001okay we're recording and streaming to youtube so you're good to go whenever you want to get started thank you josh uh let's give it two more minutes i'm looking at 6 58 on my clock are you checking the attendee because i know we had a few folks that aren't normally here just in case they came into the attendee side i don't see anyone but just just in case i'm not seeing anyone specifically josh but maybe uh some of my colleagues will notice someone and give me a quick heads up if we need to move them over just a quick reminder i can't start the hanover meeting until this one is finished too just so that folks are aware thank you and uh i do have it on strict guidance from chair johnson of the hanover
002meeting that we will start that one on time no pressure john chair johnson for another 45 minutes i am seeing 7 p.m i know we do have a couple of board members that are not quite on yet but i'm sure they will be dropping in soon but in the interest of time i'd like to call this meeting to order at 7 p.m um and before we get started i i want to check and see if she's on i believe she is i think she was talking at the beginning um i'd like to welcome everyone uh for joining us for the special meeting of the sau board tonight first i would like to welcome our newest board member from the hanover side brittany joyce uh thank you brittany for serving during this very critical time in
003our community um so thank you and welcome brittany i think you're in box three on my screen excellent um here thanks um but the purpose of this special meeting tonight is twofold um first we've invited senator sue prentice and representatives mary hacken phillips russ muirhead james murphy and sharon dorjan to give us a brief update on the legislative session and bills pertaining to education secondly we've been asked by many community members to take a position on hb 544 their letter which i believe at last count had been signed by over a hundred community members um and i'm going to double check in board docs to make sure if it's not in there yet we will have that added as soon as possible um we have collect we have allotted 45 minutes for this meeting since
004we do need to get um we do need to continue with the regular business meeting of the hanover school board meeting immediately following the conclusion of this meeting in order to keep things moving slowly we'll start with public input speakers will be asked to raise their hands and will be given two minutes comments should be addressed to the board and should not directly address or otherwise disparage any individual if necessary i will mute a speaker to remind you of these norms finally we would ask you to speak only when you have the comments to share that have not already been stated um we'll then move to a brief presentation for our invited state legislators finally we will ask the board to consider the request from the community to take a formal position on hb 544.
005before i open the meeting to public comment i would just like to make a general statement that the board recognizes that there are often a wide variety of opinions within our community on any given agenda item hb 544 is certainly no exception we would encourage everyone to engage respectfully with one another both during and after our meetings and to remember that our primary collective goal as a school community is ensuring we provide the best educational opportunity possible for all of our students with that i will move ahead to um first we'll have agenda review if there are any board members that would like to shift add or move anything on the agenda i see rick johnson's hand like i'd like to add to the end uh uh to the agenda a motion to approve a
006resolution from the sau 70 board members okay with that addition to the agenda i'm seeing a bunch of head nods super so um whoever has that that superpower within zoom or within board docs can you please uh add that to the end and also um we will share that letter thank you jay any other agenda items from board members that need to be moved shifted adjusted i'm not seeing any so at this time um i will open it up to public comment again just use the hand raising signal and i will allow you to speak um again please when you start please state your name and um where you live and uh please try to keep it to two minutes um and uh i will open it up now if anyone would like to speak
007see uh amanda silver hi amanda hi thank you um i am amanda silver i'm i live in hanover and i'm a parent of two children at the ray school i'm also an organizational consultant that works with businesses and non-profit organizations and i'm uh i'm i'm speaking because i want to urge you to issue this statement that reflects our opposition to hb 544 from my personal experience it's um as an organizational consultant it's only through honest and open exploration and conversations about the impact of structural racism that organizations are able to build welcome environments and it works from my experience and two decades of research it shows that diversity equity and inclusion training is good for staff retention it's great it's great for engagement it's great for productivity it's good for a higher academic achievement in
008our schools it's good for developing welcoming and inclusive school communities and hb 544 really threatens that it threatens the ability for our schools our teachers for new hampshire businesses to actually do this important work and for that i am deeply opposed to the bill and i want to register my support for the statement in opposition to it thank you very much i'm seeing oh i think i just okay so next i'm looking at uh gina disc congents i apologize i i think i butchered your last name i'm sorry no problem it's uh gina de cognier and uh i butchered it too when i first heard it and i met my husband who was not my husband so um gina de cognier i'm a resident of norwich um i have two children in the system one
009is a seventh grader at the richmond middle school one in fifth grade in marion cross um i'm also uh i'm calling to uh to express my strong opposition to this bill and i'd love to actually uh present the perspective of someone who i am the director of leadership and development at boston beer company um and in that role i oversee our training and development for uh 2 400 co-workers and i think it's important for us to think um into the future for our children and aside from the obvious benefits of teaching people about diversity and inclusion i think it's important that we think about today's employers care very deeply about these issues they're investing thousands and thousands of dollars in educating their employees and they are seeking to hire employees who exhibit fluency and understanding
010of issues of diversity and inclusion they want on people who exhibit leadership qualities of empathy and courage of integrity and if we were to exclude our children from learning these issues now we're setting them up to be potentially at a disadvantage when they're seeking employment in the future and so um with that i just want to ask that you please think very carefully and hopefully vote against this bill um i just think we do a huge disadvantage to the children of new hampshire and vermont who have the privilege of being educated there thank you so much thank you gina um running down our list uh kate hilton hi thank you to the board and thank you for your leadership and diversity equity and inclusion in our schools and thank you to the reps for joining
011us this evening my name is kate i'm the mother of two at the ray school i'm also faculty at the institute for health care improvement and at the atlantic fellows for health equity program at the george washington university as a parent i have grave concerns for the first amendment rights and educational experience of my children as they pertain to this bill but i'm speaking as an expert on the topic of health equity i will urge all of you to please issue a statement to oppose the bill 544 the bill is an example ironically of systemic racism and sexism perpetuated by the state of new hampshire which it seeks to avoid uh it it for those that are um uh proponents of the bill there's this notion of color-blind sexism that's the idea that everyone should
012be treated the same that we don't see color this ignores structural racism and the multiple systems of oppression that exist it ignores the unrecognized gatekeepers with the covert and overt racist views and biases and the predominance of whites in decision-making roles including many of them in our legislature we have to be able as other speakers have noted to see and talk about how racism and sexism are operating uh or we cannot address those disparities uh and as amanda noted the research tells us those disparities uh exist and if we don't see color then we're likely ignoring uh structural racism and sexism and have not thought about our own biases and how they might be playing out in various settings so with that i will urge you to please issue a statement to oppose the bill
013thanks thank you kate uh next uh caroline dieber hi you got that pretty close john my name is carol endeavor um i'm a resident of hanover oh she got moved back over to the attendees i think i clicked the wrong button i'm sorry i think you're back on now okay so i'm a hanover resident i'm the parent of a child at the rey school he's in fifth grade and i couldn't say a great deal about my grave concerns about hb 544 from my various professional perspectives but here tonight i'd like to speak as a parent my child is african-american as a person of color he deserves to be in a school system where the perspectives and specific history that he contributes to the community um play a role in his education and in the education
014of his loving exuberant wonderful classmates at the rey school and i ask you please to speak out against a bill that would seek to limit my child's right to speak to his own experience in the world thank you um emily sharer hi my name is emily shearer i'm a parent of children in the norwich schools and my understanding is for norwich to um the norwich school district to be able to make a statement about this bill we first start with the the larger body that we're a part of and i guess i agree with what everyone has said so far and spoken so well about what i would just say is that um as a parent i'm very much opposed to this bill i would i'm so opposed that i would feel now uncomfortable sending
015my children across the border to a new hampshire middle school and high school where this would be part of this policy would be enforced and i think that there's many other families in norwich who would feel the same way i know we sort of walk uh we're a small group of interstate school districts and i think uh the politics in new hampshire and vermont often are quite different and we've done a really good job so far of managing the the two states but i think um that might be sort of all broken apart by such a what i in my opinion a really horrible um bill so thank you for your time and for listening thank you emily uh greg crowley can you hear me now yes thank you for the opportunity to speak my
016name is greg crowley i live in hanover i have two kids one at richmond one at hanover high school i share the concern about divisiveness in our communities and schools and i support efforts to create greater unity here and across the state um but i don't see how this bill uh is going to accomplish this and and i think it could even make it worse um on a personal note you know i grew up maybe like many of those on the call tonight in a community that was divided this was 35 40 years ago i was lived in a suburb in which all of my neighbors all of my classmates all of my friends were white and we didn't discuss and we didn't learn about concepts like race or racism or anti-racism or systemic racism
017racism or any other concepts listed in bill 544 and i didn't really begin to sort of live a life that was more integrated where i actually had colleagues and friends and genuine relationships with people who were different than myself until i started to learn about those concepts um and they really equipped me with a much better understanding of how my own privileges that i did not see um were leading me to take actions and to live a lifestyle that was causing harm or could be causing harm to other populations of people even if that was not my intention that was a hard lesson to learn it was disturbing to understand that but with that i really became equipped to be a much more compassionate person um and a person who now works in a workplace
018where i am actively building um collaborative teams across race and in other differences and really feeling like i'm uh making progress and helping my organization to become a much better functioning organization using these concepts so um i would not want my children or any of my coworkers to be um prevented from utilization of these concepts um given how effective they've been for me i cannot speak for the quality of the particular curricula that may be in question when these concepts are used if we can improve the way they're taught that's great but the concepts themselves are extremely powerful and i urge the this community to come out in opposition to house bill 544. thank you so much thank you greg uh alison capadia hi this is yeah this is nirav kapaya i'm allison's husband i
019think we have some sort of crossed wires here in our tech devices um my wife and i do speak of a same voice and you know we're here really with one message as parents of a student in the race school and and one who will soon be there in the next year or so and that's essentially to say that racism exists on many levels and it shows itself in many forms racism shows itself uh when it's blatant when a child in claremont has a noose tied around his neck in a park um it's also shown itself in the discrepancies we see in the cove 19 deaths and now the vaccination rates systemic racism is now also showing itself at a national level in the systemic disenfranchisement that continues to this day with the gutting of
020the voting rights act of 1965. to be clear things are getting better and in order to get better we have to be able to talk about them this bill silences that discussion and if we cannot talk about it it will not get better and so i thank you our school board for looking into this and fiercely register my opposition to this bill thank you thank you um sarah mcdonald yes thank you um thank you for having this meeting i'm really grateful for you having this conversation i also want to register my wholehearted support for the dei work that you're doing in the district um as a parent of two children in the race school it's really encouraging to see this work being done um i hope very strongly oppose hp 544 i think it's a
021first amendment right violation i agree with the previous speaker that racism doesn't go away if we stop talking about it this is something that we really need to have free conversations about and really think about these issues and this bill i'm very worried will be a stopping point for those conversations um and i really urge you all to oppose the bill thank you sarah um johari hi um i'm johari ajwang i am a 2020 graduate of hanover high school and i was a student leader for the anti-racist and exploring whiteness march intensive that happened last year that i believe a lot of the bill takes the addresses um and i wanted to do two things one clarify that this was a march intensive class so it was one week there were about five to six
022students in it um and i don't think that's super clear in the bill and um additionally that uh i found a lot of value in the march intensive and um i believe uh it is it is important to have conversations surrounding race and racism both um that happen in the community in the upper valley and on the national scale which the march intensive addressed both um and yeah i found a lot of value in discussing and addressing um experiences specifically my experience as a black girl growing up in the upper valley i went through the entire hanover system and i believe that the march intensive and courses like uh the march intensive are important to continue and why uh the school board should take be opposed to the bill thank you thank you johari um
023jenny chambers that's great hi everybody i'm jennifer chambers i'm an alum of hanover high school i'm a teacher at the high school and i'm also a parent of three children in the district um i my husband and i are both educators and beyond that we're just stunned that we're even entertaining a bill like this we're talking about basic human rights and the decency and dignity of every human being um i have trouble with our children being in any educational problem program that doesn't embrace these these these feelings and morals and and absolute essentials of being a human being and um we do not support this at all and feel like the district and the lawmakers should reject it thank you thank you elizabeth susie that's why i hit you you're like i can't hi my
024name is elizabeth soucy and i am here to speak as a resident of hanover a teacher and a mother to two students in our district i am so grateful for the hard work that our district has done addressing inclusion diversity and equity for all of our students as a former social studies teacher i cannot express enough how important it is to recognize the history of racism in our country until we acknowledge our past there is no path to move forward we must recognize how race and inequality have shaped our country our teachers need to be able to express and explain how racism has impacted our country including today therefore i express my favor for continuing the work that we have done surrounding diversity equity and inclusion and wholeheartedly do not support hb 544 i urge
025sau 70 to release a statement in opposition to hb 544 thank you for the opportunity to speak thank you very much um so at this point i i am looking at the time but i also see quite a few hands still up um what i'm gonna do is we have had um you know kind of one side and we've heard a similar theme um so i'd like to open it up if folks have something new to add to the discussion um i would like you to raise your hand if not if you could put your hands down for the moment um i am seeing quite a few and and i do want to make sure we get through um all of the business this evening so if someone has something new um that would be
026fantastic all right i i do see some hands still up so um heidi tremarco thank you i'll keep it very brief i'm a hanover resident and parent of students in the district and i wanted to add the argument that hb 544 is would be an impermissible illegal and unconstitutional restriction on free speech in the guise of being against racism the bill would restrict what our teachers and state contractors could discuss and how they could discuss racism and sexism and this is exactly the type of content based and viewpoint based restriction on free speech that our courts abhor this is just a very unconstitutional and illegal restriction on free speech there are other reasons why i oppose hb that have already been voiced so i urge the board for that reason and the others voiced to
027take a stance against h.b 544 thank you thank you heidi joni uh hello thank you for an opportunity to speak tonight i actually i'm having trouble understanding what in the bill specifically i hear a lot of arguments i'm going to interrupt you for just a second can you state your name and uh residence please joni brown hanover thank you um so i'm having trouble understanding exactly like i read the bill and i'm not understanding everybody's talking about what they want to talk about racism and i agree with that i totally agree with that i'm just not what am i missing in the bill that restricts this i do understand that there are that they're trying to limit some of the discussion and as i read through the actual definition um some of it i'm thinking
028might not be such a bad idea so i would ask the board if you do vote can you identify what in the bill exactly you have an issue with because while i agree with the the former people who've spoken i want this discussed i want uh history taught i want all these these things taught i'm just not seeing it in the bill where this is going to be a an issue i i think that what is what they're trying to do is restrict it from becoming something so almost militant in in the approach to teaching racism inclusion and this is something we all want but i think what they're trying to do is maybe put a boundary up on making it so militant approach i think most of us who grew up with the martin
029luther king jr kind of uh teaching and learning that we learned uh that approach and so maybe going to such an extreme approach with what we're seeing coming into the schools maybe that's what they're trying to restrict and but i but everybody's who's calling and saying i'm against the bill because i i want this discussed in the classroom i'm not seeing how that's not cannot be discussed in the classroom nobody's pointing to exactly what's in the bill that would restrict this um so if you if you do vote on this all i ask is that you point to the bill what the language actually in the bill that you oppose and that's why you're opposing it i think that we need to know why you're opposing it please point to it um i'm trying to
030think what else uh i wrote a few notes down um yeah so i think you know as i read through it i also think that we need to teach the kids kindness you know if we can just focus on um compassion and kindness that that's probably i think what most parents want in the long run and and i think what they're trying to do is is say you know we don't want to go to such extremes and and and almost have it backfire on us uh one one last point is i grew up on the south side of chicago i grew up in a very very diverse community and now that i live in another state where it's not pretty much diverse at all uh you know i i live through a lot of what
031you're looking to do make things diverse and mean i'm sorry if i'm not making myself clear about this but believe me i i i appreciate diversity i grew up that way it it it came naturally to to us uh we we were immersed in diversity so this is certainly what we want for our kids but please just i mean i just don't want i don't want to go to an extreme either i don't want to see us go our school district go to an another extreme and and and maybe teaching a more militant approach to this i i grew up with with the martin luther king message junior message and and i love that message for my kids and everybody else and so if that's what this bill does i think maybe there's some value
032in that but please again all i ask is that you just notify us what in the bill exactly you're opposing and that maybe would make it easier for the rest of us to understand thank you thank you joanie and i i do want to point out that we do have our legislators here this evening that will um hopefully point to some of those questions and um the board will also be discussing and should we choose to um make a motion to entertain entertainer resolution all of that will be laid out within the resolution and the reasons why um but thank you very much looking ahead um mary coffey hi can you hear me yes oh great hi thank you so i'm a resident of lime i've lived in the upper valley for 16 years i
033have two stepchildren who went through the hanover school system kindergarten to high school and i have a biological child who will be a hanover high school student in a few years i'm also a historian of american art and history and so i think what i can add to this conversation is the perspective of a historian who's also an educator and i would argue that this bill would make it virtually impossible to teach american history if you can't talk about systemic racism i'm not sure how you can teach anyone about slavery i don't know how you can teach people about the civil rights movement i'm not sure how you can teach people about the women's movement or how women fought to get the vote or full citizenship i'm not sure how we can teach really any
034american history with the kind of restrictions on um speech that this bill puts in place and i would be really worried about a kind of endless stream of lawsuits against teachers just simply for trying to teach facts um i'll also say that like greg who spoke earlier i grew up in a profoundly segregated community in the midwest and i can say that when communities actively reject creating a an environment in which all people can experiences can be spoken about and um addressed uh they slowly but surely become um not just systemically racist but intentionally racist so the community i grew up in was the sun downtown it redlined students that i grew up with willfully and happily used racial slurs i left i've never gone back i refused to raise my children in a world
035like that but that's what happens if communities demonstrate an unwillingness to recognize their own privilege or to open um avid news for people who feel differently look differently and have different experiences to come in and find a home and a place in those communities thank you mary um at this time i am i i am going to um move forward with our um agenda just because i do want to make sure we we give an opportunity for our uh our legislators to present and speak and then for board members to discuss as well um and it is 7 30 so at this time um i am going to kind of shift over to our um to our panelists or to our uh our legislators and uh who would like to start hey john this is
036a wreck can you see me yeah rick uh i was just gonna for the people that did not have an opportunity to speak tonight please let us know uh your your views and opinions you have our email addresses it's available on the sau website i've received several emails yesterday and today and we'd love to collect those and include those as we discuss how we're going to proceed thank you thanks rick took the words right out of my mouth um so it again moving ahead um at this time i will turn it over um which one of our legislators would like to start i believe uh so if if there's no contention from the other for present i i have a powerpoint that i'm happy to start and then open the floor up to the to
037them as well for input as we go along sounds great um i want to make sure josh can you assist with um allowing mary to uh share her screen i'm done he'll be able to done thank you so thank you so much we've heard some really powerful um comments here shared tonight by our community members and uh we just wanted to to thank them for you know sharing their thoughts and their time with us um here's a bit of a road map for how i hope to kind of start this conversation from the legislative point of view and um there's no re no need to rehash um this hb 544 i'm putting up on the screen just the summary of the bill and then the arguments for and against it that have really been discussed
038at the state level and then just to mention in response to one of the comments earlier you know about the actual divisive concepts definition i think part of the reason why this bill is you know inexpedient to legislate is that those definitions cause ambiguity and i think that's part of the problem is that that ambiguity opens up the door to misinterpretation and litigation so without rehashing the pros and cons again which you've heard pretty thoroughly tonight i'd like to move on to just um remind everyone i know many of you are well aware of how bill becomes law here in the state of new hampshire but just to make sure everyone's on the same page i'd like to present this quick slide about the statutory process here in our state for legislation and that's the
039requirement under statute that every bill proposed gets a public hearing as well as a full vote by the body that hears it so as you can see from this slide it may start in the house or the senate after it's assigned to the committee there's a hearing and a recommendation by that committee before a full vote by the on the floor if it does pass the floor vote after committee then it would move to the other chamber the same process would start again it would be reconciled and then eventually moved to the governor's desk if everyone approves and ultimately the governor would be in charge of whether or not that becomes law um the power of this process obviously lies in our committees so let's review our committee assignments of the senator here tonight as
040well as the representatives if everyone senator apprentice and representative norridge grin murahad and murphy if you could just quickly in 20 seconds or less let us know which committees you're assigned to and the kind of bills you're seeing in those committees senator apprentice would you mind starting thank you representative hawkins phillips i am on the edge of senate education committee as well as executive departments in administration all the kinds of bills we're seeing in education we just finished up our senate bills have to do with funding have to do with school funding have to do with education freedom accounts otherwise known as vouchers have to do with some coveted emergency relief as well as the long a long-term plan for funding public education so those are the the primary bills that we have finished up
041in the in the senate and executive departments and administration that's about state employees licensure retirement state positions so it's a little more of on the administrative oversight of of government part legislation thank you thank you and representative nordgren and yet excuse me yes we didn't have a chance to do introductions so i would just say um i lived in hanover since 1972 i've been in the legislature since 1988 i am on the finance committee and we i is divided into three divisions and i'm on division three which deals with 50 of the budget it's a health and human services budget thanks and representative moorhead thank you mary and i i just also want to know that this is a really difficult session but a great delegation which offsets the i think the strain and stress
042of what we're up against this term uh senator prentice um and and representative nordgren and murphy and you uh representative hack and phillips i mean we've we we get along really well and we're you know able to work together beautifully and and that cooperation is a source of real satisfaction to me as i serve on the election law committee fighting off some of the very worst legislation that i can possibly imagine legislation that really does try to roll back everything that's been accomplished in american democracy since 1965 when for the first time really americans got serious about defending the right to vote there's a lot of legislation that would make access to the ballot more difficult there's a lot of legislation that's trying to make it extremely difficult not impossible for college students to vote
043whether their parents live out of state and they go to school in new hampshire or whether they grew up in new hampshire and go out of state to school either way they want to get the game is disenfranchise them there's legislation that makes it easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to give money to candidates without any transparency or accountability and you know we're fighting off uh legislation that would empower um partisans to draw district boundaries that don't make any sense unless you're a partisan seeking power and and so it's a it's a daily fight and it's um it's a draining fight and uh and it's in that context that i have to say i i really so much value this delegation and and especially i'd say the wisdom of our um the dean of this
044delegation representative norgren thank you um representative your head and representative murphy could you bring us home well thank you mary uh my name is jim murphy i have lived in hanover for over 42 years i am the very grateful beneficiary of the wonderful school system in hanover i had two children that went through hanover nursery school all the way through high school so thank you to uh the board and all that they do mary and i are both on ways and means and what we are really trying to do is uh and have been doing for the last several weeks is generating a proposal of the revenues that will be coming in to the state so that senator representative norgren can spend it in the finance committee uh we are dealing with many bills which
045are like um russ said are turning over and um reshaping the um uh the policies within the state including um cuts that you will hear about in the business profits tax uh cuts in the business enterprise tax uh changes to the interest and dividends to ultimately eliminate it all of which is really really frustrating especially in the time of covid because what we're really doing is passing many bills because we are in the minority we have sometimes little say and that's what russ is referring to with our frustration uh but are cutting back in revenues that ultimately will significantly impact things like the school system obviously it will definitely impact property taxes and that's the message we need to get out and also other very needed programs uh throughout the state so uh thank you
046for having us here tonight and uh happy to always take any questions uh representative murphy so um with that short um review i'd just like to bring everyone's attention that hb 544 is actually being heard in the house executive departments and administrative committee or at least that's where it originated so let's review the numbers our party control of new hampshire house and senate is dominantly controlled by the gop you can see here from the breakdown that you know there isn't much to be done in terms of the numbers in the actual legislature but the problem is worse than that we also have republican control of our executive branch including the governor's office and the executive council the unfortunate reality is that regardless of you know policy decisions and the merits of those policies proposed if
047the gop has a bill they'd like to propose and pass there's little the democrats can do at this time to oppose them through the legislative process so the status of h.b 544 was the house public hearing in early february mid-february they did take a vote march 4th to pass it out of committee so it's headed to the house floor which we anticipate voting on at the end of march at a date to be determined knowing that the gop has control of the house it is likely to pass and be sent to the senate keeping in mind that before it becomes law we'll also have to have the full public testimony vote by a senate committee and then pass the senate floor before reaching the governor's desk the good news is that on march 8 the
048governor did mention on nhpr that the bill is unlikely to um if it reaches his desk it's unlikely to pass he's likely to veto it given the constitutionality issues that we um have already talked about this evening and through public comment so one of our recommendations for getting involved during the legislative process for concerned citizens is to weigh in assuming that the house does in fact pass the bill from the full floor by going to the general court website not only monitoring the senate's calendar for when the bill will come up in a committee but also signing in to register your opposition or support for the bill by going to that front web page down in the blue box of links to remote meetings you'll find a link to senate remote testimony where it'll bring
049you to the second green landing page where you can vote um or weigh in using the date the committee the bill number and then assigning whether or not you want to speak or just register your opinion outside the legislative process there are other ways to affect public policy against this bill which is important for you know trying to persuade our gop legislators in other parts of the state and some of those ways to affect public opinion opinion are listed here to find any contact information for any legislator you would just need to go to the general court website and you can find everyone's address emails telephone numbers unfortunately there are several other bills in the house and senate of concern related to education that we would like to bring to your attention and at this
050time i'd like to open the floor to senator apprentice and then the representatives if any of these bills they'd like to address or others concerning the way we you know educate our children and fund our schools so senator apprentice if you just could speak for a minute or two and then we'll pass the hat i was muted thank you of representative hawkins phillips so um a few bills that i want to talk about one of which is noted here which is senate bill 130 the education freedom accounts so that actually uh passed the senate education committee um yesterday and is going to be going to the senate floor it it essentially it allows for funds to be taken out of the really the pot that we have for public education now um and support choice
051you know for um it could be religious schools or any any other type of private school it was amended for at least five amendments and two of the best um two of the best that i did overall i did not vote in favor of this bill and in fact i didn't want to vote in favor of any amendments but when i saw that the path um this was going to pass and we had to get it to the floor looking better than it did one that created accountability and actually studied the impact on the public education as it's funded now which is already a serious concern i thought that that was worthy of support from senator hennessey who is just north of us in um well in the north country and the other amendment had
052to do with the definition of who was eligible in terms of um really in terms of their their income status for their family so low and moderate income so folks that can afford private education could not use these funds towards could not use these funds towards sending their children to the school system of their choice the bottom i'm not in favor of this bill i think it's moving in the wrong direction we have we still have a lot of questions and have an inability to solve the education funding situation in new hampshire which has to do with you know equity and fairness across the board for public education in our and our children so i think that that is one of the most important fundamental concepts of senate bill 158 which was the long-term funding
053formula which grew out of or was developed from the new hampshire school funding commission which the legislature directed um actually approp appropriated had funds for this commission to develop a plan for long-term funding of that bill set up at 158 and was inexpedient to legislating committee yesterday um not we tried to re-refer it so to hold on to it to try to make it better because ultimately we need to solve this problem we can't just keep kicking the kid down the road we were unable to get that passed and the last thing that i will share with you something that has already passed the senate which is senate bill 135 and what that does is it restores the adma so basically your average daily attendance to the pre-covered numbers so that you will not see
054a dip in the adequacy funding that would come to your local community we know that the attendant attendance records have dropped and have changed significantly and if we use the current numbers it could provide a significant gap and require communities to fill that gap to keep their school systems going so that has passed the senate and we'll be moving over to the house i am on um senate as i said before edna executive departments and administration and it is likely um that house bill 544 will end up because it has to do very specifically as a language defining the state and the following entities it's most likely to end up before um senate e-dna and trust me i'm not in favor i'm already hearing a lot about it okay mary i went past my two
055minutes thank you very much thank you senator apprentice um and again i've just handed over to the reps i see representative norgren has her hand up so i'll let her go first if she needs to speak denise thank you very much i just want to call attention to the last bill listed under the house list house bill um i communicated with one of my friends a former leader of the democrats doug lay he's on the education committee in the house this bill 455 permits pupils to attend any public school in the state in certain other states so no people don't have to pay tuition to come to hanover schools but the only way you could deny applications would be lack of space for if a pupil is under suspension so this could certainly impact the
056hanover school district and the tuition that is being charged to students coming in just wanted you to be aware of that when i would pay attention i'm sure it's going to pass thank you representative norgren and mr representative murphy you're next i just wanted to add something else because i know that we've been focusing on 544 and i am truly um sympathetic and understand all the wonderful comments that have been made by the parents uh that have spoken thus far and i would only like to say that in addition to the potential negative effects that this bill would have on our children in the school system it would also have a significant impact on the healthcare workers that we have within the upper valley specifically i'm thinking about all the many residents fellows interns and
057even the staff and faculty at dartmouth hitchcock apd and other hospitals that have to do e-learning modules whereby we had to participate and then training sessions addressing unconscious bias and how it impacts health disparities in our system so i just want to let you know that in addition to the school's impact it also affects education elsewhere including our hospitals locally thank you representative murphy um so um i'm not seeing representative moorhead's hand so i'm i'm gonna assume that he's okay to move on is that correct maybe just a little thumbs up yeah thank you thank you mary i mean i think you know it's just worth noting where there's an extreme element that's pulling extreme legislation through the house in particular and you know we went down to bedford for two days of session and
058sat with what 70 to 100 people who refused to wear masks indoors for two days and and it's just a it's just a visible signal of of a large group that's pulling some of this very extreme legislation through the house even legislation that the governor as soon as he sees it says i won't sign um so so we're really going to be depending on senator prentice and her colleagues um and we're going to be depending how to say it on the governor too and on communities like this one yes thank you representative had an important point there so um i know the time is running long so i just want to remind everyone we would not have been in this position if the election results in 2020 had not ended up giving the gop the
059majority so i'm going to encourage everyone to make a plan for 2022 encourage you to get involved with the hanover and lyme democrats or the upper valley democrats to help us retake the majority in 2022 and to consider donating to help the cause their email address is there and the act blue account link as well and finally it's just to encourage everyone to make a plan to mark their calendars for november 8th 2020 and to really commit to voting all the way down the ballot front and back because as you've seen today that these state offices really have an effect on your community not only here in our wonderful towns of hanover and line but in norwich as well but also um across the state so talk to your friends talk to your employers talk
060to those third-party contractors and try to you know do your best to help change opinions so thank you so much for your time i'm gonna throw back to the chair i'm sorry we went over no problem thank you all for uh for that information and those updates um i would like to uh open it to board members now i do recognize the time that um we have moved into the hanover school board meetings time and we can't start that one until this one is done but i think this is um an important subject that we should uh discuss or continue to have the conversation so if any board members would like to speak um i will take board member hands raised if you could yeah thank you i see marcella's hand and her hand on
061the on the um chat thing so if you could use the chat thing that would be the easiest for hand raising in the future but thank you very much marcela so um thank you so much for the delegation being here today thank you for having this meeting thank you for everyone who shared their opinions i'm incredibly grateful i am in favor of making a statement of opposition um and i'd like to speak to one of reason why that we haven't really discussed yet and so i'll just read the statement quickly um it's a it's a short version this bill hb which i have read in full is a manipulative attack on the attempt to meaningfully educate about race and gender in our state the bill is peppered with obvious truisms in order to obscure its
062more insidious claims those specious interpretations of this bill that claim it is in fact about preserving open dialogue about race and sex in the united states assume the validity of something known as reverse racism or reverse discrimination a term left over from reactionary responses to affirmative action in the 70s which supposes that the advocacy for non-white groups actually harms white people even if it goes unnamed reverse racism is a major and recurring manifestation of anxiety about so-called white guilt and white reactionary anger and it has been brought up again and again most recently in donald trump's 1776 commission which hugely informs hv 544 in january the commission report was released a sweeping call for quote patriotic education that claimed the american enslavement of people and theft of their labor is a false critique of our
063nation's identity notably the report was a response to the murder of george floyd and the subsequent human rights protests implied in this report like in hb 544 is the idea that understanding structural inequity is somehow actually really about making white people feel bad and is therefore also racist this belies what racism actually is a structure not a slight a structure not an individual's realization this erroneous idea is central to hp544 including the extensive definition of what is prohibited under the bill in part g of the items defined as being prohibited concepts i'll quote an individual by virtue of his or her race or sex bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex on its face this is just sort of obviously true and yet it also
064reveals that this is about the anxiety the tremendous amount of anxiety about guilt and white guilt this bill isn't about open and free dialogue this bill is about pretending the prevention and possibility of white guilt is more important than an actual factual education about american history and its inextricable link with ongoing structures of marginalization so i think there are three takeaways um this isn't new this is the same kind of reactionary white anger that crops up throughout history whenever whiteness is threatened this is not a political this is a trump republicanism marked by ultra nationalism three this is partisan politics at its worst when partisan politics pretend to be apolitical and in the interest of equity and i just like to um reiterate what our representatives have said that this isn't the only bill of
065concern i am going to research all of the bills on their watch list and i'm very grateful to them for pointing it out um but i'd also just like to point out that hb 506 which would make vaccinations optional is also very worrisome to me hp 198 which is the transphobic bill about women's sports is something that i'm very concerned about and hp 276 is about the revocation that menstrual products should be provided for free at public schools i think that we should be having conversations about all of these thank you thanks marcella uh ben yeah thanks john i first want to echo marcelo's concerns about several different bills and think we should discuss many of them on a future date i have a two-part question first for the sau administrators and second for our
066legislators who i again thank for joining us tonight um for the sau folks do we have a history of making statements like this on proposed bills and what happened as a result as a result of making those statements if we did and second for the legislators if the school board were to make a statement about this one way or the other are there any unintended consequences that could arise as a result of us making a statement thanks jay wow okay it's it's uh it's not usual for a superintendent to wait into the the politics of all this but i will um this board has um in the not too distant past uh weighed in uh when when it came to the question of whether or not guns should or could be carried in our schools
067on voting day or really at any time and and the board created a resolution and sent that to the legislature and the governor of new hampshire to register uh our discontent with that that uh current law and uh so so we we have and and when legislation is being proposed that impacts the school system impacts our kids and our educators [Music] you absolutely have the the right and arguably the duty to weigh in one way or the other and so as far as any any implications it's interesting in my in my former district where we were very heavily reliant on the state for funding um there was a lot more cause for caution and had to do a lot of tiptoeing and divided government um for us i don't think many folks in um in
068concord question um where a lot of our political thought is in the upper valley while we do have a diversity of political thought we do tend to be an area that is more progressive and and so i don't think it will come as a great shock that we would take take a stand in opposition to this bill um i would i guess defer to the legislators as far as any potential political uh downside to the the board taking a position but i don't see i don't see one that that is real obvious thanks jake uh representative from your head i just want to say on the on the you know communicating something like this to the legislature the one thing i guess i'd encourage the school board to do it anyone in town really is
069to really think about the audience um and and sometimes the audience is domestic it's the town it's the students the teachers the parents and the residents of hanover and we want to write a letter that you know creates kind of a mirror in which we can see what we stand for and um but but if your audience if you're really trying to persuade someone in the legislature keep in mind the people have to persuade are republicans and in particular centrist republicans and the governor's argument was instructive you know i my sense is that arguments that focus on free speech and the costs of litigating this are probably going to be more persuasive with that audience than the insights of critical race theory which i myself truly find illuminating and interesting and persuasive but you're not
070trying to persuade me i'm already with you so so think a little bit about the audience as you put the if you're going to put a letter together thank you um kelly mcconnell sorry i thought you might go to rick first i've got popcorn being made in the back so i apologize for that noise um i just wanted to kind of echo what representative weir had said because um you know i listened to the governor on nhpr the other day and one of the things that he said was that the um his objection personal the reason he's thinking of vetoing it was the free speech but then also a matter of local control and i thought that was a really interesting very neutral argument you know we have people who have strong feelings about some
071of the trainings taking place about some of the words that are being used and the vocabulary and i think we want to continue to have conversations as a community um and his comment was that taking you know bringing in a big a big state bill i think that's the wording he used a big state bill to control that takes away the opportunity for local communities to have those conversations and make decisions locally so i thought that was a really powerful statement from him as well thanks kelly i think your popcorn is ready um and i do see i know rick's hand was up but i did i did see representative norgren's uh hand up so i think i'm gonna leapfrog you rick and go to our our guest thank you very much um i just
072wanted to comment um and really go on with what russ has said one of the problems the governor has is that he has a very split republican party um he's going to end up with a lot of bills on his desk that he's not going to like and he's planning to run for senate so the interesting fun for us will be watching what happens after the senate passes all these bills down and uh the fallout from that so we i also wanted to just quick say welcome to tim boyle because i haven't seen you since you moved back to the upper valley um from your childhood yes and congratulate brittany for joining the board of thanks thank you um i am going to go to rick johnson now finally john thanks i'd like to make
073two motions one to close discussion and then move to uh have a motion for the sau board to uh draft a resolution and discuss it and vote on it at next week's regular meeting scheduled for next tuesday i believe so i don't know if we i guess do the two motions separately so move to close discussion and a second kelly hersey any comment now we'll go around the uh room uh kelly hersey percy yes tom camden yes ben yeah yes but i would like to hear lisa speak she will have an opportunity yes thank you yes what kim is kelly mcconnell mcconnell yes garrett palma marcela iblasias neil odell yes brittany joyce yes did i do that right perfect thank you great lisa christy yes with thanks to ben and rick johnson yes and hunt
074yes um so we will close that discussion but before we make rick's next motion um i'm gonna let lisa jump in here yeah i will be brief i have a lot to say on this as i'm sure isn't surprising to anyone um but i will leave it to marcela for the critical race theory critique um and i just wanted to respond to kelly's point um i think that well i would like to urge us to have a resolution against 544 and i think that in our wording of it we need to achieve two purposes i think we need to lead by example and show our students that we see them um and that it is important for difficult conversations to happen that's how learning occurs and these students who feel marginalized for whatever reason need
075to feel seen so i think our resolution needs to support our students and i also think our resolution it sounds as if from listening to the representatives and the senators needs to help the governor um have some coverage for vetoing this bill if needed um and i think that the audience is not necessarily the senators or the representatives because it sounds as if this is going to pass um but we need to make sure that we offer the governor whatever coverage he needs to veto if it does pass so thank you thanks lisa and now rick i will go back to you i'd like to move for uh the sau board to draft a resolution and discuss it and vote on it at next week's regular sau 7d meeting scheduled for tuesday at 7 pm
076and a second then any discussion neil um just some clarification when we authorize the sau board to do that is it the in are we suggesting that the entire board will craft that resolution or do we want to delegate that authority to a chair or chairs i was i was thinking maybe the four chairs kneel initially and then we can share it uh on board docs or so i would suggest that the motion be more specific that we are going to authorize the the four chairs to uh to to develop that resolution i concur with that amendment any further discussion as amended okay we'll go around the room kelly hersey first say yes tom and yes ben keaney yes kim kart kelly mcconnell mcconnell yes garrett palmies marcella brittany joyce yes lisa christie s rick
077johnson yes hunt yes thank you uh jamie i see your hand yeah just for clarification um mostly for the 63 attendees the sau's next meeting is at 6 00 p.m not seven okay thank you jamie thanks rick thank you thanks jamie anything further we don't have a need for non-public during this meeting um any agenda topics um please email me um and i will make sure that goes to the appropriate person who will be running the next meeting um and uh i do see two before before we do close i do see two hands up in the um attendees um if if there's something that has not been discussed um i i guess i can shift to you quick if we can keep it quickly um heidi tremarco thank you i would just ask the
078chair if the minutes could reflect how many people attended the meeting and how many people raised their hands and if you have record of it how many hands worries that did not get to speak so hopefully that could be recorded in the minutes i would also urge the committee i know it need the resolution needs to be drafted and then voted on but if it's i don't know if the rules allow for it to be voted on before next tuesday but i understand the vote is in front of the house next wednesday and so i urge this committee to act with this i'm sorry this board to act with some expediency here and get that done as soon as possible thank you thank you heidi and um anna olsen anna you are uh on but
079i believe you're muted so um you are more than welcome to speak again state where you're from and uh and try to please keep it to two minutes thank you anna olson hanover resident um parent and two students also helped her work for her in the upper valley um i would just urge you guys to um as you drop this resolution with expediency to oppose hb 544 to also look at maybe um seeking some input from those um individuals of color within the school district who play a role in your di um training um and your committees that you have um i think it's very important to make those voices heard when this does get brought to the state level um that people you know persons of color are and marginalized groups women are especially
080um part of this drafting and part of this resolution thank you i do see representative uh hawking phillips um if you did you want to respond to one of those comments feel free just a quick update in terms of status so the house is not scheduled to meet next wednesday where the floor vote would take place that date has not been determined yet we anticipate it will be at the end of march um so your body does have a bit of time to vote on their resolution which i understand you'll be meeting next tuesday that would be plenty of time great thank you very much for that clarification any further comment from the board or administration this time i would take a motion to adjourn kim kim you're muted move to adjourn at 8 12
081p.m and a second lisa any discussion now um kelly hersey uh hersey yes tom and yes ben keaney yes kim art mania kelly mcconnell connell yes garrett palmies marcella iblassy yes neil oh dale yes brittany joyce yes lisa christie yes rick johnson yes and hunt yes um again i want to remind folks that the next sau meeting is our regular meeting next tuesday march 16th at 6 p.m um and uh i hope to see you all there i do want to take this opportunity to thank our legislators for taking the time um out of their busy schedule for for addressing the board tonight um and answering some questions so thank you all for taking the time um and a very special thank you to our community which i think we were close to a record
082in um attendees again so i'm really excited about that it's nice to see uh large groups of folks attending so thank you all very much um for those of you going to the hanover meeting i will see you in a few minutes this time i will close the