001yes absolutely um remind me when we get there yes all right anything else okay um moving on to public are there any members of the public in attendance who would like to address the board yes okay um anyone online would like to address the board okay seeing none we'll move right along and our first uh item under business requiring discussion is the Environmental club for being here and they have presentation for us on the screen we're gonna come over here all right hi my name is dollia f my name is Ali dagel I'm s Ross my name is Will Marl I'm smashi and we're the leaders of the Hanover environmental Club thank you for having us tonight um this picture was taken at the environmental club's meeting with students from the ray RMS and MCS
002schools brainstorm ideas on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at each school we hope that this climate action plan will serve as a planning tool and a resource to inform the capital Improvement plan as it provides valuable Baseline data specific to each school as well as forecasted emission and reduction targets climate action plans are a strategy to help us measure our progress towards sustainability outcomes um we are very eager to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from HH this is a graph that shows carbon dioxide concentration in parts per million on the y- AIS and this is thousands of years ago with zero being present and this being 800,000 years ago as you can see carbon dioxide concentration has always fluctuated but remained below 300 parts per million until now where we're at 422 parts per million
003this puts us in completely Uncharted Territory you can also see on this dra on this graph below that carbon dioxide and temperature have always tracked each other very closely these are the five milestones for climate mitigation and it's the process We are following to develop and implement the cap we have completed the first three Milestones which are inventory of greenhouse gas emissions establishing reduction targets and developing a climate action plan and we are eager to work with the school board Administration staff and Community to implement the greenhouse gas reduction measures out outlined in the climate action plan we are looking to the board for help with this next phase of implementation this table of contents provides a brief overview of the contents of the cap beginning with an introduction followed by science of climate change
004climate change policies at the local Federal and international levels which is followed by the sau70 greenhouse gas current projected emissions and ruction targets finally districtwide reduction measures broken into priority secondary and secondary measures in the annexes you will find the current greenhouse gas emissions forecasted emissions and reduction targets specific to each School based on their energy use data this table is showing you the SAU greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 as well as emissions projected for the years in 2030 and 2050 in metric tons of CO2 equivalence most emissions are coming from the building energy sector followed by employee commute and student commute one can see that based on to population projections emissions are project are expected to increase in a business as usual scenario in this table other is referring to school sponsored travel at
005HHS you can see that a half of the emissions are under the jurisdiction of the sa of the district and half our employee and student commute the environmental Club hopes it to partner with the SAU on implementing measures to reduce emissions we would we would like to emphasize that the cap is more is a more comprehensive document with respect to carbon emissions than the energy audits which focuses solely on building energy as it as it includes all energy consuming sectors also this cap provides opportunity for student involvement and can serve as a valuable educational tool the sa greenhouse gas reduction targets are to achieve below 16% of the 2022 2023 school year Levels by 2030 which is in the middle of that graph shown and Below 75% of the 2022 2023 school year Levels by
0062050 which is the end of the graph these are consistent with the goals of the State of New Hampshire these are the reductions deemed necessary by the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change to keep temperatures from exceeding a 2° c increase above pre-industrial levels emission limits show that we have to act quickly to meet these reduction Targets this table of student generated ideas from all four schools shows the priority measures we encourage the district to implement to reduce emissions for each of the three main contributing sectors building energy employee commute and student commute we have identified an implementation lead the timing needed and the relevant school to which it applies to you can see that many of the measures have to be implemented at the facilities and board School Board levels there are also
007secondary measures that are considered lower priority because of their limited ability to reduce emissions but are still important for sustainability students have recommended some actions like developing an app for car pooling or creating a program to sign up bikes during a school day instead of driving to nearby locations like the cabala as you continue through the cap you'll see there are Baseline greenhouse gas emissions inventories forecasted emissions and reduction targets for each of the four schools in the district Based on data unique to each building this table shows the building energy emissions associated with the high school the building energy sector includes greenhouse gas emissions generated from electricity consumption and fossil fuel consumption at each School within se70 and transportation for wood chips for HHS the greenhouse gas emissions include only anthropogenic sources building energy
008emissions associated with electricity use for all four schools is scaled based on the renewable portfolio of New Hampshire and Vermont electric goodds the high school data shows that roughly 40 to 60 40% of our missions are coming from building energy while 60% are coming from travel including student commute employee commute and other travel comparing the four schools the greatest reduction should come from the high school as its emissions are half of the total SAU amount and ours are 1,500 while the total is 3,000 about our suggestions are that the schools provide EV charging stations for the staff in a 2019 survey of Staff when asked would you be more inclined to buy an electric car knowing that there would be a charging station in HS 50% of the respondents said yes get two to get
009more students to ride Electric school buses this is a campaign that could be organized by the environmental F three focus on electrifying the school and procuring that energy from renewable sources four work with sustainable Hanover to identify programs in New Hampshire that provide renewable energy to its customers five implement the recommendations included in the building energy audits six we also recommend that the district employee a sustainability coordinator who can monitor progress over time as these measures are implemented our greous gas emissions decline this is step five of the five milestones for climate mitigation by monitoring implementation of greenhouse gas reduction measures at each School the district will be able to serve as a leader among educational institutions on how schools can take responsibility for their carbon emissions in a way that includes all the stakeholders
010facilities staff students Administration the school board and a larger School community finally we would like to thank Hannah cornfeld for serving as our volunteer consultant for the last seven years she has led us through the process of first creating a cap for the high school and in the past three years has guided us through the process of developing this saap has performed all the modeling and contributed substantially to the editing we'd also like to thank Dr bams for his unwavering support the environmental club's efforts and bring this to bring this cap to fruition and we are so grateful that we printed out a hard the environmental Club is asking the school board to take action by formally adopting this SAU climate action plan we would also ask that you schedule a special sa board meeting
011on the same day as the dresen board meeting on Tuesday April 22nd birthday to speak to your decision regarding a adoption of this climate action plan and consideration of the sustainability uh coordinator um position thank you before you guys disappear I think board members may have some questions for you guys I have a question about the travel portion did that does that include travel for teen Sports yes that was other okay I thank you and how is that did you keep that separate from Arch intensive it's not separate in here we have the data okay so Mar intensive it's not part of this it is oh it is oh okay but they have the disaggregated so yeah we have it perfect thank you yeah Jay thank you so much I I couldn't be happier um
012what a great job and uh I think we also have to recognize jeie cornfeld Linda Dante De Robinson who also in their work with the environmental Club have been uh big supporters of this work um what you've done for us is helped us um live up to a promise we made to the Handover community and the Norwich Community when when we um when the tax when the taxpayers of Voters approved I think it was two years ago um a warrant article that expressed this board's commitment to to sustainability and um you've done the work for us I mean I I can't thank you enough this is great um we'll be looking at a policy that sort of goes along with this later today later this evening and what I would tell the board is um
013I think the club's request to to adopt this policy is a is a very reasonable one and I I would never ask a board to do that on a on after just seeing it without some analysis to figure out what sort of commitments are embedded in the plan um but I do know that uh that our students have been very careful to include language like where where're fiscally responsible um giving the PO the out if there's some sort of a serious Financial consideration to sort of limit any of the actions under the plan um but I don't see a whole lot of um high cost items in there I think a lot of what you're proposing makes a lot of sense and is doable so um it's just going to take us um following their
014lead so um so just again thank you so much and I should have said thank you my apologies any other questions Neil um two questions one just very specific about what was in the report I noticed that um transportation ranks sort of among the highest of the things that are contributing to the problem um yet in the recommended solution I guess my question is uh in the transportation Li item does that include our busing service Transportation so school buses are included do you want to come up a little so that's what's contributing to the the relative high ranking of transportation for students yes and then so then to take that next step further when I look at the recommend um there was no recommendation about electric plastic thank you um yes so we recently have
015uh I've learned two electric school buses that are going to be coming to this District in uh two years one to two years yeah so what so we have not accounted for those in our numbers because at that time we didn't have that information guess where going I didn't see it so there was this whole table of priority reduction measures and in the transportation section and the student commuting section electric buses wasn't listed I was just curious I think as a reduction strategy sorry I thought there was a separate line student commuting meaning individual transportation and there's a separate line for bus for buses yeah okay all right so I just missed it okay yeah um okay sorry uh and then the second question is if you had a limited amount of money what's the
016priority where should it go first the buildings how we Source our energy and finding the best and most sustainable way to do it other questions from board members first okay thank you guys so much thank you thank you yes if there are any comments related to this item from the audience we would take those as well just to be clear addressing the board if we want to bring them in we can yes and do you please introduce yourself yeah for people who are on Zoom they're just getting can they hear me just fine yes they can okay um my name is Lindy gray and I've been on the norch energy committee since 2008 so I have just several points one is appreciate the student work I think their their report is great it gives you
017great information um I do want to point out that I believe this has been in development for multiple years and um the key thing is that you have to follow up on the implementation recommendation because these reports you are no different than any other entity around the the entire state of Vermont there have been so many reports and climate action plans over the last 20 years that it makes me cry and so you have to move past the let let's look at this report and examine it you have to move into implementation so their recommendation if if you can't if you end up deciding that you can't oford an actual sustainability coordinator at least pull together a functioning committee to ensure that it gets going and that certain assignments go to people already on staff
018to do it and I know I served on the school board for about 10 years late 90s into the 2000s and so I know that it's very difficult you have to just focus on all the education task that you have is enough but this is really crucial and you got to pay attention to it it's very important and the other thing is if you do this stuff you will save money yeah that's that's the key right is yeah yeah so my name is Judy kala and I am co-chair of sustainable Handover with Yolanda bomgardner and I just want to extend our support we sent a letter um but I just want to say personally thank you to uh the environmental club and to Genie cornfeld and to let them know that they have our support
019and we would be happy to have representation on a committee if you don't hire a a a coordinator or even if you do maybe that Coordinator would like a committee to support that person we just are here to be supportive as you implement this plan thank you thank you anyone else just just because I know it's we're on the verge of putting our bud before the voters um we're talking about a future budget and the the FTE need that the club is recommending is a fractional FD it's not an entire um employee in that role if somebody would have this as a part-time role great anyone else on the board I I just have a question about that um did you recognize me yes you are so very recognized I know at one time the
020town of Hanover I'm sort of looking at Judy because you probably know the answer to this and I'm not suggesting you don't but at one time Hanover had a full-time sustainability person or did they share it with the college or at one point we had a part-time sustainability person and we are about and I think I can say that we have just extended an offer to someone for a full-time position oh okay because I was thinking wouldn't it be nice to piggy back and maybe 50/50 with someone in the town but that's a wonderful partnership at the very least yeah okay thank you yes can you come a little closer sh teacher um I'm here to support this speak environmental Club I think it's important I think it's just what we should be working towards
021as students fostering that leadership think they're doing the hard work um teachers are busy I'm on I'm on sabatical this year so I'm getting that view Eagles ey View so I really want to Echo the support for the sustainability boarding position um to really help Foster more student leadership opportunities to really keep their eye on that ball with everything else going on it's um hard to say it's another thing that teachers are going to pick up and really make noticeable change thank you Shan and I will just say for anyone who hasn't actually had a chance to look at the physical report it is beautiful it is of professional quality it's very well done so again kudos guys it's it's beautiful um anyone else on this matter anyone online no okay thank you again guys
022so much yeah Genie I I'll just GNA turn this off so oh okay thank you all right thank you again um we will move on St back to follow here but we're gonna move into a reading of policies I think we'll start with sustainability since both may not interested so I love a good transition on this second um so for those you're looking at this is an a policy meaning it's aspirational is not to the level of granularity that this great cap was and it does reference a cap and like Jay mentioned we're not going to look for approval stre may not have read in great detail but in this policy which is on a second read we want to adopt Implement and maintain in sau70 climate action plan as well as several other things
023again that are fairly generic in natur due to this particular policy level we did consult both Linda Dante and jeie cornfeld and there many students on this as well so they've they've seen various iterations of it went through policy unanimously and we're hoping we have good discussion tonight on anything that folks want to talk about question yes you say this is a second read of this this reading first read um I um uh I guess it's as it's aspirational um but uh so so there initial bullet points seem kind of some of them redundant or covering the same material but in different ways like they talk about the third bullet develop maintain and provide environmental sustainability learning such as and then the next bullet is about the stainability in the context of the curriculum I
024don't know if the curriculum is different than learning but they it's not clear to me and they seem like there should be one bullet perhaps um I don't know I guess it's it's a second read I don't want to get but it just seems very um sort of amorphous and comp hensive in the same at the same time if that's possible and um I mean I'm not opposed to any of the the ideas in in theory I just don't know what it's Comm they seem like commitments but it's an aspirational policy so maybe that's what's appropriate in an aspirational policy because it's not actually committing you even though it sounds like a commitment so I don't know how to take it I guess so I'll do my best to answer various aspects of that um
025first with the Amorphis thing part of that is by Design in the sense that this is a science-based thing that may change over time as knowledge changes in what we learn about what we can do as an institution as an seu and as individual schools so partly it's to reflect that that what maybe essential in five years may not be known now or may have changed within that time period in terms of the aspects of the curriculum versus learning the curriculum is stuff that's actually taught within the classroom for specific topics or been embedded within certain classes that are necessarily environmentally facing on its surface but might as some aspect like a particular book or something like that while learning could be things outside of the classroom and outside specific curriculum so they are intended
026to be two separate topics we're learning when encapsulate the curriculum I I I wonder and again apologies to I'm sort of same what as Tony here I wonder if creating a definition section and pulling out those two paragraphs on sustainability might make it a little more readable just because then you have action items right ensure Equitable access develop maintain and provide and everything else is sort of action oriented so I'm wondering if that's part of the what's making it feel a little heavier there is that those other two bullet points kind of read more as definitions not changing the content but maybe just in the beginning yeah I don't know it's just a a suggestion could you phrase that suggestion in motion language we could pull out we could draw out the definition bullets and
027just put them under a subheading for definitions sure other comments or thoughts on this I guess I'll just ask one more question as the administrator who would ultimately be responsible for implementing this does it feel like a policy that you can can translate into action armed with this I can and now you have a beautiful print copy on your absolutely any other comments on this comments from the public yes I guess I would just say it doesn't feel like an overarching policy it feels like some very specific promises and so I just thinking how are we going to keep those promises right um and what does it mean for future budgets and whatnot because if I was one of our constituents and I said they approved this policy like okay so when are these 15
02816 bullets happening right sort of the the stop light yeah uh you know seems very prescriptive as far as what we need to do and so I just want to make sure we're adopting it everybody's on the same page that it it's a pretty prescriptive plan for how to make progress on these so I would say is that it used to be far more so and the policy committee toned down a lot of the rhetoric that was initially in there by some of our stakeholders and and also in terms of two things one avoiding where getting too Grand like there were things there about certain types of toilets and certain types of pipes like that got very granular and we wanted to pull it back that's more of the r version which fls watching is
029more of the regulatory how do you actually do it on the ground floor really nitty-gritty stuff which policies deliberately do not go into that's more of an Administration uh piece and so it has been toned down quite a bit and secondly we wanted to keep it beg did not Comm ourselves that there's caveats in here for financial issues or logistical issues um some contractual stuff as well but we felt that policy that it was not so prescriptive that it was implausible and it was generic enough to be this is what we want to do and now we're going to give to the administration for how they're going to do it budgetarily logistically Etc with um with attribution to our astute advisers for the environmental Club you'll notice the very first sentence ends with a term
030while being fiscally responsible and that's repeated in other places as well and um I'm the proud parent of a graduate from the very last class of Green Mountain College and I still wear my my t-shirt from Green Mountain College which says Green Mountain College first in sustainability um we have to consider Financial sustainability as well and that's why that's referenced in here and as as this board and future boards make decisions around Investments and sustainability they're going to have to balance that that that aspect of it um in in the case of Green Mountain College they've made a lot of investments in and buying down their their emissions and ultimately weren't fiscally sustainable was a cautionary fail there and I think we we just need to be aware that that we we can and as
031one person mentioned we can actually save money by a lot of the things that we're contemplating I'll just use probably the most pressing one which this is part of my report later but one of the things we've we've all acknowledged is one of the most pressing facility uh issues that we have ahead of us is replacing roofs M well about six years ago I think I just started here we had some proposals for um installing rooftop solar RMS and there were even some discussion of having carports with with solar arrays on them um but we we ended up going all the way down the road of of rfps and and getting solicitations for bids and only to realize that we couldn't do it until we replac the route well now we're on the verge of
032replacing groups and so we have a real opportunity um to to actually do some of these projects build them in and try to do it in a way that makes sense for us financially so um that's just one example I think there will be other opportunities for us as some of the components of our building reach the end of their their useful life to then replace those things with u with sustainable Al ches I'm I wondering you know because policies have categories are there other districts saus in New Hampshire that H are further along in this regard than we are who have developed policies and I mean I know some have what you were just describing the carport with the solar panels on top for the buses but um is this sort of new territory
033developing this sustainability policy for this one do you remember conversation Club may know that as well so what was the question you guys have any model districts that have already adopted I mean don't I think if you were to you were to move the sustainability in the context I mean it it was built around the Strategic plan right obviously facilities um operations and curriculum so I think if you were to move the definition of sustainability gear point up at the end of the day I think this was really just meant to give the board direction that when we're analyzing things and I'll go back to like our norch budget last year where we were looking at a whole host of op options for the heating system winterization weatherization and you know Jamie did a very
034good job through that group that came in that gave us here's the options here's the costs and here's the potential savings we were all looking at things both dollar savings as well as CO2 savings right that was one of the things that we were looking at and ultimately we came into the middle because we went with the lp and some weatherization stuff and we did not go with the $7 million um what was it the uh the drilling into the ground the geothermal system we decided that that was just you know out of our it was just not fiscally responsible to go that right but I would Envision that a long story winded way of saying that if we this policy would have driven that discussion this is committing anybody to anything more something to
035refer back to when we have decision well as I said like I mean like I said I think the last me I mean I think some of us also just make sure and whether we have a sustainability person here you know that I just found out this week that all the all the my wife through it was she like what this metal SPO came from your school and the kids like no they're all plastic there we don't have any metal spoons at the school so I mean there's things like that it's like why are we not spending a little extra money to do these things right doesn't have to be $7 million on a I don't know is that I think it would just my recomend I mean is to put a policy like this
036in place maybe move those two points up at the end of the day this is kind of giving people some context I don't think it's committing anybody to do anything other than to do the right like to consider all these things when we're making decisions J go ahead and I would also Pat our kids on the back again because I I think they're out front on this I don't think there are a lot of public school systems that have climate action plans in place certainly not in our our neighborhood um and I you couldn't have a better first run most these things make sense in the long term whoever in the audience was is like when we were looking at the stuff in norch it actually made sense to spend a little bit more money
037to do a few more things because the 10e savings was like which is same thing that's going to happen with our solar and our roofs and stuff like we should be doing allu at the same time the Windows like you know yeah I see one hand yes I'm I'm not positive sorry can you sorry introduce yourself my name is Honor Paso and um I believe the Oyster River School District has made tremendous progress I'm not sure if they had a plan to do it with and I don't know that if any students were involved but I've talked to another superintendent in sunap and he was totally impressed with how they've been able to move forward with actions like this in Oyster River it's great to know thank you thank you all right if there are
038no further comments on this I will move us into our next I love when a meeting has a nice ni trajectory this is all very related so our our final item under business requiring discussion is the capital Improvement plan and strategic Plan update which I imagine will have some elements of this as well are we okay with all the other policies okay next policy keep that in mind was Smo had to other ones are not good there Ben okay so this is to deal with current political environment stuff to put it mildly yeah no I want to do the other thing I'm just kidding keep going so due to the changes with Title Nine definitions and the fact that both the feds and the states are aligned on things that we did not wish them
039to be aligned on and after repeated discussion with legal we need sorry we need to retire the current versions that we approved a few months ago for ACAA and acab and acab and the our versions and replace them with the prior versions that we retired last August so this is this did not come from policy this came straight from legal due to the timing of it all and I don't think anyone was thrilled but I also don't think there's any way of around it and for anyone who hasn't had a chance to to read through in the public or on the board um it we are first off certainly not the only District yeah um that recently enacted change that is now having to change back um because there were new recommendations that came into
040effect in 2024 that went into our policies subsequent to that and now they're swinging back the other direction and so um they are in fact recommending that we um revert to the 2020 uh requirements quickly um without subsequent results but just to get a context and with one other note uh folks on the board and or in the public may have concern about specific policies that are not mentioned here we are not discussing anything but these two policies everything else hold strong on for as long as we are legally able to do so um I'll take board comments first and then I'll I'll go to the public I I really struggle with this um and you know I looked at the Drummond Woodson piece and it says which is our lawful yes oh I oh
041I'm sorry you're just clarifying yes um I knew that uh the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and I think we could all agree that there is a lot that's going on that is up for potential litigation and you know when it says that a federal court vacated the rules is that of I mean I I find myself wondering what federal court vated the rules didn't at what level is it and maybe it doesn't matter you could tell me that um but I just it really distresses me to vote to remove Our concern for gender identity and sexual orientation now I understand that our previous policy did not result in any discrimination against students based on gender and sexual identity and so one could well argue that going back to something we had is prudent
042might save the district money in the case of a court case I don't know I mean I just I'm trying to understand why we have to do this so speedily that's one question I have the other question I have is um about the potential for litigation for people who want us to keep the policy we currently have in place so I would just say and then I'll I think Jay will probably see something very similar but my understanding is that this is purely a um legal definition of what Title 9 now covers not a statement on what we as a board or as a school district support or um uh wish to um emphasize in our own School District but simply a definition a legal definition of what is now protected under this one particular
043um definition of Title Nine that's my understanding which does not necessarily alleviate your concerns but no um yeah I would say the same thing we we can't make our own version of federal law and Unfortunately they they've changed title n or reverted it back to what it was before they made the change that added gender identity um there were a couple other protected classes that were that were included too that I think are no longer listed um so even if we maintained it if we had a title N9 claim that advanced they wouldn't apply our definition of title n because it's a federal law in in terms of classes and think that you refer to all of our the policies are holding okay okay um it's just a matter of conscience for me and I'll
044leave it at that sorry I miss the policy talked about this um I think that what I hear in Deb's question is that this isn't just about a definition right that this is also implied in the terms that are in the document right so it's when we're talking about if like women are protected um if gender is protected you know I'm thinking about the original purpose of title line which was about like sure that whatever exactly um then by removing this to Accord with federal law we're essentially agreeing that trans people or trans women aren't women or trans men aren't men if they were exist in one of those protected classes right I well I so my my again I would just say for the purposes of this policy we are saying that there is
045a specific call it narrow but definition of what is covered under Title 9 and policies aren't changing which is great yes yeah so when we when we get a claim um we evaluate it to determine whether or not it's a title non claim so it's going to it's going to change our assessment of whether or not if if if a Title Nine claim is brought To Us by a person who is transgender um it will probably impact our analysis of whether a title n claim exists it will not change our determination as to to whether a harassment claim exists so if it's not the title 9 harassment that doesn't mean that given our definitions that we have for for non-title n harassment we still have the per the people involved would still have recourse I
046think I understand but I still think that it's a little bit like saying sky over there is blue and sky over there is blue this no longer acknowledges that this guy is blue and so now we all have to pretend that it's another color right M there's no color at all watch your yeah can I um uh the risk of not adopting the change is it loss of federal funding is it lawsuit is it both is it more I mean I again I'm not an attorney I'm not practicing without a license um but um no matter what we call it like a claim is going to be measured against Title Nine the federal law and we could say that we recognize this now former definition but it doesn't have any basis in law anymore so
047no matter what we think or feel or it's the law um okay I I I get it yeah I get it um and I don't think I don't uh I um I think what board members um what has been repeated in this discussion multiple times right is that other policy in this area this board has adopted is not changing these which reference federal law are we need we need to but and um I I think but I think the distinction is important um uh especially when it comes to the core values of this board and this community those are not changing point of order I guess or clarification and looking at the policies that we have in the agenda tonight I'm just wanting to make sure those are in fact the right versions that we
048are now wanting needing sorry of words needing to revert to um because I do still see mention of gender identity sexual orientation I again just wanted to make sure that if the our our interest is reverting to the federal definitions that we have with a proper policy in yep there are references in here to New hsh law too so I'm not sure what the status of of Law and and whether things are being revised at the state level in this area but but gender identity has been identified in the non-discrimination laws of New Hampshire uh so I don't know if that's being changed as well we'll continue to monitor that but um so my question is purely when when we're asked to vote do we have the right thing to vote on no so I
049think what we're seeing in the packet tonight are the ones to be retired not the on un retiring yes so yeah Tony so I just pulled up the current policy because I had the same concern um the current the the words that I see missing from the ones we're looking at that were in our policy adopted in August 2024 are sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related conditions those are no longer like the that's one of the prior version version we're considering today does not have those terms that's the difference I mean I'm just looking at them right now can you sorry say that again so the terms that are missing from the policy we're looking at tonight from the existing policy are sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related conditions I believe theia stat
050that's still there those are the ones that I'm not seeing and somebody could do a closer look so it does seem to me and I I definitely want to take the public comment as well but it does seem to me that we may want to wait to vote on this until March 11th just to make sure that we are in fact making the right changes to be in compliance with legal requirements does that sound right to everyone I just I mean we can revert to this one but if it's not the right legal status then I don't know if there's a point to do in that so the it could be it's just sort of an uploading issue of which doc upload talk about that the intent is basically the changes we made in August
051we need to undo and go back to our previous version which I think is what this actually is showing I understand that it just it makes me uncomfortable to vote on something I see it's our policy on personally but T go ahead well I I wonder the same thing just because this legal letter talks about gender ID particularly gender identity and sexual orientation and the definition of sex under title n is what was an issue and so the inclusion of them is surprising to me I'm happy to see them in there right um but if we're trying to describe in our policy what Title Nine is I think we should be sure that we are in fact reflecting what the current guidance on Title 9 Jay your thoughts on the timing of this can we
052push it back to March 11 I don't see why not it's only three weeks away not even I guess it just to double check I mean we could simply say we're going to implement the advice given to us by our legal counsel and bring it back yeah so I think that um one of my concerns is that um if this is about being in compliance with federal law and the other policies aren't changing um at what point if there are more Federal if the Federal Law changes further at what point does the board decide not to be in compant so again maybe I misspoke I don't think it's a question of compliance and I I know I use that word I think it's it is a legal definition of what the federal definition of Title
0539 is and our other policies for the functioning of our district are not defining Title Nine they are our functioning policies for our district I think if we get to the point where that is something that we are being forced to change that's a different potentially a different conversation would be my just me guessing in that direction um would you like to yes would you like to please come forward and introduce yourself hi I'm parel croch I'm a parent of a sophomore at Hammer High um thank you for having us this is my first school board meeting so happy to be here it's run very differently than corporations but we don't have the same Rich conversation I will just leave it at that um I I think I have a lot of thoughts but I'll
054leave it with this and to me it comes down to two things if the school board votes to revert back to the previous policy is it because we feel we are forced to or we feel like that's what we need to do on behalf of all of our students not just certain students versus others so that's one piece so getting more time thank you to me that is my opportunity to get more educated um so that's one side of it and I think the other thing I would ask the board to is to have a um articulate way to speak to students parents folks in the community of if we were to vote if you will to vote to revert back to the original policy why because federal law is obviously important knowing Public School
055Systems and how Reliant we are on it but we also have a community that needs to be protected and one policy changes what's not to say that three more down the line will change because we just set a precedent thanks thank you other members of would' like to comment on this I just had a question for policy people or something to consider before six um so some of these one of the policies is student sex discrimination harassment and title N9 complaint procedure ACA R um and there's R1 so so part of this these policies talk about Title 9 what is harassment under Title 9 what is sexual harassment under Title 9 how do you file a claim under title Title 9 coordinator Etc that to me we don't want to mislead the public about what's
056considered a title n complaint and that should be accurate and should reflect federal law there is also generic language about defining harassment and sexual harassment which in the text is defined broadly as if it's the same as what Title 9 says it is so I wonder if we can Define harassment sexual harassment and say for under Title Nine this is what what it constitutes or this is what could be a claim additionally which is separate from what the board may consider as a policy matter harassment and sexual harassment may not have the same remedies available but but to just just to be clear that here's what's covered under Title 9 because somebody might be curious what's covered under Title 9 and we don't want to mislead them which is sort of separate from what the
057school considers a good suggestion I will point out that given the Tim of this actually I don't think we have a policy meeting until after like March 11th meeting due to the elections and work travel and other things so I think part and I guess I would um as as to the chair if I may issue sort of a directive is not to not to redo the policy for the next meeting but make sure that we have the language that we need to be able to to put an roate def definition of title n in front of the board if that makes sense right and and at that point I think people can you know rehash this conversation because we'll have a new board at that point right and um we can uh people can
058vote their conscience as they need to but um at least then we'll have the proper definition in front of us does that make sense to everyone so we'll table that vote okay did you have a question I'm sorry my name is I'm also parent of a sophomore um and um I don't really have I I also need to get more up to date on on the specific language of the of the policy but um I guess one of the questions I have is around I know that at least as far as Handover is concerned that there's a lot of Engagement from the students around the changes and what happens that governance in terms of governance of the school system so I'm just curious like have is this something that students have any say in um
059do they actually have the right to speak on this as a group and a community and if so like what does that look like because I don't I mean it was amazing to hear this environmental Club come and present so I'm just sort of getting a sense of how students get engaged with Schoolboard business it's a great point and and a good question um I I will let Jay respond I will just again point out and we all know that that legal opinions and um changes and definitions have been coming Fast and Furious and it's getting like a fire hose right so our entertaining of this tonight was upon legal advice that you need to make this change immediately um and I I personally feel comfortable pushing that to March 11th since we'll have a
060new board at that point since we can you know get the proper wording at least in front of us I think that makes sense and I'm personally very comfortable waiting those two and a half three weeks um but that that is kind of where this like we have to make this change is coming from so I just wanted to put that out there Jay yeah I just there there are all sorts of opportunities for student voice U and and for anyone in the public to to protest these changes but the changes are made um and and this was a lawsuit I believe this court decision stems from a lawsuit that occurred before the election even that was over uh we got a we got warning from Vermont when we made these changes to bring it
061up to the 2024 um uh changes we were advised by the state of Vermont not to change our policy because this this other lawsuit was going to be coming before the courts and the court may very well strike um the elements that are now you know that we're reverting back away from uh so we were told to hold and not even make that adoption but we chose to move ahead because in New Hampshire that they weren't subject to that that lawsuit um we can pay anything we want but in terms of like this particular decision it's a federal law so even if we said oh we're going to disregard that and we're going to take a claim from a transgender student and run it through the process so that ultimately it ends up in the
062office of civil rights they're just going to reject it it's because it doesn't apply I think to Tony's point I think we need to inform people about that um when I think when we do have the vote on this policy we should probably have some statement that accompanies it I think that'd be a good thing to do um and like many people have mentioned already we have other policies and definitions of harassment that come from state law that um I feel confident today that we can still protect all of our students I I'm not I mean going Beyond today given the way changes are happening at the state level as well I don't know what'll happen if they start changing those state laws um you as a board may have a situation where either you
063make a statement through a resolution if you choose to do so like we've done on other issues um but ultimately if we do have a situation that ends up in court the courts are going to rule on what is what is prevailing law at the time yeah yeah so I we I think a lot of us have been saying sort of the same thing different ways and I will admit it took me a while to wrap my head around this but Tony's right and Jay's right but I want to point out two things one is the policy changes that we're considering tonight I I view this as a way of letting the public know that if they wanted to bring a Title Nine complaint against the school this is the criteria that that complaint needs
064to meet so that's the reason for the change in our policy because our policy on this says this is the criteria and the process for a Title Nine complaint I also want to make sure that board members go back and take a look at our policy AC because I think that's the important one here and I'm just going to read one sentence out of the second paragraph which says as described above the blanket prohibition afforded under this policy as well as other board policies reflects but goes further than some of the same protection afforded under multiple state and federal statutes or regulations you all need to just go back and reread policy AC because I know you did it a couple nights ago but you forgot about it go back and do it again um
065read policy AC I I also wanted to address a part of your question about student participation and um there's a council and a member of councils elected each year to serve not on the SAU board but she serves in this instance um it's Ella serves on the Dresden board and we meet tomorrow and as part of the students responsibility they bring to council the agend some agenda items not all of them um she's released from budget discussions but she is uh she takes responsibility for bringing student concerns and student issues to The Dresden school board and also reporting back to students about decisions that are made so she is a really good person to have in the conversation as it moves forward all right uh I was just looking to see if Linda has her
066Linda has her hand up Linda hi Linda I was looking to see if this is on it is I'm also actually the council executive so I work with this student on Council but there's a there actually is a very active group of students on the uh Equity committee that came out of council and they're meeting actually looking at ways to um I think support students all students um but to get language and action steps um now that things are changing very rapidly so um there's a very focused effort and if you're interested um I'd be happy to talk with you at some point if you uh contact them they know my email but I can also reach out to you yeah thank you Linda um so I will just point out to board members and
067administration as well that this is on our agenda for tomorrow night as well so I don't know if we could get those changes um or the appropriate language up for tomorrow night's meeting and if we could perhaps vote it there I don't want to get into the debate about which board should approve policies first I know that's a lengthy discussion as well my colleague down at the end of the table um okay uh if there's nothing else on this for tonight then we will move into business oh no skipping ahead again now we can talk about the capital Improvement plan and strategic Plan update not gonna find my way back to the agenda sorry a there was I did not see a document there is not a document there is you'll see an administrative content
068sorry I somehow lost board do I don't think we have anything administrative cont yes we do we do do you got I did read that I at the risk of being really redundant I'm going to be addressing more of this in my superintendent report but as far as the capital Improvement plan and the Strategic Plan update uh David Epstein and Stephen Poston from Trux Collins are going to be here on March 6 and 7 they're going to be visiting our buildings doing a walk through um and then they're going to meet for about an hour with each of our principes uh this will be like the initial phase of the sort of um streamlined Capital Improvement plan that the board clu um pursuing uh in preparation for the work Jamie and I have granted them
069or obtained for them access to the facility condition assessments that Bureau verios did for us they were impressed by the depth of that database the the problem that we've seen Statewide with that facility condition assessment work is is that the prices are sort of all over the place and and not accurate for our area so one of the first things they're going to be doing is um is making sure that the costs that have been assigned to those various needs that have been identified in the FCA are updated so they'll they'll knock that out um they also are going to be using our new climate action as a reference document um which uh we've already had that conversation with David and Stephen and um and they have access to it now too so that'll be
070super helpful and um as I mentioned in my comments earlier during the presentation I use the example of our our roof situation we we've all had at least a verbal conversation about um that being one of the things that's probably most pressing in terms of our building needs and that has a direct link to our ability to um install solar so so that's sort of where we are on the on the climate action plan I on the uh I'm getting my my plans mixed up on the um Capital Improvement plan and uh we we tried to do it over break but we just couldn't line up schedules principals were taking vacation and um so it's going to have to wait till next week so that's it that's all I have on the on the capital
071Improvement plan great and strategic plan um if you want to wait till your report rather than waiting I'll just move right on into it um so I I shared earlier at another meeting with with the board probably a couple times um that in terms of strategic planning we are I almost see every day somebody working on some aspect some strategy of the plan today there was a meeting uh we have a partnership right now where half a dozen or so of our teachers are working with a professor from Dartmouth on educational design and they're doing a project analyzing our provision of special education services what's working well what's not working so well and we had a session today where we sort of went through and and prioritized all that data that they've that they've gathered
072and they let my parting words to the group where were that okay this is great you you're identifying some great strategies for making our student support for part of the plan even stronger and so there'll be some strategies that'll be generated from that work um in in terms of uh the rest of it this this is one of the strategies that we've identified part of the goals under facilities and it's coming to fruition it's like we're clicking things off but what's happening now is we're we're working through these strategies that have been identified and then then what and so I think I shared with the board that I'm having an administrator Retreat they're all working individually in their buildings uh doing two things first they're they're uh going back reflecting on progress made so far
073and then documenting the progress on the existing strategies that they've identified on the school by school basis and then starting to put together that list of things that they need to do to move the work forward so in April they will generate uh essentially next steps to take us the next three to five years out and they'll be preparing that so that you have it for your retreat in May and uh that'll be I would ask that that would be one of our agenda items is to review that work and and get ready to move this thing forward and they'll be joining us right if if the board wishes I'd love to have them have one of those have everybody get together at least for portion of so so I mean I can hit some
074of the high points here Robin Robin and I have we've we worked with the administrative team to come up with a new administrator rubric for evaluation and supervision we implemented it we're in year two of it right now we've made some revisions and out of that evaluation work we actually updated the staff survey that we give to the teachers and the support staff to evaluate the principles um and so now those things are totally aligned we just we took a few items that were redundant and a couple that we didn't think people would have a a reference point to give a a useful response so we we chopped maybe two items out of that survey um and have that all updated and ready to use um I've updated the surveys and they're ready to go
075out tomorrow so I just want to give the principles a head up before heads up before I send that out um the other thing that Robin and I have been doing that that's right out of the HR part of the Strategic plan under organizational Effectiveness is that um I shared with the board that that I I do intend to cease being a superintendent at some point in the future and uh when I depart um I I promise the board that I would leave you in good good hands that we' have a succession plan that that would help help move us you know preserve the good work that's being done and and provide some continuity part of that is that I've been interviewing or Robin and I have been interviewing all of our administrators at the
076building level and and we've been sitting down with our central office administrators as well going through their career aspirations and timelines um their needs for um professional development areas that they perceive as strengths and areas perceive that they have room for growth and then we're also asking them in those same conversations to identify people within their departments or schools who they think have leadership potential and the intent there is that Robin and I are going to start to conduct some professional development of our own for those people who um are interested in potentially interested in in being administrators and so the idea would be to start to build a ready bench of people who are are interested in leadership and we have a lot of great people doing wonderful things there's a teacher here tonight
077who been taking on a lot of work her sabatical um each of the principles have identified anywhere from two to six people that they think have leadership potential and sometimes just pulling them aside and saying hey you know you're doing a great job have you ever thought about being an administrator and um I Tred to do that informally we're now trying to do that formally so those meetings have been going great it's they're um they're sort of open conversations it's not it's not I don't have like a a template that I'm using or anything but I'm I'm documenting all of the those elements that I describe to you and so I have it and then Robin and I can kind of go through and say hey this person might be really good for this um
078so so I'm I'm happy with that work so far another thing that has to do with sort of on the same theme of of uh smooth transitions I've been meeting bi-weekly with our HR and business office in anticipation of Jamie departure um we're working through we're getting into the nitty-gritty of workflows and what belongs in in uh payroll what belongs in HR um and uh the meetings are are great there's a lot to get through we have this laundry list of tasks we're about halfway through it right now and uh we continue to meet every other week on that um another big part of student support was U up updating and improving our security or our safety responses we've been working every I'd say monthly we're doing something we've we've uh the SAU staff has
079has updated its own um emergency response plan and we had a meeting uh just maybe not even a month ago certainly since our last SAU meeting with uh the chief of police in Norwich and Lieutenant offer from the Handover Police Department to work on reunification so something happened we had a natural disaster or some sort of violent event that required us to evacuate the schools uh the reunification process is usually really fraud it's dangerous you have parents that will will just like appear at schools in the aftermath of some event and there's a science to actually reuniting kids with their parents and so we we did a walkth through of a facility that I won't share publicly that we we anticipate using for reunification um to scope it out for capacity and and flow and
080and all those considerations that you have to have and then then fortunately for us the um the we use this this uh method now called the standard response protocol to to call things like lockdowns or evacuations that sort of thing and that group that developed that had a big training at the VA and we brought about eight people from the SAU um each of the building principles myself Karen Wright who's our public information officer in those events um and both police Chiefs and went through all day training at the VA on reunification so we feel like we're making strides and now in March we've scheduled a tabletop exercise that'll be many hours of us simulating an event um and uh and then responding so I feel like we're really in a good place um between
081upgrades we've done to building access and this training I I feel better prepared than we were um and then I I just mentioned about the leadership team extending the Strategic plan and then I guess the other thing of interest is that um I don't know if this is considered community outreach but um I've been uh in fact Neil and I have been on these meetings Garett I thank you too with Rebecca Hulk um and Jim nin our Representatives on the Vermont side around uh Governor Scott's proposals uh for consolidating down to five school districts and I had shared during one of those meetings my experience in Erie of consolidating our district from 23 schools down to 18 um and it was a really scientific process that the community was completely engaged in and we were
082completely transparent about and we closed schools and had people in the neighborhood clap like giving us a round of applause at the end of it because we had taken them through this very open process like for a year and uh so I ended up getting invited to speak to the house education committee and shared that plan with them it's 300 slide deck um but um interesting that there's not been much data used in in determining that plan and so made the suggestion that maybe we got to look at some data and it seems to be gaining traction so um hopefully we will get some data and there won't be any rash decisions made about the number of distri yeah plan right right so that's that's it so um I guess that's that's what I have
083to tell you about the Strategic plan now and I really do feel confident we're making big strides and Robin and her report will out lay out for you what's been going on the curriculum World which is a big chunk of the plan too thank you sure questions for Jay on either the capital Improvement plan or the Strategic plan that this point thanks yeah I just want to say um I really appreciate the effort you're putting this session it's a really frot time for an organization when leadership transitions occur also I just have to editorialize for one second um to say that it's hard to imagine Jamie retired we bumped into each other at the mobile in West Lebanon I'm confident we had the most enthusiastic education Finance conversation ever at a gas station other patrons
084were wondering what was going on over there in the aisle so she is still heavily engaged all the way to the end here good for Jamie thanks any have any questions or comments any item nothing online yeah okay all right now we will move on to business requiring action um and I think we can take a motion for B through D and then we'll pull out the policy piece I move to approve items b c and d by consent there second Lily thank you so Mo by Deb second by Lily um do we have anyone online no okay all in favor brilliant any opposed okay so that was unanimous um for the policies it I think we are just approving the sustainability policy to I can Amendment okay um move to approve policy AE after
085repositioning the two paragraphs defining sustainability in that policy into a separate section titled definitions second so motion by Ben second by Deb any discussion okay all in favor okay perfect uh that was unanimous again um thank you Ben thank you the policy committee as always um moving on to reports um I will just report that we have a lot of meetings this week thank you all in advance for your cheerful attendance of those um we have our uh Dr meeting tomorrow night and then our annual meetings on uh the 27th in the HHS Auditorium for Hanover and Dresden I apologize I do not know when the Norwich meeting is happening it's later right oh town meeting norch town meeting is Monday night Monday night the informational hearing informational hearing is Monday night for Norwich yes
086and following the Dresden meeting we would like to thank members of the board who are rolling off and will be gathering at Sawtooth kitchen reservation thank you doing that um that was the easy part good job reservation making um yes and uh so we will the vote is March 4th thank you um and following that we will have our organizational meetings March 11th with our new board at that point we will be saying goodbye to Tony and to Lily right is that it for this turn around hopefully hopefully okay um so thank you both very much I know that your individual boards are doing tily goodbye so we'll see that uh for those meetings um committee reports yes I would just say on that um while I'm here tonight obviously and I'll be here tomorrow
087I have my own board meeting for work Thursday so I'll not be around for that so noted were you presenting I don't believe so okay that I only need a few minutes you are not presenting it okay perfect yes and if anyone needs an absentee B they be awn on Tuesday talk to ran is that still possible that's defin I believe it's think there's still time I don't know about New Hampshire but in Vermont you can just come to my office office and pick up the okay good to know all right committee reports seeing none we will move on to assistant superintendent reports this virtually Robin thanks for being here sure I'm happy to be here I did submit my report but I wanted to point out last at our last meeting Kim asked about
088the title grants and the funding that we received from the federal government so I did include that in this report and I'll include it in our other District reports but it gives you an idea of what we currently receive from the federal government and that has been declining each year since I've been here but it still is about $170,000 total for all of the districts so it's something you know we'll pay attention to and and I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have and at this point that funding is not affected is that correct that's my understanding that's correct right and emails like get at Dartmouth so okay other questions y uh having not paid attention I'm just curious in like 30 seconds or less uh can could somebody or somebody that knows
089what the circumstances are around legislation to remove the sau67 super intendent that was um I know but I would what what was the issue that LEDs to possible legislation the B soccer yes it was the transgender okay issue with the parents okay thank you you're welcome how many full circle moments in this meeting okay uh any other questions for Robin all right seeing none Robin sorry I got one question actually just came through today the um the start time so is that a committee that's going on over in New Hampshire for the school start times just because every once in a while I hear it and I got another email today from uh a parent Norris just asking about if anyone's ever going to look into school start times moving a little later and I
090said well one of my fellows been here it's been proposing this for decades but is there so this is a committee right is that yes it's a committee and there's not it's not specified whether it's um start of the school year start times whether it's the start time in terms of the hour anything like that it's pretty wide open right now so I'll keep you posted when I hear more about that committee oh wow okay I thought it was the school day start time they have specified all right as somebody who's been here a while we this board not this board I believe it was the Dron board already since already previously entertained this idea of changing the school day start time um and and concluded that it just was not it wasn't financially feasible
091and there were other logistical reasons that made it and I I it meant extra bus runs which I just point out is not in alignment with our sustainability initiatives either so yeah there was there were a lot of issues with that I I will say though that it keeps coming back up at Council it's it's a horse that doesn't want to leave the stable yeah metaphor but they want it to I say it only because I'm not trying to discourage yet another committee I'm saying that if another committee were to form there is past work that's been done on this right and it's been done at so many schools in the state too in other states as well what year that was I was on the board between years kind of the last 10 years
092yes yeah might my first year first or second yeah might we coming off David so was a chair yeah uh anything else for Robin Robin thank you so much for being here um we'll move on to business administrator you're welcome I only have a couple things um one is the audit report um we received the draft last Thursday so that's being reviewed now um and Jamie is currently working on um the management discussion and Analysis report and everything else will have to be um submitted before they'll get you know do the final and everything else um the other thing is um I guess next meeting March 11th we'll do the year-to date on the financial report submit one of those um and then the last thing is lime so it's it's public notice now and
093everything else that lime decided not to contract with us for the financial services so that will not be part of us moving forward interesting okay it was just something that they just financially could not sustain okay might perhaps at some point want an update on that I don't know me around at the board Jamie has me contacting their superintendent okay so I would I will I will just suggest that at some point whether it's appropriate for public or non-public I'll let you guys determine but I think it would be good to get an update on sort of that process okay anything any questions for Teresa all right thank you very much Teresa I don't believe we need a nonpublic tonight looking around to confirm okay so with that I will take a oh return to
094public session I mean not return to public session public comment last opportunity for public comment okay question not a member of the public no I'm just kidding Bas on what Teresa just said because is part of excuse my lack of memory here it's part of the SAU budget where that we've added a FTE That was supposed to basically be part of this income so we still it was contingent offsetting we're still going to add the FTE but we no longer no no not no it wasent okay Sor okay I will take a motion to adjourn that's my last one here so um at 7:29 p.m seconded by Tony right seconded by Tony by Michael on behalf of Tony and I will take a roll call vote starting with Neil oh yes yesman yes yes yes
095yes yes Nelson yes SAR yes thank you everyone