Newfields School Public Hearing/Board Meeting 01/14/26

001All right, it's six o'clock. I'd like to um welcome everybody to uh our first of three. It's a triple header today. Um this is going to be our um bond hearing on the NES school safety project. So, I'd like to call the bond hearing on the NES NES school safety project to order at 6 p.m. Um I have a little intro I want to read. Um, first I want to say again thank you for all coming out. It's starting to rain which is not fun. Um, we are here to uh discuss and have a whole a public bond hearing for the proposed safety project. I'm Bobby Kelly, the chair of the board for those of you who don't know me. Um, the bond is in the amount of $500,000. Before we begin, I want to

002take a moment to recognize the people who helped bring this forward. So, uh, after last February's deliberative, uh, session, which many of you might have been at, uh, we formed the school safety committee to take a hard, thoughtful look at how we might better protect, um, our student staff and community and address the issues that we identified at that um, meeting uh, and actually for the last couple years. Um, and we essentially started from scratch and evaluated our main goals and our priorities. I want to thank Jane who's sitting to my left here uh who chairs the committee and serves as our school board representative as well as many dedicated committee members who are here um who hopefully are happy to chime in and answer questions as it is appropriate. Um you have all given

003so much time, expertise and care to this work. a lot of thoughtfulness, a lot of um norming and I wouldn't say storming, but there was, you know, excellent disagreement and conversation around uh topics which I think was really key and essential. Um your collaboration with community members, uh town committees, especially over the last month or two, and public safety partners, has been central to shaping a plan that's both practical and fiscally responsible. In my opinion, this bond and its associated proposal reflects months of careful study, open dialogue, and deep respect for the trust our residents place in us when we consider a public investment on this scale. Um, I am going to shortly ask Jane and some of the school safety committee folks to share a bit about the proposed use of the bond and

004the priorities that guided their recommendations. Um, I do want to make sure that we um have a chance for folks to explain uh things. We have, if you haven't already picked it up, a two-pager with a lovely um graphic side and a text side here with a table. Um and then I want to hear any questions, concerns, perspectives from folks so we can um take them into consideration. >> So without further ado, Jane, you Yeah, thank you. So, um, as Bobby had said, this has kind of been an evolution in being able to really address a number of safety issues. Um, a lot of them being um, and they they're outlined here, poor visibility, the crossing light running into a driveway and then another driveway. Um, really making sure that we have, you know, at

005the crux of it, as few interactions between kids and cars as possible. That's really the goal. And so what we did was we took a hard line at those specific um areas that we wanted to improve and then wanting to make um the property more accessible in general. So what you see there um on your second page is kind of the new traffic flow. The main components of this are moving the crosswalk over Piscassic over about 2530 ft. Um instead of stairways, there's going to be a ramp up to the front door. The um entrance into the school is going to be the same on the uh fire side of the property going all the way around the back. There's going to be about 15 new um paved parking spots available along the back. And

006then um we'll have a gravel lot on the side of the building um where when we can utilize up to I believe it's like 60 or so spots um during fair weather. This is a lot that's really not going to be um able to be utilized during the winter. um um asking our town to still provide free plowing um really inhibits that parking lot from being utilized and paved during winter hours. However, um this one-way flow, being able to drop kids off at the back of the building, um making sure that it's safe for them to not interact with vehicles and the cost of it only being no more than a bond of uh half a million dollars was kind of the goal of the committee to make sure that this was reasonable um fiscally

007and safe as well. So, do you want me to you want to >> I think that was great. Thank you. Um any not to put anybody on the spot but anybody on the committee want to say anything at this point? You don't have to obviously and then as questions and things come up you can certainly say go ahead. >> I I think that one of our big things was uh seeking to be really fiscally responsible as we were doing this. So when the the whole thing started out with brainstorming and trying to figure out what are all the pieces that we had heard and people had said and we really winnowed it down and tried to make it as bare bones as we possibly could accomplishing the safety goals that we wanted. So there were

008things that were brought up that were thrown out because it turned out they were going to be expensive. And then the other piece that I thought was responsible is we interacted with three people to um who are providers who know >> construction companies so that we knew that the estimate we were getting or the swag that we were getting they all fell in the same range. So it's not like we didn't think that we would be out of line when we finally went to >> Thanks. Go ahead. Sorry, I was gonna um only because um I want to make sure that for a minute if we could just say who we are. >> Sorry. Yeah, that was count. >> Thank you. I always forget to ask because new fields we tend to be a small

009community here, but yes, go ahead. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm uh Christine McD. >> Thank you. >> Um I just wanted to comment too that in within that 500,000 is a fair amount of paving that the school needed to do anyway and has been putting off. Um so you know that that is an expense the school will incur irrespective of whether or not the rest of the activities go on. Um so that will have to be addressed as as part of the the cost eventually. But this then does it as a holistic pro um product essentially that that looks at all of the best elements and gets us the improved um pavement which has to be done. >> Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. I think the only thing I will say all of these meetings have

010were open to the public. They are posted online uh if folks want to um listen to them. I purposely was not um a a member of the uh school board, excuse me, of the safety uh committee. Um but I made sure to listen to them uh afterwards each time just because there was some really good conversations happened that happened there. Um, and many of the I think all of the the observations and some concerns that were brought up at previous deliberative and public sessions were discussed um at length at those meetings. So I I do think that's important to point out. Okay. So um as a uh bond hearing again the purpose of this is to have the public who um is here so you all have an opportunity to ask questions um and you

011know officially we we try to do you know no more than three minutes per person but again if we can keep this to a relatively conversational back and forth I am willing to to have it be more than three minutes depending on the people's questions. Go ahead John. Yes >> question. My name is John Hayden. Um, is the information regarding the companies that you use to come up with your uh cost estimates public information or is that private to the committee? >> The estimates are not um however I'm happy to like sit down with you and go through like we used Barasa um Ry Beach and what was the third one? >> RH wipe. RHIP. >> Okay. >> And this is doesn't doesn't um >> Yeah, they're they're local. >> Um that was kind of

012a something we wanted to stay true to. Um and they're all itemized so that we can really see what the swag in each item is. So each one is very um um isolated and um you know like the paving is one part, the restriping is another. Each one of these individual components is in there. Thank you. >> Sure. Anything else? >> Any other questions, concerns? While we're thinking about that, I do just want to say that I am I'll say it again, not just appreciative, but really impressed with how collaborative this committee has been and how I think well members of our town sort of have come together to to make this um as best a proposal as as we can and and sort of what you're seeing now. Um the intention is to um

013have a product that is both um live as soon as possible so we can reap the benefits of the uh uh the security that it will bring us the positive outcomes if it were to pass come uh March. But yeah, today's discussion about the bond is really just talking about that. Beautiful. I don't know if there's like if I have to wait extensively long before we uh close the bond hearing because we have a couple other meetings, but I do want to give sufficient time for folks to ask questions. Okay. Anything else the board wants to chime in on or anybody else up here? >> The only thing I would say Sorry, did you want to go ahead? >> Oh, no. um is if anybody does have questions after this meeting or you know isn't

014able to attend this meeting, just let us know. You know, get in touch with me and I'm happy to go through either me or any of the other committee members. Um we've all been working so hard on this that we're all very deeply ingrained in what this is. Um don't ever hesitate to, you know, approach us, ask us what the what the impact is or any questions you have about it. We're more than happy to speak to it. Okay, thanks. Without further ado, I will hereby conclude our um public bond hearing at 611. Subsequently, I'd like to call our public hearing for the school budget uh to order at 611 as well. Um I have a little blurb as well and then we're going to queue up our little video. Sure. >> So, hello again.

015Nobody else joined since before, right? So, you're still uh welcome here. Please say um we're going to be now talking about the New Fields Elementary School budget. Um as I think you all um can attest, a school budget is more than just a financial document. It represents our values, how we support our students, how we empower educators, and how carefully we steward the resources entrusted to us by our community. I want to first recognize two people uh whose leadership has been especially important this process. First, Principal Griffith who was up there. Um, I just want to thank you for um, your commitment to both e educational excellence and fiscal responsibility every year that I've been a part of um, working with you trying to put together a school budget. Um, it is very much appreciated

016and I think it's guided every step of this work. Um, very intentional about keeping the budget increases to a minimum while also making sure the needs of our students are addressed. I also want to thank Molly unsung hero over here who works her tail off all the time and is always answering any questions I have which are many over email. Um she is our executive director of finance and operations. Uh and it's just been really really helpful. So, thank you together with everybody here um including our budget advisory committee who was very instrumental uh especially at the last meeting who reviewed line by line everything in the budget and ultimately um is confident and happy to push bring forward what we have. Um I just want to thank you for all your hard work. >>

017So, we're going to start this with a video. It's about 7 minutes. It's right behind you. So, you might have to pivot a little bit. Michael, you have a front row seat. uh it's right behind you um on the drop down there, but it reviews some of the detail. You'll hear from some folks in the community, students, as well as Susie, and then we'll open up to other public questions. I am Susie Griffith, proud principal of New Fields Elementary School. Thank you for taking the time to watch this short video in which you'll hear some of the wonderful things that are happening in our school. You'll hear about the driving forces in the budget and we'll also share with you how, when, and where to vote. Our elementary school is strong because our students feel

018safe and supported and excited to learn every day with our dedicated teachers who are so caring and kind and passionate about what they're doing. Our involved families who we couldn't be the school community that we are without them to a caring community at large. We work together to help every child grow academically and personally. Our unified arts at NES are really special. We get to try we get to try new things and be creative and we learn stuff that helps us that helps us outside of school too. In STEM, Mrs. Walsh um helps us learn by using real objects from northeastern university. We get to do hands-on activities that make engineering and science really fun. Every month we have assemblies where students get to be the hosts, share their talents and recommend books and practice

019speaking in front of people. Families come too. One very special assembly is Veterans Day. Veterans from our community come to our school and Mr. Hobie Harmon talks to us about being a veteran and why school is important. At the end, we all shook hands with the veterans and thank them for their service. It made us feel proud and show that an NES learning and being kind both matter a lot. In the library, Mrs. Lieberman helps us love reading. We have a new library and she even brings real offers to us from a local bookstore. We get to hear their stories and learn how books are made. In PE, Mrs. Sha helps us move every day and teaches us how exercise connects to real life. She brings in Karate International and we get to learn new

020skills and practice self-control. We also work with Northeast Passage where we learn about athletes with disabilities and how everyone can play sports in different ways. We even get to go on a field trip to Camp Lincoln, which is really very fun and helps us try new activities. One of our favorite things is when we get to do the pickle ball tournament where we play with an adult to try to win the pickle draw. Our school looks amazing because of art class with Miss Baswell. We learn about artists like Picasso, Freda Kalo, and Jojo Keith. We also make artwork that stays at our school, like the snapshock mural outside. >> I am the dad of two happy and thriving NES students. And the reason why they're happy and thriving is because of NES's teachers and leadership

021and culture. The culture is one of responsibility, accountability, caring, nurturing, and continuous improvement. and any funds that we give as a town to NES will be used in the same manner. >> There are two collective bargaining agreements at Newfields Elementary School. Teachers have an active collective bargaining agreement known as the CBA. So they stepped or tracked per that CBA. This is a negotiation year for the pair professionals. So their increase will be reflected in warrant article two. All non-union employees were put at a 3% increase. Health and dental rates increased per the quote from our provider, Hell Trust. There's an increase in just over $4,000 to our professional development line because ongoing highquality professional development for our teachers strengthens classroom instruction. When teachers continuously build their skills and use evidence-based practices, they are better able

022to meet diverse student needs. This proactive investment reduces the need for later interventions by addressing early challenges early, leading to more effective instruction, better student outcomes, and more efficient use of resources over time. The SAU assessment is divided between the districts based on enrollment and the town's equalized valuation over the SAU budget was a 0% increase. However, that changed between districts based on how enrollment and valuations changed in relation to each other. We have a multi-year contract with First Student, our bus company, that outlines the cost increases. The total of $3,934 has been added across several budget lines to more accurately reflect actual expenses. The substitute line has been increased to a,000 as expenditures over the past 3 years have consistently exceeded the previous allocation. This adjustment aligns with the budget with demonstrated need. Similarly,

023$500 has been added to the general teaching supply line to reflect consistent usage. Trash removal costs have also increased by $1,000 due to high higher ongoing expenses. And together, all these adjustments ensure that the budget more accurately represents operational realities. It is also important to note that of the total 141,500 budget change, only 8,000 represents new increases, while there is a $36,500 decrease in facilities costs. The remainder of this budget is completely contractual in nature. This increase is a small targeted investment within an otherwise largely fixed budget. This slide shows the change from the current school year to the proposed FY27 budget for the 2627 school year. The principal described the changes in the operating budget which consists of the general fund and food service fund. title idea and other grants were previously appropriated as

024part of the SAU budget. However, as the school district is the legal owner of the grants, the appropriation is being moved to reflect that. When the voters go to the ballot boxes, they will have a choice between the proposed budget we have just presented and the default budget. The default is the prior year budget plus or minus any contractual or mandatory obligations required by law or one-time expenditures in the prior year budget. Please join the Newfields community at the public hearing on Wednesday, January 14th at 6 p.m. and the deliberative session on Thursday, February 5th at 6:00 p.m. Both are in the multi-purpose room. Hope to see you there. >> So, this is the January 14th one. I know we're not in the multi-purpose room, but uh the other one will be, I promise, in

025February. Um, thank you for doing that, Susie. Um, and for all the people who put that together. I appreciate it. Love seeing the kids in action. Um, it was fun seeing a parent there, too. That was cool. Um, so again, the other thing I would just say is again at our last meeting, we had a pretty detailed review and great discussion with the budget advisory committee uh members. Um, and there are a couple of suggestions that were made that potentially um help address certain items that may be in the future uh adjustable um that were not this year. And I do just want to thank um folks on the committee for bringing up some suggestions for that. Thank you. Is there anything anybody up here wants to add before we um ask folks for input

026and questions? Alrighty public, what do we got? Hopefully everybody was able to pick up the packet here. >> Yes, Karen. >> Karen Styer. Um, when I went back and looked at the school budget numbers on the ballot last year, it was a very large number. It wasn't it wasn't just the NES number. Is that true? Well, there's usually two there are two as my understanding um two separate um ballots that we cooperative public hearing is tomorrow night. >> Yes. So that's an important thing and actually on our tax bill I must have made this up. I thought it was broken out by the two but it's it never was. I looked back I since my first tax bill since moving into town it's always been one. There is a line there that says something about

027state which is different and actually um we did get uh a subsequent breakdown which is really helpful Molly for um at least for this current tax bill. Um but yeah that amount that we see I think right now in our tax bill it's 12 42 for for local education that um consists of both the NES here as well as the the cooperative. If I could just ask one more question which is how does new how is the aortionment to new fields done out of this cooperative budget. >> So the cooperative budget is based off of enrollment and it's the um two the two prior years average together 50%. So it's in case there's spikes in one year. >> Yeah. >> Those are very valid questions. I ask them every time I'm at a a joint

028board meeting with the co-op because it is a little confusing. Um but I do just want to reiterate that that is a beautifully um important question to ask at the co-op um budget meeting which is tomorrow. >> Tax bills it might have one number but if you actually look on the tax card itself it shows a local school portion which is NES and the co-op school portion which is or assessment I should say which is the co-op. >> So I knew I saw it somewhere but not on the tax bill. It's not on the tax bill. Michael you had up. Sorry. >> Yeah. Um uh I got a lot but uh let's start with what is it going to the what is the default budget going to be where is that >> that was up

029there and it's also in this packet I believe which I >> the last page of your packet >> oh last page I did put it on the front page okay great thank you uh okay uh the grant revenue of 104,000 is that uh hopeful grant revenue that may not be applied or is that something that you know you're going to be getting >> I'm going to defer that to Molly just because this is a new way of >> accounting. Every year we get a level of grants and so we have to plan for it and so in the plan is on the tax impact you can see expense equals revenue. So there is no impact on taxation and so we we don't know exactly what grants we're going to get. So we do the appropriations

030based off of prior years. >> So it's anticipated but not guaranteed. >> Correct. Until the federal government gives it to us. So if it doesn't appear, then it will have to be covered by taxation. >> So if it doesn't appear here, it's not part of your gross appropriation. And so if we were to receive grant revenue, we would have to have a public hearing every time we receive it. >> No, no, no. I I don't have a problem with the acceptance. >> You're asking if we didn't receive the grant money. >> Receive it. The budget impact means that I assume that that 104,000 of spending which you're anticipating grants to cover would then roll to the taxpayers. >> So I think you're saying is if we don't receive the grant revenue, would that need to

031be part of the operating budget? >> My question is is the grant revenue covering items in your operating budget that the grant revenue is not received >> have to raise taxes for. >> No. or or is the grant revenue tied to specific >> uh appropriations that if you don't receive the grant money, you don't make those appropriations? >> No. So, what's in your line by line operating budget here? None of that is grant. Now, there are certain expenditures that um principal Griffith has planned for these grant. >> No, that's that's fine. Okay, that's that explains that. >> Um, >> thank you for your patience for the answering that question because again, the accounting of it is different this year. So, Yeah. I mean, on a town level, we we know we're getting >> highway grants,

032so we're assuming the revenue. We're assuming the expense. >> I I got Thank you. >> I know that some grants are discretionary. >> Um All right. I got a bunch of lines I want to ask about if that's all right. >> Yes, I want to do that. Um I want to make sure there are any like um more global questions because I I agree. I think it's important. >> Um if not, I think it's a very valuable exercise and we have the answers um to probably most of the questions that you have. Uh yeah, that's fine with me. I do I have learned there are relatively quick ways of identifying the lines, right? Because there's two accounts, 11 and then the food account, which is what is it, Molly? >> 14. Um and then but

033Michael, I know you're familiar with that with the town. So, >> and and I'll I'll go by page number so >> um Okay. So, um I assume the 50,000 first line keep the 50,000 is contractual. >> Yes. >> Or all the Okay, great. >> Um question at the bottom of the first page. So, the uh special ed tuition um the I'm looking at actuals because you know the 2025 actuals I get you don't have 2026 because of your fiscal year structure. So, humor me if I'm asking actual spent in a fiscal year versus what you're budgeting. >> I mean, obviously there's a huge huge increase there. Uh, what's the change? >> That >> I mean, you're going from actually spending $250 to budgeting for 17,500 2025 actuals versus what your request is. >> Something else.

034students to >> Is there either >> one of the last line on the first page? >> Yeah. The actuals were $250 in a full the only fiscal year that we have. >> So that that reflects our change in extended school year programming for students with disabilities. >> Okay. Well, what approximately was your actuals in 2026? Well, we haven't done >> I know when you've had half a year or so to go for 2026. >> When's your fiscal year run? >> Where? >> It's July one. July. >> So, you had half of the fiscal year 26 already. You had more than half. >> Yeah. >> So, I just want to be cautious because this is special education. We do have um preschoolers who are coming in um who will need programming to that amount. Okay. But

035you haven't spent anything in this year either >> on this particular line. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, you budgeted you budgeted 17,500, but it sounds like you guys haven't been spending money. >> So, right, >> if you have spent it, that's what I'm asking. What have you spent fiscal year 2026? This just been an open line that just has money that doesn't get spent or >> Well, in general, again, I'll speak. We have a lot of very um uh expertise voices here in terms of the special ed uh programming and then our principal. So I'll let them speak specifically. But in general lines like this special ed tuition, if there is not a need for a certain child to have a tuition paid for special education services, then there needs there's not going to be

036expenditures there. There does need to be a line that is kept uh there regardless. And if there's an anticipation for a particular um child with a particular need that is um in our community, there needs to be a corresponding budgeting, which is my understanding of the process. >> Yes. And Molly was getting to the to the answer to your question. >> So, I was just looking at the current year financial, which we'll discuss in the next meeting, but um year to date only $9.70 has been spent on that line. >> Okay. Um, >> Michael, was there any was there a >> more context to your question or you just wanted to have the >> No, I mean it's one of the the largest lines there with a significant difference between what you're actually spending what

037you're buying. >> Thank you. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. >> I was just looking for the >> Michael can I want to just expand on this. When we do extended year, school year, parents have the right to say whether or not they're going to have their student go into extended school year. >> I have to budget as though all of those students will do that program. So, there are times that they're on vacation, they choose not to go. So, that that's how that plays out. But, I have to be >> Oh, no, no, no. I understand. Again, I think your explanation explains why you're budgeting for it and why you're not spending, >> right? >> It's it's more of a insurance policy than anything else. >> I got it. >> Thank you. >> Um page four.

038>> Um so what are what's the media services media salaries? >> That's our librarian. >> Oh, that's library. Okay. All right. That answers that. Great. Thank you. Um, page six here for this question. >> So, uh, in fiscal year 25, you did 40,000 in water and sewer services. >> Um, you're moving that all all the way up to 60,000. >> What I mean, that's a that's a big jump in two years. I mean, you're talking about a 50% increase in two years. >> Can you explain why? >> Well, I will just just to answer to make it a little bit more robust. It the actuals was 40,000. It was budgeted at 55,000 and so the budget u did increase from 55,000 to 6,000. Just wanted to make sure I know but actual are the number

039here. >> Okay. But >> I'm just curious as to to why the huge increase in only a two-year period. I do remember us last year when our previous facility just director was here had been talking about increases in the water bills and that is not my area of expertise but that was his recommendation. >> Okay. >> That being said I have no problem if there's intelligence in this room who h knows uh something to contribute. I would be very happy to hear it. Not to put anybody on the spot, but I think that's a very fair um question that I don't have personally an answer to. >> Were there any repairs done? >> Um that stuff. >> No, that's would be the next line. >> Yeah, it's specific to the services. >> Um >> if

040you don't know, you don't know. I I >> just I got to ask the question. Same type of question for the first line of page seven, which is your out of gas. >> Again, your actuals, you're doubling the budget over two years versus what you actually I just want to be clear with our language. We're not doubling the budget over two years. The budget, it was budgeted >> from the what you actually spent, correct? This is what you're asking for the budget is almost two times. >> I'm just hearing your language and wanting to make sure it's clear. The budget is not doubling. >> No, no, no. That's not what I said. It's not not budgeting. The budget isn't doubling over a year. >> The actuals that you spent two years ago versus >> it

041was 7,900 in fiscal year 25 and the budget line has remained 15,000 from 50 uh FY25 to FY26. >> Um I don't I I can't tell you that. Yeah, it would be awesome if it was lower. >> I'm going to ask if you don't have the answer in time that this is a budget hearing. I'm not trying to change budget. Um, so about halfway down there, the transportation, I know you you mentioned that in the video. >> Um, I you you mentioned that these are contractual. Is this just uh uh what is the contract based on the number of kids, >> the number of roots, the kids mileage? >> So the And you're talking about the first student contract, I'm assuming. >> Yeah, there are two transportation lines, Michael. >> Transportation lines. Yeah. >> The

042district contract people transportation, >> which is our first student transportation. And so that is based off of utilizing a double run system with the cooperative. So it does the older students first and then it circles back to do the elementaryaries. And by doing that we share the cost. So it we don't pay two single runs. So we do a cost share with the cooperative on that to achieve >> but what they charge what is it based on >> based on the number of runs. >> It's based off the number of runs. >> Well it's just based on the number of runs and then they just say okay you have two runs. Each run this year is going to be $43,000. >> And this is an area I >> Yeah. It's the number. It's the daily

043rate. And so we only pay for the days that we use, which we negotiated because it used to be a flat rate and then when the CO shut down, I negotiated that. So we would only pay for the usage. >> Perfect. >> I'll do my yearly kudos to the folks in Newfields. In fact, we if it weren't a double run, we would probably have that line would be doubled uh because we would have >> two of those. So >> that's an excellent line there. >> Uh same page seven, the health insurance. I I know Calvin Sherman big increase. Did you enter into a new plan? Is there a change in the plan or is this just the rate that you got quoted for the plan that you had last year? >> I believe it's the

044latter and that was the area where we we had a really robust discussion at the last meeting and I have some plans to try to um move that needle for next year. >> And it's an initiative at the SAU to >> Yes. Sorry. Thank you. >> Yeah. We have a meeting this week with some union leadership to discuss the rising cost of healthcare. >> But what about you're I talked about moving alternate providers. >> Yep. >> All of that would need to come through the collective bargaining process and >> change the provider. >> All of it needs to come come through the collective bargaining process. >> Oh yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And so in the fall we will open up the collective bargaining process for our teachers. Yes. teachers up next year. Yes,

045next year. >> Yes, >> the I think this >> Well, the yes, the discussion start the discussion will start in the fall of 2026 for the teachers collective bargaining agreement, >> right? >> So that we have that option as we move forward to help provider and plan >> contribution >> everything's on the table. >> Yes. >> Did that answer that question, Michael? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Uh I guess that's it for me. >> Okay. >> I I do appreciate your questions about all of your questions uh all of anybody's questions but in particular the ones about the gas oil and water like those are you know we take direction from our people who work with those every day and I think if there is an area um to address that that we

046don't know. It's really helpful to know. Um I will take that specifically about the water because Newfields this is something that we have sort of as a town. Um maybe we can have a conversation after this to just learn more about that. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Okay. Anybody else have questions? Yes. >> Question. Does the school budget work the same way the town budget is that if certain line items are not used? >> It goes into this unassigned funds at the end of the year and you can use it for other things or it can be used to reduce. >> It's a little different. Do you want me to you >> I was either going to say Molly or if you wanted to. It is different from the school from the town but it's there

047are some similarities. >> Yeah. So the difference is we're we if we don't spend our budget um at the end of the year we have um the warrant some of the warrant articles that you will vote on we can pull money from that and put those towards those trust funds. The rest of the money goes to um decrease your the tax impact for the next year. We cannot hold on to the money >> unlike the town. Unlike the town, we cannot hold on to that money. It goes to defay your the taxes for the next, you know, what we raise in taxes for the next fiscal year. >> And can you move things along to the rules? >> Yes, >> you can do budget transfers. I don't like to do budget transfers because I like

048to have the budget the way it is. Um, and if we over spend one line, we have to underexpend the other line. So on the ballot is one number. On the ballot is not every individual number. So if we do overexpend one line, we need to identify where we're going to underexpend. So at the end of the year, we do not breach the total voted appropriation >> and that is something that we do discuss every board meeting. >> I'm looking forward to this month's convers. But it is helpful. Molly has great tables so we can keep an eye on actual expenditures from month to month and we do have those conversations. some thankfully we haven't really had to do much deviation but there was a point last um year where there was a concern that

049we might right remember with the handlers or whatever um we thankfully didn't have to and so everything was fine but >> it's a valid point >> and at the end of the year your um your fund balance is your expenditures less than and your revenues more together and we do cannot expend revenue we can only expend up to the voted appropriation Any other questions about the budget? >> Okay, beautiful. Anybody want to add anything else? >> Yes. are >> did did you folks talk about both I you mentioned the collective bargaining agreement that's in this warrant but you also ought to talk about the collective bargaining agreement and the appropriation to the school building maintenance expendable trust fun part of the budget >> yeah so I'm happy to um talk about our draft warrant articles

050they are and I will say this very um transparently in years past we've discussed them at the January board meeting to sort of firm up the language and to actually re re uh orient the order of andor adjust some of the dollar amounts of the the warrant articles. But yeah, I'm happy to um discuss the um the potential warrant articles that are here. So um one of them is the CBA like we talked about um for the paras. Do do we need to give specific numbers or would >> I I think that would be wise. Sure. Yes, >> I will happily read those um that particular one. Thank you. >> So article three is the collective bargaining. So, article one is the bond uh that we just discussed. Article two is the operating budget. Article

051three in our draft list here is the collective bargaining agreement. And apologies, I don't have the text here, but I'll happily read it. Shall the school district vote to approve the cost items included in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Newfield School Board and the Newfield's Power Professional Association, which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits at the current staffing level over the amount paid in the prior fiscal year. So fiscal year fiscal year estimated increases 2027 39,392 fiscal year 28 8,992 fiscal year 29 17,677 and further to raise an appropriate 88,938 for the current fiscal year each sum representing the additional cost attributable to the increase in salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels. The new fields I was just

052going to read the rest. >> The Newfield School Board recommends 39,392. Uh the Newfield's budget advisory committee did not review this article, although some of them are here and be happy can discuss. >> I I believe Molly, correct me if I'm wrong, but the the estimated increase of 39392 is a typo, right? Because the amount that's being raised is 88,938. Isn't that correct? I think you and I spoke about that. So the board recommends that the board should be here. >> Well, it needs to be checked. It's one of those two numbers. >> Okay. >> That's the reason why this is a draft. >> Agree. It needs to agree eventually, but but as long as it's discussed and you understand that it's one of those two numbers >> and that's only salary, >> not health

053insurance and >> Yes. Yep. So it's the 39 391 >> So it's the lower. >> Yeah, I just forgot to change it here. >> So the amount that would be appropriated is 39 392. >> Yeah, >> not 88, right? >> Not the not the 88 93. >> So I changed it in two out of the three places. >> Two of >> Thank you for catching that. >> Sorry about that. >> No apologies at all. Um any questions on that? Is that total for all for is a three-year agreement? >> So the three,000 >> Yeah. So the three-year agreement, the first year is 39392. The second year's increase over the 39 is 8,992. And then over the third year, the increase over all of that is 17,677. So there's a percentage increase every year. >> Do

054you have the percentage increase? Uh, colas are 3.5, 4.5, and four. >> Thank you, Molly. >> So, so for 2020, 2028, it's 47,000. Really? >> Is that what you're saying? >> Well, it's it's 9,000 over the 39. So, because the 39 will become the budget next year. So, then going into 28, it would be an additional almost >> 9,000. So, so the total increase over the three years is like over $100,000. >> No, >> you've got to add. >> So, if you if you add the 39, the eight, and the 17 al together, that would be $66,59. >> Carrie's referring to the baseline over what today is. >> Oh, you're looking at baseline over baseline. Today, next year it's $39,000. The next year from today is 47,000. And then the year after that is 60,000.

055Right? So you're you're talking about really I'm talking about an increase of about $400,000 over the next three years or more than that. 150,000 over the next three years. Is that right? >> Maybe we can calculate it right now. >> I think so. What I will say is this is a language that I have seen since I moved into New Hampshire. I find it unusual but it is how the language is written. Um it could be described in other ways. Um, but if you want, we certainly can calculate that number. We're not trying to I'm not trying to hide that. >> I wanted to understand it because I so CBA of war articles have to be what's called Sambornizing. And I learned this after the town sour. >> Um, and I friend Gordon Graham can

056easily probably explain why we have to do that. >> Because the the voters need to understand what the costs are of a collective bargaining agreement because they are the ones who approve those cost items. And so cost items need to be uh approved by voters and they need to have information about what they are. That's why this word the article is worded so carefully though. It says increases in salaries and benefits which are set forth in the table are uh increases in salaries and benefits at the current staffing levels over the amount paid in the prior fiscal year. So, you know that that's exactly what's happening. >> That the increase in 28 is $8,992 and that amount is over what was paid in the prior fiscal. >> So, that increase is like 1%. The second

057year >> the difference between the I don't want I should but the difference between the first year and the second year is only $8,000, right? So, what is $8,000 out of the total salaries? 1% of the par salaries. >> So it's just not salaries that were >> and benefits whatever >> in retire. Yeah. And there's certain things regarding retirement and >> FICA all the >> I'm sorry. Um I I'm I'm glad you're we're having this conversation, but I wonder what is what are you trying to understand? What I'm trying to say is that $39,000 is a 4% increase for next year approximately. The next year it's only $9,000, >> right? Like there's some retirements that >> Yeah, there's a there's so much >> negative numbers coming down, >> right? That's expected retirement. >> I wish

058I could show you this. I mean, like I've seen we've seen the numbers, but I know that's protected stuff. >> Yeah. You know, if you look at just the number, the increase in those line items is dimminimous >> at $9,000. >> What might happen, and I have no idea because I was not involved in this collective bargaining agreement, >> but can you tell me if this is possible often times the first year of an agreement may include a change to some provision in the contract. That's where the cost goes. that cost then is the same in the next several years and it's built in and so then there's only a small increase on top of that from the salary increase that takes place. So there can be a change to a base in the first

059year and it's and it's counted in in that first year and then since it's counted again the next year as you point out it's already built in. >> Absolutely. For example, one of the things that's on here which I can talk about is they negotiate additional holidays. So once those holidays are in, then the next year you don't have that delta because it's already in. >> So So if I don't know what percentage of this number is salaries, but if people were getting a 2% increase, would they be getting the 2% increase in their salary the next year? And that's not in these numbers, right? We don't see that. So the colas that are in here are 3.5 4.54. So 3.5 the first year, 4.5 the second year, and 4.0 the third year. >> So

060and that's a perfect example. If you're asking people to work more >> or or or you're giving them pay on additional days that becomes a new obligation that takes place in the first year of the contract. Then after that, you're continuing you're continuing to be responsible for that pay on that those extra days that you're paying for them because you might have added holidays and that's built into the contract. So they may only get a you know a percentage increase in the first year, >> but what's costing you is the fact that you're paying them for extra days. >> That that part I understand. It's just it the >> the math doesn't seem to it's a math it's a math thing. It's like, so a 4% increase in salary is not that $9,000, >> right?

061Because we're talking about personnel matters, we can't disclose all of the rationale for the numbers because we plan for certain things based on based on what we know about our staffing situations. Um, and we we set aside the money for that. >> Even on the table on the video, they had some negative numbers because of retirements and so forth. So that that's what the biggest change. You're only seeing the sum total of all of the changes. >> Right. I mean, but but what this number doesn't show voters is what the what the bargaining increase did for this stuff. >> Right. It's it's merely budget. It doesn't say we're >> you're getting XYZ. >> We're getting the powers are getting paid more. >> Right. I mean, I'm I >> I'm happy to share that it was

062a very good conversation and I felt like everybody left the CBA conversation >> happy. I felt like there was some great um uh >> the negotiations were very smooth. They were very happy with the result of this bargaining agreement and the three years that we've negotiated forward. That's probably the extent of what we can tell you about what that that is. But >> um what what we when we negotiated it tried to do was >> figure out healthcare increases all the increases that we're seeing and um looking at the value of those employees and they're they do a lot for our kids. So making sure that we are marrying those two things along with the fiscal responsibility. So I think we came to a pretty reasonable increase with you know a small increase in the

063beginning with 3.5 to 4.5 and four where we're you know staggering the the increases in in in >> the collective bargaining agreements are available on our website once they are once they're approved that it is public knowledge. I and I will say one thing that we I feel like we can share is um the board was very conscious of how the numbers would change if some of the variables were changed. And so I would say, "Hey, Molly, what does what do those three numbers on the warrant look like if we were to make this change?" And we would say, "Oh, no. That's not going to that's not an outcome that we feel comfortable with." And so >> does it prevent you from hiring additional staff because the collective bargaining agreement didn't this this article wasn't

064approved. >> Well, if this article is not approved, then the staff >> No, but so if this is approved, >> right? And then you decide that you need to hire two more PARs, where does the money come from? >> That would be in the next year's budget. >> We'd either have to >> regardless of this these numbers, these numbers are then no longer >> we couldn't hire under the current under this budget because those not appropriated, >> right? But the numbers in this bargaining agreement, don't assume additional staff, >> right? >> And so what how if you want additional staff, do you have to have a different bargaining agreement? >> That would be part of the budget process numbers. >> So what happens is one article one is your operating budget. War article two is

065your collective bargaining agreement. If both of those pass, they're added together to be your new budget. And then if uh principal Griffith decides or realizes that she has a specific need that was unanticipated >> and let's just say we don't have any trust funds to cover it or anything like that then she would have to identify other areas in the budget that don't happen so that she can afford that parah that's needed. So like if the driveway needed to be paved, maybe principal Griffith would have to push that off so she could afford to pay for the PAR >> and then next budget year we would have to revisit everything again and we'd have the same. >> Does this lock you in then for three years? What staffing levels? No, it doesn't because what we

066what would happen is it would lock you in for that budget year and then if we needed to hire a PARA in year two, >> it would be uh as part of your operating budget increase. >> Yeah, the only thing it locks you in is the rate that you have to pay them, >> right? >> It's a fair question. It good question. Again, legally, no offense to any it can be very confusing. It's I'm glad that it's um checked off. Yes, Mike. Just for clarity, this Warren article, those increases assume static >> Staffing for those if there's a change in stashing staffing, they can do that, but it'll flow through the upcoming upcoming budget. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um the next couple are pretty straightforward. There are four that we've had

067um for a while. All uh school budget m excuse me, school building maintenance expendable trust fund, special ed trust fund is article 5, technology capital reserve fund is article six and article 7 is safety and security capital reserve fund. If you want to stay for chapter three of this, we're going to be discussing the order of those because that matters in terms of if there is any unexpendent funds as well as the um dollar amounts that are in there. But I don't anticipate they would appreciably change in either direction. Right now, as written, the draft is school building maintenance expendable trust fund is up to $25,000. Um the special ed trust Do I need to read these or is this okay? >> No, that's fine. >> Yeah. No, I just am. >> Okay. The special

068ed trust fund. Um this is one where I might want to um discuss increasing it for a number of reasons we talked about before, but currently the draft says 10,000, technology capital reserve is 10,000, and safety and security uh is 10,000. Again, what we do if you're not going to be able to stay for that part of the the uh meeting is we look at what is currently in the budget in those different funds. What is our recommended goal to have in those budgets in those funds and um what the delta is from year to year and what the need is. All righty. Thank you. Is there anything else? All right. With that, I am going to move to conclude the public hearing on the budget at 656. Thank you everybody. always exciting >> and

069we can take a minute or two just to breathe. Michael, I will get get you the um finalized language so you can be prepared. >> I accept myself. >> Thank you all. >> It's okay. >> We're looking at using the um audio video system. Oh, so you can >> putting each warrant up I think on the screens >> so that if there's proposed amendments during deliberative the screen >> if you've ever been you know because the amendments get complicated and people like wait a minute >> and it gets rewritten. So we doing that just as a consideration you guys are going to do something like that but we can talk about that later. >> Yeah. >> It is going to be in the multi-purpose room. It's bigger. We can have That's a good >> All

070right. Yeah, because it does get confusing when certain phrases are changed. >> Have an amendment. >> Yeah, that's why you're here. >> Everybody gets confused. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. You take care. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Are we good? We need a break or we good? Okay. Um I'd like to call our January Newfield Elementary School Board meeting to order at 6:57. If you give me a second to get our agenda up because I have too many things open. >> Thank you. Um first I do think that we should um officially open public input in case you haven't um felt um that we are willing to listen right now. It's 658. Um that will stay open for at least 30 minutes. Let me grab this. >> Thank you.

071Give me that. >> Yeah, I have it on here. Just give me a second. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um, perfect. Okay, we do have a staff presentation which I think >> Susie, is that you? >> It's actually Jody. >> Oh, I was wondering what. >> Hi, Jody. >> Why are we graced with your present? Thank you, Jody. All right, so we'll start with that. Um, we're going to be discussing the winter ready diagnostic report. Um, which again is behind you. >> Thank you, Jody. Spoiler alert. I was It's pretty cool. Moving in the right direction. Yeah. >> The right direction. Yes. Yes. It's good. So, I started this with our reading data. Um the bottom is where we were in the box and I took the most on top. So, you can see that we

072were about 16% in the red in the fall. Now we're at 5%. So those are our kiddos who need the most support. And then we go into the yellow, which was at 39% in the fall. Now it's 28%. So that's closing. We're at 34% in the green and we were at 29% in the fall. And now we're at 32% in the green with the lines. that indicates that kids are above where they need to be. So they probably, you know, a fourth grader may have scored in the fifth grade range or the sixth grade range. >> So the lines are kids who are exceeding. >> And then >> Jody, that's combined um English and math, reading and math or is this reading? Excuse me. >> Reading. And it is important to point out that in

073the fall, our kindergarteners didn't take this because they're kindergarteners, but they did take it in the winter. So, they're now included. So, you can see that we had 95 students who took it in the fall and now we're up to 114 to >> Could you just define what grade level is? What point in the grade level? at the time the test is taken, at the time at the end of the year, you know, beginning year. >> The way I Ready does it and with their algorithm is it it is for where they should be right at this point in the year. They have set windows when we do our assessments. So, we've got a fall assessment and their numbers where they're expected to be and then it just keeps increasing. Jim, I'm glad you asked

074that because that's what I told my daughter, my older daughter at the middle school and I I wasn't entirely sure if that's true. So, it it is good. >> And then here's our math. We had about 16% right 16% in the fall in the red and we're at 5% now. We had 49% in the yellow. So, they're about grade level below. We're now at 47%. We had 25% in the green. We're at 21%. But when you look at the green with the lines, we were at 9% in the fall and now we're at 26. So even though the green is smaller, it's because they moved the right direction. They moved into the seating category. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Y >> um what's our goal? Where do we want to be? >>

075Well, let's have a good, >> right? What's a what's a what's a reasonable goal? I mean, I know that in the fall we are expecting to have gains um you know, assessment over assessment, which is great, and I I love the fact that we're making those gains, but if we had kind of a you know, where do we where do we as you know, teachers, as principles, where do you want to be by next fall? Where would you like want to be able to see these numbers? Where is the the improvement that you want to see? I love the improvement that you have here. Don't get me wrong. I think this is great. Applaud all of the all of the celebrations, but I know this group is a really high achievers and you guys have

076an amazing staff. What's your stretch? What's your stretch goal here? >> I don't have Yeah, exactly. I don't have an exact number and yes, 100% would be great. Obviously, we want to keep seeing the green increase, >> right? Not just during this year but yes into the following year and see that pattern continue. Less than 50% in math is pretty challenged. >> Yeah. >> For our right >> I mean that that as a as a math science person I'm pretty upset to see that number. >> I am too. >> I would agree. >> I did have one question just sorry. Um I was gonna ask you for um when we see the word proficient uh on like various things. So for actually um the new law is actually saying that in the operating budget there

077needs to have the u reporting of ELA proficiency and math proficiency. I'm curious does that correlate to green or there's no direct correlation >> that's state testing >> that's not this is internal this we use >> yes um >> to drive our instruction. Is there an analog like would we >> like project that the green is essentially what what um proficient would equivalent equivalate to proficient? >> So green >> green or the shaded green >> the shaded green is proficient or better. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, Michael. >> Oh, no problem. Along those lines, are there state benchmarks, SA16 benchmarks, comparable school benchmarks that we can compare this to to say >> I mean isn't Jane, this goes to your point, right, which is you can't set a goal unless you know what the what

078the benchmarks are. >> Y >> and presumably you want to exceed the average, right? >> Um don't want to be Blake Won. Well, you do want to be everybody's above average. Um so I I just ask you know if if there are benchmarks that you can comp this against. >> So because um this is one internal indicator like Jody said one of the what state officials look at is our New Hampshire SAS scores. And um what we would like to do or what our goal is is to exceed where we are by 5 to 8% right now where we are in LE and in English language arts we are on the trajectory to do that in math we have a bigger gap to fill and so that's a 15 to 18% increase on on what

079you're seeing on the on this not the SAS because our SAS is actually better than this um score. Again, there are some variables here that I know Jody can jump in and talk about. One of the things is when you take this test, the window is pretty large between um um December and January. Last year, we did it when we came back in January. Our scores were actually a little bit higher. This year, we decided to do do it beforehand. Um and we we saw a dip that is in line with other schools in the SAU. They too the ones that did an earlier test saw less proficiency. So one of the things that we want to do because we know that our our typical trajectory is really strong in ELA. We're going to take

080that test in December. It's also a way to spread the test out. Then when we come back in January and we've been students have had exposure to more math, we'll take that test at the end of January. The difference between ELA and math is that ELA has so many different um components to it in writing, reading, u fluency. in math the you'll know this Karen the you have to build on the um the different components and if they haven't been taught yet the students they haven't had they haven't had exposure to it. There's several things on this math uh component that h our students just simply haven't been exposed to. Our curriculum doesn't doesn't expose children to geometry till the very end of the year. So you're going to see that reflected in this score.

081So this halfway mark um I'm not making excuses. I want better scores than this. Um with the next slide is how we're going to do that. But this actually is an indicator of where do we need to look at our instruction and change or um be more intentional about certain things. It's usually an internal uh piece of information. >> When you're looking at those like increase ELA by 5%, increase math by 15%. What kind of time frame are you putting on that? Do you want to do that by next year, within the next two years? What's your what's your thought on that? >> Some of this there's so many variables to this. We have we have half of our staff is new this year. >> Um and so we'll see a >> we specifically in

082our um in our interviews wanted really strong math teachers. We we received that when we hired our our new teachers in. So, that's a variable that should push our scores higher. Um, some of the things that Jod's just about to talk about as far as our intentionality um moving forward this year will happen. Um, professional development. I'm going to increase our math. We have been focused on our new ELA curriculum. You can't ask teachers to juggle a lot of different um professional development at one time. We're gonna we're going to shift a little bit in in making sure that we have more math because this is not just a new fields issue. Math is this score lower scores for math. Our local, state, national and we want to we I want our school to be

083a flagship school where we have really high scores. We should our clientele we can provide that and we we have the teaching staff to do it. We just have to be intentional about some of the things that are that need to be in place. >> Right. So we looking at a couple of years >> um I would say in two years you will see significant gains. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> If not this year at the end. >> All right. Here are our next steps. um to restructure targeted small groupoup instruction based on the current data. Susie over the last couple of weeks has been meeting one-on-one with the teachers to go over their scores as a whole class. And then it's even been broken down to the individual children um and and just looking

084at where are their areas of need and are there patterns there and how are we going to address that? And then we get together and we talk about forming groups with kids who have similar needs. So it might be Susie mentioned geometry something that's taught later. We're not waiting until later. We have groups small groups that scored low. We're doing it now. So that and that has already begun. Uh and then on top Oh, and then I'm sorry I don't want to forget to say that Friday is a professional development day and part of it is going to be focused on exactly this but as a whole group and how we all contribute to this that we're not just looking Excuse me. And we're not just looking at one grade level. We're all involved in

085making sure the kids get what they need to be. So that'll be on Friday. There'll be talk as a whole group versus the individual meetings that Sus's had, individual meetings that I've had with the teachers. This will now be in. And then we have flexible groupings that change with the needs of the students. If we've got a group that is stuck on one concept and we hit it for two weeks and they get it, then we'll move them on. They're not stuck. We can move on to a new topic. We can shake up the groups. Um, another piece that we've been talking about is increasing the rigor of math homework. So, that's something I think that we'll be talking about on Friday. Um, because I think some classes are doing things one way and others

086are doing another way. So, we're all going to come together collectively and talk about how we can make it more rigorous for our kids. Uh, also communicating with families is a big piece because we do want to have that homeschool partnership again with math. It's pretty black and white. Kids need, for example, to know their math facts in order to build on concepts. That's something that we're hopeful can happen with support at home. it'll happen here but then if it's also happening at home that would be ideal and then we'll obviously monitor their progress which we're doing all the time. There is I does have the growth monitoring assessment which it's the mini diagnostic nickname for it or baby diagnostic. It's a much shorter version of the diagnostic that we can give as frequently as

087we want and it takes significantly less time. So, it's less laborious on the kids, but it will give us information about how close they are to reaching their goals by the end of the year. Um, and then there are exit tickets that teachers use. Unit assessments are another piece because I Ready is one point. And I think having been a classroom teacher for 20 years before stepping into this role, I can't tell you how many times I was disappointed with test scores, but I would have unit assessments in front of me and I would have my own observations and my one-on-one conversations with kids and they knew a lot more than they were showing. So, it is just one piece, but that's we monitor their progress using all those different points. And then the last

088one is we're going to have I the trainers from I Ready come in and work with our staff because as Susie said their teachers are new and did not use it in their previous schools. They taught math but they didn't use this particular program. There's a lot with this program. There are tons of resources. So much that sometimes they're hard to find. So, the trainers will come in and work with our staff to remind the veteran staff and also teach our newer staff where they can access materials that they may not know is there, but it's there. >> I'm really glad you said that about the um the I Ready being one one data point. It's a data point that I again having I was a math major so I sort of studied not only

089how you can analyze things but also as a math teacher I then saw what it looks like in the classroom and how different kids learn but exactly what you said there's so many different data points that the teacher sees at the parent sees the kid sees that there is progress throughout the the year that a diagnostic may or may not pick up and so I I'm glad to see it continues to improve throughout the year um and that we have goals But I I I'm pleased with what I'm hearing. Um I also wanted to just when when we were saying new teachers, none of our teachers are brand new. They're all new. Some of them are new to us, right? They're all experienced teachers, which we were very jazzed about. And as Susie said, many

090of them are um come with excellent um math uh pedagogical interest and skill. My daughter came home. She was giddy wanting to do a some app or or or game, a math game at home. I was like, I don't know how you log on, but we figured it out. But that's a to me a good sign of, you know, trying to instill the joy of learning um all the subjects, but in particular math. Uh it was really good to see. Brian, sorry. >> Um go first. Um I just after reviewing that presentation and listening to the budget conversation before knowing how fuel accounts and water accounts and everything is costing more money um and you are working so hard to improve reading scores which are directly connected to the math scores it looks like you

091know math is more challenging and um and so as a parent or any community member who's seeing the scores and that are saying the same thing you're saying is we can we want to do better. How do we find if I got my scores in the mail for my kiddos? How do I sit? How do I help? What do I do? Who do I reach out to? Because part of I think the responsibility you're telling us what you're doing is how can I >> uh if I'm not happy with my child's score, who should I reach out to? How can I volunteer? What does that look like? >> So, you can volunteer by being part of the NPTO because that's the group that we draw our volunteers from. Um and then I love that question

092because it really is personalized. We are actually reaching out in either um an email form or conversations talking to the parents who of of the students who need to fill in some gaps. Um time is a super valuable and and so we want to be respectful of the communicate the time that it takes to communicate. But for those students who didn't make the progress that we would hope for, those will be phone calls um home by us in just saying these are the math facts that need to be worked on. These are 10 frames that you can use. This is um these are the different games because it really is a silent army of parents that are wanting to partner with us. And if we have that onetwo punch, I think we're going to see

093a lot more um bang for our book and our students are going to feel more confident in their math abilities. >> I have a really silly question. Can we still do old school book orders or access? What does book access look like? Because as I was going through the Christmas lists, I didn't see many books under there. And I'm wondering how many of our families know that books are important and if they read with our kids every night that that um so if we don't do oldfashioned book orders I just want to say the most important thing is if we have books at home and we show is important. How do we emphasize that? I >> think we have our librarian she would >> completely agree with that. I I certainly do. I mean my

094big fundraiser for the year is having the book fair. Um, this year I'm promoting the Ladybug award, which is the K through three picture book award that New Hampshire offers. And um, we just concluded that in the week before Christmas. So we voted, we had nine books that we read in all those classes. We voted found out what our winner was for the school. Then we found out what the winner was from the state. And then um I should say all of those books were gifted to us by the friends of the Newfields public library. Um they also gave us um multiple copies of the about half of the books that are nominated for the great stoneface award which is the fourth, fifth and sixth grade um usually chapter books or graphic novels award. Um,

095and I have been absolutely amazed by the response this year. Like unlike any we have had and we for several years around the pandemic, we didn't did not promote that as much. But because we're partnering now with the friends of the library, we can afford to get multiple copies of these. And so the friends gave them to us and we had another grandmother who gave us a few copies. I have had incredible response from kids who are competitively trying to read more and more and then they get to vote on those in April. And I had my first child this week who read all 10 and they have a little sheet that they can mark off when they come in and they have read it. So she actually told me that because of this challenge

096she has gotten herself to read beyond um graphic novels and I wrote to her mother today just to tell her, you know, that conversation that that we had. So, that's something that has been really exciting this year. >> What I'm hearing is reading is fun and access to books isn't the issue. So, my my wonder is if families are really interested, then they should look at their budget, how much money they're spending on books versus video games. Uh, sorry, that's throw that out there. >> I mean, we're I don't I don't want to sell >> how many books for another Christmas tree. >> They can take out books as they wish. And I'm They can number increases as they get older. My our fourth grader is very proud that she can take out four books

097or whatever it >> kids once they get in the group and come prove that they're responsible about borrowing. So they I encourage them to take >> they can also go to the town library, right? >> Oh yes, of course. But are are you partnering with this with the teachers who have these children who need extra work or would benefit from taking out another book because they're behind in language art reading in particular? I mean, do you have the opportunity to partner with the classroom teachers to identify kids that maybe they could send to the library if they're >> I think I think I think Beth's really f one of Beth's strengths is >> I'm not criticizing. No, I know you're not. Is she has always done a be a a beautiful job of knowing the

098child's interest because the interest is the number one indicator of whether or not they're going to read the book of really knowing the student and getting them to find books of interest. Beth is all of I would say all of our unified arts teacher. They're impressive in that they are in communication with our teachers and we have a really good understanding of where our students are and our students who are in need and we talk about different things like this of you know this specific child um is struggling and they love art. We make sure that they have time with Mrs. Boswell. Um, there are times that kids go into the library to specifically spend time with listening men. >> Do you have um I heard you say something about volunteers for the PTO. Do

099you have parents come into the classrooms? >> Um, that is something that we're growing back into. The pandemic really shut that down. Um, we'd also like to see community members, our community members increase significantly. That's really going to be a I know they're really going to be a goal for us is how are we bringing not only our parents in but our community members in. >> All right, G. This was awesome and just in the spirit of time. >> Sure. I just want to um sort of bring it back to the presentation. Jod's here. I know much later than probably anticipated, but we had a robust conversation earlier. Thank you. Um Jane. Yeah. >> Yeah. Just have one question. I thank you for putting the next steps on there for that. It really gives me

100an idea of what we're going to be doing. One of the things that um I see as an opportunity is like we're handing these kids off to CMS and we want them to be as successful and carry the the good habits that we're instilling in them. You guys are instilling them, not me. You guys are instilling in them. How are you handling that handoff to CMS and so that they can take what they're learning and what you guys are doing and then build on that more as like you know sixth graders and seventh graders and eighth graders and beyond because these kids don't stop here. Their foundation is here. Having been highly involved in fifth grade at the end of the year last year, I can tell you that there is a ton of communication

101back and forth with the fifth grade to here one or this year. Uh but even at the bigger schools, they're in communication with CMS. There's actually a list that the teachers will put together recommending where they think students should be placed based on their levels. We also have the SAU committees and the math committee. I'm actually I'm on that and it's we're in the first year of a new cycle and it's we it's K to 12. So we have teachers in kindergarten talking with high school teachers. We we know the trajectory of where they need to go. We all work from the same documents uh with with the standards and the competencies. >> Um but it honestly those committee meetings are huge because it's a time when all of us representatives Not everybody, but representatives

102can come together and have those exact discussions. You know, our third graders are doing this, what are your third graders doing? And what does CMS want them to be doing in order to be prepared for sixth grade? And then just from being part of these meetings, CMS is doing the same thing with the high school. Great. >> They're having those transition meetings, too. >> Great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. The last thing I say um as much as I don't necessarily love I ready or any any particular standardized you know tool um for some reasons it is helpful that the entire SAU uses the same tool I think of eighth grader who was you know they just finished whatever they did mid I guess it was I ready midyear um and she's talking with my

103fourth grader about uh their experience and it was a familiar process and so the testing part the actual logistic part becomes less of an issue and they can actually focus on the material. So I think that's probably a helpful thing even for you all to see right consistent uh tool from from year to year. >> All right. Thank you. I appreciate >> um all right the second new business is theou for vans who >> Yes. That was just for your review. >> Okay. >> I didn't have any particular question. My understanding was that um this is just a recommendation that we have this in place now that we have vans. Yes. >> Um, >> yes, we're getting, you know, we have a new transportation coordinator this year at the SAU office. And so when you

104have new staff, sometimes you have some new documents that you put in place to make sure that we have everything we need in order to do business accordingly. >> Is this something that you want us to >> You don't need to sign it. It was for review. >> Okay. Um, I guess the one question I had was it sounds like this um these vans that the district owns are um available to us as a school if we ever needed to or wanted to utilize them. >> Yes, they're available provided they're not already being used by one of the other, you know, six other districts in SU. So that's the caveat. >> And they're owned by the cooperative school district. >> Thank you. >> That's in the >> but how cooperative them to lend them to

105us. >> We try. Thank you for clarifying that there. >> Um, okay, perfect. Um, do we want to um I think the meeting minutes could be really quick and I didn't have any real adjustments. Otherwise, >> I just had uh one change uh to add Hobe's last name. >> Okay. So, are you okay, we'll just do it real quick? So, that was for the December 4th public meeting minutes. >> Yep. >> Just add Hobie Harmon's last name, which is appropriate. The only other thing I thought was Brian, I know not to not to call you out, but you you had to arrive a little bit late. I think it was traffic. And so reading the minutes, it was a little confusing to me cuz there was votes that were two to zero and then later

106there were votes that were three to zero. And I didn't see it indicated that Brian >> All right. >> arrived a little bit later. So maybe in the um in the top part where it's like attendance, we could just put that you arrived at a certain time so that it's clear whoever's reading the minutes. >> Okay. I I arrive while while the student I saw half the students presentation. So I was here for majority of the student presentation. So where that align? >> Okay. >> That's the only thing I saw. >> Yep. >> Um otherwise I move make a motion to accept the meeting minutes for the public meeting minutes from December 4th >> as amended. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. And then I had no changes for the non-public meeting

107minutes. >> I didn't. >> Okay. Make a motion to accept the non-public meeting minutes from December 4th. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Perfect. All right. Central office update. >> Uh that'll be brief. I was I wanted to speak to the fact that we met with the New Hampshire Fair funding project this past week with the board chairs. Um and that was to really understand what's happening statewide in terms of how we fund public education in New Hampshire and its significant reliance on property tax. I'm not telling you all anything you don't already know. Um, but the fact that, you know, over time the Supreme Court of New Hampshire has declared our funding model to be unconstitutional and the fact that, you know, the money that we get

108from the state falls far short from what is deemed to be an adequate education and just where that where that process stands, it's been going on for decades in the states. So, that was a helpful conversation for our board chairs and uh Dr. Dr. Androski sent out an email to the folks who attended and folks who were not able to attend just to summarize that meeting. That was just this past Monday. Uh we do have the health insurance meeting coming up later this week with our union leadership so that we can again address the significant concerns around the rising costs of healthcare and make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep the costs down while also providing quality health insurance for our employees. And lastly, we're really focusing a lot on staying on

109top of the legislation and how it pertains to uh public education here in New Hampshire. And a specific area for that would be the open enrollment statute uh that passed and just how we're navigating that as superintendents and superintendent designates throughout the state and working together with our colleagues to make sure that we're again being fiscally responsible there and that we're making decisions that are uh doing as best we can by kids. >> Great. >> That was all I had. >> My turn. >> Any questions from anyone? >> Nope. >> Okay. Molly, thank you for your patience. >> Yes. Um, so in your board pack is a current year financial. Um, we did have some changes from the prior month. I did note in here what those are. Did anybody have any questions? >> Um,

110just under technology Harbor and J. Is that just more of those like vendors that we use? nothing unanticipated that was like expected. >> And so you'll notice um we did open the purchase orders for the EBI and TF Marin. So I did put the um it's not really >> revenue different than plan, but I needed a spot to put the revenue that we expect for to come in to offset it. Okay. That way you didn't see the revenue side of that. >> Yeah. So that thank you for doing that. >> Um so that is the current year financial. Um and then when we decide or actually after the vote when it's decided on how much to be added to the trust funds we'll be able to populate that column on the right hand side for

111the amount to be added to the trust. Um and then do you have any questions on the current year? >> No. Um, no. Other than I had one or two questions about um I feel like this might be the time for us to discuss some of the numbers as far as the warrant articles while you're still here. That's okay. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And then also I just had a quick question. Um and and that we also would need the motion on the number to take for the operating budget to the deliberative. >> Um and also just the wording of that. I can't remember if we had a budget advisory review. >> Yes. >> Last month >> and they did. Okay, >> just because we'll want to include their recommendation as well. >> We

112have two representatives. >> One, two, three, four. >> Yeah, that was next on the agenda under the current financial >> sitting so far away. >> Um, good. >> Well, actually to that point, I did have a um is is it now or never to submit that number? because I there were some I think reasonable questions about for example the oil that I um if we found something out that was or the water for example that was meaningfully impactful could that number not change what we >> so what would happen is tonight you would decide what you want to take to the deliberative to the deliberative >> and then at the deliberative motions can be made to increase or decrease the budget accordingly but >> tonight you would want to relative >> are you allowed to

113present a budget at deliberative different than the budget you presented at your budget hearing I'm just asking the question. >> Oh, no. And I'm asking question. >> That's not what Molly is saying. No, I think >> you presented a formal budget with a hearing before the public. >> That's the number that's going on the warrant, isn't it? >> Typically the I mean I >> it could be amended. >> Yeah, it can be amended. So typically at deliberative >> Yeah. No matter >> that's all I was Yeah. >> No, no, no. Without a doubt deliberative can change it, >> but I can come armed with that information, I guess, is my point. I Well, I'm wondering though, can you guys change your budget >> after you've held a hearing on your budget with that number? >>

114I wouldn't think you could. >> I would probably not a good idea. >> I would I would suggest you don't. >> I don't know the answer to, but I would suggest you do not do that. >> I I don't think anybody was suggesting. I was just wanting to know what operationally was the best way to take um >> any input. Yeah. From the public hearing because I want it to be meaningful, right? And the fact that they're on the same day is is >> and again you you guys can always suggest yourselves that deliver >> we recommend this but >> I know the rule but I would not >> it sounds safe to keep it >> you presented be different from what you >> is on the warrant. >> I love it. >> Just a

115recommendation there. >> I like recommendations. All right. So you would like that first. Maybe we can >> Yeah, we can and we can always double check with Gordon. I don't think we intend on changing it, but I know a public hearing is to hear what the public has to say. Um, but we can also double check with Gordon, but I don't think >> Yeah. No, let's play it safe. There's no reason to change it prematurely. If we want to, we can plan to make an amendment >> Deliberative. I like that. >> We just need a motion for the number that you would like to take in the operating budget. And just remember, it does need to be the number with the grants on it. So, it's going to be that very bottom number, >> 37,

116>> the 3770200. >> All right. Dan, do you want to share the wealth? >> I'll put a motion forward to um have $3,770,200 put forward on the warrant article in the as the operating budget. >> Second. >> Brian, I'll let you second. Okay, Brian seconds that. All in favor? >> I right. Thank you, Molly. >> Um Okay, I feel better because I now I have a way to act on potentially um suggestions >> again. It's deliberative. >> Yeah. anything part of the body. So you guys can make recommendations all you want. >> Perfect. Um all right. So let's take a look at the um >> draft >> the draft uh warrant articles. So um I was actually taking a look at the order of them. I actually don't know that I would make any suggested

117changes to the order unless folks think differently. >> Um >> and it's just a reminder for it's the school building maintenance expendable trust. Can you tell us what the um goal what the >> I have it. Yeah. My plan to do that in a second. Um school building maintenance expendable trust, special ed trust, technology capital reserve and safety and security are the the order. >> Um I do have a pending question about uh whether or not we want to add an um >> additional >> an additional uh but I want to first just leave it at the ones that are here. Do we feel comfortable with that particular order? >> Yeah. the >> Yeah, I like that. Or the school building maintenance has the lowest balance and largest delta. >> Yeah. >> Uh special ed

118is closer but still has a large delta. And then safety and security is currently overfunded and technologies should be fully funded by next year if we don't spend any money. So that so to that end I'll give you those numbers. So, we have the of the four funds, I'm assuming this is most up to date, Molly, the one that I that you sent out, >> the um school building maintenance fund, um which we have had to dip into in the past. So, that is as Jane said the one that is in in need uh for the greatest amount. Uh current balance is 38,89 and the goal as recommended is $150,000. So, yep. Um again, we've funded boilers. What else do we fund with that in the >> part of the roof repair? part of the

119roof like emergency things that it's like okay. >> Um special education current balance is 134,817 >> and that goal is 275. Safety and security uh current balance is 64,315 and that goal is 50,000. So as Jane said we have met and surpassed although not egregiously so um that that amount is 64,315 technology is 20,361 and that goal is 30,000 >> if um safety and security is techn technically overfunded. Do we want to reduce that amount from 10 to five? >> Oh yeah. So I'm going to get to that in a second. Um I just wanted to do the order first. >> Yep. I'm fine with the order. >> Okay. Um >> fine. >> Yeah. I am going to throw out a couple of ideas and I want to hear people's thoughts. Um so the retained

120amount that we have here from 2024 to 2025 was 55,000. We had increased um the the some of the bond numbers, it's not the bond numbers, the warrant article numbers uh back then. And so my thought was to not necessarily increase that total amount, but to Jane's point, potentially um either lower the amount of article 7 for safety and security or eliminate it all together potentially. I don't know if there's a a great precedent to take something off versus keeping it on just limiting the amount, but I'll propose 25,000 for the school building maintenance, 20,000 for special education, and 10 for technology. that sum would be the same total as it was in previous years. Um, and then either putting not putting safety and security on there or just making it a smaller amount. So,

121I wanted us to discuss that. >> I like the idea of changing the numbers. >> Okay. >> Um, safety and security, >> I kind of like having it on there so people see that it's there and if we do need to dip into it, it's going to be a big number. I'd like to reduce that as much as possible. Mhm. >> Um but I have no problem increasing the um special ed. >> Okay. >> Um I don't reducing it down to a thousand is probably >> I was going to say 25,000. Yeah. Okay. 1,000. Brian. >> Yeah. I I agree because I think that the investment in the parking lot is a safety and security piece though, right? So, um you know, I agree. And it's my first year on the board, so I I

122think you guys are a little more experienced with knowing the forecast and predictions. So, um, you know, I think it is important that everybody sees how hard we're working in every one of those areas. So, >> the one that'll be devastating if it's ever dipped into special education that will go from, you know, the current balance and we could devastate that in a year. >> Well, to that end, I >> Yeah, I had proposed 20. Do we want to make it 25 and 25? >> I don't think so. >> Okay. >> Um, we do have some provisions in the um operating budget >> as we talked about earlier for the special education. I don't think that I think moving around the money is fine. I don't want to add any more. >> Sure. Um I

123did have a question about the rules about the school building maintenance. I think I asked it last time, but I don't know if we could find it. Um, is it the maintenance of the school building or is it anything on the like like are we able to use that money for things um that aren't part of the actual >> looking at like a question about like can it be used for capital improvement projects or things along those lines because maintenance is maintenance. It's not building new. But I don't know what the terminology was. know like and I'm just I'm thinking because I was listening to the town's discussion yesterday and I feel like we use some things >> you will have to go back and look at the original >> language established that >> right

124yeah >> what the intent of the body was when they agreed >> thank you which I think I I didn't explicitly ask you Molly to look that up but I I have wondered that so is there any way that we can know that easily or is that >> so um >> because that's from a while ago when we said the year >> yeah so what I'll have to do is I will have to go back to the 199 >> 1992 >> um >> documents and pull the initial wording. I have a feeling it's going to be very close to what we have listed here. >> Purpose of repairing and maintaining school buildings. So that's probably >> Yeah, I because usually we take that and put that exactly in here. No, that's fair. >> So it's

125going to be very close if not exactly to that. But I can pull the wording from 1992. >> And it does say school buildings. So, I'm just curious what that >> I think it'll be helpful for us to know. Period. Um, and I think that was a question if we wanted to consider a new establishing a new trust for something like >> like a capital improvement plan. >> Correct. >> Um, yeah, I would like to start a new trust fund for capital improvement so that we're going to be saving money to do things like, you know, paving parking lots without taking out a bond. Um, however, I think that adding it in this year is probably not super prudent. I would probably put money in it for next year. >> Um because this is going

126to be a big bite if this passes. >> People are going to ask a question. You're asking for $500,000 and a capital improvement. >> No, but I feel like it's important to ask the question, right? >> Just a suggestion. >> Yeah. I'd probably wait till it passes and then we can save up for whatever we need >> for the future next year. Let me ask this question. Is it >> possible to have a warrant article to establish a a fund and not put anything in it? >> Yes. >> Is that unwise? >> Do you worried about the language? >> I would recommend that we get the specific language from 1992 first and make sure that it's not prohibitive and that it it will absolutely not allow us to do something new versus only maintenance and

127repair. To that end, um is the only opportunity to establish a fund either in March or if we hold a special election. Is that >> not election special meeting? >> Has to be a vote of the body. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> And just so you know, um our friend attorney Graham always suggests to keep them very very general because you don't want to pigeon hole yourself to exactly what money has to be spent on. >> Our friend wasn't here in 1992. And I'd like to I mean if we're going to be putting >> over beyond the 55,000 >> Hold on one second. Can I Sorry. >> It's all right. Jame >> um I'd like to be able to if we when we do put um a capital improvement trust fund

128together. I mean I'd like to see if we can have it funded potentially by donation things along those lines so that it's not just coming from taxation that we haven't spent yet. >> To that end I would look to I know the town did something similar probably lessons learned. We did it did not act. So >> um I've had a lot of discussions with the municipal association about this. >> The CTU is really cracking down. >> You cannot mix >> can't mix public and private private donations. So if you want private donations, it has to be a separate fund. >> Okay. >> So that's something to uh >> just think about it as you're contemplating how to do. That's really helpful. Thank you. because I mean it >> I know everybody around town likes to

129we want to do this but allow for private donations. Two things. One is it's great in concept. Nobody ever provides private money. They never have unless you're doing a big request to the down. But two there is real statutory issues you have to navigate. >> Yeah. >> That would probably also you're confident would apply to the I know some of the laws are a little different. >> No, it would apply. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That's fine. >> This is CTU in general. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Jamie, anything else that >> No, I think that's I mean I I would say let's not have it on this warrant article right now. I think I think >> after having you know a large very large bond amount on here um and then we can

130provision for future later um I think next next ballot. I think that's probably a little prudent. >> Did you have a question? >> Well I I actually have two questions. One is how much was left over this year? Is there any way? So you're going to fund have you already funded the trust from last year? Yeah. >> The 55. >> So how much is left over that would go back to >> We don't know yet. >> Um so are you whatever was left over on June 30th, 2025 >> went back in your November 2026 tax return when it was set. >> Okay. So it's not like it reduces the budget. It just goes against the number. it just reduces the amount you have to raise the following year. >> The second question which is not

131completely that way but it goes up to the number one is there was a discussion about um having a discussion about the length of the bond term >> okay >> and extending it to be the length of the life of the work that was being done. How is is the board going to address that? I can clarify that. >> Well, before you >> This is the comment I made to Mike about. >> I was I was gonna say what was the discussion? It was a comment. >> I think it is this discussion. >> The conversation I had with Mike, Mike was talking to me about this project. And one thing I noted is >> typically your debt structure is matched to the life of the asset. >> Okay? >> You're going to have a short-lived

132asset like equipment, you do short-term borrowing. You're going to have a long lived asset like a parking lot, make it longer. 20-year bond on this makes a heck of a lot more sense to me. At the end of the day, it's it's your decision, the decision of the town of the deliberative session. But by doing a 20-year bond, you're matching your loan to this. Now, people say longer loan, more interest. Yes, over the life of the loan, you're going to pay interest. Your rates are pretty low. If you need bonds, so that's less of an issue. What's more of an issue that probably would resonate with voters is the fact that you're changing what might was a I think 58,000 close to 5800 to $35,000 a year on 20-year note with about the same interest

133rate. >> Yeah. So the impact over it is really matching the fact that okay we have a long life to have that >> and the numbers were significantly lower >> 35,000 versus >> no I mean the but but the effect on the taxpayer >> of course because your annual payment is 35,000 versus 58 >> got to be more like six or seven cents >> you're cutting it almost in half >> right >> so you guys are able to see that those numbers okay >> yeah they're >> and the board isn't going to be determining >> not until later I think >> right the length of the bond on this evening. >> And why is that? Why can they not commit to say it will be no shorter than 15 years? >> The negotiated number with

134the with the bond authority. >> Yes, we that's negotiated, right, Molly? Once we purchase the bond, it's negotiated plus the rates are not yet. >> So when we So so the way the warrant article is it authorizes the board to negotiate the the financing terms, whether it's a bond or whatever whatever it might be. Um, and so the warrant just says the board has the authority to negotiate whatever financing terms they decide to go with. Um, and then when we go to bond is typically when we set the uh >> term >> the terms and the length of the duration. >> I would just >> that's when you get the rate too. >> Correct. >> Right. We don't have the current rate. So we can't make a decision based on without the current rate. >>

135You can make a expressive >> a pledge. I mean, I've already said we've we've said several times >> estimate, right? And I'm sure it'll come up at deliberative. What does this mean? >> If we have a 10year bond, it means $58,000 rates. If you have 20-year bond is $35,000. >> I will say I have only seen 10 and in terms of the higher numbers. I've only seen a schedule for 10 and 12. Um, and I have reflected on, you know, looking at the numbers. I'm glad to hear your perspective and how you think other folks would feel. >> World Bank does longer. I mean, we we have a 20 year >> Oh, no. I'm not saying they don't. I just haven't seen them. >> Um, but philosophically, you know, to me, having 20 years worth

136of, yes, a lower payment >> feels one way. I'm not sure if it's good or bad versus 10 or 12, you know, looking at the numbers, but I think it's helpful to hear your experience. >> Unless you're really wealthy, you want a 5year not on your house. No. >> Oh, yeah. No, your mortgage because it's matching the life of the of the house and what you're going to spend there. >> So, just another important perspective. Sorry m is finishing up paying60,000 a year for this year. So I think it would play much better with the town that this bond >> not just suck that all up. 60,000 that was being spent by the town for pisic now goes to this bond >> right >> if 20 years then it's like 30 to 35,000 >> so

137actually >> that actually helps them I think in terms of >> some room on their budget and I think that would >> and Molly is looking to clarify this point to for everyone because I we're talking about two different things like the school board's discussion on the safety project versus the school board's discussion on on the amount for the warrant article. >> So in regards just to clarify the rates that the bond has. So >> um we have requested four different schedules for 5 7 10 12 and 12 years. And so the the little note from the bond bank says this is the interest rate that we've received July 2025. This is subject to change from now until July 2026 bond stuff. So on a 5year the rate was 3.24. 24 on the 7year 3.44

138the 10year was also 3.44 and the 12 year was 3.94. >> That that being said this is all very helpful for me to hear um and the rest of the board I think to hear. >> You guys are going to >> Thank you. >> The question is what are you going to tell the public? I'm going to tell them what I've been telling them all along that I want >> for you, but >> well, no, that I want to stretch it out as long as possible. I want to hear from folks who are more experienced with bonds and and larger amounts and and hear what you're saying. So, um, also to be honest, um, I feel like the safety committee has also spoken a little bit, not that this was their purview necessarily to say

139what bond terms, but part of what you as a committee were asked to do and you have been doing is thinking about the financial, right, >> how it's going to play out. So, I would respect that. >> I think it would be prudent for you to align with that as a board and not try and um, have this potential for a fiveyear. >> Oh god, no. None of us are looking at a fivey year. >> Remember last time there was potention for a threeyear and that was part of what blew everything. >> Yeah. I just >> I don't think any of us are really looking at those super short. I think we're more probably aligned with what Michael >> what I saw was 10 and 12 and I saw 12 as a higher rate than

14010. Um and I didn't personally see a huge >> uh I saw diminishing gains from going from 10 to 12, but if I'm hearing 20 is an option and the rates, you know, that's a beautiful thing to consider. So >> yeah, if the real impact is the term, not so much the rate, that's the big impact. That's helpful. >> All right. So, just quickly get back to the >> just to FYI, even at the higher rate, it's only $36,000 a year. Again, jumping from that >> from that 34 to 395. So, it's it's not >> I hear as a math person, >> the term is going to drive this. >> I will say people will, but then if somebody is not really super fan of this, they'll say you got a higher rate, you know,

141and then that's the narrative, right? So, I'm sorry. Yes. Well, and just the fact that this project is not something that serves everyone in the town, is mostly going to be used by people who have kids in the school. And if you limit it to a shorter period of time, you know, you're having people pay for something. You're not stretching out because we have families who are going to have kids in the school in five years, in 10 years. It helps to equalize what people are contributing and being able to use, >> right? People move and now I paid for the whole thing and I don't live here. Okay, this is really helpful. I I almost wish the people who wrote the bond hearing heard this, but it's all recorded. Yeah, they'll have to deliver.

142Um I want to look at the articles again unless there's something else about this. >> Yeah, one question about the articles. Um it may come up and so I'm asking you now, do you guys are is the select board the agents of these funds or is it the body? >> It's the body. >> Okay, great. Great. I just just I guarantee it's going to come up at some point in the long. Thank you. >> Um, so again, those amounts, did you want to edit them? >> Yeah, I wanted to edit them. I would say um, special ed 19, safety and security one. That would be the only change I'd make. >> And keep school building at 25, and technology at 10. >> Yep. I don't know what you guys think. I like that. I think

143that that >> um accomplishes what we want in terms of not not increasing the total. >> Yeah, it was so technology is um technology is underfunded currently by 10 grand. >> Y >> All right. So, >> so this is going to bring us up. >> Okay. >> Um I don't know. I'm hearing some conver can I is there any input that you think would be helpful for us to know? We were saying that it would be wise to put if we're to put additional money into the special education fund given that you know we're significantly below the goal and the needs of students are complex these days as we all know. >> Let me ask this. >> I've heard a couple different numbers here. Oh, >> I do. Before I ask that, um >> Molly,

144my intention was not to increase the total from this most recent, but can you remind me what was the >> if we have retained money at the end of this year, what is the total of all of those? Is that still 55,000? >> The total of all the trust >> the trust from last >> last March. >> No, the trust from last month >> March. >> So, we already did all the ones from last month. So the as that already was part of the fund balance. >> So you I'm sorry. The ones that were being that we're putting on >> now, >> correct? >> they will come out of your June 2026 fund balance. >> Yep. >> Got it. Okay. >> So Brian actually made a really interesting change. Yes. >> Well, so if we

145want to double down on what we heard tonight, which is that our most important investment is kids and safety. um you know my as a tech former technology director my wonder is the same question I asked earlier is we invest in kids and books and those things let's what if we've moved the technology down we invested our money in the special ed fund so that we can continue to support students um whether or not they have technology uh that's I'm not super concerned about that what I'm concerned about is that we are investing in our academic achievement >> so add it by nine and keep it to one >> keep to 28 would move all the money to the special trust fund and for those two the last two >> kind of to go one

146step further than Jane went and say let's double down on kids >> so school building would be 25 leave that one the same special ed would be 28 technology one safety and security one safety and security is almost >> almost funded not it's >> it's not completely funded and it won't be completely funded by this, >> right? I think that's the part it it wouldn't be completely funded regardless. Yeah. >> Yeah. But technology, we're only 10K off. Adding 1K in that that's we're almost there, but special education is severely underfunded. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm actually really I like that. >> Were there numbers over here that were >> invested? I think that feels better. Yes. >> That's I want to have this conversation. So, >> yeah. >> So, it was 2581. Yep. >> 25

147281 and one. >> An order doesn't change. Oh, >> order doesn't change. That's on the >> warrant. >> Current warrant. >> Okay. >> Do folks have any input or thoughts on that? >> I'm glad to see you're doing it. I know we increased it last year. >> Yeah. >> That that was one of the big things was increasing. I mean, >> I know you don't want to increase it. I don't know why you don't want to increase it. >> I I got to ask the question. So there's as you indicated there's $134,000 >> where >> in special education >> and you're going to add another you're proposing add another 20. >> Our goal for that fund is 275. >> Okay. So here's where where I question it. So your your regular budget already has uh

148$378,000 suggestion teacher salaries and >> so if you have a rash of new special ed students coming in on a per student basis I mean this the question goes back to about the special ed tuition which is I get it you're going to have possibly a few special ed students coming in you seven you're budgeting 17,500 I >> So >> why the huge number? Because you already have the staffing to address this incrementally. >> You're going to have to spend money. >> I'll let you finish and then I I do want to respond. >> I I'm just curious why the need for such a large trust fund if you have that existing infrastructure. Again, we have special education uh experts here, but I just want to share my understanding is that um a bulk of

149the unpredictable cost would have to do potentially with transportation um with any sort of uh tuition that is beyond what we budgeted for as well as if there's any um uh like materials or or go ahead. This is Ellen's like world. So, yes, I'm going let you speak. So the the reason why the number is significant significantly high is because we want to prepare for the fact that we may not be able to program for all of our students with disabilities here at Newfields Elementary School. That occasionally we do have a need for a student to change educational environments to a more restrictive setting where we would be required to pay tuition to a private special education school for example. >> But does that run? >> It runs >> very expensive. We've done it once

150before and it is crazy. >> How much was it? >> Well, >> it's Yes, it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when you add in because you're we are required to spend transportation. So, specialized transportation costs. In addition to that, the average I would say out of district placement is $100 to $150,000. >> Is that what we spent last time? >> Yes. >> Um we had multiple students and it was over 200 to $250,000. That's from memory, but it was incredibly expensive per year and we had to do it multiple years. >> When was this? >> When I first started when I first started. >> Yeah. >> So, it was seven, eight years ago. >> Yeah, it was a while ago. Um, I will tell you also that the data is really clear

151that our number of students with disabilities who do need out of district placements has been in increasing. >> When you say we, you mean us >> in SAU 16? um that you know over the recent years that those numbers have gone up um because of again the complex needs of students that you know we're talking about children and their needs are hard to predict, right? And if we're talking about children with more complex needs and yes, you know, this $275,000 would fund one student. Sometimes you might have a student with a significant disability or significant learning needs who um moves into new fields and maybe there's a family of students who moves who moves in and they are already coming from out of district placements where other towns are paying for that. So there it's

152a that's how the that's how the laws work and that's how we fund special education and we want to be prepared for that so that we can continue to do what's best for kids. I mean, I think exit has faced this problem for a long time from what I understand from people who have lived here that it became the place to move if you have had a job in special needs. >> Yes. And we certainly do our best to make sure that we are programming for students with disabilities to the best of our um capability here in our local schools. That's what we want because the law is really clear in special education that students have a right to be educated in the least restrictive environment with their typical peers. That being said, again, sometimes

153we do maximize all of our local resources and sometimes an out of district placement is necessary or sometimes bringing in additional consultants or behavioral services is necessary. >> Necessary and required by law. We are required by law to um if that placement goes ahead, we we have to find the money for it. So, >> Yes. And >> well my so just make sure I'm make sure that the reason I made the most reason that I made that suggestion was that um you know as we look at the potential for these warrant articles and these these funds that are for unanticipated costs if if I were looking at all of those lines I say you know based on what I know and what I feel that our investment isn't we're going to get hit with a

154$200,000 technology problem we're going to get hit with a $200,000 um you know, new student to town who may come to us with those needs with an IEP that's already written from a different town and we don't get a choice that starts the first day that those students start. And so as we're looking at, for lack of a better word, a rainy day fund that that we put our marbles in that basket because that's where we're >> we're trying to protect ourselves and the taxpayers from affecting education for the rest of the town. >> Thank you. >> No, it makes sense. That's where that $250,000 might might come in handy so it's not reducing two classroom teachers because one IEP moves into town, >> right? >> Um and so that really is a matter of

155circling the wagons and putting the money in the right spot. >> Um so Molly, do do we need to vote on this or you just need the numbers so you can >> um I would just quickly make a motion that you want the Warren articles in the order as presented with the following balances and >> Okay, balances. I'll make a motion that to um move forward the uh articles for the war articles four, five, six, and seven as written on the draft with the following amounts. U$ 25,000 for the school building maintenance, 28,000 for the special ed trust fund, 1,000 for um technology capital reserve, and 1,000 for safety and security. Do I have a second? >> 1,000 $1. Okay. 1,00 Okay. 1,000. Sorry, I she would have won. I'm I'm good with with 1,00.

156>> Yeah. >> Oh, second it. >> Second. All right. All in favor? >> Okay. Thank you, Molly. >> Great. Thank you. And so, um, we are going to be drafting these >> for your signature. I needed the final numbers required to do that. The citizens petition warrant um, deadline has passed. I don't believe we have any in the fields. Uh, so what I'll do is I will get these drafted and send them over to the school. So, if it's easier for you to swing by here in the main office to sign those, but you'll get an email from me when they're ready for signature. >> Great. >> Do we all need to sign them? >> A quorum with the boards. >> Okay. >> For the first one, the bond, it says the um it keep

157in the warrant articles in themselves, we switch between saying the new field school board and then the school board. Can we make that >> we can make that consistent? >> That consistent. That would be my brain would stop hurting after that. >> Um, the only other question I have is how many people are on the new field budget advisory committee? Is it the three three? Um, can we potentially change the wording on article three that says the new fields budget advisory committee did not review this article? >> Did not refute >> did not review. It says did not review this article. >> Collective bargaining agreement. The collective bargaining >> the collective bargaining article. Is are we saying that they reviewed the agreement or the article? >> Um well, we can strike that wording. >> Oh,

158just take it out. >> Yeah, >> I think we I think we >> last I carried for the wording from last time. So, we can easily just strike that because they only reviewed article one. >> Yeah, I wouldn't want you to. >> No. Yeah. Well, >> I mean, you reviewed it here, but >> I agree. >> But that I will say that language doesn't say that. It says you reviewed this article, but that's fair. If we can strike that, I think >> I'll just I'll strike I'll >> I get it. >> I'll strike the language from >> I actually I think there's a million dollars allocated to me. >> That's a thank you for for all your participation. >> Right. Uh okay. >> Are we good? >> I think so. Um yeah, we're not good

159to wrap up, but we're good for the finance. >> All the finance stuff, >> right? Okay. Principal's report. >> I'm going to keep it brief. >> Yes. >> Um the I know you all read the report. What I want to highlight is that our kindergarten teacher, uh yes, >> Allora Redline is back. >> Um and Susie Stall, who was in her place, did a beautiful job. Um so that transition was seamless. Uh we're also really sad to see Robin, our bus driver of several decades, um departing. We're hoping to get her back on a route. Um she has had generations of um people in our um in our community and and she will be sorely missed if she doesn't come back. Um but like I said, we're hopeful that she will take a PM route

160with us. we are planning on doing something for her um to let her know just how much will miss her if she is indeed gone. Those are the biggest highlights. Um again, I'm sure you all read the report. >> I couldn't agree more with with Robin. She's she's been part of our daily routine since 2017 for us and I know she's gone back even longer than that. Much longer than that. So, um any questions? >> No, thank you for the report. It's great. >> Very cool. Thank you. Um before we do the um committees um if it's okay I would like to um just jump to some of the old business we have impact fees and capital improvement plan. I'm really curious about >> any progress from the capital improvement plan um and then the

161impact fees if there's any news on that otherwise Molly I feel bad you can probably >> Thank you. >> I mean I can help you update the impact fees before I go. Um yeah, >> so we had the number from Sumakan as to what need to be spent by the end of the year. So we worked with the two vendors that um we talked about >> and I think we got within 68 cents. >> Yes, we worked diligently diligently. I asked them to invoice us so that we could pay those and so uh we sent the invoices to Sue and I don't know if we've received the money back yet. I'd have to check on that, but we did send it to Sue to make sure we have it before the December. >> Is that

162your water bottle or >> December 30th deadline? >> It's um >> Is it Chris? >> Yes. >> Sorry. Sorry. >> That's okay. And so um we do have purchase orders open for the remaining, but we wanted to make sure we didn't leave any money on the table. So we we worked with Sue McKinnon on that. >> Perfect. and TF Moran, I want to give them a shout out that they were really helpful in make in creating additional invoices to make sure that we didn't leave any money on the table. That was some additional work on their end. >> Excellent. Thank you. That's really fantastic. I know that >> the taxpayers in town really appreciate that. I do as well. >> Um and then any updates from the capital improvement? Did it happen yet? The walkthrough

163or is it happening soon? >> Yes, the walkthrough happened. >> Um and the next step is for Brian Sans and I to connect on that. Beautiful. >> So that we can come up with some action items from the report. >> Any feedback on the experience? Was it >> I was over holiday so >> Oh, so never mind. It was nice and didn't really impact. Okay, that's great. Any questions folks on the old business? >> When will we'll be able to see something for the capital improvement plan? Like after March, >> I would say if not next month, definitely by March. >> Cool. >> Okay. Thank you, Molly. >> Bye. Thanks, Molly. >> Bye, Mom. >> Great job. >> All right, so we can do the um committees if that's okay. Yeah. >> Um let's do

164non-p policy first. Anything safety and security? >> Uh we're meeting next week and you are going to that meeting right there. >> Oh, perfect. >> So I don't uh Yeah, it's next week. Um I am not able to make it because I'm traveling. Thank you so much for going in mystead. >> Looking forward. >> It'll be fun. >> Okay, beautiful. Um, superintendent evaluation committee. >> We meet at the end of the month. >> All right. Strategic plan committee. >> Um, we are going to be going over a lot of what the strategic plan is going to has been doing in the um joint boards meeting later this month. So, um, nothing to report right now. >> Okay. >> We're going to we're going to see everything in the joint board. And then any updates that

165we didn't discuss regarding the school safety committee? >> The only updates from the school safety committee um that I had as we met um there was some feedback from Chief Buckton and Chief Young. Um I am incorporating that into the design after I speak one final time with Chief Buckton. We will go to plan set. I'm hoping that will be by Friday. But um TF Moran is with plans that is going to be ready as soon as hopefully this passes in March. We'll be ready that week to be able to go out to bid. Um and it'll be a very detailed um kind of order of operations um with what he's going to be able to do it do. The changes to the plan are pretty minor, but um the biggest one was that Chief

166Buckton wanted to be able to get um both an ambulance andor a um fire truck to the front door. So, he asked that we extend the pavement, keep the pavement 20 ft past the front of the old building >> and then the rest will be pedestrian only. So, I've got a couple of um thoughts on how to do that from TF Moran. I'm going to talk to um Chief Buckton about that hopefully later this week. Um kind of get is this going to be okay with you? And then um as soon as that's all set, it's all set. So, it's just really making sure that >> they can make that turn and that >> they stop, the pavement stops, there's ballards there, the kids are safe, and that they have a kid minus um vehicle

167zone, and at past a certain point, it's going to be emergency vehicles only. >> Jane, the only that makes total sense to me. My only thought would be, will the committee be able to see those or hear of those proposed changes? >> Yep. Yep. We've already talked about that um in our last meeting and um we haven't scheduled our next meeting. I forgot to do that on the last one, but um in the next one we'll kind of go through that that final that final area. But the tenants of our kind of directive are the same, which is >> no kids with cars. >> Yeah. So, um, but making sure that we can get the vehicles that need to get to the >> firebox, making sure that they're close to like a an ambulance is

168close to the front door where the nurse's office is, things along those lines. So, >> um, I have two questions. One, um, I love and agree with your goal to be as ready to quote go out to bid as soon as if the article pass if the bond passes. My question would be, is there any prewriting of an RFP that we could draft so that it's not >> It's part of the bid set. >> part of the plan set is to have a an RFP. >> They're going to put together exactly what they're asking for for each of the components. So, if you look at kind of the plan, it has like each of the components A through whatever >> and it's going to say this amount of pavement. This is going to be included

169in the pavement, the underllayment, um, you know, everything from that to signage, everything will be very clearly laid out so that >> whoever we're whoever is going to bid on it, >> we'll have something to reference >> will have exactly what they need um, in a very clear term. So it's essentially going to be an RFP, >> but we have to then we still as a group either us or you as >> facilities Sans and myself. Yeah. Comes from >> I just want to make sure that that doesn't get held up for anything that we can prevent, >> right? >> I understand there's other priorities >> and to we are wanting to move along as swiftly as possible. I emailed the board today. I hadn't had the chance to let Susie know this, but also

170for public knowledge that um today Brian Sands and I had a meeting with some representatives from the Department of Transportation and talked through, you know, a lot of the process and timelines, making sure that we are again moving, you know, in accordance with those timelines and moving swiftly. And we came up with some clear action items for where we want to go next. And the next step is for um Brian Sans and I to meet with TF Moran to um talk to them about putting in the permit application um sooner than later as in you know as soon as possible because that was a recommendation from the Department of Transportation in order for us to stay um in alignment with the timelines that we have established for the project. >> That was my other question.

171So, I guess do you need a motion for that or can you just take our um our >> No, I don't need a motion. >> Yeah, we would love that to happen. >> Yes. >> Especially if there's minimal or no cost. I think that what's the downside of applying? >> Yeah, we're looking into what the fees would be. Um but yes, I >> the sooner we do it the smaller the fee because you can rush it. >> Fair. >> That's okay. Those are my only two questions on that. So, that's great. >> Yep. So I think um as soon as it's the plan so the um it all depends on when this board wants to get if this passes hopefully it does when we want to get our bids back if we want to review

172those bids in April so that we can >> make sure that everything is the vendor is selected so they can start work. So we're not waiting until May when they will start. >> Yeah. >> So that will be part of what like Ellen puts together so that we get the bids back for our April meeting. >> Yeah. >> And it might be worthwhile dependent upon we meet I think April 1st. >> We always meet really early in April. >> Yeah. >> Um >> but the but town meeting is March. >> Town meeting is in >> Let me get it. Sorry. the voting March 10th. March 10th. >> Three weeks. >> Yeah, >> three weeks is enough time to get the bids in. Usually, you know, 3 weeks is about right. We need to get it

173out to bid as quickly as possible and have that quick turnaround. It's just >> if it is short. Um if we don't get what we want by the first, we might consider maybe a special meeting. >> Um or moving our meeting out too. >> Yeah. Changing >> possibility. So, I think we have March to kind of decide where we want to do for that, >> but it's an option just to be able to give the vendors enough time to put a really solid proposals together, >> um whether we want to move our meeting or just have a special meeting to just talk about the um the um the responses. >> Okay. Just something to think about. Nothing's to decide tonight potentially. Um but um just uh kind of looking forward at that time frame. I

174kind of forgot how like I think we're on the first. It's pretty crazy. >> Um we're really really early um in the month. So it was just kind of it just kind of fell that way. And we definitely want to make the decision in April if we are making the decision at all. >> Okay. Um policies. So it's not it wasn't really an extensive policy meeting. Um the BEDH public input uh board meetings. I don't really think there was any substantive changes. We adopted it last month. >> This was in discussion not >> Yeah. >> Um it's a new policy for discussion. >> I think some of the boards did not actually um adopt it last month if you recall. Uh we reviewed it and we' made some slight changes but we we adopted it.

175So there weren't any substantive changes at the committee meeting. If I recall, >> there were two versions last month from what I recall and we might want to clarify. >> Uh so at at last month in December's school board meeting, we were propos we were shown two different versions of what we might want to adopt and some school boards decided to not decide and to bring it back to the to the committee. um policy committee to discuss. We voted on and approved the version that we did. >> Yeah. This is what this is new fields. This is not the >> and so I there were no changes. I didn't change. So >> I didn't see any >> Yeah. >> issue. I >> So this to me was moreformational. >> Yeah. >> Unless you had a

176different Okay. So just because it's the longest one I wanted to just sort of put that out there. The others were really minor minor uh changes. um B uh excuse me, GBEF, the school district internet access for staff. The only revision was adding an appendix reference and then um basically they refer to things that aren't uh >> the laws. >> There's some laws, but there's also referring to things that we withdrew last year or a couple years ago. Um IMAH is daily physical activity. That just as the summary shows there, it identifies the wellness committee uh as uh the person or the group responsible for monitoring the implementation and that was required by law. Um the only other one to revise was the supervision of students. it added a couple of definitions um and then

177there was um because there was a slight update to the minimum standard um language and then we just sort of looked at the language and said since we're fixing it we should be a little more efficient. I only had one question on this >> which was um again it has to do the fact that we are on NYA property and I didn't know if we needed to have some kind of special call out so that it is included as a provision of school property because we are not on school property >> in that particular spot here or just the whole policy. probably just in this first main paragraph where it says the school in this includes school activities on all school property which include physical plant equipment for school purposes. >> I I know it

178is inferring that that is there. I just because we are >> consistently using property that is not ours. Um, >> yeah, >> I kind of want to just be able to just call that out and see and double check like, hey, should we call out the fact >> that we are considering NAA property school property? >> I think we as a body can decide if we want to add a sentence in there and nobody nobody can. We don't us checking I can bring it back to policy committee, but I don't think that they're going to have much to say. >> No, I don't think you need to do that. I think this board could decide that knowing that we try our best to not make changes to policy so that they are in alignment but

179this is a unique circumstance. >> I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I mean um this in school activity is an all school property. Um >> before you, if you don't mind, I just want to ask Susie, do you think it is >> reasonable to um since we do use that school uh that property even though it's not >> partnership with them? >> I'm sorry. >> We have a partnership >> in partnership with them, but to still expect that any school sponsored activities that are on that land, we would still expect there to be supervision. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure that we honor that because that is again a special circle. >> That's a good call. >> Okay. So yeah, what suggestion >> I would say where it says

180on all property which include >> and I would say where it says we're include you know something like NY the Newfield's youth association >> association >> Newfield's youth athletic association. Yeah. Um, this is this includes school activities on all school property. Uh, parenthesis including >> That's right. Yeah. >> Including Newfield's Youth Association property. >> Yeah. Close parenthesis. And then just it might be a bulky sentence, but I think it's >> and I think that's sufficient. >> I don't want to make it complicated, but I also want to make sure that there's no question. >> Yeah, that's fair. >> Other than that, that was the only thing on this one. Everything else looked great. >> Good. Brian, did you >> No, I um you know, I think it gets tricky sometimes when you do field trips

181and you do all sorts of things um with the outdoor classroom with with the area. And so um I appreciate that Jane's pointing that out that you know there are people to hang on every word and you know when your kiddo is supervised by adults in the school regardless of where they are um we want to make sure that the policy. So I appreciate you doing that. It's just a weird association and it's it's good that we we have it. >> And Susie, this one in particular does call out building principle a few times. You're comfortable with all the that's okay. That's great. Um, okay. I'm make any other comments on any of the other ones >> like G. >> Not with the withdrawing ones, just the >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> All

182right. So I'll make a motion to accept GB EF I M Ah and J L I A as amended. Do you have a second? >> A second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I Okay. And then the other two ones to withdraw, they're just um sort of superfluous now. Uh did you get any questions about the It's because of they were being replaced by the GBF that we just >> Yep. >> adopted. >> That's fine. >> Okay. Make a motion to uh withdraw policy GCSA and GCSA hyphen R. Do I have a second? >> Second. All >> in favor? I >> I. Perfect. Okay. Anything we want to add before we adjourn? I think we have a pretty um I like our um notion of revisiting hopefully any capital improvement um info for the next

183meeting. Are you going to go into non-public >> and uh yes, we'll do for a brief moment. Thank you. What was the section again? >> G. >> All right. I will make a motion to enter into non-public in accordance with chapter 91A 3 to section G. Do I have a second? >> All in favor? >> I. We have to do roll call. Bobby I. Jane. Jane. >> I. Brian. I. Perfect. And that was at 8:24. Grab the camera. Thank you, Jane. >> I'm closer. >> For the minutes, I'm not public. Can you remind me who made the motion? >> I did. And then we did a roll, public role at 8:24. >> All right. I will make a motion at 8:44 to come out of non-public. Bobby, uh, sorry. All in favor? I. Bobby Kelly.

184>> Hi, Brian Blanger. >> I Jane Walsh. >> Perfect. All righty. So, that's 8:44. Um, any other business? >> Nope. >> Okay. Our next meeting is going to be February 5th, which is immediately following our deliberative session. Correct. >> Correct. >> Same. I'll see you there uh in the multi-purpose room. Um I'll call the meeting to adjournment at 8:44. Second. >> Thanks. Right.