001Thank you, Jesse. Good evening and welcome to the 2026 Brooklyn School District's deliberative session. I'm proud to stand before you as the superintendent of schools in SAU 41. Please join me in thanking our Brookline School Board. We have Alison Manion, chair, Tracy Perry, vice chair. Johanna Shriber, Haligan, secretary, Lynn Powers, member. Heather Rearen, member. They have worked for the past 12 months working collaboratively on various committees to serve our community. teacher negotiations, support staff negotiations, Brooklyn School District Facilities Committee, Brooklyn School District Policy Committee, and the Brooklyn School District study committee to join the co-op, just to name a few. Thank you for your service. Next, please welcome members of the SAU administrative team. We have Dr. Dorothy Flity, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. We have Lauren De Janeiro, assistant superintendent of student
002services. Lance Flamino, business administrator. Donna Smith, assistant business administrator. We also have members of the school district administration team. Dan Molinari, principal of RMMS. Chaz Miller, principal of CSDA. Meg Peterson, curriculum administrator. Jen Doof, special education administrator. This slide shows our cost per pupil as compared to the state average. As you can see, we continue to provide an excellent education at a fraction of the average per pupil cost across the state. While costs continue to rise, that is true across the entire state. For FY25, the Brooklyn per pupil expenditure is less than 85% of the average per pupil cost across New Hampshire. Looking at enrollment, both historic and future, we are in a period of a relatively stable enrollment. We expect a slight increase in the next five years, but the housing market and new
003construction will be the true test of that accuracy. As you can see, um I am thanking you for your support in FY26. >> You didn't need it. I would be remiss if I did not thank you for the support last year. We've been able to make incredible enhancements to our academic program due to your support last March. We have provided additional professional development in year two of our implementation of the new math curriculum in grades K to three which is Eureka math squared. We've also been able to continue our implementation of our science of reading based curriculum CKLA which is core knowledge language arts. We have added an interventionist to the staff to better support our students to reach their full potential. This position steps in to provide extra support to students to help them
004make more than a year's worth of growth for a year's worth of instruction. We have also added an environmental science teacher at RMS to provide standards aligned instruction utilizing the rich resources available to us in our local community. Beyond academic improvements, your support allowed us to replace the cracked and aging boiler here at CSDA. The new propane system is more efficient and cleaner than the oil-based original one. This will serve the school for decades to come. The approved lease purchase article also upgraded the controls for the HVAC system in both of our buildings and replaced the fixtures in both buildings to LED. This gym is the final replacement which is to be scheduled shortly. The budget that is being brought forward tonight has been carefully built over eight months. The process begins in June and
005over time we scrub the budget to differentiate between wants and needs. The budget sees moderate increases as necessary to continue operations. The warrant articles proposed by the Brooklyn School Board in the FY27 warrant prioritize academics in the form of instruction. RMS and CSDA are mere merely buildings. Our faculty and staff work their magic to make them school communities. Two financial articles are for the professional staff and support staff contract to which without them we could do nothing. At this point, I'd like to go over quickly the warrant. So we have elections of officers. We have the SAU budget. We have our support staff contract. And then we have our professional staff contract. Article five is our operating budget. Article six is open enrollment. Article seven is a petition warn article increasing a school board to
006seven members. Article eight is a petition warn article um rescending SB2. Article nine is a petition to warn article returning requiring the return of unassigned fund balance. Article 10 is a budget cap. 11 is a tax cap. This is just a quick overview of FY26 compared to FY27 warrants. As you can see, we're prioritizing instruction, not requesting uh financial support for the maintenance trust at this time. And at this point, as we get to local revenue, I'm going to introduce our business administrator, Lance Famino, to discuss the financials as was requested of him. Good evening everybody. um take a minute to run through uh some information about revenues and tax as well as our tax cap and how those items tied together. Um so these are FY27 revenue estimates. So estimates on revenue really are
007just that estimates until the end of the fiscal year which is June 30th. Uh we work with the Department of Revenue Administration to update those throughout the year. Okay, they were there. Uh so comparing FY26 this year and next year's proposed revenues. Uh tuition staying the same, 24,000, no difference there. Earnings that would include um interest on bank accounts and investments, no change there. Food service, anticipating that to be steady at 150,000. Special ed aid, we keep that constant. Again, that's set by the DRA. It's 80% of the maximum we can expect from the state. grants staying constant at 190,000. Um Medicaid staying the same. We do see a change in our fund balance to reduce taxes. In FY26, we had $62,000 available for that. Just over 62,000. At this point, as we examine revenue
008and expenses to round out fiscal year 26, we're not expecting uh a surplus in order to have that. Should that change, uh, it's something we'll bring forward to the board. Uh, so revenues relatively similar from FY26 to FY27. A slight decrease that 62,952. Um, so 8% down over the year uh from 700,86800 to 723,848. State aid estimates. These come from the Department of Education. Uh fiscal year 27, the initial estimates came out late November. Um we're seeing an increase in adequacy aid of 455,699. So a 21% increase there and a slight decrease in um the retain tax swept uh going down by $24,29. So a decrease in 3.6% 6% there, but overall expecting state aid to go up by approximately 15.2%. Some information about uh the Brooklyn school district tax rate. Uh so if we're
009looking at next year 2026, that's our fiscal year 27. We have to make some assumptions there. Um, when predicting the tax rate, we start with our operating budget and then our full value of warrant articles. That would be total appropriations. And I'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide. Uh, from there, we subtract local revenue, we subtract state aid, uh, and subtract that retain state tax, and that gives us the total tax effort. That's the amount of taxes that will be raised, um, through taxation. uh estimate there is $8.95 for the Brooklyn School District local tax rate. It's an increase of 2.3%. And 55 for the state tax rate, 4.4% combined. Uh $9.50 and a 1.9% increase. Um all those things come together to calculate the tax rate. Um so educational
010tax rates are set by the department of revenue and they use tax efforts. So the amount of local taxes needing to be raised and assessment valuations. Uh the local education tax effort is total appropriations. So that's going to be the operating budget and any warrant articles with a monetary value. And then we subtract revenue, state aid, and locally retained tax. As I mentioned in the last slide, the local education tax rate is figured out by taking that full tax effort, dividing it by the assessment valuation including utilities and multiplying by 1,000. The state tax rate is relatively similar. It's the state education tax divided by the valuation without utilities times 1,000. Um, and all these tie into the the tax cap that uh we are tied to as a Brooklyn school district. Uh, so it's
011kind of a highlight here of how we calculate that so we can stay compliant within the tax cap. Um, the top of this slide shows what we kind of just went over the operating budget, the warrant articles, the teacher contract, the support staff contract, the SAU budget for the total of all warrants. So for FY27 that would be 14,66,000 uh 66,056. Um from there we need to back out predicted revenues to figure out what the tax effort would be. Uh so we pull those out that 723,000 and change and it leaves us with 10,616,098. So that's what we would anticipate the tax effort to be next year. Uh per RSA 325B1, uh we cannot raise that by more than 8%. So if we looked at last year's educational tax effort and added the fund balance
012return to taxpayers, that gave us 10,237537. 8% of that is $819,03. Um, early on before we have all our estimates in and before we know our state aid, we use that as our maximum increase as a benchmark. Um, and if we look at our total appropriations, they increase by 810,231, which is a 7.91% difference. As we move through uh the tax season and we get more information and we get aid estimates from the state, we can compare that directly to the tax effort. Um and if we look at that, it was a 378561 increase or 3.7%. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, everybody ready to get the party started? All right, we're going to start with uh Who has the clicker? >> You do. Okay. All right. Um uh yes. >> Make
013a motion to um take article 10 up at this time. >> Article 10. Is there a second? Is there a second? Second your name, sir? >> Ryan Wilsowski. >> Osakowski. Ryan Osakowski. Um, >> is there a clerk? >> No clerk. >> All right. Sorry. Oh, this is why we have an assistant moderator. Okay. Um motion to take them out of order uh to take up article 10. Uh is there is there discussion on this? Uh it is debatable. Is there any discussion on the motion to take up article 10? Seeing none, let's put it to a vote. All those in favor of taking up article 10 now, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed. That is in the negative. Thank you very much. Motion defeated. So, starting with um just get it out of
014the way. Article one, which is the election of officers. Is there any discussion on this? This is what's going on the ballot. Seeing none, we'll move on to article two, the SEU budget portion, which reads, "Shall the voters of the Brooklyn School District raise and appropriate the sum of $52,336 as the Brooklyn School District's portion of the school administrative unit budget of $2,560,328 for the fourthcoming fiscal year. this year's adjusted budget of $2,540,642 with $498,474 assigned to the school budget of the school district will be adopted if the article does not receive a majority vote of all the school district voters voting in the school administrative unit. Estimated tax impact 42 cents per thousand. The school board recommends the appropriation 5000. The finance committee does not recommend this appropriation 2110. This article is statutory and
015may not be amended. Would somebody from the uh school board like to introduce the article? >> Thank you very much. >> Did this already. There we go. >> Hi everybody. I'm Lyn Powers. I'm with the Brookline School Board. Uh I am Is there another slide? >> Yeah. Okay. Uh I'm presenting the SAU budget. Um the fiscal year 26 budget was 2,447,55 an increase to 2,564 328 with a change of 116,823. Um, from the previous slide of uh the 2627 budget, um, Brookline's portion of that last year was 493,66 and, uh, this year is 52,336, which you can't see up there, but um, that's a change of 8,730. It's a 1.8% change on Brookline School District's portion. Uh the biggest budget drivers here are salaries which are budgeted at three and a half% per CPI. Benefits
016is 44,550. Uh health insurance rate increase this year was 15.1% which is a very large increase and um largely out of our control. And uh dental insurance rate increase was 4.4%. Operations and maintenance $3,840 for inspections. liability insurance, utilities, and then some uh smaller items, a $740 decrease in contracted services and an increase in equipment and software. It's a relatively flat budget. Um um that's it. Thank you very much. Is there any discussion on article two? Yes. Jen Morrisy >> into the microphone, please. You can adjust it. >> Jen Morrisy. >> Uh, address >> uh Laurel Crest. >> Thank you. >> What Why does the finance committee say no thank you and the school committee or the school board recommend? I want to know why it's a different point of view. >> Finance committee. >>
017Yeah. >> Yes. again myself being aware of the interest in the high tax recently. My intention here was to signal that if you're going to take some money out of the budget, I would prefer it be out of this budget than out of the um you know the school district. >> And does that answer your question? >> Follow up. There is >> well I I don't I guess can you go into a tiny bit more detail? >> Can I go more detail? >> A little bit. I just didn't quite understand. Yeah. Well, around there's interest in not paying on stats and my recommendation here against this was that if there's going to be an interest in voting against some of these war articles or modifying them or amending whatever that this one I would prefer
018to have the number go down versus the number of the uh the article three of the next budget. So administrative office, they're not close to my heart. The teachers a little bit harder to say. >> So you're trying to prioritize where if we had to make some cuts where you would say this is where we go, right? >> Okay, cool. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Jen, did you Jen, did you want to hear from us on why we voted for it or I'm so sorry. >> No, that's okay. I just I just WANT TO MAKE SURE >> I just want to make sure your question gets answered. Um so the reason that we're supporting it is um you know it reflects like there's increased regulatory demands, there's increased operational demands. The amount
019of work that our SAU has to do is not necessarily based on like the students in the building unfortunately with increasing state laws, RSAs, federal laws, like the amount of work that they have to do in order to make sure that we're staying in compliance has is like either increasing or not reducing. So that's one of the reasons that we're definitely um supporting this is in order to make sure that our district stays in compliance and avoids trouble in other places. Um staff workload has increased, you know, in terms of things of like fulfilling all the right to know requests, fulfilling all the budget information, fulfilling all of the like policy stuff, keeping up with what's coming down from conquered, just making sure again that we're staying in compliance. Um, and that, you know, in
020terms of just administration, it protects our teachers and staff here to focus on teaching and serving our students. The SAU as an administrative unit allows them to tend to take on a lot of those responsibilities, which frees up our staff and teachers here to do the work of teaching and student support. So, that's part that's in large part why we're supporting it. So just as a um when you're talking about like the um compliance stuff is that like why we keep getting all the permission slip things in parent square. So >> yes and no. Um yes that's also to like just because we want your permission to like take your child off school premises. Um but just more in terms of like there's been you know every time conquered comes into session there's um a
021number of bills that can get passed and RSAs that get passed that once are passed and signed come down to the districts that we then have to implement. So each of the administrators at the SEU kind of has a role in that. So like our assistant superintendent of student services does a lot of the RSA compliance for special education. Our curriculum or curriculum and instruction super assistant superintendent um will go through and she actually just did a wonderful presentation for us a few months ago on the new um regul like regulations I think it was for like graduation and all that. So that work kind of comes down to us as a district. the SAU covers that so that our teachers, principles, building administrators don't have to. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. And
022thank you for Yes. And thank you for calling me back so that we all >> You're welcome. I just want to make sure we answer it for you. >> Greg Darbone, 65 Cleveland Hill Road. Uh similar question. If we vote against this, what are the implication? What doesn't get done? That's, you know, if we vote against this, what happens? I I know we go back to last year's budget, but I mean, what doesn't get done if we vote against this? >> Member of the board, >> our wonderful superintendent. Um, so we don't actually go to last year's uh we go to >> Do you want Gina? Do you want to see her? Sit here. So we don't go to last year's budget, we go to the adjusted budget. And so it is um last year's
023budget plus all contractual obligations less any um expenses that are not contracted. So um replacement computer equipment um would be excluded. That just doubles the cost the following year. Um upgrades to things like um the Wi-Fi that becomes out of out of date and that doesn't happen this year. we'd have to delay it another year. So the $20,000 doesn't cover a whole lot, but it's mostly equipment. >> Okay. I just want, you know, if we vote against it, what's the implication? Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Also, Greg, that the SAU budget um is a three district, it goes across all three districts. So Brooklyn votes, Hollis votes, and the co-op votes. So even if Brooklyn votes it down, it may still pass. So I just want to say that as well because
024it is a shared cost between all of the districts. >> Great. Tom Rogers, ADA Lewis Drive. Um, thanks for that explanation so that we don't take off the difference between the proposed budget and last year's budget. It's it's a a number in between. That question for the finance committee member who just gave that explanation. I'm confused. Um, you didn't say anything about not agreeing with the soundness of the budget. You just said you had a feeling because uh we're have a lot of tax and people are upset about tax increases. I agree with you on article three. I'm going to vote for it because I support our staff. I'm just questioning can I get more than a feeling and more like more of a detail >> $20,000 difference between those two which is less than
025budget. >> So negligible. >> Well, it's not negligible but I think it's our portion of that is 500,000. Um it's easy 1% cut off. You know, if you have a household budget that's $100 and you only get $900, it's not. But you know, 1% property taxes, I would definitely take that 1%. >> My opinion, I I would say vote for this. I'm in favor of it. I think that explanation with all with all due respect that's just saying a couple years ago we had that people just said let's just I I propose taking 10% off without any logical explanation. That sounds like we're we're it's in a bad position publications wise. We want to lower taxes. So we're going to take a tiny infantestimal amount of money and make us feel better about it when
026it's it looks to me and it sounds like this is a sound budget based on budgeting principles. Thanks. Thank you very much. >> Ed Perry, Musketanis Road. Um, could we hear from the finance committee member who did support it? >> Thanks so much. I'm Gails on the finance committee. Um, I was the one voting for this. I was actually part of the SA budget committee this year and so I was able to hear the rundown of line by line expenses. Um, and it just feels like the team at SAU really like Gina explained these budget processes started months ago. They're scrutinized. They look at every single line item and really prioritize what is a need and not a want. And so that was the reason that I would go for this. >> Thank you very
027much. >> Brady Hallan, 17 Birch Hill. Um, does anybody know 20,000 bucks divided by the total number of uh properties in Brooklyn about how many dollars that is per house? >> Could I also add it's actually 20,000 over Hollis Brookline and the co-op. So, actually Brooklyn's >> 20,000 divided by two towns. >> Yeah. And Brooklyn school district's portion is increased this if we were to approve it this year. would be an increase of $8,730 from >> so like $3 a uh house probably. >> Your guess is as good as mine, but >> does anybody know how many properties are in town? >> I should know that. But >> I believe there I believe there are about 2500 parcels. >> So it's a dollar. >> Um it is 42.3 cents if you vote for it. It
028is 42 cents if you vote against it. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Is there any more discussion under article two? >> Seeing none, we will move on and send that to the ballot. Moving on to article three, the support staff contract, which reads to C, if the Brooklyn School District will vote to approve the cost items included in a two-year collective bargaining agreement reached between the Brooklyn School Board and the Brookline Education Support Staff Association for the 2026, 2027, and 2027, 2028 school years, which calls for the following increase in support staff salaries and benefits at the current staffing levels for fiscal year 26 to 27, $113,38. 8. For fiscal year 2728, estimated increase of $136,894, the total of $250,22. And to further raise and appropriate a sum of $113,38 for the
029first fiscal year, 2026 2027 school year. Such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in support staff salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at the current staffing levels. Estimated tax impact. Year 1 is 10 cents per thousand. Year two is 12 cents per thousand. The school board recommends the appropriation 5000. The finance committee recommends the appropriation 3000. Uh this is not amendable. Would a member of the school board like to speak to it? Thank you very much. >> So good evening everyone. Um my name is Johanna Shrivever Haligan and I was one of the negotiators for this contract along with Tracy Perry. Um so this is >> Can you put the microphone? I can get clo here. I will get very close. Okay. And close
030to Allison also. Um, so yeah. So I was one of the negotiators on this contract along with Tracy Perry. We met with the Brooklyn Educational Support Staff Association throughout the fall. Um, and this is the contract that we came up with that both sides agreed on. So our support staff consists of par educators, administrative assistants, maintenance crews, um, food service workers, really like the backbones of the school in terms of the support piece. They kind of keep the nuts and bolts running to make sure that our teachers can focus on teaching. They provide a lot of support to our really vulnerable students. Um it's a really very important group of people. Um this contract is a two-year contract. So um for the years of 2026, 2027, 2027, 2028, um district goals when we negotiated were
031to recruit and retain the most qualified staff addressing critical staffing needs particularly in our PAR educator arena. We are very understaffed as you'll see in one of our next slides. Um that's a pretty big financial hit to us when we have to contract out for PAR educators. We really wanted to address that. Um and also retaining the staff we have who do a really great job with our kiddos. Uh we wanted to better align support staff collective bargaining agreements across the SAU. The two-year contract allows for us to actually bring it into alignment with some of the other SAU districts so that we can negotiate them all at once and really streamline. It's um we feel it's a good fiscally responsible and sustainable contract especially with the two-year duration. Um it strengthens student supports and
032operational stability. So again um particularly in our par educator category but really all of our support staff anytime that we're able to um have the same people kind of showing up and have that stability. It serves the school, the district, the town like to have that stability is like a much safer, better bet. Um it supports goals around staffing, culture, and student support. So again, from the district point of view, our goal was student support first and foremost and to make sure that we were building a good culture to retain our our good staff that we already have. Um working conditions and supports. We expanded professional development. So especially um available to pair educators for in district training. Um and those are based on and identified by staff like depending on what group of students
033they might be working with. If they feel there's a training that would benefit or increase their work, they've um they can now have the option to attend that uh pair educ like uh professional development. We clarified and updated some overtime language for accuracy and consistency. The same with the leave provisions. Um we revised for clarity and alignment with district practice in terms of leave. Um when we look at the tables so for year 1 um employee compensation table is a 3.75% um salary raise plus the step. So um I learned this this year which is very exciting. Um everyone's on a step and so every we go from year to year you go up a step so you get a salary adjustment with that and then it would include a 3.75%. On top of the
034step for year two it's 3.5 plus a step. um full-time employees in terms of healthcare benefits, which was a big district priority for us in negotiating this contract is to offer benefits to our support staff workers. Um for the year one, full-time employees currently have 100% coverage. That would continue for year one. Um we are looking to actually streamline that more alongside district practice in year two by reducing that to a 94% coverage in family. um 97% district pay and coverage of a twoerson family and 100% of a single. So those numbers are what the district currently contributes to the healthcare coverage. Um for 30-hour employees, our newest ones to be offered benefits. We are we negotiated an $84 per month cap on health insurance benefits and in year two it's an $1,158 uh per
035month cap. Um, we updated and cleaned up some position titles to reflect current staffing structure and job descriptions more accurately. When you look at our total costs for year 1, we're looking at $113,38 and that includes salary increase and the healthcare benefits. Um, in the second year, we're looking at 136,894 for that total of $250, 202. Um, this next slide should hopefully make pretty clear why we felt it was important to negotiate good salary increases in health insurance. Currently, we are contracting out for I believe around like 8 to nine para educators, possibly more. I am not quite sure of the number, but it it fluctuates. Um, when we look at this first little uh blurp right up at the top there, the average annual cost of a district employed PARA educator, so one we
036can hire and keep in house is about 22,530. The average annual cost of a contracted para educator is $58,78. We currently have 9 to 10 of those this year alone. We are currently operating on around a $5705$550,000 hit to the budget that was not planned for in order to provide these contracted para educators positions which are mandated by law. They are not optional. So we are hoping that with this contract we are going to be able to attract a a benefit pool and a applicant pool so that we can reduce those contracted positions and stabilize our budget. Um so if you look at this chart here you can see our FY24 cost was $289,000 $767 just for contracted para educators FY25 cost 360,351 for contracted um FY26 so this year encumbered 574,460 that number is
037not getting smaller in fact it is getting much bigger so that was like one of the biggest reasons that this contract feels really important to us and that we're hoping that, you know, it will be supported because it's something that we're really hoping over time will save our district and taxpayers money and offer stability for our students and our staff so that everybody kind of knows like who's coming to work, who's a part of the team, and we can build like good foundational relationships. And that's where we're at with that. >> And Allison is now going to add one thing. I'd like to add just just one thing to speak to um the changes in offering health benefits to our PAR educators. There's data to support um that this works and I'm going to call
038out Hollis. Just this year they started offering health benefits their PAR educators. The year prior they had 16 contracted paras. That's a huge cost when you look at this number. they have won this year and that's because they were able to attract and recruit people and staff due to the health benefits alone. So that's why we made the decision to really push for that this year because if you that encumbered cost that's to date that it's going to keep going up for the rest of the year. So we really want to try to work to find a solution that controls this number and seeing that that worked by offering benefits within our own SAU is why we are taking the approach for that. >> Thank you very much. Discussion Ryan Osenowski for Baldwin Drive. Quick
039question for the board. the 22530 salary. Um, what how close would a three and a half% increase get to the state average for a district employed par educator? >> Jana, you want to? >> Yeah. So although the state can share average teacher salary, para educator salaries um it's it's not typically shared that way because there's so many factors relative to the um collective bargaining agreements around par educators. Uh and um it's hourly versus um versus salary. And so the length of the day, the length of the school year, the number of days, all these factors um sort of skew the data. So that data is not um it's not really available. >> I I can tell you that when we were negotiating this contract, we did look at at least across the SAU salaries to
040see and all of our salaries are within like within range of each other, within like a dollar in range. So we we really are trying to stabilize districtwide as well. So that's that's kind of what we're basing our information on because a lot of our staffing applicants, they'll um apply and be interviewed by our staff at in Berkeley and then they'll go work in Hollis or the co-op because they get benefits. So that was really our priority was to stabilize it across the district so that we could entice and like bring in a wider applicant pool within our our local area. If that I don't know if that answers that, but >> yeah, I was just kind of wondering where the 3.5 came from. I don't know if it was an arbitrary number or if
041there was a there was an actual number you were trying to get to in order to attract these people. >> Um yeah, so that was um just the number that was negotiated between um the district team and the and the BESA contract the their contract negotiators. Um we kind of just banded numbers back and forth. Those were the numbers that we settled on in terms of what we could afford within the budget, the tax cap, and what their needs were. Um what the needs were identified by their negotiators for the union. Is this this number of 3.5% is that do you feel confident that that would get us a significant reduction in contract parent educators? >> Yes, we do. Um because we from our understanding from what we were informed by the union at the
042contract at the negotiation table, it's really the benefits that's the driver. It's not the salary. So by offering the benefits and doing the caps the way we have um that would that is really the hope is that we would be able to reduce contracted through that part of the contract less so the salary. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there any miss >> one real quick thing? So >> name and address please. >> Uh Tom Rogers 8A Lewis Drive. >> Thank you. >> So how many contract employees do we have now? >> Do you know nine or 11? Um we we believe we are at nine >> nine. Okay. So a little under $600,000. So let's find there. >> Okay. And so we we'll look to save that by adding health
043insurance. And you said Hollis reduced 15 contracted positions and went down to one which I would imagine is saves way more money than >> Yeah. So an anecdotally obviously like we we didn't conduct like a formal study but anecdotal data has indicated that when their um contract team negotiated benefits for their par educators and support staff last year that went into play this year they were able to reduce almost all of their contracts out of the building saving them a lot of money. >> Great example if you pay a living wage and provide the benefit you will attract employees. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Is there any more discussion on article three? Yes. Jen Morris, Laurel Crest, just clarifying um the average annual cost that's salary. It's not salary plus benefits. >> Um
044are you talking about the average annual cost of the year on Okay. So um I will Yes. So that is um salary but not including >> salary hourly rate according to assistant superintendent. >> Okay. So then the health insurance >> would be would be would that be an additional? >> So the health insurance would be added to it. So, if you look at um this right here in year one, we'd be looking at 84 per month cap. Okay? >> So, you multiply that out and then add it to >> the 22,530. It still brings us in um below. >> So, it adds about a 9600 per person per Okay, cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. And and just to note, those are averages also, right? So there might be some above, below, under, but like um
045we know that for sure we can we can very confidently say that a contracted PAR is about triple the cost of what we would be able to do inhouse with a PAR. >> And that's absolutely fine. I just wanted to thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Very good discussion. Is there any more? Anybody else? Somebody's getting up. >> Hi. Uh, Matthew Philipsky to Trembley Way. Um, I have a question. So, with the contract, um, how does how did the benefits compare to other contracts in the surrounding districts? What was it mentioned that that was used as the main driver for like retaining people versus the salary? >> Yeah. So, from what I understand, um, this is only my second year on the board, so certainly I will ask anyone to jump in if they have
046better information. Um, the co-op has a longer day. So, their support staff has had access to benefits longer than both Brooklyn and Hollis because they have a longer educational day. Uh, because our support staff is generally I think Lauren capped at 30 hours, right? They were not eligible for benefits. So, last year when the Hollis school district, so their elementary schools, negotiated in benefits, they noticed this large reduction, they were also having some pretty significant staffing problems. Um, and in feedback, anecdotal feedback from applicants when we're saying they'll call back and say, "Well, we don't want to accept this job." And we're going, "Okay, can you tell us why benefits was the number one reason?" Um, more than really anything else, Lauren. And we also used the Hollis um structure in here in Brooklyn in
047order to bring continuity between the two. So, so yeah. So, it's based off and it's the same same insurance cap, same um the salary raises might be slightly different, I think, depending on >> Yeah, we're talking about the Okay. with the insurance. So, yes, we did use Hollis. Um, the co-op is kind of a different >> Yeah, I was just going to say the $84 per month cap is exactly what the Hollis school district is utilizing in year one of their support staff contract this year. That is what brought them from 1516 uh contracted pairs down to one. >> Okay. And and sorry, >> no, please. >> So, um so that so am I understanding that basically we just we offered benefits to more people that way? Yes, we expanded benefits eligibility to our 30-hour
048employees who who originally were not eligible. Only our full-time staff were. >> Okay, that makes sense. Well, and also in terms of like the like the the cost sharing amount, is that comparable to to Hollis like the the 100% coverage and like how we're like year two, year one. >> Yeah. Jane. >> Um so, no. And so that is why we were looking to negotiate down from 100% to make it a little bit more sustainable financially for the for the district. um because nobody other than um this contract right here experienced 100% benefit coverage. So that was a goal to provide access to more individuals and make it a little bit more um even across the board to all of our employees in terms of cost sharing methods. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And again
049that was designed to again bring us this the SAU districts to bring us into alignment with each other. So that's the goal as well is that as we're reducing it's going to be across the board. not we're not hoping to have that happen in just one contract two cont like we're looking to kind of have a district standard in contracts so that that's kind of also the thought process behind the coverage reduction and things like that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. Thank you. >> Gina, one more question on the um the name and address. >> Brady Halligan 17. >> Thank you. >> Sorry honey. Um, so the 100% coverage in year one, that is an existing benefit for employees that are already full-time in Brooklyn. Correct. >> Correct. So year one, um,
050the employee compensation that's new, the full-time employees at 100% that remains untouched in year one. Um, the new item is the 30-hour employees get the 804 month per month cap. In year two, that's when our current full-time employees would see um would bear a little bit more of the burden of health and health care costs. >> So, the contract is is the union giving up a little bit in year two in order to make things um >> a little bit more equitable amongst all >> a little more equitable and also reduce the tax burden. And the 804 is a new benefit being offered to the part-time staff to reduce the con the contract. >> Exactly. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Yes. compromise was um good on both sides like both sides came to the table
051really interested in achieving the best outcome for everybody. So I really want to commend the Brookline Educational Support Staff Association for the willingness to come to the table and work with us in order for us to provide this contract. Um but yes, we we did ask everybody to kind of contribute to the cost sharing and and this was one way to do that was to slowly increase insurance caps for new benefits while decreasing full-time existing caps. Thank you very much. Is there any more discussion on article three? Hearing and seeing none, without any objection, we will go on to Article four. Now, bear with me. This one has a lot of numbers in it, too. to see if the Brookline School District will vote to approve the cost items included in a three-year collective bargaining
052agreement reached between the Brooklyn School Board and the Brookline Teachers Association for the 2026, 27, 2728, and 2829 school years, which calls for the following increase in professional staff salaries and benefits at the current staffing levels. 2627 estimated increase of $51,347. 2728 $329,127 28293 $342,889 for a total of $1,173,372. And further to raise and appropriate a sum of $51,347 for the first fiscal year 2627 school year. Such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in professional staff salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels. Estimated tax impact year 1 is 42 cents per thousand. Year 2 is 28 cents per thousand. Year three 29 cents per thousand. The school board recommends this appropriation 5000. The finance committee recommends this appropriation 2110. This is
053also statutory and may not be amended. Would a member of the school board like to introduce the article? >> Yes, I will take that. >> The floor is yours. >> Thank you. So, I would like to start off just by saying that the goal of these negotiations was to invest in our teachers while giving Brookline the ability to recruit and retain highquality educators. So, speaking of retention, over the past five years, we've lost a number of professional staff. Um, and of those who have moved on, the ones that directly indicated compensation as the reason for leaving are indicated here on this chart. While a 9% turnover in the past 5 years might not seem like a large number in a district as small as ours, that number is actually quite high and impacts our schools.
054Therefore, this contract is a means to try to really retain our workforce to be able to recruit, which is another goal of this contract. Most workers will consider compensation when making a decision on a place to work. And a side note of that is that people who are thinking about leaving, compensation can oftentimes be a driver of that decision. In Brooklyn, we're truly falling short of that. So this chart shows you how Brookline teachers average salary compares to the average teacher salary in New Hampshire. It also further shows how our teachers compare to districts in a 15 mile radius. So on the chart behind me, the red line that goes straight across the chart is the average teacher salary for the state of New Hampshire, which is $69,531. The first bar that's in gray is
055the average Brooklyn teacher salary, which is $66,89. It's clearly below the state average. When we look at the next two bars on the chart, they show NSHA and Milford, who are more in line with the rest of the state, yet above Brooklyn, coming in at 69,672 and 70,123 on average. Continuing on down the chart, Bedford has an average salary of 73,170. Hollis has an average salary of 76,52. Amherst is at 78,362. and the Hollis Brookline co-op is at $80,775. There are several reasons why our Brooklyn teachers here are falling behind in salary as compared to the other districts. The first reason is that our salary grid stops at step 14. Most other salary grids uh take the teachers out to step 20. In addition, there was a period of time when Brookline teachers were working
056without a contract. they never had a chance to um have their salaries catch up from that. This particular contract will allow us to not only become competitive when trying to recruit, but more importantly to retain our valued staff. Having the expanded salary grid will also make future financial planning completely transparent. So highlights of our contract include the compensation which is the the major part of this, right? We added steps to the salary grid in year one, which moves our teachers out to a 20-year step grid. Um, this will help make us competitive when we're looking for new staff, but more importantly, it places the value on the teachers we have today, so they stay with us longer. It also allows for future financial planning because when we negotiate future contracts, we won't be facing unexpected
057increases for teachers who are off staff. What that means is that they've taught longer than what the grid plans for. By expanding our grid, we know what their cost is going to be because we we will now have expanded it and so we can plan better for the future. Um we then agreed on a 2% increase for our teachers in year two. We also agreed on a 2% increase in year three. So these are both modest increases and below the CPI. Other notable items in our contract is we lengthened the work year to increase our training for our teachers. Uh we offered a restricted loan repayment assistance assistance benefit. We also shifted the health insurance to a more effective cost driver plan with an incentive to allow for greater financial stability. So what does that
058mean? Um the school district as an employer we pay for a portion of health care for our employees. the amount the district pays per employees based on a singular plan. So, it becomes f fixed cost for us per person. Even if an employee chooses a different plan, um as a district, we know what we're what we're paying per person. This year, healthc care costs went up significantly and we were looking at a 15% increase on our part if we made no changes. Through the due diligence of our SAU um superintendent, we found a healthcare driver plan that was more affordable for our district. Uh this did change the plan for the teachers. And so therefore, we offered a one-time $1,000 contribution to an HSA account as an incentive for them to allow us to switch
059to that new driver plan, thereby saving us money. Um, within the contract, we also did some verbiage cleanup to clearly define BTA membership. We wanted to make sure the position title is aligned with the New Hampshire Department of Education. The the cost for the contract again over the three years um is broken down from 2026 to 2027, it would be $51,347. For year 2027 to 28, it would be $329,127. 2028 to 2029, we're looking at 4 $342,899 for a total of $1,173. 1,173,372. I even practiced those numbers today. I I would just like to add that um you know the compensation changes were designed to allow us to be competitive while supporting retention through the added salary steps and targeting the benefits for our for our staff. Um the three-year cost of this agreement reflects
060a very deliberate investment in our staff, the stability of that staff, the instructional quality, and the responsible long-term financial planning that we as a board are looking to do. We do recognize the cost of year 1 is large, but this is a corrective action that's necessary for our district. It prevents the need for repeated catchup increases in the future, and it ultimately creates a fair, transparent pay structure for everybody moving forward. >> Thank you very much. Is there any discussion on article 4? I see there is. Fire away. Hi, Mark Andrews, 35 West Hill Road. Uh, can you go back to the previous slide, the one that showed the There you go. Um, just a question to you. When we when we look at these numbers and the the level of work that's commensurate with,
061uh, with the pay scale here, um, is it appropriate to add the Brooklyn and the Hollis um, elementary schools in the same category with the co-op? >> Yeah, that's um, a great question. And the reason we did that is we have lost teachers to the co-op. So I wanted I we wanted to show this because we've had teachers who've left our district to stay in the SAU and go to the co-op and so it thought it was important because they left because of pay reasons. The co-op was going to pay them more and they didn't have to go very far. >> Can I ask a follow followup question then? >> Yes. >> So elementary school, high school. Yep. >> Or elementary, middle school, high school. Is it typical? Let's look at Nasha for example. Um,
062is Nasha the the totality of elementary through high school K through 12? Yes. >> Or is that >> Yes. And so is Milford, I believe, >> and Bedford. >> So then is it is it possible to break out what an equivalent elementary age pay scale would be for NSHA, for Milford? >> It's on the same grid. >> Yeah. All teachers prek to 12 are on the same grid in a district like NSHA and Bedford and Milford >> typically. Yeah. So typic what that means in lay terms. >> Yeah, I'll take that. Gina, so so typically um school districts and and unions negotiate the pay scales based on a grid. And so you've got steps on the left. So step one, step two, and usually that equates to your number of years in in our case
063in public education, right? And then across the top um you have the breakdown based on their degrees. So the the the first column would be if if a professional held a bachelor's degree and then the next column might be bachelor's plus 15 extra college credits and etc. And then you would have a a column if they have a master's degree and then if they have a master's degree plus 15 additional college credits or master's plus 30 or masters plus 45. And that's typical in education that that's the way the salary scale is is broken out. Um it doesn't differentiate between grade level because education is education. You're either an expert at teaching teenagers or you're an expert at teaching six-year-olds. Either way, you need to be an educated expert to do so. >> All right.
064Thank you very much. Uh, next, >> Greg. Greg Darbone, 65 Cleveland Hill Road. Just a couple of questions. One is, are we are there any teacher slots in the elementary school that are not filled? Currently we are um we are fully staffed this year. >> Okay, that >> right now not last year. >> Okay, so that that answers for me the question is there are people willing to take these lower salaries. Okay. So, uh the the next question, if you have two people that have teaching qualifications, but one is a math major from, let's say, Northeastern, and the other is a early education teacher from Northeastern, you're going to hire that math teacher at the high school. Does that make sense? or it doesn't matter because I would think that someone who needs to teach
065third graders math doesn't need the skills of someone who needs to teach calculus at high school. See that? So that that's why I'm I think Mark's question too is why are we mixing apples and oranges here? >> I'll share why we're mixing apples and oranges. Um I'm a chemistry major from Boston College >> and um love loved teaching chemistry. Would go back in a heartbeat. If you ask me to teach six-y olds, I might struggle a whole lot. >> I might struggle >> and it's a different skill set, but we all are valued. >> Understand? Totally. Totally understand. But uh I I was just trying to figure that out. You know, it's you need someone at the high school level that is a chemistry teacher or chemistry uh major. So, okay. Uh there was one
066more question I had. Okay. Oh, what are the implications if we don't pass this? Okay. I mean I we get asked that every time is okay if we don't pass this what is the what don't we do anymore? So I understand the regulatory kind of stuff but what happens? So if you could explain that. >> I'm going to share a little bit um about what happens when we don't. So we don't get a new contract. The teachers stay exactly where they are. The past contract was a three-year contract. Health insurance increased so much over the past three years that every year our teachers came back to work making less money. being less able to provide for their families. With a 15.1 increase in health insurance, that is absolutely going to come out straight from their
067pockets and not from ours. And we're going to lose them. So, our average turnover of 9% of folks leaving simply due to salary reasons is going to increase and our inability to attract new employees will still be present. When we say it's um a challenge to attract employees, it is the same as with support staff. We post a position. We don't have a large candidate pool. We look to our sister district in Hollis and ask them for names that we can call to beg them to come in and um interview here. It will only become more difficult. And if you're concerned about um any of the changes about the school district that might be not favorable, um I know there have been concerns brought forward that our test scores were lower. That will continue to
068to become a problem and folks will not move to this community because of highquality schools because we cannot keep pace without our highquality instructors um dedicating themselves for their career in our schools. Every also to piggyback every year since I've been on the school board before school starts we are panicking that we are not fully staffed. Gina's not kidding when she says she has to call and beg people because yeah they're willing to take it. You know why? Because nobody else maybe they were either late coming around or they're they're still looking. like I yeah people will take it but if we're going to value what we do for our youngest community members we should pay the people who are directly working with them every day. >> Okay. >> And and go ahead. >> I'm
069going to further note that your comment on there are people who are willing to take it. Simply because there are people who are willing to work for a lower salary doesn't mean that that's fair or that what we should be offering them as a community. So, I do want to say that our teachers deserve to have a fair wage irregardless of whether they're willing to show up every day to work with our kids for less. >> Okay. I only counter it because in the civilian market, in the non-government market, we have the same challenges. Uh medical costs have gone up for them too. So, they may get a raise one way, but their medical costs. So, it it is not just educators who have the problems. We all have this problem. So, uh, you know,
070I don't want to be emotional about it, but we got to we got to consider that. >> Thank you very much. Next, >> Eric Power, West View Road. Um, I wanted to mention that um, in the summer, I think it was a press release in July, Commissioner, former commissioner Frank Edloop published that we had a record number of licensed teachers in New Hampshire. Um, record high. And we all know that the number of students that we have is declining and going down. So there clearly is a pool of teachers out there um to hire. And um I'm concerned about the size of this contract. I looked at it. I asked the SAU and they they put up the CBA after I asked for it. I looked at it and I saw that they I looked
071at the pay tables and I looked at what the pay table is for this year FY26. And I looked at it projecting out for three years and how much the teachers would be getting in raises, not counting benefits. We'll talk about that in a second. But, you know, the average teacher in this new contract is going to get more than a 20% raise. It ranges from about 15% for the lowest teacher um getting a raise up to over 27% over three years. And I understand they're trying to make a correction, but people in Brooklyn are are getting taxed out of their homes. It's it the the property taxes, it's a number one issue. People are are shocked by how much the taxes go up. And this is one of the main drivers along with the
072co-op. So, is it really the right time to go for these large increases of 15 up to 27% over three years? That's a lot of money. Um, so I would say, you know, I'm probably going to vote no on this because I don't think that I think that it's a good try and I think teachers deserve more, but I think it's a little bit too much for the taxpayers. You're talking about increasing our operating budget by just by the teacher salary by $1.2 million over three years. That's quite a bit of money. I'd also like to mention when I read the fine print, I see a new benefit that I didn't see described here. It's a $20,000 a year loan repayment for teachers. Um, unless I missed it, I don't think that was in the
073contract before. So, that's a new benefit that they're getting. And I also saw I think it was mentioned $1,000 HRA. That's new that they're it's a one I think that that might be for only one year, but I'm not sure. And you know, most people don't get 100% of their medical paid, 90% for two people or 80% for a family. That's a very generous um benefit. And so all those things together, I think that this is it's a good try, but I think it's a little bit too rich for Brooklyn at this time. It's just too much money. I think it's too much for us to to bear as far as tax effort. And um I hope that people vote no on uh March 10th. Thank you very much. >> I'd like to clarify one
074um one item that you mentioned uh the $20,000 for reimbursement. So that is a total option of 20,000. No one individual can receive more than $1,000 in reimbursement. And this is limited to teachers in the first five steps of the contract. So that's an intentional move to attract um new service teachers and to assist with college loan debt. The same uh piece was uh bargained into co-op. So far, we've had three individuals seek $1,000 reimbursement over the three years of the contract. It was bargained into Hollis last year, and we have not um received any requests. My hope is that in Brooklyn we will be able to attract younger new service teachers where that might be a benefit to them and maybe a deciding factor of whether they should go to Amherst or Brookline. >>
075Thank you very much, Superintendent. >> So I'm also just going to note further like there may be a pool of teachers but if you have a pool of zero, you're hiring zero. Right now we have a very small pool irregardless of the general pool in the state of New Hampshire. Brook Line does not have a pool to pull from. So, what we're trying to do is increase the pool. So, I just want to note that as well that there may be a large record number of uh certified teachers in the state of New Hampshire. If you know of any of them who would like to apply here, please let us know because we don't seem to get that application. >> Yes. Hi, >> uh Ruby Laura, Sergeant Road. I just want to uh touch on
076a couple things. So, we're looking at the chart here. This shows a average teacher salary for various towns in uh in Nshawa. Um >> but and I think someone mentioned earlier that teachers are paid based on uh steps which is your time in service and I think your education level as well. >> Correct. So, um, is it conceivable that we could have teachers that have a lower less time in service and less education and therefore, you know, maybe HP Co-op or NSHA has teachers that have been teaching for longer, maybe 20 years or so, and they have a master's degree or even a doctorate. Um, does that do we do do we have a graph to normalize? Okay. So, thank you for um think this is an eye chart. It's not intended for you to
077look at the numbers. It's really just um bold to look at the color. So, yes, you are absolutely correct. There are a lot of factors here. The gray on the left is Brooklyn teachers. So, that represents the top area is um zero years experience. And then we move down to five years experience and the bottom is 10 years experience. And we also have in there bachelor's, bachelor's plus 15, bachelor's plus 30, etc. Um, and this is total compensation package because if you if you're paid $100,000 but you have to pay 50,000 for health insurance, you're not really taking home that much. So, this takes into consideration total compensation package. What are teachers going home with? So, our first >> I'm sorry, can I just interrupt you there to you said total compensation package, but are
078you are you deducting from that? Because typically, at least what I'm familiar with in total compensation package that includes your salary plus your benefits. So, if I make $50,000 a year salary, but my benefits are usually 20 or 30% more than that. So, my total compensation would be $80,000 a year. Is that what you're referring to or something different? >> This refers to um what goes into a teacher's bank account. Okay. So, what their their take-home and so regardless of whether or not you agree that we should add or subtract, the the concept is apples to apples. >> Sure. I I just want to make sure we're talking about the same term. So in education, total compensation is typically referred to as your salary less how much you have to contribute for benefits. >> Okay?
079So there the total amount of money and services that the teachers receive would be greater than what's on this board here because for like the average person, we're spending about $10,000 a year on health care through our employer um before our employer compensates us. So we're after our employer comp. So, we're getting a certain amount. We have, let's say we make $50,000, our employer pays $20,000 towards our health insurance, and we put on another $10,000 a year on our health insurance. So, this would be the opposite of that. So, in this case, they're at 43,000. In the private sector, we' be looking at them making, let's say it's plus 30, be it' be 73,000 BA, >> but every district has a different function, whether it's um a cap, a percentage, etc. So this is trying
080to compare apples to apples. The the goal of this chart is within a 15 mile radius >> compared to Brooklyn. If it's red, that means I would make 3% more as a teacher if I moved to Amherst, Bedford, Hollis, Co-op, or Milford. If I have if it's in the white area, that means it's within 3%. So I might have make 3% more in another district. I it might be the same but it's within 3%. And green is when Brookline teachers are better off staying in Brooklyn. So there is no green. And so while this is an eye chart and and not as clear as the other chart, this tells a different story um that we're trying to fix. >> Yeah, I think this is a good slide. I just want to make sure we understand
081because is it conceivable that the areas in reduh that those teachers in those uh grades and steps could be making um could have benefits elsewhere >> or that Burke line could have more benefits for healthcare or something like that. >> No, this takes that into consideration. >> Okay. Um the other question I had is I just looking at like a fiveyear span. Um, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I I I think if I look back, I remember right around 2020 or 2021, Brooklyn School District crested about $10 million total budget. Um, I don't know if someone can confirm or deny that, but I and I also think that we crested somewhere shortly after that, we crested our maximum enrollment around the middle 500s. What I'm trying to understand is I
082think we're looking at about 13 million something today for a total budget. That's a 30% increase over five years. But yet it seems like our teacher salaries haven't kept up to pace with the the budget increase or haven't kept up pace with the other towns. So my question is where is that money going? How are we increasing uh 30% over five years? I think roughly feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Um but but then the teachers aren't getting compensated. I would think that would be the priority. >> Absolutely. It's a priority. We we brought forward a contract that we thought was solid um the past three years and like I said, the health insurance increases um with the cap system made it so that it was no longer competitive in year one of
083the contract. Um and so we negotiated with a different approach this time. Um over the past three years, we've seen an increase in regulations. We've seen an increase in required costs that have been pushed to the district. In our previous war article, we discussed the fact that we're contracting an exorbitant number of PAR educators, which is pulling from all of the other align items because we didn't budget for three times the cost of hiring our own employee. Um, so there are quite a few factors and then there's the typical, right? So the increase in um energy costs, the increase in well this year snow removal, I'm sure we're over budget. um you know, all of those regular increases, but um Brookline School District has not other than last year done a whole lot in terms
084of increasing the infrastructure of the capital improvement projects because we've been limited on um on what we can do with what we have. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Next Perry Matanas Road. So, just a general observation, a couple of quick questions. Um, the uh the kid who rakes my lawn probably would have done my colonoscopy for a little bit less than the doctor who actually did it, but I sure as hell wouldn't have liked to have given him the opportunity to do so. When a thing is important, you want an expert. You don't want the kid who raked your lawn. I really thought I wouldn't hear anything new tonight, but I would applaud the legislative body for giving me something new. Um, quick question for anyone on there that knows the
085answer. What state out of 50 provides the least aid to municipalities and towns uh for education? >> New Hampshire. >> Dead last, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um how much does it cost on average to replace an employee with a new one? >> It's typically three times >> three times >> the salary >> three times the salary of the current person. >> So generally more than you would offer them in a raise. >> Correct. >> Yeah. And uh the last one because um you know I had to applaud the uh previous speaker who said uh people got a lot of sticker shock with their uh their tax bill. Um with that little state aid, I guess it's not all that surprising. Most states are are pitching in considerably more. Um where do we rank for
086out of states for um teacher pay? >> For teacher pay. >> Yeah. I don't know. >> So, out of the other 50 states, where do we generally rank? Do we rank in the top 10? Do we rank somewhere in the middle or I don't know. Are we generally in the bottom 10 to five? >> We we are generally in the bottom 10 to five, but I'm saying that without actually going and verifying that. >> I'm going to guess by your tone and the fact that you Googled it that that's probably the answer. >> Mr. Perry, if you could tone down the rhetorical questions. Not in the least, but nice try. >> Thank you. Next, Tom Rogers, ADA Lewis Drive. Can we just go back? Is it possible to go back to what the increases, percentage
087increases per year? Someone made a comment earlier about this a large percentage using the compounded increases, right? Warren Buffett said, "The greatest thing in the world is compound interest, right? Because it grows on top of each other every year." Everyone in this room, if you've ever got raises and then you got another raise and another raise, whether it's the next year or a couple years later, those are compounded. If you look at the difference between year 1 in year four, it's not going to be if you got a 1% raise per year. In year four, it's not going to be a 4% raise. I mean a 1% raise, it's going to be more than that because it's 1% on last year's 1% on the next year's. So when we say or like we we release
088on Facebook the these these charts that say well this is huge this is 15 or 20% over three years I would ask those people is that how you got paid what are we talking about right that's how every job in America if you get a raise that's how your income grows just math and to say otherwise is saying that you know I can't ask a direct question but I'd love to ask people if in their career their professional career Did their did their raises year-over-year not compound and result in a bigger percentage at the end of that term? Of course, it did. Right? So, we're being a little bit disingenuous there. And the the other thing I would say is this is the I go to a lot of meetings. This is just a statement.
089This is the first time I've come to a meeting and I felt kind of gross because we're using terms and phrases and no offense to people, but when we're saying if we're willing if someone's stupid enough to go for the lowest paying job, that's their fault, not our fault. And I think we should be better than that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can I >> You want to respond? Um I if I may just respond in I know you didn't ask a question and I also recognize that there's a lot of data and charts floating around out there. I I will say that you know we as a board and as a SAU we've we have tried very hard to be incredibly transparent with the numbers of everything that we've been doing we put out
090there. So we do ask if you have questions and you want the direct numbers please reach out to us. um they've been vetted. They they're they are they are a complicated sometimes they are a complicated formula that we have experts that are able to put that out. So we would just ask that so that we're all talking about the same accurate information transparently. Um we would appreciate it if you know if you're not sure please reach out. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Becky Kelner 7 Yankee way. Um, I just want to thank the committee for their work coming to the presentation tonight. I actually am proud by the effort that you're putting forth. It's embarrassing when I look at the slide and Brooklyn is so beyond low. So, I appreciate the effort
091that you've put forth here. That makes me feel proud in my town to be able to support our our teachers. The teachers aren't only teachers. They are basically like first responders in the school. They take care of the safety and the wellness of basically our youngest people. And it is essential that they have compensation that's at least on par with our neighboring towns. And the cost of the turnover is so great in many ways, not even financially. So, thank you to the committee uh for putting this together. I appreciate it and I think it's beautifully written. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Yes, >> this is uh Brendan Deni, 31 Mason Road. Um I'm in support of this article and I just want to talk um you know we look at the low rate
092for Brooklyn up there. We've tried this in Brooklyn before. Back 20, 30 years ago, our police department sort of went with this model that we'll hire, we can get people at this low rate, we don't have to pay them as much. And what Brooklyn found was we hired those people, we trained those people, those people went to towns that paid more. So Brooklyn got smart and we said, "We're going to pay our police officers at a rate that is comparable to the towns near us." And guess what happened? We've been keeping those police officers. And not only do we not have the cost of having to constantly train new officers, we also get the benefit of having police officers who know our community. That's what I want with the teachers is not only do we
093not have to have the cost of retraining new teachers, but I want teachers in our town who know our students. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Next, Brady Allig 17 Burchill. you back to the um yearby-year tax slide, please. Uh yeah, that one. You all know what I'm going to say because I say to this meeting at least once every year. If you torture numbers long enough, they will confess to anything. The numbers are right there. It's $1.1 million over three years. And if you vote for it now, it's set in stone for three years. Thank you very much. Next, Craig Darbone, 65 Cleveland Hill Road. So, I'll be the the counter to everything because a phrase comes to mind, suicide by empathy. Uh, I'm not saying we need poor teachers. Not at all.
094But we got to understand that in this country overall, we don't have a funding problem. We have a spending problem. We're not willing to give up things in order to pay for other things. That's my personal opinion. So, I'll just stale that statement because you all think that I want lowpaying teachers. I don't really want that. I want teachers that know their kids, care about their kids, etc. I've been living here for almost 30 years. I know I'm a newbie according to Peter, I guess, maybe. But my other question is, do teachers still get a retirement pay when they retire >> if they meet the qualifications that's identified in the collective bargaining agreement? Yes, they do. >> Okay. 20 years usually or what? Correct. >> Okay. I I bring that up only because in the
095military they also get low salaries compared to civilian type things, but it's compensated by that retirement pay that civilians don't normally get. How many here get a retirement from their civilian job? A few of you do, but not everybody, right? So that's kind of why teachers may be a little lower than their civilian counterparts. That's why my military salary was lower than my civilian counterparts because I stay in 20 years. I get that retirement check. That's the difference, you know. So, we got to understand that. I'm not saying to vote for or against us. I just want to ask those questions so that we understand where is our money going, you know, because again, we have a spending problem, not a funding problem. Thank you. >> No. Um, and could >> Thank you very much.
096type in for one second. >> Just just respectfully, as a former military officer myself, thank you for your service first of all, but second of all, I'd like to counter your argument of low pay where there's an added package of benefits such as BAH, which pays for housing, health care, which is fully covered, food subsistence, things like that that are covered in the total package. So, while the monthly or bi-weekly pay may be lower, the full package is obviously much higher. >> Respectfully, you argued that the retirement pay is what kept them there and not the full benefits package. >> And I'm just I'm going to follow that up with saying that um we as a board, I think, have been hearing for a long time from the community. Yes, taxes are going up. Taxes
097are hard. We're all taxpayers. We're also all parents. I think all of us have children in the Brooklyn school district at present. Um we've been hearing for a long time that instead of investing in certain parts of the budget, why aren't we investing in staff? So now we as a board are investing in staff. And that's where we're trying to respond to the feedback that we're getting. It's been invest in our teachers, invest in our teachers. That's what we're aiming to do with this. Almost our entire tax cap has gone to investing in our staff and our teachers because we see that as a priority. We see them as a priority. and we see the people who invest their hours and days into our children and raising them to be good humans when we can't
098be there as a priority. So that's why we and I want I really want to appreciate the Brooklyn Teachers Association for coming to us and being willing to work with us and think outside the box. I want to commend our negotiators Allison and Heather for the work that they did and Gina and for the work that she did and that entire negotiating team. I just want you guys to maybe um keep in mind that this wasn't easy for any of us. Nobody looked at this final number and was like, "That seems like a great idea." But we think our teachers are worth it. We think our staff is worth it. We think that our district is worth it. And so what we're trying to do is is invest in our people, invest in our team,
099invest in our education for our students and our community. So I just want to mention that as well. >> Thank you very much, >> sir. Dean McCollum, uh, 39 Birch Hill. I'm a legal immigrant. Uh, I came from New Mexico and I'm not real clear about do you do do the Brooklyn schools grant tenure? Do teachers get tenured out here >> in the state of New Hampshire? If you work for five years, um, you uh might be eligible for what's called continuing contract status, which is like tenure, but not exactly tenure. You're not. >> So the term doesn't apply here. >> Not exactly. No. >> Okay. Well, I was just the qu if you guys had granted tenure, when when would that when would that kick in? You said five years for continuing? >> If
100you are employed in in a single school district in the state of New Hampshire for five years in a row and you perform at a high level, then you are offered continuing contract status. Yes. >> Okay. Back. >> Yeah. Thank you, >> sir. >> Again, Tom Rogers 88 Blue uh Lewis Drive. I ju again just coming up here and I hate to be like disputing points, but as Brady said, th that's the number right there. It's not the green and orange chart. Also, anybody who has a 401k and their employer gives them a matching 3% you have an employer employer sponsored retirement plan. Teachers don't have a 401k, they have a pension plan. They take a lower salary over their career and they do get pensions the same way police officers do, the same way
101firefighters do. Okay? They could make more in the private sector. That's just a fact of life. We get a deal on teachers in a in an engineering job or anything else. You're not going to find somebody who's been working 10 years as a master's degree plus in a professional field that's making $88,000. And I know a lot of people will say, "Yeah, you can." Okay. If the median income in household income in Brooklyn is $165,000 a year and that's spread out over people that aren't working, how could that be possible? The reality is we we're we're seeing that we're underpaid as compared to our peer and neighboring towns. They do get pensions, but let's not make this an us versus them. Let's hire the right people. Let's retain the right people and look at this
102the way we looked at the contracted employees earlier. It costs more money. I think it said three times cost uh yearly cost to recruit a new teacher. If we don't do this and we don't keep pace, we're going to have bigger problems down the road. Let's not kick the can. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, ma'am. >> Melanie Levake to McDaniels Drive. First of all, I want to commend the school board for the work that you've done with um what you have because I know it's not easy these days. I just wanted to address the comment about um we don't have a funding problem because we absolutely have a funding problem. So our state lost 150 million in revenue when the interest in dividends tax was repealed in January of 2025. According to Reaching
103Higher New Hampshire, the school voucher program was has diverted 72 million in state funds from public schools. This year, Brooklyn is presed to pay $29,432 in vouchers. And the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute stated that a currently proposed business enterprise tax reduction would have reduced revenue by more than 26 million annually if it had been in place in this budget cycle. So there are factors that are are clearly showing us that we have a funding problem. we will be getting less and less money and then unfortunately we as taxpayers will have to pay more money. So that is an issue but our schools is not the issue. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes sir. Great 17 B. >> Feel free to grab the mic and just pull it right up to you.
104There you go. >> I can do that. >> Uh question on the teacher retirement. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. that is set by conquered and cannot be amended by the school district. >> Um so there's the pension plan and then there's a teacher retirement benefit in the contract. So what's in the contract can be amended locally by um negotiations. What happens at conquer we cannot amend. >> So if folks have an issue with the the state retirement that that people have that our teachers get um that I don't believe um is paid for by the state either. I believe the district pays for each teacher's retirement, >> correct? >> But has no control over how that is said. That is all done in conquered. >> Correct. >> So folks have a problem with the
105retirement, they need to speak to our representatives in conquered. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then my uh other comment would be u I appreciate Melany's state numbers uh some federal numbers on this question of uh spending problem versus funding problem. The federal government just uh two days ago approved the Department of Education budget at $79 billion which sounds like a lot of money. The Department of Defense got1 trillion. >> Thank you very much, sir. Eric Power, Westview Road. I don't know if we can go back to the slide on revenues. I just wanted to bring up a point um about the revenues. >> This one, >> thank you very much. Um if you look at the revenues here, I wanted to um where's the one with the state aid? >> This one, >> adequacy aid.
106Yes. Um I'd like to mention, you know, there was a talk about spending and revenue. You know, the legislature has worked really hard to give us more money. We can maybe pay for these teachers raises or all the other things that are in that budget. If you look at what we're getting from conquered, it's going up almost half a million dollars. The adequacy aid 21% the retain tax is down a little bit, but the total state aid is up over 15%. So, we don't want to just spend that all. Some of it should go to tax relief. So, it's not downshifting. This is the state giving us more money. We need to use it wisely. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Pam. >> Hi, Tiffany Turkot, 21 Route 13. I just want to say
107thank you for all of your hard work, school board, and I do think teachers deserve the world, and I wish I could pay them all a million dollars each, but I have some questions. Um, what is the percentage increase in salary per teacher with this proposed warn article? So that's a difficult question um to give you a straightforward answer because in year one the salary table was completely restructured and teachers who were what's called off the grid were placed back on the grid and so it's a different percentage for everybody. Um in year two and three it normalizes at just 2%. Gotcha. Okay. Um so it's different for everybody. Do you have an example? So the average salary is $66,000 currently. What is that going to go to after we spend this money? >> Sure.
108Also a difficult question to answer. That is a a calculation that we um submit to the state and um so I selected those numbers just because they're easily accessible on the state site. But that calculation removes certain professional staff members from the calculation. Um and it takes into consideration exactly where they are on the grid, etc., etc. So that also is um not as straightforward of a question. Um do you have a range? >> So I well so no because it varies teacher by teacher and obviously we can't give out personal information. What we can share with you that we did right as we restructured the grid we took a teacher's existing salary. >> Yeah. on the current grid, we matched it to the closest salary without going without their pay, right? And then and
109then we move them their step, >> assuming next year they're still with us and that's a a year that they earned step-wise. So it it does vary person to person because as Gina said, some educators are being placed back on the grid because they've been off the grid. Um and and it varies. some of our early career teachers on our old grid uh are making like4ome thousand dollars a year and on the new grid it's it's more than that and then it it evens out kind of later. So it it really varies unfortunately while I know you're looking for a percentage it's not it's not possible to give you that because it's varied in year one. Year one was really a lift and shift. >> Sure. >> Um without um decreasing any salaries. >> Okay.
110I can share with you that the actual teachers if we had the exact same staff today as next year um and the year after and the year after. So the actual increase our existing staff would experience over three years um is 18% over three years and not the 27% that has been shared. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and then going on that, have we ever done a lift and shift prior? And we've never have because the my follow-up question to that would be if we had done that and attracted more talented teachers, did we study test scores after that? Did our students actually improve? >> Right. And we we have not done that. Brook Line's been behind for so long um that prior to my being here and my understanding just in conversations on how
111negotiations have gone before, it was kind of just like a standard percentage increase year-over-year. Um and as we've been experiencing um struggles just and and we as a board see the struggle that our SAU is having in getting teachers here and then as we listen to our community and we see what our educators are making, we we know it's not right and we we wanted to fix it. So this is the first time this is a lift and and shift to really write to write the course of pay for our teachers. >> Sure. >> So So you can't compare it yet to our student achievement. >> I gotcha. So $66,000 average salary that with a 20% increase is going to go to what? 80,000. >> No, that's because it's not quite >> $1,000 increase. >>
112Wish our finance guy. >> Thanks. >> Hang tight. They're working on it. >> I am not a math person in my head. >> All good >> or on the spot. >> Okay. So once again, it's not really apples and apples, but I'll give you something. Um, year one would would go up to 72,281. Year two would go to 75,643. And year three would go 79,117. >> Okay. >> And but but with that also recognize that all the towns around us are all going to continue to go up as well. We're so while we're writing the ship and while immediately it might sound like oh well now we're way up there. They're all going to be going up as well. So we're writing the ship but we're not shooting ourselves to the top if that makes
113sense. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much ma'am. >> Um hello Mary Zor from Route 13 in Brooklyn. Okay. My my question is all your comparisons were with public schools. Did you make any comparisons with the private schools in the state with private school teachers in Catholic schools or other schools? >> No, we didn't because that would be apples to bananas. And I and I'm not trying to be funny teachers, but well, sure they're teachers, but public education has different regulations around certifications and training and experience in public schools. and private schools are able to set those parameters on the individual schools. Keep me honest with that. >> Yeah. And the same is true with Massachusetts. I mean, we can easily I was a New Hampshire educator and I jumped the fence and
114got a $45,000 salary increase just by switching states. Um, so we don't compare to Massachusetts. Um, we typically in the SAU have a certain number of districts that we compare ourselves to for a variety of reasons. Whether or not they're a co-op, whether or not they're similar um demographics, similar s all the things. And so there are typical districts that we look at. We we look at far more than what's represented on the slide. Um, but we're really trying to use the same set of districts for comparison purposes over time so that we're not picking and choosing what makes it look one one way one year and then, you know, have a different slanted view in another year. Well, I'm just interesting interested in the comparison with the private schools because there's a general impression
115I don't have the figures in front of me that that um students do better in the private schools than in the public schools and that there's usually a lower cost per student for kids in the private schools than in public schools. And so it kind of that if I had the figures, I wish I did, but it that's my general impression. And if if that is true, then that kind of shows that it's not how much money you throw at the school that makes the school necessarily better. Um it's it's dedication of the people. >> Yeah. That that are teaching there and the values also of the parents and how much they are involved in the a lot of times in the students. And when you strain households like we put financial strains on households
116>> so that a lot of people have to work. >> Thank you very much. This is we're talking about the teachers contract here. >> Right. Right. And this is tied into that because >> their contracts affects everyone else's home budgets comes out. >> I think to my colleagueu's point I think to my colleagueu's point is that private schools do not follow the same regulations. And so we have regulations around special education. We have many regulations that private schools don't have to um follow along with those guidelines. And so public education is is very very different than how a private school works. >> Well, okay. Well, is um interesting if there is a is there is a factual proof that they're doing better than public schools in terms of learning. >> Again, it's not it's not
117comparing apples to apples as we'd like to say. That that is We compare against public schools. We don't compare against >> they're both school systems. So you should be able to look and see what is working best for the students. >> Select their students. >> A private school can select their student. >> It's just something to consider. >> No, understood. No, listen. This is a very valid point and a good discussion to have. Listen. So a private school has a an application process, right? Whereas a public school has a gathering of students that live around it. Correct? And so it may do better because they are selecting better students. Does that does that make sense? Students that are uh already inclined to do better on testing or uh in studies and and don't necessarily have
118special education needs or other other needs that public schools are required to take care of. Right. >> That's why it's not the same thing. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. And and I think you make a great point and and I don't think that there is enough ways to compare that. I will say that my children went to a private uh Catholic elementary school, St. Christopher's. So, if I would compare to that to where we are now, um the services available to my children are completely different. um there was a lot of things that um they were not necessarily able to help my child or or my children with at times. Um so I can say just from my own experience um that there was a very big different very big difference and and one of
119the reasons why our family actually moved to Brooklyn um because of the school system >> and so >> yeah I'm just going to bring it back to the teacher contract and kind of refocus our conversation. Um, I think it's a very fair question. I don't think it's applicable to this warrant article just because what we're discussing is a public school teacher contract. So, we appreciate the point like absolutely we're we're always here to hear different points, but I just don't know that that's going to be something that's going to be appropriate to the conversation of a public school teacher contract. >> Thank you very much. Do you have sir, you're discussing the teachers contract? I thought I'd discuss the Patriots game on Sunday. >> Damn. >> Wrong microphone. >> That's the next session. That's the
120ne do that at the town meeting with him. >> Oh, okay. Pete, just remind me when town comes. Thank you. >> Um, >> your name, sir. >> Peter Bret 95 Pope Road. >> Thank you. >> Um, not really for and not really against us at all. Um, could you go to that slide that shows those towns? Um, I have a problem with that slide, >> the bar graph. Yeah, my problem I I like numbers and I like comparisons that are apples to apples to apples to apples and this is not. The reason I say that is as Melanie pointed out, we have a spending problem and we have an income problem. The problem I see is that Brooklyn has 200 homes. Milford has almost 3 thou uh 3,500 almost double. If I look at NSHawa,
121they're in the 4,500 range. Bedford, something in that same range. Hollis is somewhere on 4,000. Amherst is up at 4,800 or something like that. And if I look at each of those towns and I see how many homes they have, I can take the budgets and I can divide them by the number of homes and it splits the amount paid by each household a lot less. And what we're trying to do in Brooklyn, and I I agree with what you're trying to do, is to try to bring those teachers in that would go to those towns because they can afford to pay more because they have such a wider base. And if you look at Nasha and Milford and Bedford, Hollis, not so much, but Ammerst, they all have a huge commercial base as well.
122So they bring in tax dollars from that. So you put that all together and you say, "Oh, well, how does Brooklyn come up with the correct cost to pay their teachers the same as all those other towns that are there? So I would have liked to have seen a graph that kind of not necessarily at the area around us which I know we have to look at but also the towns that are the same size >> his mic is the rich his mic is gone. >> Yeah it now it's back. Okay. Um, so anyway, uh, it it's just a comment and I would have liked to have seen a slide that was more in my opinion, uh, equal to what I see Brooklyn and from a town perspective because what you're asking us to do,
123which I understand is necessary, is to spend twice as much as the next door neighbor so that we can spend and pay the teachers what the next door neighbor's doing. So that's my take on this. Nothing really actually. No comment, no questions, nothing. Just by observation. >> I And I and I appreciate that observation. I think also though to be fair, um some of those towns you mentioned that are much larger, they're going to employ a lot more teachers. And so while it's not an exact one for one, I know it's not an exact. It's not exact because they're going to be paying more employees, right? >> Spread out by more divided by more homes, right? Um >> but really the >> and more commercial areas, too. Correct. However, but if we're looking at just
124the teacher contract, if we're looking at a fair living wage for our teachers, right, and we look at the salary grids, that's the apples. >> I'm not arguing anything there. I'm just saying that it it to me it appears as though you're asking us to spend more. >> And I understand that that's a necessity. So, >> appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you very much, >> sir. I always realize how short I am. Tom Rogers at uh again I I I too like numbers. I'm in the insurance business. Um so it's not the it's not the cost per it's the rate, right? So it's it's yeah they have they have may have a th00and 2,000 3,000 more houses than we do but they also have multiples of the number of students that we have. So they
125they're yes they have a lot more houses but they also have a lot more students. The reality is it all comes back to this number is true. These are facts right? It doesn't matter how many homes you have. If you're if if you have more homes, but you have more students, that makes up for that fact, right? If it was a static number, yeah, I would agree. It's we're we're asking to pay a lot more money, but if you and I don't think I've seen it, but what is the cost of ensuring I mean um ensuring it's my business cost of educating a child per student in Brooklyn versus Bedford, Milford, Amherst? >> So, we're much lower. Uh, >> I think that's important because we just heard we just heard that we're we're asking for
126double. We're not we're we're actually trying to catch up. >> So, this is relevant to the teachers contract. The operating budget is the next warrant article. >> Well, the teachers contract is part of the amount we're looking to to spend, right? If if it's it's are is are the teachers worth it because of the low, you know, compared to teachers who do the same job in another town? Is this included in the the operating budget? >> The teacher contract right now is not included in the operating budget. It's a separate word articles. It's a new negotiated agreement. If it passes, it becomes part of the um operating budget. So in FY26, our teacher salaries are included in the operating budget. Yes. >> Okay. But so going back to that last slide though, >> the one
127that I just had. >> Yeah. Just to leave leave it clear, those numbers are true and accurate based on >> available statistics from the state and the surrounding towns. The red line. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, the >> Yes. >> want to be clear that that is true and it doesn't matter. We're talking about what our teachers are paid versus what the competitive options are. >> Yeah. We're talking about where else they could go and make make. >> Thank you very much, ma'am. Welcome back. Uh Jet Morris say Laurel Laurel Crest. Um and this will be a question I'll get there. Um so I mean one of the big thing so I got to say this. Um I am not suicidal. I do have a lot of empathy. Um I am empathetic for
128the families that move here because they knew it is an amazing school system. Right? They come here because they know their kids are going to have an amazing experience. great teachers, great standards, great community. And I am empathetic for the desire to keep that going. I'm empathetic for the fact that we've got homeowners at all stages of their lives, right? People who have lived here 20, 30 years, own their homes, their property taxes are exceeding what they think they can contribute on a year-to-year basis because they're going up on a on an annual basis. And those two things are incompatible. And so the question that I have is given that we do depend so heavily on our property taxes to make this school school happen are there other levers that the town can leverage or
129are that we are looking at to help offset some of this burden because that's that's what I hear. I mean, what I hear is not that we don't want to support this, but that where the burden is coming from is becoming unsustainable for folks. And I don't know if there are other things that we can do via um building up our business base, via looking for other ways to make this community more palatable for folks who will come in and spend money and generate revenue. But that's where I see the biggest pain point and also possibly the biggest opportunity. So I don't know what the actual question is, but are there other lever points that we can use besides people's property taxes? >> So I I don't know that that's a a >> and I
130don't know. This might not be the place, but that's what I see. >> What I what I can say is from a district perspective, we do actively look for offsets, right? especially in a year like this year where we're trying to deliberately invest in our teachers. Um, you know, looking at the different health care plans so that we're not paying as much, right? A little bit of an offset there. By doing this, it helps us to manage the vacancies so it doesn't cost year-over-year to bring in new staff for them to go elsewhere. Then we want to try to retain them. Um, we are adjusting, you'll see it when we get to the operating budget, we we are we adjusted some of our non-instructional expenses this year so we can absorb the cost of contract.
131We as a school board have tried to pull those levers in the capacity in which we can, but then I think it goes back to some of those other comments that we've heard here tonight about funding outside of our town. Um, and it's a much larger conversation. I don't know that one that any of us up here can actively >> No. And that's absolutely fine. But that's I mean that's what I see, right? What I see is everybody wants to do the right thing >> and everybody feels the pain of doing the right thing and where is the where's you know where is the where's the solution to try to offset that. >> Right. >> And that was just kind of >> openended hanging out there question. >> Thank you very much. Is there any
132further discussion on article 4 about the teacher contracts? Seeing no discussion, we will close out under article four and then get to what people clearly want to talk about. Article five, the operating budget, which reads, bear with me again, to see if the Brookline School District will vote to raise and appropriate as an operating budget, not including appropriations by special warrant articles and other appropriations voted separately, the amount set forth on the budget posted with the warrant or as amended by vote of the first session for the purposes set forth therein totaling 13,489, 65. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $13,88,231, the same as last year with certain adjustments required by previous action of the school district or by law or by or the governing body may hold one special meeting
133in accordance with RSA413 Roman numeral 10 and Roman numeral 16 to take up the issue of a revised operating budget only. Majority vote required to pass. Estimated tax impact $7.94 per thousand. The school board recommends this appropriation 5000. The finance committee recommends this appropriation 111. This is amendable only in the operating budget portion. That's the only thing that can be changed here, not the default budget or any of the other language. Would a member of the school board care to introduce the uh operating budget? >> Yes. Thank you, Jesse. Uh so Tracy Perry. Um, so good evening everyone. Um, and thank you for being here tonight and for those of you who are listening at home. Um, I'm going to speak tonight on Warren Article 5, the operating budget. So, as schoolboard members, we are
134required to put student well-being first while representing the community and complying with the law. This operating budget reflects that process and those responsibilities. For those unfamiliar with how the operating budget works, it is the core budget that keeps our schools operating daytoday. It covers classroom instruction, special education services, staff salaries and benefits, transportation, technology, utilities, building maintenance, and student safety. Can we go to Thank you. This year, the school board is proposing an operating budget of 13,489,65. This is an increase of 4.4% over last year. This budget was built over several rounds and reflects careful prioritization. It focuses on maintaining current programs and meeting baseline needs while operating within local and state tax caps that limit how much can be raised. What is important for us to understand is that this is the most responsible
135operating budget we could put forward within those constraints. It is lean by design and focused on stability. You'll see on this slide that new requests fall into three categories. Academic support, technology replacement, and facilities and safety. These are replacements and baseline needs. They include continued literacy and math work aligned with the science of reading, replacement of aging technology and network equipment, and essential facilities and safety work needed to keep buildings functional and secure. Uh, next slide please, Gina. If article 5 does not pass, the district would move to the default budget of 13,88,231, which is $400,834 lower than the proposed budget. To put that in perspective, a reduction of this size would require cut cuts across multiple classrooms and student services. the direct impact of those cuts would be felt at RMMS and CSDA and
136would be unavoidable. So in short, this budget proposed in article 5 is about supporting students educational needs and keeping schools safe and operational under our real financial constraints. The question before us is not whether tough choices exist because we see they already do. The question is whether we make those choices deliberately and responsibly. For those reasons, the Brooklyn School Board unanimously supports Article 5 and encourages the community to do the same. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Is there any discussion under article five? >> Yes, sir. >> Could you go back to the language of the warrant article itself? >> Could I get your name? >> Oh, sorry. Brian Brian Rder, Mason Road. Thank you. >> Um, so you mentioned earlier we can't really change this aside from the numbers. However, um, I'm going
137to ask for a change. Um, the very last sentence, the finance committee recommends this appropriation 111. That means that one person voted in favor, one person voted against, and one person abstained. Can we change that language to say the finance committee does not make a recommendation on this appropriation, which is really what that vote is. It's not a recommendation for or against. It's they don't make a recommendation one way or another. >> I think that's a question for the finance committee and legal counsel. Does the finance committee have an opinion on this? >> I don't think I person that. >> All right. >> I think there's a there's a heated discussion going on. Brian, if you can hold on for one moment, >> sorry, I'm just I wasn't present when the vote occurred, so I'm
138trying to figure out what the motion actually was at the time that the finance committee made the motion. And I guess if there's recollection >> there actually I'm not sure anybody was present other than the finance committee because they did it not at the public hearing. >> What is the question? >> What was the actual mot what was the vote? What was the wording of the motion that you voted 1114? Because it was not uh at the public hearing. So I'm not sure what the actual motion was. minutes from >> We don't have to resolve this tonight, but I'll throw that out there as a suggestion. >> Council, would it be appropriate to change this as minor wording after does it this wouldn't necessarily require a motion to amend to change this language? Correct. >>
139Yes. I think if it can be clarified based on what the motion was, then it can be adjusted to reflect to accurately reflect the motion and the outcome of that motion. If this is not an accurate reflection of that, >> okay. Uh oh, he's gone. So, it's good. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Okay. Thumbs up. We're good. Hello, Mr. Power. >> Eric Power Westview Road. I'd like to make a motion to amend the proposed operating budget to a new figure. >> I'm ready. 11,951,135. >> To make sure that I got that correct, you're making a motion to amend the operating budget from 13,489,65 to the new number of 11,951,135. >> Yes, Mr. Moderator. >> It is a miracle I got that right. All right. Do is there a second for the gentleman's motion? Is
140there a second for the gentleman's motion? There is a second. What is your name and address, please? >> I didn't catch that. >> Ruy. >> Laura, babe. >> See, this is why I keep him around. Yeah, he knows everyone. >> All right. Uh, okay. So, there is a motion to amend the article. Uh, we have a second. So, we are now discussing the motion to amend. Mr. Power. >> Yes. I'd like to speak to my motion. you may. >> Um, yes. So, for those who aren't aware, we always just see last year's changes, but I'm looking back two years and, um, we were at about 11.97 million um, two years ago, um, FY uh, 25, which is two years ago. We're in FY26. We're talking about FY27 for the appropriations here. And you know, from
141the from that first year, we went up over almost a million dollars in expenses and we're looking at another increase in the operating budget of almost $600,000, which is a lot of money. Now, if you look at inflation, we have had some inflation in two years. It's been just under 7%. But we've also had a a drop in enrollment in number of students in the school district. We used to have 562 This year we have 525. So we've seen an enrollment drop of about 6.6%. So the rest of us are living under inflation. Our raises are not going up. And so this is really an inflation and population adjusted figure going back from two years ago to keep things in line with what people can afford in the town. And I think we could live
142with that. And so I would recommend that we look at doing something that's affordable for the town of Brooklyn and it would be something that would uh be supported by the the meeting uh at the ballot box. Thank you very much. >> So it seems that one of those numbers are incorrect. The um the number of students in FY26 is 556. FY25 was 558. Thank you. I'm just talking K through K through six >> and that is what we are doing as well. >> All right. Thank you very much. We are now discussing the motion to amend to change the dollar value. >> This is for the superintendent. What would we have to cut? >> This is for the person on the floor >> and this is address. >> Thank you. >> Sure. I was
143all prepared to tell you what I would cut at the default budget. um were to pass, which would be um a cut of about 4001,000. And that would be essentially all of the new items. Um and then I would also have to cut a teacher. So if you're asking me to cut 1.537 almost 1.538 million, um I would have to absolutely cut probably 14 teachers. >> 14 teachers K through six. Uh >> PreK to six, excuse me. What would our average class size grow to if we did that? >> 45 50. >> I We couldn't fit them in a room. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh discussion on the amendments, sir. >> Yep. >> Rob Rushton, Flint Meadow Drive. Um, we operate on a bottom line budget here. Uh, we only have
144access to the uh the total amounts, but generally speaking, when you're looking at modifying a budget, whether it be increasing or decreasing, uh most people would have specific items in mind, even if it only it is advisory to the uh the school board. uh an acrosstheboard change uh without a uh a specific target as to what uh is intended to be changed uh to me seems um unfocused and I think that uh the damage uh that that sort of thing would cause to our school system would be uh considerable. Uh, I think I'd be more likely to uh look more carefully at specific line items if those were presented, but uh, as an across the board cut, uh, I cannot support this. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. >> Tom Rogers, Lewis Drive.
145Um, this is crazy. Um, it would be great if we could all just like take a look at all all of our bills and say we're going to go back to we're going to call the electric company. We're going to call the car company. We're going to call the mortgage company. We're going to go back to a couple of years ago. This is insane. It keeps happening where these huge numbers come. I have a problem with the premise of it because what we continue to see whether it's that red and green thing that went around Facebook with the total, you know, like a compounded cost or whether it's this what what what is the last three years of enrollment K through six? >> Yes, I have it right here actually. Oh yeah. >> Yep. Let's
146go with the facts. I like the facts. >> Okay. 2021 I I can do the last six years. 20 20 2021 572. This comes from the principal report. So I'm just being clear. >> 572. 2022 is 587. 2023 is 580. So these numbers are are significantly different than what's on this chart that he had provided. Uh 24 is 582. 25 is 558 and 25 is 55 56 relatively stable over six grades seven grades of education >> relatively stable all higher than what was the numbers that we're giving is a part of the 11 the new proposed change to this budget this number is based on false information the presentation was false that that's not the that's not the number of students >> in our our students aren't declining not not the operating budget the amendment
147sorry >> excuse me the the amendment was ba was phrased and presented with a erroneous >> enrollment number is that yay or nay >> from what >> but different than the fact >> from yes >> okay >> correct >> thanks thank you very much sir hello uh Mike Mike Pelo Westview Road uh I I stand in opposition to this amendment um as the previous speaker said it's it's basically crazy and it's disingenuous and it's it has nefarious motives It's not It does not represent fiscal responsibility. It represents um I'm not quite sure what it represents. It represents nefarious nefarious motives in my mind. I I stand to remind um folks in in the chamber here today that the New Hampshire Supreme Court last summer um ruled that the state does not adequately pay for education
148per our constitution. And it was it I feel it was disingenuous earlier to go back to that state that state aid chart and say that the state aid is rising when the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that we are not funding education appropriately and if we were to fund education what was deemed appropriately our state aid would be going up by seven digit figures and that and the fault of that the people who are not responding to our courts and not following the law is the is our representatives and conquerors who are who are failing us. That is and to our to the lady who asked before what other levers we can pull. We we we do not penny pinch our schools and and damage what the good work the school board does. We need
149to we need to look to conquer and and vote people into conquered who will support our children and our future. Thank you. Thank you very much sir. >> Is there any current further discussion on the motion to amend? Ma'am, >> Beth Gild Day, uh, Ames Road. I I may have missed this. Um, so the total number in the budget that was proposed as a change would be 11,900 something and then would the default budget stay the same at 13 million? >> That's correct. >> That feels very misleading to the voters who are not here tonight. Um, and that is a huge concern and I urge us to vote this down. Thank you very much, ma'am. Sir, speaking of the motion to amend, Tyler Freddy, 18 Westview Road. Um, so I am rising in opposition of
150this amendment here. Um, I want to just to clarify, um, I'm newer in town. Um, so am I correct in understanding that we currently are facing lower scores in our students test performances and that that's something that the school board is actively trying to address? >> Well, it's complicated. >> Yeah, complicated. >> It is complicated. Um, >> yeah. So, test scores and funding really are not apples to apples, right? Um, if we look at our test scores and we see that they are above state average, then I think we are doing a really good job, right? But test scores don't take into consideration the number of children who opt out. and whose parents opt them out. So that lowers the overall number which which changes those percentages. Um if people were, you know, if the
151community is concerned about those numbers, then maybe we should look at increasing funds and not decreasing funds. I don't know of of anything that would help in in that area for test scores if we decrease funding. Um and and so I think you can manipulate numbers any way that you want, but um I would not say that our test scores um are badly reflected on the budget that we put forward. >> I'm going to just insert myself here. I um am your superintendent, but I was your assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction assessment for nine years. And the way we tackled um we reviewed the data and figured out an action plan and the action plan was multiaceted. So we have added Eureka math squared after doing a K12 math review and identified a need to
152amend our uh math curriculum at the earliest levels to increase numerousy and and understanding of of math at that age group. We're only in year two of implementation. It's not an overnight fix and our students aren't tested until grade three. So, we're not going to reap the benefits for that for a bit of time. CKLA, our new ELA science-based reading instruction program, was implemented last year up here for grades four through six. And this year, K through K to three and four to six are um utilizing CKLA. So, once again, that's going to take time for us to see a change. This year, as I mentioned in my opening, we added environmental science teacher to begin the science instruction with our earliest learners in K to3. So, we are responding to the data and putting
153forth proposals um that we feel could tackle the difficulties we're seeing. And with your support last year, we've been able to begin that work. And we're asking for continued support. Without the funding of continuing these programs, um I can't promise that I'm going to do great things. So, if I may, these programs you're mentioning that we have already started to put the money and invest time and resources into, um, it sounds to me that if we were to now go ahead with this amendment and horribly slash the budget based not on budgetary line items, but just based on a desire to not spend the necessary amount to fund our schools, those programs, we can't expect results. Now, um, may I may raise a motion to end consideration after having asked a question or is that
154in process? >> You may not, but there is nobody behind you in line. So, as soon as you get out of the way. There we go. All right. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we're going to put it to a vote. This is a vote on the motion to amend the the operating budget number from $13,489,65 to the new number of 11,951,135. All those in favor of the motion to amend, please raise your voting cards. >> All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. The motion is defeated. We are back to the original number. Is there any discussion on the on article five? Mr. Power? >> Yeah, Eric Power, Westview Road. I'd like to make a different motion to amend. >> Go right ahead. >> Um for a new proposed operating budget of 300
155139,332. >> Can Can you say that one more time? >> 13 million. >> Mhm. >> 009. >> Mhm. 332 All right. So, your motion to amend, to make sure that I got this right, is to change the operating budget number from 13,489,65 to $13,9,32. Is that correct? >> Yes. And I have a second piece to this that I wanted to zero out a line item >> as part of this. >> Zero out a line item. uh if you will. >> It would be advisory only. That's that's what I thought. It won't change the the warrant article. Correct. >> We're not going to follow the zero mean zero rule here. >> The language of the Warren article is the bottom line. So you'd be voting on the 13,93 332,000 as your budget. >> All right. So
156you may make the motion to amend the number only. You may make an uh why don't we deal with that one first. >> Okay. >> And then we can uh uh come back to the the line item because that's advisory only. This would change the text of the warrant. Mr. Moderator, yes, >> you could you could certainly indicate what that number is. I'm not suggesting that if there is a specific line item that you can't identify what that is. >> Okay. Thank you. That's why she's here. So, what line item? >> I want to I I want to reduce the line item of 10.2310.810.00, which is a line item for $4,000. >> All right. You're going to have to do that one again. 10.2310 >> 810.0000 >> And you're changing it from $4,000 to zero.
157>> Correct. Okay. >> There's a question from the audience on the the name of the line item. >> Um I don't know. The school did did they hand up? >> The name of the line item is dues. H >> the name of the line item is dues. >> Thank you. >> All right. So your motion, Mr. Power, uh is to change the operating budget from 13 million489,65 to 13,9,332 and to zero out the dues line item 10.2310.810.00. Is that correct? >> Correct. Thank you. Okay, I think I got it. Uh, is there a second to the gentleman's motion? Is there a second to the gentleman's motion? Ruie, thank you. All right, opening the floor for discussion on the motion to amend. Mr. Power, >> thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. >> Thank you for your
158patience. >> I would like to just speak about this. So we've this is looking at the budget over this past year looking at inflation and the and the reduction in student enrollment. It's a modest decrease. And if you look at what the Warren article is going to give voters on the day uh uh on March 10th, they'll have a choice between this 13 million $9,000 number and 13088 number. Um I think it gives them a gives a good choice. It's very close, but it it keeps us to an inflation and an enrollment adjusted number. Um, I also wanted to highlight, it doesn't appear in your handouts here, but it does appear on this slide that we're talking here about proficiencies. Uh, language reading is at 62%, math is at 59%, and science is at 39%.
159So, that's those are not really numbers to be proud of, but I think we need to use our money wiser. So for those reasons, I I hope that people will support this amendment and let the voters decide on March 10th at the ballot box. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Power. Sir, >> Tom Rogers, Lewis Drive, that's crazy, too. This is Yep. I I get it. Free speech, though. >> So, what we heard earlier was, let's move it to 11.9 million out of nowhere. And that made perfect sense. That got shot down o overwhelming. Well, I would say overwhelmingly. Now it makes perfect sense to go to this number. We have to stop looking at this at just like let's just throw things against the wall. This is running a school district is
160like running a business. If we had these types of discussion in a business, we would be asked to leave the meeting. Okay? If we came up with these kind of budget uh changes or recommendations to management over and over again, we wouldn't be invited back into those discussions. This is not how we run. You don't run a business this way. You don't run a government this way. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Ed Perry for Musketanopus. I'm just going to save everybody another 40 minutes of hearing the exact same arguments to get the exact same vote outcome and call the question now. >> All right. There's been a motion to call the question. Is there a second to the gentleman's motion? Thank you. That's plenty. Uh, check. You got them. Okay. Um, this is
161non-debatable. Uh, and it requires a twothirds majority. So, get ready. All those in favor of moving the question, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. I think that's pretty clear. All right. Thank you. The uh people who are currently standing in line, are you standing in line? Nope. Okay. All right. You two may speak. Rah Rushton, uh, Flint Meadow Drive. Uh, just to understand the question, uh, a little thoroughly, uh, what does this line item represent in terms of services to the school system? >> So, the line item covers dues that we pay to the New Hampshire School Board Association. Schoolboard Association provides legal um, advice to the school board and to the principles. They assist with um, questions related to schoolboard policies. They assist with sharing information about
162um what's currently going on in conquered in terms of legislative updates. They provide training that members have free access to uh for school boards. We've conducted at least three schoolboard trainings on u premise for school boards to talk about the role of the school board and functioning of the board. >> Thank you very much. I think that ends discussion. Uh so we are now voting on the motion to amend article 5 to change the operating budget from 13,489,65 to 13,9,332 and to further zero out the dues line item 10.2310.810.00 from 4,000 to zero. All those in favor of the motion to amend, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. It is in the negative. The motion is defeated. We are back to the original article 5 with the operating
163budget of 13,489,65. Yes, sir. >> Super. So, Greg Darbone, 65 Cleveland Hill Road. I want everybody to understand what a great sacrifice it is to be here right now because the Muppet Show just started a few minutes ago. Anyway, if I was going to make any cuts, it would be here, not the teachers. Okay? So, just to make it very clear, I'm not anti-teer. What are we sacrificing if we go back to the original budget? I go back to my always question. What is it we're giving up? If that's the qu, you know, if we go back to that real quick, I want to say that there are a lot of angry people in town that are going to vote no on everything. I want to make sure everybody understands, okay, what is the sacrifice
164if we go back to this original budget? Thank you. >> To be to be clear, you're talking about the default budget here. >> The fill the the 13088231. >> Yes. Um Greg, that is a great question. So, we tried our very best to keep this budget to necessities. Um so, that includes things like floor machines, which are at end of life and are needed to keep our buildings clean for learning. Uh the roof at Milford, the Milford Street roof at RMMS is currently providing a natural sprinkler system to some of the offices because it's leaking. So, we need to replace that. that's been on the budget a couple of years now and we've kind of pushed and pushed and pushed and we can't anymore. Um we're talking about fixing access points for internet to ensure
165that we have um reliable internet for our teachers and students. We are talking about addressing u mechanical issues I believe a boiler right or there's like not a full boiler but something >> I I can go through the list of cuts I prepared. >> Yeah. No. Uh, we're privacy nurses like curtains in the nursur's office at RMMS, which I promise you are needed because I know who comes to the nurs's office daily and what their ailment is. It gets provided by my six-year-old. Um, so it's things like that. It's necessities. It's it's honestly not anything this year that that was a want. Like, these are all needs. Um, I would also just add in order to actually hit that um that default budget in addition to the access points delaying the replacement cycle for technology,
166the nurse curtain, the RMS roof, which we had to cut last year when we changed on the floor the maintenance trust from 360,000 to 300,000. We couldn't fund that last year. Um, seal coating unit vents um that have continually sprung a leak in our CSDA classrooms. I've um mopped the floor many of times. Um gutter replacement here, door phase phase 5 replacement, a roof repair here at CSDA, unit heaters at CSDA that have not worked for four years and we keep delaying them. Um and most importantly and most devastating to our staff would I would have to reduce our staff by at least one teacher in order to be able to function with the default budget. >> Thank you very much. school board and superintendent. Yes, sir. Floor is yours. >> Tyler Ferdiani, 18 Westview.
167I would like to make a motion to move consideration of the article. I believe we've had two attempts already to adjust the number, and I suspect we may see another, but as was already suggested, I think we know where this is ending. So, how about we speed that along? >> All right. So, there's been a motion to close debate because we don't vote on this here. We're going to do that in at the uh ballots in March, but there's been a motion to close debate on this. Uh is there a second to the gentleman's motion? There's a second. Rob Rushton. Um so again, non-debatable. Twothirds majority required to pass. All those in favor of closing debate on this article, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. Thank you. It
168is overwhelmingly in the affirmative. The discussion on this will close after the gentleman behind you. Great alligance of Anem Birch Hill. Um I just wanted to point out one thing in this um budget. It has been a um point of concern that's been expressed in this room a number of times over the last several years about the maintenance trust fund being used as um a a second fundish thing to handle maintenance needs. And I would like to point out that all of the maintenance needs are in this operating budget. Um, and there isn't even an article to put any money into the um, maintenance fund this year. So, if you're asking about whether the board's listening to you, here there you go. All right. Thank you very much. Discussion on article five is now closed.
169Yes, sir. >> I would like to raise a motion to restrict reconsideration. There is a motion to restrict reconsideration for SB2. This means that we cannot change this again. It's going like this to the ballot. Is it just for this article? >> For article 5. Okay. There's been a motion to restrict reconsideration on article five, which means this finalizes the text and sends it to the ballot. Is there a second to the gentleman's motion? Uh >> yeah. All right. There's a second. This is debatable. Does anybody want uh have discussion to the motion to restrict reconsideration? Seeing none, we'll put it to a vote. All those in favor of restricting reconsideration on article 5, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. It is in the affirmative uh article 5
170is restricted and may not be taken up again. Closing under article five and opening up under article six. Adopting open enrollment. Shall the Brookline School District vote to adopt an open enrollment school program designating both Richard McGherken Memorial School, RMS, and Captain Samuel Douglas Academy, CSDA, as open enrollment schools pursuant to NHRSA 194-D for the purpose of enabling the district to admit up to one non-resident student to RMS or CSDA under the provisions of RSA 194-D with 100% of its eligible resident pupils permitted to attend RMS and CSDA and 0% % of its resident pupils permitted to attend open enrollment schools located outside the district. The estimated tax impact zero dollars out of per thousand. The school board recommends this article 5 to zero. Is there a member of the school board who would introduce
171the article? >> Yes. Good evening. I'm Heather Rearen and um very easily I I'm obviously getting off very easy tonight compared to my peers. Um since this does not have any tax impact, I'll just say um so let me start by telling you a little bit about this recent RSA um 194. Um as it currently stands, this allows students to transfer between districts unless local limits are set by voter action. Um, this article is is very important to what we've been talking about tonight in terms of all of the amazing families that have moved to this school district or to this town to participate in these schools. This article protects our school district from unintended financial impact of this new law. It preserves our enrollment um and our budget stability, right? because we if it's
172just open enrollment and we don't put some limits around that um that is going to put some volatility. We're going to have many different kids coming into the school district because they know it's so good but they don't need to necessarily live here and pay the taxes. Um this will protect our staffing and our programs. It ensures that we continue to have local control. Um and it makes sure that our tax dollars remain here in Brookline. So, thank you. >> Sorry, I thought I had another minute. >> Sorry, Jesse. >> Thank >> Did I talk too fast? >> You don't have to keep going. All right, >> sir. Discussion on article six. Rob Rushton Flint Metal Drive. I just wanted to take an opportunity to uh thank the board for their forward thinking on this.
173Um I think that uh considering some things that are happening in conquered this is going to be uh critical for our uh our school system uh I think there are things coming up in conquered that are going to uh attempt to undo this sort of thing and I'm I'm glad we've uh we're taking this step. Thank you. >> Thank you very much sir. >> Yes sir. I ru Laura Sergeant RH um can you elaborate a little bit? This is the first I'm hearing of this. Hopefully I'm not the only one, but is does that mean that students that might want to attend a different school that live in Brooklyn wouldn't be allowed to at all? >> That's correct. To take tax dollars. It doesn't mean you couldn't go to a charter school or a private
174school, but our tax dollars would stay within Brookline. That is correct. So if if another student from a different district comes into this school, they wouldn't bring their tax dollars with them. They wouldn't have to pay tax. >> They bring it'd be 80%. >> Of their of their town's cost per pupil spend, >> right? >> So if their cost per pupil spend is >> less than ours, they only bring 80% of that with them to us. >> This can upend the budget. So >> okay, >> we are trying to protect our dis that so so open enrollment essentially allows the concept of open enrollment is that any child in a public school could go to any public school in the state of New Hampshire. Um by under current law, if we as a district decide
175to limit that, the voting body decides to limit that then we have that ability today to be able to put it on the ballot to be voted upon. Um, I believe that the RSA says that if a if we were to accept a student in, they bring 80% of their tax dollars to us, right? And then the parent would have to make up the rest. Our concern as a school board is that there's there are no real guard rails other than it just says the parent has to pay. Well, what happens when the parent doesn't pay? What happens when we don't have recourse? then none of that has been laid out which is a pretty big concern for the school board. So we're trying to take a proactive measure in just pausing until we can
176understand the impacts that open enrollment may have. Now if a student in our district needs to attend another school based because of services or for a legally mandated reason, of course they will be permitted to be to be in attendance at another school. But any student who is not legally required or it's not legally necessary for them to get services that we can't provide, they would they would not be permitted to unless it's a charter school or private school to what Heather said. >> Okay. So, unless someone >> Mr. Moderator, sorry, can I clarify one component of that? >> Of course. >> Sorry. Thank you. >> Oh, no. No problem. So under the current law as it currently stands, any for schools that have adopted open enrollment, any district can go to that school that
177has there is a a school district in New Hampshire that has has open enrollment. So any resident in New Hampshire can go to that school district and their district. So, if it was a Brooklyn student and they chose to go to that district, Brooklyn would have to pay that district 80% of Brooklyn's per pupil cost under the current a current pending amendment. There are some changes to the funding formula, but as it currently stands, Brookline would have to pay 80% of that cost. One of the potential changes is anywhere from 80 to 100% of that cost. Um, but you would be paying for any of your resident students that left under open enrollment, 80% of your average per pupil cost for every one of those students to whichever district they went to that may have
178open enrollment. >> Okay. And then if there's a gap, you said legally the parents required to pay that gap. So unless they break the law, they would >> there's no parental component under the current statute for payment. It's just the 80%. >> Oh, I made up I apologize. That's the amendment that I read that that is not current law. My apologies for the speaker. >> And it says that Brookline can accept one student. >> Yeah, we we did that. We needed we wanted to um make a change so that um for legal reasons, we wanted to ensure and we wanted to show that we considered o open enrollment. And so we're making a change so that from a legal standpoint, we are operating within the law. >> Okay. All right. Thank you for clarifying. >>
179Yep. >> Thank you very much. >> Eric Power Westview Road. Can I see the warrant article language on the slide, please? >> Mr. Moderator, I'd like to make a motion to amend. >> Yes, sir. Go right ahead. >> Yes. I would like to change uh where it says admit one non-resident student to RMS. I want to change that to 50 non-resident students. >> Mhm. >> And then I want to change um the number where it says 100% of its eligible students and 0% I want to go from zero to 100%. So >> you want to swap the numbers? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Do you understand my amendment? I believe so. Let me read that back to you. the new wording of the amendment uh starting at say after NH RSA 194- D uh for
180the purpose of enabling the district to admit up to 50 stu non-resident students to RMS or CSDA under the provisions of RSA 194-d with 0% of its eligible resident pupils permitted to attend RMS and CSDA and 100% of its resident pupils permitted to attend open enrollment schools located outside the district. Is that correct? >> No, that I I wanted just to change the uh 100 the second number. Keep the 100. >> Okay. >> And change the second number to 100. >> I'll be honest, that makes a lot more sense than what I read. All right. to admit 50 non-resident students to RMS or CSDA under the provisions of RSA 194-d with 100% of its eligible resident pupils permitted to attend RMS and CSDA and 100% of its resident pupils permitted to attend open enrollment schools
181located outside of the district. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. >> Thank you. Is there a second to the gentleman's motion to amend? >> Is there a sec? There's a second. >> You're a power, aren't you? Okay, I'm just kidding. Ryan, >> thank you. Uh, we are now discussing the motion to amend changing the number of non- studentent residents from 1 to 50 and changing the number of eligible pupils. Uh, sorry, let me read it again. to admit 50 non-resident students to RMS or CSDA under provisions of RSA 194-d with 100% of its eligible resident pupils permitted to attend RMS and CSDA and 100% of its resident pupils permitted to attend open enrollment schools located outside the district. Sir, would you like to speak to your amendment? >> Yes, I'd like to speak to my
182amendment. So, this this is open enrollment in the way that the Warren article was originally proposed. It's really not open enrollment. almost closed enrollment, just allowing one student from outside Brooklyn to come in. And I'm a big advocate and believer in school choice. And I think that if there are students that are in Brooklyn and they want to go to another school, another open enrollment school, they should be permitted to do so. As was stated earlier, we would pay 80% of our per pupil cost to Milford or um you know Nasha or any other Bedford, wherever they want to go, we would we would keep the 20%. So we would still get the money for those students and I think if you allow up to 50 students in that to RMS and CSDA, that's a
183very good um way to fill in open space that we have. We have a declining enrollment here in Brooklyn as they have in most parts of the state. So we should want to be able to bring in students and the school board under this RSA is is allowed to set limits when they have reached capacity so they don't have to let they don't doesn't have to let people in that would drive more teachers and drive more uh building space. So I think it's a very healthy thing. It will help our revenue and it will also if students want to go somewhere else that's fine and they would we would still get 20% of the money. So I think it's a healthy thing and that would actually be open enrollment. Thank you. >> Thank you very
184much. >> I I just want to offer a clarifying point that our amendment does not block Brooklyn students from leaving. If Brooklyn students would like to go somewhere else, they are absolutely able to do that. What our amendment >> No, our I think our amendment is aimed at protecting the money, right? Like, but if they choose to go to a charter school, >> that's correct. That's what I'm saying, right? If they choose to be Yeah, I'm >> This doesn't let me clar. So, if they choose to go to a charter school or their parents choose to put them in a private school or they choose to be homeschooled, that is still allowed. They are still more than welcome to do that. What we are trying to do is protect the tax dollars so that our
185budget and our our ability to provide a steady fiscal responsibility to the community is protected that. So, I just want to clarify that we're not we're not saying parents are required to send their kids to school in Brooklyn. You are not. Um, but that's that's the goal behind it. >> Thank you very much, sir. Craig Darbone, 65 Cleveland Hill Road, Brooklyn, New Hampshire, 03033. Quick question then, whether it's one or 50, student X comes into our school district, bring whatever monies and all that. Okay. So, next year, is that same student already grandfathered and we can accept another student or that student has to reapply? If there's a student admitted, they would stay. >> Okay. So, the next year one or 50 more could come in. >> I mean, it depends on the number that
186would be whatever under the amendment. Yeah. >> You would have up to 50. At some point, you would hit your capacity, but here would be able to stay, >> right? I I was just wondering if it was compounding one this year, one the next. It's It's one. Okay. and they're here for the next six years, let's say. So, that's it. Okay. Uh 50, they're only bringing 80%. The other 20% is made up by who? >> Us. I just want to make it clear that we're going to be paying 20% of one is a lot cheaper than 50, right? I think I was a math teacher at one time in college, but you know. Okay. So, I just want to make sure that's clear. By the way, do we have a written criteria of how someone
187applies? >> No. >> I recommend doesn't have to be voted. I highly, highly recommend because we're going to get sued because someone says, "Well, you didn't pick my child because they have brown hair instead of green hair." Sorry, green hair. Okay. But, uh, seriously, seriously, I think I highly recommend we have a criteria that way we don't get sued, all that. But this passes we would develop a policy. >> Okay. So 50 I am against 50. This is when I saw this go into law I saw all the dangers out there. I believe in school choice. I believe in competition but 50 in our school district any school district in a rural area is too hard to absorb. We may have classroom space but that increases the classroom size. Do we need now to hire
188another teacher? All that stuff compounds on top of that. One I could handle. 50. No. I vote against it. >> And can I just add one additional thing is that um obviously that's 80% of the pure P per pupil cost. Um but we never know like if additional services are going to be needed in the future. So obviously that can very quickly add on a lot of additional cost. >> Yep. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Sir Rob Rushton, Flint Meadow Drive. Um the amendment as proposed runs completely contrary to the intent of the board in uh proposing this. Uh given the mood around the state uh it looks like we are going to have some form of open enrollment whether we like it or not uh in this town uh
189school choice or not school choice. that uh it we are going to have to have some policy in order to do this and we definitely need the breathing room in order to understand exactly what the impacts of this law uh either as it exists or as it is likely to be amended. We need to have that clarity within our school board and our ability to control uh and I I I yeah, I'm not going to use the uh the phrase that I was thinking of, but uh we we do not have the ability to limit if we do not do this uh properly. So, um I would recommend very strongly that we not uh vote for this amendment and we leave it to the school board to look carefully at what's going around the state
190and uh do what is correct uh in the longer term for uh this district. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. Ed Perry Muscatanibus. Uh procedural question. Can you do two thing? Can I do two things at once, Peter? Can I uh call the question and restrict uh further debate at the same time? Um reconsideration or do I have to get in the back to do the because I don't want to go through every number from 2 to 49 as well. I got a lot of stuff to do. >> I'm touched that you want his opinion. >> Yeah, >> but I am the moderator. >> I KNOW. I KNOW. BUT OKAY, >> what do you got, Jesse? >> So, I don't know what he's going to do for you. >> Yep. I mean, he's
191been pretty reliable for the years, but go ahead. >> Yeah. So, do you have a question for me, sir? >> The the same question. >> Can can you repeat the question? Can you move the question and then talk to it? >> No. Can I move the question and also restrict further reconsideration of this so that we don't have to go through numbers 2 through 49? >> Not at the same time. Okay. >> You take care of the question and then afterwards you can move for reconsideration. But thank you. >> Um moving to um to end debate. >> All right. There's been a motion to uh move the question non-debatable 2/3 majority. All those in favor of uh closing discussion on this and uh please raise your voting cards. Thank you. All those opposed, please raise
192your voting cards. Overwhelmingly in the affirmative uh uh discussion will be closed after the people in line. Thank you very much. >> Move the question. Uh, already done. >> No, we we we move to end debate on the amendment. >> I would like to move the question. >> We're we're doing that. You're we got to get through the line first and then we can vote on the amendment. >> Ah, yeah. Gotcha. >> Yeah. I haven't lost where we are just yet. It's it's it's 2 seconds after my normal bedtime. So, now we're into dangerous territory. >> But we are trying to confuse you. >> Yeah. >> Um, so Brian Rder, Brian Rder, 31 Mason Road. Um, I was on the finance committee for something like 10, 12 years, something like that. So, I've I've dealt
193with many um school um budgets over the years, and I've studied this a fair amount. And there's a misconception up there that um the budget can be finely tuned based on the the student population. The real the truth of it is that there are steps involved. If you take one or two students out of there, it doesn't change your expenses at all. Um you have to s change a significant number of students um to have an effect. So for example, for each of the grades, there is like usually three maybe four teachers for them. Um correct me if that's that's wrong, but I believe it's about three u in each grade. So taking a couple of people out of each class, you're not going to reduce the number of of teachers. you may reduce the
194number of teachers if you lose you know um 20 people 20 students and such but before that you don't. So the so in talking about um the number of students here who might go to another school district it doesn't affect our expenses for our schools unless it's a really huge number. If if you got like 10 15 students like that that go over there, you're not going to reduce your teaching staff by that, it's going to be spread across the grades is not going to be enough to um and all of our expenses will be exactly the same. But having a small number like that moving on somewhere else where we have to pay for it, that can cost well over $100,000 easily that has to come out of the budget and we don't have
195corresponding reductions in our expenses for it. That is very concerning and I support the school board in their original uh language. >> Thank you very much. >> Melanie Leake to McDaniels Drive. I also support the school board in their original language. I've been hearing about this program. I think it sounds very chaotic for schools, for towns, for taxpayers. Um I think that this is a smart way to do it. Go into it gradually. And I think it's uh us saying that okay, we'll participate. This is what we'll do. And let's see what happens with this program, but we are protected in Brookline so that we don't get a huge influx. So whether it's um one or 50 um well I'll go for the one uh but I won't go for the 50. So >> thank
196you very much. That ends debate. Uh so now we are voting on the motion to amend article six. The motion to amend is to change uh the language from starting at the first RSA for the purpose of enabling the district to admit up to 50 non-resident students to RMS or CSDA under the provisions of RSA 194-D with 100% of its eligible resident pupils permitted to attend RMS and CSDA and 100% of its resident pupils permitted to attend open enrollment schools located outside of the district. All those in favor of the amendment, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed to the amendment, please raise your voting cards. The motion is defeated. We are now discussing article six adopting open enrollment as printed in the warrant. Yes, sir. >> To move the question. There's been a
197request to close debate. Uh do I have a second for the gentleman's motion? Oh, Rushland. All right. Non-debatable. Requires a two-thirds majority. All those in favor of ending debate on article 6, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. The motion passes. Debate is restricted. Yes, sir. Are you talking to it? You were waiting. >> I'm talking to restrict reconsideration of article six. >> Okay. So, hearing no further discussion on article 6. You would like to make a motion to restrict reconsideration on article 6. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> 17. >> All right. This is debatable. Does anybody want to discuss restricting reconsideration on article 6? Seeing nobody, we'll put it to a vote. All those in favor of restricting reconsideration on article 6 and sending it
198to the ballot. Thank you. All those opposed, it is in the affirmative. Thank you very much. Article six is now restricted. All right. Closing under article six, opening up under article seven. Rich, if you could switch the presentation, please. Now, we're going to do something a little bit interesting with this one. You'll see what it is in a second. I don't want to spoil the surprise for you. Article seven uh is a petition warrant article which reads in your warrant to reflect the growth of Brooklyn and to help distribute the workload of the Brooklyn School Board. Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members to seven members per RSA 6714. Estimated tax impact zero out of a 100. The school board does not recommend this
199article 50. Eric Power, primary petitioner, would you like to introduce your article? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I'd like to uh make an amendment to the language to read. Next slide, please. >> The new language would be, "Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members to seven members per RSA 6714 using required three-year terms with three members elected in 2027, two members elected in 2028, and two members elected in 2029. All right. Well, I don't really think I have to read that one back out because we actually have a slide for this one. Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members to seven members per RSA 6714 using required three-year terms with three members elected in
2002027, two members elected in 2028, and two members elected in 2029. Is there a second to the gentleman's motion? >> Is there a second? All right, you got one. >> All right. Uh yes. >> Yes. >> I'm assuming that's error >> Elected is what I mean. >> I would we we are making a motion to amend here. Um do you want to fix that now? >> Yes. >> Okay. I thought you might. Thank you very much for pointing that out. So, it reads, "Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members to seven members per RSA 6714 using required three-year terms with three members elected in 2027, two members elected in 2028, and two members elected in 2029." All right. Uh, thank you. We've already had
201a second for the gentleman's motion. Is there a second for the new wording just to cover our our Thank you. There plenty. >> Yep. Um, okay. Mr. Power, would you please introduce your article? Uh, we are discussing the amendment to the article here, which is the text that's up on the screen. Thank you. Um, next slide. So, the school board size in New Hampshire, um, you can see here there's three, five, seven, nine, and 11 plus members. 138 um school districts in New Hampshire that uh the data is available for and you can see that um three member boards are for very small single town school districts. Brookline had that a long time ago. Uh we went to five members. That's the common statewide version. But when you get to some small and midsize towns
202as Brooklyn is growing and some cooperatives, you get to 41 member 41 districts that have seven member boards. And there are even more larger boards. There's nine members um in 14 school districts in cooperatives and then even even larger cooperatives and special acts have 11 plus members. I know the school board I served on the Hollis Brooklyn cooperative school board had seven members. I think that was a good number. It made a lot of sense. There's a lot of work to do when you're on the school board. Next slide. So, if you have a several member board, it enables more community representation on this school board represents the community better. It also reduces the workload on schoolboard members and they can do more careful strategic planning, policy development, refinement and review. They can look at
203policies. they have to they need to look at them periodically. They can do that more diligently and also the budgeting process with with seven members instead of five it makes a lot more sense. Next slide. So I'd recommend that the meeting u support at the ballot box Brooklyn school board being expanded to seven members. It's a reasonable and needed governance update for the Brooklyn school district. Thank you very much. >> Uh Mr. power. It's unorthodox. Could you speak to why we're making the amendment? >> We are making the amendment because the moderator contacted me and said to make the to make the uh warn article complete. We would have we would be in some uh we would have to have maybe a special election or some other meeting to figure out if we if we
204approved the article as it was proposed originally. we would have to decide how we were going to do the terms and this just makes it illogically that we'll go on a 322 um cycle for the school board members. Thank you. Thank you. And that was Mr. Moderator that actually pointed that out. Uh it was um it was brought up at the the public hearing at the Brooklyn School District um uh before me. Don't give me all the credit for that one. Sorry. My esteemed mentor says it was all me. I'm I caught that. So, uh, we are now discussing article 7 at the amendment to article 7, which makes that language up there just with the word elected instead of selected. Sir Brady Alligan 17 Burchill. Um, for those of you who don't know, I
205actually have experience with three member, five member, and seven member boards. Um, as a firefighter, I work with the fire wards. That's a board of three. I'm familiar with the library board as a board of five. Hi, I'm the chair. Um, and I'm also familiar with a seven member board. Um, because the library uh facility needs study committee is a seven member board. Um, and I'm here to tell you from direct personal experience, five is a really good number. Seven. It is quite difficult to actually find seven people willing to take on the immense task that is the school board. Um we frequently have people run unopposed. Uh we've had blanks and writeins. So seven we're going to have a hard time finding seven people. So, sorry. I just want to bring this the the
206amendment adds the words at the bottom for the term limits and we're discussing the uh the amendment at the moment. It's a good discussion. We should just do the amendment first and that the language of the amendment is to add the term limits to it. So, you want to change the article to this from what's written down and then discuss the merits of the article. >> Uh, correct. just to avoid confusion if >> Oh, I I I thought this I thought this was how it was presented. Now, >> I you know, I was going to let this sort of go, but I can realize that there might be a lot of confusion if we're discussing the term limits, but the amendment itself is to the um >> Okay. >> Uh uh uh uh to when
207they're going to be elected. Is that appropriate? Okay. She nods. It I'm I'm not wrong. Okay. Um would anybody else like to discuss the amendment which is adding the the years onto the um uh uh the term limits onto the end and and removing the first sentence? >> So you can't speak to the five member or seven members. You just want to hear about the term limits. >> I Yeah, I would prefer if we could do the amendment to fix the wording before we discuss the >> I'd love to move the question then >> after this. >> Good move. Okay. So uh uh request to move the question. non-debatable requires a two-thirds majority. All those in favor of ceasing debate on the motion to amend, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise
208your voting cards. Thank you. It is in the affirmative. Discussion on this is now closed. Sir, were you in line to discuss the amendment? >> I was in line to do the exact same thing as what just >> Okay, thank you. Then it's already been done. So, uh, discussion is now closed. We will now vote on the amendment which changes the wording from your warrant which read the warrant reads to reflect the growth of Brooklyn and to help distribute the workload of the Brooklyn School Board. Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members to seven members per RSA 6714 to the text that's up on your screen. Shall the Brooklyn School District change the number of members of the Brooklyn School Board from five members
209to seven members per RSA 6714 using required three-year terms with three members elected in 2027, two members elected in 2028, and two members elected in 2029. >> I didn't get this. >> Oh, the question. >> Shoot. >> Who moved the question? Who seconded moving the question? >> Yeah, I missed it. Okay. >> I thought it was Melanie. That was you again. All right. Thank you, Peter. All right. Uh, I just read it. So, now we vote on it. So, all those in favor of the motion to amend to adopt this new language, please raise your voting cards. All those opposed, please raise your voting cards. That is a motion in the affirmative. That passes. The language is accepted. So now we are discussing the warrant article which will be sent to the ballot which is
210this text up in front of you. So now we can discuss the term limits. I thank you all for your patience getting through this. So everybody remembers where I was. Yeah. >> Okay. So a seven member board the biggest issue that I have personally experienced with this is it is actually quite difficult with schedules and the need to have a physically present quorum uh of at least half so that' be four uh at the meeting uh makes it quite difficult to actually get business done. So, this has the potential to actually paralyze the school board because so many people are trying to get together in one room at one time. Um, there's actually consideration of um moving the library facility and study committee back to five members because it may um allow the committee to
211function a little bit better and um move a little bit quicker. So, we're actually looking to get them smaller. So, >> thank you very much. >> Hi, Don Albertson, Pigeon Hill Road. I just am trying to figure out what this does. And so, the idea of representation is interesting, but we just heard there's 2500 uh homes in Brooklyn and there's five members, so one to 500 and we elect them. So, representation isn't the problem. When we hear the other argument which is about the due diligence, I think we can all agree based on the original articles uh that we started with that these guys are working really hard and doing a really great job on our behalf. So that's not an issue. And then fundamentally, is there something really awful about being on the school
212board? But then five to zero, they're voting against this. So they're saying the amount of work is appropriate. we can see that they're doing high quality work and we know that we've elected them and it's a small ratio of household to board members. So, I'm not sure that I see any contribution at all and I therefore would vote against it. >> Thank you very much. Yes, sir. >> Hi there, Tyler Ferani, Westview Road. I'm rising to direct a question to the school board. I saw that they had rejected the original language of the amendment 5 to zero. Um I would like to turn the question to you given that it is amended slightly um and ensure that it is still the standing of the school board that they oppose this amendment and if so why.
213>> Um I'll take this one if you guys are good with that. So yes, we'll still oppose it even with the amendment. The amendment really just defines defines the term years. So and that and that's okay leg from a legal standpoint that's appropriate. >> The article, not the >> article, I'm sorry. Um so so that is is appropriate. We are not in support of we are not in support of expanding the school board because the amount of work is appropriate um for what we do even with even if we were to have a district that was increasing right the work that we do remains constant. So we have three main functions as a governing board, right? We we work on policy. We have monthly policy meetings. Um and then in our monthly schoolboard meetings, we
214review in totality those policies. We talk through them. We all do our due diligence with those. Um so that's the policy work that we do, which is ve incredibly manageable with a board of five. We also work on the budget. We do that in our monthly meetings as a whole group starting in September. Every month we work collectively as a group on the budget. So that's that's good. Um and then finally we support and oversee our superintendent and the workload is not so much so that expanding the board is necessary. Then to um the previous one of the previous speakers point, we have to have a quorum to hold a meeting and there are times as a group of five that it is hard. Life happens. We all have um we all have children in
215the district. So or just even if we didn't like life happens, right? So we can't have meetings if we don't have a full quorum. Becomes more challenging with a larger body to make that possible. Um, so I think that those were the the main points as to why we were not in favor of expanding the school board because it is appropriate for our district at this time. >> And I I will just very briefly add that this year was probably one of our heaviest in terms of workload because we had two contract negotiations and I don't think any of us felt like we were overburdened or overworked like we we were fine like we made it work. We were able to show up to meetings. we were able to negotiate and and this is probably
216the most work that the board would be asked to do is when you have a contract negotiation just because that's a significant chunk of your fall as you're trying to negotiate the contract. last point and maybe not so much the reason that we voted against it but um there are two open there there are two of us coming up this year whose terms expire and I believe and keep me honest we are both running rerunning unopposed so to even fill seven I don't know would be possible >> okay thank you thank you very much >> sir >> satisfied >> you're satisfied all right is there any further discussion on article seven as amended. Seeing no further discussion on article 7 as amended, the amended language will go to the ballot and we will move on
217to article 8. Article 8 is another petition warn article which reads uh oh I think that's in the other presentation. It reads, "Shall we rescend the provisions of RSA 4013, known as SB2, as adopted by the Brookline School District on March 8th, 2016, so that the official ballot will no longer be used for voting on all questions, but only for the election of officers and certain other questions for which the official ballot is required by state law. Three-fifths majority vote required. Estimated tax impact zero out of 1,000. The school board, uh, I don't have that one in my notes. The school board recommends this article five to zero. Judy Cook uh will is the primary petitioner. I will bring you a microphone. One moment. >> Yes. >> All right. >> Hold on. We're almost there.
218Or there we go. There we go. Okay. It's warmed up. >> Thank you very much. Um the reason I brought forward this article is because I promised to do it last year and I was unable to get it done. Anyway, uh this year I am bringing forward uh to resend SB2. While it's a well-intended idea, it does not work. As you've noticed tonight, we've had a lot of discussion on every single article so far. And this is information that never would get to the people voting in March because they would just look at what was written and they'd say, "Oh, yeah, that sounds good. Vote for it." Or, "Oh, I don't like that. Don't vote for it." So, it's basically SB2 takes away the value of being an informed voter and allows all of the
219voters that come to the vote on the official ballot, which is election day, um to vote as uninformed voters because they most likely haven't taken the time to do all the research that the school board has done and everyone else. So, go good governments is hard work and it's not convenient. SB2 voting is intended to make it easier for people to vote through all day voting, absentee ballots, and no requirement to sit through a multi-hour meeting. And it does not make voting easier. More people vote under SB2 than the typical town district annual meeting, but it makes informed voting more difficult. I'm just going to try to skip through my notes here because I don't want to take any more time than I absolutely need to. Um, okay. What does this actually mean? How do
220voters learn the intent and potential impact and cost if they don't intend attend the deliberative session? We can rely on reading the ballot, the wording of each article, and make our best guess. This is what most voters must do. We can try to get information by finding and watching a recording of the deliberative session. We can wade through the arguments on social media. We may receive information by mail or a handout from a person or group who is usually a biased advocate or opponent of one or more articles. Or we can ask family and friends for opinions. How can we get clarification of the wording on the SP2 ballots when we are voting? We can't. The law restricts the wording used on the ballot to only the legal statement of what is up for vote
221without explanation and without allowable to advise voters at the vote voting place. We're almost there. Um, how can we get the details of budget proposals, bonds, contracts, and other financial articles that are the basis for most of our property tax bills? We must attend the meetings if we want to get the details and have ability to question the reasons, the needs, and the choices presented. We must attend the hearings and the deliberative session if we want to understand possibly change what we are buying with our tax dollars. Here are some of the problems with SB2 voting. The small group of voters who attend the deliberative session are the only people who get to debate and decide what we get to vote on. The small group determines what budget amounts go on the ballot independent of
222what the elected officials have determined should be presented to the voters. The small group can change the dollar amount of an article to a dollar, effectively removing the item or drastically increase the amount independent of the need or the intent of the article sponsor. The small group has the option to modify, add to, or delete the wording of the article within the balance of the law, effectively changing the tone or making the consequences of the article. By the time we are at the voting booth, what we are voting for or against is often unclear and may not be what was originally intended to be on the ballot. SB2 voting makes it more difficult and timeconsuming to be an informed voter. SB2 hurts transparency. Town and district meetings allow us to see presentations, listen to explanations,
223question, challenge, amend, and vote all in one place at one time. SB2 requires us to hunt around for information. If we don't change down the information and attend the meetings and hearings where we can be seen and heard and keep tabs on the process, we get to go into the voting booth and try to infer what we are voting for or against based only on the short description in legal ease on huge dollar amounts that may not be what the original authors proposed. What is the solution to this? We must resend SB2 ballot voting for the Brooklyn School District and vote against any proposals to move to SB2 for the town or the co-op. It is not perfect, but it's better. With the introduction of convoluted changes to budget caps and tax caps, we're likely
224to see the problems where recommended budgets cannot be placed on the warrant. The budgets will likely be changed at the deliberative session, causing further confusion at the voting booth when we are asked to vote on items that are different from our town report with no explanation available or allowed. Does rescending SB2 take away the rights of some voters to vote? Absolutely no. All registered voters still have the right to vote. if changes when we vote and how we vote. And as in the past, some people will likely choose not to vote. Good governance is hard work and it's not inconvenient. I And it's not convenient. Sorry. We should decide whether we want informed, transparent voting or just easy voting. We need to reclaim control of the vote and restore transparency. So, resend SB2 for the
225Brooklyn School District. And I just want to add to this that we've had SB2 for I'm not exactly sure how many years. >> Probably >> 10 years. Okay. And we have seen our budgets go up. So, it hasn't really helped um because we have people voting for items on the budget and on whatever we're voting on on election day um without even really knowing what the impact is going to be of their vote. So, I really would like to stress that we need to get rid of this and we need to push back against certain representatives in conquered that are trying to make this come up every year on every ballot in every school district and town in the state of New Hampshire. Keep that in your mind and be well aware of it. Thank
226you very much. >> And let me just uh add that I really would like the school board uh to understand how much I appreciate and value their work. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Cook. Uh, discussion is now open on >> it's fine. I'm sure uh opening up discussion on article 8. Uh, this is a statutory thing, so we cannot amend it. It's going to the ballot like this. Uh, but we are free to discuss and debate it on its merits. Certainly good. Uh Rob Rushton, Flint Meadow Drive. Uh we're in a unique position here in uh Brooklyn in that we are operating under both SB2 and the traditional town meeting format. Uh for our town uh annual meetings, we use the traditional format for SB2. We are here today uh in the
227deliberative session. We also have a traditional town meeting for the cooperative school district. So, this is a this is a bonus for us. We can look around and see exactly what works and what doesn't. And I know I've been to a few of these meetings and sometimes they really don't work. uh some of the discussions that we've had and we'll actually see some of these in later warrant articles uh that it becomes very difficult to reconcile and do the things that you need to do uh in order to present the voters in general with a coherent ballot on election day itself. uh I would it's a very big ask to change this uh form of governance so that we go back to the original style town meeting but I really encourage people to look very
228hard at the differences between what we have done in one situation and what we're doing here and see which one of them actually makes more sense for us uh going forward. My belief is that that you look at it uh very closely, you will find that the traditional town meeting format as long as we can possibly accommodate it is the way to go. I would encourage everybody to vote for this article. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. >> Yes, Brad Alligan 17 Burch. I appreciate the courage of Judy and bringing this up. Um, and I echo the sentiment. We've done this for quite a while now. And we've done traditional town meetings for quite a bit. And by my estimate, we're 65% of the way done tonight. And we've been at it for
229three and a half hours. And last year at traditional town meeting for the town, I think we got through 20 articles in the same amount of time. And so I I echo the sentiment. SP2 is an idea that was a good is a good idea, but it does not work in practice because we spend lots and lots of time word smithing articles that we shouldn't have to do because they then just turn around and get overwhelmingly defeated at the ballot box. and we could save ourselves a lot of time tonight if we didn't do that. >> Hey, sweetie. Um, and my other um point on it is I am all for 100% increased ballot access. There is nothing more important than somebody's vote. What we really need is SB3, which would be, I don't know,
230some sort of secure Zoom meeting or something. and we can't do that here. Again, SP3 would require conquered. So, a great solution would be to have a meeting with remote participation. I'm going to call it SB3 and maybe we can get conquered on that. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes, sir. Ash Skidmore, Brooklyn, uh 482 Oak Hill Road. Uh I offer a rebuttal and also to say um I experienced not having my vote all about 20 years um while working and having to travel for business. So I can empathize with a lot of the people who just don't get to vote and don't don't get to come to these meetings. You've got a town of about 4,000 voters. You don't have a venue that can support 20% of your voters. You go to these
231town meetings, you get maybe 300 people and they rule the world. The rest of the voters don't get a chance. That's not fair. That's not a good community. So, you need to take this seriously. All right. People have a vote and they're angry. They don't come to these meetings. I talk to my friends, my neighbors. They don't come to these meetings because they get railroaded. It's too few people making all the decisions. That's why our property taxes go up high. All right. There's other reasons too that affect that. But you underestimate you underestimate the voters in this town and their ability to understand and comprehend. Even though I'm here at the deliberative meeting, I'm going to go home and I'm going to research the RSA before I make a final decision. A lot of people
232can do that. A lot of people know how to do that. A lot of people think for themselves. All right? And to suggest that we're not informed because we're not here at the meeting, that's pretty wild. All right. That's not true. It's not true at all. Take it into consideration. All right. But I like this form. It allows me to do what I need to do to research things, listen to you, listen to what goes on here. But my real decision is my vote. And if all the votes take place here,