001ISIS of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> So the first Yeah. Um the first item on our agenda is the PTO update. Do we have Ah, wonderful. Welcome. And would would you mind just um since we don't have a recorder today, we're going to be taking minutes off of the video. So if if anyone's giving coming up to the mic, if you could just say your name, um that would be helpful. Thank you. >> I'm Amy. I'm the treasure of the PTO, so she asked me to come. Um, so just a few [snorts] updates. Uh, we recently had our first uh, trunk retreat event. It was a great success. We had 18 cars decorate their trunks, including a few businesses who
002joined. It was actually a kindergarten parent who brought the idea. It was pretty last minute, but um, together we've been getting a lot of involvement from the incoming kindergarten parent. Great helpful board out. So that's been great to see and just bringing the community together and seeing all the families. I think we get a lot of feedback from it as well. It's a great community event. Our next meeting is Thursday at 6 PM in the Main Street Library. We'll have Jackie Carlos and Gina talking about programming at the school. Um as well as Arlene Petta and she's talking about inclusive approaches, how schools celebrate holidays. So should be interesting and looking to redesign the PTO logo for this year. Put that out to students we get back or maybe some other students that might work
003on that. Our first glow party committee meeting will be on Monday, November 17th at 7:30 on Zoom and the date of the event Friday. Does anyone have any questions? >> Sounds good. >> Thank you so much. >> Great. So, um, our next agenda item, we're actually going to move to the end of the meeting, which is our non-public session. So, um, we will open up public comment right now at 602. I don't believe I we have anyone here from the public but if shall if should if someone should join us um we we can stop and take public comment. Um next on our agenda is the pro approval of the meeting meeting minutes from our September 9th meeting. Um this is our public meeting minutes. I just give everyone a chance to kind of look
004back over those. Oh, why do I have that? Do I have the wrong You're right. Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong. So, the October meeting minutes live. Forgive me, I was looking at the wrong document. I'm going to just look at this one so I don't have to any um any discussion. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from October 14th and the non-public meeting minutes from October 14th? >> Um I'll make a motion to approve the minutes regular and non-public. >> I second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. Great. Um wonderful. Um, so we'll move on to our central office update, starting with the superintendent's office update. >> Thank you. And most of this will actually uh be the finance office. We've spent quite a bit of time
005this past past month working with building administration on the budget. So we look forward to that first view tonight uh with you. I also at joint board had mentioned that we would provide an update around open enrollment at November meetings. We don't have an update. We're still really waiting um to to learn more and get more guidance. And so just know that we are involved in those conversations statewide and we'll provide information um as we receive it. And then the the only other thing I wanted to highlight was I know there had been some conversation about uh the reunification plan and making sure that it was clear to parents where they could find that. So that is on the website. Um, and we've talked about maybe pushing that out through some school communication as well
006in the near in the near future. So, you can find it on the website. Um, but we can certainly highlight that in school communications soon. >> Great. That's great. >> Any questions? All right. I'm moving along to our finance office. Lots to discuss. >> Good evening. >> Is it on? >> I don't know if that's on actually. Now I'm thinking about it. >> Is it green light? >> Better. >> Perfect. That's better. >> We'll do a redo. Good evening, Michelle Larson from central office. So in your board packs, we gave you your financial position at the end of the month. So last month you had $634,617 in remaining expense. we spent an additional 42,383 um in various services and supplies. So right now we have remaining expense or unencumbering expense of $592,235,000. So also on
007this page that we send to you, it gives you the the values for your trust funds. We also send you the information on your grants that the extra school district has. Does anyone have any questions on those items? Okay. So in also in your board pack, you were sent a copy of the fiscal 27 proposed budget. Since that time, there are few changes have been made. So I put the new copy on right in front of everyone. So I'm going to invite the principles come up and present their budgets. And then if there are any questions that I need to handle, just let me know and I'll pop in. All right. Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Ryan McCleskkey the Lincoln Street School principal. Um like we've done in past years, we're going to
008do kind of like a little budget at a glance kind of focusing on the major drivers of the budget um for um the proposed 2627. So, we'll take some turns kind of speaking to the different parts of the budget that we felt like we wanted to highlight. Um, the first part that you see, I believe on the copy that you have in front of you refers to the health insurance GMR. Um, and just that is one of the major drivers for the increases that we saw. Um, and just for explanation, the health insurance rate increased anywhere from about 14.8 8 to 17% which is um or $597,58. And this range exists because we offer various plans in the district and the rate increase um varies depending on the plan that that um members of the
009collective bargaining agreement sort of chosen. Um the next piece that I wanted to just highlight is um around salary um and personnel. Um the salary increases are in line with our collecting collective bargaining agreements for the Exter school district. Um as noted below in the special education section, we have been able to reduce contracted personnel and have been able to hire more of our own staff. I know that was a fairly significant talking point um from last year around this time. Um, so, um, Diana will be able to speak in a little bit more detail to that, but we are excited about kind of the shift that we we've been able to see and certainly the negotiations went a long way to putting together a CPA for our support staff that that they're feeling very
010good about. um our preschool aid salary increase um due to removing those staff from the main street school aid salary line with the resulting decrease in the MSS aid salary line and increase of one at the EDP. So it's just a shift from Main Street to Lincoln Street. Um both buildings have a number of staff completing we have some cohorts completing some graduate programs. Um so a number of track changes are anticipated in the salary lines. Um special education administration assistant had an increase of days and an increase of salary. And then also for special education the Lincoln Street School occupational therapist or OT um is moving to a full-time position. So that was another piece that that drove up the salary line a little bit. Can I ask you a question about that? Right.
011Are the occupational therapist is that part of the teacher contract or is that separate from that? Is it separate? Is OT covered in the >> CBA? It's kind of a one of one. Um they're not really covered by the CBA, although I they may be looking to do that. Um it's not really part of that. Same for our PTS. They're not neatly in that collective bargaining agreement. So just to clarify on that, those positions will be were part of the negotiation to be added to the CBA. So the increases that you're seeing in those lines in this budget were due to um this year's salaries for those people being underbudgeted. So that's why you see an increase there. But their actual increases are part of the negotiation for the exit to teachers CBA. >> But
012that's not passed yet. So that >> correct >> right >> correct. >> Yeah, >> I think I understand that >> currently it's it's a it's a position that's not currently under the collective bargaining agreement but but it's proposed that it would be in the future and if it is then it would be under that if that separate warrant article passed it in the future it would go under that. >> That makes sense. I do also just want to say congratulations on reducing your contracted services. It's a hard thing to do. So, and I'm glad that the plan paid off. So, thank you for that. [snorts] Beth Kataret, the principal at Main Street School. So, the next uh area that we want to highlight is um there was a slight increase in leadership stipens for um
013Main Street School and Lincoln Street School. Um this refers to the stipen that staff receive for serving on our uh building learning teams at each school. Um these teams um meet twice a month and with a focus on teaching and learning and um the stipened in previous years um was funded through grant but moved to the operating budget and the increase reflects the number of staff on each building's team. Another area we wanted to highlight was under multilingual learner contracted services. Um we reduced this um 2 position for the 2627 school year. Um based on current levels of student need um this position this year is currently contracted position. Next area is professional development slashcourse reimbursement. Um we both of our buildings have a $35,000 dedicated um SL um chunk of money for professional development.
014This includes anything from conferences, professional reading um or to bring in a speaker or a consultant. Um and this line in um this uh our budget was significantly overdrawn because it was taken from a a different line in the past. Um so the actual expenditures um from the 2425 school year for professional development reflected the proposed numbers. So a little bit of uh shifting on where that money is coming out of. The next [snorts] area is the field trip line. Both of our schools added a field trip line for um $6,000 per school um due to an increase in transportation costs. Uh currently $10,000 um was approved through the Wheelright funds for field trips between both schools for this current year. And then the next area is the kindergarten bond for Main Street School. So
015the 26 27 school year will be the final year of the kindergarten bond um which is the eight um additional classrooms that were added to Main Street in order to support the full day program for kindergarten. Um, and this will result in a decrease of approximately $488,483 um for um that we plan for the 2728 school year. All right. Um, the next thing that I have on my list is our technology service contracts. Um, when you look at the the quick snapshot of major changes, it looks like there's a $35,000 reduction to that line. Um, one of the things that we removed from that line and moved to an admin maintenance contract line um was our Canon copers and the cost for the copers in both buildings. Um, so the there is a overall decrease,
016but the decrease is probably closer to a net of around 6,000 versus when you look at that line initially, it looks like it's 35, but about 28 of that just got moved to a different line. Um, but that refers specifically to the Canon copers that get used through both buildings. Um, in core subject area supplies, you'll see that they're pretty stable. you might see some slight increases just because of the frozen budget that we had for a chunk of last year. So, they don't necessarily accurately reflect um what some of the needs were just because we had about a 4-month period where um those those lines were frozen. But in general, the the costs are in line with what we've had for previous years. Um then the last piece that I have is um guidance
017service supplies. It's not a significant increase, but there is about $2,000 per school um for the addition of the purposeful people program, which is a program that through grant funds we are piloting this year. We have a pilot group in this building. We have a pilot group at Main Street School as well. um and the renewal cost for that program, which really focuses more on um character growth and belonging um taught in unison with um classroom teachers and the school counselor um is about $2,000 per school. So, it's not a huge bump, but it is something new that you would not have seen in last year's budget. >> Thank you. >> Hi. That brings us to contracted services where I'm very happy to report we've got a reduction over Main Street School and Lincoln Street
018School for a combined amount of $224,000. Um part of this uh is due to some reduced needs. We've also placed a couple of kids out of district that we had not anticipated doing. Um we were able to reduce by half um the contracted service providers that we had with us. So we're we're really happy about that. Um, we're also able to hire some of our contracted services people and bring them in as employees. So, I think the the passage of the PAR educator contract has been really helpful. We still have people coming in and applying and we're interviewing them as the year goes along. And if we are able to replace contracted providers, then we do so. So, we'll continue that effort. Um, special education tuition, we will have four students placed out of districts
019next school year. That's a higher number for us. Um so you will see an increase in those lines that goes along with the increase in transportation going to a further distance. Um so we do see also simply that transportation just tends to be more expensive each year and that's kind of consistent as we're seeing summer programming. Um so title one covers the extra summer skills academy that Deanna runs over the course of the summer. There's no additional um funds there in terms of the lines. Just some things were cleaned up for transparency to make sure to denote what was summer programming materials and what was summer programming salaries. There is an increase to the special education line for Lincoln Street School. That is our new BCBA that we are board certified behavior analyst that we
020were able to hire rather than contract for. So, she's here with us in the summer to work on summer programming. Any questions? What? >> Go ahead. >> No, go ahead. >> Well, you said something about 224,000, but there's a number. It says $424,000 in the budget. Just to clarify that, which I'm just confused which one it was. >> So there So it's a reduction. Are you talking about on the front page? >> Yeah, the front page. It says special ed contracted services. It looks like a reduction of 424,000. >> Yes. >> When you I thought when you spoke you said it was 224. >> My apologies. No, 400 424,000. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Just just to clarify when you were saying that I think it was the 300 352,000 for special ed tuition >>
021is that the number that corresponded with the four students placed out of district? >> Yes. >> And that's the that's the resulting increase as a result of this four having a total of four >> out of district. >> Correct. And can you just remind me sort of what often drives sort of I I I do know because I feel really proud of our special ed you know services here why people might come to our district you know um but c can you just clarify you know sort of what >> generally speaking drives those decisions. >> Sure. We are able to program for most students here and and we do a f our staff is just fantastic. I just I can't say enough good things about them. Um, but we do have students when we get
022to the point where we might have two para educators working with one student and we've got a lot of related services and perhaps the behaviors are such that they're a a disruption to the kind of regular function of the school, we will begin to consider that this might not be the right place for the student and we have a lot of conversations with family and a lot of conversations with staff about what might be the right next step. And typically it's looking at a a specialized private program um that can can address those needs. >> Thanks. That's really helpful. Appreciate that. >> And the money that we like vote in and maybe I'm confused into like a fund just for but that's for like unanticipated out of network placements. Okay. [clears throat] >> Thank you.
023Okay. >> Yes. I have three questions. One is do we do we know what the default budget would be? >> Okay. Because that's helpful to get a sense of that. Um so that's one question I had. Second question was are we able to calculate what um this budget would be without federal funds? In other words, how much of this is federal funds? Do we have a million in federal funds, $500,000 in federal funds, $3 million? At one point in the spring, we had asked if we could um get that information. And so you might not be prepared tonight to give it to us, but I think that would be helpful for um for the December meeting to be able to uh understand that if the federal government were to cut off our funding, >> what
024kind of impact that would have on us and whether or not we want to prepare for that and put that before the voters, a a budget without federal funds or not. I I think we we want to have that discussion, but we we need a sense to to know what those numbers would look like. >> Yeah. for the allocation of federal funding that exorters receive for this year. >> Any federal funding, anything that that have a federal tie to it, whether it's free and reduced lunch, whether it's grant money, anything that the federal government could cut off funding for, you know, and I mean, be creative any because they will be. So, >> yeah. Any any possible thing that they could cut off if if they cut off every single thing, what what would that
025be? What would the dollar amount be? Um and then the third the third thing was just a general comment is um I remember having this discussion last year and um when we passed the budget because there was a a there was a a push to really try to do more with hiring staff, you know, inhouse so that we, you know, we would have more certified people. we wouldn't have to have contracted services, but we also budgeted for contracted services at the same time. And I remember at least I made a comment that we needed to be careful that we didn't then just kind of absorb that contracted services number. So I, you know, I see this $400,000 $424,000 which is positive. It means that sort of the plan is working. But, you know, I I
026also get concerned that if you built that $400,000, if we weren't counting on that $400,000 savings, that would means that we're looking at a six, seven, you know, percent budget increase. Um, and you know, I I think ideally we were hoping not to do that from year to year. I know budgets are only made one year at a time, so it's easy to lose track of them, but at least I remember that discussion that we were we were sort of double budgeting. We were budgeting to hire more staff, but also budgeting for contracted services >> in case we needed that. And >> I don't know, it just concerns me a little bit that that, you know, that offset is in there, but the numbers are still pretty high. And I know that I'm looking at
027this, it seems like there's some really big drivers for that because there's special ed tuition between special ed tuition and health. It's almost a million dollars right there. >> So, you know, so I appreciate that part of it that it's it's significant, but [snorts] I don't know. It's just it's just, you know, I just I just want to be careful in terms of I think we always want to be careful in terms of what kind of burden we're putting on the extra voters. And then particularly when we start to weigh this in with looking at numbers for that if we were to lose federal funding because it's happened at least to some other institutions of learning, you know, that just to be prepared for that on what kind of impact it would have on the
028voters. So more I'm more You don't no one has to answer anything right now. I think it's just some thoughts that I had about some of those different pieces that I think it would be good for us to continue to wrestle with before we make a final decision. >> I I appreciate you bringing that back up because I remember us talking about that and it was a big part of, you know, what we put forward after the negotiations and I I remember us making a footnote to remember. So, thank you for remembering. And I I guess then is the question whether you know what we're seeing in terms of more Paris coming on and um that we would see a future where you we could the baseline for that contracted services would come come down.
029Is that what you're >> Well, I think it has, but I I think in some ways we built in like a $600,000 buffer in some ways. We didn't think we're going to have to use all $600,000. And it's great to see that we >> or I don't remember what the exact number was. Maybe it wasn't 600,000, but maybe we used $200,000 in contracted services. Not looking at the number right now, but um but you know, and I think the goal is to reduce it, but in some ways we had an extra $400,000 budgeted that we didn't expect to need, right? >> Just in case we, you know, as >> I think our superintendent advised us at the time, we will >> in case it doesn't work. Yeah. In case the plan didn't work, >> we
030kind of overbudgeted in the short term just just in case. But I think the thought was that we didn't want to lock that in is that, >> you know, now we have an extra $400,000 just to spend in some other way. That's right. And I And so, >> um, I mean, I don't I don't mean this in a in a critical way. I just I don't know. I just want to be careful because I think if you if we didn't since we weren't planning to use that $400,000 offset, if you built that into what we're talking about, it's a little bit less than a 5% increase and another $400,000 I I think it's another percentage and a half or whatever probably would take it up over 6%. So, which is will be a pretty high
031number for us. I mean, even foreign, you know, almost 5% is high. And I understand again a lot of that's driven by health which we don't have a lot of control over. >> Really don't have any control over really. >> So it's um I mean half of that number $600,000 of that of that 1.2 million is is health and dental. >> So >> I think it's a good question to sort of take a look back at that contracted services line and reevaluate a patent. And I do remember us talking quite [clears throat] a bit about that and keeping it there as a safeguard in case the plan didn't work, but going forward to reassess if we think we'll be in a better situation looking forward. I appreciate that. I know this is just the first
032look, so [laughter] it's more [clears throat] thoughts and questions. I mean and technically with that if the teacher contract passed in some ways that that number for the one or two positions that might get absorbed into it are being counted twice right because they're being counted in the teacher contract and then they're also being counted in here in case the teacher contract doesn't pass. Is that right? So because we were aware of that, what we did was we built it in here in case the teacher contract did not pass and we took the additional increase that we included in this budget and we decreased the numbers in the negotiation for their increase in that CBA negotiation. So we took it into effect so that we were not double counting it. >> Gotcha. Does anyone else
033have any questions or thoughts at this time? Okay. I think to um Patrick's point, this is a first look. I appreciate I mean I I agree um there's there's a lot of unmovable numbers in here in terms of the health and dental um being nearly 600,000 worth of the increase um which is of course being felt by communities across the country and um so we're not alone in that. Um next steps we will come back and revisit this at our next meeting. So thank you guys for your thoughtfulness and preparing this for us today. Do you know when do you know um I'm sorry just well just to follow up on that one part with the default budget. Do we have a sense of what the timing is when you when you would know how
034to calculate the default budget? I mean I don't remember when that happens what time of year that that comes out. >> So if you'd like to get a feel for it, what we can do is we can give a stab at it. Yeah. I'm sure that we'll probably be meeting as changes come about. I mean as we get closer through December and find out some other information as it comes through. um we'll take a stab at it before we come back to you in December and it won't be perfect but it'll give you an idea in case further things change then obviously the default will change with that but it would give you a sense of where your default would be >> that I think that'd be helpful even if it's not the not the
035final number that would go on the warrant article just to have a sense >> of how the proposed budget will compare to that. >> Yep. >> Yeah, >> we can do that. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, let's move on to our principal reports. Who would like to start? [clears throat] All right, I get to go first. Beth Catarrett again, the uh principal at Main Street and the EDP. So, a few highlights for this month. Um, the Exitter School District just finished the process of creating a new vision statement. um staff from all the three schools worked together to make this happen. We started um at our buildings where we um collected some information from our staff um and some ideas for what our future could look like and
036what we want it to look like. Next, um we brought that information to our learning teams and then our learning teams um used the feedback to write some different possible statements and then we pushed out three um statements to all of our staff where they were able to vote on their um top choice for our vision statement. So our [laughter] official Exitter School District vision statement is the Exitter School District aspires to be a thriving community built on collaboration and inclusion. Together we pledge to celebrate the joy of learning, nurture curiosity, and share responsibility for growth and success. Our next step in this process is to um um to have some conversations around our values and our um collective agreements and that we will do in the next month or two um jointly between our
037two learning teams. Couple things to highlight as far as some enrichment um experiences for our students at Main Street. Um we just did um welcome Tiger to Main Street um a couple of weeks ago. We had two holes or two assemblies um where they performed their um program called COMquest. Um Tiger um comes from Plymouth State University. It stands for theater integrating guidance education and responsibility. Um focus of the show is to share empower students to use healthy strategies to handle stress, worry, and fear using the power of live theater. Um our students at Main Street really enjoy the show from Tiger. Um it's very engaging. Um and the students walk away. It's really interesting to hear uh the feedback from the kids and they just talk about it like for days, which is really
038nice. In kindergarten, our students uh were visited by the exit fire department uh as part of fire prevention week that always happens right around the second week of October. Um and the students learned about the role in the community, the tools they use to keep everyone safe, and then they got to do a little bit of a touch a truck and explore some of the emergency vehicles. Our first grade students uh participate in an an enrichment program called wildlife encounters. Um they bring in a number of different animals. They talk about these animals with the students, talk about the habitats. Um and this directly connects to the first grade studies on animal adaptations. And then for grade two, our students um took a community field trip to the extra fire department as part of the
039fire prevention week. Um they do a little bit uh different learning than the kindergarten students. Uh they actually get to visit the fire station, look at some of the equipment um and learn about more about the daily operations of the fire department and what it looks like in real person. Our fall session of afterchool enrichments is wrapping up tomorrow. Um so we actually we had a huge number of students which was great for our fall session. There was over a hundred students who participated. Um, some of the sessions that were offered, rocking, rock climbing, kickball, karate, robotics, arts and crafts, yoga, coloring, dance, nature time, and Legos. Um, so that was exciting. And today we held our student led conferences across the district. Um, we had so many uh caregivers and families and students in
040our buildings. Um, it's really neat to see the kids so excited to share their learning and their their school experiences with their caregivers. Um, and they um they just do a really nice job sharing their learning um with their families. We recently enjoyed last week a spirit week. Um and so students and staff had the opportunity to participate in weekly theme days. Um and we also um we had a um staff activity where staff um groups of of um staff got together, decorated pumpkins, and our students got to see sort of them all created, which was kind of neat. They always love to do that. And then we ended the week by our students wearing costumes or school colors to celebrate. We are bringing back uh breakfast buddies program. So we partner with uh CEO
041school of technology and um either their early childhood um students or um marketing students participate in this program. small groups of students come in during our breakfast, sit with our students, provide some companionship, um just have some conversations, um and then the SST students go back to their programming. But it's a really nice opportunity to connect our youngest students with some of our oldest students. And it's nice to see some of our former Main Street students come back as older students, which was great. And then one last highlight um Subaru of Exit um reached out to us in the spring. Um they this is the second time that they have partnered with us uh around their Subaru loves learning program where um six educators educators were randomly selected um and were provided with funds uh
042for supplies and materials for teaching and learning. So about a month ago, we had a um assembly where Subaru came in and present us a check for $3,000. Um and also um they give their um community and and their employees an opportunity to write notes to our teachers, which is really really nice to see. And we just want to thank um Subaru for that partnership and that opportunity for supporting our school and our teachers. Thanks. Good evening everyone. Um, a lot of things that uh, Miss Kadet said will be echoed or can be echoed at Lincoln Street School. Also, Ryan McCleskkey Lincoln Street School. Um, our third graders, just wanted to highlight, they do a walking field trip. Um, and they've done it for a number of falls now where, um, they go to the
043community fridge outside of the YMCA. Um, the purpose of the experience is to provide a connection between our school agreements and what roles um, different community members have. Um, we're learning to be empathetic within our community and donating and delivering food is a way to help our third graders understand the positive impact they can have within the community. Um, those have been very well received both from the YMCA and and certainly, you know, we may have a group go on Monday and and fill that fridge up. Another group goes on Wednesday and the need is there. So, it's it's nice to see them do that. I'm going to go quickly through. We've had a number of field trips. Third grade went to Cedar Hill Farm back in u midocctober. Our fourth grade students um went
044to Great Bay Estuary. Um, and our fifth grade students had an in-house um, experience where they had um, the Center for Wildlife bring in birds of prey. Um, those are all trips that we've done for a number of falls now, but they are new to the, you know, students that are here this fall and always well received. So, we're we're excited for those. Um, also just want to shout out our third graders who did their annual tradition of the cornfield characters last Friday which was wellreceived. It was a new challenge with the windy conditions. There were not many vertical by the end of the day, but the ones that did, you know, kudos to to a strong foundation. >> I'll say Diamond York's head fell off. >> Yes, >> she fell over and her head
045fell off. >> You know what? It actually it was it was fitting for the day, though. I mean, [laughter] >> so um but anyway, third graders did a great job and and certainly through the morning it was a pretty good show. a lot of our main street students came up and and got to see them while they were still in decent shape, but by the I will tell you by dismissal, it was looked a little rough outside. Um, we've had a number of enrichment experiences. Um, Beth already spoke about the Tiger program, but our third and fourth graders also were able to participate um in the Tiger program as well. Um, for extracurricular activities, um, the Lincoln Street School cross country season came to an end a few weeks ago. Um, in total we had
04653 fourth and fifth grade students participate this fall. Um, which was um, it's it's always a great program. The coaches do a wonderful job and they finish their season out at Stratam Hill Park um, and what they call an all comers meet and we have students from each of the SA16 elementaryaries um, compete um, at that that particular race. And it's just it's it's a really cool the the focus being on sportsmanship and trying your best and just improving for yourself. It it's really an age appropriate. They do a really great job with it. Um [clears throat] students are completing the first session of after school enrichment. Um we had over 100 students participate. So again, you know, we think about these different clubs and activities and different opportunities for kids to build their sense
047of belonging within the school. There's a lot of opportunities for kids at both Main Street and Lincoln Street School. So again, students were able to choose from anything from indooroutdoor hockey to rock painting to fuse bees to board games to take apart clubs. So um lots of opportunities for lots of different interests. Um, the last thing I'll just mention fairly quickly is on October 10th, which is a little while ago, but we haven't discussed it since our No, we did October 14th. I'm going to take that one off. I'm so sorry. [sighs] Um, and then again, I'm just I I put a little save the date at the very bottom of my update, but just we have our first gateway presentation for um fifth grade students um which is more of an SAU wide initiative
048at grades 5, 8, and 12. Um, and so ours is um February 12th um of this coming school or this school year. And so we're excited for that to invite our caregivers and families, but certainly all of you as well. Um, we're really excited to host that event for the first time. So, thank you. >> I just had a quick question um for both of you. I It's impressive the amount of enrichment activities that we're able to offer students and I was just curious how those are determined. Like, is it based on sort of teachers that have an interest in sort of sharing a skill or an interest or do we hear from students about what they're interested in? It just seems like a really like rich variety of of offerings and I was just
049curious how how that comes to be. >> Yeah, I would say it could be a little bit of both for the after school enrichment. Sometimes we do have a student or a group of students come forward and say I really want to do this. We have to see if it's viable, if we have a teacher that was willing to sponsor it, if we what kind of supplies or materials might be need and whether that's kind of fits within the umbrella of an afterchool enrichment. We do certainly take student input, but we also look at, you know, oh, we have take a part club. Take a part club always fills out like within the first two days. So, we know that's one that we can kind of continue to move through. So, um kind of look
050at it from both both lenses, I would say. And and another piece I'll just throw out. I meant to throw it out and then I stumbled myself over with that October 10th piece. But um drama club, fifth grade drama club is going to be presenting um kids Aladdin um December 19th and 20th I believe. So that's yet another opportunity for students to find an interest, find a connection to the school, and we're we're excited to see the production just behind you with the new sound system that we're actually going to have on this time. So we're excited. Yeah. [laughter] >> Work night two and three. That's great. Thank you both. Any questions from >> All right. Um so let's move forward into our board committee reports. Um and uh starting with our equity uh committee
051with Tim and Kate. It's November 12th. >> Yes. So our 13th. >> So yeah, I think the next meeting is Thursday, November because it meets the second Thursday of every month. So it'll be Thursday, November 13th. Um and then yeah, so that'll be the next the >> So we haven't had a meeting since we were here last. >> Okay, great. >> Um we uh let's go ahead and look at the policies since there were weren't very many. Um and I can go through those quickly. Actually, do you have them in front of you? I guess my computer is acting up. >> Yes, I have this. So, I'll just there, as you probably may have noticed when you were reviewing these, these look familiar, and that's because some of them we actually reviewed, I think, in
052the spring. Um, and and that is in part because, um, the central office, Allison, can speak more to this, is really just trying to get um, some of these policies we have to review on a regular basis. So, we're just trying to get them onto a cycle. Um, so some of these look will probably look very familiar to you. And you'll note in the um what what we shared with you that you know some of them the committee didn't really have much to recommend outside of any um changes that were um suggested by changes to the law um primarily. Um so I'll just name the committees and then we can kind of open it up for some discussion um overall. So we reviewed um policy code AC which was the non-discrimination equal opportunity employment and
053district anti-discrimination plan and namely you'll note that in that particular policy um there were just some revisions to expand sections which were required by law for us to include. Um so that is um that is that policy policy code ACA which is policy named discrimination and harassment grievance procedure um is just a policy um again that we're trying to get on to cycle um to review. So that one probably looks more familiar to you. Um uh the tobacco products ban. Um this one was a uh this is policy code ADC. This was a revision and the revision um was the inclusion of the one line to include um reference to ecigarettes, e-liquid for any person under 21. So that was the change there. Um and then the next two policies, policy code GBAM, which is
054accommodation of pregnancy and related medical conditions for employees. Um again this um had some minor revisions um to comply uh with Title 9 regulations. Um but this was a policy we had recently reviewed as a board. Um uh policy code IHBCA which is the accommodation of pregnancy and related medical conditions for students. Um again this is um a revision um and we just updated some legal references but this is again to get back on cycle. And then the last policy was policy code IMDA which was the pledge of allegiance. Um this one we reviewed uh in March. Um so again this is another one that we're just trying to get back get into a regular schedule of review. So, I'll pause there and just see if there were any questions or comments on any of
055those as you took a look. >> So, I I guess I don't understand why we would review or pass IHBCA. I mean, it's even listed on here as Exo Regional Cooperative School Board. I think that's more of a co-op policy. We don't need >> Yes, you're right. That is a good catch. We don't >> That's right. We don't need to >> elementary level. >> Yep. >> Um I mean, technically, I guess it's possible, but >> we discussed it at the policy committee, but you're correct. That one doesn't need to be voted on. >> The same for IHBCA, too. >> Well, that's for personnel. >> Oh, yeah. It's for employees. >> Not for personnel. For employees, it would still apply, but not for students. >> Okay. >> Um I mean, I think there's a couple of
056a couple of these policies don't list exit in the title, but that, you know, would be changed later, I assume. >> Just it hadn't the change hadn't been made before I got it. But otherwise, [snorts] I don't have any questions if they look >> any questions from anyone else. All right. Um, does anyone want to make a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve all the policies with the exception of the exiter um collab school district policy. >> Yeah. Can I go ahead? Go ahead. >> That's it. I'm done. We want Okay. Do you want to >> I'll have someone else second it because I >> Would someone like to second question? >> Okay. Discussion. >> Yes. Part of the discussion. I mean, again, I think the one thing to clean up though is
057that if you look at AC, it's listed as an external regional cooperative schoolboard policy. Just in terms of what's listed in here, I think it's the same policy. That would just have to be >> changed as exit school board. I think that's [clears throat] the intention that it's not any different. And so I think for clarification sakes for Beth since you just referenced the exit schoolboard policy. I think you mean the one that was on pregnancy for >> the co the exert co-op school board, >> right? But there's but but actually two or three of these say exit co-op school board in our packet. >> I think that's so it doesn't it's just that those will be cleaned up later but it's not >> okay. >> Um >> with the exception of the pregnancy policy
058>> for students. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Do we need to make another >> I think she's just clarifying her motion. >> Okay. Great. Just to clarify to clarify our motion, right? And you're still I'm sorry. You still second that, right, Tim? >> Yes, I still [clears throat] [laughter] >> um great. All in favor? >> I I All right, we did it. Great. So, the next um committee is safety and security. We um have not met since our last school board meeting, and I believe we don't meet again until I I believe it might be January. Yeah, >> correct. >> I have to >> Yeah, we will have >> we will report back year. >> Yeah, I believe it's um so we haven't met since our last meeting. Um Beth, our strategic planning committee update.
059>> We have not met since we last met here as a school board. I believe Dr. Andriski was presenting the the strategic plan or getting feedback from administrators in our next meeting is scheduled for December 3rd, I believe. Yes, that 123. >> Great. Um, facilities, Beth and Patrick, >> following the theme, we have not met, >> but this this is a little different. This this group only meets on a kind of a needed basis if there's an issue that comes up and so we don't have a planned meeting. >> Um, and there's nothing that's come up in the past month that would have a need for me. >> Okay. Um and the Willight Trust, Tim and Kate, >> uh we have not uh met because we haven't had um any submissions due to the freeze
060of uh the funds there. Um it would be great to have maybe an update on >> the the uh the update. No, just the update on the projects that we had approved. >> Yeah. >> I don't know if you can build >> Go ahead. Well, happy to say that the that the mares are installed and I I think um we're really really close to getting the electric completed and hooked up to both mares. Um and so I would anticipate within the next couple of weeks that we would get some training um and start pushing out some um notices and some highlights on our mares. So that's exciting. >> The only would be transportation. >> And the and the stencils were >> we're done. >> the stencils have been a longstanding story here. Um, we are
061we are about 90% done with those. And I will just say that we we um contracted with a gentleman who is wonderful. Um when we got those stencils out, never having worked with stencils before, they are baldled up about as tight as you can be. And and we tried it one time and they would just we need to flatten them out for a little bit. So we were here on Saturday. We got the majority of them down. The only ones we did not get down are the ones that needed multiple colors. So, we're probably going to handle that in-house just cuz he didn't have that on hand. But, we'll be able to get those two pieces, two different activities down. But, the third graders on Monday were very excited about the new stencils. We're going
062to take some short videos of the kids demonstrating the appropriate way to use the different like motion or activity stations and we're going to put them on the TV out by the front um office or we may bring it down and and project it during lunch for a few days. The kids can see how it's used. So, we are almost there, but um I will not be putting in a request for stencils anytime soon. Um >> for for those who might be listening who weren't at the meeting where we discussed this project, could you just summarize sort of what the Sure. the overarching Yeah. the why behind it? >> Sure. So, there were two really. I mean, one our our hot top that we have out back for Lincoln Street School. a lot of the
063activities that were out there, whether it be hopscotch or for square or even the basketball court, um were pretty well faded. They were hard to see and and not particularly easy to use for students at that point. Um, additionally, in our morning, students have their their their lunch recess in the middle of the day, but we also have what we refer to as a regulation break or a movement break. Um, in third and fourth grade takes advantage of about a 10-minute opportunity to go outside. The idea though isn't to participate in highly competitive activities like gaga ball or football which tend to do the opposite of regulating. Um and then we come in and we spend additional time trying to get kids regulated. So the activities that we have outside are more towards lean more
064towards just promoting silly movement, different opportunities to engage in like jumping jacks or to do like a you know follow a snake kind of like or [snorts] tightroppe walk or elephant walk or all different types of things that are age appropriate certainly get the energy out for a little bit but also are going to be easy to transition back into a learning environment. So that was the the larger goal of it. Great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Anything else on that, Tim and Kate? >> No, and just to clarify, when I said freeze, I I didn't um mean that the funds referred. I meant that we anticipate the fund to be depleted by the end of the year when the field trip um uh costs have been taken from the account. >> Great. Um we
065haven't met for sbatical although I will say that um at our December meeting we will have a presentation from Miss Pepino on her sobatical and there'll be something in your packet to to review in advance of that. So she'll be sharing out what she learned and sort of how she's applying it um in her classroom and and sharing with the school as well. So looking forward to that. Um negotiations Kate and Patrick anything on negotiations? We have met many times. >> We have met many times. >> Um and you know we we're finished with our meetings uh and we have a sort of a tenative agreement but the plan is that at the at the December meeting we'll bring the uh proposed agreement to the board and discuss it there and ask the board to
066take a vote to approve it. >> Okay. Thank you guys for doing that work. Um, so our next agenda item is new business. And we do have a piece of new business. And I'll um I think Patrick, you wanted to to bring up something. >> Yes, I have new business to bring up. Um I So I I don't have a fully formulated thought on this, but just something that I wanted to discuss with with the board and then also, you know, open up for input on others on how we might try to address this if we want to as a board. But I'm just concerned with the um shutdown of the federal government, particularly with the change at the beginning of this month with benefits to families that are you know sort of on the
067edge financially that it could end up impacting our students and you know impacting families in our community and you know it's not the school's role to take care of the whole community and but we were just I was impressed as we were talking earlier about, you know, trips to the community fridge. I know we've done things with uh the food pantry nearby us as well. Um and then we've also had things in terms of we do have a free and reduced lunch program or we've looked to support families and we've worked with other groups like end 68 hours of hunger. Uh, and I it just makes me wonder what sort of resources we have that that we might be able to partner with, what kind of access we have to families, whether or not we've
068identified families are that might be vulnerable and we might be able to have some outreach. Um, you know, we're not right outside of Washington DC where we have a a majority of our families that are employed by the federal government, but I'm also mindful that there also may be some families that might not otherwise be vulnerable that might be during this period of time because of the the shutdown and they might not be getting paid in the short term. Um, so I know there's some groups like federal courouses that are setting up community fridges in their own courthouse because only the judge is being paid and all their staff isn't, but they have to show up to work. Um, so I don't have an an answer on how to respond to this exactly, but I'm
069just concerned about it. I don't know if there are things that we can do as a board or as a school district to try to be helpful, you know, and and again, I I think the easiest thing for me to conceptualize is is around the area of food security and if there are things that we can do to encourage or or to wave costs and even if we if the board needs to authorize some additional monies so that there's not any concern about waving fees for people or if there are things that we can do to provide food over the weekends or or something else. I just am I'm am trying to raise the topic to see if folks have ideas about something we might be able to do if if people think it's a
070good idea to do something. >> I'm I'm really glad you brought this up because I also wanted to talk about the same thing. And maybe even another question is, you know, what would we anticipate maybe from seeing maybe more folks, you know, signing up for free and reduced lunch and like is there wait time? Like is that a long process? Is that a short process? Understanding that needs could be quite immediate for some folks. So I too don't know if I have any solutions, but I think it's good to talk about what might be our concerns. I'm curious if you all have partnerships that I'm just thinking about partnerships that have been beneficial in the past or that you have currently that could be expanded or um just >> I can I can speak. Um
071so we've been working and talking a lot about some of the things that we could potentially do to help and um we have a pretty good um um feeling for um what uh our some of our family's needs are. And so one of the ideas that we've been um talking about is looking at where there's we have um school breaks or vacations and like maybe it's um collaborating with some area agencies to see can we can we put together um a meal for uh you know families during that time when we're not in session to um help in that way. So, we've been actually talking this week about how we can do that. And we do partner with um some really great community resources that we can um uh partner with and um help support
072that kind of a program. So, we've we've been looking into ways we can help too. And just for the the school lunch program, I I don't know that I understand the current state of it. I know at one point in time prior to CO, you had to sort of sign up and apply and whatnot. During COVID, you really didn't have to apply um for a period of time. And I think that was I don't really know where we stand right now if that was phased back in that there's an application process. There is I see I see not there's there's an application process again that's required. Um, and do we have a sense that all I I think I know the answer is that all the families that have that need don't always all apply.
073Is that right? >> We're not allowed to know. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> And it's based I believe on like the level of income. So I don't know immediate needs. You think it goes by like your tax return last year? >> Yeah. >> Something might show [snorts] different media once it kicks in though. >> I mean, how much money do we how I mean I don't know if you know this, Michelle. I mean, how much money do we get from lunch? It it like how much income do we get, so to speak? How much do kids or families pay per week or per month towards food? Do we food services? Do we know? or how much do they pay per year and we could divide it. Do do we have a number that would be
074in one of our budgets? >> Yeah. >> Antidotally Jean Pierce told me we make money. >> Yeah. Were you thinking perhaps Patrick the you know can we consider no longer charging for meals? Well, that's I mean there's I mean it's funny because I brought this up years ago as something that some school districts in the western part of our state have done that. [clears throat] They have such a high population of families I think they're in there that they just don't charge for lunches at all. They just built it into their budget. But I wonder if even on a short-term basis, you know, for a month or or whatever it is, you know, and we could renew it each month >> that we suspend >> collecting money for lunch so that it's um >> I
075mean, again, I'm just thinking aloud more than making a proposal, per se. But that might be a way that it just reduces any stigma or we could make it voluntary or something. I don't know. Maybe you just don't have it at all so someone doesn't even notice if it's voluntary or not. So that every family can come in here and not worry about whether or not their kids are being fed at least. >> I think the only way to make that work is you just suspend it for temp, you know, short term. You wouldn't want >> what the cost impact is. We could I mean, I think we'd have the authority to potentially do that. >> I mean, is this >> this would be the operating cost of the food service? >> Well, that's what
076I wonder. The $310,000 that's that's sheet that's that's for this year and it's goes up to 325 for next year. Is that the >> but that would probably be based on like average use average usage of the school lunch program as it was probably last year like not every I don't know what the numbers are in terms of [clears throat] >> my assumption would be that >> so what's on this this sheet is what we have to appropriate to make sure that we don't overspend what we do this is only the expense side not the revenue side >> we always make profits. So for expenses, we have to make sure we have enough. >> But if you'd like what we can do is we can find out what we what our expenses and our revenue
077are. But the tough part about this is because we get >> right >> from that service director. But we can ask her to provide that for like the last month to give you an idea of what comes in in the month. >> I mean, I think it's good information to have. I think there's certain weighing two things. There's an immediate need, right? So, that's going to take some time and you're there's a need right now, right? Um, but I think it's good information to have because this could happen again too. And I think to know >> I think to have those figures to know if we were to suspend at any point. How many students are in the two schools? Like say they're say they're getting like breakfast and lunch. How many? >> They get
078150, isn't it? Some stuff like that >> between our two schools. >> Well, and the ED7. >> Okay. >> I mean, for a month, if every student got two meals a day, it would be like $115,000. >> Is it >> for the month? >> How much? Well, we don't >> like that's like if we were to if they were to buy it, right? That's not necessarily the cost of the food for the student that day, >> right? Mhm. >> I know often at times too, we've had I think it's around the Thanksgiving holiday or maybe where we've invited families in to to I'm just also thinking about some of those partnerships where you've had people just come just, you know, discreetly on a Saturday or I think if I'm remembering [clears throat] correctly and and
079grab a meal or >> um things of that nature too. >> Oh, was a basket. >> Oh, it's a Okay. I'll buy you. >> Okay. >> Give them certain. >> Okay. >> How are you? [clears throat] >> Just like this is back of the napkin. So like say $5 a day per child times 750 students. >> Is that how much lunch cost? >> That's if you get breakfast and lunch around. $3 for March >> and then >> so maybe I'm >> thought it was two then say 20 school days a month because I did 30 before but >> for to cover like this month until we can get some idea of >> another thing that might be helpful is um just to think about the policy there is a meal charging policy which states clearly
080that no student will be denied a meal and so >> um it it perhaps there will be a cost in a month and the board might consider how that that cost is paid. Um but that is a it is a practice that we don't deny any student a meal. >> There is a like sometimes there's a little stigma around like oh you're >> oh it's a certain meal that you get if you can't pay. >> Oh I see. >> Right. So you guys at lunch are this might be a stupid question but surveying to see who is and is not eating something like if they didn't come with anything to school. >> Yeah. Not you personally the staff. I feel like too if without like a without a known like we are suspending for the
081month if families don't know that it will or won't be expuned as a cost next month it might be a barrier to them taking it. Y >> so I feel like maybe an action is is important >> to say until we figure this out >> here's what we're doing. I mean, I could I know we don't know the exact cost, but I I could I could see as a possibility of just of not, you know, we'd have to announce it, >> but you know, but given the >> the you know, in response to the government shutdown and suspension of of benefits that were suspending um charging for meals at school until, you know, till the next school board meeting. >> Yeah. you know, something like that feels like the right thing to do from my
082perspective. And >> um I know the community needs it and and and I think it also >> would help remove the stigma of >> right >> folks who truly need it but don't want to raise their hand when everyone has access. We make it much more [clears throat] >> equitable. >> I mean, right now we have about almost a $600,000 anticipated unassigned fund balance, >> right? So, if it cost $100,000, then we'd have a $500,000 fund balance. >> I mean, that's essentially what would happen. Am I right about that, Michelle, when I say it that way? >> Yeah. >> I mean, I don't know that it'd be $100,000. >> I mean, very, very official number is every student gets every meal every day, which I don't think will happen. >> Probably unlikely, right? Probably be
083less than >> two of that, which probably would be like4 or $50,000. Yeah. Is there any way to um open up to community members that actually want to give? the knowledge about what partnerships are good places to um give to support the community as well because I think people are looking for that and where is the best place for them to put >> their resources without being I mean sometimes I want to go volunteer and I think I'm not that much help you know so finding the best place to to be helpful in those situations >> I think Um, I know we want to come back to this idea of the school lunches, but to build on that, I think it's like both, right? I know that just in monitoring the exitor forum, there's obviously
084a lot of people organizing to to, you know, keep the community fridge, but I've seen even comments there like, I don't have transportation to get to the community fridge, right? So just like how yes, where are the opportunities to give, but also if you're if you um are in a situation where you are food insecure or need other resources. I think didn't Dr. Enjrinsky send out the community resources email. So I think it sounds like you know that's out there, too. But I I um I guess continuing to to remind people of that and if people ask us too that that that came out through the I think that went out to the whole SA16 right last Friday I believe. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um >> are we still involved with N68 Hours of Hunger?
085Is that still an active program? That's that's >> Yeah. >> So I thought Yeah. >> Okay. I mean, I I would still look I I would propose or make a motion to that we suspend charging for meals until, you know, effective tomorrow. I mean, I know it's going to take a little time to to announce it. I understand that announcement is not going to go out tonight, but effective immediately until the next schoolboard meeting. Um, as one of the things that we would do. Um, and you know, I understand there's going to be a lag in terms of communicating it uh to families, but hopefully we can get out some notice as quickly as possible. Um, and it's in response to the government shutdown and and uh suspension of of benefits. >> I would second
086that. >> Is there any discussion? >> No, this is great. Thank you for bringing this up, Patrick. Okay. All in favor? >> I >> All right. Thank you. >> I I I think if we can if if we're able to because I really liked what Kate had to say, too. I mean, I think if there's a way that we when we send out an announcement about it that if you know, you can communicate what the school board decided, but then also as Kate was pointing out, you know, remind people about ways to give to the community more broadly and then even remind them about the, you know, programs we have like in 68 hours of hunger if there are other programs that we have. Just to be fair to you all, I think if we
087want to get the message out quickly, probably the first thing to do maybe to send out the announce announcement and the maybe the re recirculate the information that Dr. Enrinsky sent, which are probably also great places >> to maybe research and contact about giving >> to as a start. So that could maybe be a line in the communication. But then I I I really like your point, Kate, of if there are particular organizations that you know um really need volunteers or that you're aware of. I think that that's really helpful information um for folks um to who want to give back to the community. Great. Thanks, Patrick, for raising that up. >> Sure. >> Any other new business? All right. Any old business? All right. Um, hearing none, um, we [clears throat] do need to
088go into non-public >> close >> and I need to close public comment. So, we are going to close public comment at 7:14. Um, this is the RSA. >> Okay. And we are going uh into non-public per RSA 91A 32C. >> Okay. And so we need to do roll call. >> Motion. >> Okay. I'd like to make a motion to go into non-public. >> Second. >> Okay. We'll do roll call. I >> I >> All right. And it is 7:14. Okay. Um we are coming out of non-public at uh 7:27. Um, and I would like to make a motion to approve the recommendation of the assistant superintendent. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Great. And I would like to make make a motion to uh adjourn the meeting. >> Second. >> All in
089favor? I >> I I >> I adjourned.