001Okay, welcome everyone to the Hollis School Board. I'm Gina Bergsog, superintendent elect. Um, I'm here for the organizational meeting of the Hollis School Board. So, I would like to start by calling for nominations for chairperson of the Hollis School Board for the 2025 2026 school year. Um, we'll start with any nomination and we'll see if we can find a second. Uh, is there any particular order that we're supposed to nominate for positions like chairs first? So, I'd like to nominate Carol Roy for the position of chair. Second. Uh Carol has been our chair and is the most experienced member of this board and she brings a really positive attitude and also just like a lot of knowledge about the school board and I think that is in some ways kind of like a really nice
002combination of those things and you uh were a great cheerleader for us last year and we'd be lucky to have you again. Oh, thank you. Okay. Um so all those in favor of Carol Roy for chair for the school board. Any opposed? Congratulations. Hey, thanks. Yay. All right. So, I uh now taking over the rest of the meeting. So, now we're going to call for nominations for vice chair of the Hall of School Board for the 2025 2026 term. I nominate Raphael Zach. A second. Any discussion? I just like to say how much I appreciate how Raphael stepped up this year. He took over this role and he's carried it out with professionalism and grace. So, thank you and I look forward to continuing in the role. Anything else? All right. All those in favor
003of RA being vice chair again. All those opposed. Welcome back aboard, sir. I will now take a nomination for secretary of the Hollow School Board for the 2025 2026 term. I nominate an for the position of secretary for the year 25 2025 2026 term. A second. Second. Any discussion? Well, I have something to say. You're very thorough. We appreciate that. So, I like to let that continue. And I know that you have a desire for this. So, thank you for being willing. All those in favor zero. Opposed. Haha. Thanks, Ann. Coming back. All right. And now we have to appoint signers of the manifest. And for those of you watching at home who don't know what that is, the manifests have all of the spend for the district on them. and the two board members
004review all of those every time and have to sign for approval or ask any questions that they may have. Um, I would like to appoint our new member, Jonathan Fontaine, by the way. Welcome aboard, sir. Thank you. Um, and also Jessica Lehens, if you guys are both willing to do that. Excellent. And, uh, and I am willing to be the alternate, Gina, if that works for you. That's perfect. Thank you. Oh, this is one that I forgot we were doing. The we also need to choose a representative for the superintendent exit interview because as we know, it's not Gina. Gina is the one who's coming in. She's our superintendent- elect, but superintendent Andrew Corey, who's been here for over a decade, is retiring at the end of this school year, which is June 30th. And
005so, we are going to be conducting an exit interview from a governing board standpoint. And so each of the three boards within the SAU41, that's Hollis, Brookline, and the co-op, are going to have representatives in the exit interview. Is anyone particularly interested in being a part of that? Does it make sense for um you know, when we're talking about doing the um what is the name of the um group? Spec, does it make s also on the spec committee or does that not matter? I don't know. Gina, do you have input on that? It doesn't have to be, but I think it makes a lot of sense because you're just become more familiar with the process and often is it the vice chair who's on spec or another member who's appointed? Yeah. So, well, I
006think so I was the vice chair of the governing board last year, so I was in charge of spec for the last couple of years. Um, so it would be it would either be another member or do you think that I would I think committee members I thought were the vice chair from each board and then the vice chair from the governing board runs it. I thought is how it worked. That was it was the same person then it would um you would pick an alternate but so can one of you define spec first? Sure. Superintendent performance evaluation committee. Okay. There will be a quiz at the end of the meeting. Yes. And that John got right fast is part of the SAU governing board group. So it's us Brooklyn and then the co-op board.
007Yeah. Um that's a great question. Sorry we take for granted that we know the acronyms sometimes. I didn't know the ACM. Um Raph, do you have capacity to do that or do you not? I think um I think it depends on what time of the day it is. Yeah, that might be tough. Um I probably will be involved because of my role um from a governing board perspective last year. So I'm can I be the double rep or is there somebody else who wants to be a part of that? I can if Rafy can't do it then I can do it. You know what I mean? But I don't need I don't need to either. She could probably um appoint Rafi and then just as a backup and that way everyone is clear who's doing
008it, you know, if you're unable to. Does that work? Yeah. Okay. So, we'll do that. We'll appoint Raph as the primary and Jessica as backup. We'll go from there. Thank you guys for being willing to do that and good call out on the spec involvement. Um now, uh I don't know that we need to do a full discussion on the particular subcommittees right now. Do you think I think that'll be something that we'll do offline? Um because Jonathan, you'll get kind of a rundown of everything that's available. Um if you have a desire to maintain your position on any of the committees that you served on this past year for the remaining four of us, please just let me know that. But I'll have individual conversations with each of you. And then at the main
009meeting, we'll make that those appointments um to all of the different subcommittees. And you can see uh in the uh outline for today's meeting, it has them listed. That's policy, which we just took care of, budcom, enrollment, wellness, spec, governing board policy, and governing board budget subcommittee. So, we will we'll talk through all of those, but think about that if that's something you want to continue or if you want to try something different and we'll take care of that in May. Okay. And we do have a ro uh non-public. Correct? Yes. So, I'll accept a member that the board by roll call go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91- A32A, the dismissal, promotion, or compensation of any public employee, and C to discuss a matter which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely
010the reputation of a person other than a member of the body or agency itself. So moved. Can I get a second? Second. And now this one has to be a roll call. So, we'll start here with Rafie. I Raphael. Carol Roy. I Jess. I And I Okay, we are now in non-public as a nonpublic at 6:49 p.m. And now we move into agenda adjustments, nominations, resignations, correspondence, and the like. I don't have adjustments, but I do have a nomination. Okay. Okay. So, I am recommending a name that I can't pronounce. Hold on. Let's see. Lauren Ferishedian for grade four up at Hughes for the 2025 2026 um school year. Um she has a bachelor's in elementary ed in sociology from St. Michael's College and a masters in curriculum instruction from Western Governor's University. Um, we
011are putting her masters step 40, sorry, masters plus 45 step 14 for a salary of 86,282. And can you say her last name one more time, please? F E R E S H E T I A N. Which grade level is this? Grade four. She's delightful. I see it. Sorry. That's true. Jessica. Cool. Thank you. All right. I'll accept a motion to accept the nomination of Laura Ferishian uh for grade four Hughes teacher at a level of M's plus 45 step 14 and a salary of $86,282. So moved. Any seconds? Second. Any discussion? I'm yeah I'm excited to have her. It's another example of us hire getting uh new candidates that are experienced candidates which we've said has kind of been what our applicant pool has been has been more experienced candidates. Yes. Yeah. Which
012is great to have. Yeah. For sure. All right. Seeing no other discussion, we'll take a vote. All those in favor. Thank you. 500 Z. Welcome aboard. Laura. Lauren. Lauren. I think I called her Laura. Well, I was giggling at Gina trying to pronounce things. It's just until the moment when you're staring at it that it seems extra difficult. All right. And I have a resignation. So, I will be resigning, retiring with an effective date of April 2nd, 2025. Signed, sincerely, Cheryl Craig, um, computer teacher here at Hall's Upper Elementary. Okay. We don't need to take action on that. Correct. No, we have to accept it. We do. Okay. I'll take a motion to accept the resignation of Miss Craig, the computer teacher here at Hughes, effective to April, which is today. So moved. Second. Okay.
013Any discussion? We've had some conversation about accepting. I mean this is a teacher or person who is leaving but I know we've had some discussion in the past about accepting um resignations of people midyear. Uh and in some ways pragmatically it doesn't matter but also I know it does make a difference for our staffing purposes to have people to the end of the year. Yeah. So that was something we ran into last time because this is an effective date of today. It's not effective at the end of the school year. So, you are welcome to vote to accept it or not to accept it. It can be a show of pleasure, displeasure with their decision and timing. Um, however you would like to do that. But we do just have to vote to accept or
014not accept, but they will be their resignation is effective today regardless of how you vote. But you're welcome to cast your vote however you'd like if it's reasonable. Is there any disclosure of why today was the effective date, not the end of the school year? Um, sometimes in letters they'll give Yeah. No, no, it's a very short letter. Um, but I will let you know be that here at Hughes, we have our library media specialist, we have our digital learning specialist. So, that the students have one week of library, the next week of digital learning, and um they they flip-flop and then in between those teachers teach um uh additional like choice activities. So our library media specialist who also holds the certification in digital uh learning is will be teaching the classes for all
015weeks. So the students will not be without a teacher. Right. But there was no effective disclosed. Correct. Okay. So any other discussion? I had one followup question which is that so does the principal usually carry out the exit aspect? Like do we do exit interviews? We do complete exit interviews, but they don't have to accept them. Okay, we offer them. Thank you. Yeah, good question, Jonathan. All right, seeing no other discussion, all those in favor of accepting the resignation? All those opposed? Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes my nominations, resignations, and correspondence. Excellent. Okay, now we're moving into agenda adjustments. Um, oh, excuse me. Sorry. The approval of minutes. I was looking at the header line on my agenda. Um, obviously Mr. Fontaine, you weren't part of the board during these. So, you do
016not vote. You will abstain. Okay. Um, I will take a motion to accept the Hollis School Board January 8th, 2025 meeting mim minutes with the following amendments. Page five, line 22. to replace our with ours. So moved. A second. Second discussion. So this is the meeting prior to the full public meeting, correct? So and we do have we're going to be t doing the minutes for all of these because we didn't meet like this to do this kind of business since then. Cool. All right. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Perfect. I'll take a motion to accept the Hollow School Board the meet meeting minutes of the Hollow School Board meeting on February 11th, 2025 as written. So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion? We were all there. Seeing none, all those in favor? All those
017opposed? All those abstained. There we go. I think this is our last one of minutes. [Applause] That was February 11th. Yep. And I will take a motion to accept the meeting minutes from the Holla School District annual meeting on March 12th, 2025 with the following amendment. Throughout the document, replace wake D Pasqual with Wake to Pasqual. [Music] Such a difficult person. tougher to get her to simplify. Need something that's a little more American. Um, it's causing trouble. So, are you moving? I guess I'll be moving that one. Any seconds on that? Second. Oh, any discussion? We're glad to get your name right. Yeah. And that's Ann with an E. Yes, it is. All right. All those in favor? 500. How was that, though? We'll allow it. All right. We are now opening public input. It
018is 6:58. We generally leave it open for 30 minutes. There are no members of the public present right now, but if they do show up in the next half hour, we will yield the floor to them to do their few minutes of talking. Um, for right now, we will just continue along to the principal report. Okay. So, uh, April 1st saw the art show here at Hughes. You can still see some items on display. Uh, tomorrow is our 13th annual talent show. It's held at the high school, but it's for Hall's upper elementary students. It's Friday, not tomorrow. Well, it would be great if tomorrow was Friday. I mean, I don't disagree. Sorry. It's Friday. I don't want anybody to show up tomorrow and be like, at the high school, doors open at 4:45. That's
019always a very fun event. Yep. Starts with a craft fair. So, bring your cash. Bring your cash. Absolutely. Uh the PTA is running the fun glow run fundraiser again starting April 23rd. So, that was hugely successful. We'll be doing that again and that's at both schools. Um at Halls Primary, our students are participating in the traffic safety poster contest and the winners can be getting some safety helmets. So, that's always good now that it's spring. Can I actually hop in here? I just want to say for anybody who happens to be listening that the glow run this year is fundraising for smartboards for Hughes and HPS which are very expensive. Um so that is what those fundraisers are for. Some teachers have them and some teachers don't. Um and they are expensive enough that we
020only do a few at a time. Thank you. That's the TV screen that you can write on stuff, right? Uh essentially. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh and then a couple other items. Hall's Primary School. Right now we have a little over 50 students enrolled in kindergarten with plenty more expected over the summer as what always happens. So it puts us right around um in line with where we've been with five sections of kindergarten. Uh and then at Hughes very exciting the students and the teachers faced off in some floor hockey. the students benefited from some instruction in physical education class and I don't know that the teachers got that same level of instruction but we'll see. Uh and then as web testing is going to be taking place at Hughes beginning the week of March
02131st. So that's always So it's happening right now? Yeah, right now. Uh and then looking at our enrollment, we have seen an increase of nine students since our last report. So they range in um from preK um intensive needs all the way up to um grade five. If you look on the actual enrollment report, I will point out that um if you look at totals, Hall's primary school totals are up seven and then um Hughes totals, it's really up plus two. We that line just wasn't fixed. So the total is increase is is nine since the last report. And that's what I have. Excellent. Any questions for Gina on the principal's report? Um Gina, can you just remind me or Ann, what's the cap for how many kids in a kindergarten class? 18. 18. Okay,
022thank you. Um classy says five. Oh, I see right there. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Gotcha. Cool. All right. Nope. Jump in. So you said 50 kindergarten are registered at the moment which is on target for what we kind of expected. Is that also on target for the expected growth that we have projected for HPS or is that what do you mean by that? Um so I think NASDAQ predicted more far more students of in kindergarten but we typically see that in grade one because that's the mandatory age of attendance. Um but it's on par with what we've been seeing. So right now we have 71 students in kindergarten and we were at about 50 this point last year. So the expectation is we're going to be right in that same ballpark which right now
023we have 14 students in all of our kindergarten sections except for one has 15. So that's right around um where we'd like to be. Another piece to remind everyone, yes, policy says 18 students per class for kindergarten, but then some of our rooms, depending on where we have to shift folks, um, uh, are not really geared for 18 students in a classroom. So, awesome. Now, we can move into our discussion portion. Uh, first up is the 2526 Hollis academic calendar. All right. So, this calendar, which was a very similar one, was approved in Brooklyn last week or two weeks ago or whenever it was, I don't know. Um, essentially, it's same old same old. Our students would return uh the Thursday, August 28th, which is the Thursday before Labor Day. This year, we don't see
024a voting primary day in March in September, excuse me. So, September doesn't have a PD day. October, uh, the green would be your early release days. um except for the June 22nd isn't an early release day, but the color is different, but it's not different enough that I just noticed right now. But anyway, so we're looking at an early release. We're down to five. This year we had six, so we're we're u making it only five. They're on Wednesdays this year. And the reason for that other than one of the days is um um our high school students, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are eligible to participate in career and technical education programs over at NSWA North and Alurn High School. And one of the requirements we have is to align our calendars so that we
025don't create a calendar that makes our students missing school in their programs that they attend. So the so we've been working hard to kind of align everything and Nasha has early release days on Wednesdays and these are in line with those. The day that it's not is January 26th, but that would be um midterm exam week for the high school students anyway. So they're already going to be missing. So I figured we put it on that day so that there's not an additional day that is out of whack with with the um the other CTE programs. So, uh, what our goal is this year with our early release is we're putting CKLA into place at Hall's Primary School. It was optional this year, but next year it will be mandatory for all teachers. So, they're
026going to absolutely take advantage of that time to get the professional development in a timely fashion throughout the school year to make sure that they have time to um, plan new lessons, work collaboratively, ask questions of um, the professionals that we bring in for that time. Gina, can I restate something to make sure I understand it? So, our primary schools calendar, they have to have in keeping with our high school, right? And in partly that's because like busing stuff, it doesn't make sense from an expense perspective to have one school open when another is closed. And our high school has to be on the same calendar as the Albert High School uh as Albert and Nasha. Okay. Thank you. Just want to make sure I got it. Yeah, the SAU calendar is um basically the
027same across the board. Mhm. The three districts, they might have some individual things that are different like especially with the high school and orientation days for middle and high school and stuff, but essentially it's the same. Um, also there is a desire for from families to have, you know, if my fifth grader is home early that my seventh grader is also home early. So, yep, that's fair. Yep. Excellent. Um, just because you mentioned CKLA is one of these. So, just to to clarify, so Eureka was schoolwide this year. Eureka math squared was schoolwide at the primary school which is why we didn't also require CKA this year because switched over to Eureka math squared was a heavy lift. Um so we had the resources we had written a grant we got the resources so we
028made them available uh but we didn't require it because I didn't want to have any um teachers totally overwhelmed and unable to do either. Um but it will be required next year. It will continue to be required up here at the upper and so they'll continue into year two. They've been doing it. They've been doing it all year this year. CLA is like full on. Yes. Right. Um, how's everybody feeling about you now at this point? Feeling comfortable. They're feeling comfortable. I think they're excited about what the students have been doing. It's really quite impressive actually. Um, and then next year will be a chance to take a look at some of the units and maybe pull back from um, let's say an 18-day unit. you can there's an option to make it let's say
029a 15-day unit and then add a novel that wasn't part of this year. So so we're looking to um sort of make the both the best of of everything we have available to us. It's a really neat program. Yeah. From from what I've Yeah. So obviously my daughter is a student here at Hughes and she's participated in that and so we get to see it as from a parent perspective of the delivery of of what she's been working on. And I feel like I'm trying to remember exactly how they described this when I was talking to some of the teachers, but it it's something that helps them in all subjects because it's teaching them how to better formulate thought processes so they're able to apply it in like social studies and things like that and
030become kind of better writers, readers, and and understand the things that they're that they're learning. So it st it stands for is it core knowledge language arts? Yeah. So it's I'm trying to help you out, Jonathan, with these uh acros. so many programs, but it's I I love it. Yeah, it's been great. Um, and then December break is a little bit longer. So, we do I am suggesting that we go to school Monday, Tuesday the 22nd and 23rd, but then returning for just Friday the 2nd doesn't make sense. So, that sort of extends the the December January break a little bit. February break is scheduled as it normally is the fourth week. April break um is the fourth week of April leading into May 1st. Um, our March 10th is a PD day, um, due
031to the voting day at CSDA. Um, and then that puts our last school day of June 18th, which includes five snow days. So, if we only have two, then the day would be moved earlier. Speaking of that, this year we've had two snow days. So, that puts our last day of students um, Tuesday, June 17th. That's something that we need to vote on to change the last day of school. I feel like we've done that in the past. Am I right about that? We've only voted on it when um that COVID year when we um decided to call it a year. So, I'm making something up. You are. Um so, how do we communicate to parents like the calendar change? What do we we just It's not a change. It's so they're built in and
032then we just back it up based on if we don't use them. So, it's the 17th. That'll be communicated by by the principles. Yeah. Um, and people will ask online and feel free to answer the question, but everybody knows it's the April meetings that these like it's kind of once the snow is done. We have snow coming in tonight. Okay. Shh. I meant like snow days. Snow days. We can have snow without June 17th. Tuesday, June 17th, everybody. That's your last day of school. Um, Gina, can I ask just because it is a different December break this year, is that also in keeping with Nasha's That is keeping with Nasha. Um, some most districts have this exact setup. I I know of at least one in our area that took two full weeks off. Uh,
033but that puts us really late into June. Into June. Yep. So, if there are two days, it seems reasonable to attend. If there's one day of the week and the rest is a holiday that nobody can attend. Yeah. Yep. That makes sense to And so it's thinking about like how many how do you arrange the schedule to have kids coming, you know, not have too much absent. Absent. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So are all of the early release days um teacher development? Yes. At this point. Okay. I know you said they were because of the national schedule originally. Oh well, but we utilize that time for teacher professional development. I know I've been asked the question and have asked the question of the like. So we have all these early releases. What do we do? Yeah.
034Excellent. Gina, do we anticipate next year when CK CKLA and Eureka will be more established that we'll still have the same number of early release days? We can revisit that certainly. Okay. Just curious. Yep. All right. Okay. So, that's the calendar. revenue and expense reporting. Then you're up calendar or we're not there yet. This is just the chatty part. Got it. Okay. I tried to run it off before we got to the money part. Oh, I got you. I got you. Okay. So, um in your packet you have the revenue expense report as of March 18th. Um you can see that we still have uh we've overspent a little in the expenditures of 139,834. Again, it's currently due to um contracted contracted staffing services to fill some of our open positions. Um but when you
035look down at our revenue or our expected revenue, um it comes out a little better than the last month that I reported. So we end up initially with an unreserved fund balance of a negative 9,361. Um, again, this could change by the end of the year with many different things happening, but um, as of right now with that negative $9,361 in the fact that you voted to, um, fund maintenance trust, maintenance trust, SAU building trust, um, Kelly is proposing using the, um, retained fund balance of 284,000, which would basically have us break even to cover this at this point in time. Okay. But by the end of the year, things could change. Hopefully, we'll end up level. Do you Now, you said that this has to do with um the contracted services, which obviously we
036heard a lot about from an when we were talking about the Hessa contracts. Are we actively trying to fill those positions still? I have an update. We've actually um been able to release two contracted power educators and replace them with our own hired staff. Great. Um and that's effective this past week or so. So, we're hoping that some of this will help this a little bit from now till June um with costs. So, for anybody maybe might be listening at home, do you think that those were able to be flipped because you were able to say and next year we're offering health insurance? Um I I'm going to say probably, but I can't speak because I did not make the hiring offer. Sarah did. So, I cannot say for sure, but I'm sure that that
037was that that's defined and we have had um more people applying and there's been more conversations that I know there's been more conversations about that. So, I think we are going to be garnering more interest as we move forward. Can I just add something? We had a meeting um I joined a meeting that was um at HPS this morning for the support staff because it was the afternoon. It was early release and um Stephanie Ser who's part of the V the Hessa union threw a little meeting to explain all the changes for this next contract and the support staff there was very engaged. They had really good questions. They were very happy with the outcome and yeah there was a lot of clapping. So I just wanted to share that that there and when they
038heard about the benefits they were very happy. So that's great. And one more update we had we have had I I believe it's two contract providers who have asked to become our employees. Really? I love that. Very cool. Thank you for sharing that update done, Emily. Y for sure. All right. And now our final discussion point tonight, the enrollment committee update. All right. So, we have we're going to see this one on discussion pretty much every month, I think. Yes. Always be something to talk about. Before I pass over to Gina, but what she passed on to you. Um, I just want to say what I said at the meeting that is the members of the enrollment committee have been meeting for over a year and putting in a lot of time energy. So, um,
039the first thing I wanted to do was was thank everybody who has been a member of the committee um, and all the time they put into it. Um, that being said, it's it's not something everybody can sustain. So, our community representative um is going to be stepping down because she has so many other places where she's also serving um and we very much appreciate the time that she has put in just like everyone else who has been putting time into this committee. So, um we are going to be looking for another um representative from the community. So um just putting it out there to everyone here to anybody listening at home or reading the minutes um to anybody who is interested in being a part of the committee could contact me would really love though
040it's not required if someone who has some experience um professional experience in engineering whether it be civil or mechanical or electrical architectural experience land surveying anything like that if you come to the table with some experience gosh we would really appreciate that. Um but anybody we we want the community represent so we are looking for them. Um that being said something that we're going to be working on um while we are waiting to secure um all of our contractors and thank you to the town for your support in um approving the Warren article. Uh we are working on an questions for like an FAQ page um on our page. We we heard the concerns of the town. we heard um their suggestions and so we have a working document right now to try to address
041some of those concerns keep everybody continue to work on that transparency and um we are getting updated site plans from Lance Finmore the facilities director he's now going to be attending our meetings when he can because sizes of the classrooms have changed so Gina already um referenced this talking about the numbers of children that can be in a kindergarten class we need accurate sizes, but we our site plan hasn't been done since the renovation bathroom. So, um we're also analyzing some documents just so we have those clear numbers of how many children can be in our classrooms. And can we just point out for those who don't understand there is a requirement that there is a certain square footage allotted for each child. So, that's where the physical space part comes in. Yes. and where
042we're working to make sure we're we're going to our current classrooms and any renovations doesn't meet. So, um and then we have to put out some requests for proposals. So, we have um already proposals for site analysis, traffic study, and architectural, but only one of each. And so, Gina has updates for us on where we're going next. Sure. So, we put together um a an RFP for architectural design services and engineering that went out to a few different folks. And the um proposals are due on or before April 15th, strategically planned right before the enrollment committee meets next with the hope that we would bring those proposals to the committee for the committee to review and then make a recommendation for the next hall school board meeting um to move forward with a particular proposal.
043Um so the you can read the details here. We'll post this or actually it is posted because it's an open RFP. uh questions would go to Kelly Cely. I also directed folks to the enrollment committee website which contains all of the documents, all the work that's already been done. Um but all the information that um you know someone from the outside is looking to bid, there's plenty of information right there for them so they have that available to them. Gina, can you say um a little more about So this is our request for proposals proposals. Where does this get posted? like where can people So, it's posted on the website. Uh but it's also we we've sent it out to certain architectural firms. I see. Okay. Um asking them to bid on it. They may
044or may not bid on it. This particular project is potentially smaller than some other ones out there. Um but we're looking not only for them to bid but also tell us about their qualifications and why we should go with them and um you know their the work that they've done historically and you know references that we can check look into. So and I know that there had been discussion about getting a hopefully a minimum of three proposals to compare. Is that right? Is that the baseline goal? Yes. Okay. For each um Gina, when you say that this is a smaller proposal, it's a smaller proposal and that this is not for the actual building at this point, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Um it feels like that is probably standard like protocol in the school world, right?
045That you would like get proposals or plans before. I would say that we um I think we do a nice job of requesting money to do an in-depth study. So, we bring a full proposal to the March meeting. Not all districts do that. They just bring a full proposal and hope for the best. Um, at that point, I think this is a really wise way to do it so that we have as much information as possible when we're developing a plan. It's a wise way to do it, but it means that this initial request is for a smaller amount than maybe some architectural film for one. So a lot of this kind of actually this indicates that we had a preliminary architectural site layout the RFP would build build on top of not necessarily and
046that was critical because um we know we certainly had feedback that the preliminary design and preliminary dollar amount might not be what's best. So the committee really wants to continue to dive deep into all options. Um, and while that is available in the enrollment committee minutes, um, you know, I I don't want them to think that's what we're looking for necessarily. So, what are what are new ideas? You know, what how can we think of the space in a new and different way knowing that these are what we're these are the objectives that we're trying to hit. Yeah. the the the one concept plan that we have really was very preliminary and our actually quite a bit of our thinking has evolved since then and and it's good that you directed on it because it's
047all documented on how it has evolved so that it might be yeah sorry it's definitely not where we think of I was simply asking because it it was directly referenced in the RFP and if it's part of public record and they can reference it that makes sense if you're looking for them to build something from scratch it kind of points them in a little could point them in different directions. So that was why I was just curious what we were looking for. I think we want as much information as possible. Sure. Um but we don't want to pigeon hole oursel into one design because I don't know that that's going to be where we would fully support in the end. We're going to have to come up with one design, but I think we want
048to do a lot more studying. So you directly sent these to some firms. um the firms that you sent them to um will you be updating the enrollment committee on what those firms were like why did you choose them? Have you worked with these firms before? Just by reputation. Yeah. So um so one of So this RFP there was um a draft sent to review and that was from Wendy Hill. Um, but we made substantial changes to it in light of the So, I made a quick draft and then Kelly and Lance and I met and we wanted to reflect on the enrollment committee meeting and where the conversation was going and so we wanted to make sure that that was reflected in the in this which sort of made it a little bit more
049broad than this is what we're looking for this particular design. Um, so we sent it over to Windy Hill. also sent it to another vendor that has done really successful projects in Brooklyn um and in the co-op, multiple projects in the co-op. So, um and then a couple of other firms that I have not personally worked with. Last question just to understand the process. Yeah. So does evaluating and selecting and awarding the RFP fall to the school board to the SAU like I'm not sure how that process works. Yeah. So um the digging into the details of the RFP historically has been um the committee and then the committee makes a recommendation to the board and the board sort of takes it in, asks a few questions and then votes. Okay. And we we'll be
050getting an enrollment committee update every month at every meeting. Um and so they'll keep us apprised of that process until they're ready to make the recommendation. Yeah. And I was I've gone through these RFIs before and I was just checking where the body sat on ownership. That's Yep. Um I have just a couple random enrollment committee things. Are we can we have um the principles send out in their like you know updates in the app that we're look we'd love an enrollment committee member need as an engineer that might be a good way to connect with both and also if someone the enrollment committee is open right like people oh yes so even if you are if you would like to go if you are rapidly watching our schoolboard meeting right now uh and you
051would like to attend the enrollment committee meetings you can attend and not be a member you know what I mean if you don't want to fully commit or you think I'm not an engineer Yeah, they're open to the public. Um, another thing, Ann, that just was a random thought of mine. I don't know that long term this would work, but I do think it's at least um looking at and it was kind of a point that came up at multiple points um when we were talking about when we had our meeting about the library last year and that there was a lot of questions about preschool and how much, you know, that preschool takes up a lot of space, you know, and that we used to send preschool out, you know what I mean? Like
052we didn't host preschool within HPS. like sent to it kind of outsourced that and I um know that economically it has made more sense for us to bring pre preschool back into the building like pretty significantly. Um but I also wonder if that's at least kind of looking at you know like what happens in terms of thinking about building if we have preschool in the building or not. When does it like at a certain point sending preschool out like how expensive is that at what point? You know what I mean? I would I don't know if that's worth looking at. So, um, Mrs. Vicki and I are going to be talking through several of the the town's concerns. Um, we want to make sure that thankfully we're all on the same page with this that
053we are looking at all possibilities. So, for example, on that working document that we've begun, there is also the concern about is it couldn't we move third grade to So, we are going to sit down together before the next spend the next two weeks um go through and we're we're counting classrooms and we are we're figuring out like could this work if we did do this? What offices could we move to the third floor? Is this even feasible? We're we're going to look we're going to be doing our due diligence on the questions that the town has. And so regarding preschool, um there is an FAQ that we're going to be addressing specific to that. 's already done some work on that for us. Um, but as far as down the line in the future,
054there are always possibilities to eventually do that. I think that it's more cost effective right now to keep it in the school. Um, but that's come up that's come up with the SAU building. I don't know if we want to be putting in front of the next pairs right now. Let's knock out the SAU building. make it be cool and uh let's do it and building you know she was like would really enjoy that but I don't know if we want to be including that further but um you know there these are things we have to talk about the concept plan that we have right now um only plans for six classes you know classrooms for you know first grade second grade and third grade and we've since looked at this and that's not going
055to last very long that's that's not feasible so we have to we have to really still in baby stage. We're still babies. So, yeah, because my understanding too is that there um are in terms of like new builds coming up. There's a a allotment of 20 houses going up and another a lotment of 30 and then some senior housing which obviously won't affect us but well they will actually because oftentimes folks um downsize to like a 55 plus community and then their home opens up for a family with multiple children. That makes sense Gina. Yeah, I was just saying that there are a bunch of houses going on the market now for people who just are looking to maybe leave the community when their children have gone to school. So, and it's noteworthy for anybody
056again who might be listening that we are above and right now. So, for next year, we're supposed to be at 391 at the beginning of the year. We're currently at 397. So, who knows where we'll be September. Excellent. Thanks for that update, Ann. Is there anything else that you needed to share right now? No, thank you. Questions? I do have one other question comes down to it kind of meeting as well, which is are we at the point where we also need to be looking at short-term uh gap closures basically because RFPs take a while, construction takes a while, like are we at a dire state where in a year or two we couldn't get the extension done so we need a backup plan to to bridge the gap or are we fairly safe enough
057that we can probably see this through without needing a bridge of some I I think we can work this out for right now. We are we're we're looking into different alternatives. We're going to look into modular um I don't know if that's going to work out or not, but we are we're we're open to all of these possibilities, but I think it's premature to say that right now um that we're in a dire straits right now to have to do something like that because any kind of temporary building ends up being actually expensive. Yeah. So yeah, there's a lot of safety concerns with the extra stuff. I know if you're up against a wall that some days you have to make those hard decisions and I wasn't sure where we're at. Presentations covered a lot
058of very good stuff, but I wasn't quite aware. Sure. I don't think we're there yet. You know, once we have some people once we have our contractors and we're able to get some sort of a timeline and plan better. Awesome. Good cues, J. All right, moving into our deliberation section. Um, first one is to see what action the board will take regarding the teacher nominations uh that we heard in our non-public. I'm looking for a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation for teacher nominations as presented. So moved. He moved. You could be a second if you want. Sure. Any conversation around this discussion? Great job finding good candidate. I'm excited at the roster we saw. We saw and that will be made public as we yeah with the minutes vote on this. Any other discussion?
059All those in favor? Thank you. Motion carries. Our next one is to see what action the board will take regarding the proposed 2025 2026 school calendar. I'll accept a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar as presented. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. I think we talked all about it during the uh during the discussion port. Uh all those in favor zero. Thank you. To see what action the board will take regarding the reapproval of policy BCA board member code of ethics. This is a policy that we reapprove at the beginning of each uh board year, I'll call it. So, starting in April. Um, and in part, it states that the school board will review and vote to adhere to the following board member code of ethics during this meeting. And this is just outlining what
060is expected of us as board members. So, I accept a motion that the board by roll call state agreement to adhere to policy BCA board member code of ethics. Can I just ask Carol is this You got to make a motion before you can ask the question. Uh I move that we by roll call state agreement to adhere to policy BCA. Second. Okay. Go ahead. I was just going to ask if we should read this out loud or No, not bother. What do we have we read it out loud before? We have not, but we can. Okay, I can do that. Good thing I brought my glasses. This is like tiny tiny font today. So, the board member code of ethics reads as follows. The school board will review and vote to adhere to the
061following board member code of ethics at the board organizational meeting each year. New Hampshire residents elected or appointed to local school boards serve their communities and our state and overseeing the most important function of all local and state government, public education. To that end, it is appropriately to appropriate to constantly remind ourselves of a proper and appropriate code of conduct for local schoolboard members in performing this important service to our communities and the youth of New Hampshire. We therefore resolve to assure the opportunity for highquality education for every student regardless of individual student differences. Make all decisions and take all actions holding the well-being of students of our schools as our fundamental guiding principle. Ensure that our schools are in compliance with all national, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to education and public
062agencies. Represent the entire community without fear or favor while not using the position of schoolboard member for personal or financial gain or benefit to self. Uphold the principles of due process and individual dignity and protect the civil and human rights of all. Adhere to the principles that the school board shall confine its role to policymaking, planning, and oversight while the superintendent shall administer and manage our schools while implementing the policies of the board. Act as part of an educational team with all staff members and the community with mutual respect and regard for each other's respective responsibilities and duties. Recognize that the strength of the board is acting as a board, not as individuals. Maintain high standards as schoolboard members through continual self- assessment and professional development for ourselves. Preserve the obligation of having all issues
063considered fairly and without bias. Instill respect for community, family, honesty, fairness, and for our state and nation. Honor the spirit of the open meeting law RSA 91-2. Board members will not have any discussions, including email, that affect policy or decision-making outside of a board meeting. I think that thank you for reading it Carol. Do you know my one note is we just need a space added in there after nation after which on the second page just putting a space. We need a character turn to throw back to Yeah. typewriter times. You need a character turn. It's a separate bullet after nation on the second page. Yeah. Yep. Instill respect and honor the spirit are two separate ones. They should be a space between them. A line space. Oh, a space in between. Yes. Like all
064the other I was looking for a word that was smushed together. Sorry. That's why I wasn't finding it. I was driving the point home. All right. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote. We'll start with you, Jonathan. I. Jess. I. Carol Roy. I Raphael I. All right, motion carries. And our bear with me scrolling back up. Our final deliberation point this evening. Um, and before I do that, I just want to officially declare uh public input closed at 7:35. Our last is to see what action the board will take regarding the reapproval of policy DFA investments. The board has informed of the state requirement to review the Well, I'll let you talk about that. I'll take a motion to adopt policy DFA investment. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. Uh so even though
065I'm on the policy committee, we haven't met in a while and I don't know that I have uh the best update about this. Although I can read what is here in our minutes uh in our outline. Yeah. The board was informed of the state requirement to review this policy on a yearly basis. The intent is to provide an opportunity at least yearly to consider investments. In large districts that receive tax dollars in a single transfer, there may be a decision to invest as a mean of generating revenue. As identified within the current policy, the school district treasurer working in conjunction with the superintendent and their design and pursuant to RSA 1972- is authorized to invest the funds of the district subject to specified objectives and standards of care. So basically this is saying that we
066are um that our school district treasurer and can work with the superintendent and say oh here are some funds that we would like to reinvest you know to be building revenue. Yeah. Um managing liquidity appropriately and we have been reviewing this on a yearly basis. You can go back and see when it was adopted. So, it was reviewed and adopted right around now for the last 15 years, I believe. And correct me if I'm wrong, Donna, but I believe in our final FY24 revenue and expense where we closed out the year, there was um an increase in unexpected revenue due to um interest. So, it wasn't that we did investment so much, but um there was interest that we didn't expect just based on the rates. Um but we don't receive well you can see
067our revenue expense report and where we stand right now. So we don't have large sums of money that we um actively invest in. Um one thing that I noticed is the there's a line in the current one that we've been adopting that the last line right before legal references says the board will periodically review the investment policy. If the state has a requirement that it's yearly, shouldn't we change the language? Or do you want to just say we'll review the investment policy pursuant to state? Yeah. RSA or whatever for the policy committee to talk about. Perfect. Good catch. I think that's the point. Um so at this point, do we need to modify the or have the uh motion modified to be accept the first reading and then we'll or can we still adopt it?
068You guys still adopt it? Yeah. And then we'll just bring it back. Say if the state expands it to be every 5 years, then you'd have to change it back. Whereas if you say periodically, right? And we also with policy law, you're covered. Well, that's what that's why we what we've been doing as they've changed their requirements is just saying we will review this in accordance with state requirements or something and that way no matter what the requirement says, we're following that. So if you guys are okay with the motion and accepting as such, we can take it to a vote or if there's any other discussion, we can do that. All right. All those in favor of adopting policy DFA investment 00. Thank you. All right. I don't believe there's any other business to
069bring forth. So I'm happy to take a non-debatable motion to adjurnn. Um I move to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second. We're not debating. We're not discussing. All those in [Laughter] favor, Jonathan, you survived your first meeting on the board. Congratulations. Congratulations. Um, we will release the list of of uh dates for meetings, but I don't think any are bumping into four meeting dates. Yeah, I was just working on that, didn't I? So once uh next week the the school calendar goes to um co-op and then I'll share the board meeting. I usually shared it the board meeting calendar in the May governing board meeting. Yep. I just want to check are we maybe still live in the room? Okay. So you want to make sure to save that for us. Yep. Yep. So our
070next board meeting is May 7th and the SA governing board meeting is May 15th. See about both of those. Um Gina, I may have a request to move the August meeting again if the board is uh okay with it. That's for Jonathan. We signed the other one so you can you know that's just for your reference. Yes, that's fine. Yeah, it was very much easier to just send it around and have Thanks everybody. [Applause] So I did call. Oh, I know. I got everybody. Good to see you.