001e e e right I'd like to call this Dr meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. and the first item of the agenda is agenda review um anybody have any comments edits they'd like to make to the agenda seeing none um the next item is public comment so anybody from the public who would like to make a comment um please come forward state your name and place a present laaa from Bulgaria an exchange stent as some of you may know and I have been invited warmly to be here at Hanover for the past 10 months and I would like to say a little something as thanks for the people who had me here and for the people who made this thing happen I so grateful to be here tonight and to have been allowed such an
002incredible opportunity to spend almost 10 months in Handover I want to thank first and foremost my whole family the heartman for taking me in caring for me sharing their culture their home and their family with me next I want to thank the wonderful people of hover for uh from the school board who so kindly invited me here as well as four others from our globe to my friends at the high school who showed me so much love to their families who welcome you with open arms the teacher is at not only the high school who always so kind to me but also the race school and RMS for allowing me to truly learn about myself and what it takes to take care of kids over the past year I have been given so many chances
003to explore my interest be volleyball ice skating MTO un robotics debate and so many more I will never forget what I have learned from these experiences and the people I have met doing these things I am forever grateful for this opportunity to learn not only about myself but about the people of Hanover so obviously we hosted Laura expect me to get emotional call me out thank thank and other comments okay seeing none um we'd like to have a um our start with our school reports which um always begins with the high school council rep we have Ella here um she's the newest member um for basically will be with us for the next academic year so Ella would you like to introduce yourself and give the high school report yeah um I'm Ella I'm going
004to be a sophomore next year um so honored to have been elected for this position and I hope that I can do as good as a job as I know my predecessor Josh Sterns did so my report today is quite brief because we've had two Council meetings since this body last met one was taken up by leadership elections so I'm just going to introduce our new Council leadership um so our new moderator is Sophia Costa who will be a senior this year our new assistant moderator is Rachel Cole who will be Junior secretary is Martin Mosel who will also be a junior Treasurer benoquin also a junior our new public relations person is chrish mistra will be a senior and our new CPP representative will be Owen Welch will be a senior and other than
005that we've had two allocations come through Council over the last month one was a $75 allocation to the trim music Honor Society to provide Refreshments for their end of the year recital and the other was uh it was the skip Bean allocation proposal for $14 to reimburse a student for purchasing a prize for the recipient of the award so that's pretty much all we covered well welcome than you and uh s have any question this isn't a question this is just a a statement of admiration and support for the process that Council goes through to elect representatives people are encouraged to humbly accept and respectfully decline when they're nominated everybody took this very seriously I would say and elected people who they thought were really good and I think Ella is testimony to that she
006called me up and asked me questions about being on the board she stood and delivered remarks without reading from a piece of paper she was thoughtful eloquent reflective and for those who think perhaps seniors get elected to these positions clearly that's not the case and so congratulations to you and to the process any other comments or questions we have no all right um and then moving um you know Bas based on the retreat P back we were trying to kind of consolidate reports and so I think we're kind of moving as reflected in public comment that um our RMS and hover High School principal reports will be kind of as a you read it and if you have any questions so hopefully that's what everyone has seen and so my question to Tim who is
007next up for RMS principal report is do you have any questions for Tim based upon the report that was included yeah this is not based on the report and I'm sorry I could just shout it it's yet to no thing my eighth grader claims there is no school for eighth graders on the four true yes thank you I did not know that can you like really put that somewhere we that off uh just so we don't have massive plans or something we'll let people know thank you any other questions for Tim on all right see then moving on to the Handover High School principal report where is there's Julie hi any questions for Julie excellent report thank you sorry I just is there anything that you would like to highlight for us in the report
008that you like one takeaway or anything no just I think I I just put the music report in there and I think music report is evidence of all the things that are happening I could do that for every department so there's a lot going on okay great thank you all right and then so then moving on to our business requiring discussion um we have a reading of policy and as chair right the chair of the policy committee I don't know what happened after the consolidation um so would you like to introduce what we're looking at here sure so all four of these are second readings with these four particular ones there were there was some discussion at the last round about ning mothers but there were no specific suggestions made and least for um at
009least for based on last time we're cly B plate no changes made from the previous one but happy to take questions any comments we are looking at ehac electronic digital records and signatures ACN nursing mothers accommodations i m a teaching about alcohol drugs and tobacco G Ada employment references and verification and we will be looking to since these are our second reading we'll be looking to approve them at the end of this meeting seeing none any I know still from the public moving on um RMS School survey so Tim you want to come back up here and um kind of maybe give a little bit of a summary about what your takeaways were from the parent survey very much understanding and trying to move quickly uh this year the parent survey was actually have that
010many parents not kind of quite sure as to why this happened although we started to think that it might be because we've used the same survey for the last three years and people are tired of it and so they might not have wanted to be like yeah yeah yeah we've already talked about this stuff um we had a fair number of students respond um and one of the things that we've noticed is that um there are a fair number of students this year who feel a little bit more uncomfortable in school um that we're going to have to continue to work on we're not quite sure why that has occurred um some of it might be um just specific friend groups or clashes within friend groups we're not sure but that's something that we definitely
011put on the Sal for next year um the parent um when we talk about the parent concerns the the big ones continue to be uh schooly and power school or rather how to understand schoolagy and Power School um I think we're going to have to do more communication I've talked to a number of people can't remember who I've talked to that we've been working the last five years of trying to get everything that we do inside the school sort of on the same page and we may have at that point collected actually sharing that message with people outside of the school other than the students um and so that's one of the priorities that we're going to have next year is to sort of get people to understand this is what schoolo is this is
012what we're trying to do yes we know that sometimes the students won't know what to do but learning that from Schoo Agy is going to be a really important skill when they get to ninth grade so that's something that we're going to have to teach them and we're going to have to build in the idea that they may not turn in their homework at some point in their seventh grade year because they just didn't know it was there that's okay it's much easier to recover from that than it is if you have a class that shows up on your transcript so um I think we need to build in this idea that it's a whole process and that not everything needs to be perfect all the way through or exactly the same because that's one
013of the other things that the parents talk about is the fact that hey your teachers don't have not everything in schoolly set up exactly the same yes because if you took all the teachers and sat them in one room you would realize very quickly that there are very different people who think entirely differently so we have to try to come to some sort of a an understanding where it's somewhat consistent but not in lot step what everybody wants so um we continue to look at it we're looking at more data I think as we get all of our our state test scores aren't back yet for ELA once we get those back we want to try to looking at the trends that we have there trends that we have in terms of um who's doing
014well who may not be doing well we want to increase the number of people who read the report card contest we spend a lot of time making those report card comments and then when we go back and look they're not accessed as much as like um so again I think that's a communication piece that we're just trying to make sure that hey this is all a process and we want to have this dialogue that's going on as opposed to every nine weeks here's a letter move forward so um that that'll be an ongoing thing thanks Tim any questions yes then um Tim can you clarify why does grade eight seem to be so small among the representation in terms of the students yeah um I think they they just they're done they've done it for
015two years like they're moving on school I talked about the fact that one time I got stale chips at cafeteria and nothing has done about it so that seems to be the thing mostly in the eth grade they latch on to one thing that they want to talk about this year it was blueberries and the yogurt they want more blueberries in the yogurt so I had eight different students that was their comment every time they could comment all they put was more blueberries and the yogurt last year it was we wanted a particular energy Dr that we didn't they were like we need and I had to do some research I'm like Amazon Prime what are they talking about so I had to do some research to figure out what it is but I think
016most of the time the eighth graders are just they're G and maybe we do it earlier in the year so we get a better insight but by the time we do it sort of late spring they're like what difference does it make it's not going to change what I'm doing anymore so that's the feeling I get okay I wonder if you could help me interpret um a couple of items in the academic feedback section and it pertains to um teachers uh changing lessons to match learning style or modifying um lessons for expectations for individual students I'm interested in that one as it relates to some of the discussions we had around changes to the math program and this whole notion of providing individualized instruction because when I look at the graphs what I'm seeing is
017a third who agree that it's happening but almost a third that are indifferent that either say maybe it is maybe it isn't happening and that seems like a large chunk for instruction if if we're trying to do individualized instruction it seems like at least for a third and maybe more of our students it's not land right I it's possible and I think we probably need to drill down more on that I think what happens is Teachers probably adjust what they're asking students to do but don't tell them right like hey I need you to do this as opposed to announcing and this group only has to do this part of it so I so things are that so sorry to inter so individualized instruction done well means that the student may not realize that that's
018what's happening correct is that what you're saying yes how would then what's the purpose of surveying the students about it it's a really good question um and I I think honestly this is one of those I I think I reached out like I'm not a survey person so that survey was in there for the parents and we wanted to try to mirror as much to the students as we were sending to the parents like what what is your understanding of what's going on and I think you probably hit on one like the students don't really know what is necessarily so you have some students who are asked to write a little bit more and some students who are able to um show their uh understanding of something in a different way all the student knows
019is hey I took a test right whether it was all written or part oral depend the teacher is trying to say like we're going to try to you know uh individualize this so the student has the best chance to show what they know but I think it's probably a good a good thing to look at yeah I kind of I mean I kind of Wonder like if one of our goals right is is getting better at individualized Construction you know how how can we as a board know that we're making any progress towards that and maybe this metric is not the No No I it's a great idea and one of the things that we run into all the time is that middle school students are um incredibly focused on what's fair and oftentimes anything
020that's different is deemed unfair so we have to try to keep that in mind so if we have anything that is slightly different from student to student we often times try to to screen to make sure that people don't know but then it does make that particular metric a little bit difficult to talk about I agree any other comments questions any of the Plus classes were new and looks like about 30 30% thought they were worth a while um remember but it was fairly low right worthwhile or um allowing you to build new skills a little bit higher and certainly they didn't seem to increase academic stress but I'm wondering if there are any comments associated with those uh this is where the fact that the eighth graders don't respond very highly hurts us because
021sixth graders don't take Plus classes so there is no plus class in sixth grade so I think sometimes they really don't quite know what to do with it um but we're looking at that and trying to make sure that it is a little bit more structured but certainly the students who were building the hovercraft or um the Shark Tank things that I did in seventh grade seems to be that the students are they're enjoying what they're doing um there is a weird thing when you start surveying people and especially parents that people have this idea that if you're enjoying it it must not be hard enough right like oh I enjoy school so something must be wrong um so we have to try to get to that as well any other comments and I will
022note for the minute take or two that Kelly McConnell is online as well so Kelly we're monitoring so if you just want to raise your hand at any point don't be shy any others all right thank you 10 jie for the high school yeah thanks for your patience you got this information this morning um the survey was due Friday so it just took a little time to look it over and I think we still need to look it over more and I still need to present it to our staff um but anyway this is the second year we've used the survey um it was designed by someone else and we figured we would do that since we're not survey designers um and um we had not I don't think enough families answer it we sent
023it out a couple times but we had more than last year so 140 did instead of 126 that still seems really low to me given the population of the school um I'm going to just quickly go through some of the takeaways as of this morning and this weekend just so you can hear them um since you may not have had a chance to read them um parents are confused it sounds like similar to the Middle School between power school and schooo G um and we tried actually to address this this year with a different parent nights and we clearly according to the survey weren't successful with our efforts so we're GNA go back and try to figure out do we add more um do we change Target the communication a little bit better um the
024part you didn't see about honors versus non-honors courses there were a number of comments in the comment section we removed that piece of it because I haven't been able to remove all the identifying information about certain classes or certain teachers um but the honors and non-honors the disparity between the two sometimes the Gap is too big um I know that our math department is working on that for next year in terms of if you have alge 2 and alge 2 Honors that you could make the switch between the two if you were doing really well in one versus The Gap is too big so there were comments about that and also needing more of an explanation as to what the difference might be between the two so there were comments you weren't able to there
025but that is there um I don't think the sense of belonging in the belonging questions feels high enough so we have to keep working on that and the beginning of the slideshow that I put in there has difference from year to year that we noted so when you look at the beginning of the slideshow you'll see like what was it in 2023 versus 24 um struggle to get organized for school seems real um and I don't know if that's something we can help with but we might start thinking about that and if there's ways we can help parents with that students being distracted with homework seems like an issue from a parent point of view um the workload from RMS to HHS is an issue the change I think the no homework policy and then
026the homework policy um is not smooth it wasn't smooth I don't think we um both sides ruled that out well and parents are saying that that's an issue um primary responsibility think I thought was interesting for making sure a child is supported to do their best in school parents took that on and the school took that on you see that question and I just found it interesting with students our age that not much was put on the students for that and it is just interesting to me and I don't know what we might do about that or whether we we what we know is our parents feel like it's their responsibility and ours um and so if we wanted to shift that we would have to do something in terms of Education um I found
027it really interesting that a huge percentage of people who answered the survey were people who identified as mothers um even though the majority of the people they were speaking for were their sons um and and I just wonder if there's a way we can get fathers to feel like they can be more equally involved in their kids' education maybe a survey is not being equally involved but it gave me pause um that it was a huge percentage of moms answering the survey or people identified as mom um and then alignment we I was put a star next to this even though alignment with policies in classes and Grading has improved we have a long way to go but the star for me was it was something given you know Council had passed some motions about
028this with classes that were similar it seems to have helped a little bit on the survey so maybe there's some traction there but we still have a long way to go um people mentioned in the comments that you can't see the kids on the sidelines um who might not feel as comfortable jumping in and I think we need to keep working on that how to get because we feel like we have a lot of things for a lot of people but then how to connect the people to the things we have to keep working on that we feel like we say it a lot but maybe it's not saying maybe it's dragging in a nice way or you know whatever that might be May making a requirement that you have to be part of some
029Club in your nth grade year or whatever it might be um and then the yahoos um if there were some were just in the comments there were some really nice things that people said and that felt really good so I want to try to figure out a way to share that with the staff without outing people um the respect with students and staff seemed high and vice versa on those questions and I think that's the place to start so if that's how we can deal with the rest of it um the grading piece improved like I said before Chromebooks seem to be doing the trick um in the comment section too but we just would want to drill down on um years and and what's going on there um and then just the nice once
030again the nice comments about variety of classes in the comments they talked about variety of offerings teachers commitment their child feeling cared for so those were nice things to see and then the comparison I think we kind of tried to highlight at the beginning in the first like third slide to sixth slide some of the changes between year to year Lord have any questions comments just a comment on those questions yeah um I'm also not a survey person yeah but there are a lot of questions about um how often have you visited how often have you had communication how well do you know your child's friends like it's not clear to me that there's a right answer to those questions like is it good or bad that you haven't visited the school right negative sign
031right so I'm wondering like but maybe parents have a value that they assign I've never visited and that's great or I've never visited and that's a terrible thing right so I wonder if there could be a follow on question to some of those or if it would be worthwhile more you know how do you feel about your response to this um so just comment but I don't know if that's a valuable thing just we it was interesting there's one difference in there too between not knowing your friends well and not knowing and it was interesting and I and so I think you know my next step would be to talk to our counselors and people who know more in that area to say like is that crucial is it not crucial like is that a
032is that a a piece that puts a kid at risk that their parents don't know who they're hanging out with or is it fine is it actually natural at this age right to sort of that because that's sliding down in terms of the number of parents who feel like they know their kids friends maybe that's great maybe that's not and I think you know I think we would go and do a little more digging to see if we should be concerned should we create parent nights where parents get to meet read whatever we got rid of that phone book that we don't send out the book that you know in Norwich we used to get it with here all the other parents and the kids because it was problematic we always got in trouble for
033somebody who didn't want their name in or parents were divorced and one was in one wasn't and then that became a big thing so we just forget it but like is that forget it causing people to know the their funds less and less and is that an issue right any other comments questions yeah and we I didn't have a chance to review these at all we pull this forward to another meeting yeah yeah August does that sound good that's our next meeting thank you anybody online so Julie if you want to maybe stay standing the next item is the handbook changes um and if you can just kind of help us for like the board's perspective know you know what our role is in reviewing the handbook that would be helpful as well in addition
034to the Chang so the handbook so you have the policy J something something right that talks about Council and Council being created and one of the balance the power pieces is that the handbook the school handbook needs to be approved by Council and and changes can't be made without both bodies Council and the administration um so when Council passes something as a handbook change the Administration has to either sign that or not if the administration doesn't it's not and say likewise if Council if we do something and Council needs to approve it also besides things like school starts at 8 right like there are things that we might change and if we changed it the school started at 7:55 we could make that change but we try really hard to notify but I'm putting to
035Ella and Linda we try to notify both bodies um and make sure everyone agrees that those are minor changes right I I don't know what your role is besides being aware of these changes and if there was something that you felt like violated State School Board whatever policy that we've done you would tell us nice try but that's state law or nothing right or that's something but otherwise it's just it's letting you know and then once you know we would just make sure it was put into the handbook so would you agree that yeah Council Zach I think um it's definitely about um making sure uh we always used to say there's big p and Little P in other words there's the policy that you all generate and then there's the little p policy in
036the handbook but that's not really true the policies in the handbook are just as legally binding as the other policies so something in the handbook definitely has consequences and it has to be accordingly approved by you and I think it has to also the language has to be something that the teachers can find actionable so you know there's there's learning and there's support and I just get credit to M too because she certainly helps us craft actionable language when maybe council's motion doesn't reflect that thank you for that clarification what I heard was I I heard the board also approves is what I absolutely I I do just want to say that it it is fully noted that the handbook changes are for discussion and I don't see it in as if someone wants to
037make a motion right but not requiring action tonight to approve is that something we should amend before we talk about I think it's up to you okay because that's you if you believe you need to approve it then you should approve it okay Linda don't Adams correct me if I'm wrong but I think every year we brought changes I don't always recall a formal vote being taken am I wrong about that it's more like bringing to attention but if I mean certainly that would make sense too like a headb I think that it's a because in other districts right we actually approve with a vote and so I and I know that Council has a yeah that's right council is aware that you are the final Authority there's no question in their minds that this
038happened so yeah J right I would say according to our existing policy the board certainly has the right to VTO or not approve so it might make sense for us to go ahead and make a motion to approve just to validate what they've already done so maybe when we get there maybe motion and someone feels compelled why don't I do this move to add an agenda item for decision the DFT in hand changes excellent do I hear a second all right I see Deb um and we are online so or any discussion H can we get the vote all so we have to go around horn yes oh chrisy yes sorry yes yes yes yes Nelson yes KY McConnell yes and Harman yes that's unanimous thank you Neil for that helpful Edition um so now
039moving then what the discussion of the handbook changes are be off again yes we there's do you want do you want me to go through each one or the highlights of each one do you want to just ask question problem I think if you go through the the highlights and then so um there's a tardies it's just changing a tardies motion although I have to let you know and I don't know if I've let Linda or Ella know yet um we still think this one isn't done but we tried to make it better make it um more we can follow through on it better but now I think we're leaning towards saying a is a tardy because the result is the same and we have an issue with a certain number of students whose parents
040excuse their tardies all the time and when they're late 10 minutes to class every day it's problematic so but right now it just made it so that the total number of tardies not per class and what to do with that and there's the AI one that's yeah when at the new language says they'll receive a schedule up for up to four days what is thing yeah so so there's um we used to have a schedule up we don't do it as much anymore but anytime they have free time during the day so at Hanover High School us be assumed assum that you will use your free time well till you don't um and so in this particular case you would all of your free time would have to be under the supervision of an adult
041so you couldn't sit in the library and do work you would probably have to sit in the classroom with a teacher who would sign off and say that you were doing it yeah then the AI is questions maybe we'll just do this one Neil um and I don't know if this is what you were thinking you might come back to it looked like it removed all notification to home would that change um is that intentional or no no because they are they are notifying home but we're talking yeah so I don't just I mean there was like two paragraphs replaced by one sentence and and so I wasn't sure if that meant that then the one sentence is about the days but the other stuff is still there yeah yeah oh an addition yeah and
042then right Lind yeah I I don't when when I talked to Mr Olsen about it it was clear that they were more focused on this part of of days and um and total number of classes all those support perod that was the piece um yes okay any other board members with comments have yeah you can help me out too all right I just have a question it's been a while since um the change was to go from 3 a warning at 3 to a schedule at 5 to a warning at 5 and a schedu at seven you said there was a part of that that was still up for discussion what oh so the part is it's excused T it's unexcused tardies and what we're noticing as Administration as a staff the part that we're
043feeling like next year we have to address is to maybe just call Tardy a tardy um because there are because we tend to in this District if a parent excuses their kid from school we say fine whereas like in Vermont an absence is an absence it doesn't really matter what right so um so there are some people who have like 20 tardies to their first period class 30 tardies to their first period class all excused by their parent their parent calls every day and to those teachers it's incredibly frustrating and for those kids they're missing the 5 to 10 minutes so we're thinking of just having some sort of policy that's that then motivates people to set the alarm a little earlier or get over the road maybe ride a bike instead or something like
044to come up with a strategy besides parent calling um and excusing and then it doesn't show up as a tardy so these are tardies for the students whose parents don't call and then there's some parent there's some students who are huge offenders whose parents call every day and then go oops didn't make it um and that and that's problematic as a school and problematic for those students so trying to figure out something else because we don't feel like what we have is for a certain segment of the population is working any other questions comments I I think it's a little confusing right now how these the old language and the new language yes work together or don't so I wonder if we should do you want me to we I would say it's confusing to
045me I'm going actually back and see what if you come up sorry I have also this wonderful device here um I was just going to check if you want to go on and I will see what Miss has put in the handbook because right now that's the definitive language um and if it's not there I agree we would need to get clarification on that would that be the board's pleasure at this point I I would say yes in that in other districts what tends to happen is we actually get the whole handbook With The Changes highlighted or struck out like very obvious way that would see the whole context of the whole thing and what exactly has changed because I this is very confusing as which I don't think was the int no that's a
046good plan all right we can do that next year or we can do that for August yeah okay I guess I would be interested in perhaps pushing this to August because the jcom recommendation motion is also not I I don't understand what the policy is and I don't understand what we're changing I would like to see everything in yeah yeah I don't know number four and if you want to look on the website our handbook is on the website too but we'll take that and we'll highlight the thing that the change yeah thank you yeah and schedule up is defined in the handbook elsewhere so feel up so that's yeah and I I know that Linda has a really good visual slide for the jcom changes and so I think that it's a really idea
047to take a back step and move forward okay so I guess I'm I'm kind of looking at the board based upon what I'm hearing is do we want to continue with just understanding kind of considering this is a first read and then the second read would be when it's the full document that we're familiar I hearing a yes so kind of keep keep going would like to sh all of this because I don't understand it in context and I don't feel like you need to stand here for half an hour and explain it to us and we could just read it and come back a I agree my one um suggestion for every board member is to read the cell phone policy even if you don't want to discuss it today I would read it
048ahead of the start of the next school year to be mindful of the changes that are taking and just just to Lily's point I don't know what the original one is like there's a lot of added paragraphs here but I didn't know which just amended right the change right so I I'm I'm seeing some differing opinions um so I don't know if we want to take a hear a motion or if we want to continue with this or or not Neil do you have any supportive uh I'm going to make one more recommendation and that is uh while previously I was almost certain that we had a policy that said that the board was required to approve handbook changes I cannot find it I I will add that during agenda for hand over last week
049this exact same conversation came up and my understanding from that meeting Jay that at least applicable to the race all school we do not approve it right it was a more of a any concerns about it rather than a strict approval so uh I might suggest that the chair maybe between now and the next meeting review whether or not there is board action that needs to be taken on these items to determine whether or not they need show up at a future meeting right which is what that's why I I had already done that and I did not know which is why I asked again at the beginning of this meeting I was almost certain that because previously we had had this discussion and I thought it was because we had a policy in the
050books um but in my search board do I cannot find that reference so I think I was see correct I I guess my question on the handbook um policy as we consider these over the summer is the cell phone policy uh a two-part question I'm sorry to do that that's okay one is this going to be a great surprise people and two is it going to uh list quite a reaction um so the handbook currently says that all cell phones will be turned off in class so this is maybe more lenient than what we have right um but what the social studies Department noticed was we don't all do the same thing and cell phone use has grown and everyone's reading articles about it and so they wanted to do United effort to try to
051try this and they tried it this spring so the students who take social studies which is the majority of our school have lived under this policy for social studies classes and then the leadership body of the school talked about rolling it out in all departments next year um and so I don't think it'll be a surprise in terms of students have tried it right it could be a surprise that it's in all classes potentially because I don't know how well we communicate with that um and in full disclosure um I've had a person approached me um to talk about as like as if this were a public health change right and that and talking to a public people who research that and should we um hold off till the semester do the research before and
052then do the whole policy afterwards and have a better data as to whether it's working or not but then also have Council leadership talk to me about it's better to start a school year with a new policy than start it in the middle of the year so like we're we're balancing those two things um right now uh but I people know that teachers are trying different things and right now all teachers based on the hbook would have the right to say everybody comeing in this classroom turn your phone off put the away right so it's not like this is stricter than something we already have whether we're following what we have in every classroom with every teacher is I would say almost certainly not ell can tell you how many teachers say turn off your
053phone put it in your backpack you're done are there any that do that there are a few it's not just social studies okay so some and then others people probably have them around right and then if I may I'm just one follow and I don't want to Bel something talk again yeah um but when you so I'll take a highle answer to this yeah I would observe in Vermont I am also not a surveyor or statistician yeah but it seems like when I was a younger person support animals were very rare yeah and now 93% of all dogs around our health centers are support animals yeah is it hey truly everybody has to put out their cell phone away or there are going to be exceptions to this or hey this is part of my
054individualized learning plan I can always have my cell phone like how poorest would enforcement I think that people with individualized learning plans that say that they can have their cell phone would almost certainly have them yeah um and everybody else would put them up except for the students that were clever enough to never get them out and not have a cell phone if they didn't want anyone touching their phone or having it in a basket or a shoe tree or whatever if it never showed up no one would have the reason to ask for it to be put in here yeah so I mean it's got it it depends I think in some classes though they use it um for you know certain things like cahoot and and different survey surveying a class they're using
055they're they're using it in the proper way and so I think a lot of teachers don't want to necessarily say shut it off completely they want to teach them how to use it for good in those classes good thank you yeah Ben uh thank you uh two parts one Kelly wanted to mention that she's received multiple emails asking people to remove cell phones entirely so she wanted to bring that out and also I'll mention that um this is also becoming more of an issue at Ray school as well in addition to just the high school and of course the middle school I'm sure has plenty of issues there too that it might not be a bad idea to have this be a discussion at the policy committee level I just to be fair I want
056to be really clear that I would not advocate for removing them entirely just in terms of it being problematic in terms of kids going to jobs after after school like needing their phones on their person at some time some kids have their you know I mean I know you could always make exceptions for some kids with some blood sugars read that way like there's just different pieces right about students having them so I at a high school level I could see maybe doing that at other levels but I I wouldn't advocate for that I think you know proper usage of it so she may have heard from a number of people but I think the administration at the high school is not aiming for that um even there may be some community members who are
057and also feel like that would be the outcry when you would tell all families that as your kid leaves school that there can't be a phone anywhere and that we're going to take care of 700 and whatever phones every day when they walk in the building and not lose them and then their kid who wants to the parent who wants to track the kid on the way home and make sure you don't crash the car like you know that's the we don't think we we want proper usage or usage that doesn't attract from their education not removal completely of of their device jar yeah I was I mean I guess when looking at this I'm a little confused like what's wrong with what's written here because I think we're at a point now where I
058mean my first meeting in this room was actually cell phone policy and I was a little bit flored to hear back in the day it was a it's gonna be too hard to enforce you know how can we do it like it's not worth my time but I mean it seems like the research now is so overwhelming I mean you read the articles I mean the executive that have created these phones that palel their class their classes haven't had cell phones for years I mean you look at the survey results where the kids are having a hard time focusing on CL on their studies at home I'm pretty sure their cell phones are probably right next to them because I watch our kids there's I mean the whole idea here is there's humans can't multitask
059I mean we do this with our own business like you can't be looking at your phone and listening to what's going on in this meeting it's impossible no matter how many people say I can multitask no kid can multitask like that so I'm a little it seems like this policy sets up very strict guidelines as far as when the kids can't have bones everyone's abiding by the same rules they're basically just saying you can't have them on you can't have them in your person during class so I'm a little bit confused what you know I know why there's a debate about what the policy says it seems to mean to make it's about time we don't know what the changes are so existing okay so and Neil I see your hand and El I'll get
060to it I like just kind of make a comment I think I think you know why we started with what is our our role I think is because I was I get maybe a bit expecting some of the feedback that I'm hearing that the board wants to make and I'm just trying to figure out the best way for that given that based upon at least my review it's unclear so either the process going forward is because I don't think we're going to find a magical policy that dos me do or don't um is you know we either make the policy that say we do or and I'm not trying to power rank these in any particular order but you know or we have more of a uh feedback process in Council because as these some
061of these or CPP or something or we say we we don't want to have this right that kind of a thing but I think when I hear that these are policy changes and that they are firm I mean that kind of Falls more into the board realm and so it's not surprising that board members would want to have a say in it um and so I just I'm just trying to figure out what is the best way to get the feedback and get with in our role in Dres in so I just um just wanted to to make that comment because I I think this might be a gray area right and I guess the the piece I would say is that maybe it's a misuse of policy um is these are the things we
062do every day is homework required do we have a late policy for like do we have a late policy for turning in work is that consistent with classes right like if the board would like to do that and all of that you're doing my job and you're doing C's job and I think that's where I think the procedures like you know cell phone procedures I guess what we should call it like I get that there's a word policy and the board's supposed to do policy but then like to say we can't create policies at a school level which we can change the word to procedure but like there are lots of policies at school like what's our tardy policy we could call it tardy procedure but like if the board's going to weigh in on
063all those things like You're basically doing my job or cpp's job and I don't think you want to do that um unless you want to spend every day all day and there's really not enough time for it even then right so that's why I'm highlighting that we're in this yeah gray area right um I think there right arguments and and preferences are probably range if we pulled everybody where we think we would draw that line so um I think G yes I mean so it seems like the discussion just SP to talking about the actually are we approving this or not approving this going forward sounds like there's no need if there's no need to approve it then I mean I think it's nice that we all get updated just like the principal updates on
064changes that the handbook areed because I think if there's a problem that the board sees for changes that then you could elevate it to a board issue but other than that I'm assume from here it's just like we've been advised or we' reviewed the changes unless someone has a big discussion or issue and which I thought we're going like oh this cell phone like we telling Julie that we actually don't like that as a board and she here but you want stricter other than that I think is doesn't it just seem like if there's no policy at Neil's point on approving this that you've all been updated on this and we move on although it's bad like you don't know what the updates are because we didn't present them point I guess August provide changes
065other than that it's still a discussion about just looking at the changes and making the board aware of the changes but we're not approving the changes because at the end of the day this is the handbook that you're responsible for is yeah M so I just want to be clear um I definitely don't want to do your job you are very good at it I'm qualified to do it um when I think about issues like this I'm typically thinking of three things one the board manages one team member and so it's it's our job to figure out like whether we think the leadership is on the right track the wrong track uh two we want to be aware because we don't want to be surprised by stuff at the co-op or aners in baseball field
066and three we we want to at least in my opinion we want to support you on tough stuff right and so to the extent there blowback about something we can say yeah you know what the professionals have put time and effort into this and it's thoughtful and this is why this is being done and you know you're you're the parent of students not educational consumers right and this is our best judgment and so that that's only I definitely don't want to wait into micromanagement policy I just think at that high level that's where I'm trying to get as the board member yeah yeah so maybe to follow up on I mean all of these are good points right and I think there was some confusion tonight when we talk about policy were we talking about
067policy at the school level versus policy at the board level um I will say though like so for example this past session in the Vermont legislature there were there were bills being considered as to whether or not school boards should have policy on cell phones and so I do think that there are occasions where what you might consider to be your local responsibility because of the times and generation it gets elevated to a level Beyond just the the principle at the school I don't know if this is one of those issues I think that the board might benefit from a little bit of additional discussion around this because I think there are a couple of ways you could go to Michael's last point I think there there could be benefit for a board level policy
068on this so that you could say this is the policy period at the end of the sentence there is no appealing this right if you got a problem with this you go to the board um alternatively the board could say well we do have a policy on this and the policy is that each school is required to have a procedure on how to handle cellones that's the policy right so there's a lot of different ways that we could handle this and I think what I'm hearing tonight is that there might be a need for just a little bit more board discussion to figure out what's the path that we want to take forward on this one Tony I don't know the appropriate uh procedural approach to this but I would suggest we move on we
069put this on the agenda the handbook changes to the handbook as it discussion item for August if we need to move it to a action item because something turns up that we do we do but we just put it on for discussion a handbook with revisions draft handbook with revisions on the August agenda do I sorry okay maybe just do I hear do I see head bubbles for continuing is sorry continuing discussion is a yes and stopping is a no basically moving on can I just okay I was trying trying to get a quick read okay just a quick question I agree with that I just want to make sure that gives you enough time to get the handbook in the hands of what when do you distribute it well because it's on the website
070now we don't distribute paper okay okay thank you I just don't want to make your job harder I mean moving to August as a policy Committee Member I would just say to Neil's Point like Ryan's role is to be reviewing that changes to state laws making sure that anything that is a needs to be a policy or is recommended as a policy goes through policy so if there's a state if there's a cell phone policy that's passed at the state legislation that would come down through the policy but outside of that I think we kind of keep this like in two lanes that's my just okay that's how that's what Ryan does okay I I hear we're at um item e um a resolution then kelly didn't have anything to say um okay so um
071Deb and Neil I understand you got together and um would you like to introduce what you were proposing for the board sure as as I think people know August one is the deadline for presenting a resolution to the new School Board Association for consideration in the fall assembly and voting and because this issue was spoken to so poignantly by two different parents at our last board meeting Neil and I thought it made sense to try to put together a statement that could be brought forward in time for the August deadline um and it would be something that I'd submit and we have plenty of time and it is pretty straightforward I think if everybody saw the whereases um and there is it's not clear what is happening in the state of New Hampshire there are
072four bills they're not yet on the governor's desk I thought they were once they get to his desk we have six days to sign or not sign them but I think it's fair to say some of these issues around students and their participation in sports and curriculum etc etc but they're not over with whatever does or doesn't happen and other school boards May well find this is something they appreciate and support so there it is for you yeah I would just add so yeah worked with Dev on this I mean I think so it um partly prompted by a couple of um speakers that we had at our last Dresden meeting um you know reviewing the policies that we have in place in Dresden we've already got yes this covered I didn't see that there
073was a need to reiterate what we had already passed policy on our policy covers you know anti-discrimination um even based on gender identity as far as you know bathroom use locker room use Sports participation it's all in there so we I felt like as a d as a district Dres in was adequately covered and and I will an no to council a lot of that policy came straight from work that the council had done um so it wasn't something that was sort of developed in isolation on the board um what I thought was the benefit though was to get this more at the state level and to do that by bringing forward a proposal for a resolution um with the nhba and then using this opportunity as our last opportunity before the deadline to have
074this board consider for for possible submission thanks any comments questions from the board Tony I support the resolution and also note that we heard athletic director that this would affect a relatively large number of athletes or so um so I love this thank you for doing this thank you for your work on this I love that you're presenting it in pride month it's great um I have a question do you need a title for the proposed nhsda resolution just I don't believe they're titled okay no number maybe or something I well you know what if they need numbers I can add numbers well of course I was just wondering if there would be a title that would bring transgender in like the naming of it yeah but I don't think so so that the way
075that this works is that all of the resolutions go to nhsp they get numbered just based on and so would be a resolution from The Dresden School District the all of the whereas stuff gets stripped out if the resolution is approved and the only language that remains is the therefore be it resolved piece I see so that's the only thing that would end up being on the books at nsba if it were to pass but all of this would be um remind me folks how word smiy do we get um at this level like is this the exact language matters hyphens all that sort of thing or is that a that could be resolved later do you have specific comments You' like to yeah that Lev but there's a couple I think I think if
076we were to approve it tonight I think this would be the final okay um I I think grar could be yeah I mean I would say Ken you could certainly pass the resolution um you know acknowledging changes to to grammar and punctuation are allowed after the fact to okay you know clean it up if you're going to substantially change the meaning of it then I would think yes we want this body to approve but yeah after that so given that I guess my other question is again like Marcel fully endorsed the the concept but for the therefore be resolve part that affirms the rights of all students to [Music] schooling um is that what we mean I'm guess looking [Music] um write that I did write it and that is what I meant I I
077I think I I spent a little bit of time thinking whether or I wanted to put public schooling in there and decided to leave the public piece out I guess I I guess I guess the aim is is tripping me up like do we mean like the firms of Rights all students to participate fully in school events rather than schooling I guess and maybe that's there's a Nuance there that I'm missing yeah I I chose to leave it more broad because I didn't I was trying to to to not make this anti-discrimination stuff Focus solely on the participation in activities namely Sports and that it was in my mind it was broader than that it applied to the students experience at school okay I think if we just add a comma after I think that
078would help me with the after school after the after the word schooling eusey I think I or education in or education in schools if you want it to be about like the physical Place education in schools sorry it's okay um just to clarify if you approve this this would be just a statement saying that Handover High School supports this idea and then where where would this go oh great question yeah so actually St to here Dron and Handover school districts both participate in the annual meeting of the New Hampshire School Board Association and so Representatives come from schools all over the state and ahead of time all the resolutions have been shared with the member schools so that theoretically the person like me comes to the board board and says these are the eight resolutions
079that are before us how would you like me to vote and so we have a meeting in the fall where I will be really surprised if Dresden and Hanover don't support this particular resolution and then we have a meeting and the school district that has sponsored the resolution their representative stands up and speaks to the resolution and then the body votes on it does that answer answer your question yes it does and I'm sorry about all the clarifying questions I promise you somebody has the same question any other comments anybody from the public so can I just do you want me to change it to education in schools Comm or could we just say education because it's also education outside of schools which is sort of the whole point of that phrase including activities because
080a lot of activities are in conquer it's what's the sentiment of the Lisa can you say what your proposal was one more time yeah I just was wondering if instead of using the word schooling we just use the word education comma including participation um because it feels like for me the word schooling means that I'm I'm repriming you I mean maybe it's it's it's the southern me I'm like you know when you got schooled you were you were reprimanded and so I Texas and Tennessee were both like yeah I don't want to be schooling I don't want to be schooled I don't want to be schooling but I would love to be educated and um and saying education in schools to me kind of negates that including participation in school-based or sponsored activities because you
081know like the the track meet was held on Sunday in conquered and I would want that to be included so so to clarify yes so can we say that affirms the rights of all students to participate in school-based well no just say do education instead ofing that was that would be my proposal is to take the word schooling and replace it with education but I'm not wed to that I just schooling sort of got my heart going in the wrong direction I I would um recommend it reading rights the rights of all students to participate School based or sponsored activities free of discrimination on the basis of gender and identity and just get rid of that schooling including but this now talks about school-based activities does it skirt The Learning in the classroom it also
082doesn't specifically mention Sports which I thought was one of those specific intents like the where as does but now if I if I understand correctly Neil for the actual resolution that would disappear here right correct okay and and there was a reason why I did it that way um to to um because I I was trying to avoid discussion at the nhsda delegate assembly where the focus was purely on Sports Tony okay I'm propose a modification that affirms the rights of all students to participate in education and school-based or sponsor activities for educational extracurricular in there you know like school-based curricular and extracurricular activities or something like that not mentioning sports but just clarifying it that I would imagine some would say education stops at 220 or whatever the time school lets out here you
083know you know what I mean and make sports are not education they're an extra curricular activity by Design if it was education it be curricular sorry but now I'm getting focused on the school based because if we're talking about the physical plan activities of the physical plant like we have non-affiliated organizations that use the school I don't know what their policies are I don't know if we're trying to limit their activities um because they're happening the school plan or if we're only talking about school sponsored District or District sponsored District education or sponsored very entertaining yes what I'm going to say is it was late when I developed it I will not oppose any reasonable motion for modification to this resolution go at it thank you NE thank you very I'm taking notes but I
084still don't know what the end sentence is going to say how okay this is what I have right now affirms the rights of all students to participate in education and we could either have school-based or just go in education and curricular or extracurricular activities comma free of discrimination on the basis of gender identity just the only thing is we call our extracurricular what was extracurricular when I was a kid yeah co-curricular yeah curricular is there a hyphen yeah yes thank you okay so that affirms the rights of all students to participate in education and curricular or co-curricular activities free of discrimination on the B of gender identity I is it that and can you just write including yes the the in participating education including yes extracurricular okay School curricular curricul School sponsored all the curs
085okay one more time I'm glad the English students to participate in wait let me read it back to you that affirms the rights of all students to participate in education including School sponsored curcular or co-curricular activities free of discrimination on the basis of gender identity can you change the or to an a that's not what youate that's El no and that might sound like a winner and you want to read it back find the or for a minute I thought where's the or okay affirms the rights stop that affirms the rights of all students to participate in education including School sponsored curricular and co-curricular activities free of discrimination on the basis of gender identity so help me God all right amen so if anybody wants to make a motion later late later in the agenda
086yes just as amended yes keep your notes yeah got oh in ink all right thank you so and nothing still from the public just make sure clarifier do we have I don't see resolution as a business pring action to add that to the agenda all right do I hear a second that all right all right we have to individually add that to the agenda Neil would you like a motion was made to add approving this resolution to the agenda tonight and we're gonna vote Neil how would you vote adding it agenda oh yes sorry yes chrisy yes yes yes ke yes Nelson yes Kelly do you want to add it McConnell yes yes okay so now it's added to the agenda um but we are going to move on okay okay um so the Dresden
087goal discussion um so this was um you know in part um fueled by our strategic plan this is um on our topic agenda template to make sure we set goals and this was also based upon feedback from our priorities discussion during the The Retreat and so this is um a draft and if we feel although based upon our last agenda item U if we feel like this is um something we want to approve tonight we obviously can but if we feel like we need to have more of a discussion we can move it to the next um meeting so just with um but hopefully this at least gets most of what we're we're trying to accomplish as a board this year and so I'll just um just kind of maybe go one by one um
088and read them off because I don't know if everyone um can see it at home um and so one our draft goals for the next year would be by June 2025 adopt sau70 strategic plan goals into implementation plan for Dresden which includes RMS Hanover High School and districtwide and that includes an outcome reporting system um so if you recall that's essentially what we've been talking about doing we have kind of more internal or deadlines that are in September um for more of that kind of converting it from SAU but then there's also that um outcome reporting system and so basically by the end of next year hopefully that that will be our goal that's the place that we're in for an implementation plan and embedded in that goal is actually a lot of goals and
089so they were so the rest of these goals are trying to not be redundant to the other goals that are embedded in that but if something is a note or it didn't really fall into those strategic L goals that's where you get kind of the two through six um and so um kind of moving on I just want to summarize and then um the second is by June 2025 adopt a revised curriculum policy that clarifies for statutory role in curriculum review and approval um clarifying this role is identified in our priorities Retreat and so that's kind of where that comes from and we um um would be likely approving a a policy in that respect number three would be charge athletic advisory committee to develop proposal for a middle school sports program managed at least
090in part by Dresden and make recommendations for a board decision by January 2025 that would be before the budget this version of this board um talked about last year um basically we looked kind of at a back of the envelope budget of what a middle school sports program would be based on kind of head nods on that discussion there seemed to be an appetite if we were to put something formally into the budget that we would need to have a plan process and this is kind of the outline and a draft of maybe who might make that committee um and so just because Tim also sits on our RMS principal sits on the athletic advisory committee as does our H for High School uh athletic director and others it just kind of felt like that
091might have been the best committee to charge with that task um for and then uh kind of just GNA go along and then we can kind of go back if we need to there any questions or comments for um by January 2025 address the renewal of the lime uh School District tuition contract which expires in June 2025 um that's just also kind of a heads up for us that you know we have agreements with other districts and that this is something that um we have and that specifically there are some deadlines in the current contract that we just need to be aware of um for our action this year and then January 2025 we reach a tenative agreement with the two labor unions um we have two this year uh support staff and service staff
092and that the contracts are competitive and sustainable and six um by December 2024 we develop a process for engagement with state legislator on legis that impacts our local school community and operations um this was one of the top priorities discussed at the um at the sau70 board retreat I do acknowled I wanted I didn't want to ignore it but I also acknowledge that maybe if we wanted to approve this as an sau70 goal that that might be a better place for that but didn't want to leave a hanging chat out there so um okay so I hope hope you had a chance to take a look at these and have some feedback um if you feel like need to have a first reading and do a second reading in August um happy to do that
093um but also if we don't need to do that I'm also very happy to not have another agenda item so Neil uh we'd be happy to approve these tonight but I also have a request if this body could consider I'd like to add another goal and that is to um uh so members are probably keenly aware right we've got some changes coming to funding formula in Vermont that could dramatically um yes change the tax rate situation um one of the things that we talked briefly about at the retreat was um possibly spinning up add dressing committee to take a look at um adding affordable housing to J fields and I would like this body to consider spinning up a committee to do some of that investigative work any comments on that specifically and then kind
094of move to other comments I thought you could you clarify I'm sorry a committee a Dres in committee to consider dresden's development of affordable housing so yeah Dresden Dresden is the district that own that property specifically y so it's it's Dr in District owned property in Norwich um you know one of the things that that I we're looking at is one of the things that we can change one of the one of the key um uh calculations that drive tax rate is spending per pupil right and if we can change the number of pupils in that equation by possibly adding affordable housing in Norwich to you know increase the the student stock um you know it could be a benefit to the tax rate um and in case anybody's on the fence about doing this
095um I am willing to uh chair the committee if so inclined by this board sorry I'd be willing to join that committee we know you all work so well um I agree with the council to having a committee but I would want to and I don't disagree with Neil's point in fact I agree with it but I I think I want the goal to be to have the committee decide what to do with that land rather than having an idea of what ftiri ABS were already made to form the committee you know what I mean so instead of having a committee to put affordable housing on it's more the committee decide what to do with that land that we own yeah and this board can charge that committee with whatever charge it wants to I
096do know that that's been a concern of the past right so if we use it for one thing that we can't use it for something else so you know what are the tradeoffs basically it's sort of like a feasibility study like you know what could it look like if we did it how could it go what would we be giving up what could we gain you know all of that any other any other comments on that particular proposal okay um then moving on to any other goals to add or amend the the proposed ones yeah Lisa um just since we've added something to take something off I think number six should be saou um just to have better coordination between what Vermont and New Hampshire would be doing although now I'm a little bit worried
097that I saw Devon Neil as that committee um so if they're also caring to dress and field committee I'm a little worried they're going to be overworked but um we can worry about that later so I just would propose that number six be an sa level board and then just wanted to point out that the athletic advisory committee is sort of defunct right now and and it seems to basically be Garrett um from at least the board level plus I think Tim and um Megan right um so if this would be a charge I just would want to have more participation on that committee so Michael just quickly I guess my question I made for is when I read goal number three I see the word develop it should that really be update or resubmit
098I feel like the proposal was developed may maybe that was prior to my time on the board but I just would hate to think they're starting at I question we had a number of meetings GA just kind of discussing and Gathering data that I put together for slides which sent to there was no to be clear there was no like proposal or budget or it was just all the data that we collected from surrounding towns and facilities and okay other people that came over with us so a different way if I may to ask that question is you think it would take six months to develop a proposal or would the previous work be able to be leveraged quite quickly in your proposal I mean January 2025 that's not too far away and and I
099if I can add the reason why and we discussed two in January 2020 if I WR we could add it to the budget and that's kind of the budget deadline if we wanted to make its own warrant article even we could still do that you know there's there options but past January it's harder and now we're really talking might as well be you know sharing my my um having worked in public policy for years processing something to death is something that happens all the time and so just worried with things like affordable housing and Middle School athletics like you know need to process it to death or have a proposal and you voted C or down thank thanks and and just before I get um Neil if you could uh while we're discussing perhaps um
100take a shot at drafting what oh no six goal would be so we don't all get together um that would be helpful so um I think I saw withdrawn okay I'll take it and and I want to hear what Jamie has to say after um my schel but speaking of the athletic one I would like to shift it to Middle School co-curriculars rather than just Sports which we talked about a few times um and then since we struck one I'd like to strike another for the union one because that's uh it has to happen it's going to happen regardless of whether there's goals or not so I think just removing that entirely is a good idea yeah all right see some mods for removing five removing six and adding a new five potentially Lisa I
101don't know if I'm advocating for this but I have a question um is this the time to make a goal about this sixth grade from Norwich coming over and to have somebody really look at the feasibility of that like is it time to move had we were feeling that should be a conversation the norch board first yeah I that's yeah yeah I mean like if you know because sixth grade you know basically if Dresden is not responsible for Norwich sixth graders right and so setting a Norwich sixth grade goal is a bit um you know pres yeah so so basically I mean it was it was basically encouraging if Norwich wants to set a goal or create a vote or or something to support then it makes it having a Dres specific go easier I
102don't disagree with that but I remember lots of conversations at the Dresden level about when the sixth grade at Ray School financing got switched it wasn't it was h i mean I'm assuming you guys were having the conversations at the hanb board but we talked about it a lot here so I just I don't want to miss it affects both boards and I don't want to miss that I like I I guess would hesitate having just Norwich look at it and then that feels like it might delay it again if we're not having simultaneous conversations with the dressing level I don't know whether that's true or not that is just a fear that I am expressing so I think I saw Michael first but then it seems to me that it makes sense for the
103norch board if they wanted to pass something that said we want students to go to Dresden then Dresden would take up the issue but first Norwich has to decide that that is norwich's desire I think I'm not disagreeing with that I just don't want it to be lost and delay that's up to nor I think we could probably you def so guess I'll go back to you right yeah I would say um just one two separate quick comments one with um going from Sports to all code and going from affordable housing to any possible usages of the field yous like scope creep and so I have concerns about that right I'm not sure I would support a broad of it but that's that's why we build as board members um as far as the sixth
104grade whether in my view whether Norwich residents would support moving sixth grade from MCS over to the Middle School the te details of that would matter and so I would want to know whether our colleagues are asking us to come up with a proposal for exactly how much it would work and how it would cost or whether you're looking for a resolution of support to ask the Dron school board or sa70 board to develop a proposal collaboratively because one seems more feable than the other there was a lot of discussion here and I know that I got enthusiastic about it because I believe unless I'm Mis remembering it there was a b of the actions of the board 20 years ago to finance the school should tie the hands of the school board now and
105I just vigorously disagree with that um and so we can cross that bridge later but I want to know exactly what level of action my colleagues would want the nor School Board to take on this I guess seeing no other hands car but I did not expect Garrett to answer that question he's been having a comment for a while I guess my comment on this and maybe you know Echo Neil's prob the bubble over Neil's head is is that given the financial situation of I personally thought that based on what the result of what we learned about how much it would cost to move if those numbers were real I mean it was over a million dollars I mean that study was comes yeah I me maybe those aren't real numbers but I guess when
106I heard those numbers I kind of thought that personally like it's sett a law like let's move on right now like we've got bigger fish to fry than TR I mean and then and then I heard um from what's your name the um who's the hand Ally who's the one that comes in all time the finance person yeah um sorry k um but Ki was tell you know we she gave us the whole history on the fact that the middle school is financed unequally by the town's years so we had all that history to unpack um and then again I think and then the fact that I think Tim had gone through quite a study and it wasn't just yes the school can hold it but it's not that simple just saying well we can
107just add 100 you know 40 kids to the building it would mean that we have to actually do these additions but I mean maybe it is a committee to actually understand if that one and a half million number is true I I guess there that the question we actually I thought that the analysis was done the number was huge and I personally thought that we had moved on from it kind of saying like where ver mon is and norch is right now there's no way that norch is going to be coming up with a million dollars to put an addition on the middle school so we can send our sixth graders there I don't know that's just my opinion really I think in the end this is going to come down to a vote in
108right meting day but I personally would love to see an actual report and concrete numbers so I know what we're dealing with a million and a half may be out of our ballpark for now but maybe in five years someone else can put that to good use and actually Implement them right I can the legisl will you know get it act together p and I also would want is part of that report to be like what are the costs benefits as there were when we changed the race School financing of the sixth grade like it feels as if I mean if there aren't any benefits then there's no reason to do it but listen there's clearly benefits the problem is is when it comes down to the numbers it seem to be so astronomical that
109there can be no benefit at least in my mind but again it can be a combining the S graders for all the benefits for over a million dollars like good but where did that number come from so we can talk about that and have a committee that does a little bit more analysis on okay you really have to build build it out it's only 40 kids I mean again I guess ly Tim or someone does take this thr away thought someone had done this work and I was kind of like okay we're done okay I do hear from all the teachers even sorry even over at the seventh grade think last week I mean every teacher told me like it's time for the kids to move to RMS it's time right like there is that
110need is just cost a lot of money Tony I guess I I haven't there's been a lot of big talk about what would it mean for norch to move here to RMS um but I haven't heard that the norch board has made a decision as a board that they would like cost you know being no barrier but there there is in principle a desire by the board as the board to move their students to RMS and I think if there if there has been you know I don't know it but if there is then I think it's appropriate for them Dres to take it up and say what are the possibilities and then nor which would have to decide like what they want to spend or what the possibilities are the options for moving it
111does it require another floor could it be done in the existing plant how much would it cost all the proposers would be for dress or I don't maybe to take up but that the first step it seems to me is for Norwich as a board to say we want this to happen if there's a feasible plan so Dresden could you develop you know could we work to get on Dresden to develop options and costs sorry it's a short circuit I mean think we can have this vote at the next nor meeting tomor tomor tomorrow I think question I do think like at least listening to the teachers it's pretty much that everyone has come to the conclusion over there that like the answer is yes let's get the MCS to RMS which is what was
112led what led to that at least the initial analysis that came back with that very big number so I mean we can do that and put it forward but I'm just telling you I'm pretty sure it's not even going to be really as the chair at least I think we can the five of us can say yes but I think it's really what we're hearing from all the administrators frankly and the teachers that it's pretty much and parents it's been long yeah and the kids I'll keep myself in 20 seconds long um I really appreciate the constructive feedback yeah we can do that yeah um when we do do that I guess the two questions for people that work on these but we don't need to talk about tonight I'd love if you're going to
113do a building project how we'd ideally like to do it versus how we could do it um and then I'm respectful of the free rider problem that Ki brought up that time which is it was paraphrasing um hey that sixth grade addition was paid for by Handover and it would be unfair if you got to leverage the benefits of that without paying in um I don't happen to agree with that but I'm respectful of it would want to hear more but I'd want us to have a straightforward conversation that like if that's really the obstacle let's just talk about it so those would be the two things got sured last time I think we'd have to address gly as a board and and I I think sorry I would want to add to that I
114would want to hear from the Hann of the board if you all are receptive to the new because if you're not yeah save then then it would save us a lot trouble to hear that right up front that you know and to hear from the Middle School teachers as well um which I don't think I've heard from as I've heard from the MCS teachers but not the Middle School teachers on this question so it doesn't make sense really for us to do any extra any work on this if it's not something that are the the Handover really we're sitting we're sitting on this side that well but I mean the the Handover board members of the like if the five of us come we are five members of the dresen board and if we say
115we would like to do this then yes it would be the Handover portion of the dresen board saying that this is something you would be receptive to so integrate seating next time yeah we do need to I just was sort of like wow this is really weird ab ABAB yeah something like that so Jamie I noticed that you do you want to say something I'm being respectful of the conversation but yes I just wanted to point out that we did have a presentation done on from November 29th and it was done during the December meeting meeting that did give a projection of cost for Middle School Sports Programming that Tim and yes somebody else spoke to that night Alysa thank you Anissa Ana sorry Alissa board um so so we did have a it was
116a very quick yeah quickly done dis although they put a lot of work into it but I mean it would have to be taken further but that's a starting point for the committee that had meetings before that so you did see something it happened to be part of the budget discussion on that December that's all any other comments on the goals another procedural question if we go tomorrow night and say that we want to you know I think it's be tomorrow night we okay meeting have to do it at the beginning of the meeting want to do it in advance we don't need to make it like decide whether that's gonna we could always bring that up later in the year if we want to have some sort of report for in depth discuss I
117think if the board votes and everything passes anything can happen right so um yeah I think the the motion could just be a feasibility or empowering the administration and the board to do all things necessary to come up with a recommendation [Music] something um so seeing none then um I'm going to move and looking at Jamie but Jamie I'm gonna try to shorten this I can not to disrespect the work in fact I might just based on my but um so essentially this is you know financial report and audit update and I think the main two takeaways are one it's looking like as far as an audit update that the prior Year's audit right which was in Pro progress it looks like it's going to be completed at the end of this month is what
118it looks like as far as and a draft is included in that um once the final audit happens then I'm sure we can have we'll email it to you and post it and then we'll disc discuss the governance letter at our next normal meeting right but it's it's great that we have now kind of a timeline for for that and there's a draft you can kind of clearly see the good work that's being done um and then the second point is the Surplus projection um which if you kind of look down it's looking like we're going to have an unassigned Surplus as of right now for this Academic Year right of around 400 $449,450 rection um which would be the takeaway from that would be that would be adding to our retainage which um our
119retainage had been lower than what we could have saved and retainage is essentially you know the Layman version of your emergency fund that we have in Dresden and so um I personally think it's helpful that we are adding about $180,000 to that if that's what we choose to do because as a board we did vote on retainage each year and we usually will do that in October but this kind of gives us some insight on how how much we would be um voting come October so um that was my my quick update and hopefully that um does anybody have any comments questions Jamie feel free but just a quick one that we will do we're in the process now of going through all the different lines because we're actually starting now to get ready for
120the next year's audit instead of behind the frame we're going to get in front of the frame and so when we finalize the projection um in August and I come back with it once we closed all the books um we'll have a written discussion of why some of the differences exist in the different line items um there's there's varying reasons uh specifically in the salaries and benefits and the transportation you know some of the decisions that we made and some changes in personnel and long-term um substitutes for folks who had uh out on leave of absences okay but we'll write that all up like you normally used to see any other questions comments okay all right um then moving on to business requiring action um we have here although I probably should refresh yeah I
121will refresh um if we all refresh we're gonna probably up so do I hear um did you not want Neil to rewrite the one goal the one Dr goal um that he was suggesting an addon yeah yeah we'll we'll vote that separately so it won't be part of the consent okay um and we'll probably have a discussion okay that you choose to do that so I would just point out to everyone that the consent item includes includes the resolution and not the goals corre correct so if you want to and so would the resolution be as amended then yes okay okay uh move to approve the items B through f as amended by consent second by De um and as any discussion great I will note just that there we are are also in this
122vote authorizing the superintendent to approve hires over the summer for great efficiency so thank you and to the notaker that Marcel deasi has left the meeting and will not be building thank you Ben um okay all those in Orit we have to go individually um let's start dead Nelson yes bar yes key yes Harman yes yes Tran yes Christie yes yes KY McConnell yesman yes okay and do I hear another motion for our goals yes NE move to approve the dressing goals as presented tonight um remove moving goal number six and adding a new goal number six which is to establish a committee to investigate the potential of establishing affordable housing on Jen Fields with a report on the feasibility presented to the Dron school board by June of 2025 do I hear a second
123don't I have discussion okay all seconds we can get to LY seconds and Tony discussion I thought well there had been a proposal to remove five as it's required I wonder you would would you like to make a friendly Amendment or would you like to pass on the uh um uh if somebody wants to amend it they can it's okay like uh you can talk to your well you can talk to your student counsel rep but I like I don't this really this concept of a friendly Amendment but if Tony would like to make an amendment that we also remove item number five from the goals I would be willing to second that would you like to make an amendment is on the table so I don't I think no mine is a motion yeah
124motion amendments go first okay I do know that part but tell I would move to amend the motion to also remove current goal number five from the goals I'll second that second that okay so we're gonna first vote on [Music] the how about let's go one at time well no um sorry we we vote we're voting on the amendment you vote on the amendment first so we're going to vote on the amendment which is take Neil's plus well the amendment is to just remove number five just just to remove number five from okay thank you um okay so all those in favor who would like to remove number five we're gonna go individually chrisy yes yes yes ke yes bar yes Nelson yes Kelly McConnell yes yes okay that is unanimous that five is now
125removed and now we go back to the original motion so now you're voting on the motion as amended now we're voting as the motion as amended which means that we will so includes the removal of number six the removal of number five and the addition of the new number six new number five or the new number five addition okay okay no so well if you you want to make another amendment you need to make that motion now before we trying to do okay so I'm making a motion now I think a motion to amend just need to make yeah okay yeah yeah I make a motion to amend that current number three regarding Athletics be expanded to middle school co-curricular activities in general second dad second um any discussion I'm wondering what we currently have
126co-curricular programs and I know part of The Proposal was that the a new athletic director be a co-curricular director but it seems like that kind of change would be incorporated within this so I'm wondering what the thought is of expanding it to co So based on my memory I had thought that there was General board approval for the idea that it's not just about sports although it certainly includes Sports and I for one but like it to be more than just sports but again not saying no Sports yeah I would not be in favor of that if the body doing this is the athletic advisory committee I would also advise that that committee itself be R be retitled I'm just going to respond to that so uh I just want to let folks know the
127Dresden athletic advisory committee is the only committee that's set out in our policy which means it's a required committee we can't get rid of it Tony um just to consider my position I don't know right now I don't see the need for the co-curricular to to expand it and I I'm looking for um some what the need is for a committee to address Co broader more than athletic activities at the middle school so Michael's question after all of our work that we did at the dress athletic committee um it was very clear that at the middle school level that this position should handle both Athletics as well as co-curriculars to take that out of the currently you know a the administration because this is basically going to handle everything both from an equity standpoint as
128well it's just needed listening to the administration over there that this is something that is lacking and it's which really worked out well for the other middle schools that we spoke to Tony I was on the advisor committee and I understand that the the recommendation or what we had discussed was this could be a co-curricular director who would oversee both but I think the position a recommendation about a POS creation of a position could be en could be dealt with with the current agenda item and to address like what should all activities be at the middle school because there already are activities of the middle school non-athletic activities sponsored by the Middle School um I I don't know what the purpose of I don't understand what the purpose of a co-curricular committee would be beyond
129the athletic activities like what would be looking what would be the reason or Focus given that there are currently non-athletic co-curricular activities at the middle school why would we be addressing it and that's a question I my comment to agree we probably don't need to be studying co-curriculars we definitely stud the Athletics and whether or not the person that runs this does both of them is a different question so um I'm gonna try to try to help um so I acknowledge that you know the first goal of these is to implement our strategic plan goals of which includes a co-curricular pillar which has goals within it that are also and what I'm hearing is um or at least what I recall hearing from whyw we want to broaden the scope um would be to kind
130of address inequity is not the right word but just kind of like have a a fair balance of after school offerings um and I I believe that some of those goals are in goal number one um we have separately kind of promised I I kind of felt and maybe this is formalizing in a a discussion specifically about Middle School sports and we have a policy mandated committee that looks at sports um you know to develop that kind of goal I will also add that specifically the town of Handover has said that they do not want to do Middle School sports and that they will do it for one more year and would like to jettison it after that so if if we're having a burning platform over a particular item not only did this board
131discuss Middle School sports and said we need to look at this more thoroughly but then we also have this outside force that is currently offering a service that hopefully will continue but you know I just want to acknowledge that there's a reason why Middle School sports program is managed now if this committee comes together and says hey we need here's the proposal we need an FTE but guess what only point4 of the FTE could be dedicated to sports and the other parts could be dedicated to other activities maybe that's something that the committee could discuss but as far as kind of why we wanted to specifically say Middle School sports was that one it it may not have been clarified in point one and two you know we had discussed this specifically you know last
132year and um we did not take a vote which is also why it's it's here so I I'm kind of hoping that kind of addresses where some of the concerns are I think um just because we can do lots of things but some things have to go first or some things there's an order of things and so um just because we do one thing doesn't mean that we will never do something else um you know and also getting the right people on the bus to have those discussions is also important and so I just for all those reasons I I do not support um specifically calling out the co-curricular at this time um but I also acknowledge that there is discussion in that in the Strategic plan goals point. one all right um so we
133were at a discussion of the amendment so now we need to vote on the on Ben's amendment I too new at this but sorry so we have so can I hear so a motion yes is approving my suggestion a yes is approving your suggestion which specifically would be basically Del leading Middle School sports and writing Co a curricular prr not saying no Sports replacing replacing I me like physically editing the statement I think de did second and that's why we were at discussion and now we're onto that motion okay all right everyone's on the same page great um Neil no Lisa um Christie no tman no no K yes lry no Nelson no Kelly no not for right now very strong okay so that that Amendment fails and now we move on to the amended
134motion which is Tony's uh original Amendment um and so do we have any more discussion on that okay seeing none we've already had a second so now we're g to vote okay de how do you vote oh wait this this is on including includes the two strikeouts and Neil's thank you thank you um Nelson yes bar yes Keeny yes Costa yes trond yes Christie yes yes yes Kelly sorry y'all I'm actually ironically at the middle school track meet right now and I missed this discussion that piece I'm gonna abstain okay Kelly will abstain and um frankly I'm barely holding on where we are so good luck from joining via phone and hard in is a yes okay thank thank you all um I appreciate that um okay so the next item is report of the
135chair um I I really don't have anything to report but thank you very much for hanging with me tonight um the the committee reports um Deb I believe um you were the only one of intended committee anything to report well I was at student council's most recent meeting but Ella reported on the elections so yeah we're sad thank you anything else that we might have missed um moving on then to the superintendent report and would like to my report is attached for your review if anyone has any questions that's fine I will hit one highlight I had the just absolute pleasure this Sunday of attending a meeting of the ray Marin cross and Hannah High School environmental clubs um each of each of them are working on their own projects and they shared they also
136talked about developing SEI um climate action plans they had a brainstorming session and then they had pizza and ice cream and it was really really cool to see the big kids and little kids working together and they were so knowledgeable um I think the high school students were really impressed by how the fifth graders M their climate science um it was it was neat to see and I'm really encouraged they're going to do some great things and that's it and and I acknowledge that Robin's also online for the assistant superintendence report and if anybody has any questions for Robin or if Robin if there's anything you like to to share um please feel free to highlight my report is attached to and I'm happy to answer any questions any questions for Robin thank you Robin
137I hope you are somewhere enjoying this lovely weather you're welcome okay so now um we're moving into nonpublic session do I hear a motion to do so um council's recently been discussing trying to have a better connection with the student body and kind of making sure students know what council is discussing and as part of that I was hoping that as the new council rep to dsb I'd be able to maybe post on school D once a month to keep the student body updated on what the board is discussing so I just was wondering if you guys would be okay if I made a post just talking about the um resolution that be approved public thank you you know we have meeting minutes that come out one or two days afterwards that's goed to pretty
138good details she want to reference that whenever you're doing this if you see any errors in this can also watch the video is Av on YouTube can does she receive the draft of the minutes directly um it well so it would be on board on boards okay you know you know how to so it's updated to this meeting a couple days later all right do I hear a motion to enter nonpublic Michael move to enter nonpublic session at 802m under RSA 91 832c matters which if discussed in public would likely adversely reputation person second Lisa all right um we're gonna go go around Le horn Neil yes christe yes Nelson yes McConnell yes and Hartman yes we are now entered into e e e