School Board Meeting 6/9/25

001I'm Duly La Paloma, superintendent, Mike Flynn, our business administrator, just about to be full-time. Laura Taylor, our board secretary, Jody Condan, Noah A-frame, our graduated student repath, that's our graduated student rep. We can tell they're graduating because they brought no computer. We're not even pretending. And then Matt Stone, the man behind the wizard over in the back. Uh we are joined I think I believe by a bunch of amazing students from uh Maple Street as well. Welcome you guys. Um can you guys uh join us for the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have one set of minutes for the May 20th meeting of the

002Hopton School Board. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Yeah. Great. All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? I. Okay. And I abstain because I wasn't there. We are at the first public comment portion of the evening. If you'd like to come up, please state your name and address, and I ask that you keep your comments to three minutes. Okay. All right. We'll move along. All right. Right. Before we get to our amazing students for sixth grade mock trial, uh, student reps, this is the end. This is our last weekend update with you two. Let's do it. I don't know what to say anymore. Bo's not here to write in front of me. We don't have computers. Um, well, Flo and I just graduated Friday. It was a beautiful

003ceremony. It was awesome. No rain. No, no, no. The weather's beautiful. Like great. Um, no, but the ceremony was awesome. It felt very Hopkin, which was a great feeling. And uh, it was a great sendoff. Um, yeah. Anything else? I don't know. Wow. Playoffs tonight. Oh, yeah. There's a lacrosse game tonight. Uh, yeah. And they're still they still have to go to school though. They have finals this week. The underassman. Yep. Um now that we're out of the school pretty un we don't know what's happening. You did you did your clap out last week, right? That was so fun seeing all the old teachers and Yeah. The senior festivities were great and it and definitely the parade, the barbecue. It shows why living in a small town is so awesome. Mhm. And you had project

004graduation, right? Yeah, that was fun. That was fun. Grab it all year cool. Okay, awesome. And do we have some new student reps? We've all been waiting on the edge of our seats. It's very exciting. Lucan and also Kip headquartering. But at the Kip's at the lacrosse game because he's on the team. Okay. Um so makes sense. That's gonna be your Noah. But the beaches were all so good and I'm I'm so glad they're going to do so good next year. Yeah. Okay. Lucy, what year are you? I'm a rising junior. Awesome. So, two years. Great. Amazing. But you got to win again. Okay. Just have to say record. She'll be great. Okay. Do we have any questions or anything we'd like to say to our student reps? Yes. Let's do it. All right. Sure.

005Um, I didn't write anything down, but I was thinking about you guys and what you've brought to the board, but not just what you've brought to the board, but what you've brought to the school. And, you know, I've seen lots and lots of students over the years, but I think you just both epitomize being super upbeat about the way you approach your school, your academics, your sports, um, all of the different activities and committees you've been on. I mean, if there are role models for young people to say, "Hey, this is how you do high school, this is how you did high school." So, it's just amazing. Thank you, Mr. So, I I guess what I would just say is, you know, I've been on the board for one year with you, so gotten to

006know you some. Um, and um, it's nice to see your uh, sort of taking your civic duties seriously while you're going through high school and all the other things that you're doing. So, I think that sets a really strong example for the other people in um, in the school and in the community. So, yeah. So, I thank you for that. I just want to say thank I know you folks actually from Maddie and sports and and um yeah, I'm just really proud to be associated with the board and and with you folks that are, you know, really great representatives and I'm really excited to see what sort of good trouble you get into out in the world. Thank you. So, I've been with you guys for three years. Um and I've it has been wonderful

007to watch your growth and development. Uh oh, now I'm playing I know. Do you want a pet? I know. Um, I'll get my own. Geez. Um, you know, uh, a lot of people don't understand all that's involved with being on a board. And I remember in the beginning you guys would ask a lot of questions, really great questions. And I think not only have you brought a lot of really good questions um to the board, I think you have done a really great job of educating not only your peers but teachers as well um and other residents in our community about not only what the board can do and does do, but what we can't do and what we don't do. um because there's a lot that we can do, but there's a lot that

008we cannot do and um don't do. So, that has been really great to see how um you take all the sort of boring in the weed stuff that we do and are able to translate it into um stuff that kind of sort of folks out in the world can understand. Um, and I, you know, I appreciate Noah's kind of optimism and, you know, ability always to laugh, um, when facing problems and I appreciate Flo's tenacity and, um, just drive to change the world. Um, and I think that both of you are going to make a difference in our world in um, exciting ways and I'm really excited to see both what your your next chapter is going to look like. So, it's very exciting. Thank you very much. Oh god, can't do this. Okay. I

009love you both. I know this is going to be a tough one. Um, I will say I'm going to have a hard time looking at both of you. So, not because I don't love you. I'm just trying to keep it together. Um, I really do think of both of you like the weekend update. Um, I'm not kidding. Like I honestly think Noah sometimes that Flo could write out a very long series of jokes and you would sometimes start reading it before you got halfway through. I'm just kidding cuz you were wonderful. You have like amazing rapport with both of you. Um, one of the things that I think you both did along with Mr. Flynn was bring a student perspective and between having these students here um where we get to hear from you guys

010across all the schools and then hear from you guys because you report not just about um the middle of high school but you go to see the other schools you talk about what's happening at student leadership um I think it gives us a real insight because unlike Suzanne and Mr. NATO, not all of us are always with high schoolers all the time and don't always see what's happening in the schools. Beyond that, I think there were a couple three things that stood out. One was thinking about the student athletics policy, which I think is humongous. Um, I've never also had I don't think we've had student reps who have asked to see the policy folder before and have actually read the policies that we turn out at every week. And that's remarkable. It takes a

011lot of work to read all of our policies. And I think you guys knocked it out of the park. There was also a discussion two months ago when we were talking about um pieces of student wellness and I think the culture that we have especially at the middle high school where you guys I think were very honest and open. I thought that was wonderful. Um, and then something that I think has been close to Jonathan's heart in terms of thinking about schools, our phones and schools, and I think you guys have been incredibly um, uh, helpful in terms of thinking about like where we might have a role and where we don't have a role, but the way that it impacts kids. All that is to say, we're so proud of you and we're going

012to miss you so much and I cannot wait to hear about all of the things. And I know you don't want to come to all of our meetings when you come home for vacation, but if you wanted to come to all of our meetings when you come home for vacation, I would be so happy. She'll definitely drag me here. Yes, it would be great. I expected three minutes of public comment at the beginning and the end. Of course, our own weekend updates. We've loved it, guys. We've loved every minute of every meeting. You broke some nice lies, but it was nice. You guys have been amazing and you're cheerful and positive and uh future forward. I think I think it's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you very much. I shared a lot of my sentiment the

013night awards night. Not that everyone heard and everyone needs to hear again, but the amount of time we spent together. Do you remember the minutes? 6,000 minutes, 5,000 minutes. Right. So blow out. I'll participate. So for sure, uh I think a couple I think Rob kind of stole a little bit there by saying you embody what we look for, right? And it's not really about achievement. Understand? It's it's about um being a voice for others. I said that that night. You've never came here and talked about yourselves. You've always talked about the group, right? Whether it's K through and 12. Um I think you are exactly what the state of New Hampshire embody when they wanted student reps, right? Not every board had them. Now it's required. Um it's fun to watch you grow. I

014want to say little sophomores. We met when you were little sophomores and I had to go that way to meet with you because you couldn't drive this way. Um, but I mean I said it at the state house when I took you guys. I mean, you're going to be somebody. Uh, you're going to be a representative of this community. And man, I now I'm trying not to. Uhhuh. It was weird when I said I think I met friends for life. But I mean it. Like the conversations we have at office, hours of conversation. Um, I hope you shoot me emails and and keep me updated on your life's journey. So, I'm proud of you guys. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Mhm. All right. Ready? You guys good? No, we're good. Okay. All right.

015You get to sit with us now. What? No. No. They're asking if we want him to say any comments. Oh, we wish you I can't. No. Especially with him. I can't. Okay. All right. Great. I'll be your own. I'll be around. Don't worry. I know. Well, we know that. Um, you guys are the best. All right. Anything else from the board comments? That was really nice. Great. All right, Mrs. Bickburn, the moment we're waiting for. We have your sixth grade mock trial. Can we hear from you guys? Where do you think we are? said no. I mean, I kind of do want to watch some go, but we good. All right. So, I present to you tonight Mrs. Bigford and some of our sixth grade students. They are here this evening to talk about the

016mock trial that they participated in in collaboration with um 603 New Hampshire Civics. And it's one thing to learn about the legal process in a book or to watch a video. It's a completely different thing when you actually take part in something like that. These students each served a role whether it be a juror or an attorney or um what were some defendants the defendants it was it was the real thing and they left with a comprehensive understanding of what that looks like and how it works. So I don't want to steal their thunder. I'm going to let them. My name is Parker and I was on the defense team for the closing statement. The sixth grade participated in the fourth annual NH Civics 603 mock trial. This is an organization that provides school with

017authentic educational civic experiences. Hi, my name is my name is Koko Sides and I was part of the prosecution teamwork. We had the pleasure of working with very experienced judicial professionals, former Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Robert Lynn, and former prosecutors for the state of Massachusetts attorneys Dina Chadawitz and Cynthia Young. And the an attorney is Steven Gordon. Their guidance was critical and very appreciated. Hello, I'm Nathaniel Dunlap. I was a defense attorney. I did the opening statement and I got paid, but Hi, I'm Daniel Dergo. Um, I was a prosecution attorney. Um, I also never got paid. This is the case of the state of New Hampshire versus Cameron H. This case is about an endangered species whose habitat was going to be threatened by a solar farm. The development of

018the solar farm is going to provide 50% of the city of Fair's electricity needs. Cameron Hannah learned that the solar farm was going to be built on the endangered New England cotton habitat. After learning that there was no absolute there was absolutely no effort to study the impact that the solar farm would have on the cottontail rabbits. Cameron decided to take things into their own hands. Cameron picked an episode to stop the development of the solar farm and was later charged with criminal trespass. Hi, I'm Sam. I was I was a juror. The great thing about this trial is that everyone got to play a part in our entire group. Roles were the defendant, the defense team, prosecution team, jury, court, the judge, and the witness. The witnesses included a b a biologist, an engineer,

019a police officer, and the defendant, Cameron H. My name is Leah Delron, and I was on the defense team, and I did the opening statement. And in the opening statement, lawyers give the jury a preview of the case. It explains the nature of the case, may introduce the witnesses, provides the jury with facts the lawyer expects will be proven at trial, and frames the evidence in a way that is favor favorable to the lawyer's client. Hi, I'm Violet. Direct direct examination is the initial question of a witness by the lawyer who call after a witness is directly examined cross examination. For example, the child defense attorney questioned the biologist about their expertise and specific knowledge of the endangered cocktails. Hello, I'm um a crossexamination is conducted by the lawyer for the opposing party, the party

020who did not call the witness. Leading questions are asked during cross the cross examination. They are intended to be yes or no answers where the attorney questioning is trying to make a point. I was on the prosecution You saw the no trusting passing signs, didn't you? Hi, I'm Daphne and I was the biologist in the mock trial. We learned a lot of vocabulary words and we're going to read some to you. Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Very certain of a person's guilt. Imminent danger. Something or someone is certain to be harmed in the near future. prosecution team, the attorneys representing the state in this case. Hi, I'm Kayyn and I play a prosecutor and um I'm also going to be reading some vocabulary. Defense team, the attorneys representing a person charged with a crime. An

021unanimous decision. In this case, all jurors had to agree on the verdict. Criminal trespass. you know, knowingly access a property that clearly indicates no trespassing warrants. Um, I'm Jay Marshall and I was the defense attorney and although I did do the mock trial, I was also chosen to do project soap box and where I competed with students around the state. My speech was about unseen disabilities and I came in second place in the competition. The winner went to Washington DC to compete nationally. Some of my friends were helped here helped me write my speech and share their experiences with unseen disabilities. To continue my mission of helping people with disabilities, my family and I organized a team for the organization future site which helps those who are blind or visually impaired. Thank you for this

022opportunity to be with you all. [Applause] Miss Vicker, do you mind coming up to the mic? The mic. Can you just describe the time and effort that goes into this lesson that you develop and then the experiences that you see on your side? You mean um the powerful uh originally I was approached by um Gina Cheddawitz to uh try to develop great appropriate uh uh trials, you know, and because that that's a hard thing to do at the sixth grade. So there was about four or five of us along with uh Dena um and several other attorneys who wrote the case. So um this have to be my idea, but they they've, you know, changed it up a little bit. But, um, so that was nice. That was about four years ago. We did that

023four or five years ago. And we have another one that has to do with indigenous peoples and museum uh museums and things like that and artifacts that we I tested out on these guys. We still need to do a little bit more test work, but um yeah, it was a long process, a big relationship, and it's nice that we have a lot of local attorneys that are helping. Yes. Who won the case? Oh, well, split, right? Jury is a hung jury trials. One, two. Yeah. Two not guilty. Two guilty, two not guilty. We should do another one. Anyway, it t it takes a while, a lot of relationships and uh Civic 603 um and New Hampshire Civics are completely behind all of this. So, and and they are donating the time, a lot of time.

024So, any questions? [Applause] Does the board have any questions for any of the students? I sure do. Okay. Did you guys have fun? Yeah. Well, that's amazing. Yeah. Does anyone like want to become a prosecutor now or a defense attorney? Anyone want to go into law? Maybe. Yeah. You know, you can take intro to law in high school. like to argue. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe the defense attorney. I love that. That's great. That's excellent. Rob, do you have a question? Jonathan, as our resident attorney, nothing. Nope. Wow. Okay. Do you think what do you think was more persuasive, the facts or the delivery of an argument or the way that it was delivered? The facts. The facts. The facts or the deliver. So heard both. Okay. So sometimes the facts and sometimes how they

025make you feel. Maybe you need both for a good argument. Okay. Awesome. All right. Can we take a picture? Can we take a picture? Is that okay? Y. Can we take a picture with you guys? They're going to be over. Oh, there's a picture. There's a picture. I never You're not I'm not sit here. Ask what the I don't want to ask. We're going to have to squeeze in, guys. You're going to have to get Wait, can a couple of you go in the front and kind of kneel? It's always awkward when they take pictures cuz we don't know what to do. We don't usually go in. That's something you can attend. Can I get a couple of you to kneel down in front? Also make the squish it in. Also, make the board com.

026I'm going to let all the moms take their pictures first so they know who we're looking at. They aren't going to talk, right? Okay. Good. All right. Okay. Good. Hold on. Oh, no. My phone's not Hold on. Phone's not cooperating. Keeps going to video. Miss Joe, I know. I'm I'm lacking in my abilities. Three, two, one. Put your fingers off the head. Three, two, one. All right. Oh, this is great. No. It's do you want to call it? Yes, that was Mo. Let them know that they can be. There's one more student group. Oh, okay. All right. And then there's just right there. We have one more student group if everyone wants to stay, right? Do we have more students? Yep. Yeah, we have more. Fix it. No. Fix it. That's a little close. No,

027this way. All right, we're good. Ah, all right. We should put it right on the uh Yeah, you were right. On the cross. Is it? Yeah. Good evening. I am so excited. I'm going to speak just a little bit and then I'm going to introduce Tina White to kind of give you a bigger detail and then she's going to get to the students that you really want to hear from. But we have Bailey and Nick Kading who competed in the RTX National Invention Convention this past week in Dearbornne, Michigan. So, not only did they compete at the local level, but they continued on and they have gone through multi-days, worked with experts, done all the different pieces to present their inventions. And I am going to ask Tina White to come up and tell a

028little bit about the program and then she'll introduce the students. [Applause] Hi, my name is Tina White. I am a parent of a sixth grader here at Maple Street School, but I'm also the director of the Young Inventor program at the University of New Hampshire, which is the state affiliate for invention convention worldwide for the state of New Hampshire and for Vermont. Um so um overall there are about 200,000 students K through 12 who participate in invention convention activities across the United States and 500 uh convened last week in Dearborn, Michigan at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation to present their um invention projects uh in front of judges and in front of other students for a great networking opportunity. And uh we're really proud that uh we had 31 students from Vermont and

029New Hampshire representing Northern New England and two here from Hopington. So Nick Kading from the sixth grade and Bailey Kading from the third grade. So it's a K through 12 um STEM program focused on invention education and really the design thinking process. Um it's standardsbased and um we offer different curricula for all grade levels um for schools to work on projects both in school and in out of school like after school or other settings. So I'm going to have Nick and Bailey I think come up and they have their inventions and present to you what they presented last week. I got Mhm. My gosh. No, disconnect the mic for them. I'm Nick Kings. I go to school here and I'm in sixth grade. And my invention was this automatic car sun visor that what it's

030called. Uh, so you know when you have a car the visor that flips down to block the sun. Yeah. So it's pretty annoying because it always have to turn it with your hand when the car turns. So I made it automatically turn to block the sun wherever the sun is. So I used a motor to and two light sensors. So, wherever the sun is, the motor turns the visor to block it. Um, it's used to work. The plane the the people checking the luggage probably just threw it in the back. So, it's broken. Uh, I used to have a working prototype, but um you can just see this. So, it would turn from here to here to block it. And there's two light sensors here and here. Whichever one gets more light, the motor will

031turn to block it. That's really cool. Uh, I have to I spent I don't know, maybe 10 hours working on this. So, it was pretty hard. And then not including going to all the competitions. I went to three in total. the first one at the town library which was just the Hawington people. There was the regional one which included northern New England so New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and part of Massachusetts and then I went to the national ones in Dearborn. Awesome. Oh, amazing. [Applause] My name is Bailey Kading in third grade at Carl Martin School and I made the guinea pig lift. I have three guinea pigs and they jump out of my hands and I'm trying to put take them in and out of their pen. So, I made the guinea pig lift to

032help me solve that problem. You take the lever. [Laughter] This is hard to hold. Oh, yeah. Oh, and then the little Foreign [Music] That's great. That's amazing. I know. [Laughter] Great. Awesome. Thank you. Do you guys All right. Any any questions from the board for our inventors? So, if I if I Google the guinea pig lift right now, will I find one in the world? So, when are you going to go on Shark Tankite? Oh, there. Yeah. Really? I don't know. [Music] How's the program funded? It is great. So, we Yeah. We do get some federal funding through the university as well as foundation donations. Cool. Amazing. And I just want to give a shout out to Tina. So Tina brought this to our school on her own years ago to the PTA and has

033been like a huge just like cheerleader for the program and supporter of the program for many many years. I just think that like we in Hopping are incredibly lucky to have someone like Tina who has championed this program for years like since from before the pandemic. Um bringing it to the to to the schools um even when your kiddo was not involved um you know we are really really lucky to have a resource like Tina and I think you know now we've got kids who have gone all the way and that's really exciting. So, I just want to publicly thank you as well because I know it is no small feat. So, thank you very much for all the work you've done, too. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Oh, yeah. Hey, wait, one more question for I

034do. Yeah, I have a question. Is Is it Bailey? Are Bailey, are you in third grade? Did you go to Squam Lake today? Do you think that would work for the porcupine? modify it a little bit. Awesome. All right. Can we do a picture of our inventors, too? Are such good cuz it drowns out the back and it brings them in brighter. If there's one thing I know about What is this? Prohibited for her new job. Style or fashion. All right, ready everyone smile. One, two, three. Nice job. Thank you for coming. They go on the website. Noah, I want one of that's a really smart. You got to go. like that. All right. To all of our students, you are welcome to stay, but I also get if you want to go home. So,

035if you go home, that's all right. All right. I could have moved that. All right. Not on it. All right. Thank you everyone. Well, the best part of meeting All right. Now, next up, we have our principles. So, we have Jake for Chris. Jake's for Chris. Jake's for Chris. You want to go first? some commitments. So, go ahead. Do it. Thank you everyone. [Music] Stand. Uh yeah, you can you want to stand up coming in. Yeah. All right. I'm sure you've already checked out my beautifully organized um board report. Um I was thinking about my board report last week and I had already put it in the folder and then I pulled it back because I wanted to change it. Um, my original one has what you see on that first page. It's all the

036procedural things. It's all my updates. We had field day today. It was wonderful. It was not hot. It didn't rain. It was perfect. We all had a great time. Testing's done. All the usual things, but you can certainly read that on your own. What I added was the second page. And the reason I added that second page was the basis for what I wanted to share tonight. Every morning I do a message to the school. It's called the the morning message. And on there I have any sort of notes, updates, things I need to know for the day, any staff absences, duties need to be filled. People sign up. They always sign up. We always chip in. We cover everything. But I also add a picture from the day before. I take the pictures. Mr.

037Woolner takes the pictures. Staff take the pictures. And the whole idea of the pictures is really important to me because it captures the magic that happens in these schools every single day. And it can be small or it can be monumental. So what I did was I went through my drive and I pulled out some of the pictures that I had put throughout the year. And I did that to illustrate just some of the things that's really hard to quantify on a school budget or in a newsletter that I think is just expressed so much better with pictures. So I made a list of some of the things that were in these messages and just to get an idea. So partial list of topics was the joy of getting an ice cream sandwich with school

038lunch. That happened today. That's a real one. Holding the coveted tugofwar trophy. That is tomorrow's picture. I've had pictures of students leaving leading the character counts assembly themselves in front of hundreds and hundreds of people running the assembly themselves. I just happen to be outside at recess duty one day and we have a buddy bench. you sit on the buddy bench if you'd like a buddy to come over and play with you or sit with you and seeing another student come over and sit with the student on the bench. Um, pictures of a student launching a weather balloon and accidentally letting it go, hatching chicks in a fifth grade classroom, playing a ukulele for your friends, and having an impromptu singalong. Student council collecting and donated 264 items for the Hawkington's uh food pantry and

039donating $109 to Make a Wish. Participating in a fundraising walk for a student with a vision disability. That was Jace. He just talked about that. a student running in a wellness class in a full tuxedo because it was Fancy Friday and learning just how hard it is to write with a quill pen as people did in the colonial days. These were all subjects of these photos. I also asked some students, I said, "What was your favorite memory of school this year?" Most of them said recess. That's just usually the typical response of elementary. But some of the other answers I received was being a waste warrior, winning the golden broom, doing book talks in sixth grade, and this one was completely unprompted, reciting Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream from Amplifying. I'll take it. Yeah. So,

040as I said, like all of these pictures, all of these stories are meaningful. They're important and it's what contributes to a positive school community and I'm biased because this is my school and I absolutely love it but that's just what makes it special here. Thank you. So that's my report. Okay. Um can I ask some questions? Of course. How is the hydroponic garden going? It is going fantastic. It grows so fast. Yeah. We already harvested a full crop of lettuce. It went from there to there. Mhm. Um we we've been experimenting a little bit like growing cucumbers. They tend to overwhelm it. Those are already in the garden. Yep. Um so we're doing our our newest crop now. Tracy and I are going to keep it going over the summer between her popping in and

041me being here. We're going to continue to do that. We're going to donate some to the food pantry. Wow. Um so it's great. We have kids testing the pH and the water. And the level the levels got super low last week and it actually stopped working and I panicked. But they were getting so big we had to add more water. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Amazing. And then you have um supply list going out in Alaskan newsletter. Are you also including and then teacher assignments the second week of August? That's exciting. Yes. So um Miss Mrs. Brown and I will send them out the same day. We usually coordinate that. Cool. Um so we'll do that then. Um my last newsletter went out Friday. It included that information and also the um supply list and I put

042it on the website as well. Amazing. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for Dr. Sony? No. Do you like my pictures? I love pictures with my favorite book. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. That's awesome. I mean, I just think you you said it really well. So often we are bogged down by budgets and a lot of things that you know, you're here to solve a lot of problems. And so it is nice to be reminded of all the things that are also going well. Right. It's really exciting. Thank you, Carrie. A lot of living. A lot of That's right. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Jake next. Jake next. Jake next. It's like you're speaking a different language. Jake next. Hey everybody. Hello. Hello. This is Thor. with you. That

043is true. Last Hop board meeting. Yeah. Um I I think everybody has the report that that Chris put together. He is at uh Wear Middle School right now supporting the girls softball team who's playing for a championship. Uh, and Chris was telling me if though if if they win that game, a lot of those girls are also on the basketball team, so they will have won two basketball championships and potentially two softball championships tonight. Um, so that's why he wanted to be there to support them. Um, so in the report, I think I was trying to look for a theme. I think a theme is transitions. Um, graduation was great. I mean, we were talking about the the ceremony and we were all standing in the hallway at the school looking at the radar on

044phones and trying to choose the right moment to head over to the barn and somebody said, "Now's the time. We got to go right now." And we just got totally drenched. It was no right time. There was no right time. There was no right time. There was no right time. Right. It was memorable. Yeah, it was definitely memorable. The the speakers were great. Um, Mike and I were chatting a little bit about how both of our student speakers wrote amazing speeches and memorized the whole thing. Yeah, that was impressive. It was it was just great. I thought all the speakers did a great job. Nice ceremony. So, it's fun to celebrate the seniors. Uh, we are also trying to transition from having a lot of garbage at lunch to not having so much garbage at

045lunch. Right, Flo? Uh, so we did a little composting recycling challenge. Do you want to talk about that a little bit since you had a big hand in it? Um, no. I'm No. Okay. So, the the junior class won the challenge and they got a popsicle party and uh that was good. So, hopefully we can keep doing more things like that. Um we've all we're also focusing on trying to transition a new group of students into the school and um the counselors have been working really hard on those activities especially Beth Stern bring the sixth graders uh up into seventh grade. So there's a lot of good stuff happening and I feel like the the activities that we had this year were very successful thanks to thanks to Beth. Um, and then the last thing

046on here is NEASK, uh, which isn't really a transition thing. Doesn't really fit the theme. Um, but the school is starting to gear up to looking at our accredit accreditation process. To gearing up. Okay. Thanks. When is the NIA visit? Uh, the visit I think will be the year after next. So, this prep training year. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think it's 27 28. Yeah. Cool. But it's a lot of work. So awesome. So what actually what were the numbers around the compost challenge? Like I want the results. I I don't have any numbers numbers, but I I have to get them for you. Okay. I can tell you it was it was honestly not the most successful campaign of the EAC. Lucy can tell you more about that. Um she was in the school more

047while it happened cuz I was kind of she was senior. It was it was like five this week so I wasn't really there that much. But but it's like a good foundational activity for next year to rebalance. I think it's it was definitely a step in the right direction of of the whole school incentivizing waste reduction in the cafeteria. Great. And those changes happen slowly often and I think the EAC has done a lot of work trying to help you know there while it may be frustrating at times. I think if you look back over the last couple years there's been a lot of good improve like 20 or 30 pounds of compost every day that we take it out. So like weekly that's like 100 or 150 pounds that we're we're reducing. So great.

048That's definitely something. That's awesome. A lot of work. Okay, cool. Great. Any other questions for Jake? No, mine was the same question. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Okay, Jake, since you happen to come to the board meeting and it is your last time with us as well, I I can't throw enough accolades away. We've said it all year long. I know personally uh when you started three years ago, same thing like where you've gone and now you're going to take over a building. You're going to kill it. You're going to crush it. That community is lucky to to land someone like you. Wish you all the best. Uh Hington will definitely miss you. But great job, Jake. Okay. You absolutely dominated. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Bye. Thank you. All right. All right. All right,

049Miss Brown's going to do uh principal update and then transition into the ELA data. Right. Great. All right. We need to be near the screen for the uh I'm going to go to the other side. Great. Pull up a chair. Oh, a chair opened up. I can stand right here. Look at that. Ready for you. I heard that joke. I thought it was funny. I I appreciate someone did it. You missed it. Went right over your head. I didn't hear it. Um, so Dr. Sony talked about pictures and Mr. Moral talked about transitions. I was looking through mine and I mean celebration seems like a good theme for us at Harold Martin. We have had a ton. This is like the spring of field trips. Um, and even more exciting for me is that while

050some of the field trips we've done um, traditionally and we always do and they're kind of a right of passage, we've also opened up to do new field trips and experiences based on our Amplify curriculum, which has been really interesting. Um, the craziest one so far is the wildlife encounters with a little baby like kangaroo in a bag. Um, with this full zoo that came to the school and taught the third grade about different animal habitats and um, they got to see different animals and learn more about what they eat and what they sleep and where they do and it was all right in the classroom. Um, Miss Donnie Hughes smelled fantastic after that. Um, so that was that was a downside of that one, but it was raining out, so we did it inside.

051Um, but we've also had first grade going to the sea science center. Um, we just did arts and science day and over at Kimble Lake with uh scavenger hunts and fishing and some um art portraits on the lake, which is always beautiful. Today they did Squam. Tomorrow second grade's going to Montshshire. everyone is just really busy engaged in a variety of learning experiences which is nice. Um also to celebrate we just finished our end of year assessments so that that data should be coming out soon. Um it was really nice to see our as web data uh for our math was at 89% proficiency for students at each grade level which was nice on average and literacy for grade two and three was 88%. So really nice to see that uh you know we are

052where we want to be and there's a little bit of room to grow for us to go there. But um overall the students worked really hard all the end of May um finishing up these assessments. I don't think if I tried to give one more assessment they'd be able to do it. Um but they did really take it seriously and the teachers did a nice job um working through to support them and then planning instruction and activities around that so it wasn't as heavy of a day which was nice. Um looking forward we have several different things going on this summer. We have the HMS extended school year. We are also hosting Maple Street at extended school year at uh Harold Martin this year. Um and then we start in our back to school stuff

053this fall which I know people are always wondering about. So, we'll be sending back to school welcome letters um August 7th and then we start with our Harold Martin back to school night is the 25th and then the first day of school is the 27th. So, not that I'm wishing away summer, but we get a lot of phone calls and inquiries of when do I find out my students teacher and when are the first day of school events. So, make sure those are out there early for everyone. Um and we will be sending home suggested supply lists with report cards at the end of this year as well. So people will have that for those July sales that always start. I was in a store the other day and there were pumpkins and leaves out

054and it said happy fall and I walked Ouch. I just turned right back and walked out because I was like we haven't even got to summer yet. So um that is always a rush, right? Amazing. Any questions for Patrice? Yeah. What was the what the 89 and 88% proficiency? How does that compare with last year? I said to Mr. Flynn, I know that that someone's going to ask me that. Um, that is about the same for math. Um, and I'm not sure about literacy, so I would just need to look at that, but I can get that information for you. Um, in the larger presentation, you'll see from fall to spring and I can talk a little bit about that growth piece. So, for the kids who are not, so they're in that, you know,

05510 or 11% or are they invited to the extended school year? Those are the that's one of the interventions. Yeah. So, uh the extended school year is special ed based. So, that is depend on the IEP, but we did just um like determine how we would set up our reading program this summer. So, that information will be coming out for people who need reading and math as well if we have. But I think most of our math needs are covered through the extended school year program. Reading tends to be a bigger one for us. We typically have reading hours set aside for anyone who is receiving intervention services or would flag or um if families are concerned they let us know we can do that as well. So Miss Duvall and Miss Hall will be

056doing that this Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And field day is on Wednesday and field day is on Wednesday. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain. We have a rain plan but it's not nearly as much fun if you can't be outside. So do they also do tugof-war? They do not do tugof-war. They do do potato sack races and the teachers always get involved and inevitably someone falls on their face. Um hopefully we get it on camera is generally our amazing. Cool. Great. Cool. Any other questions for Patrice before we move into ELA? Oh, I'm just super psyched about all the field trips. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, that's really great. Um and I know that many of them are also supported by the PTA. Yes. So, you said it's been a huge help for

057us. Um the kindergarten went to Beach Hill this year um which we hadn't done but they were learning about animals and farms and obviously everyone wants ice cream so they went to Beill and the PTA helped fund that which was really nice um and uh several of the other ones have really helped out. Um it's been nice to have the PTA in the building um and checking in with us. The fun fair was something that they were really excited to bring back. So, we saw them a lot in the Yes, I did joke that they were bringing horses into the building and Mr. Rosiki quickly shot that down. I said that they could wear the little shoes and he was not having horses in the yard. So, yeah. Yeah. No, trust me, I got a

058very firm lecture about the branding floor. Um, but so it has been nice to have that um partnership as well. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Learn about ELA. Transition to ELA. Okay. Hold on. Multiple pages of notes. Not just ELA. I did all data. All right. Okay. So earlier this year I presented the districtwide data for our benchmark screeners with Ames web and early bird and those are done for um grades kindergarten all the way up to grade nine. Um and then we have the SAS data as well. The SAS data is not included in this presentation as we have not been okay to release that publicly yet. Um however SAS data is New Hampshire statewide assessment system. It's required for third through eighth grade and 11th grade in math in literacy in science third

059fifth or no fifth eighth and 11th. So um so just a reminder one of the reasons that we work on this data not only is it best practice but also it surrounds part of our goals and the strategic plan making sure that we're providing that foundation for all necessary learning to be successful. We want to make sure that if kids aren't picking it up that we know who isn't, why they aren't, and what are we going to help them. A little bit about just the purpose of assessments. There's a lot of different types. There's the universal screening that we do, which is the benchmark assessments that you'll hear me talk about, Ames Web, and Early Bird. There's diagnostic assessments, which could be secondary screeners, um, which means that we noticed something was wrong, so we

060want to dig in a little bit further. But I also think it's important to note that the diagnostic assessments are every day in the classroom. Those are also the formative and summitative classroom assessments that teachers are doing. Every day the teachers are in the classroom working with a student figuring out did they get that? Did they not get that? Do I need to dig here? Did they understand that correctly? Can I take this and bring it further for them to elevate their learning? So diagnostic really is ongoing. So I kind of tried to capture that with that picture. And then we also have progress monitoring assessment which so if we have students who are working on intervention plans or special ed plans um really setting goals for them and then tracking our goals in an

061intentional way to make sure that the instruction we're providing is what they need. Sometimes you have a student that needs a different form of instruction and it might take a different program, a different approach um or a different speed. So we really use all of these tools to help us best personalize learning for all of our um students. So, Ames Webb is what we use for math and literacy um in the upper grades for literacy. Basic basically as web is just an online system for reading and math. You can use it K to 12. We um don't use it in our early grades because we use it with early bird. Um but it does for literacy, but we do do it for math and it provides local performance against national norms. So, I think that's

062really one of the important pieces of using a universal screener. It doesn't just tell us where the student is in relation to Hopington students. It tells us where they are in relation to state and national um grade level equivalents so that we know if our instruction is where it needs to be or if we need to change something to meet those gaps. So, this is our data from this year and you'll see that it starts with kindergarten in the fall and goes all the way up to 9th grade. Um the green is on or above grade level, the yellow is approaching grade level and the red is uh below grade level. So we're looking at students who are below grade level. Um maybe they require special education. If they don't require special education, then we're

063looking at intervention plans. These are students that we're targeting both in the red and the yellow to help address their needs. And you can see that from the beginning of the year and through the spring, we were successful. So, you'll notice that the columns get more green in the spring, which is what you want. Um, it's really nice to see that because that shows us that our programs are working, that the classroom instruction, the intervention, and the special ed services that we're providing really are helping us close that gap. Any questions about the map? That's awesome. That's really It's fantastic. It's a lot of green. If you print it in Ames web, it comes out as a triangle, so they look like Christmas trees. Um, but it was hard to do that for each of

064the grade levels. Yes. So overall um for the district using the EMS web data, our students are 94% at or above grade level um in math proficiency, which is amazing. Same thing here. Looking at the literacy, we have third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. Ninth grade did not do a spring literacy assessment. So, I didn't have spring data. I only had their fall. But you can see here also great growth from the fall to the spring. And again, that is just a huge uh compliment to our teachers and our staff who are working tirelessly to figure out what's going on, how can I help, where do we need to go? Um, if you look down by eighth grade, you have almost everyone is proficient by the end of eighth grade, which is really a

065good um a good piece to see. So, can I just ask so if is this all students? This is all students. So, if you have a if you have a IEP, Yep. your data is in here. If you have 529, like your everything's in here, your data is in here. Yep. There are probably a handful of students that don't take the asum assessment um because they require an alternative assessment um that would be um we're talking like a handful. Yeah, probably about a handful districtwide, but typically all of our students do as web fall and spring in the special ed primer that we had this year. The third grade had 25% IEP. Um and uh fourth grade was 36%. So like that's pretty remarkable for both of those. They're higher, but they dropped quite a

066bit, especially that fourth grade class. That fourth grade class has shown great growth. Um, they're Yes. All their scores have gone up significantly this year, which is really nice. We can't share them. I know. I just said they've gone up significantly. Just be careful. Come on. It's your last meeting. I'm going to be on the edge. Um, so again, it actually ends up being 94. I think I rounded that one up. I think it was 93.7. um but ends up being 94% at or above. So that's from the third grade to the 8th grade um level. What I can speak a lot about is early bird because that's only done in the lower elementary school which is um we do it K1 and two and this is a gamebased digital assessment that um Huffington uses

067as an evidence-based screener for um identifying any foundational problems with literacy. So we're really looking at that phmic awareness, we're looking at phonics, we're talking about oral language. Those pieces are um what this test really kind of looks at. It's pip. It's a little bird. He goes around a pond. He needs to get his boat in the lake. You got to get all the different pieces from each of the people. Um it requires kids to speak into a microphone. It requires them to follow directions. Um and it requires them to read various pieces um as they're on each of their little kind of quests. They like it. They find it fun. Um there's a little robot who hands you a microphone every time you have to talk. Uh and so they really they really do

068enjoy that and we've seen some really nice growth this year, especially this is our first year doing it with second grade. Um but when we were here in the fall or when I was here earlier this year, we talked a lot about how we have a lot more red in the fall than we really wanted to. Um and I'm so happy and as expected we our scores are much better um this year. So if you're looking at this first column this is a predictive profile. This means like the um ability to word read words and read grade level text. In the fall we were over 50% um flagged for that being um a concern and in the spring we were down um under 15%. So really looking at that non-word reading is on there, word

069reading, and then this the one that's most impressive to me is that espresso vocabulary at the far end. And that really speaks to the Amplify knowledge program, but the knowledge strand of Amplify is so vocabulary heavy and rich um that the kids are really exposed to words that we've never exposed them to before. And it's showing in here with I think it's 93% um are on grade level or above in vocabulary which is just so amazing. What's that? What's the third column? I can't read any of the words. Word reading. Word reading. Okay. Word reading. Non-word reading is fake words. So you just put a bunch of letters together and you tell them to reading out. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's like spaggle clock. Yeah. like there you go. So does it like listen to them

070talk and then it listens to them talk. Yeah. It'll say the word like it'll either say the word and they have to repeat it or it'll show them the word and they try to figure out what the word is. That's crazy. And then they say it. But it's like really funny listening say these like really weird sounds. Um and then it scores them based on it and then we can go in on our side and see hear some of them. So like I would go back because I my question was um you know what about a student who has a speech delay? How does that impact the scores? And so we went through and they actually pretty good because it'll tell them to say regular words first. So it can set a base and then

071kind of go from there. So it's really it's really impressive. I can still do this. So first grade data looks um great as well. Again, their predictive profiles, that first column, that's the ability to word read and be on grade level. Then they have non-word reading, word reading, and non-word spelling. That's an even better one, Noah. So, you're going to spell the words that aren't real words. Um, just based on the phonetic I can't spell real words. Yeah. I mean, I I haven't taken the assessment, but I don't know that I want to take it myself either. Are you smarter than the first one? I don't know. I don't know. Answer. Probably not. And then finally, um, I had to highlight this one because this is this is huge and gigantic for us. So we

072have letter sounds, first sound matching and blending. And that final column right there is at risk flags. So, New Hampshire has a dyslexia law two uh RSA 259 that requires schools to assess twice a year at minimum all students K to three in any um reading or reading related disorders. So, essentially dyslexia and then a as you screen those students with an evidence-based screener which is early bird is approved for. anyone who flags you have to provide a secondary screener for. And sometimes you do the secondary screener and you're like, "Oh, it just was a bad day. It didn't work or here's what." And then sometimes you do the secondary screener and you're like, "Oh, okay. We need an intervention plan." So, what we do when students do the secondary screener, if they flag on

073that as well, they get a written action plan that um they work with a one of our reading intervention teachers. We go through the whole 10 10 week cycle about um and then we reassess at the end. If we still need to keep them, we keep them. Um but parents get progress notes along the way. So they get notified here, your student, you know, your students flagged here. Then we did a secondary screener, they flagged, this is the areas we're concerned about. Here's our plan. Um some parents come in and meet with us so we can really explain it to them. Uh and then we get to work trying to solve those problems. So it is so exciting for me to see that at the beginning of the year we had flagged threearters of kindergarten

074um the first month and now we are down to just a handful of flags and those flags could be really anything but you're talking like most likely these are students who are identified with a reading disorder or some sort of specific learning disability. So that is like amazing for us. Hooray. Yeah. And then there's just kind of the big picture. So we take all this data, we use it, we share it with families. We met as grade level teams to review the data. And then we also met with the teams above to provide them the data just what's coming in next year. So we could look kind of holistically. If non-word reading is a problem for second grade, then third grade knows that that's something that they can target in their instruction. How do we

075start working that in? What does that look like with our current scope and sequence? Um, so really just using it to inform our practice and inform the families because I think um, as a mom of a first grader, I think it's really important that you know where your students at and how we can help and how you can help. Um, and having all that information. Cool. Amazing. Any questions? Not to go totally sideways. I don't think I'm going to, but I'm When you presented mid year for us, Yeah. just something that stuck with me that I don't think even as a superintendent kind of hit home. But when you talked about kindergarteners and you talked about the first 30 60 days, you're really just trying to teach them to do school rather than actually learn

076school. So really their window for growth is probably smaller than than you know. Yeah. And I just think that just goes to show what we're doing with our kindergarten model from how you enter them into the building to what we're doing throughout the year. So uh I think it's just a great job by that group. They are great learners right now. We are ready to go and don't want to give them up yet. That's awesome. Can we share this presentation with everyone? Is that cool? Yeah. Great. It's really exciting. That's amazing. Any other questions from the board? It's impressive. Yeah. I am really excited about how our data looks. I did say to Mike, I did not have time to dig in to see how it compared to last year versus this year. Um I

077and I also was when I was talking to Mike earlier said that we won't likely see as much growth next year from our students because the programs we were using previously had a slower scope and sequence to the amplify program that has a much faster scope and sequence. So I think that there was a loss this year um of us closing a gap. So next year from amplify to amplify will be a different comparison set from a different program to amplify. But it's all very exciting. And the teachers are finding Amplify kind of easy or at least user friendly. I don't know that I would say easy or user friendly, but I would say um they're finding it to be successful. They're working really hard and they're doing a fantastic job at it. Um they

078we have all the resources that we need. It's just when you take on a whole new program with a whole different philosophy that definitely And the time to learn and the time to learn it and you know we're we're building it midair sometimes. Um we did just kind of come through. Exactly. Right. Um we just came through to the end which feels nice. We did um at Harold Martin a literacy addendum to our report card because we felt like our report card wasn't sharing the amazing things our kids were learning. So, we made an addendum to it and it was really nice to reflect with the teams about how far they've come and like all the really actionable skills that the kids have learned this year and be able to communicate that to the families.

079So, um fun and easy probably not so much, but hardworking and successful, yes. Um and um and manageable. I think we've got to a point where it feels manageable where uh in September it definitely felt like that was going to be the only thing they did all year and now they're doing other things as well. So we just had to get through that initial push and I mean they are tremendous professionals both here and throughout the district but the K to6 group that took that on we uh the last two PD days we have with teachers uh there will be time for amplified feedback for the admin team. Amy wanted to make sure we got something out as well. So, we'll get some of the feelings back. Uh, and then the data is starting to

080show its hand here that the growth has been really great and then trying to find Yeah, exactly. that balance. Great. Amazing. Thank you, Patrice. Really exciting. Big kudos to all the folks. Yeah. Huge. And at Maple Street, it's like it's both. It's a lot. It's done. Really nice. Yep. That's great vocabulary. We'll take it. Thank you, Patrice. Thank you, guys. All right. Good work. Have fun at baseball. Bye, Jake. Keep us posted on collective baseball. That's where he's going, right? Let's try it. All right. Uh, next up, uh, we're going to talk about the fair fighting discussion. So, we had gotten an email I had gotten an email twice from uh the New Hampshire school fair funding school funding fairness project which basically looks at the way that New Hampshire funds its public schools. Um

081and they had written a letter um that we could uh either submit to the monitor or send to Governor Aayot. Secondary to that, um they're putting together a meeting um of school board chairs to request a meeting with the governor to talk about how um school funding is is funded, specifically special education funding, transportation costs, substitutes, etc. Sort of highlighting some of the issues that we see at the district level to to the governor as she thinks about her her agenda and what she wants to work on. Um I think that it is worthwhile to do. Um, but I don't want to do anything obviously without this being a discussion of the board. And I think that we have been lucky to I think have a I think a pretty dis a pretty well-informed perspective

082on what's happening at the state level because of Hopington's unique um property base. Um it it is tough for us here. Um, but you know, I welcome everyone's opinion and I can either go or not go or we can do a letter or not do a letter. Any thoughts? Are they looking for signatures on their letter or that we do a letter? They have a school funding letter that they have signed um that we could send in um just basically to prioritize public school funding. And I think at the top is a link just to add your name to the letter. Uh yeah. or and we can also send it to the conquered monitor on behalf of the school board. Um, and we could tweak it as well. I have some I guess I'm concerned

083and I I I feel like maybe I do feel like we maybe should get involved because of the recent legislation that just passed regarding open enrollment, which seems to sort of fly in the face of what we're trying to do and get our budget under control. And if the governor does sign that in I feel like that we will I I have concerns that we will become um a sought after district and if we're if there's I don't know if the 80 20% split was amended. I don't I don't have the update. Trying to to see that, but that could be devastating to us. Yep. Yep. Um Yeah. And on the Oh, go ahead. I would definitely sign on to the letter, send a letter, but I think even more importantly, if you can get

084in the same room with Governor AayOT to share our concerns, uh that's more important. I think movement as a legislature right now is more about, you know, changing seats than changing minds. Um I don't think you're going to see a whole lot of dynamic there, but she's a governor who now has to figure out what her imprint is going to be. Um I I think that's where the most action is to be had. Okay. Now, I agree that if we were able to um get a meeting with Governor Ayat, that would be great. Um, I mean to be clear, uh, you, me, Jonathan, Flo, Rob, uh, and Norm have we already signed this letter, um, previously and sent it in. This was a public document. Um, the ask was for us to physically sign it,

085to send it into the local paper, um, and to send a copy to Governor A, but I'm with Rob. I think that asking for a meeting would be, you know, fully appropriate. um even if it was, you know, Duly going on on behalf of our our board or as a representative of our board along with other um board leaders in New Hampshire, I think that um no matter what side of the aisle you are on, we agree that the way that our property taxes are and the way that we are funding schools is cannot keep going this way. um you know it's it isn't it isn't sustainable. None of us like it. Um you know we all would like a a better and a different way to fund our schools. We all sort of feel

086stuck. Um but this is the system that we have right now. Um so and and you know to Suzanne's point yeah if if these laws do change and you can go anywhere Yeah. And not only do you lose local control, right? But boy oh boy, our budget is blown up. Yeah. Because not only can kids come here, anyone can send their kids from here elsewhere, right? And we will have to pay other people's uh to to send their their kids to other places their tuitions. Yeah. So everybody should be concerned, right? Okay, Jonathan, I guess what's the ask? I think it's if we if the board feels comfortable and supports me being part of a group that goes to talk to ask for access. To ask for access. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't have a

087problem with you asking for access. Y if that's the ask. That's the ask. I think that I have a couple thoughts about this. The overarching thought that I have is that we individual school board members have different hats. We are citizens in the state. We are taxpayers in the state. And in that sense, uh, we all have an obligation to pay attention to and, I think, weigh in on issues that affect people in the state on the state level, just like we do in the federal government. We are elected officials of the town to represent our constituents in the town who don't speak with one voice on a lot of state issues. And I think frankly that a lot of the vitriol that we experience comes from people that are looking most heavily at federal

088issues and secondarily at state issues which doesn't mean that we don't look at them and that they don't affect our ability as a board and a district to provide an education but it does mean that I think we need to have some temperance and caution when it comes to getting into the state and federal issues at the school board level as elected officials of the town because we have our feelings and people vote for us because of the positions that we take. But I think we need to be mindful of that. Um I agree that there's a lot of legislation and a lot of budgetary questions that affect our district. They do every single year and every single year we could take positions And I'm not saying that we shouldn't, but I am saying that

089we should be cautious and very judicious about what issues we're going to wait into as elected representatives of the entire town. So, I do have I have the same concerns when I hear about the school choice thing, but this is slightly different, right? This is about they're related, but this is about the funding issue and the state dollars basically to educate kids. And that's definitely something that we've all talked about and been talking about and it definitely squeezes Hopington taxpayers more than other towns tax. Yeah. Power plant or lake or whatever. So, the ask right now is to see whether or not representatives of the school boards can have access to the governor to talk about their concerns. I don't have a problem with that ask, right? But I just want to explain my thinking

090about it because um because I think that, you know, we do, you know, being at graduation, we do a lot better when we're as a town, when we're in one room and we're cheering each other's kids on and thinking about educating them. We do a lot worse when it comes to waiting into these big wedge issues that frankly benefit a lot of elected officials and other lobbyists and people that make a lot of money out of this system that benefit off of that friction. And so so I'm just very cautious. Okay. So that so that's my thoughts on this. Okay. That's helpful. I really appreciate that. I also then wonder if if you do then get this opportunity instead of bringing then in kind of an adversarial lens just bringing a this has been our

091experience. Yes. Yep. You know, more of a letting her know what Hington's experience has been opposed to this is what we're pushing for. Yes, I think that that definitely makes sense for sure. I mean, we think about the number of comments that we hear about people on fixed budgets and people that are struggling to pay their taxes and stay in town. Those are issues that I think it would be appropriate for the governor to hear about. Yes. 100%. Yes. People that pay state taxes, right? So, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So, maybe all Yeah. All the things that we hear about the most would be the things that would be appropriate to range and chair. Yeah. What do you think? I think we should absolutely do it. Yeah. I think that's part of our role. I

092agree with you, Jonathan. Not everybody's on the same page as an elected official, but I think that um you know, we all listen enough through the process of the budget that I feel very comfortable with supporting the notion that there should be more par between the state and the towns. Um, I also think that there's an illusion that Hopkin is a wealthy community and we have no right being concerned about this, which is a false illusion, right? Um, so I think sending that message that, you know, it's really about property base and the continuum of our taxpayers as it is anything else. Yes. So, Yep. Terrific. Okay. I will say yep happy to be a part of a group that is will ask for time and then I will keep you guys posted on how

093that goes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Related guys. This is a this is a pretty I don't think we've ever talked about this. Uh well we we yeah three years ago. That's fine. Fine. Yeah. Probably wasn't here. It's my job to know. There you go. But Laura is going to talk about what she has in your board packet for you and some of the decisions behind it. Um cliff notes is finance meant this morning. I know Rob will give updates later but um this was discussed at finance this morning and Laura's gonna go ahead talking. Thank you. So, I have been starting to work with our food service department and for plans for next year. And I met with Tracy Barker, our director, talked about the fact that when we, as we meet later, I

094will show you that we've got a projected $72,000 deficit for food service at the end of this year. So, we've got to look at making some adjustments um in order to qualify for, you know, free lunch. Um we recently learned you have to have 130% above the poverty level. For a family of three, that's $43,000. That's it's not a lot to qualify for free free lunch, which means, you know, we understand that this is a burden to pay for lunch, but we also understand it's a self-sustaining program. And so with that, I bring you two options. The first is a two-year plan to request to increase breakfast and lunch by 10 cents in year 1 and 15 cents in year two. It also increases adult meals from $4 to $4.25 in year 1. Uh the

095second option is to increase breakfast and lunch by and adult meals by 25 cents in the first year and second year we reconvene and revisit and see how what progress we've made. And certainly option one would also allow us to look at progress. Um, I'd come back to you again and and report back as we do on how things are going, but it would spread out the adjustment. Would you mind touching upon why we're losing money so people don't make their own conclusions or draw their own assumptions? Can you just talk about some of the variables that we deal with? So, we've been looking at our revenue. It's a combination of meals served are down. Um it is a combination of you know the amount of students that are coming but it's a also food

096costs costs are getting bigger. Are now at 60% roughly of our what we can charge currently and ideally it should be at 40%. if not 48. So we make a lot on aloc cart we make a lot on um you know full lunches but really aloc cart is our main thing and if we can't hit a 40% food cost on aloc cart sales um if we can't hit a 40% food cost on lunch we're not going to be able to make any headway into into this and so we we are looking at ways to increase that if we have a little bit more money to we can look at quality um the USDA is adjusting their requirements starting on July 1st. So they are now requiring us to buy 90% American. They are requiring that

097only 10% of your calories are added sugars. So all of these components are going to increase the quality of the food, therefore increasing the cost of food. Okay. Can you share the example of the orange juice, what it costs, what we buy for, and what we charge. So this morning we talked a little bit about um that we were also going to look at raising orange juice to 75 cents which is the alcart cost of fruit. So orange juice is a fruit real piece of fruit. We pay 46 cents for orange juice and we charge 50. So we are upside down on orange juice and kids love it for breakfast. Um so we actually are losing money for every carton of orange juice we sell right now. Okay. Milk is a better range. Milk is

098about 50% food cost versus what we sell. So, we're going to try to leave that for one more year unless Hood increases their costs because this new USDA rig is changing the formula of Hood's chocolate milk is requiring them to change their formula. It's so good. It is. It has one gram too many added sugar per carton. That's why it's good, man. Okay, cool. So, so there's a lot of it's a lot of factors going into this. Um, but certainly it's time to just take a look at it. We have been paying for meals again for 2 years. And I want you to just consider what the current prices are. So, elementary breakfast is $1.50. High school and middle school breakfast is $1.75. Elementary lunch is 325. High school middle school lunch is 375. And

099adult meals are $4. It is difficult to buy a cup of coffee for 325 anymore, let alone get a balanced healthy meal for for kids. Who's eating adult meals primarily? Is it teachers, admin, and then people that like come into the building for Yep. visitors, volunteers, and staff able to come in here and get lunch. So, the recommendation from the committee is option one. The recommendation from the committee is for the board to discuss the board. You didn't want to none of us. I I think option one's great, but go ahead. I have a question, though. So, if if we had chosen if we had chosen option one this year, would we still be in a deficit? Yes. Okay. So, but it wouldn't be as bad. What about if we had chosen option two? Would

100we be in the black? We would be a lot closer. I just I didn't run those numbers for you. I certainly can. Um, and have have taken a look at the meals that we've sold. I will say the option one in year one for a family that purchases both breakfast and lunch, it's a $36 change. So, it will definitely put a dent in the deficit, but it won't remove it for the year. That is the That's the year. That would be a yearly cost for Yes. per kid. That 72 comes from $36. Option two. Option two is $90 a year,$ 250 a week. Will it be transfer before fund? And yes, sorry, not to go too much on the free and reduce part of the equation, but it is part of the equation. And what

101we are launching, what's uh Matt and Laura have finalized is next year we're going to have digital applications, which we have not had in the past, which can be challenging recruiting, trying to get those forms in all paper. So there'll be a digital option. Uh one more free and reduced lunch student increase. Well, how much more revenue do we get? 3,300 bucks somewhere around there. $3,300 for advocacy aid, right? Attempt. Can you say that again? Every additional free and reduced lunch application the district receives and people qualify, we receive another 33 somewhere around $3,300 in adequacy. So you get 10 more kids at $33,000. I mean, I'm using smaller numbers, but we're really going to try and do an outage program. Free reduced lunch is also used for like literally everything. If you're applying for

102grants, it's all your free and reduced percentage priority to get Yeah. grants for schools, all those fun things. There was there was a lot of I I'll go back a little bit around September, one of my superintendent's conferences, there were districts that were picking up a digital trend. There was there was a New Hampshire is one of the only states that doesn't tie it automatically directly to your federal forms. So we have to do the additional reduced. So we're really trying to make it more accessible and easier for parents to access. So hopefully that hopefully again that's a goal for first of all the priority is the family right so that they understand the benefits that they're able to access but two there's a benefit on our side for all the calculations. Can I ask

103a couple questions like historically what has been so so the program historically like when did we start losing money I guess is my question always always so pretty always been subsidized by the school um so for years and I'd say up until it was one of my first moves yeah when Mike first came in um food service always ran a deficit and it was always assumed they were going to run a deficit there was no line item in the budget for food service and we would just pay for that out of unanticipated funds. It would be transfer. So then we started budgeting and we initially went in at what 150, Mike? No, 75. We started at 150 and we reduced to 75. So we added as an item where we're going to, you know, expect

104what we need to pay. Um so this is, you know, we're sort of still sorting out where we need to be. um in terms of costs and in our share of those costs, but it is supposed to be self-supported. So I So would option two, you just you sort of asked this question like option two would not make us whole, but it would get us close. It would get us it would get us a lot closer. So I just ran a quick number for you. Um, if we were running option two, May's lunch program at just the middle high school would have raised another $2,000. Um, and so we would get a lot closer to that $72,000 deficit. We would be able to have another, say, you know, $20,000 for lunch at the middle high

105school alone with that rate with that change. And there's been talk about kind of looking at lunches and and we're so increasing the plan. Yeah, this this culminates, you know, comes with a plan for me to work with Tracy on out of the box ways to increase our revenue at the same time. So, we need to get kids in. What is it that brings kids in? Is it is it ramen bars? Is it smoothies? Is it, you know, coffee drinks? What what can we do to bring kids Yeah. to the table? I just I just have a concern that like right as a as the taxpayer, we're subsidizing through already through free and reduced, but then we're also asking taxpayers to then subsidize perhaps kids that don't maybe need the extra help, like parents that

106need the extra help potentially. Um, and we're asking like we talked about like elderly who are in their homes to then like here they can't afford their meals but they're paying for people kids to get free lunch. So the I mean the ideal is that if we increase the cost of the program and using it then we won't need the subsidy as significantly as we have. Yeah. But we made That's the plan. You know, certainly the the goal. Um whether it comes to fruition, we'll see. But I think to piggyback on that concern, maybe another way to sort of think about that issue is so what's the downside to raising it by $5, right? So, so if you, so if somebody were to say, I'm not saying we should do that. I'm just saying, but

107I do think it's for the discussion. It's important to put to to speak about why that is something that we would not want to do. Hey, we could instead of losing 72,000, we could be 72,000 in the black if we just make the prices higher. So, supply and demand, right? So, you raise the price, less people buy, you actually still have to you're still purchasing the product. You're ch it's a whole new and I was our personnel overhead is pretty stable. We really can't run these kitchens with any less staff than we already have, right? I'm not talking about trimming fat. you're talking about. So, um, so what I'm say what I'm saying is if you did that and then our demand goes down, I can't reduce my staff to follow the demand. So, then

108our our personnel costs are a bigger percentage of the meals themselves. And do we have a sense as to how much percentage wise like how much of our student body is using food services is buying lunch compared to other districts? Like where do we where do we fall on that? like are we below, are we in the middle, are we above? Like we'd have to reach out. We haven't done curious. Yeah, we haven't done that analysis. I Well, I was looking up my own kids balance while we were in the meeting this morning and he I was in the negative, but um I was explaining options. My when I was a principal with Timberly, we had a deli bar. So, it was a fresh deli bar every day and it was lined up out the

109door. And as a parent, I'd tell my kid just go to the deli bar rather than me making a whole sandwich. Okay. So, those are the analysis that we're trying to do on what we're providing. I It's a great practice. It'd be interesting on because some people outsource there, some people aren't inside like us. So, but we can work on that. Part of part of the discussion this morning was I mean I didn't think that a 25% increase is going to change anybody's behavior. That's that was my gut, you know, inelastic demand brain. But the incremental was just a judicious way of getting there for people whose behavior might be impacted by a 25cent shift in Yeah. A $90 shift looks a lot worse than a $36 shift, right? You know, and then $54 shift.

110I think it also is more significant. Yeah. And it lets us see like if we're able to change practices on our end and think about menu offerings, all those things, then we can know how much more. Do we need to do the other full 15 cents? Do we have to do 25 cents? Do we have to do 5 cents? Whatever happens in year two, right? Yeah. I But I would say the costs are changing. So we adopt a two-year plan. We actually don't know what potentially is going to be in place. Are there going to be additional tariffs? they're going to be. So like a two-year plan to me on something that is so variable doesn't make sense. Yeah, we also talked about that that it can get wiped out. The two years this is

111like this is what we do in year one and then at next year okay this is what we had on the boards. Do we still want to execute that? Yeah. And I would like to see like I know I think you folks talked about it and we have two nice young people on on the board so far like what are the hot sellers? What could we change? I think you said that there were some surveys or Yeah, there were some surveys done with families to see what it is that the kids want, what what sells, what they don't like. Um, you know, it's tough. You can't sell chicken nuggets and mac and cheese every single day. But I think the head always seem to be waffle Wednesdays, right? Waffle Wednesday. You know, that's the weird

112really. It's It all depends. I know. And yeah, mine will jump when it's, you know, the day when they're doing pancakes and waffles and sausage. She's so excited. Well, and that's I think conferring and I'm sure there are because I know like our bunch of people go to some there are workshops like there are things. So like what are the hot cells at Timberlane? What are the hot cells at Stark? What are the hot cells at um I can tell you what doesn't sell. Uh the kids are not happy. Gosstown got a smoothie maker and they saw huge, you know, a really big benefit with a smoothie maker. Um, it kids liked it. It was something different. It qualified, you know, for as a smart snack really. Um, it was good. Okay. I found out

113my daughter buys $4 drinks this morning when I logged in. So, I was like, what are they what are they charging for $4? cuz there's no way whatever they're buying. There's definitely a making money somehow. Yeah. What is she buying? I don't know. Buy upight. Three caramel pumps. Better not be. What? How old? Freshman. I guess for me the 10 cent increase just seems like Yeah. As a parent who's both my kids eat hot lunch, it just seems weird. Honestly, I'd be like a buck 60 like just round it up to 175. Like just make it make it 25 cents. It's just easier math for my brain to handle. Um but I mean I I get judicious. You're not wrong. There's certain thinking like that, you know, and there's a lot of a lot of

114districts that won't move less than a quarter at a time. Yeah. Just like if I'm if I need to add more money, I'm just like I I don't know how much more I need to put on there. I um I don't know what's happening with the economy. I think the one shift I would do is go from like 10 to 15. I mean I think that like like I don't I really don't know like I think that there are some people who are pretty freaked out about what's happening uh economically but if you told me like every meal was going to go up 25 cents I would say like my grocery bill has gone up. Sure. And I would also say we may get people with the ease of the free and reduced. We might

115have an increase there if it becomes easier to we are doing the yeah doing the online platform for the free and reduced which I think will get us a lot uh some success. Certainly I I do think that for me I I would people like voting on this or my inclination is the is the second option. Okay. um because I think that it reflects the cost of what's happening. It's fair pricing and it also I would feel better looking ahead to the next meeting when we're you know in the winter when we're justifying our budget that we're trying to be sort of mindful of the people whose kids aren't eating lunch and like I I feel better about saying that you know and I and and again I think to Suzan's point if you you

116know if you're eligible then you should apply for assistance but I think I think that more reflects the reality of what's happening right now. So to me that that's that's what my gut says. Yeah. Robin, what do you think? I move that we go with option two. Okay. I'd second it. Any discussion? Just to be clear, option two is a 25 cent increase to all student and adult. Yep. Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Great. Thank you so much. So, we will update those prices and communicate them to families for the start of next year. Great. Professor, thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Hiring. Nope. No. Fund balance. Fun balance. My god. Yes. Fund balance. Let's do it. Yeah, fund balance. So, two, no, three weeks ago, uh, we presented you with some

117forecasts or estimations of where we will be for the end of the year. Um, I guess good news is the numbers coming in lower. Uh, which means we are adequately funding appropriately. Um, so what we're going to present to you is I'm just going to communicate that it's kind of changed since we last saw and finance discussed it this morning. So, we had anticipated 150 to two. Uh that number is now estimated around 135ish. Um and remember you have the May financials in your packet. You do not have June which is always tricky. So now it's all targeted approaches on open POS's um some special education costs that are rounding into form. So that is the safe number that our new uh business administrator to be on July 1st um has made a target. So,

118back to the list that I provided you in meeting with Mr. Rziki on Friday. Um, we would really like to move forward with a motion, well, don't have to make a motion yet, but a motion to support uh the RAAC1 unit replacement in the stair tread. And the reason why we're doing that is because if the number comes in at 135, you can see the estimated cost for the air unit is 80 and the two treads for two schools is around 70. Now, that's over the 130 number, but the motion that would be asked would be to uh spend up to 135 to replace the air handling unit and stair tread, which allow us the flexibility to use whatever the remaining funds are for the stair tread. Okay. Um there's also a cost in there

119for up to $16,800, which is going to be for what Rob's going to talk about later. um in regards to the safety upgrade for the middle high school. So that cost would incure engineering for the outside of the school. I don't know how to say it the right way. I call it civil engineering. Thank you. Uh along with some construction management costs uh because of the scope of the project. So really, I mean Rob, you can explain more if you want or if anyone has questions, please ask. We're going to be asking for two motions. First is to spend um up to $135,000 from fund balance for the air handling unit and stair treads. And then a second motion to spend up to $16,800 for construction management and engineering HMHS project. Now, I know if

120you're asking that doesn't add up to what I was just estimating. Laura broke it out for me because there is anticipated cost to cover both. All right, the 168 plus the 135 threw a lot at you. So feel free to ask questions or you can dive deeper if you want. And the up to allows us, sorry Rob, when there's at the end of on June 30th if I, you know, don't have $135,000, that up to allows me to spend lower, but just not more than than that. So it gives us that gives me a bit more flexibility, little movement. Okay. And I think it's also important that we note that u the unassigned fund balance in the May financial is at 815,000. So, all of this is taking place after we meet our um calls

121from school district meeting as well as putting the balance into that contingency fund which would bring us up over the $1 million mark. Thank you for Yes. Yes. Because we have we had dedicated 400,000 from the contingency fund at school district meeting and 100,000 from revenue. Yep. And then another 25,000 for the the two trusts. Great. So the third piece would be the contingency fund and a preliminary plan to maximize the contingency fund on June 30th. Great. That final vote obviously happens in August, but that that is the the plan. All these numbers are based on maximizing the contingency fund which you'll see in the May financials. Great. And just you know kind of going back to where we were three or four years ago with the size of our unanticipated fund balance and where

122we are now. Um so if that number is in the ballpark of that 8:15 825 and our our budget for this year was 26 million6. So if we go to the discussion we had a budget committee with a municipal association came and said question was asked what's a fair number like if you did a good job you should be within 5%. Well, if we were within 5%, that'd be 1.3 million um in an unanticipated fund balance. We are at 3.1% at the the number where we're at, just a little over 800. So, I think we've done a really good job or these folks have done a really good job through the budget process and through the allocations and everything else really putting us in the wheelhouse where we want to be. Um, and just long-term,

123I mean, the way I think about this, if that is what happens annually and we're using 400,000 or so as revenue from contingency for the school budgeting process and we have that 800,000 and we can continue to return that without using the unanticipated fund balance which might freeze up the budget. Great. you present. It's pretty great. Okay. We need those motions. Motion. So, do we have a motion to Can you write the third one for contingency? Is there a motion to spend up to $135? Yeah. Is there a motion to spend up to $135,000 uh for the air handling? RAC1 air unit replacement and stair tread replacement. Mhm. So moved. Second. Great. Discussion. Sorry. Can I know we're throwing a lot at you, so I want you to ask away. Um Yeah, cuz I'm an

124English teacher and not a math teacher, but um these are pretty it's pretty standard for where we've been operating. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I and I remember some of the conversation about that I asked last meeting about should we just can we just return funding again? Sure. Thank you for the $15. um like not helpful. Uh yeah, I mean right stair tread. I've been on those stairs and and they you know and exacerbated by the weather like some of our thread clearly needed Yeah. Uh I didn't mean to laugh. No, but Right. It's funny because it's true. Yeah. As someone who almost bid it going out there. Um, and then a hot, you know, the the air replacement needs to be all the stuff needs to be replaced. So, I get it. These motion, this one

125specifically is going to really help our capital improvement plan, which is a live document that's been living online for the entire four years here and it helps reduce those costs of future things. So, it's really a targeted approach. It's not buying, you know, it's not buying random things, right? We're not talking about correct. This is the must-have list as opposed to it'd be nice list. Yes. It's helping check boxes. Yep. I understand like grass on the soccer field like while you're a soccer player. It's necessary. It's not you know. Um and just remind like you guys did the math, right? It was like $15 per taxpayer, right? $15 if we were to return the money. Yep. Yeah. Okay. And then I think it's also it's that and also it then locks you in to needing

126to then raise that next year. So it's not only it's it's just that getting caught in that vicious I understand is the Yeah. I think though Yeah. I mean I know you understand it's just that's I think the piece that's often missed right in kind of the larger conversation. Yes. I have other questions about the ne the other piece. Sure. Um that is not the motion on the floor. Sure. Okay. Wait for the next. So, okay. Great. Any other discussion about the 135,000 up to $135,000 to be allocated for air handling and stair treads? Great. Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Great. Motion carries. Next up, do I have a motion to uh allocate and spend up to $16,800 for construction, management, and engineering for the Hopin Middle High School project? So move.

127Sorry. Second. Great. Any discussion? Where we at? Rob, do you want to talk about it a little more? I think I should do the presentation that it's actually a great transition. Do you want to plug it in the slides on your computer so I don't have to move my seat? Well, they're in discussion. It's the motion. Yeah. Great. I have it. I just have to I know it's not Rob, if you want to do teacher time while I'm pulling it up. Teacher time. Sure. I can do that. Um, so this this is a conversation. Whoops, that's the wrong presentation. Here it is. So, uh, the title is the security redesign of the Hopkins and Middle High School entrance and it really came about, well, the discussion came about after uh, Coline, you know, uh, we

128were a year and a half into the school and really horrifying event happened and we realized we had a very poor school design that no one anticipated when the architects first designed that change that came about in 1997. Um but in the homeland security audit they put the yurt on in 9798. Is that when the yurt went on? Yeah that's when that project began. It passed in 98 and the work was done in 99. Um homeland security audit that was done highlighted a lot of things that we have worked on security cameras checkins all of those um hard goods. But the other thing that was quite gripping was the fact that we have this entrance. So the why now um this plan discussion really started between Jim Rziki and I after a safety and security

129meeting last May. And he said to me, "What are we going to do about the entrance?" And I was very straightforward and said, "Jim, the entrance is dead in the water as long as it's $3 million." Like there's no way to even have a discussion about it. Um, and I, you know, I shared the building project that came through at 30 million and the school district had spent like $50,000 to do all of the engineering and the work to create a $30 million plan that wasn't going to pass. I was like, I am not of the mind to be a part of a board that's going to do that. So, we needed something that was going to get us started um cheaply. Uh so the long and short of that was well who do we

130know that can help us with an architectural design. Um came to my mind a former parent of a former student and also my daughter's father-in-law. Um but he is he's an architect. He works for the University System of Massachusetts. This is what he does. uh while I'm sitting in Jim's office, I called him up and said, "Jeff, um h how would you like to be a part of something?" So, and he said, "Yes." So, he came out last June. Uh we walked the building, uh Jim and he and I, and we went through all of the things that people had talked about. um an entrance where the yurt is, an entrance at the rear entry where to the gym, an entrance at the old teachers entry. And all of those things involved very large exterior

131construction as well as interior changes. And one of the things I said to Jeff is like, look, we we want to be pragmatic. We need to come up with something that's costefficient to the town. Um, we don't need a Taj Mahal, we need security. And Jim Rziki had in his head that this could all happen uh if we use room 202 Kate Cro's classroom as the main part of a redesign in the entrance being there. So again, we we walked through that section of the building. Um Jim sent Jeff all of the architectural floor plans that we had and Jeff came up with a design. So and actually can you just back up one sec? Thanks. Sorry. So when we got there and I still thought this thing was dead in the water, right? Because

132I'm thinking I'm still in the two $3 million range. Um, but when Jeff came up with his floor plan and Jim ran some numbers at commercial costs per square foot, we realized this project could be at the 800,000 mark, maybe to a million, but probably closer to the 8850 mark. It's like, well, um, now now we have legs for a conversation that's in my mind not dead in the water. Um, so I'm hoping as I walk through the rest of this with you that this gives the board an opportunity to think about it. It gives the community an opportunity to think about it to solve a problem that's been staring us in the face for, you know, over two decades now. So that's Michael. So that's the problem right right there. We we have this

133massive security gap as you look down from the office to where that main entrance is. We have a double buzzer system, but still once a person gains access, they can go anywhere they want. It's not, you know, it's not rocket science to anybody. You going to hit me the next slide, Mike? Um, so what are the benefits of this security redesign? One, it creates a proper twodoor security system to the office and guidance area. You would come up to a window, show your credentials, get buzzed in, you go into a little holding area, and you'd be buzzed through again. Somebody, you know, whoever was you were meeting might be there, or if you're a known quantity, you might be just going off to where you're going to go. It also enhances the clarity of the

134main office location. And, you know, Jeff uh very kindly sent me an artistic rendering today, so we sort of have a little vision as to what this might look like in watercolor, by the way. Um, right now people come up to our our school and they don't really know how to get in. Like it's, you know, it's it's a little it's a little weird. Uh, it will enhance handicap access a little bit. Uh, now if you're going to go to an event in the auditorium, you make your way through the maze to the elevator up. And so you'd be coming in the main entrance, then to the elevator by the library and up. So, it's a little bit less of a maze, but it's it's probably an improvement. It's also not the long hall to

135the office because there'd be a handicap ramp um coming up to this entrance. It maintains the office and faculty space. I would argue it actually improves the office and faculty space. Um Cake's office would get a little bit larger with some room for conferencing there. Uh the faculty room becomes a bit more distinct. It also adds another conference room of 10 to 12 people could comfortably meet there and we'll see that in the design in a minute. Next one. Detriments to the design. It takes away a classroom. So this requires some reallocation of teaching spaces. So I'm going to pause there for a minute. So after after Jim and I have this conversation and after Jeff does his plan, it was brought back to safety and security. run by that group and they said we

136like the idea of this. Um, now the most important feedback to get initially is from folks who live this. So Carrie and Jim, myself and Chris Kelly got together and we talked about pros and cons. We made some adjustments to things in terms of where they sat in the sizes. Sent that back to Jeff. He did another redesign. We asked um I asked Chris to take it to his admin council which he did had strong support there and then to the full faculty. So everybody at the middle high school has seen this and understands the necessity and I think they also understand understand the necessity of the tradeoffs of losing that classroom and some reallocation taking place. But Chris feels pretty strongly that this can happen. Yeah. Just a quick question or clarification. We have

137the fire chief and police chief on safety and security as well, right? So they they both have seen this and also weighed in. Yes, we looped in um both Chief Yale and and Chief Hennessy. Uh Chief Yale definitely gave the nod. We talked about Ballards and some other things that needed to have happen. Um so yeah, those those parts of the puzzle have been looped into the process. Um, so this one is kind of funky because it's an overhead view and it shows you I'm going to get up. Um, it shows you um top down view of what you're looking at. It's a little sketchy because it's sketch what. But right now, this is the front of the building here and this is where the buses come in. Uh the entry point would be right

138in this area here. And if you were to see Kate's interest classroom and the two windows, there'd be one window there and one window there. This is her old classroom. Um so what would happen is you'd come in and the entrance would be in this excuse me in this location. uh and this was one of the big changes in our mindset was initially we were thinking vestibule structure vestibules and structure means money when we had the conversation and Jim said what about canopy canopies cost a lot less money serves the same purpose so this is a canopy not a vestibule uh here's a handicap walkway that comes up some steps and you'd have some ballards in here uh there's parking Visitor parking would occur here. Your flag pole is over in this area. So that's

139a general exterior view floor plan. Um so this one here's the entrance. So you'd have a reception area with a window here. Person would check in. You'd have two doors and then you'd have this interior section where it would be sort of the call it a holding pen for lack of better word. Now remember that holding pen or whatever word you want to use is is really what Homeland Security is driving at all the schools in New Hampshire, right? So that first layer of it, you got to get through two layers in order to get into a building. So we have this area. There'd be some chairs here. Person might be waiting or you know again a known quantity. They might go through to wherever it is that they're going. So this becomes the lobby

140area. This is now the entrance to the main part of the building. um guidance is here. This is the conference room that would get added as a part of this business. Um right now, if you've been in that building, this is where the bathroom is. That would not change. This is where the storage I think most of our uh servers and whatnot sit here. This would be an opening into guidance for them to have access to and from the office. So the reception area again with visibility outside and visibility this way. This is where they would do all of the work where you you see um Tana and Miss whatnot. Um this is a small administrative assistance office that does not change. Chris's office does not change. Uh Jake's office over here does change a

141little bit. So one of the things that needed to happen or in this design does happen is the faculty lounge which currently sits over here would move to this section. So they're going to come in by where the senior lounge is. This becomes a wall and a walkway and for easement reasons and whatnot you you had different choices that happened had to have happen which you know Jeff explained. So this becomes a hallway and then this goes into the office here. So Jake's office gets expanded by about that much. So it gives him a little bit more space, parent meetings, student meetings, etc. Um, will we still have the entrance that we have now? Will that stay there? Which which entrance? The Europe will be locked off. Yeah, the Europe will still be there. No

142change, but not for entrance during the school day. So students won't even be able to go through the Europe. Nope. students. You know, part of this is all discussion, but student entry points primarily would be the rear parking lot by the gym, which would be staffed and monitored and then buses would come up and drop here and students would be coming in through this entrance. Are we doing anything for the back entrance which is this is this remember this is the the main purpose of this is the safety during the day. So when parents are coming to drop off. Okay. It's not when like school arrival like parent drop off is still going to be by the year area. Okay. Yeah. It's not changing. The other small piece of change here is there's three offices

143in guidance. There's one here. This is where Mrs. Fischer is. There's a very very small office and then a third office here. This office would get expanded a little bit come this way. Um meeting up with this hallway. Excuse me. Coming in here to the main office. That person's going to get a little more space. More than a little tight. Right. Next one. Like this is sort of uh Jeff's rendering of what would what it would look like. Um, so you come up again, you can kind of see where there will be some parking, uh, handicap access, a few steps coming up, ballards along the way, and then your entry with a small canopy over the top, not a big desk. He and I had a long discussion because he sent me five different renditions

144of this today, and I picked the wrong one to begin with. This is the wrong one, but we'll swap it out later on as we move down the road. The three you sent me, they're all eerily similar. I know. Except the color. You're not an artist. I love this. I thought this one was the best one. Yeah. But again, I I can't thank Jeff enough for the amount of time that he's put into this uh to get us to at least be able to have a conversation. I don't know if there's one more slide. Yeah. So, plans to move forward. um the allocation of funds which is what we're talking about right now for civil engineering and for some project management planning taking place so that we can get hard costs um and once we

145have those hard costs then we can have a real conversation with as a board and as a community. So that allocation of $16,000 moves us to a place where we know what we're actually expecting. board has a discussion hopefully at our retreat meeting about plans, costs, financing options, how strongly are we investing in this community presentations and feedback uh feedback from the budget committee and then you know ideally in my mind anyway at Warren article March 2026 but that's me speaking a lot. So I go I'll stand here for a minute if anybody has questions about anything I need to like All right. Any discussion? We have the motion open before we vote on it. I just want to put out there um that there is just because I've been keeping an eye on um

146some of the bills to consider as an additional cost. There is an owner's project manager bill that has been recommended to pass and it will go to governor AOT's desk. Um require school to engage an owner's project manager for construction of school building. Um, and if we choose to go for aid, um, and if we we have to have one hired if we are going to apply for any sort of state aid. So, it's just another we had a we had a a project manager for the last goound that we did in school. Another cost to even apply for aid. you'd have to have one in the I don't know if it would qualify for I don't know if this would qualify for building a Yeah, but it's a good idea to consider um I

147know that they are push Yeah. pushing that in order to be able to apply for building a you have to have full plans drawn up and everything ready for building. Okay. I mean, I would I would just say that I appreciate all of the work that's been done on this. Um, as someone who has two children at the middle high school, um, and the fact that my children have to do active shooter drills. Um, the security of the schools, you know, all all throughout, you know, when they were at Herald Martin and then at Maple Street and now at the Mill High School. I don't love it, you know, I don't I don't love that my kids have to do something I certainly didn't have to do as a as a child. Um, I feel

148really good about our two elementary schools and the fact that they now have really great entrances. Um, I know that as a board we've been talking for a while about safety improvements and security improvements at the middle high school. Um, and I really appreciate the work that you've put in and that Jeff I don't know Jeff's last name. Jeff Del. Jeff, thank you. that Jeff has put in to make this um be an actual conversation that we can have. Um, you know, kind of as an aside, it's also nice to look at a rendering that has a middle high school that has a a front that you can actually see and recognize from the street. It's seems really basic, but um it's just sort of nice to be able to look at the front of

149the school and be like, "Oh, yes, there's the front of the school." Um, so I'm I'm excited about at least being able to move that conversation forward. Um, you know, I I don't love the fact that my kids can be eating lunch in the cafeteria and someone could get busted in, have full access to them. It is sickening. Thank you for doing this. I think it's an incredible amount of work and I really appreciate you and Jeff um taking it through. So I Yeah, Jim Rziki spent a lot of time as well as Chris and other folks, you know, feedback back safety and security team. Safety and security team. Okay, great. We're still the 16 grand is not from the leftover fund. It is. It is. Yes. But we just so that when I was

150talking I said Laura wrote down that we actually the what we have additional yes that's why it's an up to cost up to the purpose of this cost is to get accurate information and numbers to move forward for the internal work. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? So, we are voting on up to $16,800 for construction management engineering uh for the App Middle School uh entrance project. All right. Okay. Great. And all those in favor? I I Great. Okay. Thank you, Rob. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay. You have one more motion on hand here. And as Laura briefly talked about it, prior to getting to the fund balance, the number one goal was uh what we do each year, maximize contingency. Uh that vote doesn't actually happen until August because when final numbers come in.

151So you have the motion in front of you. So may I please have a motion to maximize the 5% contingency fund on June 30th with a final vote to be taken in August after the audit fieldwork. So second. Okay. Any discussion? Nope. Okay. Oh, sorry. I mean, we can have discussion. I didn't mean to cut it. Okay. All those in favor? I I All right. Go. Go team. All right. Three motions. We did it. Thank you. Moving on. Summer hiring. Summer hiring. So, I'll speak to the new board member. Uh Suzanne. Each year we nominate. It's just it's easier. Uh each year we nominate or make a motion so that we can continue with hiring and not lose candidates. It gives Duly the power. Yep. And then you reaffirm in your first meeting. Looking for

152uh a motion from the board to allow Dy Loma to approve summer hiring until reaffirmed in August. So moved. Thank you. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Terrific. Keep you busy. Great. We always do. Uh one thing before we move to consent agenda if that's okay. Sure. Is that all right? Uh there's one quick thing that that popped up today. Um two pieces really. One is that we might need to move the retreat on the 27th. Andrea might have to do filming in the north country. It just popped up today. Um we're supposed to have our schoolboard retreat from 12:00 to 4:00 on the 27th, Friday. I have not even talked to Amy about this. So, I think and I wanted to get everyone's feedback about this cuz I know summer is complicated. Uh

153I think it's probably better to do it sooner in July rather than later. Um rather than waiting until August or something just cuz I think we should spend some time with Amy as she starts to get her sea legs under her. Um if it is not possible, we can we can we can do whatever. But I think that it would be great. And so I will send an email out to everyone and ask for your availability. I will ask Amy for the same and then I will circulate some dates, make sure that works for everyone. Okay. Um I know it's not ideal, but I'd rather have especially given the transition to Amy um all five of us there so we can rock and roll. The last thing is I did draft the 2526 schoolboard meeting

154dates. Um I sent it to Andrea to do a final check. Uh but I will get that shared with everyone once another set of eyes has taken a look at it. As a reminder, the things we think about when we look at that are we try really hard based off of our experience two years ago to not have meetings right after holidays or vacations. It just means everyone comes in hot and potentially a little unprepared. Uh so we try to space it out. And then looking at budget season, uh, local elections, federal elections, um, reorggs, uh, something that I kept in mind was that I thought Suzanne, your first meeting, the Tuesday after school district meeting was maybe not the best on boarding experience for you. Um, so trying to space that out a little

155bit more for a potential new school board member. Yeah, I felt like we were all I did a great job of getting you up to speed. Um, not uh but so I'll get that circulated over there and we can finalize it at the retreat. All right, cool. That's my last thing. It's your sh. Yeah, we're moving on to have a brain cramp. Say the sentence personel. Thank you. Personnel. I'm going to do resignations first tonight. So, um, our first resignation is Barb Jenkins, who was a teacher and has been an IIA this past year. Uh, we thank her for her service. She has decided to move on from the IIA role. She'd like to stay on as a substitute, but um would not like is not coming back as an IIA next year. Charlene Betts

156is the HMHS library assistant. She has um put in her resignation for the library assistant position. Would like to continue on as the first robotics adviser. Oh, great. Great. Shay Dixon came to us earlier this winter. Um, he is going to go back to school. He has decided to go back to school. So, he has resigned from his IIA post. And last, Rebecca McKenzie has resigned. Um, also HMHS instructional assistant uh as of the end of the year. Great. And the reason I did the resignations first is wonderfully we have found a replacement for Barb Jenkins's position. We have a substitute Hannah Wood who would like who would like the IIA position at Maple Street. So we I am nominating Hannah Wood to take the uh 1.0 for next school year at Maple Street. Great

157to replace and then the last thing on the uh personnel report is ESY. So, we have our nominated hires for ESY and it's a vast list. I don't Laura came to me this morning and said, "Do I have to read every name?" And I said, "No." So, each year we present the list for ESY uh and as well as schedule B. So, in your folder, you have all the names. Yep. Great. Unless you wanted to read 150 names, you can review and ask any questions. Great. Not actually 150. It's about 29. Feels like 15. schedule B. It's probably up there. Yeah, that's what I meant. Schedule B, too. Yeah. And then we do have two on there that are bus monitors. They don't have specific hours. It's based on need. So, um, those are the

158staff that ride the, you know, bus 99 as we need them to because we do provide transportation for ESY program. Okay. Per state law. Is Harold Martin starting the student council? They are. It was negotiated. Yes. So, Del's moved on to schedule B. Sorry, fine. Um, okay. I thought I was good to go. So, it's one of the newly negotiated positions is Harold Martin Student Council. They did not decide on a um adviser for that yet, but your co-curricular extracurricular nominations are in your board folder for schedule B. And Tracy Martin and Kim Sync are coming back as the MSS performing arts club. They are. There's a few that we don't have. Um, so high school's open arts studio is not running again in 2526 school year. Didn't run this year. So that is not

159going to be filled. And then we have a few to be determined where we don't have advisors yet, but I will bring that to you when we do. Great. Next year's going to be Yep. It's going to be great. Awesome. Um, and then this is lastly, this is there's a few on here. Boyce Warriors, girls who code. um kindness club, student council. Those are clubs that have been existing for a while, but the adviserss did um have been negotiating the new contract to actually receive a small stipen for the work that they do with those clubs. So, we thank everybody on here for their additional service. Great. Yeah, our teachers step up in lots of really great ways. Yeah. Yes. Any questions on the personnel hire? No. So, thank you to our teachers and support

160staff. Um, we do not have any donations tonight to discuss. We do have the May financials. So, we've talked a lot about them already. So, I just want to let you know that the numbers that are in here are from May 31st. I have a proposed um anticipated end ofear total fund balance of 815,267 that is not what would be returned for tax relief though remember that. So as we look at it we have a calculation where we take and max out the contingency fund and after that um we have 100,000 to reduce the tax rate which was pro promised at annual meeting and then there's $89,000 remaining to do additional work. On June 2nd I did a lot of purchase order work. Apologize for very poor timing but um that's where the new numbers

161came in that Mike just spoke about. I was able to close a couple of purchase orders and reduce the incumbrances that you see on this report. Great. So, the financials, if you have any questions, please let me know. Lovely. Superintendent update in your packet is an overnight field trip for Mr. Zipki and the soccer team in the fall. If you have any questions, please let me know. Um, I briefly mentioned at last meeting we did not attend the Champions for Children event yet, but uh, I nominated the Hopington Public Schools Foundation for Champions for Children for the Southwest region of New Hampshire. Um, I know it doesn't make sense that we're Southwest, but we are. Um, and they did win the regional award. We went to Conquered for about a two two hour presentation for

162the five New Hampshire state regional winners. uh we got to speak about them. It was awesome in a room full of uh people that are doing things for kids throughout the state. We were not the number one winner, but um uh every group was amaz to me again cheesy line. There's no losers in that room, but there were none. Uh but again to the foundation, the amount of time and effort they put in, which leads me into the next thing that would be in the principles newsletters that went out would be uh it's called New Hampshire Gives. I have it up somewhere. There it is. Um so the Hopkins School Public Foundation is participating in New Hampshire Gives, which starts tomorrow, uh and runs from 5:00 p. p.m. June 10th to 5:00 p.m. June 11th.

163New Hampshire Gives is the state's largest day of giving, bringing together nonprofits and donors from across the state. It's not just the foundation, but any there's plenty of causes you can go on and take a look, but it's a it's an area of outreach for the foundation. If you did go to the rainstorm um graduation, you notice the um programs were donated or or by the foundation. They were super nice this year. Really nice card stock. They printed 700 to make sure no one ran out. Um, that's one of the things they do each year. We can go into all the things that they purchased, but we bring them to the board meeting. Uh, but they were acknowledged and I think it's pretty awesome. Um, get our first donation today. Got our first donations. Starts

164at 5:00 p.m. today. Right. 5 p.m. Then just to speak quickly about graduation, you know, it's uh it's a great time and I think Jonathan, you said it best. The community is great when we're together and when we're in a barn um in a thunder and lightning red cell hail storm. Um it was pretty awesome to witness. I know someone kind of said it already, but I leaned over to Jake in the middle. I go, "Did they memorize their their speech?" I'm an adult and I don't do that. Um it is just remarkable how well Flo did and Mike. Um, I don't think I've ever been able to memorize something, let alone a five minute speech. Can I just I I grabbed Mr. Merr and said, "Who did their speech prep?" Because I teach public

165speaking and you you guys were recording. We just we just practiced a lot. We we just said it a lot. Kudos to you and to whoever sort of got you because beautiful. I mean, and don't even get me started on the national anthem. Like, talk about chills. those two singing. It was It was crazy. It's a talented grid. Yeah. So, good job, Noah. But it and the Lego hat when you reflect on that crocheted hat. Yeah. When you reflect on the year, I think graduation is a culminating event, right? Um and to see everyone come together. Uh it's just a pretty cool moment when you're staring out that way because they're all looking at us. But when you see all of that from the staff to the people to Jody FaceTiming a sister who's in

166Sydney, Australia, um, it's pretty cool. So, congratulations to the class. Thought I was being rude. I'm like, I'm not. I'm really bringing somebody to it. So, to the class of 2025, I Mr. Kelly put that one on T for me when he messed that up. I know. Uh, but we were giving him a hard time, but it's funny. So, I just want He messed that up. He did. Just got to keep Cameron at home. Uh I just want to commend the the community for what they do on that. Uh outstanding job. Um and with that, I would ask that you accept the consent agenda as Did you already do it? You did do it. You did. I led with that. Yeah. I do. We have a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented. So

167moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? Right. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Great. All right. We have committee updates real quick. Um I'm going to lead off. So with EMC, if you look in your folders, uh in your drive folders, you'll see a fuel performance comparison. Um Jim Rosiki and Jody have been entering literally all of our utility bills for any fuel source, electricity, otherwise into performance manager, um portfolio manager. And so there's three years uh for across our three schools in here. And um it's worth noting Jim does want to call out that the drop from 23 to 24 was really coming out of COVID protocols where we were basically running the air handlers on overdrive. Um as well as that's right I think when his first year and he was doing a lot

168of controls work um working on looking at efficiencies for that. But if you look at electricity usage um coming down over the years, if you look at our oil, our propane or pellets, um it's worth noting for pellets, this might not reflect a spring purchase where he usually bulks up when things are going on sale. Um but I will say, you know, Jim, I think has done a pretty remarkable job working on getting our energy consumption down um while keeping our buildings warm and comfortable. And I think that this is pretty awesome. So, we talked about this at EMC last week and so we thought it was remarkable and we really just wanted to share it with the whole board. Any questions about that? Great. Just also know that that's with some equipment kind of

169failing. Yeah. At the end of the year. Yes. Great. Great call. Exactly. So, which is amazing. Even more of an achievement. Yeah. So, I mean, it's amazing. It's called the Energy Management Committee for a reason. And so, this is this is exactly what we were hoping for when the board created and charged that committee. So, great work to the committee and to Jim. Thank you for sharing this. Pretty proud. Oh, should be. Yeah, it's a good part. Um, CNA has not met anything from policy. Nope. Great. CIP, is there anything? Snap crackle. Haven't met since. Okay, cool. Uh, safety and security, I think. Is that it? All your updates you just did. Finance. We already went over. Great. And budget committee is meeting tomorrow. Wednesday. Wednesday. Right. She's It's Monday. Great. Terrific. Are you going

170to make the dinner, too? Yeah. Well, not the dinner, but the You're going to both? Yeah. Okay, cool. We um our do public comment first. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh we are now to our um second public comment portion of the evening. If you want to come on up, name and address and I just ask you to keep it to three minutes, please. Um, want to jump back to school lunch. Um, feedback from my kids, uh, one of my understandings is pretty much at each of the schools, it seems rushed and they don't have enough adequate time to eat. um the salad bar, whatever the extra bar is that's up at the middle high school, it seems often that gets wiped out and they would like to eat from that, but it may have already been

171wiped out. So, I don't know if that's a uh money maker, but uh or how to accommodate that more, but um you kind of were looking for feedback. Um, another thing that I know my kids have done is um, kids have not had money for lunch and bought lunch for other kids. And I was wondering with increasing the price if there was a way for maybe parents to chip in and buy five lunches, do a pay it forward kind of program where maybe some kids could just, you know, if their parents the school lunch thing is in the negative, they could uh grab a free lunch on pay for I don't know how how that would work, but people pay for a coffee or this or that and maybe that would be nice thing to

172incorporate in school lunches, especially with the price going up, which may not affect some people, but others. Um, in regards to the design plan that you had posted up there for the high school, it it seems to resemble the entrance way of Harold Martin with the conference room right there, which is nice. Uh, going to conferences of the high school, it seems like you're getting drive through the whole So having a conference room right up front is I would say absolutely favorable. You don't have to find room 506 or wherever. So um that sign looks pretty good to me. Um, on that note, if uh we had $815,000 of fund balance and this is a huge priority, I'm curious why an option of maybe allocating some of that with a strong anticipation of doing this,

173whether it be next year, the following year, or four years out. If it's about 800,000 to a million dollar project and we would just somehow set aside $250,000 this year and do that for three or four more years, we could already have the money saved and I would have preferred to see some sort of direction that way. So those are my comments. Thanks Lauren. Anyone else? Okay. All right. All right. Now we are to other business. All right, buddy. Time for get excited. Okay. So, Michael Flynn, this is your last school board meeting in Hopington before you go off to Magnificent Dairy. And I think we have some nice things to say about you, which is your absolute favorite thing. Yeah. Rob, do you want to start us off? I want to start off. Oh,

174boy. So, yeah, I'll start. So, remember when you applied and we had all of those resumes to look at and I was going yes, no, yes, no, yes, no. You were in the no pile and then you were in hire consultants. And the consultant said, "No, you want to interview this guy." I was like, "All right, so we're paying you money. Let's interview this guy." And as soon as we finished with that interview, I was like, "That's my guy." Um, you were direct, you were authoritative, you were most of all pragmatic. Um, you seemed very approachable during that interview and the second interview even more so. And I feel like that's been our trend line. We have we haven't always been like yes, but we've always been able to have a conversation. Um, and it's

175been, you know, great to be your colleague and more importantly, I think there's a friendship that's developed and hopefully we'll continue at whatever opportunity presents itself. Thank you, Rob. Thank you very much. I'm glad we hired that consultant. Me, too. If I may briefly interject, I'm so sorry. Um, I have to bring my daughter home, so I'm gonna head out. This is not goodbye between you and I. I will see you tomorrow tomorrow morning. Yes. See you later, Noah. Flo, thank you so much. And Flo, I will continue to work on the cafeterias. Thank you. Flo, do you guys have anything you want to say to Mike? Yes. Do you want to go first or you want me to go? I'll go first. All right, you go for it. Well, I just want to say

176that when we started, we had no idea what was happening and you were also new, but you made us feel like we were like welcomed and you always answered mostly my questions. A lot more questions and that's cuz I understood it right away. Um, but yeah, just like all the meetings we've had with you have been so like helpful and you've helped us become like the student reps we are, the people we are, everything. I also think it was what you touched on earlier is friends forever, friends for life, whatever whatever your I forget what it was verbatim, but whatever you said. And I I completely agree. The conversations that we've had in your office have been so real. getting yelled at by Flo for talking about sports or whatever it is, talking about college,

177talking about next steps, talking about the school. It's been so honest and real. And I don't know a lot of adults who will treat kids because at the end of the day, well, we sit here. We We are still kids like that. So, thank you. It's it's been a ton of fun. You guys did all the work. I was there to listen. And we I'll never forget our first conversation cuz we just ended up leaning into sports course. So like uh we're not doing that here. I'm like, "Okay, let's figure that out. Let's figure out a different path, right?" Athens again. Yeah. You know, I I will say that, Mike, as a as a school board member, you know, I I I've never been a school board member with a better superintendent, you know. And

178you guys, um, but, you know, I certainly learned a lot in my first year and really appreciate working with you, getting to know you. Um, I do feel like as we've sort of I feel like you've been a really good communicator and I feel like um you and I through discussion have come at issues from a similar perspective more times than not. Um, which might be a good thing for you, it might not. Yeah. But um but I've really appreciated all that I've learned from you and I've appreciated working with you and I know that um your new home is lucky to get you. So I certainly wish you continued success um and um hopefully you won't be a stranger. Thanks buddy. Appreciate it. Yeah, I'm brand new but I've enjoyed working with you. I

179want to thank you for I guess kind of sitting down with me when I first was like what what am I getting myself into here? Um but I was I'm kind of I'm sad because I was looking forward to working with you. You've been very patient with me. Um and I do feel like we this would have been like a kind of a fun right because sometimes I come at things from the teacher perspective. Um thank you again and I think Gary is very lucky to have you. Thank you. Mhm. Appreciate it. Wish you well. Well, we've uh what won't I say? I won't say a lot. We have had a bajillion conversations on the phone and in person. I've been in your office almost every week for five years. It's a long time. Uh

180we have talked on the phone through personal hardships and professional challenges and a pandemic and budget challenges and student challenges, staff challenges and uh we've had difficult conversations and we've laughed a lot. Um, and I look forward to this next bit where we don't have colleagues. We just get to be friends. So, how about that? I'll leave it I'll leave it just like that. But I think we have gotten to see each other both at our best and at our worst. I think you would probably agree. Sure. And uh I could make you cry, but I won't. All right, let's not. Keep it simple. But I'll miss you dearly. And you'll miss me, too. Um, my first conversation with Mike was actually like a pretty significant argument. Yeah, it was. I was going to talk

181about that. Yeah, it was. Uh, I was not super pleased. So, we had a rough start. Um, but I think we have gotten to the point where it feels weird if we don't talk every day. Um, and I will say this is that I think you your mantra as you know is facts, not feelings, right? And I think you love to be a man of facts. And I think you really like um to lean on your crutches of uh numbers and spreadsheets and checklists and keeps and all the things uh and write angles on your desk. Um, but I think Hoffington cracked your chest open and we got into your heart. And I think that our little community of people who care a lot got right in there and we're going to miss you. I

182will always be your first school board. True. I know. And we did we did go through a lot. And you went through a lot here with your dad and with your family. I wasn't want to bring that up. Do you know? I am. Thanks a lot. She's reading all my notes. Am I? Yeah. Oh, that's great. But I think we will miss you a lot and I know that um Dair is going to be very lucky. They're going to be very different for many, many, many reasons. But I hope um some of the tidbits of being a small district where everybody knows your name and all the kids thing and you know do all the things together from Christmas carols and Harold Martin to a graduation sticks with you. I miss you. Will Go get

183him. Go get him. Uh, I'm not going to look at Jody. Yeah, don't make I've been shoving feelings down for quite some time. Try and keep him I'm going to try and keep him locked up for a couple more minutes. But what's interesting is what Dulsey said and Rob in the no pile. You know, you spend four years of your life somewhere five years. I had a kindergarten, a fourth grader, and a sixth grader when I started. Now I have a fourth grader, seventh grader, and a freshman. Time flies, right? And moments in your life make you who you are. And there were times that Dulsey wanted to fire me before I even had my first meeting. There were times that Rob wanted to fire me from North Carolina. There were times that Jim O'Brien

184wanted to fire me in May. And there were times that Andrew So thankfully you two have not wanted to fire. I know. So it's a good thing. But those moments, right, trials and tribulations kind of make you who you are. You mentioned that this time, you helped me through some of the hardest times in my life with my dad, but you always let me prioritize my family. My wife was going through her NP program and I had to be more flexible. And you're like, do it, take care of them. And we wouldn't be where we are without well the five of you here plus Jim O'Brien and Norm Guple. Norm would never wanted to fire me either. Um I don't know. That's true. He never did. No, I don't think I could put words of

185appreciation into that. Um I said to Amy Doyle on Friday that if I didn't come here, I wouldn't be where I'm going either. There's so many feelings um and you try and encapsulate them and it's impossible and I that's why I don't want to do this. Um, I think I'll have my private conversations with you guys and how you really impacted my life. Um, I'll use your line. It wasn't just work here. It was It was a relationship. I know you're not looking at me right now. It's a special place. And Flo, you talked about it in your speech. Yeah, it is. It is mind-blowing. And sometimes I had to be like, "This can't be, but it is." So I caught you at the end of grad graduation walking out and I was like this

186place has a hold of me forever and you know now Derry gets to hear about it all the time now. Um sorry we heard about tripling a lot. Yeah. And and you know in the community part of it if you could ever put it in check and as I've been trying to work with Amy um where everyone knows your name there's also naysayers that try and be loud that aren't loud. And I always say the good guys in this community always win. They always show up. It happens every year. Uh and if you don't let that creep in, the working can be great for the kids. So as as you guys move forward as a whole, um I said it publicly, Amy's going to be better than me. Um and I can't wait to watch

187her fly. But for each of you, thank you. Um my wife sends her thank yous as well. I mean that sincerely. You guys have allowed us to grow as a family from Grace in her gym and Owen in his hockey and Ellie in her gym in lacrosse. Like, man, it's not normal. I started my meeting with that. This isn't normal. Not that I haven't looked at you, but I can't look at her. So, as we as we move through, you know, the final couple weeks, I'm going to have personal conversation with you guys. But publicly, thank you to the community, the foundation, Rotary. Um, I'm sure there's more that I can list that, you know, you don't want to start naming names, but man, it's it's been a cool experience in my life. Uh, and

188one that I'll talk about forever. So, um, thank you guys. Thank you to Hopington. And, uh, I wish you guys nothing but the greatest. There you go. So, thank you. All right. All right. [Applause] There you go, buddy. You did it. That meeting's a meeting's journ, right? The meeting's journed. Great. Lobster queens a