisms but it it would become is it the 11 days that the calendar committee proposed of which could be much longer to some of the days they indicated were several days long lunar new year Passover and others and we would have to
038add far more than what's on there currently. Like I already mentioned the discrepancy between what the calendar committee has, what the college references have, and what the TVs have outside right now. Yeah. And yeah, that that would involve a printing issue that I would imagine someone would find a holiday we had not thought of because there will be some and then there will be another discussion about whether we need to add that one or subtract that one and things like that. So, so I can I'll try to recreate what because the calendar committee did that exact same thing and I think where we ended up was you have to start somewhere and the list is not going to include everything and it's going to be edited every year which is why the fourth the fourth
039recommendation was we keep talking about this and I think that no one expected that list to be perfect but it just needed to be I mean it's sort of like the one that they have at the high school. It's probably not perfect. It doesn't probably include every holiday, but yet they've been running it now for at least two years, I think maybe three on its television. So, there's that. And I also think I again I don't have the recommendations in front of me, but I think we might be conflating two different recommendations. And one was that there would be a list of like this four-page list that was inclusive all of the holidays. Not that the teachers were supposed to do anything with it or acknowledge that, you know, they weren't supposed to have testing.
040Like, it was just really for educational purposes and to make it so that the kids who might celebrate that didn't have to start from scratch. It it wasn't meant to be a mandate to do something about any of those holidays, including the ones that we already have off, which would be Yeah. I mean I you know like right now I think the only religious holiday we have off is Christmas because it's in winter break but it's also a federal holiday which is and it's also right and we had and we you know we were that was a long I mean this calendar committee met for hours and hours and hours days going over all of this over the course of about a year and a half. Um, so I just want to make sure that
041we're not conflating those two things. Like the 11 holidays that it was recommended that the teachers try to do something is different if I remember correctly from the list of holidays. That was the awareness and education piece. And then I believe that the recommendation had these are the 11 holidays we would like for teachers to honor if at all possible. Like it wasn't that you have to, it was that if you could. And I think that, you know, the committee was really strong about that. Like we didn't feel that anybody could tell the teachers how to teach like nobody was comfortable with that being the outcome of this calendar committee. So I just I I just want to make sure we're not conflating two different recommendations. Yes. Two points if I'm trying to correct what
042they are. So the first one is in terms of the list we fully acknowledge and agree that acknowledging these things are important which is why we advise there to be school specific ways to talk about this at ways that are appropriate to the age of that of that of the students that that hold that school. Your second point is um the second one again is just was it a mandate? Yeah, if it is a recommendation and if then statements in terms of acknowledge it if you can find list of this if you're able to then it should not be a policy in terms of ifs. Okay, just I'm just trying to remember and and also the the point of one other thing is one of the things the calendar committee talked about is that if
043each school is doing things completely differently for families that have kids at three schools that makes it really really difficult. So um yeah, Kelly, I'll stop. I'll stop now. But this is more a process question, I guess, or or comment. Um, it just concerns me a little bit that we had a committee working on this for like 18 months and working a lot on it, too. Um, and I don't I don't want that hard work to then not have an outcome. And I understand that maybe policy is not the right home for that, but I think as a board we need to figure out so then what are we what are we going to commit to? what are we going to do concretely other than hey we had this big conversation and we acknowledged it.
044I think that's that would be my only concern is you know making sure that that we are sort of honoring that time and and that's not to say that everything that comes out of a committee should then you know become the law that no that's it's a process right but I guess okay so it's not policy what's the next step in the process I guess would be my question that probably doesn't have an answer tonight in the next right so then and then Marcela okay I'll just make the point that it it's I agree it's a lot of work done um on their behalf and we thank them for that. One of them was at the meeting today. I'm not calling Jay Jay was also today and that but you're right that the creation of
045committee is not a agreement that we are going to implement those things that has happened many time from costing out to athletic to tuition etc. Oh, I know there's a history. So, I do not think it's also fair to assume that things will happen just because there's a recommendation made. But that said, we appreciate the work that helped us hone on these issues that we need to address, which is why we have recommendations, but we did not think they should be policies. Marcela, I'm actually good. Keep going. I don't want to repeat stuff. Um, I think Sorry. Uh, forgive me my third meeting. So also pretty clueless and not here for the month. Um but I think one of my questions is when a recommendation like thinking about implementation in something like this, I think
046about like Jay perhaps the meetings that you have with school leadership that this comes down to like that implementation piece of school leadership taking these recommendations and then thinking about thoughtfully how to make sure that the family with kids at three different ages doesn't have different things. that that's less for us to define what that looks like, but more for that group to really think about districtwide what J looks like. Agreed. And that was that was essentially what I got from the policy committee today was that okay seemed like it'd be more work for the administration to shepherd than for the board to intervene with policy. Yes. Particularly when um it because we're serious we are not taking days off or something like that. that helps negate the schoolwide variation of regards day off days
047off more just how does each school they acknowledge it which will be age dependent um Michael and Garrett had their hands up Michael we saw your hand two two quick questions um first were any of these objections raised in the calendar committee and then the second question is just confirming that no action is being sought this evening correct Yeah, this is just an update of their meeting today. Um, thank you. But so it it'd be an update sense that we're not proposing a vote, but also those were raised at the committee at that committee as well as no one else. But during during the 18 months of contemplation, did any of the policy committees concerns get raised among the calendar committee? The one about Deb was on there too. I would definitely say the one
048about you have to be careful about how many holidays you're adding because there are, you know, you know, we talked about the fact that if you go too far into summer, kids can't get summer jobs. Um, we talked about the fact that, you know, holidays switch and, you know, some years Passover is a day off because it happens to be during April vacation and some years it is not. Just Yeah, we also talked about negotiations. Yeah, I mean that right that was something that was obvious, right? So, so they all like all of these came up and I think the recommendations just sort of stemmed from a desire to move the conversation forward and to make sure that the students felt I mean in particularly at the high school level um that it that everything
049wasn't on them to try to figure this out. I I if I may. Yeah. I think the high school was not where there was concern because of council taking on the revision of the golden rod over a year ago. There was a lot of sense as I recall it and I was the secretary. Um that a lot of the issues were at the cross school, Mary cross school. Marian cross school. Yes. I I I think I would also argue and I think this happens a lot in this district that there are concerns that students have and there are concerns that the parents of those students have. And so I think I think that that that was a lot of it too that the you know the students might feel that they had it handled but
050the parents of those students didn't necessarily feel that they did. So um you know I think that was I think both I think both were true both that the high school wasn't a focus and the high school was a focus depending on whether it was you were talking from the student perspective or the parent of student perspective. Yes. Garrett gohead Garrett Garrett you might be we're having some connectivity issues. All right. There you go. You're there. Oh, there we go. I'm back. I was just gonna make two comments. One is I think you know the calendar committee's efforts I think they they did add a lot of value because what you just said they made a lot of important recommendations like not extending the school calendar and whatnot. I do think and maybe this is
051a question for Jay over the course of the day because I was at the policy meeting this morning is is you know implementing something like this for the principles and for the buildings is that something that would just be in the form of like a memo that would go that maybe Robin or the administration would put together that it's more educating the buildings right the high school seems to do a great job of it sounds like most of the beef is frankly with um with um MCS Yes. And basically just acknowledging that, hey, these are the recommendations of the calendar committee as far as here's the major holidays and we update it once a year and that we talk to your teachers and that you might be getting some kids that come asking you, you
052know, to not have a test on that day and to acknowledge that they might not be there. So, you need to be aware of these days. So that I guess what we need to I think what we need to figure out is how do we get that out to the schools to the buildings because the problem is all this we can't put in policy that's what we concluded at the policy committee right and I think Kelly or someone just said it perfectly like these aren't really policies like how can you make a right how can you kind of do something right or we suggest that you do it that's not a policy a policy tells you to do something okay Jay and then Gina and then Neil I I was just going to answer Garrett.
053I I I agree. I think it it would be actually quite simple. I think having the list, it's very comprehensive. And then um following the high school's lead, the high school does, we think, an admirable job of recognizing when students have cultural or religious practices that might interfere with a a substantial academic chore that they've got in front of them that they might be fasting or they might they might have a a day when they can't come to school and they need to make up work. And I I honestly haven't had a complaint in probably three four years. Uh so I think if we just make sure that we have the same sort of sensitivity at the elementary and middle school and and we have this the same common list so that they at least
054have a heads up and an awareness. The key is going to be knowing your students and those students that have have those needs. Thanks Jay. Gina, that is my question is do we have a way to just be consistent? So when a student has um a holiday that interferes with their ability to take a test, can they have the same permissions that like my daughter Eliza or Annabelle has when they go to the dentist and have their tooth pulled? And that's I think that's ultimately what the goal of this whole thing was, right? And so whether it's a policy or recommendation or whatever, how do we make sure that we're consistent as a school district in giving students that ability to take care of themselves and their their right I guess. But I'm not I
055will say as a new board member who's only on my third meeting, I don't know that I'm hearing the clarity of what you just I didn't hear it until you just said it. Right. So I Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. Neil, uh I appreciate the update from the policy committee. This item strikes me as not urgent. Yep. Um we have a lot of other stuff that we need to get through tonight and I suggest this be a future agenda. That is exactly what I was going to say next. So we're all good. Thank you very much, Ben. Um appreciate all of this. And again, thank me later. Thank you. When we get done at 10:30 rather than 11. Yeah, I second that. So, moving on into um birthday hat. Yes. Approving the SAU70 cap.
056May I please have a motion, Deb? I need to Oh, yes. I move to endorse and accept. Does it matter which verb I've used? I think you have to do the recommended action there to approve. Sorry. Well, I'm looking at it, but it doesn't say that. Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking in the wrong place. I move to approve SU70 CAP as presented with gratitude. May I have a second, Kelly? Okay. Because we have people online. Um Garrett, isn't it? Sorry. Yes, Paul. Yes. Um Michael, are you still with us? Michael abstain. Neil Odell. Yes. Uh Sullivan. Yes. Yes. McConnell, yes. Tiny, yes. Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. Yes. Yes. And Christy, yes. I am pleased to say that that passed unanimously. I would like to thank Oh, with one abstaining. Sorry, I forgot. Sorry, Michael.
057I didn't mean to skip you. Um, with one abstension. Um, but it did pass. I would like to thank the environmental club again. Um, really appreciate the leadership of the students on this. really appreciate the great stewardship that the teachers have given the students. Um it's fun to see the students so empowered and um we're going to miss you. Thank you. So we really appreciate all the support that you give the environmental club over the years. That's for sure. So thank you kindly to all of you. Thank you all. Okay. And now, may I have a motion to move into non-public Kelly? Move to enter into nonpublic session at 6.7 p.m. under RC 91- A 302 ABN C. I don't know. I know we have personnel stuff. So, let's see. CB and C and a
058second to seconded by Dan. Okay. Um, we're gonna start off the line again. Garrett yes. Michaela, yes. Marcella, yes. Yes. Russell, yes. Nelson, yes. Keiny, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Christie, yes. Um, Michael and Garrett, do you want us to just call you from the room? Sure, if you can. I sent you that note, Lisa, so you have my stuff on this already. But feel free to call myself if you can. That sounds great. Thanks everybody. I'm gonna be joining you initially and then leave. Um, sorry for the delay. We had a non-public session in the previous meeting that needed to happen. So, we will quickly get to the Dresden meeting, which is when I'm assuming you guys are all here. Um, one more time. Um, we have returned to public session and at
059this point in time the public may address the board. Um, for those of you that are in the audience that would like to talk about hockey, which is what I think is happening here. Those comments should wait for the Dresden board meeting because that is the board that is over the high school and the middle school. So, while I love that you're here and you might want to talk, you should save your words for the next meeting. Um, we're that board, which will be five minutes from now. Um, so just, you know, so with that said, I didn't mean to discourage conversation, but if anyone has anything to say to the board, please feel free to do so right now. And no one's online. Okay. Um, agenda topics. Our next meeting is Cinco de Mayo,
060May 5th. Um, if you have any agenda topics, please send them to me um, via email. I would really appreciate it. And may I please have a to Deb. Move to adjourn the meeting at 7:32 p.m. Seconded. Okay. By Gina Neil Rene, you're next. Thank you. Sorry. M. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nelson. Yes. Russell. Yes. Yes. Dless. Yes. And do we have Michael or Garrett on the phone? Garrett's walking in. Oh, Garrett's walking in. Okay. Um Christy, yes. We are now officially adjourned to 7:32. Jam has to switch the system. So, we have five minutes for anybody who's been here that needs to take a break, stretch their legs, go to the bathroom, and the Dresden meeting will resume as soon, I would say, within six minutes. So, thank you.