001okay let me see if we're we're still waiting for a few more folks i have the privilege of kicking off the meeting tonight so we'll give just a few more minutes while we wait to see if um there we go okay you're good whenever you want to get started thanks a lot josh okay see we got rick i did not hear from garrett i'm expecting that he will be joining us john you haven't been relieved of your duties quite yet if you're okay i would like to start um we can let garrett catch up if by all means you may start thank you all right well welcome to the sau 70 reorganization and regular meeting um i'm jay battam superintendent and as is custom i'll start the meeting this evening until we nominate and approve
002a new chair before we do that process i do want to let our su-70 board members know that uh john has indicated that he's not interested in running for re-election so um so those of you well-meaning folks who would endorse them for a second term here um i don't think he'll accept if you do so so with that i'm going to open the floor for nominations for chair of the s870 board no one john i would like to nominate kelly hersey okay now it's my understanding that by robert's rules we do not need a second for a nomination are there any other nominations then i'll have a vote for approving kelly hersey as chair of the su-70 board and i will go around starting with marcelo blassie yes john hunt yes brittany joyce yes neil
003o'dell yes tom and yes ben keaney yes kelly yeah i'm sorry kelly mcconnell mcdonnell yes jay you got to be more specific that's right i'm not used to being chair lisa christie yes jim hurt minion all right and rick johnson yes and finally kelly percy i'll just abstain can i do that you certainly can because there's there are plenty of votes to affirm your your status as chair so congratulations oh thank you and the meeting is now yours um i would like to then take um nominations for the um position of vice chair i happen to have one if no one else does i'd like to nominate john hunt as vice chair if he would accept i would love to serve as your vice chair oh you thought you were getting away there john do
004i have any other nominations then i will um go around and take roll call vote marcela iblassy yes and john uh hunter abstain yes abstain uh okay britney joyce yes and kelly mcconnell mcconnell yes and ben eeny yes and tom camden yes and neil odell yes and lisa christie yes and kim art minion and rick johnson yes congratulations john and thank you um next i will take nominations for the secretary of the board does anyone have oh neil yes as is tradition um on all of the boards i would like to nominate brittany joyce as secretary okay are there any other nominations can we nominate john no um brittany will you accept that sure glad to hear take a vote um marcela blassy yes and john yes and brittany i will abstain as in tradition
005i don't know if it's a tradition um kelly mcconnell mcconnell yes ben beanie yes camden yes you oh del yes lisa christie yes and kim park minius rick johnson johnson yes and garrett yes okay congratulations brittany the next item on the agenda is school board committees and um yes we first jay i had a question for you is the administrative salary committee still in existence do we know it's it's really defunct at this point we should probably reconstitute it and resume that work in time for next year's budget okay so that one's not been um needing to be filled the standing committees are budget committee for chairs committee policy committee the superintendent um evaluation committee and then we have a need for members who will act as board liaisons for the um curriculum and education
006committee i don't know if that per the board docs is a committee that we're actually staffing right now are we yes okay um and and there's no need to put anybody on the spot um as is tradition if anyone um would like to either change their existing committee assignment or um add to it please just send me a quick email but i had a couple of thoughts i wanted to just um let folks know that i had spoken with uh ryan schoonover today about the policy committee she was really hoping to know who was going to either continue or sign up for policy work so that she can keep the amazing progress going she and jay have just gotten us on a great track and we don't want to lose time and and um focus
007so if i don't know if ben you're still interested um garrett if you're still interested but um was that a yes i'm happy to continue okay and garrett you as well yeah say mayor okay and then i will as well and then i'll i'll let ryan know so that's um one piece that i wanted to be sure to um check in on the other um point i wanted to make about the super oh sorry jay yes kelly i'm sorry i don't want to i'm not trying to scare you or anything but it's uh it's a lot to take on committees and chair so i just want to make sure you feel comfortable passing that duty on should it prove to be too much i'm quite happy to give it to someone else i i was
008um if anyone else would like to step in that would be great i would love it um thank you jay sure and i i would just add that we currently have two norwich members on on the policy committee so if you want to flip it back this time around and have somebody from hanover great i was interested in participating with the policy committee um so that's okay it's fantastic that'd be great thank you jay that's an excellent idea um but i also wanted to note on the superintendent evaluation committee um per neil's suggestion last year after we wrapped up the evaluation the lengthy evaluation process i checked in with the vermont school board association and executive director sue saglowski spoke with me extensively about what they can do for our board they do this for
009a number of boards and it's something i think we ought to consider that's a hugely time consuming committee um that doesn't really seem to yield results that would be better than what she suggested to me today so i don't know if that needs a vote or if we could um get a head nod it is a cost her cost the school board association's cost is a thousand dollars but they do basically all the work that our committee did but would ask for committee input superintendent input do all the compiling and then have us review things together and there are a lot of other streamline points that she outlined but i wanted to throw that out to see what people thought about greatly reducing the amount of work on that committee if this is the time
010to put that out there so it will be if folks are good with it i know last year we talked about doing it we all agreed to do it we didn't actually do it um so it would be a great help to do it this year that will um i hope come to fruition so um and then that's it yeah sorry all right i was just going to suggest that uh i think probably a lot of us including myself uh even on the vermont side aren't too familiar with what the vspa would do maybe we could just send around a link that shows what that is and then in the interim decide whether or not that's the way to go and then check in with jamie obviously on budgeting aspects and i'll actually i'll put
011together what um sue and i spoke about and how she explained it relative to what we've already done in the past so that's a great idea tom i'll do that next up is the agenda review and i didn't know if board members had any wish to change or add items on the agenda seeing none the next item on our list is the time for public comments and um as happened last week and following john's lead in order to keep things moving smoothly speakers are asked to raise their hands in the zoom app i i hope everyone is familiar with that and i'll do my best to keep track of exactly who has spoken but i'd like to request as we had before that if you speak please speak once and speak to items that are
012not currently on the agenda and if you would um i'd like to respectfully ask people to keep their comments and questions to two minutes and per john's comment if people can't maintain that limit i may have to mute a speaker that hasn't happened yet um so i see um gotta get used to my double screen and um i see no hands up from the public are there any questions or comments that anyone would like to to make seeing none uh we'll move on uh next item on the list is h kelly you've got uh dan richard's hand up i do i'm sorry um excuse me just a second yes dan richards okay um and i'm trying to unmute you're unmuted there you go dan sorry can you hear me yes i'm sorry i didn't see
013your hand up go ahead that was very strange i tried to click the button and every time i tried to click the button it disappeared so maybe we're both trying to click at the same time what we're trying to do so apologies for that um listen i wanted to uh to comment briefly i know that one of the agenda items tonight is to um take a position potentially take a position on hp 544 and i wanted to weigh in um on on that and whether or not the board whether or not i think it's appropriate for the board to actually take a position on a politically charged issue like 544. um let's just assume for a minute that that it is appropriate um if the board does vote i i didn't attend but i listened
014to the recording from the other night for the special board meeting and the overwhelming majority of the people who spoke uh spoke against 544 so my guess is is that this board is likely going to vote to formally oppose 544 if that's in fact what you do you should just know that there are many many families in this community that will disagree with you and uh you should keep that in mind as you're deliberating as to whether or not this body should take an official position um on 544. uh you should also know that some of these families live literally in fear of being identified as those who would support 544 and who would object to some of the critical race theory and other kinds of things that are spreading in our district if you
015don't know what critical race theory is i urge everybody on this board to learn about it it is a pernicious ideology that is something that could be very destructive if it's allowed to infiltrate this district so i'd be happy to share information there's a lot of it out there but i'd be happy to share in a consolidated way for for this body to get a an understanding of it what the bill is really designed to do is to prevent the suppression of speech and that's what happened to me at a pto meeting uh on february 25th for expressing a view different from what was being expressed in the meeting and as a result i got shouted down by a school administrator and it was completely unacceptable appreciated in the training that was happening was paid
016for and organized by the district so the gateway to critical race theory are these sorts of trainings and the district should be and the board should be aware of these kinds of things um let me just end with and i you know look i want to be respectful of everybody's time because i want to clear up perhaps a misconception with respect to some of the comments i've made previously uh let me be clear this conversation has absolutely nothing to do with whether racism exists whether it should be addressed and whether it should be identified and eliminated whenever it's encountered it has everything to do with how the problems in disadvantaged and minority communities and how these individuals are treated and how the opinion i'm sorry excuse me danny the time is up and this item
017is on the agenda i'm sorry to cut you off i didn't mean to do that i attempted to speak over you um let me just unmute you and um ask you to please step down more politely than that uh thank you for the comment though we have um ellie standard and again let me repeat these are um please questions and comments about items that are not on the agenda that was my mistake for not catching dan's uh response to 544 which is on the agenda in fact it's the next item up uh so um uh that last person did not speak i'm sorry um and your hand is down um we have we have um i think they're reserving their talk to the when we get to that item sorry what's that dick rich i
018think they're putting their hands down because they're going to talk during the dei thank you most likely yep are there any other comments for any item that is not on the agenda okay so we will move to hb 544 and the board has in fact um if you attended the special meeting we had last week the four chairs were charged with the um crafting of a resolution so that we will and we've unanimously voted on um taking the position and i will as is our tradition read that um uh resolution allowed whereas hb 544 promotes an unconstitutional restriction on free speech that is harmful to all residents of new hampshire whereas hb 544 severely impinges upon the concept of local control the governing and management of public schools by communities through their locally elected school
019boards whereas hb 544 presents our public school teachers staff and administrators from receiving diversity equity and inclusion training designed to address unconscious bias and disparities based on systemic racism and sexism whereas hb 544 prohibits new hampshire public schools students of all races and sexes of the opportunity to think critically openly and inclusively about systemic racism and sexism whereas h.b 544 threatens the mental and emotional health of our families and students who identify as black and indigenous people of color protected groups that experience the effects of systemic racism and sexism and its present day impacts their daily lives whereas hb 544 threatens to violate our school's mission and core values of honoring a common vision of equality empowering students to examine the impact of their actions that their actions have on themselves others and the environment
020and having its students use their hearts to respect and care for the emotional and physical well-being being of themselves and others and whereas hb 544 places an undue burden on our teachers our staff and administrators to meet conflicting requirements in two states as our schools are members of a multi-state school district now therefore be it resolved the members of the sau 70 dresden hanover and norwich school boards one affirm our commitment to providing all families and students in our district communities with a supportive safe and equitable educational opportunity in our schools to affirm our belief that the freedom to engage in dialogue around topics such as racism and sexism is central to the work of our dedicated staff teachers and administrators three oppose new hampshire house bill 544 four respectively request that the new hampshire
021legislature vote no on h.b 544 and five respectfully request that governor sununu veto h.b 544 should it pass in the new hampshire legislature thank you for chairs for crafting that very clear um and eloquent resolution do any board members have any comments kelly so there is one word and i apologize for not noticing this before but there is one word in the fourth paragraph prohibits that i think grammatically somehow needs to change because you can't prohibit of the opportunity so it we just need to wordsmith that a little but um i think that the word is like removes right is that it the fourth paragraph whereas or at the bottom kelly i'm sorry uh no the fourth whereas whereas um whereas hb 544 prohibits new hampshire public schools students of all races and sexes uh
022of the opportunity you're right that prohibits them from engaging in or something like that great any other comments see none oh you have three hands and your hands up yeah you i am really uh struggling with this i'm doing great don't worry uh ben thanks kelly two-part question is um is this the time and place to do basic word smithing or is there another time where we kind of get into the nitty-gritty uh i am not sure i assume we just did that with kelly's comment on the fourth paragraph so assuming this is the time then um i have two comments on the one two three four five on the fifth one the fifth whereas i think there should be a comma after black and after indigenous and then put an additional and in there
023so it should read black comma indigenous comma and people of color yep that's more appropriate yep and then um there's also some going back and forth between hb space 544 house bill 544 and hb no space 544. so you should probably just be consistent on internal usage yep and of course there's an errant parenthesis about halfway down the first page that's it for now that's great thank you and so that i don't keep messing up my people requiring um requesting to speak lisa um yeah i think ben just took care of my first part i with the comma and taking out the and i was wondering why we had singled out black and indigenous people rather than people of color in general um but then my second question was i was wondering why in that
024same fifth whereas um we because 544 addresses both gender although they call it sex and race um why there wasn't mention of lgbtq students in that line and i don't i mean i'm sure there's a reason but i just was curious and which which was which where as the same fifth whereas um i just when it talks about it threatens the mental and emotional health of our families and students who identify as now black comma indigenous comma and people of color i was wondering why there wasn't a mention of gender identity in that same whereas because 544 does talk about sex so do you want to take a stab at uh editing that lisa i am not the person to do that um but i would i would i would pass it on to rick
025or maybe there's a reason why they weren't included i mean it could just be students who identify as black common indigenous comma people of color and lgbtq i don't i don't know if that's appropriate or if that's what we were trying to get at with that whereas but um that omission just struck me i i would ask the four chairs if they have if anyone has um a response to that since since you collectively were the authors i would recommend separating it onto two separate whereases just otherwise good way to unwieldy anyone else rick sorry it wasn't intentional it was an oversight so i i have no problem with either creating a new clause or just adding it into that existing one okay i'll make note of that of the edit then thank you uh
026any other board members have questions kelly did you have another yes lowered my hand but didn't unmute um i just wanted to say that that personally i'm in favor of this motion um because i think it affords all of our families the opportunity to have the voice that they want to have in our community and i think that's important so um i i just wanted to say that for me my intention in opposing this bill is not to silence conversations but in fact to allow free conversation to continue to happen within our school district and our classes thank you thank you any other comments from board members ben i see your hand up again yes on the on the following whereas the one about threatening to violate our school's mission i think there's an errant
027to to in the second to last line of that clause so it should be having its students use their hearts not to use their hearts yes and i stumbled on that when i read it so i should have mentioned that yep okay any other comments or word smithing edits kelly and kim yes kim just we tend to describe um this is in regards to where it says multi-state school district we tend to regard ourselves as an interstate school district and since there's just two states um i wonder maybe if we just say interstate just because that tends to be how we acknowledge our relationship um or if that's too confusing with dresden then bi-state i guess okay everyone okay with that edit any other changes at its comments i would just like to thank the
028four chairs for the um for the clear and thoughtful amount of work on this this is um absolutely fantastically written i think and it it addresses um many of the things that were brought up at the special meeting so thank you very much for the effort on that one um next agenda item is um the board will discuss the uh possible edition of the dei um to become under the auspices of the school board and yes lisa you had a question um i think this may be why jay's raising his hand but do we need public comment now thank you jay no i was just going to say exactly what lisa said you read my mind uh yeah we have people quite a few hands being raised i believe on that agenda item that you've
029just gone through with the board the previous one okay and uh you're doing great kelly just it's all good greens and i haven't done the um the oversight yet um dan richards i know you've spoken before let me give other people a chance first um and stuart uh you are up uh i'd like to give daniel richards the floor and speak after he speaks i'm happy to do that but i'd like to give other people a chance first i know uh daniel richards spoke on an item that is was on the agenda and we have covered that and i know we have another one two three four five or six hands up right now well he was cut off and i was hoping that he'd be able to finish what he wanted to say so
030that that's the reason for giving him the floor and there's another point that i'd like to make and that is i would love to be present uh along with the other board members i'm familiar with the process uh that you usually have which is to actually be able to see one another and i'm not sure why technically that's not possible in this particular situation it would be very nice for me to be able i can see you but you can't see me and that's uh i find that to be out of order in a sense i i have no response to that does anyone else have a response i would like to move on then to another speaker before we circle back to dan if that's appropriate um and that would be deborah nelson thank
031you and i would i'm a resident of hanover and i want to say before i comment on this uh resolution i just want to thank you all as someone who a long time ago served on the school board which meant but i was also on an sau board and also on a dresden board i really appreciate the work that you do for our children and for our community and i respect that enormously so thank you um i will simply want to speak in favor of this resolution i spent 27 years teaching american studies at lebanon high school and at no time were we was i able to do my job without talking about the impact of racism and of sexism and of the treatment of native americans as we made our way through 300 years
032of american history and my students in lebanon and i know the same is true for hanover because both my children went k-12 in hanover my students were very able to deal with complicated subjects to deal with a history to understand that the past is complex and not to get defensive about it there's a wonderful metaphor that begins isabel wilkerson's book called cast in which she says that racism is like having rotten sills on a 200 or 300 year old house that you're living in you need to replace the sills or the house will fall down it's not your fault you didn't put them in there you're not the reason they rotted but they are rotting and to ignore it and to somehow feel like you shouldn't deal with it is kind of counter-intuitive so i
033want to say that our students are perfectly capable of having these conversations it's incredibly important that teachers be able to work with this material i think the affirmation you are giving at a complicated time in american history is just applaudable and finally i've watched a bunch of old board meetings or previous board meetings and the language of critical race theory keeps popping up as some sort of boogeyman but the language is nowhere in 544 but it is very much in a national republican party effort to diminish free speech so thank you for your position on this resolution thank you very much deborah for speaking um and nirov you are unmuted and you um you went away the last time i called on you so please um you're up if you have a comment about this
034is now we're going back to the agenda item for which i missed speakers when they had their hands up and that was the hb so we're a little off board i'm sorry that's my error um neerav please go ahead sure yeah i i live in hanover and um just wanted to thank the school board for coming together in defense of our community um you know when i first heard about this bill i actually thought it was a joke um i thought it was maybe pulled from the onion or something and you know and i could imagine this subtitle being new hampshire gop to educators discussing racism is now racist uh as i learned more about the bill i figured out that it clearly was not a joke um the bill states quote unlawful propagation of
035divisive concepts are to be prohibited to anyone that receives state funding so i educate medical residents medical residents in the dartmouth extract system received new hampshire state funding so i started to wonder does that mean because i teach medical residents about the american unparalleled expertise and structural racism that has inspired copycat regimes from nazi germany to afrikaner apartheidis is that unlawful speech would my cancer patients lose their oncologist if while lecturing students on health disparity i were to characterize our nation one that was to be sure founded by slavers built by enslaved people and i would say at best ambivalent and late to the party when it came to outlaw slavery if i were to characterize such a country as anything but quote founded in racism or quote fundamentally racist would i lose my job
036and these concerns i think are the entire point of this bill they may not actually punish me they may not actually silence me but they would give me pause and it's for that reason i find it extremely dangerous and quite frankly frightening that members of our community would advance such notions and so i thank you school board for taking this seriously and i do want to say that i believe that america today is more just more tolerant more diverse and more inclusive than jim crow america or the america of our founding fathers and i agree that we do have mechanisms to improve our society but we cannot acknowledge racial progress without recognizing our racial past and we cannot expect in the bill's sponsor representative ammon's words quote more unity and more equality quote by just
037gaslighting and whitewashing the pervasiveness of today's structural racism i'm sorry i had to mute you nirov i appreciate your your comments very much and i don't mean to be rude to anyone who i mute but i i think it's only fair to try to keep to our two minutes because we do have a number of people asking to speak um thank you so much and uh kate kate hilton you're unmuted thank you hi everyone kade hilton from hanover mother of two kids at the ray school um also faculty at the institute for healthcare improvement and at the atlantic fellows for health equity program at the george washington university i want to thank you for taking up the issue of hb 544 and for sending a clear signal to the state of new hampshire and to
038our local community that the board encourages free speech in our schools i teach about health equity and i agree with the statement in the proposed bill that no one should be judged by the colo by their color race ethnicity sex or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law and i live in the real world where historical and present day gaps between men and women blacks and whites unemployment income college education homeownership prison population and life expectancy at birth are significant and persistent and my two white boys live in this world and they deserve educational spaces in which they can freely discuss and explore these issues and their responsibility in responding to them i appreciate the board i appreciate that you're modeling for my kids how to behave when we see the pernicious effects
039of racism and sexism in our state and our community you speak out you're speaking out and i just want to thank the board i'd also like to say as a member of the community who was present at the pto meeting in february uh previously mentioned i'd like to share my observation that there was no shouting down during that meeting that would be a mischaracterization of what occurred and an unfair characterization of an sau sunday school administrator thanks thank you very much um and now uh greg crowley um you are unmuted did you have a question you you may have your yeah can you hear me now thank you um i have two children in the hanover school district thank you for the opportunity to speak um i i do want to acknowledge the concern of
040the earlier speakers richard and i recognize that it's not a positive experience to be a resident of a town and be shouted down or feel like one is being indoctrinated into a concept or told that they have to believe something and i support any effort in our schools in our organizations and our communities to create an environment where voices are heard and listened to fairly um but i do know how housebill 544 is a way of addressing that problem house bill 544 is about concepts and ideas uh it is not about the manner in which we teach concepts and ideas so um i would support the resolution of the of the school board to support free speech um and i also uh invite all of us to consider how we conduct public conversations how we
041conduct organ conversations in our communities and in our schools to make sure that we're hearing everybody um and that we're not taking a position of indoctrination shouting people down telling people they must believe in certain ideas and in that sense i want to express solidarity with those who support house bill 544 while at the same time acknowledging my uh belief that that bill uh is unconstitutional and is not the solution to our community's problems thank you thank you so much um and next um ellie standard would you like to speak hi my name is ellie stannard i'm a senior at hanover high school and one of the chairs of the anti-racism and inclusivity subcommittee of the hanover high school council we created this group last spring and the more work that we have done the
042more evident that has become that conversations about bias specifically implicit bias the very ones that this bill seeks to limit are critical in this community and in the nation as a student i strongly support your resolution concerning hb 544 and want to thank you all for the work that you have put into crafting it thank you so much ellie really appreciate that and uh we have wendy teller ellsberg wendy you cannot meet yourself there you go thank you kelly hi everyone thank you for being here and for this time first i just want to say i'm feeling really sad i feel so sad to to hear that there are members of our community on i'll say on both sides of this issue who are feeling scared i am feeling scared um and i'm going to
043share why in a minute um but i don't want anyone to feel scared of me for being on the quote other side of an issue from them i don't like that feeling and sorry to be simplistic and childish here but i really do feel like if we could all just sit and have a cup of tea with each other and take a minute to trust each other and try to hear each other's life experiences maybe we would be less scared of each other what i see happening in our community and in our world right now is that we're getting very polarized and very very scared of each other and sort of all believing that the other side is somehow dangerous or evil or scary and that and maybe i'm exaggerating but that's the experience i'm
044having and it's really scary to me um i i support the um idea of having the school board make a statement against 544 and the reason is that i want us to be able to have conversations without feeling terrified and the more scared we feel and the more we have to censor ourselves no matter what position we have on issues or no matter what our life experiences the more polarized we're going to be um i've been a i am a i should have introduced myself at the beginning i'm wendy teller-ellsberg i live in norwich i have four kids three of whom are in the sau schools and one who will be next year and i'm also a public school educator and um have experienced for myself that when there's something i feel is really important
045to talk about i can feel intimidated and scared that i will be not not even fired or removed but just disapproved of by my colleagues if i don't discuss issues in a way that i think is safe for them so it's always a risk to bring up tricky topics but that's what education is supposed to be public school is supposed to be a place where people can talk and learn and learn how to talk about tricky things the other reason i'm scared and i'm probably close to the end of my time so i'll be trying to be brief is that i'm the parent of a gender non-conforming child as kelly knows because kelly i hope you don't mind my saying but kelly took a wonderful interest in my story right when my 10 year old
046announced that they were not the gender i thought that they were and came over just to hear our story and sat and had a cup of tea and learned and it was an amazing thing that i will never forget because she said oh this is interesting to me could i come over could you tell me about it and i did and kelly is one of the people i feel very safe with whenever i see her because i know she took the time to listen to my story my child and other gender non-conforming children don't feel safe if they know that there's something taboo about this idea that they might not be accepted in the same way that gender conforming or cisgender kids might they don't feel safe but they're not going to walk around saying
047that and i as a parent don't feel entirely safe because i know there are people who don't even believe that transgender kids are real or are whole or are not mentally ill but i have one and my kid is real and whole and not mentally ill and just a person who's assigned sex at birth did not match their knowledge of who they are as a person and until they were seen as who they were becoming incredibly depressed and anxious so we have to be able to talk about gender in schools and let people share their stories and i believe that this bill inadvertently will cut off that kind of discussion by making it not okay to say that sometimes because of the sex you were assigned at birth you are treated differently as my child
048definitely was based wendy i am so sorry i i apologize for muting you but we are well beyond the two minutes and we do have a number of people who still are asking to speak thank you so much for for being willing to come forward and um speak as you have i appreciate it very much thank you so much i'm sorry to go over my time thank you ellie stannard you are um you are unmuted um i'm sorry i i said what i said i'm good thank you okay um let me see we have uh allison capedia capadia hi i'm alison capatia i'm a resident can you hear me yes i'm a resident of hanover and i have two kids i want to say thank you all for taking such a thoughtful stand on this
049issue it's incredibly important in so many ways i would say there are many reasons to oppose this bill but when it comes to our schools my most pressing concern is the chilling effect this bill would have on our classrooms it is likely that this bill is a violation of the first amendment so if it does become law it will be eventually struck down in the courts and a similar law was not passed in alabama for exactly that reason because of clear violations of the first amendment however that process would take years during those years my two kids who are both people of color and gender non-conforming for the time being uh will be in sau 70 schools hb 544 would empower members of our community to intimidate school staff and students with threats of litigation
050for discussing race or gender in any way that makes them uncomfortable this will cause a chilling effect on the incredibly hard work that sau 70 has put into leading our community in education about race and gender that will harm both of my kids who already get pushback from their classmates for not wearing clothes that conform to the gender roles of 1950s america currently that pushback is often met with open discussion led by teachers in the classroom which is wonderful if hb 544 becomes law it would put a huge burden on teachers to lead open discussion of race and gender under the threat of intimidation or even litigation this will change the entire tone of the classroom and harm all children no matter the race or gender of the child by stifling open and honest discussions
051of these quote unquote divisive topics so i just want to thank you for your continued leadership and support of dei work in our schools i'm really grateful for all of your service and work and thank you for speaking up to protect our community and our children thank you allison very much and we have i'm going to address uh stuart your uh request to give up your time for dan and rather um i think i'd prefer to make an exception for dan just to finish what he had to say i don't think it's a proper precedent to start giving up time to someone else so let me unmute uh dan dan go ahead if you'd like to speak hi there can you hear me now yeah sorry i've got i've got some button issues so you
052know look i appreciate everything that everybody is saying here and i think at the end of the day we all want the same thing which is an inclusive and diverse and egalitarian environment for all of our students i certainly want that i know virtually all of our community members want that i do question though whether everybody on the call has actually read the bill and read it to the end because i quote nothing in this chapter shall prevent agencies or contractors from promoting racial cultural or ethnic diversity or inclusiveness provided such efforts are consistent with the requirements of the chapter and nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit discussing as part of a larger course of academic instruction the divisive concepts so this is not a bill that suppresses free speech that is
053not what this about this is about the bill is designed to actually protect free speech it really is and if you read the the opinion that was just issued yesterday from the former chief justice of the new hampshire supreme court robert lynn and i'll quote him what he says it says nothing in this bill prohibits anyone a teacher for example from supporting or advocating critical race theory or any other divisive concept while off duty or on his or her own time the bill also does not prevent a teacher from holding views favorable to divisive concepts it merely prohibits the teacher during the course of his or her duties from promoting or advocating to students that they should adopt or believe in these divisive concepts the concepts are very clearly stated and they are racist to
054their core that is the that is what this bill is designed to do which is to prevent that so if you disagree with the items in the bill i think the i think the school board should go on the record and outline exactly which of those divisive concepts that are listed and are very clear you think should be in our school system which of those racist concepts should go in we as a community i think we deserve to know so thank you very much very much uh and we have uh heidi who has not spoken um sorry i'm having a little bit of uh yeah then kelly hey kelly uh greg crowley's had his hand up for a while i don't know if you can't see him but i can and i am um going
055to permit him right now i'm sorry that was a mistake i had already spoken thank you that's what i thought that's what my list said but um dan thank you you are um uh it's a heidi tremarco is permitted to speak heidi are you still wanting to speak yes hi can you hear me yes thank you this is heidi tremarco i'm a hanover resident and i have kids in the school district um i wanted to address respond to some of the issues that were raised um i wanted to say i first i think it's entirely appropriate for this body to take a stance on this bill for the reasons laid out in the position piece that was written and that it violates the school's codes of conduct i know that the sau has done this
056before um with regards to guns in schools and so i applaud you for taking a position here and um i think it really is the responsibility of this organization to take a position and i really appreciate you doing that so thank you um i would just respond um to one thing mr richard said which is that i don't know if it's accurate to say we all want the same thing here um i don't want the state telling my teachers what they can and cannot say in schools and i don't believe that this bill does not infringe upon free speech i think it clearly does limit what can and cannot be said and creates a real chilling effect on what teachers and other state contractors can say and have to operate kind of in fear that
057they might be saying something that would violate the bill so i do think it's a it's a violation of the first amendment that's all i have thank you very much thank you and uh we have uh richard adams and then we're going to have to move on i believe to our next agenda topics we are going to impinge severely on the um dresden meeting if we don't get moving we're still addressing uh hb 544 so um if one more person would like to speak richard i will um let you in and then if you could keep it brief that would be great hi thank you um yes i'll keep this very brief my name is richard adams um i'm from norwich uh we have three students in the miriam cross school and we'll eventually have
058another one in the marine crust school um i just wanted to thank you for your work on this for your attention to the detail it shows a lot of care that you have for our community and our students i completely support uh the board taking a position and opposing this in addition to what everyone else has already said i i have read the bill i'm not a lawyer but i can tell that it is very vague and it leaves a lot open for misunderstanding and rather than having legislature and government oversight i would like to put our trust in our teachers and our administrators and our school board and have you know the local uh control and the local sort of oversight that we we have right right here at the meeting just like this
059and as wendy said to have those conversations with each other rather than relying on sort of vague and open-ended things from the state and i really appreciate as a vermonter that you all can give us a voice here in the new hampshire legislature so just thank you for your work and um thanks have a nice have a nice evening thank you and uh stewart i'm sorry let me come back to you and give you a moment to to speak if there's something you'd like to say you are back um unmuted and you hear me okay so i have two grandchildren i'm uh i'm known as grandpa these days i have two grandchildren in the school system i live in norwich and my my children have gone through the school system and i i've read the
060bill that's before you a number of times and i've come to a uh a very different conclusion than you've reached i don't understand quite frankly how you can say in this opposition that uh it's that the bill is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech when you've already heard and if you've read the bill but you've already heard daniel richards speak to the fact that there is no restriction on free speech what there is a restriction on is teaching systemic racism teaching critical race training i've already had an example since i listened into the to an sau 70 equity committee of how this appears to be playing out and it's not it's not playing out very well because i was asked to leave the meeting i wasn't allowed it was supposed to have been i thought
061a public meeting something that typically you see agendas for something that you see minutes for but that that was not the case i i just so i have a problem with the process and i also have a problem with those who object to what the bill doesn't say it doesn't say the things that you're suggesting it says it doesn't it's not unconstitutional there is no restriction on free speech what it does attempt to do is achieve the sorts of things that i do believe in contrast to what was said previously it does attempt to achieve what we all would like to see and that is an inclusive society where everybody is treated fairly and everybody has equal opportunity so thanks for hearing me out and uh good luck with the rest of your meeting and
062this seems to have been preordained as far as what you're you know what you're going to do but i i strongly object to the position that you're taking with this bill thanks again for hearing me out um we i will um definitely move us on to the next agenda topic now and um thank you for all the comments on the previous agenda topic we are currently on the dei committee specifically and we're talking about wrapping that into the sau board jay do you want to speak on that briefly sure kelly and i think mr richards hit on um something that we are very sensitive about and that is the composition of our committees and ensuring that we are in compliance with open meeting law um we we have uh had a very active and hard-working
063equity committee uh really started with a group of students gradually was joined by some of our teachers and then expanded to include some parents and members of the public and and now has board members who attend from time to time and we also are having i don't want to call them debates but we're having these public conversations about how we should proceed with regard to issues of equity and the board has obviously taken a a very definitive stand stance on this and has been extremely supportive of the work all along and it makes sense that the board would establish a committee of its own essentially uh not only giving this work um [Music] additional support but um but also making sure that the work that we do as we move forward is is transparent and
064that members of the public are able to um to help us to participate and to engage in the conversation the committee itself has identified the need for public outreach as as a major effort and and something that needs to occur and in fact has talked about the need for increased transparency because there are misunderstandings about the work that the equity committee is engaged in so um those are some of the reasons that we're um we're contemplating this and we think that it will help us um to achieve all those those ends thank you jay does anyone else have any comments about um this effort to move the fbi committee under the auspices of sau 70 let me get back to my panelists i'm sorry here um [Music] neil uh thanks kelly and um i you
065know i'll support this move i think it's something that we probably should have tackled a while ago i i think it's just one step of several that the board should consider so just making it a subcommittee i think would be a great first step but i do think that it ought to be wrapped into a broader discussion around strategic goals and planning for the sau board to include this work as one of the strategic goals and then i think along with that we probably would benefit from you know framing the charge of the committee so that we provided some context and some substance to then be able to attach to that the ability to track progress um to make sure that it's addressing the things that the board um endorsed um so that we have
066you know a measurable um you know item to to track and that we also have something to to weigh our progress on as well too so you know in addition to the subcommittee i think there's some some broader contextual things that this board should should address as well great thank you neil and ben you had your hand up yes i agree with neil's point and then my follow-up question be if this became a a board committee would that be it would only be board members is that correct or would the public and administrators maintain a role in it jay i i assume that you had an answer for this sure yeah we you can absolutely appoint members of the public um staff members um and we've done that with a number of different committees we
067also have the ability in our policy to engage with different groups for example in promulgating policy there are provisions in there for us to interact with the public as either members of the committee uh another good example is the dresden athletic advisory committee we have members of the public as well and often when we constitute those committees we will actually designate how many uh parents how many general pub members of the public how many staff folks and and that sort of thing so yeah we can absolutely do that great and lisa you had a question yeah um i just want to make sure that i'm clear um what we're talking about is creating a dei committee for the for the board for sau 70 that would be housed by the board and i want to
068make sure this isn't meant to replace the existing equity committee that exists of parents and teachers and administrators this is in addition to that committee i just i got a little confused in the back and forth and i just want to be really clear about what we are proposing i thought it was to replace jay but can you set me straight on that one that was my understanding i know that replace is the right word um yeah i guess broadened but but take the um the equity committee under the board's umbrella is is maybe more what we're talking about if we're going to have board for example if we're gonna have board participation on the committee the meetings need to be properly warned agendas need to be provided and minutes need to be taken and
069so that's uh that's one of the the benefits that would occur if the board were to take governance responsibility for the existing equity committee the same people could be on the committee the committee it wouldn't necessarily alter the work but it would change the the really the really the governance structure more than anything else i have a comment on that but i know marcelo's hand was up first so i that that's concerning to me um yeah so marcelo did you no lisa lisa finish your thought okay um i i understand the need for more public conversations about this and i am extremely supportive of that i am extremely supportive of the board having an equity committee and i am feeling concern for the teachers and the parents who have been working for in some cases
070over two years on this on their own time and as far as i know they have not been part of a conversation about making this under a board structure and i just we literally just did a resolution about how we trust our teachers and our administrators and it feels as if this this doesn't feel as if we're extending that trust by having them be part of this conversation the people that have been working on this for a really long time and doing really good work and again i'm not opposed i am all for the board having their own committee and i am all for public conversation and i just i i'm feeling my heart is racing because i'm thinking of how the people who have been doing this work for two years might be feeling
071right now hearing that suddenly the board is going to sweep this up and everything has to be public and i just i don't know how that works and it doesn't it doesn't feel that it doesn't feel like we're trusting the people who have been doing this work all along and i don't know how they feel they may be fine with this but i think that's my point is that we don't know how they feel um because i don't think anyone's asked them so jay did you want to follow up with that sure i'm happy to this this is it's on the agenda type 4 a conversation but this because this work is so important and because it has implications that have to do with policy which is the board's purview for example um recently the
072equity committee reached out to the the policy committee asking for essentially a cross-pollination i think was the term um and and that stuff simply can't happen outside public scrutiny we are allowed to have administrative meetings that aren't open to the public but we have we have members of the public on the equity committee we have we have unelected people working on um recommendations for policy for example and as a public body we do have to comply with open records law so that is one consideration i also think we cannot be fearful of having these conversations in public um there is no right that people have um in such a meeting in a committee meeting for example to to necessarily speak and disrupt meeting for example um we we have been very open about indulging people
073who have have come to some of our meetings but there's there is no right that the public has to speak for example at a policy committee meeting um so so i think we we need to we need to be careful how we structure things but we need to put a governance process in place that is compliant with the law but also allows that good work to continue yeah i'm not saying not that the conversation shouldn't be public i guess i i just am i'm kind of feeling yeah i i just i'm wondering about it i would like to ask the people who have been doing this work for their thoughts in the struct and how we structure this so could i suggest that we table this for tonight and have this broader discussion and and
074um still let john and marcela speak who had asked to speak about this but um as far as the the specifics of um taking action i don't see it as an action item for tonight am i correct on that so um marcela did you want to speak um i just wanted to voice my support of uh somehow merging or melding the dei committee that already exists with a more clearly structured um deliberate uh board subcommittee i think that as you were saying jay um you sort of took the words out of my mouth i was saying i was thinking that the clarity that you're describing is crucial for allowing the work to happen because if we don't have the agenda if we don't make it public i feel that every meeting risks going back to
075the beginning right every meeting every subcommittee meeting with dei is like well what happened how did it happen why did it happen and really things are moving along and so i think that allowing the people who are so generous to volunteer their time to actually do the work they've prepared to do in the meeting times is something that this would protect um you john did you want to speak yeah actually i i think you actually covered it i was just gonna um say that um you know it's it's on the agenda tonight as a discussion item and for us not to take action yet so i think to to everyone's points we are starting the conversation about how this would work and and absolutely we would invite you know people from the public to comment
076on this and it would be an all-inclusive kind of creation of this subcommittee but i think um it should be noted that it we're not deciding on something right now thank you and ben you had a question your hand is out first i think we missed kelly mcconnell for a while so if she's welcome to speak first if we missed her i'm really not doing well with this um yeah the zoom panelist go ahead kelly ben it's it is a steep learning curve not to worry um i just wanted to say that i understand lisa's point i i agree with what marcel and jay have said as well i think it's important that we be able to take action on what's being discussed and i think that can only really happen if we're um if
077we're doing it through the structure of the board that said i think we have already within the schools we have diversity equity and inclusion committees within our schools i i know there are subcommittees within the various buildings and and those are not open to the public because they are within the the staff they're they're um opportunities for staff to have conversations about things going on in their building um and i think though that kind of work can continue and so i think um i'm hoping that that will also give um an opportunity for those to occur in a different way in a different venue because we are overseeing the public process of this dei work so that's all i wanted to add thank you kelly does anyone else have any comments on that agenda item
078then we will move on to the first reading of policy bca the school director ethics uh policy and the policy has already this policy has been adopted in hanover and dresden and norwich has its own version of um the same thing abc similar thing bcb conflict of interest um does anyone have any um points they'd like to raise questions edits suggestions yeah ben sorry i think i'd do is up to a hand wave that time so i don't think this went past the policy committee recently and i think my only question is what exactly is a director by this definition i think it's a school board member is it not okay i'm just confirming we're all directors i wasn't sure if it was member or chair honestly in reading it yeah it's not as clear
079to me as a first time reader that is that it is a board member um anyone else have any clarification for ben jay on this policy i don't recall seeing it in policy committee um so i guess if it's to keep it simple if it has not been by policy committee maybe we just encourage policy committee to take a look at it and then come back to us yep that makes sense to me and we'll do that um and on the uh former item okay let me see reading of policy so we will then sorry rick sorry yeah so is anyone know where this comes from this is not an rsa this is not um is this coming from doe or is this something we internally created i do not know jay sorry yeah kelly
080i'm not sure either this this is something that it was one of the recommended policies from um nhsba and yeah go ahead and know in in going through those policies ryan had been going through that particular series and we have we have two different things that go on in hanover and norwich and norwich the directors upon the reorganization i'll have an ethics form they signed and i believe that the original conversation was to try to create something analogous on this side of the river um well i say this side of the river i'm actually sitting in vermont right now um but uh the uh that was the original intent but we can certainly take it up again it's here it's here for a first read so we can take it back to the committee and
081and uh reprocess it makes sense to me let's definitely do that because i don't recognize it no one does so um it made its way on the agenda sorry there's a note in board docs i just want to make sure everyone had seen it that says we've already adopted this in hanover and dresden i think that probably happened previous to this policy committee um formation so i that i think it makes sense to send it back to policy committee but just to alert everybody it has already been adopted according to our notes at least in hanover and dresden i do not remember this as the hanover chair in the last year so it may have been adopted years ago but i'm not familiar with it yeah i'm trying to i i don't remember and i
082would have been the chair for the two years previous but that doesn't mean it didn't happen then a few things have happened in the last three years okay so kelly what we'll do is we'll go back and retrace the history but i do recall when we had our discussions about the the fact that there was a an ethics attestation form that the board members in in norwich did that's when that conversation occurred um it's it's it's entirely possible that in some of those batch policy um revisions that we did two years ago that this was passed and it probably found its way onto the agenda as a standard item on the reorganization okay and jamie you have a question actually it's an old um carryover it was adopted initially in like 1977 and it was
083recoded to the new epa in 2011 and i'm not sure if it's been done as another review i just went back and looked through notes um so i'm not sure it probably needs to come back up for a re-review and i think the reason that it made it on as a re-review was because it was already an existing policy and to the fact that vermont does look at this every year okay well we will definitely take this up at our next policy committee at the next policy committee meeting um next item up uh for on the agenda is the approval of items b through f by consent are there any changes or edits that anyone would like to make on any of the minutes um number c or d or e anyone seeing none facing
084his hand killing his hand up i'm sorry i was going to go ahead and move oh then then i would like a meal actually kelly if i just but i i think it might be uh good practice this evening to remove f from the consent and handle that say that again neil i'm sorry i missed it i think it would be good this evening if we removed item f which was approval of the hp 504 resolution from the consent agenda and approved that item separately okay then i would like a motion to approve items b through e please move to approve items b c d and e by consent you're a second second by john i'll take a roll call vote um rick please johnson yes john yes and brittany joyce yes tom and yes
085neil o'dell yes him heart minions garrett palmies and marcella plus yes lisa christie yes yes and kelly mcconnell yes thank you unanimously don't forget yourself kelly on me don't forget yourself and kelly yes thank you um next item um do i have a motion to approve uh hb 544 or resolution then move to approve the resolution regarding hb 544 as presented thank you second it should be as amended as amended i apologize as amended seconded by john john hunt and i'll take a roll call john hunt yes brittany joyce yes hmm and yes neil odell yes kim and marcella iblassie yes lisa christie yes ben keaney yes and kelly mcconnell yes and kelly hersey yes thank you and rick rick johnson yes i'm sorry rick didn't see you there or rich johnson all 12 of
086us got it um next item on our agenda is report of the chair i have um nothing to report other than please do think about the committees and let me know um if you would like to move or um join a different committee jay battam superintendents report sure and in the interest of time i'm going to reserve my report for the dresden meeting okay thank you um and uh robin steiner superint assistant superintendent's report please thank you would you like me to hold off until the next meeting as well that would be probably um much appreciated thank you um and jamie teague business administration straighters report okay so in the interest of time i'm just going to point out that i actually just received the finalized audit from 2019 20 for sau 70. i will
087attach it to my section here right now for folks to review and we can answer questions and review it together at the next meeting other than that it's all quiet on the western front here thank you jamie um and are there any uh topics people would like to have discussed at the next meeting uh seeing none the next meeting will be on may kelly got some people oh i did miss whoever had their hands up i'm sorry yeah so um where are we on our annual retreat we usually do it in may i don't know with covid restrictions whether we want to push that off or are we still thinking may i don't know if there are any suggestions from anyone i'm happy to take them i'm assuming that we're going to be off as
088far as a an in-person retreat but um i think we can take any thoughts yeah kim maybe i propose the four chairs to discuss the timing of that in a next meeting that's a great idea we'll have the four chairs talk about that thank you kelly i'll just throw out there that uh my proposal at that next meeting would be that we may want to wait till after the school year given all the current situations and it'd be nice to get us through to the end without planning a big retreat before then and might be helpful for the administrators too but we can certainly come back as the four chairs as kim suggests that sounds like a great idea any other thoughts ben yes at the last meeting the one last week there were some
089other house bills that were discussed that we should perhaps think about making a statement on and i think if any of the board members want us as a collective to make a statement not something they may want to bring it up at the next meeting great yep thank you um anything else for the next meeting okay um 6 30 on may 3rd is our next meeting really there was one more hand raised by lisa i'm missing all the hands lisa i'm sorry um i i just wanted to i'm assuming this will happen but it feels as if we should have continued discussion about the dei work thank you i'll put that on as well thank you so much and i agree um anyone else i'm missing i see no hands um i would love a
090motion to adjourn rick motion to adjourn at 1924 1924 is there a second john um i'll take a roll call lisa yeah the christy yes john yes brittany joey cs tom with apologies to john camden yes garrett palmius him bart minius you dale yes marcelo eblassy yes and bikini yes rick johnson yes billy mcconnell yes and kelly hersey yes thank you all you did a great job callie thank you you in about a minute or less