001okay thank you everyone going to get started I suspect people will roll in a little bit this is the uh October 10th meeting of the SAU 41 uh governing U school board that's the collection of the three District school boards starting the meeting at 6:03 uh going to start things off with introductions uh please state your name and uh go a little slow for those of us who are poor at comprehension and mention your mention your board you're on as well for the public I'm going too fast I was going to say that I'm trying to be slow Carol we've got we've got a a packed agenda but a very very uh special event tonight that I'm looking forward to and I hope you are as well um my name is Tom Solan I'm on
002the co-op School Board Carol Roy holl School Board Gina burog assistant superintendent Tracy Brookline School Board joh Trevor Brook call School Board Kate stole Co-op School Board Christ whan Co-op School Board Cindy con Co-op School Board Holly derlo Babcock Co-op School Board Amy ker holla school board thank you very much and we also have Beth Williams Co-op scho board thank you do you want to slide these down so that you can get us over to starting with the agenda the first item is appointment of process say Observer does anyone want to volunteer cuz if not I have my favorites Christa you here's the reason I do that you do you're very observant and you give excellent feedback thank you for the compliment and I see right through it I was actually hoping I actually was
003hoping that Rob would be here because he does a lot of complaining but since he's not here all right yeah okay uh notifications of nominations resignations or correspondents do we have any we have none we have none wow approval of minutes so we have um minutes from our last meeting which was on May 9th 2024 was the organizational meeting oh man he just missed just missed appointment there's reappointment that's always that's always good Rob man has just arrived at 605 um so I'd like a motion to approve the meeting minutes from our organizational meeting on May 9th with the following amendments offered page 7 line 48 replace call with cost uh and members Roy and Kelner um were not at that meeting moved moved by chrisa whan second second by S van Conan uh any
004other comments about the minutes seeing none we're going to I'm going to defa to uh pulling the whole the whole group on a vote if there are if there are no votes then we will go to um voting by District so all those in favor sorry I had my hand up but I thought you uh opposed extensions two extensions okay thank you very much and we also have nonpublic minut from that same meeting on May 9th uh again same situation I have a motion to approve the non public minutes so moved moved by Christa second second by Cindy any further discussion or comments all those in favor opposed extensions great thank you now we get to the fun stuff uh it's a little early is that a problem okay I know so tonight we have
005a very special guest um Barrett Christina is the executive director of the New Hampshire School Board Association he was hired in 2005 boy right out right out of grammar school right he has served as the association's staff attorney director of governmental relations Chief trainer and Associate executive director before being appointed executive director in 2017 um he's uh we've seen him in a lot of those roles here in SAU 41 and he has been extremely valuable to them to us in all of those situations in his years in the at nhbs nhba uh Barrett has provided Ed training to thousands of school board members he's testified at dozens of bills before the New Hampshire legislature and testifying before legislature is not the same as lobbying it's actually a different process um he's drafted many pieces of
006legislation and provided school board members and school administrators with legal guidance training and support on all matters relative to Schoolboard governance tonight we've invited him here specifically to talk about um and help us with understanding our roles as school board members and our interaction with the community but he um did provide for us uh an overview of some other training that he does on General roles and responsibilities if you haven't had a chance to look for it look through that I encourage you to do so uh when you have some time to really focus on it there's some incredible information and I've been doing this for longer than I care to admit and I was uh reminded and uh saw some new information that I didn't really grasp uh at prior occurrence so I encourage
007you to do that at this time I'd like to invite Barrett to come speak with us um if you want to come up here it's fine yeah I mean if that if that works if there bike is available for absolutely Y and uh first he's going to give us a little bit of an introduction and overview of any hsba and then we're going to move into a a question and answer kind of format I have some initial questions that I've generated um but this is also a meeting for all of you so uh we will also welcome questions and discussion with the the board as a whole um Barett I'll turn it over to you at this time great thank you very much Tom for that uh for that nice introduction um good evening everyone
008um so familiar faces and names around the table that I've worked with uh in sa41 uh previously Rob good seeing you again um and saw some new names that I that I that I haven't uh necessarily specifically worked with is that a board member waiting to come in a little kid it does look like a little kid um K wonder if he needs to use the restroom um but uh but uh anyway so I I appreciate the invitation uh uh to to to come down to um to sau41 to sort of give this presentation and meet some of you um uh I hope most of you know who nhsb is and and what we do and you receive our emails about our legislative updates and our our webinars and and other events going on and
009breaking news and policy updates and things of that nature so um if I just a minute or two about nhba and who we are and what we do we're a private nonprofit organization um some people often members of the public or some new new school board members might think that we're like a branch or an arm of the Department of Education and we're not you know we'll get calls from just constituents have a concern about their superintendent or their school board and try and navigate them through the process but in in fact we're we're a private nonprofit organization um we have a board of directors um who is um uh per our bylaws they are all um sitting Schoolboard members across the state from any of the the various five regions um we have a
010staff of four my myself as staff attorney or I'm sorry staff attorney um that was the easier job myself as executive director um uh we do as we do have a a staff attorney um who does um our policy and legal work I'll talk a little bit about that in a second we have a director of governmental relations uh Becky Wilson who is our key liaison with the New Hampshire legislature um the Department of Education and some of the other uh uh education nonprofit organizations such as the school administrators Association principles ass Association teachers union so on and so forth and then um Amanda Aldis our operations manager who makes the world go around um and if she was not with us um we'd have to we'd have to close shop we we really would
011without without Amanda's help so um the key services that we provide um uh and and Tom kind of mentioned them when he was sort of running through my my resume um our staff attorney um answers legal questions um from school board members and and and school administrators primarily superintendent um and with the caveat uh with sort of our legal the legal services that we provide we are not in a position or in a place to supplant the local legal council that you get um I know Jim o shanesy does some work down here I think Tom Clawson used to do some work for you if Tom still does some work and and Will Phillips actually um our staff attorney I know has done some work within sa41 um as well to attended some annual meetings
012I believe for I forget exactly what district um within within the SAU um uh but so you know we're we're there sort of sort of the first stop superintendent will call or School Board chair will call and say you know can we go into non-public session for this and we'll you know kind of give them an idea Point them in the right direction of the statute um you know anything that we think is sort of um too in the weeds or too in the nitty-gritty or has the potential to lead the litigation will often pass that off to local Council say you got to call your private attorney about this because they're the ones that going to be representing the board and whatever entanglement may may may may follow um the other as key aspect
013is our policy Services um we hope the boards um and the board members um see the sample policies that we send out two or three times a year the most recent one went out maybe two weeks ago if I'm not mistaken um and our staff attorney um does all of those as well too we provide you know the sample policies and the templates and the sort of the boilerplate language and then send them out and encourage local boards to review them and make necessary changes um to fit the needs of your own Local District you know we're a Statewide organization we certainly recognize that policy needs in in hows or Brook liner within the co-op may be different than Manchester and may be different than the policy needs and say coldbrook up north for example
014so those are the two two uh two um primary services that our that our staff attorney provides the legal assistance in the policy work um Becky uh Wilson is our director of government relations Becky is the educator on staff uh Becky has I don't know multiple certifications from the Department of Education she's a certified um superintendent and before coming to nhba about four or five years ago um was a uh SAU level uh specialed director in in Hopkinton and has spent 20 25 years in uh both um you know building level uh SAU level um providing providing special ed services um and then myself as staff at attorney um you know I kind of manage the association and Becky's work as I said working with the legislature working with other stakeholder groups um to provide
015NH sba's voice at various meetings conferences workshops um and I guess the primary service that nhba provides and that I'm most proud of and and the one that I enjoy the most is trainings just like this um we do a number of webinars we do probably 15 to 20 webinars every year uh we do about seven or eight in what I'll just call the fall um and then we do another seven or eight um if not more following um uh following March elections you know we kind of take this January and February off recognizing that people are gearing up for annual meetings and finishing up your collective bargaining and budget hearings and things of that nature and then obviously just a natural turnover on school boards at at March elections so um but in addition
016to the 15 or 20 webinars that we that we do and that we provide um uh we do between my staff attorney and I we are out probably um doing 80 or 90 of these um trainings a year um mostly in the fall and then obviously following you know March elections as well too a school board might have you know you might have complete turnover within one or two election Cycles so we'll go out and do sort of roles from responsibilities training comparing and contrasting the roles of the school board versus those of the superintendent and then hopefully finding that middle ground that what we call kind of best practices if you will um so yeah I'm out you know we do this um and it's not just the roles from responsibilities training we do
017um right to no individual right to no law training I was up north um a couple weeks ago um providing some information to their school board about school choice options they're looking at um uh uh they have a tuition contract that expires in a couple years so they're looking at various options right to no law um uh effective meetings is another big one but um I enjoy this part of of my job the most to be to be quite honest with you um uh you know it it it it's it's not dealing with the legislature which is its own its own benefit um but I like coming out to to to the small towns in New Hampshire that I would never ever have another chance or an opportunity or reason to go to and coming
018to little I think this is an elementary school right little elementary schools and and and and meeting my members where they are and hearing their hearing their concerns and answering their questions so um that's a little bit about nsba um and and sort of you know what we do and why we do it and and how we operate there's more information on our website if anybody has any questions about sort of the governance structure of nhba or what we do or how we operate by all means give me a call um or shoot me an email I'm happy to happy to do a little bit of of a deeper dive in that uh for you um moving on to sort of tonight um before I get into the the sort of the materials itself and
019open it up for Q&A um my goal whenever I'm doing a training is to have a conversation with the school board I'm not here to dictate I'm not here to tell you this is how you have to do your job and this is how you be a school board member and these are the only best practices that that that that that there can be I totally understand that there are Nuance history tradition local customs in in every school board in every Community across the state you also recognize that I'm not using any technology tonight right I find when I'm working on a PowerPoint what's everybody doing they're staring at the screen and not necessarily taking in or listening to what I'm I'm trying to convey um so I don't I you know I I when
020I'm doing a training for a local school board I don't I don't use technology I don't use the a PowerPoint or anything we're going to sit and have a conversation and hopefully I can answer some of your questions and hopefully provide some guidance for the for the 17 of you if I'm not mistaken whoever many total on the the three boards um moving forward um so with that um uh you know again I want this to have a have a have a conversation let's ask questions let let it be in you know um interactive if you will um you know me reading from slides or reading a handout doesn't do any any good but you asking me the questions you know is going to be more um a more efficient use of of your time
021so um I know Tom had some questions that he sort of wanted to to run through we're going to open it up to everybody obviously um but before we get to the questions I I want to do I'm going to do like five minutes on school board roles and responsibilities we've got a a a packet here I forget how 50 60 Pages or or whatever it might be um I I only printed off myself I know the first 13 or so pages I don't expect you to read everything in there um but the first 13 to 15 pages or so is the is the primary um training docs that nsba uses for our our roles and responsibilities training when when we're doing either the the webinars for a new school board member orientation in April
022or May or going out to school boards like this and and having the same conversation um and the remainder of them the last I think 40 50 pages or so are just a handful of articles about best practices positive Schoolboard superintendent relationships Seven Habits of Highly Effective School boards and and so on and so forth so um I'm going to give literally like a quick like a five minute primer on sort of Schoolboard roles and responsibilities without going through all the slides and without going through the 13 pages of of materials um the current this the the vers that that I sent out we've been using this version for probably I don't know six or seven years now maybe a little bit longer we always tweak it this may not I think this is the
023the latest version if not there may be a couple Nuance changes that are not you know uh necessarily um important for the for the purpose of of of tonight's discussion more just probably formatting and things of that nature but um when we were putting together our rool from responsibilities training and this document you know initially again five six seven years ago um we went through all the various statutes and Department of Education rules that talk about Schoolboard governance and Schoolboard responsibilities and we were able to sort of put those in about seven or eight buckets if you will topics headings if you will um and some of them you deal with probably every single meeting or every single day as a school board um or as an individual School Board member and then some of
024them probably probably not that frequently um you know for example um you know we have got a section in there about um if you have to have a hearing before either a student discipline matter or or or a staff discipline matter I imagine you know in in the K through or the K through six school you're probably not dealing with student discipline a lot you're not suspending kids maybe more so in the middle school maybe a little bit more so in the high school but um but so the the primary roles and responsibilities I'm just going to just going to list them off but I want to I wanted to mention those because they kind of set the stage for the questions and conversation that we're going to be having moving mov forward okay the
025first primary role and responsibility of school boards is um is is policymaking you are a policymaking board um you know and and anything anytime a legislative body and that's essentially what you are you're you're making you're not like the New Hampshire legislature but you're acting in the same capacity right the legislature passes laws and statutes what do school boards adopt your policies right and and your policies are what they're the rules of of the school dist um and we know policies are important for a variety of reasons one we've got a handful of statutes in Department of Education rules that say the school board shall adopt a policy on X there about 75 or so that are required by both state and federal law excuse me most of those are are in um are in
026state law um a hand many of them are in state statutes even more are within Department of Education administrative rules and administrative regulations um but why is policy so important when I say Schoolboard policy who's who do you naturally think of who if I say who do Schoolboard policies impact and effect you're immediately going to think of what staff and students right and to some degree that makes sense but I take it you've all seen your policy manual we've got the what eight or nine sections a through K or l or whatever it is section B what does section B relate to Schoolboard operations you got policies that govern yourself right um during covid did we have to change our visitor to school policies and regulations yes right you got to check in you got
027to have a mask I've been in some districts where I have to show my my driver's license and they scan that so it's not just staff and students who is it it's visitors to school which could be the community at large right you've got the holiday concert it's open I presume to everybody everybody in town um uh I presume again without specifically knowing that you have a policy about renting out facilities within the school district right the gymnasium or the Garden Club wants to rent space on a Saturday morning right so you've got policies that that impact that so your policies are not just staff and students you got policies impacting the board itself you got policies um sort of directed towards parents and and expectations for parents and and and their children and then
028you've got policies that impact the community at large so that's why policy work is so important second primary role and responsibility fiscal oversight um I I I'd say establish the budget that's a little bit of a misnomer um you know some communities have Municipal budget committees where the the MBC is the one that that proposes the budget to the to to the voters and that's what they vote on but even outside of sort of budget development and even if you do have a municipal budget committee or a bucom under the the co-op statute um the school board still has budgetary obligations to put together a proposed budget provide documents to the to the budget committee and then after after uh you know the March meeting the budget set it's not like it just goes away
029I imagine every meeting your boards are dealing with some level of fiscal oversight right you're getting reports from the business administrator either every meeting or every month or however that's done from time to time the board is obligated to um take action to um move money across line items right I don't know if if different boards have different you know practices for that the classic example is that you budgeted to have to plow the driveway 10 times but it snowed 20 times this year it was it was a big winter or another common reason is um you know you had a child move in with significant special education needs and maybe an outer District placement that is going going to cost a district you know $1,000 a day at at a facility in Massachusetts or
030whatnot but you didn't budget that so you've got to find money elsewhere and and and and transfer line items we've got approval of manifests um you know uh so there's always consistent there's always continual fiscal oversight budget policy third um hire and evaluate the superintendent um I'm aware of the the the transition that is starting to sort of take place and and unfold here in sau41 and um I think I just met Gina about a month ago for the first time at the South Central meeting in uh in Pinkerton so certainly look look forward to to working with her um I know Tom will be in her ear to call nsba regularly when she steps into the new R so um well seriously I mean I say that halfway jokingly but you know I take
031special interest in new superintendent because I want them to succeed right you know it's it's it's going to be it's going to be different I have no doubt that that Gina is highly capable and highly qualified and the board has made the proper you know the right decision but it's still going to be new right and so we you know I tell new superintendent all the time reach out even if you think you know the answer if you need some cover you know call me or call call my staff attorney um but anyway the the the back end of that um is um is evaluating the superintendent um there are three sources of law in which uh uh that you're obligated to um evaluate the superintendent the first is the Department of Education role 303.01
032like K or l or something like that says a superintendent shall be evaluated on an annual basis um the second source of law again getting back to the first thing I talked about you probably have a policy that says you'll evaluate the superintendent on an annual basis um and third um uh I haven't seen every superintendent's contract in the state but everyone I've ever seen has a provision that says that the superintendent will be evaluated on an annual basis and I presume Andy's contract has has a similar provision um I tell boards to be mindful of that um excuse me um one you know it just as a matter I mean aside from it being a requirement I think it's good practice I think every every employee should be evaluated to know how they're doing
033and where they are and and what are the expect ations and what are the goals and whatnot um and two I I often you know somewhat joke you know a lot of Bor it's and I know it's a it's a challenge for school boards we deal with a lot of school boards that are calling us and saying do you have any tips and recommendations for the evaluation process and you know I've got 10 templates on file that I can give you but I often say none I can't there's no magic bullet template that's just going to I can put in front of you that you're going to be able to use in my experience a lot of the evaluation processes are developed locally recognizing that local districts and local boards um are going to have
034their own desires of what they're evaluating they're superintendent on in a multi-district SAU it's very different than in a single District SAU because the three boards may have three different goals and aspirations and what they want see done watching our meetings what's that have you been watching our meetings no um but you know if a first year superintendent next year you know as a first year superintendent is going to be evaluated differently than a superintendent that's been in the district for 10 or 15 years we do have a have two separate we have a long form version and a short form version for that purpose we're actually going to be discussing those policies after uh a little bit later tonight fantastic great wonderful glad to hear that I I'll get off get ready for Gina
035so I'll move on I'll move on from that um getting into some of the more I don't want to call them ancillary but the the the roles and responsibilities that are not sort of the day-to-day type of things at school necessarily encounter collective bargaining I don't know if you're doing any bargaining this year you are um so you know you've got a collectively bargain you know from time to time you know whenever the contract is up um we circulate between the three so this year is Hollis next year is every year you're doing one year in a three District SAU that's about as good as he can ask for right you know better than you know I know you know some of the larger conquered for example pres do Manchester like this too they've got
036like I don't know six seven eight collective bargaining you know units their bus drivers are one the custodians are one the Food Service workers are one the PA professionals are one the you know the the administrators are one the teachers are one so at any given year they're doing they're doing two or three at any given year which sounds rough um uh uh another uh sort of ancillary one and this is this is going to tie in a little bit to um to um to some of the discussion that that we move into tonight is Communications with your constituents and that can take on a lot of different forms right um some boards are you know are are active on social media um uh other boards are not and that's fine I don't have a
037specific opinion one way one way or the other on that um you know we we most most communication these days is digital right we're not sending notes home in in kids backpacks anymore right and uh you know but and I presume you got the standard stuff you know you got the the robo calls for you know snow days and maybe a text messaging which I'm going call for an early dismissal whatever it might be and emails and things of that nature but um we do recommend that school boards um develop what I'll call um a Communications plan and that doesn't necessarily mean you know when I when we say communication planes a lot of districts simply interpret that as like Crisis communication right okay there's an active shooter there's a fire there's a you know
038what whatever what you know the tree fell down is blocking the the driveway the communication plans can take on a lot of different forms and we might have some some templates at at at the office I know we've done a couple webinars on this before but um you know who is going to be the spokesperson for the school board when the Press calls right who has authority to speak on behalf of the board when there is a a a a crisis or when you're hiring a new superintendent or you know are you going to hire a PR firm who's writing press releases to you know when if something comes up or or whatever it might be so um you know communicating communicating with your with your constituents obviously is is a is um is is
039an important is an important aspect as well too so I hit policy I hit budget I hit uh uh High ear and evaluate the superintendent um I hit the hearings hit Collective baring hit you know um uh uh uh Communications with the public um two or three more just quick things if you'll indulge me just for another minute um strategic planning as well too is a semi requirement by law the specific law is that the board shall develop long range plans and identify measurable and attainable short-term objectives you know I I interpret that as being Strate as as developing a strategic plan um you know some boards do strategic plans other boards will just do sort of annual goal setting some boards do a little bit of both so when I say strategic planning that
040can take on a lot of different forms it doesn't excuse me doesn't have to be a 50-page document that you've had five committees working on you know and and and everybody involved some boards do that some boards just do sort of annual goal setting for themselves for the district and and and for the for the superintendent as well too um two quick um one one two quick sort of ort of what I'll call um um that's the word I'm looking for um overarching governance aspects I think is the best way to put it that we that we try to impart to um our school boards the first is that no individual School Board member has any particular right to act on behalf of the board as an individual right when can the board act when
041the five or seven of you are at a duly called meeting under the right to no law and you debate disc do deliberate and ultimately vote on a a particular action adopting a policy adopting a budget making an expenditure hiring a superintendent at the SAU level whatever it might be um but throughout all the entire laws 1500 pages of of of of laws governing school districts and school boards and and superintendents they all talk about the board the board the board as a as a collective entity and not an individual School Board member so be mindful of that when when when when when you've got an issue that may you know you get an email or a phone call and you're sort of trying to contemplate how to how to how to necessarily address it
042with a constituent or whatever it might be the second aspect um is that it is not the role of the school board to run the schools but rather that they are but rather to see that they are run well and how do you ensure that the school district is running well through your policies through your goal setting and evaluation with your superintendent through your fiscal oversight all the things that we talked about the primary roles and responsibilities budget policy evaluate your superintendent communicate with your constituents collectively bargain that's how you ensure that the school district is is is is is running well so thank you for indulging me on that I kind of wanted to set the stage a little bit um before we get into some of the Q&A but um are there any
043questions about any of that before I sort of pass it over yeah go ahead oh I just want to say thank you for being here it's really really helpful um I had a couple questions in terms of us as board members how we can best interact and kind of use our membership on an individual level um and as a board um if you could talk a little bit about policy versus procedure um a little bit about and I the the other big one is communication as board members I think we've struggled um to figure out how best to to communicate with one another so that we don't accidentally form a quorum or you know um you know a little bit maybe about the culture of boards um sorry depends that depends on the community that
044I'm in at any given night and then um I wrote down constituent for some reason and um yeah sure I think we're going to touch on on some lot so now these These are good very good prompts TR so policy versus procedure um procedures are depending on the school board procedures tend so the board adopts a policy right and depending on how prescriptive the law will be the law that requires that policy you may it may require um procedures um uh uh internal procedures on on how to implement that policy the example that I give I think a a I think a the clear example that I could give on that would be there's a requirement under Department of Education rules that the school board have a policy relative to medication in schools right we
045know kids you know a lot of kids are on medicine these days so we have the policy it you know it directs the superintendent to do that it directs the s school nurse to do this that or the other thing but your internal policies how the school nurse stores those who has access to the key those are going to be internal procedures that are generally written by the administration why because the school nurse is going to know what the what the requirements are relative for storing the medicine and I mean we may have a health care professional on the board but as average School Board member is not going to know what those procedures are for locking them up who has access do you have one more than one school nurse what's going to happen
046in the in the event that the school nurse is is absent that day is it the principal do we got to bring in a C DM that's got a medical background those are going to be internal procedures that usually are are developed by the administration another would a good example would be um you know uh uh Technology based right so first day of school the kids are all assigned a a an iPad or or a device of some sort right and so that's got to be tracked and they're scanning with the barcode so we know that Johnny has you know barcode xyz123 on his laptop or his his device those sort of you know when I say when the internal procedures are tend to be things that are highly specific and or highly technical where
047you need that subject matter expert your it guy your school nurse um perhaps in your the business office you know with with the sort of the the accounting the financial control internal controls tend to be left to the administration to develop some boards know have adopt have have have required those be adopted by the board I'm not crazy about that practice because if you don't adopt them then what we don't have any procedures and the reality is the super in like you got to make payroll you got to pay the bills so got to move forward and and pay the bills anyway so for us most of the time the board only deals with procedures when they're policies about what the board does yes yes right right the board can right so Rules of Order
048for example you can develop your own Rules of Order which are to some degree procedural um some I will I will say some laws that have been enacted I'll say the last 15 years the legislature is getting very very specific about what the policy has to include the two that come to mind immediately are the bullying policy which enacted in 2010 2011 and that law I mean that lays out what you know what the policy has to be so our sample policy on on the bullying law it's very prescriptive but that's because what the law that's what the law requires I think another one I'd have to go back and check this law you're probably familiar with the um restraint and seclusion policy I think there were some legislative changes to that two sessions ago
049if I'm if I'm not mistaken again the the law is very prescriptive on what you have to do and 10 days for this and 20 days for that and who you have to report to so they going to be some examples where the policies procedure heavy but that's because that's what the statute the law requires to your second question about how can you you know how can the board communicate with each other in a more effective manner without violating their right to no law um I tend to say that um efficiency and transparency are different sides of the same point um you know we have an obligation to be as transparent as possible public records public meetings very limited circumstances in which you can go into a non-public session that does limit the ability of
050a quorum of you to just send off a text or an email and say you know can we do with this at tomorrow night's meeting um we do do a lot of trainings and there might be might be on our website um if not Gina or Tom or certainly feel free to to email me yourself I can get you um I can send you the uh the training dock that we use on Schoolboard use of electronic communications and the pitfalls that that come with that you know the simple answer is that a quorum of you cannot communicate outside of a meeting about official School District business um there are some exceptions chance social encounters you know if if if three of you you know you're you've got kids all the same grade and you're at
051the same little leag game you know that's fine yeah you know just be mindful of what you're talking about you know what I mean you know it's not like somebody's got to St in the left field somebody's got to stand in the right field somebody can stand behind home plate that's not that's not what the law was you know intended to intended to do um you know umor just what one other thing about that I I was also just wondering about like it tools or collaborative you know um are we allowed to collaborate on documents together and have them open like that's really this will so I want to give the answer the the right answer here knowing I'm I'm I'm being recorded um speaking of electronics that has not been l diated but the
052couple of attorneys I know our staff if you were to call my staff attorney he would say you you you probably cannot do that um because you have a quorum of a potentially a quorum of a board dis discussing in quotation Mark's official School District business outside of a meeting so um yeah I know some boards have have tried that have done that and I've also we've also spoken with some of the attorneys we have a sister organization called the New Hampshire Municipal Association we work with school districts they work with towns and cities their attorneys um one of their attorneys anyway and my my staff attorney I think I think the three of us talked about this one time or maybe just the two of them did and they came down with the opinion
053that it would be improper for more than a quorum of a board to be working on the same Google Document so um you know other ways you know to to do some level of efficiency if you will you know I don't know if some boards or some board chairs like maybe send out like a weekly or a bi-weekly you know newsletter to the rest of the board I had conversation with the superintendent these are the three things that came up this week things of that nature how often do do the boards meet every other week or the meet once a month okay once a month so you know maybe on sort of that off two weeks there's just an update from a board chair or or a superintendent um you got to be mindful about
054the cross communication and reply all I yeah what most of the times come from Administration either superintendent for sa wide stuff or building administrators for uh District specific things but usually it's been with the recommendation of do not reply off yeah exactly can't you BCC sorry can't you BCC yeah yeah you can be CC because what the what the the challenge with that with with with the electronic communication so five member School Board all right here's the example I always give and you can use email for what I'll call ministerial stuff the superintendent can send out an email saying attach the agenda and a a draft you know of a document that we're going to be reviewing likewise the board chair can email all you know the rest of the board and say something came
055up we need to have a meeting on on the off week is everybody available next Tuesday at 6:00 it's you can write back yes I'm free no I'm not free that's fine they're public records but you're not debating or discussing or voting or acting on official School District business um what was the question BCC so right so here's the example that I that I that I always give superintendent sends out an email and says and I know I know everything's on like Google Drives and board docks and whatnot so just play along with me a little bit um superintendent sends out out an email it says attaches the agenda and a draft of a contract that we will be reviewing at the at at next week's meeting and she just copies everybody or puts everybody
056in the send line right so Tom gets it you know at 8:00 that night and writes back reply all looks good to me thanks you reply back a half hour later I made some amendments to paragraph two I wasn't crazy about that I'm going to pick on Rob because I I know his name and Rob replies back a half hour later and says there's no way and hell I'm voting for this contract this is the worst thing ever right what is going on you've got you got did I Peg you on there so um anyway so you see my point youve what you've got a quorum of a school board discussing official School District business outside of a duly called meeting that's in violation of the right to no law what do we have to
057do to have a meeting you got to post it right you got to public needs to be available and you got to write minutes afterwards so if you BCC you hit reply all it's not going to everybody then so that is one safeguard yes but in terms of the board discussing board stuff you just you can't yeah no just trying to find some Middler ground yeah where I feel like I could reach out to them and say hey I've got this document or this or that you know could you look it over could you review it or you know just something where I'm not feeling so paranoid about yeah no I I I I understand but I guess my concern with that scenario is you BCC you get input from all your board members but
058they aren't communicating other you make changes and you say Okay based on the input I've got here's the new version isn't that yeah similar to having a meeting it's probably on the line it's probably probably getting there it's one thing to say this is what we're going to be discussing review it and come to the meeting with your comments but to try we've tried it to try and actually get the work done one way one way that different boards do this differently um how much work is done via committee on your respective boards like so I know policy is done by committee other things are we don't have many standing committees other things policy facilities facility facilities instructional practices yeah but en stiens but the facil those committees aren't really with board members on those
059are yeah they are well they they have three different boards here too but they're not primarily I mean the boards make sure not to have a quorum on right right we don't have quorums on the Committees we purposely don't have quorums on committees who created the committee the board the board doesn't matter the Quorum is the number of people that you've appointed the committee right we don't app point a forum right okay just right right so you got one or two board members on anyway my point point being is how can how can boards you know sort of keep on track of some of these things in between meetings and whatnot I know a lot of boards that do a lot of work by committee and the board meetings are a a good portion of
060their board meetings is the board coming in getting a report from the committee and then ratifying or approving the committee's recommendation and for certain committees do you need um or would you ask for a representative from the community or could it just be two board memb the board can appoint whoever it wants to to a committee um you know I I imagine your policy committee committees have an administrator on them right either the Andy or the building principal or Gina um you know the facilities committee I mean I don't know if you got somebody in town that knows the stuff and likes to you know put them on I've seen some policy committees have um um there was I forget what board it was there was a a former School Board member I think she
061was an English teacher so she liked to write and so she was on her PO when she was on the board she was on her policy committee for six or eight years did two or three terms on her board she decided not to run again but she said I really like the policy work and so they agreed to keep her as a member of the public now on the policy committee excuse me she was good at it and she liked it so just point at Christ I just thought maybe Chris might like that if she doesn't run again we're we're a little bit off this we off topic um I'd like to bring us back a little bit to the the community part of it because that's an area I mean some of the questions
062you're asking I think are very important and need to be addressed um I do think that some of the answers y may be available through the rest of the conversation within the uh organization um but thank you thank you very much and and let's see what we we have for time we may be able to Circle back to some of these yep um is are there any other questions that people have about the roles and responsibilities uh information that that Barrett has has given us okay um the question actuallyit I'm sorry Tom really quick the first thing under key roles is providing education to resident children and you didn't touch on that but I guess my question is in terms of curriculum um we always say that we're responsible for but it doesn't seem like
063that's certainly that's a good question yeah so the the one about about providing an education when I do the longer that because that's almost aspirational if you will um whereas you know the policy work and the collective bargain that's more actionable right right so I mean yes you have your primary duty is to provide an education to the children in h and BR line RSA 189 col 1A um I mean that's why school boards exist to ensure that the children in their respective communities are getting getting an education in terms of curriculum if you look at the Department of Education rules 302.0 two whatever it is and RSA positions on that can a board ultimately decide it wants to approve curriculum yes it can nothing in law prevents that my question always is between you've
064got a a k through 12 education program here you made prek for all I know how many people sitting around this table know the first thing about the curriculum for AP Calculus I think I mean you get my you understand what I'm saying no I completely get it know Tom has agenda so is a part of it because one of the big things that happens with the community and I have questions about it but they'll come to you and say why are we teaching this why is this course why are we using this book all things that are you know in frame it like policy versus procedure procedural we say you have to teach science but we don't say what the elements are necessarily of the curriculum what I've encouraged some school boards to do
065and it's not sort of a it's not a a Statewide recommendation for an hsba but if but if you're getting those questions repeatedly um put on the agenda at one of the meetings a discussion of curriculum adoption or curriculum approval or curriculum selection however you want to phrase it and bring in your superintendent bring in your assistant superintendent bring in your High School principles bring in a curriculum coordinator if you have it and you have a half hour 45 minute conversation with the board and the educational experts that can discuss and talk about what they do when they go through and they have to and and they're they're looking for a a new curriculum they're not just picking you know they not just going to Amazon and Googling you know good math books you know
066I mean there's a process bar is it Barett is it fair to say that the administration is responsible for curriculum but we're accountable so here's that that's a fine way of putting it Rob and and here's what I say about everything because I get that question often at the legislature often you know from from various School boards who's responsible for this who's responsible for that everything is a shared responsibility everything is a shared responsibility budget curriculum policy you know uh uh uh you know oversight and management of the staff oversight and management of the students if you want I won't spend much time on it if you go to the white paper that I that I that I sent down on a chart on there's a chart on page I hope it's in this one
067page 14 yeah this is an old version because this is the one that we ripped off for my good friends in Idaho but we have recreated this we have a chart and and I can send you the most recent one where it says one column it says policy but board meetings budget instruction curriculum Personnel then the next column says the school board's responsibility under within that domain and then the superintendent's responsibility within that domain none of these things stand alone everybody has everybody has a responsibility you know and some curriculums work and and and and some don't don't I know you know was it how Gina maybe you'll remember this is the educator at the table how long ago was it that we were using everyday math and then like 3 years in Everyday Math
068everybody was like Cal this program's terrible right 10 years ago or whatever that way so you so you pivot right but they didn't you know at the time everyday math everybody thought Everyday Math was the greatest thing ever and then teachers tried teaching it and it was terrible so so we pivot and change so does that work does that help and I know we got to get to your questions there too if this is what the needs then then it's it's valuable and I apologize for my cough so there there is a scenario I would like I was hoping to be able to engage with you on that I think this board comes across a lot and maybe you're the role of a board member and I'm the role of a parent yeah and I
069see you out on the you know maybe the playground or whatever I said hey Barrett I know Barrett just got on the board and I got I got a real beef with some of the teachers in this that my kid has we're gonna break that down into a couple of elements right but but if I engage you and I start asking you a whole bunch of questions about this and really sharing what I think about certain people under the employe yep yep so you to you want to hit that you want to whatever you want I want to say is you know we've got a couple of different scenarios and I formulated these questions not with anyone particular in mind although some of you may identify with them these are all questions that I have
070and that I've had and that have actually occurred to me in this role as a school board member here in holl Brookline and for for example the first one I think it points to s a neighbor wants to tell me about a problem they or their child is having at school I've directed them to the appropriate chain of command but they still want me to hear them out now what what what can exactly the scenario you again re encourage them to to work through the chain of command you have to be mindful that what what did I say earlier when I was giving my sort of setting the stage no individual School Board member has any particular authority over over anything only the board can act and then you know the other aspect too is
071that you know and and part of this I think is just a misunderstanding by members of the public through through no fault of their own um you know they think that you've gotten elected and and you are the elected official to solve their problems for them what I often say is it's not the board's me School Board members responsibility to quote unquote solve the problem it's a school board's respons Schoolboard memb responsibility to help that individual navigate the the system to get in touch with the individual who can help them potentially solve the problem so another reason why policy is so important learn policy K and KB keep them on your phone keep them in your briefcase tattoo it on your on your on your forearm those are the two policies that relate to specific
072chain of command one is about school district what I'll call Operations I think that's K there are potholes in the parking lot right and the other is KB which is complaints about staff Administration or or other students um you know the process the chain of communication is essentially the same you know if they if they you know if they keep you know emailing you or calling you that the issue hasn't been resolved the other thing too is that when they when they give this concern or this or this complaint you get an email or it's a phone call or you run into them at at Shaw's on the way home from work you know give your superintendent a heads up um and and have the superintendent you know inform the pro most likely the building
073level principal um or maybe the special ed director if if it relates to special education but you know point that person back to the policy try and you know and if they won't you know if they won't listen to you you know you know at some point you know just let your let your superintendent know and then your superintendent or the principal will probably give a phone call to the parent the other thing that would you know I often say would help too is ask that person can I can I tell the principal to give you a call can I tell the superintendent to give you a call and if they say yes then you send off an email and if you know the parents email address maybe copy the parent Gina copied on this
074email as Mrs Smith I ran into the play ground she's got some issue with her with her child's classroom right and I I told her you would call her so if Gina or the superintendent doesn't call back you're going to hear about it right so then you call your superintendent you say you know Mrs Smith is you know giving me a hard time now because you said you were going to call her back and you never called her back so and then that comes back to when you're doing the superintendent evaluation so it's all you know oh works together here now doesn't it all works together well I think sorry just C on to long form's that I didn't hear you's first year we have to go to the long form right so every time
075something happens I'm like long form right right right right well I you know I think there's a there's a balance of being able to CU people aren't talking to you because they're happy like they might be like oh this teacher's great but usually they're coming to you in that capacity because it's a problem and I I feel like you know you can strike that balance of empathy with redirection without a doubt yeah and I've I have I have said to constituents whove talked to me I've said I need you to follow this chain of command I sympathize with the situation you're in if you continue to engage me if this does climb to us I would have to recuse myself I don't want to have to do that I want the full board to be
076able to hear any cases that come forth please do me that favor and and follow and I've never had somebody protest that good so it's been it's it's again it's they they want to be heard everybody everybody want child you know you be respectful and they're constituent and and you know what feel when people are dealing with their kids they get you know if if especially if something's going wrong you get elevator real quick right you know and then you throw in a number of other factors is it you know is it a bullying issue which is you know bad enough is it a a kid with a special ed issue that the parent feels they're not getting the services which you know I I I I can be concerned certainly sympathize and understand the
077and you've got to as you said you got to be respectful to them they're a constituent they're a taxpayer um you know but you try to gently direct them to the person that can that can solve their problem or at least help them out when I was on the brook line board um there was a parent a couple parents you know a family that were unhappy with the services they were receiving and they contacted the board chair and the board chair in their effort to help was listening to them and trying to empathize and unfortunately crossed the line and went so far as to say what was construed as a commitment that something would be done yeah that's and they ended up being sued by the parents along with the district and it it went
078on it went on that person no longer on the board what you have to be mindful of is is don't make any promises you know um don't say and innocently enough just in the nature of the com because you know I imagine you know I can look around the table I've been doing this for a while imagine a number of you on the school board because you got kids in the in the in the school right imagine that um you know and and so it's it's not just a constituent it could be your next door neighbor you're all in the PTO or the PTA together right so it's easy to say something like we we'll get this straightened out or we'll get this figured out or don't worry about it we'll take care of it
079innocently enough talking to to a friend well the the parent with the problem is going to take that as to some degree a promise that my issue is going to be resolved in the manner that I want it resolved and if it's not they're going to get even more elevated then but sorry goad no I was just going to say like I I've found myself in a situation where I've been speaking to a friend who's vending out about a problem and so I always feel like I'm a lawyer where I'm like so I'm going to talk to you about this as a friend or you call me as a school correct and I actually I actually start the conversations that way or like they'll start Ving be like Hang on we're having this conversation as
080friend to friend or are you coming to me because of the capacity which I say and I and I've run into both scenarios and both situations so I but I think it's really important to like especially if you have a friend that you're speaking with in the community that you like Define that yeah because we as as parents you want to be supportive um and you want to listen because people need to be heard and want to be heard and that's super important too but I think it's important to call that out and understand which context you're having that conversation and then package that on both ends you start the conversation reminding them that you're your friend and end the conversation reminding them that you're their friend and that you had that conversation in that
081capacity so that there isn't a promise and I think that that's something to be mind for all of us yeah can I can I flip things a little bit because as board members and parents of kids in the school we have experiences things that we have a tendency to take our experiences and use them as guideposts in some of the decisions we make or even worse we're in a situation where as parents we're having some issues with the school with a teacher with an administrator how do you balance that situation where you want you want your rights as an individual yeah but you're a board member right so um couple different aspects on that um I would encourage the board member to proceed in the same way any other parent would working through the chain
082of communication um you have to be mindful though that now that you're elected people are going to see you differently in the community the teachers are going to see you a little bit differently you know even if you if if you call the teacher and say I'd like to schedule a meeting with you you know they're going to that teacher knows that you're a Schoolboard member and it's going to be a little bit of a unique Dynamic you know for them um maintain your boundaries obviously you know don't bring up Schoolboard business or whatnot when you're talking about the bullying issue or the special education issue or remedial help for your kid or or whatever it might be I would also um recommend that if you know if you're scheduling a meeting um with a
083a as a parent with a teacher or a coach or an administrator you do the courtesy of give your superintendent a heads up just say hey G just want to let you know that I'm going to be at you know Main Street Elementary School at 3:30 on Tuesday I've got a meeting with my my kids te Main Street Elementary no I'm just laughing it's like 3:30 after school um you know just I've got it you know I've got I'm meeting I'm meeting with my kids teacher about something so um H how do how do we incorporate the fact that we may know things at that we acquired as board members that influence our unhappiness or whatever you know well presumably I mean anything that you may have learned through your nature as a school board
084member is presumably some confidential because staff issues are not discussed in public sessions so you know and the first rule of of the first rule of non-public session is it's like Las Vegas right what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas what happens in non-public session stays in non-public session so you know you just you know you've got to you know it's it's not that you need to you know it we're all human beings we can't just you know be a robot when we're at a Schoolboard meeting and then turn off that switch and be a you know a normal you know parent and go to work during the day but you know to the extent that you you know have learned information through your work as an elected official with that comes various obligations and
085certain obligations to keep it either confidential or or whatever the case may be you know if it's something that you heard about you know your teacher your kid's teacher in a nonpublic session because a complaint came or the superintendent had to give you an update that somebody was placed on leave for for whatever reason you know and then 6 months later you're dealing with that individual you got to just you know keep it keep it to the matter at hand with with what the issue is with I mean if you're having an issue with an administrator yeah and you know that be from from board activities you know that other people have had administrator does that keep you from being able to so deal with it on a personal level yeah no no not at
086all not at all I mean you know if if if it's an impact if you have the issue with the administrator because it's impacting your kid or something that you have you know a direct interest in and but you know you've heard other complaints from other parents about that well if you're hearing other complaints about the same individual whether it's a teacher administrator coach whatever it might be and you're hearing those collectively throughout the committee at some point you got a responsibility to let your superintendent know that hey I've heard 10 complaints from 10 different parents over the last 6 months about this second grade teacher like I don't know what's going on in that classroom but you need to look into it you know and I mean I think also too you know as
087I said work your way up through the chain of communication you know if you have if you have a deep concern with something that your kid's second grade teacher has done or you saw it or witnessed it or you're hearing it from other parents let your superintendent know that that let your superintendent know um you know and then you know and then when that person is nominated for Renewal and April 15th ask for a non-public session and go in and say why is why is Sally Jones second grade teachers name still on the list when we've gotten 30 complaints about this person in the last four months you know so I mean your board can't go through evaluations you know that's that's that's not the best practice um you know if if you're if if
088you have the same complaint as other constituents and you've heard them from other constituents you know and it's about a staff member then I I would say redirect that redirect that to your to your to your superintendent and as a parent you know yeah you've got a little extra access to the superintendent but you know call the superintendent and say look I'm not happy with the way this is being handled in the second grade classroom so I think the other thing that I have done because my daughter is on um I have more meetings with administrators and stuff for what she needs um I actually just have my husband Take the Lead sometimes so like I'm still involved but he's his support person he's a parent also and he's not on the board so if
089he needs to Advocate good idea I just let that happen but that way it's not me yeah like I'm there I'm still standing up for what I think we we need as a family but I think that can be an option too it's just like either your partner or the other parent or an advocate or just someone else to just kind of say hey we're coming at this from end this is how you know it's not a board issue it's a parent issue right y I was GNA I was GNA actually say that because there have been instances in the past year and a half where my husband I look at each other and he's like I'll send that email so it's not like perfect we'll start there and we'll follow that that reporting chain
090but I'll have we'll have my husband kick that reporting chain off and then good idea if it ever got to a point where need to escalated then I'd get involved obviously on the high lows but we've never had to do that thank goodness but um but yeah this on your spouse is just making those decisions I tend to take the lead on all things education just being the former educator in our house but there are certain things where he like you can't send that email I'll take care of it similar or if I'm really angry about something it's like that's just not going to be helpful for you to you to express that right now I try to be mindful of that and so like my husband's really supportive in that too and sometimes he'll
091stop me he be like no no no let me that right can I just can I go back to something you said though too because I do think we each have a role as a parent potentially some of us do and we do have a role as a board member I would and I haven't had any issues but I would never tell Gina about something with my second my third grader for example because I think it might infer to her that I want her to do something about it where I think I think it's following that normal chain of command that we all know maybe a little bit better we have to remind our constituents of it but that I go to the teacher first I don't leap over a teacher to go to the
092principal yeah that's Reon so I wouldn't I'm just like just want to be clear because if it's just your your issue and your concern yes absolutely but but yeah I guess in the context of you know as Tom said he's heard you know your hypothetical is you've heard other concerns from other parents and other constituents so if you're getting multiple concern multiple emails yeah about the same teacher and then you have then then you got you like I don't know what's going on but I've heard from five parents in the last two weeks about this one particular teacher I don't know what's going on in that second grade classroom but something needs to something something needs to take a look at that as a parent if I heard multiple and or aard going to say
093you said something I went to your training when I first became a um School Board member and one of the things I remember very clearly it's probably the thing I took I'm sure I took other things too was like your responsibility as a board member to the superintendent is to kind of keep them a breast of if there's something out there going on that they could wake up on a Monday morning and be like you know slammed with it so if you are at that little league game and there are 14 parents and they are all complaining about something that happened in the second grade classroom I feel like you don't tell them you just want to make sure that I just want you to know that something's going on here because I don't want
094you to get slammed with it because you know a little preparation is a good thing and I I've taken that pretty seriously and and try to do that so I mean that's great can I just out Tom maybe this is the next question you're going to but I know just keeping an eye on the time we're coming into budget Season Town Meeting deliberative session um I know our board has a meeting at the end of this month where we're going to have a tax cap presentation that is public and we think would be helpful for the public to attend yeah um how can we com because that's one of the biggest things I know I hear a lot is no one communicates with us n one of us knows when any of this is happening
095and I know that I know that's like there's balance right but like how can we as Citizens also just say hey we think this might be informative I mean there's nobody in the audience right right so I'm I'm wondering if there is a way that are we are we live streaming or just going up lat or so so people are watching you know to some degree maybe right I mean I don't you know and you know I I I certainly understand from uh you know a a parent perspective 6:30 at night is not a convenient time well tell me when is a convenient time because you know Saturday mornings there's going to be Little League games and hockey games and Cross Country meets and who knows what else you know know at nighttime after a
096long day at work people were going home to attend with the kids and dinner and bath and bedtime and all that kind of stuff so you know I mean you know I I think I talked about a little bit at the beginning you know I don't you know we're not sending newsletters home anymore I don't know to the extent that you do a social media presence if it if at all well we we and that that that's one of the things and and we've been told to some degree to be very very careful of being on social media because regardless of how you present it whether you present it as your personal view I was thinking the district having social Med the district doesn't have it right so so you know in the past some
097board members have taken it upon themselves we tried to do it in the C but um to publicize things but when the question is asked for if you close it down to comments you get you get ripped for doing that if you leave it open for comments and you don't answer it then you're being unresponsive or there could be miscommunication that gets and then how do you how do you participate without it being your speaking for the board even when you're doing on your personal account yeah we so we have and I mentioned the electronic communications training that we do we do a a a portion on um guidelines and recommendations for social media use um our staff attorney has drafted basically a disclaimer if you will that we recommend people put up on their
098Banner a pin whatever this is not an official page of the of the Hollis Brookline School Board all comment this is not reflective of the H Brook line School Board all comments on here are mine or mine only and are not reflective of this of the school of the school board um you know some board members I I I think you know use it without drama to just put out you know budget hearing tonight holiday concert tonight I was gonna say it's very different when it's informative versus an opinion you know bake s that I've got that I've got no problem with the the the in you know you know somebody somebody could post that the moon is made of cheese and you could reply no it's not and then you're going to have 600
099comments after that are people arguing whether or not the Moon is cheese it doesn't matter what the topic or subject matter is people going to argue one way or the other on it right is there something that you would like to do and they're trying to figure out if it's okay so what I'm trying to figure out is as as we're heading towards this tax cap meeting which is going to be important for us to understand so send me an email tomorrow morning and I'll send you out I'll send out the docum or just like budget hearings are coming up please come to BU like this is the budget hearing is at this time on this night if you would like to express your like that's all I want to do is just kind of
100right share that but I also don't want to start like the here can be with without me without me our staff I can't talk about it we can't engage the rules are rules are we can't engage here we're eager to have you show up to I've had to do this exactly yeah because I just think that would be helpful I think that would you're right another thing that you might want to consider too it can be pricey um but I know some boards um have done it very successfully um um some some boards have keep um like um Communications firms and PR firms on retainer where when you have a big you know the budget hearing they'll draft up a one-page thing ofama jig you know I know conquered because you know the part of
101the city it's a big District they have a communications director on staff for the Manchester Manchester School District I don't if it's a city employee or a school district employee whatever it is um but I know some some boards use that um you know and I there are different levels of services that you can that you can purchase you know do you want this guy to write a a not I hate to call a a PR firm but you know a press release for you for lack of a better phrase once a week once every other week once a month what do you do with it you I mean you know you post it on the website you you know you you email to whatever email addresses that you have you know to to parents
102and community community members that's a challenge that we've got we've got the engag enged audience who are already there we are communicating with them but the the vast majority of the community shows up at our at the major meeting and say I knew nothing about this said well it was on our website and it was in our newsletter I in minutes disc we don't have a public newspaper anymore right I mean that's I mean is it can can they throw out somewhere we've had this conversation um we we tried to bring it up in the co-op school where there's seven of us of like could the board chair like could I simply write a summary of each meeting not the minutes a summary of each meeting and just you know put it out there like
103through the Hollis Brook line online rotary newsletter and um we had a conversation as a board and it was felt like that could be an inappro because you you you don't know what I'm going to write could I be we have how do I make sure that it's completely 100% objective and you know so it's we've been struggling like when you said we should have a communication plan as a school board we don't but I think it's because we're struggling with what does that mean I I'll send you I'll send you I'll send I I'll also send Gina some information about developing communication plans and maybe some resources that you can tap into just as from the board's because we do have SAU Communications like they work through it but we're talking about trying to
104meet the broader Community like the SAU is responsible for communicating with the parents but how do we reach community and let them know that these ad are Happ had a question oh oh was just it was more of a comment it doesn't address the overall but maybe a little bit more specific to what you're and it's been a number of years and just it's a lot of it's the time and the energy that goes into it but when I did first get on the board I did a lot of that in social media and I would set in the event for different meetings like whether it was a budget or it was a public hearing and I would send it out and I I got a lot of people that would say oh I they
105get reminders for it and they would show up for it but it was no it was only informational and I had no issues I had a lot people that said oh I forgot today was Voting you create it as an event and invite people as an event on Facebook or just I think that might work it worked really well I just couldn't keep up on it but I had my own you know I did do that just for informative and it it was very well received and I had event is a really yeah I'm happy to do that at least for because I think it's important I mean I think it's gonna people need to know and and that's what I was going to say about like if you're talking about like putting something a
106hollish book line online writing a summary why why not just write minutes are posted go here to board dos now that we have Bardock just then it's it's think they post the minutes already so but you know what I mean like it's just I think there's ways to leverage social media for information without getting without engaging without I think there's a very appropriate way to do it and then there's ways that we can do it and I think if that's something we want we should have that maybe as a later agenda items for for this board for our boards I mean just want to interrupt for a second we we're closing in on what was scheduled I think this is worthwhile if people want to continue embarass to stay but I don't I don't want
107to it means the meaning may get pushed out a little bit are people okay with continuing this or do we want to have a hard stop I mean there's more pizza well we have in our agenda half hour I think we have a little bit more time should we open it up for public just for 30 minutes sure so okay then I get the feeling that we're going to keep going 7:30 I may introduce it public inut so people want to join us they have the added benefit of uh of talking with of of uh preaching to our guest if I could just one last bit and then and then we'll move on so there there two different angles here and I'm I'm not necessarily hitting on the angle that we're talking about I see
108the two angles here one is is disseminating information to the communities at large the other is engagement with your constituents to some degree two different things right one is you pushing out the info about the budget hearing or about this important meeting or this important vote um I know some school boards um have you know do the do collectively is there again I'm going to use this as a plan I'm going to put plan I was putting that in quotation marks to go out and meet the people where they are and I I raised this as as an issue so um conquered from let's just say May or June until probably about this time of year it's every Saturday or Sunday morning there's a farmers market they close off a couple streets right by the
109state house in conquer and there's a farmers market so a number of years ago the conquered School Board asked the people who run this farmers market can we have a booth and they said yes so every Saturday morning or whatever it is there's a booth and two members of the conquered School Board volunteer on a rotating basis and they basically sit there and and and whatever question if you got a question or a comment for the conquered school board we're we're here for you from 9 to new but how how does that drive with the idea that that an individual can't speak for well I mean to they're given they're given that Authority you know presumably who's ever appointed to the board to to the go to attend that that Saturday Morning has been given
110some level of authority by the board to speak on behalf of the board you know you got to be you got to you got to trust the people you're sending though you got to be mindful that you know if it's a question that they can't answer then don't answer it and say the board chair will get back to you or we'll look into that or the superintendent will call you or you know whatever it might be and it's just you know it's it's letting it's letting the constituents know that you're you're here in the community and we're going to have this opportunity to answer questions if you want we we can all go to the whatever own right we've been concerned about the the perception that it would be seen that we're like that we're
111putting forth some sort of an agenda or that we're being political or that so and how would we manage it I think one of the biggest the biggest things that hook a a board member in Social media is if someone's posting something that is completely false or completely just wrong but they that's the way they understand it and it's such a a need for them to set the record straight I happen to be very close to a budget Committee Member that reads and wants to do that and my guid not going to change anybody's mind and my guidance to that individual is that's not your role right if they want say something wrong it's wrong it's not your job to correct or teach let it go right I'm sure she loves that advice yeah she
112well the individual loves that I was just going to say on that note too although I've not done that here um on my first school board we did that a lot and that was something we'd even sometimes with the right permissions it could even be on a campus but I think it's important just to remind people like a lot of times people come in with great great ideas they have ideas or different whether it's policy procedure but when we would always stop people like if I would hold a like one of those sessions if they start complaining about a teacher the superintend that's not the point of so there's certain things I think it's very comfortable for a school board member to listen about a new curriculum idea or a cool budget saving thing or
113cameras on school buses like we got so many like we never even knew like certain apps were available things like that so we definitely got a lot of good feedback but again it's just Ging people a chance to talk to but if it was a problem solving thing specific like you just have to kind of know how to navigate that and redirect that but I thought I thought it was really a good thing to go sort Segways into it again another side of the coin my if I don't agree with a decision or action or a policy that the board approved if I was on the minority side yep can I make my dissenting opinion as a board member public yeah and if they're not aligned with the majority yeah so certainly so just because
114you're an elected official does not mean you're relinquishing any other rights your right to to speak out and your your free your free speech rights what we've got to be mindful of is that um recognizing that majority wins five member board three people are going to carry the day um we also have to be mind ful of that um you know don't dis don't publicly disparage your fellow board members because you they voted a way that you necess that you would not have voted you know if a constituent comes up to you with the ball game or at hords and they say why didn't you vote for this tell them why I thought it was too much money I thought we didn't have enough information I wanted the community to look at it some more
115I just you know tell them why you didn't support the motion or you didn't support the expenditure whatever it was that's completely fine a constituent is asking your position on something that you've acted on by all means tell them why you know but what we've got to not do and this is you know one of the we certainly see this on social media where you know the the the one person that voted no on this that or the other thing you know 10 minutes after they get home or if they're not even doing it from the the meeting posting it all over social media these people don't know what they're doing these people don't know what they're doing the four board members can't add they don't know how to do a budget I'm the only
116person that knows how to do a budget I mean it almost seems like this H has happened I I may have gotten that I may have gotten this question before you know just you know first of all be an adult like right like be an adult we're going to disagree on certain things I don't need to disparage people you know because we have policy disagreements on certain things you know say your peace you know at the board table you know do you have to bend over backwards to outwardly support what the majority did it would be nice if you could but if you can't do that then you know there there was one situation that you know the board voted the board voted to to to to bond I forget if it was an expansion
117or a new building or whatever it was and they had been trying to do this for years and they thought they finally had the the public support and one board member it was in a co-op went to every town and sitting in the town library and the Gazebo and hanging up signs and one board member single-handedly got you know went on a campaign to defeat to get the voters to defeat the bond you know and did she have the right to do that yeah absolutely was it you know respectful of the other you know eight board members cuz it was a good besides co- off the other eight board members that all supported this probably not you know so you know do you have the right to do that yeah absolutely explain your constituents why
118you supported this or why you did not support that the other thing too is recognize that you know I don't some boards are you know every vote's unanimous I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing that's not my decision to make but you know a 3-2 vote on on one issue in the minority you're going to be a 3-2 vote where you're going to be in the minority on the next time right so just you know recognize that you know and especially if it's a big issue for you you know if you know the 3-2 vote on on painting the walls blue or or or white you know who cares but you know a 3-2 vote on whether or not to support a bond or collect a bargaining agreement or you
119know the budget a big ticket item you know you you got to so yes you can just be mindful the way in which you're going to express that um and and be mindful you know of the fact that your fellow board members are doing what they think is in the best interest of the kids as well you may think you're doing is the you know what's in the best interest of kids so to your fellow board members so you have that level of of of maturity and and respect as as adults does does anything of what you've said change if you're in a uh a different public meeting so for example if I'm at a uh select board meeting yeah and the select board sees me there and asks me and knows you're a board
120member says why did you support this why did the board do this so on and so forth is that it's an impro situation is that something where you just say it's inappropriate or do you just say say I appreciate your inquiry may I direct you to the meeting minutes right don't even if you don't disagree no but what what I think what I I mean just off the top of my head what I mean what I think of the the proper response would be would be I can't speak on behalf of the full board but I supported that and I'll tell you why I supported it I mean because it's it's I like that because it's a we talk about how can we get the information out we may not get the audience but the
121select board might right and if it's an opportunity to disseminate information I hate to pass it up at the same time I don't want to misrepresent right I mean one way that that could be addressed I'm just kind of thinking off the top of my head here um and I don't maybe there's a need for it or maybe maybe there isn't you know your community is better than I um you know ask the select board if can the School Board have five minutes on your agenda to talk about the things that we did at the last meeting I don't know just just I'm just thinking out loud here and then you send the board share whoever is authorized to and just read them the minutes then well I mean Hollis is in a in a
122good position where we actually have U an ex official member of the select board or excuse me of the budget committee which also has a select board member on it as an ex officio so a lot of those conversations happen and the connection is made is made there and that's been incredibly effective for us throughout all of it I bet um because they they School update is on the agenda every every month good good unfortunately brookly doesn't have a uh budget committee to do that so yeah becomes a little a little bit different but yeah I heard heard about that um you at previous training many moons ago you made a comment or response to a question about abstaining yep and I remember that clearly I don't want to put words in your mouth but
123could you talk a little bit about that but also um talk about the larger isue about when should a board member be recusing themselves when should they abstain right at least in your opinion yeah so um they're related but they're a little bit different and exstension is not voting okay you're sitting at the table you may or may not be part of the discussion but you're not taking a vote a recusal is where you get up and you leave the table and you sit in the audience or you go out in the hallway for for a second because you were not being part of the discussion you're not being part of the conversation and you're not voting we recommend that abstentions occur in very limited circumstances um for example if you missed last meeting you
124might abstain from the vote on whether or not you approve approve the minutes simple stuff right is it optional whether you approve minutes what's that is it optional can you can you approve minutes if you were not yeah there's so there's there's no there's nothing in New Hampshire law that requires an individual to recuse themselves from a discussion or to abstain from a from a vote it's up to that individual to to do the proper thing and and and I'll talk about the the recusal and in a minute and the way one board one board handles this so an exstension is you're not voting so you've got to be mindful though too of When you're counting the votes and I've seen this I've seen this happen um number of years ago not not common so
125if let's say a five member board one person abstains you've got you're counting four votes then right the majority of four is still three so three votes would carry carry the carry the carry the vote let's say you've got four members because one person is home sick or traveling for work or whatever and can't call into the electronically and then one person abstains you've got three votes how many carries a motion when there's only three votes being cast two so you potentially have the situation where less than a majority of the board members are directing action for the district right so be very mindful about that be very very mindful about that um I saw this a a board me the board I mean the board is having a lot of challenges at the time
126they were down a person a person either had resigned or whatever it was and the board was split you had two people on this side two people on this side I mean they couldn't get the B they couldn't agree on the basic stuff they they couldn't they could not agree on on naming the the replacement to fill the vacancy right they had some tuition agreements going on and these people wanted that these people wanted that so anyway so then a person you know threw their name in the Hat what the application process whatever they were having and one of the board members it was like his best buddy like nextdoor neighbor he thought that that created a conflict of interest and it didn't so he was trying to do the right thing you know give
127him credit for that so he abstained then so you again you had a situation because it was only four people on the board three votes being cast and the guy that who obstain didn't get to vote on who the replacement was so he lost out on that right just an example of how it can go Haywire a little bit go ahead um I'm going just in the effort of keeping the meeting going I'm going to open public oh yeah discussion so that we can get the clock started y um at yeah at 7:39 I'm going to open the floor for public discussion um we're going to continue our conversation with Barrett if a member of the public public does show up this conversation is is is also open to public discussion but I remind them
128public um public excuse me not public discussion public input is just that it is input and that's separate from any back and forth conversation it's how we gain information from the public but it will not necessarily um gain any immediate response at this meeting so we'll start the the clock ticking at 7:40 and uh someone if they if I don't remember please please remind me at at 10 8 to close public discussion thank you so the um and I'll get to your accusal in a minute because it's slightly different um I've seen board members abstain because they felt that like they didn't have enough information or they wanted the committee to study a little bit more whatever whatever they weren't ready to make a decision on the issue at hand my response to that is
129that motions are always made in the positive or in the affirmative right to see if the board will do something will act in some way if you even if you feel that you don't have enough information to make an informed decision on that issue you vote no then because you cannot support the motion right I don't I don't support that expenditure because I want to hear more from the curriculum committee I don't expect I don't I don't approve this committee report because I think the committee needs to go back and and whatever it is is you know invest investigate it more research more bring more people into the right so that's that's that's our take on that the motion the question is can you support the can you support the motion if not for whatever
130reason you want more information even if you support the general concept but you're not ready to vote on it you vote no then right you're you're elected to decide you're elected to vote that's why the people elected you to come and make these decisions that that's abstentions recusal is when there is a conflict of interest conflict of interest is a direct and personal pecuniary interest that is immediate definitive and capable of demonstration not remote uncertain contingent and speculative so primarily pecuniary interest money right um in a if there is a if there's a conflict of interest and a and a and a and a pecuniary interest at hand you recuse yourself meaning pecuniary what's that what does pecuniary mean monetary okay monetary um so and and there are different variations of that that I'll I'll
131get into some some examples as well too um so you recuse yourself meaning you go sit at the you don't sit at the table you do not participate in the discussion you do not participate in the deliberation you don't speak you're almost not there right you can sit in the audience that's fine but you're not participating in in the board discussion about it pecuniary interest you know you know there are obvious some obvious examples I know I own a I'm the board chair and I you know own a snow plowing business and I'm going to put in the bid for the you know to do the driveways in the winter one I don't think you should put in the bid to begin with but that's beside the point you obviously can't vote on that because
132you have interest in in the nature of that contract the most common example that we hear about is you know I've got a a spous I'm on the board but my spouse is a teacher and we're doing the collective bargaining and and whatnot you know a lot of times conflicts of interest are not necessarily direct conflicts of interest but the most important aspect is what are your constituents thinking is it a perceived conflict of interest what's the public perception about this issue I'll tell you right now I I I I can think of a of a of a board member that I know he was he was on his school board for 25 years both his wife and his daughter worked in the district and were part of a collective bargaining unit um he had
133a background in finance so he knew numbers really good right new collective bargaining really good year after year after year his board chose him to be the lead negotiator you know and to and he kept getting reelected so so to some degree I'm like like you know everybody in town that's voting for this guy knows full well that his wife and his daughter work in the district his board doesn't seem to have a problem with it the voters keep electing him so am I to say that that's a conflict of interest nobody in that Community seems to care so but you know different communities are different one board um that I know of I like the way they do this it's not binding but it gives you a a good sense of how to go
134if somebody comes if somebody believes they have a conflict of interest but they're not quite certain about about it I'm not sure is this is this not and doesn't always have to be monetary but that's the most common one they put it out to the board the PO the board member declares it and says I I'm I'm uncertain if this is a conflict of interest what do my eight other fellow board members think and they take a vote it's non-binding but fortunately they've got enough respect for one another where if eight people on your board are saying yeah time we think this is a conflict of interest that person will step down so you know it it alleviates it it it one you're addressing it and making an open the board member who has the
135the perceived the real actual conflict or even perceived conflict is addressing it publicly um and then the board is kind of insulating itself a little bit too saying yeah we think this is and you can't force that person to step down you know it's not binding they can't make him recuse himself but you know if he doesn't recuse himself and the eight other board members are saying yeah Tom you should really recuse yourself how's that going to look to the public then right so I think that's a pretty good way to to handle those sorts of things um you know the relative that doesn't live with you doesn't live with you or live under your house so it's just my cousin or my nephew I don't I don't personally I don't think that's a conflict
136of interest um you know how direct is it is it that person you know let's let's say let's say it's my 23-year-old let's say I've got a 23y old daughter and she gets her first teaching job but because you know a one-bedroom apartment in do New Hampshire where I live is $2,200 a month she's going to live at home with while she's paying off some of those school loans you know is she paying me some rent I don't know does that make it closer to a conflict of interest if I'm negotiating her collective bargaining agreement is she pitching in with the food bill every month I you know I I can you can you can take this to sort of extreme examples that that border on the absurd but things that are actually your real
137life though like you know questions that I've gotten from school board members you know my daughter just graduated she lives with us you know while she gets on her feet and pays back some of those school loans and oh by the way she's in the bargaining unit can I vote on this can I negotiate it you know which I it's not that uncommon these days for something like that to happen so so anyway use extensions very rarely conflict of interest recuse yourself if you're not certain put it out to the to the to the rest of your board members and see how they feel about you participating in the conversation that point about voting no and voting no isn't opposing it it's just not supporting exactly and because an an an exstension is also not
138supporting but it doesn't preserve the the ratio corre voting correct I think that that to me is a thank you for bringing that that's a big distinction that way yep um I've gone through everything that I had uh prepared are there other questions that you have have at this time can I ask something yeah uh what about when public members ask about like specifically about policy you know like we had voted on something in Hollis um in the spring that people in the community had strong feelings about and so people were asking me not like oh I'm mad at that teacher but like really asking about the like about the policy and having thoughts about it and I wonder what your thoughts are completely reasonable if it's policy or budget that those are the two
139primary Schoolboard roles and responsibilities so and here's sort of the I'm glad you brought I'm glad you brought that up here's one of the examples that I give when we're doing our sort of roles and responsibilities training and the difference between chain of command and the difference between ownership um um you know something that's with more within the board's purview so um the simple example that I always get is the dress code policy right first first week of school last week of school always problems with the dress code policy the administrator nods and Chuckles a lot right so so let's say some kid violates the the the dress code policy and he'd already been given a warning or two so he gets three days of detention the last three days of school right so the
140father calls you and says you know this is garbage my kids shouldn't have gotten detention I think that's ridiculous as a school board member what can you do nothing well the principal made the decision work your way through the chain of command however the second example that I give or the second scenario the same father comes up to you and says look I get it but I really think that the policy on the dress code is pretty stupid and really needs to be Rewritten that's fine I'll I'll bring that to my board if my board you know if the board wants to revisit the dress code policy we'll revisit the dress code policy thank you for bringing that to my attention so the differences between it's the same issue of play but the way it's
141it's phrased one totally within the board's purview the other is an administrative function yeah that's anybody else come on I just I just want to on one thing from earlier it just it was about making sure we don't violate like a quorum and I I was brought up about doing BCC for emails and it's just a personal thing for me but it's a big I actually very strongly oppose that I would much rather if my superintendent or my board chair is emailing me I know that it's gone to my entire board so that's one thing but the other part too and so I think that's kind of like an easy one right just because then we know it's gone to everybody and I don't have to sit here and wonder well did Hol send it
142to Tom like all that because I've been on that board before if you want to know like look up you can Google some of the Texas school boards it's super fun um you don't want to be on those but then the other part I think it's the whole point of that the question was to like avoid violating that but I just wanted to remind it's actually easier to do than you think even if it's not in um in writing like that and a really good example is if you know Rob and Tom and I we just happen to have this greata we're talking about something the three of us don't we're not you know I talked to Rob about something because I thought it would be a great idea and I happened to run into
143Tom and he and I talked about it so that's just three out of our seven so that's fine it's not a violation but Tom doesn't know that I talk to Rob Tom talks to Holly so then the four of us know all about this great idea and we show up ready to vote on something and the other three ladies on our board have no idea so you can violate in a lot of ways not even knowing so I think it's just don't reply all like there's just certain things you have to be careful and if I have a conversation with Rob about something and I happen to talk to Tom I'm try to be really transparent about telling Rob like hey I think this is really awesome I want it on our agenda I'm going
144to talk to Tom about it too so then we know the three of us know because when one of the three of us talks to a fourth board member then we violate so it's just is part of part of that to try to influence the vote though right so but so like you can talk about things but you can't influence the vote so in that situation would that be a violation it's a perception though you have to be careful with the percep lot of the Absolut a lot of the right to no law stuff is perception there's other also so there are some aspects of the of the right to no law that are pretty hard and fast right it's pretty black and white Quorum post minutes 24 hours non-public session motion Etc um there
145are also some Provisions in their right to no law to talk about the intent you know what was your in were you purposely doing an end around the right to no law no I happened to run into a board member at the at Haner because we were both getting milk on the way home no I ran into a fellow board member because our kids are on the same te- ball we're not lining up votes and we're not doing stuff in secret but you know we're talking about things we have in common and you know we're talking about an an important issue you know yeah and there so there's a provision and the right to know uh an except to the meeting it talks about a chance and I do I have it in here I
146don't think I do I want to get the language right but it says you know a a a meeting does not include a chance social chance comma social comma or other meeting not intended for the purpose of discussing official School District business now yeah you know if you're on a you know a five member board and the three of you are at the te- ball game cuz your kids play together don't line up the vote you know what I'm saying don't you know oh you got we good Rob we good on this or I'll call somebody else and try and S you know don't do that but you know you know if if if you're sitting there on a two and a half hour t-ball game God bless you but you know you're going to
147talk about the bond right you're going to talk about the collective bargaining you're going to talk about the budget it's just you know yeah I agree and I think my point is just like not like I I just would rather not ever use BCC features and not just have a conversation different attor different by the way I also talk to Tom because it just again it's the perception of it so even if the intent not there you just have to be careful with that when I BCC people I say BCC on this is blah blah blah yeah yeah yeah you're right right that's good cover that's another way to do it yep yeah so you're informing everybody but you're mitigating the risk I want to know what I'm you're talking yeah I want people to
148know information I mean we don't we can't just function in a vacuum here every month for two hours I don't think that's very efficient ex agreed um and so there there does have to be some ways for us to not look like we're doing anything clandestine but y get things done I do appreciate that that clarification though because we also do have to to be people in our town and all that when you live in a small town there was one time when two of us showed up with the former chair on a pond and it was like we were so made kind of so paranoid about that that we didn't go near each other so we really need to like have our lives and have our kids lives my daughter I had no interest
149in talking about that stuff then but I can't be paranoid about public perception right if I'm happen to be talking to people that have kids might when we when we used our trainings in person and conquered before Co we went to to webinar we'd get the question um you know three or four school board members wanted carpool to our training and Conquer they're like we all have to take individual cars I said don't don't just I said just you know talk about the Red Soxs or the Patriots in the weather don't talk about the CU back then they were something to talk about she's the same age and she's in the same class as the principal's daughter they're friends they go to birthday party they're in the same dance group like he and cannot just
150like dive down the hallway every time like we see each other coming like you have like that's weird you know like people are going to be like more concerned like why is she throwing herself down a hallway like so yeah I think I do appreciate that because and it's like we don't ever talk but right it's just like hi Hi how are you great like but yeah it's nice to know that you don't have to avoid when there's really no practical just use common sense to avoid yeah that situation exactly what should we do Barrett yeah um is there anything that in this cont text that you think um is worthwhile us discussing that we haven't discussed yeah um I don't know I feel like we were pretty thorough I mean I I gave my
151little overview of sort of roles and responsibilities you've got the white paper that you can read in in your own time I mean I think we got a variety of questions on how the board can sort of deal with itself how the board can deal with constituents how the board can deal and work closely with the administration right to covered some right to no law stuff we covered some recusal and conflict of interest stuff um I mean nothing is jumping out at me I'm happy to there are any more questions I want to be mindful of of of your time um are there any remaining questions for me the the one thing that we had talked a little bit about that um isn't necessarily on on topic but uh this whole idea right now we
152did cover this this whole curriculum thing and all of the the public uh concern about what's being taught in our schools and what could be done about it there's the the group that's trying to get all elected officials take these pledges that they're going to avoid all these things what I don't really feel I understand is how can we um how can we rebut some of this stuff is there is there any opportunity to to really proactively if you effectively rebut it they'll just start complaining about something else um that's you know just as little Merit as as as as this issue I mean the curriculum issue I think I talked about have a you know if it's that big of issue CRT kind of conversations that took place and and the the Dei stuff
153where it I don't know that you can say anything right I mean you know if people want to see the the I mean do we even use textbooks anymore I don't even think we we do we have some textbooks put this way we pay for them we pay for them right right um lot of money for you know I just I don't I don't I don't know how much of the you know curriculum stuff is is digital these days versus how much is you know kids still wear 50 pounds worth of books in a in a in a backpack so you know I mean if somebody wants to see the the social studies book show them the social studies book you know what I mean um you know if if they're going to come here
154at at the meeting and and and complain about this that or the other thing you know encourage them to make an an appointment with Andy and orina and the high school principal and I'll show you I'll show you the books you know the the the the stuff in the library you know you want to come and take a look at the books in the library fine come and take a take a take a look at the books in the library you're going to make an appointment though you're going to make an appointment you're going to do it at a time when is non-disruptive to the educational uh uh day um you know so I mean you know it it you know the when that critical race Theory bill was first introduced I don't know three
155sessions or whatever ago the first question the prime sponsor got was how many what districts is this being taught in New Hampshire and the guy couldn't answer so it tells you all you need to know can I just ask one other question about um your mic oh can I just ask one other question when you said something about the the legisl the legislative stuff have they have we not are we still following um divisive Concepts I thought I had heard that there was some yeah so um you call it so started out as a bill prohibiting critical race Theory from being taught in public schools um it it got amended some people call it the divisive Concepts law I call it the anti- anti-discrimination law um that law was found to be you like that
156I I got sometimes I don't not as good as it should be well we wor you down yeah that's fine um Everybody in the legislature knows it um so that law was found uncon to be unconstitutional by uh USA Court federal court the state is appealing that so um my understanding is that the the the District Court's order would still remain in fact that is unconstitutional until the First Circuit Court of Appeals out of Boston Rules otherwise they're not going to and I mean you know this may end up at this supposed you know we were talking years down the road I suppose it could end up at the you know Supreme Court of the United States and scotus you know that were probably looking at four or five years before something like that would
157happen but the US District Court found it you know the for the district new found it unconstitutional on because it was vague well not just because it was vague um a couple different components one it was vague and two the penalty that teachers would risk losing their license the court basically said being vagan and of itself is unconstitutional but then you're adding on a penalty and teachers don't know what they're allowed to teach and what they're not allowed to teach it's unconstitutional First Circuit will will uphold that undoubtedly I put read a little bit of a side of reliefs are not feeling that anymore yeah what's interesting though is that when that bill passed the Department of Education was very eager to put out technical advisory also in itself vague and not very clear but
158being you know being very clear to teachers that if you violate this law we're coming after your license there's been no follow-up technical advisory from the Department of Education when the law was found to be unconstitutional so they didn't want teachers to know that but anyway retractions on page 35 right right exactly classify that well we've we've uh gotten two hours for our uh for our nickel and uh I I certainly I personally want to thank you I think great to see you what you've offered is is tremendous and it's just sort of the tip of the iceberg of what I think the nsba offers to us so any anyone watching when you hear those petition warant articles about uh cutting the the budget to of by $3,000 no cutting the budget to defund our
159membership in nhba these are the kind of things that that we would lose um Barrett thank you again always a pleasure and for those folks here yeah than um if they just indulge me for another another 30 seconds or so um first of all thank you again um for inviting me down to sa41 I I greatly appreciate the opportunity to to come down again as I mentioned you know coming and speaking at these little schools and these little communities is is without a doubt my favorite my favorite part of the job um second as you kind of mentioned Tom thank you for continuing your membership in nhba through you being members of nsba and paying your dues were're able to provide the policies and the trainings and the and the updates and and all that
160kind of stuff um third I hope you found it helpful um uh fourth um Gina follow up with me I'll get you some of those documents um fifth let's make sure Andy is okay he's not like floating in a ocean anywhere is he he he emailed me yesterday saying he stuck in Florida so my best um and uh uh what else was I going to say um I think that's it thank you very much thanks ry's rule is I don't want to be there we get power and we don't have power here like I'm not going until we get power are we uh are we still muted okay we're gonna uh we're going to recess for for 5 to 10 minutes just while people uh take care of and we will be back shortly thank
161you e e e rolling again oh God I okay first thing I want to do is close okay thank you for your patience it's uh now 8:14 just for the record um uh Beth had to leave at 805 M and we are closing public input at 8:14 that's right you all good okay let's get back on the agenda uh next thing up on our agenda is the discussion of the uh fiscal year 24 uh final number and the fi25 first quarter Gina is that something you're leading yep okay okay so if you take a look at I'm going to start with FY 24 and just go in chronological order so if you take a look at our um year end expense report um we ended the year if you look at expenses um -49 so
162that is so close to zero I mean just dollar for dooll um we were pretty accurate in um everything that we budgeted for and spent looking down to our total revenue the 9,227 that you see as miscellaneous was actually Bank interest so that was ured annually we didn't know about that that that amount that dollar amount would be coming toward us which was a certainly a nice surprise um and we've now switched it so we're receiving that quarterly so we can better estimate that for the the following year but any anyway that that was um was nice that provided us with $1,077 uh as net income if you take a look at the on aide fund balance because that's where it all ends up we had a fund balance of just over 309,000 on July
1631st 2023 you see that net income of 11,777 from right above and then you see projected balance from FY 23 carryover so when we were closing out FY 23 we had some POS that were still open waiting to be paid out and um those were not paid out for whatever reason those POs were closed and so that was an additional 7,606 that came forward giving us an ending fund balance of um $27,800 for uh July 30th 2024 that gives us 14.5% where our Target is 7 to 10% of our total budget so that's where we ended now how does that that factor into any things that we does this factor into the the bonuses and stuff that we that's already been taken out moving on to fy2 so the first quarter report we are you
164know this is a very much an estimate we're one quarter in if you look over to the the total expenses um the one number that seems the farthest off is under benefits so so we're going we're running under at 24,600 and that's because two of our employees are fing below 35 hours a week which means they're no longer eligible for nhrs so that means we're no longer paying the nhrs for those employees so that ends up being a savings for the district moving on down um to revenue you see that the miscellaneous we're we're putting in um an expected 9,000 of interest that certainly can go up or down but as every quarter comes along and we receive that we can adjust that 9,000 and better plan for it with a projected net income of
165zero that does take into consideration the um expected use of the fund balance that we had budgeted for although it's less of the fund B fund balance that we had budgeted for in that fy2 budget so um if you look at the use of the fund balance it under budget 53233 we are expected to only use the 2,377 so that's why when on the very bottom category it says beginning fund balance 327 852 uh which was what we saw on FY 24 end of year and then projected net income it's the 21377 that's the expected use of the fund balance that was part of the presented budget last year giving us an ending fun fund balance once again projected the end of um FY 25 of 36475 dropping that fund balance to roughly 12.6% which
166is still above our target range what would be possible appropriate options for uh allocating fund balance to further bring it down into the target range what could have so typically we use one time expenses we don't want to kind of falsely deflate the budget one year and then falsely inflate the following year if you recall part of the use of this was because we knew that there would be an expected Savings in superintendent and assistant superintendent salary line items for the next year so we thought that that we could use it for additional items and then it turns out we don't need it as much um so if there's um um let's say additional computer equipment that's needed that's sort of like a one-time purchase would last four to 5 years or so we can
167use it for that sometimes when there's um an additional audit that's required we it's not annual we would use the fund balance for that is there any maintenance that's going to be required so maintenance is tricky because that's supposed to come out of the trust fund where our rent goes into and that's owned by Hollis so I think Hollis but also the full board would have to decide if that's an appropriate use of the fund balance or not so any other questions about f25 okay I'm going to present the budget um over there just so I can kind of walk you through line by line that's okay yep we're moving now into the FY 26 budget discussion oh yeah are you going to start with the summary or the uh the summ okay I do
168love these smart boards they're so helpful okay so starting off this um discussion there are a couple things just to know as to how the budget was built well first I'll say we work we start in the summer and we um work as a team to try to identify what are some things we're looking for to get out of the budget um and then we look at around one that's really just internal and then what can we do that's maybe better than that so here's our fy2 adopted budget our first version our first version was a 1.5% increase and then we said we could do better so it's this 8% that was brought forward to the SAU budget subcommittee this allows for a 4% increase for all salaries just based on a 3.4% CPI and
169what we've been doing historically certainly that can change but that just gives us a starting point you see a savings of 19,000 as you transition to that mysterious new superintendent and um and then we looked at a placeholder for the new assistant superintendent and um we looked at a couple different ways of budgeting this often it's 80% of the salary of the superintendent so that's one way to look at it um another way to look at it is if you look at um the posted assistant superintend fulltime Personnel in the state of New Hampshire and you look at um what the average is and where you would want that to be so the average for FY 24 was 13447 so if you give moderate increases to that person from um so that was that by
17024 so moderate increases for 25 and then 26 of 5% then it actually brings you to 142,000 so I think 141 is pretty good place as a placeholder and that's all it is certainly it involves looking at candidates and experience and all of that good stuff Gina can you make that just a little bit larger I don't know if I'm the only one like 125 not I'm not that bad but that's perfect actually thank you so that's here and then um as I mentioned a couple of our part-time not parttime a couple of our um hourly folks have reduced hours and that you'll see later on in the budget in lines 40 59 and 60 is that reduction in hours U something that was forced on them or is that a agreed that was an
171agreed so um it's always a challenge because you don't want to kind of reduce the position but currently we have it we're running pretty efficiently and we're actually at risk to lose employees if we didn't allow for greater flexibility so um that was one of the reasons another reason is uh when we were trying to hire for the receptionist we decided to change the position a little bit that was um a year ago to include some HR responsibilities for that individual and by doing so we've alleviated the um the strain on the HR upstairs on those two individuals so Tom that was the the exact same question that the committee had when we were looking through this I was to say I I actually asked that question committee and and they assured us they assured
172us on the call that it was a mutual agreement to reduce hours and that um that reduction wasn't going to cause us to have vency excellent okay and then a couple other factors so uh there are two different nhrs rates for employee and then teacher rate for whatever reason the director of student services is listed as a teacher all other employ employees are listed as employees we had this conversation about a year ago when our business administrator whether or not that person maintained a certification changed the um nhrs category so anyway the state issues the new rates so the rates are going from 13.53% down to 12.75 that's just what we have to pay and then the say there's a slight reduction as well in the teacher rate well so is the director of student
173services is that the teacher currently correct because because of those certifications no but but if that person yes so if you recall a few years ago we switched the position to assistant assistant superintendent of student services so that came with a a reduction in nhrs fees um obviously you need to hold the superintendent certification our current director of student services will be completing her cags the end of this fiscal year and would be eligible with her superintendent certification to shift that title that's further discussion amongst this board but to make it assistant superintendent with a lower nhrs and then greater flexibility with meetings so this budget does not assume that that change has occurred yeah that would be a potential uh savings above and beyond this budget correct but usually it comes with a salary
174change so it might end up being a wash a TI things alone if you're going to be responsible for more than okay I guess I'm I'm leaning back on past experiences Right Moving on um health insurance so we had to put an estimate a placeholder so we had 8% um at about 4:00 today uh we got the actual rate and it's not a gmr that went away there's no guaranteed maximum and we'll find out later we got the actual rate so the we have three different rates based on which plan you're on the vast majority of our employees are on the SOS plan and that's at 8 9% so just a little bit above what we' have in the budget districts we've heard of at 26% this year so we're actually pleasantly surprised by that
175our more expensive plans came in at 4.3% and 5.6% wow so that was a little bit shockingly good news yeah at the end of the day but like I said most of our um employees are at that 88.9% more cost effective plan overall is the G is the the rate uniform across the SAU and all districts yes yeah um okay and then dental insurance we're budging at 2% we don't have that yet we don't know who we hiring for assistant superintendent so there's a placeholder of a two-person insurance plan if it goes family obviously it's going to be more expensive if it goes single it' be less expensive all right I'm sorry just to go when does that new rate go into effect July one so for that FY 26 yeah okay um you're going
176to see a couple of ships that we've kind of pulled them out to point your attention to them there's um our director of technology has had in her contract certain professional vment opportunities that have been funded either between the districts and or through Grant funds and so we're pulling the remainder of that into the SAU budget since it is an SAU position so there's just a shift of $750 into the SAU budget um and then there's just a plus minus that adds up to zero of $400 computer repairs we're not really seeing a repair so we're putting that into the new computer line okay so some of this is for discussion later on we are Al always looking at what are salaries of our folks if we were to go out if we were to
177lose a position what is the going rate so we're looking for a um salary adjustment for the HR Director um of $2,000 and a salary adjustment for our facilities director of $2,000 to be more more in line with the market there are addition additional additions down here which um we're going to talk about sort of proactively if there are some things that we want to make a change we'll discuss them now so that we can appropriately budget for them um they're pretty specific and they're about compensation so it'll be discussed in non-public later a question about the um adjust those adjustments do you watched buzz when his phone rang like oh no it's an emergency do you assume that those are added after um CPI type increases or before after that's how they're budgeted so
178you make the CPI adjustment to the current salary and then you budgeted did you are these proposals in the budget yes okay yeah that's what she has line item lines next to them that'll tell you what line in the budget they I know what it would applied to I didn't know if it applied in so got you okay and then um here we have uh oh my here we have just to propose $5,000 use of the fund balance in this um particular budget and then we would end right around the 13% so still above our desired but do you know do you know what that $5,000 uh constitutes yes um um additional replacement computer okay yeah thank you I need these okay so moving on through the lines you want to open up that other
179document so this goes line by line um so when you see this was what was actually um so we have adopted and then approved so the adopted budget versus what you guys decided last May so there's sometimes it's the same and sometimes it's not so you see that this is the Savings in salary right over here with the change in the superintendent you see changes from contractual obligations and that's just based on what's in the contract the dues item goes down because it's 100% directly related to the salary it's just a percentage of the salary for the dues in the assistant superintendent area that's we're keeping everything exactly the same other than the placeholder for the salary certainly we're going to know more as we complete a search and find someone governing board nothing changes
180there that's not the governing board secretary here that would be our recording secretary say w to cover those conferen