SAU41 Governing Board 5/14/2026

001It's 6 o'clock. We will um begin our meeting now. So I would like to start for a nomination for chairperson of the SAU41 governing board for the 2627 term. Do I have any nominations? >> I nominate Amy Kelner. Is there a second? >> Second. Uh, sorry, I'm taking notes. All right. Are there any other nominations for chair? Seeing none, would anyone like to speak to the nomination? >> I'll speak to my nomination. Um, Amy years ago was the vice chair of this board and did a phenomenal job at that time and then she's also chaired the Holla school board. So, I think she has the experience to manage 17 of us. Congratulations to her. Okay. Um, so let's take a vote on the election of Amy Kelner to the role of chair of the governing

002board. All those in favor. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. It's um a tight match. Uh all those opposed. >> All right. Congratulations. Here's your >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for the vote of confidence. I will do my best. Um, okay. At this point, I'm going to call for nominations for the vice chairperson of the SEU41 governing board for the 2026 2027 uh term. Any nominations? >> I'll nominate myself. Okay. Um, so do I have a second? >> Okay, perfect. Um, is there any discussion? >> Would you want to ask for other nominations? >> Yes. Your own nomination. >> Are there any other nominations for vice chair? >> Um, I'll nominate myself. >> Okay. Do I have a second for Jonathan? >> Second by Rafie. Okay. Would anybody

003like to any Are there any other nominations? >> Okay. Um, are there any was any discussion anybody like to speak to either of the candidates? >> Yeah, I'll speak to like so I um I had a really like good time hearing spec actually which I know is probably not something that a lot of people say. Um and I would like the opportunity to make like continue that work and kind of be more involved in that. And I think that this is a good step to kind of be able to do that and um be able to just kind of like also continue to grow like leadership skills um in a nice like easy way other than jumping into the fire. Great. >> Um, I was looking around at the same similarities of I wanted to

004take on a little bit more of a leadership role. Um, I know the Hall of School Board has quite a bit of that established at the moment, but I thought that coming forward to this and giving it a try at this level would be something I could chew and give it. >> Okay, great. Thank you both. Any further discussion? Okay, do we need the calculator? >> Oh god. >> All right. Uh, yes. We have the calculator. >> I think we don't have the secretary yet. >> Do we need the calculator? >> I I I can't even get into my agenda right now, so I can't pull up the calculator. I'm looking >> It's not unanimous, which is why we're going to pull up the the the calculator. >> Do you want the voting? I have

005it. >> Do you have it open? I don't have it open. >> Lauren is going to be the >> Okay. >> So, you have to call by >> by board. Okay. So, we'll start with um Johanna's nomination first. And I do I correct me if I'm wrong. You can actually vote for both candidates if you want to. Correct. >> Okay. Okay. >> So, you can vote for >> seconds. Yes, we do. Okay. >> So, go ahead. >> Which So, can we go by board? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. So, we'll start with Johanna's nomination. Um and I will start with the Brookline board. All in favor of um Johanna for vice chair Brooklyn. Brooklyn Brookline only. >> I'm so busy trying to get my agenda which I finally figured out. I can't get

006it from >> Oh, wait. It's not letting me type into it. Wait. Okay. Sorry. >> So, there's four members here. >> Yes. >> And four voted yes. >> In favor. Correct. >> Okay. We'll move on to >> the co-op board >> or the co-op board. All in favor of Johanna for vice chair co-op board >> on >> five. >> And how many members are here? >> Five. >> I sense a pattern. >> Okay. All right. Now we'll move to Hollis. >> All in favor of Johanna for vice chair from the Hollis board. >> Okay. I'm seeing one. >> And how many Hollis members are here? Three. Three. Three. Okay. Do we vote against? Do we do like >> No, you need to see how many people >> now we just do in favor of Jonathan.

007>> I think so. >> Okay. >> I don't know. That's wrong. That's >> Yes. Okay. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> So, we'll start with Brookline. All in favor of um Jonathan for vice chair. Okay. Zero. Um co-op. All in favor of Jonathan for vice chair. Two. >> Three. I think that's three out of six. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Sorry. Three out of six. >> Okay. >> Wait. I'm not I'm not Okay. I'm getting nervous. >> Lauren, are you are you good? >> No. This is actually slightly stressful. Okay. Wait. Um, >> so we both count Robs >> both because you would didn't vote for the other candidate for vice chair. >> Okay, that's fair. >> Okay. calculator and the weighted voting. >> I thought it was just a single horse from the race. So, >>

008no. Okay. So, for for Kentucky. >> Okay. So, for Jonathan, for Brooklyn, how many yeses were there? >> Zero. And then there Okay. So, there's four. And then for co-op now that we're redoing it, how many yeses for Jonathan? Two. Yes. And then three would be no. Okay. >> Yes. Okay. And now, are you all set, Lauren? Ready to move on? >> Yes. All right. Hollis. >> Hollis. All in favor of Jonathan for vice chair from Hollis. Two of >> three. >> Lauren will be able to tell us the results in just a moment. >> No pressure. >> I know. I know. I got it. Okay. And and how many hollow members are here? Three. >> Three. >> And the voter says >> next time we need one that goes like one of the little

009picker things. You pull the answer. >> Okay. So what am I reading for the weighted? So this so just the total at the end. >> It should be some number three or less. Three or three or less? >> Yes, because >> Oh, I know. I know what I did. I figured it out. >> Okay. >> There's a maximum of three votes. There's three votes total per board. >> Does this bring you back to when you were on the board, Lauren? >> It does a little bit, but I don't think I ever had to do this. Anyway, um >> I'm not at a number three or less, though. I know I'm not. There's four There's four members here from Brooklyn, five members here from Co-op, three members here from Hollis. 45013. >> I'm glad we didn't

010have to do this. >> The total number The total number is nine. >> It should all Well, you can't have more than nine for a candidate. >> It is saying that for for Johanna it's seven. Yeah. >> And for Jonathan it's 3.2. >> Yep. That sounds about right. >> Okay, >> that's right. >> All right. >> Even give them a head count. That's right. >> Okay. All right. Congratulations, Johanna. >> Yay. or condolences as the case may be. >> Okay. Um, moving on to treasurer. >> Uh, treasurer is next. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm looking for a nomination for the treasurer of the SC41 governing board for the 2026 2027 term. >> I am the nominator. Um, I'm going to nominate Rob to keep doing it because he's been doing a great job. >> You know

011that the budget didn't PASS LAST TIME. I'M GONNA nominate John John Rob so that he lessons will be learned and he will improve >> just full disclosure. >> Okay. Do we do we have a second? Okay. >> Um are there any other nominations for treasurer? >> Consequence you have to deal with it now. >> Okay. Seeing none I will call for the vote on uh Rob Man for treasurer of the governing board. All in favor? >> Did you count it? I >> Anybody opposed? >> We don't need the That's all that matters. >> Right. Any nos? Abstensions. Okay. >> How many people are here? >> What? >> Oh, 1201. >> 1201. Okay. 12:01. Motion passes. Congratulations, Rob. >> Thank you. >> Without voting for yourself. >> I never do. Okay, at this point I'm looking

012for nominations for the secretary position. >> You get to run the calculator. >> I think I think Jessica's okay with it. I got a text with Carol today and I think I think she's okay with it. So, >> um, you guys know her better than I do, but I feel like she's okay. That's what I've heard through hearsay. >> Is she the current secretary? >> Yeah. So, I could nominate her again unless someone else wants to be nominated. >> OH, THERE SHE IS. THERE SHE IS. >> WOW, that timing was perfect. >> It's like on Q. >> There's there's another chair here as well. >> Okay, >> Jessica, would you mind if I nominate you for secretary? >> I'm happy to be nominated for secretary. >> I'm nominating Jessica for secretary. >> Okay. Any other

013nominations? >> Calculator while you weren't secretary. Any other nominations for secretary? >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Thank you, Jessica. >> I'm happy to do it again. >> I'm sorry that I uh was late arriving today. >> Okay. All in favor of Jessica for secretary. >> My hands up. >> Not that person. >> All opposed. Any obstance? Okay. 1300 Z. Motion passes. >> 14. >> Oh, right. Right. >> It's been wild. Okay. >> Congratulations, Jessica. Okay. Um, signers of the manifest. Am I looking for that tonight? It looks like >> Okay. Is there anybody that would be interested in being the signer of the manifest? >> Cindy and Jonathan. Do we vote on that or just declare it? Okay. I had an alternate. >> Perfect. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Okay, thank you everyone. Second

014for the vote. >> And there's no other committees officers. >> We do the committees in our own meetings and then >> I I think so. >> Okay, great. >> Yeah. >> If there's anybody that we need to um appoint, we can do that next month. appointment or from last year? >> No, that's on that's on the agenda >> somewhere. I thought I thought I saw >> it is. >> Yeah. >> Um, should we do public hearing or we have to more minutes? >> Should we go to nomination or agenda adjustments? >> Yes, we shall. Are there any agenda adjustments? >> I have none. >> You're just messing with us now. >> Tom, you have an agenda adjustment? Oh, it got added. Okay, it's on there now. >> Sorry. >> I still look for the old

015one. >> Did you have a consent agenda for this? >> Oh, you printed out early. We don't Okay, it's nominations. Okay. >> All right. So, um, dear Gina and Lance, I've decided to retire from my position at SAU41 with my final working day being June 3rd, 2026. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunities I've had working for the SAU41 school district, starting as a substitute teacher in all the schools in 2005 to becoming a speech assistant at Hughes, then to a special ed PAR, and finally landing my current job with SAU in 2015. I loved each job in its own way, but for sure my current role has been my favorite. The team at SAU41 surely has become like family to me, and I will miss everyone here. But my future in Nashville with my growing

016family is definitely calling me. Spending time with my grandchildren and family, cooking, reconnecting with old friends, reading, writing, and traveling around the world is the next chapter in my life, and I'm walking into retirement with a full heart. Over the coming months, I will do my best to ensure a smooth transition. Thank you for your support and kindness, and I wish you and the entire SAU41 team nothing but the best. Warm regards, Linda Sherwood. Um, I'm looking for a motion to accept the resation of Linda Sherwood from the position of >> director of business operations. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, can I have a motion? >> So move with much thanks. >> Yes. With many many. >> Do I have a second? All in favor of accepting resation. >> 14. >> And while we're

017still on this, I know it's 615, but I just want to share some correspondence. So, um, in the fall we got our health insurance rates and we were not really pleased with our rates being anywhere from 10.4% to 15.1% of an increase over the prior year with dental going up 4.4%. So, um, our human resources director worked incredibly hard all year long trying to, um, get better rates. Um, so she consulted with insurance broker, used our SAU41 claims data to get real-time rate data for comparable plans. Um, and the rates that we received were anywhere from 20 to 25% higher than what we have. So um we are recommending to continue our relationship with health trust. So we tried >> quick question. >> Yes. >> Who is now available in New Hampshire for that kind

018of coverage? >> Uh >> do you know who else? >> So we there's school care, there's health trust. Um, we actually went private. >> Okay. >> Just given some of the volatility with uh insurance pools. >> Has there ever been or has there recently been any analysis to self-insuring? >> Um, so I believe that was a component of the proposal like looking at self-insuring not being part of a pool and um the the rates don't match. >> Okay. >> But we can continue to look and Well, self-insuring is different than not being part of a pool. Self-insuring is where we just instead of paying premiums, we just stick it in a in a piggy bank >> and administer it ourselves. I just wasn't sure if that was that something that we looked at. >> So,

019they looked at um all options and that so would include a pretty significant stop loss coverage which is also incredibly expensive. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. At this point, It is 67. I am looking for a motion that the board recess until the conclusion of the public hearing on the request to expend funds from the unassigned fund balance. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? All in favor? >> Any opposed? So at this point we are in recess at um and we are moving into the public hearing. >> Yes. Okay. So the purpose of the public hearing is to provide an update and obtain public input um on the requested expenditure from the unassigned fund balance in accordance with RSA 19820C. Um the unassigned fund balance is an account governed by the

020SA41 governing board. The board can approve the utilization of the unassigned fund balance for expenses deemed necessary for the SAO. As was stated in a communication provided by the business administrator, the anticipated year-end fund balance is estimated to be in the negative of $78,115. The figure is subject to change when approaching the end of the fiscal year with encumbrances and expenditures being finalized. requested is a board approval to expend an amount up to 85,000 from the unassigned fund balance to address the anticipated deficit. >> So, would you like to open? >> Okay. Yes. At this point, at 619, I'm going to open the floor for public comment. I'm not seeing any public. Is the referenced note posted or available? >> Like here's the notice and here's the >> No, not that. The the one that

021outlines the the deficit >> why we're in the negative. >> In that note you just read, it said at the most >> Yep. >> noted in the most is that part of the packet? >> Yep. revenue and expense report which I'm trying to figure out what page it's on. >> Okay, it's the one that's item two under >> page 34 I believe. >> Yeah, page 34 is the revenue expense report. So, um I can tell you that overages um were discussed already with this board. One of the significant overages was um the overlapping for the transition for the director of technology. Um so we maintained a point4 of our retired former director of technology. Um we requested to utilize funds in the February meeting for software that would be utilized sau primarily in human resources

022and special education. And we also used uh some of the fund balance to support um mentoring for our um for our new business administrator. So those are the reasons we um were in the negative. Is that the question you were asking? >> My question is for for people who are watching. >> Yeah. >> It's referenced and I'm just want to direct them >> at the appropriate document to tie things together. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. So, we will leave the open comment until 6:49. >> I don't think we have to in a public hearing. >> No, we can close it. >> I will close public hearing. I have a motion to close public hearing. >> So moved. >> I'm instilling a lot of confidence in myself right now. Okay. How about a second? >>

023Just for for reference, >> you you can you can close it by your directive. >> Yeah, they they that's you missed that. That's what you're saying. >> Yeah. You don't need a half an hour for a public hearing. >> No, it's not that. I don't think you need a vote. >> I didn't either, but it's Don has it on the outline, so it doesn't spur us to a vote, does it? Don't want to set a precedent of extra bureaucracy. >> It's fine. >> Okay. All right. All in favor of closing hearing. hearing at this point. Moving right along to the approval of minutes. We have two sets of minutes to approve tonight. The first is from the um the public uh minutes uh from February 12th, 2026. Um member Van Kona was absent. So we

024have a motion to approve as presented. >> So moved >> and a second >> any discussion. Okay. Seeing none. All in favor of approving the minutes. Okay. And opposed. And absentions. Great. And the second set was from the um same meeting February 12th and non-public. So we have a motion to accept the non-public meeting minutes from February 12th, 2026. So >> and a second. >> I'll second this time. >> Okay. All in favor? Okay. Opposed? Abstensions. Great. Motion passes. Okay. Um at this point we are going to discuss the appointments to the SAU committees. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Um the following members were appointed by the individual school boards to serve on the SAU 41 policy subcommittee. Brooklyn, have you done that at your individual? >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Johanna. >> Okay.

025and the um SAU41 budget subcommittee. It looks like we have Allison and Johanna from Brooklyn, Carolyn, Jonathan from Hollis. We're looking for um >> the budget subcommittee. That's Beth. >> Beth. Okay. >> And then Rob is the treasurer, but that's not the same. >> Correct. And the spec, it looks like we have Allison from Brooklyn, Jonathan from Hollis, and we need a spec member from Cindy and >> I split it up. >> Okay. And the wellness committee, it looks like we have Rafie from Hollis, Kate and Beth from Co-op, and we need a representative from Brookline. >> Okay, Heather. Thank you. That was for wellness committee. >> That was for wellness. Yes. >> Okay. >> We don't vote on those. Let's just point them. Okay. Great. Um at this point, I will open the floor

026for public input. Um, I'm opening the floor at 6:25 and it will remain open until 6:55. >> No, >> later. >> Okay. Can I just point Maybe we should keep it open till 7:15 since it wasn't supposed to start until 6:45. >> Yes. So, >> yes. Until Yes. 7:15. Okay. set a little timer on my phone. >> Okay, perfect. Please do. >> Okay, moving on to our discussion items. First up is um the strategic plan progress updates. >> Okay, do you guys want to come? So, um we this is year one of our five-year strategic plan. We've done a great deal of work, plenty more work to do. you see a report out for very specific details of what um in individual components we um made progress on with with specificity. I wanted to take

027a moment to allow the SAU team to present the work that they've been doing because they're doing um they're doing all the work and I wanted uh them to own and be proud of the work and share that with you. So um one thing to note in the top right corner of the slides beyond this it identifies the specific goal within the strategic plan that the slide is addressing. Like I said this is a highlevel overview. The nitty-gritty is in the report which I'm sure you've read and I'll um quiz you later. Um but here's uh just high level. Uh we have Lance Fine, our director of facilities. We have Carrie Marsh, director of HR. Yes. >> I don't know that they're actually on camera for anyone who's watching. Are we on camera, Rick? >>

028Are we on camera? >> I believe the camera is just on the slideshow. >> It's on the screen. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, all right. We have uh Lance Flamino, um, business administrator. We have, what is your name? We have Lauren De Janeiro, assistant superintendent of student services and do flarity, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction. So, welcome. >> And I have the privilege of kicking it off. So tomorrow uh the strategic plan update uh so this outlines the pillars of our strategic plan with enrollment projected to increase 14% by 2033. We want to be focused on growing thoughtfully and strategically. Uh we look at this work through four interconnected pillars. Fiscal infrastructure, academic rigor, human capital and supporting student resiliency and wellness. uh my colleagues are going to share out on how these form the

029foundation uh of our work as we prepare prepare to remain a high performing school community into the future. And Lance Vidmore, our director of facilities is going to kick it off. >> Thank you, Lance. Uh as he mentioned, uh the projected enrollment increase is going to be 14% by 2033. So that plays a lot into our capital improvement plan and how we do um attack that plan. um over the last year alone with um I just want to give a little kudos to the um along greatly I don't do all the work the co-op facilities committee polic enrollment committee also the program facilities committee we've um managed to plan out a lot of this capital improvement uh plan in the year the last year alone at CSDA and Paul Brookline Middle School we've installed brand

030new uh propane boilers Um, at RMS and CSDA, we've upgraded or installed LED LED lighting. Um, as well as like I mentioned, the halls were we're on the committee thanks to Ann's leadership in that committee. We've um successfully or failed to we proposed it, but it's going to work, but we're going to keep working towards that goal. It's the garage now. >> I got all the last grade. That's what I want to do. Um, >> also at House Brooklyn High School, we're uh implementing whole solar infrastructure uh this summer and as well Brooklyn Middle School next summer. Um, with this capital improvement plan, any um infrastructure facilities upgrades um it does take a team. Um I again I don't do everything. The SAU team, the board's uh participation and um approval process really helps us

031along obviously because we're here to um like I said um the strategic plan for students, teachers, and staff. Um as well the backbone of facilities department are our maintenance and custodial staff with um again with the district's help and our hessa and vessa support CBAs union negotiated CBAs. So greatly appreciated. Thank you. >> Building capacity um this year in our strategic pathway. It really is a journey and this is to try to depict that um we talked about the four pillars but also that each of the components in the strategic plan play an important role of getting us to the finish line and without one of them we wouldn't be as successful at making um the final point that we want to reach. And so this shows that we focused in areas of communication infrastructure

032with the roll out of diligent and uh parent square and trying to improve communication with the community and parents. We've moved to evidence-based um resourcing when we're planning our budget. If it is a item that um can be measured, we want to make sure that there's an evidence and a measurable way to show the effectiveness of the money that we're spending. um curriculum implementation. With your support, we are rolling out our uh continue to roll out at the elementary school CKLA, Eureka Math Squared. Um and you'll see in the next slide, we've also um included a new textbook for math at the middle school. Uh we also are rolling out MTSS, which is a continuum of success. We have pockets where people have moved ahead very quickly and it's being implemented very strongly and other

033areas where we're still in a growth process and assessment alignment. We're um working very closely to increase writing rubrics for consistency K12. We also have some plans to um strengthen that even further next year with a grant application that is being filed. Um and we are looking to bring more consistency at the elementary and at the secondary level with reading as well and that will be part of next year's work. The this slide shows you um our two areas and you'll see this kind of um as a measure as we go through the balance between making sure that we are staying focused as our highly ad um academic community that we are but also balancing it with behavioral, social, emotional and mental health of our students. And so this brings gives you a breakdown of

034each of the levels with a key area that has been focused on during the strategic plan for this year. elementary, we continue the implementation implementation of CKLA for grades K to three. They were in year one and um CKLA in grades four through six are in year two. We had a wonderful um day right here in this auditori uh in this library for professional development. The rollout is going very smoothly. We're we're very encouraged with the um academic progress that we're seeing within the classroom and feedback that we're receiving from teachers. and you Eureka is in grades K through two um and they are in year two of that and any curriculum roll out um adoption is really a three-year process and so we're starting to see um in the in year two and then

035year three the impact um positive impact of the investment and for our um people that are in year one they're actually coming along quicker because there are more people within the school that can be there as a supportive resource at the middle school Last year you had funded some money to uh look at a textbook for middle school math. Um and there was a quite a large committee that included teachers, parent feedback, student feedback, and we did choose um a consistent resource for grades seven and eight for our students that are not on the algebra pathway. Um, at the high school, as you've heard throughout the year, there's been a lot of realignment to meet the criteria for 306 implementation, and there's been a lot of um, teacher involvement, and we'll continue to have that

036over the summer and next year as some new courses need to be developed and a real focus on building um, use of data in order to make instructional decisions. And then that continues as a district-wide initiative. And we've had some trainings and we are talking about ways to bring that into trainings for next year so that um data really becomes implemented in almost a daily impact of how teachers are refocusing and planning their instruction to meet the needs of all students and Lauren's going to talk about the cultural behavioral. >> Yes. So, what I love about this slide and kind of an overall theme for the strategic plan is that merging of yes, we're making all this growth with the curriculum and with that academic piece, but at the same time, we're looking at that

037whole system, student services, all the cultural and behavioral pieces that we have to address. And we're really doing a very nice job. Our teams at the different buildings are really doing a great job at addressing both of these at the same time. So, I'm going to talk about the cultural behavioral piece. So, we continue to strengthen relationship based and preventative practices. We want to keep a proactive lens on a lot of what we're doing. Um, highlights include this this supplements the curriculum you'll see here with empowering every reader. Um, we are doing a lot of classroom community work. And we are in year two of reframing behavior. Um, reframing behavior is training for all staff that aligns with all of our preventative measures starting with tier one and our response to behavior and looking at

038behavior as communication from students. So that's working across um all of our buildings at the same time. So, um, some of the things that we've done sauy this year, um, we have had all of our buildings now have a, um, an Instagram social media page and we've asked each of our administrators to post at least once to twice a month. Um, really focusing on, you know, all the the good positive things that are happening in their building. So, each of our schools have done a really good job of that. My personal favorite is RMMS. Um the third graders every week interview a new staff member and ask them questions um about you know how long they've been in education, how long have they what's their favorite hobby? Um a lot of things like that. So

039that's been really fun to watch. Um and as the HR director I learn a lot about our staff, things I wouldn't otherwise know. Um we also have done a remarkable job of um really working to bring all of all six of our CBAs up to be more competitive. Um, I think that is perfectly demonstrated this year in how many more of our positions are filled right now as compared to last year and how few new hires we actually anticipate next year in terms of turnover. Um, we also did um a lot of work over the last two or three years really um on job descriptions uh in addition to the SAU leadership level ones that you guys will see later tonight. Um, we've updated almost all of our union positions. Um, we just have the

040power educators left and then we'll move on to some of our uh, non-union and specialty roles. So, we're um, we're pretty close to having uh, job descriptions that are not from 1988. Um, and then the last thing is um, this targeted professional growth. We have um for for a long time had PLC's in all of our schools, but some of our specialty roles um don't get as much of an opportunity to PLC. They'll PLC in the teams or with um you know, grade levels, but they don't get to PLC with each other. And so Lauren's done a great job um picking up where Bob Thompson left off with the nurses. So for um a number of years, she has had I think at least quarterly meetings with the nurses. Um and we also are doing

041the so we're looking at school psych uh reading and our elementary school counselors um over the next year or two. So um we're really trying to bring all those guys together and give them an opportunity to work together as well. >> Um so this is a slide that kind of looks at student wellness as a road map. Um I'm going to speak to this a little bit more about the the multi-ter system of supports process and tying in both student wellness also with staff wellness. So when we look at our multi-tered system of supports, we're looking at it, as I said, it's um A and B, academic and behavioral. So each building right now is in its own phase of development or fine-tuning of this system. So staff in all buildings are working collaboratively to

042grow their processes and expand their offerings, particularly with tier 2 supports and interventions. Um this is really amazing. Like when I, you know, speak to each of the buildings and we look at all this, you're looking at your teacher leaders, your curriculum instructors, your special administrators, your all working together. um and they really have a targeted approach to what they're doing. Um some buildings have been working directly with the state on MTSSB offerings. Um and every building does have an established process to review student data both academically and social emotionally. Um the focus of well-being in the school also extends to staff. So, our administration is really working to show their appreciation of staff, to bring staff together, um, and to and to do that in different ways, um, to really foster a positive culture.

043Well, this one is me as well. Okay. One um, so one one trusted adult. So, the core idea behind one trusted adult is that every student should be able to identify at least one accessible, caring adult in the school. Research shows that trusted adult relationships lead to stronger mental health, increased belonging, and improved readiness to learn. So, each school building is approaching this in um a little bit of a different way, although definitely systematically through classroom community components such as rock and advisory and through the MTSS processes and the student support teams that they've developed. So, staff and building um are building consistent systems that help students feel connected and supported and understood. So you you may hear some things that seem like they're repeats um in different areas, but that's because the goals really

044take a holistic approach of our students. And by blending that holistic approach, there is overlap um between the goals that you have selected and that we've been working on this year. And so this gives you a nice kind of um overview of some of the things that we've been doing side by side that um show you um how we are focusing again on academics and also on student recognition which helps with the whole student wellness overview. Um and so by um here one of the things that we're trying to do by in an academic way helping student well-being is making sure that we're increasing academic clarity and understanding and not leaving students feeling um apprehensive because they don't really know what's expected of them or how they can go to get help or what their

045final product should look like. And some of the ways that we're helping to do that is by creating common rubrics. Uh we're going to increase our use of common assessments. Um that has happened a lot at the elementary level because of the implementation of um standardized programs with reading and math. We can now compare data across grade levels, across schools, and across communities. Um we have clear expectations. We're working on making sure that students uh that teachers get consistent feedback um in their evaluations and that we use evaluations not so much as the old-fashioned um we got you type mentality, but that it's really a way to have good conversations around teaching and learning and having a growth mindset on how to support all of our teachers whether they're first year or in their 30th

046year. And we um are planning for next year to rejuvenate the instructional best practices um at starting with the high school for grading and assessment committees. But that work will also um come down to the middle school and elementaryaries. And we've already been having some pretty significant conversations around some of the assessment tools that we use. Um, you'll see in June when our curriculum coordinators at the elementary come to make their presentation, we've been using Ames web, which has been a useful tool, but it doesn't give us the really kind of um specific information we'd like for all kids. And right now we're trying to focus on an assessment tool that will help all of our students grow, not necessarily just the struggling students, but also our students that are at the upper end of

047our um scale and making sure that they're being challenged to the top of their potential as well. So stay tuned. You're going to hear more about that. And then on the fostering belonging, recognition, all of our schools have multiple things that happen. Um, and you know from your individual boards all the things in your principal report that show how students are being recognized. But just as an example at the elementary level, some of the things we have are golden awards. Depending on which school you're in, it could be a sneaker paintbrush. Uh, we've seen sneakers, gold wing awards. Um, we have the Wolfpack leaders um, which is um, really taken off this year at CSDA. Um our middle school has the nightly code of honor um recognition awards that they give out on a um

048regular basis and at the high school they've implemented calf cares. Um in addition to student wellness we obviously also focus on employee wellness. Um as you're all aware we have very robust um benefits in our district which is wonderful. We also have a very strong employee assistance program that sadly is underutilized. Um or maybe not sadly, maybe people don't need it. I just feel like um they don't use it. And so this year we're really trying to promote that. Um but we also Jen and Emmy and I are all wellness ambassadors with Health Trust. So every year Health Trust gives us $1,500 to um pay for wellness initiatives. And so we run a lot of wellness events throughout the year. And then every June when it's 112 degrees um at the end of the school

049year we will do some type of cold tasty treat for everyone. >> Not necessarily healthy. >> One year they were called fat boys and I was a lot of slack back to me. Uh so to summarize uh this highlights that preparing to meet the current and future needs of SAU41 requires a fully connected ecosystem built around students with students at the center. Uh and this work rests on sustainable infrastructure not only in terms of physical facilities but also strong human capital and sound financial planning. Um, it requires rigorous support through high quality curriculum and data-informed decision-making while also fostering an inclusive culture um and thoughtful and intentional programming and training. And despite how it might feel sometimes during budget season or at my desk um or uh boilers, curriculum, staffing, wellness, and culture are are

050much more than just line items in a budget or separate separate initiatives. uh they function together as part of an integrated system designed to support students and position SAU41 for uh long-term success. >> Thank you guys. Thank you. That was cool. >> Question. Now it's time for questions. >> Okay. >> And did you want to go first or >> do you want me to start? >> No. If you want to start, you go ahead. >> Um So, I had a a couple questions. Um, I guess the first one, and I know it's it's close on us at the on the Hollis district side, but it is not necessarily isolated to it with a 14% projected enrollment by 2033. Um, I saw lots of infrastructure updates within the buildings, which is great. Are there in terms

051of the district other capacity concerns outside of just the Hollis district like in the co-op or other areas that we're tracking as an SAU? >> We are always tracking all of those items. Um we had greater concerns for the Brooklyn School District a couple years ago. There's quite a bit of development um that's in the works already going. Uh the question is um you know just watching the number of students for each of those homes to see how that will impact us. As of right now um enrollment has sort of leveled in Brooklyn. Uh but it's potentially highly volatile given all of that new the new construction. Um the that would indicate that the enrollment in the co-op would increase. Uh but as we're seeing enrollment seems to be steady right now certainly at the

052high school and that's due to a lot of different factors state level with EFAs and um options to go to uh charter schools etc. So we're watching all of it in our capital improve imp improvement plans. We're planning for the potential need to um expand the middle school um and and potentially parts of the high school just so that we can allow the towns to put impact fees in place. Uh but there we don't have that sense of urgency like we do in Holland in the district. >> I appreciate that you guys are looking out, but there's it's a long way out to to worry about. >> Um I'm going to ask one more of my other ones. I'm going to let Ann go if that's okay with you. All right. Um, so one of

053the things that came up from um, some of the spec evaluations as as things happened and triggered for me was um, there's a lot of comments that dot made about data driven items. Um, but it wasn't clear to me from the slides or the presentation. Um, one, are we talking data in terms of improvements within our professional staff within the SAU or within the student curriculum or both? And then secondly, are you are you planning or would should we expect at the district levels to see some of those data trending and information that would help us stay informed of how our decisions are affecting items because data is a very broad scope, but I'm not sure what we should expect. >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. And so, uh, in your next meeting, you're going to hear

054from the admin team. It's their annual presentation and they report out on their goals. Data is a component of that. The same is true certainly for Brookline. Um, at your new schedule date, June 10th. Um, but that that presentation is in the works. But we absolutely are looking at uh so so we look at individual student data we report out but but then when we look at how is you know grade three doing that is um going to be a direct result from um the instruction that we're providing the uh emotional support that we're providing the well-being of the students and also the training of the teachers. So we're looking at all of that. The importance of PLC and for those of you who don't know it's professional learning community. The importance of that is,

055you know, all of your third grade teachers are looking at um student performance in all the very specific areas. And when there's a group that is performing at a higher rate, that teacher is then sharing instructional practices with his or her colleagues so that all teachers are benefiting from it. That's why the early releases, while maybe problematic for parents, are critically important to the the development of our teachers and providing a better education. So yes, we're looking at it all and you will hear from us throughout the year >> and we're creating the data dashboard this summer. >> Yeah, and the data dashboard will just wait roll. >> We want to look at a broader spectrum of data. Um it's been more targeted academically and we want to again looking at the holistic student u

056holistic child look at data that incorporates more than just academics. >> Yep. >> Such as student attendance rating that's a huge component. attendance um discipline. Mhm. >> So, um, first of all, as an educator, if anybody listening at home doesn't know this, these strategic plans are a lot of work, and I know that they are. And so, I just want to commend you all on the work that you've been doing. And also that this is kind of a continuation of what started when you were director of curriculum and instruction, Gina. um the CKLA, the Eureka, um for anybody listening at home, teachers were very involved with that. Um and I commend you for that. And I as a parent appreciate it. I have seen improvements um from what my one child experienced, what my next

057child experienced. And it's like, oh man, I wish you got this. Um but I but I you know, you can't turn back the clock. And so I I see these things. I see the systems of of support. So, I want to begin by commending that. I see the progress. I think many of us do. Um, it's very organized. The follow-up professional development is, as you were saying, it is so important. Um, and it's great. And I and I know you mentioned structured literacy. I am so pleased to see that in a middle school as a secondary teacher. Um, I can't tell you how many times I had children come to me and I couldn't understand how they got to where they were. we had no way of supporting them. Um, and structured literacy specifically for

058adolescence. I looked up the program while you were presenting. I'm going to read about it more. Um, thank you. So, that that's I want to start with. Um, that being said, you talked about Eureka math um through grade two. You talked about what you're doing in the middle school. What is happening with grades three through five? Because that is an area where I have personally seen some breakdown. What are what is going on with the math grade? >> So, let me just clarify. It's K to3 is your math squared. Um, and then it's four, five, and six that um is still using the Envision Math Squared. >> Are we going to be continuing that or is there going to be some continuity with Eureka or whatever? Then that it feels >> So, we're in a

059four-year agreement and so we're in year two of the four-year agreement. Um there was a strong um preference to continue with Eureka Masquerade when we went through the process and we piloted multiple programs and that's due to um envisions u cycling through of all the different standards and really um not just asking a question about this standard but weaving in multiple standards. Uh so um the the complexity was greater and there was a concern that the other programs didn't offer that same level of complexity. Uh but certainly it's something we will always look at and as we and actually um Lance Famino prior to his business administrator role was doing the math K to2 review with me and so he was actually part of uh of that the pilot and getting feedback from the teachers

060and looking really closely at all the resources. So we certainly will look at that again before we just blindly move forward with another. >> Okay. All right. And I know it's complicated and it's something that takes some time to figure out. Um >> can I just add one thing? >> Please do. Yeah. >> Um we are you have heard me talk about um creating curriculum maps so that we know what year things are happening. Um, and I've been working with um Meg and Abby to we're gonna be um going off uh doing a a couple days straight um work this summer. We've already set aside the time to put together um the first draft that we can then use um to be able to roll out in early fall um a consistent curriculum review. And

061we've already said that we know that we want math um next year so that we can have some solid decisions in place before um the uh funding runs out for envisions and then we have to u make a decision as to what we're doing with there and so that will be a look um that will be one of our focus areas for next year. >> Great. Thank you. Um then I also wanted to just uh kind of going on with the communication. And I want to again commend there's been a huge improvement in communication and and I love that and I've been promoting hard for people to subscribe please um for agendas and minutes um you may have heard I had a little project that um was trying to get the word out about um

062but that being said I I love and I think it's very important that there's going to be you know there's this focus on making sure positive contributions are out there. I think it's very important, but I I want to encourage everyone also to be also very honest. there are some real challenges facing our schools right now, you know, um, uh, and I think that it's it's really important that we don't sugarcoat it, that we are very honest with our our our community when there are programs we have to cut, when there are class sizes that need to be increased, when there are specialists that need to be put on carts, when there are books that can no longer be housed in our libraries. I think we need to regularly and honestly and objectively objectively and

063dispassionately um communicate this with the community. Um because otherwise if we're only talking about what's rosy and there's so much to celebrate because everyone I honestly there are people working miracles in some of these classrooms and schools. um it's easy to hide those challenges and I think that's at least speaking from the perspective of Hollis that has been happening for a long time because we have outstanding leadership. So just want to really con put that out there to please be honest with our community about that. Um, and lastly, I just want to express the same kind of concern about Jonathan about capacity uh, as we as we look forward um, making sure that's communicated with community as well. >> Thank you. >> Um, I had a follow-up question around this stuff, but not directly related

064to the presentation, but what's in the packet to some extent. Um, if I'm reading the SAU41 strategic plan process progress properly, um, that is the overarching goals and objectives for the next five years starting in 2025. Okay, so that helps refine some things. Uh, I had some question as to why we were missing some of the goals, but knowing that's a five-year plan totally makes sense. Um, I would comment that it is great to see the number of check marks that we do have um, so far within the progress and I know that didn't get presented, but it is in the packet and I just wanted to say it looks good. >> Thank you. >> Y, >> thank you. >> I just wanted to I just wanted to say thank you. Um, I know this

065is a lot of work and it's so nice to see all the SA41 staff here. um when we talked about um you know some of the some of the curriculum and and you know really kind of making sure we focus on students who need support and then students who um who are achieving and and need some maybe some extra. Um I just want to make sure that that we really are thinking of all students especially students that you know you would think are in the middle. Um, I think we've worked so hard as a district to um have those inclusive uh classrooms. Um, and I just want to make sure, you know, we're we're helping to meet all of all of the kids um where they are. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> My

066turn. >> Tom, your turn. >> Oh, sorry, Tom. >> No, that's fine. Um, first of all, I just want to thank Ann for some of her input and observation because it comes in a manner that is both clearly understanding of what's being said and really good at presenting it in a context that helps some of us who don't understand it uh go further with it. Um, my first question, you start to touch on it when you talked about um, measuring things like attendance and and absism, but I'm wondering what are the what are the things that you look at or measure to assess well-being and it it seems like a very uh, difficult thing to Yes. >> to quantify. I'm wondering how you go about addressing that. >> Yeah. whoever I'm looking at both because

067it was brought up by several people. >> Yeah. So I mean every building's approaching it in a little bit of a different way and we're doing it um through more an right now more anecdotal pieces and then some data collection depending on what students were looking at you know and different pieces but the data collection can be um you know just data that the teacher brings to the student support teams you know as we're looking and they can bring data about kind of classroom functioning you know presentation different pieces we do look at attendance we do look at engagement and work. We do look at um different things that kind of fall within again kind of more observational right now. Um we are working with a few different processes depending on the building on how

068to better collect that that data without doing any kind of direct screener. Um that's not something that's off the table, but that's not that's not something we've really fully dug into yet. Um because that is that has its own challenges to have kind of a universal screener for behavior and social emotional pieces. And that's kind of another layer that we would handle at the more individual board levels because that would be very different for the different um districts. So right right now it's a lot of observation. It's a lot of classroom community work. It's a lot of teachers and support staff working together communicating um about students as they see. You know, we we have close relationships with families. Um there's pieces that are connected our school counselors are connected to um so many of

069our students and they bring um data as well. And it can happen through um discipline data and in talking with incidents that happen, making sure students report that they're feeling safe. Um even in during an investigation, if somebody has um done something, you can try to find out why they're doing it is because they don't feel safe, so they're latching out. Um, you do it through small lunch groups with students that may not be socially connected within the school and trying you're trying to get them to make those connections. You can do it through parent reporting that um, they feel connected to the school that their child feels connected to the school. You can look at nurse visits um, and are they going for medical reasons or are they going every, you know, every day

070at the same period because they have a stomach ache or they have a headache um, and looking at that. So, that's the kind of the next layer of the the appeal. You try to put the things in place and then we'll start to look at um how do we know it's being effective because that goes back to that evidence-based and effectiveness. If we're spending money on it, we want to make sure that it's an effective practice. >> Thank you. Um my next question, we we're putting a lot of energy into the one trusted adult program and it clearly has has benefits. What is there a recognized way to deal with staff turnover and and what happens when the the one trusted adult for whatever reason leaves the leaves the the environment? >> Um oh go

071ahead. Oh you go first. >> I was just gonna say um one trust adult is um like a program by a particular author. It's really integrated in the middle school. It's not so much integrated in the other schools, but the ideas behind it, finding that one trusted adult, finding those connections, making sure that people have their person or their people, um, is really important. But Lauren, what were you going to >> Oh, no. I was going to say, so yeah, so every building Yeah. So, every building is approaching it a little bit differently. Um, and again, they're starting with that classroom piece and with their kind of direct teacher. And then if there are um again as you go through your MTSS process and those student support teams, we're you know working on um how

072do we identify other people in the building if it's not their classroom teachers at the at the elementary level. The high school and middle school have really focused on kind of the rock and the advisory piece and I've put you know kind of their focus in that for the one trusted adult. at the elementary level they're looking at it um you know more more from the classroom level and then if there's pieces that they wanted to expand on then they're bringing in specialists and they're bringing in you know art music gym etc. So, as far as the staff turn turnover piece, I think that um it it builds from classroom to classroom, from grade to grade at the elementary level. Um so, I I and I don't know how they're addressing the advisory piece at

073the high school with the staff turnover. I can't speak to that. >> It's top of mind for me right now because of uh last night. >> Yeah. No, no, agreed. And that's what I'm saying. So I I want I don't and so I don't know how they're I I know that obviously the advisories if there's a teacher that leaves who's in runs an advisory they're going to have another staff member there and it's a matter of cultivating that new relationship and you know using that process to build that relationship. >> The advisories are also paired up so there will be consistency um you you have your one adviser on paper but there's two advisories that work together and you know do games whatever do the activities together. So there there is that >> it's like

074a team. Yeah, there is that team. Um, and sometimes they're shifted if there's a grade level shift or there's more of one grade and so you need more adviserss, etc. Um, and they're pretty intentional about >> I'm thinking about, you know, the relationships that develop organically. >> Sure. and it's going to be a a reality where for whatever reason um a staff member leaves uh in most instances there is some notice that it's happening. I'm wondering if there is a defined methodology or practice to transfer that or try to ease that transfer of a relationship to someone else so that people don't feel abandoned. If if the more successful we are in building these relationships, I suspect the greater the risk of trauma when those relationships dissolve for some reason. >> Sure. So we I

075mean on a on a holistic I don't think we have a system for that let's say okay but on an individual basis um you know I do know that our school counselors have worked with students who they know are close to a certain teacher or close to a certain thing and they will help them with any sort of trans transition with that. So I know the school counselors on more of an individual basis. We do tackle that through the student support team. Um but we don't we do not have a system for that per >> be a way that y >> that like for example >> when you think about last night there were there's a group of students who clearly are connected. So, how do you identify those students who have who have self-identified

076that this is a connection for them, but also the teacher who's leaving might know and then make sure that those kids get a check-in yes over the course of the next two months before school's over and then potentially um you know a plan for their their next steps. Like that would be like a process that need to be put in place for whenever a staff member leaves at the high school because in the elementary school they're moving from classroom to classroom. So, you're assuming that it's going to be from classroom teacher to classroom teacher and maybe there's a real connection to the librarian or to this and and that would be So, yeah, I get it. I think Tom's got a really good point on that and I trust you guys to figure all those.

077>> I would say I like I can't speak to the high school level. I would say at the elementary school it's very intentional about like also just not making it the classroom teacher though which I appreciate because like my daughter's having a transition this year into next year and everybody went like above and beyond to like prep her for it introduce the like and kind of like help her cover. So I think that made a big difference for her was just like hearing from her trusted person. This is where I'm going. This is why here's who's going to be here to help you like these are and that and like even just using the words that there's a person you trust in the room. So like if she's had to try something on her own

078that was new, they'll say there's a person you trust in the room and will come in. So I think it's too it's in the language that's used like a lot of So I I imagine that can probably get pushed up to the high school, but I will say it is starting in the elementary school to also be inclusive which I appreciate because it's hard when they get attached to one teacher, right? Because then they do have to move on. So actually having them attached to like multiple staff members whether it's specialist teachers or the nurse or um whoever I think has actually been really >> where this happens on a large scale is every time we have a transition and especially if you're moving from Brooklyn to to the middle school or Hollis from Hughes

079to the middle school or middle school to high school and the schools have done a really good job because they know that's a big change. you're going into a brand new community with maybe no connections. And so really building that time in to bring them up to try to start to introduce them to um people that can make the early connections with them that will help them to find interests and to build some of those other um connection new connections. >> Thank you very much. Can I just add that um you know anytime a student or multiple students experience trauma the school counselors are trained to sort of take a look at those students and build that network and check in with the students the network students try to form more um relationships try to

080bridge those those pathways and try to help that. So it's it's um it's not it's not new. It's the It's the work that they do all the time. >> Yeah. I don't know if it's it's comparable or or any parallels, but in in the semi adult world when when there's a a role change taking place, often times even before it's announced, they start to introduce someone else. And by transferring um the respect almost of building the person up, it it um creates an easier path for someone, you know, the person I trust trusts this person >> and that transfer >> is so helpful. I'm wondering if we can fundamentally build into the structure that when someone announces a retirement or you know because we often will have several months where we can consciously identify someone

081and and maybe even the individuals leaving and said you know this is a person I think would be a a good fit or transition and perhaps structure some level of introduction to uh to create that parallelism. We're doing it well in advisory with the the the dual roles there, but when it's not in that structured environment, I'm I'm hopeful that we we can continue to uh support those kids because it is having a big impact. So, thank you. The last question I have, um, we as a as a district, I mean, as a as an SAU have prided ourselves on the achievements and the the academic excellence that that we bring bring to our students and to our community. Um, again, last night there was some real some real interesting input and and one thing

082that struck me was the comment about In our efforts to promote students to challenge themselves and to take on those extra tasks, are we inadvertently uh exacerbating stress and anxiety? Um is do we overemphasize academic excellence at all levels? I think that's what you know so some of the the thoughts where we're telling freshmen to take a study because they need to be balanced and that's a negative but then sometimes the opposite is true. We're telling students that they're capable of doing AP and that's a negative. So you know every student has to we have to work with every student and their family holistically to figure out where's that balance m for some having that stress is what keeps them going and although it's an additional course to take something maybe that's that outlet that

083they need but for some it's too much and that becomes burdensome and detrimental and um it's it's that it's that constant like the the community has high expectations. Yes, we we are trying to have that balance while still supporting the high expectations but understanding that sometimes too much is too much, you know. >> Can we have the conversations with the parents though? >> Well, and we and we did. So, if I So, when when I was at the high school, we actually um I did a a study on this and we did focus groups and we spoke to all the students about this, especially when it was around course selection time and a lot of the students reported, "Yep, all of my kids are in all my kids, all my friends are all in all

084these AP classes, so we all have to be in AP classes." And there was a lot of messaging around that. So, we really worked hard, especially around course selections when we went down to the middle school and when we had all of our grade level meetings to really talk about what are your interests, what are your passions, what are your strengths, what are your areas of growth, and how do we look at that? And the school counselors did a really nice job and we started to um change some of how we did some processes. And I'll give a really quick example. If a student is is in, let's say, um, you know, accelerated English 10, um, and then the teacher wanted to recommend them for a class their junior year, a lot of times, historically,

085the teacher would just say, "Yep, you can go into into AP language. You would you would do great there." But we wanted the teachers to really understand because when you go into course selection, you have to select what your teachers recommend for you in a lot of the classes. Um, and so we wanted to say to the teachers, give them the option. recommend them for AP Lang definitely, but recommend them for honors. Recommend them for regular level English. Recommend them, you know, for all the levels that you feel they'd be successful in. Put that in front of them so that the school counselors when they have those conversations and when they have conversations with their families, they can really look at these are my options. Let's lay all of it out. How can I balance

086and really focus on what I love and what I do? So, that and that message has continued. That is still how we do some of those uh um processes. And, you know, I and I hear you. That's been a constant conversation, you know, and um I think we're still working with families and we work with the kids definitely and it's an evolving process. >> But doesn't it get ingrained at the elementary level? >> That's a that's a that's a good question. I think it's I was going >> to say I think it it gets ingrained from early childhood. It's messages that get sent. So, I'm just wondering if if if there if we can do anything in our our our public uh presentations and stuff to perhaps counter that and let people know that it's

087okay to uh I won't say relax, but to to understand. >> No, it's okay to relax. >> Yeah, it's okay to relax. No, and we Yes. And we do have those conversations learn but but to to to um >> find ways to regulate the intensity of the experience >> and and we do have those conversations and and you know I think that is a constant conversation among ourselves among our >> talking about getting I think it's happening at home. I think a I know a lot of >> parent conversations y >> who they're they're so they're more competitive than their children are >> but it bleeds over. I had an interesting phone call this week with a community member um in regards to the band um situation and um he was a professional musician and

088his wife uh sat on a emissions for a very prestigious college and um shared the fact that the message that students really need to get because when schools are looking for students everybody that's applying to top schools are good students. So, they're looking to what's going to set you apart, and that they really want to see more well-rounded students than necessarily 15 AP courses by the time that you graduate. >> Okay. I I I thank you. >> I mean, I will say like too, when it goes back to like dis like disrupting the trauma rate, so like if we're trying our goal is to kind of like reduce it, I do think parent conversations are very helpful. So, I did watch last night at the meeting. Um, and I think that one of the things

089that kind of stuck out to me was obviously we have to be mindful about what we're sharing in terms of like personnel and things like that because it's their privacy. Um, but any information we can provide to parents is helpful because that does allow parents to set up those conversations like um again I I can say in my experience like because they updated me and I knew what was coming. I had those conversations first and then when the teachers had them, it was easier for there to be processing because I had already had the conversation. But, you know, I know it's hard when it comes to personnel decisions because that's a, you know, we can't always just share that. But, I think anything that we can share ahead of time with parents and encourage them

090to bring up with their kids will help disrupt some of that trauma link because it is a very good point like if this person is your person and they leave, you know, people leave for a large variety of reasons. It's helpful for us to kind of have that built in so that people can support them outside of school. Also, >> um at this point, I just want to make a note that I'm going to close public input at 7:17. Um any other comments, discussions on plan. Okay. Yeah. >> Just one thing um about the untrusted adult. It sounds like there's a lot of explicit messaging maybe in the you know the middle school and the high school because those kids are older. Um, but I just didn't know if there was kind of messaging to

091the younger kids to to seek out a one trusted adult or if it was more of like a, you know, an admin staff thing to make sure that every kid kind of has a trusted adult. >> Okay. >> I mean, I will say the teachers, in my experience, the teachers use that language also like across the board though. So, it's like the specialist teachers are using it. Anybody who's pulling anyone out is using it, the classroom teachers are using it. So I I mean I would say that there's a message but it is it's built in. It's not necessarily like >> Yeah. I just I haven't heard >> CSDA when they do their town meetings that's that's an underlying message that's sent consistently. >> Can I just say one more thing about the strategic plan?

092I kind of want to echo what um Ann said. It's an excellent presentation and I love the fact that there's all these pieces. I hope we're not going through all of these pieces, but all of the pieces that are in our agenda, like the progress report, the integrated I can't read with my glasses on infographic. >> No, that was just >> But I I love all of these pieces and I feel like obviously some of these have been prepared for different audiences and I I think that was a great >> just you. >> Thank you so much. I feel special. Um, so I just wanted to congratulate you because um I think it's a really great piece of work and it's a lot of work and um I think we've covered it. So it looks

093it looks great. >> You think the infographic gives you almost everything that's in that report in a one page so that when you're dealing with the community it hopefully gives you quick sound bites >> and that would be so awesome to be pushed out. >> You know just the little piece just push it out somehow. I don't. >> So, I'm also going to just offer my as a parent who opts their child out of district assessments, I appreciate that you are looking for different ways to gather information. Um, district assessments are not successful in in assessing where my child is. So, I really am going to offer that because I think it's important to that while data is important, it is also important, like you said, that we're looking at the holistic students. So, I

094really want to thank you for that also and being mindful that like not every student learns the same and not everyone can test, right? Like tests are really difficult for a lot of people. So, um, yeah, I love that we're headed in this direction of really meeting kids where they're at and figuring out different ways to help figure out where they at and what they need and and how they're doing and making progress. I think that's very important. So, >> thank you. At this time, I'm going to ask Lance and Carrie to go home. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes. One more. >> So, so I just had one one more comment in in general a little bit. You two can head out. You're good. um a little bit uh in in caution to

095uh something that was said earlier about driving it home to the parents early and and whatnot, which is I think we need to be careful as uh a board and a public institution to recognize that we can put the offers out. We can send the messaging at certain levels, but it is not our job to enforce the culture or decisions that parents are having onto them or their kids necessarily. Like it's it's one thing to have the offering and I I get the feeling that the SEU is doing a great job making sure that that messaging is available, not driving the problem further potentially, which I think is right where it needs to be. But I think anything that steps over that bounds and starts telling parents how they should not drive their kids certain

096ways or whatever pushing in, we have to be cautious about that because that's what I took away from the comments a little bit and I don't think that's our purpose. I I think that's a little beyond our scope even if I agree with the the cultural sentiment. >> Yeah. I and I will just respond to that. I mean, I don't think um we are out to tell any parent how to parent. I think we're out to provide information so that um we can have greater transparency and better um homeschool relationships um because we are a team um and you know the students are with us for many hours every day and um so we really need to work together and make sure just we're communicating and sharing information. So, >> okay, thank you for that.

097all the great conversation and um for the presentation and for all the hard work that your and your team put to put into that strategic plan update. U moving on to the revenue and expense report. >> Nothing better than revenue expense after this. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh so in the interest of time I'll kind of hit hit the highlights um and and talk about the big pieces and and changes uh since this was last presented. Uh if we look at um as discussed earlier the the biggest overages is in the technology line um and that's things that have been discussed with the board leading up to this. So um approximately 40,000 of that overage is from the transition with the technology coordinator position. Another 4,000 for mentoring and consulting. And then at the last

098meeting, the board approved up to $50,000 for the implementation of soft docks. Um, and that's sitting at about 36,000 right now. So if if you take away that 80,000, that line would actually be slightly in the positive. Um, it wouldn't be overspent. Uh, so so those large pieces are what's contributing to that negative $77,000 uh in the technology line. Um other other pieces in there in student services uh negative 3,400 that was a board approved salary adjustment. Uh the offset from that is is made up in the change in benefits. Excuse me. Um facilities and maintenance. Uh that was primarily snow related and snow removal related. Um common across all the districts right now just more snow and a lot more little storms that required cleanup. Um, so a big overrun in snow removal. Um,

099so that put our total expenses $75,000 over. Um, one shift in the revenue side and it's highlighted in in red. There is originally when this budget was created, there was an anticipated 4,000 in revenue from federal grants. This would be through indirect costs primarily with our idea grants. uh the way they were written this year, those weren't factored in. So that revenue doesn't come to the SAU. Uh to be clear, it still goes to the district. So the the grant amounts would be the same, but it was allocated to the districts uh and the students and that revenue piece is not coming in. Uh so that shifts our expectation a little bit and that's since been updated. Um the increased use of uh the fund balance as revenue is up to that expected 78,115 and

100and that's to balance out the books. If that were to happen, it would put the fund balance at $224,172, which is approximately 9.2% 2% of the adopted budget with the target range being from seven to 10%. >> So in Lance's year one, he's at that target that we've been trying to achieve for a few years. >> I have a question. I have a question too. >> You want to go first? >> Yeah. Um first of all, how's Soft Ducks working now? >> Oh, we're we're in the implementation phase. We're building it. It's Yes. >> How's the phase going? like the implementation is it making you crazy or is it okay? >> Yes. Um it's probably making John Bush a little crazy but he's been great. No, there's a lot of backend stuff that we're setting

101up and a lot of those pieces are happening. Yeah. >> And then I'm aware because I watched the Hollis Brookline Cooperative Budget Committee meeting and they are very good at pe keeping track of legislation that I think there might be some legislation that could pass that would make it so that SAUs cannot retain funds or would have to vote to retain fun like we wouldn't automatically be able to retain funds. So, is that I'm just asking is that true. Is there like legislation up there? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Where is it in the process of like >> it's going to get signed within the next day or >> Oh, it passed and it's going to get Oh, god. Okay, that's fine. So, what does that mean? >> Give all the money back. >> So, we

102have to give all the money back >> and de deortionment. Deortionate. And >> so, when we used to say we can't give it back cuz it's all muddled, >> well, we got to muddle it. Now, >> do we have to like we have to give it back >> and give it back? >> Can Can they vote to keep it? Can they can the community? No. So, we have to give it back. >> It's use it or lose it. >> So, just to confirm, so our community can no longer control their their funds. It's now the state has basically made that decision on our Yeah, >> it's within days. >> So, this money goes back unless we spend it. >> Correct. That's my understanding. And what's the date of that? >> When do we have to

103send it back? Basically, >> you know, when is it in effect? >> When do we have to send it back? >> Is it July one? Is it >> usually 60 days after it's signed or something like that? >> Yeah. So, it'll be the summer. >> And what are the mechanics of getting it back? I mean, to be Okay. >> So, is there is there a need if this really does get through? There's $224,000. I'm not saying not to return it to the taxpayers. I'm just saying is there some things that you've been thinking oh well we really should I don't know like >> there's the SAU limo question it's a question is there can you encumber can you encumber for things that you know you need to do in the upcoming year because the budget

104didn't pass >> if the board authorizes it I would imagine that's the case so the Hollis board for example um will have a public hearing in their June meeting to to expend from the SAU building maintenance expendable trust and the proposed expenditure is to redo the roof. Um, so some things I know and it's tricky because we have that fund set up for maintenance and upkeep of the SAU building, but realistically, you know, there there could be um painting upgrades, sighting work, um, well, certainly the roof. There are other facility components that we could look at. It's not our traditional source of funds for those projects, but that might be an opportunity uh to do that. So, follow-up question. Would we need to spend this be would we need to make a decision as a

105board prior to our next meeting? >> Would we have like if we're looking at 60 days, would we have to have a special meeting of this board and a special public hearing to do that? So, I'm just putting that bug in your ear. >> Yep. Is there the option in the future, if this is going to be the way it works, to itemize the the allocation of SAE re resources to individual districts so that as the money goes back, it would rebalance if there was disproportionate use in any given year. >> I mean, many multi-district SAUS have the SAU budget integrated into um into the individual district budgets. We're just special and that we pull it out and have a separate vote. >> No, but I'm not talking about that. >> We make a >>

106we change the rules. >> We make a broad brush uh aortionment among the three districts. Mhm. >> But that is not necessarily >> how the money how the resources of the SAU are utilized in any given year. So, for instance, if there's something going on in one district that requires a disproportionate uh allocation of resources and we knew that and there's money left over, then that district that did not that that used those extra resources might not participate in the uh return of money. So, that reminds me of some of the themes that um kind of came up in the Brookline study to join the co-op. Um because we don't we're not attorneys and so we don't have billable hours. So it's not we could that would cost time and and effort but we could

107start itemizing like okay I just got off a phone call with RMS principal that was 30 minutes and and try to figure out how our time is divided sounds awful. Um, but it's something that we could do to because if you did that, I think you would need some really quantifiable way to say that rather than, well, this district was a headache this year. You know what I mean? You would need some way to fully justify. >> One last question. >> I don't I don't know if this is entirely true, but I think there's restrictions that you can't use that money for salary or merit kickers. >> Interesting. >> Yeah, that's what I'm I will confirm that. >> Okay. One more question. Can the SAU Can the SAU put a can we put a warrant

108article? Can we create a contingency fund? Can we do any kind of that anything like that if they change this law? Because, you know, running to a zero balance every year and not having any extra money or any money in any fund doesn't feel very um >> fiscally responsible. Yeah, that's a good word for it. Thank you. Bingo. Yeah. >> Two words actually. >> Doesn't allow for risk management. >> I mean, obviously the SAU budget is mostly salaries and there's not a lot of like emergency needs, but there's still like I don't know, health insurance costs could go up. I can't think of an example right now, but is there >> Well, if someone goes from a single person to a family plan, right, >> in a budget like ours, >> right, >> we're done.

109Um, >> right. So just wondering if there's any way to create a contingency fund and if there would be a warrant article on the on all three. Yeah. >> You imagine running a personal budget down. >> Yeah. >> It would be insane. >> But that's what we have to do. >> Negative every month. >> It's not a thing. >> Oh no. No. I agree. >> So sorry not to curb this too much, but I wanted to get back back to this part. So with this in mind >> Yeah. Because I my first question was going to be hey what did we account for in the budget that failed for the unreserved fund balance to get reserved and then my second question now is okay in the sorry not the failed budget the de facto budget

110that is now in place >> adjusted yeah >> does that have an unreserved fund balance adjustment built into it at the moment where we would have money reserved from 26 going into 27 >> it does not have planned use for the unsighted fund balance for FY27, >> but does it have a number that adjusts the budget from pure revenue to Okay. >> Okay. >> Well, that was fun. Good question. >> You know, it's all because I watched my friend Darlene's meeting. >> Darlene's great. >> I was I was told to make sure I bring it up. So, YOU BEAT ME TO IT. >> HERE'S I am so proud. I just had questions about the revenue expens. So, you know that she's really proud of herself. >> I am so impressed with myself right now. I'm

111going to go and have less time. >> You don't know what. >> All right. Looking at I'm sorry. We just have a ton. Yep. On the agenda over >> meeting dates. So, as we look ahead, >> small bet >> um to the school board meeting calendar, Hollis and Brooklyn typically don't meet in July. Co-op usually meets in July and the chair can figure that date out. Um >> because sometimes it's a different it's a different day. But anyway, moving along >> special though. >> It's the traditional day where Hollis is the first Wednesday, co-op is the third, unless it's a funky vacation month, then it's the second. and Brooklyn is the fourth unless it's the vacation week month and then it's the third. And so looking at those and then looking at our mandatory SAU

112meetings, the SAU meetings are October 8th, that's a Thursday. Um, so that's a weird one because it's the second Thursday, which is what we typically do. We could move it to the 15th so that Hollis doesn't have two meetings back toback. >> Co-op can probably tell you now that >> that would be so nice for them. It's not desirable, but it doesn't make a difference to me, but it has to be before the 15th is the latest date for that October meeting. >> Moving into December, unfortunately, we have no choice but to have co-op go back to back and have that meeting December 10th. That's the public hearing on the budget. So, that we're restricted with that date. >> We're strong. We can do it. >> February, keep in mind February, a lot of those

113meetings don't take place because you have the Brooklyn deliberative and then you have the public hearings instead. So, those are just sort of placeholders for meetings. But the essay meeting would be the 11th of February. And then you have the May meeting which is nicely spaced out in May of 2027 on the 13th. Also keep in mind that October and May are at RMS and then December and February are at the middle school library unless we get a big crowd then we can go in the gym. But those are the meetings with the locations. I really like um the way me and Dot redesigned it and it's I think it's pretty clear about the time, the location, the dates. >> Looks great. I love it. >> Would there be any value in putting um budget

114committee meetings on this calendar as well just as reference points? >> Probably a lot of value. I just um I have to get those dates. Can we also have these like I noticed on the high site like a lot of >> what type >> the where I get the packet I think it's called >> diligent diligent yeah >> I call high >> all right um the so a lot of times the meetings aren't updated more than like a month out since we have them can we put them in future changes >> yeah they are all on the SAU41 information. It's a Google calendar off of the website. Those are >> Is that not this thing? >> No. Something else, >> but I can have I may add those. >> Sorry, I didn't. >> Is that

115>> I go to the thing you're going to >> this thing where you find the packets. >> So, oh, you got to go in and get that Google Doc thing or Google calendar thing. I'd like to see more. >> We could probably put more than the the month coming up, but I don't think we can put all of it because there's a space limitation to see it all. >> No, no, no. Like just on the calendar cuz like when I go to like next month I mean I mean but like when you go out not in the >> I mean I'm not saying I just shut my computer off. >> Now you can't see any. >> I can't see any. >> Um yeah, we'll have them meet up. >> Just sorry. It would also be

116helpful if on on the SAU governing board meetings if on the calendar it includes the location. >> I don't think it always does on the calendar. >> Oh, we know we have calendar. >> Which Well, which calendar are you looking at? >> Because this one says RMS. >> Okay. Which calendar is that? I I always use the the Google one because that includes any >> I I go on to whatever I can see on the website because I'm not in in Google so I can't always >> okay >> anyway >> that feeds the website but I will put I will make sure that we have the location in diligent the location is typically on the agenda which is why it's not helpful until after you have the agenda. We'll we'll we'll that's an area for

117improvement for us and we'll do that. >> Wicked good. >> Thank you. >> We have Oh, arch. We have two members of that we can add to RSC and um our elementary boards recommended to, but it doesn't have to be from our elementary boards. There are two members at large that can serve on the RSC board with me. It's super fun. >> I'm I'm happy to continue if no one else wants to. I've enjoyed it with the discussion items and then take that up on deliberations. >> Okay. >> Just for those of us maybe not what is our second >> regional special education consortium. >> So the Milford School District, the Amherst School District, and um us I was like who's the third be us. Uh we serve um on the board and as and

118and we support the regional special ed consortium. There are um some private schools that they have and they also provide services if we want contracted services etc. Um and as a benefit to us for being members of the board, we we get those at a discounted rate. >> You probably told me this year. >> That's okay. >> But it but it's a separate nonprofit. Like it's a separate private entity. Gotcha. It's on 101A across the street from Walmart. It's the main headquarters of it. >> Sunrise Preschool, >> right next to the Subaru dealer. >> Yes. >> Because I turned into that parking lot. >> Do they still have the other buildings or they get booted out of >> there? No, the programs are still in the other buildings. >> And they have a brand new

119one. >> Yep. >> As well. >> You heard about the warehouse next to them? >> Yes, I did. >> All right. >> Okay. Um, job descriptions. >> Sure. So, um I just really didn't want to discuss them too much. I just wanted you to be able to take a look at the job descriptions that um were developed. Uh that was actually another component. I apologize. Job descriptions and submitting those to um the consultant for that work that you approved maybe in October, maybe it was the December meeting. That is another reason why we were a little bit of over our budget. That was an authorized item. Anyway, so we spent a lot of time um with a consultant. The consultant took our strategic plan, tried to integrate strategic plan components into the job description to

120make it a little bit more high level rather than task specific. And so that's um this is what we have. So I'm I'm pleased with them. I think they're um they're detailed. They're um they're they drive the work. They're they make it clear what the positions are. Um and >> robust detailed. >> Yeah, I'm very pleased with >> that hand manipulation. >> You might have some frequent uh graphing needed. So, >> these are these are fantastic. Great job. There's a lot of um additional information that I've been testing individuals on just to make sure they're up to. >> Are you are you comfortable that they reflect >> and they integrate with one another to support the activity irrespective of who may be in the role currently. >> Yes. And that was really important. I um

121I wanted to move away from all right well you know these are the things that dot does um so it was what are the positions >> big picture um what is our strategic plan okay and then um what are the qualifications not what qualifications you know does DOT have but what are the requirements for the role and then what are the desired um qualifications you know if we could be picky and so I'm very pleased with them Um I went through line by line and you know changed wording and added components and you know pushed for more in certain areas like the parts that that you identified were not my most like the physical requirements those were less of my focus area more so I was worried about requirements um and you know essential functions

122and other functions so I'm pleased >> and I assume that they these were developed Oh, what was the order in terms of building them? Org chart first or the job descriptions? >> The org chart was already built. >> Well, this is the org chart is different from our current or >> Yes. So the job descriptions um the job descriptions were built for my direct reports and so the changes to the org chart are not my direct reports. >> But the the job descriptions will support the new org chart, not an exist, not the past one. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I have one more question. Um where do these go? Like are they posted online or are they just um internally used? We've never posted online. Well, >> I'm not saying they should be.

123I'm asking the question. >> Um, but they are signed by the person in that role. >> Okay. >> And then we store them in a binder. >> Okay. >> But they're they're public doc available documents. >> Okay. Yeah. If anyone wants I mean they're obviously they're posted because they're part of the packet, but >> if you were posting for a position >> Yes. >> Exactly. Yeah. So, just a little bit of a I happen to open one question and I'm a little confused >> down in the work perform section for one of them. It's like inside 100% outside up to 75% which is like 175%. So, I'm a little confused as to what it means. And that's just a general like okay I I don't know if that was intentional or if it's just an

124oddity I happen to pick. >> Um >> I'm looking at the athletic director. Um, >> so it could be that you're you have 8 hours outside. It could be you have 8 hours inside. It's or or 70%. >> It's possible. Okay. >> Appreciate it. >> Having been asked to put 110% in at work, it's a little nuts. >> Well, that is what's requested of all of the administrators in SA41. >> Of course, >> these these look really good, Gina. like >> they're really nice and I think we got >> quite a good bang for our buck on producing this. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> All right. Um the educational assistance program is next. So in the individual boards have have passed this. Um I will need signatures from each of the chairs of all the um

125districts. We don't have anything in the SAU where employees have any kind of um um repayment of student loans. If you want to add repayment of like children's student loans to No, but we don't have that. But it just made sense that um and then if we're going to approve it in three of our districts, we would approve it across the board. And what that does is if we had the the repay the loan assistance, repayment of loans, it makes it a taxfree benefit as opposed to taxable income. >> So my hope was you would approve that and then we'd sign it off and we'd be good to go. >> Is is that something that you think might be you might be advocating for in the near future? >> No, because in So yeah. No.

126All right. We're hitting that time where we are potentially looking at um a transportation contract. And so our transportation company reached out and provided a proposal for a contract extension, which we are able to do if you are so inclined. Whoops. Uh so you can see the details of the proposal. Um for comparison purposes I have a lot of documents here. I have our existing rates um from our current contract and from 2223 it was a 4% increase four and then a 4% again 4% again and then 3% and 3% for a total of 19.34% over the terms of the contract. This is pretty similar. It's 4% um 3.75 for the next four years. Um in addition to that, their plan was to update the bus fleet as soon as possible. I wanted more information.

127So um they would order eight typea vehicles, which are vans, immediately after an agreement is made to extend the contract. They would order 20 type one buses, so full-size buses, brand new, that would be delivered in the summer of 2027 um to be put in service September of 2027. Um in 2027, the fleet of 31 routes would be new buses except for seven spares that would be 2018 and 2019 buses and a couple of existing vans that are 2023 and 2025 um years. So, it's important to note that the eight vans need to be ordered right away because they wouldn't arrive until late winter. We found that when we purchased the vans for our um co-op, it takes a very long time to order these specialty vans. Sometimes they show up um not equipped appropriately.

128>> Correct. >> And then you have to wait all over again. Um so anyway, so those are the details of the contract. >> Does proposal >> does the contract pricing include gas? >> This is our total. This is everything. >> Okay. Yes. Um and just for comparison purposes, last year districts were faced with some contract proposals for transportation where they were faced with only options of 20 to 30% increases in in one year for their transportation contracts. So to me to look at 19.34% over the um the past 5 years and then looking at as something pretty similar as a proposal moving forward. I feel really comfortable um with this and I feel like that provides us with some stability in our transportation line. Is there anything in the existing contract that allows them to

129add a search charge if fuel goes above a diff a particular price or or something? >> Not to my knowledge. >> No. >> Um, do you know just a question like are any of the new buses that they're ordering, are they all like handicap accessible or are we still using like the smaller vans for like wheelchair transport and things like that? >> Yes, those are in the the smaller vehicles. So, none of the fulls size glasses would have covered. >> Um, in general, we seem to have less of a problem with um >> I know seriously, >> sorry, >> please. >> So, let me rephrase that. >> Um, HOW'S IT GOING? >> SO, I mean, obviously there's a um nationwide bus driver shortage. Um, I would love to say that we never have any problems.

130there areaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa on occasion if someone is sick um we certainly have um the dispatch can drive so there's some flexibility there we sometimes have to um still double a route um but I'll give you an example uh on on May 5th when we had um the Proctor Hill fires the route 13 closed like there was immediate communication we were we had to reroute all the buses we um provided alerts to the elementaryaries that there'd be significant delays and yet many of the routes saw zero delays whatsoever. Um so definitely in a much better place than we've been in my 10 years in central office. >> Can I speak to transportation a little bit as well? Um so we sometimes have needs out of district or other needs of transportation that are specialized that are slightly

131different and there have been times historically that I've had to contract out to other transportation agencies. That has gone down dramatically. the bus company has been able to fill um pretty much all of our needs. I would say like 95% of our needs they've been able to fill in the past two uh school years and we're heading in that direction even further next year. So that's been wonderful because that helps with our costs tremendously. >> Um I just wanted to say that looking at the percentage increase you know when you go like oh 90% over time sounds kind of big and also really year by year this is like within CPI you have CPI right now it's 3.8 8. Next year it's 4%, we have an increase in transportation, but then it's 3.75 for the

132next few years. And I think especially given the volatility of fuel prices, that feels incredibly reasonable to me. And I think it's very meaningful to be staying within CPI like that. >> Yeah, agree. Great. And I just realized I skipped over the org chart. I'm sorry, >> intentional. >> It was not intentional. What's that? Lance, would you like to speak to some of the changes that we see in the org chart? It's really the business office that has changed. >> I can. I just need to open it. Uh, and it's also uh just to jump back a little bit, it's House Bill 564 uh with reference to the SA uh Uassign fund balance. Um, and last I communicated with uh, Darlene, there was maybe going to be a last stitch effort to get it not

133signed from some members of um, NHSA in the DOE, but we don't know how that will turn out. But >> what was the number again? >> House Bill 564. >> Thank you. >> It might sound like is the bill specific to like our SAU budget or all budgets? >> It is specific to SAU and This wouldn't impact like Brookline individually or Hollis individually the co-op but SAU. Okay. No, that's helpful. Yeah. Okay. >> And specifically the unassigned fund piece would at the end of the fiscal year it would be returned with the same aortionment formula that was used for the assessment. >> Just to be clear they can do the same thing in in local districts as they have. >> Yeah. So jumping to the organizational chart. Uh so one shift uh with the you

134we read Linda's retirement letter earlier. Um so where we previously had um an assistant business administrator and a director of business operations. uh we'll be moving back to the model that had existed prior to that where there's two assistant business administrators. Um so if you look from all the way on the left below business administrator, we'd have the assistant business administrators. Um, and then our accounting specialist and business office specialist with also a a dash line um from myself to them as I would take over some of those um management processes from the director of business operations. So, not a shift in necessarily the number of people in our office, but a little bit of restructuring with with the change um in upcoming retirement. So um just to clarify so we don't have plans to

135backfill. >> We do. >> Okay. >> But she'll be a she the per Linda who is her title is >> director of business operations >> and her her replacement will be a an assistant business administrator. >> I see. Okay. >> Which is what uh Linda's original role was as well. >> Yes. Yes, I think I think if you go back just a couple years that this is the way it was structured with two two ABAs. Um I don't know if I missed anything there, Gina. If you >> I think you did a great job. Thank you. >> That was the big change. >> Do we currently have a director of school nutrition? >> We do. >> Amy Cass. >> That is Amy. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um moving on to the Brooklyn co-op study update.

136>> Sure. So, um, Brookline participated in a study to see what it would look like to join the co-op. It was a a nice committee that worked, um, over months with a consultant um to really evaluate if the recommendation would be to move forward with um, seeing if it made sense fiscally or otherwise to um, potentially expand the co-op if would that benefit Brooklyn. It was determined that there was no scalable benefit um for Brooklyn only to join the co-op. However, the potential of going from three districts to one, we would be able to likely see much more um benefit. And so the recommendation of the committee was to see if the Hollis school board um and the co-op board would have any level of interest in engaging in that study uh because it was

137beyond the scope of the committee to look at specifically going to one district. This the committee was really just charged with looking for at Brookline to join the co-op. So that is the recommendation. thought it made sense to bring it here even though it's individual board level discussions. It sort of would turn into all of you >> if I could speak to it just shortly. I was on the committee as those receipts. Um so at just with Brookline school board schools joining the co-op obviously it didn't didn't create a lot of benefit um at the staffing levels or um for the students or for the administration. Um but creating one school board really I mean one one district um there we did notice some potential for like more mobility with the teachers producing like instead

138of creating three or four budgets you know we we be able to create one budget one set of rule you know like it there was potential for a positive impact at multiple levels if everybody was on board and we can join as one district instead of having four districts. Um, obviously for Virginia and Dodd and Floren, you know, there's a lot of benefit in uh fewer workload. So, they could focus their time on, you know, in improving the district itself rather than spending six hours a week doing budgets or >> one policy manual. >> We do like everything in triplicate. We do everything in >> school board. one school board and and it would obviously need to be more than you know I mean it would need to there would need to be a benefit

139for both the towns and and they would be you know it's much further down the road discussion to bring it to the towns but at least to explore you know what what that would mean um and see if there is a further benefit to bringing it to the town I think is is something that we were very interested in in talking about further >> can I just One quick question. Can you just remind me? We voted on this as a town to pursue this study. >> Correct. >> And then um just tell us a little bit about the committee. So I know you and Tracy were on it, but we had community members also. >> Yes. Um, so it was Tracy, myself, and then there was three community members um from Brooklyn that were on

140on the committee as well as um >> a consultant >> consultant, >> former superintendent of a multi-dist SAU that engaged in a similar process. >> And so we we looked at a number of documents. Gina was wonderful in bringing um a lot of supporting documentation and the questions we had as far as budgets and financing and um you know where would where does the uh capital improvements come from and in our um agreements and you know there was just a lot of information. We did dinner over several months and um you know some of the more obvious things that that were very clearly was obviously the time consolidation for sure. Um, also like the mobility for the teachers and their um, you know, the the schools could borrow from each other. If one year, you

141know, we've got a really strong third grade, for example, you know, that a lot of students in in the other school um, in college does not, you know, we could pull a teacher here or there without affecting their retirement. And you know there was a a lot of um like clear benefits for the teachers I thought myself and and staff. Um so anyway u yeah that was my piece. I don't know if Jason wants to add anything to it but >> no I mean I think all of those points are really valid. I think it really just goes to breaking down silos and having us be all on you know kind of one team. Um, I think we we all um I think we would all benefit. It's not just, you know, efficiencies, but it's

142scale. Um, you can really do a lot when you're bigger. So, I would I I would love to have the co-op in Hollis. Um, you know, join us for for another study. Um, because it'll take it will take a quite a long time. Um, if we decide to go forward, um, it's a It's apparently a very drawn out legal process. So, >> I will say also um I was probably like a lone voice of disscent, which is fine. Um it was not a unanimous decision for us to continue to pursue. I will say just because I think that those are all very valid points and the committee did really great work. I but there are other concerns that other board members had. So, mostly me I had. Um and so I just kind of want

143to put that out there also that you know if this is something that we decide to do, there are some pretty real concerns in terms of like aortionment is each town feeling like they have an equal like all of that that's kind of going into it. I have some very big concerns about that and I have some concerns about how the town might feel about that. Um so just want to put that out there as well. Um there's there's really good pros and there's some really big cons. So I think we kind of have to just consider that as well. >> So >> thing I would say is I think that this isn't to make a decision, right? It's just to get that it's just to get that information. So I agree with you and

144I I I would say that that would be really important to take into consideration >> and I think it's just important that especially because the committee was also made up of our constituents that we put forward the recommendation to at least work with potentially work with the other towns. Obviously the other towns have to vote on doing a study also. So it would come down to your point to making sure that everyone was comfortable with where the aortionments fell and getting the to be able to make a solid decision. >> Absolutely. It would be Sorry, I just want it would absolutely be taken into account. You know, I just Yeah, >> I I think where we left it at our last board meeting was that uh the board chair was going to speak with the

145other chairs and then that way the chairs could take it to the co-op board and board to see if there was an appetite. If you guys wanted to explore a a next steps or or a study on your end so that we have data points from all three districts. Um so I think you know Gina's probably raising this here because instead of talking individually then we can just kind of put it out there as a whole and then I think the h I think Hollis and excuse me co-op would need to go back and amongst your your respective boards need to say you know is this is this something we want to explore and then you need to find out from your communities is that something that they want to explore because we had done

146that we put it out to the town we asked them to vote would you like us to do the study and we got yes so we did the study Great. We have information here, but we're one of three. And so really, I think where it goes, I think it's good for you guys to know we did the study, what the results of the study were. Um, balls in policy co-op score, I guess, kind of essentially is how it gets, right? >> And I were were there any like um hard numbers that were a part of your results? It's like is there I I I understand this is you're giving us bullet points for this. Is there a thicker document that that breaks it down further and gives us some actual numbers that we could look

147at? >> I don't know. I think we were just given the report that is posted. >> I'll look to the on the committee because I was not part of that committee. >> Yeah. So that and that's what I mentioned earlier in the SAU we do not um we don't have billable hours. So in asking the questions um how much time do you do this there there were um you know collective bargaining agreements the time spent there would decrease by this percentage. Um the the the the best number that could be provided was that the business office staff could be reduced by a business an ABA and um an accounting specialist. Um then you know because we're constantly um you know we hire this person but then we're billing out to the other districts because we're

148sharing services. that takes a ridiculous amount of time and it's an overall financial benefit um to the districts but it's just a whole lot of time. Instead, you know, the ESOL teacher is just hired in the district and works where the the work is needed. Um and and so it's a little bit difficult to quantify that and that's where a lot of the struggle was because that's not how we operate. We're not we're not billing hours to each district and billing hours accordingly. We could do that. That adds time to to all the components to keep track of your bill. >> Well, what about a model district? So, we said you had a consultant who was someone who'd been through this process. Was there information as far as like this district when they made the

149change had this percent reduction in staffing costs in you know whatever metrics is there any kind of >> Yeah. So we were really you know just tasked with Brookline and to tease out you know one district from all of the SAU expenditures that was a little bit difficult and then to try to break it down even further. We really didn't we really didn't have a way to do that because it's so all intermingled. Yeah. >> Um I >> that's not my question. My question was you worked with somebody who had been through this. So was there an example? >> They went to the study and then it tore apart the towns and wanted a district bear their own SAU. So a very different end result. Also, also what was good was we were only instead

150studying us joining the co-op and it wasn't reducing down. That's why we said it's not beneficial for us just just with Brookline joining because that's we couldn't study what it would be if Hollis and the co-op co-op, you know, if they all joined. >> We could only study what Brookline joining the co-op would be. And it was not a big company, but we said if it was our >> best educated us that if >> anticipation that there would study it, it could be a potential benefit, right? But there was it was not >> that I don't >> to me the qualitative reason to do this or to consider this is for our students because you all spend so much time tripling your work. So, I don't know how you put a financial number on that,

151but if you don't have to do three policy manuals, you can do one policy manual and then you can do more curriculum work and you can do more work with professional development and you can work with teachers more. And so you can get to those things on that job description that you might not always get to because and then that to me direct benefit to students because the more time you get to do the work that helps our students the better off we all are. So I just don't know what the next steps are as the co-op chair. Do I stick this on the agenda? Do you really need a vote for a study? Is that how that works? you >> if you're going to spend money >> likely >> each the two remaining boards

152would choose to put uh questions on their on their next warrant >> and ask does the town want to consider >> conduct a study >> article >> actually we so let clarifying point um we we you can spend your budget once your budget's approved they don't approved the line items, right? And so as Brookline, we we know we could have taken 10 grand out of the budget and just done the study. We made the decision as a board to ask the town, would you like us to use some of the funds in this way because we wanted to know if there was an interest from the community in looking at this particular study? Um because while while the five of us or whoever it was when we did this um when the board had the

153idea that they wanted to do this, the board could have just said, "Hey, Gina and company, go go, you know, go do the study, take it out of the budget. That's great." But in trying to be fiscally responsible, we wanted to pose it to the town. So we did. They said yes. And we said, "Cool." like that that's that's really how that that's how that went. >> If I remember actually what had happened was the town meeting there was actually a vote to dissolve the co-op and and it if I'm I'm just trying to remember because I remember and then Brady actually brought it up. >> Yeah. But we we ended up bringing our own so year over year it seemed like multiple years in a row there were they were asking for studies to

154be done for us to draw a lot out of the cooperative. So we said let's see if there's an appetite to do the opposite. So, so we didn't have to have a warrant article to spend the money because we pulled it out of the budget. We wanted to respect our community and make sure that they had an appetite for us to even look at it, which is why we decided to do it the >> Yeah, that's a much better approach because otherwise the optics is that you're trying to push an outcome. >> Correct. >> Um, and we and we didn't want and we didn't want to do that. >> Of course not. >> Right. So I think just because it's not really an SAU thing, I just kind of wanted to share the information. The

155best course of action would be um to put it as an agenda item on a future board meeting in co-op and in Hollis if those chairs agree to that conversation and then the conversation I think should take place in those individual boards. >> I already put it on my list as a possible agenda item. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The only concern I have with that that approach okay is if if they are going to do it there might be some common model that or assumptions or even questions the the the study should have some um syn uh synchronicity is the word for for example are Are you going to look at an assumption of mobility of students among schools? Yes or no? Are you going to look at mobility of teachers? Are um you know

156some of these things because they can dramatically impact the potential benefits or risks? >> No, I I I completely agree with that. But before we can go into all the things that we should study, we have to figure out if the other two boards have any level of interest in moving forward. >> Yeah. I I think we >> that's a in my opinion that that starts with a board and then we can look at where that takes us. I think it could be maybe we can simplify it and just say do the boards have an appetite to put an advisory article on their warrant to ask because it's got to be the communities driving it. It can't be the group of 17. >> That's but that's not true. It should be, but it doesn't have

157to be as was stipulated. We could say, "Hey, as a board put aside money to go do this." >> Absolutely. But if you want to climb that hill, you go right ahead. >> I understand. And I think one comment I wanted to make and I know Jess you had one too. Mine is quick, which is the as Gina has mentioned from some of the school expansions, Brooklyn has an impact fee. Hollis does not have an impact fee. So there is a bigger townwide select board et etc impact of how funds are appropriated and raised at the town level in and above what the school boards will have to do. So those will also have to be leveraged. >> Oh yeah% will not be easy. >> Yeah. >> And then debt based on the individual districts

158how is that allocate? I mean there's so but that's like the 27th step >> right and and anything worth doing is not always easy. I didn't say it twice. >> Just >> that's okay. I'll say mine for individual halls board. >> Okay. Fantastic. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we are moving. >> Write it down though because you're going to forget. >> Okay. >> Text yourself. That's what I do. >> Deliverations. >> Deliberations. Yes. Okay. To see what action the board will take regarding the fund balance. I'm looking for a motion to approve the expenditure of an amount up to $85,000 from the unassigned fund balance to cover the anticipated year-end deficit. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Discussion. Um I think in light of what got brought up during deliberative um not deliberative during discussion uh especially

159knowing that the extreme probability that this balance is going to go away it's completely reasonable to use what we have at the moment if we have a clear need. >> Any other comments or questions Tom? Uh, following that line of thought, in light of what may be coming down the pike, is the is this the correct amount? >> This is what the public hearing was on. So, I don't know that we can change the amount without having another public hearing. >> We can because the notice does not include the amount. >> Oh, I thought it did. >> No. >> Yeah, I thought it did. >> The memo does. The notice does not. >> The memo does. Oh, that's >> the notice. It's just that there is a public hearing. It's a really good question, huh?

160>> I don't think that I would feel comfortable right now going, what do we want to spend money on? If we want to have a special hearing, if the SAU wants to assess and look and think like, are there things that would be meaningful? Then I think that would be valuable, Gina, to happen and then we have a special hearing. I wouldn't feel comfortable right now going, let's spend some more money because we have to. Well, you could you could freeze it right up to a hundred,000 or whatever and then we could meet. But right now, it would just get the it would just get that possibility of having any money, but we wouldn't have to spend it, right? >> Yeah. I think theory wouldn't feel comfortable. Here you could even word it. You want

161run it by legal, but you could word it as it upon but upon passage of HB uh 564 um the amount the cap moves to XYZ. >> I'm kind of with Jessica. Let's let the law let's let the law play itself out. See what happens. We can have a special meeting. I'll >> but but here but my fundamental question is >> based on how you went about coming up with what you want would you come up with a different amount if you knew that everything else was going away and you were not able to do the work next year is there so for example there was a thought that the deficit that is anticipated by moving to the the default budget or whatever it's called for for the SAU there was going to be some

162money um used out of the assign there was not I thought you were going to >> Nope. >> Okay. Oh, that's the is that the Brookline is going to be doing something like >> Okay. But >> are there anticipated expenses for for the next year? that you would have been put putting forward to fund by an available fund balance. >> Not not currently as it stands and and part of that was personnel shifts within the SAU that happened to coincide with fiscal year 27. we were able to. >> So things like the merit pools and stuff like that that we frequently fund out of it and other other things, you don't you wouldn't anticipate needing that next year. >> It was in in the budget that like that piece was budget. >> Yeah. I mean,

163the only thing I would think about is if you wanted to allow any um building updates to occur with these funds when historically we only use the the Hollis um SEU building maintenance trust. >> Well, that would be for the physical >> that's what I'm saying >> structure. There's a whole other aspect of upgrades for the work spaces that wouldn't be part of maintaining the structure like updating the break room from the 1970s. >> It's um very nice >> those kind of things. I happen to modern >> there there's a a fairly >> robust appetite in some folks um minds that we look at that and bring that forward. >> So I I know this kind of got brought up a few meetings ago when we talked about rentals, but this SAU doesn't own the

164building, >> right? So for renovations, repairs and other items, I know there is a reserved fund balance in the maintenance, >> but the Hollis school district assigns and outputs that fund balance. >> So unless the SAU is potentially offering the money to the district. >> Well, that's what I just asked. >> Okay, that was what I missed then. >> Yep. And then Rob just chimed in with not the building, but um >> it's outside of maintenance. >> Yeah, >> like the table and the kitchen. You don't want to fix the bar >> cabinets like the the FF the furnish fixtures >> furniture fix the interior >> went down that road too >> there's a window broken we can definitely fix the window >> 225 yeah >> but you know those type of things to upgrade

165the um aesthetics >> I feel like we may we'll need a separate meeting for that I think it's probably wise to just stick with what we >> I'm not going to figure that out tonight >> I mean I think I think the economy and budget is very stressful for everyone right now so I think the more intentional and clear and upfront we can be with the public about it. I feel like >> that's going to be like we're going to get more validity from that if we're like like this is what we we know what we're spending it on. This is what it's going to do. This is because like it's just really hard for everyone right now when it comes to but taxes and all of that. So I I think I'd rather be

166like intentional about it. >> Okay, I'm going to call for the vote. So the motion on the table is to approve the expenditure of the amount up to $85,000. I'm going to try to just see what happens if we just call for the vote, not by board. So all in favor? >> Okay. Opposed. Okay. Great. >> 1500. Motion passes. >> Okay. Um to see what action the board will take regarding the approval of the SAU budget by the voters at the three annual meetings. Um as a reminder, the SAU budget warn article failed with a collective vote of the three districts. 895 votes in favor and 1,026 opposed. So, I'm looking for a motion to accept the results of the votes cast on the SA41 FY27 budget warrant article as stated >> and a second

167>> discussion. >> What are the implications of a no vote? >> Yeah, that's my exact question. >> I think we're required to accept them because they came from three different sources. >> What are the What are the implications of a no vote? >> Why do we have to vote on it then if we're required? If we're not allowed to vote no, then what's a vote? >> Why else? >> You have to submit it to the DRA. I don't >> like if we if we vote like >> I'm getting ready with the calculator. >> I don't understand that. Like I don't love that position to be in like you have to vote on this and you can only vote yes. >> The only thing I I can imagine two possible things, but I don't know if

168either are true. One is it's just acknowledging that the vote occurred. The other is that it if you voted no then you have a zero. You have no money. >> Oh yeah. I I don't want that to happen >> because this is what this is what you're being offered. It's like it's like a job offer. This is what we're offering you. Do you want the job? This is what we're offering to give you. Do you want the money? >> So I'll take I'll vote yes because it's the will of the voters. I'll vote to support the will of the voters and accept. >> I think it's the won't of the voters. I think it's acknowledgement. >> Okay. >> So, what's the motion wording? Sorry, because it really matters in this case. >> So, we're accepting

169the results of the votes cast on the SA41 FY27 budget warrant article. >> Well, I accept the vote. >> Accepting the results. >> I accept results of elections. So, I will um vote yes >> and a second. >> Okay. Yes. All right. So, I'll call for the vote at this point. All in favor? Okay. Opposed? Okay. 15 There is zero. Motion passes. >> Um so at this point I'm looking for um someone who is interesting interested in serving on the um arch board. >> I know you had expressed are you still looking? >> Uh I am no longer um available. >> Okay. >> So did you did you say in the beginning that you wanted two two elementary school? >> No. No. I said in the elementary districts they each appointed somebody in their committee.

170>> Oh, >> appointments. So, Johanna and Jonathan. But it doesn't have to be that it's up to the SAU board to actually >> um >> technically there's a rotation, but we haven't necessarily followed it. >> We have not followed it. Well, we actually I thought we got rid of the rotation when we decided that decided that we would have it assigned from the SAU governing board. >> Correct. So this is an SAU governing board position versus the two elementary school position. >> Correct. So So I'm saying there are two there are two people that have identified they want to do it. >> Okay. >> Um the question is does the governing board want to um >> appoint Jonathan and Johanna? >> Oh. Oh, I see. >> Yes. Make a motion. >> I would love to

171make a motion. Yes. That Jonathan and Johanna represent us. >> The Jay's. Yes. To serve on the RS board. >> I'm just confused. I thought we needed I thought we needed more people. I was confused. >> Rob seconds. Okay. >> Great. Sorry. >> I'm really tired. >> It was late night last night. Okay. Um, all in favor? >> Okay. Opposed. >> Done. >> Okay. 150. That motion. >> Feels like I'm going to a meeting next week. >> Still doing it. >> Christa is a community member. I'm the chair. It's good time. >> Does she bring candy >> or coffee? Damn it. I know. >> It's over by Georgia. >> Who's the who's the Amherst uh or the um superintendent now? >> Mike Barry. >> Okay. >> All right. Now, we are going to see what

172action the board will take regarding the student transportation of America contract extension. >> Move. >> Oh, we need a motion. >> We Yeah. Shall I read the motion? YES. >> UH looking for a motion to 820. Let's go. >> An extension to the existing contract with Student Transportation of America for a term of three years beginning in the 2720 >> five sorry five years um beginning in the 2027 2028 school year with additional two optioners available at mutual agreement and subject. >> Perfect. >> So it's so what is it? It's three years plus sorry. So three years with additional two option years available at mutual agreement and subject to the conditions outlined in the extension proposal and rate structure appendix A dated May 11th 2026. Funding source is the original operating budget of each of

173the districts. >> So moved >> so tired. >> Okay. And a second. >> Jonathan, >> is there any further discussion on uh the contract? >> I just >> Okay. Go ahead, Rafie. Go ahead. >> Um, just so the second page had all the total costs. There was a line on the first page saying the district would continue to supply the fuel utilized. Is that referring I was just a little confused about that part in terms of how it >> Hold on. I just going to look at it. >> Good catch. >> The district. >> Oh, that's why that's why it's not in there. We give them uh they have gas cards that we pay for. I thought I'd seen it in the line items that we >> Is that a material change from the previous

174contract? >> No. No, it's not. But that's why they don't have to put an escalation clause in it. >> Yeah. >> Because it the risk is ours. >> Yeah. I thought >> But the good part is we pay a cost. Do you know if was there any competitive analysis done this go around? >> So this is just a proposal for contract extension. If we don't approve this then um then we have to go out to bid in the >> Oh no. I'm just wondering if anyone >> So I can tell you that um like I said it was a big topic of conversations among superintendents a year ago and of similar districts with similar bus fleets we are far lower than any other district. I can't say that we'd get that same prop, you know,

175that we would get this proposal and actually Lance mentioned that in one district there was a contract extension mentioned to me of proposed the district decided not to move forward and go out to bid and the same company that offered the extension then increase their their bid. >> So that's a risk >> and was the winning bid. So >> yeah, >> that's a lose lose. >> Contact Um the so the three year two-year optional does that mean do we have to decide or is that just like we're going to sign a contract for five years? >> No the the follow the the other two years >> is it like the last >> you can end the contract after three years if you choose. >> Do you know who has is it our option or theirs?

176>> Um you have it up Lauren you have it up. I I have the contract. It's the exact same language as this year. So the optional years >> Yeah. >> And to be clear, it's the individual districts paying the bus gas. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> I only ask because that is kind of important, right? Because if like we think this is a really good deal and we're worried about potential inflation. If it's termed without cause, most likely that means we can get out of it, but they probably can too. No. >> So are we going to vote on a threeyear or a fiveyear contract? >> They have not offered us a fiveyear. All right. But they offered us three with two extension years. Yeah. >> But if we agree to three with two options,

177that's still saying that they have term without cause. Everyone does, right? I get >> sorry, it's a long contract. >> I mean, we could we could potentially make a >> Yes, we can make we'll do it at five years at what you proposed. Yeah, >> my guess is reaching out that far they might b at it. >> Well, last time it was a fiveyear. It wasn't a three >> with two year. >> I know, but I suspect that that may be why they're structuring it this way. >> That might be. Yeah. >> Optional additional optional two years available on mutual agreement. So either party >> after the first years. Yeah. Well, to be fair, if inflation goes up significantly in the next three years, I would want the ability to renegotiate if I was in

178their position with the two-year option. >> Um, and at least in terms of 3 plus 2 versus five, I'd argue that we take the 3 plus two because we also don't know what will happen in three years. It's entirely possible that we may want something different. this this contract is written from 22 to 27 and the under the termination and those clauses there's nothing that talks about a 32 right here. I mean I'm still reading through the whole contract but I want everyone to have to wait but so far I've not seen anything to that effect but there's a termination clause and then additional understandings but it doesn't have that exact 32 terminology. >> I think we got a good deal >> on our hands. Um >> well, and they've been performing well >> and

179it it knowing the rigors and the time and effort it takes to renegotiate and rebid and then go through the language of a rather meaty contract. It's it's I can see why they would prefer to give us a good deal because they don't want to go through that rigor either. It's cost effort to them. So, it's like, hey, they were a great client. Let's keep them happy. >> And they're established in, you know, they all their stuff is right here in town. So, >> in the in the other town, but >> not in this town. >> But the minute you do something like these other districts and said, "No, we're going to go out for bid >> now." They're like, "Okay, well, we got to do the work anyway, so we may as well get

180paid for it." >> Yeah. No, the only thing I the only thing I could envision happening is us proving it um with also if we wanted it, not saying we do want, but if we wanted it with the request that the administration um expressed an interest in a in making it a true five-year contract at this under these terms and if they'd accept that, >> we would go with that. >> Yeah. I but I don't you know there there seems to be mixed emotions on whether whether we do or don't want to be locked in for five another five years >> or or there may be a date certain where they would agree to turn it into the those lock in the other two years maybe just not now because they're they're probably trying to

181manage risks as well. So both both outcomes are pretty good. >> Yeah. I mean, three years from now, that's or when we hit the three years, that's really four years out. So, the fiveyear is really six years out. I I mean, I can see why they would >> maybe be cautious. Um, that being said, they're investing in a whole new fleet. That's a ton of output to start. >> Yeah. >> Um, and they already had to update their fleet to start this year based on the terms of our contract. Every every bus had to be newer than 10 years. So, they've they've really held true to the things that they've promised. They're quick to respond when I say, "I want the um hi, you know, I'm the new superintendent. Give me your fleet information with

182all the >> My sense is the experience we've had with this provider juxtapose other situations earlier has been profound." >> Yes. >> So, let's just take the deal. >> Yeah. Okay. Yes, I'm ready to I'm going to call the vote. So, all in favor of approving the contract with STA. >> Thank you. >> Contract extension though. >> Hing. >> Contract extension. Sorry. >> Um to see what action the board will take regarding the educational assistance program section 127. Looking for a motion to approve the SA41 educational assistance program as presented. >> So moved >> and a second. >> Discussion, questions. >> I just I'm a little bit opposed to it. I'm I'm in favor of the thing in general, but if we're not going to use it, my concern about having it there is the

183optics that people are going to come in and say, "Look, now the SAU office is offering reimbursement and we've got a document that we approved and now you got to go convince everybody." We just did this to have it in the back pocket unless we in case we want to do it. And I I see the functional benefits of having it of getting it over with if we might ever want it. But if there's no express desire to utilize it in the near future, I think there's a downside to having it in place. >> Is the reason to have it in place so that you can protect I mean we all put it in place in our districts. So is it so that like there's an umbrella in case because this is about tax-free income.

184So, is that one of the reasons to do it or is it just to put in place for them? >> This would only cover SAU SAU employees. Correct. >> Correct. Yeah. And and really um um I I I don't think we need it for SA41 because it wouldn't really apply to anybody. Um, the only thing I can think of is, um, it would make the business office's lives easier if everything was handled the same if in the event that we were to move forward at some later date. But I see your point about transparency and concerns that we're doing this now. The other times this is in place, it's only through a collective bargaining agreement. has clearly identified when and who would be eligible for the benefit and and there are no collective bargaining agreements

185in the SAU. So, >> okay. Any other discussion questions? Do we need to do it? >> I don't think we need to. >> I mean, it makes it easier if we're all just the same. >> Is there any reason why we wouldn't bring it back if we had a situation where it would be a solution to a problem? I mean, like, would you ever use it to recruit? Like, I know you've got some really young people who've just come out of college. Like, would you ever want to use it? Like, would you ever consider that as a a carrot or something? >> Potentially. >> Yeah. >> Be ready to defend it if if we >> Right. I get it. Like, is this So, so are we putting it in place by voting for this as

186a potential, but we have no like we don't know like how >> there's no proposal to use it. There's no there are no parameters. There's there um I have no authority to offer it. >> Okay. >> So, it would have to be everyone can get it. It can't be your discretion to make it maybe a negotiating piece. >> I think what would have to happen is when we talk about compensation um of SAU employees, I would come forward with various proposals. this might be one of them for a particular classification of employee then you would either support it or not and then um >> so this >> and if this is agreed on then it's already in place as opposed to having >> bureaucratic reporting obligations if you have it in place >> no >>

187okay >> um so this would is it correct to kind of look at this as a tool in your toolbox to use but you don't have to use it >> no this is more of a contingency It's that if in sometime in the future they want to do it then it's already in place, >> right? >> But by itself it's it has no function. It only comes into play if the other pieces of the puzzle are brought forth and approved. And my thought is we do it do it all at once as we did in the individual school districts. We decided we wanted to do it. We did it and then after the fact we learned that there's a better way of doing it. So if we were to do it again in the future,

188we would do them both at the same time is my thought process. >> Okay. Okay. Is everybody ready to vote? Okay. Um all those in favor we might need to get the out. Okay. All right. We have just have the calculator. The uh voting calculator or the weighted calculator? This is the just the voting. We're not asking for a weighted vote here. >> Okay. The voting. Okay. Hands down. We'll do it by >> Solon might. So, be ready. >> Okay. Jess, are you ready? >> Um, give me just one. >> Yes, I am. Okay. >> When was the last time we used one? >> All in favor. >> Okay. I'm seeing Sorry, this is just Brookline. I'm seeing three >> three S's >> of five. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Um, we'll do co-op. All in

189favor? Okay. Zero of six. All right. And then Hollis, three of five. >> No, four. >> Four. Sorry. >> So, one. So, there's there's one. >> I said no. >> Are you assuming that a non yes is a no? >> No, I'm not. Those are the yeses, right? >> Okay. So, now we'll do no. Sorry. Okay, those are opposed. Brookline, anybody opposed? Two opposed in Brooklyn. Sorry. >> Yep. Co-op. Those opposed. Six. Hollis opposed. One. Uh. And so it is 4.95 for no and uh 4.05 for yes. >> Close. >> Good job. >> So, it does not pass. >> It's amazing. >> Uh moving on to the uh proposed meeting dates for the SEU41 governing board. The following dates were proposed for our meetings: October 8th, December 10th, February 11th, and May 13th. Um, I'm

190looking for a motion to approve the meeting dates as proposed. >> So, move. >> Okay. And a second. >> A second. >> Who is that? Alison. >> Sorry. Okay. Uh, any discussion? Okay. Um, all in favor of those meeting dates opposed. 1500. That passes. Okay. Now, we're going to uh uh look at the um CBI F1 the superintendent evaluation. Um I'll put a motion on the table and then we can discuss it if that works. So, I'm looking for a motion to accept the first reading of CBI F1 superintendent evaluation as presented. >> So, moved >> and a second. Second. Okay. >> Okay. >> This is so much fun. >> Um Amy, you're on the policy committee, so do you want to present this? Um, >> no, >> I will chime in, but I don't

191really want to take the lead and go ahead and Okay. Um, so we did meet with um the policy um committee um Amy, Johanna, and um Jess. And we're we're going to take the approach they don't know I'm using this, but we're going to take the approach of the Goldilocks effect >> because I watched your I watched the meeting from last year that went on for several hours. >> Yes. >> Um and our final decision didn't um come forth. And so what we did was we had one that some people thought would was too short and didn't have enough information. Yet some people thought it was too long and um writing comments for every section was very cumbersome. And so we approached our work from trying to get one that was just right in the

192middle. Um and so we we're coming forward with um the proposal of one form which um has a benefit on multiple um factors. you went back and forth a lot of between the the short and the long which wasn't really all that different. Um it was the same questions just fewer of them and there was comments that um we didn't that some people didn't feel that the short form covered the broad um aspect of all of the functions of the superintendent. And so the committee um actually used the long form and went through every question and every section and um updated some of the language, changed some of the language and um reduce some of the language that we thought um was not appropriate. And on the first page, you'll see that um there is

193one change um under online implementation. the the crossout that you had um previously was all pros. It was all written comments and grading um which was very lengthy and could be very cumbersome to anybody that was filling it out and then it becomes much more difficult for the committee that has to coalate all this information and come up with one summary statement. So the new form is in a checkbox format. Um there was comments made that you wanted to be able to see the goals from the previous year when you were one reviewing each of the sections but then also being able to rate the superintendent on those goals. So the beginning has a placeholder for the previous goals and when they're typed in they'll also have the same grading five through um one and

194then NA meaning not applicable which really wouldn't be appropriate for the goal area. it will just be a five through one ranking. Um, and the first page gives you the five rankings. Um, five being consistently exceeded the minimum requirements with some bullets. Four exceeded some minimum requirements. This was you had already kind of looked at last year. We didn't make any changes to that scoring agreement. The one piece that we did add in that if you rated a one or a two um on any um subsection, you you must put in a comment. Other than that, comments were optional. Um but if you were rating a one or a two, you had to include a comment at the bottom of each of the sections. Um uh one of the things that we had talked about

195and Amy maybe you can pipe you might pipe in here because you have more time than I do on the board but um you know there was a lot of discussion last year about the long form being so astoundingly long as to be like almost unusable and then this year when we did the long form people had a sense of like actually there actually had been an update to the long form since the last time it had been used. has been used so long ago, right? But there actually was a change several years ago predating me that made this updated long form already much more usable than the last time the long form was used. And then we were making additional changes to that to continue to make it more usable. >> Exactly. And we

196removed a couple of um from the various um categories. We review removed some of the areas where you know we had talked before we didn't feel like we had visibility. Um and so we moved some of these um questions to sort of the ad recommended um conversations to have with the administrators and the direct reports so we can capture elsewhere. >> Right. Our goal was really to focus on like if we're assessing the superintendent, it needed to be in the superintendent's scope and doc brought up a really good point that by coalesing everything this way. I mean Gina's not going to be our superintendent forever because nobody lives forever, right? So unless Gina unless you really want to give it a go but >> a minute to win it. >> Yeah, a minute to win

197it. But um but this will give continuity to if there's board change over, when there's job change over, it kind of really provides like a stability. So we thought that was helpful, >> right? That it's the same because it's the same evaluation form every year, you know, versus like how do you compare the long form to the short form, you know, if it's the same form every year, it's a lot easier to be able to track how how is this going from year to year. >> That was one of the main components of trying to come up with just one. It takes the stress away from you as well each each year deciding which form you're going to use. Um but also the back and forth doesn't allow you to actually compare um the data.

198It's not comparable. So by deciding to use the same form always. Um it gives you that that ability to compare um ratings from one year to the next. And using the checkbox format will allow for um consistency in how you rate each of the categories because it'll be a numerical number. But it also doesn't take away the fact that people can still add comments and you can have a qualitative section to your report. >> Holly, >> um, couple things. Uh, first, I'm really happy that you took off the goals for each section. I thought that was cumbersome of the other form. I don't know if that was on this form or that form, but last time when we did the evaluation, I thought that was too many goals. I think that's a lot. Um, also

199did anyone, so you guys aren't necessarily on spec and so I don't think all of you have access to the superintendent's evaluation, but were you able to access that what we did last year to find things that weren't visible because we had certain questions that a lot of people didn't answer. >> So I had access to those because I did spec last year for Brooklyn. So I can go back and look. We didn't look at that in the meeting, but I do think that when we went through and we kind of I think we actually covered a lot of them. Um because I did bring up that a lot of people had like not answered and so I think when Dot was going through and we kind of really leaned on her experience and having

200worked in other districts and kind of what other districts set up, I think we actually ended up moving a lot of those questions. >> I I'm sure you did. I just think it would be a good thing to look at from people on the back to go back in the last years. The only thing I will say the caveat on that is that um for some people this was like their first time going through it many people and it was our the superintendent's first year being evaluated and this was a new form. So there could be some that you might have visibility in but I think that might be a good uh date like data point or whatever to look at. So those are my two things and then my third thing I'm allowed to

201have three things. Um >> I am so so happy that we're considering one form. I've been advocating for this for a while. I do not like having to decide between the two. It makes no sense to me. Same form, consistency, and also knowing our superintendent. I think it's just like this is like a good way for Gina to be able to be like, "Okay, this is how this year went. This" And then fourth thing, fourth thing we need to compare year to year. Like this is what makes me crazy about this evaluation. We do it in a vacuum and then we're all like, "Well, wait, there was a 3.2." And it's like, "Well, last year was a 2.7." No, I'm just kid, you know, but like you know, like we need to compare because it's

202not it's it's like growth and >> and whatever. That's my point. >> So, we did discuss that. >> Y >> there. I'm all done now. >> Can I go back under my raincoat? >> Two items to Holly's floor. >> Oh, trust me. You win that competition, my friend. Is this uh intended to be >> something that's >> uh autoc calculates when it's implemented where the scores will you'll people will fill us in online and then it'll self-calulate >> I don't think we got that far. I mean, >> well, if it if it is, please um look carefully at how you do it so that uh >> missing NAS or lack of a response >> changes the the >> we did >> we actually addressed that um and we said that I'm trying to see >>

203I'm just just just make sure that the math doesn't discuss if blanks or NA answers will not be included in the calculation of the average. >> Yeah. Okay. talk >> and also the to what decimal are you pointing going to? The second >> question comment suggestion in the scoring key we cons we refer to >> minimum requirements >> are those do we have already have something defined as the minimum requirements and if we don't should we default to something like there's a it's a state document of what a superintendent responsibilities are >> it's a policy. >> Yeah. And and well, whatever we're going to use somehow either reference or append it so that it's easy for us to have consistent benchmarking. >> Yeah. Because we struggle in the co-op a little bit. Um we have

204uh there's definitely a struggle and we notice that our um scores are usually lower than the other districts and that's been consistent since I've been on this board for 10 years. Um uh it's been consistently like that. And so um I think some of it has to do with interpretation of the one through five. Is that an accurate statement from my friends on the co-op board? So, um, >> I'm I'm probably more guilty than most >> really. >> Yeah. >> But I >> I wasn't going to identify >> with the numbers, but I but I that's where I try to rely on the comments, >> right? >> But but to try and get past that. >> Yeah. >> I it would be helpful to me and I hope to others if we all had a

205common statement of these are the minimum requirements. They got to show up to work. Oh yeah, they did that. Give me a five. >> But they were even but they you don't have to smile so you get extra credit for smiling. >> Okay. Thank you to Y. Thank you. U Jonathan. Sorry. And you. >> Nope. That's okay. Um so Jess will already know that I'm bad about this. Uh under the administration section, you're going to want to look at item one. Uh specifically well actually item one is is my personal opinion. I'm a little thrown off by the exerts strong educational leadership. I I don't like the word exerts. If there's another one, that would be a little nicer for me. >> Um, under item two, there's a mis assignment. The assignment is misspelled. >>

206Okay. >> Um, under item seven. >> How do you like exhibits, Jonathan? >> Yeah, I know. >> Demonstrate. We'll we'll we'll take that to policy. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Under item seven, um, you got two misspellings where I don't think you meant fort or woe. Um, >> where are you? >> Under administration. >> So, I will note that this was a backto-back meeting following a co-op policy meeting. So, poor Don and Emmy had >> this is non this is nonjudgmental. This is to help you guys. You don't have to prove it. >> Administration. Where where is a where page 14 >> I think spelling at this point we can like let you first read right so I mean we can probably just like >> send you want to send an email to us with

207any of these like grammatical things and we'll try to keep the comments here kind of substantive. >> Okay. So then moving to the substantive. >> Okay. >> All right. There are still a number of items on here um that came up when the spec was meeting that fundamentally uh received feedback of I have no idea how I would evaluate that. I have no insight into that. Those are part of the day-to-day activities that I don't see from the superintendent. >> And what that resulted in is a lot of people leaving them blank. And sometimes, as we saw with the Hollis one, some of them were all everyone left it blank, in which case there was no evaluation. So, um I think it's important that uh and I do have a list of items. I can

208send them over. Perfect. >> But, um I think there are still a number of items in here where it's like >> um you know, I'll give it just a quick example like facilitates two-way communication and interaction with staff. It's like, okay, well, yeah, as being on the spec, when I go to do some of the interactive stuff, I may pick that up, but for the broader board, when they go to fill out their assessments, that'll be tricky, >> right? >> Well, I think it depends. I think some members have more visibility and into some of these things than others, and that's to be expected, especially if you're a new board member versus a veteran board member. Um, so I think we would be curious for um, feedback where we just feel like it's beyond the

209the board's purview to have visibility in certain areas. And so if you have specific things like for your board last year where no one um, graded certain characteristics, if you could send that to us, then we will look at that in conjunction with with the evaluation and take that in consideration. Yeah, >> we did try to look at what what you may not know, but then there are other items that you may not know >> from your work on the board, such as communic two-way communication. But from a board perspective, that's an important criteria for you to evaluate um how your superintendent is communicating with the community or with staff or with parents. And so you might want the superintendent to provide you that evidence. So Jonathan, we also noted that that's a that's more

210going to come through direct reports and so it may not be something that each board but but like I mean most of us are parents, most of us are in and out of the schools we're if you're in and out of policy meetings or whatever, you get a sense of whether or not there's an open >> Yes. But but fundamentally this is evaluating and that's evaluating the superintendent. But whether that's because the superintendent is doing something, the assistant superintendent is doing something, the principal is doing something, the teachers naturally are doing something. like when we're looking at these things, it's very difficult to kind of like pull out a thread on quite a few of these of yes, the superintendent in particular is enabling or facilitating or doing these things because and I know this

211is how it's supposed to work. You operate a district like an SAU and you hire good people and you have good people and so that There may be significant groups of people that don't have access to that information or just aren't comfortable answering it. But if they are ones that relate to information specifically gathered by the spec um in their interviews, I don't know if you want to asterisk them or something, but there's nothing wrong with saying NA and it's an individual thing. It it just is a that's a very personal response and I don't think it invalidates a question. If there are more NAS than than scores, it's still valuable input. That that that's the one of the main points. The other thing is that do you do you want to as she said

212change the order of things so that those interviews get conducted earlier? I think that's great. I would caution you about asking them to specifically fill out this form because of some of the questions that are there. They're going to be at least as baffled by it as we are, but in reverse. But more importantly, an awful lot of the information that gets gathered in the interviews is an unstructured conversation with a certain level of anonymity as well. Uh, and just lastly, one of the things and probably the most important part you can do is have the superintendent write a self-reflection using this information. So, and in that self-reflection, you're going to get hopefully the evidence or the information that you need in order to answer the form. >> She just suggested that because I made

213them do AN >> Andy used to do what you do. >> Andy was supposed to do it. He didn't. He didn't the last year. >> I don't think he did. >> Okay. So, at this point, we are going to vote on the first reading of CBI F1. Um, all in favor of accepting first read. Okay. Any opposed? Okay. >> What? What? The F1 is that because there were two forms? >> Yeah, F1 was correct. >> If approved, can we delete that one? >> F2, >> right? Yeah. So I think if if it's the medium form, >> right? Well, I think I think when we name Okay. So then I don't think we need to determine which form we are going to use because we only have one form, >> right? Okay. >> All right. >>

214I'm going to release dot Lauren and Lance. >> A thank you. >> Bye. >> Thank you all. >> Do you want a mint on your way? >> We shall miss you and get mint. Take some mints. >> I brought them because I had bad breath. >> I brought them for the angry candy. I have I have a whole bag. >> We had a garlic eating contest. >> I put my hand on it. You just kind of do the claw a little like >> I want to make a motion that the boards by roll call go into nonpublic session >> pursuant to RSA 91- A col 3 section 2A the dismissal promotion or compensation of any public employee and to discuss a matter which if discussed in public would lightly affect aversely the reputation of a

215person other than a member of the body or agency. I have a second. >> Either way, >> okay, we have to do a roll call. >> Alison, I >> Kate I >> Holly I >> Amy I >> Jess I >> Jonathan Fontaine I >> Rob I Cindy I >> just stepped out. >> Where did Tom go? >> He left. >> That's that's an approval. It's fine. Um, okay. So, we are in nonpublic at 9:08 and we are going to move to the music and we're not moving back here. And we're not coming back. >> We're moving right in.