001Awesome. Thank you so much. Hey everybody, welcome to the regular meeting of this Um, I just want to dive right in. First, before I actually dive into anything else, I just want to say welcome to Doc, our assistant superintendent. Thank you for coming. This is our first meeting where we've been able to have you here. So, thank you. Um, we're going to start off with agenda adjustments, nominations, resations, and correspondence. Great. Um, agenda adjustments. I just want to um make a change to our nonpublic. It says um RSA and or C, but I'm actually looking for D. >> A and or C, but really >> you just read out >> D is consideration of the acquisition, sale or lease of real or personal property which if discussed in public would likely benefit a party or
002parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community. Um, but I guess we also would want to go under for um, uh, one moment. >> I think C as well. So C and D. How about that? C and D. >> Yeah, two matters. >> Got it. And I may rely on to read what that is. Get to that point to read it. Exact. >> Absolutely. >> You got it. Thank you. Um, and then for correspondents, I just wanted to update the board on staffing and who we've hired over the summer. So, we have hired Sarah White House at Hughes. She'll be five reading and three case manager for a FTE role, so about 80%. She has her bachelor's in English and writing from Westfield State, a masters in elementary ed, and moderate disabilities
003from Leslie, an educational specialist in reading and literacy um from Bayath. We hired her at M's plus 45 step for 60,24 which is rated. Um, we have also um added a kindergarten class which I believe I notified you in July, but we've hired Catherine Bodette. Um, we have she has a bachelor's in early childhood education from Framingham State. So, we hired her bachelor step one for a salary of $50,416. She's not new to us. She has been a parent in our building and she's also completed two longterm subs already with us, one of which was in kindergarten. So, very familiar with >> perfect fit. >> Right. For vacancies, we have um an October through the end of the year maternity leave for kindergarten that we are looking to hire for. >> When you say end
004of the year, you mean calendar year or school? >> School year. >> So from October through June, >> correct? Okay. Um we have an open school site position at Hall's Primary. has been vacant since 2023, but we do have contracted services in place. So, we are fine. But, you know, bu contracted services, do you have any thoughts about why that's hard to film? There aren't enough school sites anywhere. >> Many school psychologists um can really kind of develop what they want for their work life and a lot of want to work remote and many of them try to provide those services. very few are really applying to schools and there and the school site position is part of the uh collective bargaining agreement in Hollis and so we did have a school psychologist who was
005interested but they were able to get a job at Massachusetts or in another New Hampshire district where they're not in the CBA >> which means there's greater flexibility with salary >> with salary. >> All right. Um we also have a uh we call it a 221 parah. It just means that the parah is on um has a notice of employment for 221 days which is longer than um the vast majority of our paras and that's due to uh the program that they're part of. So there's a 1.0 position at um at Hughes. Um we also need five um special ed paras at Hughes. Um we are fully staffed with special ed paras at Hall's Primary. So that's huge. We are looking for a custodian that's split between HPS and Hughes. Um we are looking for
006part-time maintenance at Hughes and part-time food service worker at Halls Primary. >> Can we go back to the PAR needs? >> Yes. >> Um specifically at Hughes, are these new paras that are needed or are they roles that were vacated and now we have to fill? >> A little bit of both. You want me to jump in? Yes. And I do believe that um there was at least one hiring packet that got sent up today. So that might be now four and not five. Um so we're and we're and we're still interviewing so it's not done yet. Um but uh but some of them are are are new or got moved up. >> New identification where they >> yeah or or they were new at HPS and we moved people like there was shifts in
007in some of the power educator. >> Gotcha. And this is just for my education and maybe some others who don't realize this. They have a with them at HPS. Does it travel with a child to use in some instances or they stay with the school and the children change? >> It's very dependent on the need and whether the student still needs a power educator or whether or not it's, you know, you want to have students working with different adults. There's so many pieces with that. >> Fair answer. Fair and expected. Yes. >> But I was really curious. >> Does anybody have any other questions for >> what was the maternity position that >> kindergarten? Yeah, October through the end of the school year. >> Well, it says end of year and I um >> Usually
008that means school year because one option is we could hire a one-year interim so that in September there's some overlap and allows the teacher and the new teacher to work together for a little bit before the um our fully contracted teacher goes on maternity leave. >> Is that the objective? I think our objective is to find someone and so sometimes if we hire them earlier it's a little bit more of an attractive position. >> It's um and to be honest right now folks are still looking for classroom teachers. So filling um a maternity leave no one's really applying for them yet because they're looking for a full position. >> Makes sense even though it's for >> and the same thing with parents. you know, a lot of folks are looking for a teaching position and
009then as we get really close to the we're pretty close, but you know, like the day before all of a sudden we'll see an increase in um folks interested in the support staff positions. >> I would imagine um obviously the ideal is we get one person who comes in and stays the whole year, but of course it's longterm. That person could potentially leave at any time should they choose to. Are we looking to maybe put in a strong PA in the classroom who maybe stay consistent to support whatever subs may or may not. >> So to be honest, when we've hired long-term subs, they haven't left. >> Yeah. So um I don't foresee that if you know once we find someone I don't foresee that happening. That being said, we did have to hire the
010additional kindergarten teacher that was not budgeted this year. We do not have a contingency fund. So, we don't have a source of money for that. Um, we have regular ed paras that were in the budget years ago. It's not that we took them out of the budget, but the positions that are vacant sort of sometimes disappear over time. So, they're not fully funded with today's dollars. So the likelihood of us being able to fund regular ed Paris for kindergarten is slim given that >> and and we do need to fill the special education power educators first. Yeah. As part of that. Yes. So that's always a >> piece. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other notes? >> That'll do it. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Uh now we're going to move on to the approval of
011minutes from June 2025. Um, I will take a motion to accept as amended the minutes from the June 3rd, 2025 meeting with these amendments being offered. Page 2, line 34, insert principal, Holl's primary school, following PA is Vicki. Page 17, line 27, replace current with currently. Page 20, line 21, delete is following asking. Page 20, line 22, replace the period with a comma following evaluation. And page 20, line 22, replace outlines with outlined. A second. Any discussion? Seeing none, take two. All those in favor. Um, we have several sets of minutes. >> So, we also had nonpublic on June 3rd, 2025. I will accept a motion to accept as presented those nonpublic support. A second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> Uh that same meeting contained a public hearing about our expendable
012trust. So I will accept a motion to accept as presented the meeting minutes from the Hall of School public hearing expendable trust on June 3rd, 2025. A second discussion. All those in favor. Uh then we also had a special school board meeting on July 2nd, 2025. Rafie, you were there to congratulations by the way. Um, so I would uh take a motion to accept as presented the special school board meeting minutes from July 2nd, 2025. >> A second discussion. All those in favor. We also had a public hearing regarding regarding the retained fund balance at that same meeting. I'll accept a motion to accept as presented the hol board meeting minutes for public hearing retain fund balance on July 2nd 2025 a second. >> Keeping it going. Y >> any discussion? All those in favor?
013Opposed? 401. And I think this might be our last one. Yep, we have one more. Um I will accept a motion to accept as amended the Holla School Board public hearing special ed trust fund meeting minutes from July 2nd, 2025. uh with the following amendment of page one line 49 replace there will be with we will move >> a second >> second any discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor oppose abstain nice work okay now I'm going to open public input it is 620 and Even though there are no public members here, if they arrive in the next 30 minutes, we will allow them to speak probably even if they arrive after that. Uh seeing as there's a storm and some roads are closed. Um but just declaring it open at 6:20.
014Moving ahead, we're going on to the principal reports starting with uh probably HPS. >> Sure. All right. So we have new student orient. Well, I'm just going to go through the exciting stuff. We have new student or orientation at Hughes 9:30 a.m. on August 18th. Um, we have new student orientation at HPS at 8 a.m. for incoming kindergarten, 9:00 am for new students, grades 1 through three. Parents and students are both welcome. And that's on August 21st. Um, new hire orientation is next Tuesday and Wednesday. That's for every new hire we have in our entire district. And that's at the high school. All of our um teaching staff and par profofessionals return on August 25th. Um we start off the day, the entire SAU is at the high school in the auditorium for an opening.
015Um and then the students first day of school is Thursday the 28th. So that's always a very fun day. It's also a fun day to watch carpool and buses. >> Maybe fun to watch, but >> probably not. different. >> Um, but we have been rocking and rolling in the buildings. Uh, making sure everything is ready to go. You can see down to this half of the room. The floors are beautifully shiny and sparkly. And the other half is our last to-do. But that is where we um manage all of our, you know, Chromebooks. We have to unenroll all the students and then reenroll, clean them out, take in the new, unassign the old. We've been doing cabinet replacements. um our night locks that have been added for safety. We're not we haven't started that yet.
016It takes a few things like to get permission from the fire department, etc. So, all of those pieces are done, but um we also have added eight interactive flat panels up at Q's, four from the budget and then four from the PTA. So, thank you very much for that. Um we are going to work on the stall partitions that will be done before the start of the school year. classroom flooring um and gym flooring have all been refinished. So, we're we're good to go. HPS. Um >> can I just ask a quick question before you move to HPS? >> The night locks, is that something that they can install once school starts or does have to be done before? >> No, those can be installed at any point. >> I think they were installed last
017November at the high school. So, >> after school. Um lots of many fun projects. night locks, um gate replacement at the SA field, door magnet holder staff, bathroom renovation. Some of those have been held up a little bit at the primary as um the building maintenance supervisor shifted to the high school and so we had to hire a new one, but we have one on staff. So, we're excited to welcome him. Um we also had to move around a ton of classroom spaces and teachers. um our principal, our curriculum administrator, and um our special ed administrator are now sharing what used to be um like a teacher space with a laminator. So, it's like a hallway with their three desks lined up. Um not ideal space for sure, but they are doing everything to make
018the school um able to open and run uh for students. So, their offices have been taken over um by special ed case managers to do services with students there as they had been in a classroom before and that classroom is turned into a general ed classroom space. >> And do these folks who are in the hallways have access to closed spaces if they need to have private conversations. >> So, they would have to have others be removed to have the private conversation or have access to a conference room if it's not booked. So, I mean it'll um be a little bit challenging every day. But they are in there working with a smile. So >> I'm sorry. Can you say what are the three staff that position that? >> Um the principal, the curriculum administrator
019and the special ed administrator. >> Got to see that today. And um you're going to hear me talk a lot and anybody who's listening or reading the minutes they have really taken one team. Um they are working in a very what we say is less than ideal is the understatement of the century. Um situation um so that our case managers can have a space to work with children even the spaces that they have right now are again not ideal but the best that we can do given the enrollment crisis that we are in right now and it is a crisis um because we did not expect according to NASDAQ projections to have the numbers that we have this year. didn't expect these numbers for at least another two years. We just talked about that today.
020And they made a lot of sacrifices to make sure that the children got classrooms. >> Yeah, we've uh we've been exceeding NASDAQ predictions for several years now, too. Yeah, for sure. Um for because I know that some of the community members have asked this question. Are the specials teachers on carts? HPS. >> Um, not all of them. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. So, art still has the space and music has a less than ideal space to herself, but >> science >> class and outdoor space. >> I guess I can ask you, you've been very intimately involved. Did music change rooms then from where it was originally? >> Um, well, every year she's moved, but this year I think she's similar to where she was last year. >> Yeah. I feel like very appreciative
021to and sympathetic to our principal and curriculum director and tell me >> special ed administrator >> special education administrator that is working the hallway. >> Well, it's a hallway with um doors >> so there's a I mean if one was in there they they could have some privacy but you know kicking the others out. >> Is there anything there for us to In terms of like confidentiality of student data, is that like anything that we need to be mindful of? >> We are mindful of that and like I said, so all those convers confidential conversations will take place by forcing the others out of the space if they couldn't be um >> but it's not that people are like walking. >> No, no, it's it's like a back room sort of. It used to be
022a bathroom. >> It's in the back of the office. Um so you can get there if you go into the main office and then through the SRO space by the There's a door. There's also a door from the hallway and it's literally it's like long enough for for three desks to be lined up. It reminds me of an infirmary that maybe um >> Yeah. of desks. >> So you walk to the first one, you get your temperature, you walk to the next. >> It's also kind of like, you know, you feel like there should be like cubicles there, but then also that sounds like really scary, like you know, >> those shots of the old offices where desks were lined up in a grid without cubicles. to the point of the question to some extent
023like if if the three of them are not there the wing hallway can be secured so that any of the information >> yes >> correct yeah of course um and then you know as I already mentioned enrollment continues to go up um I believe one form says our total enrollment 690 and the other one says 686 I believe it's 690 um and not only do we have a very large kindergarten class coming in, although we did have one withdraw. So, um, so we're currently down to 88, but I think we have one in transition right now, so back to 89 after they're registered and placed in a class. Um, we did have quite a few first graders register over the summer. We see that a lot. Um, it doesn't put our first grade at a
024large space. That was a smaller or in a large number, I should say. It was a smaller kindergarten class, but um, you know, none of our numbers are really going down. So, >> so did you say I'm sorry 690 for combined with the two >> correct? Yeah. Sorry. So, that is the report. I will also share just uh because it has to do with Hollis Primary and Hollis Upper. Monday and Tuesday we had our SAU leadership retreat. So, that included all of our administrators across the entire SAU that was led by Dot Flarity and um Lauren had special sessions with our um schoolbased folks while we worked with some of our uh larger leadership team and I think it was a fantastic two days. Um we have a great team. They're very excited to get
025the year going and um you know they did some really good work on how they're going to open the year with their faculty and welcome the students in. So great stuff. >> Any other questions for Gina? >> Question the kindergarten contingency for that kind of thing was to try and bring down the other costs that were coming in. Um do you think going forward for the future for that kind of do do you think you would do that the same way for the future similar just like that balance of I think it >> I think it is um would have to do with the conversations with the budget committee. They had concerns both on this from what I remember both on the school side and the town side and so we wanted to be respectful
026of that. Of course, they were aware. The reason we have a contingency is for this exact situation. We haven't used it. So, it's a little bit of gambling of sorts. Um and you know, we're just going to start the year off a little bit tighter. I mean, knock on wood, it looks like we're going to fewer contracted Paris, so hopefully we won't be crunched on that end. Um, but you know, it's it's a conversation. So, when we come to January, if they're like, well, do we need a contingency? I don't know. We used, you know, we really could have used it this year. So, I think it's definitely part of the conversation. I don't know where it's going to fall on the disclosure side of things, but I I would note as someone who's just
027come on to the board this year, I'd be curious if I was sitting in the audience at the next big school board meeting where we're talking about getting budgets and things approved, what we cut to get the kindergarten, we shrunk the general because that always seems to come up. >> Yeah. >> And so something you might want to keep in mind that having a note that we can rely on to say, "Hey, yeah, so we had to do this and when this thing came up, we had to be fiscally responsible." >> Sure. >> Because I think that's what some of the public is going to be looking for is >> Absolutely. >> And I wish there was a a black and white answer for that. >> Sure. >> Um and as I mentioned earlier in
028the enrollment committee today, um you know, we had a couple retirements and so typically you retire when you're at the top end of the salary and then uh often but not all the time. We hire at the less expensive end of the salary. So, um sometimes that balances out and then it's it it's just a wash. I don't foresee it being a total wash this time, but um my hope is that it becomes manageable. Another piece of this is we don't know until um well, we know now, but we don't always know if someone's going to switch from single coverage in healthcare to two person or family or the reverse. So, sometimes we Even though health insurance costs may have gone up, we see savings just based on plan selection, also something that we do
029our best to budget for, but then now that we're dealing with an additional cost, sometimes that is able to help mitigate um you know the impact on the budget. So it's not I would Donna would love if there was a here's the number and that's what we got and you know if everything was so perfect and it's you know we can speak And that's what we do all the time with our revenue expense. We're seeing overages due to these general things. It's not the one invoice that just sent us over the top. So, we try to do our best to have that conversation throughout the year, but it's not always as black and white as we would. >> I think all I was saying is like since we're coming into the new year, my thought
030process was more the okay, you and the people who are giving the inputs are going to be sitting there and you're have these thoughts like we're a little tight this year. Maybe I won't do this particular thing. that isn't just in the wash and I think noting that as it occurs will help us prep for >> sure >> going and talking to people about it. >> Yeah. And what we typically do and I hope we don't uh get there but what we typically do is when we see the cost sort of settle and we see some of the incumbrances start we put a freeze on the budget. We're not headed in the right direction. So if it if you don't need it need it today you're not going to get it. We're going to freeze
031all of our expenditures for a little bit and then happens in a month or two months or whatever and that and we'll definitely let you know if and when that happens happened last year certainly moving on to our discussion portion of program let's start with the 2025 LEA plan >> okay so you did have the LEA plan in the packet this is the LEA plan also known as the special education policy and procedures manual but it has everything is hyperl is printed. So everything is done by section, but all the hyperlinks are also the hard copies. So you'll see all the beautiful policies and all the work and all the forms and all the different pieces that go along in our world. A little snapshot in the world of special education. >> Where did they
032get the test? >> Yes. So um I'm planning on quizzing you. Okay. I expected this to be read cover to cover, not missing even one bit, but just to highlight some things. So just so you understand why, you know, why and how this this works. So, this is a manual that's um reviewed every year that you know I take a look at it and we update different pieces. It's been a few years since there's been a major major overhaul and there's been you know some different pieces um you know in like little things in various sections that we wanted to make this an overhaul. There's a policy that you're going to have um brought forward tonight that is a it's not a a mandatory policy, but we wanted to bring it forward because I would
033love for the school boards just to have an awareness of this and understand how amendments are made and just be part of that process. Um a lot of it is law and procedure, but there are pieces of it that do pertain specifically to your district. So, you'll see the programs specifically for in that are that exist in your district. you'll see the policies and you'll see the um the forms and the different pieces that are specifically for our district versus the general overall procedure and plans. So, if you're ever interested, take a look. This is housed at the SAU. Um because if anyone ever wants to come in and take a look at it, they're welcome to. Um but it is also on our website. Um and like I said, everything is is hyperl. Everything
034that is a form or a document is printed in here. There are a few links to to to website pages. We didn't print those, but there are some references in the manual that are linked to websites. Anything that's a document or a manual is here. >> Print it out. >> Going on vacation. >> Yeah. If you want a little light reading, get a little workout. It's all very good or sunny or you'll have a big white square. >> Yeah. Exactly right. Exactly right. So, I just wanted you to, you know, to see it and take a look. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. If you have any questions anytime, you know, um, you know, after, as I'm sure you'll be studying it, um, please let me know. updating it this year.
035Were there particular areas that you were doing a lot of updates to? >> Yeah, I mean just kind of so and I I really want to thank um Christine Height who's my assistant director who really took on a lot of the nitty-gritty minutia of this too and she did an amazing job. Um just really cross referencing every single bit. We went back to our eligibility forms which we do review every few few years but we wanted to make sure that those were updated. We had those vetted by legal again. I think we last did that about two two years ago. So there's just we really wanted this to be as thorough as possible, you know, coming into this into this year. So it wasn't wasn't drastic changes, just kind of nitty-gritty things along along the
036way that I've had different changes. And our and our programs have changed. I changed the format of how I present them in the manual. It's much clearer. Um, if you ever want to see the old one, I can show you the old one, but it's much clearer and it's much more de detailed. So that was a piece that, you know, I felt was important because that those are the pieces that pertain directly to our school, not just the state and federal law. Um, so we made some changes like that, too, with the formatting to make it kind of easier to read and more clear. >> Thank you for doing that work. >> Yeah, sure there wasn't. >> Thank you for taking a look at it. >> Well, it's it's very it's a professional presentation. It
037it presents well for our district and for you and for our entire staff that provides these services. So, thanks. >> Thank you. Now we look to Ann. >> Well, you got some of it already. >> So, you got you got the highlights on on our our increased enrollment. Um, if anybody who's paying attention, we uh wondering what's going on with civil engineering. Um, an RFP was put out uh end of end of June. Um, bids were accepted and uh the deadline was July 15th. We conducted interviews and um The school board will be discussing the recommendations of the executive subcommittee this evening during the public um as far as making a decision on who our simple engineering firm will be. Um the good news is is that we continue to be well within and under
038budget from um what we requested of the town um and more in article six in March. So that's good news. Um, we did ask our facilities director to take a look at the Hollis Primary School septic system. He had provided documents on the upper elementary school when we were looking at that third grade option. So, we thought, you know, what's going on with the primary school? Um, the the Hughes septic system is an 8,000 8,000galon tank and that's a capacity for about 500 students and staff. Um the house primary school septic is only 6,000 and um we are >> what is that number? >> Well, I'm waiting on those. He's going to send us the documents. So, I don't have a specific number of people, but it's going to be less than 500 and >>
039based on what we're looking at as far as projections. We need that. So, um that's something that will be discussed. So, putting that out there to the community, we will be getting that analyzed and assessed at one point. We'll be making some decisions on what to do there. Um so, we appreciate getting that heads up. Uh so some of that money that we're saving uh that was budgeted for for the the pre-bond you know work u may may go to that kind of an assessment and analysis because we really want to know now what we're going to need and and what the situation is there. Um we also set all of our meeting dates for um fiscal year 26. So anyone who wants to know when the enrollment committee is meeting it's the third Wednesday
040of the month now through February. Those are all scheduled. They are up on our um website and our website can be accessed through the house primary school site um underneath resources. It also can be accessed through the SA41 site. So um hopefully people will go and keep up to date. >> Highly urge >> highly recommend people stay up to date on this. >> And I'll just add one little update. Um I based on our committee meeting I reached out to our architect um and said absolutely the septic was part of his plan once a design was um decided upon. >> Great. >> Um and then because you don't want to design it here and then the building is is right there. So >> yeah so that of he said the size and the age both
041of those meant that it was absolutely part of the scope of what he planned to tackle. And um the other item was that maybe by mid next week we have some designs to look at. >> Oh well that's very exciting. >> It's very exciting. Please keep me on those on those emails. I would love to know about that. >> Yeah. >> Um can I ask a specific question about net projections? >> Sure. I can pull those up too while we're talking. Go ahead. Um so we are saying that we are consistently over for NES productions and you can see that in a lot of years that doesn't look like it's true for kindergarten that kindergarten says the NEZ production was 100 and that we have 88 >> um I'm not sure >> if that is
042correct based on the 2025 NES but let me let me look that up now >> but can you spell >> NESD NESDEC, the New England School Development Council. Um, and >> so what they do, Jonathan, is they maybe they are the ones that are giving projections that this is how many students you based off of housing numbers, based off of these other factors. They give a projection of like how many students we think you're going to have next year. >> Sure. >> Um, I'm not sure why it says that on that document. So on what I am looking at right here, it was predicted that there would be 81 students. I figured that must be because we were so caught off guard by how many more kindergarters. >> Yeah. And actually if you look at
043the one that we had the previous year >> um it was even lower. Um if I think I have that as well if you want to know it >> um from so that's FY25 historical moment. >> Um you know what I don't have it on here. I may have taken it out so that I wouldn't confuse people by any chance. Do you have the FY24 NASDAQ productions? >> I bet you I >> I have the ones that the spring update April 2025. >> Yeah. So that's the kind that I have too. So we might 2024. Oh, never mind. Got it. >> This was Is this that year? If I was looking for a copy of that, is it a request or online? >> It's online. It's actually in the >> Yeah. So, kindergarten. So, in
044the spring update, it shows us at 81. >> Okay. >> Kindergarten. >> Um I'll find that I can report that out next week. >> Yeah. we're going to be correct next. >> Um, and this was something, you know, like if if you look back at all the things we were just talking about this today, when we were anticipating problems way back February 2024 when we first started meeting about this, we anticipated FY28, we would need that extra classroom teacher and that extra um, kindergarten teacher um, kindergarten classroom. And so um, that that that kind of caught us off guard three years ahead. >> Yeah. So yeah, I said two, but yeah, you're right. It's three. Um Oh, no, it's two because this is actually FY26. So >> yeah, every year we don't know what's um
045this is we don't need to be crossing this bridge right now, but something that we had talked about last year was actually how difficult it is to get portables. You know that people we sort of understandably assume that that's a relatively easy solution. You can just order a portable get a portable and so I guess I just am thinking about and so now what I have learned is that it's not I mean there are other concerns about portables and security and all of that um concerns but I guess I'm wondering next year if we need another kindergarten like there isn't I don't know that like we're getting to the point where like there's not another room to pull from like do we need >> is that a thing we need to be thinking of in
046advance >> well I mean this is what I asked earlier still don't want situation it has to be kept on the table. >> Yeah. >> It also you know the decision of how you proceed for the years kind of also depends on >> successful time on an HPS expansion. So knowing that it would be this amount of time instead of >> right indefinite is always also helpful in making those decisions. Hope I didn't take your answer. >> No. Um we talked about enrollment committee. It's such an informative committee. >> And Paula said, >> no, it was a good question. Paula said, you know, this is my short-term plan and art can be on a cart. Certainly not ideal, but that's a first floor class. So, that's certainly one space that we would utilize. Um, and
047then, you know, that might become the long-term solution if if we can't move forward with the project. But, yeah, I mean, there's a lot to consider and and if we can't move forward with an expansion, then we'd probably look more toward portable options, but we have a long way between now and then. >> What's the max reminding of how many kindergarters we have in a classroom >> According to policy? according to policy 18. Okay. >> And right now with these six sections we are at 14 14 15 >> with one more to be placed. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Let's go for Well, you gave us our >> I already gave you I just gave you a >> Anything else? I don't think we've hired anyone since six. So, >> so I think
048we're good. >> Perfect. Okay. >> Um, our next discussion point, our board goals for FY27. Um, do you want to kind of talk about these a little bit than I have? >> So, you know, although we already started budgeting for FY27 in June, >> um, it's a it's a long conversation. And so in the summer we look to see, do you have certain goals in mind? Do you have, you know, capital improvement projects that you have in the forefront of your mind that you would like us to focus on as a goal as we build our budget? Because we want to make sure our budget is in line with your uh goals as a board um so that we can all be on the same page as we move forward. So, the one that I'm
049going to bring up is something that actually came out of the March Hollis town meeting, which uh was voted upon by our citizenry to have the budget committee form a capital expenditure advisory committee. >> And this would have representatives from Hal School District >> and is it the co-op and the town and the select board and So >> formed by the select board, sorry. Yes. Not by the budget committee, but it would bring everybody together to kind of lay out all of their projects because there are a lot of different efforts that are expensive that are coming down the pike for all of these sources of cost, I'll call them. Um, and so we need to identify a member who's going to serve on that committee. And I think hand in hand, you know, with
050doing that as part of this, like our board goal is to make sure that that person can represent our interest. Now, for anybody who's curious, either at this table or watching the video, this advisory committee has absolutely zero authority toward any one of the participating organizations >> to say, "No, our thing's more important than yours. You can't do that." >> We as a board still make all of the decisions for what want to put forth at our district meeting and the decisions that we make as a policy board. This is more of just to make sure that we have a formal sharing of information so we each entity understands the impact of our decisions on the taxpayer. >> So I think kind of as a board goal is and I think we kind of already
051do this is we just make sure that this person is kind of given this information. So our board goal is to make have the proper information to go to these meetings and represent us. Um I have full faith in in everybody um in doing that and I happen to have a conversation with Raph and he's interested in in participating in that way. Um I feel like that was a great idea because of him serving on the budget committee as our he knows the best way to deliver the information. He also knows kind of the other conversation points that happen with the Um, so I would like to take the opportunity to appoint Raph as our capital expenditure advisory committee if he's willing to do it. Thank you. Um, and then that can be kind of
052tie into our goals. Like I said, it's something that'll start now, but it'll be something that's going to continue, especially with our our looming larger things that are going to be hitting March for FY27. >> I think it's also noteworthy that Rafie is the alternate on the enrollment committee and he's He and I have constant communication about what's happening in enrollment. Um, including what's happening at this meeting when I inform, but also individually we go back and forth and I as the alternate for the budget committee I sometimes go and speak with him more when he's unable to attend. So I think that Rafi is a great choice for that. Um, if you need an alternate be happy to be the backup if baby that happens um because we have so much Do we do
053an alternate for that? Do you know? >> It's brand new. >> Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't discussed. >> I was about to ask that which is it. It's implied, but has the select board actually put together this committ? >> Yes, they've asked me to appoint someone and I said we're not meeting until August. So, I will not do it before then because I wanted it to be part of >> and it was it was totally implied by your lead in. I just I haven't been paying attention to what the select board is doing. So, >> totally fine. Yeah, they've been they did form the comm. they've been getting the members from the other entities that are going to participate. Um I think we might be the last ones just because the timing is so and
054then they will decide on when and how they meet based on the membership. >> I'm assuming that co-op will also have a representative there. >> They will. >> Yeah. And also just saying this for people who are maybe watching that's one of the values of this board is that then having this board allows us as a town to potentially looking at people are building can we build into builders expenses you have to be you know contributing to expenses for roads or the impact fees >> impact fees for the school so that's a very important um yeah I think it's I think it gives us a good I sound like I'm like cheering the committee on but um I think it gives us a absolute seat at the table to hear directly from those participants about
055what's going on us as individual taxpayers having to pay super close attention to every single select board and other meeting to glean the pieces that could be impactful to the work that we do here. My one request is that you like report back in the same way the enrollment committee reports back as well. >> Is the plan that they have monthly meetings? Yeah, they haven't decided. Again, it's going to depend on the membership if they do them day, night, zoom, in person. Um, they're going to be flexible. And there was discussion about setting an initial time limit of one year. >> So, we will we will see. So, I'm assuming it will be perpetual. Thus, you see for the goals. Um, thinking about other goals, do you have examples? I was trying to pull up
056some examples of what we've had as goals in the past. >> Um, personally, I think a huge goal of ours is to focus a lot of time and energy on our enrollment discussions and coming up with, you know, a proposal that can go forward to the voters in March. Um, that's hugely important. Um, I think our district is in really great shape. Sometimes some of our other districts have um felt that it was, you know, really important, let's say, to begin the conversation of how do you integrate a social worker into the school district. And that's how co-op ended up adding a social worker position to the budget and integrating it into the school that was that stemmed from a board goal. So So this is this is the introduction of this. This isn't the
057hey, we're going to set a hold of them tonight. >> So, in past years, we discussed it in August and we bring it back to the agenda in September to say, okay, here's what we think. This is what we're going to kind of set forward. >> Are these all budgetary goals exclusively? >> Well, not necessarily budgetary goals, but most of the time what we do has a cost to it >> and um you know, so >> my thought from a policy perspective is that something that we have been working on. This would not be a budgetary goal, but is trying to make our policies be more in alignment across because we are multi-dist and so there are places that maybe it notably makes sense for us to have a different policy. I'm not saying we
058should have to but I do think it is um to our benefit in a lot of ways when we can't cohesive with other >> I like that because the students and families have consistency as they move from school district to >> I think one thing as well that doesn't necessarily budget and may not be a solable problem but I haven't adittly I also have not attended the closer to the end of year end of calendar year zone meetings when we get into budget discussions and things if they run similar to how the meetings I have been to so far as a board member are the public input component is low and that isn't to say that shame on them for not doing it but I'm trying to figure out is it is it a communication
059and visibility component and is there an area of improvement for us to get better feedback from the public on a more regular basis because obviously that helps us helps the public get what they want out of the school district as well and doesn't delay us to a meeting where we're actually talking about budget proposals versus what the the public might want to accomplish and what they're seeing going on because there's five of us who have a particular point of view but there's a big district. again may not be achievable, but at least taking a retrospective look and saying, "All right, is it something where we could be better about announcing it or we could be better about bringing up topics that may help that kind of thing?" >> Yeah, we talked about this some governing
060board meetings too. Um, and it's tricky, right? Um, is the short answer there. And also, it does I think everybody agrees is there a better way to be communicating with people even if it's not I think that sometimes people have felt like, you know, um, citizens not coming to meetings is in some ways a sign that people feel comfortable with what you're doing, you know what I mean? And so, of course, we want people to always feel comfortable coming, right? Um, whether they feel good or not good, but um, I do think we could keep doing better and we've talked about social media and that feels tricky. I wonder if we can put out in the principal report a link to our notes. You know what I mean? Like put that like link in the
061like when the principles are sending out or even through Parents