001Murphy for our student presentation, student rep, Lucy Beardmore, and >> uh Taz Stokes. >> Tad Stokes. No, nice to meet you. And then uh Matt Stone is in the back running it. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Uh students, you want to lead us? Sure. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Terrific. All right, guys. Uh, we have one set of minutes to approve for the January 6th meeting. Do I have a motion to approve them? >> Move. Second. >> Right. Uh, any discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I I Any opposed? Motion carries. Um we also have one other uh set my
002apologies for the public hearing on January 6. Do I have a motion to approve the public hearing? >> Move. Second. >> All right. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I >> I opposed. They carry. Terrific. Uh we are now at the first public comment portion of the evening. If you want to come up, you're more than welcome to. Um, we just ask that you state your name, address, and limit your comments to three minutes. Okay, [laughter] we will have a second public comment portion at the end of the meeting, too. >> All right, student wraps. Kip, Lucy, how we doing? >> I mean, doing doing really well again this week. Um, kicking things off with sports. >> Uh, it's been so far an incredibly successful sports season. Uh, both basketball teams are at 7
003and two, I believe. The ice hockey um improved yesterday to 71. Uh the ice hockey team also recently had their Connors climb mental health awareness game as organized by one of the captains, Finn Murphy, um where we got special jerseys and got to like say a bit of a message beforehand um about the importance of like youth and teen mental health uh which was quite nice. And then at least you want to jump over to sports. Yeah. So, um, Nordic has also been having pretty successful season. Um, I know they were, um, off the snow and into the weight room last week. Um, but with the storms, we've been having their back on snow this week, so that's pretty exciting. Um, they had a race at Oakill and also at Plymouth, I believe. Um, and
004they've been placing well. Um, should be a strong team this year. Um, Alpine, uh, we had a race last week at Gunstock. Um, we got second to Guilford, which is kind of becoming a trend this season. They're going to be our biggest uh competition at states. Um, but yeah, everyone skied pretty well at Gunstock. And we don't have a race this week, but we have uh double race week next week with the Capital Cup at Proctor uh next Wednesday afternoon and then a race at Waterville Valley on Friday. >> You have the musical now? >> Yeah, sure. So over the weekend we also had the musical um Once Upon a Mattress. So the show on Friday and then two shows on Saturday. Um I was there Saturday night. I thought it was fantastic. I was
005super impressed especially with some of the underassman that stepped up in some of the bigger roles. Um it was just a really great production. Um they always do a great job. So um yeah, it was a great show. >> We had tons of engagement. I was really impressed by the set. I like the moving pieces of it. Um, and also like it's kind of fun walking to school. Sometimes you go through the auditorium and you just see it all set out there. But they did a great job striking it and it's pretty much all gone now. Um, so but that quite a fun show. I know they really enjoyed that. Um, and looking forward to playing this spring. Um, and then like shifting schools too uh this was this past the week before. Um Lucy
006and I got a chance to go to uh Middle Street School and walk around. Um mostly just to get like a feel for things before eventually we'll probably go back and like sit in our classroom or talk to some students and stuff, but I mean the general vibe was incredibly friendly. The students were pretty happy to see us. So some of extra spirited and then we got to like peek into some classes. [laughter] Only disturb one class during quiet time. So, uh, both hopefully weren't too disruptive. And so, I've never I never went to Maple Street, so it was quite insightful for me getting to walk around, see all these rooms, especially getting to meet the teachers that some of my siblings have spoken so fondly about, uh, like Mr. Levergood and >> others. So,
007that was good experience. And, um, we're orchestrating um, a trip to El Martin School where I think we'll do a similar thing. So, >> well done. Yeah. Um, and then also Granite State Challenge team, which uh Finn and Tad are also both part of. We took a loss against Bo. That was pretty rough, but it was a close game. We were evenly matched. Um, I believe the episode's airing March 19th. >> Wait, are you supposed to tell us? >> Um, I mean, yeah, I did. [laughter] >> I think it's it's fine. >> Can I can I wager on that now? >> Yeah, sure. I know there's an >> I don't mean to bet against you guys, but >> easy money. >> Oh my god. Wait, well, you probably shouldn't tell us what the winning/ losing
008question was, but like after Aries, will you tell us? >> Um, yeah, that's a bit of a sore subject cuz I did have an opportunity to win it and I did not. But I guess you'll have to see how how badly >> 90% of our questions though. So, >> you'll you'll have to watch. It was pretty crazy uh back and forth. But um yeah, and then also this week at the high school we have midterms. Um so that will be fun. Um I know everyone's looking forward to that. We have Thursday, Friday, and then Monday, Tuesday, and then day off next Wednesday, and then we start the second semester. >> We got a midterm schedule this year is a little bit different for us um because of some contractual things with the cafeteria. Uh the
009second test midterm is shifted later this year. um uh just yeah, which I don't think will be too much of an issue. Uh just leaves a little bit more time in between each test. So, we'll see how that goes. And yeah, definitely a bit of jam-packed time right now, but it's a lot of fun, a lot of cool pieces going on. So, a lot of good stuff to report on. >> Cool. Thanks, guys. Any questions for our student reps? >> Do we like midterms? think midterms should stay or do we think that midterms are a dinosaur of the past and should go away? >> Um, >> oh wow. >> Yeah, goodness. >> I know that's a bit of a contentious topic and I've also been heard from a few other schools uh around the state
010that I know don't do midterms. >> Um, I personally don't mind them. I think they're all right. Um, I like the midterm week and stuff. Um, I feel like it's just a little bit like easier than normal. Like you just have like this test. You know what you're expected to know for it. You go in, take it, and you can leave early, come in late. It's quite nice. Um, one issue I do have with it is that if you have a um I think above like a 93 in the class, um, midterms can really only hurt your grade. Um, I can't fully remember the like exact math on it, but >> is that a bad thing? >> I mean, it'd be I'm just saying it might be nice if they were weighted more at school,
011but for most kids, I feel like they would disagree with >> my take on it. So, but it's not a terrible thing. >> Was going to bite his tongue off over there. So, I'm curious. What do you have to [laughter] say? >> Hot takes for 10. What do you guys think? I mean, I feel like a lot of high schoolers don't love midterms, and I feel like that's normal. Um, I do think at the end of the day, they're a good measure of like how much you know, though, so I think that's important. But, um, yeah, I agree with what Kip said. Um, the grade thing sometimes messes up a little bit. But, overall, I think that they're important, but I mean, again, at the end of the day, I'm a high schooler and really
012like makes sense. [laughter] >> Yeah, I will say it is helpful for AP classes to like as an excuse to go back and relearn the stuff from the first semester. So when you do get to the exam, you don't have to relearn the whole year. You can kind of focus on the second semester. But >> yeah, we had a good discussion in one of my classes today about how midterms is one of the big um like stressful test for some students, which is helpful to have like a situation like that. That is very realistic, especially in these AP classes where there is no retaking and like relearning and redoing what you have. Um so it helps. I know sometimes it might sting, especially if you don't get the grade you were hoping for, but at
013the end of the day, it's it's a bit up to you in terms of your preparation and whatnot. So, >> well, okay. Any other questions on some hot topics? >> Great. Wonderful. Great to see you guys. Okay. Uh, next up we have we are hearing from Finn and Tad about PAS. >> We have a slide that I guess try and connect. I'm not very sad tech. >> Wow. This just in. Ted, you are going uh early acceptance to Dartmouth. Is that correct? >> Uh yes. Yeah. >> Congratulations. >> Joining Will Chapen. >> Yeah. >> Environmental studies last month. >> That's right. >> Is your college secret? >> No. >> Yeah. Ben Murphy also um got accepted to Columbia University. >> It's not on the Instagram. >> Not yet. >> I don't think we've ever sent
014a student to Columbia, have we? >> I'm not. I am. >> That's great. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> So, I tend um We are both representatives, youth representatives of an organization called 350 New Hampshire um which obviously kind of runs here across the state and it's a youth run uh organization that focuses on climate justice and environmental work um run through the people here uh in New Hampshire. Our boss and youth organizer here Pat um and Sierra supporting us today. So he does a great job um helping the team and kind of supporting us through our campaigns. Um the major thing that we're working on this year is uh PASS which are forever chemicals. Um we're going to talk to you guys hopefully focus on educating uh high school students and people across the state
015about kind of this climate justice issue and how exactly these chemicals um negatively impact people's uh >> Yeah. Um just before that we were also lucky enough to present this to our uh environmental action at school um before this. >> All right. Yeah. So you do. Yeah. So um what is PAS? Cuz a lot of people don't really know what it is. Um and it sort of has a long name. So what it stands for is polychloric substances. What PAS is is it's man-made chemicals. Um they're forever chemicals. So what that means is they don't break down in nature. They say that forever. They're extremely strong, water resistant, fire resistant. So you know everyday things that you use um that a lot of people use in organizations like firefighters to prevent, you know, bad things
016from happening. They use these substances that are really durable um and really useful but can have a lot of really harmful effects. Um there are over 15,000 kinds of PAS substances. So in what's important about that is that for a lot of you know medical things we'd only test for a certain amount of PAS chemicals and there are so many that we're not testing for certain ones. Um that could be really harmful. Um right here the majority of hospitals in New Hampshire only test for four out of 15,000. And that's a real problem that we have um more about PAS is that they're really easy to reach into um sort of groundwater and just our environment in general because they're so hard to break down. Um and that's what makes them such a prevalent problem
017that we face. So we're going to do like a brief uh history of PAS and how it kind of came to where they became so prevalent uh in the United States and across the like entire world basically. Um so the very first ever chemical PAS chemical was created in 1934 by a manufacturing company called KBR. Um from there a Dupont chemist um created Teflon which was kind of the first like manufactured um PAS chemical. Um it was trademarked in 1945 and in 1951 that's when the first like large scale manufacturing of PAS products um began. The second major company to get on this was 3M began in 1953 and kind of from the 50s up until the 70s and the 90s a lot of companies just hopped in and began ma mass manufacturing of PAS
018products because of very powerful like non-stick water resistant properties made it really desirable in kind of the business world. Um so obviously production ramped up from that and then in the '7s and the n um 1990s that when we first saw um the initial link between PAS chemicals and um like and how it negatively impacts people's health. Um but it wasn't until 2009 when the EPA issued their first ever guidance for acceptable levels of PAS. Um those standards have since been updated in 2016 and we had to wait all the way until 2024 for the first national standards about um PAS and public drinking water. However, the standards are still much lower from where they probably should be for people's health. >> So we talked a little bit about like what is keass and the
019history of it, but now we want to talk to you guys about like why it's such a big problem now. Um and that are the really bad um health impact that it has. It has a lot of long-term risks with PAS. it accumulates in your body. So, if you're exposed to a little bit, you might be fine. But if you're exposed and you you keep on getting exposed over the course of your life, that's when the real problems start to show up. Um, the long-term risks consist of uh cancer, immune issues, developmental problems, hormone disruption, and also birth defects. Um, a part that I really want to talk about is private wells versus public wells. Private wells are at extreme risk because a lot of people using private wells don't have a filtration system in
020place for PAS and in turn they don't know what's really in their well and because PAS is so prevalent it's becoming so prevalent across the world and in the United States it's getting to be everywhere and if you don't know you have it and it's accumulating that's when the real problems can show up. Um, I'd also just hop on and say that the hormone disruption is also a really big thing, which is kind of why us and our other fellows are focusing on educating people at this age because obviously as you're in high school, your hormones are changing. Um, and PAS can really negatively impact like that particular age group. As your hormones are changing, it can have a very um negative impact like high school students in general. So, that's why we're kind of
021targeting other schools and trying to get into as many environmental acting clubs and high schools as we can. Um, so now we're talk about where PAS chemicals are found. Unfortunately, like the long and short of it is that they can be found uh pretty much everywhere. Um, the major places they're found like non-stick pans, um, food packaging, clothing, particularly like waterproof or like flame resistant um, clothing or like outdoor gear, tents and stuff like that often times have been coated with PAS. Um, also just the environment like because it can leech into groundwater and drinking water. Um, kind of the major thing that is problematic with that is the accumulation. Like Ben's been saying, they're forever chemicals. So, kind of once they get into the ground water or the soil water, they can just sort
022of accumulate because it's very hard for these chemicals to break down. Um, they don't break down naturally. Has to be like human involvement to come in and break down some of these really strong bonds. Um, they can be found in animals and humans because like if humans or animals come into contact with PAS substances, it could get inside of their system. And then just that important out these are very toxic chemicals and it can be very irreversible once they kind of get in your body um and just in the ground water and stuff like that becomes really hard to reverse. A quick little fact that um I found just sort of surprising and also really terrifying is that PAS has been found on every single continent on earth. So even in Antarctica it has been
023found traces of which is really scary. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, okay. So, PAS in New Hampshire. So, Tad talked a little bit about it like around the world. Um, and now we'll focus more on New Hampshire. So, St. Gobain, which is a manufacturing company out of France, um, they manufacture in the United States because we have way looser regulations um, with the environment. Um, so they're able to do more pollute way more. And the PE site, also the military site in New Hampshire have been really the main polluters of PAS. using products that they know they might know or might not know definitely have, you know, this really harmful substance. Um, I've talked a little bit about city versus well water, the fact that, you know, if you're on a private well, you're at
024um you're exposed to much more risk than if you're, you know, with city water because there are a lot of more um filtration systems that are in place that are protecting you. Um, and then I want to talk a little bit about settlements because I feel like those are a great way to show that, you know, this is a real problem with 3M and Duke Bond that Tad talked a little bit about, um, earlier. Um, millions and millions of dollars have been won in settlements because, um, you know, people have been able to show that these are really bad. They're showing all these really harmful effects. Um, and they have to pay, you know, millions of dollars for these filtration systems. The money is going into systems that, you know, is filtering too fast. But
025then another problem is when these filtration systems are filtering it, where is that then going? It's going back into the environment. So it's sort of that vicious cycle that it never really ends. Um these next two slides are just kind of uh a lot of statistics and research that us some of our um fellow volunteers that New Hampshire have compiled about where New Hampshire stands compared to some other states across the country. Um as far as regulations, I think you should probably just skip through. There's a lot of just data and stuff this side as well. Um, we can kind of that. Um, but it also just shows like how New Hampshire compares to a lot of other states, especially kind of other New England states. Um, obviously the main takeway is that a lot
026of other states have a lot stricter regulations on PAS chemicals. Um, just regulating more chemicals and kind of regulating them more strictly than us here in New Hampshire. Um for this slide we're going to do kind of a comparison of the United States regulations versus kind of other major countries across the world what they're doing to regulate PAS. Um so in Canada they've classified almost all PAS as toxic whereas here in the United States and in New Hampshire a lot fewer. Um we only test like said earlier for about 4 to 12 in kind of most major like testing sites and hospitals and stuff like that. Whereas there are around 15,000 different types of PASS chemicals. So the vast majority of them are not being tested for here in the United States. Obviously not the
027same in Canada. And then most of these are prohibited or restricted under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999. Um then we have Great Britain and the EU which have this reach act which is kind of their program to limit PAS chemicals as they move towards a universal ban on PAS which they have set for 2026. And then here in the United States, compare these kind of much different regulations to us here in the United States where regulation is mostly state by state up to up to the states. There are some federal regulations, but they're very lax. So that can kind of lead to some states across uh the country having much like stricter PAS regulations or other states like us here in New Hampshire where our regulations are kind of much more relaxed and
028not as strict as they they need to be. Um so we talk about this. So how to avoid PAS contamination here. So we've kind of listed some of the major w places where people come into contact with PAS chemicals. The major thing is try and drink filtered water like if you have water filters or you can get a filtration system but just obviously like a handheld like water filtration system would be great especially if you're on um private water. If you're on city water you're probably a lot safer but it's still probably a good idea to use um water filters. But especially if you're on private water, try and look into um like some sort of filtration system. Um another way is um to reduce the use of non-stick pans because the non-stick pans, what
029makes them so like nonstick uh stick as I said is that they've been coated in some sort of PAS um resin. And so if you can there's a company called Green Pan that offers um like non-stick pans that have been coated in PAS free. Um, but if you also if you can just avoid uh the use of non-stick pans, that's also another great way. Or keep um cook with nonstick pans at temperatures below 400° because it becomes more um negatively impacts your health at higher temperatures. Um another thing is to avoid like food paper products like microwave popcorn bags or fast food wrappings because those can kind of again be coated with um PAS. Um, another thing is look for PAS free dental floss in it. Research like um, Uncle Tom's like the main Tom's
030Maid. Um, they have uh, PAS free dental floss and also like deodorant and stuff like that. So Tom's Mane is great. Um, stay away from like stain resistant coatings on furniture and stuff. Um, so a lot of like European brands furniture and other some kind of other major furniture brands have stain resistant coatings. Um, and also don't purchase stainfree or waterproof clothing. Um, we looked into it in Patagonia, I believe. Pat was, um, offers PAS free outdoor wear and gear and stuff like that. So, that's kind of just a big like more of a name brand company that has PAS free options. So kind of just making sure that there there are companies out there that people go to routinely that do offer PAS free options for a lot of these products. But these are
031kind of the main ways that people come into contact with PASS and kind of how to how to apply. Okay. So our final one um what can you do to get involved? Um I think really the most important aspect about this is just educate yourself and educate others. Um, one of the initiatives that we've been doing for 350 this year is Tad and I presented at our environmental action club with this presentation about PAS. We want to inform you about, you know, the negative effects, alternatives that you can use. We have different members um, uh, 350 who are presenting at different um, other schools across the state. So, really just getting the word out to youth in general um, because it has these bad health effects um, that are really affecting, you know, teenagers in
032general. Um, advocating for change for your community. I think after seeing this, you know, just telling someone, oh, I've, you know, had this presentation given to me. Did you know like what PASS is or do you know what PAS is? And all the, you know, bad things that, you know, come out of it. Um, join local environmentalists. I think 350 does a great job. Um, this is one of our many campaigns that we've done um over the years to really just educate people about, you know, what's going on with the environment, major issues that are, you know, affecting us right now. Um, and then Tad talked a little bit about more, but substitute materials are huge. Um, PAS is, you know, really effective at being durable and it's cheap and, you know, these corporations are
033using it because it's easy and it's effective. Um, and a lot of the time people, you know, like, you know, everyday people, they're like, at the end of the day, I want to use a product that is, you know, maybe not the most expensive and does a really good job of what it's supposed to be doing, but they don't really know all these really bad negative impacts that it can have. But then if you know about alternatives like Cad was talking about um and you can use those uh it's just going to be really a lot better in the long run. That's it. >> I have a question. >> Yeah. >> So like I have a lot of Goreex stuff from like the '9s and 2000s probably cuz even Patagonia was using it back then.
034And then what should I do with that? And then like a scraped omelette pan that has a non-stick coating that is like definitely pee fatsish. >> Um again like for the pan I said um if you're going to continue using it um just kind of cook with it at lower temperatures because again it becomes more harmful as you >> but is there like a place that like accepts PAS like material for safe disposal? >> Um yeah there go ahead Andrea. [laughter] >> So I work just as a disclaimer I work for New Hampshire Recycles. Um, so I was super excited when I heard that you guys would be doing this. Your non-stick pan likely is made out of metal. Um, and so it could be uh put in your metal recycling pile and it will
035be melted down and so the PAS would be melted away. Um, >> so this is a fantastic presentation. I am gonna probably reach out to you and see if you can give this presentation perhaps to the community because the waste reduction committee is also looking for [clears throat] people to present. So if you're interested uh that's just for Hopington. Um the other thing I was thinking um another area that we have seen PAST that people don't think of is in lithium ion batteries. Um, and New Hampshire recently instituted a lithium ion battery ban um that went into effect on July 1st of this year. And so just one other thing that I recommend people do is when you're throwing stuff away, making sure you're throwing like disposing of things properly. Um, so not just dumping
036everything in the trash, but if it's an electronic or something with a battery, that kind of stuff, making sure that you're either talking to your transfer station operator um, or looking it up because if like a battery is just thrown into a landfill, this exactly what you're saying, that PAS can leak out and then get into groundwater and cause a big issue. But you guys are spot on. This is excellent, excellent information. Yeah, I think um one of the things that we want to do also with this presentation is um do a lot of research about PAS in general, like you know what products it's in because I feel like if you're just looking at like everyday products that you want to buy, it's really difficult to know does this product have paths in it.
037You have to do extended research to really find out what products have peak bass, what products don't. And um you know if we can get that information on a slide deck and you know project it to people so that they know and they can tell other people I think it just makes it that much easier. >> Mhm. Are there questions? >> The substitute materials and sort of the business opportunity piece. Light bulbs go off in my head like are there companies that are excited about the fact that this is going away and now there's an opportunity to replace it with something that is nonpast I think about all things skiwax. Uh, ski wax used to be fluorocarbons like that. You wanted fast skis, you put fluorocarbons on your skis and they finally banned three years
038ago in Europe and now in the US somehow wax companies have figured out how to make expensive hydrocarbon wax, but that's another story. So like where's the market? Like have you looked at that piece as to where the future is in terms of what is going to be that substitute material? Um, I'm not sure like as far as what the substituted material is going to be, but I feel like definitely companies, a lot of companies, especially as events like what's happening in St. Gain and just kind of a lot of outbreaks of like people's health have come to to light and companies having to relocate or get in trouble or settle a lot um because of the impacts of uh these substances on people's health. I would say that there's been kind of a switch
039from a lot of companies like very recently like Patagonia like we said a lot of other companies just we have a list of like kind of companies that don't use um PAS but that's kind of definitely more within the last like 10 five 10 years so it's definitely I would say shifting in a lot of major companies as people become more aware of this where companies are shifting away from PAS um but I definitely think that kind of the word still needs to get out there and that more like shifting finding alternatives definitely. >> Well, you've certainly shifted me. I'm going to go home and order some green pans and throw out those two teflon pans that have been in my kitchen for >> too long. >> Cast iron. >> Yeah, >> especially avoiding the
040black anything black. >> Yeah. >> I'm curious where the environmental activism comes from. Like when did it start for you? >> Um that that is a good question. >> Like as a passion. >> Our brothers were interested in Yeah. our brothers were interested in it. I've also just kind of been interested in like just doing this kind of work since I was a little kid. Um and then when I was a a sophomore, I believe I found 350 New Hampshire. Um so I've been working with them for the last two or three years. Um so I've just kind of been working with this company and like this organization. Um just kind of trying to do this work for pretty much most of my high school. So yeah. >> Yeah. For me, um I've always thought
041that Greta Thornberg was a really cool person and sort of a pioneer in this area. Um she was like sort of like a similar age as a teenager, someone that I could relate to. And then Tad actually recruited me um to be a Food New Hampshire fellow. Um and I just saw like how passionate he was about it and all the great work that they had been doing um the year before I was there. And um yeah, I just wanted to continue helping helping out. Are you going to do this presentation for example at Harold Martin or Reple Street? >> Um it's not something we discussed but I would totally be open to it. >> Willing to come to schools in other districts? >> Yes, that's a great question. Um we have different people um
042giving these presentations out. Um and we have been talking about you know what time would work for us to get out of school to be able to help and give these presentations. Um, I think that's definitely something that we want to do, but sometimes it'll be just another fellow that gives it at another school because it's just more convenient. >> Okay. >> I think um you did a nice job with the presentation. I think it's helpful in the beginning when you talk about what it is and the history of [clears throat] its use. You then have a slide that talks about the health effects. In your research, did you see when people started to learn about the health problems caused by peass? >> Um, when Thomas I can think of as an example. >> Yeah.
043>> Like how long have we known that they're dangerous? >> Yeah. Um, so I think it is a little bit um on the longer end. Um, one of the representatives, Wendy Thomas, um, shared a personal story with us on one of our um, Zoom meetings where we were sort of discussing the issue. Um I'm not entirely sure the exact amount of years it was, but um she had a well, she was on a private well and she had been using it for years and um you know, as time goes on, she and her family members and even her animals, she had three dogs started to get sick and sicker and sicker and then eventually the three dogs died and then I believe her husband as well or was it her husband as well also died
044um due to PAS. So I think it is you know taking a little bit longer as a it's not something that happens like right you know 5 years after necessarily it might be something like 10 to 15 20 that's honestly something that I think we can research more but it is sort of a longer scale you know >> and then as far as like when we first kind of made the connection that these chemicals are harmful that was around like the 1970s 1990s that's when kind of the first data came out that kind of linked these two but it wasn't until like the early 2000s that we started like putting out legislation to kind of prohibit or like monitor regulate some of these chemicals. So, it's a little bit of a gap before like the
045research the laws caught up to the research. Um, and I think as far as like when like symptoms develop in people, it kind of just depends on how much you come into contact with. Um, which kind of just depends on your age, but like as the more you come into contact with, the more it accumulates. >> Yeah. And I feel like the more that PAS [cough] is getting into our environment, the quicker we're going to see people like having reactions to it because, you know, if we have PAS back then and there's, you know, this limited amount of PAS and you're getting it, you know, maybe every once in a while it's going to accumulate. It's going to take a while. But now that we have it, you know, really everywhere, you know, in the
046world, I think that's going to be a lot shorter because you're going to be getting a lot more PAS into your body, you know, every day. I think you guys did a nice job with the presentation. Appreciate you giving us. >> Great job, guys. >> Thank you. >> Should definitely go to Harl and Maple Street. >> Yeah, that's awesome. >> As representative of the sustainability committee. Okay, cool. Thank you. You are more than welcome to stay as long as you want. We also understand if you want to go and study for midterms >> or or just live your life >> or just >> not hang out with us for the [laughter] next 3 hours >> or do any of the things. Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you guys. That was great. Yeah, >> nice job, guys.
047>> Thank you. All right. Um, next up, uh, this is going to be something I'm going to have a hard time talking about, so maybe Amy and Andrew want to help me out. We have, uh, Pat Grudmire here to talk about the scholarship that she is putting together for who in my head is Mr. Grudmire, but his name officially is Barry J. Grudmire. Um, you want to come up and talk with us about it, Pat? Thank you for being here. >> Thank you for being able to talk to you today. >> Um, one question I'd like to ask. Do you all have these? >> Yep. It's in our folder. >> I don't have [clears throat] some of you know longtime resin and volunteered countless hours of basketball coaching and touch time in the Oxend Middle
048and High School. He absolutely adored coaching. I can't tell the number of hours at home that he would prepare for games and just he just said and as well as his hour class hours that he spent the good school. Uh he adored coaching and he had a gift for truly connecting with his middle school players bringing out their best qualities. He continued this mentorship role and he became a full-time volunteer teachers assistant for cross and thorn after he retired. He did that for at least three or four years. He gave of his time selflessly and passionately and I still hear from some of Barry's former students and even their parents the impact that he had on their lives. My me my daughter Megan and I are very pleased to establish a scholarship in his memory.
049Since you do have a copy of proposal, I won't go into I won't reiterate everything, but I did want to highlight a couple of points in the scholarship. It was created to honor the graduating senior who was recognized by teammates and the faculty for their unselfish contributions to their teams, fellow students, and school community at large. Uh One criterion unique to the scholarship is that the process begins with each of the high school's varsity teams choosing one graduating senior on the team who they look to as a true team player and leader and not necessarily the best player on the team, but somebody that they actually really look to for encouragement and even my daughter somebody who will be there ready for the participate [clears throat] in the emergency and just help out without that
050was important as well. So that's going to be the first step of the process. And then those seniors wishing to be considered for this award shall use the standard application. And I added that they will need to write a short essay on inspiring team spirit. And the question is that they will write to is imagine you are a high school coach. What qualities would you expect from your players and how would you bring about those qualities? I hope that you find the scholarship worthy of your acceptance and that it represents the spirit mission of question. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> thank you very much. I was just talking to Megan after hearing it. Yeah, she was very excited about it and I also had the opportunity to mention it to Mary's
051sister this past weekend that we were doing this weekend and she too thought I was absolutely marvelous. >> Thank you. >> I just want to say that um so uh Barry was a coach even when he wasn't a coach. We live in the neighborhood and my daughter played basketball and um on one of regular on various walks, he frequently encountered Madison out of the hoop and gave her tips on the regular and [laughter] they got they had a pretty good relationship. Um and he would drive by and stop. So even when he wasn't coaching, he was coaching and was a really valuable part of her whole experience with hockey basketball. This is a stop. >> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. [laughter] Pull over. >> I think he also attended like every single school district meeting without
052fail. Like >> he was pretty good at that. >> He often would go to the school district meeting and then I would go to town. >> Town meeting. Yeah. But it he was always there. It was amazing. It was wonderful. >> Yeah. >> Actually, I thought it was kind of funny. One parent recently told me Um, it wasn't just the kids that coach some game that was quite rowdy and one parent was rowdiness and very quietly came over and suggested maybe she's she and so she was duly chastised but took it with great compliment. very pleasing uh up in the middle school. It went way beyond volunteering. I see Barry walk by my room every day and then walk out every afternoon. And I think at one point I kided him, you know, people get
053paid for this. Um, [laughter] he uh he's like, I just love what I'm doing and I love the kids. And it, >> yeah, it pretty phenomenal in terms of the amount of time. It wasn't a every now and again. It was a every day. relationship. And another thing that he was very proud of is every time he came into the school in the morning walking down the hall and some kid was like to walk by without saying anything, you could always stop and say, "Good morning. How are you?" [laughter] Not let anybody go by without saying hello. That's wonderful. That's great. >> That's great. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Make a motion now. >> Um Yes. So Pat and I have had a very um nice time
054working on this. Thank you, Pat, for all of the work that you've done to put this giving letter together. So, um, because it is for the school district, the school board needs to vote to accept the scholarship and then we will turn it over to the trustes and the trust funds. >> That's right. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to accept the Barry J Grudmire Memorial Scholarship? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> This is a wonderful and generous thing. Thank you. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Thank [clears throat] you so much, Mrs. Gutmire. Thank you, >> Megan. >> I know. Aren't they great? [laughter] >> I know. >> Thank you. >> Our students are wonderful, as you know. Cool.
055>> I know. I totally forgot. Okay, cool. Thank you. See you. >> Well, that was really marvelous. Um okay uh on to the more regular business side of things. We are going to talk about yeah uh open enrollment. All right. So two weeks ago we were discussing open enrollment. Uh talking about uh the the key questions are warrant article or not warrant article and if it is a warrant article do we set limits to zero and zero one and one um like 1% 1% excuse me 0% 0%. um and how do we want to approach this? My takeaway uh from that discussion was that we were all um pretty opposed to the idea of open enrollment for various reasons whether it's financial putting a burden of marketing on a school that is already tapped for
056resources that we don't have 100% of. Um and I'd say like equity uh across districts and students. Um, but I wanted to loop back, see if anyone's feelings had changed, figure out if there's any questions, and then Amy had talked with our attorneys at Wadley Star and put together um some language for a potential article uh which you can see in the draft warrant articles in the folder. Couple things to note here is that uh you do have to talk about if you are accepting any students a mechanism of entry. So they have to come in through something whether it is advanced placement or German or shop or what have you. And so this mentions advanced placement. Um which would obviously be at the high school. Um but this is all just there and it's
057subject to discussion change and we will finalize anything with our attorneys following what we decide tonight. We had started to put together a document. Um, and Andrea, I know that you had talked with some other schoolboard leaders, but many of our surrounding districts are moving to a Warren article and for the most part, other than Penrook, keeping it at maybe a couple students going out or no, a couple students coming in and 0% of students going out. Um, and that includes >> Pear. Well, SA20 or Kenker hasn't done their foreign articles yet, but that's their >> Bo Dumbartan. Yeah. So, there's a few >> and there are a couple of, you know, that haven't decided yet. Conquered, they're sort of avoiding, you know, the question. So >> question has to do with kind of the
058the proposed bill that's out there that would maybe kind of wipe this away or change it. But then also the [snorts] >> Can you be more specific just so I can look at >> that doesn't allow us to make it zero? >> Yeah. And then the changes to the audio that are going to be coming that I heard today are potentially going to be attached to that bill. >> Yeah. >> So the amendment to the you know that would clarify sporting events things like that for um the audio visual is going to be attached to the open enrollment bill. >> Yeah. It does seem like the the gerine amendments is the the approach that the legislature is taking this round. That was something when I went to my superintendent meeting, the New Hampshire School Boards
059Association was there and um Will Phillips is an attorney. So he was, you know, talking about just what you were saying that it does seem like what they're trying to do is sort of attach these things that don't have anything to do with the bill itself and tacking it on and they used the audio vis the audio visual consent as one of those pieces. So, um I do think that we're gearing up. Um and you know, I think a lot of superintendents are ready to either be the ones that have to reach out to their colleagues and ask them for open enrollment money or that will be on um the receiving end. So, it's a really tricky time and I do think that the legislature is going to try to outmaneuver the zero um sense,
060you know, just but I think the the warrant article that we've put together and its placement on the draft is really to give you an opportunity um to think about, you know, what the community would want. Uh we tried to make the um scope or our program very narrow. So, you'll notice that we picked AP courses. We really as a small district we don't offer CC CTE. Um there are some districts that are offering German. I think that's Windham. You know that is a conval. Um but we've decided to look at our AP program limiting it to two students that could come in. Um, and at right now the draft reads at zero, but you could certainly modify that to be, you know, 1%, a half percent, a quarter percent, which a quarter% would be
061one student, you know, of the 444 kids at the high school. >> Who is the we who put together the uh two non the uh 2 AP who came up with that language conversation with Dean Edgar and >> and myself and it's here for you. >> Is that what other superintendents are doing? Um, some superintendents are using whatever their program, you know, whatever they could offer. So, uh, specifically Kier Sarge, I think, really opened it up. You know, they're going to, they've designated their high school. Others are just doing their elementary school. Um, that's the superintendent in handover. She's designated one of her elementary schools to take >> some other district doing two AP courses. >> Nope. It's just an idea for us to to discuss if you would like to, but as specific to
062>> Yeah. Yeah, as Jesse said, you do have to be very [clears throat] specific. It has to be a very narrow application process. Um, and so we can name another program if that would be better. >> Opening it up to students who wish to pursue German >> German. Yes, that's that's their entry point. The tricky part for us because I discussed that with with Dean, our German program, if they do not start at the middle school, they cannot participate in German. So that could be what the board decides that you open the middle school for those students that would want to participate in German. Um the other thing to note is that the majority of our AP courses are taken by juniors and seniors. So if you decide to designate, you know, uh the AP
063program, it would likely be a student that is already enrolled in their home district and then would choose to come to us for their remaining two years of school. There are some sophomores that take AP courses, but it's certainly not the norm. >> Is the draft in board support? >> It is draft. >> Yeah, draft war articles. >> Yeah. >> And then it's article two. [snorts] >> I think um >> sorry, I will hold my thoughts. What does everyone think? I mean, so I think the questions are, do we want AP to be our program of entry or something else? Um, and is two okay incoming and then do we want to set it at zero and start that sort of legal dumpster fire or for what will inevitably be uh sorry that's probably unprofessional
064set of words uh legal unpredictability in finagling over ensuing months. Let's use that. uh or set it to like a quarter of a percent of the >> high school >> of the high school population which is one student going out. >> Guess I'm a little confused by the advanced placement >> being the entryway. Is this saying that they would only take advanced placement courses that they're coming for those advanced placement courses >> and they would have to be enrolled to continue to attend. >> So these would be students that would say I would like to come and just an example I'd like to come and take CalBC BC. That is something that we offer that a lot of other high schools may or may not offer. And so if they come, they have to take
065that course and continue to be enrolled in AP courses to continue to be a member of our school community, >> right? they can take other courses as well, but they just don't come for like AP calc and then go back to John Stark or >> and for some of our AP courses that are highly subscribed like AP US, how how would that would you have like once they're in I mean that could theoretically make it more difficult for a Hopkins resident to take that course. I guess I don't understand the narrowness of focusing on the AP part versus you want to come and be a student. Like if we're going to open the door, >> why are we discriminating so narrowly? >> You you have to designate a program. So you could simply say our
066general program. Um you could recognize a language. You could put you know something that we offer say engineering. It could be wood shop. You just have to have an entry point um for their application process. I haven't seen any Warren articles that just sort of open it to anyone. You do have to have a a lever so to speak. >> It does say the Hopkins students get priority like Hopkins and resident students I should say. But Rob is your I mean my first inkling when I read this was it goes to our conversation that or or my gut feeling at our last meeting where it's like oh this is opening us up to potentially a lawsuit if we're saying like we only want AP student it feels >> yucky elitist and all of open enrollment
067I But >> choosing AP as the entry point, does that even make it more >> transparent that we're only accepting >> you know the top? >> I mean, can it say entry into our 24 credit graduation program? Is that a thing? I mean >> I can I can check with legal >> what what an AP what this what being so narrow might do though is also not to have people come >> like this being this specific may mean that nobody comes >> right >> which >> right plus there's other AP schools with other AP stuff that's heavier duty than >> one AP per year or like what does what constitutes enrollment in an AP program. >> They would just have to take an AP course. >> I mean, we can be more specific or less
068specific, you know, whatever. >> And, you know, I don't know. We we look at our our students. Some >> students take a lot of AP courses when they become juniors and seniors. So, I mean, we could certainly say they would have to take more than one if we wanted to be more narrow or we can be less narrow and just, you know, Rob's suggestion about the 24 credit. I think that's pretty common in neighboring high schools that they offer a 24 credit pathway. We could also offer our 20 credit pathway and that's a different student that you would be really targeting. And I I guess if like if we were to if we were to open it up like that, we would likely have kids then come. If we were to keep it narrow, we
069would likely not, >> right? >> I mean, I think that like >> Yeah. And I think for instance, you know, like Conval saying that like their entry point is German, you know, >> being so specific has a limiting a self >> strategically limiting factor, right? >> I think that, you know, I mean, the thing about the open enrollment that really I find disgusting is the expense side of this, right? I mean, in in some ways, you've got kids who may be enrolled in a school district where they're not don't have the opportunities that they might have in Hopkins and they want to come here and they have a means to do that. >> And if we have space, great. The problem for me is sending school has to send us money. That's the that's the
070burden part that I just find this is all. Um, but then to write a policy that's so narrow that essentially you're just I agree like people aren't going to come. It's going to create segmented populations that would even apply. Um, I don't know if I like that either. Like if you're going to have an open enrollment, have an open enrollment. Don't have it written in such a way that you're really saying no. Um, I mean I am for a prevent defense on this. I've said that last week. Say it again. Um, I don't want to see money going out the door. I don't like that having to do that either, but that's the hand we're currently playing. But, you know, Yeah. >> I mean, I I could see for like for AP students, you would
071have kids coming in from surround from a surrounding district that didn't offer the AP courses that we offer. So it would be high achieving kids who don't have those same [cough] >> if you look at and we did this when we were doing when I was on the curriculum committee most of our surrounding schools offer the same if not more AP courses than we do >> we're not we're not up >> we're definitely not the best like there are better districts to go to so like >> it might be for like the kids in Webster right >> I'd be curious to know what you guys are thinking about. Sorry to just like dial you into this, but >> [laughter] >> um if you're, you know, all of a sudden there's a kid from another town
072who comes as part of this. So, like how does that play out for you guys? What do what do you think about this? [snorts] >> I mean, I definitely have seen a discrepancy in like what especially advanced placement courses are offered at other schools. Um, especially like some ones you've already mentioned like Pemrook and stuff where I have friends that go to and a major complaint is they don't have like the opportunity to take some of the classes I'm able to. So, they have to resort to more complicated measures like taking NHI classes out of the school day. Um, now I'm not entirely sure what opening us up to other students would look like, how it would impact me, but I don't think it'd be something I'd be really opposed to at all either having
073a couple of people um in like some of my classes like my PC calculus class I think only has like seven of us or something. So, it's it I don't think it would be like um so overbearing or such a burden that it would harm the classroom environment. Um and I doubt that it would ever get to a point where you feel like these classes are being overrun by non-Hopinson residents. >> Well, especially with the limit of two. Yeah, absolutely not. So, >> yeah, it's your comment. Yep. But >> yeah, I mean I think there's I don't I'm not in a position to make extensive comments on open enrollment on any other anything other than just like face value of kids coming to our district, but I know there's other strings attached. But I guess
074just from that perspective, um I wouldn't be opposed to it. But I know that it's much more complicated. And I think that in some ways it's probably it might be a good thing because of the opportunities that we have that other schools don't have like Kip was saying. And it seems like uh in theory a good way to address that. Um, but at the same time, like even if it is only two students, like I don't know how much of a difference that's making and I'm not advocating for, you know, increasing the limit, but it it just I don't know um what the best way to go about it is, but yeah, I think at face value, I'm not opposed to it. >> How competitive is it to get into AP classes for a Hopington
075student? >> Like if you want to take an AP class, can you take it or could you or could the class size limit? I'm not entirely sure. Um I don't know of any issues though, like being able to take AP classes, especially if you've been in the like accelerated honors program um throughout high school. Uh I know that there's there may have been a change where now you have to like apply to some of these classes, especially like the honors classes. Um, I don't believe I ever had to do more than just select that was the class I wanted to take. Um, but yeah, so on that I just can't really speak. I've I've never had to do anything special to >> Yeah, I know. Maybe even from other kids >> get into it to
076take that. >> I've never heard of anyone not being able to take an AP class because of anything other [clears throat] than like it doesn't fit in their schedule. Like I couldn't take physics because I have banded. So I >> But not because it's full, >> right? And I know that like this year there's two AP US classes because there's that much demand classes. >> Yeah. Two AP chem. >> Look at AP Chem. I started >> last time AP Chem was like 12 13 students. Now we have two full classes of it. So >> yeah. >> Okay. What about like engineering? If it feels like a uh AP CAP classes are it'll lead us like to put a fine point on it. What about like something like the engineering program which has a small but
077dedicated portion of students? Um again I don't think we have the best engineering program in the I love our engineering program to be clear. Uh I just don't know compared to schools with bigger facilities. Is someone going to transfer for that? But like it helps keep that program going. We have a passionate student body. Our team is obviously amazing. There's a lot of other extracurricular stuff that happens around our engineering program that's pretty passionate. >> I'd be curious to know if our engineering program could and that would include actually some of the probably running start courses um could absorb two or three kids. Is that a program that could >> we can we can look into it. You know, I was just looking up uh Kir's Warren article and you you can just designate the
078high school and allow >> I mean you can be very general but then you have to have a lottery or some like how you will make the selection. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> I like the idea of being a little bit specific personally. >> Yeah. I [clears throat] think engineering works. I'm thinking about how this conversation is going to play out on the floor school district meeting and I think we have a lot of people that might be opposed to having this tier being the entryway. >> Yeah. >> Um and that there's students that might be well served but in our regular core curriculum and how do we do that? I just find this. >> But what do you think about changing it to engineering, which isn't necessarily It's like engineering tends to be a
079pretty broad crosscut of students. >> I don't know what other schools offer for. I mean, to me, you're saying we have something that you don't, right? That's what this is saying. Unless we're just saying we want to set up a structure that says don't come. Um, but if we're going to set up a structure that's potentially going to bring students and even though it's a horrible thing, bring revenue, then it needs to be a broader scope that any student >> I don't I don't want to do that. I am like as a and I'm happy like I will do what is best for the district, but I think the idea like I really do not like the big sucking sound that is going to happen with students from less capable districts that are less funded
080with worse off tax bases or what have you. >> It's not really funding because depending what I think it's what 70 or 80% up to 80%, >> right? So if you have a less fortunate district that is sending it, they're not going to meet our per people pupil. >> I mean, they're not going to meet it at 80%, but it could be drastically below what would be our, you know, 80%. >> So it's not necessarily funding unless they're coming from, >> right? >> $12,000 more than zero is $12,000. >> And the per pupil cost is not necessarily per pupil. That's a division problem. So, I mean, if we had five students and it was $12,000, that's $60,000 we didn't have before. I mean, I get it. You know, I I understand. But again, I'm thinking
081about how this is going to play out on the floor of school, >> right? But the the but existentially, the fact that they are sucking away revenue from all the districts and then they're dangling this as a revenue opportunity for districts is a pile of words that I literally cannot say in public. Like, >> I hate It's unfair. It's mercenary. It is against the value of public education. I would rather I would stand out there for a thousand bake sales. I don't care. >> I think the other um the other way I could see this going on the floor though if if it were to be too wide is is that we have said for several years that one of our driving costs is our special education. And if we were to open it up,
082how would we and people have been concerned unfounded that our school has just taken in um more special education students than surrounding schools. You know, we are on average with other schools in the area. You know, I I would also worry that if we were not more specific in our programming that that would that would be kind of a counter concern, which is why I like a more specific something more specific than just the whole high school. >> But what is the lay of the land? If uh because [clears throat] I'm still trying to understand it. If a district is going to say we'll take a kid and a sending district has a kid that says I want to go to hop and the sending district play pays 80% of what they would charge an
083out of district student to come. They wouldn't pay 80% of hop what it cost to go to Hopington from an out. They pay 80% of what it would cost the other way around. >> Cost set by the DOE. >> And then if that student, it turns out, needs [cough] uh an IEP or needs out of district placement. Let's say they need out of district placement. Most expensive thing I can think of. And they didn't need it. I don't know, maybe they needed it when they got sent or maybe they didn't need it and then they found out that they had a need after going there. Who pays for that? >> It's a good question. I I there are a lot of questions related to special ed, like who remains the district of liability? Who's going
084to write the IEP? Who's going to be do the progress monitoring? Those are questions that have not been answered. >> Get back from the state for that. I do know that the adequacy that they would receive stays in their home district, >> the sending schools district. >> They Yes. >> So then you would think the sending school would be now on the hook for the placement cost and the transportation cost or >> honestly my guess is that would be um worked out in court. I I I can't imagine that a sending district would send us it's up to 80% of their and you can weigh in as as well. I I think what would end up happening is that there would be, you know, conversations between those two district about who was paying. Uh we
085would not want to pay and they would probably also not want to pay >> because I mean the placement could be like whatever $200,000. Yeah. >> And that's not really dependent on the sending or the receiving schools cost. That's strictly placed on the cost of placement and transportation which is independent cost. >> Exactly. because it it's hard for me as a board member to make a decision about this without knowing that because that's a pretty big variable. >> I mean, I understand the policy argument and all that, but uh just the dollars and cents of it. I kind of >> I know >> I want to know what what my liability is >> when I decide whether or not we should accept or not accept or allow students to go or not allow students to
086go because that spike in budget is >> crushing. >> And I I personally would want to know that before I would vote on a warrant article, >> but we're >> Yeah, I I don't know. I can ask if there has been any early returns on that. I mean, I think most districts are >> So, the statute is silent. I should I mean I guess I could go read the statute. >> I think anything around special ed I mean what what we do have in the law is what happens for students related like placement via foster care or a manifest hardship. The sending district remains the district of financial responsibility in those cases. Um but right now there's only two open enrollment schools in the state. Um and you know one is a real challenge and
087one is a district in need. So, I just I I I think >> and then if the student got placed, would they continue to get the money or would they no longer get the money because the student's not on their roles anymore? >> And then there's conversations. I mean, boards are are saying, I mean, it would essentially be Laura shaking down the other BA for the money, right? And they're just saying we're not going to pay, >> right? >> We don't have that in our budget >> to us. What's that? >> We don't have that in our budget. >> Right. Right. But what we know from the Pittsfield decision is they the legislature really did not care. I mean, Pittsfield does not have the money to send to Prospect Mountain and they are being >>
088they have like 30 open enrollments that they just have to pay for. >> I just I also want to say they're AP students. It does not mean that a student does not have an >> and Kristen text me like college board does not want to discriminate any student as you know >> plenty of kids but I'm probably very low service. I'm just saying that that's a question I would love to at least know what legal thinks is the most likely answer to that. >> And if the most likely answer is we have no clue. It's probably going to get litigated >> then I guess that's the answer. But I mean I would know that. >> I would assume we're definitely going to get litigated like this entire thing is going to be >> but that's
089not my point. My point is is is if our legal has some sense as to which way that breaks that would be a good thing to know. And if they don't know then they don't know. But >> um it would be helpful for me to know that answer from our legal. [snorts] >> I will ask it's also an interesting question just in terms of like the the how apt how likely is our policy to be pushed back on and and cost us legal fees as well. >> Yeah. Well, I think that like from if it seems like from the surrounding I think for the surrounding districts it seems like everyone is more or less choosing to do a very similar warrant article which would put everyone into like a con like a you know which
090I think is beneficial power and numbers. The other variable that we haven't touched on, which I know we talked about uh is if we don't have a warrant article and we have a student that elects to go to another district and then later on we have a warrant article that says that we're going to say no students can we're going to set it to zero. then that student or those students would be grandfathered in. >> Yes. >> We would still be on the hook for that regardless of what be adopted later. >> Yes. >> So that makes time of the essence to us. we don't necessarily want to wait a year >> and all of a sudden, I mean, I don't think I'm not that that worried about it being in this district because my
091my sense in having been in this community is that people come here to send their kids to school here and that this is probably more likely to be a receiving district than ascending, but overall, but time will tell, >> right? I mean, another strategy is I mean, to um your your earlier point, you could set it the number really low. I do think that setting it at zero and zero, you're not truly an open enrollment district. So, if someone were to sue us, you know, you're you're putting in a warrant article to just say we're open enrollment, but we're not going to let anybody in and we're not going to let anyone out. You could set it at one and one. We'll let one student in and we'll let one student go. I mean that
092is also I think the lowest obviously the lowest number that we can take. Um that's also a strategy is to just say we're going to declare high school >> but right now it is I mean I know the article I read in the monitors calls it a loophole. it's there >> which to to set it at zero >> zeros and zeros and then if somebody litigates it and the court finally comes down and says that's not right or the legislature closes a loophole then we could do a new warrant article at that point >> but it's due to be closed potentially what this month >> yeah I mean I think what they're saying you know my former math teacher brain is what the law says is between zero and 100% so technically zero is not
093between zero and 100% you would have something that is greater than zero. So, so this this was just from I was just pulling up cures since they have passed one from their info sheet and one of their FAQs was can students with disabilities apply and their answer was yes or their the students home district remains financially responsible for special education services when working with Pier Serge's team of special educators. So, so you would, you know, think that >> right and you would also then have to >> accurately bill right the sending district which you know I I'm not saying it's insurmountable we've had right >> on the other hand if you had a student that was going to be placed why would you go through the trouble >> what's the difference if they're placed out
094of one district or another district. It's the exact same. >> And sometimes placements are unexpected. I mean, we, you know, they might have >> certainly have some kind of major change. [snorts] >> Okay. What additional information, you know, do you need? I know that we're getting close to having to finalize the warrant article. So that um you know I think our legal counsel is maybe not so much a public hearing but at least a listening session uh where we would want to this is a complicated topic for a typical person you know to understand. So we would definitely want to get some information out. Um I think Rob what I'm taking away from your review you didn't say this but our warrant article is very wordy. There's a lot of, you know, specifications in there
095and, you know, we can certainly try to simplify it if you think that would be I I certainly don't want people at the town meeting to feel like they're voting on something that they don't understand. Um, and if you look at cure sarges, it's very simple. We're going to let 30 in and none out. >> I would bullet point it as always, A B CDE E instead of narrative. Um, I do think that if you or if we stay with the advanced placement program, it does reduce the possibility of an expensive IEP scenario, >> but not if the sending district pays, then it that's then it isn't really >> just saying that the probability in my experience teaching AP courses. Yeah, >> that's a low service to not a high service >> unless there's a
096mental health scenario that occurs during the year that >> so but then as we've talked about I don't even know that that could be our >> right so under RS >> could even be an explicit >> motive although it seems like cost has to be something that we consider as as a board >> right so under this is RSA 194 is that right 194 D52 the funding Educational decision-making for children with disabilities attending a chartered public or open enrollment school shall be the responsibility of the sending school district and shall retain all current options available to the parent in the school district. But there's a conflict between state and federal law which is what you were saying. So I think I I I honestly think that there's like very there's not I don't >> going
097to roll the dice >> there. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So I haven't followed the ins and outs. How likely is are they to close the loophole within the next month? What? I I haven't followed that. >> There there was a request to, you know, wait until the 2027 school year to allow boards to have these more thoughtful conversations and actually put it into your budget. Um, but that has not been wellreceived by the supporters of the bill. They do not want to delay. Um and they, as Suzanne said, they are working to close the loophole that you cannot set it at zero at zero. >> Yeah. And that's coming up. >> It wasn't on this week's, but the non-Germanine amendment has been added. >> Yeah. >> Although that would be in whatever the house. It
098would have to go to committee and then it would have to go and get signed. >> The amendment bill 101. >> It would take some time. they've been working. >> Okay. Um >> although theoretically, I'm just thinking this through. I mean, if we did a warrant and we passed it and we said it was zero and zero and the legislature then said you can't say it's zero and zero, then we would have to do another warrant >> special meeting, right? Because we couldn't >> it would probably get us invalid. >> I think it would probably get us through to next year, right? like the the process for which this is going to do. We can either do one and one, we could do two in one or we could do zero and zero and assume
099that given the way that our legislature works and the number of people involved that it will take >> and election year, >> right? >> But if we don't set something and someone wants to go to an open enrollment school like right now, we know >> I think we should we should we should set something. It's just whether or not it's zero and zero or it's a slightly bigger number. >> Right. That's what I'm trying to think through is what's the risk of setting it at zero to zero and seeing what the legislature does >> and if they do something that forces us to then make another move then we make another move and if they don't then we're at zero and zero and we have a policy or whatever. >> Yeah. >> But I mean
100you're saying it's between zero and 100. >> I mean that's what the law says but I know I'm on live TV but that is >> I mean [laughter] but I mean but I mean Kerart just said it at zero. They're out at 10. Yeah. >> But they're receiving a 30. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> And also, I mean, we could say 0.00001%. >> Whatever that is. >> Well, I think you would have to, you know, make it a student. I mean, I I think honestly the really wanted a percentage. >> A student every 10 years >> would be that specific. >> It's more than zero. >> You could say a quarter of a point or a half point, but a quarter of a point is like roughly one. A quarter, right, is you know
101440 like our high school is 44 kids. >> So, but what do we want to do? Because this is hard. >> You What do you want to do? >> I'm going to clear the deck a little bit. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm willing to defer to what the board wants to do. So long as we have a prevent defense in place, that's my priority. So, whatever other people are comfortable with in terms of what the program is and the language, it's not a sword I'm going to fall on tonight, but we need to prevent defense and that I will vote for. >> Prevent defense just prevents you from winning. >> Just so it's not like a >> not always. [laughter] Well, and I I guess my question sort of a little bit connected to Rob's
102is if AP feels too much, what are other programs that would be more accessible points of entry that are not just open to full high school? I mean, let's just think about what we're going to say at meeting like to explain AP or German or engineering or anything else. To me, that's a really nuanced and difficult thing to pitch to the town >> where everyone there may not be on the same page and may not be ascribing the best of motives without saying something that could be actionable. >> Shakespeare one, honestly. do like the first Shakespeare fast although I don't think we even have Shakespeare anymore English I know 10 yeah I mean like my only if if it's engineering did then I actually liked the engineering idea as a way to like continue the
103to like foster and support the program I thought that was actually a really great idea >> right >> because I I like our engineering program and I'd like I'd like to see it continue to succeed and >> if it needs needs a little outside love and we're having our hand forced >> like >> I I guess mine I mean I'm not >> lying >> sorry >> I you know I don't um I don't feel strongly but if I'm explaining it to the town right now I feel pretty comfortable in going out there and saying zero and zero >> because we're worried about the budgetary impacts of either sending or receiving. We don't know exactly how it's going to play out and we'd like to kind of see wait and see and be cautious. Like that's
104a pitch that I think people are probably going to be okay with. If we're going to say something other than zero and zero, then I everything gets more complicated in my mind about explaining it and and what we're doing and why. I mean, maybe it should be one and one [snorts] for the same reason, >> right? >> [sighs and gasps] >> But then if it is going to be one then I I I would almost be more on the camp of a more general okay then it's one to to enter and graduate >> be one and a lottery. >> Yep. >> One to enter and graduate and we could receive one well I mean we could send one >> send one receive one >> and for the same reason. We're being cautious. We're trying to
105wait and see and we're really mindful of the budgetary impacts potentially but we're hoping that it would be at worse an offset. Do you know if like if we receive one student and like they come their freshman year, do they have to go up in the lottery every year then? >> Right. That's a great question. >> I don't just for a year >> cuz that would be kind of horrifying. >> I think that would probably be in our policy. >> Okay. >> It would be one for that. Once you're accepted in the lottery, you know, you have >> that means you good to sit, but then you can have four or you get one every priority as long as you keep your GPA up or whatever you'd like to say. Yes. >> Rob, what were
106you say? >> Can you write into the warrant that Hopkinson will not be responsible for any external special education services? That would be the responsibility of the sending school. >> I don't know. Are we allowed to supersede the laws? >> There's the battle is whether or not the the the FAPE is transferable, right? Right. Like that's all >> back and forth on state law. >> I can ask I mean Dean is a you know one of the best special ed attorneys in the state. I mean, I'm sure he has thought about this and, you know, I can ask if we can make that >> I can tell you just off the cuff, my my concern with that >> would be that it could potentially open us up to a lawsuit in a way that >>
107could bring the lawsuit >> like before before anybody else even incurred a cost, >> somebody could sue us saying, >> "Well, >> right, >> it's in the warrant. I don't think that's legal. Let's find out the answer to this question." And that's an easy way to bring that lawsuit. >> Yeah. >> But I don't know. I don't do education law, but >> I wouldn't want to I don't want our neck stuck out at all. >> So SB 101 went to hearing today. >> What's that? >> That SB 101 went to hearing. >> Okay. >> So I don't have I can't find details right now. Uh, it's not updated, but it it was my understanding that they're moving fast through committee. >> And I take it the New Hampshire Association of School Boards doesn't have some
108kind. >> It's all still it's all still in like the >> I don't >> Yeah, >> sample war article. What's our date? Do we have to have something right? >> Uh, close. agreed to. >> I I I think that by the next meeting you would really want to make sure so that we can post the warrants. >> We would definitely want to do some at least a public hearing or a listening session if the open enrollment is going just in in general. I think people will have questions about it. >> So I think we could do it at the next one. But then I think I think that at so I this is going into the next portion but I emailed the Dems to GOP. Rob had already set up time with the Rotary, senior
109lunch, and >> PTA, and then we'll figure out apples with Amy, apps with Amy. Uh, but I think that we should dedicate some portion of that to the open enrollment question in addition to the annual budget. But I think we would need to decide by next meeting and I think everyone should be prepared for the fact that we won't have very many more answers at all by the third. Hopefully we we might know if the zero, you know, if that if that moves quickly, right? We may have an answer if the zero is acceptable, >> right? >> Or if it's a quarter point, quarter point >> or at least work it guidance, >> right? I mean, what what does that even like? If it's a quarter point, what is that? >> Yeah, it's a student.
110One student. >> Yeah. I just don't like being [snorts] being bullied by poorly drafted legislation. Like, >> yes, totally. And and >> this is what's happening. >> Uh-huh. So, do we do we want to vote on it and say 00 and then we could still talk about it at the next one or and and revote on it at the next meeting? Uh, or do we want to do quarter point quarter point out of the gate? I mean, I could say that we're >> do we have to do a percentage or can we just do a student? >> It's a good question. Um, legal did say that the law says a percentage. Okay. But you'll notice on the cure warrant article they had the number of students. So I I you know I don't I don't
111know how tight >> I mean the guidance is changing so fast. I would rather wait till next meeting before >> and just I mean know I know we've talked a lot about the high school designating that there are some districts like handover is designating one of their elementary schools not their high school not their middle school. >> So then once the kid gets to whatever fifth grade or whatever they get booted then they're done. you know, I can ask um the superintendent, but that is what they decided to do um was to just >> I'm just saying you don't have to all it doesn't have to be the high school. That is what most are doing. >> Yeah. >> No, there is another school that's only doing I think grades one to four, right? >>
112And then that's it. Like Anna, you have to go. >> And I believe after that, yeah, you're out. >> I do think at a minimum we should wait until the last possible minute just to see who else votes. just to see what what what else happens between now and then. I mean, I do >> we don't see reason to take >> we would need to have the full warrant >> effectively other than this >> legally drafted. So, because we need to vote on it at the next meeting. So, everything else has to go to >> the public hearing for the budget committee is not until the fourth. Correct. So, that is >> but our next meeting is the third. >> Right. Yes. >> So after you vote on the rest of the warrants and the
113special committee votes on the 4th, then that next meeting in February, >> but we could have everything else go through legal and then people maybe um >> last day to vote on this would be the 17th. >> Okay. >> Like legally for my anxiety, I would love it if you get it on the [laughter] um but legally you have until the 17th. We really have to get this posted. The warrant, the last day for the warrant is Thursday. And I believe we have to have a public hearing for this as well. >> Yep. >> You should. Yeah. >> We know the notice requirements and all that like we're saying it has to be >> the the public hearing has to be 15 to 30 days before the um school district meeting. >> Right. >> I
114think if has has the warrant this version of the warrant article already gone to Dean and been reviewed. >> They have reviewed everything else. They actually advised me um where to place this article to put it at article two um just in case there's a change from the floor. then you can um do an amendment to your operating budget. You know, say that there was uh you know, they wanted to increase the number from one student to 10 students. You could then modify the operating budget. The only other thing I think most districts are coming out. I do think that people we are one of we may be one of the districts that people are also looking to to confirm what they're doing. So, we might be doing other schools a favor by also deciding
115sooner and being part of an example that's being set and or telling them that we're not open for business. And if somebody is listening to this video, they would be able to infer ultimately the range that we're looking at anyways, which is between zero and one students. But, uh, you know, like I I'm thinking about this from the perspective of how do we educate our voters? How do we work with other school districts who are in as much of a >> snafu as we are if we were to say one and one which I understand in terms of like you know the state is saying we have to like have can't can't have zero we couldn't have zero but >> right >> I my read also says no um and I think you have to
116be transparent say we're picking this particular group because we recognize that um it's a very that would be open to very limited few and we do not want to encourage >> right [snorts] >> I think we have to be transparent there can't be any sort of or we're saying we we are willing to host to students or four students or however many because we believe that what we can offer here you know is is worthwhile and and we potentially could be revenue I think we have to decide where we And >> right. I'm on the first >> in the message. >> I'm in the former. Y >> I I hear you. Yeah. I I hate that. No. No. But I hate I hate that. Like it just feels yucky to me. >> But we can't.
117>> But if we're going to say we're not a business, then we have to be transparent with everybody that like this is why we're doing it, >> right? >> Only open to these people. >> And I guess I would like also put a caveat on that though. I'm I'm not open for business in this way. like this is not the fund. This is not the way in which I'd be open for business. I'd be open for business in other ways, >> you know, like if kids wanted tuition in >> um on their own, but we would like to look at other kinds of partnerships. >> Sure. >> In the presentation have to explain that that's the rub. It's not >> that philosophically from the top it is a >> it's not really revenue and and
118you're going to have to counter some of those things that have made the press that it is being kind of marketed as or that you know you're going to hear from the floor well why was Kaj zero and zero well because there's legislation coming that says >> right >> that's not going to be legal and we're anticipating that >> karch did 30 and zero they're going to take in 30 but not allow anyone >> well I think that the concern that I've read in the press is the not allowing anyone to leave that they're Oh, no. That's not how that works. >> There was some some really great discussion, I think, at their deliberative session about that because they have people that want the choice and were questioning that, but that, you know, at the
119end the floor vote was in support of what they put forward. >> Yeah. Especially since they're taking in table, but not letting anyone know. >> Yeah. Okay. >> What additional information could I or get for you? I mean I can certainly ask legal um you know we have talked about you know I think by the next meeting more districts will have what they are going to do and if we want to create a chart of sorts that we've talked about sort of the district what their entry is how many they're allowing um and >> what other programs do we have >> maybe any other programs where if we're going to add an extra student >> like >> do we know of kar like what a curge do we know >> they just left it open
120[snorts] They just said to become a student to graduate. >> Yep. >> Oh, >> in their high school. >> I definitely think that question uh if they're in, are they in until they graduate or are they in each year or what? >> Right. And does it is it a like an additive where then this means you have to accept one every year at which point then it's really four students. >> Or is it just it's one until that student is done in the district that is >> which there is not going to be any clarification about it. backs up one student for summer program. >> Yeah. Yeah. Summer school. >> All right. Okay. Rob, any other thoughts? >> Prevent defense. >> Rush three. >> New Hampshire scholars with STEM emphasis. [snorts] >> That that's our
121entry program. That's that's a credit requirement that we have in our program of studies. >> Could also do the arts >> that articulates what you have to do. >> Yeah. >> Oh, New Hampshire scholars with STEM >> with STEM emphasis >> emphasis. >> Always looking for ters for the for the chorus. >> Which one's to find? >> We need an obo. >> Very cool. >> Nice cuz it if it spelled it out then it's like very suffix >> while you're coming. >> Okay. I like that it's an analog to engineering. I think art's already pretty full. >> Yeah, art is pretty full. >> I think music's already pretty full. >> Okay. >> Certainly. >> All right. If you have any other questions, we are going to vote at the next meeting. Please send them to
122Amy and I so we can make sure we get them all squared away. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, team. All right. Is it next? Go ahead. >> Is it possible to and I hate to do this, but like this option with zero versus this option with a number? >> Well, I was going to suggest two two draft warrant articles. One set at zeros and one set at one. >> Well, because we're also going to like there's a budgetary application as well because if we're if we are going to line if we're going to send Yeah. We're going to need to budget. >> Laura has a line already. That was part of the lobby. You already had to have I know we do. >> That's what you just went. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
123>> Um it would be great if you know if you do you want to wait and vote on the rest of the warrant articles or do you >> No, I think we should review them. >> Okay. No, >> but [snorts] we can't vote on >> Can't vote on article two. >> We just I'm going to read these out. I'm going to read the whole thing out loud. We'll skip article two, but I'll do one three four five six seven eight. non operating without knowing this. >> Sure. >> That would only be >> we can amend it. >> Yes. Okay. Y >> I would think >> the reason why we read it out loud is because we've um due to the Jeff Dono affair of two or three years ago when we said uh what was
124it unanticipated or unallocated or unencumbered fund balance something that where we had to then change it on the floor because the wording was slightly wrong. So everyone just Jonathan I'm looking at you as our lawyer. Uh, >> I am absolutely not. Just so we're clear. >> You are not our attorney. That's true. But as a >> just so we're absolutely clear. >> Legal braid. That's true. You were daughter Laura. Okay, great. >> We went We came back to the video footage is what we did. >> Okay. This is the warrant. Just so we're absolutely clear. Warrant for the 2026 annual Hopton School District meeting. The state of New Hampshire. To the inhabitants of the town of Hopington and the county of Marramac qualified to vote in school district affairs. You are hereby notified to meet
125the Hopton Middle High School Gymnasium and said Hopington on Saturday, March 14th, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. to act upon the following articles. One, article one, to hear reports of agents, auditors, committees, and officers chosen or to take any other action in relation there too. My god. Okay, that's the same every year. >> Yes. >> Look good. >> Yep. >> Okay. Article three to see if the school district will vote to raise and appropriate the school board's recommended amount of 29,31,447 enumerated out for the support of schools for the payment of salaries of the school district officials and agents and for the payment for the statutory obligations of the district or to take any other action in relation there too. This article does not include appropriations voted in other warrant articles. Majority vote required. The school
126board recommends this article blank to blank. The budget committee recommends this article blank to blank. You tied those numbers out with Laura. Triple checked. >> Y >> Rob, that makes sense to you. >> That's what I'm looking at. >> Okay, cool. >> It is double checked. >> Thank you. >> Cool. Okay. Article four to see if the school district will vote to raise an appropriate $100,000 numerated out to be added to the special education trust fund previously established. Majority vote required. The school board recommends this article blank to blank. The budget committee recommends this article blank to blank. And on the slide it will say the tax rate impact of all of these. Right? That's what we talked about at the last meeting. Okay. Does that sound right? Okay. Article five to see if the
127school district will vote to raise and appropriate $350,000 numerated out to be added to the school district building repair and maintenance expendable trust fund previously established. Majority vote required. Schoolboard recommends this article blank to blank. The budget committee recommends this article blank to blank. Does that sound right? Okay. Article six to see if the school district will vote to raise and appropriate $30,000 numerated to be added to the technology trust previously established and to authorize the school board to transfer up to $15,000 from year-end unassigned fund balance available on June 30th, 2026 or to take any other action in relation there too. Majority vote required. The school board recommends this article blank to blank. The budget committee recommends this article blank blank. That makes sense. Unassigned fund balance available on June 30th, 2026. >> Can
128we say up to or do we have to define the amount? Because if it's less than that, then we're asking for more in taxation and voters won't know what that is. >> We only took $1,000. >> We need to say up to because in the event that there is not enough, we can't be legally obligated to put 15,000 in. we are legally obligated to put up to 15,000 in. So it means essentially unless there's no fund balance available, it's 15 grand. So >> does that make sense, Rob? >> The up to actually is a protection for us. Um you are correct that if we didn't put 15,000 in um it would increase taxes. Um, but as we talked about, it's more restricted to lease restricted, right? So, we'd have to we prioritize the warrant articles
129before we prioritize the contingency fund and the unassigned fund balance. >> Okay. >> I I would prefer to just have it be a number. I mean, our projection right now is 300 and something thousand. >> Yep. >> My my Vegas brain says we're going to have $15,000. I mean, if I'm on the floor and I read this, I'm going to be that guy who stands up and says, "You're telling me I don't know what I'm paying for here." >> Have we had that before? >> That's the language from last year. >> Yes, that's the same language as last year. >> How did I miss that last year? >> I don't know because we did this. >> I think it's it's legally the language that we put to protect ourselves in the event that >> an
130out of district student moves in and we use everything by $10,000. >> We don't want to go into deficit spending due to a legal obligation to put 15,000 into a capital reserve. >> Yeah, it was there last year. Yep. >> Okay. >> Who's going to keep you off the floor? >> Yeah. I'll be I'll be sitting with Normie in the upper leftand corner. >> Okay. Article 7 to see if the school district will vote to raise and appropriate $10,000 numerated to be added to the replacing school district vehicles cap capital capital reserve fund previously established and to authorize the school board to transfer up to $10,000 from year-end unassigned fund balance available on June 30th 2026 or to take any other action in relation there too. Majority vote required. The school board recommends this article
131blank to blank. The budget committee recommends this article blank to blank. >> I have a question. >> Yep. So on article six and seven uh in the bolded numerated part we are going out to the into the sense like 0 >> and we don't do that anywhere else. >> I'll be consistent. How do you want to >> leave the sense? >> We should lose the we should lose the sense. >> Yep. We should lose the sense. >> It makes no sense. And will we change the format in the type that we've used in the other ones? >> Sorry, say that again. >> Will we change the formatting to be the same formatting that we used to do? >> Which is the >> it's like Times New Roman and like article 3. Okay, cool. >> Although
132Times New Roman is harder to read is actually easier. >> I don't like it. >> No, but it's easier if it's printed, right? >> Oh, and you safar fonts are easier when printed when printed. I like what do you how do you want it? What's the what? Times New Roman. >> What? Yeah. What else says >> I didn't I'm sorry. >> Times New Roman. >> Okay, got it. >> Thank you. >> She's I'm working on the actual document actually. Article article 8 to transact any other business and we'll meet legally come before us said meeting at which point hopefully Steve Lux will come up and tell us our voting number so that I can lodge them into my data sheet. >> Anything else? >> Make sure our names are spelled correctly. Correct. >> You've been
133tracking numbers? >> Yes. Yeah. For like the last 15 years. Do you have it all on a spreadsheet or he's >> I do I do >> town too? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Sure do. >> I can share with you. >> I have a I have a project. >> Okay. [laughter] Great. Does this look good to everyone? >> Wait. >> Does the budget committee need to approve the open enrollment warrant? >> No. There's no It has no FIN. It has no dollar amount value on it. So they do >> it has an impact but it doesn't have a dollar value in the warrant. >> It has no dollar value associated with it. >> What is this bottom part? >> Just hereby notified to meet at the Hopington Middle School. >> I wonder if they're going
134to want to this is happening after >> I think that's just the >> they probably I I don't know. They they probably want to um I don't know that they would do it at the public hearing that that's after >> you [clears throat] know ask that they hold a meeting on the 28th >> previous one >> if they wanted to cuz I think they're not right they're not having one until then >> they're not having one till the public hearing >> right >> my plan though is that the >> if we have it settled >> the warrant the entire warrant would be at the public hearing >> on I'm just wondering about the whole budget committee recommends y piece. >> It is their um because this is their presentation of the budgets. It would not
135be in their purview to put it in there for public hearing. >> Um >> okay. I think the gut probably needs to be struck, right? The further notified >> the further section clearly we missed that >> in the past where >> No, it's on last year's warrant article. >> I Well, I know it's on last year's Warren article, but it doesn't make any sense. >> Invite people to the polls, but that voting would have already happened like >> days before. This is the 14th and we're inviting people to the polls. But I think the warrant the warrant is extends like because it opens >> the warrant goes out >> prior to that's why because this goes out prior to >> yeah if we publish the warrant on like the third whatever it'll be >> prior
136to this all that's what it is we're done. >> Yes. Right. Last year it says more J >> was when you had the town meeting. >> No that was the first one and then we had to move it. We had to move it. >> We had to move it to the 15th. Okay. It was gonna be I think it was going to be the 8th. >> Yeah. So, there's probably like an updated version. >> It looks like given under Hington this blank day of February. So, they'll we'll fill in whatever day of February that this is all officially >> Yeah. >> done. >> Yeah. >> That's what it is. >> Ready? >> Yes. >> Does that make sense? >> Sorry. and we will all sign it and say this is what we are asking for
137and these are the elections that we're having. >> And then those slides will also indicate that for all of our warrants, same amount in the same manner that we asked for last year and so there is no change in tax rate based on those warrants. Correct. >> Right. Wait, tell me that again. We are our warrants have not the amount and the way that we are asking for that money like the way that we're raising we're putting on the slide has not changed from last year and so >> that's going on this the slides that go with this >> the t what are we calling that it's not the tax impact the tax impact versus tax increase >> ah so the tax increase is zero >> yes and the impact that is whatever y >>
138those sense >> that's that's what that's the that's the language I was looking for thank you >> and As a reminder for people for the last part of the warrant, uh if you would like to sign up to run for school board, we have two positions that are open. The sign up period starts this Wednesday, January 21st. You can sign up with the town clerk, the lovely Christine, uh at town hall, and it closes um I think at close of business uh on Friday, January 30th. You can check on the town website when it has to be. You must be a registered voter to run for elective office. Okay. And then your deadline to register as a voter was today [laughter] eventually. Oh, sorry everyone. I'm just reading this. >> I think you can um
139>> No, can't register today of voting. >> Not to be run for office. >> Oh, yeah. Not to run for office. Just >> All right. So, that's a warrant. Do people feel good about this? What's up? >> Wait, what was the deadline >> to If you want You have to be a registered voter to run for office. The deadline to register as a voter to run for office was today. If you want to do whatever for the meetings or usually the supervisors will still Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you everyone. Okay. Next up, let's do this. I am moving to our agenda. Great. Okay. Budget documents. Rob, do you want to talk to us about your amazing presentation last Wednesday? >> No, wait. I'm sorry. just before >> yeah, >> we need
140to vote >> on the warrant articles that we just to finalize them. >> It it's up to you. You can either do all of them except for the open enrollment and um but we do we definitely would have to do it at the next meeting and then the budget committee we will know their vote the following >> we could just vote on those ones we just read. >> Yeah. Okay. So, do I have a motion to uh approve the warrant articles as presented with the exception of the presented article two concerning open enrollment? >> Yes. So moved. Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, guys. >> I do nothing. >> Great. >> Thank you. All right, Rob, you're up. You had a great presentation and we are
141hoping to hear any feedback from the budget committee and then if there's anything that you think we should change about the presentation. >> Um, I don't think there's anything we need to change about the presentation. Um, I think that when we're [snorts] doing our public sessions, we can probably very quickly go over the, you know, philosophical slides and get to the meat of the matter. Um, the feedback from the budget committee, at least eight members, was rational budget certainly understand. uh perhaps well also in line with inflationary measures that we had talked about as a committee over the last couple of years. One member was concerned about the the growth of the budget in terms of people's ability to pay their taxes and the sustainability of that. Um, we had a long discussion about what
142is the role of the budget committee in terms of putting that before the voters to decide versus the budget committee to decide what's sustainable or not. Um, and how do we even talk about that? And somebody went on their brewhaha about their effective tax rates. Once again, um, one member, you know, had talked about an $800,000 reduction and predominantly was focused on the fund balance side of things, uh, based on our numbers from last year and therefore sought to bring the budget down by that much. But again, while it was specific to a point, which I appreciated, um, there was nobody else on the budget committee that was seeing it that way. There was some discussion about whether or not how how people felt about not cutting more but not really seeing an opportunity or
143or a need to cut more because it all made sense. And I I think I did a fair job. I think at the public hearing I hope to do a better job of making it clear that from the beginning we really sought a budget that was going to be um amendable to the budget committee from the start. Like that's really important. Yeah. Like we >> we did the job that going in >> right >> that we assumed the budget committee would say this is what we've been talking about. >> Correct. >> So hopefully that's not lost on us. And uh >> can I make a a comment on that? So I was watching it and I think that it could be helpful because I think one of the things that we want to highlight is
144that I think we've worked really hard to build a really thoughtful collaborative relationship with the budget committee over the last many years particularly with you as the budget committee rep. And something that could be helpful would be adding a slide that basically said this is where we started. These were the cuts that we made right over the course of two, three meetings, which includes a reduction in FTE, like that last 85K, whatever that looks like, just to sort of help with that narrative value because to your point, we did do a lot of pre-work really trying to like think about how that meeting would go. >> And they had that information, but it wasn't necessarily a specific slide. I believe I have to go back. >> Right. Yeah. You you worked really hard, Rob. people
145say like having a lot of conversations about changing you had some ideas about changing how you approach the budget and and in response to what you had heard about uh transparency and and sort of coming at it from a asking um what you asked teachers and what you asked department heads to do and to have that. So I'm wondering if highlighting that also is a point like this is the pre-work that went into this and we're responding to requests from >> you know the budget committee and community We definitely talked about that. I talked about the work that Laura did uh meeting with people and literally going line by line either actuals or you know substantiating why it was there. Um which was appreciated by everybody there. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> just just before we
146move on, just to be devil's advocate for a second, you know, no good deed goes unpunished and I >> I worry about that slide. >> Only because I worry that on the one hand to say that we've done everything that you talked about and like tried to run as lean a budget as we possibly can and this is, you know, we really try to and the budget committee supports it, that to me is a nice clean presentation. If we have a slide in there that talks about cutting money out, >> I would not want to suggest, >> right? >> Well, cut that out. >> Maybe I get on the floor and I talk about what about another $80,000 or whatever. Like I just >> So that's my only devil's advocate point on that particular slide
147as to how that lands, whether or not that achieves the goal that we want to achieve or the opposite >> or if it opens it up. That's a good point. So maybe it's just woven into the >> nar like you do a great job in a really credible way that you know we have >> really being careful about the crafting of this budget and the budget committee agrees >> right >> that to me is pretty strong >> right >> I think one of the things I should add is that we did talk about the fund balance as it relates to open positions >> right >> and I don't know if I was accurate it and you know yes we had positions that we weren't able to fill that were you know again reinforce that instructional
148assistants are attached to IEPs um so it may be one thing to say we were not able to fill them but we had budgeted for them but to say that we have taken them out that may open us up to some litigation in terms of how well we are adhering to IEPs with fidelity if we're not even budgeting for positions that we know are necessary to execute Mhm. Okay. >> Okay. >> Right. Because we didn't not fill them because we didn't want to. >> Right. We didn't have >> We're trying. >> Right. Do you know anybody? >> I think that the what was put forward was the idea that if you didn't need them then and you still have some unfilled positions now, then you don't need them at all and they could be removed.
149>> Right. >> You do need them. No, I think you I think you spoke to that. Well, you did a you did a good Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. >> That will probably come up again, >> right? Okay. I thought you did a great job. >> Just in your conversation, Rob, I think when we made a reduction and that was what we did, we really looked at are there any positions that we are able to reduce, [clears throat] but the positions that are in the budget are ones that we still need based on students. [clears throat] >> Yeah. just I'm just a big fan of presenting it strength and not not showing any weakness that we don't have to show, >> right? >> Because we because it isn't a weakness, >> right? >> So I
150don't want to appear >> offensive. Okay, that's a good point. I think I will reinforce at the public hearing not to be redundant but with the respect to the budget committee that is why we came up with a budget that doesn't that all of them minus one says we don't need to cut more because you've already done >> right >> well and that is respectful to the budget is >> is absolutely >> I mean that's presenting to them that is listening to because it isn't one a budget isn't a one-year process it's an ongoing conversation Year after year, year after year, we've been listening, >> right, >> and attempting to improve communication so that we can present them something that all parties can get, all parties, except for one, can get behind. >> Okay. I
151will say I thought you did an exceptional job. I think that comes on the back of a ton of hard work from you. I know you were working on I'm pretty sure New Year's Eve and New Year Day. I have I have receipts of that. >> Uhhuh. Also, uh, Laura and Amy, you guys really did an extremely fine tooth comb review and line by line rebuild of the budget, and it's strategic and represents our priorities and also contains a ton of information. So, great job team. >> And I know we still have to make it through the public hearing through school district meetings. So, like we're in like the second uh period of our hockey game, but you know, >> you know, the the info sessions that we do are are great dry runs, right,
152for school. >> That's right. So they're super helpful in that way. Not only getting comfortable with the presentation more, but also in terms of anticipating concerns and questions. >> That's right. >> Kind of look forward to those. >> So coming up to that, so I reached out to So some of the feedback last year, you guys might remember is we did we had reached out to GIP. They couldn't fit us in Dems, Rotary, PTA. We had done muffins with Mike and then we did a bunch of otherformational sessions and then sessions at each school. Those seemed like they were redundant. And so this I over the weekend I reached out to GOP Dems Rotary which you had already scheduled with following the HMHS security redesign presentation PTA senior center to make sure we can still
153do a presentation to those to the the folks there and then we'll work with the library to schedule with Amy. So people are starting to get back to me. Um I know you'll want to be definitely at some of those. I think it's good for all of us if we can try and I know your schedule's tricky so there's some evening ones you know uh but I think we can all put together a docket we can look through figure out who wants to do what because I think it is a great opportunity to get feedback and hear where people are keying in >> instead of muffins with Mike we could do ant assets with Amy >> I looked through every word that >> with a it is a is it tough I liked answers with
154Amy >> answers with Amy Apps with Amy. Uh-huh. >> Apps. Oh, yeah. That's what they mean. But it's uh Or you can get into like >> spiders. >> Yeah. Spiders. Uhhuh. My kids would like that. Apple pie. >> Yep. >> Arachnophobia. >> Yeah. >> There's not a D to do. >> No. I do not want to do the D. [laughter] >> She said no. This morning. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. Nice work. >> Donuts with Doyle. >> I do. >> She said she doesn't want >> I feel like I love donuts. >> She doesn't want it, too. >> She doesn't want it. at [laughter] this point. She said >> my maiden name, right? >> Apple Turnovers. Applesauce. >> Apples. >> I'm sure. I think you probably still have an apples with Amy. >> Yeah, I'm sure.
155>> From my previous life. That's right. >> Um, okay. Great. Uh, okay. So, budget budget presentation stands. I think it is great. I think it looks great. I think it's concise. I think it's great as a readalong and a standalone. Great. >> Uh, Amy went through over the holiday. Thank you, Amy. and put her touch on the special ed primer which is in the folder and also on the website as well as Rob's OG I think it was circa 2021 budget glossery which >> we should actually share with all new board members because figuring out the titles and the funds is actually incredibly beneficial but if people go through and think about that I think that that would be beneficial just to see if there's anything else you're thinking about um I do think that
156they're really helpful documents to have up there and I'm very proud of the body of the work that we produce as a Um, we do at this point have to start to prep our budget FAQ. So, I linked I think to last year's. It includes a bunch of stuff about like what is the procedure of the meeting, how much are we asking for, what are the changes? In the past, we've also included FAQs for our contracts. This year is not a contract year. Um, but is there anything in particular that people feel like we should really be thinking about from an FAQ perspective? This will get updated, just FYI, over the course of these public information sessions that we have. Um, but if there's anything that people are thinking about where they're like, man, I
157just feel like we've never answered this burning question. My only thing is I felt like um number 19, like your glossery >> would maybe go further up the chain. >> Oh. if you're, you know, looking through a lot of these things, you know, like for example, CIP is referenced multiple times and then if you're like, oh, what does that mean? So you get to number 19 that you're like, oh, >> oh, like put that higher up on the question list. That's great. >> Where where first or >> I think it would go after the basics, but I think you mean like the top five, top three to five. >> Yeah, like special. >> Yeah, sure. >> No, I think even higher than that. I think that's like a basic thing of like I don't understand
158like education has a lot of special terms. Oh, like do in the give budget >> basic. >> Yeah, maybe. >> Yeah, move that up. >> Yep, that's great. Okay, cool. That's a great note. Anything else? >> The draft that's in your folder. I did um if you look at number of course you did. >> It's ridiculous. I put some information about open enrollment um and linked it's number four if you can take a look at that. The resource that I could find was from reaching high New Hampshire. You know I know we haven't decided about open enrollment but >> I just wanted to link >> something for people to look at. There's a historical document. >> That's great. >> And then we can link to our explanation later. >> Again, Amy, you're the best. I
159gotta say, and I'll say this, uh, but in the past it has been a lot of, um, I've done a lot of editing. Andrew's also done a lot of editing, and it's marvelous to have a superintendent where you go to a meeting and it's like already done. So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> Yes. >> Try my best. It's really great. >> I think it's great. But if there's other stuff as people review this, these will be often live documents really until right up until like the day before the district meeting. I think the goal is to get out the vote and make sure we are educating voters to every extent possible because to your point Jonathan, we want we are doing I think a pretty solid job of trying to put together materials that show
160how thoughtful we are being. All right. >> The other document that we're going to need to put together is the required um financial document. Um that just shows >> You mean the one pager? >> Mhm. No, not not Rob's onepager. >> Mean Laura's onepager. >> The new onepager. That is >> Oh, the legal >> the legal one. >> Yeah, the one with >> the one that's required by law salaries and all that stuff. >> So, we'll also need to put that one together as well as um basically like a second one with context. >> Um >> Yep. So, it's just I'm just like putting it back on everyone's >> We still need the snapshot, too. I think we're >> And the snapshot, which I like. >> I think the snapshot's great. We >> I love
161the snapshot. Cool. >> Okay, great. >> And then we do have to post all of that on our website. Um >> Yeah. >> So, we'll make a spot for that under district information. >> Great. Okay. Cool, >> guys. >> So much. We so much. >> Okay. There is in the folder a shortcut to our goals. I was hoping to go through ours and then Amy did an amazing job on hers and we'll run through yours. Does that sound good? >> Sounds good. Okay. So, as per usual, you should see a snapshot in there or a shortcut in there. No, in the actual drive folder. Um, you see a shortcut? Yeah. >> Okay. So, I'm going to read through these. I did go through and relist to the 1021 meeting. For the most part, I got
162to communication and you'll see that I did not finish listen reading the tape to fill out the comments that we had made about those parts. So, I will go through and finish doing that work >> in the drive. >> It's in the drive. It should say HSD schoolboard goals 256. >> You want to take notes or >> I'll take them. Yes. All right. So, first up, curriculum and assessment. The school board working through the superintendent will review how the curriculum and assessment process is delegated and executed currently without a curriculum coordinator including what we must do, what we must have, and what we would like to improve on. I'm not going to read the strategic plan part. So, if people want to see that, they should please please review this document. >> Great. Well, I
163can give you an update. the um curriculum uh CIA curriculum >> instruction I always want to say intervention and it's not instruction and assessment committee has been uh chugging right along. Um so part of the committee has been um essentially attending different um >> oh my god yeah >> oh the word attending >> we we could it's a big group >> it is a huge group a lot of energy >> and so we decided to split them into two groups one that would be interested in looking at demos of new >> demos >> assessment tools and the other of how we are going to capture our guaranteed and viable curriculum Yes. >> Yes. It's very exciting. And the guaranteed uh curriculum part is really very cool. Not it's not a very descriptive sentence, but it
164really is a group that is um made up of highly active and engaged teachers um from across the district working together uh in a in a really exciting way. He's doing a really nice job leading the I guess sort of charging in determining um you know what curriculum needs to be kind of purchased so that we can align curriculum K through 12. >> Yeah. >> As a district which is something >> Dr. Sony has been facilitating the demos so thankful for her leadership there. Great. Cool. Great guys. >> I just take notes. >> Great. Amazing. Thanks. And >> and and approve things and we buy that approved. >> Can we do that? But >> that's right. >> Not [laughter] really. >> Um the school board working through the superintendent will support the development and reporting
165of strengths and weaknesses of tier 1, tier two, and tier three levels of support and make recommendations on future systems and needs. How we look at I I would say similarly, you know, within those conversations, we are really looking at right now through the CIA, what are we doing for tier one and then how can we complement that with with tier 2. I think that is, you know, the work that we're at least pivoting to once we know what all students are expected to do, that'll help us figure out where our gaps are. Yep. Great. Okay, great. >> I would say on CIA, we haven't talked about that as much. >> No. >> Um, but the demos I think for the assessment piece that's will help us >> and that's sort of what we had
166captured here that like first we need the assessment piece in order to cut you off. >> No, it's fine. There's definitely a a lot of the resources that you're looking at have a lot of that tier 2 support, but it's determined wise. Right. To access, right? Okay. Great. Great. Finance. School board will determine whether the budgeting process should consider using a targeted goal of a percentage increase based on projections of needs in order to build the annual school district budget. Um, we had you were pretty, I think, clear about how that would be hard to do, especially given special education in October. Any other thoughts, Rob? Um, I would really recommend that the board continue to track annually through the DOE25 that document because it it is very instructive in terms of, you know, in
167economics leading indicators are tough to come by. They're actually solid like otherwise we'd all be rich. Um, but lagging indicators also tell a story and our story is pretty solid when you look at the LA I just went back 12 years. Um, and I think that's a way that you can tell the tale of the tape that we were being consistent. Uh, and yeah, the special ed one is that also tells the story. 11% year-over-year average the last 12 years >> versus, you know, our our benefits at 3.64%. So, it's pretty clear where that is, uh, salaries and benefits at 3.64. So, I think >> over how many years? >> 12. 12 years. Um the the salaries and benefits line was 3.64. Just the salaries line it's 2.25. So again this sort of speaks to
168the hiring part of the process. The the things that jump out the special ed we talked about supplies 2.84. That's in line with a lot of inflationary measures. The one that you cannot talk about is the property 700 because that's all over the map. um because a lot of what we buy is based upon what's in fund balance. Um so that jumps around like crazy and then the other category which I don't really know what's in it beyond other is 8.67%. That also seems to jump a little bit >> but the total is 4.42 42, >> right? >> So, you know, this narrative that we have this exploding increase is really on par with a lot of indicators that people would find to be acceptable. So, I I would just >> encourage when you're communicating
169to look back um and include, you know, even this year. >> Great. Just on the last one, two, three, four, seven budgets, including the one that we're about to put forward, our average is 4.72%. But we had years uh pandemic year was 1.8, 223 was 2.64, 2526 was 2.29. So, uh those variations just continue to look to the average and see if we're staying the course. >> That's great. What was the biggest year out of that seven? >> Uh the biggest year was 2324 and I have to go back and look in the snapshot, but I think that was the year that we got whacked by both special education and insurance. That was like the 20% GMR ter,000 increase [clears throat] in special ed alone. >> It was >> and I think that's what we
170only our health insurance >> through the roof. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Next one is I think easy, but school board will complete a zerobased budget financial exercise with one department within the district for fiduciary review purposes. I'm actually going to you did a better job explaining that on the tape that I was listening to today, so I will like explicate that a little bit, but I think there's nothing to add here, right? >> I think we completed it. Yeah. >> Yeah. Great. I was actually going to take off the review. Okay, great. Safety and security. In response to the homeland security audit, the school board will support the development of the security redesign project proposal, including estimated budget at the Hopton Middle School. What do we want to say? >> Uh my understanding from today
171is that we're actually waiting on the contract piece before we hit the pedal on the actual process, but we're very close to starting. >> Yes, we're writing a contract on the board. >> Do I want to say had how many public information sessions did you have? >> Uh a lot. Um, five >> five >> ran a can I say thorough bid process? Thorough bid process held a public hearing and the board approved the project. Is that fair? Yep. Right. What are we awaiting for the from the contractor? Um I these contracts are very specific. Um I probably need to get an AIA contract download and I'm so I have to write the contract. >> Yeah, great. >> We're frankly waiting on me. >> Yep. Thank you. Uh currently working on contract with the GC. >>
172Okay, great. And work will uh start and complete in summer 2026. Great. Okay, good. The school board working with through the superintendent will continue to support the development of a districtwide approach to school culture and safety that involves students and staff. You I talked a little bit about fly five speaker series um culture of inclusion feedback. Is there anything else we want to say here that we've noticed across the schools? You talked about how one school should in have one initiative each and they do y about the culture and climate for students and staff. Yeah. Any other speakers? >> Not yet. I mean the um schools foundation will sponsor something that is coming up. >> I think somebody is coming soon to the middle school. I don't know who it is, but somebody um I
173received a requisition for a speaker. So >> budget translator for one. >> Yep. Okay. Thank you. Great. Communication. This is where I need to finish listening to the tape. The school board working through the superintendent will take steps to understand, develop, and support the changing varied of Hopton families across the district. Did you do a survey? >> Not yet, but it's on my to-do. I mean, what I've really been trying >> and I can, you know, speak to it a little more is just trying to get a sense anecdotally, you know, how do you get your information? Um, I think, you know, we have the website, we're, you know, spending some time updating that. you know, most people get their information through their phone um which is tricky because not all of the documents that
174we need to share will come up um in an expansive way on the phones. So, that's something to continue. But when Matt and I meet, you know, we talk about the website, we talk about updates. When you come to your meetings, we're making sure that the right information and the most up-to-date information is out there. Yep. To >> make sure Great. Okay. Thank you. Culture and climate. The school board working through the superintendent will proactively address goal one of the culture and climate section of the strategic plan. The Hopton School District will strive to create an emotionally safe, equitable, and inclusive environment for all students through the action steps laid under the goals sole objective. I know that we have been thinking about see something, say something. Rob, is there anything else we would talk
175about here? either in terms of softer pieces or >> really hasn't been a topic of discussion in safety and security this year more so than it's you know in practice. Um kids know where the who they need to go to. >> The question is to whether or not they will go to folks. We had this conversation with uh your predecessors last year and how comfortable people feel going to guidance or to the office if they know something's up. You do have a student group that meets with the building administration. Is that monthly that they meet with them? >> Um, pretty much monthly with our like what do we call it now? Student, it's not student advisor. >> Yeah, like a student leadership council is what it's called now. We have name change, but >> um
176yeah, it meets pretty much every month. Um I think we're taking off this month and meeting early February. >> Mhm. >> Um because of midterms and just shorten because of the break and stuff. But >> do you guys talk about inclusivity and emotional safness and equitability there? >> I mean we talk about a wide range of things. Mostly it just starts out with like each braid bringing issues or things they see. But it definitely can include stuff like that. And that might be something more for like Lucy and I to bring to this and um have a discussion. But >> well, Kip, you said like the hockey team did like the mental health awareness night. The other teams do. >> Yes, the soccer team also did that earlier. Um, and there are like especially other
177clubs I feel like incorporate that more like peer outreach we have and I don't I'm not a part of interact so I don't know. >> So students are talking about it. >> Yeah. Especially Yeah. Peer outreach I would say. There's also the um Best Buddies program which I know started this year and they've been or at least gained a membership this year >> and um they do a lot with inclusivity with kids with special needs who might have trouble feeling included. >> Great. >> But yeah, it's definitely something Kip and I could bring up at one of our um student leadership meetings. >> Great. Thank you guys. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Last one. The school board working through the energy management committee will take steps to understand and develop a district-wide policy related to sustainability,
178energy management, and waste reduction with a report to the board due [snorts] by April 2026. >> Well, I don't know if it's going to happen in April, but it is it is underway. Um, Director Synonyi has been um really helping to spearhead this work. >> Yeah. um and we have now looked at at least two um versions of it. So, and I I believe the idea is once the energy management committee has kind of crafted it um that it will likely then go to the policy committee. >> Well, isn't it Amy and the environmental club? We've got you have silverware. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Yep. >> Big deal. >> Yeah, >> that's a lot of plastic. Yes. Generated on a daily basis. So, >> just that small step, >> it's a big deal, man.
179>> It is. Yeah. >> Our typices were punk balls. Yeah. >> But the school still and I every time >> Yeah. You're just like, what are we doing? Great. Okay. Anything else we want to talk about with goals? Amy, can you work us through yours? >> Yeah, I mean there it's similar. I mean, I I have appreciated the collaboration. Um, from the curriculum and assessment, you know, standpoint, I've been thankful for Andrea and Suzanne's partnership on that committee. It seems to be going well. It's a big group. Um, you know, you know that that progress there I expect to be slow. I'm, you know, I'm doing that work alongside of them, but you know, there isn't a curriculum director. So you get the superintendent who is doing curriculum work, >> you know, when when she
180has time to do so. Um, it is something that I'm very passionate about. So I do feel like the first step is to have some documents that we can work from, you know, so that it's not this, you know, idea of what we're teaching that there's actually something on paper. And in our first meeting, we kind of split the group into two buckets of people that are very passionate about curriculum documents. And as Andrea said, I mean, we just have a really great group of of people that are it's also their passion, people that have done curriculum work in other districts. So, we came up with a template talking about what makes the most sense. We want them to be public facing. So, we've talked about the audience. Um, we will need to bring forward
181a standards document to this committee, you know, to the board for um your review, just the committee. We want to finalize that. And what we're trying to do there is to just identify the standards at the national and state level and then our own local competencies. And then we would bring that to you at least every 10 years. You know, that's typically and I know one of our goals was to create a curriculum review cycle. Um and so we're doing a lot of that pre-work. Um I I feel a little bit like we're taking steps back. And you know, I don't know if you feel like that, Andrea. I don't know where the committee was before I joined it. Um, but I just really need that scaffolding and those anchoring documents for us to be
182able to make progress. So, I've, you know, been very happy with that progress even though it's probably slow. I'm excited about um perhaps choosing a new assessment tool um because I think what we're noticing is that if we really want to target tier 2 and tier three, we need better information about where students are. There've been some great conversation about that. Um we have two more tools to look at you know um MClass which aligns with amplify and illustrative math and then probably NWA are also called maps. So we'll continue there. Um I do think at some point we will need some level of curriculum oversight at the building level. That'll probably in the be in the form of some kind of stipended work for our teacher leaders that are already in those positions. um
183that was not in this year's budget just because I really want to be clear about what the job is, you know, almost like a role description and we're just not there yet. So, probably in next year's budget. Um in the area of tier 1, tier 2, and tier three, I probably talked to Mandy about this every time we meet. We had our opening meeting with branching minds, which is the tool um that you're you purchased. I think it is going to be a powerful tool if we can leverage it across the district. Um, we are Mandy and I are going to something tomorrow to look at, you know, 504 within our MTSS system, like how to implement accommodations with Katherine Lewing, and I'm not sure if anyone knows her. She is, you know, the the
184the state leader in MTSS work. Um, I think she's in an office of one now because the rest have been cut, but um, she's going to be talking with districts about how you can put 504 accommodations, IEP accommodations within your MTSS system. So, we're excited about that. um some additional framework about reporting systems. Uh what's been clear is that at each school they have their own way that they're gathering this data, but the power is really going to be how do we look at it as a as a group? Um so, you know, how can we make something that's a little more consistent? Um this, you know, the finance goal I I feel like I know a lot more and you know, my partner and Laura and meeting with Rob and and Jonathan, I mean,
185I've just learned a lot about our process. here it is a lot you know when I reflect on my first you know six months here this is the area I feel like I have grown you know the most I really feel like I can I don't have to ask her every 5 seconds what's the tax rate how do I figure that out um I do check with her I did this on my own is that correct and [laughter] my teacher so that's been great um I loved the budgeting exercise that we did with the zerobased I mean she really I think not just did zero based. It was like subterranean in every budget line from the last however many years she had access to. Um, and so I'm looking forward to that process. Not that
186this hasn't been a great learning experience, but I would like to not have that. I mean, it's been a lot of time, effort, conversation. Um, but I feel like now that we're building it for us, um, that'll, you know, it'll just be smoother along the way. Um, but I've enjoyed, you know, all of those conversations. I do think, you know, Rob, when I've reflected on as a building administrator, like what's your hope and dream to what we did this year, I feel a little like we didn't crush everybody's like, "Oh, tell us all the things you want." And then we were like, "Oh, never mind." Like that. I actually felt good about that. Um that we were going into it with our eyes wide open and saying, you know, here's a reasonable budget that we
187can um you know, put forward. I I do hope that at some point we can talk about innovation. Um I've had some really great meetings with the Hington Public School Foundation. That is one of their core principles. So how can we leverage that work? Um because I do think those new things are the you know those are the things that get on the table first just because they're new, they're um unknown and you just think is this really the time that we can make that investment. So, I'm hoping uh that we can maybe start to have a process where we put a little bit in every year. Um but I and as we've talked, I don't know that we'll be able to come forward with, you know, this same kind of budget moving forward. Um
188because just the way things are in the world. Um safety and security. I'm I I hope you're all really proud of the work around the security redesign. I know that the public hearing we had some folks come out. Um, by and large I have had predominantly positive um, comments, conversations with community members, teachers, students, um, just that it's been a long time coming. >> And that um, they also thought it was going to be $3 million and now that we're doing it um, for the amount that we are, I think that, you know, I get it. There was a lot of conversation to get us there, but um, I'm proud of that work and I hope everyone is as well. um supporting the safety and security at the building levels. I think at our leadership
189team meetings, we are always talking about what is the culture in the building. How are people doing? Um as you can imagine, right before the holidays, people are ready for a break. Um so we're sort of riding that. We just had, you know, a period of time. Um and then we'll start to look down February break where people are equally exhausted. So we try to build in uh spirit weeks or, you know, pickmeups and and things like that. So, continuing to look at those goals. Um, communication is a goal of mine. I, you know, try to send out information. I try not to over put out information because I know that families, they really want to hear from their students teacher and then the principal and maybe me every once in a while on something
190like a snow day, right? They're, you know, they're [laughter] like, "Oh, yeah. Nice to see you." But um I think that getting that information about how people digest information I am just you know honestly people are so different in how they take in and I think even if we send out a survey we'll have to accept you know that we won't be able to meet everyone's needs. People want really like ondemand information and that's just not realistic >> in the life that we have. I mean we can do our best and be strategic and timely about it but it won't be every minute. You know, sometimes, and I'm sure you all get an email, did you see my email at 10 10 p.m. and it's or 10 a.m. and it's 1. You're like, no, I
191did not. >> Can I make a comment about the the survey piece? Just historical reference. We had a superintendent at one point in time who did a community survey and uh the results were not exactly flattering. And when we probed a little bit, we found out that his return rate was 11%. At which point I thought the survey, you know, it it should not have even been reflected on. It was so low. So just uh you know I don't know what the Mendoza line is for we should actually >> interesting >> accept these as something that we can reflect on versus >> 25 >> you just got people you know >> but but I do think that anecdotally it's really going to be this group of people talking to your neighbors your community members like
192how do you want to get this information um because sometimes people will reach out and say where can I find this and it's on our website >> or they just have to, you know, find it and and it's really hard to put things in a predominant spot. Um, so I think in addition to a survey, you know, the rate of return, as you said, if it's low, you know, what, you know, what can we learn from that? Um, but also I think it's just asking people um, we're going to put out a lot of information about the budget. Where would you like to find it? How would you like it to be? Um, I think that the budget page that we put together is pretty streamlined. >> Um, that's great. But, you know, that's an
193area sustainability. I'm really excited about this overware. I I think that the students were as well. Um, and so my next steps are really to just continue to support the planning and information across these six goal areas. Um, and we'll have an endofear update. Um, but I I feel like we've made a lot of good progress. >> Yep. That's awesome. I think um I think for the end of the year, we should try for both of our sets of goals to like because I do think like as I was going back and looking at last year like if we can sort of like be specific about the different initiatives or things that have happened, I think it's really good to sort of like close the door on the year, right? I think that that'll be
194a helpful thing for us to think about. >> Sure. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um okay, guys, we had our reorg meeting. Um well, two things. One is after this meeting, Rob Nato only has three more meetings left with us, which is going to be exciting for someone terrible for the rest of us. So, I know >> you're going to be so happy I'm gone. >> I don't know if that's true. I think we're going to be in a bronze, silver, like penultimate ultimate. Yeah, we'll cry a lot. Get excited. Um, but we should just all think about that. Uh, >> this is my thing to No. [laughter] Um but we had planned to have our reorg meeting on Thursday the 19th. Um that is now town meeting. Uh it is really just the purpose
195of after we have our election. There is basically no leadership and Amy basically runs the district without a school board until we reorg. Um Suzanne is going to be out of town on the 17th. She's going to be watching her uh daughter uh in spring training. So the other thing that we could do is just meet at 5:00 before town meeting or 5:30. have a really quick reorg meeting at the middle high school in the auditorium if they'll have us. It is I guess our building. Um but just like do it. I'm assuming that all of us will be going to to town meeting. Um and just roll it into that. And I'm looking at you. You're not going to be there. I don't know why I'm looking at you. >> I don't know. >>
196Be at town meeting. >> I know you could just come and listen, you know. Uh but would that work for everyone if we still did the 19th? If if town meeting starts at 6:00, could we do 5, 5:15 or 5:30? >> It totally works for me to do 5 on that night. Uh the only >> thing I guess I would also though ask Matt what would be easiest as far as like recording goes. >> Are we meeting that morning? >> Is that like a thing we can still do >> on the 19th? I don't think so. I haven't do. >> Okay. Can we just do minutes? Is that okay? >> I don't have anything on the 19th. >> What do you have for the 19th? >> I don't know why I have it in there.
197>> I did. Um, will you be scheduling another normal session after that um in March because we have first round of nominations for HA that comes out because you have to finalize it in the first meeting in April. >> Yeah, we have a March 31st meeting. >> We do. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. I think we added that after you had pointed that out in roughly July of last year just mean possibly [laughter] someone was reading that going uh >> someone panicking about it's fine. Um so we have one on the 31st. Yes. >> And then on the 7th >> and then on April 14th. >> Oh so we've got the 19th March 19th. >> We've got March 3rd school district meetings on the 14th. March 19th March 31st and April 14th. >> Okay.
198So yeah, >> and then >> we have until April 15th to get contracts out, right? >> Great. >> So that's one day >> we're doing things, >> but we could do it on the 31st. >> We That was my goal. My plan was to do it on the 31st. I think the concern I have is that you need a chance to review it and if we bring it forward on March 3rd, which we can, um the new person won't have a chance to look at it yet, but also it we don't have a budget, so I can't it's I can bring nominations as a draft. Absolutely. For you to review on March 3rd and then >> No, no, no. I'm sorry. Uh March, sorry. March March 31st, right? We would have a budget then, right?
199>> Yes, we'll have a budget then. Um April 14th just doesn't give us enough time to issue contracts before the deadline of April 15th, >> right? But you don't think that March 31st would be enough time for you? >> I'm wondering when do you want me to bring the first draft to you? Oh, >> between the time that school meeting is approved and the time that you need to finalize the nominations, >> I think that you could probably bring us the first draft on March 3rd and then uh once the new person is onboarded, they will have access um and that information can be shared with them as well so they can review it >> and then it will be a second And then we plan to have and then if we would if it
200took someone to go into nonpublic on the 31st, we could do that. Yeah. >> Okay, that makes sense. Sorry that took me a minute. >> You guys are okay with meeting right >> right before. >> Will you be will be back on time? >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. I think it's I think it's important to have everyone there. We can. >> Thank you. >> I was like, oh jeez. >> Does that work for you, Jonathan? >> It's the 19th. >> On the 19th. >> What time? >> Yeah. >> What? >> Which is when it was originally scheduled. >> Y. It would just be earlier. >> It's done, >> right? I just think about >> uh child care. >> Well, I do need to go pick >> half hour, >> but there's usually childare at >>
201Yeah. Our schools. >> Oh, bring them. >> Yeah, it should work. >> Yeah, >> it should work. >> You can drop them off at Thomas. >> Uhuh. >> My daughter. >> Maybe there'll be some >> Yeah. >> Honor Society kids there a little early. >> That's right. >> Oh, yeah. All right, cool. All right, Jonathan, we can confirm on child care, but yeah, let me know. >> Well, yeah, good stuff. >> I have a spouse. I just >> All right. >> I know, but you're being thoughtful. >> Five 5 a.m. on the 19th. >> That's correct. >> At HMHS. Correct. >> So, we'll Somebody will send something around. >> Yeah. Which reminds me that I need to also find Okay, great. >> All right, guys. We have a really exciting bucket of policies. Can I
202ask a question? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Is there any other business on the 19th aside from assigning committees and ch electing chairs and things? >> No, I think it's just that >> I don't even know if it needs to be >> swear uh just welcome the new person. >> Yeah, we need to welcome the new person. Swear them in. >> Y swear them in. >> Yeah. >> Great. Cool. Policy. >> Get ready. It's exciting. Um so we have first and second reads tonight. Um our first reads we have just we are now so what what we have done with policy now is our our document has gotten even more exciting. Um, we essentially have all of our policies and then we have the date um when they were all last updated uh statutoily and we
203are now working through to make sure that we update um the policies that need to be updated the soonest. Are they clickable? Oh no. Um any of them clickable? No. Hm. >> But I think they're on the drive though. >> You know what? I >> I think they're in the folder. >> Yeah. I put these in. So, Diligent did an update um between when I put these policies into the um agenda and now and I don't know if that might have done something the permissions maybe. >> The strange thing is the public [laughter] agenda works. >> Okay. Well, good. I'm glad then the public view. So, the public view of the agenda works, which is excellent. So, the public can click on the policies. Great. Um, the board just can't click on there. So, you'll
204need to go uh [groaning] Hold on one second. So if you guys >> we do you want to talk us through it and then we can reconcile everything tomorrow for people to read. >> Diligent just >> well they're probably in the middle of some bug fixes >> broke. >> Yep. >> So let me open up my policy doc and I will read them to you. Okay. So I will read you our uh documents. Um so the first one we have is BEG which is meeting minutes. Um and this one while we are bringing this in for a first read we we've actually already adopted um some of the statutory changes. So some of the things are like you have to write down who took the minutes. You have to write when the meeting began and
205when it ended. Um, DAFFB which is equivalence in instructional staff and materials. EB chemical safety and chemical hygiene plan. EAB establishment of bus routes. HP employee job actions and HPA employee job actions unauthorized employee absences. These two were uh policies that we actually already had. um and that had no substantive changes. Um so we're really essentially just um uh I forget the the term that we >> reaffirms. Thank you. Reaffirming these >> um my diligent is just going absolutely bonkers on my computer. >> Yeah. >> Uh IKB which is homework and LDA student teaching and internships. So those are all your first reads this week. For second reads, um we have IHCA, summer activities, IHCD and LEB. Uh these ones are dually coded with one another and the title is advanced co coursework advanced placement
206courses and STEM dual and concurrent enrollment program. JHIP absenteeism attendance truency and JLCC headlice pediculosis formerly communicable diseases. Um so those are your policies. If you have any questions um or input let myself, Suzanne or Amy know. Oh great. Um >> does particular mean headless? >> It does. >> I'm locked out of religion. Great. I mean, not great, but thank you for the policy. That's great. Thank you guys for all your work. I really appreciate it. >> All right, off we go. It's time around the corner. >> Personnel. Personnel. Um, hot off the press. We have two personnel nominations tonight. Um, let's start on the back page if you don't mind. Mike Z, who has been an IIA for us at Herald Martin for a long time, has received his statement of eligibility to be
207a special education teacher. So, um, we are nominating him for the special education teacher position at Harold Martin that is currently open. And to replace him, look at this. Uh, Natalie Patterson will be an IIA at Harold Martin. >> Amazing. >> Wonderful. That's great. >> We think she'll be taking Mike's spot, but she may also be floating in preschool and kindergarten. We haven't, I think, fully decided that yet. >> Great. That's amazing. >> Great. >> It's very exciting. But are we full right now? Easy now. No. [laughter] >> Um, I interviewed someone today to come forward to replace the IIA for the resignation at the last meeting and then we still have a few open. Um, but we're we're getting close. >> Okay. And your former student started as your new staff accountant. Is that
208right? >> Yes. Yes. Great. >> Yep. Ben Ben officially started today. Great. >> As our new accountant. >> Yay. had one in two months. So, I'm very excited. >> Oh, yeah. It's just been you. >> It's just been me. >> It's just been Laura. Yeah, it's back. >> Uh, so thank you to Mike and congratulations to Natalie and Ben. Great. >> Um, for donations tonight, we have two. Uh, the first is an anonymous donation to the Ozam robotics program for $1,000. And the second is an annual donation we receive, the Shelley Lockhead Trust. It goes to the library fund at the middle high school um for Donna Zaka to use as she needs to. I believe Shel Lockhead was a um library a librarian for us. >> Oh yeah. She was marvelous. Do you remember
209her? >> Yes. She had she had pretty significant glasses. She was in the library for sure. >> I think if I saw her I would remember but she's amazing. Yeah. >> That's continue to donate. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, thank you to that trustee and the anonymous Ozam donor. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Um, we have no schedule B this evening. So, um, we'll go over financials. U, the financials are in your packet. They are a draft. I will tell you I had a little bit of an issue with our einance system. Sometimes it gets a little quirky, especially when they're doing updates. And I have current year expenditure reports, but I just don't have prior year comparisons for you. So, I made it a draft. >> I will put the prior years in
210and give you those finals um in February. >> That's great. And we're looking at 355 for unassigned fund balance. >> Yep. >> Great. Okay. That's a tighter number. Okay. >> Yep. It's around 355,000. Um we keep seeing, you know, the special education available balances go down as we continue our services through the year. Um, I also just want to point out we have a new function code of 1190 for open enrollment, >> which brought about maybe the first exclamation point that's ever been used in a financial statement >> about open enrollment. [laughter] >> So excited. New bunch of code. I am because I had to redo my function key to add it in. So I am [laughter] >> It's a good time. >> Very happy. [laughter] >> Terrific. Um, food service is also trending in
211a good direction. Um, we're almost $10,000 over where we were last year. Great. >> Um, thank you to our food service staff. They're doing a really great job. Exciting. >> Um, >> we have been fully staffed also all year long, which is fantastic. Um, so I changed the projection to $95,000 loss instead of $100,000. >> Okay. >> And we'll continue to rope that one in. But thank you to Tracy and her crew. There you service. That's amazing. That's incredible. Y >> great. Awesome. I just lost my agenda. Okay. Anything else? Nothing else on the financials for tonight. >> Anything from Sue? >> No. I feel like I've talked about my goals and >> ready to head into the next round of info sessions. >> Great. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to uh accept
212the consent approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? All right. Thank you. I know it's a lot getting it all done. All right, all those in favor? >> I Any opposed? Great. We are now at our second Nope. We have committee updates. Oh my god. Okay. Uh finance, you guys met today. Anything popping there? >> We just talked about continuing to track uh savings. >> Yeah. >> Annual savings from hirings. Um and then we talked about the financials and I think that's all we talked about. >> Cool. Jazzy >> $260,000 in savings from last year's hiring. People who left and people who came, so Okay. Uh CIP. Okay. Anything new from policy that we haven't discussed? You guys just gave us a big docket. All right.
213CIA, when's your next meeting or did you just meet? You just met, right? >> We just met, so we'll meet next month. >> Great. Anything notable there? I mean, we're continuing to work on um our curriculum documents and then we'll have another demo for the a new I think the MCCAST. >> Yeah, that's what we're going to target in February. >> Cool. Uh C Security, which met today and I didn't have a telephone to call in. Uh that's my fable. Anything major there? >> Uh we talked mostly about cyber security and Mr. Stone's ability to harden our systems against such cyber attacks. >> Wow. and what happens if there is said cyber attack and who comes to our aid and the school district's adoption of a cyber response plan and the most important thing is
214if you get a suspicious email do not open it >> can I actually ask a question about that so obviously there's someone who's impersonating both Andrea and I who's sending out things about how they're in a meeting and they need help when that happens is the correct thing because we are subject to RSAs where we can't actually all communicate with each other. Do I just send a BCC email saying ignore message that was spam or like what is the best practice given that like we're getting fishing and we also can't actually contact everyone? >> Um going to look to Amy a little bit just to see what the board answer is. >> I think I can just BCC everyone right and generally just know that I will never ask you to do anything for me
215over email. It would be a phone call which >> you can contact everyone that just becomes like a public document. >> Okay. >> Like that that that is all that it needs >> and you're not making uh like you're not making a decision. >> It's just not >> on that document. Yeah. >> Like if there was a right to know saying like I want all public documents, one of the documents would be an email from you to everyone saying do not open this document and it would be this like spam email. >> Okay. request just forward it to >> I think you could blind CC everyone. I think that is an approach. >> So then you're not constituting a meeting, >> right? >> Okay. Thank you. Um wellness. >> It's just when you send those
216emails, you never want to discuss board of business because that would violate you, >> right? Yeah. Yes. Which I would Yeah, totally. Okay. Wellness. >> Great. Anything? No. Not yet. >> No. Okay. Professional development. Okay. All right. Really quickly before we go into our second public comment portion, there is a a series of slides that are in the drive. I'm really sorry. I was supposed to talk about this before and I forgot. It is about fund balance sources, uses, and strategies. Rob, uh, Amy and Laura put it together. Um, we talked about it this morning at leadership. Rob, I wanted to cut the 25 year the 2025 year as an example because it was really confusing. I think having the million dollars of article 10 be included in fund balance. So, I think we should
217talk about it more about whether or not we still include those and if there's a good way to explain that, but otherwise I think it should it should go on the website because I think it's incredibly beneficial given that we talk about unassigned fund balance literally all the time. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. It also then would be um the other thing we talked about this morning as far as the website goes are like documents that can just live on the website and not have to be updated all of the time. And this is a great example of something that could just live there and not have to be >> you wouldn't have to track it down and continue to update it >> like the glossery. >> Yeah, >> I think the last two
218slides are instructive. Yeah. >> But I think to be up without somebody who can instruct might be >> people might misunderstand, >> right? Like I looked at it and I was like, "Oh my god." >> Yeah. Um it that was created to be a presentation of the budget committee, >> right? Um, at which point I think then obviously those last two slides make a lot of sense to have there, >> right? >> And to me like the fact that the contingency is a part of that actually illuminated some information for me. >> Okay. >> Uh, so but in terms of what it is, I would agree in general, but I think that >> maybe we could make like a dummy example that could because then that is like an evergreen. >> It's a good idea.
219Yeah, because I do think it's illuminating and being able to explain it a little bit, but that's the last budget document. >> A dummy example. >> Yeah. >> Not tied to any budget. >> Exactly. >> Thank Amy and Laura for putting that together because we had talked about it from a very rough sketch. And >> you did a draft. Yeah, you did a good thing. >> Was this what came out of this the sketch? Like, >> wow. >> I don't know. >> Yep. I don't know. >> Amy's impressed. It's great. I think it's great. >> Well, all right. We are now at our second public comment portion of the evening. If you would like to come up, please state your name, address, and I ask that you keep it to three minutes. No one here,
220so I'm going to move us out of public comment. Any other business for anyone, guys? Okay. 8:23. Man, I was hoping for 7:30, but sorry, guys. We had a nice peepass presentation, uh, which was amazing. I love our students, and you guys do it. Knock it out of the park every time. Uh, we do not have a need for nonpubliclix. So, do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> So, moved. >> Definely. [clears throat] Great.