Hollis School Board 11/5/2025

001Yeah. And it was like everything [clears throat] went dark. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Guys, it's 6 o'clock. I'm going to call to order this regular meeting of the Hollow School Board. It is November 5th, 2025. Uh we're going to start with any agenda adjustments, nominations, resignations, and correspondence. >> Okay. So, um it's none of the above necessarily, but here we go. Um we are uh we need to hire Shannon Vadney for a long as a long-term sub for grade four. Um as you recall, Karen Kelly stepped in to do a long-term assignment. Um and she was unable to continue past right now. So, we have to move forward with Shannon Battney. The concern that we have, and we don't normally bring long-term subs to the board, but um Shannon does not have her elementary ed

002certification, and so we have to declare a local um critical shortage in the area because we have been unable to find someone with the certification to fill the role. So, the Department of Education allows us to publicly state that there's a critical shortage, meaning we can't find somebody, and then then they will work with her to move forward with certification. >> She's a certified teacher, though, isn't she? >> No. >> Oh, she's not at all. >> Okay. >> How long of a long-term sub needs a certification? >> Anything more than 20 days. >> Okay. >> Um, and we've tried to hire Yes. for this position and have been unable to. >> Correct. We've had the position posted uh for, you know, since we first found out about the leave at the end of the summer.

003The the part of the difficulty in hiring for this position is it's a long-term position. So, most people with the certification want a fullear position. >> Sure. >> And we're not sure how long the, you know, could go to the end of the year, it could go for another two weeks. So, that creates another layer of um difficulty. and she's a sub who's been in our school. >> Yes, we're very pleased with her. We're Candy Fowler is very excited about moving forward with her. Um but we just it's a little bit of a >> situation. >> Yeah, sticky situation. Um just to give you a little bit of background, um we've done this before. um at Hollis Primary, our library media specialist did not come with a library media specialist uh certification and so we

004declared a local um um critical shortage and we were then able to get her statement of eligibility so we can move forward with obtaining that certification which she now holds. So it's not unheard of. It's just not very common. >> Sure. >> And she's currently teaching >> our library media specialist. >> No, the one that we're talking about >> the fourth grade teacher Fourth grade teacher. >> The fourth grade teacher. Yeah. >> Did you say yes? >> I have on good authority that she's very nice and students like her. So, thank you, the authority of my daughter. Um, so thank you for for the efforts. I know this is really hard to do this time of year and it was unexpected. So, you know, I don't know. Is it something we have to vote on

005or >> um I think it would be um so so this is different because we normally would vote on the hiring of somebody but this one we need to vote on whether or not we're going to declare a critical shortage in the area of elementary ed certification. >> How does that affect everything else that we have to do if there are other positions that we hire or anything? >> It impacts nothing. >> This is just a little bit of um >> we're checking the box for requirements for the state. And would that get added to deliberation or is that something we just do outside of? >> We could add it to deliberation and call an agenda adjustment. You could do it right now. It really doesn't matter. >> Okay. >> And the process um if

006we approve the calling uh calling it the local shortage is uh that it's like an accelerated certification process. It just means that it allows her to obtain like a a long-term plan to get certified through the state >> in a non-traditional pathway. >> Okay. >> There are some areas, for example, um like a high school math teacher, it's it's always a critical shortage area. So, we can hire someone and they can do this path. But elementary ed is not traditionally a critical shortage area. And so the state allows us to move forward with this pathway, but only if the board is well aware that we are in this state of critical shortage even though sometimes we're not. Like if you know if we had a fullear position and we were hiring in April for the

007following year, we would be able to hire a person. But based on the circumstances, this is the pathway we need to take. >> [clears throat] >> So declaring excuse me declaring the critical shortage doesn't just mean [clears throat] sorry excuse me that we're putting someone without the certification. It means then also she is fasttracked to get the certification >> to begin the process. >> She cannot begin the process until the board identifies that we that school district is um having a difficult time hiring for this position >> and she has to begin the process if we Yeah. Okay. >> Absolutely. Yep. >> So, what do you want us to do? You want me to take a motion? >> Um to declare a local critical shortage area in the air in the area of um elementary

008ed K to 6. >> Okay. Uh I will accept a motion to declare that we have an educational certification shortage at the Hollow School District K through six. >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor or excuse me JK discussion any All those in favor. >> Thank you very much. >> Welcome Miss Vadne. >> Um any others? Gina? >> No. >> All right. Moving right through to the approval of minutes. This is from October 1st. Uh following amendments were offered. Page seven line 33. Student should be plural. Page 8, line 10 and page 10, line 10, replace from form with from. Page 10, line five, design should be plural. Page 11, line seven, correct the spelling of the. Page 14, line 20, delete amount before tremendous. Page 21, line 17, replace restricts with restrict.

009I will accept a motion to accept as amended. >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion on those minutes? >> Um, can I ask a procedural question of you, ma'am? >> Yes. >> Can he second this when he has to abstain from the vote? >> He actually does not have to abstain from the vote. >> Oh, sorry. Um, >> you can do whatever you want, sir. >> But, um, he he can choose to abstain. Uh, but he absolutely can second it. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Any discussion on the minutes? >> Seeing none, all those in favor? Oppose? I'm saying. All right, it is 6:07. I'm going to go ahead and open the floor for public input. It was declared to happen at 6:15, but we're a little bit early to that. I see one

010member. Are you here to speak publicly? >> I am not. >> Okay. Thank you. I will leave it open for a minimum of 30 minutes while we conduct other business and we'll address anybody coming in at that time. >> Um, can I ask a procedural question myself? I got an email from um a resident that wanted to know is it possible to send in public comments if they're not No. So >> they must come to a meeting and speak. They can send us an email and ask questions. Sorry, I totally jumped on your question, but it's been asked every year. Um it is they have to come and they speak. They are more than welcome to send us emails, but they do not get read into the record of any meetings. >> Thank you. >>

011You're very welcome. I'm like, I know exactly what is going next. [laughter] All right, we're moving forward onto the principal report for HPS and Hughes. >> All right, so some exciting stuff coming forward. We have Veterans Day ceremony. Um 8:30 a.m. arrival for our veterans at the primary school on November 10th and 1 p.m. arrival at Hughes. Um arrival for our veterans. Um, on the 11th we have the day off for everyone for Veterans Day, science fair at the middle school for both HPS and Hugh students, November 17th. And then trimester 1 marks close November 21st, so that's right around the corner. Um, some exciting news for safety and security of our schools. Command walkie-talkies and night locks. Uh, we're moving forward with both of those. um command walkie-talkies will be an upgrade for the

012safety team members. And then the night locks are um an additional layer of security for the doors in between classrooms, not not the hallway doors, but the in between ones um in an emergency situation. So that's great. Um at Hughes, we celebrated unity day. Hughes and CSDA both participated in this celebration. It's a celebration of anti-bullying and coming together as a community. So that was nice. Um and then at HPS they held their first all school town meeting on October 15th and this is great. Um the students host the town meeting this month. It was focused on school rules and routines, royal respects and Hispanic his heritage month, excuse me. So that was a great um great day at Halls Primary. And then looking at our enrollment snapshot for November, we went up one and

013down one. So, we are holding steady. Um, I also I'm I'll just throw it in there now. I added in discussion, not that we were really going to discuss it, but I wanted to make sure that you saw the updated NASDAQ report. So, that just came out a couple days ago. So, I added it to the agenda just so that everyone could publicly see it. It's also posted on our website, but I know that specifically um in Hollis, we're talking about enrollment a lot. So, I just figured it would be great to have it as part of the the board packet. Is that um there's the updated NESC report and the NEZ projections are those new numbers reflected in our enrollment document here? >> Uh no. So this document is current students. >> Okay. >>

014Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. And then no, these NASDAQ projections were from the spring projection. Okay. This came out before the came out. >> Thank you. >> Um I will also share we have added a new tool. Uh, I know that the budget committee wants us to look to other um resources for doing some projections. So, what our director of technology did for me was he looked at all of our schools and did a running um average of a running three-year average of pluses and minuses by grade level per school. So, that's just another piece based on actuals that we have. It's strikingly similar to NASDAQ for the past three years, but we can continue to just add year to year and use that as an additional resource when looking at projections. >> Thank you. >>

015Great. Thank you. >> Any questions or comments, Regina, on the principal's reports? >> All right, moving right along. Next up in discussion, we have the ED306 presentation. >> Hi, Dot. jumping inside. >> Good evening. Just wanted to give you a quick overview. I had uh created a presentation for the high school who is most impacted by the new law um and the changes to 306 which are the minimum standards for public schools in New Hampshire. Um but it really does affect K to 12. You'll see that our elementary schools are in very good um position already even with the changes. We were ahead of where uh the changes were. But we also thought it would be good to have a district-wide perspective of um the impact that will um face students across the contin um

016the [laughter] that's not what it looks like on my but um the this was a a very large initiative. It was um also put together with a lot of input from educators and the changes that were made really were built around seven key themes. Um you'll see that the biggest impacts come around um some new graduation requirements for the class of 2030. Um they tried to come up with some consistent definitions so that when districts are implementing them, everybody's using the same language. There's an emphasis on parent engagement and there is a shift to move away from the more traditional grading system into a competencybased system over a period of time. Um, and that it allows for a lot more flexibility of learning and that will impact more of the middle school and high school.

017But it could have some impact for a student in the future at elementary. It just doesn't happen um that as often it as it does with the older students. So for kindergarten, as you look at the slides, you'll see that some of the um words are bolded. That will be either new initiatives or new language um that was new to the different levels that you're looking at. And the regular um print is what we've been doing all along and are already doing now. Um, and so they want to make sure that for our kindergarteners, there's unstructured time built into the school day for discovery. We do that a lot through centers, but they also want to make sure that we're working on child development in those four domains of physical, social, cognitive, and language development

018and also building socialization skills. You'll hear the new language or the new initiatives f uh focused around play-based learning. And that doesn't mean just running around outside or having more free time to just play. It is um tied directly to learning and instruction, but doing it in a way that um students have more choice and voice in their decisions, that there's movement and creative expression and exploration uh involved. And so it really blends play right into the learning day as well. And one of the biggest pushes was to make sure that districts had an evidence-based literacy program that focused around um reading and phomic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, which is through the science of reading. And we're already doing that with CKLA. So we're in year two of that implementation. For elementary, there is

019a a desire to make sure that arts education is involved in the learning day. There's a big push for ELA again around the science of reading. The um regulation says that that all districts have to adopt um a evidence-based program by July 1st of 2027, but again, we've already done that. um they want to see digital literacy um start to be embedded into um the day for students. It doesn't necessarily have to be a separate class and really more encouraged to be part of all of the different learning that they do whenever they're using technology or any type of digital um pieces of equipment. Health and wellness there. You'll see uh if we haven't already passed it here, I think it might be in the packet for tonight. um a real push to make sure

020that students are getting 30 to 60 minutes of physical um activity and also exposed to um health and wellness throughout their entire school curriculum. For math, the biggest changes were that um instruction has to include multiplication tables by the end of grade 5. We introduced them in grade two, so we're already ahead of that curve. um mathematical reasoning and calculations um for all students through grade five um starting even in the earliest grades and then spiraling up for through each of the grades. One of the themes that you'll see across kind of the continuum is there is a much bigger emphasis put on social uh on social studies and on history around civics um the hol uh holocaust and genocide and you'll see once we get to the high school um a much stronger evidence

021um emphasis put on the history of New Hampshire and computer science programs are optional but encouraged. You'll see in the middle school, those are the lists of all of the courses that need to be offered, which we already um do provide our students. And again, you'll see uh the social studies is bolded because there's increase for civics and to make sure that by grade 8 um that they've had education and instruction around the Holocaust and genocide education. Then we get to the high school. they again will take the the brunt of the changes. Um, one of the things that is in the law is that there's a minimum when you get to high school, all high schools have to offer a minimum of 43 courses in 16 different content areas. Um, we offer well over

022a 100 courses at um, Hollis Brookline High School. You'll see that the bolded areas that include graduation requirement changes are around writing, mathematics, logic, and rhetoric. I'm going to show you what the changes in a moment. Big emphasis and change on social studies and um a requirement for personal finance for all students. tomorrow night uh not tomorrow night at our next co-op meeting um Pat uh Jake will uh has will be be presenting the st the graduation requirements as they are currently and then the proposed changes to uh their board and the good pieces is that we are allowed to make it more interdisciplinary and so it doesn't necessarily mean that each of those new requirements will be a separate course it could be embedded into a course that we already have or it could

023be as a standalone and as I had mentioned in the beginning there's a move towards more competency based education and they they say that this allows for more local control because you do have the ability to create your own standards but it has to meet the same rigor and standards that the state are looking for and that the evidence for mastery will be on a continuum as well. It's not just necessarily a test. It could be portfolio or um a local assessment and any really any other way that a teacher decides. So the program of studies will need to align to the um tables that um he will present. Courses again may be offered individually or through interdisciplinary learning. you have to um provide and there is a big emphasis on remote and um external

024learning opportunities for students that they can then um have the the principal review for credit um for some of their requirements. Uh if we offer any remote learning on site, it has to have a uh an adult to help oversee that um remote experience. And then this is just a list of the graduation requirements. There's an increase of half a credit for writing which we already have at Hollister Plan High School. Uh math has to include um some work around statistics and data analysis. US and New Hampshire history has to be separated out um so that it is each a credit. I think what we're going to be looking at is doing a fullear course that will embed um US and New Hampshire history around the um domains of social studies and then looking at

025it from each of the perspectives. So that will meet the requirement because it will be a half um credit for each logic and rhetoric is a new half credit requirement which we already do and is embedded in the grade 10 English class. We already have a civics requirement and we have to increase our history, government and constitution of US and New Hampshire from half a credit to one credit and then a financial literacy half credit course where the where it will have implications for each of you as well is around policy. There's because of the law and the changes that are happening there are a lot of policy implications. you'll see um that some of them like graduation requirements are only going to be for the co-op, but a lot of the other ones um

026will be across the board um in all of the districts. When you see the yellow um the policies that are lit up in yellow, those are policies that are already in the pipeline that you have. Some you've already adopted, some are in the pipeline to be adopted and or you will be seeing them very soon. Um, and so we're in good, you're in a good place in Hollis. We're u moving to get most of everything we need already finished. >> Thanks, Dot. >> I have two questions, Dot. Um, I don't know what it actually means when we're like what does it actually look like when we're saying competency based grading or comp competency based education? Like what does that actually mean? So competency based education means that there are very clear um expectations about what

027a student will be able to know and be able to do in each of the categories in each in writing in math. And so it's more than just you take your math test, you get a grade, you get an A, you don't really know what that A means or this is going to take a a while to get to. Um you'll start to see the change in elementary. um they're already starting to talk about CKLA. Some of the um categories that you've seen on your report card up to now don't really match with what the learning case is right now. So that's going to change and it will actually give students and families more detail about what it means if a student has mastered a specific standard. >> So this will be in the form

028of a rubric of some sort >> sort of. Yes. um or and it will say approaching or mastered or proficient. Um and then it's it's all still got to be developed. There's no specific example yet. >> Sure. Is this something that's that the schools and and the curriculum director and the teachers are free to develop or is this being passed down from the state? >> No, local will develop their own um mastery. So teachers will definitely have input with it from different coordinators, principles, myself. Um, and I'm sure there'll be some, you know, input from parent community as well. >> And you're probably a little bit more familiar with it, um, as a parent of an elementary school student because you see, um, different standards. Um what will be a bigger change is if you

029think back to um high school and you got um you know a B in Spanish class, we're really looking at speaking, listening, writing, all the components rather than just saying it's okay if you you know aren't competent at all in writing as long as you do well enough in the other areas it averages out. So, it's just really rethinking um how because if you if you consider a grade a way to communicate what a student knows, then we're trying to do a better job of communicating what that student actually knows across all of the key areas of the course. You'll see the least amount of change probably at elementary that what it says may change, but kind of the flow of what you're used to seeing on your report cards won't be extremely different because

030you've kind of already been doing competency based because elementary is much more developmental, you know, as you go along or um they throughout the year you might not introduce multiplication until January, but it's on the report card and it might, you know, say not applicable or they haven't taught it yet and then you get a grade in that area come January. That's a confidence. >> So, um, do you have until July 1st, 2027? How much time do you have to develop this? I just know this takes a tremendous amount of work to >> devel. So, this is just that it's coming on it. Um, you need to have the new reading program in place by 2027, but they accept everybody's working on things now. So for an example, the high school when they make their

031program of studies, those changes aren't going to impact the graduation requirements aren't going to impact anybody in unless they're the incoming nth grade class. So for 2030, so we have time to develop what the courses might actually look like. We just have to delineate what the graduation requirements will be. So, similar at the elementary level, we're already implementing the work and as long as we can show that we're progressing towards doing what we need to do, then we'll be fine. >> A quick question on the policies. Actually, you said you had a second question. Did you want to take care of that? >> Um, I guess I'm wondering about it sounds like this impacts the elementary school less, but also there are changes in our curriculum, and I'm wondering what we're having to drop or

032do less of to take on some of the new material that we're having to cover. The biggest changes at elementary are the um the evidence-based literacy program and um what you're teaching in math and we're already we are already further ahead than what the minimum standards are going to call for. So that's not going to have an impact like we said digital literacy that can be embedded into the regul it's not a separate class so nothing has to be lost. >> Okay. So we're not dropping any materials that we do now to accommodate doing more social studies material. >> Okay. So my policy question was you mentioned that the ones that are highlighted in yellow are already in process for us. Are they already in process to meet these new standards? >> Yes. >> Okay.

033>> Um I can't remember. We haven't seen the class size and ratios III one kind of those highlights were for all three districts. So you may not have had that yet. >> Gotcha. >> So >> okay, no worries. I just with all the talk about enrollment and things I'm like bing BING BING BING BING. >> [laughter] >> for Maine. >> Um I had a question about so um I've got a couple kids in the elementary and one of the things that came up was that cursive was kind of in the optional category for teachers. >> Sorry I keep >> Sorry. Um one of the things that came up was that cursive was in a bit of the optional category for teachers at the moment versus mandatory. >> It will be mandatory. person will be taught

034um when >> yeah it's by the end um I guess my question was is that also following the July 1 27 deadline or is that an immediate effect? >> No, that should be we'll be they'll be working if not this year moving into next year. >> Okay. >> Any other questions for DOT? Uh one one question on um uh genocide and holocaust education since it says no later than grade 8 uh but it's in the elementary slide. When would generally that first get introduced? >> So um yeah it's hard genocide and um the Holocaust we historically have had a unit in grade six and grade 8. Um with the addition of CKA and Amplify last year we were really following strictly the program. This year we were altering at four, five, and six because you

035could do like um a 21-day version of this unit or you could do a 15-day. And we wanted to take some of those units after we knew all of them and shrink them down to bring back um some of the novels. And uh we did Holocaust education via novel study in sixth grade. And so I'm not 100% sure, but I think the the plan was to move back to that in sixth grade this year. Okay. >> Thanks, Thanks, doc. >> Thanks. >> All right. Uh, our next topic is the FY26 Q1 revenue and expense. >> All right. Fun time to talk about money. Okay. So, we have expenses and revenues. This looks a lot better this year than last year. right now. Um we have um uh in terms of regular education, we have some

036hiring savings in that category. So we see a balance on that side. For special education, we see a negative balance due to some contracted staffing. This will also go down because um we were unsure of the availability of um IDEIDA grant funds. The grant historically funds some of these positions or parts of some of these positions, but now that the funding exists, you'll see that that um negative balance won't be nearly as negative. So, it'll even out. And so, those are some of the shifts that take place as we go quarter by quarter and we know more about revenues that are coming in and grants. So, don't be alarmed by that. Um it's it's truly going to balance out. Um, all right. So, then we have um some small positives here and there. The the

03795,339. I I have to say I stated this publicly and I was mistaken. I thought we took away the contingency that for this year, but we still had it. So, this 95339 is the contingency that we have not yet touched. That's why it's just sitting there as 95,000. Um, so that was on the warrant last year and that was my mistake when I spoke um differently. Um and then facilities, we definitely have some unfilled positions in terms of custodial support in our buildings and that's uh giving us a positive balance. And then our benefits right now uh we see a balance of 1814 and that's due to um you know hiring and plan selection. So maybe we budgeted for a twoerson but they've selected um waved coverage or maybe have a single plan. So, um,

038so our expenses are looking good and looking at our revenues, once again, we continue to monitor our revenues and state aid, um, and grants and then we adjust these throughout the year. But as of right now, looks like our total revenue is um, in excess of the budget, 53,000, which puts us at an unreserved fund balance right now, very early in the game of 220,658. if we fund um items like we typically do, but we really haven't talked about our warrant this year and all the articles, but a maintenance trust of 125 SAU building trust for 23,970. Um that would give us a projected fund balance of 71,688. So we are in a much better position this year than we were last. And this is including um hiring the unbudgeted kindergarten teacher. So, um, knock

039on wood, I think we're in a really good place. >> Can I speak to Medicaid a little bit? Yeah. So, you're you're going to see the Medicaid revenue, um, which is already in excess of what's been budgeted. So, I just want to give a little bit of an explanation about Medicaid over the past couple years. So, we use a a billing platform called MSB and there's been some changes to this platform and some kind of, you know, pieces to it that have taken a larger learning curve. We have put mechanisms in place um between last spring and now to really um ramp up our training and ramp up um some other processes in order to maximize our revenue as much as possible because we wanted to really get over this barrier of some of the

040issues with the law and other things that were happening. So this revenue that's coming in, you should be seeing that increase more more and more. So you will be seeing more revenue. this is just since the start of this school year is that and and we've been budgeting very conservatively for it. So you're going to see our Medicaid numbers go back up to what they were before probably some of you were on the board years prior. So just so you know you'll be seeing some changes with that. >> Okay, thanks for that ad. >> Yeah. Um I had a question about the So does the SAU building trust line include uh any maintenance for like the roof that you'd mentioned that? >> Yep. So that is really just the rent that the three districts pay

041uh to occupy the space and that every year we hold the public hearing and then we um complete projects. The the idea is that funds the upkeep of the building. So um you guys approved the um the fixing of the porch. So we have one door that's right outside my office that's unusable. Um, so we're going to replace that porch. And then the porch that everyone does use. Um, the spindles are um on the floor, which is not the desired location for this spindle. So, we're going to redo the railing over there as well. And so, um, that's what that funds projects like that. We're probably going to see that we need to replace part of the roof for next fiscal year. Um, and you'll hear about that through the SAU um, conversations and then

042bring it back to here since you guys own the trust. >> Okay. So, um, without getting super in-depth, does that mean that we fundamentally wouldn't be doing anything with the roof till next year? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Jul after July 1. >> Yeah. I just You had mentioned it was leaking, so I wanted to >> It's been leaking. >> We've done We've done small repairs, but at the end of the day, we really just need to fix it. >> I understand. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Any other questions for revenue expense? >> Yeah. Um on the anticipated needs for fiscal year 27 uh section. Yeah, >> this is on the revenue page. >> Um I was just trying to like match up to previous documents. I was curious about the blanked out retained fund

043balance. Is that because it's being placed in a different spot? >> No, it's because we don't have an estimate yet. Um, typically we would, um, you know, that's a conversation we had, was it the October meeting or the September meeting? I think it's October. Um, where we, um, voted to retain about 2% of the net assessment. Um, right now we don't have available 2%. It's really early on in the year, so >> you would definitely see a figure there in the future. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> It's blank for now. >> Yeah, but you'll see something. Can I just also speak to one more special ed piece? So, I know that it says here um under special education that deficit of 275,000. Um to Gina's point, yes, we have our IDA allocations now in those pieces,

044but it's not purely due to the contract of staffing services. We only have one contracted power educator. I want to make that clear um that it's not purely that, but there have been some student pro programming changes and placement changes that were not necessarily budgeted due to timing. So that is a factor to this cost in addition to where our allocations are and the one contractor provider. I just wanted to be >> that is there are some children who needed like specific services contracted out that we hadn't planned for. >> I can't speak to what the services and the programming and placements are. But there is yeah no no I know but I can't I can't say whether or not it was a contracted service or not. There's just some pieces to it, but there's

045been some pro programming changes >> that were we didn't have to repeat it here. We had to contract not necessarily not necessarily more than what was in the budget. So, we start this 18 months. >> Yeah. Prior prior. >> But um >> Got so if we were uh had a lot more contracted that number would be way worse. >> Yeah. Right. >> So just I'm just double checking it. So the special education line is not just staffing. It's also other needs that fall under that category. >> Everything. Yes. Correct. It's everything in our world. Yes. [laughter] >> It's a big line. >> Did you have anything else for? >> Nope. >> Excellent. All right. Thank you for that. Uh we're going to move on to the FY27 new items. >> Okay. So, um, for those

046of you who did not go to the governing board meeting, um, you don't know that the bad news is that health insurance rates came in at 15.1% higher than our current year. So, that's a huge increase. That's, um, unfortunate. Um, and we're looking to figure out if there are other options for that. But, um, next month you'll see the full budget, all the lines, the spreadsheet, so you can see what how it all plays out. But for right now, I wanted to share with you our new items. So, looking at academics, the bulk of the academics, teacher PD, new higher orientation, that's the NHO, building coaches, those are both at Hall Primary and Hall Upper Elementary, those are in the budget because it is unlikely for us to continue to receive title 2 funding from

047the federal government. Those have historically been funded via title 2. So now I'm moving those into the budget or requesting I do that so that we can um protect professional development for teachers. Um and then we are looking to purchase additional CKA teacher manuals for interventionists. When we purchased the program, we bought them for all of our classroom teachers, but we want to make sure all of our professionals have the materials they need. Um, we are also looking for both Hall's Upper Elementary and Hall's Primary to really dig into the stipens we pay teachers to do the incredible work that they do. So, this was a first proposal that I'm going to sit down with the principles and review what it looks like um, you know, whether it's to be a team leader or to

048be an MTSS interventionist or not interventious um, what's the title? >> Facilitator or um, to run homework club. We haven't changed those rates in many, many years. And so, um, so we'd like to, uh, take a look at that. Um, and then moving down to Hughes, we're looking at some robotics kits at $350 each and just increasing by a significant amount our band instrument repair line as that's becoming um, more of a concern around personnel. These are all um some some personnel pieces that we've been discussing. Um well, let me first start with the vision benefit. We piloted this year a vision benefit fully funded by the teachers uh well actually all staff if you choose to opt in. Um it's significantly cheaper for both um for the families if uh the district contributes. So,

049we're looking to potentially contribute $1,500 per school so that we can reduce the overall cost of the benefit. Um, the nursing requirements of our students um especially our youngest learners have really um increased. Uh, and so we're potentially looking at a half-time nurse at Hall's Primary. We're looking to increase our speech language assistant services from 08, so a part-time person all the way to a full-time person. The classroom teacher is the one that we already have kindergarten teacher. That's the unbudgeted one. Um, and then looking at Hughes, uh, we need a speech pathologist. We need to increase our occupational therapist from 0.5 to 1.0, so halftime to full-time. And then we need to add a case manager. Um, we're looking to potentially add a shared employee across the entire SAU. So, the Hall school district

050portion would be 25,000 and this would be a district database manager. So, years ago, we had a database manager and then when we converted to a director of technology um position, that position um took over a lot of the database manager roles. The problem is the state has increased the requirements tenfold and one person can't do all of it anymore. Um so we've been for the past couple years stipending out components of it. This current year it's been a little bit even um trickier because the role that our senior um administrative assistants played in it was larger but now the requirement is that it's a district level person doing a lot of the data manipulation. So that so I have to pull some of it back from them and and find someone at the district

051level. So um >> is that a state requirement? >> It's not. I mean it's not a requirement but it is a requirement that we submit all this data in the format that they are requiring. And um I can tell you that the three of us have gone student by student across 200 students to make sure that the piece of pieces of data we're submitting are as accurate as can be. But that's really not um my role. I should just be approving it once it's presented to me. Um so most districts have a database manager and you know so really for our size we should um but it's really become unbearable to not anymore just based on requirements >> and is that a part-time line item then for a DVA or you looking >> No, it's

052full-time but the Hollis portion is 25,000. So the idea is full-time position but to fund it with benefits would be about 100,000. >> Okay. Um, all right. For those of you who looked at this earlier than 5:00 tonight, you'll notice that I've already made significant cuts cuz I noticed a little calculation error. [laughter] But anyway, if you're looking at it right now under replacement computer equipment, this is our standard um four-year replacement cycle for Chromebooks and um staff Chrome laptops. So, that's all standard. Um what has changed was the interactive flat panels at Hollis Primary. If we get seven more that completes our our school um but it was showing 273,000. So it's really 27,300 [laughter] the budget left by coupon. [laughter] >> Um and then >> and this is of course for classrooms we

053have now. Not talking about any that are >> Yes. And so all of those pieces are part of >> what we're trying to figure out to outfit every classroom. Yeah. >> Got >> um but anyway, a wheeling cart for the gym panel. So having um a flat panel that can be a part of um schoolwide presentations, the um town town hall meetings, all of those things. Um music presentations, etc. That would need a wheelie cart. Um similar items for Hughes. Uh, an additional point is access points. So, they only last for so long, our access points. That's how we have um Wi-Fi throughout the building. Um, and they are coming up on end of life, which means that they were would no longer be serviceable um or updatable. So, we need to look to replace

054some of those. And we also need to mount them. So, in addition to buying the access point, we need the mounting. Um, we need some additional red cats. And um all of our teachers, it's best practice for all students, but all of our teachers wear um um >> microphones, level ears, >> microphones um around their neck. And that's so that there's an even distribution of sound for the students. Um so it's not like you get, you know, the best um uh sound if you're in the front and not in the back. It's projected throughout the room and that's been determined to be best practices. And so we need some replacement ones here at Hughes. Five of them. And then five more flat panels here at Hughes and I believe we're done. Moving on to safety

055and energy issues. So we need to continue to cycle through upgrading our radios, our communication system at both buildings. And then some of our emergency lighting in our buildings just needs replacement to make sure that it's um functioning in an emergency. Moving into maintenance. And this is um the section that at HPS in particular, it's like how much do we want to do if we know that there's a renovation, but um we are continuing the grade one desks and chairs replacement cycle. We were doing grade level at a time. Um so grade one would be the next to get it now. There we definitely have flooring needs and I was sitting with our director of facilities just before this meeting trying to figure out are these the rooms? Well, some of these rooms would be

056taken care of if the um if we put forward a renovation expansion and it passed, but there are still rooms that would be untouched by the renovation that would still require new flooring. So, um so as of right now, it's staying in this new items round. And then our floor machines are at end of life and so all of our buildings need floor machines. And when I started as assistant superintendent, floor machines was the big conversation and we bought them for all our buildings and now they're at end of life. So >> what is a floor machines? >> Um like to to wash the floors. Oh yeah. Um all right. At Humes access control. So um we all have fob systems. So this Gallagher system is an upgraded system that um allows for greater security.

057the floor machine. Again, um we're looking at classroom flooring phase five at Hughes. Our basketball courts outside, we replaced one of them, but not the second one. So, this would be the second hoop replacement and then associated paving around it. It's absolutely used every day all the time. So, it's definitely a highinterest area for students. Um we when we go into non-public I can show you sponge spruce that exists in our conference room. Um the desire is to have it removed and to sheetrock the walls. >> Is there a reason for that? The soundproofing. >> You cannot clean it. >> I see. Okay. >> Yeah. So you'll see quickly when we go get to the meeting why we need to remove it. Um, also phase two of grade 5 furniture, cabinet replacement, phase three, um,

058a few LED replacement lights, and then, um, continual track maintenance. So, we talked about like fixing up the track right before the start of the school year, but every year it requires a little bit. Um, this kind of maybe this sounds like a silly question, but um, why why are the basketball hoops why why are they $15,000? Um, so >> because they get put into the ground. >> Yeah, they're put into the ground with a pole and they have to be of a certain grade to be in a commercial or like in a public space, not a home. >> Okay. So, the paving that that has nothing to do with installing it. It's just >> the 15,000 is installing. It's in the ground. So, you have to dig it out, put the new one in.

059And then the paving is if you when you leave tonight, take a look like shine your your headlights on and you'll see that there's it needs to be repaved. And it's beyond it's not seal coating. It needs to be removed and repaved. >> Okay. >> So that's the new items. >> Any questions that haven't already been asked? >> Um can you just you kind of mentioned it, but can you define what a building coach is? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, each of our buildings, all six of them, they each have a building coach. When a teacher is hired, they're provided with an individual mentor. If I'm a new grade five teacher, I might have a grade five teacher mentor. So, they're going to help support me with curriculum, with what's going on as a grade

0605 teacher. The building coach is a large larger picture person that does anything within the building. Um, I mean they both can do a little bit about about this, but the building coach is more like this is where the copier is. This is how you do report cards. This is um how um you know, we're going to have a an assembly and that this is how it works here at Hall's Upper Elementary or Hall's Primary. U so they do more big picture support of that teacher. They also hold monthly meetings with all of the teachers. Um the mentors have individual meetings weekly. The mentors hold monthly meetings with all of the new staff in the school. The mentors also help support um arranging for um observation of other teachers. So if a new teacher is

061struggling with classroom management, the the building coach is going to coach them through strategies and say, "Hey, why don't you um take a look at Miss Rory's classroom? She does a phenomenal job." And then that person arranges for coverage so that the new teacher can observe the more experienced teacher who is experiencing some success in that area. Um and all the building coaches report to DOT and um and plan big picture things as we move forward for um you know hiring and planning of events for the following year. >> Okay. >> Um Gina, we've had some conversations about how we're only going to buy Chromebooks. Yeah. Um, we're not getting a lot of these, but there is a note about getting a few generic Windows laptops. So, this would be for maintenance. Um, some of

062the office staff. So, um, so there are some items that, you know, control the HVAC system. You can't do that on a Chromebook. >> I see. Okay. >> So, some it's based on um absolute requirements for um job function. >> Okay. Gotcha. Um, and then the robotics kits at Hughes, is that specifically is that for a club or is that for specifically science class? I believe that is for um Mr. McMullen's new role with um being a tech integrator. >> Okay. >> The technology teacher. >> We h we had um like 10 years ago and then it sort of faded off. We we did a whole robotics unit certainly in grade five and a little bit in grade six. Um but those are now aged out and no longer supported. There's no um software that

063can run them anymore. So we're looking to bring that back but in a way that we can do with today's technology. >> Okay. >> On the uh uh Chromebook laptop uh front uh what is the the frequency of replacement for this? >> Four years. Four years. Is that it for discussion? Before we move on, I'm going to take a quick moment to close public input at since we haven't had anybody join us. Um, our next item is the enrollment update. Enrollment committee update. Um, are we not going to do the um annual meeting calendar? >> Well, there's NASDAQ um report. So, it's just reallyformational to take a look at the updated report. And then >> on mine, it says town of >> I have annual meeting calendar and town of capital expenditure committee. >> Oh,

064yes. >> The printed agenda is different than the online agenda. >> Look at that. >> So, do we want to do one together? So, um, the annual meeting calendar. Did you see that? Or what's next? >> That's online, but it's not on the >> the annual meeting calendar. >> Other one. >> Interesting. >> Okay. Sorry. >> That's all right. >> Yeah, we can go through the annual meeting calendar and then we'll do the that and then do you >> Okay. So the annual meeting calendar um has gone to all of our chairs and our um moderators um to take a look at uh you know our public hearing dates etc. So some important dates for Hollis this year is um the February 10th and 11th 11th as a snow date for our um public hearing

065and so that's joint with the budget committee over in um >> Town hall. Yep. I just wondered if I told Emmy the wrong place to put on the calendar, but I will. [laughter] Sorry, and my mind is going in opposite directions. Um, and then moving down, um, Hollis this year is supposed to have a meeting that is before the co-op meeting and it's difficult to have a meeting the same week as voting. So, the Hollis meeting >> couldn't go the first week of March because of the public hearing dates that had been filed. There's space. >> Yeah. So, we're looking at March 17th as the annual meeting for the Hall School District with the 18th as a snow date. Um, we also were looking to have our bond hearing scheduled the same time as our

066public hearing on February 10th, assuming we're going to move forward with a bond proposal for a project at Hall's Primary. Um, I also remember feedback from last year that the middle school was too small for our meeting. So, I've um scheduled the Hollis School District annual meeting at the high in the high school gym. >> Yep. >> So, those are the calendars and it'll be posted um online in other locations, not just here within the agenda. >> Sorry, just because of the noise. What was the bond meeting date? >> The same as the public hearing the 10th of February. >> Okay. >> When we've had bonds before, it's just easier for us to kind of piggyback them to the same thing so people don't have to come twice. >> Mhm. >> There's just movement in

067the room of swapping who's running the meeting. All right. uh town of Hollis capital expenditure advisory committee update. >> Okay. Um so since the last schoolboard meeting there have been two uh meetings of the capital expenditure advisory committee. Uh the first one was uh presenting on Holl School District. The second one was on the co-op. Um and so when I was presenting uh for Hal School District uh I was focusing on the existing uh debt um that comes from HSTEP, HSmart and HCAP. Think I have that. Um and those have to do with um energy and and building maintenance needs. Um and so those three had uh been brought online at at different times and so they finish up at three different times. Um HTEP I believe uh comes off uh at the end of

068fiscal year 27. HRT uh school year 2030 and then HCAP uh 2033. Um and I think those will be helpful as part of the committee for as we combine uh uh the three entities into one seeing how these uh different existing debts um uh come off the books. Um and then uh we had uh some talk on the expansion uh project and was there so that she could uh present in more detail. Um we uh talked about the r the range of uh uh of cost estimates at that time. Um did like a back of the napkin bond calculation for what that would look like spread out across years. Um if it was kind of similarly set up to um uh what the co-op had for their most uh recent bond. Um and and then

069some talk on on some of the smaller items uh as well over uh the coming 5 years, but the the focus was was more on on the bigger items. Um and then on the the co-op side, uh it was uh kind of similar where they have their most recent bond from last year that was approved. Um and so they uh are are not planning on having a new one for uh for this year. Um but it was a a similar exercise of getting into the details of various capital. Um and so we now have a consolidated document that combines the town um school district and the co-op. Um and definitely still a work work in progress. Um still looking uh for updates from from each of the entities uh as we work towards our next

070couple meetings. Um I think a big update will happen when we have a better uh cost estimate from the expansion project. Uh that will definitely be um something with a lot of eyes on it. Um and uh something that that get has been brought up repeatedly by the chair uh Mark Cost uh is that he's always um uh willing to come by to one of our meetings um if uh the board would be interested um so he could uh have that communication going because it's uh one one really nice part about this uh committee has been like exch besides just like capital and putting all that on onto documents is exchanging um a a lot more information that maybe was uh falling by the wayside a little bit um since we don't have as many

071ch opportunities for meeting together. >> Is that document that you guys have something that you posted online? >> Uh I don't think so. Um we've been kind of sending it to to Mark um and then he sends it out to the committee. But I don't think because it's been such a work in progress I don't think it's been posted yet um cuz it's still in flux. I think he's going to be meeting with uh Tom Guian, the Budcom chair um and review stuff. I think that is in um a after our next meeting in approximately 2 weeks. So the next one is um a week from Monday. Um and uh I I would guess probably around that point would be when something gets posted. >> Perfect. Thank you, >> Matthew. What are the next uh

072goals of the committee? the next short-term goals. >> Um, that's a good question. Uh, we're trying to just have the the best information that we can uh all combined um so that it can be used as a resource um for budget committee for the each of the entities for the taxpayers um just so that there's just more insight into uh what is coming for the March meeting but also what's coming down the line. So, um, just I think refining the now that we have a consolidated document, there's still a lot of work to get things, uh, as accurate as possible. So, I think right now getting continuing to work on that. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Moving on to the enrollment committee update, please. >> Sure. So, since we last met, um,

073the enrollment committee and members of it have been all very busy. There have been a lot of meetings. Um, I attended the October 9th budget committee meeting and answered questions there of the budget committee. Um, I'm just updating them on where we were and where we were headed. Um on October 14th, we invited residents to um enter the meeting room of the Hollis Social Library and we went over um truncated version of the kind of presentation that you all received about the different drafts that were proposed um and ultimately um the one that was chosen for further refinement. We had about 14 residents come and talk with Gina, Paula, and myself. Uh Jess came by as well, which was great. Um it was nice just to have a casual conversation with members of the community.

074Um we also had our our town planner stopped by as well as a representative from the energy commission and both um expressed an interest in being a part of meetings. Um so uh that was a great point of contact as well. Um on October 16th um Paul Vbicki and I went and spoke to the Hollis seniors at Lawrence Barn and again answered their questions, made sure that they were aware of what was happening. many of our seniors were not aware that this project was in place and so we were able to dispel some misinformation, clarify some confusion um and most importantly make sure that the residents knew where to get good information um and who to contact for questions and a few have reached out to me since with questions and it was very positive.

075Um, I'm going to continue to communicate with um their leaders to make sure that um that group gets um accurate information as it comes available. Um, of course, as um Rafie mentioned, I spoke with the capital expenditure advisory committee on October 20th. Um, and um it's it's another way of trying to keep out communication. Um Juliana Roland from um Hollis Bookline Online attended both her October 14th and um October 16th forums that we had and she's written articles about um what she experienced there and she's been very supportive with getting the word out and um I wrote a short article for positively hollis that will come out in December that again because information is changing all of the time and I had to submit the article by October 22nd. Um that was mostly just giving

076people a little bit of a history of the project and again information on how to stay updated and what to look for um coming up and she has reserved um a large slot for the March edition before voting um to get make sure all the information is out there for the voters. So um those are our efforts to try and keep everybody informed. We do have another public forum now scheduled for December 4th at Hollis Primary School from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. And our architect team, uh, Banwell architects, um, EI, our electrical engineers, and, um, Fen O'Neal, the civil engineers, they will all be present to answer questions along with, um, of course, Miss FKOG, Mrs. Bicki, and myself, the enrollment committee. um we'll all be there uh to to help facilitate and um

077that discussion and and the information that's going to be presented that night. And we can expect there will be, you know, updates to cost estimates at that time and designs. Um some exciting things well beyond just a floor plan, but real updates. Um there's been a lot of work done. Um it's an excellent team that's working with us. We all feel very good about them and uh very creative solutions coming forward. >> And I think you forgot an important point. On October 24th was the big film day. >> Oh, that's right. Yes, that's right. [laughter] So many things. Yes. Um we do you want to talk about our filming? >> Yes. >> Uh what was the name of the crew that came to uh that was EI set that up, didn't they? Yeah. So, um,

078this this crew has worked with, um, the SAU in the past to with the boiler system, am I correct? >> To kind of, um, make a short film to educate the public on what they were voting for the the needs and of of the school and had, you know, different representatives, including Gina here, um, Lance Fenmore, our facilities director, and it worked really well. Gina said that that was really wellreceived by residents. It was very informative. So, we did the same thing here. So they came, they spent a whole day at the school. Um, interviewed Paula, Gina, Lance, any teachers? >> I'm not sure. >> Uh, myself, >> Brad. Brad from Banal Architects and they did a lot of filming the the the chaos that is the traffic um on 122, the carpool pickup and

079drop off um the the the situation of course without compromising any student privacy but just like the crowdedness of the school etc. So um that will be coming together and hopefully available before the bond is presented. Good call, Gina. Um, and then I asked Gina to um provide us with an update on what we've been doing as far as the spending for warrant article 6. So, um, residents can remember that warrant article 6, we asked for $164,400, which was based on estimates we had at the time to do the work that we're doing now. So, um, Gina, thanks for getting that together for us. >> Did you want to go over? >> Thank Lance Palamino for getting that. [laughter] >> There you go. Thank you, Lance. Um, so just looking at the items that we

080identified as needs, the vendors were selected, the budget, so how did we come up with 164,400 originally for the warrant article? So going back to where that figure came from, and then where the contracts have been coming in. So we were able to put together um construction manager consulting architectural pre-esign together as a one contract for 52,491. that's um you know banan wild etc. So we have spent 38,220 and we still have 14,270 um encumbered fuss and O'Neal is our site and um civil and sight engineering. The budget was 45,000. The initial contract came in at 19,450 plus 1300 um site fee. Um so that full amount is encumbered. We thought that was great. we had a lot of wiggle room and I really pushed the matter of let's not have anything hold us back.

081So I um requested that we move forward with wetland delineation, field studies, and geotechnical investigations. And the sum total of that was a whole lot more than I thought, but it's work that has to be done. And so that was $43,500. Um and then the civil and the additional egress. This is the additional egress from Hughes going to Rocky Pond. The cost of that study and the work there is 14,400. Um so we have spent 24,000. That doesn't make sense. That number is not right anymore. Oh, another bill came in and so this was only partially updated. It was updated and then yesterday was reupdated. Anyway, we've um we still have $32,859 uncommitted funds, but um so we're well within our budget. Um if we need to go over, we have some wiggle room, but

082that's where we stand. >> Thank you, Gina. >> Y >> for that. >> Any questions, comments, too? >> So, the civil additional egress came up because we're looking at the school expansion. It wasn't something previously planned. >> So part of the original concern was traffic. >> Yeah. >> And so the additional egress is a part of the traffic solution. It if we choose to move forward, it wouldn't be bundled with the HPS project. Um it would be a separate issue. Um, I I can share that I've met with um I've had many meetings with our civil engineering team, with um the fire chief, with our police chief, with um um folks from the town, um with our um conservation commission. >> Um and there are some barriers. the original deed to the conservation land behind

083Hollis Upper Elementary, although we have a right of access to um uh uh to the pump house. It does not state in the original deed that at some point later on in life, this could be the use or the purpose of this conservation land could change. That doesn't mean it's not possible. It just means that additional work has to be done involving legal in terms of how to modify a deed if there was in fact a desire to do so. I think there are some folks in town who might be opposed to creating an additional egress to Rocky Pond. I think there are some folks in town who would be very much supportive of creating an additional egress for safety and security purposes. So, um, as we work through this, there are a lot that

084a lot of different factors that we have to consider on how to proceed. Yeah, I I only asked because the wording of the article indicated that it was for the potential expansion >> and so I wanted to make sure that the civil evaluation for the road was directly tied to the expansion and not a separate bond that may come up later given that >> it could be a separate bond that may come out later. It could be a separate article, not a bond that could come later. I am so part of the original scope of the work was to include a traffic study. We made a decision early on that the traffic study couldn't really be conducted until um a site plan was developed because depending on the site plan, the traffic study would change.

085Um however, an additional egress is certainly um a primary concern for a lot of different reasons, but I don't want to lump that in because it's not absolutely a requirement of the expansion of HPS. Mhm. >> So I wouldn't want one to fail because of the other. >> Mhm. >> So um so I'm looking to keep them separate, but the scope of the 164,400 was to include all of those studies >> that that was referenced in our conversations with at the time it was um Kee Nordstrom Associates. We did speak specifically about that possibility at that time. Um, so it's just kind of a continuation of an idea that's been floating around for probably close to a year now. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make sure because I can imagine some voter being like,

086"But this isn't part of the expansion. Why did you use the money for it from the Warren article?" So, I just wanted to understand what the thinking is. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate the >> Any other questions, comments? Right. Thanks for that, guys. Um, moving into deliberation portion. um see what action the board will take regarding the proposed policy memo. As we all know, we do a policy memo that outlines everything that we're going to be voting on, but we do vote on them separately. Um so the first one we're pardon me for throwing things at myself. Um our first one is for JFAB, admission of tuition and non-resident students. I will accept a motion to amend number two by inserting the Hollis Brookline Cooperative School District following Hollis School District accept the third reading

087and adopt policy JFAB admission of tuition and non-resident students as amended. >> So move >> second >> discussion. This is the third read of this. Uh, no major changes beyond what's identified here. >> Any other conversation, folks? >> Just a question on uh timing. Uh, for in the third section, it talks about uh basing off of cost per pupil as reported on the MS25 DOE 25. Um is it would it be basically the previous year um based on the timing that if there's like a deadline of May? >> Yep. So um what we do is we submit that report and then it goes uh to the DOE. We submit the report uh of October goes to the DOE and then they finalize it. That is then published um sometimes in the end of December, sometimes

088the beginning of January. So what we have historically done is say that is the rate for the following school year. >> Okay. >> Um so this current year's 2526 was published I think it was January 3rd at 2025. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none. All those in favor of accepting. Thank you. Our next one is policy BEG. I'll accept a motion to accept the second reading. Wave the third and adopt policy BEDG, schoolboard governance and operations. So moved. >> Second >> discussion. >> Uh so again, you've seen this policy before. >> Um again, no particularly significant changes. Any questions? Yeah. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor? Our next one is IMBA remote learning. This is a new to district policy. I'll accept a motion to amend the heading of

089each of the numbered sections by replacing the period with a colon. Accept the second reading. wave the third and adopt policy IMBA remote learning as amended. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Discussion. >> Um so yep. This is a we talked about this some last month new to our district but um in general we sort of discussed we're already incorporating some of these opportunities in for students um as kind of needed. Well, folks at any bill changes um to the meat of the policy since our last reading. Excellent. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor? 0. Next is policy JLCF Wellness. I'll accept a motion to accept a second reading of policy JLCF Wellness. Moved. >> Second. discussion. >> Um, in the event the websites change, is that something that

090we would then need to read on the policy or >> Yes. Okay. >> Well, I don't know we'd have to read I'm uh nodding along to your question, Jonathan. >> Oh, sorry. No, that's okay. Um, I think we had talked about actually maybe taking out specific I think we checked and the email links or excuse me the email links the uh website links were active but I do think we had discussed >> we discussed wanting to remove the links. >> Yeah, that was an >> we often remove them. This is one of those policies that gets um the law changes annually and we are we see it every year. Um, so it's I'm less worried about these links because typically they tell you put these links in it. >> Um, because it's a resource to

091families. But yeah, in general, I don't like live links for that exact reason. >> It's not enough to have an objection. It was just an observation as someone who does >> many technical documents where the links go out of date very fast. >> Yep. So, any other questions or comments? All those in favor accepting the second reading of JLCF. Next up is policy EBCH, hazardous chemical safety provisions and hygiene plan. I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading of policy EBCH, hazardous chemical safety provisions and hygiene plan as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. So this was a policy that was uh we were sort of formalizing for the first time last year. Um you can see that we have made some clarifications to uh the end of the policy um around

092uh updating and the templates um and having making sure that you know um cleaning products aren't being brought in by other staff unless things are you know specifically identified as a career. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor accepting first reading 00. Next up is JLCK. I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading of policy JLCK, special physical health needs of students as presented. >> Second >> discussion. Um, I don't know if folks have any specific questions about this. Uh, it's not a new policy, but there are some updates here that you can see. It's still a pretty short policy, but just sort of outlining the [clears throat] types of supports that we provide um, around special needs of students. >> Was this recommended to be more robust than the oneliner that it

093used to be? >> That's my understanding. [laughter] >> It was a really strong line though. Yeah, >> it was. >> We just said we were going to do it and we meant that. >> This is an example of one of the policies that were on the um highlight. So, it's meeting that some of the new language around 306. >> Perfect. >> Why did we shift the policy from the district to the board? Shouldn't it be the district? The board is committed to helping >> boards. But like why is it the district >> by supporting a budget, >> okay, >> to support all the needs that are identified down below? Is there I mean I do think that's a fair question. Uh is there any difference between when we would use the language the district in

094the policy versus the board in the policy? >> Rarely use >> because that's strongly in line with the district. >> Yeah. >> That's why it felt weird to me. >> Yeah. we don't use that often. I don't know. I think that based on when some of these updates came out, there's um it might have been um a suggestion to boards that they need to support these requirements regardless of their personal opinion on whether or not they wanted to fund some of the requirements of making sure the health and wellness of our students was u maintained. in terms of special more complex health needs. >> I I don't think it's right though. This is not a board ccentric policy. This is a district ccentric policy. >> Well, we can bring that back to um committee. >>

095There are a couple instances of it in that first paragraph. >> Yeah. >> Like it could be it would be fine to say, you know, the you know, it's expected that we support the district. We support all of our policies cuz we're voting for >> Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, I don't understand why it needs to be in here. >> Yep. >> Well, and as a, you know, elected and completely unqualified and uh official to endorse some of these physical health needs, like that's not my area. I don't know. I agree with the sentiment, but yes, it's just weird. >> Yeah. >> So, this is just asking for accepting the first reading, so obviously come back. Um, do we have any other commentary on this one? All right, seeing none, all those in favor

096of accepting the first reading 00. Thanks for taking a closer look at that talk. Um, policy JIA. I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading of policy JIA, supervision supervision of students as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Um, >> discussion. So again, you can see this is a policy that we've had for a long time. Uh the previous policy was very short and we are uh just sort of being writing a little bit more here about um our commitment to having students be supervised appropriately. >> I'll note >> same comment about the board. >> First paragraph, the board is committed >> and this is this is um the National School Board Association. It's their boarding or New Hampshire rather. We'll have to check we'll check the language of the law because the

097law may state but if then we can change it to the district we'll bring it to the policy express any discussion >> I also um do it's maybe worth us looking at sometimes we talk about the phrasing of the building principle versus uh building administrators and we have the language building principle here and we might want to I don't know if it sometimes it has to be principal but I don't know if that's something we want to check in about is saying >> we can look at that policy >> yeah if it just gives us >> it can change to administrator >> it feels like generally having administrator gives us a little more flexibility >> right any other questions comments >> uh I was a little confused by the um the second to last line

098that's just talking about Um in schools where bus transportation is provided uh the supervisory duties shall include the loading and unloading when ne when when necessary of the students of the school. Um why the the the part when necessary would be needed there like would be automatic for loading unloading if the bus transportation was provided but maybe there's certain conditions. >> What does that what does that mean watching them get on and off the bus? I'm wondering if it's based on age. >> Yeah, the the level of supervision will vary based on need and age. >> Got it. >> All right. >> I also had a question around cuz I haven't done volunteering. So, when someone volunteers, let's say, and they're on a field trip, they would always be paired with a teacher with them

099or a staff member. They would never have a group of students on their It depends on a lot of different factors. We have a volunteer policy that determines all of that. >> Okay. So, the third paragraph in this says they would never be alone with the volunteer because students should be under the supervision of a member of school staff at all reasonable times while they are in school or attending school sponsored activities. So, that would impact volunteers would not be able to be with the kids without a staff member when reasonable being present. I wonder if the when reasonable I think that we should make sure we should check on that but does when reasonable give us enough flexibility to say like oh no like we're saying it's reasonable that they're with the volunteer here

100or does that conflict with our volunteer policy? I don't know if you have thoughts about that, daughter, Gina. >> I think that might need to be looked into more because when when reasonable is very broad and so I don't know that it automatically extends to protocols for trips and stuff. Um but >> well since it's it's school sponsored activities, the policy would apply to it. But yes, the reasonability on the activity is >> well open for interpretation. >> I mean we could talk about this for a long time, but I think it also is like based on interpretation. So the field trip always has staff members, but to your point, if there are smaller groups, >> is the trip overall still supervised >> um you know by staff members? Yes. But are they with every

101student at all times? >> No. So what is the interpretation of the language? >> Yeah. Super reasonable. Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions, discussion on this one? Seeing none, all those in favor accepting the first reading of JLIA. >> Great. Now you have several Title 9 policies. Is that what I'm seeing? Yes. >> Yeah. Do you want me to explain? Um, so as you may or may not know, we in I and so I gave everyone a cheat sheet that outlines what happened with the regulations, the dates and such, and then what the changes are. So in uh May 2020, there was a um update to the federal regulations surrounding uh Title 9 and harassment and discrimination, which fall under our policies AC, ACA, and ACAB. uh after a final ruling in April 2024,

102there was new Title 9 um regulations federally that fell into effect August 1st, 2024. So, we adopted So, we adopted the 2020 versions, I believe, actually in 2023. Um then 2024, there was new ones that came out. We adopted them right away in August of 2024. Then on January 9th, 2025th, the rule was uh vacated nationwide. So, we have to revert back to the 2020 federal regulations. So, what you're seeing here with the policies is taking out the 2024 ones that were adopted by the board, August 2024, and we're going back to the ones that were from the 2020 rules adopted 2023 by this board. So, I just created this cheat sheet just to refresh everyone's memory of what what the old federal regulations were and what the new ones were and now what we're

103reverting back to. So I can go through this or you can you know read it on your own. I just wanted to help because there's a lot of language involved. But I also want to note I just this is the most important takeaway from this because I know that there were some kind of thoughts and concerns. So in the 2024 regulations to the federal um they broadened the definition of sex to include gender identity uh sexual orientation and harassment that included sex stereotyping, sex characteristics, um parental family status, pregnancy and lactation. and then um what the standard for harassment was under that and then that the protected classes also included um sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. The federal regulations going back to 2020 remove those. However, you'll note on the back of the sheet, the

104state law of New Hampshire includes those as protected classes and includes those under the Title 9 statutes for the state of New Hampshire. Okay. So within the policy, the process and such that is more um strict, the burden of proof is different. That all stays under the federal process for that. But the definition of what is a protected class, we would follow the state definition where you may find a finding of harassment or discrimination under the state definition, but not necessarily the federal definition. If that makes it's very complicated, but if I I'll take any questions, but it's if that makes any sense. It does. And the reason we separated it out was currently we are not in compliance with the law. >> Yes. >> And so what we're looking to do is to um

105do it as a batch without the three readings. We need to put this into place. We can always bring them back in the future if you want to um review them. Although you just did in 2023. Um it was newly updated and adopted. Um, but we're trying to get into compliance because if we run into a Title N situation right now, we would it would be troubling because we're not using >> I can explain what would because if there's a situation where there's a Title N complaint, regardless of our policy, I have to bring I have to show the parents the old one. So even if you don't, so I'm asking you to do this, but even if you don't do this, I still have to follow the old one regardless of whether or not

106that's what's in place by the school district. I have to follow those procedures. Um, so that's why this has to get brought forward. >> And this isn't just here. We did it at all three. >> Of course. >> Thank you for doing this. >> Yep. >> It's very helpful. >> Short and sweet. A lot of >> Yeah, but it's very confusing. I remember when we went through all of this. It was a lot of work then and it, you know, and to have to do it again and have to figure it all out again. You you simplified it as best you could. So, um, appreciate that. >> Okay. So, first up on these title N policies is policy AC. Uh, I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings and adopt policy

107AC, non-discrimination, equal opportunity, employment, and district anti-discrimination plan as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. So what's seen in the document is the 2020 copy >> if you scroll down. So that's all the the old uh language is there and it has just has the line through it because that's just been struck and then if you scroll down a little further um what is that like maybe the third or fourth page you see the new >> Yeah. All the underlined is new but that's >> that was the old policy in 2023. So it's it's new but it was not. >> Yeah. Um, is that JICK, pupil safety and violence prevention still the correct policy? >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. >> That that's not affected by the federal regulations that are being >> we've

108been changing out some policies. So that's why I wanted to check in the last 5 years if that one changed. >> Yeah. No. Well, I don't know if it's changed in the past 5 years in general JICK, but >> a little bit, >> but it's not tied to this. >> Yeah. Whatever chang >> there is a policy such that it's J. >> Correct. Exactly. Y. Any other discussion on this one? All those in favor of accepting the first reading wave subsequent. Next is policy ACA. I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings, and adopt policy ACA, harassment and sexual harassment of students as presented. So moved. >> Second. discussion. Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting the first reading and waving subsequent of policy ACA. Next up is ACA A-R.

109I'll take a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings, and adopt ACA-R student discrimination, harassment, and title 9 sexual harassment complaint procedures as presented. >> So moved. >> Second >> discussion. >> I'm not seeing anything marked as changed. Is that accurate? >> Um, so the for ACA, ACA R, ACAB, ACAB R, we're literally just showing you bringing forward the old policy. Um later on we're going to ask that ACA R1 R2 like all of those are rescended because this is exactly the policy that was already in place a year ago. We just need to go back. So the compliment because it wasn't like a one for one. Um there was an ACA but the ACA R turned into R1 and R2. So, >> so we have to adopt R to then >> Yes.

110Because the way the regulations were out outlined, you had to separate out certain components that you did not have to do in the other version. >> Okay. >> Yes. They like to make things as complicated as possible. Yes. And I actually I actually forgot that part. I blocked it out. >> I'm good. >> Intentional blocking. >> Yeah, exactly. [laughter] >> Any other discussion on this one? Seeing none, all those in favor [snorts] accepting first reading waving subsequent 5. Next up is policy ACAB. I'll take a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings and adopt policy ACAB, harassment and sexual harassment of school employees as presented. So move. >> Second >> discussion. Is this going to this going to change our videos? I'm sorry. this going to change our videos. >> The training the

111training that we do >> the training videos have already been updated based on the [cough] regulations. We're just um trying to play catchup. >> Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting the first reading waving subsequent ACAB-R. Uh, I'll take a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings, and adopt ACAB-R employee discrimination, harassment, and title 9 sexual harassment complaint procedures as presented. What? Okay. >> I already wrote Jesse's name down. [laughter] Sorry. >> Usually the policy person does the does the >> Do you want to at least >> I got excited. I'm sorry. I got excited. >> I feel [laughter] great about it. >> Excited about policy. >> Well, maybe next year you can be policy and you can do the first move. discussion on this one besides about

112Jonathan's future on this [laughter] seeing none I'll take uh excuse me no I won't all those in favor of accepting the first reading and waving subsequent okay I will take a motion to resend ACA-R1 ACA-R2 ACAB-R1 and ACAV-R2 so moved >> second >> discussion seeing none all those in favor of resision >> okay thanks for the detail on that um do we need a nonpublic yes >> we do for C and D and >> which one's Um, >> that is not >> consideration of the acquisition, sale or lease. Got it. Okay. >> All right. I will accept a motion that the board by roll call go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91-8 3 section 2 A or excuse me C to discuss a matter which if discussed in public would likely affect adversely the

113reputation of a person other than a member of the body or agency itself. and C to discuss a matter which if discussed in public I'm reading it again. Oh my god. D consideration of the acquisition, sale or lease of real or personal property which if discussed in public likely benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community. >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> John Fontaine. Sorry. >> And spell I >> Jessa Hens. >> Carol Roy. I >> Zac I >> 0. We going into non-public at 7:38. We will not be conducting any other business after we come out of non-public other than to address. Thank you very much for tonight. >> Oh my goodness. Thanks Bill. Thank you.