001like I've never been the first person here I know and it's dark yeah come enjoy it like the seating about 10 minutes man these are actually kind oh yeah I always have to plug in CU my computer can't last more than like 10 minutes without oh man I know like I got it when I first joined the board and I think it just reacts the way no no e e e yeah it's okay e e e to youim it all depends on shift was on neighbor that is one my but I do think it'sing to the year that you join it's whatever was the cheapest guire all right always all right wait a minute yeah even if it here we're good how did you do that switching to a Tippy chair because that'll happen so
002this is the second of three times during the course of the year that I actually get to be in charge of a meeting for all of about two minutes so it's uh my pleasure to call to order the March 11th Dresden School Board organizational regular meeting and the first order of business we have is to welcome Carrie Russell our newly elected School Board trying to get online and Gina De who joined us on the norch side and uh welcome to the Dresden meeting you'll get used to the rhythm of having three meetings to attend and two on the same night usually yeah and uh our our first order of business this evening is to appoint a chair and so I will accept nominations for board chair I'm not sure who had I'll nominate Ben Keeny
003all right we have a nomination for Ben Keeny we do not need a second um all those in favor of Ben as the Dres chair he have to make a speech he will have to make a speech but does not need a second and motion passes conratulations thank you sir thank you all for your support I appreciate it moving right along to the appointment of the vice chair this is the person who would fill in for the chair if the is not present do I hear any nominations for Vice chair of the dren board can we nominate people who aren't here sounds preferred pre that's what they do um not a nomination but just to be clear it needs to be a board memb right I I haven't talked to him about this so I
004feel weird doing this but I'm wondering um Michael are we have you did you have any conversations with him about Michael sorry the only problem is that according to Robert's Rules of Order the person nominated has to accept the Nomine okay well then it can't be the yeah it can't be Michael it can't be Garrett because he's not a is he he's not a res board he can he can he can even though he's not a voting person well he's also not here so he can't accept either that narrows it down to two people there's two people I I see someone who's very quiet and very confident in the corner big statement to make I mean yeah do motion but I only the wink and a nudge fine all right I I nominate Neil Odell
005to be Vice chair of Resident all those in favor it is unanimous welcome I raise my hand just to be clear we seem to be skipping the part where we asked for any other nominations I I'm fine with how that just ended up but we might want to for the next one we might want to take all nominations first and then vote and this is why I nominated I hear a motion for secretary secretary is the person who backs up the chair and vice chair upon their Mutual absence I will point out traditionally this is a newish member of the board and this will be happening tonight both at Dresden and SAU so if I can politely look either the over here or you prefer Dron or sa and the other one might get to
006lean in later tonight for sa okay happy to beess I nominate Carrie Carri I don't know I'm doing well that I nominated car I Carrie just to ease your mind a little bit there's really very little to do except to be number three in succession yeah I got War it has happened but it's pretty real and maybe sign a document yeah if if we take a bond out you'll I um logistic question they want to know what the password for the sa this long what're it's 140 characters that you have to hand just sign in as a guest okay because then you can just do it with your with your board email and you make your own you you send it to your phone and they give you a passcode and you so probably we
007should put on the list when they come in to sign that we get it to and this is a tradition in and of itself that you struggle to get actually I think I have the essay okay thank you you're welcome um any other nominees for Secretary of the Dresden board okay seeing none all those in favor of Carrie Russell Carrie would you wish to vote oh it's right here it is unanimous thank you so much moving right along to the school board committees um for those who are new there's a list of committees and board dos since not everyone is on board duck said I will just rattle them off specific to Dresden because there are some committees that are for different boards dresen has its own budget committee as do all of the boards
008there is a Dresden athletic advisory committee because dresen handles all sports same thing with Middle School sports and co-curricular committee which we may need to discuss later um the evaluation committee which is kind of going into how our staff are doing as employees and tuition uh committee which is related to the tuition fees that outside non- Handover nonn which students would pay mostly to the high school there are also Liaisons to several inter internal School committees including Central staff development CPP which stands for committee policy and program always well done as well as the finance committee now another thing to keep in mind is that for the board level committees we control the schedule of those but a lot of them involve staff employee staff employees so we try to do it during work hours
009I don't know the work schedules of you guys and I probably never will but if there are serious concerns about your ability to be at a meeting during the day with notice we might want give um me and other chairs a heads up quietly if you want okay tell me anything to add yeah uh a couple things I don't see Council on here yep council is missing and second thing evaluation it it has been fairly quiet the last couple yeah it's it it will only be spun up if um by the contract we have to do we make a change to the evaluation process or if there's some special reason that we decide we need to convene it okay along with things like negotiations where aren't on this list but are certainly needed certain years
010and also area ha BTC or whatever the initials are so this is not a full list so many opportunities to be involved and for those of you who have the board doc link there is a draft committee assignment which I believe is probably just repeating from last year I think it is although we've added new members so I don't think this some going to hash out tonight perhaps a four chairs thing in the future shortly within maybe one or two weeks hopefully that's what we said at the nor board at least okay great so if you're able to look at it great and especially from the new board members please feel free to email me and any your relevant chairs opinions on what you want or don't want have a particular expertise in that maybe
011would be helpful etc etc Kelly never mind I just was going to suggest that we attach that Excel document and then I saw it was right underneath Oh yay thank you Ryan okay any other comments specific to the Committees knowing we'll we'll hash that out later none okay we'll move right along to the annual policy reminder this is two separate policies that you might want to skim through especially if you're new that basically relates to our board member roles and duties and how to cover any conflicts of interest and the definitions of those conflicts of interest which has been discussed in a great Circle among this board for several years um I don't feel I need to go into that in too much detail but read it if you have not read it yet any
012any further comments on that no okay we'll move right along thank you I'm s the hand is raised from someone on Zoom oh can you add Michael Costa to yeah sorry that took me a little bit Michael thank you I will add so um the the annual policy reminder we do and I don't know Jay if You' printed out a copy we do like board members to sign off do you recall do we sign that address or just at Handover in nor I would sign it in all three yeah well I wouldn't I would sign it in two I would sign it in origin Dresden I would not sign it in Handover I'm about but I would do sa as well too I mean I think it's good practice all around right I don't at
013all do we happen to have print outs or we'll save that for the next meeting looking to ter or or J um I don't right now but I can print it off if you print one I copies thank you all for that and now we'll kind of move on to the usual schedule meeting does anyone have anything they wish to add change to the agenda tonight Jake I sent an email out to the board um we have on on the business requiring discussion the board survey results unfortunately we only have three we're not sorry sorry so all right it's all right I sent a reminder with a new link and I would suggest we table till next meeting you're one we will tell you later I don't know who did it or didn't it's Anonymous
014so and we would my new folks get go with your heart okay so dly noted we will table that until the next meeting and moving right along anything else for agenda review okay thank you much we'll move right on to public comment I do not see any public today in person or on Zoom so we'll move along for that we'll have a second chance near the end of the meeting I also noticed that our high school council representative is not here tonight does anyone know if we're expecting Ella she is probably doing Mar intens she's not around we'll look forward to her repor next month does anyone else has anything urgent that she had to tell us she's a much intensive too um move on and I will look back at the notes motion yeah
015the one that Mery oh yeah you want to sub in um there's been discussion about a a motion that Bill Murphy brought to council you want to remind who who Bill Murphy is we don't Bill Murphy is a longtime member of the social studies department at hannaher high school I don't want to say how long CU I don't know but over 60 years years 62 years and he brought a motion to counil as a teacher two weeks ago at least that is political in nature and it's War it's engendered quite a bit of conversation about the role of council and um at Wednesday's meeting it was moved to or given to the committee on equity and they're going to talk about it and tweak it so it has more connection and relevance to to experience
016of students in the Dresden school district and then it will probably come back to the council broadly speaking what's the subject matter um the fact that the current Administration in Washington DC is um anti-democratic and bullying in nature all right board members prepare yourselves for that one well I I I will say that the students are not entirely sure that it is within their purview at all so the editing might deal with specific reference to climate change or say lgbtq rights they want to make it speak to the concerns of students any questions for Deb in this context yes just Clarity um high school council like what does that mean in her great question oh the the bover is historically understood to be a democratic school and so years ago back in the' 70s the
017a gentleman named Bob McCarthy did a great deal to establish the current Council and its moderator as uh pure is truly representative of the democratic school so there are faculty members there're community members there are members from all four classes they um make recommendations to the school administration they pass resolutions they have a budget that is given to them by the school board they designate funds for different programs that they offer they have a number of committees they've got a curriculum committee a student life committee so they're very very involved um and they meet weekly on Wednesdays and it's it's really quite an eyeopener to listen to them discuss and consider and change their minds and work through some of the issues that are brought to their attention the one before this particular motion had
018to do with closing school on federal elections so that students weren't in the building when people come to vote it's it's always Lively and of those meetings are public you're welcome to attend them their Wednesday mornings at 11 11 like 11:10 yeah and I just add just we have a school board member sitting on the council without a vote and then to be fair you know there's a school there's a student a council rep a student um who sits on our board and they attend all of our meetings and participate um with questions and without a v also in in the shees not be so this is typically where she would be Julie hi Julie Stevenson um there's also board policy that recognizes Council um that's J something one of those JH there's four letters
019um and it uh and they do um just so you're aware they can do everything that talk about everything that doesn't deal with State policy School Board policy they they jointly do the handbook with me um and so it's they're a unicameral system um so when they pass something it comes to me as the executive branch I can veto it they can override my veto and there's a judicial branch too so it's supposed to be like our government in terms of a laboratory minus it's not by Camal it's unicameral but that's so please come it would be heavier that needs the crash course in col and which you mentioned Jay each of our we have a long series of policies each with a number or letter abbreviation and the J series is related specifically to
020students which you think could be most of the policies but actually is not is that separate from a student council like President it's rough thank you yeah and and the middle school has their own Council that does not have the same approach that's would just add I when I think of like the student C Council in my high school they you know ran dances and did sort of like fake sales and fundraisers and this Council has committees that run that they have a student life committee that do kind of organize some of those things but it's much more than that so that's sort of a small piece of what they work on okay it is it's very impressive to see it in action uh everyone good to move along and then we'll move right along
021to the principal report from RMS uh Mr Bole what's the good word uh well I I file the report so if anybody has any questions on that I would say that um uh as an Alum of H high school council is a big a big part of it it's kind of a neat um way to get your voice heard um as a student um but also to understand that just standing up and talking is sort of the first part of it and to actually have to try to work through all of the process that make change was a really good lesson I don't know also say I'm I think the only person who is both a graduate when Bill Murphy was here and a student teacher under Bill Murphy when he was teaching so um
022he's been around for quite a while and remarkably consistent throughout that entire time so any questions for Tim on things related to prin report or on anything else I this isn't a question but I was over at ncaa's on Thursday morning when this massive crowd of seventh and eighth graders arrived and all the spectators got a really big kick out of seeing them there I think that was really wonderful that they could f up yeah that was a a great sort of concered effort between a parent that we have who uh actually spent last year in Norway sort of email and said hey this has happened all the time in Norway so can you bring the students over um so I put it out to the faculty we do have the advantage of having a
023two-time Nordic skiing Olympian on the faculty in the seventh grade so she was like yes uh we took the seventh grade down at 10 o'clock and the sixth grade down at 12 o'clock and worked out really well it was a walking field trip so we didn't even have to try to park or take a shuttle uh and apparently the only person who had any difficulty was one of our Ed assistants so the students all made it down fine so it was great it was a great opportunity I look forward to it coming back in 25 years or whatever it was I will say that the last time the ncaas were here they had a different course my siblings were actually at the ray school at the time and they had to have a specific discussion
024about not throwing snowballs at the skiers as they went by so we didn't have any of that this year I just want to assure everybody fairly well behaved that's good to reassuring yes anything else for Tim from board members thank you much Tim thank you and Julie any highlights for us I have no report because we're doing nothing at the high school I did not submit [Laughter] one in the middle of March intensive things are going well I am the office all parts of it this week oh wow so yeah I usually I'm participating in one but this week I was left behind to deal with all the office things so I have new appreciation for what everybody else does every day um so there's that piece we're getting ready for the neas visit and
025they're going to be visiting with you also so we'll let you know at some point or some group of the board um when they're here it's the March 30th April 1st and 2nd um and the ballooning group would like to do a vignette at some point for you when we're ready for another vignette but they approached me and they would like the students and the staff member like to kind of update you on all the stuff here you would love to hear from them yeah in terms of the neas yeah so with those dates I'm assuming a couple of us would go to them is that the int yeah you would come here and they would meet with you in a room to to ask you questions they're just trying to figure out if we're
026progressing on the goals that we had set um and if you even know what they are if you feel like we're progressing chance to say that you think things are going in a Direction you don't want or you want and they'll listen to that too and and they're just trying to talk to all stakeholders and figure out if we're headed in the direction we had wanted to and if it it aligns with meas great goals but when you have their schedule please send it we meeting with them tomorrow online to set it so we'll let you know all right so for an email from that board members within a few days couple weeks yes what is that's a great question associ educational Association of schools and colleges okay so we get accredited by them you
027can do it all the way any K through 12 school um high schools you would want to be accredited um for sure they they do do middle schools and they do elementary schools and they are in a 10-year visit cycle so they they do a few visits within those 10 years and you do reports to update them on how you're doing um and they have a bar that you set your own goals but then there also is a bar of like if you were completely gone roog yeah doing everything that wasn't best practice but and you were like these this is what we're going for they would say wait we have these standards at least that you need to meet but also they let you infuse some of your own goals and incorporate Community ideas
028and things like that yeah we had something that adment so yeah I know what you mean yeah so it's our accrediting organization got it thank you and um Gina K I'm loving the questions keep them up we do get a little jargon heavy so apologies for that don't do well with those Nei neither does Bening a familiar any other questions for Julie on this or anything else see you I just want to clarify you both familiar with with March intensive I am my kids are on it right now okay it's not an okay good anything else okay I just want to invoke the name of Bruce Duncan former board member who is always counseling us not to not to use acronyms without explaining what they are we're moving right along then to business requiring discussion
029and for board retreat topics we have an annual Retreat that is either indoors or outdoors with my own person PO on the matter on a Saturday is now Saturday May 17th from 9 to 1 so please uh keep your schedule open for that day I know handful so typically can't go eer due to kids sports and whatnot Lisa I will be attending Hank's graduation that day so I will not be here down I know sorry j are you gonna miss it I'm not gonna miss it uh but I I am going to ask the board so prior to my tenure here it was practice that we had the administration join the board at least for part of the retreat and because of all the things we have going on right now I thought it would
030be a great idea to maybe do that at least for the beginning of the meeting to have the administr senior administrative team join you I agree in full given my my sorry note res all all boards Retreat um as far as um a suggest my two cents for the uh Retreat topic I think what is really helpful is to start thinking about and maybe we take each board separately but think about what the goals are for each board I think that if we State them at the beginning set a deadline I really think that that's how we got Middle School sports across the finish line is we had a goal we said by January we'll you know I just I think if we start thinking about that at the retreat I think that's a great
031way to talk about what's important the previous share was brilliant I don't if I can fulfill those J isues right d great Point Neil um I will be unavailable of course um um but I do um we are likely to have uh a more clear picture of where education uh transformation is headed in Vermont by miday okay um and I think that that should be uh either a topic just for dissemination with a followup then after the end of the legislative session to really dig into what just happened yeah um or a broader conversation and I did find in years past when we included legislators from both sides of the river that that as long as you structure it that could be a helpful exercise yeah for those new MERS we have had I typically
032State reps I think is usually the people that come uh come to this Retreat and it's a great chance to kind of get into the Weeds on State and occasionally National legislation Kelly what time did you say it was 9 9 to one on Saturday May 17th can we just make a note for Ryan or whoever manages the schedule to put that in because it says 9 to 10 and since it's a weird time it would be helpful to have it's often up it seems that when that's put they kind of do an hour and then just assume which for the regular board meetings like whatever but so if you look at the actual schedule right here it's oh and I know that I may be in Rhode Island that weekend as well so so
033maybe we need to pick a different dat it is off an assigned yeah and Marcel Marcel is on too so that now we're at four so um Jade perhaps maybe we can ask Ryan or whoever whomever to do a do or similar for availability and those May is US weekends anyone disagree with that Gina I don't disagree I agree um I'm curious do we do anything at this Retreat to get to know each other better as board members yes we each prepare a little skit ell and I sing and the bonding activity does VAR on here but it includes things like basically who we are why we're on the board certain expertise or skills that sort of job step we have what we want to learn about what strength weaknesses we have we did a
034Myers a quick Myers break so great so so J Will takeen internally for a new day or new Option of dates and we will hear from them hope a couple case sounds great I got it in the notes right any other specific Retreat topics you want to talk about besides those was eliminated by Kim and me okay if you have a specific thing please feel free to email J or your chair okay moving right along to the draft agenda topic template this is our plan template for next academic year um most of these are holdovers and right now we look for things that are missing or should be added in in a general planning since this is not set in stone Jamie yeah so I'll go through it with Ryan and clean up the duplication
035of financial reports there's a lot of J and for our new board members the way this process works is two weeks before the the next meeting the board chair me Jamie Robin and Ryan and the yeah and the principles meet to set the agenda for the the subsequent meeting and so typically what happens is that if you have ideas things you'd like to see on the agenda any board member can recommend that through your chair and then um and then it can be considered for the upcoming agenda thank you that sum um so not necessarily for the template the template reminded me I would requested the chair that we have a discussion about March intensive prior to yes when we to make a decision on March intensive in terms of the philosophy of March intensive
036you mean I think uh that's one thing I mean not just philosophy but execution as well Fair Point um that makes sense to me I don't have any concerns with that Kim and then only in support I mean I as the former chair um you know we had talked about doing it in either April or May of this year to basically have have March intens of be freshly done but then also have enough time to consider so we get talked about having an agenda item at that point so so I'll take it to Jay and Julie for and and all of parties at the next um agenda planning meeting we'll see what what makes sense and when it makes sense to do it uh de oh I I was just going to say that it's
037on the calendar to approve in October so we would need to do it soon okay any other comments on the template okay thank you much folks move right along to reading of policy again for our new folks this is is a second reading meaning we have discussed this at the previous meeting uh any alterations were hopefully made if the word alterations requested there is a separate policy committee to which I'm coincidentally chair at this exact moment in time which hopefully will change on Thursday and shaking their heads at me we won't have the committee SP that that remind too if there is a committee meeting scheduled before the four chairs reorganization please assume that nothing has changed in terms of membership for any relevant committees yeah I just want to point out to our new
038members that this a great deal of the policy is the result of a student committee at the high school that has done a climate action plan under the guidance of an incredible faculty member who is retiring I believe at the end of this year and just won a big Statewide um recognition of her Science teaching but this is a a lot of work done on the part of students and if you look at this policy which starts with the letter A that is in our a series of policies which are sort of foundational aspirational it's not too big on the detail by Design we also have a separate R series which is sort of the regulatory aspects of these policies more like the how does it work rather than the what and the why so
039we do not necessarily we don't approve the r series although we will occasionally look at them again into the nitty-gritty if it's specifically enough to the board that we need to but otherwise you leave it up to the administration in terms of the implementation aspects of it specific to this policy which is on sustainability it's been discussed in great detail at a previous SAU meeting usually the SAU board handles the first approach to policies and then they typically trickle down to the other ones each board does approve it after a second reading assuming that there are no concerns and it comes to a formal vote any comments specifically to the second reading of the sustainability policy Kelly so I like the definitions my proposal so of course I have to like it but um I
040I think underneath that where we hit the bullet points y I'd love to have just like a header of some sort that says like curriculum goal will include or something like that just to show why there's then those bullet points underneath does that make sense I'm fine with it if I okay excuse my head nodding um I think if is that it for in terms of suggestions for this policy seeing no other concerns um I'm happy to do a vote for as amended just to kind of keep the ball rolling on that if that's okay F sub it's more right if there are substantial concerns about a policy we often bring it back to the committee which has its its goal is to do like the nine line by line word by word really nitty-gritty
041stuff it is often a good place for new board members to be um not always but often and because it's it's a great crash course in sort of learning what we do what we don't do true and sort of the the dance between the board and the administrations add for the public as well I think you know this is the committee is open to the public as are all committees right and and I think this is like you know when I first joined the board I had certain ideas about you know where we were going to be down in the you know trenches with educational decision- making all these things and there's a lot of that that happens in this committee and then the board is sort that that those deeper discussions deeper dive discussions
042and the board is more you know approving a lot of these policies as as they've already been embedded through the committee and administration so um it it is a really interesting committee I think to takes a little bit of time you don't always have but um and we're grateful to those who are on the committee very grateful is a great summary of that and it is it is as someone who's on it currently it is a fun one to be on it's very thoughtful everyone comes in with a lot of planning and Nuance we get a lot of expert opinion from people on staff students uh parents citizens all come in it's it's very Lively and it's the boards and the Committees in my position looking do a great job of balancing where the committee
043are the experts they get really into the weeds but we still ask great hard needed questions at the board level and so it is not necessarily it's not a stamp but it is great that the committe is going to that depth that we can't possibly do at the time we have it at the board level any other comments specific to the policy besides uh Kelly's great idea for a minor Amendment okay we'll move right along and thank you much for all that members to review the voting results of what happened at the election so you'll see if there's a PDF there with all the official stuff specific to Dresden does anyone have any concerns or comments on this and we'll note that the Middle School sports passed so we will work on implementation of that
044aspects as well um Tim has sent around some great introductory ideas to um I believe the chairs and we'll have something quoting with that Tim yeah two things I'm just really grateful for the public for supporting all of our warrant articles really appreciate it I'm really looking forward to to executing them now so that's exciting um and a question that I had was just kind of we had a new venue at Richmond Middle School just wanted to ask you know maybe in Tim's Direction I guess you know just how did it go like how were there any issues concerns turnout was pretty comparable although I I spoke to some of the election um folks volunteers who who said it was really nice that Kendall could residents could walk to Richmond Middle School um but then
045they also noticed that their bus broke but then they also noticed that you know maybe certain groups who were in walking distance like the col you know college students didn't make the Trek over you know but the the act the total you know population and then of course I'm just talking to H overy that's who I talk to um but you know I just curious I would just say that uh we were talking today or yesterday actually day and we had a number of people who said we didn't even notice that they were there short of the gym being closed so we couldn't use the gym but it was a nice day so students went outside and it worked out really well um I will say just as an aside the fun thing that happened
046is we now have the staff divided down the middle between the north parking lot people and the south parking lot so that was a pretty funny little Endeavor that we had but uh it worked out well I I'm not sure that it would work for a bigger vote I think that was sort of what I talked to Matt uer at HPD he sort of said the same thing like you know we had maybe a th I don't remember like a thousand people come to vote pretty steady was 400 something so okay I mean it was steady four or five people every time you went in the gym there were almost Le always less fewer voters than there were workers so it worked out really well but if we had to try to run couple thousand
047people through it would be much much more difficult we had more voters in Norwich than Handover and that is pretty consistent not consistent yeah Sor it's a different question so if that one's not by all means um I I was just wondering if we ever see the breakdown between Handover and norwi and if we're meant to know that or not or if it's all just squished together to yeah absolutely okay I would how they voted okay that Wasim then Neil okay thank you yeah no sorry that was that but I was looking at the numbers and and partly to answer that question right so yeah we um Dron requires us to co-mingle the ballots before we get counted so we can't tell how are the towns but you can tease a little bit out by
048looking at the returns in in both Hanover and Norwich and then in Dresden so in Handover turnout was approximately 500 Norwich approximately 900 and then Dresden about 1,300 um I was trying to do a little bit more analysis but in Norwich the budget passed 611 to 351 um and so if you try to you bring those numbers forward when you take a look at how the outcome was in Dresden you could probably that helps out a little bit of my question was about the sports and that actually that that helps me understand thank you interestingly enough if you I was trying to determine like what is that mean so article two in Jus which was the board salary article had a very large number of people that just didn't vote yes or no on it
049and I I I I I am puzzled by I was like how do I interpret that Indi that voting but yes exactly strong indifference jie So to that point you don't have to vote on those separate you can put them into the general fund budget I don't know why historically it's always been done as a separate warrant article here many other school districts don't do it separate they build it into their main budget it's good to know and the the town of similar the district last just a small thing I I would like to applaud our voters for so few rins this time very impressive well that's well some of them that were blank right that I mean we didn't have anyone running that's a but for the others we have two or three Deb
050with the pointed cough well it helped that Dart students found it inconvenient to come to the voting place I would say that virtually every single write in name was inappropriate and we'll leave that one to that any other comments specific to the votes and the results the Ved except for those Julia I'm just wondering I'm just wondering in terms of the the March vote given that it was a similar turnout I don't think it would be great for a national election and dart students would be upset if they couldn't vote for other elections but I don't know if they care about our town one in terms of schools um if we could be consistent and maybe always do this vote at Richmond and then the other ones I think we figured out a way to
051lock the doors in appropriate way so people can't crash through it's not conveni meaning I'd wish they were all off site I think we can do the other ones but specifically for it's always going to be playoff season and I think we're always going to be trying to figure this out the last minute and then you know switch it and like have to have a meeting about it so if we could do the town vote um the school vote at at Richmond every year would be great for us if the high school did not have to worry about it and the rest of them will'll put up with until somebody figures out a place off site that we can do it but I feel like we've put in some safety measures that feel better to
052me that we can post it here and still feel like okay PE classes can't meet and things like that but it doesn't come up against playoff season thoughts I I think we would be fine with that there were some issues just obviously we have way more adults around the building than we usually do so we had some people in the building who were a little bit concerned by that but we were actually um pretty able to keep everybody segregated and I'd like to thank the can police department for all the work they did I'm sure they got calls that they wanted um officers there to help people exit Dresden Road at 3 o'clock which they usually don't but they did on voting day and I'm sure people like this is right too um but yeah
053I think and this was our first try at it I think we could do I think that would be fun in terms of it and I Know It people laughed at me when I said but I I think it's good for students to see us doing our part for democracy I think that's a valid lesson to to learn and to teach to say that you know this is this is what happens when we live in a town like this this doesn't happen without effort from everybody so yeah I'd be on board with that I don't think like I said larger numbers I think would be chaos um that would be really difficult to do but the March I great any other comments on this before we move by that was our topic for in a
054few months time thanks we'll move right along then to the we're going to skip the board survey results for the previous discussion and then we have a donation from the Friends of P over norch Public Schools who owners to speak to this I'll speak to it we came to the meeting um friends of Anor schools thank them again for their continued support of innovative programs the idea is that they basically give seed money for programs that uh teachers are really interested in starting to see how they work out um in this case we had $1,300 for two different aspects of a new entrepreneurship Collective that we've launched um at the middle school thanks to um one of our faculty members um and her work with Dartmouth um in terms of trying to get students involved
055into what entrepreneurship can mean it really tied in when we talk to friends of H La schools it tied into a lot of people in our community um who feel that this is something that is really important and can probably move forward right now we have 208th graders in a third quarter elective who signed up for it with really no promise that it was going to be more than that and we're going to extend it into the fourth quarter um and I really look forward to seeing what this can bring and um there's a lot of excitement from the students um and from the community members as well so thank you the fs I and board members you'll you'll see in the attachment there's a separate one for Ray that we'll discuss at Ray and
056also you'll see in the administrative content the aspects of the policy specific to this where we um do not necessarily A approve a gift of certain kinds anymore that is a somewhat recent change that went through maybe a year or two ago but um do thank the friends of Hanover and nor schools for Their agender donation in this regard any other comments or thoughts to Tim or anyone else about this thank you folks move along with the business requiring action do I hear a consent motion related to the minutes the nonpublic minutes and the sustainability policy as amended those which I make a motion and for new board members for stuff like this where it's fairly boilerplate and making that Assumption of the policy we can make a consent motion to sort of do all
057that in one previously when this was going like a through L it became very tedious for sort of Border PL aspects Kelly um move to approve items b c and d by consent and I also have a question before do you have an amendment for the policy as amended oh yes as amended um Tara then Deb then Lisa Omar just second it second thank you and then any questions question I forgot to mention we were talking about the policy earlier um there was a comment that we received about it was more about the capap um so more sa7 I just want to make sure somebody have responded to that concern no okay I sent a response just thanking them and that it would be discussed okay at some point um that we were reorganizing and
058it would be wrong yeah okay I didn't that was it but yeah thank you I say your chair yeah a climate action plan suain we do have several capap definitions have a question just I just G to fill her she was giving me information and I didn't hear C but I got it any other discussion on those motion seeing none leing to a roll call V since Michael is with us virtually starting with deal yes yes Mell yes yes niceu yes Harman yes chrisy yes Nelson yes Russell yes and Garrett Palm does not vote in the Dresden specifically to Dresden however he is he is our Cent which chaires my understanding and awesome glob all right past yes thank you Michael we'll move on to report of the chair I am new to this position
059as of 49 minutes ago so I have nothing to add except thank you for your support however is my understanding that our that our proceeding chair has both an announcement and some comments she would like to make so I do I do so have a little bit so you can get comfy um so uh it is Bittersweet to announce that I will be resigning my position as School Board member effective the end of this month the past six years has been oh I think guys going to be emotional because I'm pretty happy um but yeah know the the past six years has been an amazing experience and I'm so grateful to Ser school during this time no genuinely I look forward to taking a break um but I also look forward to seeing the fresh
060perspectives and energy from new board members and staff during the school year um I wanted uh now just to take a little bit of time to reflect on the progress we've made together we are so focused on efficiency we don't often walk down memory lane enough and so here's a little bit of memory lane I'm the worst at special occasions or the best all right um so I I was appointed to the board in Spring 2019 and in this time um we as a board um and really I'm including all this in boards I'm not doing this again um EST so one of the first things we did we established a committee um at the ray School in Handover and we fixed the Food Service delivery problem we uh if those can remember at the
061time we no longer have our principal regularly serving meals um due to Staffing shortages we have fewer complaints about food quality although I'm sure there are some complaints actually no less uh food waste and we're closer to achieving a break even food budget which is our goal um it was also the most delicious uh committee I have ever served on we asked the finalists to prepare food for us to sample and fun um another thing so we we've drafted so many uh School Board policies one of my first committees was chairing the sa70 policy committee um I got moved into the you should do this early um it was a great opportunity to discuss school and legal issues and I encourage all board members to the committee at least once um my most cherished memories
062come from our discussions about policy IMG that is the animals and schools policy um I still remember former School Board member David Soo he's a veterinarian correcting policy language in an open board meeting saying um Al feces should really be out pellets um and this is proof that any background can be useful on so uh you know after years uh really Decades of discussion The Dresden School District can finally have a middle school athletics program um um we have fixed infrastructure and maintenance issues such as the high school track Turf and baseball field and improved it capabilities across the district um hopefully we will never have to go virtual but if we do we have better capabilities now um we have made Handover sixth graders officially part of Dresden which has smooth budget fluctuations and
063increased budget transparency and every warant article the Handover and Dresden boards proposed over the last six years has passed and I'm so proud of how much our community supports our public schools in Handover our budget article routinely passes with over 90% of the public in support um often in the midnight 90s um we as board members should never be complacent about this support and we should never forget how critical strong well-funded public schools are to our community um whether by life or by death since 2019 we have gained a stronger connection to the changes in state and federal public education um we have invited representatives to speak and made even our own presentations and resolutions about the latest bills and Department actions over this last six years years this really has been a change to
064be a school board member the center of gravity for public education is Shifting in both States towards stronger State control over our historically shared value of prioritizing local control really in both state um as a result School boards will likely have best decision making over time and we'll need to react instead of decide we need to adapt to changes made in our state capitals um it will be important for us board members to continue to track these changes perhaps maybe in a more formalized way than we have before maybe establishing a committee or board member Lea on rooll or something um it's different um we we have developed a a four-prong strategic plan we're thinking longer term setting goals something when I first joined we could only dream of doing and we've made progress toward
065each of these goals in our budgets and policies this year I look forward to seeing this framework adapt as we move forward and then we made shifts in our budget development process which I really won't bore you with the details because I can't think of a more boring topic than a municipal budget process um however managing a government's budget does seem to be making more national news lately so trenders I say that that the finance realm is really where I um like where my role on the board seem to focus most I have chaired the dresdon and Handover budget committees every year I have been on the board and most of those years I've also served as chair of the sau70 budget committee um the school board LS onto the Handover finance committee which also
066is technically the acting Dresden finance committee although there could be more to that um and the town of Hanover's Capital Improvement program committee um and during one of my early days on the board I asked the Handover finance committee to make a list of recommendations about how the school board should improve the budget process they graciously did and they presented their recommendations to the Handover board do you remember that remember and I'm proud to say that the board and administration listened and made those changes based upon the recommendations and other ideas and since then we've provided stronger budget uh strong stronger guidance on budget guidelines setting a range or cap compared to an inflation metric and explaining known District increases and desired strategic initiatives at the beginning we are thinking longer term and building capacity
067to develop capital investment plans we are detailing key changes in the budget in our creating lists for future Investments and divestments should budgets need to expand our contract um we are collaborating not only across the school districts but also with the towns in joint meetings um to spread out our initiatives over different fiscal years to smooth the tax rate and provide uh planning expectations to the district I think I've often said to you know the race schol this is your turn right we've kind of been taking turns on where where we grow um we're we are building Upon Our retained and reserved funds to keep Pace with inflation and District needs um we have page numbers on our budget documents um we are thinking about the broader economy and other factors impacting our community and
068we're commun unting to the public more efficiently with less cost um less paper cost and in less time and hopefully we are communicating more effectively about the budget and leveraging existing resources instead of just Reinventing the wheel um overall we are in a better place today than six years ago from the local board's perspective um so a strong board can make a difference but a board um cannot make a difference without a strong Administration guid and supporting its decisions perhaps the vote I'm most proud of during my time is our decision to open for full-time inperson learning on the first day of school in August 2020 during covid um while also providing a virtual option for students families and staff I don't think we would have come to the decision as a board if not
069for the strong work encouraged by talented experts in public health and education on the committee who recommended the plan at the time public sentiment seemed to maybe hover around opening with a hybrid or virtual only that seemed to kind of be the the bell curve there but um you know fully opening seemed like such a big leap after schools were forced to close in person in March and this was not an easy decision to make and it was an even harder decision to execute um so thank you to faculty staff and administration for that part but I think um you know the research really shows it was the right fa for our students and we made it at the local level um and this is where I need to stop and appreciate the community we
070live in um individually we do not and will not agree on everything it is impossible uh School boards by Design will not be as rigorous transparent expeditious charitable unanimous or perfect as anybody especially board members would like um we are equal opportunity irritants at times um this is perhaps why our meetings are open to the public um it's so we can regularly get reminded of this design feature um however what is special is that our community members in Handover and Norwich are respectful thoughtful passionate and solution oriented serving this community has been a pleasure and thank you to all the board members of the public who have been courageous and trusting to share their opinions with the um but um I know this is where like the Oscar starts playing the music but uh but
071you know my my board experience would not have been as special without the following people um who would like to speak now oh sorryy just walking in um uh uh first the students um specifically the Handover high school council reps who served on the dress and board uh um and I know this is March in some terrible work week for this but uh Ella tone jern D Sharma Kate McCall Casey Maguire Noah fips and my first rep Oliver mitell some great names Ken your insightful uh comments and hard work on Council provide important guidance to the ward and give us hope for the future to the faculty and staff uh thank you for inspiring a love of learning in our student thank you for inviting board members to share your work either it be via
072Council or the classroom and I um I took up an offer made by Ray School teachers once to um observe classrooms and it was a really great experience and I recommend especially new board members to spend some time inside our buildings at one point to see how it works see where the things break see where the students hover you know just it's it's a really great experience um and I'd like to uh to extend my sincerest gratitude and apologies to the custodial team um who often wait for us to finish these long meetings uh before they can come in and clean this room um thank you for your late night work and I'm so sorry that this Adrien Brody level Oscar speech thing is not helping you tonight um but the same apologies go to
073jam um thank you for taping our meetings um so that the public can participate and for also not hitting the mic on button too early um and uh to uh to Ryan her name's already been mentioned m M times tonight but Ryan's job title is officially the administrative assistant to the superintendence um but her title really should include every board members name on that as she makes our board meetings happen from start to finish from drafting agendas to warning meetings to Turning edits on policies to posting board materials to taking minutes to reminding us of everything else we forgot to do in between um we would really be lost without her and in case she does not hear enough thank you um Ryan it made me so happy to hear that um you decided to
074run for office in your town because you really are our leader here um so speaking of elected officials um even another neighboring Schoolboard member um to Jamie our business administrator thank you for the countless hours to that you spent teaching me about public education Finance um yeah everything I know is because I asked you a question and you answered it um and um your dedication too and passion for your job is really unmatched and you uh rightly deserve the buiness administrator be Year award thanks um yeah I could go on but um but I know you don't want me to I I know you would rather say like all things should go to my team and not me right about now it's probably what you're thinking and agreed huge thanks to the finance team um
075card as well our unofficial Finance team member um and you to our principles Lauren Julie and Tim thank you for your leadership you are fearless team captains preparing budgets each year is no small task but takes team coordination across the school recruiting developing and retaining Talent also falls on your plate as nearly everything else does as well um and I'm so grateful for your work to make progress on our strategic goals highly capable principles for easy board work so thank you um and to Robin our assistant superintendent thank you for choosing to onboard this new um this new position at the beginning of a pandemic um because I couldn't have thought of a better Co Zar than you um even though I think we said we hired you to do curriculum development yeah sorry about
076that um but I am looking forward to your curriculum update later tonight um and really to to Jay our superintendent I I really don't know how you do it um the job of a superintendent is a really tough gig um you find solutions to Impossible problems you calm the eyess storms your professionalism and carefully crafted emails and work and speeches set the bar way far too high for us board members um and we wish you and your team the very best in your public education stewardship and advoc um can you make it easy um so to to my fellow board members with current and past um I have learned something from each and every one of you um and we we have laughed at every meeting which is really important um because we don't do
077it for the Benjamins right we don't maybe a it's it's not always fun work but you all really make it fun and so please keep it up and even when the times are tough just remember to laugh um and so you know and thank you to my family for allowing me to have our support I mean all of our families support us in these boards I think we've all missed countless dinners and bed times and I really look forward to making all of that up soon I will end and say thank you thank you for that Kim uh we've been on the board together this the entire time at the same time and I think it's safe safe to say that all of the board members and all the administration will miss you both personally
078and professionally and I look forward to trying to drag you back in here next year oh we're gonna call I would love it if you would share your remarks at least with me because I thought they were really quite wonderful and they will be a good reminder as we move forward did love that's okay that's what I want and for the folks who just walk walked in this is the Dresden board meeting which is the middle school and the high school we are running a little behind for the seu meeting which will be coming after this we do have a hopefully brief non-public will need to go to in between but we we will be here eventually Jay I feel a little short changed and that we don't we can't put together all those wear
079asses on a wonderful resolution for you for all the things you've done for us we'll try to get some together we'll do it's always a fine line between this particular board service and and being an employee of the district the amount of work that you personally have done for this board for all of these boards is uh I've never seen anything like it so I want to thank you for everything you've done during your ten year it's it's huge and it's really really appreciated than you thank you all for that can't follow that up but we'll try to keep moving along um has there been any committee reports apart from Council since the board last met especially with the election not aware of any immedately off hand wait uh csdc did meet today I believe
080any updates of central staff development committee thank you there it was a brief meeting there was a presentation from somebody who completed the work done to rise to step seven and then there was a second proposal that we decided we actually didn't really need to see because it's for a PhD program okay any other committee reports that need to be discussed tonight seeing none uh Jay what do you have for us I have submitted a written report um I actually put a heading on at this both for sau70 and for the dresen school board uh really just two things I I shared in that and and the one I I'll talk about just briefly is we had a parent reunification uh it's called tabletop exercise we actually did a walk through of what it would
081look like if we had an emergency situation that required evacuation from our buildings or if we had a situation in a building that that um was an emergency situ that required reunification of parents and students and uh it was um again it was initiative really on the part of of um Lieutenant Matt ORD from the Handover Police Department supported by the norch dep norch police department and and pushed Along by Karen Wright our um our communication specialist who's doing her best to coordinate our activities around student uh school safety um but it went really really well and the follow-up conversations that are right now being digested in an after action review will be used to do further training in this area but it went really really well we can't share all the details of our
082responses to crisis situations like that but U we will be part of this will be our communication in more general terms with the public about um what would happen if we did have a major emergency um how reunification would work and and again just reminding parents just how important it is to wait for communication from the from the school system before showing up at school or flooding our um our ban with with phone calls um we we'll remind people of that because that's so so important in a in a real emergency so that's my report for tonight great any questions for Jay from board members or the public seeing none um jamier sorry Robin super assistant superintendent reports yes I just want to say thank you to him for all of her work and time
083I know it's been endless but I really appreciate having your support and I'm really sad that you're leaving so thank you for everything um I did submit my report tonight and I'm happy to answer questions I know you have to hear from me in the next meeting about curriculum so anything for Robin at this point you can move right along to the business administrator's report uh Jamie Teresa anything to add for tonight we submitted a report with both of our input uh for dresen it's not that new and exciting because we just had a meeting a couple weeks ago so there hasn't been a lot of changes um we will get back on a quarterly schedule which means after this March quarter ends we'll bring financials in April and then bring them every month until
084we get to June um I'll defer to Teresa be before doing so I'll say I've enjoyed every single minute with Kim and I'm so glad you stuck it out until I decided to so I've learned as much from you you even think you Lear thank you okay thank you for that any comments for Jamie Andor Teresa okay will move along to we do have a need for nonpublic tonight to discuss some tuition things as well as the nomination list for the middle school and high school for next here so I will take a motion for board members um in terms of Item B for hiring as well as for the right one for contracts or legal which I believe is that EJ in tuition's K oh that's why it's not there right so motion under
085B and K K should do last it's not my last I still have a hand over but I did the hard part um so move to enter into non-public session at 7:13 p.m. under RSA 91a for three 2 B and K seconded by Deb we have to do this individually starting with meal yes yes yes yes yes hman yes Christie yes Nelson yes Russell yes and Michael a yes well we will be back minutes e e e and we are back in public session and I'll take a motion to approve the teacher nominations done I move to approve the 2526 certified staff nomination list for both Richmond Middle School and Handover high school as presented seconded by Lisa any discussion individually they count for our folks on Zoom starting with Neil Odell yes yes yes
086yes yesman yes Christie yes Nelson Russell yes Michael a yes and yes that is unanimous thank you everyone now we're gonna shift into a second uh possibility for the public to address the board if any member of the public wishes to speak on something related specifically through the resen board which is the middle school and high school then we do so now for folks on Zoom you may raise your Zoom hand anyone okay seeing none we will move right along then to if you have any agenda topics for the next meeting please let me know and send them to me otherwise our next meeting will be on Tuesday April 22nd um can I hear a motion to adjourn the meeting Kelly toour the meeting at 7:48 seconded by Gina individually one more time starting with
087NE yes yes yes yes chrisy yes Nelson yes Russell yes and Michael AA yes thank you all we are adjourned for Dresden and I will have an seu meeting probably roughly two or three minutes for a brief bath and break for those who need it thank you all for your patience and have a good night and for folks on Zoom that is a separate Zoom link so please switch to the SA