4.9.25 - Hanover School Board

001Just in case anybody online guys, we had some some delays. Thank you for your patience. We're almost ready. waiting for that to function. Jam, can you also add Robin Steiner to the panel? Thank you. All right, I will call us to order. Avoid using the gavl as much as possible. Welcome. It's lovely to have such a large crowd here. This is such a treat. We're very excited. Um, so we'll start off with agenda review. Um, does anyone on the board need to review anything or change any ordering? Um, I will add that we may have uh need of a motion. I mentioned this to board members um if we want to take a position on the tip presentation at the end of the meeting. So, we may want to add that. Okay. So, just a

002heads up on that um in our business requiring action. Yeah. And separately, but related, possibly appoint someone to represent the board at future select board or public meetings in terms of how that may go. Absolutely. Good point. Thank you. Okay. Um, anything else? Okay. Um, moving on to uh public. So, um, at this time, public may address the board on any matter not already on the agenda. and uh you could have three minutes. So if there's anyone in the public who would like to speak on something not already on the agenda, we would invite you to come up now. Anyone on Zoom, please feel free to raise your electronic hand and we'll see you. Not no takers. Okay, we will move on to our presentation from Robert Houseman who's here from uh the Hannover town

003manager and uh yeah, take it away. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for having me. Brief introduction. I'm Rob Houseman. I don't want to say that I'm a reluctant town manager, but I assume the role in October of last year after a change in leadership. I've worked for the town for approximately nine years. Uh mostly as as the director of planning until October. Uh we co I became the interim town manager in July and then appointed fulltime time full town manager. Before we jump into the presentation, I want to point out that the select board and staff have received feedback to date. that feedback I'd like to go over so everyone knows what we've heard is that we haven't followed the process statutoily, that it's rushed, that the plan is incomplete, and that

004the the proposed sweep adversely impacts the schools in a way that uh is inappropriate, unfair. I think that captures the general topics and I want to put that on the table up front. The select board has heard this and will be uh continuing to deliberate whether the Warren article moves forward on Monday. Um and when I say has a follow process, it's including giving notice to and seeking input from the school boards and I own that. Um so thank you. So, quick overview, and some of you may already have seen this, but I've been asked to go through it, so I will. Um, the tax increment finance district um overview, and then the south, main street, and west, we appcate finance district. It's a tool uh to allow for payment of infrastructure that would enable

005future taxbased growth. So basically uh you you sweep in a portion of development value to pay for debt service to make improvements to the town's infrastructure uh that would enable further growth. In the case of West Wheelock, there's some capacity limitations in the corridor for storm water and water, the sewer plant, the sewer pump station was upgraded to meet the buildout analysis we did in 2015 for that quarterly resoning. So that's not an issue. In addition, the development will peace meal adversely impact the quarter, cutting up the sidewalks in chunks and putting them back in chunks. The opportunity here is to look at uh using some values. So let me let me finish my explanation of the tip first. Sorry, I got ahead of myself. So what what how do how does the tiff work?

006It establishes a base layer base value. Um that base value if the tip were to go into effect as of the town meeting would be the value as of April 1, 2025. So that's the base value and then the captured value would be the net increase in value based on new development uh after April 1, 2021. um communities that use tips in New Hampshire and there's one uh Lebanon has three and is considered a fourth u fairly comprehensive tool used elsewhere in the state. The TIFF boundary as proposed right now is an L-shaped boundary that runs from basically the river up Main Street up to the Main Street intersection and down South Main Street. The TIF purpose would be to promote uh residential development, increase residential use in in the near downtown and downtown B

007in used in and near downtown Andover with transit, sidewalks, water, sewer service areas. This pedestrianoriented neighborhood that is both part of the Appalachian Trail and a high volume vehicle gateway to the college and the Hanover Commercial Center. is to promote private and public investment uh that will be used to establish infrastructure improve improve safety for bicycles, pedestrians and motorists and enhance the aesthetic and function of the key gateway. Uh the tiff funded improvements in on uh west we lock is new drainage uh to to deal with the storm water and pre-treat it before discharge into the Connecticut River, new sidewalk shared use path and street lighting, the burial utilities, new storm uh street trees and improved landscaping. Um, and I'm going to jump into um the the concept here. If you were to if you

008to look at the the concept um starting from the right side, moving to the left side of the screen, and acknowledging that the bottom of the page is the south side of the street, the top side top of the page is the right side of the street, I mean north side of the street. you'd basically driving east on wheelock if you were in a car or on a bicycle. Um the proposed right the rightway is shown in red. The proposed improvements crosssections are shown here. Um starting from the north side of the college student center shared use path 10t wide uh where the sidewalk basically sits today. on street parking a 13 foot uh from center line to parking. Oops, it's a touch screen. You got to talk nicely to it. A 13 foot wide

009from center line to parking lane travel lane with a share on the center line. So a sherro for those who don't know it is a symbol that represents a bicycle where the bicycle should be. Um and the reason why there's a sherro here uh is that the expectation is that high competent cyclists won't use the shared use path but stay in the road. I for one am a high confident cyclist. I don't use the mop ever because one, I'm nervous that a dog on a retractable leash is going to take me out and two, I'm traveling faster than I should be on M. So, eastbound travel lane, bike lane, six foot wide with a striped uh safety uh boundary and a right turn. moving to 25 West Lock where the construction is underway today. Um

010again within the rideway shared use 10-ft shared use path tree buffer no on street parking but a 13 foot lane with sherrow I mentioned the 13t lane for a reason uh is that we need 13 feet clear of the curb at all times to maintain these roads in the winter time. That's our power. And then we getif we get over 15 feet here. We get six 17 feet on this side with a six foot bike lane, an 11t traveling ring, and tree buffer and sidewalk. So, and then moving down to the next project that's in the queue. So we have 25 under construction multi which is I know it's been referred to as a dorm but is actually an apartment building to be built and owned and operated by the college moving down to 34

01137 and 30 through 43 west. Um that project is in the queue with expectations of permitting this summer groundbreaking as soon as January of 26. occupancy taking place by 25 37 through 43 in the queue. There are other projects that we're we're seeing come through in the concept phase on this quarter. So there's an opportunity to use the term sweep in some value to help support this. Um this is I can skip through these cross-sections if you'd like but in general this is the existing cons condition at Collus. Um this is the proposed condition. So it gives you gives you a a north or east looking view um of this road crosssection. What's important here I'll point out is the existing ride ofway or existing roadway is shown in the line under the road. So

012you can see how it shifts as I march through this existing condition proposed condition. the road shifts to the south side significantly to accommodate and create capacity for that shared use lane. Um, can I just make one clarifying comment that I think came out of the Monday night hearing? These are concepts. Concepts, right? So, none of this has been decided upon, right? So, for the purpose of our conversation, while I think it's they're beautiful drawings, this is not really what the TIFF piece is about, right? Yeah. Okay. Let me Sorry, carry on. I just wanted to make sure as people are, you know, this is an important point. Yeah. Um these are conceptuals that were used to develop the concept of the tiff to create a cost estimate and the plan itself. The tiff is

013a funding mechanism. The plans and process would be developed as we march forward between now or after town meeting. If it if this goes to town meeting and is approved between that window and next town meeting a process to formally develop and finalize plans uh that how we should fund it. So this isn't an option. It could be a general general uh fund bond or a tiff or some portion of that or public private partnership plus a bond. So all of that is very very true. So you can see how the road shifts to accommodate the shared use path. And I think it's important to not acknowledge that there'll be close to 600 new beds on the north side associated with these two projects. And the shared youth past acknowledges the occupants transit modes, bicycles,

014scooters, and other mo microobility devices and walking. And they're on the north side. They're not going to cross the south side. And nor do we want them to necessarily. And uh and I'll leave it in here, Rob. Yeah. So you're anticipating with this at least with this version of the concept 600 more people but not any additional parking spaces for those people talking about undergrad students. So then then I go back to where you said it's an apartment building and not a dorm but the intendance is a Dartmouth owned for undergrads. What's the difference? So, a dorm does not have these are self-contained uh units with kitchens, baths, living room, bedrooms like any apartment building would have. The college is choosing to build this concept as a way of diversifying its housing stock and um

015attract uh third and fourth years back on the campus. Would that be an increase in their intended population of students? No. So, I can dive into this a lot deeper if you'd like, but um I'll just mention that as you probably have witnessed, um we've had several dorms come offline for rehab, renovation, and expansion. The fair weathers are currently offline. Those are 280 beds that needed to be displaced. Um when the project is done, they'll be adding beds that are in the buildings. Um and the next once the fair weathers are done, Mass row comes offline. Once Mass row come is done, the CHOs come offline. Um, so you're looking at an 8 to 10 year cycle before there's new beds. In addition, they have something 800 plus students living off campus that are living

016as far as Lebanon in Mount Sord area, Juniper. So, they're looking at how they meet their existing housing needs and also offer quality housing that may not be available off campus today. But if I can get us back to the tip because I don't know that any of that really impacts the tip, right? Nope. Okay. Just just double check. Well, I think there was a question. Absolutely. under. So I just skipped over um the 20 25 you see the road shift. Um again it's a sixt bike lane 11t travel lane eastbound 13t uh westbound and a 10 foot um shared path. Um, and this this is the area of 43 uh 37 through 43. Um, this is where there's a center turn lane into Engineering Drive. Um, and we accomplished everything by shifting the road

017uh, keeping the road well stealing land from Dartmouth, working with Dartmouth to acquire a portion of of the width necessary to accommodate everybody. I shouldn't have used the word ste. We're working actively to see it how this fits. So with that in mind, South Main Street, it's [Music] um I'll mention that those of who were around when the water breaks occurred, we had five water breaks in 36 hours. Um, we have a 130 year old pipe on one side of the street and 110 year old pipe on the other side of the street. We had to shut down all the restaurants one night at 5:00 p.m. and the second night we held off until 11:00 p.m. But we have an aging infrastructure. I think it's uh it speaks volumes. If you walk on the sidewalk

018uh you know that it's breaking down, it's patched. It's broken. Um and there's some other issues that we're looking to address here uh in addition to the water uh and sidewalks with the storm drain upgrade water line not in the document in the plan but in in the design in the in the forecasted estimate. This sewer upgrade also uh upgrade the underground power which is a problem for us right now. We have some electrical issues with our underground power that feeds the lights on Main Street. Uh and um sidewalk ex the concept is a sidewalk expansion. It's called an open streets plan. The open streets plan will enable this the main street to actually be used for other activities like closing it for farmers market or um handlewood best or other programs which my understanding

019is it predates my arrival here but we used to close Main Street every summer for an activity um and it would create the opportunity to do that. uh it would improve bicycle infrastructure. Uh and the concept um as it's been laid out, we've done three different concepts for South Main Street. Um the concept if you were to uh look at this is an overview of the entire street starting with West Wheelock intersection to the left and running down to just to Dorance to the don't touch the street. to the to to the to the to the right. Um a bike box and sherrow for the first section um in both direction, changing the parking from diagonal to parallel. Uh widening the sidewalks so that the park legs that exist today in the street would be

020flipped to the building side. Uh so you wouldn't be walking through the service area that's happening today and the public space would be separate from the dining and it would also enable outdoor display of retail uh in a way that's doesn't exist today without impacting the pedestrian flow. The green areas are where the inter near the intersections represent designated bike lane and a bike box at a at a at a light intersection. so that the bikes get in front of the cars and can be control be first in the intersection when it's a red light. Um when I say bikes, I mean all devices, so scooters and everything else. Um and then moving to the intersection improving this crosswalk, the the lose crosswalk. It's a funky diagonal dumps you into a dry road with Allen

021Street on one side. uh and you know this this shortens the crossing, improves the uh alignment. This shortens the crossing, improves the alignment and addresses other safety concerns dealing with the Leven Street uh intersection. concept here really focuses on improving that intersection to a four-way three-legged, not diamond shaped interse crosswalk. Um, and then making other bike improvements moving to the south crosssections. This this represents dining on the inside we use the term dining. We have four parkletits now permitted. Um and we assume that the the opportunity if they had it would continue to use out the outdoor space. Um again this this Allen Street area and 11 street area layout diagonal parking um road sher center turn lane. [Music] Um, happy to happy to dive into it any deeper. By adopting the plan, the town

022creates a funding mechanism. No TIFF funds will be expended unless authorized by a subsequent town meeting. Without the adoption of the TIF, the town loses the option to consider improvements funded by the TIF. I do have a little more information that I can share with you specifically about [Music] um the whatif. Um so we have two two legs of this project. Each one has a cost estimate of about $14 million right now. They both um have the opportunity to move forward with tip funding in part. Um if we delay the creation of a tiff, use the example of 20 uh by one year, we lose the ability to capture uh the revenue stream that will be generated by incremental improvement at west because the next benchmark would be 2026, April 1 of 2026. That amount

023would The total amount estimated at this time that would be um is about $59,000 in new taxes that would not be eligible for the tip. How much question about that? When the project is finished or when the project is in process is the new assessment applied every April one. assess properties based on with a with an active building permit the value at that that date. Is that project going to be finished by April 1? It'll be 80% it's projected to be 80% complete by April and online by September. Kelly, yes. So, am I right that this is being driven in terms of speed by the fact that you've just got a hole in the dirt right now that has no value? That's partially correct. The other, right? Yeah. I just want to get down to

024the basics. There's nothing there now. So, it's great time to do a tiff for the town because there's no value to a whole. But we wait a year and it's now there's a building there so it diminishes. Okay. Just wanted to be clear on that. Correct. And again that's not the only thing though. Right. And the other real the time is the reevaluation. We have a rebal under way in that rebal. So they will capture that also. And how much is that the rebal? I'm sorry. How much do we anticipate that amount be? Uh so let me let me see if I can explain it. Um I'm not an assessor but the the town is approximately assessed at um 70% below slightly below 70%. So on on April one, the new market values will be

025applied the mark the the zoning values will be applied to the whole district at 70% of that value for the district. So we will see [Music] a an increase I think of 17,000 $17 million in value on April one at 70% of the assessed value. So I think go ahead. So I just got to offer a couple clarifications as I understand things. Sorry, they're not really questions but more clarifications. So these increases in value, right? Those are going to be happening whether the tip is there or not, right? So when you say we lose the opportunity to capture that, what we're really saying is we lose the opportunity in the current formula, right, to cut the school taxation out of that amount, right? That's what that's really saying, right? I mean to put it bluntly

026that's what it's really saying right writing a plan the document as as right now as of right now represents a 75% sweep of the net increase in right but then the other 25% goes to the town operating budget none to the schools currently goes to the the the pool of monies that fund. So I I hear you. I don't have the answer for you. My my my understanding is if we don't sweep that 25% it's taxable assets that can fund the school. Interesting. Okay. Softball. In terms of all the money that's flowing that we're talking about here, approximately what percentage right now goes to the schools? It's ballpark 2/36. 56. Okay. A little high for 66. Yeah. Yeah. So roughly 2/3 goes to the schools, right? Broadly speaking. If we say as of right now

027the land within the tip is worth 100 million, I'm probably way off. Well, that's just for round even numbers. So the schools would get roughly twothirds of that assessed property tax value every year. you would have the ability to tap that assessed value to fund the oper you don't get right I'm I'm paraphrasing obviously yeah not not a zoning person not so let's say in two years tiff is in effect the land is now valued at 200 million it's gone up with all these nice aesthetic improvements the school would would only get 67% of the taxation on the 100 million million, but we get zero of it of the between 100 and 200 million. I know I'm simplifying it, but broadly speaking, is that would that be what would happen if all goes the way

028you're envisioning this? Less than 25%. We would share that. But do we have that in writing somewhere that would as I understand it the nuance of the plan the sweeping 75% leaves 25% or used for general taxation purposes. So at best we would see 25% of that well below 66 and potentially zero of that. Okay. So here's what I'm saying. Back to Yes, Tara, go ahead. something that you just said that is the proposed warrant article potentially going to be edited amended because right now it says that the 25% goes back to the general town general fund which is separate and excludes if the war article goes forward it'll be edited to reflect that. Okay. Um my other question is are there some like financial numbers for us to digest about the total assessed value

029of the current two streets um the proposed or the projected increase over time you know this April one versus next April one and what the reflected revenue impacts are to to those changes um and the reortion ing of the tons. I have not I can't answer all of those questions, but I will strive the answer to it because the things that I was looking for basically were the sort of an updated current general cost estimate of the conceptual project and it sounds like it's 14 million but I just wanted to confirm that that was a current update because my understanding is that some of the original data in the study is quite old at this point like five five or six years old. So, I wanted to know what the current cost of the the

030budget was for this project and then how the current tax rate would be impacted because we're assuming I'm based upon the way that the Warren article was written that some of the funds will be um that will be funding the project will be tip funds and then there's a possibility of a bond. Um so trying to understand like what would that bond look like? what's the estimate on the bonds? How would that affect the tax rate? And then trying just to understand with the movement of the money from the tip, the reortionment of those funds, those revenues, how would that impact the school funding? Um because my concern is not the improvement at all. My concern is the townwide reassessment because right now the estimate from the only have been What are you doing? So,

031I'm not the expert in this, but what I heard was concerning because the current estimate of the town assessment average townwide is 70% of market value. The goal is always 100% of market value. So, when we go through this process in the summer, which I just heard about that, that will be moved to 100% the whole town. Town townwide, usually revenues stay the same. So, you get a similar bill. So some properties will be adjusted higher slightly lower but pretty much on par the amount of revenues coming in. It's just the who pays for what percentage changes changes a little bit through the process. So right now as it was written at the plan that I saw at the CIPC meeting on Friday the school will be kept hold for part of this district at

03241 million. The part of the district that's expected to increase the most which is the west wheel corridor. we will be kept at a base of $41 million in assessed value for that quarter was what was written in the plan. And then there is um an anticipated almost immediate increase in valuation of that property by $17 million which is to do with the townwide reassessment. The problem is right now we receive as a school $1 of 70% of the value. Now the value is going to be moved to a 100% value. We will receive 70 cents because our base is the 41 million of the 70% of market value. As soon as it goes to 100 million, we're only getting 70 cents on the dollar for our normal operational budget. So my question in all

033of this is how are we going to overcome that gap because we are not decreasing. I can't imagine we're contemplating decreasing the school budget by 30%. Or some fraction of a percent to reflect just that valuation of Main Street and West, which happens to be some of the most expensive property in town, right? So, I'm not sure yet how that impacts us. Certainly not the already approved budget, right? Like that's doesn't impact that would need to be funded though, right? Next year with taxation. Those those are my concerns. I was hoping to see some others. Yes, agreed. Um, if I may just add on to that, I think one of the big sort of philosophical questions to me, I agree with Tara. I want a functioning sewer system. I want a functioning water mane. I

034want sidewalks that are safe for strollers and wheelchairs and people who need to walk, right? Like, I want all those things. Absolutely. 100% will support spending that money for those important projects. What I don't understand is why this is the way to fund it, right? Um and and I know um this was said at the meeting on Monday as well, right? From a communication standpoint, if the town decides to take out a bond to fund these critical important projects that I have every confidence the town will agree with me on are important and we want to fund those things, right? Then we say, "Okay, our town operating taxation is going up. Our our taxation for the town budget is going up because we're doing these important projects." Guy, that's the communication. Really clear message, right?

035If we go this tiff route and we do these improvements that we all agree are important, they're funding themselves, right? But the school budget and the school taxation is going through the roof. Why? because the town's doing improvements and that doesn't make sense, right? That's really hard. So, what are what are our options? We need to redo our roofs, right? We also have fundamental structural things that have to happen, right? And what are our options? our options are to not do those critical infrastructure projects that we need to do or to cut our programming to kids so that that piece of the taxation is not going up in a completely illogical way. So it just feels like it forces the hand of the school district which I will add is one of the main reasons

036people choose to live here in the first place. Right? So the whole thing just seems like it's not the most logical way to fund what we all agree are critical projects. So that would be I guess again not a very good question but I don't know if you have an answer to that as like why is this the way to fund this project and and you could say I don't know well you don't know okay I don't that would be feedback right I've heard what you've asked I can't answer the question directly um what I can do is say that a $14 million bond is a $1.2 million bond payment uh or a 10% increase on the tax rate of a town. So two $14 million bonds is a 20% increase on the tax rate

037for the town. And as a resident of handover and somebody who collects who the town government collects the taxes and pays the school, I can tell you that the average citizen doesn't look at their bill and say, "I'm not going to pay the town's portion or the school's portion." They look at the bottom line, and that's what they focus on. Uh, and the bottom line would be a huge impact that would potentially impact the ability to fund projects both for the school and I mean, the increase is the increase. It impacts the bottom dollar that people are writing a check for. I hear you. I I would just push back and again this I think is feedback for you to take back to the select board. I I think my concern is that when people

038go to vote on the school budget that's not always necessarily the case, right? When we and we do our best job to communicate um increases that are out of our control, right? This our operating costs are only going up by 1.2%. But these outside factors and we have many of them that are going to be coming down on this. Right? We don't know how federal funding is going to impact our budgets. We don't know how state funding, right? They chose to shortf fund um special education costs this year. That was an unexpected thing, right? Um we don't know how any of that's going to impact it. We don't know how the voucher plans that are floating around the state are going to impact our budgets, right? So, there's a lot that we can't control. To

039have the town putting something else that we can't control on it that could have a wild swing is concerning. So, I I will say too, I just wanted to say I appreciate that you started off by saying we acknowledge we've heard these things and that's not always easy to do. So, I appreciate you starting off that. Good. Sorry, I've talked a lot, guys. Go ahead. I I have a question that um I I ditto everything Kelly said about the needed infrastructure improvement etc. And an additional question I have is the end of the tiff because I've not seen an end. Yeah. And is this forever and ever on men? We don't get any chance to go back in there. What's the end of it? The structure here is designed to pay down the debt for

040the improvements and then it ends. The bond that I mentioned is a 20-year lifespan. So for 20 years it'll we'll be stuck at the same place as I ran this I did run this as a fixed principle bond analysis payment and it decreases um by about 100,000 every year on the annual payment. So over the life of the bond it decreases down to the final payment of 700 726,000 but that that date is definitely not in the current article language right which is concerning which is concerning effect until the town determines so when the town decides we want to share this revenue well it's on the bondage state or the the TE is terminated because it has no purpose, right? I understand your concern. Yeah, a date would be I think an end. Yeah, an

041end date would would at least alleviate some concerns, I think. And I hear you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that's so I appreciate you coming here tonight. Thank you. So, this is not a surprise to especially the folks in the audience, but welcome. And you acknowledged that there were some challenges that some of us brought up in as individuals at the Monday select board meeting. I appreciate you said that we acknowledge that. However, that still doesn't answer it or solve it. Well, we pointed out to you, you guys are not following the law right now in terms of how and when you're doing this in terms of notification, all that stuff. The reason school boards are mentioned for notification in the law is that these concerns are very valid because it impacts our financial well-being for

042decades to come, decades. And I appreciate you saying we hear you, but that's not saying I've heard you and because of these concerns, we are slowing it down. We are addressing these changes. We're going to not present a town meeting in a matter of weeks. I am not the board. Why is the select board not here? I can probably something else he can't answer. I I can I can say that two of them are out of town and if I have three present, it's a quorum. Yeah. Which would then get notice. Yes. And that is I know. So there should be a posting. That is not happening. I see one of your members is online. Hi Jamie. But that is not the same thing. You are in a rock. You're between a rock and a

043hard place. I get that. Jay is often in the same position. Hi J. But that does not negate that this issue is still here and still remains. And as of now, the select board seems to be moving on forward when you're going to get a lot of negativity here. Hopefully, but maybe we will bring this negativity to the town meeting. And like someone else mentioned at Monday's select board meeting, do this right slowly. Get the stakeholder buy in rather than have it crash and burn publicly at town in three weeks and change. I want us to go slowly and get build buying and build up contractual support so we're all on board with this in whatever way it ends up becoming rather than us batting batting butting heads when I don't think we should have

044to. Right. Thank you. I'll leave it there. Ter, I'm just going to say to the board and probably we can also somehow communicate this to the select board as well. the RSA that's involved with this particular presentation 162-K states in section three um that the governing body which I believe probably Robert your you're representing the governor right shall fully inform the county commissioners and school boards of the fiscal and economic implications of this proposed development district and we are still awaiting that that's the data that we need for this to be informed to be yeah exactly for for this to be fully processed you know for if you came to us and you said listen we don't want to impact the operational budget of the schools I would propose or the board might propose that

045we keep the base value of the property on both corridors to be 100% of tax assessment for purposes of funding the school, I would be less concerned right now because you would be reassuring us that our funding mechanism would remain intact and then then you would be able to fully say without qualification that all you are capturing is the incremental improvements. But right now, what this tip does is capture 30% of the underlying base value as well as incremental improvements. And that's why I want to see the numbers and want to be able to analyze with the board how we deal with that kind of budgeting map. Great. Yeah. Um and and I will just also say and then I should open it up to public comment as well. Um you know the other thing

046that was brought up and again I know Rob you've heard this so this is not for you more for the viewing public. Um, the other thing that was brought up on Monday, um, is that there's not currently a bond out. There is not currently debt that has been taken on for this project. So, this money that's going to be captured, it's unclear other than coming out of the base value for the school taxation where that money would sit. And I don't know if we have an answer to that yet, but it does it sit in a coffer, does it sit in a bank? Is it what happens to that money until this project begins? Until this project starts spending that down. So, um there are a lot of those unanswered questions as well. Um I

047think yes, Ben, last comment. I have one more Rob over here. Oh, so for the public to know, Rob has already agreed to come to the Dresden meeting, which is the middle school and the high school on the 22nd as the select board is legally obligated to do, as it is another school district within the town. Um, so thank you for that, Rob. So he's going to do this again, folks, for an even bigger audience. Um, that said, Rob, you brought up by your own admission at the Monday meeting, I I'm paraphrasing here, but you said basically we did the tiff incorrectly or illegally or something like that for the parking garage. Do you remember saying that? As it relates to establishing the committee and managing the annual report that's due by statute. So, we're

048supposed to have a a committee for the duration of the TIFF that ensures the tiff process and it's not being followed right now, but the existing tiff most projects once funded. I will acknowledge that in the state of New Hampshire, you did your own research, you would see that a lot of the town's committee sort of laps because there's not much to do once the project is built. But just because no one else is doing it, you know, it's not we currently are non-compliant without But it just it brings me some point like if there if we're being openly non-compliant with the current tiff which is decades old as I recall, right? Or at least it's going to be decades old by the time it's done. 1998. 1998. So almost multiple decades already. Yeah. That

049leaves me gravely concerned in addition to all the other stuff we're having right now of the town is knowingly do doing something bad at least against statute is continuing to do so and is making similar mistakes again with the current proposed tiff. What am I supposed to think both as a schoolboard member but also as a taxpayer and in a town that is so focused on education as like a core part of our identity from K to postgrad. We should be celebrating our focus on education and not giving even the perception let alone the financial reality of what feels like the school might be schools might be getting cut off at the knees here when what we want to do is make it stronger and stronger. We know from our internal surveys in the schools

050that the schools or the perceived quality of the schools are the main reason our parents come here or 60 70% going by memory and 90 plus% say it's one of the main reasons they come here. So why would we not want our schools to capture this available text and to keep going better and better and better? I'm not expecting an answer from you, but I am kind of confused why we're not hearing. Yes, we appreciate our schools. We know our schools are awesome. Why people are come here and this is why we want to thank you guys because that's not what I'm hearing. We're working in partnership, right? Yeah, we're going to work in partnership. Yeah. Okay. So, I would like to open it up to public comment this time. Yeah, I can. So, three

051minutes. Start with that. And also guys, if you want to come speak, you want to say I agree, I disagree, and just leave it at that. That's perfectly fine, too. So try for three minutes, keep please say your name and where do you live and if you're representing if you're representing a particular group, member of the public, former school board member as of nine days ago and was on the CIPC um for this type of very quick discussion. Um, so and I'm happy to also answer any questions, but I I spoke quite a bit at the handover select board meeting on Monday. I'm not going to repeat those comments and I appreciate that it sounds like they've been heard and actually are interested in changing some of the language in article 10 because actually the

052answers that were presented is actually opposite of what today is opposite of what I was hearing that and I heard it was the general fund goes back to the town 100% to the town and now to the schools. if general fund is more open to all possible county it's also county too it's not just the school districts right are getting it would get cut out of this but actually what I'd like to talk about today is just um actually to give a little bit of background right so um my my professional background I started investment banking um and then I worked for a uh Gabby one of the USA ID donors working with the world bank to um basically do government financing um and so we had the motto of more health for the money,

053um, more money for health. And so I literally was on a team called the innovative finance team. Um, we looked at different options and creative ways to solve problems. And the tiff is not the right tool for this problem. And so I just to answer the question, you know, why are we considering a tip? I don't know. This this is not financial alchemy. Tips don't create any additional revenue. It's just reallocating the pieces. It's just squeezing the balloon in a different spot. And in this case, the school districts and the county would be squeezed out of it and we would have a larger tax rate because of it. And if somebody asks why did the schools have an increase in their tax rate by X% which is commonly reported and former board members got asked

054to be interviewed by the Valley News. Why does it increase? Right? The answer the school districts would have to say is because the town did a project. If they just did a traditional at 30 million whatever traditional bond financing, it would come out in the normal course of business and they'd say, "Why is the town tax rate increasing?" If it's a $1.2 million bond payment, guess what? Dresden School District just this past year had $1.2 million roll off in our debt. And we we went to the to the um public body 20 years ago and said, "We need to build Richmond Middle School. This is why." We didn't say we're gonna carve out Boardwalk and Park Place and AAM Pond to fund Richmond Middle School because we think it might be a lot of money.

055We're scared. The point of a tip, just want to say is actually not for Park Place and Boardwalk, right? It is for Baltic Avenue. It is for those brown fields. It is for things that but for a government intera intervention that there wouldn't be additional taxable revenue and then it really would be a creative capturing or latching on to a time period when a zoning change that happened a couple of years ago has kicked off a tremendous growth in Westlock. Fantastic. Has nothing to do with making the sidewalks, you know, better. Not saying that the sidewalks won't even be fixed. That's town business. And actually, I don't think the school board should even really consider the project because that's I don't think in the realm of what the school district should think of. The school

056district think of is how is it funding it? And a tiff means that the school district would in a sense be funding this project because the town would be whole although now it sounds like maybe they're open to revenue sharing which they haven't before. But I just want to clarify that tiffs are for Baltic Avenue, Mediterranean. They are for those lower value areas that but for any sort of interaction uh government intervention for the project and those tend to be a little bit diceier from a public perspective. You do it for something that's a little bit you're not sure if your public's going to want to do it right because you want to clean up an area so that another you know hopefully maybe a commercial building would be developed in there. So, um, we've

057also talked about the parking garage, right, that hasn't been really successfully managed. Um, you know, those are very different projects and I know I'm probably over three minutes and I appreciate right about three minutes. Yes, you're you're totally get it. Um, you can cut me off at any time, but you know, I just just want to say that, you know, we need the parking garage tip. At the time of the warrant article, it had an end. It had mechanisms for an end date. It was discussed on what the project was. The bond was was asked for by the public at the exact same time. They didn't make the fence and then say, "Well, we'll think about building it later." There are other alternative financing options that the that the town can do. You don't have

058to have a tip to plan a project. You can put it in the general fund right now. You you can you can do other things, right? you can present it to the CIPC, which was not done until after the CIPC had already completed the it's the long-term capital plan for the town. Then this was kind of filed after that whole course of business. So there are different mechanisms, different ways that funding could be raised that the conversation happened with the town and um I just really don't think that the schools should be funding a town project in this manner. Thank you. Thank you. other members of the public. Yeah. Ci of Etna. I'm schoolboard America, Finance Committee America. Uh however, I am currently also uh uh CIPC, which is uh capital improvements program committee as

059well as trustee of the trust funds. Um so, um I have three points that I I would like to make. You know, one is that if you read some of the articles that are going around or listen to some of the presentations, it says that the that nobody is taking anything away from anybody. And what they mean by that is that this, you know, you will have the same tax base that you've had all along. What it what you're missing out on though is the future revenue stream. And I think that most people here understand that, but that's a good way of explaining it to the public. And you say, "Well, why is that the problem?" Well, the problem is in part that um this project, if it's successful, will take Dartmouth students out of

060single family home rentals and hopefully those homes will be filled by families and we'll see the school age population go up. We also, as you know, sometimes when you have uh apartments, as we maybe will see on the south side, families from nearby communities rent them to avoid paying uh tuition at Dresden. We can hope that at the race school you could add some students with minimal marginal costs, but we know that because of the cost act that every student that's uh from handover that's added to Dresden adds $25,000 or so to the taxes in handover, which is one cent per thousand. So, it's not a a small increment. Um the other thing that then you hear is well yeah maybe you don't hit this future revenue screen but you haven't gotten it already so

061you don't you won't miss it you're not accustomed to it and what I can say is that having gone through maybe like 70 budgets between all those things there's never been a budget where somebody didn't say hey does anybody know what's going to happen with the net assessed valuation are we going to get a little bit of a bump up you know that it's not going to help a lot but you need every little bit that helps. It's like being on social security and saying that somebody is going to be minimizing your colon. You know, you you you need that amount. I guess the third thing that I would like to say is that, you know, a lot of this is very hard to know what is the increment going to be. But if they're

062talking about a $28 million bond and you know they're probably talking about you know at least $2 million at the start for an annual debt payment. And if you know that uh 60 66 70% of that is coming from lost foreground revenues from the schools that's you know over a million dollars is 1.2 two 1.3 million and that's for many years. So, you know, times it out. Um, and so it is a significant for bond revenue. Even if you end up doing a, you know, 75% sweep, 50% sweep, that money still needs to be paid in um in in debt service. So I really think that um it would make if I were in your shoes I would say yes you know we don't care about parallel parking or diagonal parking and you know if

063the town wants to earmark funds you know go for it you know what that's not a school issue but you know if they can't keep the school funding whole then I think you need to tell the people of Hanover if this goes to town meeting that they need to go to town meeting and vote no. Thank you, Krie. Any other members of the public? Yes. Yes, please. Name your town, if you're representing a particular group. All right, I'll keep it short because I know we're already way over. Um Joe, uh resident of handover paired students here. We need your last name, too. Oh, Joe Laws, sorry. Um so the first uh comment was tiffs are flexible and there's prior art where they can actually change them to make the language make up budget shortfalls for

064schools. So has anything like that been considered and who are the primary beneficiaries of this? It seems like Dartmouth is making out like a bandit. What are they doing to fund this when something similar happened in Killington? They actually pledged millions of dollars toward the bond. like what is Dartmouth or any of the other people in the area doing that was short. Thank you Kevin. Are you looking for me to respond? if you have a response. If not, you can you can just log it as the select board last is considering adjusting the house to see if the sweep can keep the school district whole and still have TI or a portion of the project funded by the TI. With regards to Dartton College, um, every single unit that has a bed in it is

065taxable. Um, the two projects I mentioned will generate acknowledging what's been said so far. And yes, what is that revenue that it will generate? 117 million in tax. I mean 117 million in assessed value. uh 1.7 million attendance the second part of the so did I that was the first part the second part is what what have what are the private sector pledges uh we are in the process of trying to dial that out because I'll use the term stainless steel versus platinum uh the town a stainless steel pin. If there's a desire to go to something else, then that difference need to come from the interested parties. Um, and we haven't crunched those numbers yet. Anyone else? Any other members of the public? Anyone online? Raise your hand if you wish to speak. chair

066until well so so I I I won't be there as if maybe others won't be there on Monday because it's school vacation week and that's when the last hearing is for the select board so that I feel like this is my little last harrah um but just wanted to to to highlight which has not been highlighted tonight is that this is not all just Dartmouth student housing. Um actually it was said multiple times in select more meetings that this is for other resident housing. Um particularly on the south side of West we lock other residents um often includes old school age children. And in Dresden we pay per pupil. So half of the students that would be of school age would be at a cost to the school district to handover specifically handover taxpayers of

067$25,000 per pupil. So when we ask how many beds are being considered which I've heard of actually other projects they're not just Dartmouth College there are private investors who have um permits pending that I believe is somewhere in the 99 beds potential proposal and others out of buckets. So, so there there are others that are being considered and other auctions and for the zoning there can be um and Dartmouth even has projects that they're considering for the southside to be workforce housing. So, this is not just what I feel like has been presented today is these are just student housing which you is definitely replacement right so right currently Dartmouth students live in single family houses which would probably be filled um 70% of single family houses have student have have children um children who

068are K through 12. Yeah. Um so there's of course the replacement value, but then you also have your multif family which is around that 20 25% of those units have school age children living in them. If not one then two and if it's two then it's $50,000 that would be an actual cost to the resident school district. So just wanted to highlight that as well. So it's not just asset value but it actually would be real cost to develop the program. Thank you. Thank you Kim. Okay, last chance public. All right, thank you all. I think thank you Rob especially um for hearing all of that, for presenting, taking time with us tonight. Um I think I know that was a long conversation as I warned us it might be. Um but I think it

069was really important. I think this has the potential to have a long-term impact and it's really important. So I did just want to point out the hearing started on Monday. um the hearing for the warrant articles. I I believe all of the other warrant articles were there are three warrant articles that were tabled. Okay. And uh depending on the outcome this war may be adjusted to the general. Okay. Okay. So most of the warrant articles were approved to go onto the warrant which will um be presented at town meeting. There are three apparently that are tangled. That hearing will continue next Monday at 7 o'clock in the municipal building. The one right between Molly's and Boka. This is how I tell directions kills my husband, but that's how I um that's where it is. Um

070is live stream but it's not right. So you can't call into it. So I was thinking waiting for you to finish. Okay, but I guess I'm really waiting to hear you say so what is the next step for the board because the statute says that the board can make a recommendation at the hearing which is Monday. Yes. So will you all be prepared to make a statement because um the last hearing you all had to say we just are speaking as individuals. Sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. No, I appreciate that. So we had said Yeah, thank you. We had said at the beginning, but it's a good reminder to mention it now that during our business requiring action, if we would like to take a motion, take a position, um, and designate a board member

071to speak on our behalf at the hearing, we can do that in business requiring action. So, I would invite board members to kind of mle that over if we are prepared to take a position as a board. May I offer an alternative? May it's fit your your decision in writing also. Okay. You're welcome to attend. You just love hearing from us. All right. Thank you. Um so thank you for that reminder. Um we will move on to our principal report. The moment you've been waiting for. I've submitted this electronically and because of the agenda we have this evening, I would like to seed the remainder of my time for all the important discussion, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. Did anyone have questions for Lauren on the principal report trying to get back

072into the right? Okay, here we go. Anyone? Okay, just to be clear, I have all of five minutes. So, you get four minutes back to me. Noted. Don't do it, Deb. No, no, no. I have one quick question. Will you be talking about the sustainability the grant later? I will. Yeah. Um, I'll see time to myself then. How about that? That's I cannot get into my agenda anymore. All right. What are we moving on to now? Thank you so much. While I wait for this to reload, uh, tuition rate. Do we have an update on your tuition rate tonight? Teresa. Okay. [Music] So, that would be the tuition rate for Dresden, I believe. This would be the handover tuition rate. That's okay. All right. So, we will table that. Do we know when that has

073to be set? Off the top of my head, I don't know. Do Teresa, I will just ask you that I did know were um be released by May. Okay. So, that would be my only concern is if we don't have a meeting before then. Is it not in our business requiring action? I apologize guys. Getting back in here. Technology is great when technology works. Um yeah, we're ready to approve the tuition rate tonight. So, um Chris, just do me do me a favor and um check our deadline on that. If we need to do a special meeting, we'll do a special meeting. We can tack it on very easily to one of our sure upcoming meetings. Right. So, because I'm just concerned about the deadline if we wait till our main meeting. Okay. Is that

074everyone all right with that from the board? Yeah. Okay. Look at this. Moving right along. Reading of policy. Ben's not clear. We skip policy. Moving right. I'm kidding. Okay. Marcela, do you want to take policy? We flip the order. Flip the order. Flip the order. Thank you. Um with the board's permission, we will move on to the grant. Back to me. Thank you. Great. Um so the total grant monies does not meet the um policy for needing approval at the school board. But this is such a special little project that I did want to take a moment to highlight it. Um so our kindergarten team created um a professional development goal. all together for this year uh based around this troll project. Um it's really neat. So this troll project um is based on something

075called Guardians of the Seeds by Thomas Dambo. Um and it is actually an exhibit that you can go and visit in Maine. Um this artist created and I'll I should probably go back and upload these pictures, but created these incredible trolls. Oh, the big ones. Yes. Um, and each of these trolls has a name and represents something about the environment and some sort of like a natural power. Um, and uh, one of our kindergarten teachers, Leslie Connelly, went and visited herself and just felt really inspired by what she saw. So, she brought along all of her kindergarten colleagues um and they've taken on um this incredible project and are having their students create trolls um out in our back cathedral area so that students here at the Ray School can also do like a similar

076tour to what you could do with these trolls um up in Maine. And it really um it ties together a bunch of beautiful things. So, it's this um collegiality between the members among the members of the kindergarten team all working together um on on a goal that involves sustainability um uh incredible professional development, working with students in kindergarten to increase their understanding of the world around them, which ties into a lot of work that they've been doing over many years in placebased learning and the outdoor classroom and various well Wellbborne. I just I always say that wrong. Sorry. Well, um projects that they have been involved in. And so this partnership and this grant represents um a partnership with the equitable climate action partnership which is ECAP. Um and they are taking this money to

077continue their work around around trolls. Um so there's the trolls themselves. There's teaching of the the teachings of the trolls which include things like save seeds and plant more trees. And I think about this and I think about how um beautiful this is for a kindergarten student and developmentally appropriate and like powerful right for the um the global citizens and responsible stewards of the earth that we're trying to grow here. So um save seeds and plant more trees uh reduce and reuse discover and share stories of the woods um and then become guardians of the seeds. So, I I look forward to um getting uh the newsletters every week about progress made with the Guardians of the Seas in our kindergarten classrooms um as as they've been doing this work. Now, quick funny story and

078then I'll stop. Um at one point I was told that students cannot go out to sort of like the colonial house cathedral area because somebody spotted a bear in the blacksmith shop. And so we closed down the area. We called um you know uh the game folks to like come and check it out. Is there a bear back there? Well, I had remembered later, but I didn't put it all together that the kindergarten team went out to get some um large wood cutings some uh that they needed to collect to build their trolls and were storing these like huge pieces of wood in the blacksmith shop and which is one of our buildings out back. And so a student walked by and saw these big shadows and just assumed that there were bears back there.

079So anyway, this has been a super collaborative project. I'm really excited when this all comes together to be able to share this with the community and with the school board and hopefully folks will want to come and do their own tour. I just got a self-reflection um from the kindergarten team today. Uh and uh they're expecting an ontarget completion of May 1st of the Trolls and then the Trolls will be installed on May 7th. On target for completion. So looking forward to that. Thank you. We could do Thank you, Laura. We could do like a schoolboard um uh field trip out to see the trolls at our main. Yes. Whether we have headlamps because it's later on in the meeting or we put it first and go out when there's still light. I think that

080would be really fun. Thank you for indulging me. It's a really neat thing. Thank you for that, Lauren. Any questions for Lauren about the trolls or the grant, but mostly about the trolls. I feel like it needed some context. I appreciate that. I think we needed a little levity, too. So, this is great. Thank you. We skip uh talking the science. No, Lauren. Sorry. Sorry to step out. I missed things. Um, welcome back. Thank you. Yeah, some time. We did we did policy without you policy. No, just kidding. We reorganized your stuff. Um, for the science curriculum work, yes, I thought one of the one of the big goals of the curriculum realignment was alignment. And looking at this table, it looks like there's things that Ry and MCS are are doing similarly, but things

081that they're still not doing. Allow me to clarify. Oh, you're going back to the principal report. We're going back for just a minute. Got it. Okay. Okay. So when we started this um science collaborative effort with our colleagues at Marian Cross, it was both um thinking about NGSS, the next generation science standards um and uh the actual standards themselves but just as important if not more importantly to also talk about the pedigogy involved and the shifts in teaching um required for NGSS um to be implemented correctly. So we developed our first unit together, Ray School and Mary cross school in grade level groups. We worked on the entire unit. So that's that first column that says Ray/MCS. All of us together working on these collaborative units in order to accomplish our goal of having at

082least three completed units by the end of this year. Um our next step was then to do a little divide and conquer. So we learned about all the things together, felt properly equipped that we could go off and develop units separately and then have the opportunity to share those units with each other and then all teach them. So by the end of this year, MCS, for example, MCS um kindergarten teams will have created a weather unit that's shared with Ry to be implemented at Ray and Ry will have created a molecules and organisms unit to share with MCSS. I'm sorry, MCS. So that at the end of the year we do have three units. One created together, one created by MCS, one created by Ry, but three that will be taught across the grade level.

083That helps. That makes perfect sense. Thank you for clarifying that. You're welcome. Sorry. No, we're moving. Moving. Okay. Um, thank you for that. Any questions on the grant, which is science related, so it's not off base. Okay. Thank you so much. And thank you to our kindergarten team for putting this together. It sounds like a really really meaningful project. Um let's move back to policy then. Is that does that work? Okay. So thank you for that uh digression on my part. So for our perspective candidates who I think is most of the people here policy discussions that are applicable to all the schools typically are introduced at the SAU board which our candidate would be a member of and then that's kind of where like the meaty stuff happens and then once it is read

084there it kind of trickles down to the other school districts including the other one where we are tonight where the conversation at the board level is fairly minimal because We've already discussed it. We welcome public comment about all those things. But you see if you look at board docs, there's a lot of policies here tonight, but all of these have been discussed in other functions also on camera um that we typically don't repeat ourselves. So for the stuff we're looking at tonight, board members, the sustainability is the second reading. I don't recall there were significant changes made based on the first discussion. There is the title nine policies which we did have some nuances on in terms of what it means and does not mean the board members can see. There is some administrative content

085there. I'd recommend you take a look at it if you haven't seen it yet that it's not really the changes title we're talking about tonight are not new data. It's more of how a complaint is reported. If a complaint comes to us or more technically to the superintendent or to the schools, it does not take away any sort of process right or anything about the right to complain. It's more just how you do that mechanism internally within the schools. And I think I'll leave it at that. Okay. And I will note for board members that we are in our uh business requiring action. We are going to be approving or asked to approve um policy DFA on investment and the sustainability policy um which have seen multiple readings. So the investment policy is just perennial

086never changes. So yeah that's a yearly thing um and then the sustainability policy we've already approved at least one for I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. Questions on policy board members? No questions on policy from the public. Okay. Uh seeing none, we will move along to substitute nurse pay. Is this Robin? Yes. Robin. Hello everyone. So we I put together a report for the substitute nurses. I've been working with them since co um as part of that project and then I've been meeting with them monthly now for the past couple of years as part of K12 meetings and one of the issues that's come up over and over is the issue of substitute pay for nurses. We just cannot get nurses to come in and substitute. So I put together a report that gives you an

087idea of some comparison pay around us. We seem to have more difficulty because we have the hospital next door and so many of our potential nurse substitutes often go there because the pay is so much higher. So you can see that currently we're paying $170 $75 per day which is about $25 per hour and we are um would like to increase that pay to $300 today per day which will bring it to about $43 per hour. And you can see we looked into some private nursing organizations that we could get substitutes through. one is dedicated nursing association but the for registered nurse the pay is up to $72 per hour. It's quite high and um even schools around us some are paying between $200 and $250 per day and I've given you a list of

088those some up to $275 per day. So, we will be on the high end, but again, I think because we're next to the hospital and you can see the hospital pay. This is from the website, but when I spoke with some of our nurses, they have been involved with also working at the hospital and they said that pay is actually much higher than what we see on the website. So, it's just a good comparison. Um, I also provided you with some information regarding the impact that it has on the schools. I know that nurse substitutes across the board for all of our positions are, you know, we're in dire need, but I think it we leaves the schools particularly vulnerable when we don't have these nurses. One of the questions that came up when we

089met with the Norwich school board is the impact that this would have on the budget if we did increase the pay. And um Jamie talked about that specifically that you know just based on the number of sick days that our teachers have, professional development days, personal days. If we took all of those days and combined those and had to pay a substitute for those days, I think the amount that she came up with was approximately $6,000 because we have one nurse in each school. It's generally not an issue at the high school because we do have coverage there if someone's out. So, it's really an issue at the Ray School, the middle school, and the Norwich at Marry and Cross. And I think also Nor um Lauren could speak too specifically about the impact that

090it's had on her at the Ray School because it seems to fall honestly when the nurses are out on our administrative staff. They tend to be the people that end up covering in those positions. So it just provides an extra burden for them. And I gave you an idea of what examples of what our nurses do during a day. Um, and some are, you know, they're extremely technical that people may not feel comfortable with dealing with. So, I'm happy to answer any questions and I did put a lot of information in the report, but can I just before we take questions, did I hear you say the potential budget impact here is about $6,000? Yes. We're going to look around for a head nod. I mean, I'm happy to take questions, but $6,000, right? Okay.

091Yeah. I was just going to say your colleagues on the Norwich board were ready to go for it, but they wanted to defer until you had a chance to take a look at because I don't want to be at a competitive advantage to you. Yes. Kind of. I would have never. All right. I will take questions. Are there questions? Yes. This isn't a question, but I just think it really is important for those, you know, old guard folks who might think a school nurse is dispensing aspirin and band-aids and wiping scraped knees that that is not the world we are in. And so, yeah, I I just think that's important and it's worn out by the documents on Yep. board docs. Yep. Questions from the public. Okay. Um, so we'll be asked to approve this

092in uh items requiring action. And here we go. You were rewarded for your patience. We are at the new board member interviews. Okay. Um, we are genuinely very very very grateful that you're all here. Um, we are also um, thrilled to have such interest. Um hopefully you all saw my letter that I meant to get out earlier and it's been a lot of meetings this week. Um so I did not get it out earlier but um regardless of the outcome tonight, please don't go far away, right? I mean we we as I mentioned in my letter and this is true for everyone watching tonight. Um we will have seats up for election um come March. So filing for that as in January. This is an 11month position. um hopefully that person will want to reup

093but regardless that position is up for um election as well. So lots of opportunity to be involved and we're we're grateful to all of you for being here. Um so I had asked all candidates to um if they would like prepare about 3 minutes of you know any additional information um that you would like to share with us specifically um specific areas of board service that interest you. Um, and then, um, we had a question about just conflicts of interest. Anything that you think the board should know and why why that isn't actually a potential conflict of interest for you. Um, how you you plan to overcome that. Um, and then I did have an additional question sent in uh that I wanted to mention and now I don't know where that ended up. Uh,

094pardon me for two seconds. Yes. Oh, um, time availability. That was it. Availability. So, um, we have a lot of a fair number of committee meetings. Many of those meet during the daytime, um, after school hours. We kind of vary throughout the day on those committee commitments. But if you could also just give us a quick sense of, you know, what your general availability is, evening, daytime, that sort of thing, that would be helpful for us. So, um, we'll just follow the order that is in board docs for lack of any better order. So, this is in no specific order. It's just what's on the page. So, starting with Renee. Yes. Oh, Nick gets ready. Can I also want to remind folks that this is a major commitment. Um, you we all paid elected officials

095and even when we're at the grocery store, you are representing the school board. Um, I think all of us have gotten cornered in situations we were not really anticipating and say, "Hey, what's going on with this budget? I have this issue." And I'm like, "I'm getting diapers." You know, whatever. And it's sort of it's it's not you're never really off duty. You've seen what we what we do here tonight. That that that encounter with time manager is not typical. It's not a typical meeting, but we do have things like that that that happened. Yeah. You know, it came to us to decide whether schools are open during COVID when very little information was known and we didn't really know what we were doing. No one did. I think we did that as well as we

096could. That was not what most schools did around here. So like we do have major decisions. we um we need to make some heavy duty replacements in the next few months or years that come on us. It is a big ask. So, please do not take it lightly. That said, it is incredibly fulfilling to be going hard for the schools and I don't regret doing it at all. I just started my third term as a remarkable thing, but it is a a major asset sort of just know that this is a big deal if you do join us for this 11month trial run. Yes, if I could just offer a yes and to Ben comment, it's important also to know that even though you will be approached as a board member everywhere you go, you

097have no authority outside of a duly warned uh schoolboard meeting unless the board charges you with some some task. So, it's important to balance that. Yeah, absolutely. Renee, thank you. Uh, so I'm Renee Sullivan. I live in Hamburg. Um, you said three minutes. I'm hoping this is less, but uh, hello, Chair McConnell and members of the board. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to share more about my candidacy with you this evening. I'm going to insert this general availability thing because I think I'm going to forget otherwise. Um, I'm very flexible during the daytime. I work part-time. Um, I like work part time for pay and fulltime as mom. So, that's a balance. Um, as I know many of you have experienced. Um, but being part of a school board has always been part of

098kind of the back of my mind. Um, and so that's I knew that was coming. Um, I also heard a little bit more from Ben uh before this position came available because he and I got some coffee so I could learn more and was uh amazed at the amount of commitment of time that is all that you put in. um but also then kind of let that settle in that felt right um given everything we talked about about the quality of schools in this town. So in addition to all that there's three other things I want to share with you. One um the area of board service that you asked about. Uh given uh my experience with resource management as a consultant um I always like budgets and finance. Uh they are also the place

099that I get to you can see where the priorities the district are. Um, second, as for relationships to schools, I am very good friends with Bethanne Schwarz, a Spanish teacher at the Richmond Middle School. Any decision I would make as a board member would be driven by data, so I do not see my friendship as posing a conflict of interest. Um, I'm also currently the vice chair of the Friends for Hanover North Schools, which I would resign from if selected. And I also serve as the Haven coordinator with the PTO and run the board K2 walking bus, both of which are not funded by or run by the SAU. Uh so I do not think they pose a challenge, but you can let me know if that's not right. Um so finally, the thing that

100uh really is driving me more than anything right now is what's happening at the national level. And with so much that is being now pushed out to states, including a all that fun stuff with special education, which you know is a big thing within our budgets, um and frankly just everything being demolished, uh at the federal government, it's going to put more in the states. And in New Hampshire, we are a very interesting state. Um, and with our local taxpayer base being the biggest uh of many um in the state, I feel like there's going to be some unique challenges that will be coming up um both policy-wise, budget-wise that I would really like to be part of weathering those waters. So, thank you, Renee. Um, well, under three minutes. Good job. Um, are there

101questions for Renee? specific question. Yeah, I already thank you for that. Um, looking at sort of what you do in your day job, which is very impressive in terms of working with all these school districts and all these major towns, how nitty-gritty do you get in this kind of stuff? Like, you know, are we are you looking at numbers? Are you are you doing interviews? What kind of changes have you implemented? And what kind of changes have you tried to implement, but failed? Maybe did a school push back or policies or politics or anything like that? Yeah. Um, all of that. Um, so as a consultant, I think you can appreciate I do not have direct power or authority over a school leader that I am working with or a district leader. However, we can

102kind of figure out where their goals lie and then kind of work with them to make sure anything that we're analyzing meets that meets their needs. So technically, um, I was working at Education Resource Strategy as a consulting firm um, in Boston for nine years. early in my career as an analyst. So, I was in the data looking at numbers. So, um expenditure data downloaded from Boston public schools and Indianapolis public schools and a few different districts um in Tennessee. We would merge that file with all I'm like laughing because it's like I haven't done this in years, but it's I did it many many times. We merge the expenditure file with personnel data. So, we could say, okay, we know we're spending X dollars on certain number of people. Who are those people? are

103they actually fully staffed? Then we get to marry that lovely data with um actual scheduling data. So how are those teachers scheduled in your schools? And that gets at the the principal and the school level. So the conversations at the district level were about how are we actually spending our money? Is it aligned with the what we said we'd be spending on? We wanted to invest much more in science. Are we actually doing that? Oh no gosh, we have a lot of um extra vacancies. So our conversations in Tennessee were about human capital um and funding formulas. So, they were moving from um steps and lanes to more of a um not I don't know if they landed on merit being the right word, but you did more. You got more responsibilities. You were mentoring

104teachers. You were a lead science teacher. You were taking on professional development with the county. You got extra pay for those things. And we were modeling that. So, we created an Excel file and said, "Okay, here's your steps and lanes." um like this is you know how many years of experience you have in the degrees right now what would it look like if we said the base pay actually overall for everybody is x and I can't remember what it was at the time in the 40s um as a starting and then you can add on to that or whatever it is so they were having a hard time staffing math teachers so extra pay for math and science um on top of that and you can kind of hollow with all those inputs um so

105we did that in Tennessee a a few different districts, I think it was Knoxville and I Nashville, um, utilized that to help devise new funding formulas. I haven't looked at them recently. They're probably different because it was a decade ago, but that was one of the things we did. Now, I work directly with Waterberry Public Schools, specifically in a nonprofit um, called Bridge to Success. Their focus is on cradle career students, so not just school age kids. My kind of cut of their work in the past two and a half years has been with six K8s. Um they are community schools. They are all very high need and their biggest challenge has been principal turnover and consistency and you know leadership is a really really big factor in retention of teachers. So shocker there's a

106huge teacher turnover um and lots of long-term subs and also related to that big shocker lots of chronic absenteeism. Um, and there's they're complicated things now because ICE concerns. You're not getting kids coming to school for fear of being deported or not coming home to having parents. Um, and so there's a lot of uh kind of concerns about that. My role in that work is coaching with principles about how to actually engage with attendance data. So they'll download specific reports for me um which I'll kind of do pivot tables and sorts to say which kids have we reached out to in the past and what have we done? what was their attendance before? What is their attendance now? Are we seeing improvement? Who else should we be focusing on? What else can we do? What

107interventions are working well? Um, which is always a challenge because the attendance teams are very small and it always includes the principal who doesn't have time. Um, and so my role often becomes kind of coaching the team to say we have limited resources. What can we do with our time? Who is the most priority right now? Um, so I'll come with a kind of more of a highlighted list based on what I think their capacity is. Um, which generally leads to good conversation, but um, yes, thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Um, no, that was fascinating. Um, any other specific questions? Generic comment. If you guys have any questions for us in terms of, you know, workload, what we do and don't do, what we can and can't do, please feel free to ask us to.

108This can be a conversation that we don't usually say that public comment is a little different. So I will say a brief conversation seven other effectively seven other. So um yes also I'm happy to um take I guess we're going to make decision tonight. So we kind of have to do it. Any other questions for Renee? Okay Renee, thank you so much. Um moving on. That's me, right? Yes. Moving on to uh Katie. Katie Parker. I'm an uh two kids in district, a rising junior and a rising freshman. They both been in the Hanover school since kindergarten. Um I previously served on the SAU equity committee. Um welcome each two of us. long-term process because we want opinions to get something written. But we did eventually craft the policy for the district to make sure

109every student got access to um everything they need to be successful. I co-own a web development and online marketing company that is 21 years old, sort of like 60 years old because web terms are sort of like dog years. Um I am it's a small company. There's only three of us, but my primary role aside from all the other hats I wear is project director. And that role sees me communicating on a daily basis with all of our clients as well as with my team. And that's very broad range of humans that I've been working with for the last 20 years. And I think that that gives me good skill set just working with varying opinions and different people. Also a middle child to be a born mediator. Um, for the past 20 or so

110years, I've spent my summers in Fairley, Vermont at Lanquila, which is the boy summer camp. My husband is the director there. And while I don't have a direct role at the camp, I have had a front row seat to watching my husband as well as his staff sort of guide several generations of kids through all of the things that have been thrown their ways over the last few years. And I've experienced also how the board how the actions of the board can positively or negatively influence the entire community as well as the programs. And I'd really like to be part of a board that does important things and does good things for the community. And I was going to say, you just brought this up, but I really admire what this board did during COVID

111and like pushing all the parents and the teachers to send the kids back to school even with masks on. So pretty awesome. And I've seen through the camps gener like lots of kids over the last five years now all over the world and how co affected them and how that isolation affected them and it was a really awesome part of this district during that. Um I'd enjoy being part of a board that makes those tough decisions especially when there's sort of community push back like that. Um I bring strong communication skills to the board. I I really enjoy the policy writing. I didn't think I would but I really got into that. Um, I'm also, I think, good communicating with like the greater community. I am not a financial analyst or an advisor, but I

112can get my way around spreadsheet. I've done a lot of that through my work. And um, yeah, that's awesome. Thank you, Katie. Specific questions for Katie. Just gonna look this way. So, hi. So, you've been a a soccer coach at HBR for 19 years. I started 11. I'll ignore that. But okay. So, it's not necessarily like is it following your kid or is it kind of staying in the same age group? It started in Lebanon before I had kids. I was just looking for something fun to do and I knew um the head of the park and wreck over there, Paul. And I ran into him was looking for a coach and I was like, "Oh, I'll do that." He's like, "You're insane." And everybody's like, "Which one's your kid?" I was like, "Oh, and

113then I don't have one." And they're like weird. I started grade and then when I had kids that were old enough when they were I think when kindergarten is when they started and so I started following my kids through coaching and that last two years my rising junior and I co- coached my younger daughter's grades. We coached her in seventh grade and coached her in eighth grade together which fun. But yeah, so I've coached with HPR for nine ten years. I'm not really sure that it's been a while. Where I'm going with that, thank you for that context, is as you may or may not know, there was a vote that was passed to to push through middle school sports, which Kelly and I were probably the board members most involved with that at the

114the board level. And I'm curious for your thoughts as a coach, things we should watch out for or things you're happy or not happy about that change. Yeah, I'm actually I'm so I coached third and fourth was my sweet spot. I really enjoyed that age group. I was I actually didn't coach my older daughter's seventh and eighth grade year because I didn't think I was qualified to coach middle school, but then I watched her through a year and I was like, "Oh, I actually can do a lot better than that." I think and that that was just because like I had more experience and like when I get out there I'm like really focused on making sure the kids have a good time. I love the whole Rex thing that like everyone wins. Like for

115the longest time my kids were small at the end of the game like I was not keeping track of the scores. All the kids would be like who won? And I was like, we done coaches for everybody, right? Yes. I think it's really great. I think it's going to make the middle school sports a lot more competitive. I think the coaching will be a lot more consistent. I think that's going to be really good for kids. It's going to make them more competitive. There's been confusion every single year whether there should be an A and a B team. And like the feedback always comes back that all the other schools have A and B. And I generally coach B team. I prefer the misfits and crush because the other schools weren't doing any of these

116games and so I think having it be consistent and old school is going to be a really positive thing. I mean that's specific for soccer but probably basketball and other sports but um yeah I think it's ultimately a really good thing. I'm not sure how the budget is going to fall like in terms of actually it was a question I have not answer now but like yeah with the busing and I didn't see anything about the coaches in the budget itself just as it's in there. It's gonna be great. It's a healthy bump from HBR. Yeah, I'm sure. I really think long run it's just going to be what schools do anyways. I think in 10 years from now we're going to be like they didn't used to have sports button. I think it's good.

117Other questions for Kaylee. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Moving on. You guys probably know who's next better than I do. Josh. Thank you, Josh. Okay. Come on now. Thank you. Hi everyone, Josh Hoffet. I'm from here in handover. Um, so in my day job, I invest in and deploy clean energy infrastructure on the power grid, but I do that for my home office. Uh, so I have fairly flexible schedule. Um, so uh, for the past 25 years I've been in the Marine Corps, a lot of that's been in the reserves. Um, that's winding down. My service in the reserves is winding down. I'll be retiring this year, which is great, but I have more time now. And uh I seek to fill all holes in my schedule as quickly as I can.

118Uh and I'd love to serve the community. Um so when I saw this this opening on the school board, I thought I thought I'd uh put my hat in the ring. So we've got this great strategic plan for our schools here uh in Hanover. The top two goals in that plan are curriculum and supporting students. And those actually align with my top two goals that that I would seek to support uh given the opportunity to serve on the school board. Uh there's been some uh community concern with curriculum uh of late and I think directing our district's resources towards developing a coherent curriculum that runs through all of the schools um elementary, middle, and high school is extremely important. and then supporting instruction through having our having the best teachers and the best support staff

119to support those teachers. Um I I I think is absolutely essential. Also, I'd be very excited to be a staunch advocate for making sure that the district has the resources that it needs. It was fun to watch the board advocate uh for our tax revenue tonight. Actually, that was a lot of fun and I'd love to participate in that. and uh talk about your idea and help communicate to the public when it comes to town meeting on on why it's so important to pass to pass the school board's budget. So, my wife's a kindergarten teacher here at the Ray School. Uh she's taught third grade, first grade, and and for the past couple years in kindergarten. I don't believe that's conflict of interest. It's not an automatic conflict for law. Uh, of course, if anything

120should come up uh that directly impacts her financially and or our family in some way, I would abstain uh from that vote. Right now, she and her students are super busy building trolls out of hear about it every day and the pack has been fantastic. Uh, but in any case, uh, that's me. So, thank you, Josh. Yes. Um, so what committees would you be interested in serving on? Well, um, perfectly candidly, I couldn't list all the committees right now. Um, area of interest. Uh, certainly, um, whichever committee most directly impacts curriculum, uh, would be my top choice, um, and policy. uh and and then whichever committee uh communicates most directly with handover residents on our budget uh when it comes to town meeting and approving the budget. Other questions? Thank you. Other questions for Josh?

121Uh so appreciate that in your letter which I appreciated and especially bringing up um wife occupation who we all know and appreciate her service. In terms of a qu an answer to I think you're somewhat of a question is you're right it's not an automatic disqualification that have a spouse who works for the schools. What has happened with previous board members whose spouses work for the schools including a simuition to yours is that that person would typically not be involved in negotiations in terms of union something like that and did not vote when it came to approving teacher salaries. And so I think apart from that I'm not aware of any other direct immediate disqualifications that would occur in terms of what you could and could not do. So there's there's that part. Um, and

122secondly, you you do allude to seeing firsthand about what can happen for an unsteady approach using your words without getting into individual child management like that, but what are some of the concerns you've seen and do you have any proposed solutions? Sure. Uh, so most recently the math curriculum has been which which school? Well, in the middle school. Okay. U, but that impacts everything. It impacts elementary students rising to the middle school and then it it impacts middle schoolers going to high school even more. Um, and it it impacts students who are at the top and students who are at the bottom most. Um, so students who are at the top don't have under the curriculum as it was proposed. Obviously, everything's still in place. uh students at the top were losing out on the

123opportunity for uh the type of advanced mathematics that that they had before and have at other schools like Crossroads. So students who have the resources to cross roads and other schools because of it. And then students at the bottom uh were placed with, you know, were were to be placed with kind of everyone else um regardless of the additional level of support that they needed and that wasn't properly differentiating for them either. So catered very well for uh kind of the top of the bell curve if you were if you will but one standard deviation left and right was left out of that curriculum. Um, so having a curriculum that properly differentiates for students of all abilities and provides the support that they need that runs through elementary, middle, and into high school uh so

124that all students can achieve their best possible personal outcomes. Um, I I think that that needs to be the goal. Thank you. Other questions for Josh? Anything none? Okay. Thank you so much, Joe. I maintain my record for brevity. It was like 20 seconds, so that's going to be hard. Joe Laws again. Um, regarding the the scheduling, um, I own my own business and startup, so as long as I have at least a day's notice, I'm relatively flexible and I can plan around it. I'd say the harder thing is the four children in race school. Um, working around that and after they come home is more difficult, but is doable with with sufficient notice to coordinate. But that being said, um, have a prepared statement to insurance. Um, as a co-founder and CEO of a

125fast growing company, I've managed multi-million dollar budgets while coordinating technology vendors and complex contracts. This experience has taught me the importance of strategic resource allocation and fiscal responsibility. These skills would serve the district well on budget and negotiation committees where I can help ensure our investments enhance educational outcomes while remaining accountable to taxpayers. And secondly, in my work deploying AI agents across healthcare, finance, and professional sports, I've witnessed firsthand how dramatically the landscape of work is changing. The students in our classrooms today will enter a workforce that looks vastly different than the one we were trained for. We must proactively prepare our children for this new reality, not only in how they will work, but also in defining the very nature of work that they do. I would be honored to bring this perspective to

126the strategic planning and education committees, ensuring that our educational strategies align effectively with tomorrow's workforce needs. Ultimately, I'm enthusiastic to contribute wherever you think my skills and expertise will will serve the students, educators, and communities. Thank you, Joe. Questions for Joe. I'll try to be here. Okay, you're doing great, Ben. You're doing great. Um, so given that you you mentioned four young children, I won't get into the the pragmatic logistics of that, so I appreciate. Um, so you're welcome. But how how did you get involved with this other school district's plan then? Um, is that a volunteer thing? Were you approached based on technical expertise or something else? And so why why were you brought in and what did what is something you learned not to do as a result of that schools? It's a

127a good question. I'd say the biggest thing is I'm I'm maybe probably an oddball where there's a problem people are talking about, I look into how it could be fixed. And so parents were talking about all these issues with the school district or just education in general. And I started reading up on what the town was doing and then actual research papers on what the best policies were. And then I started attending board meetings and giving statements. And then the superintendent asked me to participate in the strategic planning committee from there. And so it was more of just a kind of an oddball where I I'll like get sucked into areas and want to contribute um and just have to learn more and find ways to contribute. Yes, the the time and schedule I always

128just manage to fill up the holes as Josh was saying you always act as an ex-military as well like you're used to just having every minute of every hour occupying something contributing somewhere. So my question actually dubtales with that. Um, I know working on a strategic plan is a huge commitment of time over quite some time, but am I correct that you lived in Woodstock at the time and you just moved to Hanover? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, I'm so I'm curious after investing so much in the strategic plan that on the surface looks great, what prompted you to move to Hanover? The Vermont in general, which that's the whole thing I get into, they the education system is much more state driven and the high school in Woodstock is I think now the oldest or

129second oldest in the state in danger of being condemned every day. When you go on a tour and it has smells, it's just terrible falling apart. And I was worried that my kids wouldn't have a school to go to by the time we made it to it. in the town's I advocated wrote articles to newspaper but they still voted down the the bond like similar tiff to um they passed the tiff in the town but they didn't pass the bond for the school and so they actively were working against and the other thing is the state if the the problem was if the town raised money and increase their school budget the state gets 23 of anything they increase and So there was no way they could that taxpayers were going to shoulder that that

130burden. So thank you. Yeah, more of a comment rather than direct specifically, but just make sure everyone's clear because several of this board, we didn't know it when we signed up. Um, but you are not just on the handover school board should you join us. You are also on the Dresden school board and the SAU school board, both of which also has Norwich board members on it. So you have the advantage that you know a little bit about Vermont school board related laws and issues but everyone else who joins the board will become the experts. So we have to also deal with sort of the laws of two states. Now Dresden and SEU do technically are considered New Hampshire school districts but we do have to pay attention to the daily politics in Vermont much

131more than I want to. So just there's that caveat that we haven't explicitly said yet, but it becomes to the forefront very quickly. As do our esteemed leaders. Yes. Yes. Other questions for Joe. Joe, thank you so much. And I'll apologize to everyone. I'm realizing looking at you sitting. I've sat in this group. They are great for kindergarteners and first graders, not great for adults. Still better than nor apologies for that. Um, okay. We are moving on to I'm so sorry. Sorry, I lost the page. Valerie, Valerie, thank you. As you guys probably appreciate, this is going to be a very tough decision that we have to make. Yeah. So, we just add nine people. The more the marrier. Okay. Is Valerie online? She is. Okay. So, let's get Valerie for now. I know Valerie

132had a conflict. Um, so it may just not have been possible. Um, Wharton and I live on Donford Road in Etna. Um, I moved up here in August of 2021. Uh, my husband is now a math teacher at Hanover High School, so I suppose that's a thing. Um, our boys, we have three boys. one is older in graduate school, not here, but my middle son, Wes, is 16 and a sophomore at the high school. My youngest, Hi, is an eighth grader at RMS. Um, I'm a social worker. I've been a clinical social worker for 20 years now. Since moving up here, I work on the psychiatry consult service to the emergency room. So kind of on the front lines of the mental health crisis um that I think kids and families are dealing with. I

133mean it was happening before CO but I think postco it's a whole new kind of landscape. Um, so my interest in volunteering for the board is in part because I want to be involved and kind of help with the current kids that are there, but also really in hoping to um help focus on curriculum specifically focused on social emotional learning at all ages. I think that the I mean I say almost on a daily basis I think maybe this is not well received but I think somebody should just break the internet to navigate like anyway uh social media all that kind of stuff Jonathan hate just came out with an excellent book about the anxious generation and I think we have a like a situation here in the upper valley where people's values are really

134in the right place I think getting kids outdoors involved in activities and sports Many of you have heard from me about a JB hockey team at the high school. These are things that I think are really important for kids. Uh and yeah, I just want to sort of participate in that and I will not vote on things for teacher salary or Yeah, that's I think appreciate that. Um specific questions for you. I'm looking this way first. Marcela, Tara, no. Terry, Deb, no. Ben, Ben. All right. Um, you ask a similar question that I asked of Josh, which is in in your letter, you did mention that you have concerns. Um, I I'm hearing through the lines about, you know, internet usage and perhaps indoors and all that kind of thing. Are the concerns that you

135are mentioning which you do say is happening in our schools are those things that you have specific concerns about within the handover schools or you mean sort of generic not not generic but more geared to state national level concerns? Oh I think definitely in the handover schools I've watched kind of RMS staff um administrators really struggle with how to you know I think that Tim Bole and to clarification if you cannot name individuals we appreciate that. Yeah. Uh, oh, sorry. Okay. So, RMS administration administration had a great um focus on wait until 8 in terms of having a personal device, things like that. But I don't think that's the reality of what's been happening. So I just think that educators, administrators, parents are would respond well to um more guidance on how to navigate um

136particularly like there are fads that happen on Tik Tok or YouTube and there's a lot of reaction um and I think that there's a lot of room for just improving um knowledge and strategies for coping with those situations. And I think it can also be from student to student like things that happen on social media and how that's handled in schools. I mean it's a mess. Thank you. Other questions for you. All right. Thank you so much. Lawrence. So I'm Lawrence Walders. Thanks for your consideration in this process. Uh you've seen my letter and know I'm a father of two kids in the district and that I'm passionate about supporting our professional educators to provide the best educational opportunities for our community with our sometimes limited resources. I have no conflicts of interest with the

137board or school. Um uh I'm also highly available. I'm a software engineer. I work from home. I don't travel for work anymore thankfully. Um so uh daytime meetings are very possible with you know the usual attendance notice for committee service I can bring experience with policy and collaboration I'm currently part of the CIPC that's wow that was um that's like um so I'm on the CIPC committee with the town of Hanover so I've been through one budget cycle so far with that. Uh I understand some of their priorities, some of the things they're talking about here today and how that impacts the school. Um so I'd be happy to be the representative of the CIBC for this board. Uh I also mentioned I serve on Hart Hartford dismiss council and the how library corporation board.

138So I understand the process of collaboration. Um actually Hartford the dismiss house uh as an organization has a consensus process with its council which is super interesting. It's not a we vote for this we vote for that. It's we talk it out until we come to a solution which is uh wild but it's happened one time where there was like a challenging issue. Um and then so the other thing is I'm interested in the NHSBA liaison um and strategic planning and policy. One thing that I do want to emphasize is that a as a board, we don't run the school at an integrated level. We work with the professionals to provide extra resource, extra eyeballs, um, oversight. And that's really what I'm interested in. So, for example, um, one of my personal experiences with the

139school to have experienced the math curriculum in RMS, I have an eighth grader, uh, it's not working out for him. Uh, and it's a real bummer. And that's my personal experience that I would bring to this board. But at the same time, I don't want to say, "Oh, we can't do it like this. We can't do self-paced education." I fully agree with the idea that we need to detract. We need an equitable process to math advancement. But maybe self-paced learning is not the solution. What are our pros saying? And that's and this is where I would would not come in and say, "Oh, we need honors, we need a beginning, we need middle." I would say, "Tell me what the research does. What is our goal? Is our goal an equitable approach to success in

140math and inclusion of all students in math? Tell me how that works because I'm not professionally educated in this topic and so I would lean on our pros to do that. Thank you for your time. Thanks Joe. Questions for Joe? I've been doing so well. Apologize. Yeah, Joe has one and sports. You could all be dangerous. Lawrence, thank you for your comments, particularly the very realistic comment about what what level the board typically stays at, which is usually where we are. Sometimes we go more granular, I think, than we intend to. Sometimes we stay right where we're supposed to. Apologies to Jay many times for that. Um, my question, I guess, is with your various volunteer stuff, which is all fantastic. I I applaud you. you can do what I cannot. Um, what was in

141one of these board roles or committee roles, what was a crisis you had to deal with and how did you on the board know how involved to get and what did you choose to do? And you don't have to get too specific. Yeah. Um, no, this is actually really cool because this is this is the dismiss house consensus model. Um, which I didn't, you know, at first you sign up, you're on the board for a couple years, you're like consensus model. um and then something happens and you're just like, "Holy crap, consensus model." So, um Dismiss House is um the goal is to uh integrate formerly incarcerated people with community and integrate community with formerly incarcerated people. And so one of those things we do is we um we as on the council we try

142to bring uh we try to have a resident of the house formerally incarcerated person participate in all of our decisions and all of our um planning activities that we do as a council. So there's also a the house is a sober house and they also have rules about substance use in the house. So, we had one resident who really wanted to be on the committee or on the council. Um, yet he was using in the house and violating kind of a house rule. So, he he wants to serve the the community yet he's violating the community rules. And the house manager came to us and said, "Look, resident X wants to participate, and that's fantastic, but I think he shouldn't come to these meetings unless he plays by the rules." Okay. So, you're in a

143formally incarcerated environment which is all about second chances. It's all about not further punishing. It's all about collaboration and helping people make good choices and then giving them the support they need. What do you do? And so, we actually had like an hourlong discussion about could this person join that and that everybody got to share their piece. And what we did was we said he can't join tonight and we're going to talk about it in in one month. And so, you know, crisis, right? This is not like a hugely impactful thing, but it's kind of a step in this person's journey and we're gonna have a positive impact if you can. So, um, we ended up all of us kind of talked it out and then we were able to think about it for a

144several weeks and then our next meeting we decided, you know, you do need to follow the rules. But one of the big things was what is this going to do to the relationship between this resident and the house manager? We kind of go against the house. I mean, that's what changed my mind. But anyway, it was it was interesting to learn about the consensus model. Thank you. Any other questions for Lauren? Okay. Thank you so much. And last, but most certainly not least, Anastasia. And I will just say before Anastasia steps up, um Michael, who was our our final candidate, actually um in looking at everyone's letter said, "Everyone looks phenomenal." I will politely withdraw myself. So all of you answer Michael. Um and again I will say please please come back. Please come back.

145Anastthesia. My name is Anastasia Radienko. I live in Edna. The board probably knows me at least the older members of the board. Um because I have been very critical of the schools in the past. When I had an issue with my son, it was my first child. I was like not used to anything. But it did force me to dive deep into how education works. Since then, I've watched every school board meeting. I kind of know how it works, but I'm also very comfortable learning things I have no idea about. I've managed the construction of two homes because I I was like, I want to build a house. And I didn't have any background, but I learned building code. I learned to read laws. I learned to meet with different types of people. Um, so

146I don't necessarily have experience like in finance or something, but I'm comfortable jumping into the budget committee and finding creative ways like we have a crisis with financing the district. It sounds like this I didn't know about the tip thing, but I hope that I can bring some creative approach to like how do we solve this issue. Um I was a programmer before um and I learned which is like the first programming language. So I feel like that experience made me feel like I could learn anything and that's all I have to offer basically. Thank you so much Anastasia. Um questions for Anastasia Ben. Hi Anastasia. Um, so similar to the comments that I asked for Josh and someone else, um, where you in your letter expressed that you've had concerns, um, and the only

147thing concerns you is that you also graduated from Hanover High School. So you have sort of I think a longer perspective than I think the vast majority of people in this room not all of them is sort of without getting into the level of the individual child or person. What are some of the concerns you've seen probably newer be more helpful than than older in terms of uh current issues and what would you recommend if you were on the board that you would do about them? Yeah. So, similar to unit, um I think that screens are pretty bad for kids. I mean, my first pediatrician appointment was like, "Watch out screen time. Your baby isn't watching screens." And then so I was really surprised that the school encourages screen time and um I feel like

148parents and the school have to work together to like what's the healthiest thing like we have we're living in the information age. We can find what's the healthiest thing for kids. Let's create that fresh air running around, you know, maybe they don't learn physics in elementary school, but like or how to use a computer, but maybe they're happier and maybe they're more resilient because they interact with the real world and not like the mean comments online or or something like that. So, I guess that's my take. Thanks for that. Other phones, other sorry, questions. All right, Anastasia, thank you so much. Oh, yes. Question from Yes, public comment. Always public comment. Kim, you are you running again? Um, so yeah, Kim Hartman. Yeah, I I'm the opening for this discussion and actually it's really weird.

149I'm I'm really still sticking around because there's an action on the tip which I feel compelled to help my colleagues on. Um but it it is like kind of watching your own mural. What I shared I was really happy to run it off to sunset. I really hope you don't see me at the next meeting. Um it's really just the tip. But I'm really happy to offer any sort of um you know phone call, a coffee discussion or whatever whoever is picked um and you know just to try to think about um what committees you might be on you might be on some of committees. Um and so you know really just happy to to offer um reaching out having a discussion. It's as you can see from just the tip discussion alone it can

150get real complicated really fast. involves, you know, a lot of background information. I'm happy to kind of get you up to speed because others before me did the same. So, just wanted to say thank you all for coming out and then second Yes. I just want to thank everybody. This is such a great turnout. We've had this situation before and had a couple people show up. Um, and I am so grateful to not be a voting member of the school board. Uh, because it'll be an impossible choice. you're you're all I mean the fact that you're willing number one is is huge and that just the experience and the talent and the desire in this in in in the collection of folks we have here tonight is going to make this a very difficult non-public

151session for the board but hopefully great difficult but hopefully and I will just also say that as a person that you know this is my second meeting and I on the ballot unopposed all I had to do was sign my name and the date in which I gave it to the main office. I'm also really impressed because I we know more about you guys than they saw me. Yeah, thank you for all being here. Yes, we think you're great. I'll echo what everyone else just said. We have a very difficult decision. The vast majority I think what we've heard has been phenomenal. So, thanks to all of you for being here tonight and I would encourage you that seven people are going home either very sad or very happy tonight. Um, but I would encourage

152all seven of those people to stay involved in whatever way makes sense to you. Whether that's future board candidacy or just watching meetings or staying involved volunteering, you know, do whatever makes sense for you. We appreciate you and and all you do as parents and as citizens. I will add one thing that I would like as a board member, which I've done previously. As Jay I mentioned, this has happened a couple times in my tenure on the board, is I think board members should declare any interest we have in any folks here, anyone we're friends with or we're buddies with or we work with professionally or anything because I think full transparency on our side is also helpful. And for example, what I I'll start just in full disclosure is that I think it's safe

153to say I recognize everyone in this room from like kid, family, raceful context. Josh in particular, I've seen you everywhere. I don't think I've ever talked to you before. I don't think I knew you the name, but I recognize you as an example. I wouldn't consider that complex. No, but I mean just that work as as some members of some of the pants have alluded to. I've had conversation with Anastasia and Renee and Ununice by email on board related things, but I do not think I have a conflict of interest with anyone here in terms of friendships, employers, whatever. If we did, we would all just, you know, you would historically that did not necessarily happen. That's why I appreciate how ethical you are. Yes. Thank you. That's good. If anyone else has anything, it'd

154be nice if we heard it. Well, I will say I don't know any of you except I met with Lawrence who I see with at the How Library events and I we had coffee so that he could ask me question and I know who Lawrence is. All the rest of you now you know. children. All right. If there is nothing else, I will take a motion to enter into non-public session. Before we do that, um so we do have um one other item um the the nominations list um as well. So this will probably be about 15 minutes. um recognizing the late hour. Our hope was to swear someone in this evening. That said, I can't guarantee how long this is going to be. So, if it is now almost 9:30, if you have childcare,

155if you have things you need to get to and you cannot stay for that even if you are selected, we would understand that and that is acceptable. So, I just wanted to give everyone that out um because this hopefully 15 minutes, that would be my hope. Um but I can't guarantee that. Um we will also Sorry, you get to stick around. I'm so in 15 minutes I'll be really Yeah. Yeah. Uh I also um just for the for the public who's listening. So our our intention is to go um select someone come back in and potentially swear that person in if they are able to stay um until that happens. Um so that there's a lot more to go. There is more. I'm moving to enter into non Oh, sorry. De will you are recognized.

156Okay. I move to enter into nonpublic session at 9:24 p.m. under RSA 91- A col 3 2B and C or second. Okay, Tara seconds. And I will take a roll call vote starting with Tara. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nelson, yes. Russell, yes. And McConnell, yes. And again, thank you all. taking recommend that we do the nominees. or something. [Laughter] Yeah, if one has a rose, we can give it to them. Back in public. So, we will reenter public session. Um, thank you again all for your patience. Um, we would like to propose reordering. I would like to propose reordering the business requiring action to skip immediately to the nomination um and appointment of a new board member. I will take a motion to appoint a new board member. Uh I a motion to carry. Oh yes

157to uh I move to nominate Renee Sullivan as the new handover school board member replacing Kimberly Hartman for a one-year school board position until the March 2026 election. We do not believe we need a second. Um, and we don't have any members online, so we can just take a show of hands. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Thank you so much, Renee. Um, thank you, everybody. And again, I know we said it a thousand times. Um, we literally would put you all on the board right now if we could. And in fact, we talked about how many of us want to resign right now. nonpublic contribution. We'd be willing to would be willing to truly open up a wonderful job and we genuinely hope that you will run um in January. So be on

158the lookout for those postings, please. So thank you everybody. Um Renee, we will go ahead and swear you in. Can we do that? I I think we are allowed to do it is what I'm told that we we personally are able to um you are welcome to stay just yeah we can do it. Thank you so much. The oak, right? Yes, we have. Um, and I guess we will sign it afterwards. So, Katie, see Renee, if you want to come up, right? And um, read read this. I don't know if you can read. And if you're uncomfortable with that language, there's alternative language below in terms of religious statements and things. Oh, that's nice. That's I'm confused. I'm just going to keep going. Uh, I, Renee Sullivan, do solemnly swear that I will bear faith

159and true allegiance to the United States of America and the state of New Hampshire and will support the Constitutions thereof. So help me God. Do I keep going? I keep going. I, Renee Sullivan, do solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as a school board member according uh to the best of my abilities agreeably to the rules and regulations of this constitution and laws of the state of New Hampshire. So help me God italics is done. I think that's right. Yes. Yes. So official part of the wonderful reading test. Thank you so much. And we will sign that and you are excellent. So if you want to come join us in the chair another great I can sit out there. Okay.

160So I will move us along. Renee, welcome. A huge and hearty welcome. Um I will move us along to our um business requiring a the rest of our business requiring action. I will note that we have removed the tuition um approval from this list. So it is now items B through F. Um if someone would like to make a motion since we pulled G out. So items B through F. Yes. I move to approve items B through F by consent. Is there a second Ben? And all in favor, please raise your hands. Rene, you get to vote, too. That is unanimous now, including Renee as well. Uh, with that, we will move on to the report of the chair. I um, is there anyone else who would like to make a motion regarding TIP? Oh,

161yes. Thank you very much. Okay. And TIP motion. Yes. K. Sorry, Jim. Jim here for this very motion. Um, do we want to take a position? Do we just want to enable a representative position? Those be separate. Those could be separate motions as well. Okay. Go ahead. Well, I'm concerned that given the absence of data, given the impact on the school, given the late notification of the statutoily required groups that we cannot support that we do not support article 10 on the warrant. I I don't think that they met their statutory requirement because the data that they were supposed to present, right? And this notification was to fully inform us of the tax and financial implications they which they did not. So yes, and that the hearing started already before this meeting. It is ongoing.

162That's fine. I don't think that matters. They haven't voted. Well, that's part of the statute. It matters. Oh, before before the start of the hearing. By by by in terms of context, they notified the county in December. Oh, really? Well, that's what they said. That's what they said. If you look at the beginning of the RSA, they haven't even met some of those items. They're supposed to estimate the budget, estimate the tax implications. So, just to clarify, like there's a whole bunch of Oh, yeah. And just to clarify, what was stated at the meeting on Monday was that they sent an email to the county commissioner, I believe, and to our superintendent in whatever December, January, whatever the date was. But that does not constitute providing the data. That does not constitute meeting with or

163providing an opportunity to meet with the governing body, which is us. It is not the superintendent. I don't know on the commissioner's level or the county level, but the fact that you sent an email to me does not alleviate the responsibility to present the data. Right. And not only that, I believe it's the select board that's supposed to be meeting with us, not the town manager. We have stated unless he was their representative. I did not get a clear sense that was in fact I think he was kind of saying I'm I'm not the right that was in fact. Yeah. So, it sounds to me like we do want to make a state like we both I think there's a both here, right? Like make a statement we don't support this based on lovely list

164you made and do we have somebody who's available to be there as a representative because I but they're already going to know what I say if I That's fine. I think now you're you're not saying it the board is saying it. Does that make sense? As a second emotion will need to occur. For sure. But in that in that I I have to be at another meeting at 8. I could go if they would let me speak early to deliver the news. I would love for you to do it. I would love that. So why don't we both plan to go and if they let the let it be like give us both the option. Okay. And if they let the the the declaration be done earlier, I would love for you to do it.

165Do we have to name a person or can it just be a representative of the board? I'll go. You have to I want to say one other thing person. I want to say one other thing. I'm actually thrilled that whatever our decision on this, it is only a decision on the funding mechanism. It is our support or not support of the formation of a tiff. It is really not speaking to the underlying value of the proposed project which is totally different. So I mean I have a very clear idea on my position on the tip. Yeah. And and I have other thoughts about the project and I'm glad you're separate. Okay. So I at this point would like to take a motion and then if we want to continue discussion of that motion we can

166do that. Does anyone feel comfortable crafting language or emotion? Jay I don't but just raise your hand and say no. We have someone with who may have some suggested language for us which is why she stuck around. No, in case we need to call phone a friend. I can take a crack at one. Yeah, take a crack at making and we can amend it as needed. that I move that the handover school board oppose the discussed tax incremental financing district as prepared in its current form by the town manager. They're going to amend it. They already told us that they're going to edit it. So, that was the motion. Is there a second? Is there a second? Is there a second? The motion Okay, if someone would like to make a different motion, seeing no

167second, we can make a new motion. Thank you for trying. Appreciate the effort. I really do think it's valuable to list our concerns. Yes. And so I would make a motion that given the absence of data, given the failure to meet the statutory requirements, and given our concerns about the impact on school budgets, the Hanover School Board does not support the TE by the town of the what? By the adoption of the the adoption of the by the town of Hover. I didn't write that down. Did you I have a question a process question. Can I take a second first? Yeah, I will second. Okay, great. And now discussion. Do we need to mention more in article 10 in our motion and maybe mention the we lock tiff since there are ongoing tiffs right sure

168the we lock district is that what it's is that what it's called the west main it's west we lock it's main I think it's main you're right the main wheel we lock I believe but I would double check the uh okay would it be the creation of the main vlog main and w of the proposed we apologize oh we're going to reread it um tip uh district okay is there further discussion on this let me reread it and then we can um see if de will accept the amendment Um, given the absence of data, given the failure to meet the statutory requirements, um, we might want to put the RSA in there of RSA, whatever it is, 162-K. Thank you. 962-K colon 9. Uh, and given our concerns about the impact on school budgets, the

169uh, the Hover School Board, I would say detrimental. Okay. The detrimental impact on school budget. The handover school board does not support the adoption of proposed main and weak tip district west and west weak district. Do we want to say absence of data? Do we want to specify which data? Seems like there's a whole lot of like zero data. Although I will say the first this is the first I've heard that oh we're anticipating $17 million. They it was like that didn't number didn't want to be shared. I was also concerned about 14 million and then another 14 million. Are there two 14 million? 28 million. I did not. That's the first time I've heard that. Mhm. Well, it's also the first time we heard that the 25% that theoretically was going to the town

170may now some of it come to us, but maybe do you want to say lack of end date? Oh, yes. Yes. Bond the absence of data. I mean, the bond amount specificity is also a problem. Absence of an end date. He also mentioned he said the 117 million didn't he didn't say we'd see 1.7 of that you 1% didn't he say that he said $1.2 $2 million in payment per $14 million. There was a lot of numbers. Yeah. The absence uh of what did we just say? The absence of data a proposed bond an end. I put that in a proposed bond. [Music] U Reed. Yeah. Let's get the exact language for Johnston. Thank you. Uh okay. Okay, so I have given the absence of data, given the absence of an end date, given the

171absence of a proposed bond, given the failure to meet the statutory requirements of RSA 162K colon 9, and given our concerns about the detrimental impact on school budgets, this handover school board does not support the adoption of those main and west tip district. It should be impact on or to school impact. Yeah. Uh further comments, further discussion any public comments or discussion any line still? Yes. No comments. Okay. I I just want this is the point of data. So um I don't know what was communicated on December. I I was not on the email at the time. Um, but the the draft that we have seen in the plan was not created until the February select board meeting. So, I don't know what was I I don't know what was non-public before, right, to be

172fair. Um, but I I know that the select board really, you know, didn't look at that until then. Um, so just wanted to give another data point. I think adding the end date is the lack of an end date is really critical. The New Hampshire Municipal Association has this really nice little pathy website. I know I've shared it with a couple of you. Happy to share it with others. I'm basically just saying what is this? What are best practices? I shared that before. Great. So, thank you. So, so the the end date is actually the key motivating factor for a school district according to the New Hampshire Municipal Association supporting the project and as is written um it is it is in perpetuity essentially. Um the which kind of by definition makes it a really

173hard thing for a school district to support. I think um I could keep going on and I'd be happy to if anybody wants to I will I will. Yeah. Um Okay. Any other comments on that proposed wording? Okay. On the amended wording, I should say. Um Deb, would you be willing to accept the amendment? You bet. Um so I will take a vote on the sorry one one idea yes um to be more solutionoriented versus critical just throwing this at I mean school districts can opt out of districts and if you want to add language saying we would have no opinion on this project if the school districts opt out of a TIF um something to consider Right. Um it would it would it would give an olive branch of guess what you can revenue

174share. Um and just we will opt out of it. So that can be a different piece to think about. Um oh so that we would withdraw our objection to this if we would. So for instance, I mean what we know is that they said as a preamble of the public hearing on Monday, the select board said, "We've asked for more information." The CIPC on Friday asked for more information. They didn't have it delivered by Monday. They said they would do it by the 14th. We don't know what data is getting created to be fair. So if the school board says we don't have data and then they present data on the 14th which we don't know which clearly is after or not in time for any actual deliberation right from the schoolboard side but it

175is data right I just just trying to figure out ways to give options but also really highlight what the concerns are of the school district. Yes, there is a process for sure. I'm not negating the legality of it, but then also where's the path forward? Like is is the school district inclined to having these meetings over the next year and and proposing to come back and saying we would we would encourage u if it passes, right? So they only need three votes on the select board and they only need this will be an annual meeting at the town or the town meeting voice vote likely um or some sort of in this will be an inperson vote likely not on the ballot. Um, so we're saying who's going to show up at 7 PM to

176vote on this? Um, just to kind of give a sense of what kinds of options can you propose if this passes, right? And if this passes, what does what does the school board what are the levers or how do we want to get get involved by by law, if it's followed, there's supposed to be an advisory committee that is developed. Um, and this advisory committee, we can request, hey, if this does pass, we would like a seat on the TIFF advisory committee because we are actually the ones giving up the resource to help pay for this project. Um, by law, it's supposed to be a major it represents a majority of a majority of the people who sit in the seats have to be living in the tiff district. They don't have to live. that

177they can also be business owners but would be but the question is well then if this does pass and advisory is created it has been suggested by the select board that the chair of that would be the chair of the CIPC who is John Dolan who currently serves handover finance committee um and and actually I will thank John Dolan for the one bringing up this project to the CIPC which school board is is on kind of helped us figure out what was going on um and so but there would be an additional committee like do does the does the school board would like to request a seat on that? I think there's there's a different ways the conversation can go on the 14th and not saying that it's the only way for a discussion, but

178I can see different different ways that the conversation could go that might try to alleviate some of the stated concerns but not actually get to the point of what the school district is really hoping for. I think I don't know he sitting as a member of the public it's like is the concern really we just want out of this or we're or are we like wanting to negotiate getting cut out is just not right um you know what you know and and maybe maybe it's no now but talk about it so I just I just want us to to think about like when you when you reread that that action does it give you enough flexibility to say what you want on the board? I'm going to take So Ki is online. It's okay. I'll

179take her comment. Um she has her hand up if we can say something quick to K. Yes. Yes. What happens since you've been on the CRPC committee longer than I have and you've seen whatever data has been presented. What happens if the select board has not met their statutory requirement to fully inform us of the tax and fiscal implications of this? Because that has not happened. We had a presentation with no data on financial and tax implications. So I'm not sure that fully informed is even on the same planet as what just happened. I would love to advise you to contact your legal counsel for I mean but yeah I mean there's I mean when they considered it last time that that did they go through this process last they didn't because I was on

180the board last year and the tip was brought up last year but then ultimately because you reported to us ultimately was never brought to us in a formal way so they must have decided to end that conversation. They did. Yeah. And actually, and I think Cari has the exact quote um probably at her fingertips, but yeah, so the town manager at the time, which is Alex Torpy, um had said that they weren't ready and that they weren't going through with it um at that point because they needed to do more work on it. So that was also that was a one that was tiff 1.0 I'm calling it, right? So tip 1.0 was just west 2.0 is now the Lange. Yeah. Um, can we take Ki as comment? Can you move her over? She's in

181the public attendees. Thank you so much. [Music] Thanks for staying awake with us. Yep. If you unmute yourself, you're good to go. Curry. Are you are you there? Yeah, car. We can't hear you if you're talking. She's had troubles with this. Sorry. I will suggest um if you I don't know if it's allowed, but if you want to send your comments to Kim, that would probably be or to me that's fine, too. Um Okay. So, let me Yes. I I would just like to suggest um I would like to ask and then make a suggestion. My suggestion is just I don't think we have to do the whereas whereas whereas I don't think we have to say given that given that each time. Um I know I tried to take that out and I couldn't

182figure it out. I I prefer a tidier statement, but I wonder whether the board thinks we should preface our remarks by saying that we are in support of efforts to improve the town of Hanover and understand the need for sewage and hiding utilities and everything. We would love that, but we would also, I think, want to encourage the select board to um proceed in a manner that's more transparent and timely, not only for us, a vested party in the discussion, but also the community who if it took us this long to understand this process, there's no way the community is going to understand this process prior to town meetings vote, right? Which is problematic deeply. Yeah. Right. Yes. And it's also not just us. It's, you know, it's the county as they mentioned. It's the

183How Library. Um probably other people that I'm not aware of. And um Ki believes she's ready to go. But yeah, I I I can't make my I guess I can't make my uh We can hear you. Go ahead. Oh, you can. Okay. Great. So, uh, basically I was agreeing with Kim's sentiment. Um, and I think that it is, um, because at the hearing on the 14th, they could change the language and say yes, that we're willing to do 50% uh, revenue sharing. Um, and I guess I don't want to put uh, you know, words in your mouth, but um, I think that if you have the sentiment that the only way that you would agree to support this tip or or at least not oppose it would be that if there were the option for

184the school district to sort of quote unquote op out or for there to, you know, 100% revenue sharing with the school district. um that I I think that it's important that you make that distinction clear that that is uh you know that they could address everything else but if that is not part of the deal that uh that it you know it's up to you whether you could accept it or not. Um, but I I think that um that there would be many reasons why you you would say that you need to be made whole. Uh, and that otherwise, you know, you you don't have a dog in the hunt in terms of how the town eararks its funds or how they, you know, plan to do the sidewalks, etc. Um, I guess the other

185thing that I did since it just came up now, um, in terms of the town's compliance with RSAs, uh, our town manager did mention that we do not have the advisory group, but there are a number of other tip provisions, um, that the town has not been compliant with, and those include uh, having analyt, having a budget. Um, I'm trying to think there was another uh, thing as well. Um, so I agree with uh Ben that this is particularly bothersome then that they have a tiff. They've been aware for at least a year because I spoke to them about this about how they are not compliant in a number of ways. They haven't reformed any of them in the past year and now they're starting a new tiff and they're also not compliant. And um

186as Kim said, you know, I think that the only way at this point uh that they would start to pay attention to the statues is if they were compelled to. Um and um I don't know that anybody really wants to go down that road. So that is sort of another reason. Oh, I remember now. The the fourth thing is that um we have heard time and again that if there's anything to be changed by uh the parameters of the TIF and there is flexibility that all you have to go to town do is go to town meeting and you know within the past two three years the amount of the captured value has changed. Did they go to town meeting? And so actually right now with the current tip that we have, it's a very

187small tip. Uh the school's uh tax rate if we didn't have that tip would be two cents lower than it is, you know. So you're already sort of making a contribution to the good of the town, shall we say. Um but uh the the captured value increased. It did not go to town meeting. So, um, they're saying they would go to town meeting in the in the future, but they haven't in the very recent past. So, again, I just think that on principle that unless the school district is made whole, you know, you're in um a good space to say that that is the only condition under which you would support this. And that's my comment. Thank you so much. Yeah, Kim has. Go ahead. Thank you, CI. Thank you, CI. Sorry. Oh, so this

188is another just data point for you to feel like, well, does the school have the right to say made whole this parking tip, which by the way delivers zero students to the schools district, right? The parking garage, right? there's just the parking garage and a very small other little piece of land. But that's um you know there there's no like revenue sharing on that front, right? So it's like well why why bother now, right? And actually this concept of revenue sharing when the school district when the town has done an action and then the school district has lost revenue from it. Um there's actually been something like that in the past. So our water um why do I keep forgetting how to say this? water treatment water treatment facility, right, was was actually more of

189both privately owned which paid taxes, right? And then the town for whatever reason um bought the and they basically municipalized that. Still to this day, the town pays the school the school portion of what would have been delivered from the private company. So there's there's just an example right there saying like we've had history of making the schools full. So, it's not like inconceivable. Other tiffs have done this. Um, and actually the primary purpose of this tiff, unlike the parking garage, right, is to increase residential property. And, um, so I think that there's just so many different factors, which is why I go back to saying that TIFF is just not the right tool for this. But if you are going to do TIF, um, it would be, I think, in everyone's benefit for the

190school districts to pop out. Okay. I have a new proposal. I have one thing to say. Yes, please. I'm sorry. were going to say something collaborative cooperative with the sledge board. I hesitate to say that you know we could do anything except for be kept full because we just have had no data to review. We don't know how much money is involved. We have no projections. We can't I think talk about that level of granularity without any numbers on the table. So all we can say is just carve us out. You know what being kept means? Can I read this? Carve us out. So instead of uh us not getting our 66% share of the standard uh tax revenue from that district, we would just continue to get that and then they could play with

191the rest. Is that not Yeah. So, sorry. I know I just you say your name and where you um so not um so the uh ba basically when when you think about what I think it's easiest to think about the school district math when we present the slides and saying oh we've now calculated our tax rate so we have the tax rates how much does the schools need as far as what our budget is right how much are we going to need to raise from taxpayers and then the denominator number is basically the value that we can tax within the town. And so what we're saying is when the school opts out, we get to include all of the normal existing value which would, you know, flow with what what if it gets revalued, whatever

192whatever that total denominator number is. If we weren't to be cut out and the tip would pass as is suggested, right, and the school district wouldn't receive anything, the math of that, we'd still have our obviously whatever our budget is. And then the denominator would be whatever the town total value is less weak and main street. Um and so basically that would be the calculation. The town however would have different a different denominator because they would see themselves you know that that they might have a different denominator if they decided to revenue a share or whatever. But basically when we do our math when we submit our financial reports to the state that's how we would calculate it. So, so it is 100% revenue sharing, right? When you think about it, but it's just basically

193saying our piece of the pie is all of it versus a portion cut out of it. Right. Can I read my motion language? Um, so move to adopt the following statement and to authorize Tara Paloso and Deb Nelson to speak on behalf of the Hanover School Board at the April 17th Hover Select Board Warrant Article Hearing. I don't know if I have that right, but we can amend that. Um, given the absence of data about, and this is our statement, given the absence of data about the concrete impact to the tax rate, the lack of an end date, the lack of a currently proposed bond, the failure to meet the statutory requirements of RSA 162K 9 and our concerns about the detrimental impact on school budgets. The Hanover School Board does not support the adoption

194of proposed Maine and West Electric referenced in article 10. If a mechanism exists to make the school district whole or to carve us out from the tip limitations with data to demonstrate that revenue sharing, we would be willing to join that discussion. Does that capture what we've said? We take a neutral position on the creation of the tip. Sorry, Ter. I think we said the words I heard were we would take a neutral position on creation of the tip. Okay. In that case. Yep. At the end. Okay. In terms of word smithing, I would also add and the 2025 town of handover annual meeting as like it may not get to that point, but I want us to be prepared. I will point out to the public um we do not have another scheduled handover

195meeting until after town meeting the day after town meeting. Oh gosh, there is a Dresdston one, but that is a whole separate board and we just to we'll probably have a similar conversation again for the members of Norwich to hear this as I think they should and as all four members then in that case because yeah so I just wanted like where we're going the person available can we can those two people name be available both on or can we just have a motion and true each I will I would imagine we can't speak for the the board, you can always be put on the board. That's true. Right. Um, so this conversation will happen again on the 22nd, but that that person would not be participating on April 14th unless we actually have a

196special meeting, which we could technically do. Um, but I'm not sure that would be the best of everyone because of various reasons. Gosh, I hope we're all at town meeting though because that's a lot of votes. No. Yeah, we should all encourage everyone even if we nominate one or two people to come to this next Monday. I would encourage all of us to be at that meeting. I plan. No, I mean town meeting, right? That's where you're meeting, right? Both in terms of Okay, so we have to somehow wrap this up, y'all, because it is 10:20 now. We are setting new records. Um, welcome. Um, I uh I don't know where we are in Robert. So, we have a motion. We have a motion. I might suggest that we at this point withdraw that motion

197if you feel so inclined and have someone read the new motion. Would that be acceptable? Oh, that's fine. I I thought we were tinkering that you withdraw the motion. I withdraw my motion. Okay. I can't move. Um chair, I would like to make a new motion. Yes, Ben. I move to adopt the following statement and authorize board members Tara Velos and Dev Nelson to speak on behalf of the handover school board at the April 17th handover select board warrant article hearing and if necessary at the 2025 town of Handover annual meeting to say the following. Given the absence of data about the concrete impact to the tax rate, the lack of an end date, the lack of a currently proposed bond, the failure to meet the statutory requirements of RSA 162 K9, and our concerns

198about the detrimental impact on school budgets, the handover school board does not support the adoption of the proposed Maine and West TIF district referenced in article 10. If a mechanism exists to make the school district whole or to carve us out from the TIFF limitations with data to demonstrate that revenue sharing, we would take a neutral position on the tiff. Thank you, Ben. Is there a second? Second. All right, I'm going to take Rene's second. Seconded by Renee. All in favor? Oh, sorry. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor? All right. Good job, guys. Thank you so much, Kim Curry. Thank you for your contributions as well. Uh yes, that was unanimous including uh Renee. Are there any other public comments on this? Okay. Closing business requiring action. Um I will make sure that that

199gets to Ryan and for the minutes. Very very good. Um you are not your please mute yourself. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, I was just did did your motion say April 17th was the meeting or April 14th and it probably doesn't really matter, but otherwise um you know, good job. Thank you very much. Uh Mike said April 17th. That's my bad. So, thank you. We will uh that's Yeah, that's a nurse. That's a scream nurse air that can be corrected. Okay. Thank you very much for catching that. April 14 to Yeah, I will add that. All right. Board of the chair. I don't have anything. Please, please come to meetings. Welcome, Renee. We're thrilled to have you. Thank you again to everyone who submitted their candy um the CIPC. Well, it's it's not that actually. It's

200the finance committee is meeting this week. So, we do need um a finance someone to attend the finance committee meeting on Thursday. At what time? I want to say it was 10:00, but I will p.m. 5 p.m. I think I don't remember. I'm so sorry. It is 5 p.m. in the in the um the virtual No, I have job here. Okay. So, you will go what what I so I will say to all board members. Yeah, let me talk about the tip I'm sure. Right. Um I will say to all board members we will look as chairs again look at the distribution now that we have a new board member um and make sure that the committee assignments and liaison assignments all make sense um so we will find a time to do that and

201make sure that it's shared equitably um and I would encourage us to step on as alternates um because whether it's Tara or Renee for example on representing us on the finance committee um there are going to be times that you guys have conflicts individually um and I we can all step in But it would be great to have sort of a steady alternate plan for some of those committees that are more timeconuming. Um, okay, that is all I have. Um, I will just put a plug in to again attend, you know, lean in on some of these meetings. I think these are some really important things. I'm grateful to everyone for taking the time to understand this. Um, and yeah, I'll leave it at that. Can I ask a quick question? Yes. Because I think

202I it's really unclear what emails I missed in that first month. Was there an email that went out with the list of committees in terms of when they meet and things like that? Not when they meet. No. Okay. No. So I that's a great suggestion. I know they get notified. Yeah. That's a great suggestion. I will try to pull something like that together for um for you for Gina as well and for Renee for our newer board members. Yeah. And I'll add that depending on the committee board members have involvement in the schedule. Right. Right? If it is a board le for example policy which meets at 8:30 tomorrow morning um is directed by the the schedules of the board members and the chair but other things like the finance committee where we are one

203member of many that's not one where we dictate the schedule and CIPC tends to be morning meetings so that might be a better that's usually more like 10 a.m. So that might be a better fit so we can talk about that. Um, okay. Done. Committees. I don't think we have any. Right. Right. Okay. Just finance comm. We've talked a lot about all that stuff, so I think we're good on that. And um clarify for R for Ryan's sake what the plan is for finance committee. Uh once I figure that out, I will. Yes. Yes. I will send emails. I'm going to move on to Jay superintendence report. I have a lot. So, perfect. I was hoping he would say that. Actually, I don't. Okay. I do want to report that our attorney from the ACLU,

204who the board agreed to enter into a lawsuit um against the US Department of Education last evening, uh had their temporary restraining um order hearing and it was rendered moot because the Department of Ed backed off um and said that nothing will happen to any district until after April 24th. and we anticipate that the hearing on the preliminary injunction which is the basically the lawsuit uh will will happen before April 24th. So I met for a couple of hours today with council and you know honored the board's directive to uh work with them to move forward. Um another thing that the board should be aware of is that we are going to be switching over from board docs to a pro program called assembly. We have already opened up the strategic planning function within there

205and I think that um you're going to be really pleased with how comprehensive but simple to use and understand it is uh right now just Ryan and Katherine and I are working with it to get it populated with our existing strategic plan and we'll be training principles next so that they and other first-line users will understand how to use it. It's It's more intuitive and easier to use than Borocs uh and less expensive. So, um I'll end it there. Assembly. What was what was it called? Assembly. S I M B L I. That's being used right now by the New Hampshire School Boards Association and a couple of other districts in the state. I anticipate there'll be a lot more soon. And and it was developed by a school board is my understand rather than

206an external source. Okay, other questions for Jay. All right, thank you so much. Robin stuck it out. I'm still here. You are warrior. Good job. So, I did submit my report, but along with the report, I submitted our general grant asurances and I present these each year for our new board members especially who have not heard about these. These are just um our for our title grants, title one, title two, and title four. And each year we just have to sign the asurances that we will follow the rules of the grants that we are provided with this money and they're spent in certain ways for title one and title two and title 4. And I'm happy to answer any questions about my report or about the grant asurances. Thank you, Robin. Are there questions for

207Robin? Um, Robin, I have a question for you. Ben just very kindly pointed out that our business requiring action did not include the nurse pay. I assume we wanted to vote on that. Is that correct? We haven't presented Dresden yet. So, that will go to Dresden next on the 22nd. Is there any urgency to vote on it tonight? Should we support it just so that we're not in cover? Well, given that Norwich has already indicated verbally that they intend to support it, I can't imagine that Dresden would not support it. So, I don't think it would hurt if you made a motion. Okay. Yeah. Um All right. We'll come back to that perhaps after the business administrator's report. Don't let me forget that. Um, thank you guys. Anything else for Robin? Okay. Business administer report.

208Um I do submitted a report and I'm just kind of highlighting some of the things that have been going on regarding um you know winding down asking for requisition tie up and um so that we can start winding down on purchases and everything else. Teacher contracts did go out. Um they should be April 11th was the deadline to have them signed returned. um food service. I reached out to Trevor and just kind of get a feel of how things have been going with the food service program and I just kind of basically put down, you know, what he had incurred, you know, relayed back to me and everything else. And then I reached out Tony to him about projects that are going on here and I know that they've been doing projects in 15 classrooms

209and he said at this point they have about six more and given they should be done next week. Other than that, there's no other projects right now um till the end of school and then I have some this summer I'll talk about later. Okay. Um I have a quick question for you. You mentioned teacher contracts. Um do we know when support staff contracts go out? Is that imminent? When I was talking to Amy today about that, she said that um until they waiting on some more documents or something and then once they get out um once she gets those then she can start generating them. Okay, so those are in the works. They're definitely in the works and everything else. Okay, great. Other questions for Teresa? Okay. And just Yeah, I would like to go

210back one more time to the tuition thing. Great. So I think there's some confusion as to why I was thinking that next time around that we were going to kind of bring that is because when we were talking in the committee meetings we were really honing in on Dresden but when we're talking about doing same thing at right and I don't know that we said the word hand over school district but we said it'd be nice if we could get this under one formula and have all the districts on the side of the river right um use that same concept and I think that that's where we landed with that and that's why I was not expecting to to do that tonight. That's fair. Um I think we just need to double check the deadline.

211We have a dress meeting coming if we need to do a quick tuition. Yeah. Jamie's already texted me and said that we're fine to do it in May. Perfect. Love that. Okay. Awesome. Thank you guys. So, um note to our noteaker to please put that on the May agenda. We don't have any anticipated tuition and students either. Okay. For hand over school. So, it's just meeting that legal requirement. Okay. Um, excellent. Before we move on to public comment, um, we'll just cycle back to business require action and take a vote on the nurse pay. Yes, ma'am. Do we need to take a vote on the personnel matter that we talked about in our public? Um, it was in that was in our list. Okay. Okay. That was the the nomination piece. So that was in

212there. All right. Um as as part of our Yeah. Thank you. Reasonable to check that. Um so I will take a motion to increase the nurse pay as presented in um the discussion item. I think we can do that, right? Did she have a specific number? She did have specific numbers. 300 to $300 per day. That would be good in the motion. per day. If someone feels up to making that motion to increase nurse pay to $300 per day substitute nurse pay for I move to support or increase increase to increase substitute nurse pay to $300 per day as presented. As presented second by Tara. All in favor? Show of hands. Brilliant. That is unanimous. Thank you guys. Last opportunity for public comment this evening. Please raise your hands on Zoom if you wish to

213speak. Nope. Seeing none. Okay. Closing public comments. Um we have many agenda items for next meeting. Uh if you have anything else, please send them my way. Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 14th, which is the day after town meeting if I'm not mistaken. Right. Okay. So, we will have some things to discuss, I'm sure, on that front as well. Hopefully, I will see you all at town meeting. Um, and I will see you at our press. So, I'll take a motion to adjourn. Yeah, Ben. Move to adjourn the meeting at 10:32 p.m. Second. Uh, roll call vote starting with Terra. Just say your name and yes. Yeah. Very good. Yes. Yes. Yes. Russell. Yes, m. Yes. Thank you.