COOP School Board Meeting 4/9/2025

001that that um which is working. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, I have a nomination and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 5 vote. I'll pass the meeting to Holly. Thanks. Um, so we'll move on to vice chair. Um, we'll do the same process. So, um, I'll call for nominations for vice chair. Um, I was going to start by nominating Kate Stole because the process has been working. So, I'd like to nominate Kate Stole for vice chair. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? All right, seeing none. All in favor? 5 Z. Okay. Next is I believe uh secretary. Uh so same process. Is there anyone who would like to nominate someone or volunteer to be secretary? Sometimes in the past we've asked the secretary

002does not take minutes during the meetings. We have a um Don Millan we have a board secretary. Um it's just for the non-public meetings that we need um a secretary. So we usually the tradition has been that the newest member of the board. So I'd like to nominate Amy Kelner to be secretary. I will second that. Seconded by Kate. Um all in favor 6. Okay. So now that that's taken care of, I would like us to go around and um do some introductions of the students. If you don't feel comfortable, you don't have to say your full name, but um you are on camera. So, just so you know, um I'm gonna start with you. Um actually, Gina, why don't you do a little introduction of Mr. H to the public and then go around?

003Well, you want me to start? Yes. Yeah, because we're not really at an end. I know. I'm gonna just go this way. Okay. So, Gina Bergskog, superintendent elect. And to my right, we have Jacob Hess, who I will be nominating for principal of Hollis Brookline High School effective July 1st. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Jess. Looking forward to that. Uh, Linda Sherwood, director of business operations. Amy Kelner, I'm a new school board member. Sydney Vancet, school board member. Tom Solon, school board member. And William Ver, I'm a junior at the high school. Nice to meet you. Ashley Disco, student body vice president. Abby Ford, sophomore representative. Margaret Noble, student body president. I'm Kate Barrian. I'm a senior representative. Timone, high school principal. Shorttime. together. Patrick West, middle school principal. Beth Williams, school

004board. Kate Stole, school board. And Holly Derlo Babcock School Board. Andy Corey, superintendent. Short timer. Very very. So, um, great. Thank you all for doing that. Um, so we would I'd also like to do three four um committee assignments, although most of the the rest of our committee appointments will be done at the AP April meet May, sorry. Um, I'd like to at least try and get a few of the more important roles done. So, I'd like to appoint I'm going to do them all at once, I think, but I'm going to ask I need two people to sign manifest, Linda, or one. You need two plus an alternate. Two plus an alternate. So, I need two people to sign manifest. So, I need volunteers for that. Um, we need at least two people on

005policy. We need a BUDC com and we need an SAU Budcom rep. I'd like to come out of tonight's meeting with those positions appointed. So, um, if there's anyone I'd like to start with budre is there I mean Tom Solen's been doing it. Tom, is that something you'd be willing to continue unless there's somebody Nobody else wants it? Yeah, I sent an email out and I didn't get a response that anybody else was looking for it. So, um, I'd love to point you. Are you okay with it, Tom? Okay. Um, and then Amy, you sent an email to me like about policy. I'll say I'd like to stay on policy. Rob has asked to not be on policy anymore. So, the two of us will be on that. Um, so that's So, Amy for policy,

006Holly for policy, Tom for bud, comrep. Um, Kate, you've been signing manifests. Yeah, I'm fine with continuing. You still do that? I need one other person who and Cindy and Rob has been as well. Okay. Is there anyone who'd like to take that job on or is it good to stick with the same? You're good. And then SAU BudCom, you've been doing that, right Beth? I hope. Is that something you can continue to do? Depending on what meetings are. Okay. So, we'll we'll appoint you at this point and if there's a problem, can you send an email and we'll try to find someone else. So, um just so we're clear for the business office manifests are Kate, Cindy, and Rob. And which one is the alternate? Um Rob, let's call him the alternate. All right.

007Cindy, you're okay to do it as okay. policy is Amy and Holly. Budcom is Tom Solon and then SAU BudCom is Beth. So, um I'd like a motion to approve those appointments. So, moved. Moved by Beth. Second. Second by Kate. Is there any discussion? All those in favor. 6. Motion carries. All right. So, I love that we have all these students here. I know you're here for the presentation, but our agenda calls for us to go into a non-public um which is going to be at least a half an hour. So, unfortunately, you're going to have to sit and wait. I I assume you're all coming to every meeting after this presentation. Like, we're just going to have you all the time because we'd love that. But there's candy. Did the candy make it to

008you? There's no She always brought the candy. Yes, I did. Did the candy get get to the kids? Come around. Okay. So that being said, I need a motion to go into clearly before the kids get right. Am I moving on to a Okay. I need a notion. I need a motion that the board by roll call go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91- 3 to um a the dismissal, promotion or compensation of any public employee employee. That's it. So moved by Cindy and second by Kate. Um, I need a roll call vote on this. So I I we are now in nonpublic at 6:07 p.m. Um, dear Tim, please accept my letter of resignation effective on the date I am released from my contract at SAU41 from Halls Brooklyn High School. I've been

009afforded a position in another district and would like to start with them as soon as possible. It deeply saddens me to leave my students and staff in these conditions. The relationships I've established through case management, co-eing, mentorship and coaching soccer are ones I will always cherish. Leaving a community I've made deep connections in was not one that I ever anticipated. I wish you and the district all the best in your future endeavors. That comes from Allison Whittig um with an effective date of February 21st, 2025, case manager at the high school. And that was a um a resignation, right? Resignation. Allison Whittig. Okay. So I need a motion to accept the resignation of Allison Whitik as case manager at the high school with an effective date of February 21st. February 2025. So move. Moved by

010Rob. Need a second. Second. Second by Beth. Is there any discussion? Did you have a question? I have discussion. Sure. Um, we have had uh conversations in the past about essentially what amounts to breaking contracts and that uh maybe we can't actually stop it, but we don't have to approve it. And there is language in the contract about um issues related to did we we have that about uh that that we have uh there is language that talks about obligation fulfilling the contracts with potential legal recourse. So I want to remind this group that the um the fact that it happened doesn't mean it has to be approved. Right? We never have to vote. Yes. And so towards that end, my question is was this a planned negotiated desired departure? It was done by mutual

011agreement. Okay, that helps. And have we um successfully uh filled the the vacancy? Yes, we have. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, any other comments? All those in favor? Um 70. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Dear Andrew Corey, I hereby resign from my position as ELLL educator at Holl Brookline School District beginning at the end of the school year in 2024 2025. Though I enjoyed my position here, it is a very far commute for me. Thank you for the opportunity to teach here in SAU41. Sincerely, Virginia Henninghousen. Virginia Hen I G H AU Sen. And she was an ELLL teacher. Correct. So, I need a motion to accept the um resignation of Virginia Henningous um as the ELLL teacher at Palace Brookline High School with an effective date of June 30th. Yeah. 2025. Moved by

012Beth, seconded by Rob. Um any discussion? All those in favor? 70. Motion carries. Thank you. Dear Mr. Corey, please accept this as my letter of resignation from my position of special education teacher at Hollsburg Lane Middle School. My last day will be at the end of the 2025 school year. My students have given me great pleasure, though my tenure through my tenure with the school district. Sincerely yours, Susan Doyle. Okay. Need to um I need a motion to accept the resignation of Susan Doyle as this as a special educator at the Hollis Brookline Middle School with an effective date of June 30th, 2025. So moved by Kate, seconded by Beth. Sorry. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? 70. Motion carries. Thank you. To Andrew Corey and Gina Bergskog. I am writing to formally

013resign from my position as a science teacher at Hollis Brookline High School effective June 30th, 2025. This decision comes after careful consideration of my family's needs and our anticipated move to another part of the state. Working alongside my colleagues in the science department has been a positive experience that will be difficult to emulate. I am especially grateful for the mentorship provided by Rod Clark, our department chair, as well as the support I've received from fellow teachers Trudy Thompson and Jennifer Shrieves. It is been a blessing to work with such wonderful people over the past eight years. Thank you for the opportunity to grow as an educator at HBHS. I wish the district continued success in the future. Respectfully, Camille Carson. Okay. All right. I need a motion to accept the resignation of Camille Carson as

014a science teacher at the Hollis Brooklyn High School with the effective date of June 30th, 2025. So moved. Second. Moved by Beth. Nope. Moved by Kate, seconded by Beth. Is there any conversation? All right. All those in favor? 70. Thank you. Dear leadership and Halls Brookline school board members with deepest gratitude for my 24 years here so emotional. I need to depart from a place I still love working at and a community I still feel honored to be a part of. Family and personal needs are such that I need to work part-time, not full-time in the coming year. So this is my official letter of retirement. Thank you for the opportunity to teach the the sons and daughters of these two towns. It has meant so much to be part of the journey from CO

01519 recovery to this year where I see joy in our halls and in our students. Additionally, being part of advisories launch has been one of the most important things that I've done in 37 years of teaching. I'm proud to have been such a remarkable proud to been such a part of such a remarkable school district. Thank you for all that you do and all you've done to make the town schools and the places they are growing and learning. Sincerely, Lyn. Okay. Illingworth. Miss I Miss I need I need a motion to accept the retirement of um Lynn Illingworth uh as an she's an English teacher at the high school with an effective date of June 30th, 2025. Moved by Beth, second second by Kate. Um all I guess we can say with regret clearly. Um,

016just wait. All those in favor? 70. This is a tough one. Dear Randy, is with mixed emotions that I inform you of my resignation for my current position as principal of Hollis Brookline High School. Effective at the conclusion of my current contract in the school year on June 30th, 2025. Been offered an accepted position to become the next principal of Gothtown High School. As you know, Gofftown is my hometown's high school, and becoming principal there is a unique and exciting opportunity for me and my family. I'm eternally grateful for the opportunities I've been given here in SAU41 over the course of my 23-year career. I would like to express my gratitude to you and Gina for your continued support, guidance, and friendship throughout my career here at HB. I'd also like to express my sincere

017appreciation to Holly, Tom, Beth, Cindy, Rob, Christa, and Kate, as well as the previous co-op school board members who have supported my growth as an educator and an administrator throughout my time here in SAU41. Hollis Brookline School District, more specifically, Hollis Brookline High School, is a special place that will always be part of who I am as a person and a professional. The countless relationships I formed over the years with colleagues, parents, community members, and most importantly, students, something that I will cherish forever. Thank you for everything. Sincerely, Tim Gerzone. Okay. So, I need a motion to accept the resignation um of Tim Grisome from Hollis Brooklyn High School as principal effective June 30th, 2025. So, moved. Moved by Beth. Second. Second by Kate. So, with regret but with best wishes. Can we vote against?

018Good luck. All those in favor. So, that leads us to our nominations. It's like two sides. Yeah. All right. So, I um as you can see, we have Jacob Hess here. I'd like to nominate him for the role of principal of Hallsbrook Lion High School. He comes to us as principal of Campbell High School for the past three years. And prior to that, he was principal of White Mountain Regional High School. Um I'd like to nominate him. What's that? Hess. Hess. H SS. Like the trucks. It's true. And I'm sure you've never heard this before. We have all I do like them. Um with a salary of 135,000. Okay. And that begins July July 1st, 2025. Okay. So, I need um a motion to accept the nomination of Jacob Hess as the Hollis Brookline High

019School principal um at a salary of $135,000 per year beginning at on July 1st, 2025. So moved. Second. Moved by Kate, seconded by Beth. Happy to have you. Um all those in favor discussion. Question. Sorry. Discussion. Questions. Go ahead. Um, what is currently budgeted for that position right now? 135. So, is is that because of where we were? That was what was in the budget. Yes. Okay. Any other questions? All th All those in favor? 70. Welcome to the circus. Let's keep going. Okay. So, I have a nomination. Trisha Sheay I'd like to nominate for case manager for Hollisburg line high school. She has a bachelor's in biology from Colobby Sawyer and a masters in special ed from Southern New Hampshire University. She's master's step 10. I'm listening. For a salary of 72,832. And what

020did you say the position was? Case manager. Okay. She has come on board in March to fill a vacancy that was created. Okay. So March 1st. This is next year's nomination. So, she's like a long-term sub this year. Okay. So, she's So, it's So, it's still July. Okay. So, I need a a motion to accept the super superintendent Alex nomination of um Tra Tissa Sheay for the position of case manager at um master step 10 um at the high school with a salary of 72,830. Moved by Beth. Second. Second by Kate. Any questions? All those in favor? 70. Motion carries. Any more? Okay. Yes. Like how many more? Five. Four more. Okay. All right. So, we have Lillian Mango. Um nominating her for position of English teacher at H Halls Lane Middle School. She has

021a bachelor's in English from St. Anselms College. So, we would like to put her um bachelor's step three for a salary of 55,733. You just hand it to me and then I can So, I need a motion to accept um the nomination of Lilian Mango as an English teacher at Hollis Brookline Middle School beginning in July beginning in 2025 with a bachelor's step three at $55,733. Moved by Beth. Moved by Kate, seconded by Beth. Any questions? All those in favor? 70. Thank you. Okay, we have a nomination for Katie Serret, social studies teacher for Hosburg line middle school, bachelor's in history from UNH and a masters in education from UNH. Um, she will be placed on master step nine with a salary of $71,55. Okay. So we need a nom I need a nom I

022need a motion to accept the nomination of Katie Serret um as a social teacher at Hollisburg Lane Middle School batch master masters step 97 $71,000 $55 so moved second moved by Kate seconded by Beth all those in favor if you have questions just stop me okay 70 motion carries okay we have a nomination for Alyssa Demian for case manager Halls Brookline Middle School uh she comes to us with a bachelor's in child and family studies at UNH. We would like to put her on bachelor's plus 30 step 17 for a salary of $83,530. Great. So, I need an motion to accept the nomination of Alyssa Demian Demian um for as a case manager at HBMS. She'll be on bachelor's plus 30 step 17 um with a salary of $8,530. So, moved. Second. Moved by Kate,

023seconded by Beth. Any questions? All those in favor? 70. And finally, um, we have a nomination of Lynn Illingworth for part-time position 6 English at Halls Brooklyn High School, bachelor's in English and theater, and a masters in English education, both from UNH. Um, we would place their uh, masters plus 30 step 20 for a pro-rated salary of $59,82. Okay. So, I need a nomination for a part-time position for Lynn Illingworth um 6 English at Hollis Brookline High School um masters plus 30, which is step 20 um prorated at $59,82. So, moved by Kate, second by Beth. All those in questions. Questions? Go ahead. You can go first. Go ahead. Nope. Why um do you know Why it is was done this way? Is it because she wanted to be do the formal retirement part? Yes.

024In order to formally retire, you need the month of separation. So legally, we have to demonstrate that she resigned or retired and then um and then she can begin employment more greater than 30 days later. So what will be her start date? The start of school. So the contract does not start July 1st. No, it's like all um August 25th or I think it's actually August 25th. Is that true of all of our teacher contracts? Yes. I thought they were 12-month contracts. Yeah. The the separation piece is just the 28 days. So, I will I will finish on June 30th. The school year will end. 28 days later I would be eligible. It's the same for any employee. School year ends, 28 days later, you're then eligible because you could teach ESY. You could do

025I I understand that. But don't our normal teaching contracts start July 1st. Teaching contracts are issued. The new compensation begins on July 1st, but the employment continues. I guess my point is will her contract be different than a traditional teachers contract to get the separation? Because when we when we were looking at all these things, we were looking real heavily at when we do contract negotiations, we look real heavily at the dates, the indicating dates. And although the the school year doesn't start, I thought it was it was a 12-month contract. You're you're correct. I mean, people could can choose to take their salary year round. They can take balloon checks or there are a number of things. So, she's looking for the formal retirement, which is the last day of the school year. 28

026days later, she becomes eligible to return in a part-time basis. I was just going to add, but actually, so you can get 12 months of pay, but it actually starts in August. So, there's a separation. She can't be in the building. She doesn't get paid. No teachers get paid. Um, they their pay starts in August, and then they get a balloon check that covers them for those. I don't know about the pay, but I'm talking about the actual contracts that they signed. their contracts do not start until sometime in August. I So what if we make an amendment if we if we make sure that we have a miss I'm just trying to find she's getting if if her contract is going to be worded differently than a traditional teaching contract. Well, the point 6

027contracts or the part-time contracts are always slightly different in terms of the the the because it's no longer New Hampshire retirement in terms of the term of the contract. That's ex explicitly what I'm asking about. She will get a point6 with the term beginning in August 25th and going to June 30th of 2020. But if you want to, we can put that in the motion that she starts on August 25th. And that way I don't care about I'm just trying to understand if this is a different contract because this is the first time I've I've dealt with the flip right then and there. All right. Um I will also say that it is a 1.0 position. Due to our smaller junior class that we've seen, we can offer the 6 and we're fine, but there

028is no guarantee yeartoear that this can continue. and she's well aware of that. There any other questions? You know, mine was so much lighterarted. Just you could have led with that because I was sitting here being the motion roller coaster of the board. Okay. All those in favor six. Tom, are you seven? Seven. Okay. 70. Motion carries. Okay. Moving on. We need to do some minutes. Feel bad for these kids here. Okay. I need uh We already did the motion. We did that. Sorry, I'm moving on. Oh, here we go. I need a mo. Okay, I've got minutes from Sorry. I got minutes from what meeting? So many. Oh, January 15th. Okay, sorry. So, we have minutes from January 15, 2025 with the following amendments. Page three, line 37, replace two with list. Page four,

029line five, replace the period with a comma following asked. Page 7, line 24, insert have before taking place. Page seven, line 46, replace reflation with inflation. And page 11, line 38, replace second reading with first reading. I need a motion to accept as amended. So moved. Moved by Beth. And I need a second. Second. Second by Kate. Okay. So, are there any questions or any other amendments? All those in favor of the minutes from I've got five. Um, anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Cindy and Amy are abstaining. So, we've got a 52 vote. Motion carries. Also, there were um non-public Oh, no. There was a public hearing. So, I need to a motion to accept as presented the January 5th public hearing minutes. Moved by Beth. And I need a second. Second. Second by Kate. Any

030questions? All those in favor? Five and opposed and abstensions. So 502. Um and then I have also a special meeting. That was the special meeting from January 30th. Um so we have some minutes from that. And we have page one, line six, replace the January 20 30th, 2025 special meeting with a special meeting. Page two, line 30, close the parenthesis. And it's like a punctuation thing. And page six, line 27, replace 2024 with 2014. Um, I need a motion to accept as amended. Second. Um, so moved by Beth. The topic of that meeting. I think that was the aortionment meeting and then motion by Beth and then Kate is the second. Um, all those in favor? Um, I have six and absention. 61 61. Then we also had a public hearing on the petition oracles

031on February 3rd. Um I need a motion to accept as presented. So moved by Beth and second by Kate and all those in favor. Is that the Brooklyn meeting? I think it I think that was I think that was our meeting. Was our meeting. Sorry. It was our meeting. No. Is that was that the one that took place in Brookline? No, it took place here. The February 3rd was here and then February um we had a nonpublic. Yeah, we have a lot more. Okay. Also on February 3rd, we had a non-public. So I need a motion to accept the non-public meeting minutes as presented. So moved. Moved by Kate. Second. Second by Beth. All those in favor? That's seven Z six. All those abstensions. Amy's so it's 61. Okay. And then we also had a

032bo joint are these minutes? Do we have joint minutes from ourselves? Okay. Um joint Hollis Brookline cooperative school board cooperative budget committee meeting on February 3rd line page 14. There's an amendment page 14 line 26 replace an with a. So I need a motion to accept as amended. So moved. Moved by Beth. Second. Second by Kate. All those in favor. Okay. And then we had public hearing petition war articles on February 3rd again. Yes, that's that's the same meeting but we went to the petition articles from the regular board. Okay. Remember we closed. Oh yeah. I I remember being here for a really long time. So we have page two line 33 replace 25,000 with 27,000. That was the amendment. I need a motion to accept as amended. So moved. Moved by that. Second by

033Kate. All those in favor? Six and one abstension. We have an abstension. Thank you. And then public hearing on the bond um which was also February 3rd. So I need a motion to accept as presented. So moved. Moved by Beth, second by Kate. Okay. All those in favor? Six. And an absention. We've got Amy six 601 from those carry. I believe that's and then the annual meeting. See those minutes. Okay. Then we have the minutes from the annual meeting. I need a motion to accept as presented. Moved by Beth. Second. Second by Gate. All those in favor come out. What? When did those come out? I don't know. But Don had them out because they come out from D. So, the minutes I think we need to table this. Can we table this one? Um,

034let's pull this one because I don't think I've seen these either. Usually I see them in the annual report the next year. So, I'll have Don send them to us if Don Yeah. Okay. All right. So, we're not going to do that one. So, we're pulling that motion. Somebody pull their motion. Great. Okay. All right. We are still We are getting there. I remember coming back. I know. I think we're going to move them up. Okay, we'll move them up. Okay. Um, I also might ask to move one other thing up, too. All right. So, at this point, I'm going to open the floor for public input. Um, that doesn't mean that the floor is if the floor will stay open for 30 minutes. If there's someone here would like to speak, please come to

035the mic, state your name, your address, and you know your the reason for your here. Drew, if you want to talk about the Okay, go ahead. Never mind. I'll let you speak, Drew. Sorry. Thank you. Drew Mason Baxter Road Hollis and moderator of the district. I just want to thank the school board, the SAU administration, SAU staff, high school, middle school administration staff, budget committee, everybody who helped make this last meeting season a success. Um, it takes a lot of people. It's a complicated tapestry we weave. And when you throw in the town on top of that, it gets even more and an election, it gets even more complicated. But I really do appreciate the uh the help that I have received and that my team has received. Um I've just been reelected for another

036three-year term, and I'm happy to serve for three years, but at the end of that term, I'm done. I will not be running for reelection in 2018. There's always a right in. So, you have you have some time to find a replacement and I'm happy to work with whoever um steps up, but um I think I will be done by then. Thank you so much, Sh. And we thank you for all of your hard work for all of us. It definitely it was it doesn't go smoothly without you standing there. So, thank you. Thank you. Um later on in the evening, we have debriefing of annual meeting. I'm hoping to move that a little bit because I know you have some things that you want to talk about and that's fine. Even if public input's

037closed, we're going to still accept our current moderator's input. Okay. So, so public input's open. It will close at uh5. Well, let's just say 8 o'clock. We'll just give people till 8 o'clock. Well, it'll close at 8 o'clock. We'll give them at least a little bit more than half an hour. So, if the board is okay with a couple of agenda adjustments, I would love to move the student presentation to now before anything else. Does that work for everyone? Is there any argument or not argument? Is there any opposition to that idea? Okay. So, um, this item is under our discussion portion of the agenda and it is the Hollis Brookline High School student council policy proposal and they have some cav reform that they'd like to talk about. So, I am turning the floor

038over to you guys if you'd like to, you know, and thank you for your patience. You actually need to be on it. We do need mics for you. So, we can grab the one from the podium. Yeah, let's get the podium and just Yeah. Why don't you just move the podium over? That's great. Okay, that's good. Right. Um, good evening everyone. Um, thanks for letting us in your very busy schedule. what we see. Um I'm Kate Beran, the senior at Hollis Brookline and as part of student council and us members, we like to improve the school as much as we can. Um that's our main goal every single year. And what's come to our attention this year and some concerns from students have been the changes in Caplock and it's been enough for us to

039look into it further, put this together. Um, it's unrealistic to ask for immediate action, but we wanted to tell you what our perspective is and our thoughts so that maybe you can get thinking towards it as well. All right. So, for Cavlock, for us, this is what we see it as. It's the flex period for students. Um, it runs three days a week and it allows them to self-regulate their time as they develop as young adults. Ideal experiences include one-on-one time with teachers, extended advisory activities, meeting with class officers, improving connections with students and staff, and it's the best time to make up quizzes and tests, work on group projects, independently complete work, and so much more. So, starting with some of the issues that we've seen, the overview of the structure is that many

040teachers no longer have C blocks. and instead they've been assigned to study halls and we've seen this affect some student teacher relationships. Students often cannot meet with the teachers that they need or want to see during school hours. Instead, to meet with teachers, they have to do it before or after school or during prep periods. In comparison, this is 15 minutes rather than the 44 minute cowblock period. And students really need that extended uninterrupted time to confer with their teachers. Continuing with the usage, um there are less available cab block spaces for students to go that less teachers have those cow blocks and some teachers are actually faced with overcrowding and the cavlock signups don't accurately, you know, measure use of space. Some kids don't even sign up. So, but for example, 10 kids in

041an English cab versus 20 in a math don't necessarily equate to a math is more important as you know English and writing reading you know and revising papers that might take more time rather than a math learning lab. Um with the assignments the study halls as we've noticed and the c blocks are unevenly distributed across the STEM and humanities teachers. There's still the learning ma the learning labs for maths but um not the English and social studies they've been lacking. Some teachers assigned to the study halls are the only teachers of their subjects. Um examples include AP gov Latin economics engineering. Um speaking from personal experience as well as Maggie Noble over here we take AP gov. We don't have a cav block and when we're doing we the people hearings we won states and

042conquered and the rest of a group is actually in DC right now. We didn't have the cav block time. We had a little grid on the whiteboard for lunch A, B and C. We were taking our time during lunch as well as our teacher taking the time during lunch as well as before and after school to meet with and try to discuss how we can further improve our papers and whatnot. And not having that cap block time was a little bit of an inconvenience for us. Um, some teachers cannot help in the same manners and this goes for subjects. Whereas math and science are very formulaic and objective, humanities courses are subjective to the teacher and the way that they grade papers, the way that they like to see writing, etc. And what we do

043recognize though is the new system with the teachers in charge of study halls is that it can allow for a slightly more academic environment. And it did intend to foster more consistent student teacher connections is what we have seen and what we think it's there for. Except we noticed that students are not necessarily making meaningful connections with their teachers in study halls. Many leave to go to the library. Some students do not even have or some studies don't have enough room for all students to actually stay. They are forced to go to the library. There aren't enough seats and study halls in the cafeteria. We still have those, but it's not necessarily the same academic environment as would be classroom. So, the support from study teachers does not necessarily equate to the support from a

044specific subject teacher. All right. So, I'm going to present our data collection. Um, so I'm going to move this. So, us at student council with the members divided themselves into five groups. We had the sophomores to seniors, the freshman, the AP and honor students, the humanities teachers, and STEM teachers. We then in each of our groups collaborated to create a template of questions that we were going to ask to these targeted groups. Each group group member then conducted informal anonymous conversations with around four people of interest collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. After conducting all these conversations, we compiled both of the data to highlight their effects numerically and through personas respectively. So for our AP and honors students, we interviewed 18 and 4.4 was the number of AP or honors classes that each of

045the students was taking on average. 69% of the students say that they had been strongly affected by changes to CAD block this year. 83% of the students say their CAD block experience has been very much or somewhat different than previous years. And only 60% of them had a good efficiency rating for a catlock this year. For our STEM and humanities teacher, 8% of STEM teachers disagree with the new cowwalk structure, but 86% of humanities teacher disagree with the structure. 55% of STEM teachers say that students have been negatively affected by catwalk changes, and 63% of humanities teachers say the same. 14% of STEM teachers do not have CAD block. But 45% of humanities teachers don't have catwalk. So I'm going to be presenting um just general information about what the different groups of interest said

046about cap block. So first we have the sophomore, junior and senior classes. And so um these were students who have had prior experience with the old cap lock system in addition to the new cap block system this year. And one of the biggest things that um we were we heard was that they were having finding it harder to make up assessments such as quizzes and tests inside school hours with teachers that didn't have cataloges. Um as previously mentioned, um there is a small amount of time before and after school to meet with teachers. However, that doesn't provide as much opportunity for students to make up larger assessments like quizzes or tests as cavlock does. Um, additionally, students found that they were having trouble um, excuse me, getting access to certain teachers and getting help from

047those teachers specifically um, for less general or niche classes um, that were such as AP and honors classes or uh, specific elective courses. and it was harder for them to receive help because they couldn't go to another teacher on the topic because only one or a select number of teachers was familiar with the course content that they needed help with. Um, conversely, the freshmen only have experience with the current CAD block system and overall they seem to um like the idea and experience of being able to get uh help from teachers during CAD block. However, they did express a big concern with not being able to access teachers that they need help from during CAD block due to limited space and overcrowded areas um because there aren't as many spaces open as previous years. Um

048and then a lot of AP and honors classes are only taught by one teacher. So only one teacher is familiar with the course content for that class. And so students and um in some cases the teacher who teaches that class doesn't have a cab block such as um I think Kate mentioned uh the AP government teacher does not have a cab block and so um students are having trouble finding time to clarify expectations or get help on assignments and the teachers are potentially having to um you know go outside of um take their prep time or in uh what Kate said their lunch period to help students with that. And then um looking at the teacher perspective of this um we talked to humanities teachers and um many of them felt that they were not

049able to help students as well as they were this year as they had been last year. And um despite trying to help other students who weren't in their class but were still seeking help on a certain subject, they felt they weren't able to adequately help as much as they would have been with a student in their class because they weren't as familiar with the specific coursework that the student was asking about. Um they uh excuse me humanities teachers were strong proponents of every teacher having a cab block and they also felt that this would help with the overcrowded situation inside the cat block spaces. Um and then the STEM teachers though not um though disproportionately affected by the number of studies given to them um did still feel that the new cab block system sometimes

050didn't allow for students to go to a cablock that was most efficient for them to get work done. All right. Now that we've addressed some of our concerns, we wanted to present some solutions. Okay. So our ideal solution is to go back to the previous structure of cap block where all teachers are available during cap block. So in the math department this means that teachers are available during learning labs and in humanities each teacher would have their own dedicated cap block. However even though this is our ideal solution we do see a downside to this as teachers would not be available to cover study halls. Our backup solution would involve a more equal distribution of cap block teachers across departments. Um so a certain percentage of teachers in each department would cover study halls and

051the other half would have cap blocks. Um this allows for more teachers um in each department to have cap blocks. However, a downside to this one is still not all teachers are available during cap block. Um, so in a perfect world, we would like to have both because we do see value in having teachers covering study calls and having cap blocks because we do um see the need for students to meet with all their teachers if they need help with them. And we also see that teachers covering study halls provides a more academic setting and also introduces um teachers to students that they may not have met before. Um so overall we do see or we do think that our ideal solution is best for both students and teachers. Um because the benefits do outweigh

052the challenges but we do realize that with this and implementing it um and does come with both monetary and logistical impacts. One being we would need to find proper coverage for study halls. Two would be we need to find appropriate locations to host study halls. And three, we need to allocate funds for those who cover study halls. Thank you. Why don't you guys sit down again so we can talk? You don't have to stand there. Thank you for a very thorough presentation. I think is getting a little picture of our So, um, this is a great opportunity for the board to ask some questions if anybody has any questions. What is your top two elements of the biggest problems? I mean, you listed a lot and it was great information, but from from your perspective,

053what is the like the top two or three big issues? I could narrow it down to honestly just one being the fact that students do not have access to the teachers that they want and need to see. Okay. During cow block flex time. Okay. Can you elaborate a little bit on why there is this need? Um just historically cavlock was viewed to be dealing with the exception rather than the rule. And by that I mean that um it was it was implemented for what was called RTI which it in the early days was uh response intervention and then it became response to instruction and it was viewed as helping the student who didn't uh get what they need out of the normal classroom environment as opposed to it being an annex to the regular classroom

054environment. So the thought was that the majority of students would not on a regular basis need to uh access cavlock as a routine element of completing the work of class. But from what you're describing, it sounds like it had turned into the extension almost like a anticipated lab would be to go with the the lecture part of the of the the class. Uh I get the sense that many students rely on calav block time routinely. Is that a an accurate impression or not? I wouldn't want to speak for the entire student body, but seeing as the way that you put it and the original intention of CAB block, I would say that it actually, you know, has evolved and also going into maybe even attendance levels, how they were not the same as probably when

055CBlock was first instituted, it really is a good time to make up work and to get help and seeing the teachers that you specifically have for classes. is to maybe have some one-on-one connection with them and make up that time that you missed or further enhance you know the studies that you are currently in in the classes that are you currently are taking. And um one of the honestly the main reason that I think a lot of kids use this is I think a lot of at least us five we have a lot of extracurricular activities and I'm getting home at like nine o'clock at night and I don't really have time to do a lot of this homework and we're in hard classes. So cow block is that time to get your homework done

056and stuff and I'm struggling in calculus honestly as we talked about in the when you guys were in your private meeting but and I go into the math catwalk and I get that one-on-one time um with one of the teachers in there who just helps me understand calculus more and that's really what the main reason is. But then I have my AP gov essay and I can't really get help on that because our AP gov teacher doesn't have that CAB block. How much actual time do you get from the teacher when you go to cav block? Because you're saying, you know, you got 45 minutes, but I'm sure there are a bunch of students and you're competing for time. So, how much individual time do you get to spend with the teacher as opposed to

057it being just a place to do your work? Well, it would honestly depend on the day, depend on what students need what. But as we were staying, you know, in our presentation that sometimes it varies and there's a difference between 10 students in an English cal versus 20 students in a math cal where everybody can learn the same formula at the same time versus an English where everybody has a different essay and everybody has to work on something else and you know that's where it comes into play where you have to sign up for cavlock. That's why we have specific spots open. If everything is full, then that means that you maybe can't necessarily go to that specific teacher and that is set for us. Teachers do have, you know, a specific amount of chairs

058that they can take and that's how much of time that they can give out to each student. So there isn't necessarily a time block that every student would be entitled to with a teacher, but it's flexible and there is kind of a science to it and what kids are allowed to do. So I just want to follow up with something. So in the ideal solution you guys put math math department would in your ideal solution math department continues to have learning labs. So I just want to have an understanding of how things have changed. My kids graduated in 2016, 2019, and 2023. So, all three of my kids have experienced the high school with cap locks. So, um when you say math department continues to have learning labs in this solution, do they not have

059learning labs right now? No, math department hasn't honestly hasn't really changed at all. So, math department. Yeah. So, STEM and is really the same. Okay. So, so is there not a like a writing lab that like one or two English teachers or Englishsocial studies teachers are manning as a cal block? Is there a writing lab? Is that a structure that's been put in place or no? No, it's definitely not the same system because I definitely saw in your presentation the idea that, you know, when you and I used to be an English teacher, like when you go to see see an English teacher, you kind of want to work with that teacher because writing is subjective and you want the feedback from that person, but that's true, but it's also helpful if that if that

060English teacher isn't available because they're in a study hall. Another teacher's perspective can also, you know, help you. I mean, it can give you the help and the support that you might need. So I just am trying to clarify what's happened in humanities that like there's no there's not an opportunity for that kind of support. Thank you. Yeah, sure. That might be a Tim question. Sure. So the structure um in uh English and in social studies is that um not for all but for the large majority of our um courses we have a catlock space available. It might not be your English ner uh teacher but there's an English n or English 10 room. There is a writing room but uh those are course specific not teacher specific. But the math department doesn't manage it

061teacher specific either. My at least in my experience it is it was like a pre-calc room algebra 2 room like that's how math has always done it and they've always kind of rotated in and so and I think um the point is that English is different. Yeah I think the presentation um and I think you captured it where you know the humanities work is more subjective and the um ideal situation includes working individual teacher and in maybe math or science maybe more formulaic was the term used and uh that might be accomplished with a different uh math or science teacher um more easily. Okay, another question for you. Um since you're all here, how many of you have a full year of study hall? Does senior options count? Senior options, but senior options you leave.

062So you're not in the building, so it counts. It counts. So okay, senior options count. So that's another question I have is I mean are are study halls really useful? Personally, I find my study hall useful. Um, I use that with the teachers that either have an open time or have classes where they know they might not be doing much in that time and they could help me out if I needed it during that time. Um, but I know so many people around me that aren't able to get that study. Like next year personally, I'll be taking a CTE course that takes up multiple periods of my day. I do not have time in my schedule to get a study hall like that. Um, and I'm also someone who like currently right now um am

063not in like the like the special electives that would like get me towards what I want to know, but a lot of people are and once again they can get into those studies and they don't have the extra time and really need that cat block time. And then one other question, never mind to Oh, no. So, how many of you have had a cafeteria study hall like in the past where it was like a large group of and now have a study hall that is in a classroom manned by a teacher and have you found that to be different? I think no, I don't think it's really been different. I think as um Kate mentioned, a lot of people go to the libraries and I think I I personally go to libraries, so I haven't

064been there a lot, but it seems like, you know, when the um excuse me, study starts, you know, there's a line to sign in and then just go to the library and then everybody kind of does their own thing that they did last year. It's not really changed as far as the size or with the room changes. So just for your information, the feedback that the board got was that, you know, it would be a good change culturally for the for students to be in classrooms with teachers and it made a lot of sense to us. So this was a you know, but there was no change from the board level. The contract that we presented to our teachers was the same contract that we've presented forever. This this was a this was a this

065was not that we did not change the language in the contract. It was just we continued we just started to do it differently. we encouraged him to do it differently. So it really at at in essence it's in conversation with the principal and the board. How do we like feel about this change? It's really good information, but it does kind of come down to a little bit of a scheduling thing, doesn't it? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I think that one of the points that I I don't mean to interrupt you, but the contract and and nothing changed contractually or organizationally, but what was communicated to the the board was that having um classroom teachers in the study hall was viewed as being very important for two reasons. One is that they had the skills

066of u classroom management and knowing how to help the students whereas someone who is not a teaching professional may not have that. But perhaps more importantly in these smaller environments it came closer to building those relationships between teachers and students that were being being prioritized. But within that scope, it also became clear when we were um given the data that many we were told many cab block teachers had very few people coming into their cap blocks, two or three occasionally. Some were essentially having empty cab blocks. So the administration were were just reminded that they have the flexibility to assign study hall duties or cap lock and I guess one of the questions I have is how many how many study halls are there and how many what percent of the of the teachers no

067longer have cavlock because I don't don't know how that fleshed out. Yes, sir. I don't have the percentage off the top of my head. Um I think 14 total. Well, 14% of STEM for I can get that number for you. But I mean is it is it was it a big switch a big change? So we have seven periods uh a day and um we have teachers covering out of those seven per semester. So it's about it's about 14 teachers because you have semester the duties semesterized. So seven first semester, seven second semester about not every um period is covered with just one singular and some the study is big enough that we can't host in a classroom. So it's still in the cafeteria with a teacher. Um there's a couple points I' I'd just

068like to make. So um clearly some of our best and brightest here presenting great job um uh the um the information to us tonight. I think um generally speaking um these students uh and many of the students that I think um were part of the research um do really well. Um I think the cafeteria environment provides um a space just like any for many of our um academically inclined students. I think it can become a very challenging environment um to get work done. Um and there is um additional challenges and um distractions in that space uh that don't exist in a structured study hall. Years ago, prior to Cavlock, we had freshman study halls which had limited um privileges including library access. Um it was a much more managed space similar to what you might

069see in like the eighth grade skills class. Maybe a little bit more flexibility than that. Um but a much more academic setting. And then you had the sophomore and junior study halls uh which were allowed to access the library were allowed to um access different space in the building. Um, and then when Cavlock came along, those all just disappeared. And it was a Cavlock, it was a study hall in the cafeteria, monitored by sometimes it was Cindy uh substitutes, but substitutes oftentimes rotating faces, adults who didn't know the students. And that created for um students to be anonymous, students who are coming up maybe in September from 8th grade uh in a much bigger setting. U without the structure of um and stability of maybe uh the environment that existed prior to. So when that

070went away and we replaced it with the kind of RTI academically focused catwalk, it serviced a lot of kids. Uh but there was also an element of students who needed um a more structured space um during those study hall periods which are scattered throughout plentiful and um and I think um an administrator when you lost that workforce, when you lost the ability uh to assign teachers to um study halls that run every single period, sometimes two a period. Um it was a significant shift in how you manage the building. And in my from my perspective, um I think it was um uh a a better situation to have teachers running those spaces, better for students. Um and potentially not those who are going to go find an academic setting or find a space where it

071doesn't really matter where they do their studying, right? They can do their calculus studying in the calf. They could do it in the hallway. They could do it um in the parking lot before they get to school or what have you. I've never done that. Some students are able to do that. Some are not. And providing that structure, I think, is um a responsibility of the school. Um, and I don't think that exists in the large cafeteria study halls. Um, so, uh, I think they ended with an ideal circumstance. We're talking pie in the sky. Yeah. You have you have caval with all teachers available and you have study halls managed by teachers. You mean we hire study hall teachers? That's like the that would be the ideal thing. No, I'm just No, no, no.

072One of the things is that um I'm wondering, you know, when you look at the original charter of CAB block and you look at the the items that were on the first first few slides, some of those elements have now moved um or not moved, but uh are are we hope being covered in part by the new advisory programs. So it it's almost taken the the social and the the non-instructional aspects of the original view of cavlock and shifted them over to the advisory and what I'm wondering is does the existence of formal advisory now change essentially the the charter of of what a cavlock type program needs to provide. So, I think tonight the topic was really about how it's staffed. Well, I feel like tonight's presentation was about staffing and and the use

073of it. I I we have a really large agenda here, Tom. Like, we are going to have to follow this up on another day. We can't we can't dig into where Cavlock came from and how it went. This is a great presentation about staffing and how you use it now, but we as a board do need followup information about what Tom's saying, but we don't even know how it's staffed now. We do. We just he just asked there were some rough numbers, but right, we don't have any of the information here on the data of how are these things being attended. We don't have any of the any of the numbers that say how who was moved and you know there's stuff that says that what right 45% of of the social studies classes humanities

074that would be socialities world language and English we moved to study halls but only a small percentage of of STEM. Right. Right. So, no, we got some information tonight and we really appreciate it. And I also really appreciate that you started with um knowing that we weren't going to come out of here with a decision tonight because it's really a lot to dig into. Does anyone else have other questions? I'd certainly like to get into this more in our next on our next agenda agenda. I do feel like we need to follow I would be interested in a little bit more of your experiences. like I'm hearing that in some cases cap blocks were not very well attended. I would like to understand is that been your experience? I mean I'm would like to dig

075in more but apparently not now. Well, it's just I think we need more information not necessarily from the students but we we need more information about um how the adaptive scheduleuler works. you know, where where kids are going, what what classes are being filled, what classes are, you know, kids really looking for help. Those are the kinds of questions I think we have. I mean, that's kind of what because it's morphed and I am not in the same place as Tom. Like, I know that it began as a certain idea and it's evolved and changed, but my question is how is it helping? Is it still useful? And it's it's three 45 minute periods a week and we have advisory and we're hearing from some people out in the world that advisory could be more

076useful if it were more off you know a little bit more. So those are the questions we have is how do we best use the time for these kids so that they can get what they need. Did I summarize that? Okay. Yeah. One one other thing someone wanted to respond. Okay. Oh. Um, I would just like to say that, you know, there are so many paths that we could go down, but moral of the story, we really just want to put out there that kids came to us saying that there was a need and a lack of the resources that they once had access to. And that's what we really wanted to pinpoint today. And I wouldn't want to stir the pot more or anything. You did a great job. That sounds great. On adaptive,

077we did count the numbers. only 200 students on average even sign up for cow block. So there's that. We are trying to you know look into the system more but it's it's a lot there and but this was our main concern for the night. No I understand that. That's great. It was a great presentation. A unique opportunity for us to hear from you guys our number one stakeholders. Absolutely. And we don't get that very often. You're the first first group of over 10 years to actually give us real feedback on Cavl Black. I mean that sincerely. It's been really helpful. It really helps. We would love to come back. I know I would. I would too. Well, those are the kinds of questions we have. It's just more about how it's being used and how

078kids are finding it and um whether it's effective. And then the this question you guys can't answer, but the real goal is RTI to help those students who are really struggling, not kids who are are hoping that they don't get a, you know, B+, but they they want like a you know, we have kids who are not succeeding in classes and how are is cap lock helping them? That's really what we need to know is is it helping that group of students that that group that really needs and the the add-on to that is is Cav block has it become a mandatory activity in some classes because we're trying to do too much in a class that can't be done in a classroom period. There's a lot of good questions. So, but we so appreciate

079it. You guys are welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting and enjoy a data presentation on test scores or other things. Okay. Oh, you're enjoying it. It's great. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Would anyone like the candy bowl? You can pass it right back. Thank you. Keep pointing at me. I am also um closing public input at 8:03 p.m. Okay, so moving on. Do you guys want to do me a favor? Just move down a little so I can see you. Okay. So, I'm going to move on to principal's reports, but guys, we have a stacked agenda. So, can you just kind of like give us a quick summary of your principal reports? I'm sure you'll be thrilled to get out of here. Everything is great. Thank

080you. Especially, are there any questions? It was great. I read them all. How about this? How about we focus on the April reports? And we've read the March reports and that was a month ago. So, we've read them. We encourage the public to read the um March principal and athletic reports, but we're going to focus on the April ones today. So, sounds good. And we're going to start with you, Patrick. Sounds good. Uh continuing with kindness in our rock uh throughout the year, just uh one activity we did was uh asked rock to put together kindness ideas to put on our bulletin board, which if you walk down Main Street here, the hallway, uh you'll see all the different ideas and encouraged everybody, staff and students, to try one act of kindness uh at least

081once a week. Um just highlighting our focus of kindness this year in Iraq. Um, we're also continuing on with our rock reading challenge which some staff from the SAU, our uh, superintendent- elect has joined as well as a few other SAU uh, just continuing on pushing the uh, reading importance uh, for our students and it's been wellreceived. Uh we cooked dinner back in dece not dinner, breakfast for students uh that that won the challenge uh back in December and our plan is to um do something similar uh maybe get them some Chick-fil-A or something like that for their efforts uh this round too. Uh eighth grade DC trip there'sund sorry that should say 164 that was last year's number 164 eighth grade students. They're in DC right now with our amazing assistant superintendent who stepped

082in for me this year. Um, so thank you Lauren De Janeiro. I do want to give her a big shout out. I don't know. Big shout out to Lauren. Yeah, big shout out to Lauren. I don't know many uh SAU superintendents, assistant superintendents outside of ours that would have stepped in to go on this trip. So, thank you to her. Uh, it sounds like it's another great trip. They'll come back tomorrow. They left Monday. Uh, they should be back tomorrow around 900 p.m. Um, and it sounds like everything's going well. Uh, we did some day trips this week. Uh Monday's trip was canceled due to the weather down to the Freedom Trail. Yesterday went to the Stone Zoo. Today they did the American Heritage Museum uh which if you've never been to that museum, it's

083it's it's really impressive. It's really cool. You can drive a tank. It cost extra money. Our kids didn't get that opportunity, but some came back very excited about it. Uh and wanting to go back with their families to to drive a tank. Uh and tomorrow morning we'll go to Parker's Maple Barn, uh which I'm really excited for. And then we'll do Andre's, sorry for the typing spell there as well. um institute in Brooklyn. Uh our band went to the large group festival uh back in March. Did a fantastic job. Big shout out to Liz Nalt who continues to uh bring a large group with her. Uh and it sounds like they did uh a really great job in that uh festival. Um as you'll see in the library, there's some seventh grade art sculptures uh

084from Miss Arger, who is in her second year. It's technically kind of her first official year here at HBMS as she was a long-term sub last year, but uh she's been a great addition and students are really enjoying her class. Um and yeah, the projects are are really great. I did add some pictures from Matilda Jr. that I didn't include in the March report. And again, just a huge shout out to our new uh chorus general music teacher, uh Ashley, sorry, Alyssa Costa. Um she took on the role of advising the drama club. 50 students were involved and it was another incredible performance by uh our students both on stage and offstage. Um so thank you to them for their efforts and some important dates. Open to questions. Thank you so much. Does anybody have

085any questions for Patrick? Congratulations on all of those things and um especially that Matilda performance because 50 kids on that stage. It's a lot of kids on that stage. So that's great. There are some offstage I know, you know, but 50 kids involved is pretty special. Strangling 50 kids in a theater program is pretty special. All right. Uh, moving on to uh high school principal report. Yeah, I'm going to do Brian's first if that's okay. That's fine. Just focus on April. Thank you. Yep. Just focusing on April. Uh, mentioning something major in March, like if there was a major thing. Uh, nope. No, we can just cover April. Um so congrats to our uh newly formed um Triop ice hockey team. Uh so Marramac, Hollis, Brooklyn, Dairfield uh ice hockey team. Uh came up just

086short of a state championship. They lost um in the division 2 finals to St. Thomas. Uh was a great game, great season. Uh and looks to be a very successful relationship with those two schools um in boys hockey. So uh our number participation numbers look great. I want to highlight just a couple things. Uh, as Holly always points out, uh, the es and flows of of participation numbers. Um, oftentimes you see, uh, one decrease, but, uh, increase in another area. Outdoor track, we are approaching 100 students. That's crazy. Outdoor track. That's like it used to be. Yeah. So, um, really, really great to see. Not that they were, um, low prior to. We had 71 kids last year, but we're 99 um, participants in outdoor track, boys and girls this year. So, um, but that

087being said, uh, we're down to one team for softball again this year. No JV team. Um, and, um, it looks like, uh, maybe girls tennis, I think, was down a little bit. Girls tennis is down a little bit. So, uh, overall, participation numbers are up just slightly. Uh, and they kind of seem to eb and flow between sports like always. Um, and we did send a group of scholar athletes up to conquered uh, just last week. uh students who have lettered in two sports or more their senior year maintaining a B+ average uh throughout. So, congrats to those award winners. All right, for my uh board report, I want to say congratulations to our math team. Uh finished the regular season uh at champs um in the let's see um the New Hampshire state math

088meet held at NHDI. We sent 10 members of our math team up there and we took home second place in division 2. So congrats uh once again to our math team uh along with our second place finish. Uh freshman Miko J earned high score award for his individual performance. So congratulations to Miko. Uh bravo to our HBHS theater department for the recent production of Little Shop of Horrors. Uh Mr. Dylan Silox the director and Mr. Chaz Rogers music director for the leadership um with well over 70 students involved in the production. um pit band, set crew, costumes, etc. Uh one of our biggest productions in several years. Congratulations. Congratulations to Ma senior Mason Mason Marshall uh who took home um a couple um awards uh for his writing uh in journalism. So the gold key

089award, highest regional honor for his journalism article, hands-on history, first archae first archaeology class in New Hampshire. Uh that's Mr. McFarland, a story about Mr. McFaren's class and an honorable mention for his piece titled media coverage of mental health needs to change. Um I have been including um some highlights from our CavCron in my newsletters uh which I know the board does get. So Mason has done u several um several pieces that have gone out this year. So congrats to Mason. Welld deserved. I do want to highlight um we did discuss briefly offline. I know the YRBS um was slated for earlier this school year. Uh however uh given an executive order by President Trump uh there has been a change in uh the actual survey and um the results from previous surveys. So uh

090the specifics of that are included in the board packet. I did include uh the latest survey um for the board to review. So this school year we had uh our first international trip uh to Spain. It was a successful trip. I know Miss Barrian would echo those sentiments that uh the trip was a huge success. Uh and we approved the board approved a trip to the British Isles for next school year. Mr. Hes will, uh have an opportunity to oversee that process. Uh at the time, uh I was comfortable approving one this year. It was our first year getting back into international travel after COVID. Uh next year, we have one on the docket already. There is a second request for a trip to Quebec. We have done this trip before. Yeah. Uh it has

091been run by this individual uh staff member before, but there is a request. Uh if I were returning, I would be in favor of this happening. Uh Mr. H happens to be here tonight, which is great. U but uh there is a request, international trip to Quebec request, uh which I assume the board will consider for voting maybe next month. So just want to highlight the itinerary. Everything is in the board packet. Great. I also want to highlight uh the DA good citizen winner, Miss Kate Beran. Uh so Kate won uh not only our local chapters um award, she advanced to the state level uh where she was one of 55 New Hampshire students selected by their high schools and Kate uh not surprisingly took home the state championship. So I had the honor. Yeah.

092So good job. That's not what I just I had the honor of uh um attending the award ceremony with Kate and her family. Uh Kate um I I uh got to read her essay before a full a full house up at the Capone Center in Conquered. Uh Kate advances to uh the regional round where there's only seven uh students from New York and New England. Um and then one of those seven uh lucky winners will advance to the national championship which is in DC. Uh, and uh, Kate's going to Annapolis, so I don't know what she'll do with that $10,000 if she when she takes it home, but um, there's a $10,000 scholarship attached to that if uh, if she were to win that. So, congratulations. I'll invest it. Invest. Congratulations. Is the essay available?

093Maybe not today. Her essay announcement. I can get it to you. And just a little side note, so Kate, the the way the the contest works is they have to sit for a timed uh so it's sealed envelope what the um prompt is and so it's uh uh done in the main office and uh we had it set up so Kate had to do the essay. Um was it that night you emailed me or was the next day? It was the next uh I think I talked. So she came in the next day and said, "Mr. Gzone, I don't want you. I don't want to submit the essay. It's not good. I I don't know what I wrote. I I It's not It's not It doesn't represent Halls Brookline High School. I don't want you

094to submit it. It took me about 20 minutes to get administered. No. Okay. It's pretty good. I'm I'm going to submit it. And of course, she won. So, that's great. Yeah. Awesome. Um so, uh we got some important dates coming up. Guitar night, uh in April. Uh we just had a dance last weekend. Um we have a performing arts concert tomorrow night. And uh we have standardized testing coming up as well, which we're going to hear all about in a little bit. So I don't want to steal your thunder. So much on this agenda. Um and of course I'm open to comments. Are there any questions for Jim? No, just congratulations. Congratulations, Kate. Congratulations to the hockey team. Um congratulations to uh Mason Marshall. I always love to see some journalism stuff going on, especially

095I say it all the time, given the times. It's really important to know fact from not fact. So I think it's great that we have somebody doing that. That's awesome. We do have a a request though on the the Quebec trip. Yep. Looking at the itinerary was really hard to identify which components actually have the academic element. oftentimes in the thing it'll talk about what they're doing and then what's going to happen when they come back to sort of close that loop on the the academic element of the experience. It would be nice if if that information was also available. Okay. All right. So, any other questions? All right. So, we'll get a little bit more information about Quebec City next time. We'll put that as a vote for next time. Um we are we'll

096talk about youth risk behavior survey. I assume next time, but it's really run the the time for this year has run out, right? Yeah. Okay. Does that mean it's not going to be given? Correct. Right. Because it would it's too you can't give it in May or June. They won't they won't. No, I And also the law is changing that. I just wanted it's important that the House just passed a law that um it has to go to the Senate, but it it said that it would be an opt in instead of an opt out. And once it becomes opt in, the only people who are going to take it are people who are interested in taking it. So it changes data. I think we've already the tipping point had already been reached last. So

097we're kind of there, but all right. So thank you very much. Is there any other comments on principal reports? Okay. So um we're going to move on with the rest of our agenda. I really appreciate it. Uh do we need the principles for any other thing? No, it is really fine for you all to take off. We did not hear from from a general drive safely. We're good. You guys can go. Do you want to stay for data? I was going to stay for data. You want to stay for the for the state testing? Okay, that was great. That would be awesome. Um, unfortunately, it's not quite in the next part of we have a couple more things to do before we get there, but we'll get All right. Um, calendar presentation. Okay. So, we

098have a 2526 calendar. looks really similar to most um years where we have our flex day um for teachers to do the online training. All teachers return August 25th, 7th and 9th grade orientation on the 27th. All students return on the 28th. This calendar, a couple things to note. We have five early release plans. Four of the five are planned on Wednesdays. And the reason they are on Wednesdays is to align with CTE calendars of other schools where we send our students so there are fewer disruptions in and and discrepancies between our calendar and um the receiving school's calendar. So trying to be in better alignment. Um what we've done when we've had multiple early early releases on the same day is we flip schedule so it's not always the same class that's impacted in

099that way and we tried to u move them around so that we have either a pre-day or an early release you know per month toward the start of the school year. Um other things to note, we have um because there's December 22nd and 23rd, we can go to school on Monday, Tuesday. Um and then it's essentially a a really long break of a week and a half because January 1st is a Thursday and um the likelihood of a good attendance on one day, January 2nd is low. So, uh, the vast majority of of districts in the state are are just taking that the rest of that week off. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, and then February break is typical. April break, it's the fourth week in February. It's the fourth week in April, which bumps

100into May. Um, now one thing to note that maybe u Mr. has should have stayed for is um I have an orange June 5th 6th for proposed graduation um to start the conversation of a potential Friday night graduation as opposed to a Saturday morning. I know traditions are hard to break um but there are financial and um safety reasons why it would make sense to potentially move graduation to the turf field um and then we can hold it in the evening. So that is not for me to decide but I'm putting it out there so that there might be questions as to you know when's graduation it's Friday or Saturday we don't know. So can we do we approve this calendar or we don't we approve the calendar? Can we approve the calendar without making

101that decision? Yes. So, because I feel like that would be something I really want the public to weigh in on and like let people think about it and talk about the pros and cons, but I don't think we have time to do that tonight. Yeah. But we can approve the calendar with those two as potential dates and then put that on an agenda um to be discussed so that the public will know. Yes. Parents will have things to say. Absolutely. Especially parents of class of 2020. Graduation being on the calendar doesn't mean that's graduation, right? with snow and everything, it's 175 days as a whole requirement. So, we always put the placeholder and then if we have a mild winter like this, nothing changes. But there's been years where we'd have to move back in.

102Are we finalizing graduation date? April meeting. No, not in this calendar. Not for next year. For this year, April, we usually say yes. Yes, we will finalize the calendar that Yes. Question about this. Is this a an early start relatively speaking this kind? Because I'm it's an early graduation being proposed. Um so this year graduation will be June 7th. So this puts if we had it on the the Saturday it would be June 6th. So it's just it's just a one day shift. No, you he was asking if we start earlier in Oh, yes. Right. But it goes backwards Labor Day, right? But this year we started early. This year we started April um August 26th. 26th. Yeah. And we always start the Thursday. We the teachers always return them Monday before Labor Day. Yeah.

103Okay. So you just need an approval on the calendar and we'll keep I'm seeing Labor Day on the graduation date to be What was it? It wasn't that early determined. Okay. All right. And so could you at this point say you think the um graduation would be scheduled for June 7th and then what have we determined the last day of school or are we still we had two snow days and um with snow coming every evening this week? No, but the two snow days would put us at I'm sorry I mean September. Let me just go to June. That would put us at June 17th for the last day of school. A Tuesday. And how many how many days does that give us in the that so if we've had two snow days so to

104we build five in so we're subtracting three we're talking about this year so we're we've stopped talking about the new calendar. Yes. Why? Because we don't want to talk about anymore. But how how many days does this calendar the new calendar propose? So it um there's 178 student days plus five. Okay. Snow days built in as we always do. Okay. Okay. So we will get to that when we when we make a motion to approve it. All right. So next on discussion is the revenue and expense report and then we'll get to you Drew. I see you over there. Okay. Um, so ending third quarter, we're projecting a fund balance at the end of the year to be $443,02. That's about $170,000 higher than we were projecting in our January report. Expenses are still um

105showing savings with $951,000 in savings pretty much across the board. What's different this time than three months ago when we looked is more so on the revenue side where we're looking at uh projecting to receive $48,000 more than budget. And if you look at the grant line, that's where you're you'll see the $143,956 uh more than budget for grants. That is from the safe grant which stands for security action for education established in 2022 to support school security and safety improvements and both the middle school and high school were able to benefit from those funds. Have the money been received? Those yes. Okay. Y that's actually come in. We actually got that those checks. Awesome. And then the um so putting it all together, the expense savings and higher revenue leads to an expected unreserved

106fund balance of 1,28,02. And then funding our maintenance trust retained fund balance and contingency fund which all were approved at the March meeting. We have a projected fund balance of $443,000. Okay, that's my concise version. Any comments or questions on that? Just just a comment for the the board. Um in May, I think we should have a discussion to see if the board would like to accelerate any of the roofing at the middle school. The voters approved the solar in that we potentially have an opportunity. We had told the budget committee would be returning approximately $200,000 to the taxpayers. So there is an opportunity if you so choose to maybe do another large section of the middle school roof uh which may allow us to accelerate the uh implementation of the solar as well as

107just to get that capital improvement kind of moving quickly. Will there be an update in May on um the the plan for the the two capital projects? Go ahead. For capital improvement or for our specific facilities project? The facilities project. I have updates for you now. Okay. Because one of the big concerns I have is the unknown status of the rebates. We'll get to that at number eight on your agenda. Okay. So, um, thank you so much, Linda, for that information. So appreciate it. you know that you are welcome to scoodle if you'd like to, but you're also welcome to stay because these are so enthralling. So, um I do want to I asked to put this on the calendar on the agenda debrief of annual meeting. I like to have a few minutes for

108all of us. It was so long ago and maybe we're blur we've blurted out so many things have changed but are there any um and Drew is here because he has some comments that he'd like to share. So, we can start with Drew and then we can move on if anybody else has anything that they'd like to say. We got some feedback at the annual meeting. I will say that one of the pieces of feedback we got, we're addressing tonight by having a data presentation about test scores so that those folks who bring up test scores at our annual meeting will have more of an understanding of our test scores. So, that is one of the things that we're doing today. But Drew, um, do you have anything that you'd like to share with us?

109Comments that may how we could help? Well, it was an interesting experience with the motion to pass over. Now, I know it's been part of Brooklyn's rules for some time, although I got differing answers as to exactly how it worked in Brooklyn. Um, certain people were very uh upset with with with it happening. Um, and I mean more than Eric Power. Uh, some some of the backbenchers was like, "Aren't you just denying them their right to speak or something like that?" Um, Other people said, "Yes, we're we're tired of listening to that stuff. You know, it gives a a way to short change it." Um, somebody said, "Oh, I didn't realize that you were going to do that. You know, understand tableabling and then restricting an article. It's it's a lower bar because it's a

110majority." One person uh said uh they was glad that the motion to pass over was debatable because they felt that that was helpful. Um so I'm curious what the board uh and the administration felt about that. Great. Does anybody want to chime in? I don't want to do all the talking. I I think a lot of the measures that you put into place, Drew, um I think positively positively affected the the pace of the meeting. Surely I think we're done within four hours if I'm not mistaken, which is which is a lot less than previous years. So I think to some extent it's been effective. I can understand maybe some of the concerns about passing over. Um I I think it's probably worthy of having a discussion, allowing discussion during those measures. Um so people

111can understand why there's wide support for it versus maybe not understanding uh because not everyone is connected to what we do. So they're a little a little more um they don't have the proximity that we have. Um so I thought overall I think it worked very well and I think it really put a a little more um uh guard rails around the evening because at the end of the at the end of that evening we still have to get our jobs done and the key things that we need to get done. Uh, and there's often a lot of extra stuff thrown in there. And, uh, so that's my two cents. Just to clarify what we as a board asked for. Um, and it wasn't just us. It was the budget committee here, you know, back

112in October, so months and months before. Um, we suggested the the changes we suggested. Motion to pass over wasn't one of them. We suggested um making it harder to move making giving a higher threshold to moving an article to before the business that the board presents. Um and then we suggested the um having people sit like motion to motion to end debate meant end debate and people behind the line had to sit down you know behind that person. And then the third thing we suggested was um oh to limit presentations from the petitioners to just two minutes. So those were our three things that we presented. So we didn't actually take a position as a board on you know and we just talked about that motion to pass over. So I guess for me I

113understand why people might be frustrated with it but the difference to me is you can still just make a motion to table and then make a motion to restrict reconsideration and I mean, I guess there's a likelihood that there could be somebody trying to bring it back up and then you'd have to come back seven days and talk about whatever it is that you tabled. So, I get why there's semantics here. Yeah. But I think if the majority of the people in the room want to pass it over, then they're probably going to vote to table and restrict reconsideration. So, I would expect so. I just think it's um I whenever we don't fully debate something and the body decides to table it or to pass over it, it's it's hard for those people who

114want to talk about it. But it's also really hard for people in the legislative body to continue to deal with petition warrant articles that have 25 signatures that are up over I I think when you talk about that, you know, the inability for folks to maybe present it or discuss it or whatever, I think what they don't understand is many of these petition warrant articles have been perennially brought up um over and over and over again. And one of the key reasons why I think passing over was so widely accepted is because many people feel this has been debated to nausea. Um and it takes so much time out of the the limited time that we have in that evening. If I I could be wrong, but there there may have been one or two

115um petition warrant articles that came up that weren't similar to years past, and I think they got heard. Well, I could be wrong, but I believe they at least one or two a lot of discussion about passing over. Yeah. Okay. The budget cap was new this year because the legislature just allowed it. So I will tell you that in Brooklyn for it was it's wasn't the school meeting because they don't they don't have a meeting but in the uh uh town meeting there was very similar action and a fair amount of applause with the Passover. Yeah, Andy, I just want to The only thing I heard is from the time we start the meeting to the time we start talking about an actual article, people would like that shortened drastically. We spend well over almost

11690 minutes before we get to the first article. And I think the other thing that people commented is some of the presentations to set the articles up are then redised when people have questions. So they're not really paying attention in that premeating and now we get to the article and now they ask the question it's already been answered. So I mean and that was a number of people Darlene's presentation that where she goes through entire agenda the first one and they don't really listen to that. Well it just so many people came up to me and said we're voting on this first article after 90 minutes. Yeah. and and that's you know I'm not going to be there next year but that was I haven't heard that my time here. So if we could shorten

117that down some way shape or form and I don't know if we can. So what I was going to say but you're a very you've been with our district for 10 years and you're a known entity. We have a new superintendent next year and you used to do a little like introduction of like how the school's doing. A lot some of the questions that we got repetitively were about things like our success. And so we don't even take time to present that. We spend a good chunk of time presenting how much money we're going to spend, but we don't have any we don't even have a presentation about like what our kids do or what our successes are or how our test scores are or whatever we wanted to put in there. So, as much

118as I want to shorten that time, I actually think next year we need to do like a five minutes of like what's going on in the schools because this is what you're paying for. And so, um, this is what your support produced, right? This is why we're asking for your support and and we have a a new face and I think it you know Gina that would give her an opportunity to connect with the community because Andy has you used to do that and that builds trust and that builds like so that now when Andy gets up to answer a question people are like well Andy said so and that's what you know I mean it makes a difference so we need to think about that next year so we do need to work on

119that presentation because it is it is really important stuff. Oh I don't disagree. just trying to give the feedback of and I haven't been approached by people before, but a number of people and I think part of it was because we were voting on contracts. Yeah. And a lot of families showed up for the first time at multiple meetings that have never been to a meeting. So, they didn't really even understand it. And I don't know how we correct that, but whether you were at the Hollis meeting or you were at the co-op meeting, a lot of people had kind of like deer in the headlights because they don't know what town meeting is. I I I think in contrast to Brookline's old meetings and what they do in town meeting is there's there isn't

120an overview presented. So people who are used to the the Brooklyn environment the the long preamble um they don't they generally don't go through the rules. They talk about one or two of them, but basically says refer to your book. They don't introduce any articles until that article comes up in a motion. So the presentation that's done that outlines all of them and all summarizes all the monetary impact those people who who know the procedure really understand that that's a u an element that requires focus but I think a lot of people just view this as the overview. I don't need to listen until we get to the article. And they're somewhat surprised when they get to the article and it's a very brief presentation because most of the background has already been presented. I

121think a lot of the preamble also was people fighting your rules and and there's no I I can I can cut that down. The only thing that I feel that I absolutely must bring up is um the ability of the the members to overrule the moderator and uh voting to approve the vote rules. So I I could shorten my presentation quite a bit and say just C page whatever it is in in the this year was was a bit of an exception because you were introducing changes and I think that that that what you did was both appropriate and meaningful but it certainly at a time but I don't need to go over I don't need to go over um reconsideration and restricting reconsideration although on to that. Presumably the the the new people in

122the stands are going to say, "What the heck is that?" Probably, you know, I mean, I know Darlene has fine tune to like fine-tuned her presentation as well. So, um, yeah, I I think we have some good points here, but well, my advice to her, uh, and I apologize if she's listening, uh, was by the time you get to the third slide of numbers, people's eyes are glazed and she's lost them for the rest of her presentation. Yeah. So, my my opinion is you ought to say here's the budget, here's the way the aortionment comes out, here's your taxes. That's three slides and done. I think the I think the problem is that then the questions come I mean we have a question and answer format and that also takes a lot of time instead

123of just having people like speak their point we do a lot of questions and answers which um takes a lot of time so um and it's also you know you can prepare for everything but then you're guaranteed that the new question is going to come out of left field that it's like I don't have anything on that and it makes makes us look stupid even though we're not. So, are we are there any other comments or questions for Drew? I don't know if we've given you an answer on Passover, but I mean, we support I support it. I I think it's fine. I think I do, too. I do too. I think it's a fine thing. So, people don't have to vote for it if they don't like it. Well, and it's twothirds, you know,

124it really really does have a high have a high bar. There wasn't a heck of a lot of close close calls. No, it it was resoundingly decided, right? And I know that, you know, some people were upset, but you know, this is this is not a a unrestricted free speech area. This is a legislative body that tries to get things done. Absolutely. Um I want to mention uh one thing that is off off topic. Um there right now the state primary is on the second Tuesday in September and 26 will be the next round in in the legislature is a bill that is likely to pass to make it the second Tuesday in June. What? Yeah. You didn't know that? Yeah. I like what? I didn't follow that bill. Like I'm following every other bill.

125That one's not one that I pay attention to. So what's driving that? the first. Yeah, because they keep keep trying to get involved with the first. Oh, and New Hampshire wants to stay. No, it has nothing to do with this president. This is this is the state primary. No, I know. But they still want they want to make sure that they're way ahead of the game. Oh, instead of being piled on September to November. Well, certainly the Secretary of State doesn't like September because he has to turn around the ballots for the overseas folks and they have to have their ballots in hand 45 days before the election by federal law. Uh so he's been pushing it. Uh but it hasn't passed yet. So, we're not It hasn't passed yet, but I I guarantee you

126I'll be back um sometime next year asking to use the use the high school on the second Tuesday in June. June. Second Tuesday. That gets pretty tricky. That's like graduation practice, whatever. But let's see what happens. Yeah. All right. All right. Thanks, Drew. All right. Anything else you want to talk about in terms of recap? I think we're good. I think we're good. We We liked the new rules. They seem to work. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you for all your work, Drew. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Uh general asurances. Yes. So, we have um the general asurances this year that we um that I'm looking for the board chair to sign. So, this is for our federal grants. So, IDEIDA and title two, that's all we accept at

127this point. Uh we there will be allocations for for for title two for next year um because they're forward budgeted. Um who knows if we'll have title two after next year. Okay. So during deliberations we'll make a motion to allow the board chair to sign the general asurances. Does anybody have any questions on that? Basically. Okay. Look at us flying through. And then we have a new CTE agreement. Do you want to talk about that, Gina? Yeah. So, um, so I met with NSHA, um, principal Gzone was there as well. And Nasha, Marramac, Halls, Brooklyn, and Amherst, Albert and they represented there. I feel like maybe Albert, I don't remember, but anyway, they came together there. Um, Nashville wanted us to sign their regional agreement. One of the concerns that we had with regional agreements

128that we were uh faced with in the past is that they were 20-year agreements and a lot can happen in 20 years. This agreement is a four-year agreement. So, it's through um well, it goes through June 30th, 2028. So, it's a little bit more reasonable. Um it's basically stating that we will send our um they'll save seats for our students at both Nashville North and NHA South and that um um you know and then we would pay our portion of the tuition if we go ahead and send our students there. Now you don't have this as an item for I assumed you would want to look at it and then sign it next month. Bring it for next month. Okay. So, how about we bring it for everybody knows to read through it and bring

129their questions next month. Perfect. Does that work for everybody? Is that okay, Tom? It's just that we're piling a lot into May when we just had a discussion that said we make a twohour non-public in May. So, just keep that in mind. Yep. I'm keeping it in mind. But you know we have the CT agreement potentially some more conversation about cap block and what else was in May besides the nonpublic I thought that you had said previously not tonight but previously that uh we were likely to have resume policy work in May. We we may have some policy work in May, but we may not. I mean, we haven't had a policy meeting in two months, so we might be careful like so, but we'll have a cap block conversation in May and we'll have

130um CTE in May and then we also have the the non-public and we'll have some financial stuff that Yeah, I know. But I think I think we won't be this meeting's gone. Yeah, I think we'll be okay. But if you have questions on this, if you've had a chance to like read through it and have questions now, we can ask them now. I'm not going to stop you. I mean, time now, time later. Well, the only thing that I know about is um there were I thought a lot of unanswered uh questions in general of whether whether we really wanted to make a commitment even at the four-year level. I wasn't sure where we stood on that. Um so what would be nice to have an agreement is that they are going to reserve seats

131for our students. Um and if we don't sign the agreement then the reserve seats would go to um the other districts that sign and then our students would then be eligible to take any available seats which there might be no seats. So, knowing how many students we send to Nashville North and Nashville South each year, I think it would um sort of protect our ability to send students um a four-year agreement, which looks like it's actually a three-year agreement. Um is I don't think too concerning. You know, 20 years just seems a little bit unreasonable. We haven't signed. We've never signed one. Okay. Uh we had We've just taken our chances. We've correct we had looked is the agreement only for Nasha not with uh Alurn or Correct. Yeah. Well, signing it with Nasha doesn't

132limit us. We can still use No, no, I didn't know if it was if it was a regional agreement or just a Nashville agreement. It's a it's an agreement drafted by Nasha and then all those other districts were at the table and they've asked them to sign it and those seats are reserved for those who sign it. So, what What happens if signatures from a whole bunch and they don't have enough seats for all for everyone? How does that happen? How does that get abortion? Does it say? Uh so I think in the agreement it shows that there's it's for Sagen High School, Marramac High School, Hollsburg High School, and NSHA. So they're really just reserving for those districts, right? But does it say how many they're reserving for each or do we it was

133uh I want to say it was 30% of the total seats um divided between all those districts and then the question I had 30 would be for all three of the districts total I think the general consensus from the table was a better and stronger working relationship from the host and the sending schools would allow for down to individualized conversations about individual students and prioritizing situations. So, I think getting away from the large regional agreements and down to we're going to agree with Nashville School District to send our kids to this um receiving school. um allows us to have conversations at the table more regularly with the other sending schools to say, "Hey, I've got six kids that really need this program and you've got three um and they can fit both, but maybe instead

134of just allocating only three for us and three for you, we can send all six of ours and it's no skin off anyone else's back." So at one point being too rigid with you get three and you get three and you get three and they don't use their three, we might have kids left out in the cold because we we filled all our seats. So I think the goal was to continue those conversations and maybe not the superintendent but those working in the schools um the CTE directors along with assistant principles or principles of um sending schools um throughout the school year to kind of fine-tune who go who gets to go and and individually as a as a school, you know, you know, this junior, we've got to get in this program. This is

135a make or break situation for this kiddo and um we get to prioritize individual kids, too. So, uh I think I think this will will lend itself to it'll be advantageous for us. Yeah. Okay. Is the pricing locked in? Who who establishes cost the tuition cost? Well, the a lot of it is funded um grant funded. Um I I was under the impression that it had to do with a per pupil cost like a portion of theirs. Theirs. Yeah. Is it is it the state's per pupil cost or the schools? I mean the state specified per pupil cost or is it one where they can make up their own? I can't I can't answer that factually. My assumption was always that it was the state the no the receiving school. Yeah. Because that that was

136one of the things that I heard is that that some of the schools have artificially high I can I can reach out. I can Yeah, we can get that answer. I just want to make sure we're not locking ourselves into crazy amounts of money subsidizing. No, the national program. the total cost would be 30% of their seats and the rest would be you know to the for all the sending schools that is written in there. I'm looking at the um the budget estimate for NSHA and it's got a total receiving district tuition rate of $16,614 for this school year. We we don't we just pay part of that. But that's that's the tuition rate they're showing. So I don't know if that's something that's tuition rate. Is that what he said? That's except for a

137whole day. That's what they're quoting their tuition. Like a whole like a full-time student. Yeah. We don't send full-time student. No, but that's below the state average. Yeah. Right. So our our charge was about $830 per student for one semester for NSHA. I'll find out how they calculate that. Yeah, I I don't know. Um, okay. So, I think if we have more questions, we can ask them when we approve it. Um, we have that discussion. Great. Is that okay with everybody? All right. So, moving on to the um co-op data presentation. That is you, Gina. Okay. So, um I just wanted to share that I'm very excited about a couple of our new hires um moving forward with um their ability to to look out and manipulate data and I feel like you're going to

138be really impressed next year. So, you know, so this is sort of a precursor it's a precursor. Yeah. A little taste. A little taste. Um but prepare to be impressed next year. All right. So, so just some straight data. As you know, we do um New Hampshire SAS. We test in um ELA and math grades 3 through 8. And then um we also test science in grades 5, 8, and 11. For our 11th graders, the state test is the SAT. Um so our spring 2024 SAS results, so this is grade seven and grade eight were the blue and um this is ELA and the state is the striped. And um we we did well 70 um 70 70% of our students were above at or above proficiency um compared to 54 and 49%. So um

139solid job by those students. Looking at math, we had 62% and 65% above at or above proficiency in grade seven and eight. And that's compared to 40% and 37% across the state. Looking at our um science results, our um grade eight students were at 51% proficient and um compared to 34% of the state and then our grade 11 students were at 52% at or above proficiency compared to 39% of the state. So one thing you know as a science teacher that I care a lot about is what is the science test? So the the SAS science test is you're going to get earth space or life science or physical science. So you could be sitting next to someone who's taking a physical science test and you're taking a life science test. When you are in

14011th grade, you might be taking anatomy and physiology, you might be taking physics, you might be taking biology, and it doesn't matter. You're going to get whatever test happens to be assigned to you. So what is it that we're actually assessing? Is it anything relative to what the students are learning? We do earth and space science in eighth grade and then if a student is taking physical science in ninth grade, it's physical science with some earth science. So to take an 11th grade earth and space science test doesn't seem like a really good indication of whether or not we're teaching science very well. Um if you you can also break those down um from from my perspective and I can see how our students are doing. So life science our students were well those students

141who took the life science test our students were well above um the average in life science. In physical science we were meeting the um average. Earth and space we had um a little bit below the average. Um and then one area was above the average, but specifically that standard had to do with um was really a life science standard with some earth science mixed in. So it really demonstrates that our students are mostly taking life science. Most of our students are taking life science in um 10th grade and we're doing well in that strand, but it's just not what everyone's taking in terms or what they're assigned for the SAS test. Um and then another huge contributing factor is what our percent participation is in SAS science. So in um 2024 we're supposed to hit

14295. So that's that first top column. 95% participation is what we're required to have to achieve. And um we had 88% participation from our eighth graders and 80% participation from our 11th graders in 201. Um so if we had 11th graders, only eight of 80 of them actually took it, took the test. Correct. Um the year prior we're supposed to hit that 95. Um 83% of our eighth graders took the SAS science test and 76% of our um 11th graders took it. And what are the reasons they don't take it? Well, thank you for asking. So, so um every student succeed act requires that we are going to measure achievement of 95% of all students. It's an essential pay um it's essential to get that 95% so we really know if our students are doing

143well or not. However, New Hampshire passed RSA 193C6, which permits parents or legal guardians to opt their children out of state assessments. Um, as such, parent optouts are considered non-participants per ESSA and may negatively impact our overall performance. Let me show you how. Example one, a 100 students are required to take the test. Three students um are parent optouts. So the weighted average is of the 97 students. So we would take um the weighted average 30 3.4 let's say times 97 students and divide it by 97 students. So there's no penalty when we are above 95% participation. Um our weighted average decreases when we fall below that. If every student that falls below the 95% participation, we um score a zero on those tests. So, we would take our weighted average of the 3.4, multiply

144it by, let's say, 93 students if we only had 93 students participating. But our divisor is 95. So, all of our parent optouts negatively impact our overall performance. So, an opt out student is assumed to have taken the test and scored zero. Yes. below the 95%. Yeah. Anything below the 95, we're allowed 5% to opt out basically, but once we go beyond that, so they take they take all of our students, they only count results of 95% of them. They take all of our students um the weighted average and then um multiply it by the number of students that took it divided it they divide it by the waiting though. Well, we're saying that we're taking a weighted average where how do you weight the average? So, you take the average Yeah. of all the

145students and then you multiply it by the number of students who perform or who who take the test and you divide it by either the 95% or higher. So, it becomes a weighted average. So, that's straight from the that's not waiting. Okay. So, this is straight from the state. This is how they um this is their technical advisory that they put out. I just put a copy and paste it. But essentially, we're penalized and zeros are assigned to students when we don't hit our 95. If you is this true for is this true for all not just the science? When you go back up here, go back to like the beginning of all this and we look at the results. So, what I've been looking at is how we compare to the state, but also

146the the um and when we go get later on. But like what I've noticed is Actually, it's for later on. What I've noticed is that the state, we kind of ride the state like when when the state gets like look at those numbers. So, we're 54 40 like drops. Well, usually we drop. Never mind. We'll wait till later. Um but so well what I was going to share is that um this our performance is not necessarily accurately reflected. it becomes particularly important to look at grade 11 because our 11th graders take the SAT that's required for the state test, but they also have to take the SAS science test, which is an not really that closely aligned with the science they're taking. There's no benefit for a junior to take it. It's in the middle

147of AP testing. It's in the middle of SAT testing. It's in the middle of students trying to work with their or it's right before AP testing. Um it's right let me just finish my train of thought. It's right in um when students are trying to meet with their cal block teachers um to get help in a class that they care about. So it's easy and you can watch our optouts starting from grade three and moving to grade 11. They increase year-over-year. Kids don't want to take the test and parents opt them out. It's not a valued assessment. But what were we going to say, Tim? So, we took it yesterday. Um, and while we will do a makeup date, um, we're tracking, uh, in the high 20s, almost 30% of our juniors opted out. Go

148ahead, Beth. Well, I just, you know, I think um I just wanted to share as a parent who has for almost two decades now been opting my children out of these tests for a lot of the reasons Gina spoke about. It's, you know, I think that's something when we look at the numbers, it's easy to just point out, oh, we're not performing or whatnot. But the reason, one of the fundamental reasons I opt my children out is because it's a poor assessment of where they're at. And the science is a really good example of why it's a test that's a single test taken on one day. It's not really good assessment. Um, and it costs a lot of money. There's so many I can't even like begin. I pay to take what's that? No, the

149state pays. Um, no you don't. The state pays but you know in different states it's managed differently across the country but there's major flaws in it across the entire country and it's not a good measure of how our teachers are teaching. it's not a good measure of how our students are learning. Um, so there's a lot of reasons parents choose to opt out of it, but um, but my point being like it's not always a good measure and that's why some of us make that decision. So, have we seen more opting out since co like do you think it's somehow related to people feeling like I mean I think we've gotten a lot more education on test anxiety and kids really struggling to take tests and you know kids has there been some of that?

150I don't think it's postcoid. I think it's post the RSA allows us um to have to accept uh was it 2018? I think it's I think it's even a little bit longer. 2016 by chance. It it was after I was in this role and I was in this role 2016. So 2017 2018 maybe even 2017. Yeah. Did were the scores significantly higher prior to the opt out option? I don't recall us ever being really good. We've always had a lot of reasons why we felt that the testing was not a good indicator and I don't recall the results being significantly better even with the op even before the opt out. Well, that's I mean in a lot of states too, I mean just because you have to sign a waiver, you're allowed to opt them

151out before you could refuse to participate, right? You just didn't or you just didn't go to school. And and in some again, it's it's the same idea, students not taking it. But just because it it became law that you could opt them out doesn't mean people all took the test. It was still people refused to participate. The reasoning previously weighed heavily on the idea that they were not testing what what we were teaching at any given time. I think specifically for the science that's always been the case. I think you know, can you put up the um percent proficient ELA number? For which for which one? Uh either the SAS or the SAT. Well, that's later on. Okay. But here we go. Um so I think when you look at like Holly said, when you're

152comparing us to the state, we typically perform higher than the state average. If you tease that number out and and speak to it in a vacuum and you say that um uh can you put the high school one up? No, unless you want science. Uh so when you say that 48 students are not proficient, 48% of our students are not proficient that sounds horrible. Um, but if you were to compare it to the state, again, we're higher than average because everybody's dealing with the same issues and the skewed data of all those zeros pulling your averages down when you compare it to the state. Yeah. And you're all playing the same you're all taking the same test, playing the same game. Fine. But if you if you were just to say in a vacuum that

15348% of our students are performing below proficiency in the science test, that sounds terrible. So the question is, is the benchmark of proficient a valid benchmark? Because if if we truly are at if 50% of our half of our students are not proficient, then one would either say, well, they need to do it again or we've given up on educating them. And I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong, but but who establishes proficiency and are we disputing the validity of that statement? I think you could make that that statement that we don't agree with what proficiency we might not be in agreement what the state says proficiency is and to the point earlier that we don't teach an earth science class to our juniors who are take who are the ones taking the test.

154So what do we offer as an alternative to validate what we are doing? So I think that if we can just continue I think that's part of the question here. I just want to say one thing even though this might be proficiency with that zero being part of the calculation that's not it's not that 52% of our students are proficient. Probably a lot more of them are proficient. They're just not taking the test and then they're being calculated as a zero. So that's what that's screwing these numbers up in essence. So okay. Go ahead. Sorry. No, it's okay. Um, okay. Let me just get back to where I was. All right. So, um, you know, watching our, um, ELA performance over time. So, on the left h half, that's seventh grade. On the right half,

155that's eighth grade. So, we're consistently well above the state average. Um, you know, little es and flows. You can watch, you know, your seventh grade in 2023 becomes your eighth grade in 2024. So you can kind of watch how they, you know, it looks like they dipped from seventh to eighth grade. So that's an important factor to watch. Um whereas you know 21 to 22 um 74 um to 76, you know. So so that demonstrates an improvement with that cohort. So cohort I think is a little bit more important necessarily than to look at any one piece of data. Looking at math, we can look at the same sort of trend. We're consistently well above the state average. our seventh graders tend to do better than our eighth graders. Um, but by the time you

156hit eighth grade, our opt outs are much greater than in seventh grade. But in this case, it wasn't that. But I also, what I was trying to say earlier is there's also a difference in the test, right? So like some years is the test harder because when you look at like we kind of follow the state a little bit. Yeah. So I mean the assessments change every year. It's a different is it or are they the same? Um I I think that they have some recycled questions. It's also adaptive, right? So it changes with how the students are performing. Are the students um across the board, you know, sometimes math questions are language heavy. So then overall you're going to see a a decrease in performance in the state. But I don't have access to

157all the questions, so I I can't um and then you know another thing that's important is comparing how we do to other districts. So for grade seven on the left, um the only districts that are higher than us are Oyster River and Windham for ELA. And then in grade eight, it's Bedford and Windham. So we're still very competitive across other districts. Um looking at math relative to other districts, we're headto-head with Bedford in grade seven with um Oyster River and Windham outperforming us in grade seven last year. And then in um grade eight, it's Oyster River and Windham outperforming us with us pretty much head-to-head with Bedford. Okay. So then some other pieces of data. So this was administered in the fall of 2024. This is our PSAT 89. We give it to grade 8.

158So this is your class of 2029. Yeah. Can I ask real quick? Do we know what the opt out levels are of those other schools though in terms of potentially skewing their data as well? I don't have that information. So, it's still not necessarily completely accurate. Correct. Yep. Um, okay. So, looking at how we're doing in reading and writing and math, uh, we're doing well above the state average in both for our current eth grade. So, our eighth graders take the two SASes in they take they take PSAT in the fall. Um and then they do New Hampshire SAS ELA math and um the eighth graders take uh science and that is usually in April or May. It's a lot of testing. It's a lot of testing. Yep. Um and then watching our PSAT 89

159performance over time. So over time we've consistently been, you know, and if you look right here, we start at 340 and we go up to 460. Here we start at zero and we go all the way up to 500. So it's not like we didn't do as well or we it's just looks a little skewed based on the scaling, but consistently doing much better than the state a or the national average for PSAT. You know, one of the things that we heard in the town meeting is that our scores are dropping. Like we are downward spiraling. I saw that on Facebook the other day. I'm not seeing that. I definitely see instances where we dropped down one year, we bounced back up another year. That is cohort. That's the test. But I'm not trying to

160make excuses, but I, you know, I was expecting, you know, we were hearing this downward spiral. And I'm not seeing a downward spiral. I'm seeing Sure. I I like the fact that you're probably looking at trends and looking at like you said like when you see the seventh grade to eighth grade scores not like a dip then you that's when you start to say okay what's going on and how can we change and what can we fix right yep so um another interesting thing to look at is so math 2023 is a little bit higher than math 2024 the current nth grade class as you can We have in our in um principal Gerson's report, the math team, one of our freshmen um was recognized as a top performing mathematician in the state. It's a

161strong math cohort. The current eighth grade is a little bit stronger in um ELA. And that's what that's what you get. If you recall, our current junior class when they were in fourth graders, the the Brooklyn cohort was the highest um performance in math across the whole state in that particular cohort. And in the Hollis cohort, that was a lower than normal um performance in math for that particular town. So, it was just particularly interesting that group because we had the highest and then like slightly lower than normal and then you put them together and then we're about average when you put them together and they're still above average, but but it all kind of equals out. But it is important to pay attention to the actual cohort and knowing what like what are we

162seeing in class? Is it are do these actually reflect what we know that they can do? Um so our juniors took um the PSAT this fall. Once again they did really well, much better than the national average. This is our current junior class. So our juniors take the PSATs in the fall. They take the SATs the sit the schoolwide SAT in the spring. they take some take AP tests and then some take additional SAT score tests like and some also do um 95% should take New Hampshire SAS science test right and then and that might be another reason why they don't show up for the New Hampshire SAS science test yeah anecdotally students that you're talking about who are taking those AP classes who have those exams will likely prioritize and not take our SAS

163test and opt out So, our best and brightest might not be taking that test, right? Or even some of And they might just not be paying attention if they do. They might just take it, just get through it. Yeah. But that, you know, if you're in a class, if you're a junior and you're in a class with seniors, um, and it's an AP class, that class is still running while you're supposed to be doing SAS testing. So, if you if you take the test, then you miss out on maybe it's just a review session, but it's a review session with a teacher um that you don't have access to. So, there are lots of reasons, very good reasons why you would choose not to take the test. Um and then here we have our class

1642025 school day administration of SAT. So, this was administered in the spring of 2024. Once again, our students performed well above both New Hampshire and the national average for school day administration of the SAT. And our optouts for this test are um nowhere near what we see for SAS testing. Do they count as zeros too? No, they don't count as zeros. No. Um they just So this is like this is the the average of the So my other question to you is we take a school day administered SAT. I saw this. I'm just asking questions as we go along, but so we're being compared to the national average, but there are not a lot of other national places that have school day administer. So, is that the national average of the of the SAT or

165is that the school day average? Um, for New Hampshire, it's the school day administration, right? Um, there are others that there are other states that that use it on a school day, but I don't know if that average is specific to the actual administration. Yeah, I think you can break the data apart a couple different ways on College Board. I know that when I go in to look up data, I have to look at the October date, the November date, the December date, the school day date because because the motivation of students who just take who sign up to take the test and those kids, that cohort of kids taking the test across the country, those scores are going to be different than a school day where it's your state test and everyone has to

166take it. So that's just so we're doing really well basically is what I was thinking. In total, there are 14 states contracted with College Board to administer the Maybe it is the school day average of those 14 states. Although most of those national outside of New Hampshire don't even have to do the essay anymore. New Hampshire still requires the essay. Oh, I don't know. And we saw this from um Oh my gosh, I just blanked on the name of it. Um that we send out our school report. School profile. School profile. Thank you. We saw this in the school profile. this particular year, 2024, 94% of our students um got three or higher on a on an AP test, which is amazing. But overall, we do really well, and those are tests that students and

167the community value. Um, but I thought it would be interesting to break down AP math and AP science performance specifically since we were looking at since comments were made specifically about our science performance and our math performance going down over time. So, if you look at AP Calculus first, it's the one on the left. That's amazing. That's our students scored an average of 4.73. That's unheard of. That's an average. That's the average of our students. That's insane. Um so, um New Hampshire average was 3.56 and our national average is 3.22. Um AP stats, our students on average got a 3.75 compared to 2.9 2.96. AP biology, 3.67 67 was our student average compared to um I'll just go national 3.15. AP chemistry, our students averaged 3.83 compared to 3.31 nationally. AP Physics 1, our students

168average 3.35 compared to 2.59 um nationally. AP Physics 2, our students average 3.71 compared to 3.2 nationwide. And then AP environmental, our students performed at 3.77 compared to 2.8 8 nationally. So these are specifically those same areas that we were identified as being um highly deficient. And again, these are also classes that students choose to take and some don't take correct AP exam, but it doesn't count against us, right? And so some of these are for seniors, some of them are open to other grades, but if you're a senior and you know where you're going to go to college and you know they're not going to accept the exam, maybe you're not going to take the test, right? But so Holly to your point that's one of the things that should be shared at the

169annual meeting with our five minutes of Yeah. I mean we have to share some of this especially especially to show it. These are our our really strong bright students and they're being but they're being taught and instructed in a way that they can achieve those kinds of levels of this test. So on these tests so that shows that we have instructors. who are doing the instruction. And so, um, yeah, I definitely think that needs to be shown. I especially think also this this idea, and I'm saying this because I think people in the public are watching it. I'm saying this because I this idea that our test scores are downward spiraling. Not all of them are, you know, I mean, and none of them are. None of them are downward spiraling. None of them. There's

170no huge trend, but obviously we're we're successful. And it takes a very nuanced eye to pull the right message out of the other uh graphs that we saw, right? And understand that you opt out, you get it's the student, the virtual student is still in the seat and getting a zero. Right. Right. And that's not understood. anyone from the community looks at that unless they have a education background on and specifically on that style of testing that's that's lost but I think that even those who do have an educational background unless you're involved in testing as a teacher you may not know that that's how it all breaks down right and it's easy to take away that we're spiraling out of control into the you know abyss and the other really important point is this

171is just one format for assessment. Standardized testing is just one way to assess students and some students are good at standardized testing. Some students are not as but that doesn't mean that a student who's not great at a standardized test isn't learning and growing and getting the education they need. So that's a whole other part of this is that testing is just one measure. Can I just add something to this conversation specifically about the APS? One of the things that I've seen over the years, um, we do a a tremendous job with our high-ends students. I think one of the things that our current board has, um, done a really nice job is, um, ensuring access to these high-end classes. So, I've seen an an improved access to for students to take the AP classes.

172As we know, when students are pushed, they're stretched. um they may be able to accomplish things that they wouldn't have been otherwise. So we have increased our offerings and we have increased access. So these statistics while comparatively speaking we can we continue to perform higher we're also opening door more doors for more students to access these AP classes. And um I think uh you this ties into everything we do with the program of studies and the prerequisites and all of the all that's tied into these courses. So anecdotally, we have more kids taking AP classes, we have more kids testing, and we still continue to perform higher. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. And then just for anyone out there, you know, a three or above at most state schools is going to get

173you some credit. It's going to get you some credit. And you know, that can that can make a big difference in what how your kid can double major or do this or do that or and for in some cases, kids graduate early from good schools. I would venture to say that somebody going into college with a 4.73 on the AP Cal is about a year and a half into college math. Yep. Yeah. So those are good numbers. All right. And so then the question is how does data inform our decision? So we're trying to be knowledgeable, compassionate with every student. That's what PLC time is. That's what we do with some of our early release time. Our state level assessment is just one piece of the data the of the pie. Um we have our

174common assessments that are you know like every um algebra one student is going to take this common assessment and that's what our teachers discuss in PLC. What's working for you? What's working for me? How do I help this particular um cohort of students or one one student sit teams examine data and group students based on need. But the real question to go back to what Tom was saying is what do we actually value? What's important to us as a community? because how do you measure success? How do you measure failure? And it's really um you know open to discussion. What is so important to us? What metrics matter? And I think that the ones in our community that seem to matter. This is something that our community values. Maybe not all students and that's fine,

175but certainly those that buy into it care and want to do well. Um, I think all of our students will buy into an SAT. I I don't see them buying into uh that one assessment where we hear a lot of discussion about, you know, we're not hiding the data. It's just I don't know that that's an accurate representation of what we're doing in the classroom and what our students can do. And you definitely aren't hiding the data. That's the other thing. when people in the public get up and talk about it, it's in the district report which I printed. All of these charts are in the district report. Um that is po posted before the annual meeting. So we're not hiding any of this. We're not hiding the data. However, we are not proactively publicizing

176what we think is important and our results in that area. And I think that's something that we can we can do better, right? And that's what we talked about a little earlier is maybe having a a quick presentation at the annual meeting to at least let people know. But also, we do need we do need to keep public. But I I think that if if these are the things that we think are representative, good or bad, representative of what we value. I think they should be front and center on the website. There should be um uh I won't call I don't want to call it PR because that's got some bad connotation, but pushing that out not just in time for the meeting. I think I think for a message to be effective, it has

177to be repeated. I think that's a really good point. So, I don't I'm glad that I have both Rob and Tom here to make this special announcement. Over the summer, we're putting out a data dashboard and you guys have been talking about it for years, but it's coming to fruition. Um, and we'll be adding to it. But the question is what belongs there? You know, what do we want to showcase? And that's, you know, a conversation over time. Um, but the framework is there and it's and it's coming your way. Also, I think I noticed that you can that people can c is it active now that they can subscribe to get our minutes and and agendas? Um, I haven't tested it. So, so we've adjusted obviously our agenda system from board docs. They it's

178an update um upgrade to diligent which does a lot of great things like allows you to press board packet and you can open it up it as one for those of you who like to print. Um there a lot of different features. Another feature is um to subscribe to it. So every time we post an agenda, make it public, people who have subscribed can get a notification. Um it's taking the company a little bit to kind of make us fully live, which is why we haven't done our big like reveal, if you will. So that's that's coming and it's you looks like you can click on the button, but I don't know if it actually follows through. So more to come. Okay. Is there still a sign in for us? I was trying to figure

179that out. So there is a sign in to diligent if we had um uh content available for you ahead of time if there was content that was maybe available for non-public discussion but not for public consumption. Um but typically we don't we don't put it there anyway. One last question about what Gina just went over the common assessments you talked about like that were given those are given throughout the course. Oh yeah okay and that to my that's my when you're asking what's valuable, I know and I agree that this community values the AP scores and things like that, but to me as a parent and this tech, I I think that there's got to be a way to communicate a little bit more about the common assessments because to me, like I said, I

180could list like 50 reasons why I opt my kids out of things like the SAS test, but one of them too for the science being a good example is once they take that, say my kid gets one that doesn't isn't as relevant because they haven't had that, they don't score well on it. What do we do now? how do we help my kid? And there's nothing is the answer, honestly. So, we spend all this time on a one-time high stakes test that doesn't really help my kid, doesn't really give us great data, but I think the common assessments do. And so, that's why I rely in terms of, you know, how are we doing? How is my child doing? How are we doing overall? Those common assessments are really important to kind of convey that.

181So, it's not like we're just looking at, like you said, it's not just looking at the SAS, but that's to me something that's super valuable. It's not just a it's not so easy to communicate like we do on the other. Great. Great. Is there anything else that people would like to see from a data perspective in the future? Um because it sounds like if we have some notes on that, maybe we'll try to do something like this again in a couple of months when we have um a new assistant superintendent and maybe there's something else. Well, we have What is it, Gina, that you as assistant superintendent of curriculum look at most frequently to determine how our students are doing, how effective you feel a a specific teacher or program might be performing? What are

182the indicators? Are you looking at grades? Are you looking iz assessments are you so I think uh it depends it's a very different approach when you go K to 12 it varies over time I think standardized tests are a component but I don't look at the overall average I look at individual standards and then I look at where are we hitting those in you know if I'm looking at grade five where are we hitting those in grade five um how is our curriculum meeting or not meeting that standard and um is that consistent over time you know fractions are always a hurdle So, could we look at fractions in a different way? Um, you know, we've implemented elementary wise, we've implemented a new math K3 and new ELA 4 through six, and then next year

183ELA um K to 6. We're going to be looking at shifting the report cards for next year. What I want to look at for 7 through 12 for my focus is um having the assistant superintendent really spend a lot of time on the grading and assessment committee to look at um looking at rubrics of common assessments across grade levels to really um address the concerns about how different it is in in humanities classes whether it's you know English nine from one teacher to another there should be more similarities more commonalities and more um we should have rubrics that are aligned ed with the standards and with what we're teaching. Um, and so that's what I'm going to sort of ask that the work be shifted to. Do you look at a lot of averages or

184do you look at um the spread in the I look at the spread because because that to me is a is a real big deal especially when we're talking about above or below proficiency. doesn't tell you whether you've got a cluster here and a cluster there or if you've got a a distribution. So an answer to to one of the things that you asked Holly is what would we like to see? I would like to have a window into what our administration is using. um rather than occasionally getting a report, it would be nice to be able to look over their shoulder, not to critique it, but just to get a glimpse of the dynamics and what we're dealing with. Yeah, I will say it is harder co-op, um especially as you get into high

185school because there's so many individualized courses, whereas, you know, all seventh graders take the same English class. So, um for the most part, so that's just easier to look at. it gets a little bit more complex. But um but I think what's going to be important is looking at the spread. When when you have a student performing at the top, for the most part, they're going to perform at the top regardless of who's in front of them. They just are have that talent. And so what I want to look at is growth. Where are those middle students? How do we how do we move them up? those kids that are just below proficiency, like I want to get them up. See, I'm I'm really concerned about this this concept of proficiency because it it seems

186to be um it's like it's like when you've got it you've got a teacher that says I I'm at 100% and then you've got another teacher who's grading on a curve. They have different ideas of of of what's acceptable. There's a raw score and there's an interpretation. What does proficiency means? It's a good point. Okay. All right. We have to move on. I'm losing my I'm gonna lose my qu for quum. I have two members that need to scoot. So, um, we can email you some more suggestions if we want to. Facilities update. I just want to say we're moving. The solar is just a little bit slower, but we have um quotes for the roof. So, that's going to get moving. We're focusing solar on the high school because the high school roof is

187pretty much all um redone. We have um looked at really focusing on um the boiler here um the boiler plant if you will and the propane switchover. That's been the primary focus. Uh but the location of where the propane tank was is going to go needs to be adjusted based on our um lot line because it accidentally um it was to be put on another person's property. So anyway, that just goes to the um Tom Enright's suggestion in one of our facilities committee that we really need to just figure out exactly where the lines are of the co-op property. Um so we are very clear. Are we going to have a trade? Yeah. Okay. Um when what's the timetable for when decisions are going to have to be made about the rooftop air handling and

188things like that? I think those uh will be a little bit secondary to switching creating the boiler plate. Yeah. The reason I asked if that is now we voted solar in we want to look at that discussion about whether to make it more electric or propane driven for the rooftop stuff the heating coils in there and I'm just wondering is that even going to be in this year that I don't know but I believe we're having a facilities committee next month. Yeah, we're planning to meet in May. Yeah. Are you should we appoint you then? might be a good idea. Okay. So, I need a motion to appoint Rob and Tom to the facilities committee. Does anybody else want to do it? Okay. Nobody's jumping up. Rob and Tom. So, moved by Beth, second by

189Amy. All those in favor of Rob and Tom on facilities. We should vote against it. Great. Okay. I would like to move the I'm going to move the deliberations. I need a motion that the board by roll call state agreement to adhere to policy BCA board member code of ethics. So moved moved by Beth. Second by Kate. Um we need to do this by roll call. So I made I'm doing this out of order but I Cindy I Rob I Holly I Kate I Beth I. Great. Um I need another one is a motion to approve the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented knowing that we don't know the graduation. Second. Moved by Rob, second by Beth. All those in favor? Any comments? Just super quick just communicate as much as we can those half

190days. I love that they're all on Wednesdays except the ones on a Monday and that is the only thing I've heard a lot of feedback this year. So just communicate them the best we can. All those in favor? 70. Okay. I need a motion to authorize the board chairman to present represent the school board and acknowledge that the superintendent has consulted with all members of the school board in furtherance of the school board's obligations including those enumerated in RSA 189 1A and pursuant to the school board's oversight of federal funds. the district will be receiving and of the general asurances requirements definitions for participation in set federal funds programs. Moved by Beth, second by Sure. Kate, any discussion? I just I I think it's a mistake. I know you don't you don't think we should

191sign, but okay. All those in favor? All those opposed? 61. Oh, we we skipped over teacher nominations. I know. Okay. I didn't know that actually. Can you help me? Where's that one? Oh, I need to um I need a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendations for teacher nominations as presented. So moved. Moved by Beth, second by Rob. Any more comments on that one? All those in favor? 70. And then wait, did I get the No, I have DFA. DFA. Okay, I need it's not sorry. I need a motion to adopt policy DFA investments. So move. Moved by B. Second. Second by Kate. All those in favor? 70. We didn't have a process observer. Um I need a motion to observe. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn by Rob. All those in favor. Who was the

192second? Rob was the first second. All those in favor? Everyone's second. 70. Okay. They take your Thank you very much for