001[Music] All right. Are we live? >> We're rolling. >> All right. Um, good evening everybody. Welcome to the second Brentwood School Board meeting of the year. We'll call the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. and begin as usual with Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I love the guy out there. James dropped the bag. >> He's like the hero of our house. >> He's blessed. >> He's what? >> He's awesome. James from the Y. >> All right. Uh, first order of business. Is there any public comment? All right. Well, we'll leave public comment open for 30 minutes. And if you have anything to say next 30
002minutes, please step up to the mic. Um, next item on the agenda, approval of minutes. So, we have public and non-public minutes from our last meeting, September 8th. Any comments, changes? I didn't have any. [Music] I have uh I think two really small things. Um actually just one really small thing. Um section 8.2 fourth paragraph. Uh we have Mr. Fitzgerald instead of Miss Fitzgerald. >> Oh, nice catch. >> Good catch, Brian. Thank you. >> Is there any other changes? I did that. >> All right. >> Make a motion to approve the minutes as amended for public and non-public. >> Okay. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. So, minutes are approved. Uh, we're going to move some things around a little bit because Molly's coming from another meeting. So, we're put
003the central office report off until she arrives. Unless there's anything, Dr. Bennett, that you want to report out from the central office. >> Um, nope. You have guys have your first financials of the year and then you have any questions for Molly. >> Okay. >> So, Mr. Q. >> Oh, great. Boy, >> that happened quick. Uh, first, uh, I want to thank, uh, the school board for your presence at our open house. I think it's a great tradition to start and we'll keep it up, you know. Um, so, um, good attendance that night, so we're thrilled. Um, we just put out our fall enrichment um for families in quite a few offerings this fall for students. Um, a field hockey club, yoga, puzzles and games, science club, pet pals, chess with Mr. Schroeder, and like
004a board games club. So, uh, we got to make sure we have, uh, full attendance in all these clubs. I'm hoping they can all get off the ground. There's some that were more popular than others. So, um, that should be starting next week and that runs about five sessions. So, thrilled with all the participation. Um, >> no take apart this session. >> No, I think he mixes it up from chess to take apart. So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> And they went out in the s'mores. Did the original link go out in that? >> Yeah. Yeah. I think today's was definitely >> and I I I resent it um again today because I'm hoping to get some more attendance. >> Um >> I missed the first one. I saw today's >> I did appreciate that. >>
005Hey, no problem. Yeah, no problem. So um if you could take a look at this, it's just a four pager regarding uh special education and kind of review um the process, our staff, and what our numbers are looking like uh for this school year. Um, last year we were up at about 20% of our total enrollment. We're at 14% of our students are uh have an IEP. Um, first page is our uh special education staff. The only new name on here um well Renee Collison's our BCBA. Um she used to be um one day a week then two day a week off back and forth. This year she's two days a week with us. Um fantastic um board certified behavior analyst. So she helps um support create plans um with uh students with some behavior,
006some uh social emotional issues. Um, and the other new addition to our special education staff is Heather Chang. She's contacted and she's with us uh two and a half days a week. Um, the next page is our preschool. I just wanted to give some quick numbers about what preschool shaping up to look like this year. Of course, our preschool teacher is Jenna Tilden. There are 16 total students. um seven in our three-year-old program and nine students in our four-year-old program. Six of those students have IEPs and um two of the six are from two different towns, uh Kensington and East Kingston. Um we I just shared what um we charge for tuition per year per student. And then we have our community um peers which is also tuitionbased. Um the next page is the numbers
007I wanted to share. >> So Ron, can I just ask? So the payment from other districts is only based on the student. So like we're absorbing the cost if they don't send anybody. >> Yes. Exactly. We don't share. So like the risk is on us if there's not a need. >> Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. And and again, it's um it's great to be able to offer that preschool session, but you're right. We don't share um our teacher or our parah's salary with the other towns. >> And is that full or is there space in it? Like what's the ideal number? >> I think there's still space. There always has to be space for students that are identified. But I think we go in conservatively at the beginning of the year to make sure
008we have room because we have a lot of community peers that we've agreed to have in a preschool. >> Yeah. By nature of preschool, you accept students as they turn three. So you have a smaller to start off and then you're accepting Brentwood preschoolers throughout the school year. >> So there's definitely room for more students. I would imagine this will be higher at the end of the year. >> Right. And just out of curiosity, why aren't we charging other towns the actual cost? There's no way it costs only $2,000 per student. >> They send their staff. So essentially, we're providing the space and the teacher, but if a child is in need of a pair professional, speech, OT, um they have to provide that service. >> So essentially, uh like they provide the transportation. So
009as yes, the the classroom's teacher is there. We have our own pair of professional that works on our preschool, too. But as far as you know, if you send one student, do you have I don't even know how you'd work out the percentage for a town to be able to do it. So let's say we had to send a student to exit. Okay? Like prior to our preschool, we wouldn't absorb a salary in exit. We wouldn't figure like know our cost per pupil basically >> for that is it or is it like a two the state pays the 2,000 and like how >> that's a great question. Um for exit developmental preschool they have different options and I ran it for 10 years so I know so it was a it was um you didn't
010send your staff you tuitioned your student into exit developmental preschool and then you paid perdm based on the IEP services. So where if you used exit speech twice a week for 30 minutes, you paid the pdium for that staff's hourly rate. And they broke it down and they build the other districts. For right now, sees does not um use their staff to service the incoming preschoolers. East Kingston and Kensington send their related service providers and their special educators in the students just using your really enjoying time with your community peers in a preschool setting and then they're pushing in services. So we're not using >> So they're not using our OT or our speech. >> They're using it's just the classroom teacher. >> Yep. And so the 2000 is really just a flat rate to
011cover any materials or the space. Um and that's >> it. Was it always like that? >> No. When we first started I think >> shared it with Kensington >> and I think I think Kensington didn't have many preschoolers. So it didn't feel right to say well we'll reserve a space but we're still going to charge you to use the preschool if you have one student come in. So I think that's how that evolved. >> Okay. >> But we don't So we don't reserve spaces. Like if we filled with Brentwood kids, we would tell Kensington we don't have space. >> Yes. Correct. >> We're not reserving a space. >> No. Exactly. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So essentially the kids that are sort of taking that space now are there for the PUR project or to
012socialize with other kids for everyone's benefit rather than >> Okay. >> No, absolutely. They don't have that preschool. If we were to have I don't this isn't going to happen but we have more we need more room in the preschool than for kids who need services from Brenwood. We're not would we that's hypothetical. You have to >> if you get to the point where there was an influx or a lot of families moved in. That would be something the board really have to look at how what decisions you would want to make about students you've already tuitioned in. It might be increasing staffing. It might be the Kensington has to send a teacher over to help cover the ratio for preschool and stuff like that. There'd be a lot of options we would present to
013the board when we get to that. >> I think that's the reason why we don't pack it in like 12 each session. >> Mhm. >> So there's room. >> So there is room. >> So we only had a four four child need at this point >> for special education. Correct. Yeah. and what we've always wanted to at least have a 50/50, but I think obviously we have more community peers and still students and families on a waiting list to be able to become a community peer. So, >> yeah, the state requests we get dinged on our indicators if we do not have 50/50 for early childhood. So, we really try to have a balance >> even if it's >> more or less you get dinged. >> Well, that we get dinged if we do not
014have 50/50. So if we have a class preschool is filled with just students on IEPs, that's how it's it the data is reported and they'll send a letter to Ron and we have to explain why we had. >> But you don't get dinged for this opposite. >> No. >> So too many community peers is it's a problem. >> Nope. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Great. Um third page just provides how many uh students are covered um under IDA uh at every grade level and the percentage of students um from that grade level >> and it gets higher because there's more identification. >> Yeah. As you can see that that big push is second and third grade. >> Yep. Obviously, most kindergarteners don't come in with an IEP or, you know, it's their for some it's
015their first time at school. So, um probably we provide a ton of intervention and support and uh then we go through that process. >> It's nice to see it evened out. You know, there was a big big >> 19 last year. Yeah. Yeah. And then um the final page I just wanted I mean I kind of round it out as the primary disability and the numbers of students with those primary disabilities with definitions below it so you have an understanding. Uh some of our students have uh secondary disabilities that I did not list. Um but um yeah, if you had any questions about any of the identifications and support, we still um run a program where the majority of our 20 PAR professionals are special education. So they're there to support uh the shared PARA
016service that's provided in most of the IEPs that we provide for families. So right now we have um one in every classroom K to five and we have uh well the kindergarten aren't under special education because um most of the students those are more aids than special education. So our other two support staff that aren't under special education are our math and reading intervention support people. Yeah. Um but um we have a great team. Um just like every grade level and our specialists, we meet once a week as a PLC um chat about um what's coming up as far as meetings, whether we're renewing. >> I'm like working to try and figure out >> professional learning community. >> Yeah. Sorry, too many acronyms. Yeah. when we talk about PLC and IEP and ADD, I mean,
017we could just go on and on and on, right? So, yeah, professional learning community, it's um something we truly believe in, what makes a big difference in the work that we do here, but that's the time where, you know, not where we plan field trips or, you know, when picture day is, but this is when we bring student data to the table and have conversations about needs. So for our special education um PLC um we make sure that everybody understands what meetings are coming up whether it's um a virtual meeting whether it's in person um um that we all understand the timelines that are happening um which um the staff we have on board are very experienced. they know exactly what they're doing and um really accessible to the families that need support and um
018Oh, and it's a it's a it's a great crew that we have on our team here and students are really taken care of. Next month, um we have a lot of data to review. I know it's going to be a busy month in November as we're heading closer and closer to budget in December. And I know Dan will probably have some updates for us too, but I'm going to share some uh grades three through five New Hampshire state assessment data and then our beginning of the year I Ready math and I Ready reading um data in November. Let you know where we're where we're starting the year with that. >> How is uh the two class fifth grade going? >> Great. It's fine. >> Fantastic. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I think like looking
019at the data, right? You can't have only two fifth grade classes next year, >> correct? >> Um, so I think that's a conversation, right? I mean, you have a small second grade next year, but is second grade too early to only have two classes? So, and whether we need to look at >> Oh, I think yeah, I think we're going to have a lot of conversations. I mean, you know, spoiler alert, I'll probably be recommending that we um go back to having three classrooms in every grade level K to five. >> Yeah. >> Uh when we talk about budget, um obviously that position was not filled, but it's still in this year's budget. >> No. Right. >> Um and I don't intend on just spending that money on this, that, or the other thing. That
020money is still in there. So, um, but, um, next year it would be my recommendation that we keep that position, >> particularly with that big kindergarten coming in. >> Yeah, absolutely. I love the trend that we saw over the summer too with enrollment. >> You know, if we if we stay between that 45 and 50 students each year coming in, >> you know, that's the magic number right there. >> Yeah. >> And that's that's all for me. Ron, cuz Ron, cuz um Molly's still not here. Did you want to talk about the grant that your food service applied for and was awarded? It's a 1292. Do you know what she was going to use that for? >> I don't either. Sorry. >> But we did want to share she applied for a lot of grants.
021>> Really? >> Um yeah, really go get her. And we were awarded the 1296. That's what >> So it will be something related to food service. >> Do I need to move to accept that? I think so. Okay, >> I'll make a motion to >> I mean, that's what this letter is, right? >> Granted um $1,296.60 cents from the United States Department of Agriculture. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I a question like kind of a follow on from the joint board meeting. Do we are are are are staff responsible for like writing managing the grants listed in the packet or is that at the SAU level? >> Both. >> Okay. Both. There I write some grants for this district, go after some grants. >> Um Allison Bryant goes after some grants. Um
022yeah, it really it's both. It's both. >> Okay. We could give you a breakdown by grant if the district wanted. Um, this was just something um that Megan saw and went after and asked per she asked permission first if she could apply for it. I signed the form and she submitted them. >> Perfect. >> But when we get title grants, federal grants, I work with >> Rhonda >> whoever's working with the um whoever does the actual submission, we talk about projects that we're interested in using the money for. There's a criteria when it comes to title grants that are pretty strict. I can't use it for whatever I want. And obviously there's followup. Did you use stakeholders? Did you chat with other groups of people about how you want to like expend this money? And
023it's not a ton. Like um the the one of the grants that we rarely get a ton of money is um title one, but that's like the most hoops to jump through. So for like $2 to $3,000 is a lot of hoops to jump through for title one money and know we're obviously not a total title one school. Um we have a percentage of free and reduced families here but >> not a lot of money. >> And is that a change like when we had the grant writer position at the SAU like was were they or is this kind of how it's always been done? >> It's just Allison replaced the grant writer. Alice and I split the grant writing position. Um the principles were still doing meeting with the the grant writer um or
024writing them themselves and submitting them. >> I mean like Lisa Brown's always written >> gr and do they go through you so that they're like quality checked? Not that there wouldn't be but >> yeah the superintendent's office has to sign off on them. Okay. >> So yeah they're they're reviewed before they're submitted. >> Interesting. And for the title grants, it's not like you apply for money. What you do is inform them of, you know, there's an aotment of money that we qualify for and then we have to make sure the activities we submit qualify. >> Who so who just since we're on the I know it doesn't have to do with this, but since we're on the topic, who's in ch who is making sure that those that wraparound happens? >> The same people that
025uh Dr. Brena just mentioned as far as the the the activities >> to see if they're approved. >> No, no. I mean like the like for example in this grant, right? Like um by accepting the grant the local education agency and schoolboard agree to the following. Who makes sure that those following things happen? Like who makes sure that there is a like someone's assigned project manager that the you know >> when you write the grant you have to write write that out in the grant or you won't get your allocation. So in the grant, so that's what we're are checking. We're like, "Okay, Megan, you didn't pick someone for the project manager. She picked herself." >> Yeah, it's all listed that you have to populate in the grant application. >> Okay, >> good questions. So,
026>> and how about like submitting the finan the monthly financial reports? >> We do have a person um one of the accountants at the FAU only does grant financials and she reports everything every month. >> Okay, great. for all grants. >> Can I ask one more question? Yes. I feel like I'm asking too many questions tonight. So, what our grant revenue I feel like this was learn this last year is not part of our revenue in our budget, right? >> Oh, now we're we're really we're getting into the Molly territory basic level. >> Um it comes in on revenue that offsets cost. Um but it the usually the district expends the funds and the grant reimbures the district for the funds. So that's how you see it in the ledger where it's opposed to the
027revenue side that offsets the tax rate. >> Got it. >> But we can ask Molly to clarify that way. >> I feel like this is the one where she's always like don't make sense to me where she's like, "Well, you have to do this and then before you can I'm" I'm like, "I believe you on that one. >> You have to expend before you." >> Yes. >> Before she sits down, just start throwing the questions over there. >> Welcome, Holly. >> Welcome to the meeting. I like the grants where where like our REAp grant, it's a rural educational grant. It's a federal grant. >> They just let us know how much we qualified for and they're like, >> "Here you go. >> Spend it." >> Yeah. >> I like those kind of grants >> cuz
028that's my and the Yeah. >> This is your area. >> I'm going to say no. >> Send a note, I think. >> Yeah, please. Do we anticipate um a reduction in grants because of reduction in staffing at the Department of Education before it was shut down entirely >> um >> last week? >> All schools are um all districts are really has are preparing for a reduction in allocations. >> There was a delay this year in the allocations coming um Friday we got our second allocation for some of our grants when we usually get it in August 15th. >> Okay. So there is a delay in the federal um government sending the money to the state. The state did a great job of turning it around and putting them in our grant management system over the
029weekend. Um but no, there is the delay we're seeing now across the state is the money coming from the federal grant into the grant management system. Um allocations have changed but not drastically. Um well some of the title grants changed drastically. I would say special ed and reap did not. Um, but some of our districts, there was all sorts of es and flows around some of the title grants to districts throughout the state that were like, "What happened?" And there's no answer. >> And for fiscal year 2026, the US Department of Education just announced like what their supplemental grant priorities are going to be. >> It's basically like three areas. Uh, number one's like promoting evidence-based literacy instruction. Number two is returning education to the states and number three is promoting education choice. Um so
030those are like the three threads that their priorities will fall under for grant funding moving forward but no real specifics beyond that in terms of like what will be there won't no longer be there. >> The federal government didn't ask me what I thought. Yeah. >> All right. Um, I want to remind people and we have a couple of new people have come in since public comment opened 24 minutes ago. Still in the public comment period. Uh, school district moderator, did you come to say something in particular? >> Just to see how the other half live. >> Oh, all right. >> We missed you. >> Well, thank you for coming. >> Always a pleasure. Um, so anyway, six five and a half more minutes public comment if you feel uh anything for that. Um, all
031right. So, nothing else from the central report or from principal until we get to um Molly. Um, so report from the chair safety and security task force. >> I could not make the meeting. I had a conflict. >> Yeah. Well, Ron and I attended um there was some some great updates that we could talk about in nonpublic if the board so chooses. Um we we um we had some new area first responders that were new to their jobs that came that people were able to meet. We went over safety security protocol so that everyone was on the same page with first responders. Um and we what else? I think that's >> fire and hazard drill reporting forms were updated over the summer. We did that. >> Um, >> we talked about budget preparation for uh
032if any of our radios need repair that we need to find the funds for that because there's no more grant money for safety and security. I think we have a healthy safety and security um >> um trust fund if we need to go into that. And then uh there's some other nonpublic uh related items we can chat about which would be uh some investment. >> Okay. >> To take care of. >> Hi Molly. >> Sorry negotiation ran over. >> Sorry we have a ton of questions for you. >> Oh good. >> We started noting that. >> Perfect. >> We'll give you a minute to get settled and move on to superintendent evaluation. >> I don't really have any update. We you guys were presented the goals at the joint board meeting and we're meeting on
033the 31st to kind of review the protocol. Um Arlland and Chris reviewed it already and they didn't really have very many changes. So that's it. >> Okay. Um well policy committee um I also had a conflict because it was open house at the high school but uh I sent comments in to Allison in advance and obviously we have the summaries um attached to our board materials that are super handy. So basically we have two policies that we didn't look at before which are instructional materials and instructional resources plan and then um the homework policy. Both of which are fairly uh brief. Um and then the other two policies here are um the unauorized communication devices second read and the parental bill of rights second read. Um the interesting thing in the parental bill of rights
034uh policy is it is what we were presented last month was word for word from the statute and the question for the policy committee was whether to add anything to it and the determination was made not to fiddle with it and just leave it as straight ahead statutory language. So what you see in policy AB is straight from the RSA. Um so there's not a great unless we want to add something there's not a great deal of flexibility there for us. Um I think people are generally comfortable with the unauthorized communication device policy when we discussed it last month and again what we heard last month has been rolled out fairly successfully across the three different school levels. So if there are any other comments on the policies in the handbook, >> I don't have
035written on the handbook. >> Would anyone like to make a motion to adopt the policies as presented? >> I'll make a motion to adopt the policies as second. >> Okay. All in favor of adopting policies JCJ, AB, J, and IB as presented. I All right. Motion passes. Um, are you ready to go, Molly? >> Yeah, sure. Um, so I have the manifest. Um, there's just a few here as we started the year. Um, I also have the audit engagement letter. So, every year we have our audit and they're always published on the S16 website afterwards. Um, typically only I have to sign the audit engagement letter. However, now you do too. So, um, one of you can choose to do it. I don't know if Brian you want to do as the chair. that you
036will sign under the governance section. >> Okay. Um and then include included in your board pack was the first financial. This financial is always a really tough one because um we have to have your board pack to you a week in advance which means we have to do our reviews a week before that and school's really just at that point getting started and we're really starting to get to know the kids. Um it's also getting the admin assistants to grasp you have to put snow plowing incumbrance in now when it's still 82 degrees out. um and as well as thinking ahead the things like ALOBA in the spring. So we're still building all of those incumbrances. Um so there's it's going to show a large remaining balance. But um did anyone have any questions on
037it next month? I will bring that uh report to compare to the prior month. So you will probably see some large amounts that get added because we are adding those incumbrances. I um I've been telling people you always have to encumber for the full year to earmark those funds. So reminding people, we have the ALNOBAS in the spring and um and so I have one grant question, but it's a good one and a different one. Um on the list of grants that are listed, there were three that have an end date of September 30th with a significant amount left to spend. >> Yes. >> Will we lose that or is it >> are we able to extend? >> So I believe some of it was IDA, correct? Y >> there's a title one IDA and
038title two. >> So I don't know if you want to talk to >> we will lose it. >> We did not get activities approved that um we had a lot of IDA funds activities denied last year. >> Okay. >> Um and then we just didn't we still didn't get them approved. So that is really just we we they're taking it back. Okay. >> But we are working to spend down some of it still. >> Yeah. We still are spending down because we have all of October to pay. So we went back. >> You can >> Yeah. and we met with some of the grant approvers at the DOE and just said, can we take activities that you approved and other grants and put them here and will you approve them? Can we spend it down?
039>> But yeah, last year was a tough year to get grants approved. >> Okay. >> The title one grant I thought we had expended more than 2,000. So, >> the one that's expiring. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, and then also don't forget when we do take a look at the budget in November, you'll we're going to start appropriating those grants as part of our district budgets. Um, I would talk about a default, but you don't have a default. So, um, that won't apply here. >> Okay. Did anyone else have any questions? Did you know what um the um food service grant what she was planning on spending that money on? >> Uh which one is it? The >> the $1,296. >> And do you know >> you know what? I I'll check with
040Shannon. It could be for um >> I don't even want to guess. >> And it says it's for equipment. I was just curious if it was on if it was something that had been on our list to replace. I mean, there's >> she's she's gotten a few new pieces of equipment. One is like a chilling station where the kids can grab things. I know she's been doing the breakfast card out in the front. So, I'll check with her. >> I know last year some of the grant money for food service was across money districts funding milk coolers. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, we can find that out and report next month. >> Yep. >> What that see tagged for. Did anyone else have questions? >> I have a question. A question about the auditing. >>
041Sure. >> Um, does the SAU use the same auditing firm year after year after year? Do you rotate or how does that work? >> Um, so we do typically use the same firm year after year now. And if we were to go to somebody else, they would have to audit several years, which would kind of be an upfront cost to move that because they need to feel comfortable with your fund balance. Um, every everybody in the district now uses Plaza with the exception of Kensington. However, Kensington is exploring looking to move to audit firm. I do know a few years before I started, so I started right before CO. Um, we did use a different audit firm in the towns, which I believe there might have been a different audit firm here at Brentwood, but
042a few years before I joined, everybody's been using Plaza. Okay. >> And we're actually having the audit right now. It's going on now. All right. Um any board member queries or correspondents? um community engagement events and newsletter article um >> so for the newsletter article I don't know if we want to put the solar stuff in >> I think that would be a good idea >> do that Dr. Bennett, were you able to get the um amount that spent on >> I was able to get I can't get the um the usage like the amount of electricity used but there has been a drastic decline in utility bills for um Brentwood. This year you've paid through $294 for utilities in >> like since July 1st. >> Yep. >> That's awesome. >> Um and last year
043you paid a total of $40,000 >> for the whole year. So when I talked to the accountant that works on it, she she actually was like, "I don't know what's happening, but we're not getting any bills. I got a bill for 19. I got a bill for 20." >> Is this just electricity or is this >> just for Yeah, it's whatever source bills us for. Um, >> so bills >> um at all, >> right? Because that that was the whole point. >> Oh, you know what it's for? >> I did do research. 19 94 was for the flashing street light, pedestrian street light and then the blue strobe lights outside the building. I think those are It's two emergency separate. It's not for the building. It's the crosswalk flashing lights and then blue lights outside
044the building is what Brian Sans the facilities director was looking into. He called the the electric company and he tried to get a contractor. He tried to he's still he came and saw me today and he said I am still working to get the answer to your questions as to what it is. Um >> because we I mean we should be covering that cost with with the solar. I mean even I mean it's not much money but we shouldn't be being charged because we're well I it would be interesting and we need to figure out how much we're >> the the idea right is that there's when you have solar you produce x amount of you know let's say you use I'm just making up total numbers let's say you um use 150 megawatts you
045have to produce like 200 because there's always going to be service fees so you have you produce more so you can basically pay back like pay in so that you cover your service fees. But that was I would be surprised if we unless we're we're not covering, but I can't >> I can give you the numbers of how much we're producing, but I can't really tell you >> the um you know, I can I can tell you how much we're producing. I can't tell you how much we're using. So, >> yeah. And Brian Sans, the director of facilities, is did call into Eversource and a few other places, and he's trying to get that information for for you all. He didn't have it for today. >> Oh, no. That's maybe we'll have it by the
046newsletter. >> Yeah, I I'll as soon as he gets it, I'll email the board. I just I just grabbed the financials for >> newsletter's due on the 15th, right? Is that >> y about a week to get the data together? >> So, when you say 294 versus 40,000, is that 40,000 that we spend in a 12-month period or the >> Yeah. >> Yep. From um July to June 30th. >> Yeah. >> And then starting at the beginning of July >> to now it's $294. >> And the bills are $185875. They're coming in just little small bills um to the central office. [Applause] And do you have the production data? >> I do. Yeah. just bl it up right now. Um, so I tried to print this out. Um, it was difficult to do because it's
047not set up in a printable format. So then I thought I could just show it to you guys. But what I can I can tell you is that year to date we've produced uh 247 megawws um in year to date like January or July. >> It would have been January. >> Okay. >> Um because they're not going on a fiscal calendar, >> right? >> Yeah. Um, and I can go monthtomonth, but for some reason this isn't loading very well right now. Um, >> and what was do do you know how that compares to what they said we would make? >> Yeah, so we um load. you know, trying to remember what month the panels went live. >> Yeah, I was trying to look at that, too, because I think that that 40,000 may be actually
048>> bills. >> It went went live in March. >> I was going to say bills decreased after March. >> Yeah. So, that 40,000 isn't really accurate because March, April, May, June were all covered by solar. So, basically the last quarter, >> not necessarily covered by solar, but >> Right. So, we need to compare it to the year before really, >> right? Your last large bill you paid on 32425 and then the rest it drops down to that $18 $19. Um, so we it's the the I think that some most months we did not hit. Um, so this is the month and I this is not a very good graph. I'm going to say because it doesn't tell me what this green line is, but I'm assuming this is what they anticipated that we would hit.
049>> Mhm. >> Um, so we started partway through March, so it's normal that one didn't hit. April didn't hit. May was a very rainy month and didn't hit. um and as well as June and then we almost hit in July, we went over in August, under in September. I was kind of surprised about that and we are right where they expect us to be in October now. So, um this is kind of the annual overview for month per month. Um what I am going to what I so I like I've looked at this 300 times being like I have to show this I have to print this out and show it a thing and I went to print it and it's very difficult to print. So then I said I have to contact Bington Power
050and have them figure out how I they can give me a better um printable version. So I will do that. So I apologize because I of course was trying to do it today and trying to get things printed out and was late for the meeting. Um the um this is just kind of for like what they give you for a monthly overview of where they anticipate. So really you can see that for we're right on for October where they kind of anticipate October power to be which is my assumption of what the green line is. Um we are right now our actual value is 1% under what they expect for October. Um it's hard to tell. Um for September we were 20% under what they anticipated. Um but for August we were 5% over what
051they anticipated. So but for the most part we've been a little under what they've anticipated. Um I was kind of surprised because September was a sunny month. So >> yeah. >> Um so I can certainly reach out to them and see like what they think the variables are on that why we're not getting what they anticipated. up certainly we're we're producing a lot of power are our but I so I'll be interested to know how much um we're using because really we should um we should be way over what we're using for the these last few months because >> right because we didn't use it this summer right >> so I guess one be great if you could ask Bington Power about why we're under >> they have there yeah why why they're under what
052they attest to that. >> Yeah. >> And then two, like how do we want to frame the article? Like what do you think makes the most sense for conveying this to Brentwood newsletter readers? >> Yeah. So, I think one thing is, you know, to to just say that, you know, we're no longer paying power bills. >> Um, and we're producing this power. So, basically, we're paying it in our um >> and then it'll be interesting to see kind of how much we're using. And I would like to be able to compare it and say, you know, we normally use this much the this many kilowatts or megawws per month and we've been producing whatever amount and that will help us in the you know to store up for the winter. >> And then I think
053would it make sense and maybe I'm thinking of this the wrong way but I think this is the right way to think about it. Compare what we are saving from utility payments against what we're now paying on the bond. Mhm. >> Um, we have our like do we have a monthly bond payment, Molly, or is it >> uh It's twice a year. >> Twice a year. So, break that down like annual, right? Maybe. >> Yeah. There um they both have interest payments. One also has principal. So, one is just interest, the other's principal and interest. >> So, maybe then >> we have a whole bond schedule that I could send you. >> That would be great. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because then I can we can say kind of what we're comparing. And I do
054think we should also get our the cost of electricity not from the March like the partial year but like the full >> 23 24. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. >> Well and we also I think the expectation was because our contract with Eversaurus was up this fall, right? I believe according to Dr. Andriski we were >> we were on like a two-year contract with Eversource and rates were going to go up. So, what my belief is is that even though um you know, if let's say we paid $40,000 last year, that's if we didn't have the solar panels, we might be paying like 55,000. Yeah. >> Well, that's why it would be interesting if we could get from every source how much how much we on average use because not necessarily the cost but the
055the you know and then we can >> the usage >> we can say you know we usually use you know so many kilowatts and and the current growing rate for kilowatt I don't know if we have that do we know how much we're paying what we're negot do we have a negotiated rate right now >> we don't have a contract with ever source which is what Brian Sans discovered >> when he went to go contact them with the account number and get the usage and he's having a hard time getting someone to call him back to organize that. So, um, >> you were on like a seven-year one, right, with Is that what Rusty said that >> it was a I don't remember the length of the contract. My recollection is that it was >>
056like a good deal >> renewing. It was a good deal and it had been in place probably because it been in place for a while and it hadn't captured recent increases in costs to ever source. >> They only need three signatures, >> correct? Molly, can you pull what we paid in 2324 for utilities if we switched over the Tyler system? So, I don't know if we still have that info. >> Um, yeah, it'd be kind of hard to do right on the >> No, no, I mean right now. I mean, >> is that information we can give them? >> Yeah, we can we would just pull the utility the cost for that line. >> Okay. >> But I I mean, not to be in complete salesman mode, but I think it would be nice to
057say that. Yeah. >> Um, look, we've put these in. We're generating this much power. We've saved, you know, we paid $40,000 last year. We're going to pay less than that this year. That's a savings of X and we've paid Y and bond payments, but um, you know, that 40,000 is probably not the current cost of electricity. So, average use over the past five years based on current rates from Eversource. If there's a way we can find that out, I don't know if we can because it's probably negotiated. case by case basis perhaps. I don't know. Um >> um >> I can do some research on power prices. >> Would the rate be different at every school? >> The rate? >> Yeah. You not everyone >> negotiated their own contract and they were up at different
058times and how much did they how much of a >> We don't have one right now. Does that mean we're just Yeah. >> paying the going rate for Eversource >> or even or $19 like should we have a contract? >> No, we can probably extrapolate from that actually. >> Yeah, >> I'll do some more research and I'll I will send it to you. Brian was working on it. We'll keep digging. >> And I just sent um Brian, you and Kate the um bond schedule. >> Thank you. Um, >> so do we have what we need to put together an article on the >> I think that it would be interesting um just to have like a bar chart right of like uh com like how much we've made like how much production per month versus
059what we're spending. Mhm. >> Like I think that that would be a visual way >> know or using or spending for money >> using like how much like how much we're producing >> versus how much we're using, right? So like in August the production would be a high bar and would and it would be compared to a low usage and like that it would it just would be like a visual way to sort of >> Yes. And there's student enrichment that's included in all of this too, right? Like uh is there anything specific that's happened this school year or late last school year? >> We haven't we haven't done it yet, but yet I'm still interested in doing it. So >> take a second before we move on. Uh public comments been open up for
06048 minutes. Anything anybody wants to say? If not, we'll close public comment at 652. Okay. So, anyway, to further beat this dead horse, anything further on solar production as far as what we'd like to see here? I guess it depends on what you're able to get from Bington Power, what we can get displayed to us. I think what Dr. Dickens has asked for seems fairly straightforward, I would hope. Um, and it'd be a cool thing to have as a part of the the packet every month. Um, and then I think more research to do on what the newsletter article will look like for next month, which will be on the power production. >> Yeah. >> Um, I do have one question on community engagement events. There's a sign out front for a 5K fund run
061thing. Is that something that came out? >> It's not a thing. It's a Brentwood wreck. >> Brentwood wreck. Oh, okay. >> They asked if they could hang the flyer. Uh, we gave permission to put that out there. >> Okay. >> Yep. All right. Um, BudCom. Um, nothing major. Budcom's been busy. We completed the sitewalks uh with all the department heads, library, wreck, fire, police, etc. Um, and then starting in late October, we're going to be meeting basically weekly except for the weeks that I'm here uh with you all. uh doing uh looking at you know first drafts of proposed budgets from department heads I think similar to process from years before there's been a lot of discussion about process uh just with some new leadership but also like the tax gap is now a thing
062um on that side and so um there's been a lot of discussion about process I'm not entirely clear where we've landed or we're figuring it out as we go kind of thing but Um, everyone's super impressed with our financial reports on the school side. Uh, everyone in Budcom, so way to go, SAU, uh, financial team, finance team. Um, yeah, that's all I've got. Um, thanks. One question related to that. Uh, I know um, health insurance premiums are an issue for the budcom >> come out tomorrow. >> All right. That's you. Just for the record, I was going to ask Molly if we got a a number yet for what the increase would be for the >> No, I tried my hardest bargaining unit. >> They don't tell me anything. Okay. >> Until tomorrow. >> Thank
063you. But we're going through a different uh >> risk facility, I think, than the town. Correct. >> I don't know who the town is. >> Health. >> Oh, we're not. Okay. We're using the same one. >> So then we use health. Yes. >> The thing is not school care. fully. >> Yeah. >> Not fe >> I'm hoping the rate's low. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, anything else? Damn. That's it. All right. >> Yeah. No, I'm I'm just going to keep my motion. >> Okay. Um, strategic planning committee. >> I did not go to any strate was there strategic planning? No, there wasn't. Okay. I was like either I missed it or there wasn't one. There wasn't one. Even better. Um I think for negotiations update if there's anything we do that in nonpublic. All
064right. Uh anything else from the report from the chair section that we didn't touch on that anyone wants to touch on before we move on? All right. Um so old business um we have grading system is on there. Dr. Dr. Bennett shared with me policy IKA which is not in our materials but it's very brief and I think it addresses conversation that Dr. Higgins Dr. Bennett had our last meeting um which is just that the um the co-op IKA policy which it's easier for me to access co-op policies than it is sway policies online. Um I can read the entire policy aka it's three sentences. The superintendent and the building principles will develop a grading system appropriate for grade levels of the respective schools. The grading system will be approved by the board and published
065in the parent student handbook. All grading decisions should be made at the building level and the decision shall be final. So I think that does provide for board approval of grading systems. Um so I think that answers the question that you two discussed last week or last month rather. Um and then I did email Dr. Bennett about reviewing the sea report cards and I think that's going to be part of this overall report card review committee. >> Yes. >> So um for those that are following this issue, it's something that's being worked on at the SAU wide level. Sees report cards are going to be looked at and it's going to be a process. So we're not going to solve this today. >> Yeah. No, I mean I've had a lot of conversations with Chris
066over the past couple weeks. So >> okay >> happy to share any of them with you if you guys are interested or we can just go with >> what is it related to seway report cards or >> is this like district right it's so I mean it's not it's and jump in here but you know generally the process is going to be that at the end of the CMS trimester that there's going to be a data collection process um and then once that data collection process has occurred and it will be an all stakeholder process um that the district's the district will put together a report card committee um and that report card committee will be a K to8 report card committee so it will affect Sway um and they will take the feedback um
067and work on a new solution. So basically our um opportunity will and I guess like the question I guess would be like the the data collection process is coming out of the middle school. I think that considering how vocal Brentwood parents would be have been, you know, is it relevant for there to be elementary school data collection process too? Um, I don't really know like >> I know where I know where Chris sort of sits on this whole thing. Um, and I know that I know that there is they want to change the whole thing, right? Like it's not just that it's going to be a middle school solution. Um, you know, I guess there's been a there was a lot of feedback from Brentwood parents that went to Bill and to Drew. >> Yep.
068um whether it might be relevant to make sure because it came out of Brentwood and it was reflective of Seaway um whether that you know I don't know I don't know how we want to also I feel as though elementary school parents should have a say >> um at the end of the day even though they're not experiencing the change and it's not sort of an acute issue for them it's just sort of a chronic issue >> and my my understanding um talking with Dr. Dr. Androski. Um the gathering of information was going to be an independent source and it was going to be K through eight parents. >> Okay. >> Um there is going to be a little bit of a micro focus on some middle school grading that will just go for middle
069school parents, but the overall survey um information was going to be K through 8 to sort of gather the overarching concerns for all parents in SA 16 from kindergarten up through 8th grade because the goal is to have a common grading system K through 8. Um so that that would give elementary school parents great opportunity to provide feedback as to what is meaningful for you. Um and then from that information will be presented to the report card committee after the first trimester. >> Why K through eight? I mean it I there's just I feel like developmentally there's and maybe I'm way off on this so correct me if I'm wrong. such a huge difference between a second grader and an eighth grader and such a little difference between a sixth grader and a ninth grader,
070right? And so the or 10th grader, right? I mean, like there is a developmental difference, but as far as like, you know, having a kid in in middle school who's now in seventh grade, but getting two of her grades are high school grades. >> Yeah. >> And the other are like the middle school grades, right? That doesn't seem inappropriate to me. But you know >> I don't think it's 8 to8 reportion across the district. All the elementary schools will have the same grading system like every >> it's not the same report card at the middle school but it would be addressing the competency based education system and how we reported it out. >> Okay. I misunderstood. Sorry. >> Yeah. No and I wasn't really clear but yeah it wasn't just the same report card K
071through8 but it was a conversation for K through8 parents around grading in a competency based system that we have. So that like >> I mean I think that the opportunity at least my interpretation is is for parents to provide that feedback, right? Like it's not like it's going to be a one-sizefititall K to8. It's it's we're going to collect data. There's going to be a report card committee. They're going to develop a solution that's K to8. Whether that solution is >> a transition. I was just seeing >> I mean I'm with you like I personally think you know when when you know the current 10th graders were in fourth grade we started letter grades here like I actually think that like late elementary school in preparation for middle school is a good time to start
072you know so I think that that's yeah >> that's a part of the conversation >> Kate just to chime in too um even at the elementary school we have K to2 competencies and we have grade three to five competencies So, we even have two different um competencies that are going on report cards here, >> but they look the same, right? Depending. >> No, they're all graded. >> There's some there's some tweaking between K to 2 and 3 to five. >> Yeah. When again, I guess that gets on the the like question about the report cards because as a parent, it's not clear that that anything changes. It's like, well, you good job. You passed again. >> Yeah. you know, like, you know, and so I I just think that and and maybe that's appropriate. I
073mean, like they can go back to the existential question of like what's the point of grades, you know, and who are we grading and what are we doing, you know? Um, right. But >> and how complicated does it have to be, >> right? And how complicated does it have to be, right? Do do I really need to know if my fourth grader is getting a 89 versus a, you know, 95? um versus just like they know what they're they know what they need to know. Um, and I don't I don't I'm not an educator, so I don't know the answers to that. But >> So, is the focus of the data collection and the following report card committee is it truly just on the report cards themselves or is it the whole grading system? U
074because obviously a report card is a summation of a whole grading system that happens throughout the course of a trimester or whatever, right? I think my understanding is the grading system. There'll be questions around like how useful do you find your child's report card? What does it look like? But it it's supposed to be the whole grading system around competency based education. >> Got it. >> That's my understanding. >> And is this something like the output? We're going to do a parent survey that's going to get a group of parents who probably like we're not only using a parent survey to make changes. >> No, it's a stakeholder. parents, students, teachers, administrators, >> but there's also probably like a lot of like if there's opinions that like are are we taking more than just the
075stakeholder survey. >> I think the stakeholder survey is where the committee starts because I think a lot of the the bulk of the work is going to be through a report card committee. >> Um the survey is just where they start and that's why Dr. Dr. Driski really wants the entire year to not rush it and follow the process and the process is really going to be dictated by what kind of feedback we're getting in >> and what what information do we have that we can use what more information or questions do we have who do we want to invite to come work with the committee who didn't volunteer who do we have that's volunteering on work our committee so I think the the bulk of the work is going to happen through the committee
076really >> because my fear is like if we get a survey like we're not just listening to the no >> the survey is the starting point and we're going use data and >> yeah but the important thing is is that the survey is collecting feedback from a group that has been underheard >> right and so I it's to hear them and I mean it's supposed to be teachers too I mean one of the things that I requested is that we make sure that there are teachers who >> don't agree with the current system because there's a lot of them >> um because you know that is the group that wasn't heard previously when the elementary school report card came out and So, you know, I mean, in the past, you know, couple of years when
077we've had teacher feedback, you know, we've asked union representation, but made it clear that we, you know, like for the supervis the superintendent search and like that they were representing their teachers versus like representing themsel, right? >> Um, so that it hopefully you get a >> Yep. diverse. >> Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to discount the parent voice, but that teacher voice. I was going to say the same thing. >> Extremely important. >> Parents can feel heard, but it just making sure it's not just >> it's structured >> works in professional lives because you think about the way teachers sort of backwards plan their lesson plans. It starts with how you're going to assess and then works backwards from there. So, it's >> teacher voice is critical there. It is really critical and it just
078needs to be in a way that that they feel as though it's safe for them to voice it. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> I do think we just want to go back to that question of what's the point of the report card. >> Yeah. Well, it's about what's the point of grading, not just the report card. The report card is just one piece of it, right? >> Okay. Then yeah that's what and then exactly so what's the point of the report card what's and then what's the point of the grading system >> right >> what's the point of anything really >> really and then we go back here >> we could just solve that amazing >> further discussion on the report card matter uh any other old business Um, one quick item. I think
079the newly adopted board goals are at the top of the board packet. Is everyone happy with the way they've turned out? Really, the only change is um, well, we still have the community board engagement. I think we wanted to update that language um to reflect uh Swayazy parent and community engagement I believe and then we added number five which is the same as we had three years ago or four years ago last time we did the contract. >> I'm good to me. >> Okay. Do we have any new business? >> I had a question and I don't it might fit here. I know we have our facility maintenance plan. Like I've noticed the um front of the building is a little bit like there's paint peeling and that's not on the facilities plan. And so
080it's just like something that I don't know if it's like eis columns but there's like styrofoam chipped out of it. So, just like if we could maybe add that to the plan, just a I don't know. I'm not a construction person, but just to protect the building. That was something >> Yeah, I wanted. It's a conversation I've had with um both Brian and John. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I don't know if that's like big enough to put on the plan itself, but >> we want to keep we want to keep it because it it's it identifies us. It doesn't really serve a purpose, but I I would defend it to the end. >> You mean the tiles? >> No, I'm talking about the >> like the roof thing. It's like >> the roof with
081the pillars >> with the fake pillars. >> Okay. >> That look nice, >> which they can, but of course they can. >> Yeah. I But we we got to get some money on how you um some ideas on what it is to make it look good and make it you know, >> I know it's safe and sound, but there's a lot of work to be done. just to have it. I don't know. Just I don't know if we need it on there if that's just a decision. >> We'll get some quotes. >> We can add it. >> Yeah, >> we can add it. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Any other new business? All right. Um, do we have a need for non-public for um both negotiations and for the safety and security committee? >> Um,
082yes. And for a personnel matter. >> Okay. >> We have three reasons for nonpublic. >> All right. Um, >> sorry. Yeah. Uh, public comment closed a while ago, but we have a new attendee. Do you have anything you want to say or add? No. Well, thank you for coming anyway. Sorry you missed you missed all the exciting stuff. >> Um >> was really excited until you got here. >> Yeah. Um all right. So >> um >> we will move >> cost increase for next year. >> Enter non-public which means you can all leave. If we come back we'll just conclude the meeting substantive that you will miss. >> So thank you. >> Um uh so they come out with their cost increase. >> Do they have to make a motion? Thanks for coming. >> So
083move under >> good to see you. >> I will make a motion to enter non-public under RSA 913 but >> A >> is basic. >> Uh and E >> and G. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> Okay. >> I >> All right. We're entering non-public. So, we are back in public session at 7:39 p.m. Uh, do we have a motion to uh >> expend the safety and security funds recommended? >> A motion to expend the safety and security funds as recommended. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. >> I'll leave it up to whoever does the minutes to figure that one out. >> Um, all those in favor? I >> I um >> I will make a motion to accept the staff communication. >> I will second. All in favor?
084>> I motion carries and I'll make a motion to adjurnn at 7:40. >> Can I just ask one question? Uh what is the deadline for staff to announce >> jubilation? >> I feel like it was >> April 1st. November. >> No, December. >> Oh, I'm sorry. It's December. >> December. You're right. >> In the current contracts, it's December 1st of December 1st. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Go ahead. >> Sorry. Move to adjurnn. I'll make the motion. Second. Austin. All in favor? J at 7:41.