Brookline School Board 3/25/2026

001comment. The only time I I'm in charge. All right. Welcome everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order of the Brookline School Board on March 25th, 2026. This is our reorganization meeting. And so I'd like to start to uh by asking if there are any nominations for chair of the Brookline School Board. I will nominate Allison. Uh is there a second? Okay. All right. So we have Allison nominated as for chair. Um I'm going to ask if there are any other nominations. Okay. It's you. I did not Uh so would you like to speak to the nomination? Um I will I spent the last year kind of getting my hands around the role, so I appreciate the opportunity to kind of continue it and grow it and uh continue to serve. So thank you,

002guys. We're going to officially um vote though. So all those in favor of having Allison I just have a question about the role of the chair, if that's okay. Um so just because I'm learning the process and um at what point so I've had some questions about dissemination of information um like to the rest of the board and I literally just don't know what the process is. So um my understanding of chair would be like a liaison. Is that uh you know, I mean you're the the main point of contact between um Gina the superintendent and staff and and the rest of the board, right? So like we're not all bothering Gina with questions and Gina's not trying to contact all of us. So do like sometimes there a lot of stuff came up in

003the last 2 months, right? As far as like a lot of issues and um it's often only discussed here, but I have trouble preparing for some of it prior to the meeting because, you know, we get the agenda a few days before or whatever. Um is it allowed for if you're talking to Allison or the chair and any chair for that information to be further disseminated to the board? Um for example, like the boiler, right? That came down, right? Or the academic calendar orders and discussion or the budget not passing, you know, I'm sure there were discussions between the two of you or or you've had some information. Is that only to be discussed at the meetings or can it be passed down? Tricky question. >> Um it's a it's a tricky question. Um so

004um the board chair communicates with the superintendent to do agenda setting. Um some of that is because other questions or um requests or whatever have have come up and so it's that's a collaborative process. Um we meet monthly, all the chairs um and and I meet and I update everyone on um sort of high-level what's going on. Um things that are bubbling up. Uh sometimes that's helpful for the chairs so they can talk to each other. Um that there's a possibility for there to be some notes that are shared um and if that's the case, the chair can then disseminate that to the rest of the board, but there aren't always we don't always have notes. Um regarding some of the other like so the budget was um was voted down and we have a

005default budget. It is my responsibility to present to you budget cuts. Um so I actually have not had a conversation with the chair about it. But that's um so I'm coming up with a list if there's disagreement or um questions or whatever, that's what this meeting is for. So the budget is a bottom line budget. They gave us a number. We could essentially spend it however we want. Um I mean within reason. No, I understand that. But anyway, so this is the opportunity for you to say I disagree with this, but I want you to do this instead. The end of the day, we only have so much money. Mhm. Um in terms of other issues bubbling up, um I immediately, you know, notify the chair of ex- situations like there's a fire at RMS.

006Right. Um this case was actually reversed be- just due to the timing of fire and the and the meeting uh the town meeting. >> it was very convenient for all of us. Yeah, so that's where I heard the information, but typically what would happen is um so I got the information, I immediately came down here. On my drive to RMS, I w- you know, Allison reached out because everyone was hearing the information the same time. Typically, I would say, "Hey Allison, this is what's going on. Here's the update." Yeah. Share that with the rest of the board. >> And she did. She did share that. Yeah, absolutely. I just don't know like where the line is of what's like to be held to trust versus like cuz some of the um information, right? It's very

007limited in in scope of what, you know, you see at I don't have a lot of time necessarily to prepare and when we're talking about it, it's only 10 15 minutes or whatever and I don't know if I can process all the information in that fi- 15 minutes to come up with the appropriate questions or whatever, you know, and If it helps, I don't have as m- I don't have much more insight. >> Sure. It is and that's kind of what she's saying is like we the the chair's meeting is informational. There've been a few times I've passed that forward, but typically it's been stuff that we've already talked about and she's more giving it to Hollis and the co-ops so that they're aware and then the stuff that's going on with them, I don't

008pass down cuz you guys don't It's not there's nothing like crazy that necessarily needs to be shared. Um but yeah, there hasn't really That's why like I know you reach out sometimes and I'm like, uh we'll discuss it next week. We'll discuss it next week because I don't even sometimes know either. >> That's right. Yeah, I just don't know where that line is, you know, or what what is the what is the the test? I guess suppose. I guess Where is that like there must be like some type of like standard, you know, standard line of we don't share this information. Typically, you don't have a lot of information. Yeah, I mean that's the the standard is there is no information. No, and then but when an an agenda comes out uh, so so legally,

009the agenda needs to be posted 48 hours ahead of time. We like to post it on Thursday for a Wednesday meeting. Um, sometimes some of the supporting documentation isn't quite ready and so we will post it as soon as it is available. Um, none of the supporting information actually is required to be there but we feel like it just makes a whole lot more sense for transparency, etc. At any point, if there's if you see the agenda and either there is documentation or there's not, you have a question, you can certainly reach out to the chair who might not have the information or to me. Um, and I can I might not be able to give you all the information but I might say, focus on this or the reason you're saying this is for

010this you know, this is what caused that to be And it's not at all a knock. I just don't know where that is. >> and and I I I used to feel, I think maybe how you did with like does the chair not sharing stuff? Chair doesn't usually always know and I found I've I've discovered that in this year too of like there it really isn't a It's more work with it but it's not like knowledge, deeper knowledge prior in advance and it and and yeah, it's sometimes you feel like you're in the gray space. It's just I get it. I bear with me sometimes too. I just I don't want to speak for you Lynn but are you thinking it could also be like a culture of how we how we operate and how

011we work or is it more just kind of like specific questions that you have just because I think we're really lucky that we're I think all here and continuing. Um and so I think this would be, you know, not to derail, but I think this might be a great time, you know, maybe later in the agenda to kind of talk about how, you know, we're we're moving forward because we all know each other. Um Yeah. Or is it really just No, I mean, I think obviously being a successful board of directors is super important, right? And just like any any relationship of any sort, right? Communication is number one. And having good information and keeping those lines of communication open. You know, I don't want to say it should be the policy of this setting,

012but but but um you know, I do think having, like you said, you know, having the culture of like dissemination of information and asking questions and getting, you know, I like to be educated in I mean, there's a lot of new stuff for me even, right? And like just as a person I'm learning a lot about education. I think it's really great. Um It's been a great experience so far, honestly. And uh you know, just just try to understand the roles necessarily and and would love to like continue Um I don't know how I don't know if anyone else has felt this way, but like I just feel like the sometimes I'm in the dark sometimes. And it's not and it could be just there is no information and that's fine, you know, and I'm

013not trying I just want Sure. what that process is to make sure things do get disseminated if if there is information. >> Sure. Um along those lines, not exactly directly answering your request, um but Dawn, our recording secretary, has helped me develop a, which we don't really need this year, new mem- board member um orientation packet. Um and so it's I don't know, 40 to 50 pages of information. So, how about I disseminate it to everyone um for feedback, but also it does a lot of defining roles and identifying where you can find information um because for me, I you know, I do these meetings three times a month. And so it's only and so it just makes sense, but everything is very cyclical and once you you finish one cycle um and so now

014this is your first like second time around, but it still seems brand new because you haven't done it in 12 months because every board meeting is very different and it's just based on the time of year. So. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's wonderful to have I mean there was certainly a lot of confusion when I first came onto the board. Um and just about even just like you did a great job with the committees, right? You know, the I was like they were like my first meeting was this meeting and it was like what committee do you want to be on? I was like I don't know what any of these are. You know, and so it just that and like what the roles of the chair chair, vice chair, secretary, whatever, you know, all

015those things and where to access certain information. Like we did that org chart and I was like I don't know where to find that, you know? And there's just I think that's a wonderful thing to have to have that resource because at some point one of us will leave the board, right? Or all of us at some point, you know, will leave the board and so to pass that like the growth of information, you know, it only improves the board as a whole, right? And that is great for the community, it's great for the students, great for the schools, great for the staff, you know, it's like the building upon of information, right? So, anyway. All right. Yeah, no, I like Sorry, that was a lot of a tangent to go off on the chair,

016but I was just curious on how that went. Um shall we >> vote now. Shall we vote? >> Sorry. All those in favor? Did she say it's you? I forgot. 5-0. Congratulations. Thank you. Now it's your job. Now it's my job. And then I got to figure where did I we just leave off? There we go, number two. Nomination of >> Um all right, so I'm going to be looking for nominations of vice chair. Have any nominations? >> I would like to nominate myself. Okay, is there a second? A second? Excellent. Does Johanna have Is there Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Yes, I'd like to nominate Tracy. Is there a second? I'll second her as well. Lynn, can I do that? Yeah, no, you can do it. You can do it. Um

017okay, so why don't we start Johanna? Do you want to speak to your interests? >> I am putting myself forward because I think um I'm I'm curious about learning more about like how to run the meetings and how to like kind of be more involved in the leadership piece of it. I feel like I've stepped up a lot this past year in terms of like running negotiations and attending with um SPAC, taking over that and kind of handling that. So, I'm just I would like it to to give it a try for a year. Tracy's done an amazing job. Like me stepping forward is nothing against like the job that she's done at all. Um I just would like to try it and kind of we've had, you know, Tracy's been in that role for

0182 years. I think it's time to try and see kind of see what it feels like to have a little bit of a change. So, uh Lynn, you second Andrea? Sure. Do you want to speak to your second to her? Um You put you on the spot. Just curious. You don't have to. You know, I I was interested in um I knew that they both had interest in in you know, stepping up to this position and um I certainly think there's strengths for for both of them and um Johanna's very smart and um Um, she always has some great insights. Um so I think, you know, she'd do a great job. Um, and I think it's early before I speak for her, I guess. So, I will continue. Um, Dean Beal, do you want to

019say anything for So, so I will I will say in the the past year, um, the work that she did leading the um, contract negotiations, she and I partnered a lot in prepping for deliberative session and the work that she's done on policy and I know your interest in moving into a chair role at some point. Um, if you ever have that opportunity, I think it's a good chance. Um, the you you have stepped up in a in a lot of ways. I think you've been, um, incredibly helpful to me. So, I've been able to kind of bounce some some things off of you as we've kind of moved through either policy or SPAC, um, which was incredibly helpful. So, I think it would be, you know, either background education as well. I think not

020a bad bad space for you to sit in. Um, okay. So, Heather, do you want to speak to your nomination for Tracy? Do we want to let her speak first? Or Tracy. Or I guess Tracy, are you interested? I guess fair I guess that's fair. Like, yeah, Tracy, are you Like, yeah. Like, Johanna and I met her so I didn't ask if she would even wanting to take it. So, Tracy, what about you? >> I don't I don't mind speaking if that's the way It It doesn't matter. Either or. We're we're a flexible board. Okay. I will Um, I have been in the role for 2 years. Um, when I first came in, we had a chair. Um, and then, you know, we transitioned to Allison. It would be really nice, I think, if we

021had that continuity and continued. Um, I would like to grow in in the role, um, and find my own footing. I've taken on, I think, a different avenue in terms of the work that I've been interested in, um, where it's it's more facilities and physical things. Um, also too, looking at board management and like I said, culture. Um, I think we have a great opportunity to really be impactful and and a force for education and um, especially for for this town. And so, um, you know, really would like to to get into into my role um, more and be offered those opportunities to do so. Does anybody want to speak supportive? Yes, so um, you know, Tracy had reached out and said that she was interested in continuing her position. Um, so Heather, I would

022support that. Um, I think that Tracy's done an excellent job. Um, you know, I did not know Tracy you know, anyway on this board before and um, definitely found that she has been you know, very helpful in bringing me up to speed in terms of how the board works. Um, and you know, I see her as definitely a leader on this board as a whole. Um, and I think that um, you know, like I said to Tracy, I think I'd be good to have that continuity. Um, so Awesome. I guess I'll I will speak as well. >> Sure. Um, Tracy's done a wonderful job, I think in her position and her role um, up to this point. Um, she has reached out many times throughout the year to like check on um, myself. I don't

023know particularly she checked in Heather, but um, as we are new board members and seeing how we are adjusting and asking, you know, how how can we improve, what else can we do, you know, and and providing some suggestions and solutions. Um, you know, I think she is a good balance um, with Allison. And I think you guys both have really uh, distinct strengths and that they balance each other really well. Um, yeah, so Awesome. Um, Okay. Um we can like privately. I don't I don't think we can. Okay. Um I just want to say that um I think Heather may have misspoken. I didn't reach out to ask anyone to um to nominate or or or to or to electioneer or anything. Um I just want to make that point clear. I reached out

024to um to just let everyone know that this reorganization meeting was happening um because they weren't they were here last year. Um but um it wasn't electioneering. It wasn't to ask anyone for a nomination. Um so FYI. Yeah. Understood. No, no. No, no. You're fine. You're fine. I I want to You're fine. It's Yeah. Yeah. No, no. Okay. So, because we've got two, there's five instead of like voting for one and yays or nays and voting for others yays and nays, why don't we just go down the line if you guys want to to um if you want me to start, we we can. I think we just vote by name and we can just say we can just kind of Would that work for you guys if we just say either Johanna or Tracy

025and we'll do it that way? Does that work? Um Heather, do you want to start or do you are you comfortable Would you like me to start? It doesn't matter. I'll say Tracy. Okay. Um I guess myself. Let's see. Johanna. And Johanna. Yeah. Okay. So, that is Tracy for vice chair then. Okay. All right. So, next we need um a secretary. So, do we have any nominations for secretary? This is such a coveted This is such a coveted position. >> I can speak to this really quickly. I was the secretary this year. This is actually a really good way to kind of put your foot in a little bit. Like if you are interested in kind of taking on more roles or like more leadership roles eventually, um it's it's kind of very like I'm

026not going to say low effort cuz it's very important, but it isn't something that requires like time the time I think of like the chair. So I would not like to actually not run again because I would like someone else to step in and experience it. So I think that that's um so either Heather or Lynn if you guys are willing. I don't mind to do it. Um I just don't know what We'll help We'll help >> and so I don't mind if someone can maybe take me under for Yeah, I'm happy to help you out. Yeah, for sure. >> just like tell me what I have no idea what that entails. I've done it too. It's not It's not I'm sure it's fine. I just don't want to do a bad job. So Okay,

027you're not going to go. Listen, I was emailing Don literally like every day being like um I don't know what to do. So so in that case, I will nominate Lynn for secretary. Is there a second? Unless you wanted to, Heather. I'll let you take it. You have I'm on another board. I'll nominate Heather. >> No, I'm getting out of a position in there, too. Um did I get a second for that? Was that Johanna? >> Yes, I was. Yes. Okay, all in favor of Lynn for secretary. Oh. Okay. Perfect. So that that is Lynn for secretary. All right. Um next we need signers of the manifest. I can't remember. Who were our two last year? Was it Lynn and Heather last year? Um is there And we had an an alternate as well. >>

028Yes. Is there any Do you Is there anybody who would like to continue on without me just saying You'll keep it, Heather? Lynn, would you like to keep that or no? Yeah, I can remain the alternate. I just don't have to sign. >> Perfect. All right. So Heather and Lynn will be signers of the manifest. Johanna will be the alternate. And I will need you guys to sign this cuz this is an annual thing. Yeah. So don't leave without your John Hancock on the paper. Okay. Um next is going to be um I'm just going to make the statement that um there are a few committees. We did do some restructuring with the committee process um through policy work this past year. So, this list actually, and I I apologize that I didn't catch it

029in advance, is not entirely accurate. So, um tomorrow I will send a list out to the board um with our actual committees. I believe it is curriculum, facilities. Actually, I have it right here. I can just say it. And I'll email it out so you guys have it um to think through, but it's facilities, policy, SAU budget, and curriculum review, I believe Dot was going to help spin that off this year. And then there's a couple of appointments and or delegations. Um so, like the SPAC, the SAU 41 Governing Board, RSAC, um the New Hampshire School Board Association Annual Delegate Assembly, um maybe the teacher luncheon. So, if I I will send this list to you guys to kind of think through, and then at our next meeting, well, I'll do all those appointments. >>

030no negotiations this year either? >> No, correct. >> So, we're good. No, so those So, those two committees are away till >> next year? Um next Yeah, next year so we have that list. Support staff >> The support staff had a two-year contract. Might I just interject one quick thing? Um is there a a desire for a change in policy committee? I just don't want to hold up the work of the policy committee. >> We talked about that at the last meeting, and Johanna and Lynn were going to do policy. Okay, great. And then my other question was, um we have a facilities committee meeting coming up. Can I beg Tracy to show up? Yeah, the the only meeting I I think I may have missed a meeting where we did a tour of the

031building. I don't know if we met since then. Um We had two meetings. Yeah, I I didn't get any of those. The two meetings that I attended or the two meetings >> There have There have been only two meetings. >> Yeah, Yeah. Great. Yeah. When is that? Because I'm interested in joining facilities committee. And is that here? April 1st, 4:00 p.m. here. Can I Could Can other people attend? >> It's open to the community. Yeah. Okay. And April 1st, what time? 4:00 p.m. I'll make sure somebody coordinates it. Okay. Thank you. On April Fools' Day, really? >> Yeah. And we're meeting in the library? Where? Uh Conference room? Conference room. Upstairs. Mhm. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Okay. Agenda adjustments, do we have any You wanted one. Yes. So, I want one. Um so, on

032the for the agenda adjustment, what I would like to do is under discussion, there's a there's a last bullet here called new member interest, which is actually um shouldn't be under discussion. It's supposed to be member initiated comments, a non-action section um that we were going to um test run for a couple of months and see how it sits, and I'll talk about it more when we get to it. And Tracy was going to be our um our first up in that. The The idea though, and I we've looked at how other boards around New Hampshire have done it, this is usually one of those things that you do at the end of the meeting um to raise awareness, raise interest, and we'll talk about it more, but I would like to move that particular

033item to the end um of the agenda um to so we can put it in practice the way that it was intended. Um so, Do I have to take a vote on that? No. Okay. So, I would like to make that agenda adjustment. Are there any other So, I have one before you have your correspondence. Okay. Do you have another agenda adjustment? >> No, I just lost my Okay. Sorry. I printed them front and back instead of just I was trying to save a tree. And it's messing me up. It didn't work out. Okay. Okay. Dear Superintendent Bergskog, I'm writing to formally resign from my position at Captain Samuel Douglas Academy as a fourth grade teacher effective June 30th, 2026. Thank you for my time in the Brookline School District. I will miss the students,

034parents, and especially the amazing staff at Captain Samuel Douglas Academy. Thank you, Andrea Hatch. We were supposed to vote on the agenda adjustment before you like jumped into reading that. Yeah, but she >> You don't actually need to I don't have to? Okay. I know. Okay. Do you have any other things that you need to read? Um so, I just need you guys to vote to accept the resignation. Yes. So, can I Is this going to be the one I make a motion to accept? I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to accept the resignation of um Andrea Hatch from the school committee. With regret, I will second that. Um yeah. I'll All in favor? Begrudgingly. Begrudgingly. We I think we will miss Mrs. Hatch very much. Um she's been wonderful and uh it's

035it's a loss for us. So. Yeah. I I echo that that sentiment. She is a She's a big part of that community and I know does some incredible work with her students and has really good relationships with her teachers. So, we are sorry to to hear of that, for sure. I have one more. Did you just forward it to me? No. I will. One moment, please. It's okay. We're just waiting. Here we go. There we go. I was Oh, you found it? I found it. Okay. Um but I need to make it larger. Uh dear Gina, please accept this letter as my formal notification of my retirement and my resignation from my position as special education administrator to the Brookline School District effective June 30th, 2026. It has been a privilege to serve this district

036and to work alongside dedicated educators, administrators, and staff in support of students with diverse learning needs. Thank you for your leadership and for the support you and the other administrative staff have provided this year. Throughout my time here, I have truly valued the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of programs that help students succeed. The commitment of the Brookline community to its students has made this work especially meaningful. I would like to thank you and Lauren DeJaniero for the leadership and support you have provided this year. I've appreciated the collaboration, professionalism, and shared focus on doing what is best for students. While I have greatly enjoyed my work in Brookline, I feel it is the right time for me to step away from my professional role and begin exploring other interests in retirement.

037I will carry many positive memories from my time with the district. I'm committed to helping ensure a smooth transition over the coming months and would be happy to assist in any way that may be helpful as plans are made for the next school year. Thank you again for the opportunity to be part of the Brookline School District. I wish the district, its staff, and its students continued success in the years ahead. Sincerely, Jennifer Dolliff. Um can I get a motion to accept the resignation or retirement? I missed the beginning of Um technically it's a resignation because she was with us for 1 year, but it's her But she's retiring to retire. Moving on to retire. So, okay. So, may I get a motion to accept the resignation of Dolliff? Uh Who second? I I accept.

038You make the motion. >> to accept. You can say so moved. So Do I have a second? I was like, I accept. Um any discussion? I'm very sad. Yeah. Like I know like retirement and I wish her all of the best in retirement, but she will be missed. Thank you very much for your time. We really appreciate it. Um All in favor? Thank you. Do you have any others? I do not. Do you have any other Do you have any correspondence? I do not. >> Okay. I do. Uh okay. So, I have two correspondences to the record. Um Monday, March 16th, 2026. Uh I would like I want to take a moment to express my gratitude and thanks to all who responded to the fire at RMMS this weekend, as well as a few individuals

039and groups that acted acted decisively and confidently to keep our school safe and functioning throughout a variety of mishaps over the weekend. I want to start by acknowledging the quick actions of the SAU and district administration, particularly Superintendent Burke-Skog, Principal Molinari, Facilities Director Lance Finnamore, and the facilities teams of both RMMS and CSDA. Their quick responses and actions to the fire at RMMS allowed for immediate action and adequate time to get RMMS back up and safely running for our students to be in school on Monday. I am sure it took I'm sure it is quite a shock to receive a call there's a fire in our school, but our administrators were on site within minutes, gathered after information and quickly and concisely provided relevant information to the community and concerned parents. Furthermore, as they were

040attempting to navigate a situation at RMMS, power was knocked out at CSDA in the midst of a town meeting, which our teams quickly and efficiently managed when the generator at the school needed extra support. I'm grateful for the excellent and dedicated facilities staff we have and appreciate their hard work this weekend to keep our school safe and functioning for our students. I also wish to thank and acknowledge the town of Brookline fire, ambulance, and police services who provided a quick response to the call and efficiently knocked the fire down with minimal damage. I am grateful to the towns of Milford, Townsend, Hollis, Pepperell, and Mason for their mutual aid and station coverage they provided while the call was ongoing, preventing a more dangerous While the call was ongoing, preventing a more dangerous situation and ensuring

041the fire was safely and quickly extinguished. They provided integral support in checking that the rest of the school was safe and that the community of Brookline had adequate support should another call come in while the fire was being dealt with. Small towns like ours rely on the aid of our neighbors in times such as these and we are grateful that they came in when when we needed them. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Assistant Chief Dave Joki Jokey of the Brookline Fire Department whose calm and confident leadership was apparent in his command of the fire at RMMS. He responded to the call within minutes, assessed the situation, instructed dispatch to call for mutual aid, and is the reason the fire was quickly and efficiently extinguished. He ensured the school was safe and that no further

042fire risk remained before leaving the grounds. We are very lucky to have him serving in our fire department here in Brookline. I know our schools and towns are in excellent hands with him. Johanna Schriever Halligan, Brookline School Board. I also got another correspondence on Monday, March 16th, 2026. The Brookline, New Hampshire PTO wishes to express our deepest appreciation in light of the multiple challenging events that occurred on Saturday, March 14th, 2026. We are truly appreciative of the following people and organizations that supported both RMMS and CSDA during the fire at RMMS and the power outage during town meeting at CSDA. Members of the administration including Dan Molinari and Chas Miller, facilities during director Lance Fillmore Finamore, sorry, members of the custodial team at both schools, Brookline Police Department, Brookline Fire Department as well as custodial

043teams at both schools, I read that part already. Just kidding. As well as the Hollis Mason Hollis Mason, Milford, Pepperell, and Townsend Fire Departments and Ben Center Trucking. We are grateful to live in a community that community that is so well supported and works together with our schools and town. Kind regards, Maureen Schoma and Emily Meyer, Brookline PTO Co-Presidents. Right, that's >> I I would just like to add before um Ben Center as well, yes, did I was not aware of his contributions when I wrote my email, but he was very um very decisive and acted quickly with the generator and helped them out like by getting like antifreeze and coolant. So, like again, community members are just kind of jumping in to help. Um while we're on the topic of correspondence, I'm going to

044deviate briefly for a second. Um I would like permission from this board to send a letter of thanks to all of the towns that um sent mutual aid, but I I obviously am not going to do that without agreement from the board. If you guys are comfortable with that, um I I think it would be really lovely if we could just send a a letter of thanks for their support. >> Yeah. Um so, if you are comfortable with that, I will draft something, send it out to you guys so that you see what is being sent out, and then just sign on our behalf. That's great. Um can I just take a vote on that? Are we all in favor of me being able to Yes. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Okay. Sorry, slight

045deviation. All right. Any other communications? Cool. Time to read. Approval of minutes. From the joint meeting Brookline School Board and Finance Committee on January 15th, 2026, the following amendments were offered. Page three, line 38, replace training with trained. Page six, line 19, insert commas following library and town hall. Page seven, line 12, classifications should be singular. Page seven, line 42, replace the comma with a period following members. Page eight, line 31, replace LL with all. May I have a motion to accept as amended? And a second? All in favor? Thank you. All right. Um from the Brookline School Board public hearing FY27 budgets, there were no changes, and so I'm looking for a motion to accept the member the the minutes as presented. I don't think I have a motion to accept the minutes as

046presented. Can I have a second? Thank you. All in favor? Thank you. From the Brookline School Board second public hearing petition warrant articles on January 15th, the following amendment was offered. Page one line 14 replace providing with provided. May I get a motion to accept the minutes as amended? I'll keep going, Heather. I will make motion to accept as amended. Excellent. May I get a second? Can I get that too? Perfect. Uh all in favor? Thank you. Um from the Brookline School Board non-public session January 15th, 2022, there were no uh amendments to the minutes. May I get a motion to accept them as presented? I'll so move. Any second? Thank you. All in favor? Thank you. From the Brookline School Board February 4th, 2026 meeting, uh there were no amendments offered. May I get

047a motion to accept the minutes as presented? I'll move. Second? Thank you. All in favor? Thank you. What page? Oh, wait, there's more. Um from the Brookline School Board deliberative session on February 4th, 2026, the following amendments were offered. Page one line 10 replace president with presided. Page 14 line 12 replace sayings with saying. Page 14 line 39 correct the spelling of increases. Page 31 line 15 should identify Michael Peller Peller Peller tree? Pellerito? Pellerito. Thank you. As the in Pellerito as the individual who seconded the motion. Page 32 line eight correct the spelling of Brookline. Page 36 line nine insert motion seconded by Robert Rushton. Page 36 line 29 insert by Ryan Power following motion seconded. Page 37 line 13 insert by Ryan Power following motion seconded. Page 38 line 29 replace complete competed

048with completed. Page 46 line 48 insert insert by Brendan Denehy following motion seconded. Page 47 line 43 insert by Robert Rushton following motion seconded. Page 50 line one replace business administration with business administrator both capitals. May I get a motion to accept the minutes as amended? >> Yeah, so moved. May I get a second? Thank you. All in favor? Great. From the Brookline School Board public hearing warrant articles on February 9th, 2022. There are no amendments to the minutes. May I get a motion to accept them as presented? So moved. A second? Thank you. All in favor? Excellence. All right. Um I will go ahead and make a motion that the board by roll call go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91-A colon 3, 2A the dismissal, promotion, or compensation of any public employee

049in RSA 91-A colon 3, 2C to discuss a matter which if discussed in public would likely adversely affect the reputation of a person other than a member of the body of the agency itself. May I get a second? Heather, great. And then Heather by roll call, can you start us off? I. I, Heather. Tracy Perry, I. Lynn Powers, I. Johanna, I. Allison, I. Excellent. We are going to head into non-public at 6:38. All right, so I will show you how I do it. Yeah. >> Mhm. >> year last year. We have 564 students currently in Brookline. Um for our calendar of events, we've had a lot of great things happening uh since February. Um going back to February 19th, we had the RMS family STEM night. Uh that was for all grades. It was really

050wonderful to see all the families and students and staff here for that night. Um I want to thank the staff for their extra efforts um staying after hours to support uh the students, but also all the students how to work and the families for donating supplies and sharing supplies. Um that night was really fun. We had um basically games from around the world. So, each classroom represents a different um country. And um obviously it was during the Olympic Games, so it was kind of we tried to merge the two together. So, we had games from Italy, we had games from Mexico, we had game from Germany, Thailand, Kenya, um Zimbabwe, England, Venezuela, but all these different countries. Um, it was really cute. Um, there's a picture. Um, actually three little brothers, three brothers that go

051to our school. They all dressed with their country's flag, like the shirts, and they came that night together. It was really cute. And then, um, you'll see a picture here. This is really neat. Um, this is Anulette's class. Um, they represented USA in hockey. They had hockey, and they were, um, they made air hockey using Magna-Tiles. The Play-Doh container, and then the cap was the puck. And it actually worked better than a regular air hockey table. So, if you're ever looking to buy air hockey, you don't have to. I told them to Yeah, they make your own. Um, but really the students did a great job. Like even Kenya, they made Mancala kits. Um, it was just really great a great night, and um, it was spread out throughout the building. Then Mr. Martis put

052on his climbing wall on display, and that was a fun night, too, because, um, parents got to see, um, the support for the PTO, but also the taxpayers, and the grant money that we've got to make that climbing wall, and how the students use it during the day, and it was pretty neat watching our students traverse the wall. Um, in the gym, there was Venezuela from Mrs. Auger's class, and um, her students did speed skating, and then when they finished, they got a medal. It was just really neat and well done. There was, you know, Olympic music getting played, so really fun night, and again, I want to thank, um, everybody that came. We then came back from vacation week right after, and we had Read Across America week. That was a fun week. Um,

053I want to thank Mrs. Starkey, Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Starkey, our school librarian and media specialist, Mrs. Peterson, our curriculum administrator, um, our reading specialists, Erin Malo, Kim Bodett, and Patty Waller, who all helped support the Read Across America week, along with our team of teachers. We had, um, every day was a different theme. Um, and if you don't remember, we had a snowstorm right before March uh, right before Read Across America week, so there's a little snowman there and we put online, maybe make a character of your snowman. Um, but then the next day it melted, just like throughout the winter, right? So, so the first day of Read Across America week was, um, you know, clothing with names on it. Then we had, uh, you know, the second day was wear your favorite jersey

054for sports book day. We had animal clothing, so wear animal clothing with prints. And, uh, we had PJ Day, comfy day. Um, cuddle up with a book. So, really great Read Across America week. Uh, we have a picture of It's another picture. That's actually me, um, right there. I'm I'm cracking a rock because see, students in grade one were doing a CK, CK lesson on geode, so I was cracking a rock with a class. That's that one. So, we're trying to make it come to life. Then, um, just recently our third graders, this has been a traditional project every year. We usually do it in December. It used to be called the International um, breakfast, but we moved it this year to March and we call it the Heritage Project now. So, students, instead of

055researching like their country of heritage, they had the choice to research any country. Um, and the students did a phenomenal job creating a poster board. They had to research famous land, landmarks, um, famous people, um, famous places, and really wonderful job, um, researching their countries. And there was a good, diverse, you know, they we covered a a wide range of countries and then every country, um, that the students created, they had a meal that they brought in that their family created, made at home and they had a big buffet or or big, uh, breakfast. So, that was nice. It was delicious, too. Um, and then we had our Brookline kids vote, uh, which went really well. Um, we had that on um, at CSDA. And this was a just an opportunity to for, you know,

056families to kind of model their civic engagement and um, have the kids participate in the democratic process. Um, both RMS and CSDA had um, ballots for their students to vote on. The winner the winning ballot choice was um, a day of play for April, May, and June at RMS and CSDA was extra recess. Extra recess was at CSDA. So, those are the winners. It was no brainer. I mean, You know, RMS had a lot of choices. So, just some background for that. Our second graders wrote um, um, some uh, they were a uh, opinion pieces and they had um, they they wanted to me to think about different things they could im- implement in our building. So, I said, you know what? Why don't you guys each vote as a class on your top choice

057and then those each class had a choice that they picked and those are the five choices. We have five second grades, each class had a choice, so that that's how we got our ballot choices. And then, oh, coming into April for RMS, um, oh, if you haven't checked, check out your child's report card. Those came out Friday through Parent Square. Uh, Mr. Tatar, our music teacher, is doing music informances. So, it's just a way to invite the families in to showcase what the students do during a week of music. So, we've already done three performances. We had Mrs. uh, Mrs. Everett's class, Mrs. Antill's, this week is Mrs. um, O'Shea's class and then we have Mrs. Carrier and Mrs. Ennulat's class and those have been going really well. And then coming up in right before

058vacation week, our third grade concert and we're looking forward to that. Um that night with Mr. Tatar and our third graders. And my moving on to Mr. Miller. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of forgot. It's been a while since we did one of these. I kind of forgot that we had all this stuff going on. Uh a couple things I didn't uh put on here. One of them was the uh performance we had uh which went uh incredible the 33 little pigs. So, that went really well and um uh it was super fun. It even gave me a teachable moment um with the kids. The kids did a phenomenal job. Huge thanks to the the PTO and the parents uh who helped get everything together. It was just It was one of the highlights uh when

059I first got in there. I was thinking this is this is going to be really great to be a part of this. So, um inserted myself into the 33 little pigs and asked if I could be in it, too, and they accommodated me. Um I uh was able to repay them uh for that by forgetting my lines on uh each of the nights. Um the third day I did get them, but a funny little story. So, um it turned into a teachable moment for the kids cuz we've been talking about perseverance and things like that at town hall meetings. And so, um what happened was is it was the second night we were doing it, and my line began, "You're out of line, private." cuz I was Sergeant Pig. And uh I I just blanked.

060Never had that happen before. It's just gone. And so, the student who was there, she was much taller than I am, and she was the wolf. And so, I'm standing there, and I can see her, and she's waiting for me to say my line. Waiting for me, and and then she goes, "You're out of line." And I said to her, "I know I'm out of line. I forgot my line." She goes, "No, you're out of line. That's your line." I'm like, "Oh, yes, that's my line." And then I went. So, I ended up the next day talking uh with the students um before we had our student show, and I said to them, you know, being up on the stage takes a ton of courage. Um I said the last night I forgot my line

061and and it was really funny cuz they were all looking at me like, "Oh my god, you forgot your line." And I told them I forgot my line, but you know, I you know, this you know, student helped me and got back on and then and then went right back at it, but you know, I said I had butterflies and I was nervous and it was just this really incredible thing. So, you know, appreciate the people who are up there and show them your gratitude and all that. And the kids were were great. They were the best audience, you know, in the world, but it was a it was a nice teachable moment, but um it was one of those things where it was packed both nights and it really did say so much about

062the culture of the school and and what we appreciate in creativity and what we appreciate in kids showing that courage and perseverance. So, it was it was great all around. Um other things were were doing just uh put putting in here, too. Um explore biographies were done in fifth grade and uh different grade levels went to each of the classrooms to see the um projects that they had done in trifolds and that was really fun to see and the kids got to talk about what they had done in the explorers with that. Um we did the jump rope uh for heart school wide. It was really funny cuz not really too many people use jump ropes until Ms. Van Dyke did this and now it's like every grade level has jump ropes, you know, outside

063at recess and they love doing it. And they do really intricate things like they have the the big jump rope with like two or three people and then they have somebody jump roping within the jump rope and then they they do cross jump roping with the big ropes and then somebody in the middle jump roping with another rope and it it kind of blows my mind a little bit when I watch that. Um but it's great and they have so much fun and and then we're doing we finished our first wolf pack mural. So, at the beginning of the year I had two students come up to me and say, "Mr. Miller, we voted on this last year. Can we put this, you know, on one of the hallways?" And I said absolutely and our

064wolf pack council that we formed this year is basically our student council and so we took that on as a project. So the two people who created the mural and as well as the student the Wolfpack Council, we put it on the wall as you walk out of our fifth grade straight on the wall. All the kids traced it. They each got a turn tracing it. All the kids painted it. They each got a chance to paint it and it came out really beautiful. I don't have the finished product on here but we also found a process out. So what we're doing now is I just put it out to the teachers and we have teachers now with each of the classrooms. Every classroom is going to make their own mural because kids were walking

065by and going I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that. So now every classroom is going to create a mural and it's going to be outside their classroom and it's going to showcase being kind, being respectful, being responsible and being a learner and our core values and so any child can create a drawing. The classroom will vote on it and that drawing is the one that they're going to get outside their classroom and put up as a mural. So every classroom will have a mural and I think it's going to be such a great visual for our hallways to have 12 of those all around so that they can see and and be reinforced every day. This is you know this is how we live at that CSDA. Dan, I just

066have a quick question. Can you just for um explain a little bit more about the music like so it's a way for people like parents to come in and come in and see what kindergarten Yeah, a little more. The informant? So yeah, this is this is a great question. So years back when we had Shin Sook Lee here our music teacher, she wanted a way for parents to see how kindergarten begins their music journey. So she would invite the families in and show what a music class looks like. So Mr. Tatara, I I shared that idea with him and he's taken off with it. So he's inviting the families to come in just to see the songs that they learned that week. So I think there's a series of four songs. Um, I went to

067everyone so far, they've been great. Um, parents have been really enjoy enjoyed the um, students singing cuz we don't do a kindergarten concert. We do a third grade. So, this is just one way to come in and have an opportunity to come see the students in the classroom. So, yeah, it's fun. Anything else? Okay, at this point, I am going to open public input at 7:34. If anybody um, from the community would like to come down and join us, uh, the floor is open for 30 minutes. So, with that, we will move on to our discussion items. The first is the 2026-2027 academic calendar. You had in your packet, uh, the proposed um, calendar for next year. Uh, for 2026, it um, is 178 days for students. Uh, and you will see that it's uh,

068later than we normally start back, and that is because of where Labor Day falls. Uh, and the superintendent did try to work uh, with the unions to get them to agree to come back a week earlier. That was not successful. Um, and so, that's why we needed to stay with the later start date. Um, so, we we will be starting later than um, many of the communities surrounding us. Um, and you'll for Brookline, the flex day, which is October 28th, that is a new day based on the contract this year. Uh, and that already existed in our other the other two communities. And that's a day for them to do a lot of their training that they need to do for the start of the school year. They can do it over the summer, and

069that day counts for their flex day. It You said the 28th? August 28th. >> August. August. I heard October. Sorry. >> Sorry. Okay, I'm not the only kid. Thanks. How many snow days are in 5 days though? We build in 5 snow days into the calendar. And if we don't use all of those, then we get out sooner. Okay. Do we know what the last day is? I know it's different. >> Yes. Different today or this year. Today is the last day. As of right now? Our only June 16th was a Tuesday. Okay. So we're still on track. Like you haven't had to add snow days. No, so we have three. Yeah. Yeah. Um And so we have had three. Okay. So the calendar says June 18th is the last day. But as of right

070now, we would push that back to the 16th. If we have another one, I'm going to lose my mind. Yeah. No, that's fair. I'll do it right now. We can all take a groupie sock vacation. That's okay. It's not impossible. It is. Remember the April Fool's storm. Okay, so yeah, so right okay. So the June 24th day Could potentially get moved. is the has the 5 days built in. So hopefully if we have no snow, we'll get out sooner than that. And in years where there is a primary, which we have on September 8th this year, the teachers will get out the same day as the students. If we didn't have a primary day, then the teachers do an extra day after the students. Right. Okay. Is the primary on a Monday or Tuesday though?

071>> Tuesday. Tuesday the 8th. Is Labor Day. Oh. Right. Federal holiday. Okay, so the 8th the teachers are working, but the students are not. >> Correct. Yeah, the blue if you see the blue, those are teacher days with that that they're working, but students are not. And the gray boxes are holidays, federal holidays. >> Okay. Or school vacations. So the students go back on the 3rd The 3rd. >> For 2 days. Yes. And then they don't return until Wednesday the 9th. Correct. Okay. They They a very long Labor Day weekend this year. >> summer's over. I know. I know. It's like Yeah, that's that's like an amazing tease. It never worked like that when we were kids. Never. No. Well, in where where I grew up they started it after Labor Day specifically so we

072didn't get the whole day. Yep. But that makes you much later in the year to get out. It does. All right, any questions about the calendar? Just a a quick question. I know this is an academic calendar, um but a lot of parents I feel like live and die by this calendar and I just wonder if there would be any appetite for adding the school board meetings to this calendar um just so that parents we give them one more opportunity to be aware. Um so just wondering if that if there's any appetite to think about that. Is that something that can be added to an academic calendar? There's a legally thing we can't. It's um I just it's it's it's a little bit tricky. um If you want if the board wants um the five

073of you want it, we can find a way to make it happen. Um sometimes there's movement of board meetings. Um we have this what happens at the May meeting is this exact same calendar is shared with you with all of the board meetings on it um and it's and it's the board calendar. um Uh what we what I would love for people to do is sign up for notifications. I don't know if you saw on the SAU site. Um We only have I think 18 people signed up right now. I'm one of them. Um but if but folks can get an email with the update when when the agenda is posted. Um and they can decide which boards they want notification on from. It's a similar calendar. Maybe we could do under important dates to

074just a link. Oh, a list Oh, a link to it. Yeah. >> other calendar. I think if you started to put more colors, it starts to get a little bit um busy and so it's not as easy for parents to read. Oh, I completely understand. It was just a suggestion because we've heard, you know, for for a lot of of time that parents are just unaware or unable to come or unable to view it. Um, you know, in in light of um Yeah, just trying to find ways to be more communicative, especially when it's really important uh around board meetings and our agendas. So, when we send it home with electronic format, we can put a link under the important dates to your calendar. That's it. I think that would be good and they know

075forgive me if I'm misspeaking, but I know we started seeing Parents Square alerts that there were board meetings. Yeah. Um, is it I Hang on. Hang on. So, is it Yeah. Maybe we can continue with that this year and just be consistent with it every month. Not saying that you weren't because I don't always read Parents Square. But, I I do know I started seeing them and so maybe that's just something that >> all of the annual meetings um pushed out by all the principals. I'm looking at last week's uh newsletter. Yeah. It says last Wednesday school board meeting. So, what I what I'll say is it was the annual meetings that got posted and then if you look at the bottom of the bulletin though that gets sent out every week, it will tell

076you what day It's there. So, it is on it is on Parents Square. Not every meeting gets notice on Parents Square. But, like if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, um I know it's on the classroom newsletter I get as well. I don't know if every teacher does that, but there's definitely like places on Parents Square you can see. Okay. On that note, I did post on Facebook today's meeting. Thank you. >> And is that okay? Is everyone accept it's okay? I was just like that might be a good way to As as long as we're just I was just putting information. >> that is, then I think we're good. Otherwise, kind of what we were all doing of as a private citizen. Yeah, that's All right. Any other questions about the

077calendar? Okay. Um education assistant program section 127. Okay, so section 127 is something that I will need our board chair to sign off on. Essentially, um what we approved as part of the new contract is that if we have a teacher in years 1 2 3 4 Okay. Um Special education cost driver overview. Yeah. >> So. Um so in your packet you will see um an overview and I'll walk um everyone through what it includes. This is a very high-level um general overview of some of the higher costs that you see with special education. So um obviously there are some costs, you know, we have curriculum, we have materials, we have those pieces as well. Um ESY, uh summer pro- pro- programming based on student needs is also um a cost factor, but these are

078some of the bigger numbers that you would see as we look at the programming. So for special education, as you saw from the manual from this summer, uh August and September, it is a very um complex process. There are a lot of laws and compliance and um policies that go that go along with it. So it is a legally man- mandated cost. Um so it's an incredible responsibility and every team takes that responsibility seriously and when we look at the needs of students, they program appropriately based on those students' needs and those services can be vast. So, as we go through, I just do a general overview of special education and you know, our philosophy as a district is to educate all of our students in the home district. That is what our goal is.

079You'll see a little bit further down there are times where there may not be the programming or different, you know, depending on the needs and students need to utilize an out of district placement, but we really work hard to build the programs in-house so that does not have to happen. Due to, you know, a myriad of reasons including their community interactions and their social and being with their peers in their home school. So, you'll go through the next section is the total identified students in Brookline. So, I use October 1st numbers. Those are the the numbers that we use that the state uses for our count. This is a fluid process. Students get discharged and identified for special education throughout the year. So, this number is slightly different now, but it all kind of stays

080typically within the same range. So, you'll see for our October 1st number for 2025, which is this school year, we had a total of 81 students out of 556. RMMS had 33 out of 304 students and CSDA 48 out of 252. So, Brookline has worked diligently over the past, I'd say, four years especially, although it did start a little bit prior to that, to build the programs as students who have complex needs, you know, kind of arose in different ways and we were looking at just the needs overall in our buildings, what programs can we build to help us support our students. And so, there is a program at RMMS that is our step program, K through 3, and CSDA has two programs, a step program 4 through 6 and impact program. The approximate number

081of students currently accessing these programs is 18. Um these numbers can be as high as 24 to 36 uh with little change to current staffing. So these programs again, you know, typically um serve students with kind of you know, myriad of needs and I'll go through that further down. So I wanted to kind of create a chart for everybody. Um and I just use an example of 10 students cuz round numbers is easier. So if you look at it at a district day placement, there is of course residential placements as well, but right now we'll just look at a day placement as we look at least restrictive environment for students. Um and if you have a student with significant needs who requires out of district placement, what that cost could be. So the tuition ranges

082um it could even be you know, the general range is 100,000 to 200,000. It could be higher than 200,000. Um it can be lower than 100,000, but that's rare. Um then there's related services, which I'll talk about later on. Um related services, the most common that you see are speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy. Um but we'll talk about more besides that. Those if a student requires them and they're separate from the program, that will yield a separate cost um typically ranging 30 to 75,000. And then transportation can range anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 per student. Um some of these out of district placements are quite far. Some of them can be an hour away. Um so it just depends on what the placement is and what the student needs. So that Can I ask

083a quick question about this? Is it um per year or is it per like the like their uh journey over >> Per year. Per student per year. Um so per student cost range can be 200,000 to 475,000. And so the estimated cost based on the example enrollment of 10 students who we have in our in district programming that may require out of district program if we didn't have that programming, could be upwards of $3 million for 10 students. Now if you look at the right column, the way that we break it down is, you know, you look at a typical pro a program and you would have the special education teacher. So, I I kind of quantified it by the cost of our staff cuz the staff cost is probably our highest cost, you know,

084in I don't say probably, is our highest cost in regards to building the programs. So, um what I looked at Uh and I apologize for my typo. I have 12 uh next to paraeducators, it should be 10 students for my example. I apologize. So, the special education teacher, I just took an average salary um and then paraeducators, what the cost would be depending how many paraeducators we'd be needing the program. Again, this is very fluid because I'm using an example, so but every program is different and the student needs are different. Um and then you have our related services and because we are in our school district, we have our speech pathologist, our occupational therapist, our BCBA um who are our employees. And so, they are shared across the entire building um for all students.

085So, those are shared costs and so, I broke down kind of a percentage of what those shared costs would be. Um and then tran- transportation, there is in-district transportation, there is specialized transportation in district depending on student need and I totaled out that cost. So, per student, again, estimate is about $75,000. Could be less in many cases and you know, it um that's that's the general average. So, the estimated total cost based on the example would be $750,000. Um and then an estimated differential with one move-in for that would be approximately $19,000 or so. If we have a student moving in who requires an out-of-district placement for some reason, that cost obviously is higher based on that total. Are there any questions? Yes. >> a next question. Um when we talk about the STEP program

086and the IMPACT program, is that academics plus some of these related services? I don't know if I'm really familiar. You probably talked about them, but >> Yep. So, the So, all students um access their general education curriculum in their grade level. These are programs where they receive specialized instruction in different methodologies based on what their needs are, and so they require some more specialized instruction and maybe pulled out of the classroom more often than other students. So it does kind of balance how, you know, often the students So we we have a continuum of least restrictive environment. So you look at as much time as you can in the regular classroom and then it builds from there depending on what student services are. Okay. Did you say like in terms of like reimbursement, is there

087any reimbursement that comes in for special education? Are you going to get to that later? Um I didn't highlight it here, but I'm happy to answer that. So and I want to highlight a couple things. Um so I'll let me finish going through this and I'll I'll happily answer that piece, too. We'll go through that. Um so for the program pieces in general, um across our SAU when we build programs like this, I do have schools calling me asking to tuition their students in to our programs. Um and if there is a good fit and there are those pieces, that's potential revenue if we have space and um that district would pay the tuition that we set and pay for the individual related services, paraeducators, and transportation. Um so staffing for programs, these are some

088of the costs. So we hire within our as our employees, we have BCBAs, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, behavior specialists. Um but there are and paraeducators. We are this month releasing two contracted paraeducators. We've been hired We've been able to hire two more. So good job to to Jen Jen and Dan and the team. Um so that's wonderful for this year as far as news. Um so those staff members we hire as our own employees, but there are other services that we sometimes need to contract out for that we don't have a full-time need. So those costs are anything that's contracted, um physical therapy, teacher of the deaf, teacher for the visually impaired, orientation mobility, all of those would be con- contracted by hour. So, sometimes those costs can fluctuate year to year depending on what

089the student's needs are. So, you may see higher numbers in those budget lines depending on need. Okay. Um Okay. So, now I'll circle back. Are there any questions about what's on the document? And then I'll circle back to Johanna's question. >> Um, I just had so I know you mentioned ESY. Do we have a cost breakdown of like how much our district I mean cuz ESY is like leave the districts, right? Like it's a different We We We Well, we service the students in the same building, but the financial piece is still separated. >> So, do we have an idea about how much we're contributing or putting towards um, ESY? Yep. So, we have um, so our programs run, you know, about four to four you know, four and a half hours a day for

090three days a week for five weeks. We paid uh, teachers and paraeducators by the by an hourly rate. Um, so it breaks down. We've um, really streamlined the services and our own speech we we've had to contract out very little the past year summer to two summers. So, our costs have actually gone down for ESY which has been great. They've done an amazing job with holding that in. I I can't remember the exact number right now. I feel like it's about 50,000. It used to be 75 or so. It's gone down. So, I don't quote me on that. I can look it up, but Um, but that's where that's where it is about at the moment. >> is it required though or like how do you ES ESY? Yeah, so like if for the staff

091is it like No, no, oh, no, no, no. No, we always say who um, if you're interested in working ESY, you reach out to your coordinator and we hire for that and then it's summer authorization process for them to work. Yeah. Um Okay, any other questions about this? Sorry, just one more question. >> Yeah, please go ask away. Is the 14 and a half percent um, is that typical across New Hampshire um, for the total amount of students who are identified and and across New Hampshire across districts? Is that um, a common percentage? Are we high >> Yeah, we're we're actually a little on the lower side. Um, it depends uh, but again it depends on the size of your district. It I mean proportionally that's really hard, you know, because every districts, you know,

092being different sizes. Um, but this um, it it's been pretty steady for us for the past maybe three three years and I have those numbers too if you ever want to see them. But correct, RMMS has is lower than it has been. There's been some move up to CSD. Um, but it is it's it's typical and it's not on the extreme high side. There are some districts as high as 19% 20, you know, depending. Um, Okay. So as far as revenue. So special special education aid um, is one piece of revenue. So when a student's pro pro student's programming exceeds what they call the special education aid cap and this that's a state number that's determined every year. Right now it's hovering at about 76,000 and change. Um, anything that we pay above that cap,

093we can get back um, 80% of that cost of the difference between the cap and what the students the program costs. So the easiest example is to use an out of district student. So if you had a student that's out of district and their program costs $200,000 and it includes everything, transportation, what have you. Um, if it's three times the amount you get 80% back. If it's 10 times the amount you get the full difference back. So and it's a it's a formula and it's a it's a calculation. So when you see special education aid in the revenue and you'll see that in the revenue expense report we received our special ed aid back, um, we receive it around New Year's, um, the end end of December. Um, yeah, that's the funds that we receive

094back for any students that we that we pay for that are above that cap. >> Can you share with them? So these funds we get at New Year's, where are they from? Yeah, so that thank you. So again and what else what also makes this process very very complex is that everything is planned out as you know, the budget's planned out a year or so in advance, right? So we're predicting the future and I think we've done a pretty good job of predicting what we can predict. Special education aid is paid out. So, I have to submit it July 31st. So, I submitted this past July 31st was 2025. We will get that that back till 2027. So, it's a year and a half out that we get it back. So, the special education aid

095that you received back in December is from 2023. Did I do my math right? 2024. 2024. Thank you. 2024. So, it takes a long time to circle that back. Now, the other piece of special education aid was not this past year, but the year before. The state only funded 66% of special education aid that districts were supposed to re- receive back back to the districts. So, we didn't even receive our full percentage that we were supposed to get back. Nobody did. Um because they did not have enough funds. And that was largely due to a law change that made special education um go to age 22 instead of 21. So, no school districts had budgeted for that. It was a whole It's just a lot of more people submitted for special education aid. It was

096a lot of different piece pieces to that puzzle. So, um but then this year, the state promised, "Okay, we're going to figure that out and that won't happen again." So, you will see So, I kind of I budgeted a little bit lower because I wasn't I don't want to promise revenue that I don't know we're going to get. Obviously, I I do the calculations and I submitted it. So, you'll see that we got more back in revenue than what I predicted because I wasn't sure if the funds were going to be there. So, I just wanted to make sure that we I always kind of am very conservative with what I estimate typically. Um another source of revenue that you're going to see an increase on is our Medicaid revenue. So, we have the ability

097to reimburse to get reimbursed for for Medicaid funds. Um we took extra steps this summer and this school year to really um review our internal procedures, our processes, um and make sure that we you know, did every single thing possible that we could to maximize our Medicaid revenue. And you will see that we have thus far received back um almost $28,000 where last year I believe we were at 15 or 20 and we're only in March. So we'll receive more as the year goes on. We are also switching our software systems to a system that will be much more user-friendly and able to track and maximize in that process as well. So those are the two key drivers of revenue that we have in regards to special education. >> So in terms of Medicare or

098Medicaid whichever Medicaid not Medicare. I don't remember which one it is. Does that only qualify for early education or does it qualify past? What do you mean by early education? It goes Like three to five or something like >> No. Nope. Up up through up through age 22. Okay. Um so again, so this is a a high-level overview. I'm happy to take any questions. Um you know, I just wanted you to have this information. I'm happy to provide further information if you'd like or as we go through budget season obviously starting in the fall, you know, to dig into this more if you would like to. Um or if you want to read the manual, it's really um really nice light reading if you want Is that wrapped up for the teachers to read? The

099special ed manual? Yeah, definitely. This is really informative. It's a whole area that I don't know a lot about and I think I really appreciate you putting this together. Um I certainly feel more educated on how the process works. Yep. Um so thank you. Yeah, no, you're welcome and I'm happy, you know, to answer anything else in the future as well. Is there any area that we're lacking in Brookline that we could improve on with special ed? Like is there a program that Yeah, no. So we're we're going to be continuing to build some programs down at our MMS um and that's kind of in the works. Um but cuz again, we have it takes a little bit of planning before you kind of, you know, have the program fully in there. Um but honestly,

100the staff is doing an incredible job. It's been so exciting to watch all the work that's been done in I would say four to five years. Again, it started a few years before that, but really really became more robust in the past four or five years. And it's been really exciting to watch and I think the staff does an amazing job and and I'm I'm very happy with where we are and so really only great things to come, honestly. So. I don't know I don't know I don't want to speak for you, but I I mean I'm >> Lauren did did a great job with your report. I was just going to say like I think our case managers have done phenomenal. The numbers look great, but also I think the interventions that we're putting

101into place are really working effectively, which helps the special ed process and I think that's a good point cuz all the intervention you know, this is one thing that actually the outcome Right. Well, and that and that's what I was trying to say in the beginning is that like our philosophy and our and what we want for our students, that's the most important piece to us. This the fiscal responsibility and the cost obviously is important and that is a huge piece and we keep that in mind always as well, but really the culture and the community that exists here and the programs that we build are really um are really special. So, that's that's why I wanted to highlight that piece first. Yeah, the special education staff in this district is amazing. Any other comments

102or questions? I echo the sentiments. Thank you for sharing all of it. It's It's definitely informative and helpful. Okay. Um lots of fun discussion. The default budget implications. So, um as we know that the operating budget that we asked the town to support this year was not passed. So, because we have SP2, that puts us into our default budget, which means we had budgeted for um things above last year's budget to the tune of about 400,000. So, I asked Gina if she could kind of walk us through what the implications of that would look like. Absolutely. So, um it's a default number, um which just is a bottom line number. It doesn't um the default doesn't necessarily identify what we are allowed to or not allowed to spend the money on. Um the default is

103is defined um in terms of what can like what do you have to start with? What do you have What can you add? What can you subtract? Um but some of those are not applicable anymore even though it's part of the default and then there are some new items that that we need or prioritize, etc. So, I've developed a list of cuts. As you know, as we built the budget, it was um pretty bare-bones budget. Um with the tax cap, we're limited to the total dollar amount on the warrant and so we knew that we had two contracts on the warrant and um and so that's where our those were our um priorities were in terms of our asks. So, we are very thankful for um for the community for supporting both the teacher contract

104and the support staff contract. And so now we're going to look at our budget and figure out, you know, where are we going to find that roughly $400,000? So, I am um recommending that we cut the vision benefits to RMS and CSDA. I am recommending that we um cut the interactive flat panels for RMS and for CSDA. Those can be delayed. Um I'm recommending that we cut the emergency lighting replacement at CSDA and RMS. The lights are working. Some of them, you know, can be replaced one at a time if need be. Um we were also hoping to switch to LEDs, but we can delay that. Um I'm looking to also cut {slash} delay the privacy curtain for the nurse's office. Um unfortunately, um I really had no choice but to recommend um cutting the

105replacement of the Milford Street side of RMS, the roof. This has been um brought forward and and cut from the budget probably the last four or five years. Um but there was no way we could get to 400,000 without removing that. I'm also recommending that we cut the seal coating of the parking lot here at RMMS. Um, the floor machine at CSDA. They're both at end of life, but RMMS is a little bit larger of a building, so the the bigger need is here. Um, so I did keep the floor machine at um, RMMS. And my thought was we could have two end of life machines at CSDA and hopefully one of them would work. Um, cutting phase five of five of the door replacement at CSDA, so we can simply delay that. And this

106is where it gets really um, tough. On a budget of our size, there wasn't a lot of wiggle room, and so I really had no choice but to look at staffing. Um, so unfortunately, I am recommending cutting the MTSS interventionist that we have split between RMMS and CSDA. So, as we just mentioned, as Dan just mentioned, we do such a great job with our interventions that we're delaying special ed costs um, or special ed identifications. Um, but I I can't support that position next year. Um, I'm also um, recommending that we cut a full-time classroom teacher at RMMS. Um, and then finally, I am looking to reduce a special ed case manager at RMMS to half-time. So, that would remove uh, benefits and in addition to half the salary. So, that's And so, these are

107plus or minus. They're not exact dollar amounts, but the this total is 407,800. Um, but like I said, when you throw in actual salaries, etc., it's a little bit of a different number, but so that's how I got to 400,000 was not easy. Um, but those were the some of the decisions. I can share with you that um, you know, in terms of the technology uh it was really difficult to try to make the decision of as to whether or not I would cut um the access points at CSD because those are end of life. Um in the fall and so we we do rely on having internet access and so that would really potentially interrupt instruction across the entire building. So I didn't want to go there. Um if I cut the Chromebooks it

108it's a replacement cycle so then the following year I would have to spend twice as much and that's that much more challenging for the budget. Um To clarify on that is replacing this is that like a required by law because the the firewalls or whatever go out of date just >> Yeah, so the Chromebooks are on a 4 to 5 year replacement cycle. The Chromebooks themselves have an end of life. Okay. And so some of them become inoperable. Some of them um they also can't uh update anymore. Okay, I just So then we lose protection in terms of yeah. Yeah, quick question in terms of the roof um and I guess the door phase um Do we have a safety concern there? Like is it is the roof sound at least or is it So

109um it has been leaking. What? It has been leaking so we're going to offer um swimming as a new special. No. No. Um So um it you know, we repair it as necessary. Uh we are a little bit strapped with the decision um by the voters to not allow us to retain any funds because those that retained fund um that we have always been able to do would allow us to do an emergency replacement, have a public hearing and and spend those funds. We can't do that anymore. Um What I will come to you next month is uh a request from our business administrator for the permission to spend any potential remaining funds of FY26, you know, up to X number of dollars for very specific purposes. Um because we are allowed to spend down

110the FY26 funds, we just can't retain any. So, if we end up with more than zero, which we're at about zero right now, but if we have if um funds are released and and we're um we find that we have more than zero, you have the ability to authorize us to move forward with the roof with um the surplus funds. Um and so, I know there was a some concern also about the um the privacy curtain for the nurse's office. That could also be part of the list of if we find that there are funds left over in June, uh that authority would allow us to move forward in the summer with those funds. Sorry, are we is that like a confidentiality issue? Like are we violating like without the privacy curtains? Okay. I just

111want to make sure cuz if we are, that's a big And I would say kind of can answer this. I mean, we we have a private space in the children's There's a bathroom, too. So, there's, you know, like but we also have other barriers, but Okay, I just want to make sure that we're like protecting student confidentiality. You know, kids are very sharing individuals, so I just want to make sure that we're not violating anyone's like And to clarify, it's not just an actual fabric curtain. There's more It's structural. There's a structure So, a bar that needs to be installed, right? And fire resistant. >> That's why it's $2,500. >> Fire resistant curtain that comes down. Um It comes with the sprinkler, too. I mean, cuz it's on the Milford Street right now. So, going

112back to the to the roof though, because I know we've we've we've had a lot of conversations about the Milford Street roof because we as a board don't like you getting up on the roof and fixing said roof, Dan. And we appreciate you maintaining it as you could. So, you may or may not know the answer to this, but if it's been leaking this whole time we were planning on doing it this year. What type of water damage are we looking at presently? And if we don't have any funds to be able to repair it just like if we didn't repair a roof in our house, we're going to start running into water at Are we concerned Are we at that point yet of like water concerns and like rot and anything like where are

113we at with the roof in that sense? Because it's been a long We've been kicking it down the road and we wouldn't kick it if we weren't like hard stop, we need to fix it. So realistically, I mean you've been up there. I mean what are we looking at in terms of like So, the only So, I would say on the milk for treat side where we've had leaks, the good thing that we've had is we have these things called ice shields that are the gray aluminum looking sheets. Mhm. And that that's helped with the snow load and like with the recession of the the snow and it melts like going back so you don't get leaking. We also have ice what's called ice and water shields. So, it goes up about 6 ft high.

114That's another barrier, but when I've been up there repairing, I have not seen rot on the underneath the shingles. But, when a roof does get replaced that isn't added cost like usually you don't see rot throughout the building with with the fire but they will replace as they go. The only rot that you will find is the adjoining wall that goes from the roof to the wall and then there's another section of the roof. Um that adjacent wall the clapboards there potentially where the trim is could have rot because of the snow build up, the snow That's That's where you're going to have more rot is along side of the wall there. Okay. We're not concerned yet about under the shingles. No, but you're going to get more of that cuz every year you wait

115on it, the tabs get wider and wider and then the nails pop up, and then so It's kind of why I'm bringing it up because like well that's that's kind of why I'm bringing it up is because we we do we we kick it down the road, and anytime like at home we identify a need of something to fix, we're kind of like keep an eye on it. Keep an eye on it. I feel like we've been keeping an eye on it. So, I'm just kind of I was trying to gauge how much longer we can keep an eye on it before we're like yo, you need to fix this. >> also hard cuz we have an attic. So, the attic space I don't know what's going on up there. So Right. Sorry. I know

116I know you are a man of many skills in front. Um have we had a professional look at it though in the last Oh, gotcha. Multiple times. >> Yeah, we we've had multiple quotes on the roof and such and I mean you had some good feedback there. That was impressive. I just wanted to Yeah, I probably should have I probably should have led with the fact that I I kind of knew just from our conversations and pick up line that he's had people out to look at the roof. So, I probably should have led with that with like what have the professionals said because I'm just picking his brain because So, every and and as recent as this week we've had someone look at the roof. So, um you know, every time we we review

117our capital improvement plan, anything that's coming closer to we got to do this sooner rather than later, we do have outside professionals give us estimates and recommendations. Yeah. Yeah, I used to be a roofer. Also, by the way He is a man of many I still do it. I still Yeah. Um but but it's just another uh piece to remind you of we didn't cut it last year. It was in the maintenance trust, but a lot last year the maintenance trust was amended to 300,000 at the deliberative session. We had requested 360. So, this was an item that we couldn't fund with a smaller maintenance trust. Um but like I said, you know, if if we come to a point where we have more than $0, um I will be looking for um support to

118potentially spend down those funds for the roof specifically and and some other items if you feel that that's a good use. Um so, this is going to go over not great and I'm aware of that, but I do want to bring up the fact that like RMS does not have a sprinkler system, right? Um and we had a fire a couple weeks ago. So, that's a concern. I know that like I am curious if we could just if I could we could just get more information. I know it would cost a lot cuz it's an old building. I'm not advocating for doing that right away, but I am concerned Yep. that even though the the fire took place in rooms that had like fire vault like the fact that we don't have a sprinkler system

119it is concerning. So, I I was going to ask you, Gina, if it's possible to at least just get more information on what it might look like. >> We absolutely can do that. I will share with you that one um huge concern is the lack of water at RMS. Okay. Um however, we just um not just it's probably 5 years ago now added sprinklers at Hall's Primary School, which is of similar age. Um so, uh we can easily Yeah, I would just be curious and see just like, you know, I think that just kind of hit home for me that like, all right, what if that had been worse or if I mean everyone like it was very well managed, but yeah, I just would like to you know, aside from our natural sprinkler system

120on the Milford wing like there either with the roof leaking, but I just think we should probably get some more information. Absolutely. >> by the lack of water? Um we don't have a whole lot of water available here at RMS. Do you have a well? Yes. But, yeah. But, do do we run out? So, when It's a really good question. When um you know, we have a beautiful ball field that we cannot water the field despite the fact that there's a sprinklers because then we don't have water for our building. Um and so I know that there's concern that we're not maintaining the field, but that is not a requirement, but we are required to provide an adequate education including running water uh for students. So it's certainly alleviated when we're not running um sprinklers

121for the field. >> here volunteering in a classroom at a time when everyone then needed to go to the bathroom, the water disappeared. Like everyone went to the bathroom >> Yeah, so like yeah, like when we do the when we do the reunification drill at the state's complex, that would be an example. >> Yeah, the teacher was literally like, "All right, here's some bottled water to have them all wash their hands." So it is a problem. Okay. But what about >> Yeah, that's why we have to Yeah. Yeah, but a fire suppression system have tanks though that are already pre-filled? It depends on how you build it. >> It does. Okay. >> Yeah. So um like I said, that that's my initial concern, but depending on um the design, I'm sure that would be taken

122into consideration the fact that there isn't a whole lot of water. Um we can certainly have someone come out and let us know what that would look like. Yeah, I'm not like looking to spend more money, but I just I do think it's something that we as a board Yeah, and just to so that everyone knows, this building um is older. It's grandfathered in to not needing a sprinkler system. Um if we start doing renovations up to a certain point, all of that goes away and that then we're required to sprinkler, which is exactly what took place at Hall's Primary School. There was no choice but to sprinkler. Like I said, I think it's just hitting home for all of us, especially as parents and then the parents in the community that like when you

123find out at town meeting that the school is on fire and then you think about the fact that there's no sprinkler system. Like it's just what if there was your What if that happened while the kids were here? I mean, you know >> Absolutely. >> I know they'd clear it. Like I just So I just think that would be Thank you. >> Absolutely. And we got there with them. Yeah. Which fire brigade in like Corona Uh so I was if there's no other questions I just like to say a couple things. Um We do a lot of paying, you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul, it feels like. Um These are things that are so needed and that we have no other recourse except to cut. And the other things that you mentioned, you know,

124there are reasons to not cut them. Um but on a $500,000 house, which is probably low for us, a $400,000 cut in our budget is roughly $150 to $200 per household. Um I know taxpayers are feeling it. We are taxpayers here. Um we feel it when our taxes increase. Um but that feels like a very, very minimal amount over the course of a year um that is gone that that that is forcing us now to lose two and a half positions. Especially just hearing about how the the interventions that we've been doing have been not only wonderful for our children, but cost savings. Um we've we've just talked about the fire because we've kicked that down the road, you know, we've just talked because we've kicked, you know, facilities down the road with the boilers.

125Um the roof uh I I'm not sure if it's the roof on the Milford Street side, but there was a really big one or two floods. Um and so to Allison's point about damage, um you know, mold, like all of those things. Um I am so grateful that the teachers contracts passed and that the support staff contracts passed because I think the community really realized that we have to invest and so we're investing in people but we're not investing in other things and I just want everyone to think about the long term um and and I'm just this is really hard for me. It makes me very you know it makes me very sad. It makes me very upset um you know $200 would be great right? It's probably a couple days worth of groceries

126at this point um but I just would love for more people to understand that this isn't us doing this this is we present a budget that is as bare-boned as possible to get it to pass. There hasn't been a budget an operating budget for the schools that hasn't passed in at least the last 20 years um from my research and so I think that just shows the commitment that this town has had to public education and what people are feeling right now is true and real and palpable but that can't be taken out on the schools when we have no control over our revenue and our aid. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. I mean I think it's it is very difficult to look at that and see where their staff positions

127are there. So you know it's that is that is just very difficult and I think as a board we all feel badly that that is the and at the same time you know this is what the voters chose so I think to that point we also as a board just are going to need to try and figure it out as positively as we can and hope that next year we're able to kind of see like demonstrate why things were needed but but I it is hard to watch that happen. Thank you. Appreciate that. Anything else? All right, revenue and expense uh report, please. Okay, so let's see. Um our first revenue expense report showed um an estimation of I don't know, 414,000 um in the negative. We were at about 245,000 in the negative in

128January and we are up to 3,000 in the negative right now. So no, WE'RE GOING YEAH, SO JUST SHARING A COUPLE OF THINGS UNDER regular education, we're seeing um a positive balance and that's due to hiring savings. Um so hiring um teachers uh earlier on in their career. Also lane changes that the teachers didn't follow through on. So So they let us know, I think I'm going to move to masters or I think I'm going to move to masters plus 15, but then they didn't complete the coursework or didn't complete the paperwork. So um at this point in the year, um we've now released those funds. Also um we did not hire the recess monitor at CSDA that was part of the budget. Um early on the budget was frozen because we were so far

129in the negative that we held off on that hire. Um and as a result, we have a positive balance there. Looking at special education line, we're 415,000 in the negative. Um that's due to both contracted pairs that we've talked about time and time again, but also in that line is our contracted school psych. So this is potentially confusing. We have in the line down a positive 55,956 because we didn't hire a school psych. So, when we hire them, they're in one line, but when we contract them, they're in the other. So, we've had to pay far more than what we budgeted for the position. Um but the contracting comes out of the line above. So, that -415 is mostly um mostly paraeducators, but also the contracted school psych. Um everything else is pretty level. Not

130not too many shifts or changes there. Um a little bit of extra revenue more so than expected, which is always nice. Um so, our expense balance is in the negative 82,689. Our revenue is in the positive 79,424. And then we're looking at an unreserved fund balance of -3,265. Every at this point, we're looking at this, you know, week to week, releasing funds when possible. Um and so, I definitely expect this to grow. Um and then as I mentioned, I'll be coming forward next month with a memo from our business administrator looking to see if you have any um interest in using any possible available funding that's that remains to make, you know, some an investment in the roof. Are we optimistic next year with the support staff contract that this number, this 415 in the

131negative, will be not? I am very optimistic. No, I'm very optimistic. No, and I think that honestly like uh you know, the fact that we were able to hire two paraeducators even now, and we're going to be releasing two contractors, that's going to help these numbers next month. Um more Medicaid revenue's going to come in, that'll help this this month. So, there are some pieces that are going to be moving as Gina said, you know, in the next month, but I am very hopeful that the contract will help us um because we're even doing better now, and I think that it will be even better in the fall. That'll be great in the coming years. So, so if we are not able to like do we still how how did that still 415,000 still pretty

132big number even with releasing funds? Like if we get to June and we're finding that we don't have enough to cover it like what are the options? We don't have enough to cover for what? For the special education. So it's not just that line. So you look at the totals. So if you look at the totals that Gina just talked about, you look at everything all together and then that number at the bottom that 3,000 is what our deficit is for right now. And so there's going to be some moving parts to that for the overall piece that'll make that not negative 3,000. Hopefully positive 3,000. >> wanted to we had talked to you though a little bit about like if needed the special education fund. So what is the process if we do have

133to use like the special education fund? I'm not saying we will. Yeah, I don't I don't think we're going to need to but >> So need to is a is a good question. We absolutely could you could choose as a board to say we would like to because either these are unanticipated special ed costs. You could We would have to hold notice of public hearing, hold a public hearing, and then utilize a certain number of those funds. Um we don't have to but you could choose to allowing you to have a greater unreserved fund balance in the end. Um I'm confident that as we release money from contracted payers we're going to have we're going to see that number become positive. Another thing to think about is while we cannot have um a retained fund

134balance from here on out um we have one right now. So we also you guys retained money um in September or whenever August or September whenever you voted. So there's about 185,000 that was retained for um unexpected emergencies. We could also hold a public hearing to utilize those funds for something like the roof. For the longest time this year we thought we were going to have to hold a public hearing just so we could get to zero. Oh, well, that's fine. OH, I WAS LIKE, what's that? Um, so, uh, like I said, give me a month and then we'll have numbers that are updated by a month and, um, some possible recommendations on how to move forward. If we do nothing with that 185,000, then that will lapse and go back to the taxpayers. Um,

135but but we are able, legally, with everything that has been passed, to spend down any of FY26 funds. I think from my point of view, I just want to make sure that, like, I mean, we do have some things that need to get done, right? Like the roof, the parking lot, things that are kind of critical. That if special education is kind of pulled out of the budget, would it be worth us looking at taking some money from the special education fund to pay for special education so we could then allocate funds if needed to other things that couldn't be paid. So, I guess that's just where my head is, is that it's like I don't want to drain that fund. I mean, I I don't, but it is also there if we need it.

136And right now we're facing some pretty tough decisions in terms of the budget. Would it be helpful to at least take some of that and put it towards that? That's what I guess I'm thinking. No, it's a good conversation and we, you know, we have the April, May, and then June board meeting. Um, if we if we want to pull from the special ed trust or utilize the routine fund balance, those have to be publicly noticed. Um, so we'll do we'll do that. We'll make final decisions on those for the June meeting. Um, but for April and May, uh, you know, we could have those conversations and I can present a memo with some recommendations and you can take a better a closer look at that. >> Yeah. I would also like to know how

137much is in the special education fund. I don't know. Is it Is it 290 at this point? 270? 280? Yeah, if you get that, that would be great. If you could give us different scenarios and options so that we can discuss it as a board >> that would just be more informed decisions. Yeah, and give us more information in terms of like when we do have to make the hard decisions about like the roof or things like that. We have that. I'm so sorry. Great. One can Thank you very much. Um, at this point, because I'm now way over, I'm going to close public input at 8:27. Um, we didn't have anybody show up, but I did leave it open a little longer than than I needed to. All right, last but not least, we

138have committee updates. Um I believe we're or at this point we're just looking for anything from facilities or from the um co-op study. Do we have any? Okay. Uh the co-op study? Sure. Sure. Well, so um so for for facilities, uh we'll be meeting on April 1st. So that's that's great that that um is coming up. Um the co-op study was a great um was a great collection of community members and board members and a facilitator, Gina. Um we have come to a recommendation after many meetings. Um I think we have to wait to kind of propose that or or wait till our final report is done. Um but that should be in the next couple months. Um so I guess it's really more just like stay tuned. Yeah, I would say that that I

139believe the thought was to have that report ready for April. So we present it to the board. That That's what I was asking is kind of do we have a timeline on that? So April would be good. So then once the final report comes in, what are the next steps for the co-op study? Um you decide what to do with the recommendation. >> it depends Yeah. on what they come back with. No, but I'm asking so we would we then have a conversation about like what our recommendation is based on the study or like what's That's what I'm trying to figure out. Yeah, so you review the report and then the report will have recommendations and then you say I don't agree with them. You can say okay, let's do this next. You know, do

140You can You just have a conversation about where you want to go from there based on your beliefs and thoughts and the study. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay, moving right along. That's wrong paper. Getting this. Okay, so we have deliberations. Yes. Okay. No, I'm going to email you guys, like I said earlier. I'll email you guys um with the list of committees and stuff. All right, so um the first deliberation is to see what action the board will take regarding teacher nominations. May I get a motion, please? So moved. To accept the teachers to accept Do I have to read the whole thing? No, I I can do it. >> Okay. No, okay. So moved. Yeah, okay. Um Lynn, you seconded. Great. Um all in favor? All right, excellent. Um the next one

141is to see what action the board will take regarding the proposed 26-27 school calendar. Um we need a motion to approve the 26-27 school calendar as presented. I make a motion to approve as presented. Thank you. May I have a second? Excellent. All in favor? Thank you. Next, we need to see what action the board will take regarding the educational assistance program. Um we need a motion to approve the SAU 41 educational assistance program as presented. I'll make a motion. Second? Heather, second? All in favor? Thank you. Um all right, now we are into policy. Um do we want to go through them first before we vote on them? I think give you an overview. >> Yeah, if you don't mind. It's been a while. It's been It's been a while. I also don't like

142I I have a hard time with approving them and then going over them. I think I'd rather go over them and then approve them. Yeah. Okay, we have six policies um on your agenda today. We did not do a memo because four of them are just going to be first reads, but we just didn't want to lose a whole month of um moving forward. The first two policies, BCA, which is school board governance and operations, and DFA, fiscal management. These are two policies that you approve annually, um, and they come up every year at this meeting. So, it's just a matter of approving them so that we can put the updated, um, adoption on the list. Great. Any questions or comments? I'm sorry, what were the two again? It's BCA, which is school board governance

143and operation, code of ethics. >> Okay, thank you. I was like, Can we vote on those together? Like, could we have to make separate motions? >> be separate motions. And then the other one is DFA, fiscal management, and it's about your investment procedures policy. So, the first one is BCA, board of the board member code of ethics. Is there any questions or conversations on that before we take action? >> I was just wondering, um, I know we approve it every year and it's, um, it's fairly comprehensive, um, but I was doing a little bit of research and I was just wondering if there are any modernizations that maybe we could make. Um, I know we can't do anything policy here in this meeting, but is it appropriate to ask the policy committee if this one,

144um, could be looked at for next year? Yes, the other thing you can do is approve it and if you have questions, you can send them to us. We can look at it at the policy and bring it back and you can re-approve. But, it's something you need to have in place moving forward. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have a sense of like what you want to add to it? Uh, I just I think there might be just some language that could be modernized. I I think it's a great foundation. I I don't think that, um, that there's anything glaringly wrong or missing, um, but maybe just modernizing some of it. So, if you want to send it to us, we can look at it. >> cuz we'll also have to I mean some

145of it like we can't like I don't know if this is one of those policies where like there's RSAs that we can't There are RSAs. >> Yes, so yeah. So probably email it to what dot and Emmy Mhm. And Emmy. Yeah. Okay. All right, so then in that case um just for this evening since we need this a place to move forward, can I get a motion that the uh Oh, no. Actually, I will make a motion that the board by roll call state their agreement to adhere to policy BCA Board Member Code of Ethics. May I get a second? Excellent. Um so I will start. Allison, I. Johanna, I. Lynn, I. Tracy, I. Heather, I. Excellent. Thank you. Um Do you want to talk about DFA or did you because you touched on it?

146Are you Are we good? >> I'm good. Do you have any questions about DFA since we just talked about BCA? I guess you need money to invest in that. I know, right? I mean I I I know that much about accounting and finance. Um so I will make a motion for this one, too, to adopt policy DFA Investment. May I get a second? Thank you, Heather. All in favor? Excellence. All right. Okay. And so the next four we're just bringing forward to you for a first read. We have a policy meeting um on the books for April 13th. Um and so if you have any um information that you'd like us to look at or suggestions that you'd like us to consider, if you send those to me and Emmy to Emmy and I before

147then, um we'll bring them up at the meeting and then we'll bring it back for a second read at your next meeting. >> to ask that if you could send it to me and Lynn as well or at least me like email us separately so if there's a quorum issue, but that helps us know like and just email us like with what your thoughts are because when we're in the meeting, we're trying to give them a sense of like what the board is so it that help would that would help us understand like what the sense of the board is. So, if you could just "Hey, I'm proposing this language and this is why." That would be fantastic. And I'll go through each of them. >> you and Dot. No, to Lynn and I on

148the are the board. So, if you just do I think if there's just two of us they can can we Okay, so you can email it to Lynn, me, Dot, and Emmy. So, four people. And if you can just put us all on the same email. Would that be considered a That's a quorum. Is it though? It would be three. With three people it would be three board members would be on the email. Who else? No. And if one of us if one of us Okay, well so then you'd have to email the board. You would have to email Lynn and I separately, but it's hard for us to kind of remember. So, yeah, if if you're I mean you could just copy paste, but that it just having Um so, Dot Hang on. Can

149we just send it for just for clarity's sake tonight? Let's just send them to Dot and Emmy and then we can send them to the board. Let's just do it that way. That's cleaner. That's fine. I just want to have a look at it before, so I can just No problem. All right. And so, the four the first policy is BEDB, which is um a recommended policy, but one that the superintendent would like us to consider. And it's around moving to um a consent agenda. Which means that when we get individual letters, they wouldn't all be read out individually. If we're making um group like a list of decisions that have to be done, they would all be listed, but all the backup material wouldn't um necessarily be read. It would be available, but not

150not read out loud. So. Gina, can you give us an example of like what would fall under that policy? Um resignations, retirements, nominations. So, rather than So, it gets complicated um in hiring season. This year we don't have any hires, but when we're going through a list of them and then we're going through all the backgrounds and their individual motions. When we're reading a list of resignations or retirements, the letters um that are shared. So, this is an effort for efficiency to This is how most districts operate. Here are So, the list is public. We see all the resignations, all the retirements, and all of the nominations with their steps and salaries and placement, etc. Um I would have all the backup materials. If you had any questions, I I could share that. Um but

151it just allows us to move more efficiently through. The co-op has adopted for first read and in their April 8th meeting, we'll be piloting that to see what that looks like. So, but we would still be able to see like I just know that sometimes things are included in the letters that they feel that the board should know. Like when someone is writing a letter and they feel that they So, would we if we wanted to see >> should have all the backup, yeah, available >> see it. We just wouldn't read it. Correct. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. May I get a motion to accept the first reading of policy as amended? I make a motion to accept the first reading as amended. Yeah, close enough. Okay. Second? Johanna. All in favor? Thank you. All

152right. Policy I J N D. I J N D is video and audio recording in school classrooms. Hollis and co-op have this. Brookline does not have this policy in place and we need it with some of the changes that came out around the parents bill and trying to be more specific about when consent is needed and when consent isn't. So, for you know, concerts or school classroom type activities that are happening. Um and so, we need to get it in place for Brookline. Any questions? All right. May I get a motion to accept the first reading of policy IJND video and audio recording in school classrooms as presented. I make a motion to accept as presented. Can I get a second? Excellent. All in favor? Thank you. EEAA AEAA is new um for um Brookline

153and this will be based on what is already available in Co-op and Hollis. And this is to make sure that we um have a policy regarding um video and audio recordings um for things like sports events music events, but also the fact that we have cameras in our hallways and that we're doing video surveillance. Any questions? >> Is this So, is this part of the parents' bill of rights as well? It's all as a result of links into that. Yes. >> was a challenge today. Like what? What type of challenge? Well, that's what I I So, like if a like let's say you're at like a concert or a sport and a parent was like I don't want video record like how would that how would that policy be resolved? So, I will share that

154the parental bill of rights was just amended. Um and so any public event, so um graduation uh we don't really have sporting events, but sporting events, something that is open to the public uh we do not need parental permission. Okay. Um so, if it's live streaming So, if it's open to the public we can record. This is also including video surveillance that we have for security. Yeah. Um so we post signs, we need to make it public aware, and this is just kind of codifying it in policy that we have video surveillance. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Just one more um about the bus because we have video but not audio. Could you um this is wrapped into that? Or I know we have I think a separate policy at I'm just not quite

155sure how the bus rolls in. >> Yeah, so the bus which that's something we're going to do in next fiscal year is up the bus contract, uh but that's actually an SAU level function. So, there there is a specific video um recording on the bus policy under the SAU policy group, which is not very large, but that's one of the ones that they have. Um and the SAU policy committee does have some work to do to convene to review a few policies, but that could be a policy if you care to review that one. I just was wondering, you know, if it uh if that fits into these policies because it says like in classrooms or on school property, um and I'm assuming the bus is school property, so. It's not, but it's covered under

156the SAU policy because the Brookline School District doesn't have a bus or a bus company. We're just one district. >> we vendor. It's a vendor, but we don't Brookline does not contract the SAU contract. >> you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, anything else with this one? Excellent. May I get a motion to approve the first reading of policy EEA video and audio recordings on school property. Is there a second? Excellent. All in favor? Thank you. And then EEA-R is new for um Hollis and Brookline, and this will set a procedure for mainly around our security cameras, when they can be viewed, who can view the material, um and how we store that material. Any questions? I just I just had one question and it I may not have seen it. Um who decides on the deletion? Like

157the deletion of the videos, like when they're deleted, um and where are they stored? So, they're stored on the camera server. So, um the big factor of deletion is that there's only so much space. So, this is just like auto-deleted. Yeah, it writes over it. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, if there's a like a cuz I'm reading here, so um the one where it was under CCTV viewing and recordings um where the parents guardians of a student may request to view portions of a recording used as a basis. So, how is that being handled? Because if it's just portions per se, but you don't necessarily want them viewing the whole thing. Like, how are we So, um all the requests come to me. Uh we download a portion of it. And um we do our best.

158So, the first thing we do is we look to remove all other students or blur them out, so no other students are visible and so the parent request is only viewing their own student in the video. So, if like let's say this was like a physical interaction, right? Um where like one kid punched another, you would blur out the child that what even if they were the one doing like the and it would just be like, "Okay, here's your child. You can identify your child." Is that okay? Okay. Um and then would they view that with you or would they view that with building administration? They would view that with me unless I authorize the building principal to show the video. Okay, so you're basically the cuz it just says in the presence of a

159building administrator. So, with that's actually you. Or I authorize >> Or you could but okay, but it doesn't say A lot of times the request comes straight to me and so it just it just seems more direct. But sometimes they don't or sometimes you know, I'm out of town, so here this is this is what you can show. It's it's a group effort. >> Group effort. Okay. And remember this is the sample. It's not what our final policy may end up looking like. It's not it has not been made Brookline unique. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, may I get a motion to accept the first reading of EEAA-R, use of video and audio systems administrative procedure. May I get a second? Excellent. All in favor? Thank you. Okay, last thing on the agenda

160is our new section. It's the member initiated comments. It's a non-action. Before we get into this, I just want to kind of frame what this section is. So, um from time to time, we've had individual board members who have topics that they want to just briefly acknowledge. Sometimes they fall out the scope of items that this board governs. They're not maybe quite ready or appropriate for discussion um or even action. And so, we wanted to be able to give a a space just for um for members to be able to speak to an interest in a very just kind of clear in a in a clear way that it's not actionable. It's not a big deal. It's not a discussion. Um and we're going to time by We're going to time bound this section. So,

161this section's going to be titled member initiated comments non-action. Each topic will be limited to 3 minutes. You do need to request them to be on the agenda just like you would any other item. Um the total time for the section, we're not going to allow it to exceed 10 minutes. So, as requests come in, um Gina and I would kind of take them in the order that they come. Um this is really just meant to allow brief acknowledgement of topics while keeping our meetings still focused, efficient, and then within our governance roles. Um so, if there's something that uh one of us brings up that we feel would warrant further discussion or potential action on, then that can be requested to be added to the agenda for the following meeting. Does that make sense?

162It kind of just gives us a space to start raising >> table. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're not getting and just and just, you know, not again. And if there's something for discussion, like if somebody brings something up that you want to really get into a good discussion on, then we can request that to be on the next month's agenda so we can plan for it better. So, um with that, Tracy, I'm going to give you the floor for 3 minutes because you wanted to talk about the SAU consolidation. Or maybe not 3 minutes, but you got 3 minutes, so the floor is yours. Um so, thank you. I I was um I was thinking about the SAU consolidation um because it had come up in the news. Um so, I just wanted to say HB

163292 was introduced in December of 2025 with the purpose of creating a commission to study SAU consolidation. Um that language has been removed, and the bill is no longer related to SAU consolidation. Um but it has been amended to establish a revolving loan fund for school districts, which it allows districts to borrow against future state aid to address short-term funding needs. Um but as good as that may sound, it creates additional It can create additional funding pressure in future budgets. Um so, this bill is still being considered in the current legislative session. Um and then in parallel, HB 1804 was introduced in January 2026. Um and this bill took a more comprehensive approach to SAU consolidation. Um it proposed to reduce the current number of SAUs to approximately 12 regional or county-based units, um and

164to make chief school administrators elected positions. Um and so, this bill has uh been sent to interim study, and so it's going to be studied and I guess not advancing this session. Okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. Um and on that, we are then to our last uh motion that we need for the evening. Does anybody want to do the honors? Sure. I motion to adjourn. I'll second. All in favor? Excellent. Thank you, guys, very much. Appreciate it. Um those who need to sign, please manifest signers, please sign. No. There was a new charge. All right. How do you like having such