Hollis School Board Meeting 10/1/2025

001regular meeting of the Hollis School Board. It is October 1st. Shaatva to all of our friends who celebrate. Um we are going to start with agenda adjustments, nominations, resignations, and correspondence. And just to let you know, we have a packed agenda tonight. Lots of things that I think folks are going to talk about um and chime in on, which is wonderful. Love to see people in the seats rather than empty seats. So, this is great. Um but we're going to definitely try to keep things going. And I just want to uh if I talk fast that's a little bit why feel free to let me know if I'm going too quickly. So now to you for agenda adjustments and go. >> I don't have agenda adjustments. I do have um it's not really a nomination

002as it doesn't have to go um and be approved but we did we were able to fill our long-term sub position in kindergarten with um Sigano who comes to us with 20 plus years experience as a classroom teacher principal and curriculum director. So we are very lucky to have her join us and she will begin mid to late October. So we're excited to welcome her. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Anybody else have any agenda adjustments that we want to highlight today? Nope. All right. Now, we're going to move into the um approval of minutes from our September meeting. Flipping my pages. Thank you. Um I will accept a motion to approve the minutes from the Hollis School Board meeting of September 3rd, 2025 with the following amendments. Page two, line 37, correct spelling of

003house. Page four, line 13, delete during, open, following, and available. Page five, line 20, delete the backslash. Page six, line two, insert which before involves. Page 14, line 19, replace event with even. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? 400. Thank you. Also, we'll take a motion to accept the meeting minutes for the Hollis School Board non-public session on September 3rd, 2025. So, moved. A second. >> Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? 400 Z. Thank you so much. Um, we are going to open public input a couple moments early. It is 6:03 right now. Um, for coming to the mic, we need you to state clearly your name and your address and you get is it two minutes? >> Two minutes to

004speak. Uh, we don't have to reply to you, but we can choose to do so. Address all of your talk to me as the chair. So, I invite anybody who would like to speak to come to the mic at this time. I just gave that whole speech and nobody >> can take off on it. >> That's okay. We'll leave it open for 30 minutes. Okay. If anybody new comes in, but this is your call. If you're here in the audience, this is when you want to talk. Still nothing. I got nothing. All right, that's fine. So, it's here. All right. We're moving on to Hello. Hello. Our beginning of year reports from our principles uh to talk about their building goals presentations. Um, HPS and Muse. >> Okay. All right. >> Can you clearly state

005your name and >> Yes, I will. Yeah. Um, so, uh, because we have such a packed agenda, we were wondering if we could get through the slides and then at the end we'll have a couple minutes for questions if anybody has any. So, if you could take notes as we go, that would be great. Um, I'm Paul Vicki. I'm the principal at Hollis Primary School. Candy Fowler, principal at Hughes. We have Abby Dia as our curriculum administrator at both HPS and Hughes and um Sarah Pru, our special ed administrator both at HPS and Hughes. Um we want to welcome you to our beginning of the year presentation. This is something we do every year to let you know what is going on in our buildings and how we're going to go about our year. Um

006first and foremost, we always like to welcome our new staff to the building. Um, we have head custodian Bob Fischer, kindergarten teacher Katherine Boddet, second grade teacher Nicole Jones, self-contained K to3 teacher Connor Howard, um, a paraprofessional, you have to excuse me, I spelled her name wrong. It's Sarah Duchenzo. Um, and um, our new food service worker, Karen Crossman. >> Welcome to all. >> At Hughes, we have um, professional support staff as well. Sarah White House is a reading specialist. Colleen Costa, our new fifth grade teacher. Lauren Ferishedian and Ely Basley are our fourth grade teachers. Karen Kelly returns as a long-term sub for fourth grade. And our um support staff, John Beetle is a returning um pair educator. Paris Andre uh shifted over from the cafeteria to working with us in in classrooms. Uh

007Sophie Levat, Lauren White, Laura Setmier, and Jacob York are all pair educators. And then Nick Espazito is our SRO um replacing um Officer Kush who went back into full-time duty at the police station. We always want to make sure that we update a lot of facilities work that has gone into our summer work. And um this year at HPS, we had our adult bathrooms renovated, which were awesome. Um we had uh flat flat panels installed in classrooms that didn't have them. Um and a lot of as you will hear uh movement and such. So you also see our um lovely administrative offices that we have this year. But um we've been sort of working to make sure that everybody can fit and do what they need to do. And um you know we're all making

008some little sacrifices there. So, um, keeping in mind that we're making the work at HPS, um, we're being very mindful of what we do yeartoear based on what's coming up in the future. At QES, we also were able to install eight interactive smartboards, which I didn't take a picture of, so thank you Paula for doing that. We um have had a chance to repair the fencing, as you can see on the lefthand side. Many of the slats are open. The kids love it because they can fit through there and get to line first. just not as safe as we want them to be. Uh so now it's really safe. Um just today the bottom middle picture was our track and I did not know how great grass would grow with no rain. Absolutely no rain

009this summer and it overgrew the track which has never happened before in the summer. I came back and I'm like where's the track? Um so Brewer Landscaping just came out today and redid the whole track, put some extra um hard pack on and they actually did the baseball diamond for us. So, the first year we've had a amazing baseball der. We're excited. We always have to put a lot of um the rubber mulch on the playground. So, one of the things that we're really careful are is any of the concrete footings. They have to make sure that they're covered with so many inches. Um that is what it looks like before children play on it and then afterwards it's just it's all over the place. And very exciting phase for cabinets for us. Phase number

010two was getting all of the really old cabinets in the computer room to the new ones as you can see in the top uh left right hand side. And then all of our girls bathroom, all of the stalls for the boys and girls now at the upper elementary school have been um redone. So, we're going to be off to the adult bathrooms next, but they look beautiful. Before we get started with our goals, I just wanted to make sure I touched base on all of our enrollment updates and next steps. For those who were able to make our last presentation, our or our first public forum, um this slide may look very familiar to you, but um after we left our last public forum where we were able to share um uh the options that

011you see here today, um we went into uh staff got to see, we got staff feedback that's been given to our um architect and such. Um we are going to be uh you'll be hearing a lot more about that in costs and such tonight. Then um after that we uh midocctober the 14th and do I have I have that correct? Right. October 14th we will be holding um during the day around noon um at the Hollis uh social library a um a forum for anybody who would like to come in and chat and get to know more about the decisions where we are where we're going. Um we're really hoping to get um people in to really understand what's going on. Our goal is to really reach out to everybody that we can. Um tonight

012you'll be making a a big decision on that. Um and then we'll be going through some of the um other stages that will be, you know, reiterated uh this afternoon. Um, we can't stress enough for whoever's listening tonight that public attendance and feedback is welcome at all any schoolboard meetings, any enrollment committee meetings, and any public forums that we have. So, our next one on the docket, just to put another plug in, is on 10:14 at 12:00 at the Hollis Social Library. Hi, I'm going to talk a little bit about our goals and our first one is focused on culture and climate. Um, our goal is to foster an environment of mutual appreciation and respect. Um, doing that through building and continuing to build strong relationships with students and families, engaging in professional collaboration to

013implement inclusive practices that support the academic and social needs of every child. Some of the ways that we are already doing this are through PLC's, RTI, um team meetings, working together. The special education team meets weekly to um support teachers and figure out things to help in the classroom. Our specialists have been fantastic coming up with ways to adapt their specials like adaptive PE um working on strategies to support students with some more intensive needs in the classroom, which has been amazing. Um the paras and new people that we have working in the building have been great for collaboration. I just want to say that we're down to only one contracted parah. We've done a lot of interviewing and hiring over the summer which I feel like is amazing. And we have a lot of

014great new par profofessionals in the building that are really supporting students and working great with teachers. Our next goal is around curriculum instruction and assessment. Um, so our goal is continuous improvement for each student's level of achievement and growth. As you guys have heard me discuss over the last couple of years, curriculum has been really, really busy. We've done a lot of work evaluating where we were in the district and what things we wanted to move towards in terms of meeting our academic goals for students. Last year we implemented CKLA program at the upper elementary school and we implemented Eureka Squared math program at the primary school. Now we're moving into year two of both of those programs and I think teachers feel excited to start off the year like really having a game plan

015and knowing what tomorrow is going to look like. Um so I think teachers are feeling good about that change and um comfortable in those programs as they continue to learn and become experts in them. This year we're also adding CKLA, which is the literacy program at the primary school. Um, and we're offering a lot of professional development time during each of the early releases so that teachers can become more familiar with those programs. And then across both buildings, we're really focused on best practices in education to meet the needs of all students in the regular tier one instruction. We've adapted some of our building schedules and also adapted um some schedules for specialists like reading specialists, math specialists to be pushing into classrooms more to get a good idea of exactly what students are learning

016so they can better support them in our intervention model. So we've made a lot of changes and we're excited for um those to continue. Surprise, surprise. I have the facilities and grounds um goal. Uh but uh SAU41 school district will continue to maintain and keep its uh phys in good physical repair its physical assets as they relate to all facilities and grounds. Um obviously we are going to talk about the enrollment committee. I'm not going to go uh too much into that. But um second um which we have been very mindful of is our budget even this year and the years going forward until we possibly have a solution. Um I met with um uh all of my uh all of my staff and talked about budgets and what we have looking forward and every

017single person came to me and said let's just leave it as it is because we want to make sure that we can get what we need. So, we're being very mindful of where we are now um and where we hope to be in the future and um what we can work with. Um we also collaborate um with our facilities and building supervisors to make sure that everything that is coming down the pike we are aware of and what's going on in our buildings. Uh this year we are having um uh every other month meetings with Lance Finemore and our building supervisors to be able to keep that communication even clearer which is great um when it comes to all of those things. Um it's just such a big thing to tackle. So having um consistent

018meetings and more collaboration on that helps and um that also goes with between both buildings. So Paula is talking about her budgets and her teachers. We also do the same thing up here saying this is something that we really need for the primary school. We we're not going to be asking for, you know, the skyway or the the new playground or things like that. Um just because >> Did you say skyway? >> I want a skyway as like over, you know, car poolool. It's going to be amazing. It's like it's gonna be amazing. We're going to hold on that until the enrollment committee. Um, but we do look at that together and say this is something that we need right away and that's we'll we'll put that in there but this is something that can

019wait and just trying to be financially responsible for the things that we ask for um for the benefit of all the students and that the community can support that. I want to go back to what Sarah was saying how we only have one contracted parah in the whole you know district and that is because of all of the work that you and the support staff did on that new contract. So, I know you heard us maybe say thank you before, but it really made a huge difference when we were talking and hiring people and that is why when we were looking at all them like I've got to say thank you on behalf of our team because it just feels really good to have some interviews and people say yes at the end to the

020offers especially when they're amazing and we want them and then they say no I didn't know you know even though we tell them there was no benefits or anything like that. So that's made a a a big huge difference. Um every year we talk about communication and what we know all the things that you read um doing research whether it's business or education or schooling communication matters and when people feel that you're communicating openly and transparently it builds trust and rapport. So um even though there's not an official goal on there that's always an underlying goal for everyone K through 12. And so new this year, trying to give everyone a peak into our school day is we created Instagram accounts which are really fun. If you're not following us, you should totally follow us.

021Um because we are posting amazing things. Uh our our welcome back video was awesome. So, you know, kind of kind of be friends with us at HPS Hawks, Hughes Hawks, and then all of the schools in SAU41 have that similar naming piece. It's just kind of giving you a peak. You don't get to come in and see what we do. you give us your most precious possessions every day and we want to give back to say here's a quick peek at what this bulletin board might look like or what students might be doing. Um, and we're working on making sure we don't post any pictures of students that we're not supposed to do and we'll figure all those pieces out as we go. Um, I feel like the parent square communication has really leveled up

022our communication with with families where you can message someone really quickly, you can fill out those field trip forms while you're waiting in the carpool line, right? You can do it electronically. It's amazing how efficient >> No parent has ever done that. >> I don't think so. >> Not anyone in this room anyway. >> While you're just idling, waiting for the bell to ring, not driving. Um and then we have a really um amazing connection with our Hollis fire department. You might have seen them at the primary school doing fire prevention. They'll be up here doing fire prevention. They ask us every year, can we come in? They're taking time out of their day. We have they have some staff who are coming in to work on their days off just so they can come

023and do some lessons with our students. And then we also have a really strong um connection with the Halls Police Department. Uh new this year is their comfort dog. He visits us. His name is Skippy. He might be a little bit more popular than any of us in this room. Um there's a line for Skippy. You know, we're signing him up and uh it's really fun. We just had Skippy um get read to in the library with some kids who were like laying on the floor reading a book in sixth grade. I mean, that's pretty amazing, right? So, uh, we really do appreciate that communication and we hope the message comes across from all of our districts and schools that we want to hear from you. You people always say, "I'm sorry to bother you.

024You're not bothering us. This is this is a collaboration." So, we really appreciate that. And of course, there's so much to look forward to this year. Um, I I guess enrollment decisions is going to be huge. Sorry for saying that again, but um, no, it feels really good to be invested in something that has really come together this far and and hoping that, you know, we can continue to gain some traction and and and get some community engagement around that. I just can't stress enough that, you know, we want everybody to really know what's going on at our school so that they can have input to get us to where we need to be. um upcoming events throughout the year that we always love. Our Veterans Day celebration um school board, you will um get

025an invite at some point to come um see and and celebrate that with us. Um we have town meetings each month that are hosted by students. Um our specialist uh team puts that all together and our uh students are the ones that run all of our um assemblies so to speak. Um we were we because of space we were not able to have a a book fair last year and um that was a really a disappointment to to everybody. So this year we are having an afterchool book fair. So we're going to do it after school hours um one evening um to make sure that we can get that back in play somehow um because it just wasn't didn't feel good to not have one last year. Um we are engaging volunteers more. we had

026a, you know, we don't need volunteers in the lunchroom every so we've been trying to find other ways to get volunteers in and um now we have PLC Mondays where students go out to recess when they come to school um every single Monday and it has been the biggest hit that I I've never heard so so much positive feedback from students being outside uh the different age levels playing together um just the calmness that they come in with after playing outside for a while And um it's just it's been it's been really positive from teachers, from parents, from students. When can we do that again? When's the next day we're going to do that again? Can we do this every single day? Um a lot of pressure. And like I just just one decision at

027a time. And then um but um we do have um five parent volunteers coming every Monday morning to help out. And as soon as we put that up, it was booked up through December. So, um we're just trying to get parents um engaged and um getting into the schools and and and volunteering sometime, which they're always more than happy to do. Few things, just another things. We did have Skippy visit us as well. Uh he's been coming around to every grade level. He hasn't made it all the way around yet, but um as you can tell, he's a little bit of a um you know, he gets a few pets when he comes in. Um we were had a great opening. Uh great start to the year. We always have a you know very special

028guest kind of join at carpool every first day of school to wave everybody in. So our hawk is there welcoming everybody. But um this year has been it's been knock on wood a great start to the year and I think we're going to have a great year as we continue to go through. >> I'm just going to go to the celebration slide. I'll I'll talk to the other pieces of looking ahead. These are some of our celebrations. We um have a get to know you board. Uh we did the office staff and then we are going to um put up our pictures from when we as staff were in fourth, fifth or sixth grade. So you're definitely want to check that out at your next board meeting because we'll have Aby's working on it right

029now. And every time I hear like laughing in there and this is the cutest picture and then there'll this is the best picture. So we want kids to see us when we were in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. >> Is that right out here? >> It's right out here. So it's that board right out there. So, right now it's get to know your office staff. It's me, Abby, Sarah, the nurse, and our both of our um administrative assistants just to kind of see who they are. And kids do stop and look and it's really nice for them to know that we're people outside of our jobs as you know the principal. Um every every day if you're in carpool and you come up to drop your students off, you will hear music and you will

030actually see dancing. If you follow me on Instagram, you'd already know that because there's a dance video on there. Um, but this is super important. The staff that are out there asked me last year again, you're gonna put us on carpool again, aren't you? Sure. You want to do that, dudy? And they bring up a new mix every day and they greet kids and it's delightful to see students going over, engaging, being excited to come to school. So, that's what it's all about. >> And they even have dog treats. So, if your dog's in the car, they'll run. They do have dog treats and they will race after the car to give the dog a treat. It's super cute. Um, so if you're looking for something to deliver, you could bring some dog treats to

031us, but we're not allowed to give them to Skippy because Skippy has his own food. Um, so as we're looking ahead, you know, many of the things that we do every year become these amazing traditions that we look really forward to, like our annual talent show and craft fair, our Veterans Day and Memorial Day celebrations, you know, seeing the veterans come in year after year and saying, "This is so great. Thanks for remembering us." That those are the why we're doing these things. and kids who write poems and and want to be part of those performances. When we talk about, you know, our awards, we just had an amazing wing awards ceremony and um Mrs. Fowler might have made a few mistakes because teachers switch grade levels and I put them in the wrong folders

032and I came and they're like, um, no, Mrs. Fowler, that's the wrong grade. So, I had to run back out. Then I come back in. Then I then I forget a whole class because that teacher was in fourth grade. And they're like, Mrs. Fowler, it's okay. Third time's a charm. Excellent. Thank you. No one's perfect. Um, but they really look forward to growing their wings and and becoming these amazing Hawks who can then soar into middle school and high school. And it doesn't happen just here, right? We bring them up. You're already working on those awards and and those types of things. And then lastly, I will say a few years ago, you might remember us installing all the water bottle refilling stations. And this year we have a little environmental science club who is

033working and earning sore hours for community service and keeping track of how many water bottles we're saving. And I I randomly said we're going to set a goal. We're going to save a thousand water bottles, you know, over the course of the year. Well, the numbers are in for September. We've already saved 2,182 water bottles. I'm going to need a bigger goal, but that's exciting, right? And they're working on the data. And just out today, we also do food composting, which you know we do in the cafeteria. We're doing it in the classrooms. We have saved 33 pounds of food waste from classrooms to put in our composters. So, math and action, all of those great things. We really appreciate your support in everything you're doing. And that is the end of our slideshow. We

034have about two and a half minutes for questions. >> I'll set a timer. I'm gonna swap out the >> Can I ask Abby a couple quick questions? >> Sure. >> Um Abby, we have been like really there's been like the CLA roll out and Eureka and like lots of figuring out math and or math and um English stuff and I am wondering if there there doesn't need to be but I'm wondering if there are other like looking forward are there updates that we need to make to our science curriculum or to other areas or are those things have those been updated recently? >> Sure. Um, so for science specifically, um, we have for science and social studies, we have pretty, uh, laid out like what we're going to be teaching at each of those grade

035levels. Um, you can see it on the SAU website. Um, and then we did a lot of revising with our science curriculum when we added environmental science here at Hughes. So, we made sure that all of the science standards were being u met and kind of pulling some from each grade level to see what made sense to happen in the environmental science classroom and what made sense to have teachers keep as kind of their classroom content. Um, and then we have a lot of them working together. Uh, I do think we as we get more familiar with CKLA, it does address a lot of the science and social studies standards, which is fantastic. And at some point, we'll kind of reook to see how they're being aligned. Um, in science and social studies, it talks

036about grade bands. So, it'll say you should be teaching these topics in grades 3 to five, anywhere in there. Um, but we might look to see, you know, what really makes sense u once we become more familiar with CKLA. you know, does it make sense to teach this topic in fourth grade or should it be moved to third grade? Um, so making some of those fine-tuning decisions, um, will definitely happen. Um, but at this point, it's hard to focus on everything. Um, and we do have, um, teachers are already addressing everything that needs to be addressed. Um, but we'll continue to revise it as we become more familiar with our additional content. >> Yeah, that's great. >> Thank you. >> Um, >> and that was the two and a half minutes. No, I'm just kidding.

037>> I'm kidding. You're good. Before you step away, can you just give a quick definition for tier one versus other types of instruction out of >> Absolutely. So tier one instruction is the instruction that happens in a general classroom and it's the instruction that all children receive. Um for students when we look at data and we say, "Oh, this student needs additional support." Um that's kind of tier 2. And so that happens in addition to what they're getting in their regular ed classrooms. and it happens either during a wing block, which is here at Hughes, or an RTI block at the primary school. Um, so they're not being removed from any of their instruction. They're getting additional instruction on top of that. Um, and then tier three is more specialized with individual learning goals. Um,

038mostly happens during like a a special ed setting. >> Okay, thanks. >> Great question. >> Um, >> thank you. >> Yeah, I had a question from a scholar. >> I'll allow it. >> Okay, if you wouldn't mind. Um, you, Mrs. >> Yes. Sorry, I was too quiet. >> Candy, come on. >> Um, so you said the cabinet phase two was completed for the computer room. Is there a phase three? >> There is. You'll >> sit tight. Budget conversations coming up soon. >> Can't let go all the secrets now. >> No, I you know um >> No, that was great. That was all I had was just >> We'll try to >> keep them short. Try to keep them short. >> Got to get new cabinets maybe. >> Yeah. All right. And I had one for

039Mrs. Bicki if that was loud enough. >> I'm I'll allow that as well. >> Okay. >> Um, so for PLC Mondays, yes. >> Um, I'd seen the call for volunteers that went out. >> Yep. >> I just wanted to clarify. So the volunteers are an optional solution to get volunteers more into volunteering. Um, >> yes. >> Versus a necessity because we're short. >> Correct. We have plenty of staff members out there and um actually a parent had emailed me and said, "Hey, I would love to volunteer." And I thought, >> well, why not? More adults wouldn't hurt. So, just kind of picked a number that seemed to fit and um it's been going great since. >> No, that sounds like a great way to engage community. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yep. You're welcome.

040>> I'm good. >> All right. All right. Moving. I love it. Thank you, guys. Appreciate all of you for being here. All right. Our next one is going to be our Hollis Primary School enrollment committee presentation. >> So Ann, would you like to introduce? >> Yeah. So for this um for those of you who've been following along, our architectural firm that's been working with us is Banwell Architects and we have here Brad Prescott today who will be presenting um the work that they've been doing with us thus far. >> Hi Brad, nice to see you. >> Hey everybody, nice to meet you all. It's very happy to be here. We've been having a a great time working with the enrollment committee and and the executive team on this project and I think we've made a

041lot of progress. I'm really happy to be able to report what we've done so far. With me today is Matt Gifin from Banwell Architects. He's a project designer and Mike Davyy who's the president of EI uh doing our engineering and our cost uh uh estimates. and then um Timothy Dunovan who is our uh project executive and he's also been working on those same things. So we're all going to be uh speaking at one point or another. I wanted you to know who was. >> So, um, thanks. >> As all of you, I think, are aware, we did a a public forum, um, on the 17th of September, and, um, those poor people had to listen to me talk for probably a little over 30 minutes, and I was asked today to to cut that down

042by by twothirds. So, uh, and so I'm going to, um, take pity on you and not read these slides. I I understand that you have seen the presentation from the 17th. A lot of the slides we have tonight are um a duplicate of that. It's sort of a rehash. So if you had an opportunity to look at the slides from the 17th, this is this is a a recap of that. We took a lot of slides out that were on the 17th to kind of shorten this. Uh and then uh maybe most importantly to some people uh we have an additional slide which has a cost uh opinions of the three different options we're going to be showing you tonight. So that's kind of the big picture if that makes sense to everybody. >> If

043I go too fast just raise your hand and say Brad, you know, and if you have any questions while I'm going through it, I'm very happy to to hit those uh as we're going. So, so tonight we're going to go through those uh those design options. Um we and then um we'll be discussing the the cost uh review of those options. Uh we're hoping at the end of the evening that the um that the school board will be signing off on the preferred selected option um that the executive team and the enrollment committee's executive team have have endorsed um so that we can move on to a next phase of refining a selected option and costing that out for you. And of course we'd like to go through any questions and comments. Uh we keep

044reiterating and I think it was said before by Paula that um all of our meetings are uh at the aroma committee and this are very public um and there will be many more meetings for the public as well as upcoming meetings for uh with the uh school board. So this is by far uh not the last opportunity for anybody to weigh in and influence this design. Um in terms of a process, we're about a half to twothirds of the way through this. Um we made a a lot of progress through the next couple of slides. There's some detail on that. Um but essentially we did some information gathering um of the initial um project and who's the stakeholders, what process do you want to go through, how are we doing on enrollment projections. We assess

045the existing conditions of the existing building um and uh try to understand where some things needed to be approved in the physical building. uh we did a deep dive into the um programming of the building to understand exactly what spaces are needed to satisfy and and deliver the curriculum that you've decided to provide the students of Hollis. Um and then uh we came up with five different solutions um that we thought were were helpful. uh we got a lot of feedback on those and we were asked to uh narrow that down to three options which we have then uh asked EI and they have provided a uh some cost opinions on um for those. So our next step is to take the selected final option and refine that and get some tighter pricing on that

046to bring to you um and then of course there'd be some outreach necessary for a potential uh bond vote in March. So again, I was talking about before how we had um five, now we're down to three. Uh all the options, uh their goals are to try to reuse as much of the existing building as possible the way it is now. Um you've invested a lot of money in the last uh 25 years, eight different renovations by my account, um to really do a great job at bolstering this building and keeping it functioning properly and stabilizing it. We do not want to be eroding any of that investment unnecessarily. So, this project is really about um just doing selective reconfigurations where it's absolutely necessary and minimizing the disruption to this investment that you've already been

047making into the building. Um and then um keeping the the second and third graders uh in a place that works well for the fire and safety codes as well as the curriculum. uh keeping the the students together uh in great pods as much as possible, creating safe exits where we might have um some areas that were falling short um and dispersing special education spaces throughout the building uh along the uh amongst the uh the general instruction spaces. So this is again more bullets. I'm not going to read them all. A lot of detail there. Um the first option of the three um that we moved forward on is uh we call it option 1A. Um the gray here is the existing building. This is uh route 122 or or Silver Lake Road. So the road

048uh up to Drew Road up to Hubes is here. Um back of the building is here. So, what we're proposing here is on the north side of the building a multi-purpose room from addition that also has a library um and uh creative arts for music and art and a new kitchen in the back and two new classrooms in a one in one addition in the back of where the preschool and the environmental science is right now. So, what that looks like in plan is um just to orient you guys a little bit here, the light green are general instruction classrooms. So, kindergarten, first, second, third grade. Um, the purple are um special education spaces or individual instruction spaces. Um the the orange is administrative and administrative support spaces. And the yellow is core spaces like

049um uh library, cafeteria, gym, um functions that happen through for the entire school. Um >> Brad, can I clarify really quickly? >> Absolutely. So you're saying I mean when I look at this plan I see right here that's where the office is right now. You're saying that would become a general education room. >> That's correct. >> Okay. I just want to make sure I understand. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. So it moves that main entrance to the center of the bottom to see where it's just an entrance kind of real close right there. >> I see. Thank you. >> Thank you for indulging me with the color coding discussion. Uh if anybody at home is looking at this online um from the from the website because all this information is available on the SAU website. There

050is a color legend up here so you don't have to remember all these little details. Um so option 1A as it as it highlights up here um puts the addition on this side of the building on the north side. We also relocate, as you pointed out, the administration um area that's right now in the middle of the building with this entrance and we've moved the entrance down here more toward the the actual middle of the new massing of the building and closer to where the parking would be uh over here and also with good monitoring of the front of the building at at Route 122. Um that was considered a positive by many. Um, another feature of this on this edition, what you're looking at here is once you've come in and you have your

051administration, which is secure, so parents visiting the school don't have to travel through the whole school to to get to a conference. Um, beyond that, we have a good segregation of these core spaces for a multi-purpose room with a stage and a cafeteria and its own kitchen that's right sized over here. Um, no more traveling right through an existing cafeteria to get from one end of the school to another. Um, and then we have art down the end in here. This is the light blue and music which is across from the multi-purpose room with good acoustic isolation. pres preschool um and um intensive needs, I'm sorry, preschool and intensive needs are pretty close to where they are now, but we've added this uh two classroom addition on the back of the building for um environmental

052uh science and um some more intensive uh assistance. This is uh occupational therapy which gives up its space in the general classroom area and we move it uh so that we can have the class pods together and support that growth that you're anticipating from your enrollment committee. Uh upstairs all three options are the same. So this is a twotory portion of course. Um and so these configurations for for both floors of this twotory are very very similar. So we have uh general class pods on the upper floor just like we have on the lower floor. Um special education office space here as well as some support instructional space. Same thing down here support instructional space for individual instruction and then office space here so that the paras and all the specialists can be working together

053and collaborating. >> Um how many more classrooms total does that get us? So right now you've got um that's a terrific question. So big picture um by grade groupings. Your preschool is about one and a3 classrooms. So that's moving up to two classrooms. Your kindergarten and first grade have a combined 11 classrooms. We're moving that up to 13 classrooms. And then your second and third grade are 11 classrooms, which is also moving up to 13 classrooms. Within those classroom counts that I just gave you, there are three flex classrooms. So, they can be used for technology instruction uh when you don't have a grade bubble, but that technology instruction could be moved to another classroom when you have a bubble year in that particular grade. um and they could also be used for other specialized

054instruction. So that there it's configuration is intended to support growth and flexibility. >> So uh from a site perspective for this option 1A um the existing building is right here. You have uh turtle island here with the drive around this. This drive in the back exists now as does the the front and the side and the playgrounds are right here where the yellow is. These are your septic fields uh your leeching fields and of course this is the SAU. So what we're looking at with this option is um to have a new drop off pickup entrance on the SAU side of the property and um changing over this foot bridge to a traffic bridge and a pedestrian bridge at the same time. This red line here is the drop off pickup cars so that we

055can have a safe vehicular drop off pickup which is separated from pedestrians as well as from buses. The buses would have their own lane at the front of the school. You can see how they fit from end to end along the building on Silverl Road. Um and then the main entrance is here right in the center of that. Um the parking and drop off lane at the front of the building gets widened so we can have a proper sidewalk at the front of the school. Um proper head in parking for staffing and for visitors during uh during visitor hours or regular hours of the day. >> Brad, quick flow question about the buses because currently they come across the front and then go down >> the side and come out on Drury where the cars

056are coming out, >> right? >> Is that still the plan? they would still wrap around the building or are you intending that they would come out onto 122 and turn in? >> We've discussed that a couple of ways at this point. At this juncture, um we do know that all the buses fit at the front. They do not have to wrap around the building when they're at when they're stationary. Where they come out has been discussed a couple of ways. We've discussed having them come out this way, but but I think the the primary interest is having them go up the way they do now so that they can go up to the upper elementary school >> easier >> from this from that location. Yeah. >> Right. Rather than pop out to 122. Thank you

057for clarifying. >> Yeah, absolutely. I guess I I'll point out here that the one of the um advantages of this option as expressed by many is that this is the segregation of the playgrounds from Route 122 visually um and the fact that the playgrounds stay together and in the back of the building where they can be well monitored and they've got that good buffer zone. Um we also have an advantage here of maintaining our uh nature trail and a good proximity to the environmental science room which is over here. Um, so we love that that connectivity. Um, we're it's unfortunate that we're losing the Turtle Island, but we're getting other benefits from from our our campus through additional connectivity to um the uh the field that is next to the SAU. Um, it's much more

058accessible with this new with this new bridge. It's sort of a culvert bridge if I want to make it sound fancier than it is. >> It's not a sky bridge. >> It's not a skyway, right? No skyways. Sorry. No, no trams. No sky. No. Um, and this is the outdoor classroom right here. So, where it is Turtle Island right now, we still have a spot for it over here. We may be moving that. All of these options are at their preliminary stages. So, we're hoping to refine the one. >> We can move the turtles. >> We can move the turf. Okay. >> Turtles don't have to die. Um, how much I'm trying to get a good visual of how much of the SAU space is taken up by that would be taken up by that

059new entrance. Is it basically just that grassy area? And >> you would have to take trees down. Yeah. >> Okay. >> It's just those trees. >> Yep. There's >> That's just That's what I'm saying. Is that the treed area mostly? >> You can see where the car seeing where the corner >> Whoops. Sorry, one sec. Sorry. >> Yeah, I was that's what I was just That's what I was >> right there. >> Okay. >> So, if you're >> So, that is parking on either side of that line of cars >> primarily staff parking >> with with this configuration. Currently, we're looking to improve on that. But yes, right now uh the the the thought is is that what we will be having staff parking in in this area as well as at the front of

060the building where there's vehicular traffic for pickup drop off um and saving some of this parking for visitors which will be right next to the main entrance. >> Got it. >> Um this amount of parking that you're looking at here, I think on a daily basis is going to be used probably down to about that point when it comes to staffing. This is really for event parking. Uh so it's kind of an overhaul parking. It could also be leveraged by the SAU for daily use if you need it. >> And would be keeping the parking on the other. We'd be keeping this parking over here on the other side. >> Yes, we are keeping this parking here. Yeah. >> Excuse me. >> Sorry. >> I had some questions about the um the side property actually

061from a practical standpoint a little bit. So, um, my first question is as as marked, there's a fairly large chunk of the SAU property on that side of the property line that are is going to get eaten. Is there any concern we have with property map components where that >> it's ours, >> right? I know. >> So, you can view it as one giant piece of property, >> right? So, no, there's not a >> as long as we had no intention of selling it basically as a >> no. Um, the only discussion thing that has ever come up and please, this is not something that's happening, but it's just as we were talking about the four London Lane building several years ago, it was either improving it or if we were to get rid of

062the building, >> we would subdivide it so we would still have all the other space and that if we sold it as a house, it would go like that. But that was the only thing that ever came up in conversation. So >> yeah, and I I know there are different rules for our institutions versus residential things, but that would be a problem. Okay. >> Um >> yeah, I think the only concern that ever kind of came up when we started talking about this was the water that's over there. And so you guys are able to because it's a culvert that you're going to build rather than a skyway. Um it's going to satisfy all of that wetlands protection stuff. Okay. Thanks, Brad. Um, similar question on again that the Lum property is the septic where

063we're putting the parking. >> No. >> Have we looked at where it is? >> Yeah, we have. It's not. Um, it's close, but it's um um a little bit over. So, >> yeah. And and for the record, I'm only raising these because I haven't gotten to before and I've gotten to the next level of questions a little bit. Um my my last one and it it came up when I was involved in a completely different thing is do we have any or are you aware of any salting or sanding concerns with that um with the wetland uh can't remember it's not a stream but effectively the um >> seasonal >> water. Yeah. >> As I understand it it's a it's a it's a seasonal drainage stream as it were and there's not a lot of

064water in there. Um there isn't concern about it from the civil engineers that I've received so far. We're going to be getting deeper into this and meeting with your your um uh conservation commission, planning department, so forth to go through these plans and make sure that we're involving everybody in the dialogue of the impact on because we I don't want to I don't want to sugarcoat it. are impacting the wetland, but it's it it's really a minimal impact beyond what you're doing right now. Um, and the idea is to protect what we need to protect and keep that stream functioning properly, uh, while at the same time utilizing the site in the most efficient and least disturbing way we can. >> Yeah. And I only raised the question because, you know, with the staff now

065parking out to the right and having to take that Culvert bridge, knowing that bridge, knowing that Culver type things freeze earlier and on bad weather the school will be closed, but that doesn't mean that on normal days it's open, it can't be slushy or something else. So safety I was concerned with. >> Yeah. And so just to like reiterate process, we had five we had five designs that met the program needs that we developed really thoroughly. Um the the entire program document is posted. You can take a look at all of the very specific um things that we went over and decided as a as a team. Um then we narrowed it to three. We need to narrow it to one so that we can take the time to have all those very specific questions

066answered because we can't do that for all three. It's not financially feasible, nor does it make a lot of sense. So, we really need to kind of high level take a look at what makes the most sense. Nothing's perfect. And then we're going to dive into all the very specifics. And that's where the number crunching really um comes into play. Like how much do we have to worry about this? How much do we have to maybe shift that um new entrance? You know, then we start we don't want to get permits for all these things when we have three different designs. We have to do that once we're um focused. So >> I think just to clarify for the board what the role is for the board tonight is we need to choose one of

067these three designs to go forward with those find. So all of these small things our civil engineering team fussen O'Neal they are experts in all of this and they will continue to dive into that deeper. So um we are starting with 1A because this is the favorite of the um executive enrollment committee team. um of the teachers and staff, it was overwhelmingly the favorite. Um and if anybody wants to see a document that I prepared with all the feedback, we'll be happy to share that with you. >> Can you repeat which was the favorite? This one. >> This one. Okay. So, we're starting with this and the next two I'm going to encourage everybody to just let Brad glaze over because um again, like some of these very nitty-gritty questions, it doesn't really make we

068already know many changes we're going to make to this based on some excellent feedback that we received. Um and then on more information that we'll get from Fuss and O'Neal as they kind of do more of their diving and learn more about what needs to be done with the site and what needs to be done with the building. Yeah, I mean just to clarify, my concerns about bringing them up is more the it's October, November, December are pretty fast and we have to put together some kind of estimate of whatnot and if there are safety or adjustment items as the next step. I don't want to wander into it having not at least >> No, absolutely. And you can I mean you you've been to the Roman community. You can always come you can always

069email Ann or myself. We'll bring them all. Um we just want to make sure we accomplish today's goal. >> Yeah. And I I also was under the pressure and and Carol maybe you can help me clarify it. When I looked at the meeting minutes, my understanding was the proposal was 1A and that I didn't realize we were going to review the other ones. So maybe I misread the meeting minutes of of what or the plan agenda. Sorry, I should say agenda. >> That is our recommendation. The board needs to vote. So if the board were to decide that >> our recommendation is not the best course of action then that would then we would be going with another design. >> Mhm. >> Okay. So uh I'm running over so I'm going to try to breeze

070through here. >> Um so this is we've really talked a lot about these advantages disadvantages and this these are just the highlights. Um option 2 A um same orientation for this that we talked about before. Here's the gray is the existing building. The the front entrance on all these options remains in the same place. It gets the administration gets moved to this front area facing uh route 122. Um but in this option there is a a library edition directly adjacent to the main entrance and then there is a uh multi-purpose room gym edition on the back of the building on the west side of the building. Yes, west um with some classrooms over here including uh creative arts. And this is how the the massing works. A lot of this is very much the same.

071Um, so you have your general classrooms continuing to be on the lefth hand side just like option 1A. This is very similar as well as we've we've taken that existing cafeteria space and repurposed it for um for curriculum needs so that we could make it a safer um uh travel through the building and more logical to your your curriculum use. And then this is that large addition in the back with the multi-purpose room which acts as a cafeteria and as a PE space uh physical education space uh with the music directly adjacent to that. And on the site uh very similar circulation in terms of cars pickup drop off and buses. this option um allows for um more pickup drop off because it has a longer travel distance. Um that's really the the driver behind

072that. Unfortunately, this option has a separation of the playgrounds where we have an entirely new playground on the north side of the site because we have to make room for this new addition in the back. And then option 3B which is very uh similar to option 2 A where there is a a small addition on the side. The entrance again is is in the same spot. Uh we have a a two classroom addition on the side of the building um sort of in the back of uh where uh preschool is right now and intensive needs. And then this addition that's on the west side of the building is larger uh than option uh 2 a. And instead of being a multi-purpose room addition at the end of some classrooms, it's actually uh only a gym

073and the cafeteria stays where it is. So, of the five options, the executive team really wanted to have at least one of the three options brought forward to be if we kept the cafeteria, what would that look like? Um, and there's there's quite a few things going on here. I'm going to hit it at a very high level, but essentially with the curriculum needs that have been identified in the program and the enrollment that's coming down the line as a projection, um all the general classrooms need this part of the building in order to stay together. Once we start putting functions in this part of the building, we need to add a cluster of classrooms on the west side of the building to keep one of those grades together. And that would have to either

074be kindergarten or first grade because those are the grades that have to stay on the ground level from a fire safety perspective. So what you're looking at here is um the the the administration at the front entrance, the existing cafeteria to remain with the kitchen remaining where it is, the library going where the administration is right now. Once you do that, we're essentially moving the sec the first grade out of that part of the building. So, we backfill some of those vacated spaces with special instruction spaces like environmental science, art. Um, we've also got the nurse over here, some special um uh some special education spaces broken up into a suite. And then we put the first grade over here, which segregates them from the remaining general classrooms of the building, which was seen as

075as a negative to this design uh when evaluated. And again, this is the gym up in the back with the stage. Music is here um still isolated from the rest of the um building acoustically. And then from a site perspective, this is starting to look pretty familiar to you guys, right? It's it's it's amusing to me that we ended up with three that had very similar vehicular circulation because of the five that were done, we had actually several different options that the civil engineer brought to the table. These were considered uh the most appropriate. Um but we did look at at many different configurations. I think the highlights of this to be pointed out that's different from options 1 A and 2A is that both of the playgrounds unfortunately have to be moved as part

076of this option which incurs additional cost of course and also gives it uh even more exposure to uh Route 122. Um but they are together which is a positive. They're just not where we would like them to be on the overall campus. And that brings us to the cost opinion slide. So I'm going to invite Mike Davyy from EI to come up and talk to you about um the general um uh cost neighborhoods we're in for each one of these options. >> Thank you, Grant. >> Sure. >> Um sorry. >> Sure. Uh so quick introduction. Mike Davyy with EI. Um, our company has been working alongside Brad and uh, evaluating the f starting with five options, then narrowing it down to three. Um, our history with the district a couple years ago in in Brookline,

077we completed um, some renovations to um, RMMS. Uh, we did the HVAC upgrades recently at the high school. So, we've had a pretty good history of um working with Hollis Brookline in the co-op and understanding uh needs and trying to help budget and do some capital planning. Where we're at in the budgeting stage here, we haven't um gone out to bid, let's say, for all three options. What we've done is we've used um cost per square foot based on similar projects done in New Hampshire recently with schools um to come up with approximate building cost estimates for the three options. If one of these options is selected, we will then work on really refining that estimate. So we've used the same cost per square foot for the building cost for each of the three buildings

078cross options. Um so in 1A we're just under $12 million for the new construction and the major renovation portions of um the building. Um this site has a fairly substantial site work component. Um option 1 A is right around $4 million. Um option 2 A is 4.6 and 3B is um 5.2. the because there there was such a substantial site portion, we hired a civil engineer to do a detailed site estimate. Um what there is a um stream that goes through the the what will become the parking lot area. So there's a there's a covert style bridge um that is estimated at one over $1.3 million that's included in each of the options. Uh some of the other differences in the site number includes um 2A and 3B have more substantial playground work um than

079option 1A. Um lastly um there's a fairly substantial as we're adding square footage um we need to increase the septic load of the building. So with each of these options there's a there's a significant septic portion of the project. Um and then also as we've we we do the work around the stream, we have to add plantings and um and uh do erosion control work. Um the next item are what we call soft costs which is also at 4 million. Those are um all the things that aren't bolted down to the building. So it's the architecture and engineering associated with the project. It's the furniture that goes in. Um it is all the testing, permitting, legal fees, all the all those things are in um what we call the soft cost. And so um our

080project range for 1 A we're thinking will be um between 17 and 20 million. Um option two 2A is between 19 and 22 and option 3B um we estimate between 20 and 23. I I want to reiterate that these numbers are not the final numbers that would ever go on a warrant article because what we what with um if there's a quick decision made on which option may want to be brought forward to the community, then our team would really narrow down on on these numbers um and and fine-tune um and get out of this range to hopefully what would be a what's called a GMP number. U see next slide. Um, okay. I think that is next. Next up is back to you. >> So, our our But he was fast, wasn't he? That

081was pretty impressive. >> Yeah, he threw out the numbers and ran. [Laughter] >> Good night. Notice how he put me right up here right after right now. >> Oh yeah. >> U so uh this is just very high level because we just want to talk about process one more time. Um so where are we going from here? Um after a selection of which option we're moving forward with today. Um there's going to be more opportunity for stakeholder feedback uh in the coming months as well as the the public forum that um uh Paula was talking about earlier. Um, and while all of these things are going on, we're going to be uh the the designers are going to be refining the options, trying to improve on those designs, and getting something deliverable to the cost

082estimating team um so that they can sharpen their pencils and do a better job at giving you some harder numbers on the selected option. Um and then we would bring that um that final cost and that final option um to the enrollment committee for their consideration and any adjustments so that we can then bring it to you for your approval on hopefully on something to move forward with on a a bond vote. Um of course we we're talking about a public forum again in November uh to get more feedback as well. Um and then outreach to the community between uh hopefully uh mid November and um and February in right into the the vote the vote in March. So that's kind of a a big picture. Um we're all going to be working very hard

083in the much of October trying to sharpen our pencils on multiple fronts. >> Brad, may I ask it? Thank you first of all for this. This is wonderful. Um very thorough great work on the committee. How long will the build take? >> About 14 months. Okay. >> So, we would we would look to start right after school ends in June. Um >> June 27 >> with a with a successful bond vote. would be June of 27 and it would wrap up in um uh August well August of 28 but we would really be looking to be done with construction at the end of July early early August. >> Okay. >> Because there's some staging work that has to be done to move all the furniture around and get everything set up for school. So >>

084of course. Excellent. Thank you for that. I was just very curious >> because I've heard that being asked kind of what happens during how long. >> Well, and and one of our our next goals is as we move forward with the pricing and so forth is we need to do a logistics plan for an open school renovation and addition. Right? So, there's a phasing plan that goes on with that and that also impacts not only uh quality of space for education which which is sacred. We have to protect that, but it also affects price and we have to make sure that we're we're keeping the building functional, safe, as well as affordable. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Sure. I just wanted to add that in the November public forum our civil engineers will be present

085because as you saw a big cost a large portion of the cost here is civil and um there's just so many factors that you know the general public I don't think really understands as to how much uh these factors cost and so they'll be here to answer very specific questions when we hold that public forum in November. Um in addition to the site work for options two and I guess was it 2 A and 3B? >> Um a portion not only just re moving the playground has a substantial cost due to u changes in um uh in requirements for a new playground but also there's a a huge retaining wall built in the back um as we expand backwards. So um that obviously has a has a large cost associated with it and that's Um

086those are the two main factors as to why the site work becomes so much more expensive in those two. >> Can I ask briefly too, you know, obviously outreach to the community is a big part of this. Uh sorry, can you hear me? Um obviously outreach to the community is a big part of this and we have some public forums that we have had and are going to continue to have. Do you have uh I mean that's something that you guys are particularly aware of. Do you have thoughts about community outreach beyond just public forums or is that you know >> I can address some of that during the enrollment committee update. >> Okay, great. Okay. Thanks, Dan. That's I think that was great. Thank you so much, Brad. >> Thank you very much. >>

087Thank you, Brad. Thank you very much. >> Um I am going to officially close public input. I think somebody came in since I've opened it. Anybody you good? All right. So, I'm going to officially close public input. It's 7:08. And now we're going to move on to our next thing is getting into our discussion portion of the program. We're going to start with our revenue and expense. >> Hang on. >> I was too I was trying to slow talk it didn't hear. >> All right. >> So, good news. This is actually the year end for uh fiscal year 25. So, uh, we had many conversations throughout the year and we even had a special board meeting about the fact that, um, you can see on our expense side of things that, um, special education, um,

088over spent by 556,974. Um, student support services went over 83,000. Um, and so we had some pretty large concerns about where we were going to end up and we thought we'd have to tap into the special ed trust and the uh retained fund balance. So we had public hearings in June and July um to to allow us to get permission to do so. Um, however, when you switch over to the revenue side of things, um, we budgeted, we predicted less revenue than what we were able to get, which is always helpful. Um, anyway, so the way we turned, we ended up with revenue and expense, we ended up with a unreserved fund balance of 671,823. um that allowed us after the SAU building trust of the 23,970 which uh is an individual warrant article. It

089it's funded from rent for the property at Forland Lane from the three districts. Also less the maintenance trust of 125,000 that left us with a fund balance. There's a yellow item that says retained fund balance. We're also going to look at a recommendation to retain 284,000 in a retained fund balance just as we did last year. Um I think that's incredibly important this year given that we don't have a contingency. Um but we we'll go into that next. Um so if we do if you do authorize the retained fund balance of 284,000, we would still be um returning $238,853 to the taxpayers. So, we're in a far better position than we thought we were in in July. So, that's good. So, there were some um some changes for the better in terms of placements. And

090then, you know, there's a positive and negative when we can't fill a position. Um a positive is that we don't end up spending that money for some of those positions. Um a negative is that we're not quite functioning the way we would like to. But, um so that's where our end our fiscal year 25 ended up. We had our audit. I think in the memo coming up it says our audit is midwork. We're pretty much done at today. Um so we're in good shape. Everything came out um really nicely. I spent five hours with our auditor on Monday going through all of our districts. So I think we're in really good shape. So that is our revenue and expense. Really just how we ended up fiscal year 25. At our next meeting we'll talk about

091first quarter for FY26. Moving on to the retained fund balance memo. Okay, so as I just mentioned, we um are able we have a fund balance, so we're able to um set aside up to 2 and a half%, but we're recommending 284,000, which is about 2% of the net assessment, so a little bit less than what the voters allow us to do. Um I strongly recommend that we approve this as we have for every year for the past decade. um because we don't have a contingency fund and we had to hire another kindergarten teacher that was unbudgeted due to increased enrollment. So, we're starting fiscal year 26. Um a little bit uh not in the Yeah. tight. Not in the right direction. Rough. We didn't freeze the budget yet, but um it's never great when

092you have to add up an unbudgeted position. >> Sorry, Carol. Are we doing discussion of any of these at the end of all of them? I just can't remember. >> Correct. Yeah. So this is our discussion. We hear about it and then deliberation is when we actually get to chat. >> Having a day. >> I got you. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Tina. >> Yeah. >> Um those are our two discussion points. Our last one is the enrollment committee update for man. >> So you've gotten a lot. Um so the the meeting of September 17th has been um referenced quite a bit, but there were actually two meetings on that day. there was a regular enrollment committee meeting as scheduled and uh Mrs. Bicki uh really encouraged her staff to attend in order to

093see the the poster boards that you see over here and I encourage anyone who's here tonight to please take some time at the end and walk up and examine more closely what Brad presented to us tonight. So people had an opportunity to look at that. teachers really spent a lot of time um taking a look at it. And anyone who is curious about the drafts we eliminated before we even brought these up in that September 17th PowerPoint presentation which is available online. It is on our community um our committee website under documents and it says September 17th um PowerPoint presentation. Those drafts are included in there and there are reasons why we eliminated them. So um anyone who wants to know or understand about that that that due diligence please go there. Um also if

094anybody is wondering you know why are we talking about this um when you know it was brought up at you know town hall meetings and um the March meeting. Please look into possibly moving the third grade to Hughes. I just want to make sure that everybody is aware we did we thoroughly investigated that option. We thoroughly walked through um is all of this actually necessary and all that documentation is available to you under the FAQ portion um of that community pa that committee how do I keep saying community of that committee page um so please uh consult that because we have those frequently asked questions taken from those means we've and we have addressed them and the ultimate conclusion ision was of course we would not be here today with these presentations if it wasn't

095that it was just not feasible um and we did look at it through many levels. So if anyone is interested please take a look at that >> and for people who are listening right now is it possible to just quickly address why it does not make sense to move a third grade up. >> Um it is a very long explanation online and but I can say that thorough meetings were had >> um with myself and Mrs. Vicki and Mrs. Diaz and Miss Fowler um and of course Miss Burksog um about how it would impact both buildings, all teachers, curriculum, physical space, everything. We went through it all. We tried to make a plan. Um and it didn't work. Um so please read that if you want to know. Um so and also so at that

096September 17th meeting um the regular enrollment committee meeting that was at 3:30 on that day. Um we got all that feedback from teachers and then Brad was um there again that evening at 6 pm. Um we advertised it the best that we could. We posted on Hollis Brookline um community page on Facebook. Um it was posted um with uh Hollis Brookline online, the online newspaper. Um flyers were put around town, um including the library, little farm, um marketplace, diner, the town hall, um preschools. So, we really tried to get the word out. Um we had uh 20 uh residents in attendance. Uh we're very grateful for everybody who came. Um and then that presentation was um put online and both myself and um Stephanie Ser, the administrative assistant from the Hollis Primary School were vigorously

097taking notes. Um and we once again um got down all of the concerns that were expressed and we will continue to be compiling more FAQs that will go on the page um for the town's reference. Um other meetings where people can get more information. Um I've I've been asked asked to go to the um House of Budcom meeting. U Mark Cost who is the chair of the special advisory committee. Um and anyone at home who is at the March 2025 meeting knows that there was a um petition article to form a committee of um representatives from various entities in our town. Um the let me see from the select board >> co-op >> from us >> us anyone else >> co-op budcom yeah yeah >> co-op budcom um so that we can talk about things

098that are facing our town we can kind of prioritize um and and understand what is happening in our town and how what we are asking the town for impacts other aspects of of the community. So um I he asked me to come to that meeting on October 20th as well. So we are really trying to work with the community to get the word out. Um when um Gina Paula and I talked about the way we would communicate with um the community in October, we felt that maybe we needed to take a different approach uh to try and get some residents who are not in the school community. So that's why we chose to go to the Hollow Social Library. Hopefully we'll get some people walking by. It's meant to be very casual. Um it's in

099the meeting room. These posters will be available. Uh and people will can just walk in. Uh it's going to be from 12 to 1, but of course uh as long as we don't get kicked out. If anybody's lingering, I'll stay and talk. Paul and Gina have very busy schedules. Um but that will be available. So, we really hope um if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, uh chat something out, hey, I got this idea, but I don't want to talk in front of a whole lot of people, that's the opportunity to do so casually. Whereas in November, it'll be in the evening and it will be more formal. We'll have Brad, we'll have our um other consultants there with us that are working on this project. Um Brad wasn't aware. He said that

100we would meet again in February. of course in February is as this board knows um that's when the public hearing is for the the town meeting. So we couldn't do it then. So we will do um a forum in January like we did last year when when we ran the p the information session prior to warrant article 6. So we will get that out there. Someone might say why don't you have these dates right now? Why can't you give them to us? Well we have a lot of people we're trying to coordinate. Brad comes from Vermont. Um, so we are are trying to get all of our professionals there, us there, and also we have to work with the calendar of not only the Hollis School District, but also the co-op because we have somebody

101here who does it all. Um, so we uh we're doing our best. And so if you want to know how can I stay informed, um, everybody should just hop on over to that Hollis Enrollment Committee web page. Everything is posted there as soon as we possibly can. Um, and also you can always email me. Uh, please please leave poor Paula and Gina alone. They got a lot going on. Um, but you can always ask me what's going on. Um, I actually have a few residents in town who have been writing uh, written to me here and there to ask questions and I've responded. Um, the last thing I'll say is, um, I've been receiving even since we all last talked, um, a tremendous amount of feedback from staff and so, uh, that's been wonderful. I

102really appreciate all of the staff who've taken the time to write emails, um, and we are going to take all of that into consideration as we move forward. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Ann. Um, I have something on the outline that's not on the agenda because I have an update from Raph, who couldn't be here tonight about that capital expenditure advisory committee. Do I need to make an agenda adjustment to add it? >> Yes. I forgot that Don um amended the outline. >> So, if the board would indulge an agenda adjustment, >> will you indulge an agenda adjustment so I can read Raph's updates from the CEA? >> Please. >> You just indulged me talking for like five minutes, 10 minutes. It's my turn, man. >> All right. So, um, as I mentioned, Raph

103isn't here today, uh, but he is our representative on that capital expenditure advisory committee that Ann was just talking about, CA. Um, and so he gave me an update to share since he knew he wasn't going to be here tonight. Um, their previous meeting, um, he's going to give me an update from two different meetings. The town planner came to talk about he can how how he wow about how he can be helpful and how the town master plans continuing to be updated as they go through their data gather gathering mission. Uh they discussed the merits of getting a longer term view on capital projects beyond five years even if uncertainty increases further into the future. And they're in the process of gathering all of the projects across the Hollis school district the co-op and

104the town of Hollis into one spreadsheet. And so Ann kind of described who's all part of this. It's basically a committee that is trying to do everything in the best interests of the Hollis taxpayer because you're going to get hit with the different entities um with the things that they need. Um and so this is a way to kind of put it all in one clear view. Um to reiterate, no member of that committee can tell any other members entity what to do. So, the co-op can't say, "Well, you guys can't expand the school because we need something over here." It's more of just a visibility for those kinds of things. Um, but each respective board gets to make the decision of what they're actually going to move forward with. And then the most recent

105meeting, uh, this was this past Monday, the focus was on the upcoming town capital expenditures. Some of the big near-term items include the transfer station wall repair, the Hardy West soccer fields, while a big long-term item is a potential police and fire complex. On the school side, the co-op talked about aortionment and the Hollis school district talked about the expansion project at Hollis Primary School. Um, specifically talking about that recent forum on the 17th. Um, although a list of capital for the next five years will be more accurate, the select board will be expecting a longer term list as well. Chair Mark Coast offered to present at town co-op and HSD meetings to discuss work coming out of the CAC if desired. They are having their next meeting on October 20th and that will have

106a focus on the Hollis School District and their next the meeting after that on November 3rd will have a focus on the co-op. So that is our CA update from Raph. So thank you Raph. All right, so that wraps up our discussion portion. We're moving into deliberation. Um, >> it is kind of a weird thing to call it discussion, but you don't talk about it. >> Um, so now we're going to uh to start with seeing what action our board will take regarding the business administrator's recommendation for the retained fund balance that Gina presented. I will accept a member I will accept a member Oh my goodness, you guys. I will accept a motion to retain up to the sum of $284,000 of school fund balance from the FY25 school year as the end of

107year available funds allow. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Discussion on this deliberation item. >> I'll just hold my other questions. >> That's right. >> Um how have we come to this number? >> So it's 2% of the net assessment. We're authorized to retain up to 2.5. It's also the same number we retained last year. >> Okay. >> It feels Oh, go ahead, Carol. >> No, I was gonna say any others. Everybody >> just that it feels very important because we don't have a contingency fund and because we've already had a contingency at the start of this school year and uh the budget is tight and so it feels especially important >> and if we don't use it like we didn't last year, it just falls to the bottom. Yep. >> And

108goes back the following year. So, it's we can't hold on to it forever. It's just a one-year. >> Yeah. >> Well, and especially we're gonna have to obviously care for the primary school in its current condition until any expansion can happen, and that's not immediate. So, I think we definitely need to keep an eye on that. >> And just a reminder, we do have to hold a public hearing if we do hope to expend from that. That was our July 2nd meeting. We thought we would have to >> pull from our retained fund balance from last year, even though we didn't. But so it's very it's a public discussion. Yep. >> So >> any other questions, comments? >> Gina, when's the last time we have had to use the retained fund balance? >> Not in

109my decade here. >> That's great. >> Knock on some wood. >> Yeah. >> Dot. Yes. Yes. That >> the last time that we had to utilize and the law has changed about how you have to do it years ago. You used to have to then um apply to the state. they changed the law and so you don't but we still have to hold a public hearing in the co-op for example um I want to say 11 years ago the elevator broke uh the day before school started um which is not the ideal time for it to break and so that was certainly not a budgeted item it it um it it wasn't like at end of life so we had to make that repair we applied to the state to utilize those funds and then

110we had that repair in in in place at the start of the school I mean not the day one but um you understand so for those more emergency sort of situations. >> Perfect. Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting >> zero. Thank you. >> Our next item is to see what action the board will take regarding the enrollment committee's recommendation to move forward with option 1A for further refinement. I'll take a motion. >> So moved. >> I was hoping it would come from >> a second. and let's talk. >> Um, and could you say more about it sounds like that option was really favored by the teachers and maybe you could say a little bit more about why they in particular prefer that version. >> Um, absolutely. Uh, there are

111there are a lot of comments about that. I would say if you can see from here, >> one one thing that was was mentioned but really needs to be talked about is the position of the playgrounds. >> Um there are there are two reasons why that's a great idea. Number one is safety, right? I'll actually let's say three. So one is safety. We talked about that it's not visible from the road. The kids are protected. They're back there. They're in a good spot. um the other two designs, you know, and it's not like they were trying to put the playground towards the towards the road. That's just how it had to sit. Um so, no, nobody felt good about that. The teachers all noticed that immediately, of course, this is what they do. They think

112about children. Um the then you have 2A, I believe it is that separates them. And the two designs that we outright rejected also did this. Um, we did not like the idea of the playgrounds being separated, the children being separated. That causes problems for supervision. Um, and it kind of it keeps kids from being able younger kids and older kids from being able to interact with one another. And several teachers brought that up as well. Um, so no, nobody liked the configuration of the playgrounds and other even if they liked other aspects of the designs of the other two, the playground was an issue for for that. Um so those were two of the things we addressed addressed. And the third thing which matters more to the general holl taxpayer. Um playgrounds are expensive and

113playgrounds are expensive for a couple reasons. Well, first of all, obviously you have to demo what's there and you have to replace equipment. Um but there is a law now um that was not in place when the Hollis Social Library put in their new playground not that long ago um that poured in place rubber also often called referred to as PIP is required now for all new playgrounds that is extremely expensive. It's a fabulous material. I love >> I love when it just it's like a like a rubber floor. It's not >> Yes. Think like Roby Park in Nshawa, right? They have they have it. It is great. I would love it. I really wanted it at the Hollis Social Library when I worked on that committee. However, everybody knew it was going to for

114that project, it was going to be about $120,000. You can imagine how much it would be now with inflation. So, we're talking five years after the House Social Library project and two playgrounds. That's a lot of money. That doesn't mean that when all is said and done, something may not have to be done with our our playgrounds, but it is definite with the other two. Um, so that is a cost savings there. Um, other reasons why the teachers liked um, 1A is, and this was referenced, is that the classrooms, the grade levels are all kept together in a very neat way. And that's that's not just because, oh, this is this is so nice. Um, it's it's wonderful for collaboration. Um, a teacher brought up, this is nice for safety. You go into a hallway,

115you know where all the children are. They're at specials. They're at lunch. you know, there's not just a random classroom that's empty somewhere that some kid can go into. The whole hallway is clear. So, um, they like that as well. Uh, the entrance. So, 3B keeps the entrance where it is now. It is currently that entrance is far away from parking. With the new changes, as you see on the site plan, it is extremely far away. Uh, it just doesn't seem to make sense. Um administration and staff also agreed that it's best that with 1A where the entrance is um they can see Route 22 that was important to be able to see that busy road um from the administrative office. Um safety reasons and just understanding what's happening, you know, as you know 122

116gets a lot of movement. So um that was another reason why they like it. Um, also from our environmental science perspective, uh, it preserves the trails and we know that's a program that we love. Um, it preserves our maple trees and, uh, they're the only ones that give us maple syrup. Uh, and and so there's just, uh, there's just many advantages to it that that matter to the teachers. >> That's great. Um, does every plan get us the same number of extra classrooms? >> Yes. all the plans met that you you'll keep hearing the the term is the program, right? So, this was all of the I know >> capital B. >> I'm a little scary. Um so, this this document that was developed, it was developed over many hours with Gina, Paula, Lance, um

117Fenmore, our facilities director. Um was Abby involved with that as well? >> Yeah, Brad. Just Brad. >> Just Brad. um where they he he talked through like all the questions, all the things um you know from from all all the needs that they have and again that's all online if anybody really wants to go through it. It is six pages of very small lines um but what it speaks to is is the thoroughess um with which this was approached. So all of these designs, even the ones that we rejected, met the needs of the program. >> And I and I'll just speak to the fact that they meet them a little bit differently. So the library might be sized a little bit differently depending on which option. Um but it still met the program needs.

118Sometimes the classrooms are slightly different in size as long as they met the program needs. We really tried to preserve as much as possible. I know there's a lot of conversation around we just redid the kitchen um and in option 1 A and 2A the kitchen is moved. I think that's actually hugely important for me for safety reasons so that we can have um a separate entrance like our other schools for deliveries. Right now our deliveries have to go through the entire building. So that's exposure. Um, and someone has to walk them through all the students while carrying all the milk. >> And that just doesn't make sense. It's not logical. So we can take the equipment that we just purchased, most of it was new equipment, and move it to a space that's appropriately

119sized. Um, and you can see that option 3B keeps our kitchen and our cafeteria. Um, so then that means our cafeteria is a hallway, but it doesn't it's not like it's cheaper because we're saving that space. So the saving of the space for the sake of saving of the space just didn't make sense because of that safety feature and then the hallway feature and you know where we had to put the classroom. So there's a lot of um and and you know there were other designs too that we looked at and then were like absolutely not. And it was really strange to because when they were first presented um and Paula and I I was kind of waiting for their thoughts. I knew what I liked and we all were on the same page. We

120had like the same concerns immediately and the same um you know advantages, disadvantages with a few other things that each of us picked up on. But um it it was clear to us that that was the um first choice. And then I was very pleased when the staff felt the same way. it was overwhelmingly supportive of 1A. So to me, I felt like I know I don't like to rush a decision on you, but this will allow us to really um really u nail down cost estimates and and make them more firm so that we can do the work of answering all the questions and doing all the public outreach um sooner so that we hopefully have a successful project. Well, I can tell you right now I I personally don't feel rushed because everything

121has been so thorough. Um, I know I've said thank you a lot, but this is a ton of work. Like, this is a massive undertaking from Paula, from our staff, from you guys having all these conversations and you're so thoughtful about it and there's hasn't been for me anything that felt like you were shoving it at us, any of you. Thank you. So, I'm perfectly comfortable with the fact that we're going to make this decision tonight. Um, >> I agree with it personally, exactly what you said, saying with the playgrounds in the back, like that's massive. Not even just for cost savings, but I that's one of my favorite. That's a way, >> it's a way. >> Um, I think that this is it meets the needs of what we're looking at. And if you

122look kind of at the um you know, we've talked about what the program needs. He Brad didn't go into it. I know he was trying to be quick. Um but this is you know, we're talking about a projected enrollment of what 386 and this school would accommodate 450 >> um with 480 in those core areas. Um which is like like you said like this. So you can have guests come to shows and things like that without overwhelming um the space and making it dangerous. I I feel like it's just personally the best use of effort. Um, and it's I think hearing that the teachers and the staff are behind this is almost more important, no offense, than you guys because they're the ones that live it every single day and they know the nuances that

123we can't even glean from those meetings. Um, so I this has my full support. >> So, thank you. It does feel like it uh is the it seems clear that it is the plan that really best meets the needs of our students and teachers and has the best safety uh that keeps safety most in mind and then also is the most affordable. >> Yeah, that's kind of the bonus, right? That's the thing. The site work is really the as Gina mentioned the big cause there. I I do want to make clear just in case anybody paying attention is wondering, wait, you've been talking about the need to have a separate cafeteria and lunch. This didn't get addressed, but um it's been was talked about on the September 17th forum. Um the multi-purpose room that is

124planned for is large enough so that the lunches can be planned so that a partition can go up during um lunch and PE can happen for our little ones right on the smaller side while you know the older kids are having their cafeteria time. And so then when our second and third graders have their PE time, the whole thing can be opened up and they can have a nice elementarysized middle um gymnasium. By the way, this is not a high school-sized gymnasium for anybody who's wondering. Um it is it is a standard elementary gymnasium. It will have a basketball court, which we do not have now. Mr. pre-court cannot address any of those standards um right now because we don't even have the proper floor. Uh so >> you also don't have kids walking through

125the room to classrooms like >> that's key. >> Currently at the primary school that that's the only way to access. >> I'll allow it. >> Yes, please jump in. >> You're pivotal to this conversation. Please >> I don't even know if is this still on. Um, I also want to mention that when we um had these up, I had everybody in and had specific conversations with music teacher and PE and we had talked a lot about that was one of the things that was really um I really had to work through when we went through the program because we talked about what we needed and what we wanted and what we really needed was to have PE and lunch happen at the same time. what I wanted and what our PE teacher wanted was separate

126spaces. So, really vetting through what we needed and we wanted. Um, I had a nice conversation with him and he was very happy with where we're landing on 1A. He agrees with 1A. Um, and um, have gotten his feedback already on, you know, what that would look like with the with the wall and everything. So, he already has some feedback going into that that area. But um I just wanted to let you know that his feedback has been you know I had I had a conversation with him about that and just you know really being mindful about needs and wants is kind of a hard thing when you're going through all this all these questions but it was really for our programming for students and that's what seemed to fit best. >> Yeah. I mean,

127if you go through and see the column right next to the one we're at where the want and there's we want a lot including the skybridge. Um, but then it was really thoughtful like will we have a bubble at every grade level? Do we really need, you know, seven classes at every grade level or do we have one that can flex between second or third? >> Yeah. >> Given the enrollment. And so we definitely had to make some tough decisions so that we could hopefully, you know, put together the most prudent. And that September 17th PowerPoint presentation, he really takes through what is existing right now in the building and with curriculum and and storage even and parking and what the program accounts for. So, and there are pictures to go along with it. It's

128colorcoded of program versus existing. It's all that kind of stuff. You know, we like to make things look nice. Um, so it's it's all there for anyone who's curious to really understand it. Please go back to that and um and take a look. >> I'll also mention that because it didn't get mentioned yet, but you must have mentioned it to somebody. Um, the propane tanks don't have to move for 1A. >> That's true. >> And that was a big thing in my head was the playgrounds were were part one. And the propane tanks were part two because moving embedded in the ground propane supplies while the school possibly has to be closed or open or or whatever is not a fun thing to do. Um so >> awesome. >> Thank you for mentioning that. >>

129Do we have any other conversation points before we take a vote? Um, I do again want to echo the amount of work that went into this. >> Yeah. So much work. Seriously. >> And I do also want to thank our contractor for both being receptive to the feedback as well as adjusting to it. >> Um, and I'd like to thank the staff at HPS as well because I was at the enrollment committee meeting as as me um not as a board member and it was >> hat off. I know how difficult it is to speak when your boss is there or when the school board is there and they were very trusting in sharing their feedback and that was that's really important for for us as a district um and for us as a board

130to be able to get that feedback. >> Thank you for saying that. >> Yeah, sure. >> All right. I think we are ready to take a vote. All those in favor of approving the recommendation of the enrollment committee to move forward with Banwell Architects option 1A for further refinement. >> Thank you so much. >> Zero zero. >> Good luck, Brad. >> Now we're getting to work, Brad. Now you have to learn stuff. >> Oh, now you're on. >> All right, now time for policies. >> Part of the meeting. >> Good night, everyone. >> Cuz if you're not leaving, you will fall asleep. And we love Jess because she does it all and we love we appreciate >> wake you before we appreciate her. >> So, um just a reminder, we do have these all listed

131in a policy memo, but we do address and vote on them separately. Thanks y'all. Appreciate you. >> Thank you so much. Um so the first one that we are going to go through and we've a lot of these we've seen so it might feel like we're going through them quickly but we've spent time on many of them. Um so our first one is policy JJ-R. Um I'll accept a motion to amend in the title by adding a hyphen between home and educated. Accept the fourth reading and adopt JJ-R access to public school programs by non-public charter school and home educa educated students as amended. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second >> discussion. >> Uh so we making some pretty minor um updates to this one. Um and then just as a reminder that

132when we uh but this is our fourth reading of it. Um and when we um vote this in, we will be rescending IHGB and IHB IHGBR as a result. >> Okay. Any discussion on this one? >> Thanks for sticking through this for the reforms. >> We want to make sure to get the grammar right. It's important. >> Yeah. Well, I do have a question because why did we decide that it's non-public colon charter school and home educated students? >> Um, I think it's supposed to be a comma. >> Yeah, it should be a comma. >> I'm sorry. Should be >> we are not bringing this for a >> You could you could vote to adopt it with that one change. I >> so I have a t-shirt. >> Also, grammar grammar, we send you grammar

133stuff that doesn't necessarily have to be approved because it's not for substance. So, we can make any grammar changes that want >> like to rip on it. >> So, any say it was say again, it was changing the colon to a comma. >> Yeah. By non-public, comma, charter school, comma, and home educated students. >> Oxford, comma, my friends. Get that in there. Um, yeah. Do we need to change? We don't need to change it. So, all right. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor? 400. >> On to the next one. >> Oh my gosh. This has all the notes from the last meeting again. >> Yeah, she's good. >> She is fantastic. Oh yeah, this is the one we kept withdrawing the motions. pages of notes. All right, our next one is policy

134EH-R. I'll take a motion to amend section 8 by replacing 15 cents with 50 cents. That's 50. And by inserting pages of following 250, accept the fourth reading and adopt policy EH-R public access to school district records. Procedures for public access to district records right to know requests as amended. >> So moved. Second. >> Second. >> So again, this is the policy that is increasing um the charge of uh 2 after 250 pages, right? Uh charging 50 cents. Uh and so we had discussed those changes and uh captured them. Perfect. Any discussion on this one, guys? All right. All those in favor zero. Did you just whip that paper? >> I just cut it. We're not. We're done. Hi. Let's do it. >> When she starts throwing them, okay, >> I'm excited. >> She tears

135them up and throws them. >> When we adopt, that means we can pull them off. >> I know your agendas must be there. So, >> move on to the next one. Let's do it. We got it. >> All right. Our next one, I'll accept a motion. Uh the art next one is policy IHBA programs for peoples with disabilities. I'll accept a motion to accept the third reading and adopt policy IHBA programs for people with disabilities. So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> So we had a question about did we need to specify federal regulations versus state regulations and the answer was no. Um and otherwise this is the >> same right. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Any questions or discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor zero zero. Adopted >> or second reading. Are we

136adopting this? We are. Yes. >> Yeah. Third and adopt. >> Sorry, I just got confused and I didn't hear Gina tear anything, so [Laughter] >> All right. Next up is IHBAM. I'll accept a motion to amend number one by deleting the word district and the list of federal statutes by deleting the repetitive >> squiggly sign. Accept third reading and adopt IBH IHBAM district special education policy and procedures manual as amended. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second >> discussion. >> So again this is the third read of this one. So we have been talking about it um and just capturing those uh small changes. Anything? Great. All those in favor? >> Thank you, Jose Roosevelt. >> Right. Our next one is a new policy that we saw for the first time in August. Um,

137this is its third reading. I'll accept a motion to amend section D2 by replacing school day with period and D3 by replacing principal with administrations. Accept the third reading and adopt policy JICJ unauthorized communication devices as amended. So moved >> second. >> Um so uh yep this is the bellto bell law the policy to go along with that law. We've been talking about this these changes. Um we are uh the change of school day to period. Um what that is doing is it's making sure that's actually what the polic excuse me what the um >> the standard was in this the policy for students. And so we were just making sure that our official policy was in line with that. And it also does make the consequences u more tiered um by adding in that

138difference. Um, and then adding, you know, it just gives us flexibility in changing principal to the administration. Um, and then I think also there were some changes added to, uh, make sure to capture the needs of special ed students. I don't know if you have anything, do you want to add that? >> What you have in your um, packet is a little bit different than what the policy committee um, reviewed um, and it is to mirror what um, has been approved in Brookline as well. and it came out because of the technical assistance that um the state provided after the meeting that was held. So you'll see that it takes um we removed the second paragraph under a and below it it just um actually just adds more detail to the description that was already

139there and gives some specific examples. And then under C for the exceptions, you'll see that um there was sentence part of a sentence that was removed shall be exempt and added may be exempt from portions of this policy due to necessary accommodations as determined by the appropriate team. >> Took out the sentence after that and that was for um special education. And then the last sentence was added in decisions may be appealed to the superintendent whose decision is final. >> Awesome. >> Can I ask a question? If I remember correctly, it didn't we basically cut and paste this policy in the student handbook. >> Once this is done, >> we will go back and the student handbook. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Any other questions, comments on this one? So under the restriction section where

140it says the district is responsible providing district-owned devices parenthesis Chromebook, are we concerned at all that that restricts it to Chromebooks in particular or because I know it's a such as but I wasn't sure policy wise whether it matters. >> Yeah, I kind I do kind of agree with that only because earlier in it it's you know when it's talking about types of devices, it says it covers any future products. So if we get locked into it, >> I think we're fine. We're going to stick with Chromebooks for a variety of reasons. Um it's talking about future projects of what's not allowed. >> Is it being changed? >> So you're it's only allowed. Oh, correct. A a um district issued Chromebook. >> Um we're talking about like a personally owned Chromebook or a person owned

141laptop or a smartwatch or yada yada yada all those things. Um >> my only comment would be to remove the parenthesis. I think a district-owned device is a very straightforward statement. the district owns devices period. Like the district is responsible for providing district-owned devices for use during the school day. That's a very straightforward like it doesn't matter what the device is. >> Yeah. Except I mean I'm going to push back a little bit just because um based on the conversations we've had with families and expectations of what it is that we're going to be buying. >> Yeah. >> Um I'd like to limit it to we're buying Chromebooks for all of our students because that's what we're buying. Um and so I I actually do want it specific. um as opposed to I'm gonna buy

142every student their own cell phone and those will meet the exceptions. So, we're not going to go there. >> So, I I totally understand where you're coming from. I think if >> right if the district bought tablets, for example, because they decided that that was a useful tool, >> then we'll amend the policy. >> Then we'd have to amend the policy. >> And that's totally fine with me. Okay. >> Because we were we would have probably four board meetings talking about budgetary implications of switching from Chromebooks. So, we would have plenty of time to address. >> As long as you remember that the policy has Chromebook called out in it and that we would then >> I have a feeling you're going to remember. >> Well, and you know what? We're We have to review

143this. Don't throw that at me. >> We have to review this annually anyway. >> Yeah, I know. >> This is one of those things now that >> I blocked that out. We had to review this annually. >> Yeah. So, I'm not worried about that. Honestly, this is due to the state, so I need adoption policies in all three. >> Well, that's a completely reasonable comment as well. Um, so I think we're fine and we have plenty of time to amend it if we ever switch away from a Chromebook. >> Sounds good. >> Which is a big if. >> Good call. >> I'm going to flip this over. >> Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor of accepting the third reading and adopting policy. Everybody. >> Congratulations. You're the first district adopted in SA41.

144>> It's because we have our meeting first. >> Our meeting first. >> That's okay. I thought you because we're so skate for a minute. I'm like, "Yes." And then >> you're so efficient. >> All right. Our next one is policy JFAB. Uh I'll accept a motion to accept the second reading of policy JFAB, admission of tuition and non-resident students. >> A second. >> Second. >> So something that we talked about in the policy committee was other potential changes we could make to this policy. Uh we had discussed in the policy meeting something that we had discussed in the schoolboard meeting which was it possible to make this a tiered policy and say that we're going to implement these changes you know on a like gradual basis and just kind of confirmed there that isn't possible

145because of the nature of how this policy is structured that we are only able to um you know uh make a promise one year at a time that students will be able to attend here. Um we discussed other potential changes like um uh creating time requirements. Um and the principles didn't think that was appropriate. They felt like the people who get hired are um the best uh people for the role and if they want to make use of this policy. They're only able to make use of this policy because they were the best candidate for the job and didn't want to add in additional requirements. So, >> okay, thanks for asking that question because I know that was discussed a little bit. >> Um, Lauren, you are going to clarify for us situations in which

146we would be responsible for >> children with special needs. >> Yeah. So, we don't really have to change any change. >> Yeah. So, we didn't have to I know I thought I had my rationale. Yep. So, we don't have to change it. Turns out there was some litigation around that area um in the state since the last time I discussed this with our attorney and so that that litigation makes what we have in there true. >> So we don't have to change it >> that it is the responsibility of the town of residents to take care of those services. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Yeah. They said that um you know that you may get push back but there's legal backing to support. Would the town of residents provide those services or just

147pay for them and we would provide the services? >> Um, it would likely be that they would we would invoice based on our staff providing the services, but there's a few different components of that. So, but yes, typically they would we would charge them. >> Okay. Thank you for looking into that. Appreciate it. >> Yep. Excellent. >> All right. Any other discussion on this one? All those in favor of accepting the second reading of policy JFAB 400. Can't adopt that one yet. I'm just kidding. >> We could have done second. Our next one is policy AB. Sorry, it broke the page in a weird place. Um, this is its first reading. I will accept a motion to accept the first reading. wave subsequent readings and adopt policy AB, New Hampshire Parental Bill of Rights as

148presented. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> So we are uh advocating for first read and adopt because this is a law and so we would like to have the policy adopted as soon as possible. Uh there's not because it's a law, we don't have a lot of wiggle room in making any changes to it. >> Yeah. So this is the language required by the law. >> Correct. >> It's straight from the law. It says and it's already posted on every school and district website on the bottom as required by law. >> So did you want to vote? >> Should probably mute myself for um Yeah. I guess anybody want to say anything before we have to take this vote? That's what it is. This was going on anyway. >> All those in

149favor, >> thank you. >> of adopting it to stay in accordance with the law. We go. Uh, next item. Uh, our next one is EBB, school safety program. I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings, and adopt policy EBB, school safety program as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. second. >> So, um we had some conversations in the policy meeting just about like where some of this stuff gets captured um and that this is happening in our climate committees. It gets captured by the wellness committee that reviews this information. Um yeah, I don't know if there are any other additional questions about this. Thank you. And so this is exact same thing where it's the required language or no >> is required by law. Correct. >> It's required by law but

150is this the exact language? >> Uh that's my understanding. I don't know if there's anything there. Yeah. And so again that's why we're doing the first read and adopt. It's uh legally required. Um, so I do see that there is a strike through and new text on there. Is that because they updated the language? >> Yep. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> H >> I'm comfortable with it. >> Okay. All those in favor? 400. Right. And our next one is policy IMAH. I'll accept uh I'll take a motion to accept the first reading. Wave subsequent readings and adopt policy IMAH health education daily physical activity as presented. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Uh so again this is a required policy. Um we aren't making big changes to this policy. Um we are

151adding some language in about um the district's wellness committee. Um but there are some legal requirements that um we have referenced here that we are fulfilling with this policy. >> Do we have a wellness committee? >> That's what Rafi serves on or one of the many boards Rafi serves on. >> Yes. >> He's a quiet >> Yeah. >> quiet in the background guy. So, we've had this policy since 2016 >> and the state changed the rules and so we have to do a fresh adoption. Is that or are we just saying this is >> um >> sorry for not following along with what you said. >> No, that's okay. Um yeah, that's my understanding is that there were some uh updates at the state and so we are updating our policy in accordance >> and

152this the state uh the organization school board they give us a list of spring and summer and this was on there as as a um policy to update. >> Okay. Is it drastically different from what we already had on file? >> No this bottom piece and it doesn't >> it it just states a requirement. This is a policy, not a law, >> right? But the um >> but >> it's a policy, not a law, but it's ref but there are legal references to it. Sorry, Gina, I didn't mean to cut you off. >> No, that's okay. Um it's just um assigning the requirement to the mandated wellness committee um that they're going to monitor whether or not we implement this policy. So, what we're doing isn't changing. Um, it's just that the wellness committee is

153now stuck with making sure we're doing it >> well. And technically, if we're going to get into the legal ease, this is only a recommendation. There are no goals outlined in here. They're just recommendations. >> There's no what outlined >> goals. It's just a recommendation. The board recommends the following one through nine. So, it's not like we say we've set these goals out as according. It's >> Yeah, we recommend these things. >> Um, yep. Side note, u the ED306 has changed and it does talk about mandated um exercise per day, which is another factor, but uh but but you're right, a lot of these are this is a required bylaw policy that just contains recommendations. And now another committee has to determine whether or not we're following it. Um and and we're going to do

154that because that's what we're required to do. But if we didn't, I I'm not sure if the wellness police come um and slap our hands like >> Rafie. Rafie will come down on you for that. >> He's got a real attention to detail, Gina. >> No, like you were only out there for 29 minutes. You need to shadow probably listening at home >> because the only stipulation I see in here other than the committee mentioning to you is you then need to tell us, >> right? Check we're doing. >> It's just more work for you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to my job. >> I was like, this feels super efficient. Okay. >> All right. Any other conversation about IH? All those in favor 00. >> Sorry. Got to laugh at some of these

155ones. All right. Our next one up is JIC. I will accept a motion. I will accept a motion to accept the first reading, wave subsequent readings and adopt policy JIC student conduct as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> So again this is uh required by law which is why we are suggesting a uh first and adopt. Um we made some changes some grammatical changes and some structure uh changes. Um and so those were the nothing we didn't make any major changes and also are limited in some of the changes we can make. >> Can someone describe what the MTSSB framework actually is? >> Yep. It's the multi-tered system of supports um for behavior is what the B stands for. So you do have MTSS for academic as well. Um but there has been um

156you know a push and a statewide initiative for MTSSB for years now. Um and so it's it incorporates that into the policy. >> And to be clear, we were already using MTSSB, but now we're just putting that into the policy. Correct. So it's not actually a functional change. >> Correct. >> Okay. And if you're wondering who I'm designated as the person looking for professional development, it's these two right here as they coordinate all the professional development throughout the year for our professional and support staff. >> Nice job delegating. >> I do what I can. I will also just say we had a discussion in the policy committee about the parental notification of simple assaults and just making sure that parents were going to get notified whether you know students clearly had a bruise or not

157that parents would always be notified if their child was ever assaulted in any way and that is indeed what the policy it's clear about. Excellent. Any other discussion on this one? All those in favor? Now we have a one new to district. Um I will accept a motion to accept the first reading of policy IMBA remote learning. So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. Uh again this is a new policy for us. This is addressing remote learning. Even though the policy is new, the practice of remote learning is not. um in general just sort of like giving a broad overview of some of this like ways that students might use this again probably less at HPS more at Hughes right that like maybe if there's a student that really is advanced in math and is could

158take some additional um math classes that that's something that they can a through through the VACS um and that we've had students you know be attending their general ed math class and also utilizing this program in the class. Um, so that's how that this policy generally plays out in practice. >> Just can I just add Yeah. >> because I'm noticing that the final copy that came to you didn't include um what we removed as a result of the meeting which was a section A that was around um remote learning for inclement weather which we don't permit. So that was taken out and B was moved up to A. So what you're seeing is the A is actually B in the policy that we reviewed. >> I was looking at this dot and like a second

159I need a second. >> Am I misremembering something? >> So does that mean line uh item one at the top of that goes away when inclement weather makes it unsafe to safely transport students to inerson instruction? >> Well, it's saying it may be offered. It doesn't mean we do it. >> I wasn't sure how much was getting removed. Yeah, I think that was it's just that's just saying giving examples of when it may be happening. It doesn't say you have to. >> Okay. >> Um this is just a formatting thing just um in future uh revisions if we have to do this. Could we just change the underlines to bold so that we don't get confused that that's something that's being added >> because that's usually how we like denote something that's new. >> Oh

160yeah. >> I mean the whole thing is new. Um, >> it looks like those are >> instead or something. >> Yeah, just bold a set of underline. That's all. >> Oh, where like the header you don't like? >> Yeah, like an extended learning opportunities. Yada yada yada. That's all. >> Thanks. And that's a fair point. >> Any other questions or comments on this one? Seeing none, all those in favor? 0. We're getting there, guys. We're getting there. Um, our next one is BEDG. I will accept a motion to accept this first reading of policy BEDG, school board governance and operations as presented. >> So move. >> A second. >> Second >> discussion. >> Um, sorry, give me one second because I'm catching up on another >> No, I don't know, D, if you want to

161um jump in for this one. It's this was it's quite a lengthy change and it really takes um the what we had was the uh policy we had was the one at the top that just has the line through everything. The new policy updates basically take what's there and flushes it out more with more detail. And so you'll see that almost everything under the first three paragraphs is brand new language. Okay. This is just the NHSBA suggested language. >> Okay. >> But the key that triggered this is um the change in the law that requires uh so this is important for non-public. Don always signs her minutes as the person who wrote the minutes, but our non-public also has to be signed by the person who wrote the minutes. Great. So, we just have to

162make sure that now that's part of the law, as well as the time the meeting started and ended, which is what we've been doing, but now that's um >> So, would I need to physically sign it and bring it to the SAU office or by or by including, you know, my name at the bottom? Submitted by Okay. And then we had just talked about in the policy meaning making sure that like do the process ex exist to make sure that like when these records are being opened that you know someone is noticing that and making sure to open them and we do have those things in place and Don does a great job at it. >> Yeah, Don spectacular. >> Shout out Don. >> We're very fortunate to have Don. >> Yeah. >> Any other

163comments or questions on this one guys? Um uh we're going to be we're this is just a first adopt. Okay. >> Not an adopt. This is just because I didn't mean adopt. I apologize. I meant >> get it together, Ann. [Music] >> I know. I am just all of all kinds of off and it's only 811. >> If it doesn't contain the word enrollment, she's done. >> It feels very reasonable. >> You know, it's on the policy committee. She just so quickly abandoned it. >> She's like, >> "Somebody else is willing to do it." Now, >> I'll take over here. >> Taking the easy route on the enrollment committee. >> That's me. >> Oh my gosh. So, yes, this is just accepting a first reading, >> though it will be back. >> So, I will

164wait another step. It's all good. >> Thank you so much. >> Of course. All right. Seeing no more discussion. All those in favor accepting first reading >> 400 and we might Is this our last one? >> Almost. >> Um our next one is policy JLCF. Uh I'll accept a motion to accept the first reading of policy JLCF wellness as presented. >> So move. >> A second. >> Second. >> Um so I'll say that you know there are some things in this policy. this is a policy that we're required to have. There's several um you know uh legal overlaps here. Um some of this is not necessarily always feeling like the most uh relevant for some of our students. Our students are very active, you know. Um and also we are required to have this policy.

165Any other questions on this one or comments? So basically all these changes are due to changes in law that we have to just basically adjust for. >> Correct. >> Sounds good. >> All right. Seeing none. All those in favor 400. Um are we >> we have to resend the next? >> We could probably do them together. They they were simply replaced with JJ and JJR. So you can resend the two of us. >> Okay. They are listed in the same >> Yeah. >> category. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. So I will accept a motion to rescend policy IHBG access to public school programs by non-public public chartered schools or home educated pupils and policy IHBG-R home education participation in district activities. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Discussion. We're rescending these

166because we have a new policy that covers both of them which we discussed and approved tonight. Sounds good. Any questions? Fabulous. All those in favor of rescending 4. >> Good job. You guys just cleared a whole bunch. >> You're welcome. Dot. >> Um, do we have need for a non-public tonight? >> We do not. >> What? >> Wow. First time in months. Wow. >> All right. In that case, I will take a non-debatable motion. >> I move to adjourn and get home before 9:00. What? >> That's incredible. I'll take a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? Peace.