Public Hearing and School Board Meeting 9/9/25

001Suzanne Carmichael, Andrea Folsam, I'm Dulsey Matt Loma, our chair, Amy Doyle, Laura Taylor, our business administrator, Jodie Condan, the board secretary, one of our two student reps, Lucy Beardmore, cross country runner extra extraordinaire, and Matthew Stone, who will be speaking to us in just a moment. Um, we are having a uh public hearing about the withdrawal from the technology expendable trust fund. Uh, the public hearing reads, "The school board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 at 5:15 p.m. at Maple Street School Cafeteria for the purpose of gathering public input on utilizing up to $40,000 from the technology expendable trust fund for the purchase of laptop computers. At the school board meeting immediately following the hearing, the board will vote on an action item regarding the withdrawal from the technology expendable trust

002fund." Okay. Um, we have a quote in our folder for the laptops. Matt, do you want to come on up and walk us through it? >> Sure. So, as background, obviously during last year's budget process, we had originally put Chromebook replacement into the budget. Then we discussed, okay, we're going to um as we had originally talked about when we created the trust fund, replace some of the Chromebooks purchased during COVID with uh money that we saved, expecting that that would be a necessity. So, uh over the course of the summer, uh we obtained three quotes from various vendors. This was the lowest is included in the budget. Um we talked extensively at the last meeting about the purpose of the Chromebooks and how that fit into our overall plan. uh we've talked about going forward.

003The plan is that we will purchase new Chromebooks for 9th graders and then we will replace one other grade level presuming that we keep with the current plan for uh 1:1 devices and then uh yeah that's essentially the plan going forward. Obviously uh we've been working towards a more regular plan. We had a very large influ infusion of devices during co and then you know different aging out devices over the last few years. Um the only other thing is you know this was obviously delayed a little bit by trying to figure out a plan with the beltto belt policy and how that interacted with our plans. So we did delay a meeting to sort of say is this our plan going forward and I thank you for that robust discussion last week. And then obviously

004uh we've talked about a more formalized uh financial uh plan for the one to one plan going forward which will be part of the budget presentation in October. >> Other than that I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Any questions for Matt? >> I have a couple questions. Matt, it come up um kind of about what is the current process if there is um damage >> to a Chromebook and what is our current policy and how is that process followed and what can we do to make that easier. So uh essentially the policy that we done during COVID was that we would cover accidental damage and that families would be responsible for deliberate damage to the device. Um there are certainly times that you just put it in a backpack, there's a few too many

005books in there, you know, it can crack the screen. That is a risk. Uh the nice thing is about our devices, they are designed to be more repairable than some. So, I mean, a a screen replacement on the devices that we buy is four screws and one small connector. I can do it in 10 minutes, which means like Cody can do it in about three. Um, so, um, we do charge families. Um, in some cases, we've had them do, you know, community service in lie of payment for families that had financial hardship. um that is a discussion with the building administrators and since they have the closest ongoing relationship the family so we report to them they sort of decide on the consequences and and see it's followed through >> and there is a um

006so I was looking into this as well there is in the student handbook a link to the onetoone policy I think for the middle high school that outlines the expectations caring for your Chromebook consequences if you break it in monitoring. Is that correct? And that includes privacy. That includes if it's broken. >> Sure. Yeah, we do have monitoring software on the Chromebooks as we talked about last time, >> right? >> Do we issue the Chromebook with like a case? >> Yes, we do. A case, charger, and uh >> and the students are supposed to keep it in the case >> typically. Yeah. I mean, some of the most of the ones that we've done in the past are what we call a working case where it's possible to leave the device in and just open

007the case if you want or you can slide the case out. >> Um, some students this year we gave them the option of a sleeve which is a little bit smaller so it fits inside a padded backpack >> but it offers some protection. >> Okay. >> They look like little briefcases. >> I mean it's a little briefcase. Yeah. It's um >> we have a lot of kids who take them out of the case. They don't, you know, it's bulkier, but then it's not. >> Yes. So, that was kind of our thought with offering the sleeve. At least it would still have some protection that they could slide and that can go into a backpack if they don't want to carry the separate case. Mhm. But >> I'd like to see us I'm just going to

008this isn't really a proposal, but I just want to put it out there that I I would like to see us maybe tighten that up a little bit in terms of that because I I appreciate accidental, you know, us covering the accidental damage, but I also I'm going to hearken back 20 years to when I was in high school. Um, and you know, if I was issued a textbook or novel >> Mhm. >> and I accidentally spilled my small carton of chocolate milk >> on because that's what we drank. We didn't carry around massive water bottles. Um, >> I was still responsible for that $40 textbook or the, you know, $10 novel and we were issued a little slip and and we paid it and we didn't, >> you know, graduate if we didn't pay

009X, Y, or Z. Um, and I know that there are some instances of people but, you know, being held up at graduation and having to pay here, but I'm wondering, >> is there a way to tighten up that policy a little bit or and I don't know what your thoughts are? >> We can certainly try. Uh, collecting on that is a pretty big administrative overhead um that we have limited capacity on. Um, so we would have to, I think, figure that piece out if we wanted to make expand that greatly. Right now, kind of the assistant principal follows up and is in charge of doing that, which if there's a handful is doable. >> Yeah. >> If that would to become a regular thing, I think that would have to become an administrative task in

010the office where we issue invoices and follow up and um that would I I don't want to speak for them. I I don't know about the capacity to take that on at the moment, but that would be something we'd have to address in order to >> to do that. That's certainly feasible, >> right? >> I think that dovtales into like, you know, CIP does not cover necessarily expected use, maintenance, and everything else. But if I think if there is, you know, this is a big investment, I think it's reasonable to think about what's feasible at the building level, what is feasible in terms of expectations to set. Um, there's also other ways to set natural consequences that are not financial for families and students, right? We have lots of privileges if people want to get

011serious about it. Like you don't have to roster for sports. Like there's a bunch of ways to think through it. Um, I think that that is something that we think I think that that is a discussion that probably needs to happen between Matt and the building. Um, and I think yeah, as you move through, we can see where we are. Mhm. >> Or we could always move away from screens as part of our education. >> True story. >> The education would be better and it would cost us less. >> Okay. Any other board questions? >> Okay. >> All right. So, this is for this would be for 136. Part of what we talked about three weeks ago at this point would was basically that we are not we're as part of the bellto bell we're

012not replacing the entire fleet of Chromebooks right we're replacing a portion so that we can start moving away from massive bulk purchases like we did in 2020 at the start of co to a partial replacement schedule so we can start to even this out over time and not take these huge swings where we have huge chunks of technology that are aging at the exact same rate. We want to spread that out over multiple years. Any other questions for Matt? Okay. Um we are at the public comment portion of the evening. If you'd like to come up, please state your name, address, and uh please limit your comments to three minutes. >> Good evening everybody. Lauren Clement, 86 Main Street. Um, thank you Matt for clarifying what you did. That answered actually some of my questions.

013So that's uh helpful. Um, I did go back to our budget sheets that cover this year's budget and did see the notation of using the trust fund and I had questions about in the future are we going to be relying on a trust with on items that we are going to perpetually um replace or should we have them in the operating budget 1/5 and 1/5 and 1/5 so it's consistent? But I think he answered it with the whole COVID mega dump and we're trying to get that back into a rotation where that maybe is possible. That's what it sounded like to me. Um my other question was in along with the budget on top of the number of Chromebooks that you landed on, I'm seeing um under Harold Martin school replacement um laptops for teachers

0146K in the budget. Uh Maple Street School 6K in the budget. Harold Martin high or um the Hopkin Middle High School 2K in the budget and the high school 7K for a total of 21K in our operating budget. Is there intent to use the funds in the operating budget to purchase said Chromebooks before we lean on this trust? It's sitting here. I'm just confused uh or would like clarification if we plan to use our operating expenses first and in conjunction with this or are we not using our operating expenses? >> I think the operating expenses are for faculty Chromebooks and the our faculty computers and the trust that we're talking about is for student Chromebooks. So we need to provide computers also to faculty I believe Matt is that right? >> Correct. Yes. items where

015faculty also get their >> computers replaced. >> All of the budgeted numbers in here, the are faculty computers, not and not for because I don't think it's specified only specified that at um Harold Martin School. The rest >> I believe that those were for faculty. Is that correct? >> I can I can put that note in this year though, Lauren, for you. >> Okay. Well, it was on the one so I was confused about that. So, we currently don't have any replacement Chromebooks for the 960 kids in the operating budget. It's all leaning on the trust. >> Yes, >> that's not quite accurate. There were some in the budget for Chromebooks and those have been purchased >> under general supplies. Is that where that is? >> I think it am I right that it's under

016the same line that has the adjustment for the trust fund? >> I believe so. Yes. >> So, if you go back to that line that has the adjustment for the trust fund >> 60,000 >> we had 60 and we took 40 out. So there was 20,000 in there uh for Chromebooks and we have purchased those already. >> I saw the reduction. That's what the Chromebook on the slide show that you said that was for the 75 already purchased. >> Okay. >> Y >> that mouse adding up. Thank you. >> Thank you Lauren. >> Anyone else for public comment? [Music] >> Hill. So the books I guess I'm not Why do we need to have a Chromebook for each student to take home? like why don't we just have carts in the classroom so when they're

017in school there's one available for them to use then just goes back in the cart what my district does and they don't get you know there's chance of getting broken on the bus playground wherever and there's still when they're in school there's still access to one so they're never without but why do we feel the need to especially in a town that when I'm saying most of kids don't want to They want to use their own personal device. So when they go home, they have the device, but why do we have to give them one? And then going back Suzanne with you on um as far as broken, it's just like a textbook that they have right now. They're responsible for it. If they lose it, damage it, they pay the damages. And then if

018they do it in eighth grade, they don't pay until high, you know, senior year, they don't graduate. It follows them up. I don't understand the huge clerical. I don't know why we're chasing them every 15 minutes, but is it just as easier to put on the taxpayers's back than to, you know, ask the kids politely, okay? They don't pay, they don't graduate. It's pretty simple. They want that little piece of paper to go to college or wherever. It's not that it's not rocket science. But for us to pay for every screen gets cracked, it's just my thoughts. But I'm saying >> thanks. >> Um Lauren Clement again. Um, one other thing I would like to add to this, I guess, is on that notion, um, or on some of the conversation that came about the

019last meeting. Um, it would be nice to incorporate maybe phasing out some of the younger kids having Chromebooks. So, we are limiting their screen time. And it sounds like, you know, this is a today, this year thing, but when we're planning for the following year's budgets, maybe come up with a plan where students at Harold Martin are not each issued Chromebooks and we can start phasing some of that out. Um, we're clearly limiting phone time for the distraction. Obviously the computers are there for education but screen time screen time and um it'd be nice to get back to teacher books and classroom. So that I wanted to add as well there. So >> thanks. >> Okay. And with that um thank you for your comments. I will close the public hearing. We will come back

020to this as part of our schoolboard meeting in a little bit. >> Everyone good? We keep rolling. Okay. Terrific. Okay. So, Matt, are you good to roll over? >> Sorry. Do you need a minute? >> Okay. All right. Yeah. >> Hello. >> All right. We'll introduce you in such a minute. In just a minute, Kip. >> Okay. All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the September 20th meeting of the Hoffin School Board. It feels like 15minute groundhog day. Um, this is a regular meeting. I am here with Rob Nato, Jonathan Cohen, Suzanne Carmichael, Andrea Folsam, myself, Dulsey, Mad La Paloma, our superintendent, Amy Doyle, our business administrator, Laura Taylor, board secretary, Jodie Condan, student rep, Lucy Beardmore, our other student rep here for his first meeting, Kip Headquest, and Matt Stone, our technology director. Um, could

021everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. >> All right. Okay, everyone. We have two sets of meetings uh to uh approve. One for the special meeting for hiring on June 3rd, 2025. Uh, sorry, excuse me. We have three sets of meetings. We have non-public minutes for the August 19th, 2025 meeting, and we have regular meeting minutes for the August 19th, 2025 meeting. Do I have a motion for approval? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Great. All right. All those in favor? >> I All right. Motion carry. Thank you, Jody. Much appreciated. >> Um, we are now up to our first public

022comment portion of the evening. If you'd like to come up, please state your name, address, and please keep your comments to three minutes. >> All right. Um, Lucy and Kip, tell us everything that's happening. >> You can go first. >> Okay. Um, so, uh, just wanted to start with some sports updates cuz all the seasons are in full swing. Um, I believe, uh, boys varsity soccer is still undefeated. Uh, girls varsity soccer is 20 and one. Uh, field hockey, I believe, is undefeated. Um, golf is off to a strong start as well. And then girls and boys cross country both had their best finish ever at the Bobcat invite at Oyster River. >> So, yeah. >> Wow. Okay. >> All right. >> Yeah. No. Um, a lot I mean school years start off strong, I'd

023say. Um, I like the new teachers that I've met so far, which has been great. I think they did a very nice job hiring them. Uh, I know in several weeks we have, um, German, I think French exchange students coming like kind of back to back. So, that'll be, uh, fun and we'll see how that goes. But, yeah, right now things are going quite smoothly. Um, being an upper classman, I haven't noticed the like um the computer and cell phone ban too much like taking um too much an impact since we still use our computers and also um uh most of the classes I'm in uh phones weren't like a big problem beforehand and especially now with seniors being able to go home. I haven't really seen too much phone usage in school, which I'd

024say is general good thing. So, >> yeah, I'm not sure if that's something that'll come up later in the meeting, but I guess just generally, I think the phone policy is going well so far. Um, my uh experience has been much less uh phone usage, much less um sort of belly aching at the teachers because it's more of an overarching thing. So, that's good. Um, still some um, sort of phone secretive phone sneaking at lunch, passing periods. I don't know if there's any way to tighten that up. I'm not sure, but I think it's going well, >> right? >> Um, yeah, the German exchange students get here tomorrow. So, there's like around 25 um, high schoolers from the Bowden uh, Gimnazium in Lindal, Germany. Um, we pick them up at the conquered coach bus station

025tomorrow afternoon. So, their first day of school will be Thursday. >> Lucy, are you hosting one or no? >> I'm hosting one. >> Great. >> Does your German student want to come to a schoolboard meeting? >> I'm not sure if there is one while she's here. Okay. >> Don't do it, Lucy. >> Okay. >> It's an incredible thing. >> You come all the way up from Germany. You want to go to a schoolboard meeting? >> Yes. >> Seriously? >> That's right. >> An American school board. >> An American schoolboard meeting. >> Be like the US is so boring. I will um I will quickly add kudos to the high school. Uh the sign out front has a German welcome >> to our students who we saw today on my way here. Amazing. >> That's cool.

026>> Fabulous. Um Lucy, you are a junior. Is that correct? Yes. >> In Kip. Great. Terrific. All right. >> Lovely. Anything else you guys want to add? >> Um >> I don't think so. >> Have you heard anything from the lower schools? Maple Street, Harold Martin? >> Um yeah, my I mean my uh the things I hear from Harold Martin uh are from like my little brother's teachers and whatnot. Um and sounds like everything's going well there. And then uh my other younger sister Anakah who's at Maple Street right now just absolutely loves school, loves her teachers here. So I think it's going quite well with Star as well. >> Great. Great representation. Cool. Thanks guys. Um any comments from the board? Any questions for student repar before I move on? What's when is drama

027kicking off? When are when does play action get going? >> Um auditions are October 5th. Um and um yeah, I think the musical is the January 16th and 17th. Um rehearsal starts in November, late October. >> Okay. >> It's a long season. >> Long prep. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Good. Awesome. Anyone else? Oh, thanks guys. Um, board comments. Do we have any? How's everyone feeling? >> Um, just in reading the paper and thinking about all the discussions that we have about budget and our process and oversight and thinking about what's happened in Claremont and Franklin and at MP. Um, I think we should be very thankful for the diligence that the business uh office has done over the years with how things are managed and and that goes not only to this school board and

028previous school boards, but also to the town budget committee. Um, you know, we can discuss how and why and where we spend our money, but the bottom line is we are doing things properly and in an alignment. Um, and I I just I can't quite fathom how some of what I've read actually could have occurred for so long and not somebody having seen that happen. So, it's nice to work someplace and be in a town where that's not a problem. >> Agree. >> Thank you. I think I'd just like to say welcome to Keip. I think this is the first time. >> Yep. This is >> been here and to Lucy and to just take a second to thank you both. I think that our student reps are incredibly important. You're donating your time. Um,

029and you really help us communicate with the student body, which is probably the most important body. And so I just want to acknowledge you both uh being here using your time and trying to help your classmates by doing that. It's um it's good civic work and it's much appreciated. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Agree. Thank you. Thanks guys. >> I made it over to the score um robotics camp in at the end of August. I did um I was a first coach only at the Lego League. So, this was like way above my pay grade, but it was really nice to see um all the kids interacting >> with each other and then some of your uh fellow students, the high school students were mentoring and and working as counselors. So, that was I thought

030a really nice opportunity for the older students too to work with the younger students and um shout out to Charlene because it seems like a great program. I'm a little envious of their massive space, right? But it was really cool to see the robots and the kids doing the coding. >> Yeah, it's fun. >> Can I just add the um OSAM team will be here on October 21st. You'll be able to >> shout out. I don't know if they're going to bring the robot. >> They usually do and they do like fun stuff over here. October 25th. >> Okay, great. I'll be here. >> Anything for you? >> Uh I just wanted to uh thank and congratulate Amy on a successful like you've started the school year. You opened. We didn't explode. Great job. Thank

031you to our principles. You guys also opened and we didn't explode. And I think everyone's like happy and excited and we made it. Like I think the beginning of the school year is always really difficult though. Seriously, the emotions are always running high. Um and it can be a tough time for kids and parents and caregivers and teachers. Um but folks should be really proud of themselves um making it through. >> Thank you guys. Um yeah, and I would also add just a couple things. One is we had some pretty exciting traffic uh for return to school between the new traffic pattern in Hopington, repaving of 103 and Hopington Village, uh what's happening right here outside of Maple Street, having um a bus driver out and consolidating. So, um, thank you to everyone from both

032the town side and the school side and this the district transportation side who I think and parents who I think have worked to, I think, make it as successful as possible and um, a complex world where the fair is also happening. So, thank you to everyone. Um, in addition, I was reflecting about how we have returned to school. Welcome, Amy. Uh, I just want to include a shout out to our ESY teachers. Um, I think everyone hopefully knows this, but there is school that happens throughout the summer. um is a lot of our teachers keep teaching all year and that's pretty incredible. I also want to include a shout out to um the Hopington Rec Department who carries a lot of our students through various camps all summer and it's not for every kid. They're

033not doing a thousand kids necessarily, but there's a lot of Hopington students who go through summer with both being in the Hopkins schools and leveraging town recreational um uh activities. And it's it's wonderful to see everyone just sort of stick with the be which is great. Thank you everyone. All right. Anything? Great. All right. Okay. This is the moment we've been waiting for. We are here tonight with the spring 2025 girls track and field champions. It's kind of a big deal. Do you guys want to come and tell us all about your season, please? Hi, I'm George Sable, the head track coach of our Hopkin High School track team. Um, we are backto back state champions, which is awesome. Um, three out of the last five years state champions, which is incredible. And the previous

034time was 2010. So, we had a little drought until these young ladies came on board. And I'd like you to come on up, Maddie. We have Maddie Lane who is Newton England champion at 3200. First time ever for our school. And I hope that we can put some kind of banner up there on the wall for Maddie. >> There are some banners up there for, you know, thousand point scorers basketball, but I'd love to see a banner up there for Matty Lane being a New England champion. Come on up, please. >> Come on, Maddie. >> Okay. Um, well, I didn't prepare anything to say in particular, but um, yeah, it was a really awesome season. We had like so many seniors on the team, so it was really like important to us that we were

035able to win states and we all worked super duper hard to get there. And so it was just like a really fun experience for not only me, but I also think everyone else on the team, especially the seniors who then graduated and and then some of us made it to and then New England. So yeah, it was just a really fun fun time and I'm really like proud of everyone on the team for helping us get that state championship. Amazing. Wait. All right. Wait, wait. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about the composition of the rest of your team for this year? >> Yeah. Um we have so for cross country we have um 15 people on our girls team and we have a bunch of freshmen maybe seven possibly six maybe. Um

036so it's been really cool to get to know a bunch of new people and have a bunch of new people on our team. We did really well at the Bobcat Invitational this weekend. Um, so I'm assuming that a lot of those girls will also do track in the spring, which should be really good for our team because or our distance team especially because we'll have a lot of new people and obviously the freshman class is really big, so we should have a lot of new people and I'm really excited of course. So, >> um, [Laughter] >> and for track and field, what percent do we have anyone who's doing field still? Like the field events or is it primarily track? >> We have a bunch of people doing field. Um, field >> people over there

037do >> what is it? Well, what field event? >> Oh, um discus shot foot. >> Oh, javelin. >> Javelin. Yeah, we have long jump, triple jump, high jump, >> all the all the >> All the jumps. Amazing. >> All the nice. I love that. >> Any Sorry, any other questions? >> I always ask this is mad for you or favorite part about track? Least favorite part about track? Um, least favorite part about track is having to do workouts on the gravel. I would say that's sometimes a little bit difficult, but favorite part is just having a big team where I can talk to a bunch of different people and get to know people and see how other people are doing at their events and because we all do different things. So, it's really cool. >>

038Rest of the team. I think about getting that injury last years. >> Oh. >> um but I think my favorite part about track is going to meet and being able to watch everybody else and do really well. Even if some people don't do very well, usually as a team we get a pretty high score, usually at least the top five, which makes me really proud to be a part of that team. Some of my close friends aren't winning or getting a top five score. My team is getting and that the bus ride home. So, it's just so and we're all so excited because we just did so good and I think that's fun. >> It's amazing. >> My favorite part is just having like a record to beat for myself like PR. Um it's a

039great feeling when you get a PR. You know what you're trying to be and I love the team vibe of the track. They're all really close. There's no like drama. It's all just fun. And my least favorite part is >> Story. >> Here you go. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah, I agree with my favorite part. >> You're always doing an event and usually like the longest last maybe 15 minutes or especially if you're doing it last long. You can do a lot of time. >> Amazing. >> Love that. >> Anything else? >> Amazing. Thank you, ladies. Can we take a picture? >> Yeah. Thanks, guys. >> Are you going to take a photo? Need to go see the picture. >> Did we go up? >> Uh, no. Okay. Just >> Yeah, I guess. Okay, >>

040just in case [Music] >> anywhere we can come in a little bit. Bring your ends in. a little bit big. There we go. Thank you. Three, two, one. Hold on. >> 3, two, one. Okay. >> Sorry. Thanks. Okay. Jeez. >> All right, ladies. Uh, thank you so much. Good luck out there if you're running cross country. Okay. >> Civics. >> Great. Welcome. >> Terrific. >> All right. We ready? >> Yes. >> Guys, this is one of my favorite parts of every meeting. We have our principles here. Uh, let's go in order. Patrice, want to open it up? >> They also look excited. >> So excited. real deep. [Music] >> Good evening. >> Hello. >> First board meeting of the year. Fantastic. >> All right. Um in the packet you'll see I highlight a lot of

041really great stuff that's been happening at Harold Martin. You mentioned it a little bit to start. We had a very busy summer. Um we had Maple Street at Harold Martin this summer for ESY. That's the first time we've been combined. Um it was great fun. Dr. Sonia and I had a blast being together. Um, it was hard to separate us at the end of it. Um, but the kids really enjoyed it as well. Um, we had the Harold Martin kids downstairs, the Maple Street students upstairs. They got to go outside during snack and recess together. They did some uh readers theaters, so they were performing for each other. It was a really great learning experience for everyone. I think the staff really liked being together so that they could see different strategies and different techniques

042and really just a refresh of working with different people. So that was nice. Um we also did a ton of facilities and building work this summer. Huge shout out to our custodians uh Mr. Rosiki, Mr. Stone for all their work. Uh we had taken down some trees on the dinosaur side of the building um that were dangerous last spring. So, I also need to give a shout out to Dustin Rose and Miss Hino who brought over additional bark mulch and spread that out so that we can make an outdoor learning space there. We're working on getting some of the picnic tables from Maple Street that they're not using over to Harold Martin so that classrooms will have a space outdoors to like learn on the opposite side. Um, Mr. Mr. Demirus is working on putting

043up a little bit of a fence there to block the playground so that it's not distracting um for students and really just trying to use our space the best we can. So, that was really a great addition. Um we also installed the Raptor visitor management um system in the front vestibule which has been a lot of fun. Um if you have not tried it, I suggest you come over. You put your license in front of the machine and it scans the front and the back of your license um to check your security and then it asks you to take a selfie which is hilarious because it's a different like angle than you want to put your license in. So, we've been watching people like standing and trying to get and then like some people smile,

044some people don't. Um it kind of looks like a mug shot. If you don't smile, I would suggest you smile. Um and then it prints out a badge of where you're going and checks you in. Um, and that has been really nice. Um, it had a little bit of a learning curve for us, but I will say that everyone's been really respectful. I was a little nervous of in the vestibule, you know, having like the technology out there. Um, but the kids have been fine. They walk right by it. They don't even think anything of it. Um, so that's been really great. So, that's been a nice addition. They also started work today on putting some gates um around the parking lot. really just trying to work on reducing traffic driving by small children which

045is really hard at Mr. Martin because we've got one way in and one way out and when that's about it. Um but we use that back playground pretty regularly. Um so when we have cars driving down there, a ball runs out, someone chases after it, it becomes a problem. We've also had instances in the past where you know someone picks up a rock and throws it and a car is driving by and hits it and that becomes a different piece too. So really just working on those pieces. I will say that um this year we asked preschool families to arrive at the end of arrival towards 7:55 and that has helped out significantly in the morning during arrival. Um in the past few years families who are pregnant for preschool will pull in and park.

046Sometimes they would see staff members coming out or kids getting out of cars or they would be reversing in and we wouldn't know it. So, it got really complicated and we just decided for the interest of safety to ask them to come later and that seems to be working really well. So, we've done a lot of those changes. Um, the other big change is every elementary school student has a bag tag now that says where they're going after school for their default plan. So, if their default plan is bus 95, they've got a little pass that says their name, the bus number, and um where they're going. is especially helpful for our students who come to Maple Street either for the afterchool program or to parent pickup. That way staff, Dr. Synonyi and herself can

047help grab a pass. They know their name, they know where they're going, and we can go from there. We've also been giving the bus drivers attendance list to check on the attendance. Um, it slowed us down the first few days, but now that we're into the habit, we're getting much faster. Um, and I expect that to go even faster. But this is really helping the staff of the bus staff knows the names of the kids. We know who's on the bus. Um, and then they're checking them as they get off. So, that's been really helpful as well. So, um, it took a little bit of extra work in the beginning, but we got there. Um, and then we'll be laminating car signs now that our laminator has been fixed. So, that is our next step.

048We just had to wait for the laminator man to come, but he arrived. Um, let's see. Opening school. We had 13 new students move in this year. So, that's um, actually on par with right around where we were last year. Um I think it was five in first grade alone which is just an interesting like they got a lot of new students for first grade. Um and we registered 55 kindergarten students. So um overall things have been exciting and enthusiastic and a lot of new energy. We welcome six new staff members to the building. So it really feels a little different this year. Um, and it's a lot of excitement, a lot of people who want to be there. I laugh when I say I, you know, I brought on six new staff members cuz

049four of them were in our building in some form or another previously. So, we had, you know, people who were IAS who became teachers or who left and went back to school and came back as teachers. So, it's really great that when we've already put time um and working with these staff to have them return in different roles has been really nice. Um, we also returned back to having um a student support specialist at Harold Martin, which is nice. Sarah Duval has moved into that role and is really hit the ground running. She's coordinating with Maple Street around paperwork and processes and really trying to streamline those pieces. So, that's been a really nice addition as well. And then finally, we did um our kindergarten orientation for the first two days. And we had Mr.

050Aaron, who is like a local um instrumental, composer, musician, um, come for two days. He was great. The kids loved him. They all ran around next year. We're really hoping that we can have him come back and also include some other people. We had some ideas of people who do like local workshops with kids that we wanted to invite, but it was like too late this year, so we're like next year we can add on to that. Um, and that was really great and fun. Um, and then we had the kindergarten um, pizza party this past Friday. Um, and I'd say about 90% of our families were able to come and enjoy um, a thank you to Riverside Pizza for getting us pizza at, you know, a very nice rate for us. That was lovely.

051Um, and they delivered it, which was fantastic. And the big pizza oven things. I mean, it's it's a lot, but um, they did a really nice job. So, that was really fun. Um, kids were excited this year. We did the pizza um a few days after the orientation. So the kids have been in their classroom. So they were really excited to show off like this is their space and this is what they've done and look there's a bulletin board about me and here is what my teacher knows about me. So that was really nice. Um and then first through third grade we had the ice cream open social. So they were ready to go and in those rooms. So it was overall a great start to the school year. Coming up, we have uh picture

052day on October 15th and then the annual Halloween parade will be on actual Halloween because that'll be Friday. So, we are are we ready for that? >> That's perfect. Amazing. >> Questions? >> Any questions? >> I have I have a raptor question. >> Yes. >> So, is there something that would flag raptor like we don't you're not allowed here? Like, do bells go off? Does the trap door open? >> Trap door. Yep, definitely. I installed that myself. No. Um so it runs against all the lists of um you know people who should not be able to enter the building and then an alert goes out um and it actually goes out to multiple people. So not just in our building and this was one of the conversations of the team we had we wanted to

053make sure that somebody else knew because like if it was a really like you don't want the only people there know right so we want somebody else to know as well. It goes to Miss Doyle I believe or someone at the SAU I think it's you. Um, and so we have multiple notifications. It hasn't happened yet. I' we just screened to every contractor who's come in and every parent who's come in for IEP meetings. Like everyone is stopping. I we were joking today like when you go to the doctors, they say like arrive 15 minutes earlier for signin and we're like maybe we should start sending that out when we say come in for an IP meeting like arrive 15 minutes early. So that you're here on time, you found parking and you took your

054selfie. But yeah, >> awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> there's a follow-up to So if you've done it once, do you need you do you do it every single time then? >> So you can do it every single time or if you're like a volunteer who comes in constantly, there's a way to set you up as a safe person. >> Nice. >> Um we have not got to that part yet being new. Um I don't know that anyone's had to do it more than once yet because I don't know, it's kind of like a repeat customer, but um it's been nice. Our contractors too, I have to give them a lot of credit. They were no problem at all. They're like, "Yep, sure." and they're, you know, posing for their selfie. So, it's

055great. >> Great. >> I a totally separate question. So, I was wondering if you had any impacts um from the bell-to-bell policy at all. We have not actually um really been impacted. We have several students who have um different like gizmo watches and things like that, especially in the third grade. Um, but you can put those in school mode and families have been really great about putting those in school mode. Okay. So, we haven't had any problems with that. I guess the only problem is if you put it in school mode, you have to like take it. You can't like it doesn't automatically come out at three. So, I think like the kid has to do something. Someone was explaining that to me and I was like, I don't I don't know. So, it's all

056during the day. That's what I was happy about. So, >> thank you. So, so do you know or Matt maybe you know this the raptor when there's an image taken do any third parties have access to those images >> just raptor itself which has you know appropriate privacy protection in place right or something like that or >> so Raptor is a private company that would hold the images on their server on their whatever storage and then as long as they're secure then no one else has access to that. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Great. I want to come to the Halloween parade. >> It's so adorable. If you've never been, >> can I? You really? >> I haven't been since Maddie was slipping. >> It's the cutest thing ever. >> The staff get really

057into it as well. We We made it a staff competition of who which grade level can have the best costume and there's a trophy so they don't each other what costumes are and they come out full force. >> They're they're in. It's a lot. We'll connect. That's amazing. >> That's great. And it's nice that Halloween is on the 31st. That's really nice for teachers. >> I mean, I'm really excited about it. >> Yeah. Just saying they will not have to deal with the Halloweenover. >> Teacher conferences the next day, so that was like, but we didn't have kids of sugar, so that worked for us. So, >> awesome. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Patrice, thank you. Sorry. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Instead of having a roster of food right in front of me.

058not good for anyone. >> So, we always have a conversation. How how long you going to talk? Like how long it's gonna be? >> Oh, for you? >> Yeah, I'm usually I'm usually the quicker one. >> I see. >> Um, but thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um, so thank you for having us. Um, I want to echo a few things that Patrice said. First of all, having ESY in one location really streamlined transportation, >> kid buses for much less time. It was really great to have everybody together. It worked really well. like the tree said, we were both there. Um, so possibly that's something we do moving forward. Um, some facilities projects that were done at Maple Street. Um, they buried some propane tanks in the back and we are putting on the, uh, final

059touches of a shiny new boiler. We're very excited for that. I told Mr. Rziki I wouldn't give any more details not to steal his thunder when he's here on the 23rd. >> That's right. >> Um, we also uh welcome some new staff members. Charlene Barry, Kate Griffin, Selene Gordon, and Dylan Castle all joined us. Um, they are veteran educators. They come with a wealth of knowledge. We're extremely lucky to have them join us. Also, Crystal Corass and Hannah Wood are former subs turned instructional assistants. They are wonderful, and it is a beautiful thing to say that I am fully staffed. Um, a few changes in positions. Mrs. Merryill is overseeing the student support center. Mrs. MNA is the instructional assistant in the student support center. It has worked out beautifully. Mrs. Ma does a lot

060of the proactive steps. She does daily check-ins with students. She gives breaks to students. Um pretty much anything they need. She processes with them and it's all proactive pieces to really prevent behavior before it happens. Um the beginning of the school went smoothly as Patrice said and as everyone is aware we did have some busing issues combined with the construction in town. It's a little difficult to tease out what was what, but we're getting more efficient each day. Um the tags that her students come off the bus with are wonderful. I was able to get a student to where they needed to be today with the tags. As always, I ask students what the beginning of the school year was like because I want to hear from them. And my most favorite was I'd like

061to know where morning recess went from the fourth from an incoming fourth grader because they had it at Harold Martin and he like said it over his shoulder as he was getting on the bus at the end of the day. But >> we all >> comments from students. >> Wasn't my son, was it? >> No, it's a fair question. It's a big adjustment. >> Yeah. No, it is a big adjustment. >> Yeah. >> Um artists and residents, I usually stand before you and say what we're doing for artists and residents. Unfortunately, the funding was cut. Kim uh usually wrote a grant through the New Hampshire State Council for the Arts. We are currently looking for alternative funding sources. Um we'll continue doing that. This um experience we could certainly offer in the spring and it

062was for an artist to do a mural with students both here and at Harold Martin. The UNH Stemmobile is going to visit in October. My daughter is a biology student at UNH and she was telling me about the STEM mobile. It is a mobile bio fabrication lab that comes to schools. It is staffed by students and a professor. They bring all of the materials. It is completely free and it introduces students to the STEM field and biofabrication. We are super excited. Everything they do aligns with the next generation science standards. So they are coming um over two days. the 17th and the 24th. It'll be a combination of classroom instruction and then students get to go out and see the lab and see the equipment. So, we're really excited for that. Um, we're going to

063start fall as web testing September 22nd as we do every year. Mr. Levergood asked that I give a shameless plug. 115 students, well over half of the student population is involved in bandon chorus. So that breaks down into 58 concert band students, 40 beginning band students, and 60 chorus students. So picture 60 students in this room singing. >> Um, also just to echo what Patrice said about the safety improvements, we will also have a gate. It will be alongside the school right here outside Kim Emerson's room. We would just like families to know the gate will be closed between 8:15 in the morning and 2 o'lock in the afternoon. Um, the way handle deliveries and things like that if they will call ahead and a custodian will go out. Also, with the Raptor system, it's

064it's different. We're asking parents to bring in their ID with them. If they could also remember that, we would appreciate it. I also stand before you and give you the count of how many families have done their yearly Aspen update or updating information. Um, I'm so old. It used to be a piece of paper you sent home and your parents filled it out. Well, it's Aspen now. We heard from 58 families. I ask that all the families please complete that. It's very important to have up-to-date emergency information. That's what I have for you. >> Wonderful. Any questions for Dr. Sony? >> Do you know how like approximately how much the artisan residence like what's like how much was cut or what what's the cost of that or how much? >> You have to look. She

065does a budget every single year. I do have that. I can get that to you. >> I'm just curious. What's interesting is that grant would match it. We would do a combination of school funds and the grant, but in the six, this year was going to be the sixth year, they were going to cover all of it. And then we heard that it was abruptly cut. >> Yeah. >> I know like the PTA would give about $1,000 towards the artisan residence program annually. >> I'm just kind of curious what the total >> Yeah. It wasn't It wasn't huge. >> Not huge. And it's schools. >> Yeah. It was maybe $2 to $3,000 somewhere. >> So it seems like >> and the artist themselves like they're very generous. They really reduce the cost of what it

066would be to come out >> um just to provide this experience to students. >> I I have her budget and I know Kim was here earlier. It looks like total it was about $6,500 >> that they were hoping to have from your principal funds and then a,000 from the PTA. >> Um, but a lot was coming from the grant. Almost $3,600. >> Oh, but that's still >> still seems attainable. >> And and like Dr. Sony said, we have, you know, we still have a good relationship with that artist. I mean, Kim did say this, we really feel like it's a short-term um pause, hoping that the funding would come back or we would be able to be once we got the school year going be able to look at are there some funds available for

067another way to fund it. >> But we still have a connection with that the artist and I think we still have a a shed at Herald and uh >> yeah, >> you know, whatever. What were you going to mural here? The >> the shifying sheds. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Excited about the STEM mobile. >> I know it's amazing. >> Also would like to dress. >> I know. >> Um well, welcome back like we never left. Um the the the summer was a busy summer uh as we prepare to open the building. Again, I just want to thank Jim and his staff for all the work they're doing in our school. If you haven't had a chance to walk the buildings, I know some of you were there to meet the

068teachers tonight. The fourth floor is really nice with all the painting that they've done and upgrades that he continues to do in his faculty. So, uh it it was just a great summer just to see that all come together. So, thank you to Jim and his staff. Um our seventh grade summer transition activities I thought went well. It was a part two, you know, just of our key wins. Um, as you may have heard, Beth Stern had secured the grant from the public schools foundation to bring the bound the Brown Center to do some activities uh before the start of school with our seventh grade uh students. We had 98% participation there. So, that was wonderful to see them do these different team building activities. Um and then then we follow that up the next

069day with our seventh grade. Again, about 90% um of our students attending that event. So our hope was that our seventh grade really felt comfortable coming into the building with some team building activities and then having day to meet with their teachers and do some get to know you activities and things along those lines. I think our seventh graders are settling in really nicely. Um and just a really polite group of kids as we've got know some of the comments that we get pretty how nice they are to work with and how thankfully they are just being in school. So kind of building up a work community at the middle high school. Um you know another key win for us from a school counseling perspective is just making sure they have all their schedules before

070the end of school and then again seventh grades they get four schedules u by the time they start school. Uh, I was really impressed with one of our students that had the original schedule that we gave them back in the spring before they left. Um, so that is not seen very often. I don't know if I've seen that in 20 years there. So, uh, it was really nice to see that they were holding on to that. Um, from a teaching perspective, again, fully staffed. Uh, that is not the case at at many high schools or middle schools across the state. Just had a principal meeting last week at NHIAA. Um, and there's a lot of principles still looking for staff. Uh we are still looking for one instructional assistant uh at the middle high school.

071Um but we continue to look for that. Um but we are in great shape from from a staffing perspective including finding full-time subs for several teachers that are on the returning leave. Um and I also want to take the opportunity to thank Carrie and Michelle Cler. Um as we were getting closer to the start of school, we were having difficulty finding someone to take over the seventh grade math position that we needed to find. So I had to really think outside the box. gave Carrie a call one day and say, "Hey, what do you think about uh would it be possible to share Michelle Conor?" Michelle's been doing a great job stepping in and I just appreciate the the the ability to work with them principally problem solve solution oriented in that respect just to

072get somebody to give instruction uh to the seventh graders as they start the eighth graders they start school really important. Um some current challenges that we continue as I mentioned the IIA position uh Hley Squib has been doing a great job as our new u chair managing those IIA schedules. So even though we have a position open uh we're still able to meet the needs of those students on those IEPs with a lot of different creative ways to be you know supportive of those students. Um, as we get into the school year, you know, some of the priorities outside the building goals that we have and things that Amy and I continue to talk about, um, as I may have mentioned earlier last spring, you know, we're we're preparing for the NASDAQ self study. Um,

073Kate Cros and Best D are my building coordinators for that process. So, the three of us have had a meeting in the already as we prepare for October 10th. um Allison Puri who is the director of the ask session to come and do a dayong training with us and that's really the starting point for us for our self um and uh we'll we'll be devising groups um we'll be splitting the faculty up into five groups and each group will be in charge of overseeing one of those five standards. Um and I look forward to you know going more in depth as we get down the road of that. Um but I I feel we're in a really good spot to jump off of that process. Um, so I've done an overview with the faculty of

074what that's going to look like as we go through that. Um, so this time next year, October 27th through the 28th, we have a two-day visit. Um, it's a collaborative visit. They'll come in and take a look at our self study and what we're reporting out and then give us some suggestions to work on for the following two years when they come back two years later in December of 2028 to do a full visit. So, it's a two-year process, but it's spread out. So it's not as condensed. Um it'll be a little my hope is that it's a little not as stressful for our faculty. Um as you may have seen through parent square communication is also part of that process is to um start collecting feedback from our students families and from our staff

075the staff continue opinion survey. Uh on September 15th, our high school students and middle school students will do a student survey uh in their advisory. In the middle school, they're doing late basically well English classes, but we'll have all the students done. Um and also we'll be sending out that survey to families this weekend as well so we can start collecting that feedback as well. So well underway there. Um high school student uh school counselors have been busy um with getting our seniors ready for the college application process. So they spent uh much of the afternoon on Monday with navigating the future with our seniors. Um Kip, you know, was there. Um we had five, six different schools that were there as well. Man, Manchester Community School, Rivier, Plymouth, uh UNH, they were there. They

076had a chance to break up groups and meet with the kids really just to help get them kickstart in that process of the application process. Uh I really it's a great afternoon to get some of those students involved in that process. Uh there are times we're meeting with NHTI, they get accepted right there on the spot as well. Um so they're going to continue that process uh this Thursday uh where they're inviting parents in and they're going to give some of that same same information there about the college application process and how to run that uh for financial aid uh through grant debates. So they'll be coming in. Um so Daniel and Jeff are doing a great job with that work. Um and so we're we're looking forward to that. Last comment was the exchange

077programs that they already spoke about. So, uh, it's busy. We're just hit the ground running. So, happy to answer any questions of other pieces that are on the board. >> Yeah, I don't so much have a question. It's just when I read your report on the the NAP testing. >> Yeah. I just read an article this morning, and this is isn't really about Hopington, but that nationally uh 12th graders, they just uh released data that 12th graders scored the lowest on reading since 1992 >> and in math since 2005, and that only one-third of high school grads are graduating with the reading and math skills necessary for college. So, um >> in the times Uh it was just this morning. So I just know that you know our district is doing pretty well. Um but

078I think it's important to keep our eye on the ball that that that um you know it's very easy for in other places standards are not quite so high and achievement is not quite so good and that's not serving anyone really well. So just a comment. >> Yeah. No I appreciate it. We were supposed to do the name test last year. They cancelled rounds. So they were really clear for a little while. Not so much. And they're they're making some adjustments to the New Hampshire testing. So we'll continue to take a look at that. >> Have a question. >> No question. >> What? >> The free night. >> We should. >> Um I have a question. >> Yeah. How many students do we have? So we have the two pathways to graduation. How many students

079do we have in the um alternate pathway? >> Alterate pathway. >> Um so we just graduated. So we're at three. >> Okay. >> Um and is communication around that like continuing to happen at like seventh grade? I think it happened last year. >> Studies when the school counselors don't want to talk with the eighth graders when they do that transition is discussed there as well. >> Great. Um sometimes it'll be it may be discussed in you know um IP meeting as an option when we're doing some early transition discussions. >> Um but it's not a popular option for kids but it is an option there for us to think about if we're trying to think about an alternate way to keep students engaged between the school and the >> keeps coming to us too. >>

080Okay. And how is our CRTC enrollment? Like are we able to send as many kids as we want? Is it limited again this year? >> On the first day of schools year. Great. >> So, um, you know, last year kind of what hurt us was they closed down one of the two classes for automotive. >> Yeah, >> that's always a problem. >> So, um, the number of students were able to send it that program was limited. It's always treated pretty well. >> Okay. >> Because, you know, our kids are successful there. And, um, it's never a guarantee that you go back a second year. you have to perform well in the first year years ago when I first started at conquered high in my career. Um it was guaranteed you come back >> right >>

081but that program is so popular that that you have to show that you're able to perform >> great that's showing your value. >> Awesome. And lastly, what are the midterm the midterm assessments for kids for grades for if they can continue with sports >> to continue with sports? >> Yeah. Don't they don't you basically have to submit like that you're doing okay in your grades to to stay? >> Yes, that would be also the grade verification checking in. So that will be um like at the very end of those fall sport season before we start mid November. >> Okay, cool. >> Awesome. Sorry. Anything else? >> Die brought up CRTC. I mean, were most kids who applied for CRTC, did they get in? Like, what's our percentage of kids that apply and get in versus

082kids that >> we're we're over 95% of kids that get accepted. >> And again, those kids that don't get accepted, it's a numbers game. >> Yeah. So, in the past, they used to when I was working with Bren Joy when she used to counsel, they would give us the number of seats >> and we will guarantee those seats. We're no longer guarantee those seats. because again they're looking at the kids that have success that >> and they're trying to expand that too to accept more sophomores from different schools right now just the way our schedule works it's not very conducive to sophomores >> how's the see now you said I'm going to ask more questions how's the the time alignment of our course schedule to them like I know it used to be kids would

083miss 20 minutes 30 minutes is that until it's a scenario. Yeah. >> So, we try to get creative around like when first second lunch is for some of those classes, first second break is to try to minimize that, but it's not there's there's no easy way to do that. Not unless we're going back to the old days, >> right? >> We were able to get things you can't do that. >> Thanks, Chris. >> You're welcome. I would just like to say that I think that these are great principles reports you guys. I think that they should be published like for everyone to see because I think it's a great snapshot into what's happening at our schools as we open the doors. So, thank you. Great. Am I good? >> Okay. I figured. All righty. Um

084next up, we're going to talk about enrollment, right? Yeah. >> Okay. So, there should be a memo in the board folder. Um can you talk a little bit about what what we do to look at enrollment? Why do we report enrollment? Who do we send this to? >> Yeah, so um enrollment is something that we track as we head into budget season and you know typically we get some projections from NES and we also use our own internal information. Um right now as of September 5th we have 911 students enrolled. That is down from last year. Um, but the number that we report to the state for all of our adequacy pieces comes on October 1st. So, we'll continue to, you know, update you and and ensure that, you know, that you have the most

085accurate numbers as we headed into budget season. You know, one of the most challenging things is that you'll notice that we're we're down about 24 students districtwide. Um, but it's really, you know, looking at different grade levels. It's not isolated just in in one particular building or one particular grade level. Um, so we just have to carefully look at things like class size. Um, making sure that we're budgeting and procuring the right amount of of materials and staffing. Chris does a really nice job in he's already gone in the in the high school counseling office just to try to see, you know, if we have a departing high school student, where are they going? Um, and why could that be? Uh, we have a handful of kids that went to Proctor and and we know

086that they are pursuing, you know, other opportunities uh beyond the high school. We had several move not just out of the state but also out of the country. Um so we've had some people, you know, that are are are leaving. We also have had a fair amount of of enrollments, you know, since we put this information together, we've had two new enrollments just this week. So, I really feel like as we look for the October 1st number, we're we're pretty tight about that because that's what gets reported. Um but this is a really a dynamic number that we look at over the course of the year. Um, and sometimes projections are hard. You know, projections at kindergarten are particularly tricky because, you know, kindergarten in New Hampshire is not compulsory. And so, you just don't

087know if if folks are going to send their student here. Are they going to continue another year at their uh certified daycare center? We have folks that go to Woodside, um, you know, Emerson, you know, other other programs that are better aligned to that, you know, early learning schedule. Um, and then also we have kids that, you know, make decisions to go to Dairy Field or or Proctor as I mentioned. So, we'll continue to monitor it and and give you an update from time to time. Great. But I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about it. >> My only question is if we have any sense um what role Education Freedom Accounts played in perhaps losing some students that might have stayed without that funding. Yeah, I mean it is a really good

088topic of discussion and a lot of superintendent look at the report that the DOE puts out. I mean they put out all sorts of information and people um you know apply for education freedom accounts for all sorts of reasons. Removing the income cap I think has been tricky for this first goound to really drill into because this could be families that their student never came to a public school. So they're not necessarily leaving us uh to you know to do an education freedom account and go to a private school. Uh so I do think over the next couple of sessions years reports that the DOE comes up we'll be able to track that. Um certainly those are opportunities that families as I said they can go to a private school or religious school or home

089education. You know it is their their choice and you know as their local you know public school. We've als I've also had people reach out um wanting to participate in our sports wanting to participate in some of our um specials or elective courses and and certainly we're open to that. We want to partner with all of the families and community members that we have. >> Does the DOE report that out by town school districts in terms of the amount of EFAS that have been? >> Yes, but I mean it is tricky. Sometimes under the former commissioner um home education parents didn't necessarily have to inform their local school district. They really had to they had the option of either letting them know directly or reporting it to the schools. And so it's hard for us

090to know if those home education students, we we may not know that they're they actually live here um because they may or may not have reported it to us. Um those that do, we do a a nice job. Um you know, Jody manages that and keeps track of those families um because we want to continue to be in in communication with them. Some families decide to come back from home education or one of these other schools at particular grade levels. High school, you know, they get to the point that was pretty common. I was a math teacher. We would have an influx of people coming. I' I've reached my capacity teaching algebra 1. You know, I I would not like to teach chemistry in my home. So, but now they have more options with VAC.

091So, yes, the Department of Education publishes that. you can see EFA accounts uh on their site through FY22. Um and so you can see this year where numbers have gone up. Um I will say that the trend lines do look like in um communities that potentially have sent higher numbers of students to public schools. those numbers have gone up because now those uh non-income cap um families are now accessing EFAS to pay for that uh that private school uh which we will continue to see what that looks like. >> Yeah, I mean certainly um what I have read is that the so far the majority of the people getting that that money are people that already had kids at school. So it's uh help them with the cost but not necessarily taking kids out of

092the >> roles. I did have a question. Um the if someone is sending their child to a private religious school and they want to participate in sports here, what are the is that open to anybody that lives in town? Are there criteria? Like what's the what's the mechanism because you had mentioned that? >> Yeah, I mean we actually have a few kids that are on some of our teams right now. U middle school does get a little bit tricky. We do need to clean that up, I think, a little bit. Um, we have seventh and eighth graders that, you know, they can try out for our middle school sports and if they make the team, they're welcome to join. Sixth grade is a little more dynamic. It really depends on, you know, what I've understand

093from our athletic director on the numbers um because it is a a smaller team to field and so they do prioritize participation of seventh and eighth graders. Um, so it's more about your grade, not your where where you go to school. Um, but middle school sports, we do have, you know, some students that go to a private religious school and they still participate in our sports. >> And so if they wanted to participate, they could. >> They they could. >> Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the process there is to really reach out uh to our athletic director, you know, they could reach out to Chris Kelly, they could reach out to me. Um, there is a process. Um, Matt does have to put them into our system. He gives them a student ID uh so that

094they can pay their their athletic fees through my school bucks. um and get registered that way. We still have to have a way to track them and make sure that when they're with us. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Great. Thank you. Any other questions about enrollment? >> All right. Thanks, guys. All right, guys. I'm hoping we are rounding the corner and approving our schoolboard goals. We talked about these at our retreat in July. We discussed these and read through each of them at our last meeting, the second week meeting in August. Um, everyone has them. Does anyone have any I don't want to reread them because we read rere we read them I think on the 19th unless everyone really wants me to do that. Uh, does anyone have any questions, additions, comments, or are

095we feeling good about approving them? >> Feel good about approving them. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve our schoolboard goals for the 2025 2026 school year? >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. All any discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I Okay. Um, a couple notes on this. Uh, historically, we have gone back. We will post these on the website. They were dropped into our minutes from the last meeting. These will be something that we reference. We will try for it in December, but usually that's pretty busy with budget. So I would say we will revisit it in January, probably March after the annual district meeting and towards the end of the year um in terms of checking in in terms of how we are doing. Are we supporting our goals?

096Is this coming out through our committee work? Are we getting feedback from administrators in the district about how we're doing? So um I think it's important to keep talking about them. I am someone who revisiting things help me focus on the work. Um so we'll bring them up from time to time. Also, Amy will be presenting on a draft of her superintendent goals at our next meeting, which I think is pretty exciting, and I know that everyone's been working through building level goals as well. So, >> um should be a fun time. I'm excited for the work this year. It's a varied group of things that we're setting out to do. Okay, next up, technology. Uh we have coming back to the technology hearing follow-up. Um there is a link in here for the caring

097for your Chromebook section of uh what's linked out from the HP middle high school um >> handbook. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh and I am going what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the motion and then uh we will discuss it and then we will see where the vote takes us. Does that sound good to everybody? Great. Okay. So, do I have a motion to uh to ex utilize up to $40,000 from the technology expendable trust fund for the purchase of laptop computers? So, moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Yeah. Now, we can discuss. >> Now, yes. Yes, ma'am. I I just feel very strongly that we need to tighten up, >> you know, how we kind of I can't even think of the right word right now,

098but but how we recoup Thank you. um losses. >> Yeah. >> From the Chromebooks in order to maintain kind of the plan that Mr. Stone alluded to. there is a plan and you know we did the big big expenditure with COVID and I also really like the idea um when you were talking about like are we getting kids off screens? Do we need to have them take them home? Can we start doing you know banks again? And I'd be interested in maybe talking to teachers and seeing what they need in their classroom and and what they would like. I understand the expenditure right now because we have quite a few devices that are at end of life and so we do need to replace those but moving forward I would like to see a more

099structured plan on what we're going to be doing. >> I I did want to add um students and Matt you might have to correct me. They only take them home starting in middle school. So there are to Dave's earlier point we really have banks available in the classrooms second grade through sixth grade. they don't they they don't go home in those grade levels. Okay. Um there may be a rare occurrence where a student is asking hey I really need to finish something you know can I sign this out almost like a library book but you know this idea of tightening up the process and procedure is really a a middle high school you know plan. I just wanted to make sure that I think you know the point about getting kids off of screens I

100understand where you're coming from. Um, we do have a couple of curricular pieces in Amplify and IM um, where students are accessing some additional practice or some additional um, support to help their learning um, in those grade levels, but they're really using them more at the middle high school level. >> Yeah. And I also I am a leite in pretty much every way, shape, and form. Um, and I think the other part that's tricky is that a lot of assessments have also moved to being online from AP, PSAT through to the lower levels. I mean, everything still learn you could still take an AP class with a textbook and get a four online. >> Like I don't think you wouldn't know how to use a computer to stud. >> Yeah, >> I hear right. >>

101It doesn't. >> Yeah. What? >> Well, there is a new component that is all online. AP classroom is all online just because I teach AD. Um, and there are lots of >> Yeah, I I think it's a good thing. I think I think that just the movement has been towards being online and the movement is going to >> be at full rate. So, I I 100% hear that. I think it's just thinking this this comes into I think the way we're thinking about curriculum. I think Exactly. Talking to some teachers. I think thinking about the way we think about technology. 100%. >> Yes. I'd be curious to know those sixth grader, seventh grader, you know, the middle school kids that are taking the computers home, are they using them at home or are they just

102leaving them in their bag >> and using their own devices at home? And then in which case if we're worried about trans, you know, if that's where the damage is being incurred, right, on the bus or in the backpacks or wherever, because that's where I see it is when kids have it in their backpack and they throw their backpack or the backpack's open and they do that and then the Chromebook falls out and they're like, "Oh." Um, could we even just proactively say you may leave your Chromebook here if they're not actually, you know, if their homework or whatnot does not require screen time outside or if they want to use their own device at home and they don't need it, is there a place they can leave it, >> right? Just so it maybe

103extends the life a little more >> or reduces the amount of >> Y. Well, one of the things that Matt talked about is just that reaffirmation of onetoone and at what grade level. I think think that's part of the budget process as we move forward. I think once we have this expenditure, as as Matt mentioned, the plan really is to give all freshmen a highly functioning device. Um, as a board, you've, you know, talked about continuing to allow kids, especially upper classmen, bring their own device. Um, I know that you've, you know, had some folks reach out to you about sophomores that are maybe taking junior level courses. So as we think about the feedback related to our new policy, the one of the reasons that it's required to reaffirm every year is for this

104dynamic conversation. Um so it it seems reasonable. Uh Chris isn't isn't here, but I' I've talked to him. I've talked to Matt. I mean, folks are reasonable and feel like high school is um an area where we really have to think about how is a student using a device? Um does the Chromebook provide all of the support and access? We don't want to limit kids. Um but not all families have the means or are able to purchase a computer. Um some of this student feedback and you know maybe Lucy and Kip can jump in. They're using you know the the Chromebooks are delayed when you have multiple task tabs open at one time. Um and a lot of students are looking at entering their college application. They may want to >> want that to freeze

105during your common app. So, you know, we're not saying absolutely no that we're not going to continue to have the conversation. And I think it's a good idea to ask students, teachers, how often are you using it? Because I think it would inform how we're going to use resources if they don't need a a Chromebook in seventh grade. You know, may maybe we create more banks or locations um or students that don't have access to a device at home. I mean, really, we are trying to also address equity. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I will I will say on that uh real quick that the like Chromebooks that we do have, especially the ones um the older ones that are legitimately at the end of their lifetimes, um I use a personal computer that's like a

106not particularly nice Dell from like 2015 and it still outperforms those. So, it's definitely nice to be able to have your own computer. That being said though, for the first two years of high school, I just used the school computers and got all my work done. Um, we talked a little bit about like the AP classes and stuff. Um, and pretty much all of our practice now is exclusively on computers. Yeah. >> Other portion of that is for the math centered uh the math and science centered ones. Um, there's also aspects like Desmos graphing calculators. Um and then again with like uh the PSAT and SAT which are just I think pretty vital tools for students to learn and that's not really something they can do um without the computers um in those specific classes.

107Now not saying that computers are necessary um in everything and you can definitely still do plenty of uh work by hand using pencil and paper. Um, but I just think it's quite nice as a student taking a lot of these AP classes um to be able to like uh get a feel for and uh be able to navigate all the tools you'll have for these upcoming tests. So, and that being said, I have tons of problems with College Board myself, but that's besides the point. So, >> thank you. Yeah, I I agree with everything Kip said, especially Yeah, there are some things like the College Board website that will not get better if you get a new device. Um, I will say my perspective has changed. I'm now a bring your own device user as

108of today and I feel like um it's just hard to make a distinction because there are a lot of things that a Chromebook can do. Um, but it's just a matter of patience and sometimes you just don't. it's not necessary to have that patience when it would be nice to have a higher performing computer and to not have to wait for lagging like you know when the rest of the class is moving on. Um that being said I'm in classes AP classes where a lot of students have their own devices that are high performing. So I think the perspective on that will shift depending on your course load and sort of what is expected of you for homework and classwork in school. I think it would be different um you know throughout the student body.

109Um but yeah. >> Yeah. The just to clarify um you're not at like much of a competitive disadvantage if you don't have your own personal computer. Um, you definitely need to like have be able to take your computer home so you can complete um all sorts of assignments because pretty much everything's on Google Classroom now. But uh even with the just school issued devices um you can still perform very well. So >> great. Yeah. Awesome. >> Super helpful. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm just looking at this caring for your Chromebook document. I'm assuming that there's a damage fee schedule somewhere printed in the handbook. If not, maybe this would be a good place for it to live. A damage fee schedule like >> like specific damages. >> Yeah. Like you broke this, that's 25 bucks.

110You broke this, it's 50 bucks. You broke this. You broke the whole shebang replacement cost. Totally. just have it right in that so that students know up front that tossing my backpack 20 ft across the room into a landing zone is probably not a good idea >> cuz this this has just a $50 per incident. >> Yeah, minimum. >> That's mostly a screen, right, Matt? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, >> Oh, yeah. I see it now. >> Yeah. I would put that like big bold down the bottom. Damage fee schedule. >> I like it. It also pulls up. >> Well, I I was just going to say I guess for me when I'm thinking about this like it's it to me it feels like two separate issues. Like on one hand we're talking about

111the expenditure for these computers which we are um replacing or upgrading ones that we were excited to buy because it was co you know and we were needing to buy a whole bunch of computers because we were all going remote. Um, and I remember those conversations and frankly it was before we had all experienced what remote and hybrid learning would look and feel like. Um, and I think we probably were a little stareyed and thought like this is going to be great. um and how wonderful it will be exactly to to ex and I think you know as a board we felt um extending one to one down to second grade was going to be valuable um to our students and I think we've learned a lot and I think we you know I I

112think as a board and as humans it is important that when we know better we do better and also it is important that we um can provide for our students and ensure that those students in the high school. I I would never want a student who is unable to purchase their own device to be at any disadvantage. Um because I don't have one. I I would not want the ability to purchase a device to be a limiting factor. Um that makes me wildly uncomfortable. Mhm. >> So I I I am in support of using the funds to replace what we need to replace today and also I am in support of us continuing this conversation looking to improve the devices that we have for our older students and looking to perhaps decrease um the amount

113that we have for our younger students if we don't need to so that we can reallocate those funds and resources where they are most needed. Yeah, I mean I certainly agree with everything you just said. I um when I look at like the article that I read this morning and I look at that a third of high school students in the country are graduating without the math and reading skills too required for college. Um now that's nationally. It's not us but it's nationally but we're part of it. Um I'm sure there's lots of factors Um, but you know there's a lot of learning loss 2020 and all that and I think but I also think that learning on screens is it's not as effective but um but I also think we we've spent a lot

114of time talking about the sort of cost of replacements like that like what it like what who's damaging it would be helpful to have some data on how much is being spent um per year that isn't coming back to the school like just so you know what that number was. I think that would be helpful unless we have it. We'll see. And I haven't looked at it. Looks like we're trying to find it. >> There's a budget thing. And then Matt has in the past and we can do this. Matt in the past has um provided updates on numbers of things that are being replaced and what that is. But yeah, we can pull together. >> I'm just thinking about like are we talking about hundreds of dollars? Are we talking about thousands of dollars

115or tens of thousands of dollars? >> There's also some uh practice side work that goes on, you know, that kind of thing. So, >> well, and and also a computer that cost $230 is going to depreciate. So, that's that's a moving target, too, right? If a if a >> you know, if you've had it for five years and then somebody breaks it, that's not the same as if they break it on day one that they have it. So, I realize that this is a difficult thing to try to get get our heads around, but I I also think we we've heard comments and we've been talking about it, but we don't really have a sense as to what the the number is, >> you know. >> Yeah. >> So, just a comment. >> Well, we

116do have a technology report in two weeks. Matt's probably super excited about it, >> but I No, that's I think that that's all fair and I I I agree with everything, right? I think it's like we have the chunk of technology that I think we can and should purchase right now. We have an ongoing technology discussion about the use of technology in our schools and there is the how are we protecting and maintaining our assets and those three things are there and then this middle bucket goes across each school and learning program >> and and I would be remiss if I did not make the point that we talked about last time which is that although I'm very much for banning screens the legislature gave us this with virtually no time and a big price

117tag. So, I think it's also important to to say that this is a uh largely an unfunded mandate coming from the state um that now we need to react to. >> All right. Any further discussion, my friends? I think we're going to be talking about this forever this year. Yep. >> All right. Um we are moved. Do any further discussion? Okay, there's a motion on the table. Okay, all those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay, motion carries. Let's purchase some Chromebooks. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful and diligent discussion. Technology is a multiaceted area of the work that we do as a district. An evolving target and set of devices, hardware, information systems, etc. Tying into that, uh, one of the things that we debuted last year, which I'm extraordinarily proud of, is

118our newsletter schedule. Um, we put out, I think, four last year, including the budget bulletin, which was a a mailer, uh, that we also published online. Three, >> we got to do substitute pay. >> Oh, did I skip substitute pay? >> Am I? I'm so sorry. >> All right, substitute pay. Laura, are you ready? No, it's okay. Go for it. >> Uh, yeah, go for it. Yeah. >> Yeah. I was asked to provide an annual review of our substitute pay for substitute teachers. Um we also employ substitute IAS, nurses, um food service subs and custodians. So I took a look and it was very good timing. So I'm part of an HR group here in the state of New Hampshire and the London Dairy HR group put out a request for benchmarking for 7G. So,

119this data is brand new, fresh this year from multiple districts. I put it in and I just to protect their information, I did just put their location within the the state of New Hampshire. Um, but Hopington is at the top and based on what we see with our um both certified and uncertified teacher pay of $100 a day, we are right in average. We are a little bit below for certified teacher pay. So that is someone that is certified to be a teacher in the state of New Hampshire with the DOE. The average is 109 to 114 per day. And these are flat daily rates. So typically you do a substitute for a half a day or a full day. And you'd see in our HA agreement as well that we allow staff to take

120half days or full days in order to provide that substitute coverage. And then uncertified teacher subs are between $103 to $105 a day. And again, that's that daily rate for them. So it's not by hour. For nurse subs, um Hopkins is at 225 and the average is at $180. So that one is a little bit higher. Long-term substitutes for teachers. In order to be a long-term teacher sub, you have to be certified through the DOE. And so that is why for long-term which is more than 20 days we put them on essentially the their equivalent degree and step in the AA agreement and we prorrate that because they are 186 days multiply with the amount of days that they work and so that's what we pay and we are in line with other districts who

121also do that or no if you see there's one here with the lakes region they essentially take the bachelor step one rate regardless of what experience that long-term sub has >> any questions on that first box for daily rate subs? >> I just want to clarify that when you said Hington was at the top, you meant in the top of your table, not the top. >> Correct. That we are we are in bold at the top of the table. >> Yeah. >> Yes. At the top of our costs. Um and then just to differentiate when we do um IAS, instructional assistance, those are daily. Um but then when we do custodians and food service those are hourly rates that we provide that is um essentially that IAS again it is either a half or a

122full day that we typically get someone to cover for them and for custodians and food service those days and times vary based on the schedule and who who they're covering for. So we it's easier to do an hourly rate and for IAS again it's $100 a day average is 102 to 103 same in line as that um teacher sub we don't differentiate for custodians we use um step one of our our contract so 1991 to 2093 per hour there's a variation there between day and night so if they are because we have a variation within our contract so we provide day or night if their video is scheduled for one Those average is 1761 to 1773. And then last food service is 1628 per hour. That is the base for the food service assistant step

123four and 1493 to 1496. So above all what I could see is that other districts what you're looking at those are their collective bargaining agreements. That's they they all do step one. Great. >> Any questions on subpay analysis for this year? I do believe we are in line with the market for the year. >> Can I just ask a question about what is the platform we use for like we're not still calling subs do they sign up online or what is the mechanism? >> We use front lines time and attendance or absence management system sorry which is also called ASOP. Um we do allow subs to log in and take assignments that are available. They can also call in and take assignments. It does do some sub calling, but we also have a sub caller

124at the middle high school because um in order to guarantee that we can get people into the buildings. Okay. >> So, we utilize both options. >> But if we have somebody who's like on the rotation, they may be looking they can sign up online and take >> Yeah. But if they're in the rotation, they're usually lined up by the end of the day. >> Yeah. Okay. >> For saying, "Actually, we'd like you to come back again tomorrow." >> I just know that for our district, that was a game changer to be able to have people sign up online. >> Yes. And one of the nice things is in that absence management system when someone does say that they are sick, they're essentially built to say whether they require a substitute or they don't. So if

125they um put in that sick time or professional development, whatever it may be, it will flag the system that they need a substitute and will start calling. Okay. >> With it's about 3 days before it starts calling. >> Do we have a permanent subs? >> We have one and George Sable who was here earlier tonight. He has our permanent sub at the middle high school. So we have one permanent sub for our whole district just at the middle high school. >> I was the permanent sub during co >> then we have some long-term subs. Yes. >> Do other what what happens at other districts do other districts have permanent subs? >> Yes. >> Is one normal? >> How does that fit for districts? >> I mean typically I would say it's not uncommon to have

126someone at the high school. Okay. It's also not uncommon depending on the size of your school to have you know a team of permanent subs. No certainly at the elementary level if you want a highly qualified person that is trained in your program. So for us that would be amplify and IM you know you bring them on board and ensure that learning can continue to move forward. So it's not uncommon for to have permanent subs at the elementary and upper elementary level as well. I was going to say one seems low, but >> I mean it would be great if we had one per building, you know, and then if if you know George is I can't imagine a day where he's not subbing or doing something. >> Yeah, I was in school every every

127day. >> I actually thought he was a teacher. I didn't realize he was a permanent sub. >> Yes. >> I thought he was an IIA. >> He's also a class officer. So both of the Sables are class of 20 2027 class officers. So >> that's amazing. >> He's always doing something. I see him around all the time. >> Yeah, he also >> and he's a coach. >> Cross country. >> Yeah, I know. My son sees them. >> Yeah. During school, too. Uh he covers a lot of study halls for teachers. Like whenever >> whenever he's not doing anything, um he'll let like teacher get an extra prep block and go take their study hall. >> This is why I thought he was not a sub. >> And to Kim's point, that would be a good

128time for teachers to step out into IEP meetings or whatever it may be, whatever, you know, other meetings they might have. and then George can step in and cover their study halls. >> Yeah, >> I'm not sure if that's like contractually a thing with him or if that's just something he does, but I've just noticed how pretty much all my uh study halls and whatnot. >> He just needed >> love that. Thank you. >> Right. >> So, I got a bunch on this one in terms of questions and just thinking about how we manage it moving forward. Um, so we don't always get enough subs, which means at least five years ago at the middle high school that teachers would be asked to sub other teachers classes. So you give up your prep time to

129go and do that. They're compensated for that. Um, so over the course of a day that is much more expensive than hiring a sub. So, this is clearly a competitive market and while we may be in line with other schools, I guess, you know, how often do we not get subs? How much are we paying for teachers to sub those classes? And how can we bend this to our advantage where people are coming to us versus choosing somewhere else? Um, you know, my experience with subs is there are schools they want to work in and there are teachers they want to sub for. Um, and if you can keep those people coming back and you know choosing Hopkins instead of John Stark, sorry. Um, then >> that's a benefit for us. So, one of my

130thoughts in terms of this pay schedule moving forward is if we could consider some type of loyalty incentive to the school district. So after you've sub with for us for you know 15 days in a row there's a loyalty incentive and then the clock starts ticking again um to raise their pay scale a little bit but also to give them a little bit of bait to come to us instead of going to BO or conquered or somewhere else. >> So that is a practice that we had at SA19. Um, so when the substitute was new, they would receive one pay. If they subbed for 20 days, um, the essentially the pay period after that, they would get an increase in any coverage they had from that point on. And then if they sub for 30

131days or more, they could keep the increase for the following school year. >> It is a bit of an administrative burden because you have to manually track those. the system cannot flag how many days an employee works uh how many days a substitute works and the way that we handle subs right now is they're essentially assigned if they don't take the class right in ASOP we have to make sure they're assigned in there so it does have an administrative piece that we would need to implement in addition it would add to our substitute budget which is about 157 152,000 this year and that does include long-term subs and regular but I have experienced it before it works it does keep people and it is a thing we could implement. >> Is that something are we

132I mean I think every district is struggling to to get subs. Um but is it as big of an issue? Like what's the overall >> like do you So you folks might know this. Um what's been your experience? Like do you ever go to a class and there's a note on the door that says go to the library or go to the cafeteria because there's no sub or That's not like unheard of. I've had that for a few classes, but pretty uncommon, especially with Mr. Sable. Um, and then yeah, the only time where there was um a big issue with that was a couple years ago um after uh Mr. Shy had to step away. Uh I was in his uh his algebra 2 accelerate class and for a solid two weeks we didn't have

133any sub. Um but other than that it's been pretty good with uh like a few missing subs at points. Um but I haven't had too much of an issue with that. >> I'd just be curious about the data to your point like is this a need? Would we need to do the increase? because if you have a decent sub, you do want to keep them. I will >> I think I think the important data to track is how often are teachers being asked to cover other people's classes. That's the data that leads you to how much of an incentive and is it worth the trade-off. >> I see a few times a pay period we see certainly teachers being paid to cover other classes. We also see IAS being paid to actually more frequently we

134see IAS being paid to cover classes um for a period of for a half day. We see that more than we see teachers losing their prep time to do it. >> Yeah. >> And I would just add it, you know, at Maple and Herald, it's it's, you know, pretty impossible for that to happen. I mean certainly um we've had teachers that if one of our UA teachers was out they would cover and and be paid for missing their their >> planning period but um you would never see a sign on a room >> at home. That's right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. >> Right. You're really This is really a high school where they would have the independence. >> Sorry. I can't think of any instant where there was like another teacher covering for the normal

135teacher for like one day. Um, but the only sort of uh instance I've had with um a long-term like sort of teacher filling in was in the case of I think it was Yeah, it would have been a um parental leave. It was like three weeks I think and they were unable to find uh um I believe it was just that the problem was they were unable to find a math sub who could cover the pre-calculus material at that time. So when Mr. Rosskimp was out, they had Mr. Clearary fill in. Um but now Mr. Clearary's out on paternity leave and Mr. Curts is filling in and I haven't heard any problems with that. So >> yeah, Mr. Curts used to teach at the college level too and has taught all the classes including my

136BC cal so he'll be just fine. So >> yeah, >> so do >> if I may just in terms of the pay analysis, that's part of this. If you want me to do further analysis of how many substitutes, you know, how short we are, how what the percentage is that we have filled, that will take some time, but I could I could look into that if you would like. I think if we are going to explore an incentive piece, I'd be curious to know, are we asking teachers and and rightite the cost at $60 a pay period? Would it be more effective to just offer a bonus or of some sort or or >> is this something that should go to like finance? >> Yeah, it's something we could talk about in finance committee. >>

137Yeah. And I think um and I think Laura talked about this, but we set the sub the sub rate pay for this year for this budget. Um I think something that I think about is like we want to move through the fall, see where we net out. I think this is something that would be great for finance to think about particularly as we work through the budget for 2627. Um and if there was going to be funds available, and I don't know, but for a mid-year adjustment, that would probably be a reasonable time. >> So, all right. Okay, thanks everybody. It's a ton of work, Laura. I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Glad to see we're staying calmed. Yep. Okay. >> And now, no, no, no. Now we have financials. >> Oh, yeah.

138>> Right. I am skipping all over the place. >> Do you want to do your newsletter first? >> No. >> Go for it. >> Two months of financials in your board folder. June and July. Start with June. Again, I apologize that I didn't have this ready for you at the 19th meeting. Um, we were I needed really that vote that you made regarding the general fund in order to finalize this this statement. >> So, um, it this memo essentially offers analysis of the end of the year. Now, the June one, just to remind everybody, takes longer because we go from what is called a cash basis to a modified approval basis. So, we have to pick up all of our accounts payable, all of our accounts receivable, and tie out our entries for that the

139end of the year before I can provide these financials. So with that, um, we do have an unassigned fund balance at year end of $519,32.73. As we move forward, that 73 cents will be dropped off for the most part and mainly becomes 519032 for or 033 for our unassigned fund balance. This is the amount that we return during the tax rate setting in November. And um at the March 2025 annual meeting, the school board agreed to return 500,000. We have hit that target plus a little bit more. The 5% contingency fund you voted on it on August 5th has been um funded at $1,77 and or sorry $1,7. It's been a long day, guys. 1,77,325. To get that number um we take it is essentially 5% of the net assessment which is the if we

140take a look at the tax rate it is what comes from local taxes plus swept times 5%. >> That's where that number comes from. Um I'm going to round these numbers. Total income was 25,120,000. Total expense was 24,736,000. Uh net income of the year of $384,000. Any questions on the general fund for ending June 30th or move on to food service? Okay, this is great. So, we're returning over $500,000 back to the taxpayers. Great. food service uh related. So the balance sheet in the packet um that item which essentially is your uh financial the second page of the packet shows that the food service revenue is $33,000 less than last year. Um, our local sales were down, but federal revenues ended up coming in higher, which means we had more free and reduced and f

141and more paid meals at the same time that the state and the federal government matches. The program ended unfortunately with a gross loss of $126,000, >> but that was prior to when we adjusted the meal price. Correct. Right. So, this this is part of what we were working to mitigate. Yeah. >> And so I thank you for doing that. Um the district we were able to cover that loss with the money that's budgeted just in case it needs to occur and we did up the prices 25 cents to try to work on this. Um food service is also one of my priorities for this year. I know I don't do goals but food service is one of my goals and we are going to work on revenue generation. Okay. Get ready for lots of pizza

142chicken nuggets. >> Here it goes. >> Can you just repeat what the number was for the the loss in food service? >> The gross loss is 126,673. >> Can I ask you another question? So I think there's a statement here that could be confusing. So the 5% contingency fund has been funded at 1,77325. Could we transfer transfer in a full 1 million77 or do we top it up to the 5% level at 1,77? >> So the contingency fund liquidates on June 30th of every year, correct? >> So you funded it at1,77,325, right? >> We liquidated 86 66,000, >> right? >> And we added back in 1,76. All right. >> But it was only really a delta of it was like a $200,000 increase. We weren't adding a million dollar of fresh capital even though it's

143liquidated. >> Yeah. >> The liquidation was8.69 then we added 8.69 plus 208. >> I have to look at it at the gross way all the time. But yes, what I think what you're trying to say is we had the 866,000, right? We agreed to provide 400,000 >> for >> the tax relief, right? for the returns at the um during tax rate setting and then we added back in $600,000, >> right? >> Yes. To maximize the >> Yes. Thank you. >> Does that help? >> Yeah. Just so it doesn't seem that we added a million dollars in there because we did not >> for nonbas >> the liquidation is really this is an accounting practice, right? I mean this is like here's a fund. It's got to go to zero in accounting world and then it

144comes back up. For nonbas it went down to a certain number. We had unassigned fund balance that we were able to bring up to that 5% net assessment. >> Y >> and that 5% >> is 1 million 77% 1 million. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. And again, you know, just again to reinforce the use of unassigned fund balance, this is kind of the the drum we've been beating for a few years that if we continue to take that money from unassigned fund balance at the end of the year, put it into contingency, then we don't have to we have a known quantity of funds to use for revenue come budget season versus an unknown >> hoping that there's going to be fund balance. to use for revenue and that's that creates all different dynamics for

145superintendent and the business administrator to manage the budget. Is that fair? >> Yeah. >> Because we have it in contingency. So we know that we're going to use that money to offset the tax rate. We'll never have to freeze the budget because we've already essentially set that money aside. >> Exactly. And I just want to remind folks um the monthly financials come here to be presented but they are there are subsequent reports of course and they'll be available on our website. I do upload them after we have discussed them here. It'll take me a couple of days but they'll then they'll be up there for the public to review in total. >> Amazing. Laura, can I ask a question about food service just because >> it's not a math feature. So revenue, whatever we made

146last year, right? Revenue is 33,000 below what they made last year. But then you said federal funding came in a little higher. But either way, how how 126 that like the math isn't mapping for me. Can you explain it to me in like I'm in fifth grade? Yeah. Here somewhere. Like where's the where's the rest of the deficit? We spent more. >> We didn't we didn't sell as much, but we still spent more than last year. >> And we were selling bills and we were selling expenditure was more than last year. >> Yes. >> Wow. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Revenue was less. The expenses were more. >> Okay. >> Every meal we were losing money. >> Okay. >> Our food cost was significant. Yes. It was significantly higher. >> No, no, no. Yeah. I

147was like, wait a minute. I'm just making >> No, no, no. It does. Okay. Do we know what was the because there was a surplus last year. What was the revenue last year, >> right? Because there was a fund balance prior year. Yeah. >> Yep. If you take a look at >> Lauren knows the codes. >> I know. >> Are you asking for a specific code or are you just asking for total? I think she doesn't if you direct her she doesn't direct her to what page what to look at. Yeah. >> If we take a look at page four >> of the June of June Y >> of our June financials. Yes. >> Y >> um >> so I do want to just point one thing out. When I do these financial statements, the

14853125 and the 630 20224 come from they do not come from our financial system. They come from reports that you have already seen. So if forgive me if somehow that 630 2024 is changed after this is presented that's where this variation is here because our system does say that we have a $33,000 revenue loss. You'll see here that it says that we don't. So, I can modify that. >> Okay. >> And get back to you because that number that we're looking at on page four y >> um I can I can try to rerun that for you Suzanne. But if you so that we can see it the right way. >> But the if you want to take a look at page two, this may be helpful. >> I see this is the part I

149wanted you to see. 630 2024 on page two. Food service revenue $564,000 630 2025 revenue is $4.95 >> June here >> if we move >> here >> if we can pause just for a second part of what I want to do with these is make them a little bit >> more user friendly these monthly financials make them a little bit clearer make them a little bit um easier to generate and more up to date because again if there are modifications that occur after because we had a journal entry and we found an expense in the wrong spot or something these these change. So I just want you to take a quick look at July before we get back to the June questions. July is my projected new financials. So, you know, if they're if they're

150good, what I'm say what I would love to do is redo June in this new method now that we see to Suzanne's point, thank you, Suzanne, that those the revenue does not show that $33,000 loss the right way. >> Yes. So, I think there's a couple things where one, can I add on to that, please? So, we have a we have a new business administrator, right, who I think there will be a couple things that I think we're looking to um have a couple change of practices, formatting changes. Um I think the goal is to make it be less administratively burdensome for Laura and her team. I think it's also the goal is to help make this be more um clear, I think, for everyone who's reading financial statements who doesn't necessarily live in BA

151land, as Rob always says. Um and because I think there is some manual report production that does on the back of automated journal entries and reconciliation and vouchers and check runs and everything else. It's really thinking about how do we bring those two things together. Um the way that Susanna's context the way we have talked about s food service has changed significantly over the last three years. We used to just not fund it and we would just fund it from unassigned fund balance every year. And so starting three years ago, we really started trying to account for as a line item and trying to figure out where we were in terms of a positive or negative. >> No, I figurate, Laura, like whatever system works best for you >> like Right. I'm like you because

152like this is again above my pay grade like I don't Right. >> Well, I found I found it. So if you look at page two, you're if we go back to page two, if you would total income >> June, we're talking. >> Yes. Back to June. Total income 630 2024 is $483,000. >> Yep. >> Total income 630 2025 is $450,777. That's where the number comes from. >> Okay. >> And then we used fund balance. >> But the bigger issue is that we're the 25 cents that we allocated per lunch is probably enough, but it's it's going to get us closer. >> But maybe all of the parents are going to say, you know what, guys? We're just going to bye bye bye for school lunches and then we'll be able to get better economies of

153scale and maybe we'll also start to close the gap. >> Who could say chicken lunches >> for the win? >> Chicken nuggets. >> All right. But yes, it's like we got to do this a couple different ways. >> All right. Um as we saw federal revenue is um is up a little bit and this year we so that is coming as I said from free reduced and a very small portion that we get for paid meals as well. So we do ask families every year to do their free and reduced meal applications. This year we have them available by online on on a PDF that is a fillable document. Thank you Matt Stone. >> And we have paper copies available at all of the schools. So, we do ask families, please, please, please fill this

154out. It it matters a lot for us and it is confidential. >> And I think I saw something in some paperwork that if they have they can call and you guys >> walk them through the process. >> I think I saw that. >> The other two things that I think are worth noting is that having an online form is supposed to increase free and reduced quite a bit. Free and reduced is also used as a grant metric for many, many different things. >> Adequacy metric. There are also coming back to um family participation in our district. Some families who are consistently behind on their hot lunch bill bill bills and this is something that I think we're thinking about as well. >> So yeah, >> and and I would just add I mean that is

155something you know we you talk about tracking down the cost for the techn this is another expense we spend time reaching out to those families. So, >> if it's an issue that you're having trouble funding your school lunch account for your students, we want to make sure that students are fed. Um, however, if you are eligible for a free or reduced lunch, >> it would be wonderful for the district to only have to pay the amount that your student is charged. You know, typically what is happening is that if you know, parents have all sorts of reasons, we're not trying to pry or to have them share information, but we charge the the full cost of that meal. Whereas, if they're eligible for reduced lunch, we would only charge that we would then pick up

156only the reduced cost. So, it's, you know, as you said, there are lots of ways that they use that data. It goes to title one. Um, it helps us to identify students that may be eligible under the Mckin Vento law. So, there's just a lot of good reasons to fill that out. And if you're not sure, the Department of Education had the um USDA has the um federal poverty guidelines and then what your annual income and family size. So, if you want to take a look at that or if anyone wants that information, we can put that on the website as well. >> Yes, we are happy. Thank you. >> Is that kept confidential? >> Absolutely. Very few people, >> you know, know that information. >> Okay. Um, >> yes, if you have food insecurity,

157we want to help you. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, uh, briefly with the July financials, it is the first month, so we're still hiring new staff. We're still putting in our purchase orders for the year. So, this is a brief modified packet. I would love for you to look over these documents and these reports and let me know what you think. >> Feedback to finance >> and we will talk about it in finance. >> This is great. Please provide your feedback to Rob or Jonathan and we will review. Do not panic. There are no there's no food service revenue because we're not selling in July. So that is to be expected and we only have two days in August. So we'll see the August days when we >> we'll see how the start of school

158is on the 23rd when we look at um September. >> Lovely. >> I can already tell you that I really like this. >> You do? >> Yeah. >> And then do you want to read? >> Yeah. You want to do the last bit schedule? >> Yes. So to help me and to I think helpful all of us I have put together a draft financial schedule for presentations for the 2526 school year. So this is all of the dates that I will be bringing forward items financials um nominations do school forms or state forms that we need to look at. So I would love for you to take a look at this provide me any feedback and we can finalize it on the 23rd. It is in the board packet for the 9th and the 23rd.

159>> Fate great uh Janet Kazaniac once told me that if you tell people when to extend expect information that's half the battle is like my ethos to wave. I love this. Thank you very much. Yes. >> All right. Any thoughts, questions, anything for Laura? >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Laura, I'm just going to look at the calendar. we can sit down and like superimpose it to when budget committee meetings happen. >> Of course, >> because like some like we have a meeting tomorrow, >> right? >> So the financials today obviously we didn't send it to them. If we send it to them now, there's doesn't really matter because nobody's going to really have had time. So we just need to think about that cycle so that I can inform them as to when stuff

160is available or where to look. >> Okay. Absolutely. >> That'd be great. >> And I have their draft agenda, you know, their draft meeting schedule as well, so I can take a look at that. >> Right. Great. Thank you, Laura. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, >> I think you can now newsletter. >> Okay, great. All right. Okay, guys. So, we did a newsletter last year. This year we are hoping to do four. October, January, March, May. Uh we might tweak January, March a little bit to try to get out the packet earlier, later. Right. I think in here we have the annual meeting on the 14th. So, if we get it out in the right around the beginning of March, we should be in good shape. Right after vacation, I think is when

161we tried to do it last year, ahead of the meeting. So, it landed in people's mailboxes and we were good to go. >> Um, as you guys might recall last year, one of the first things we talked about was really um like what does the school board do, when do we meet, all all the jazzy things. I think we can do a little bit of that this year. We have new parents who are coming into the school district and do a little refresh their link to the older newsletter. Um I think we can also do some board basics that would loop into some of the things we've talked about, right? Like how do you set up your school lunch payments? What does bell-to bell look like? Um you know, making sure that people know some

162of the information that our principles talked about tonight. Um but please think about like I think at the next meeting we will talk through the topics and assign things out. So, if there are things that you think we should be talking about with the district and the community as a board, I would be thrilled. I think we should also include our goals. Um, but I love the newsletter. Um, you know, uh, so just let me know. All right. Terrific. Next up, policy. Oh, yes. Okay. So, for policy, we have um no first reads this evening. We did have a policy meeting last week. >> Last Thursday. >> Thank you. Like time has no meaning anymore. We had a policy meeting last Thursday. Um uh but really what we talked about was more of a game

163plan for how we are going to um be tackling policies. I think this year we're going to try to tackle policies as what did you call them Amy? Like groups of policies. Like right now we're going to bring some A's and then group of J's like the the ones that sort of go together. >> Yes. Um so and a little less scattershot. Um but tonight we're going to still be looking at some scattershot policies. So no first reads. For second reads we have um two policies that we brought last time. EHB records retention and ECA building and ground security. And then we have um one, two, three, four policies for final reads and adoption tonight which are AB parental bill of rights, KI visitors to the schools, JFABD, admission of homeless children and unaccompanied youth

164and JFAB education of children and foster care. And then we have a final read of JICJ unauthorized communication devices uh which we had already approved and waved our three full reads prior to approval. Um but are still required to do our um all three reads according to our policy. Um so with that I am looking for um a motion to approve those uh final four policies AB KI JFAB and JFAB as presented. >> So moved. >> second. >> Great. >> Any discussion? >> It's a ton of work. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. All right. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> That's it. Thanks. And then just get ready for a lot more policies. >> Terrific. >> Thank you guys. >> All right. Consent. >> How are we feeling, champs? >> Wonderful personnel report.

165>> Wonderful. >> We'll start with new hires. We go to Matt and Amy. We have found a network administrator. We would like to bring forward Alex Lock to the network administrator position. Right. and he replaces Mike Montour. We have no resignations. Currently, um, current employees with changes to contract. So, last time we met, I brought forth Kristen Daeski, who is our occupational therapist, for a temporary 1.0 to cover maternity leave. Um, and that extended through January 5th. this request here with changes to contract is to make her a 1.0 through the end of the FY26 school year. Um so January through June. The reason we asked this is um when I was talking with Kristen regarding her assignments and her work, it became very clear that she has students for her current 31.875 hours per

166week. So she is with students that whole time. She's got over student 20 students that she case manages. Um and then there is no time for her to do the other pieces of her job, the eval, the reports and the IEPs. And those all require time. Um she has been kind enough to do that on her own, but I would like to request that we make her a 1.0 and compensate over that time. >> And then current employees with additional contracts. U Mary Jones was our AM bus monitor last year. She is coming back. So, she's being nominated to ride on the um AM special education bus. Michelle Cler, Chris Kelly mentioned it earlier. She is working in the middle high school to cover a long-term absence in 8th grade math. At the same time,

167she's still doing her math interventionist work at Maple Street 2 days a week. And so we are asking for a.3 for the 33 days that she is doing this work to um cover both jobs. And then last is Kenda Beckwith. Um she is our preschool teacher, our lead preschool teacher. And now that Marissa man is a K through three case manager, Kenda is taking on the case management for all students in preschool. So this is a 0.1 to help for cover the preschool placement of all students. >> That's only a 0.1. >> Yeah, I mean we're looking at redistributing some of our expectations. You may find that we need to add something additionally to that. I have been in communication with Kenda to see if that makes is enough. Uh we are actively looking for

168a preschool teacher. So if you think about it from a special ed perspective, Kenda is a dylic licensed person, preschool and early childhood special ed. Um we are now looking because we haven't had any qualified candidates for uh early childhood specialed just hiring an early childhood person. Um and that person cannot do any case management. So Kenda always did the bulk of that and you're going to see in the schedule B an additional stipen for her to do that work >> on a more formal basis. But it may need to be more. Right now, we understand she would case manage about, and hopefully Mandy is watching and will tell me, um, case manage a little less than 20 kids. >> I'm just saying that I was just thinking like based on all we're hearing about

169the trends, 0.1 seems >> optimistic. I agree. >> So, we're, you know, once we have a preschool teacher, we just know that this is the work right now. um you know, depending on the candidate that comes forward, if they have a lot of experience, maybe they can help her um take some of the instruction pieces off of Kenda's plate. Right now, she does about half and half. Um but now she would be more like 90% special ed, 10% teacher. >> Thank you. >> If anyone knows any qualified preschool teachers, please send them to the Hopkins School District. >> Yeah. And and it is tricky. We have had some folks apply because they work in a local or a certified preschool. They really have to be licensed through the DOE. And that's tricky because we've had

170some really great candidates from established preschools that have um maybe lenture or an associates degree from NHTI. We have a great program through NHTI that produces a lot of early childhood, but they have to be licensed or licensable through the DOE, >> which is tricky. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. Thank you. >> So that is our new hireer sheet. And then um Amy did mention the change in schedule B. So as you'll see on the first page of the schedule B, there is a nomination request for a preschool coordinator department head this um department chair. I will allow Amy to speak a bit more formally about it, but I do know that um Kenda's job as the preschool coordinator requires a lot more than um the normal teaching position in terms of the lottery and

171the students. And so Amy, I'll let you take it off. >> Yeah, the preschool coordinator job a long time ago, and I'm going to say a name that's from the archives, Barbara Holtzsworth. Does anyone know her? When I first came on board, she was ran everything, right, Lauren? She was the preschool teacher. She was also like a unicorn. And I also taught her son, Andrew. Hello, Andrew. He's I'm sure he's doing well. Anyway, the when that program first started, the coordination requires a lot of outreach to um this, you know, service providers in the community. Kenda does all of that in her role. So, it's the coordinator's job. Once a student turns three, um they become our financial uh responsibility. And so, she reaches out and coordinates those students to come to our program. you

172know, if if if they're eligible and they want their parents want them to participate. So, that is really separate from all of her other duties. And for a long time, she was really doing it just as the day-to-day. Um, but she's really made a case. I can't believe we were still talking about it three years later. I felt like I had gone into a time machine. I was like, "Oh, we're still talking about Kendwith getting a preschool coordinator stipen for this." Um, so we looked at what are the other roles that would be similar to this. This is very similar to the high school special ed coordinator position that is already a category one. I took the role description for that. Um and asked Tenda, we had a meeting. She put, you know, very carefully

173all of the responsibilities that she does. Um so I have developed a a job description that goes along with that stipen. Um so we're looking to really delineate Kenda's work that is outside of her instruction and case management. >> Makes sense. >> Did I answer because it's is really a new schedule B position. >> Yep. >> I think there is a lot of coverage to provide um across our lower schools and especially when we thought about the special education uh conversation last year and now we're trying to provide and meet all of the needs of our student community and thank you for thinking creatively and strategically about how we can do that. uh and also think about how we are recognizing the staff who I think a lot of whom are working very hard. >>

174Yep. >> Okay. In terms of donations, we do not have any this evening to put forward and typically in the consent agenda, you do um approve the monthly financials. So, I would ask that you approve July and I will bring June as a revised on September 23rd with a little clearer uh presentation on the food service numbers for you. Okay. >> All right. Update. >> Well, the school year is off to a great start. I I will say a lot of folks already stole some of the thunder that I was going to talk about, but I do feel like I also want to acknowledge the community's patience as we manage that temporary bus shortage. Um Laura and I had a lot of meetings with our first student rep. Um you know, I think I think

175we came out of that with a broader understanding of really the shortages that they're facing, not just locally, but nationally. Um we do have a great working relationship with First Student. I think there were a lot of apologies back and forth about this. Uh but we can't tell you that this won't continue to happen. Uh they really don't have any subd drivers. Um and it is just going to be ongoing. We we have some problem solving to do that. Maybe in the future we won't just continue to cut the same route. Um we do have you know some flexibility in putting kids on other buses. Um but we try to you know manage that. But we do know that it was a real inconvenience and unsettling especially the first week of school because some kids

176you know the the tags that Patrice and and Dr. Sony talked about that really came out of that because there are you know 5-year-olds can't read so they would have a bus note and give it to the bus driver and they don't you know they don't know what it what it says. So um we've tried to come up with some new operational pieces. Um the paving project downtown. I I don't know if anyone saw uh the dismissal this afternoon. It was it was pretty bananas. I mean really they were in the process of paving hot tar while we were dismissing. Um the the it whatever that machine is rolled by and kids walked on it two minutes later. We did have a student that fell. I mean so it is just a really complicated time

177to have a paving project. So, thank you to everyone. The traffic up here has been crazy. Another shout out to Jim and his team, facilities, operation, you know, they did a ton of work this summer um and still working on it. I mean, you'll see that he still has projects that don't just place students, but other other staff are are working in those areas. Um staffing remains solid. As we've said, we're looking for a preschool teacher, an instructional assistant at Harold Martin. We did have someone and you know, at the last minute, they decided to stay where they were. Um, so we did have someone and hoping to to fill that perhaps for the next meeting. And then as uh Principal Kelly said, we have an instructional assistant position at the middle high school. And

178we continue to look for some coaches and substitutes across the board. Um, at one of our last meetings, we talked about the certified report under House Bill 2, the DEI provisions that has been submitted by the September 5th deadline on behalf of the district. Um, we are continuing to implement the bell-to bell. Um, we've also submitted all our final policy to the DOE at their request. So, if you're, you know, seeing any of those calls, we've remained in compliance. Um, families received and continue to receive a lot of communication around expectations, schedules, um, policies prior to the opening day. Um, if as a member of a school community, you are not getting that information, it come out through Parent Square. Please reach out to your teacher or your building principal and we can ensure that

179you're getting those updates. Um, as as the principal noted, we've had meet the teacher opportunities at every school, whether it was a pizza party, an ice cream social, um, meet the teacher at the high school. So, again, helping to strengthen those schooltoome connections. And the leadership team here, as as you hopefully, you know, we're in communication with each other pretty much every day. Um, and so we're just again trying to ensure consistent practices across the district. Um, and Deli's already mentioned that I plan to present a draft of my goals for the next at the next meeting. Um, if you have specific feedback for me that you'd like me to consider, you know, please feel free to send me a message. I'm going to use your goals as a base um, but also the principal's

180goals so that there's some alignment around them. >> That's great. Any questions? Amy, terrific. Thank you. >> Thank you, Amy. >> A great start to the year. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Oh, I have one more thing. Sorry, this is new for me that we do overnight trips. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I almost missed this. >> Okay, so there is one in your packet. It is for uh the Nordic High School, correct? and they are planning to go to Craftberry Outdoor Center in Vermont um and do some pretty intense training. So that is in your packet for consideration and approval. >> Great. >> Wild. >> Way to go, Nordic. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

181>> So moved. >> Second. >> Great. Any discussion? All right. Thank you, everyone. Uh all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Nope. Great. All right, let's We are rounding the corner here. Um committee, anything new else from policy? You guys are >> uh No. >> Great. CNA has not met. Nope. Working our way through it. October. >> October. Thank you. >> October. >> Any news on CIP? >> You want to? >> No. >> Okay. >> I'll let you uh I don't think I took any notes on that. I mean, >> yeah. I don't like >> we could just say a lot. Um >> we I mean we redefined and moved some items. >> Um >> I think I find my notes >> things like the h my brain is >> and that's essentially because the

182town CIP advised that they for lack of a better term do not agree with those being in our CIP. Right. So those items that um like the kitchen equipment that >> I'm not sure if that's I mean we remove them because they because they didn't >> right threshold >> the kitchen equipment doesn't meet threshold any >> like it's not enough >> to be in CIP. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. The auditorium was a similar one. They're basically moving some projects out and then there's we didn't meet on it but perhaps moving some projects up like some changes >> not reanding the high school gymnasium this year but perhaps spending those allocated funds for other things in the gym. Uh we have lots and lots of banners which soon we're going to be wrapping athletes as they're

183in that gym. So some consolidation of that, some painting. No, absolutely not. >> No way, man. >> Just saying what was said. That's all. >> Unclear. >> We can't change anything. >> We just took them and like put them all in the year. What if that's how we insulated the whole year? >> No. Okay, that's great. Thank you, CIP. I will leave my emotional historic >> because it looks the same as it did when we were in >> No, it's because we've added a ton because we are a town of champions and we should be proud of it. >> Including a New England track championship who is supposed to get like a 20 by 100 lane. Just kidding. Continue. Sorry, I'm getting spicy. >> Um, but of course, everyone that participates in sports, whether they

184win or lose, should be supported. >> Staging security, we are meeting in a couple weeks, right? >> Yeah. Great. EMC I think is meeting if I look o on the 25th. Thank you Lucy. And finance you have budget tomorrow. Is that correct? >> I have budget meeting tomorrow. Yes. >> Great. >> I'm sorry. And that and that's an ongoing CIP discussion too is the meshing between >> right >> EMC and CIP. That's an ongoing conversation. >> Yes. And I also have some Excel work to do on the CIP doc. So I will work on delivering that for you guys. Yeah. Great. Okay. >> All right. >> You got Donna. >> Anything else for committees otherwise? >> And we do have a finance meeting, >> right? >> We have a finance meeting upcoming, right? >> Coming

185on. >> On the 22nd >> after the next meeting though. >> Before before the next meeting before the next meeting. Correct. We're going to try to make that our practice before those financials come out. >> Terrific. >> Thank you for the reminder, by the way. >> Thank you. All right. >> Sure. >> I'll be there. >> You You were surprised last time. Uh we are >> hardly surprised. >> We are at the second public comment portion of the evening. If you'd like to come up, please state your name, address, and please keep your comments to 3 minutes. >> 22. >> 3:30. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. It's on there. >> Lauren Clement, 86 Maple Street. Uh just comment about the discussion about enrollment. Um, there was discussion about students who left district maybe to go

186to private school and whatnot or whether EFAs impacted things, but there was zero discussion about any students that may have been tuitioned in or um attempted to tuition in and um I know that discussion's happened in the past and it'd be interesting to add that to the enrollment discussion because it's a factor. So that's my comment. >> Thanks, Lauren. >> We're good. Okay. Thanks, guys. Okay. Any other business? >> All right. We do not have a need for a non-public uh this evening. So, we are going to go ahead and may I have a motion to adjourn our meeting this evening? Z moved.