001Duly La Paloma, our chair is unable to join us, so I will be chairing today. Lucky me. Uh, we also have Michael Flynn. Uh, Laura, where am I going? Her name is Taylor. Taylor, thank you very much. I haven't chaired in a while. Our executive assistant extraordinaire, Jodie Condid, and our student rep, Flo Dapus. And then behind the scenes, we've got Matt Stone. We can rise for the pledge of allegiance. And girls, can you kick us off on the pledge? You just start and then we'll follow. 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. Yeah. All right. So, we have one set of regular board meeting minutes to approve tonight from May 6,
0022025. Is there a motion to approve those? Yes. Second. Great. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. So, we are at the first public comment portion of today. We have two public comments, one at the beginning, one at the end. Um, we ask that people keep public comments to 3 minutes and you say your name and your address for the record. Um, so if anyone has any public comment, you're welcome to come up. Otherwise, you can talk at the end. No. All right, we're going to move on to student comments. Hello. Okay. um at school. I mean, it's pretty close to the end of the year, so people are excited about that, especially seniors because we only have like two weeks left or something of actual school. So, that's fun.
003Um, we finished all of the AP tests. They they were doing SAS testing today. Um, prom was a week or two ago. and celebration of the arts is tomorrow at the sele at the auditorium at the high school if it gets rained out. Um, and we're meeting for student advisory council on Thursday. So, I'll let you know how that goes. Um, what else? The senior trip was yesterday. Super fun. Being a senior is great cuz you just get to like do so many fun things randomly. and the World Language Film Festival. This is the first time they've ever done it, but they had this event where they showed all the uh language students from 10th through 12th grade who wanted to come like after school like short films from each language, mostly with English subtitles,
004but some not. And it was just like a good way to learn about the other languages, which is I think a good thing about Hopining because it's like so small. We're always like the language department includes all three. So, that was fun. And this week is the um time when people like petition to run for class officers for next year. And it looks like there's going to be more competition than I thought for the school board rep. So, I'm not even sure who it's going to be. So, you'll have to see. We have more than two people. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Three or four. So, that' be good. Yeah. You get to endorse somebody, Flo. I want to, but I'm not sure who because they're also great. Good answer. Yeah. So, I'll Is that voted
005on? Yeah. Yeah. It's by the whole It's It's kind of hard because you have to give speeches to every single grade in one advisory, which is 30 minutes. So, you have to like It's like a marathon session basically. And if there's four people running, that's going to be crazy. But I'm sure that you'll get someone good because all the people are really good. That's awesome. Flo, did you folks get hit with the AP psych snafu? Oh, yes they did. That was bad. Yeah, I did not take that exam, but they said they couldn't take it. Yeah. Oh, no. Not our issue. AP isue. Yeah. I mean, when they said they were going all digital, I knew something was going to happen. Um, so I don't know if that new date has come out. Okay. Thank
006you. Tomorrow. Thank you, John. Thanks, John. Must have somebody taking it. Any other questions for Flo? No. Board comments. No, no, I think there are academic awards this week, which is exciting. Thursday. Yep. That's all I got. All right. Anything? I did not. I'm just getting my notes out. Sorry. Okay. So, now we're on to the fun stuff. So, our student highlight, we have Girls on the Run. Super great. Oh, I knew who was here. Oh, we have Girls on the Run here, which is very exciting. Um, my daughter did Girls on the Run and had a fantastic time. So, I'm really excited to hear you girls come up and talk about your experience. Um, so yeah, if you want to come on up, we would love to hear all about what you've been up
007to. And you'll have to talk nice and loud because the the microphone helps the people online here, but it doesn't help us here. You can hand it. They can you can take it out, Jo, and they can pass it along. Yeah. It won't make it won't help us hear at all. It helps the people online here. They heard that. Yep. That's okay. Hi, my name is Addie and I am in third grade. Girls on the Run meets at Harold Martin School two days a week, Mondays and Thursdays. We work on things other than running. We build our stamina for the 5K celebration run. We are so happy to share about Girls on the Run with you. Hello, my name is Koka Johnson. At Girls on the Run, we learn strategies that we can use in
008other parts of the our lives like five finger breathing, positive self-t talk, and the power of yet shield. Hi, my name is Elena and I'm in fourth grade. Um, go is about teamwork, working together, and getting through problems you may face. Hello, my name is Grace and I'm in fourth grade. Go to is more about mo uh running. It's more about moving like you can skip, roll, hop. If you're like on a wheelchair, you can roll. We learn about strategies to help us through problems in life that are not in Girls on the Run. Hi, my name is Harper Hilton. I'm in fourth grade. I'd like to conclude our talk. I like go because it's more than running. It's about finding your I can cam power and [Applause] solutions each. Yes. 3. [Applause] Can Can
009we Karen or Joan? Yeah. Can we ask you some questions? Yeah. That was great. I did you think you would be doing public speaking through Girls on the Run? So, that's something new that you've learned. How many girls are in Girls on the Run? 15. 15. That's a good amount. Have you done your run yet? No. Oh, so it's coming up and it's at the speedway this year. It is not at field. Yeah. Wow. Maybe it'll be even faster then. How many? Feels like it. Clubs are in the state. They're they are expecting 3,000 runners on that. Yeah. At the speedway because they all have buddies, too, right? Right. And they do a heart and soul program for kids. Yeah. Very cool. That's Wow. Are some of you going to do the I don't know
010if they're still calling it Hershey track program as well? Any of you doing that? Doing track. Yeah. Yeah. What do you What's your favorite thing that you've learned from Girls on the Run? Yeah. My favorite thing is that um your happy pace, it's called the happy pace. Um it's so like uh your happy pace can change on your mood. Um so like if you're feeling like not into running today or that day, you can like you can walk, you can jog, you can run. They're not telling you like you have to have to do this or I love that. Any other questions? Thank you guys so much for joining. Can we get a picture with you? We We usually like to get a picture. Is that okay? Great. All right. We'll come right up here.
011We're going to move the um microphone. That's great. You guys could be in the front. Three, two, one. [Music] Yeah. I think it's the second girl that spoke at secondary. I think it was the dark for the little one right here. Coco, thank you. Thank you for second. Have a good night. Good luck with your event. Okay. And then who was the last? And what grade was she? Okay, this is so cute. See you. Thanks. Good seeing you. Thanks for coming. Good luck on your site tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Good luck. All right. Well, that was fun. That's why we're here. Okay. On to other fun stuff. Speaking of stuff, fun balance. Uh, so we are at that time of year where uh in your board packet is basically a synopsis of options to discuss. You're
012not going to vote on anything tonight. Um, estimates that are coming in are around $150 to $200,000 in fund balance, which is really phenomenal to where we've been. Now, I take that back. Let me preface. 150 to $200,000 would be after maxing the contingency fund as we typically have done. Um the finance committee met on Monday with the priority of the recommendation to be to max contingency and then whatever is left over make decisions on the list. I'll discuss it in a minute but so that estimates between 150 and two our discussion of finance I enjoyed um throughout the budgeting process. Remember we targeted CIP to be around 425 and then we settled on 350. So in the yellow there are CIP items that kind of fit in that $75,000 gap from what we requested
013to what we received. Um it would be an opportunity to attack an item on the CIP that wasn't going to be able to so to speak. So um interestingly you you don't think but this is what always gets cut first is stair tread. So our stair tread is probably original. Um so but then when I tell you that it's $35,000 to replace stair tread as you can see why it normally gets kicked down. Um the hot water tank at Harold um Harold Martin is projected on the CIP to be end of life within the next couple years. And then the last AC unit at HMHS which is the R22 still exist. So that was an estimate of $80,000. And then we are still working on confirming some of the kitchen equipment, but that can be
014ranging around $30,000. These are all ballpark figures. Um, between now and next week, Jim's been working on quotes. Not next week, my goodness. Next meeting. Um, we'll have some solid numbers so that the board can discuss and finalize. The next set, uh, in whites, I'll say, are a couple things that have just been a little bit personal to me and Jim over the last four years. Um, openin has not got back to us, but we're trying to quote out what it would take to actually have grass at Harold Martin instead of a mud pit. Um, that I like to say. So, that would include loom, water for irrigation, and actually growing grass in that area. That would be the goal there. That like top part of it. Yep. Yeah. Um, the next part is outside
015of the music room at the middle high school. There's a sitting area. used to be enormous trees until they fell on our school. You remember that? Uh we removed those trees, but that area we'd really like to rejuvenate, bring it back to life as an area for students. So that falls in that landscaping area of 10,000. Can I ask a question about that while we're there? Um so I agree. It's a great spot for kids. They love to use it during the day. Uh the staircase that was that part of this cuz Yep. That's Yeah, it's got to go. Yep. Yeah. Also, just before you continue, the the back to the yellow, the the numbers in the yellow, those are placeholders until we get those were the projected from CIP directly in the stock. Okay.
016Okay. So, 30 for the water tank. Yeah. Okay. Um, Arrol Martin restroom partitions just always I think they're original, too. The old metal ones with the twisty locks, things like that. Um, you know, the new Hollywood ones that have come out. It'd be really nice to start refreshing some of our bathrooms. Um, those two bathrooms were also on the CIP list, but that was a larger number. And then this one's honestly I just in 2025 our our middle high school sign, I'll call it the Burger King sign where you have to go out and spell everything backwards and, you know, go in the weather to change any messaging. Um, I've been talking about it for three years now. I really like an opportunity to maybe upgrade that to a digital sign for more real life
017messaging, up-to-date messaging, timing messaging. I mean, I was sharing with finance on Monday, the one at Windom. Every day I drive by, I read it. What's going on? What's And it's sometimes it's not just high school stuff, it's town stuff. Uh it's a shared resource. So, we'll have better numbers with that. And then the last one in green, um I know Rob has brought it up at the last board meeting and he's actually going to bring it up on the agenda at the next board meeting. the safety and security is really working through um the relocating entrance of the middle high school because of the safety. Um but that will regard some civil engineering which is all as Jim put it to me ADA stuff. So it's all slope, it's all things of that nature.
018And then there's going to be a different awning and then um management of what goes on in the inside. So that 50 is probably on a little of the high side, but we we found it to be more comfortable. Rob, you can take over from there. Yeah. So, uh little bit of a committee update at the same time. So, it's the end of safety and security. Uh there's a unanimous vote to move the recommendation to move ahead with the redesign of the entry at the middle high school to the board for discussion at our meeting which will be June 9th. So, I know the public necessarily hasn't seen the change in floor floor plan and what the re-entry will look like. So, we'll share that. Um, Jim has done a good job of sort of,
019you know, spitballing what this would be costwise, interior-wise, just based on square footage costs. Um, but the exterior, we really need some civil engineering to get a better sense of that. And essentially it would mean reworking um an entrance with staircase and also u wheelchair ramps, some ballards, uh putting some parking as you come in. You'd be on the So I'm in the bus lane now. Some parking to the right. Uh and what that would take to do all of that and and again our our rough estimate based on square foot price is you know under a million dollars and more in the 700 $800,000. But if we're going to have a real discussion about this, we need this funds so that we can go out and get some actual bids on project. Um, I'm
020really excited about the possibility. I'm just going to stay in this lane for a minute. So, we worked through those floor plans a number of times uh in a small group and then asked Chris Kelly to bring it to his admin council. the department heads um and they got really positive feedback there and then I asked him to bring it to the whole faculty which he did at their last faculty meeting again the feedback is very very positive uh so I think this is something that we've all been talking about in some way shape or form really since 1999 the year after the building opened um with the redesign and homeland security was pretty clear about the minor things that we can do this is the major thing. Um, I personally as a board member
021would not even be entertaining this if the price tag didn't make sense. But given all of the thought between Jim and again, kudos to Jeff Del for doing the architecture work for us pro bono, it really makes sense to be able to put a number uh in front of the town come the fall in terms of what this project would would do and what it would cost. So uh that's why that that number is there if we're going to move forward after our board meeting with it. Uh we'll do the presentation again explain the metrics what would change inside how it changes the flow uh of student traffic most importantly access to the building during the day. So so again no voting tonight this is their typical pattern if and I'm only saying it to
022to Suzanne who's new. So we'll pres we present options then once we have a better number of fund balance come back at the board meeting board weighs in on it. If you want any more clarification or questions you can reach out to me in between meetings. Uh and as Jim some of those things roll in. We'll get a more accurate number on the um we feel pretty comfortable on where that number will settle in. We should probably also echo the rationale behind maxing out the contingency fund given the unknowns in both the state and federal budgets. It seems pretty critical to do that. Yes. This year we I have a quick question. The air unit replacement is that has that is that on CIP? Uh how's it doing? Is it It's the last So it's
023the last unit to Jim's Again Jim's an outstanding job of replacing him. So it's the one that services the computer lab and I want to call it room but the lecture hall. Yes, that that so that would be the last one. It is R22 which we always talk about which is the no longer. Yep. So it would be the last of that building and that would be 40. Is it still working though? It is but it's on it's the next one up. Okay. Cool. Great. So uh with that honestly that's the update. Any questions on fund balance or plan for January 9th? June 9th. June 9th. Thank you. Sweet. I will just I will just say, you know, both my boys play soccer at Harold Martin all the time. It would be nice, not a
024necessity to have grass, but it would be nice to have grass at the mud/dust. They don't care, but say our build, I mean, it gets tracked in. There's a lot of stuff it you know. Yes. Yes. Anyone in the building the clothes like there's a lot. So a few more scarred knees with that condition in that field. They they proudly show me every boobs. Mike, can you explain to me so if we're talking about because I totally understand, you know, maxing out the contingency fund um with the cost and changing climate right now. Um, but say there's 150 or 200,000 left over. Um, returning like what have we done in the past in terms of like returning it to taxpayers or does that make sense or not? Like what does that what does that look
025like? Do you want to take the lead or me? It's up to you. Oh, either way. So, we've talked about this a lot over the last five years and that is an option. Um, and part of the direction we've gone is that it is better to use the contingency fund as revenue at school district meeting because it is more predictable. If we use the unassigned fund balance, then we are committed to that in the following year. Like that needs to happen. And the track record in this school district has been that they commit so much money from unassigned fund balance that come as early as October, budgets start to get frozen because they're concerned about whether or not they're going to be able to match those funds come the next school district meeting. So if
026the universe works the way it should financially and we have that 5% of our expenditures comes back through that unassigned fund balance every year then we should be able to put it into the contingency fund draw that as revenue yearover-year um and get to a point where we don't have the instability of spiking the tax rate in the following. Right. That was a lot. No, but it makes sense to me. So it taking this I'm an English teacher just going to preface this but you know $200,000 say divided amongst the number of property taxpayers 10 bucks back. We're at 7.5 cents per 100,000. So you'd be seeing a seven cent. Okay. If we did 100,000 $14 200,000 or 100 So yeah, I mean if someone gave me $15 versus checking a few things off this
027list like it makes more sense, right? Okay. I'm just trying to wrap my head around what that looks like per tax. I do think it's important that we keep talking about that and why we're not just returning it because it it does drive that number up in the following year. And the shift both through the finance committee and on the budget committee is that the more predictable pattern is to try and rely on your contingency fund. Right. Okay. And and that's why I appreciate the conversation in finance so much because it wasn't it's not all balls bells and whistles. It's it's just more CIP stuff, right? That's that's part of it. Well, right. And then there are some other things that have been kind of put aside that might that would be that would be
028a little bit of a change for some stuff. Yeah. So there's a little bit of both things that would have been there. So that was the approach to cuz I mean I gave a list of nearly a million dollars and we cut it down to $330 to discuss. So you had a wish. Okay. Yeah. No, it makes sense to me. I'm just I just needed to kind of flesh that out too. You know, as a taxpayer, it's like, oh, returning money. But if you're talking $15, then I would please replace the stair tread. Take my $15. And I don't want kids falling down the stairs because they can't, you know, get a grip in the winter. But but also important to keep in mind, right? Like these are all things from the CIP, right? Yeah.
029So these are all projects that that the Yeah, the yellow that we are talking about and the white as well. I think like the Yeah, I know we've talked about the restroom. I know we've talked about the restroom. Um maybe not growing grass in the soccer field or the landscaping. Um but I guess my point is is that a lot of these are things that we're look one way or the other we're looking to do. Yes. Um to maintain, right? I get but and that's what's kind of gotten kicking the can down the road has kind of gotten us in this situation. All right. I'm I'm wrapping my head around it. Thank you for the conversation. I think the other the other thing is it took the board several years to wean kind of wean
030us off of doing the unassigned fund balance. Um, and so I think it was it was tricky to do actually um because it was such a hit to the tax rate every time. And I I know you would appreciate Suzanne being in the school and I think you know in somewhere in my pile of stuff we've got six years of budget freezes that start in December or October, whatever it happens to be. And a lot of those were, you know, because of circumstances that the school couldn't avoid, you know, special ed costs. But the other reality was if we would weren't on the hook for that revenue from the other side, fund balance, it would not maybe not have provoked that kind of response, right? And maybe my focus is is more on the expense
031side, but you know, also we've we haven't like sort of fully funded CIP yet, right? We haven't had a year yet where we fully funded CIP. So, if we can knock some things off that list, I think it's a a way to catch up a little bit. like and we don't want to be in I mean the whole purpose here in my opinion is we don't want to be in a situation where the hot water tank you know where it fails in Harold Martin and then we're right where we are in the high school now where we're replacing things because we have to as opposed to we can't be as choosy about Yeah. So there's a little bit more like sort of predictability to the whole thing if we can stay ahead of it like
032the air replacement units. Yep. Yeah. Being proactive rather than reactive. Right. Right. That's that's the goal. Thank you. So, I mean, I think I think for the taxpayers, that's actually a good thing. So, that's a a synopsis of where we are. Anything to add, Miss Taylor? No. So, we will bring it up. It'll be on the agenda in uh I keep saying two weeks, but it's a little bit more than that, right? Three weeks, I think. June 9th. Yeah, June 9th. Just say June 9th. Yeah, June 9th. Great. Not January. Yep. Not January. Um the next item is final read for non-union teachers staffing. Yes, there's been no changes from the last meeting. Great. So those are look the same as they did on you know May 6th. That one will be a motion. Yeah.
033Right. Yes. This is our final read. So it's now it's time to nominate those as presented. Great. If you could make three separate motions as they are three separate spreadsheets, I would appreciate it. So I would move that we accept the administrative roster as presented. Does that work? A second. Second. Perfect. Any discussion? All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. And then I would move that we accept the non-union roster as roster of employees as accepted. As presented. As presented. As presented. As presented. Second. Great. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. You're on a roll, Rob. And I will make a motion that we accept the teamster staffing roster as presented. Three meetings in a row. You know what I'm saying? Excellent. Any discussion? Read the
034whole thing. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Great. Well, thank you to all of our returning staff. These are super important positions. they our positions our schools could not run without. So I'm glad T. That's perfect. Great. All right, let's talk about policy. Who doesn't want to talk about policy? Well, probably some people. Uh but we're going to talk about it. So, we have three final reads tonight and three first reads because we had our first um policy meeting with Suzanne and so we are just continuing on. We're just not going to stop um and figured we would just keep going. So, we have policy DAFF which is the administration of federal grants. This is reaffirmed annually. Um there have been no changes. This is the final read. Uh we have policy DID which is
035investments. This is also reviewed and reaffirmed annually. This one I do want to note has a part in it that talks about the investment of funds being left to the discretion of the district treasurer and superintendent. Um and we also made sure that it includes a part this is in the under of standards of care section three. It has the district treasurer superintendent or his or her designate shall establish a system of internal controls which shall be documented in writing including regular updates to the board. so that there is um we wanted to ensure robust board uh updates uh for any investments that happen and then we also have policy JFABD which is admission of homeless children and unaccompanied youth. So those three are for final reads this evening. Uh we also have for first
036reads and we won't see these next three uh again until this fall. Uh, we have LDA, which is student teaching and internships. DI uh, it should not say DID. I linked to the wrong thing. Sorry. ECA, which is building and grounds security. Um, and I accidentally put DID in twice apparently. I just got real excited. I'm gonna do here. Um, it's that the investment policy is actually DFA, not DID. Oh, that's what is fixed assets. So, DID is I'm sorry, inventory of management assets. That is for a first read. I was wondering about that other one. I was like, I didn't think it was Dig. In the final reads, it is not investments is not DID. That is DFA. If you go to the link, the link is correct. It says DFA. It is investment.
037That is the one that I was just reading to you guys. Um, that's the one we have to wave. Yes. Yes. Um, because this is a this is also a reaffirmed and we re reaffirm it every year. Um, so I apologize that was me writing it incorrectly in the agenda, but the actual link is right. Any questions on those? And if not, I just I just Yeah, it's not a question about the policy, but maybe a highlight for our retreat in June around student teaching. Um Oh, yeah. I don't know where we're at these days, but it always seemed like we're just geographically in a tough spot in terms of drawing. you know, we get some people occasionally from New England College, but we don't get Plymouth, we don't get UNH, we don't get Keen.
038And I don't know if there's a way to have conversations with those folks where perhaps some of those students geographically it makes sense for them. Um, but you know, I always feel like student teachers is a great way to find your next superstar. Um, and for them I want to share. Yep. So, is it something that we can work on? I mean, I'd be happy to. that's totally in my wheelhouse, but like working on some more partnerships with the teachers colleges. Yeah. So, Keen comes to our southwest meetings and in I mean placement really is typically based around where the student is residing. Uh not too often they make we I mean I work for so I' I've tried to poke that bear. Most of them end up in Manchester. Um so but it's definitely
039something we can continue to bang bang the drum on. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great retreat discussion too. I mean I you know as somebody who taught and then went and got my teaching certificate and we were in LOL people were pretty far and wide in terms of where their placements were. Um so it's a different you know whether that might be people that do the upper valley institutes so you're into more of a you know non-traditional but I I just feel like as that market tightens the more we can do to uh maybe bring in some more folks would be great. That's a great idea. Great. All right. Um, if there are no other questions, if there is a motion to accept the final reads as presented, that would be super. Do we
040need to do them individually? Yeah, you don't. But you I need you to do reaffirming individually. Oh, okay. Sure. So, let's let's reaffirm individually. So, is there a motion to reaffirm policy DAFF, administration of federal grants? So, move. Second. Great. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. So, I'll move to reaffirm what was it? DA DFA. DFA investments. Great. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. And then I move to affirm JFAB D. Yep. Yeah. Second. Great. Discussion. All in favor? I I just nodded. Sorry. Voice. Voice vote. I know. Sorry. Great. Thank you guys very much. So, those all went through. Um the next the three that were in first reads, they will be second reads in the fall. Um, and then over the summer, policy committee is going to meet and we're going
041to get our act together. Will you present them as second reads on June 9th? Oh. Or wait until the fall. We will. Yeah, we can present them as second reads on June 9th. Unless we hear otherwise. If we get questions and need to bring them to policy, we will not. If we do not hear questions, Miss Folsson, I I have to say that I think you're being unfair to yourself. I think the policy committee in the last five years has more than had its act together. Thank you. She showed me the work that she had cut out for her and I was like, "Oh, okay. You guys put me on policy committee for a reason. You set me up. A lot of work has been done." I heard I had a in-depth conversation with Miss
042Doyle today about policy. It's a good time. Blown away by it. It's a good time. That was only me. All right. I'm done. Okay. Moving on to uh personnel report. I'm going to jump in front of Lori here really quick to discuss the assistant principal nomination that we're moving forward uh this evening. Um I I I want to say Amy Amy Doyle um was all in on this um to the point where we reopened it a couple times. Um she really wanted to set a standard on on expectation which was great. Uh Amy kind of led it with Chris. um kind of watched by the wayside. But in regards to who we're nominating tonight, um I am I think it's Diamond in the Rough. So, uh Kimberly Leighton is going to be nominated as the
043assistant principal of Hington Middle High School, 11 years of high school math, and four years as the dean of mathematics from Gausstown. Um, some of her highlights that that stuck out to me was working with building thinking classrooms with her focus on student centered learning and academic engagement. Um, everyone you spoke to about her um glowing glowing recommendations. Um, she gets her first shot as being an administrator and I don't think there's a better spot that she can lay in. The committee recommended her without hesitation. No concerns. Uh, so I think she's going to be a star here in Hopkins. Um, any questions on that? No, I'm really excited. Okay, back to war. Great. Our new hire sheet is full tonight. We have been busy. Awesome. Great. So, we'll start with the rest of our
044new hires that we're bringing forward tonight. Uh, Sarah Barnwall is going to be an eighth grade special education teacher placing Kim Meyer. Um, we have Chrissy Lightsy who has been with the district this year. She's been as a long-term sub at Harold Martin. She's been a substitute teacher at Harold Martin. She is being nominated to come on as a 6 IIA to cover kindergarten through the end of the year and then she will be a teacher for us next year. So, this really carries her in a very short term to get get her contract through June 13th. And then I am very excited to um tell you that we have found replacements for Karen and Lorie who collectively um have almost 50 years of experience in the business office. So this was a hard ask.
045We did a lot of interviews but we are thrilled with who we got. So Connie Samson is currently the HR assistant at the Winniswam Regional School District and she will be coming aboard with us. and Sandy Babson, who is a long-term member of the town, used to be the deputy town clerk, um will be coming on as the accounting clerk. That's awesome. So, we are thrilled for them. Any questions on new hires? No, I just miss emailing with Karen. Sandy will be great. I will send Sandy cute messages and and we'll have Panda do. So, but it won't be it won't be the same. You won't have to get any more emails from me. Please. Um, then next on our our list here is the extended school year positions. So, for ESY, I gave them
046their own category and as we come to the June 9th meeting as well, you'll see some nominations there. But our three lead teachers are Kristen Jakes, Joan Finsby, and River Raven Edgars. Edgars, excuse me, Raven. Um they are getting 25 hours to plan their programs and if you remember the Harold Martin and Maple Street programs are running in the same building this year which we think is going to be a really good thing. Are they running here? They're running in Harold Martin. There will be no hot water here. Right. I know you're new to the CIP but keep next. Unfortunately, we have some resignations that we need to discuss. Uh Mora Glenn, fourth grade teacher at Maple Street, Sarah Barnard, fifth grade teacher, Peter Num, Maple Street case manager, and Laurentio, uh districtwide speech and
047language pathologist have provided their resignations. Employees with changes to contracts. So Kate Bachmann was nominated as a point 6 earlier this in April. Um and we have with that larger class coming up to the high school, we have some additional classes that she is going to be teaching. And so she's moving to a 1.0 for next year. We're taking some of those additional classes and adding them to her contract. Kate Kate kind of lives in this flexible world, so to speak, because last year the schedule didn't dictate. Um so she was reduced by one but this year the schedule we had enough signups to run so we're going to support those kids right and the additional class load aside from Kate the um Kate Cro is going to teach an extra point two for social
048studies at the high school. Charlie Tero is going to teach an extra science class at the high school. Megan Een will continue teaching an extra art class at the high school. Stein Brand extra science class. Bridget Gaddy is going to do a 0.1 extra music class at the middle high school instead of the point two of the other teachers for the high school. Ben Levergood will be doing middle school jazz instructor. And Steve Sherman does an extra class of physical education at Harold Martin. That is our personnel report. Awesome. Do I need to bid here? Okay. Donations. We have three donations for tonight to discuss. The first is if you remember When Miss Brown came for her principal update, she talked about the jump for heart challenge and they have given Carol Martin $500 as
049a thank you for participating in the program. It's Mr. B. And it comes in the form of a gift card to um a PE company essentially company so we can buy supplies in order to assist our PE classes. Oh, that's interesting. Very exciting there. um $500 from Health Trust for the middle high school wellness program. We saw a couple of other checks for the other schools. This is the third of three and that is our for our wellness committee to spend on um health initiatives. And then lastly, Hopping Public Schools Foundation has approved a new grant for the seventh grade summer transition. So, this grant is for $6,453.19 and allows the incoming seventh graders to take an extra half day and do some activities with the counselors, with the teachers to get to know the
050faculty a little bit more and other students in order to make this transition easier. I have been working very closely with the Hopkins Schools Foundation. We're very excited. We have a new grant template that we have put together and so after you approve, I will counter sign this. We'll get it back to them and we have a new grant administration protocol that we're very excited about to streamline these grants. Awesome. Is that summer transition program for all kids? Some kids. What's the What's the nature? I'm just curious. Mike, it's all kids. It's all seventh graders. All incoming seventh graders. What does the money go to? Um, this one will go to So, they're doing a half day at the high school and it goes to breakfast for them and then they're doing Brown Center activities.
051So, I think they're bringing I don't know what the Brown Center is. Brown Center is a ropes course at UNH. Okay. So, you're so you're sort of paying for the rental of the of the They're coming to stuff and then for the food. Okay. And then I believe that day they as well they have a speaker as well. Cool. And this is in addition to the stillute to seventh grade that we have done for the last few years. This is an additional nice effort. That's a big transition. So that's really nice that they're able to we are very lucky to have a public schools foundation. So to on that piece, first of all, thank you to the foundation as as as well. I um go through the New Hampshire um super tennis association. Uh each
052year you can put forward nominations. It's called Champions for Children. Um, so each region submits um an application so to speak. I recommended the foundation and it goes up against all anyone else in our region that puts forward someone who you think is doing something in support of children and making a difference. So I nominated um the foundation and actually they were the winners for the Southwest region. So tomorrow we're going to the champions for children in conquered. So, the entire state of New Hampshire, all the regional winners are going uh we'll speak about what they do for our students in our district and then tomorrow will be revealed the statewide winner. So, don't know if we won. We won't know till tomorrow. Um but they won for our region which I think is outstanding
053and then at the next board meeting I'll be able to tell you if we won for the entire state. So, looking forward to that. Um foundation is joining me tomorrow at the the breakfast the state. So, I'm excited. It's great. Thanks for doing that. Yeah. Any questions on donations or hiring? Okay. I'm gonna I'm actually going to ask you to I'm going to ask you to make a motion to approve the donations and um personnel report as presented and then I want to speak about my next update. So, I I kind of need it separate if that makes sense. All right. So, looking for a motion to accept also April financials. Yeah, I was going to say financials. I apologize. Go ahead. It's okay. Uh the April financial statement is in your folder. Um what
054we're finding is that things are looking good as we talked about. Um revenue is coming in still as anticipated and Medicaid reimbursements are starting to catch up. Good. The SAU office has been doing working very hard to get those um submitted. So we're happy about that. And most of our expenditures at this point are encumbered for the end of the year. So, we're seeing that these numbers are pretty accurate, but they will get better as I do our May financials for the June 9th meeting. So, I will have them ready for the June 9th meeting. Um, revenue for food service is still appearing to be a little bit slower than last year, both due to less meals served and less federal funding. That supply chain assistance program is not at running this year. Um, there's
055a significant amount of incumbrances left over right now, which is purchase orders that are open. So, I'm going to work with Tracy Barker on what we think we're going to estimate, and we'll have a much better number coming back June 9th. Those are the April financials. So, right right, and I know it's early, but in food service 127 deficit at the moment. Yep. I expect to see that drop. Yeah. Do you want to go ahead? Sure. Use use your BA language. Okay. When you in use purchase orders on a food service program, it makes the situation look more dire. It's a cash in cash out program, right? So, it's self- sustaining. The revenue that comes in should cover the expenditures. But when you also encumber what you think you're going to spend for the end
056of the year, it's going to overinflate what your expenditures look like and what your net income looks like. So at the end of the year, I expect to see that as I close some of these POS with with Tracy that we will that that deficit will drop certainly under the 100,000 that we have budgeted. Okay. And that's calculated into also calculated into the unassigned fund balance at this point or no? Yes. Okay. So, thank you. Can I ask a question just because I'm not Well, first, is this the first year that we've had the kind of deficit with the program or has that been historically? What I understand is that it has been it's been paid out of ser fund balance. Yep. Uh regularly. When I first started here, we started budgeting appropriately for it.
057Okay. Uh so we increased it by 75 and another 75 and we're trying to level off to find that that delta. So that's where we are appropriately budgeting for the deficit. Okay. So is that I mean so let's say this obviously there's still going to be a deficit but just maybe not as dire as the current financials say. What's the plan like moving forward? Does that mean like there are conversations about changing Oh, we've done last year we did a survey to families on what their kids will eat. Um we've done Yeah. The short answer is yes. I'm just trying to give you context. Yeah, please. We on what we were selling, what was what was hot, what wasn't, what were some of the barriers for parents. Um we adjusted a lot of that. We
058saw some success out of it. This year we're seeing a little bit of a different thing. And I always refer to my kids as the example. It's like when I wake up in the morning, they see breakfast for lunch, they don't want it, and then I have to make lunch. But then the next day when it's pasta, they buy it. So, we're trying to find that norm in our kitchen. I know Laura has a couple ideas for next year. Um, so food service is its own animal and plant. Yeah. I I just was wondering what we were doing to sort of mitigate the cost to the district, right? Like I know some schools do run kind of self-sufficient, but then we're also talking about kids being able to get lunch, too. So like I Right
059now here at Maple Street, a hot lunch cost $325. Yeah. You can't get a coffee at W25. Yeah. So it is it's even a thought to the board. Do you want to consider raising prices for next year? I mean these are all thoughts outside. In addition, do we have a social media presence where we can put pictures on Instagram of what the high school is serving, right? Do we have a large enough alart option? These are all pieces that Tracy and I are going to talk about and and work on to try to see what we can do. Okay. Thank you. And we did raise our prices two years ago. I think we did an adjustment. Not by a lot. Minimal. So I think it's 325 at Harold Martin and and Maple Street and 375
060at the high school and $4 for an adult meal and it was like a big deal. Yeah, I think we raised 50ent that that's the thing. Yeah. And I I think you know your point about the alle cart menu is critical because we went through a period where that was present and then you had to buy the whole meal which was crazy and you know and then it came back but I think if that can be enhanced you when you buy a whole meal the benefit is that we can still get a piece of federal reimbursement for that paid meal sold. When you do an al cart and you just go get a piece of pizza the federal government does not provide a reimbursement for that pizza. So when we do a lunch and they
061take, you know, their apple, they get their balance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We can get a little bit more money for that. But the al cart is one of the big revenue generators for most kitchens. Yeah. And for elementary school, it's much more difficult to do alart. Yeah. Sales because there's just not enough time. Thank you. Just a nonsensitive question. Is are the financial report is that in the board support? Yes, it should be April 25 financial. It's in the drive. Yeah. No, I'm looking at the drive. No, no, no, no. I'm just I'm just trying to figure out why I'm opening up the 520 older and I I see everything else under board support, but I don't see that. Oh, weird. I see donations, new hires, nomination, and that it was at the very top.
062Yeah. Oh, it's a different document. It's its own document. April 25 financial PDF. Yeah, that's refresh your drive. It's okay. I'll I'll I'll figure it out. Um I see that it's shared with you, Jonathan, but I did I did just share it again. Okay. So, hopefully you see it in your email. And if not, I will re I'm sure it's in my email. So with that, I'll make it easier. I'll ask you to accept the consent agenda as presented and then I'll do my next move. Second. Thank you. Excellent. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppos? Okay. So, my one Thank you very much. My one item that has to be on the outside is because Dulce is not here. Um can Huh? Got it. Okay. Uh, so the general assurances, um, it's that
063time of year where the school board chair has to sign the general asurances in order for us to receive the federal funding through our grants. Um, I know Andrea and Dulce, you're aware there's been some discussion through leadership amongst the state on when to sign them because there were some new provisions that were inputed into the general assurances. They essentially told recommended to the board to not sign until May 18th and then actually hot off the presses at 12:53. The general assurances the language that was being discussed amongst the state and I'll say the people above us they struck that language. So, um, it is relatively back to normal as as business as usual. And I am looking for a motion from the board to allow Dulce Loma to sign the general assurances for the
0642526 school year to receive federal funding. So move second. Great. Any discussion? So, it's back to nothing questionable in here. Nope. See, it's all great. actually struck public. Okay. Uh all in favor I I opposed it. Super. Okay. Anything else? That's it from us. We are on to committee updates. Do we have any committee updates? Any committees? Yes. CIP just excellent. Tell us about it. Um so we we discussed um a couple different projects. One is the boiler at Maple Street. Uh we discussed different bids that have come in which I think will be presented at the next Y meeting. Okay. We discussed the oil tank removal. Um and again some different bids on that and and all this stuff is going to come at the later meetings. So, um, and the hot water tank
065replacement at the high school, um, and some different possibilities with that. We talked about, you know, potentially we got some bids on tankless, which is interesting. Um, and I think that's as much as we need to go. Well, I mean, we could talk about the the issues. We've talked about some efficacy u next October about what should be in CIP and whether they should be in the regular budget. So, moving performance contracts, uh moving kitchen equipment, moving fixtures, moving auditorium, the last three of which are under that $10,000 threshold, but live in the CIP, so should not. Performance contract, we've had this conversation as to nobody really knows how it ended up in there, but Um, it's essentially a bonded issue that is not a bonded issue that probably should be in the regular budget.
066So, something to think about as Ms. Doyle and Miss Taylor build the initial presentation for the budget next year, right? Because we have to pay for it whether or not we allocate money towards CIP, right? Servicing, we're servicing debt, not buying something new. So, it doesn't really seem to be I shouldn't say servicing debt, right? you know, I mean, we're paying for this contract, but we've entered into this contract. We have to pay for it, right? It's not really maintenance of property, right, that makes sense. Okay, great. Can I ask so out of CIP, we did come to an agreement on the bluein replacement for the hot water? Yes. Correct. So, can we make a can we bring that to the board to vote on that one? Do you guys feel comfortable with that because
067we discussed that? Yes. So, I'd rather that one be done because I know the other one needed more numbers. So, I'll bring it up and you guys can talk about So, we received uh five bids. Um we discussed high and low. We discussed what exactly? Um the hot water replacement, the Maple Street boiler and hot water heater replacement project. Great. Okay. Um, and we went through the warranties, we went through all that and the and the CIP commit committee recommended unanimously to move forward with the bid from Bluen. Correct. So, I would look for a motion from the board to move forward with the bid from Bluen. They're moved. Yep. Second. Can you tell us a little bit more about it? Yeah. So it would be to do the boiler and an expansion tank. Is
068this the water the um this is the boiler. So this is providing this is not the secondary source of heat. Oh heat. Yeah. Boiling. We said boiler twice. I was still thinking hot water heater. No. We looked at hot water messing with ourselves. That's a separate where we also kind of like doing it has a hot water heater heating components. Thank you. Okay. But I was I was still stuck on a hot water heater. Was this like the highest bid, the lowest bid? The neither mid bid. Why you went? Yeah. So, uh Jim had presented one, two, three, four, five. Five bids. We sort of threw out the high and the low and the other ones were all very similar. Um like very close to each other. Bluen um some of the things that we
069liked about Bluen is that we've worked with them before. They've done good work for us. Okay. Um that um they had also quoted u replacing the expansion tank which also has a life that is coming to you know close to an end. So, it makes sense if we're doing the one to do that as well. And the Bluen um just wanted to So, the Bluen was talking about doing a I think that's Did we decide is that the Reni? No, the PBI water that has a 10-year warranty. Right. So, point being that the that the unit would have a 10-year warranty, whereas the second best that we liked had a three-year warranty on theirs, and that was for rolling. Wow. So, for all those reasons, we kind of gave the edge to Bluein when we
070talked it out. Great. And the bid, there were three bids that were within $2,000 of each other, and it came down to equipment. And you know it's Jonathan said the work that they've already done. The other bid that we considered were folks who also worked the pellet folks. Yeah, but there were they did not have an expansion component to their bid. So I apologize that I mean we left the meeting to come here. Um so in regards so it's the reason why that's why we appeared at the same time. I can see walking out of the conference room. Excellent. And the reason why is that that breakdown or that bid we all came to an agreement where the other articles we need more information. So I'd rather move forward with that because of what's going
071on in the climate. We want to make sure we lock in prices. Sure. And we want to certainly get it done this summer. So we'd like to get rolling on that as soon as possible. Great. I I appreciate the information and the due diligence and the number of quotes and the thoroughess. Any further discussion? I can give you the full minutes, too, if you want in the board support. I think we're good. All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Anything else? Uh finance, we met this morning or Monday morning. We kind of just covered it. Yeah, we essentially uh finance was about the laundry list of things for CIP and the discussion around the contingency fund. That was wonderful. Okay. I'm assuming budget is not
072met. We had safety and security today. Oh, great. Yeah. Had a busy afternoon. Um, so three things out here. We're on the docket. Um, Terry Synonyi went over some safety information in regards to off-site evacuations. um kind of reinforcing with staff that it's really important that they practice that there's a mindset and there's a reflex to action because our brains are wired to do the opposite of what we ought to be doing. Um talked about homeland security professional development opportunities both for the leadership team and there's also another opportunity for staff u in general. So Carrie is going to bring that to leadership to see how that can be built into um professional development time next year where and when. I think it was a given that it's going to occur. Um and then the
073last topic was about the school entry information that we've already discussed. I have a question for you. Do you know um does Homeland Security ever offer webinars or anything for parents who are interested or concerned about safety? Good question. I've had Okay. I've I've just had some parents ask me about it. Um and I've let them know that, you know, I get the homeland security emails as well. Um but yeah. Yeah. It just might be a nice thing to another nice resource to share with parents because we live in a really different time than Yeah, maybe maybe even if they have materials on, you know, the importance of evacuation drills and the various drills and how to help your kid deal with that depending upon their age and, you know, yeah, getting anxious as they
074say. Yeah, it's wild that we have to have kids go through active shooter drills. It's horrible. Great. Uh, no policy. You already gave an update. No policy. No CNA. EMC is moving their next meeting. They're supposed to be on Thursday. I think the next meeting is going to be May 29th. Nope. We're done here. Good. I think that's it. That's all. Yeah. A lot of committees. All right. With that, we are up to our second public comment section of this evening. Um, we ask that you keep your public comments to three minutes and may state your name and address for the record, please. Hello, Katherine Mitchell, Bound Tree Road in Kuk. Um, I just wanted to uh I should preface this by saying I'm a retired educator myself. Uh, so I was a reading writing
075specialist. So my biggest concern is always reading instruction and I'm very concerned because I really support education and I'm willing to pay for that. But I'm concerned at the divisions in the town and the people that are really struggling with their taxes. And knowing that a big portion of the school budget has the impact on taxes and knowing that staffing is important, I started taking a look at the staffing levels in town. And frankly, I was shocked. Um, I started looking only at Harold Martin and I saw three reading specialists listed. And I called the superintendent's office, spoke to someone there, uh, who confirmed that there are three full-time reading specialists. Now, a reading specialist wouldn't normally be needed for preschool or for kindergarten, perhaps only in an advisory capacity, but not direct instruction or
076necessarily programming. So, that would be three full-time reading specialists for grades one through three. And correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but I believe that that population is something under 200 students. That's a rather extraordinarily high level of reading specialist time for that number of students in a town with the demographics that we have. So I can imagine that some of this maybe came about because of the pandemic and that would be understandable but any of the students that started in grade or or who were in grade uh one at the time would have gone through. So, I'm wondering if you're looking at staffing levels um because that really is high. I also attended one of the meetings um prior to town meeting where a couple of you were at the meeting
077uh at the library or maybe elsewhere and people could from the public could go in and ask questions. And I asked about that and I was told that there is a new reading curriculum. I hope that there's a strong phonics component. Um, but when I look at numbers like that, I think either we are overstaffed or if that many students need remedial instruction in grades one through three, something is going wrong. And I would start by looking at the curriculum. And then I also asked about um special ed and a former school board member said something that also kind of floored me. And he said that in this school something like 34% of the students are coded special ed. Is is that accurate? No. Okay. Do you know what the percentage is? Because that was
078an astounding figure. Nationally it should be nationally it is about 10 to 15%. So when he said something in the 30s and I think it was 34% I did inquire about that and the response was that well with the pandemic students fell behind but falling behind in your skill level is does not constitute a learning disability. So I didn't know if we were over coding because of that or if that figure was correct but the staff associated with that is expensive too. So I hope that we are digging down and looking at our staffing and through attrition reduce it when necessary. I don't know if anybody here has any kind of response as to why we would have three full-time reading people. Um and I think perhaps tutors if we did need that much instruction
079we could do it with one reading specialist and tutors who are also certified teachers. That would be a savings. So, I hope that you can look perhaps be a little data driven and look a little more closely into that. And that's just Harold Martin. I don't know what's going on uh at the other schools in terms of that level of staffing. So, I just wanted to express that. And finally, I hope I'm not past my three minutes, but I took a look at some other schools at the same grade level. Bo, Windham, Bedford, a couple of schools in Bedford and Hollis. uh the US News and World Report rankings and looking at those I came up I have a chart a spreadsheet here with the figures and it's a little disturbing because among these schools
080we have based on the DOE website which is not totally up to date I think it was 2023 we're paying more per pupil sometimes significantly more but the results are not as good So, I made a few copies for all of you to look at. And I think that if we see a school that is doing significantly better, particularly in our math proficiency, um perhaps a visit to that school to see what curriculum they're using and what type of instruction they're doing. I know when I was teaching, we would often go to other schools to see the programs they had, and we would all learn from each other that way. So, I'm going to leave a few of these with you and thank you for your time. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And I I
081would encourage you and and anyone who is interested, we've had several presentations to the board regarding our special education, about Amplify, our new reading uh reading curriculum and about um our math curriculum as well. They're all recorded and available um on the YouTube channel. Um they're presentations to the school board. So hopefully those would also answer some of your questions. I'll take a look. Thank you. Yeah, great. It's in our department. Great. Any other public comment? Okay, with that, we do have a need for a non-public this evening. Um, so I am looking for a motion uh to go into non-public under RSA 91A 3, 2 C for reputation. So, is there a second? Second. Okay. This is a voice vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Before Yeah. No, that's fine. You guys finish that. Okay.
082And after this non-public, we'll be coming out of non-public and we will be doing no further business following the meeting. Actually, just cuz you brought up Amplify. So, early results are coming in from New Hampshire SAS. Uh 8th grade is at 86% efficiency in reading, which is proficient, excuse me, has never been that high. our science scores increased 11%. And what we're noticing is with the Amplify program, because it's so heavily um based in reading, it's really improving our science areas. So, those are just some early results that are coming in, but we'll we'll report out more as we move on. Thank you. Great. Sorry about that. Great. Just on that. It's off the record. Yeah.