Exeter Region Cooperative School Board Meeting 09/16/25

001Welcome to the kickoff of the 2026 school year school board meeting. Thank you everyone for showing up. Uh we'll start off by saying the pledge of allegiance. Please join me. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Uh, as a quick introduction, we'll start with just uh asking each board member to say their name and and their town. Uh, I am Bill Gothier, chair of the Extra Cooperative School Board and I'm from Exit. >> Erin Garcia Day predes uh from Stratam. >> Don Bullins, exit. Amy Ransom, Newfields, >> Eric Miller, Kensington. >> Great. Wait. Yeah. >> Tammy, you want to go? Oh, Bobby, you want to introduce yourself quickly? You'll get a

002>> Yeah. Bobby Pace, Exit High School, school board rep. >> Great. >> Noah Jono, school board rep for the CMS. I'm in East Kingston. >> Lucy Blackburn, school board rep. I'm from New Fields. >> Great. Thank you. Welcome. Tammy Gun Stratam >> Brian Duffy Brentwood >> Neil Blake and exitor >> Melissa Lions East Kingston >> right thank you very much and then uh we have administrators around the table if you don't mind Chris >> good uh evening everyone Chris Andriski superintendent of schools >> Adam Rosmeick SSD >> Tony Ei exit high >> Drew Barto CMS >> I'm Heather Murray I'm the chief human resource officer >> Malu O'Keefe, chief financial officer. >> Michelle Bodto, director of Exer Delta. >> Great. Thank you. Um, good. We'll start off like that and then uh we're going to

003jump right into the agenda. We have a couple changes. Do you want to >> Sure. We're start out with our our student uh reps report. So, we're going to start out with Bobby Pace from the high school. >> First off, if I haven't met you yet, Bobby Pace, I'm a senior at Exit High School and I look forward to serving this year as the school board rep. Start of the year has been pretty exciting at the high school and this is the first year in over a decade that Exit High School has had a homecoming dance. On the behalf of the student senate and the class of 2026, I would like to personally thank Dr. Andrewski and Tanya Nevi for their support in bringing back this important tradition. While homecoming is certainly the headliner event

004for this fall, Connor's Climb Memorial 5K and many other important community events are also right around the corner. Connor Climb's memorial run will take place this weekend with EHS students helping to run the event and also running in the event. And next week is our homecoming dressup week with themes like denim day and blackout. And these are meant to bolster some school spirit and they are also contributing to the Bluehawk Cup points. So that's a year-long competition between the grades and at the end we get this big trophy for the winning grade. This weekend will be full of activities for students to attend. So, this is the homecoming weekend, including the EHS vers CMS softball game, a tailgate before the football game versus Winnott, and finally the homecoming dance itself. So, lots of fun things

005around the corner at the high school. >> Thank you, Bob. Of course, >> Bobby, any any questions? >> All right, lots going on. Appreciate that. >> And then I'm going to have Noah Gelano, grade 8, and Lucy Blackburn, grade 8, give the report from Cooperative Middle School. >> Good afternoon. I am Noah Gelo and I am an eighth grader here at CMS and I am in pod 11. >> Hello, I'm Lucy Blackburn. I'm also an eighth grader at CMS and I'm in pod 9. Lately, lots has been happening in CMS with the bustling of the new coming sixth graders and the seventh and eighth graders having some mixed feelings about the new school year setting in. Some observations that we had on the first day were some very excited excited students eager to get their

006learning in and some nervous students needing some help to get adjusted to the big school. Thankfully, we have some very generous students willing to help whenever they can. As for this year's school fashion show, it includes anything Hollister, Adidas, Sambus, and the returning brands like Lululemon and Nike. This year, the CMS students are getting together as a community to decide each of our team names. In the past, the team names have been based on natural disasters. This year, with the removal of team 12, it has been decided that the year's teams will get to choose their own names based on our core values. Our CMS core values are collaboration, empathy, responsibility, and empowerment. In addition, they can decide their own team slogan to go along with the name and value. With the choosing of each

007team name being based off of the core values, this also gives CMS students more chances to talk about our core values at schoolwide events. Team names will be revealed in the upcoming weeks. To get started with some updates, we have a lot of school sports starting up with our athletes excited to get on the court or the field and showing what the Blue Hawks have. Over one-third of the school is competing in fall sports this year with our lovely community that comes to watch. Our co-ed volleyball team won against Ellis this past week with the sixth grade field hockey tying against Greenland. Close game, but we're very confident in our Hawks who are giving their all. Also, all of our coaches are um school staff. So, if you have any questions, you will be able

008to find someone that can help. Upcoming, we have our first C Coast Cup tournament for soccer in October. Expecting lot lots from our amazing athletes. This year's musical arts are starting off strong. Chorus is hosting its annual jazz choir triyouts. the triyouts for the competitive choir team. Students auditioning are pouring in and everybody's excited for the opportunity. As for the drama program, this year is starting off with two drama activities. The Bard Project and the seventh and eighth grade drama camp. The Bard Project is a try out to get acting class that focuses on the works of Shakespeare led by Miss Lexi from Pine Street Players. Drama Camp is a fun experience for sixth and seventh graders to try their hand at acting in a relaxed and fun setting. Our fall I Ready Diagnostic has

009just ended with our students getting great scores as well as great efforts. Students were anxious to finish, but most didn't rush and are expected to get great le great great lessons that are best suited for them. Teachers are very happy and most of them are saying that it went pretty um smoothly for our students and weren't too challenging or too long for them. To wrap things up, we are excited for this great school year and are excited for future meetings and school events. Thank you all for your time. >> Great. Thank you for the update. Lots going on. Uh, I love the team name switches. Natural disaster to core values. Great. That's a that's a good switch, Drew. >> Kind of curious. >> Yeah, I think that's a better thing to reinforce. Yes. >> Great.

010So, thank you for the update. Appreciate it. Excellent. Up next, we have two students from uh SECO School of Technology. We have two seniors. Olivia Mumper who is from East Kingston and McKenna Bizaro who is from Eping who are going to talk about a project that I asked for them to work on collaboratively last May. I knowing that I'd be taking this role as superintendent of schools. I asked them to look at rebranding SA16 and the only parameters I gave to them is that community had to be a part of it and that they had to create something that would represent all of our our towns and schools within that community. I'll put my password in for you so you can get out there. Uh so they they did not disappoint. Uh and so they're

011going to kind of go through that process and and again it's just a credit to our program but our students and how talented they are. So I love that they're here to be able to display what they've came up with, the thinking that went behind it and the collaboration that they did with two different programs at SST working together on this final project. Okay, perfect. >> So, I guess I'll just start by reintroducing. So, I'm Olivia Mumper. I'm a senior at Xter High School and I am in BFMA, which is business, finance, and marketing academy at SST. >> And I'm McKenna Bazaro. I am in digital media arts. Uh, and I'm from I'm a senior at Eping High School. >> Um, so we first just want to say thank you to Dr. Andriski for giving

012us the opportunity to work on this project. And then also to all of you for taking the time out of your meeting today to let us come here and show you a little bit about the journey behind how we got to where we are now and how we worked together and just show you guys a little bit about everything that went into it. >> Yeah. >> So, as um Mr. Androski said we uh we started this uh process back last spring um when we started by for we were told okay we're going to be doing a rebrand of SA16 and originally in digital media arts we were just told that and then we were then we were also told we're going to be working with the with BFMA to do this which a little nerve-wracking

013you never met meet people but it gave us a opportunity to um meet some new people and work with people we thought we'd never really like ever get to work with which was really really cool. Um we were split off into groups um at random like we were given numbers and we were all split off randomly to brainstorm and come up with some ideas for what we wanted to do for um this rebrand. Uh and there were it was really cool to see how different all of them were. Um eventually we ended up coming up with the logo that um you see here. So initially um there were two kind of like variants of the logo that we liked. We liked the W16, but we also had the original version of the hands logo where

014there was a bunch of hands in a circle. Um, and everyone really liked how the hands like represented community and holding each other and being like one, even though we're all individual people, we are one. Um, and we decided to mix these two those two initial ideas together, making the we are 16 with the two hands, simplifying it a little bit because it got a little busy with a lot of hands. Um uh and then we decided uh to put the we are in in with the 16 and add the towns that are part of SAU16. >> Yeah. So I think ultimately we did decide that this was the design out of all of them that we wanted to go with. Um this was pretty unanimous of a decision. We decided it after we had

015a brief meeting with Dr. and Risky and also Dr. Carr at SST. And um we liked it for a few key reasons which are up here. Um I do want to point out that there are a few variations of this logo as you have probably noticed already. We have this one which is has everything. The big one in the center, the we are 16 in all the towns. And then we also have yeah on our shirts you can see it's just the 16 with the hands. And then we also have another variation of it which is over on the side. Um that is actually how it's shown down on the left corner. That is how it's shown on all of the SAU websites. So that would be like the elementary schools, um the high school,

016the middle school, and then also the main SAU website. So that's how it is over there. It's just the same logo, just removing the we are. Um, but I do want to kind of focus on the main one in the center because it does incorporate all of it. And we liked it for the reasons that one, it sends a strong message. And that message being that we are a community and that we're all supporting each other. And we think that the hands really show that. And then also, it is representative to all the communities. We want to make sure that everyone knows that Extter High School isn't just Exit students. It's students from all of these surrounding towns all coming together and it's we really want to make sure that they're all seen and that

017they're all included in this because you know they all they all come here and they all contribute and um it also is bold and recognizable. So um we really wanted to make something that you would just look at and you would know exactly um like what it is and what it stands for. So, we think that this logo accomplishes all of those goals out of all the ones that we had. So, this was the main one that we ended up going with. Um, and then obviously there's different variants of it for different things. Next is the swag ideas. So, um, me being from BFMA and my class in general, we tend to think of the more business side of things. So, we know that something that's really important for a successful rebrand is um to

018promote it. And one of the main ways that a rebrand like this would be promoted is through the merchandise that's sold on the SAU website or for the SAU district. Um so, we came up with some mock items over there. These aren't the exact items that you would see on a store, but um we just really wanted to brainstorm all the different possibilities of things that we think people would want to purchase. So, you can see on the side we have things like sweatshirts, um t-shirts, which um are going to be made. And then we have um like joggers, water bottles, beanies. Um, we were thinking of doing um like the holders for your IDs on the back of your phone, which I don't know that might still happen, but we thought that was cool

019cuz I know and for exit high school students at least, um, you have to show your ID to come into the building. So, we thought of that. Um, but yeah, these are just all the ideas. This website for the apparel isn't open or live right now, but it was open and it will be open again in the future. Um, it's just going to be opened in waved in waves. So, I know all of you guys are probably so excited to get your hands on these items. So, it will be open again around the holidays. It'll be perfect Thanksgiving time. You'll need a new sweatshirt. Be excited about some sweatpants. Um, maybe a hat. And also um what was being said earlier with like the original hands logo that is over an example of it over

020on the um t-shirt on the left and we just wanted to show that. We didn't end up going with that one but we kind of want to show how it evolved. Um I know we were saying that that it was a little busy before um so we just went to the two hands but that was um the original idea that was created. So, uh, lastly, we were tasked with making a poster that could be seen up in the community and in all of the schools representing what SAU16's core values are. Um, this poster is the one that was made before the like final poster that we have now. The only difference between this poster and the poster that is up in the schools now is we moved the word community to the center of the

021board because we wanted people to know that out of all of our values, our biggest thing is community. We are a community. We are a bunch of towns that become one big school. Um but in like the brainstorm process itself um one of the things that we were told to do is come up with like a list of words that like when you think of SIU16 what do you think of and the five most said words were education, friends, supportive, fun, and of course community. So we really wanted to emphasize community. We put a simple outline of a hawk in the background instead of having the big bright hawk that you guys are usually used to. We want something a little like a little more simpler. It's there, but it's not like in your face.

022So, it uh it incorporates who we are as a school and it's going to be place. It'll be seen at like the like the elementary schools, the high schools, the middle schools, and hopefully other places around in our community showing like we're it's not just a school, we are a community. >> So, that's all we have for you guys today. Thank you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. We'll do our best to answer them for you guys. Um, and we hope you enjoy it. >> Great. Thank you. Nice work. It's I appreciate you getting getting up and and talking about this and the process and we get to learn so much about the work that you do in SST. It's so important for us to hear that. And you talk about community,

023all the different communities. We have someone from Eping representing the work which is really neat. Our community extends beyond just our our four or our communities here. So appreciate you doing that. Just anybody have any questions, observations or >> No, I just want to say thank you for not only both coming tonight, but I know the amount of work that you've put in since this project was originally pitched to you. So um great job and um the logo looks awesome. So thank you. >> Yeah, thank you so much. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Job looks great. >> All right, we're going to be shopping on Thanksgiving, so we'll be waiting. Thank you. >> Uh great. So, uh, students, thank you so much for for showing up and and talking. I know that there's activities involved

024tonight and different things. So, if you do need to leave, you're welcome to leave any time now. Um, I know there's some conflict, so that's why we held off public input. So, thank you very much. You're welcome to leave, but you're welcome to stay, too. It's a fun time. >> All the administrators, all the administrators stay all the time. It's great. >> And thank you parents for showing up, too. Uh so with that we're going to move on to public input and our uh so this will we'll keep public uh input open for 30 minutes. Part of our public input tonight will be uh input for unauthorized personal devices policy uh that has been uh implemented in the schools thus far. But we do want to if people want to talk this is a great

025time to talk about uh the personal devices. Otherwise, I will open it up. Just ask if anybody comes to the the uh podium to speak. Uh the mic, just say your name and what town you're from. Open up. [Applause] Hi. I hate this. Okay. Those kids were amazing. You were amazing. And I just want to throw up. Okay. So, my name is Elizabeth Melendi um from Brentwood. So, I'm the I'm going to share some concerns about the grading system. Um I'm the mother of a third grader at Sees and um a seventh grader at CMS. I'm also a pediatrician in the community. Um so, I'm just going to kind of outline my daughter's experience um with the um grading system that we had at Sees that now is being unrolled at um the middle school.

026So throughout um elementary school, my daughter consistently received developing or proficient in math. In sixth grade, she tested into the extended sixth grade math track. The first trimester was a bit of a struggle and she only earned an 81%, but because we had clear objective data, it allowed us to identify specific areas for improvement and work on building stronger study habits. With focused effort, she raised her grade to a 93% in the following two trimesters. She felt proud of her progress and more importantly, she began to see herself as capable in math, something that she hadn't believed previously. This is the heart of my concern. If a student who never received an E or extended learning mark in elementary school math can go on to succeed at an accelerated math track program, then the prior

027grading system clearly failed to reflect her potential. It also impacted her confidence. Competencybased grading lacks nuance and transparency that many students need to understand how their effort directly connects to their outcomes. For many kids, seeing small, measurable growth, like raising her grade from an 81 to a 93, is both motivating and instructive. It gives them something tangible to work toward. To be clear, I am not opposed to competencybased reporting in principle. That's why I advocate for a compromise. Keep your a competency framework and incorporate traditional numerical d grades. Together, these systems can offer both clarity and depth, allowing families and students to engage with feedback in the way that's most meaningful to them. I also want to share something that happened on the second day of school. My daughter came home and said, "Don't worry

028about the new CMS grading system. My math teacher told me that I won't get an E. it's basically impossible. So, I guess I don't have to try hard anymore in math. That moment crystallized my concern. When students believe excellence is unattainable, motivation disappears. And when teachers themselves imply that the highest level of achievement is out of reach, we send a message that trying harder won't make a difference. Let me offer a simple analogy. If you were strength training, would you be more motivated by vague labels like light or heavy or with specific weights in five and 10 lb increments? Nearly every gym uses numerical incremental weight systems for a reason because it helps people set small goals, track their progress, and stay motivated. We already collect numerical data through sumitive assessments, which make up 80%

029of the grade. So why not use this data to increase clarity, not restrict it? Why is there resistance to using both systems when together they could offer a fuller, more motivating picture of student learning? Thank you for your attention. I'm sorry. I don't mean to come off terribly. I really am a nice person and I hate this. I just my heart is on these children and I don't want to teach them mediocrity. I want to teach them excellence. And I know that all of you sitting here are here for that reason, too. And it really is just about my heart. I'm not one of these like parents who tries to like kill my kid trying to get them better and better. I swear I don't. I really thought she was average in math. And then

030at an accelerated program in sixth grade, she got an A in math basically, you know, a good score once she made some changes. and just to see that I thought she was average for six years in elementary school because there was no nuance or clarity about the grading and now I see us slipping back with this new system. So that's my concern. So thank you again for listening. >> Thank you Elizabeth for talking. You did a great job. I love your weight analogy. So, um, >> uh, Allison Higgins, Brentwood, um, I'm going to start positive in the homecoming dance is such a ginormous hit. Um, such a ginormous hit. Um, and I also would like to I said this to Dr. Anderski last uh, week too, but it was super cool to see you and

031Dr. Anderski at the football game. Um, like that's just that's like the culture and community I think that we have been striving for. and to sit in the stands and watch both of you walk in with your families and just sit in the stands and cheer was like super awesome. So, thank you for that. Um, so you guys all know what I'm here for. Um, and I would like to not repeat any of the things that I've said a lot of times. Um, but like this has been going on since elementary school for us. Um, that we have been getting P's and and B's and D's and whatever they are. um that are I think harmful to our kids. Um and I agree with Dr. Melendi that like I'm a I'm an educator too. Like

032I I grade my kids on competencies. Like that's what I do. Um but it's super easy to grade or assess on competencies and also provide transparent grading. Um it's just it's very easy to do. You design your assessments based on the competencies you want your students to achieve and then you grade them on a 100% scale and translate them into a grade. It it it's just not challenging. Um so I don't understand why it seems to be challenging or one is they're not in alignment. Um I have a couple of things to say. Um so mostly I want to ask for some considerations. Um but I first want to just start with the fact that how this came about is not acceptable in SA16. Okay. Um we've been really clear in SA16 that we want

033our leaders to openly communicate. We want things we want stakeholder engagement. We want them um to be socialized. And the fact that something as massive as this got put into the middle of an MTSS uh presentation last year, it was not on the agenda. Um it was not socialized. There was no opportunity to provide feedback until it was too late. Isn't acceptable and we owe our community to do better than that. Okay. Um so having said that, I would like to make a few requests. So going forward, I understand that the only possible way for there to be a change at this point is to wait out the first trimester and then we will have an opportunity opportunity to provide feedback. Um and then perhaps maybe the report card committee is going to be reconvened

034that used to exist back in the elementary school when this happened at the elementary school. So, a couple of things. Um, when the elementary school report card was rolled out a bunch of years back, um, the same kind of feedback process happened after the first report card came out. Um, but the survey that went out was really it was not friendly to parents. Um, it asked like very pointed questions that was only designed to get the feedback that they wanted. Okay. And at Swayazy, we complained about that. Um and we were given an opportunity to invite parents in um and we collected sort of more focus group feedback. We then provided that focus group feedback to the K to5 administrators um or whoever was on the report card team at the time and basically we're

035said thanks for the feedback. We're not interested. And so as a board, I am pleading with you to make this feedback process real, like make sure that real feedback is collected and that it's considered and that when we go back out, you know, into this process that it's socialized before anything else is approved. Um, and I want to like give an example. Um, you know, I I have had, you know, conversations with Dr. Andriski at Nauseum at Nauseium over the past couple months. But one of the things that I teach is, you know, we teach about research and content of validity. And one of the examples I use with my students is an example of marketing research um that Coca-Cola did years ago where uh they uh went out and did market uh market research

036on New Coke. You guys probably remember New Coke. Um and they said, "Do you like this?" And universally everybody liked New Coke. And so Coca-Cola then went back and they took old Coke off the market. They took it off the shelves and replaced it with new Coke. And people were outraged. Like I mean sales dropped tons. And so they had to then go back and say, "Well, we did all this market research." Well, you asked the wrong question. The question is, which Coke do you like better? Like you didn't tell us that you were going to take one away and give us the new one. And so like when we design our survey, our feedback tools to collect it, please make sure that parents have opportunities to really provide feedback. Um make sure that there

037are comment sections in that so that we can provide the feedback that we want for you to consider when you make changes. All right. Um the second um is that um well so I also would just say that so my seventh graders if this is how this is going to work will have three grading systems in their three years at CMS. That stinks. Um and that's quite honestly kind of the chaos that is CMS's reputation. And I love a lot of the CMS chaos. Um, I actually really love the CMS chaos. This is not chaos that I appreciate at all, though. Three grading systems in three years is not okay. So, I think that a great compromise um would be to put the percentages back this year so that kids can have some consistency over

038the time over time and then make the changes for next year or whenever we plan to. Um, and then lastly, I'm going to have some questions um that I would love answers to, and I'm happy to send them to you um to Dr. Andriski, but it has been unclear how E is defined. Um, in all of the communication to parents, it's called extended learning. Um, there have been some teachers that say E is actually the same E as last year's E. Um, so what is an E? I'd like to know truly what an E is. Um, I think that currently there's not a lot of opportunity for extended learning at CMS. So, I hope that it's a it's a last year E and not a new year E, but I'd like to understand that. Um,

039will there be numerical grades um with the letter grades to provide more specificity? Um, one of the conversations that Dr. Andriski and I have had is like, fine, so a P is a three. Can we get a P plus or a 3.5 or a 3.7? Can there be specificity in our grades? Um, you know, the goal is to be like the high school. the high school has specificity in our four-point grades. Um, how will students and parents um know if a P is just barely proficient or highly proficient is I think the important thing. Um, if you are not providing numerical grades, I feel as though what you're doing is trying to remove the homeschool connection um by taking parents like the tools that we use. You know, Dr. Melendy's example is not a com

040not different than a conversation I've had with my own kids. Um and then um next is in seventh it's I think it's called seventh eighth math now used to be seventh grade extension historically only about half of the students get the recommendation to algebra 1. Um and it has generally been based on student performance throughout the year. Um and if the majority of students get a P with no differentiation amongst P's I would like to understand how that recommendation is going to happen. I've had two students in seventh grade extension math. One got the recommendation and one did not get the recommendation for algebra 1 and like we use grades and conversations with those teachers and I could kind of see their trajectory over the course of the year to understand how that recommendation happened.

041Um, and when my my son didn't get the recommendation last year, like I got it. I got it because I could see it over the course of the year and I could have a really good conversation with a teacher and ultimately it was a maturity issue and that's okay. Um, but once again, grades kind of guided that. And I would say the same thing for eighth grade. If everybody's getting a P, how are we differentiating P's that get honors recommendations in in high school and P's that don't get honors recommendations if all we have is a P? Like those are important things that as parents like we look at. Um so how is that all happening? Um and then how are we calculating final grades? Um quite honestly I think assignment grades are more important

042to me but I'd like to understand how we're calculating final grades. like how do you calculate 20% B's and 80% D's and E's? Like I just don't get it. And then like lastly ultimately I like just don't understand why this decision was pushed through. Um you had new leadership coming in. It wasn't you know stakeholders weren't engaged. It wasn't socialized. There's not a lot of extended learning. And so like I do really would love to understand like why the urgency for this to happen when it happened. So thank you. I know I used more than my three minutes, but I appreciate >> you. Thank you, Alison. So, um, this is public input time. If you have something to say, please stand up and say it, but we'll also use some of this time if if

043you'd like to say a couple words. Drew, >> I appreciate it. Um, so I've had multiple conversations with Allison and, you know, went back and looked at uh where some things were at last year. So can't speak of how it was put on the agenda as I wasn't working with the board there, but I do um want to just comment that hopefully things will be much more transparent um so that there is the ability for things to comment uh at board meetings and such when decisions are being made. As I expressed to Allison, really want to take the time to look at where we're at after the first trimester at CMS to gather information, look at what's being reported out, and after that first trimester start bringing our stakeholder groups together to say what's going

044really well and what can we improve on. So, we're definitely hearing your feedback and that will definitely go in there. I've been taking your notes and Dr. Higgins, I would I would like if you would definitely put those notes to myself and Principal Bear still so we can have that so we can work with his administrative team. Um, I think there are some things that we are definitely working on to cleaning up and calibration. What does an E look like in all of our schools? What does a P look like in all of our schools is something that I know Miss Lizzie is working on. Uh, so that we have a common definition throughout all of our elementary schools and then how does that translate into to the middle schools that because that's important. Um,

045I know Mr. Mr. Barto is going to be doing uh updates throughout the first trimester on the grading process and what it means and how things are calculated. Um so those things will happen but I think it is really important and we have discussed you know different times for stakeholders to get together um and after we have those stakeholder groups bringing the report card committee together because is it time for a change at our elementary school to replicate more uh um coherently uh to the middle school report card in that system. So, we'll bring the report card committee together uh in December after we've had our stakeholder groups to get that that feedback, dive through that that feedback, and again, we talked about, you know, validating the survey questions, not asking questions that we think

046we want to hear, but asking questions that's going to help us for self-improvement. Um, from there, we'll start to have other meetings so that when we get to May that we can make a a full presentation with vetted conversations and and inclusion of all stakeholder groups for uh suggested changes that we'd be making uh for the following year. So that is really the process and the timeline. I know people are why can't you do it sooner? Well, we've been preparing. We've been doing work and to stop something mid-stream uh unless it's, you know, fully harmful to our kids. I I don't think this is where that's at right now. Um but after first trimester, we might have more information that we might need make some changes more quickly. But as that's really the process that

047we've talked about and I think giving our our our administration and our teachers time to work through it and also give more time for more parents to give input is really um needed and and encouraged throughout this process. So please continue to give us your your feedback. Please give us your support and we're open to it. So we are not going to just say thank you. We we heard you and we're not going to do anything with it. We're definitely going to take those suggestions. So, I just want that out for the whole community that if there is comments, you're you're welcome to give them to myself and and uh Principal Baristo and his administration so that we can continue to build those that database of suggestions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, uh

048Trisha Kanty Brenwood. Um I just have one comment to make. Um I only have one child and I remember attending the first report card soy meeting about four years ago and basically the same exact comments. Um one thing that I personally saw was that the it's so vague the grading system is so vague that it makes it difficult for parents to pinpoint if children need additional services. And personally I was a victim of not a victim but that happened to me. you know, just being so unclear and not having other children to like learn from just seeing those first report cards for the first couple years. I didn't understand how, you know, delayed she was. And I think if it's more um concrete and more clear, I think parents that need the intervention will see

049it themselves first through the report cards and then they can, you know, reach out to the schools because that wasn't clear to me and I think I waited a little too long. Thank you. I appreciate everybody's input around that. Um, we're gonna we're going to continue forward, but again, if someone had something, please just raise your hand, let me know. But, uh, we have a special guest here tonight. Uh, Christine Ashen, would you are you ready? Willing. >> Yes. >> I just have to connect. >> All right. Super the next Not sure if it's ready. I don't know. >> This might be want to go through the minutes. >> Yeah. Is it? Yeah. I was going to say Okay. Let's Yeah. Let's I I agree. Let's use this uh time. We'll give you just a

050couple minutes here. So, uh there are uh public minutes that were sent out in our packets and I want to see if there um first get any are there any changes anybody would like any observations that someone >> uh one minor change section seven committee reports 7.2 policy committee says three revisions and one being retired and it looks like there are six revisions I think just replace three with six. Okay. Excellent. Any other comments? All right. Excellent. So, I'll ask for a vote to uh approve the minutes from >> a >> motion. A motion. I'm sorry. A motion for June 17th. >> Make a motion to accept the uh public minutes for June 17th as amended. >> I have a second. All right. Great. Thank you. Um all those in favor, please raise your hand.

051>> Say I. Just so we get it on. Yeah. >> All right. And then all those um abstaining >> abstaining. Yeah. Uh and I think that captures everyone. Okay. Great. >> You were in attendance. I think >> Oh, I was not. Yes. So, there's two obsessions. I'm sorry. I was not in attendance for that. Yes. Got it. >> And then uh and then there are uh non-public minutes. Mhm. >> I'll make a motion to approve the non-public minutes on June 17th. >> Great. >> I'll second. >> All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand say >> I. >> All right. Abstaining. >> I >> got it. Good. Thank you for that. >> All right. Looks like she is ready. song. >> This is my baby. >> Excuse me. Okay, so keeping my fingers

052crossed the audio connects. Um, I'm Christine Hodston. I am the art teacher, one of the art teachers over at the middle school. And I had the privilege of doing a sbatical from January through June, although I extended it kind of through the summer. Um, the reason why I did a video for tonight instead of doing like a like talking about what I did is I really tried to connect what our kids are learning in school to what careers do outside of school. So, I interviewed quite a few people in the service industry and kind of incorporated their their like little tiny bits of their interviews. Their interviews were quite long. So, I did little snippets and of course my kids are like, "Mom, the connections aren't super great, but at least it gives you an

053idea of what the interviews like what they were saying through it." So, hopefully this will work. And if not, I can I can always try the the microphone. >> Okay. >> I museums and galleries to explore how visual thinking strategy or VTS program is used. The ages of these students range from kindergarten to medical school to senior citizens at local assisted living facilities. My role was both as an observer as well as a facilitator. Whenever anyone inquired about what I was doing during my sbatical, I was always enthusiastic, remarking on what an impressive program BTS was. It developed so many lifelong skills for people of all ages and engaging all who attend a session. BTS was developed in the early 1990s by Philip Yanowan of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Abigail

054House from Harvard University. The program was designed to help participants of all ages engage deeply with art, developing such skills as careful observation and attention to detail, communication, empathy, creative thinking, critical thinking, active listening, appreciating art, increased vocabulary, and collaboration and teamwork. work. In today's world, research has shown that employees are lacking critical employability skills of communication, creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking. Additionally, students are constantly asking us how what they are learning has any relevance to what they will need to know after they graduate. My goal was to hopefully bridge that gap of understanding that these employability skills that they're learning in their classes are the key to developing them as human beings outside of school. BTS provides all those skills using three simple questions. What's going on in this picture? What do you

055see that makes you say that? What more can we find? During VTS, there were so many remarkable interactions taking place. For example, let's take a look at Madison Albanesey's painting. What do you see circled in yellow? Participants generated five different interpretations of a single object. Each explanation was reasonably and respectfully debated. Here are some comments from second graders about the artwork shown. It's a carnival. What do you see that makes you say it's a carnival? There are a lot of people, colors, crowds, and horses. Another student. There is a girl standing on a horse. There's a rope to help her balance. The dude with a mustache is magical. The facilitator asks, "What do you see that makes you say the figure is magical? He is dressed up like a magician and there's a mime behind."

056Another student. There's a guy holding a yellow thing. His hands are up. Maybe a statue. I think it's the circus. The facilitator asks, "What do you see that makes you say it's a statue?" The student replies, "It looks like it's something he's supposed to be holding and his skin tones match." A fourth student says, "I politely disagree. The hands lifting up. The skin tones don't match." The facilitator asks, "What do you see that makes you say the skin tones don't match up?" The student replies, "The person's face and hands are different colors." VTS is so versatile that you can literally fit it into any curriculum or any subject at school. From teaching claims and reasoning in ELA to using historical images to make inferences in social studies. Hopefully, you can see how passionate I am

057about using BTS and will be able to inspire other staff members of different subject areas to do so as well. Bluehawk 101, which I teach, is a perfect place for VTS, and students are learning self-direction, collaboration, communication, creativity, and independent inquiry. Advisory staff will be welcome to come in and participate using BTS with their advisory students. And in March of 2026, I plan to offer a two-part workshop demonstrating BTS with art and then using the same process to look at historical images in a piece of literature. For community partnerships, I will be relaunching community art club, which is our afterchool art program at CMS that we engage in with Langden Place residents, fostering creativity, community service, appreciation of artwork, and connection across all ages. I will also continue my collaboration with the Levy Gallery in

058the New Hampshire Art Association in Portsouth. Since so many occupations use the same skills that are developed through BTS, it is important for students to hear this information. My research primarily focused on medical students and those in the service agencies. I visited Yale Medical School in the art museum, observed BTS going on with nurses from Salem Hospital at the Peabody Essex Museum, and I interviewed Dr. Susie Sarpidy who trained students at Boston University's medical center using BTS. After this, I have included excerpts from interviews that I conducted with service workers in order to be able to share and essentially prove to students how important these skills are in their learning and development. >> My name is Elizabeth and I'm a registered dental hygiene. >> My name is Heidi Stevens and I'm a physical therapist. I

059work at Exitter Hospital. >> I am the specialty that concentrates on restoring new tooth form structure. >> Communication for sure cuz you have to communicate with your employees, your employer, patience, um empathy, um teamwork, time management is also very important. You're organized, your time management is a lot better. Um, you just have to be open-minded to there's all sorts of different people out there. So, you have to be just open-minded to everybody is different, have different problems, different health issues, different concerns. Um, I think the lots of things play into my job. Um, critical thinking, um, really good listening skills. I can spend 15 minutes just talking to a patient and I have a really good idea just from that already what my goals are. So then it's sort of um changing gears and thinking

060in the moment and um moving on to a plan B. So kind of having plan A, plan B, and plan C in your head. Um as you're moving along with the patient, lots of observation in what I do. Um in fact, I can't turn it off. I was walking my dog here next to her this morning and I passed a woman and she had a little bit of a limp and so I just can't turn it off on my head. I'm watching her walk away and I'm thinking about um you know what could be her injury. Is it I'm not kind thinking it was her hip based on what is some of the things I was seeing and sort of it just you just kind of can't turn it off. You you learn a lot

061just by watching people. Um and knowing what you've know learned in your past and and seeing people can kind of help predict you know future things. um effective, clear communication so that you're doing right by your patient and you're um you know, you're part of that team of of helpers and I'm interacting and talking and we're all there to um you know advance people. We're all there to make a difference, to make people better. And you better believe that you have to be able to, you know, communicate clearly, you know, professionally, respectfully, um, and and work as a team to get the job done. >> Yeah. I think, you know, in whatever you're doing, whatever field you're in, we certainly know this in healthcare is, um, having empathy, you know, hearing what the P and

062there's part of with listening, listening to your patient. They are telling you, they are telling you their story. And while I may have never broken my ankle, I can empathize. Boy, this is really hard. When people feel heard and they feel like people are trying to understand their situation, that goes a long way in creating kind of a really be compassionate, care for your patients. You kind of have to have a lot of empathy because it's hard to be in the down chair. Um, so being nice to your patient and doing the work is is the key. Making p make sure patients are comfortable and that they feel confident in your care and that you're going to do the best for them is super important. So that would bring me to communication, right? You need

063to be a good communicator. Everyone feels more comfortable and less stressed. That's a big part of it. When you can explain things and show that you have control of the situation and that you know it well. Being empathetic means your ability to feel what other people are feeling. Knowing what each patient wants and needs to feel the most comfortable. I enjoy I enjoy doing that. Connecting with people is very important. Being a boss means you have to deal with multiple people's other emotions, their good days, bad days, and you're a captain of the ship. You keep the ship sailing smoothly. There's going to be waves and storms. You're the one who's like, "Got this. No problem." >> My name is Chris Winell. I'm 36 years old. I'm originally from Atinson, New Hampshire. And now I

064am a firefighter for the Exit Fire Department. My name is Justin Paison and I'm the fire chief for the town of Exod. >> What do you feel are the five most important skills that you use for your job? >> Uh so I'd say first and foremost communication. Um and then that goes into teamwork. Um and active listening which are the two other words that I think are important too. So um as we're going to the call, we're we're actively listening to dispatch give us giving us updates. I'm actively listening to my captain on what he's expecting from me and the other people in the truck with us so we can all kind of divian that leads to teamwork when we show up to scenes. If we don't work to a scene, if we don't work

065as as a team, then um obviously it's not going to go as well as it could be. And another word would be dependability because um what goes along with team work is uh you know you gain teamwork and team commodity by being able to depend on each other. And then I think the last part of it kind of going to towards a different route would be empathy because at the end of the day uh with all that being said of what we're doing we do respond to some pretty serious situations and have to deal with uh either the patient or or family members of the patient. Um and you need to have empathy with those people but you also need to have empathy with the people that you're working with because of what we see.

066So you need to remember that. Um and my days are usually filled with decision making with communication. There is a lot of questions and answers on a daily basis that have to be done. And obviously I've been here a really long time. So I have an institutional knowledge that I've brought with me over the course of 20 plus years. It's just put me in a good position to be able to make those decisions. >> Obviously leadership was one of the ones um from a leadership perspective is something I certainly embrace. I'm I'm steering the ship for, you know, 30ish other people. Um, communication is an obvious one. Communication is what I do every day of the week. During the daytime, there is constant communication with everybody and decision- making on what are the best steps

067forward. Public speaking is probably the most important skill that I've overlooked my entire life. They all applied to me. If you look at the list of words you provided, there was probably 15 or so or 20. And literally every one of those words I could apply in some way to my daily daily work. Um I mean open-mindedness, flexibility, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork. I mean I time management. I mean I this is this is probably do these if not daily. We're doing them all within a week for sure. If you have empathy, it allows you to treat and respect people regardless of what their background is. And I think that's something that could be easily overlooked. >> So a lot lot of listening, a lot of empathy and um that kind of relationship building. And

068I think you could that could be said for just about any profession. >> Yeah. [Music] So, I hope that I didn't overstep with the with the interviews for people, but I felt like those were so critical for the students to hear. Um, because again, we hear it all the time as teachers, like why are we doing this? Why do we have to do this? Like, how is it going to help us in whatever we're doing in life? And this is like the perfect example. And the VTS program focuses. I hope you were able to capture those. All the skills you do in VTS are just I mean I could list 15 different things that are so important. And there there's three questions you ask the students. So I'm hoping that in the future um I

069will be able to get some more people on board. I've been trained in this, so I can do it with my students, but um I would love to be able to get some more staff kind of involved in doing it. And I know Drew, you're totally on to this. So, um thank you so much. I I really from the bottom of my heart, I cannot express how appreciative I am of the the district for allowing me to do this sobatical. I was I was um saying that besides having my children, this was like one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. So, um, do you all have any questions? >> I'm a big fan of the sabbatical program. Looks like you had a fabulous one. >> Thank you. >> You mentioned going out and

070helping, you know, essentially sharing your knowledge. Is there a plan for doing that? I saw that in the elementary school. Someone came back from a sobatical was had a very effective experience and it it spread nicely through our schools. What's the >> Yes. So, I teach Well, I I teach art. So, I I will be doing this program in my art classroom. And then I also teach Bluehawk 101, which is with our sixth graders. And I actually did it the other day. I had some time to do it with them. And even the students who have not said anything this year, they were participating and they were like we could have done it for an hour. They were so into it. Um, so continuing to do it through Bluehawk, um, advisory, encouraging other staff members

071to come down and kind of work with us. >> How do you do that part? Getting the rest of the your your teammates. >> So, my goal is to offer it up to like have them come down and just kind of like go over this with them and kind of see if it's something they might be interested in doing with this with their own students. Um, the VTS program really likes for people to be trained in their program because it looks easy as a facilitator to go up. I wouldn't give any information about the artwork um when I'm doing a facilitative discussion. So, it's really like you're staying neutral. You're you're um rewarding things like you're you're rephrasing like when someone gives um their observation instead of like saying, "Oh, wow. That's fantastic. You try

072to stay neutral so that everyone feels like they can participate without any judgment. And then um you're also paraphrasing things back to them and you're trying to increase vocabulary like oh I see that you notice the the contrast between these two things or you're you're noticing you're in a setting. The setting is like built in the mountains. like those kinds of things that the kids necessarily didn't pick up on, but when you start introducing those terms, they really start to take those and and pull them further into their writing and speaking and things. >> So, yeah. Did I answer your question? Okay. >> Okay. And then I I'm going to be doing a workshop in um for the staff for the SAU in March. >> Nice. >> Yeah. Yes. Thanks, Aaron. >> As a member

073of the um committee, I'm glad I'm so glad that you got to do this. >> Thank you. I'm glad that you're back. >> Thanks. Me, too. I know. I love being back. >> Thanks. Anything else? >> I am. >> Yeah, Don. Thanks. >> Um, so is this system something that you've been aware of for quite some time or is it something you you learned about as you were talking about sobatical? I wasn't on that committee, so I don't know how >> Yeah. >> came about for you. >> No, it's really interesting. I um my husband teaches in um Danver's Mass, and the art teacher like that was there a while ago. bless you. Um, she was doing it in VT like in her classroom like ages ago. It's been around since the '9s. And so

074I had come down and I was really fascinated with the program, but I didn't really do anything about it. And then when I was getting my master's um in 2023 for my thesis, I had to do a research project. And while I was doing my research project, it was talking about these skills that they were doing in medical schools like with Harvard and Yale and all these big huge medical um stu like medical students were doing it and I was like that is fascinating like how they were using artwork with these medical students like I didn't you know I didn't conceptualize how that would even work and then the more research I did about BTS I'm like this is incredible. And I saw it in action like I was at Yale when the medical students

075were actually the older medical students were doing VTS with their younger medical students. So that was really they train them and then they kind of pass it along. >> Awesome. >> So yeah, it's pretty it's pretty impressive. >> Yeah. Thanks. Any other questions? >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I took too much time, but >> I appreciate it. Yes. >> Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Great job. >> We hope to see you again. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I I'll take Yeah. >> Nice job. >> Great. All right. With that, we'll move on to superintendent. >> Sure. >> First thing I have is so this summer I've walked um the campus, the SAU campus with um Chair Gothier. Um if

076you recall about 5 years ago there was a study of that campus and what we do and how long our systems would be able to be maintained uh and the renovation project for the SAU where senior leadership teams facilities adult ed um GBEX it's on two different uh systems. So right now if the heating were to go, which is the old steam boiler system that's underground running from where uh the facilities department is over to adult education were to go, we would have a massive delay in being able to keep that part of the building heated. Um so we're lucky we have a great team and they keep that going and they're finding parts uh everywhere to be able to keep that going, but there is going to be a time where that system is

077going to fail. Um so knowing that I don't want to be at the tail end of where we're not going to be able to heat adult education, our facilities or GBEX. Um we are fortunate enough that the heating system on our side where senior leadership is running down the hallway to SST is on a different system. So we'd still be able to have it, but we'd have a whole wing of our of our um campus that would not have heat. Um, so knowing that, um, I talked to Chair Gothier and we started thinking about how could we maximize this space and we do have space at SST where we don't have classrooms or we're using it right now to house GEX. Um, so what I would asked is if we were to um this board

078to authorize $30,000 for us to have a facility study of what it would cost to be able to move our offices up into SST so that we could actually look at not being in a system where we'd be able to have that old part of the B building and possibly able to sell it off to um people in the area. Um, I think there is a campus right next to us that's very interested in in extra space um that we could partner with, but again, I would like to put numbers and dollar figures that is not to where it was about the $12 million renovation. Um, I think we can do it for cheaper because it that was never an option that was looked at. So today we did work walk through with our director

079of facilities uh Brian Sans and a couple of different uh general contractors just looking at the spaces and we do have a number of spaces that we feel that could accommodated at a much lower price but I'd want to do a full study that I could bring back to this board that possibly could be put into a warn article and then some other offshoot if we were able to sell uh portions of the of the SAQU current building. So that if you need more information I'd be glad to bring that back to you. Um, but it's something I think that this board and what we would have we should be doing our due diligence to look at other options of where we'd want that our offices to be in the future. >> Do you want

080a motion from us tonight? >> Uh, if you feel comfortable, if you if you feel like you need more information, I'd be glad to bring that back for October. Um, so it's really what the the uh the will of the board. I did work with Molly. there is um there is the ability in the current budget because this wasn't something we planned for to be able to do it without an impact going over and looking at some savings that we had um and some other line areas for this year. >> So you're hoping to move the senior leadership team into the SST. >> So in the SST building, yep, up in the second floor there is a number of classroom spaces uh from old programs cuz that used to be the old high school that

081are not needed for the SST program. uh and that would not impact when we're looking at bringing the new program on uh Tammy as as you recall. So this would be totally separate and and we believe we could fit all of our um current offices in the spaces that are up there right now uh just through a renovation project. So to do that just want to make sure that the current HVAC system that runs through SAT could handle those additional classrooms or additional uh office spaces uh and then look at uh access into entry points uh and then look at any other systems. So that's what that study would be is can we move it what would it look like for um for a cost and there anything else that we would need in regards

082to our systems for operations in that in that center. >> So which section are you going to try to sell? Uh I would look at the entire where uh we are at um so the offices of the SAU all the way down because there's a door that holds off that section and then where adult is because we would look at maybe looking at other options for adult education as well and then where GBEX is all of those classroom spaces in GEX. Once that that steam boiler system goes, we're going to need to do some massive upgrades um that I think will outweigh the cost to move and look to have someone else probably purchase that and look at it for other uses. >> So, what does that mean for GBEX? >> I've already talked with

083GBex. They're on a year-to-year lease. They are actually looking at a a facility of their own. Um so, I've talked with their board and so this year the the lease we had was only for one year. This again would not be a project that we would be able to start for a couple of years. So, we'd work with them, but I've made them very well aware that uh that we might be looking at spaces in in different capacities. And so, they they're very well aware of that for this year and for the upcoming years >> because they they provide a great service for our community and I hate to absolutely hit short shift. >> Yep. Yep. So, I've been very upfront and transparent and so um you know, Cheryl Mcdana who also serves on our

084boards, it works very closely and she was like, I understand and they actually think they're outgrowing some of that spaces. So, they are looking for their own space uh um before I even started that conversation. So, uh, earlier this summer, Chris and I walked that space. And the space is certainly looks appropriate to, uh, to to move over. And just to give I've been on the board for a while, so to give some history is that that that whole building, we've always said, well, what do we do with it? There's been multiple studies. >> How can we utilize that space uh, and still have not have the budget impact? because if that space doesn't go well, the the negative of that is that we're still responsible as a board for that facility. So, this is

085one way to take a look and say, well, can we use it? And what we're not using, can we have someone else take over and be responsible for? So, in a long term, this this could be a win for the community versus having something that's not not usable. >> Where is the money coming from if we approve this? So again, that would be something if we would raise it, put on as a warrant article, you know, if we do >> no for the 30 grand for the um >> out of our operating budget, >> you know, >> and we have that available at this >> Molly and I looked at the operating budget and there's different line items that we know that we're going to have a cost savings based on what we projected and

086what actuals will be at this time. So we feel comfortable that $30,000 would not impact the budget in any way. >> It feels really early to know that we have $30,000 extra and and why we would have $30,000 extra. That's right. already included in the budget. >> Great. Eric, you got something? >> I was going to ask, how did you arrive at the $30,000 figure? >> Uh because when I've worked with some other firms before doing a facility study, um that has been the number and I I talked to a couple other uh contractors of what they would provide that this is their business and they said yes, $30,000 would be appropriate enough time to be able to to look at spaces, do your architecture, look at your different systems. So, um, that was part

087of the industry trade and having conversations with people about a project of this size. >> Okay. So, they give you specifics with that for $30,000. They lay all that stuff out. So, they give you a lot of specifics of what the cost would be. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Chris, does it also include uh the Tuck building, the original brick tuck building as what would be sold as well? >> Correct. Okay. >> Yep. So, it's basically everything from that tuck building out down to where the uh gymnasium is part of SST because that is used. >> So, the Talba gym as Taba gym would not be touched. We'd keep that because that is for voting and it does get a lot of community use and it has a different access point that I think would

088would not interfere with what we're trying to do. >> Ma, do you want to say something? >> Oh, no. I was just going to say, so if you remember in the cooperative budget, we have the line. It's about $500,000 for the project line. So, part of this would be using some of that money. That's what that money is meant for. Um, but also we do have some savings in transportation because, um, as you all know, we have a driver shortage. So, we're not running the full fleet of buses. So, we um do have a little bit of savings in transportation as well, but the majority of it would come from that 500,000. I think it's actually 565,000 there this year on that project line. And that's what that project line is for for projects like

089this. >> That makes sense. Thank you. >> And and we don't have any other building projects going on at this point. We're not >> not for the cooperative. No. Um, so, uh, you know, we don't have to have we could we could wait to vote next time, right? If if we do that, then what what would we need to know as a board to feel confident moving forward? >> I'm I'm good with tonight actually. >> Okay. And that that's good too. Yeah, that's just want to make sure that we're >> just one more question. Are you looking to have a bond possibly this March for this or the following? >> Um, again, it's based on the timing, the amount of work. I think that will come out of that study and what this board feels,

090you know, comfortable in time. Again, I don't think we rush it just to get it on there. But at some point, either this March or next March, I think we would have a bond. Um, and but going another year, I think then we can look at what would might be interested and partners that we'd have to offset maybe that purchase that we might not even need a bond. >> Yeah. My concern would only be that the timeline for letting the community know about the possibility of selling or renovating. I think it's a great idea that that build that section of the building is really old and it's going to be costly to repair and it's never going to be what we really need. But I'm just afraid that if we try to put it on

091a bond this March, it won't it won't pass. I think we need a little bit more conversation with the community and let them know what we're thinking. >> Any other observations from the board? >> I guess my only comment would be that um I also have heard about this for a long time, so I'm not surprised at all to hear you say it. If there are any members though that are concerned, we probably should give it until next month to let people digest it and possibly ask further questions. I just don't want anybody to feel like this came out of left field. So, if anybody has those reservations, we could wait. But I agree with you, Neil. I mean, I've heard about this for a while. >> Melissa, >> um I guess I'd prefer to

092wait. Um, but I I'd also kind of like to do the same tour that um that you did just to kind of get a better understanding of what we're looking at and where you'd be moving and um does it have the same sort of kind of access for the public? >> Um that would be something there there is an access point so we just have to make it we'd have to just jazz it up a little bit but there is a separate uh >> because I guess in my head I'm not really >> Yeah, we didn't want seeing all the pieces where they'd move. So, I I'd prefer >> I didn't see it till I walked it this summer and I'm like, "Oh my goodness, we have space." And I think we could save a

093lot of money. >> Yep. >> By doing it this way. So, I'd be glad to give a tour in the meantime before the next meeting if that would help people visualize the space and what we're looking at. Um I think that would be very helpful because I I know it was for you like >> it was. Yeah. >> Yeah. Right. Because the the facility the spaces you're in now were renovated fairly recently, right? Right. I mean, they weren't >> within the last 15 years, I believe. Yeah. >> Yep. Okay. >> So, I think that could be a good next step. >> Do you have the old reports from previous studies? >> I I don't have them with me physically. I can definitely >> something you could share with us. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Because

094I believe also have been hearing about this for the last >> six plus years. Um I think we are all prepared and I bet a lot of the community is has heard that the offices are inadequate, that they're almost beyond repair. So, I don't know that this will be a total shock to the community, >> but I think that it was a a really big ticket item, >> and this sounds like a conservative way >> to accomplish an end goal. >> The recommendation from that committee was to renovate and change everything in the campus. >> Yeah. And that's 1920. >> Yeah. And this would be pick and move. Yeah. And then look at um >> Yeah. So, maybe if we could see the big project so that we can have that in mind. looking at

095a smaller version. >> Yeah, I think if we could see some of those former studies, it'd be helpful to know how how costly that was because I think some people think you're going to sell off this property in these buildings and it's going to bring in money and lower, >> right? Kingston did it a few years ago with this, you know, their buildings and got nothing. So, um I think it's important for people to know that that it's not a >> probably not an income source. So, it it sounds like a good plan moving forward be to can we set up a tour? Yep. For board members to see the space um and then just get the plan so that we can take a look. So, when we come back together next time, we'll be

096more prepared to put a good vote forward. Does that sound >> Yep. >> Sounds good. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. The only other thing I just wanted to bring up is um and I know um director Vodto will cover it in kind of her report and did but uh in when we're doing budgeting this year u because of federal monies and how how impactful it is to our adult education program. We were really concerned. Monies came in super late this year. Uh to the point where Michelle was meeting with myself and Molly and saying, "How do we run programmings?" Unfortunately, we've had some cost savings. So, we would have been able to run programs this year, but there were other adult education centers in New Hampshire that were not going to be able

097to run programs or waiting for the money to come in to be able to start their their programming. I think we even started a little bit later than we normally did because of how late the monies came in. Knowing that federal fund monies could be cut, we will be looking to add money into the cooperative budget of $113,000 this year so that we can continue to offer the program that we offer to our students. Uh because it is impactful and and Michelle did a great job of providing numbers and and looking at how many u people use that both in high school now to continue to finish their their uh their degree and then the adult learners that we have that access that program not just for enrichment but for other things as well. So,

098just wanted to highlight that and that is going to be a budgetary um issue uh budgetary increase that you will see, but I think it is needed and it's valuable and it supports the work that we do with with all our community. >> Absolutely. >> So, those are the only two big updates that I wanted to highlight today from the superintendent's report. Then, I know you got a copy of all the administrative reports and thank you for putting those together so concisely, but I don't know if there was any specific questions that you had for any of the administrators uh here today on their reports. No. Did you Did you ask did you did they want to report out and then >> we wanted to leave it up to you if you wanted to report

099out or if if people were comfortable. >> But the writing was great. If you want to say a couple words, we'd love to hear from you. You're here. You've been waiting so long and so patiently. I don't want to disappoint. >> So, what are you going to do first? >> You want to go? >> Adam, you want to kick us off? >> Yeah. Let me just uh open up the report real quick. >> Oh, you just closed down. Well, now we're going to make it. Yeah. >> All right. Um, it has been a great start over uh at SST. Um, what are we three weeks in now? Um, you know, our ad drop period has ended. So, without any really strange scenarios. Um, you know, we kind of have our enrollment, our roster set. Um,

100you know, our teachers have worked over the first few weeks to, you know, go through all the orientation materials really before the students, you know, get into the curriculum and the shops and the job sites and and off-site experiences, things of that nature. Um, so, uh, we are sitting at, uh, just above 630 students right now. Um, just over 45% of those students are, uh, from here at Exit High School. of that September 11th date was the day for last day for add and drop. Um and then just some cool things that are happening. Um our animal uh and plant science program uh last weekend had uh some FFA members attend the Big E. Um and actually what's kind of cool about FFA is a few of them had already graduated, but you can continue

101um down that road even after the high school graduation. And then we had a bunch of current students um head down on Saturday. Very early morning, 4:00 a.m. uh departure time. Had a fairly late night back. I think they got back around 10:00. Um but had a great experience. Um you know, we're able to meet a lot of new people. Um on Thursday of next week, um we have three programs. Our engineering program, building construction technologies, uh and welding technologies. They attend the New Hampshire construction career day event which is held up in uh New Boston on their fairgrounds up there. Um and there's businesses and schools that you know kind of incorporate all three of those programs. Um it's just a great experience for the kids. They do everything from the engineering world to

102um driving and operating heavy machinery uh and every everything in between. Uh then on the 26th uh Friday um our animal plant science students head to the Deerfield Fair um and they'll do a whole variety um of events from uh learning how to judge dairy cattle to um a bunch of them volunteer at the ice cream stand uh to you know give back and you know make some money for the FFA program. And then on uh the 2nd of October um Sandy Quattney me and some of our students from the business finance uh and marketing academy uh they have their decall leadership conference at UNH um and DECA is the CTSO career um tech student organization that is part of uh that program um and there'll be guest speakers there'll be different events that they

103participate observe and compete um and really just build their capacity um you know within SST and really as as leaders um you know within those fields. Um and then lastly in the report um talked about October 9th um we have two each program has two advisory um meetings a year. Their advisory board meet our first one is an all advisory board uh where every program's advisory meet. We collectively meet every program, every advisory board um for the first half of it. Um and then they break out into the specific programs uh and their advisory board meets. Um there's some dinner, there's some question, there's some goal setting. Um and really just some good conversation. >> Lot going on. >> Yeah, there's a lot going on. >> Yeah. >> But it's great. >> Thank you. >>

104Hi. Hey, >> this is my first time with you guys. >> I know. I did. >> Thanks for having me. I know. It's been a really nice welcome. It's been a super fun start of the year, I have to say. I mean, I I love Main Street School and I had a great time in Exodar, but the kids here are wonderful. Our staff is awesome. There's really, from my perspective, a lot of enthusiasm about some of our plans, some of our start of the school meetings. So, I'm just feeling really excited about it. So, I mean, you heard some of the students talk. We we've been talking just about our climate and culture in general and how do we build traditions and honor some of the voice of what our community has been asking for

105and students and staff. So there's been lots of planning of how do we create memories for kids and make this a place that kids are excited about coming to and and building those stories. So that's been a piece of it. We worked on ad drop was which was a little bit of a change. Um and so we've been collecting data on what that means and helping us build our master schedule going forward. We partnered with SST because that was some of SST's um problem of their master schedule is how many kids were changing that first week of school instead of having them run their schedules and trying to give that a go. So, we've been meeting to talk about was that effective. It looks like it was, but we've just been having lots of conversation

106about the impact of all those decisions. Um Drew and I are both starting a Best Buddies chapter that was in my notes. I'm trying to recall some of the things that I put in there, but it is a really cool program that I had the honor of working at a school that was Best Buddy School in Arizona. And so you have students who um have pretty specific learning disabilities. And the research on those children finding friends in school is fairly low. And so this is intentionally finding students to match with some of our low cognitive students so that we can build activities and authentic friendships inside and outside of school. And so there's some really cool um actually I had a question about it when I came. I met with our special education directors about

107if we have anything like this and at the same time I had two different students who are not closely connected email me and ask about best buddies. So it was just like the perfect timing of this world coming together. And then when we met she said that she had been talking to the middle school and they were also looking at starting a chapter. So there will be some nice consistency as kids come up and hopefully build some really nice friendships. Um, and that just leads into we do have our club fair coming up and lots of opportunities for kids to hopefully get involved in other extracurriculars and what we have to offer. I attended the NHIAA um meeting recently and Chris was there as well and we recognized coaches who have given 25 years of

108service and we had a handful here. That's a lot of years to be giving to coaching and impacting students and so that was really fun to recognize them and have their names called and them go up and get their certificates. And then we also um were recognized for being the D1 school to to win the sportsmanship banner which is the hugest kudos in this area because other teams vote and so they picked exit as having great fans, great student athletes. It really is a community award and so it's it's a very prestigious award. So that was exciting that we won that. So thank you to everybody not just our coaches and students but it's really a community effort. Uh we are planning up. It's going to be a very busy week next week for homecoming.

109It's not just football. There's lots of games home and away. And then um we do have our staff softball game. We have our dance. It's just going to be a really fun week and busy week. So hope to see you at some of those events. >> I was just announced that our fall play is coming out. I believe it's Little Women if I heard correctly. Um so that's fun. I love Little Women. So hopefully we'll have lots of students participating in that. And outside of that, I just want to share that we've been talking about our school goals. And I like I mentioned, there's climate culture, but also one of our goals is to make sure that we have student representation and voice and all of our decision- making moving forward. And so that's been

110fun to pull kids in to hear what their perspectives are in areas that they that they think that we could grow in. And then um we're also working on some really high quality tier one programming across all of our courses. And so we're using our professional development time to talk about what are some common learning experiences for kids in all of algebra 1 or in all of English one. and what are the expectations and how do we know that kids are making progress and what do we do if kids are struggling or if kids have already mastered those concepts how are we stretching them so we're having really good conversations as a staff about how to do that and some alignment there that I'm excited about and then we also have hired some we've had

111some great hires permanent subs and some paras and so we've had some nice people that have joined our team and that feels very exciting >> great love your energy coming into school this is so great thank you so much for being here uh update and the sportsmanship award is a great thing. And I noticed when you were talking about the softball, you pointed to Drew, but I realized that Drew >> might be sitting out. >> It's a copout. >> You didn't want to play. >> There you go. Way to go. >> My turn. >> Yeah, your turn. >> I always have a hard time following up on our our students that come in. They do such an awesome job. Um, so a couple things that they didn't necessarily mention like behind the scenes kind of

112things are two main priorities that CMS continue to be uh community building and school culture and social emotional learning along with um differentiation in in learning uh and instruction where our staff they're really diving into the second question in uh professional learning communities which is how will we know students are learning what we want them to learn which really gives us um the opportunity to really dive into our competencies, excuse me, and um be able to provide really specific feedback on what kids are are learning and um um and then sort of cross reference one teacher's perspective with another teacher's perspective to ensure that we're assessing those things similarly. Um so that's uh we did a lot of that work last year and we really we're going in um even deeper this year um and

113moving forward uh in that sense. Kids told you that the I Ready diagnostic assessments uh were just taken at the end of last week. So, we're wrapping up um uh that this week. And uh just a quick report out on the um personal communication devices. I think we've had literally like one um incident this this whole school year. So, excellent. Um inquiring minds want to know. It's it's kind of a nothing burger. I think it was really a a community um based thing that sort of rolled out over the course of the summer. The kids came in kind of just knew that that's the way it is. Um so from my perspective, it's been really smooth and I appreciate the help and support of families and the community and in making that happen. Um and

114those are really the biggest things. We've got open houses coming up uh the next three Wednesdays. Um and something that I think is is percolating right now is a partnership between the middle school and um SST. Uh we're trying to uh in the burgeoning phases of creating a career um focused after school program. Um so we've got a lot of interest from families um in creating something there. So it'll take a little bit of time to come to fruition, but we're hoping towards the spring that's when we'll be able to start um rolling something like that out. >> That's awesome. Um, >> that's great. >> I think those are the the big ticket items that are >> great. There's a lot going on. Yeah, the students said a lot of things. The one thing they

115did not mention is that they they came back to school and they to take the I Ready testing, >> right? Why didn't students talk about that? What an exciting thing to get back and take testing right away. I just surprised they didn't mention that. >> We'll set you up. >> Oh, great. >> I forgot something really important. One, well, two things actually. We have our open house on Thursday and we have three finalists for um National Merit Scholars and so we're going to be recognizing them is it's a really big deal. So we have three that's awesome. >> Wow. >> That's so good. >> Nice. Thank you for that. >> Hi. How are you? >> Thanks for having me. Um this week is National uh Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. It's every year. um

116and it's usually during this time period. So, I just wanted to highlight the fact that um there's over 43 million adults in the US that cannot read above the third grade level and there's nearly 63 million that can't do fourth grade math. And I have all the data points there for you, so I'm not going to read them, but the importance of literacy is really important. Um not just K through 12, but and beyond lifelong literacy. Um as uh Dr. Andrewski shared with you, we've had a little bit of a scare this year and it was pretty real. Um, before I hit on some of those data points, I just want to share with you um, all of us come with our years of experience working in education. I've lifelong New Hampshire and I've worked

117with a couple other uh, educators and other school districts. Um, and sometimes when you live and work in a in a community, in a region of a state, you don't realize how good it is here. Um, you know, I've I grew up in Lenardary Lenard Highrad. I live in Bedford. Um, I have to tell you that this district SAU 16 is you are known, we are known as the best. We just are. um spending about 11 years at SAU42 in Nasha. I worked with Adam there. Um I had to come up here and work with um I had to because it was the best in the program. SSTA was the CT director in NSHA. U Margaret Callahan was the best and now Dr. Carr who worked for Margaret Callahan. We came up here and spent

118two full days with our automotive program because we were struggling with our automotive program and getting that um ready for accreditation. So um and then as um principal at um at uh Conell Regional High School in Peterborough, I came up here to speak to Leslie Hasslam because I needed an adult director in Peter, New Hampshire. And they said, "Why aren't we going to Keen? It's like right there next to Jaffrey." I said, "Because Leslie's the best." I just want to just highlight how good it is here. Yes, we can recalibrate. Yes, we can even be better. Um, but I just want you to know that SA16 is is known. This is we are high caliber just and in and it really takes good board, good leadership and consistent leadership. If you see people coming and

119going, principles coming and going, teachers coming and going, you can't create growth. So, I know that's not on my in my notes, but I we we talk and I just want you all to know that it's amazing here. So, you all are doing really amazing things. Um, they've asked me to speak tomorrow and do two presentations up at the New Hampshire Department of Ed because I get to speak with you. I get to see the superintendent. I get to present to the budget committees. Not every other adult ed director gets to do that. I have to We're going to talk to them tomorrow about how they need to be advocating for their students. I had a conversation with the senior leadership over at Goffstown. They were just in the union leader about what's happening with

120the Delta in the state of New Hampshire. um and they're going to be advocating for more money. Their superintendent there is, you know, who basically said that that's what we're going to be doing. Um so, we'll get back to the data here. So, you can kind of see it. Um I've highlighted over the past four or five years where we've been um you can see the fact that um our participants are our total enrollment and you can see that over the past couple of years. It ranges, but we're looking anywhere between 250 and 350 of um those are the students we serve. Um, and then it just breaks down by the different programs we offer. So, I know some of you are new board members. So, we have an adult diploma program, ADP is the

121acronym for that because we're really good with that in education. AAL is adult education literacy, which is for ESL students, English as a second language, and high. So, the highet GED component. Um, and then we actually have this new program. It's not really new, but it's really something that we've been growing with and the feds are really promoting and it's really good. It's called IET, integrated educational training. That is where we actually work with companies in growth with um their employees. Um and we've been doing a lot of work. You've seen those. For those of you that have been on the board, you'd know we've worked really closely with Lint Chocolate, with um Hutchinson. Um last year we did some partnerships with um the Hampton Inn, working with their students to make sure that they're

122getting the literacy and the things that they need um and or certifications. We actually hired uh Chef Margaret over at SST to do work at the Holiday Inn. So when we talk about the um what is it the VTS visual thinking strategies like we do that amongst ourselves we share and we make sure that what we're doing is vertically aligned and actually helps our community. But you can kind of look at the data points here. Um the big thing I really want to actually highlight when people if we're like okay we're in a rough economic time, you know, we're going to be asking for these monies that um Dr. Androski shared with you. Um if you take a look at the highlighted area where it says duly enrolled students and it says ADP or high

123set with an ALP which is an um alternative learning plan, those are students that would be in a homeschool location like Ex High School, uh Sanborn Regional High School. they are with us full-time. We have them. Of those students, I can tell you right now that we have probably about seven students that are on active IEPs that we have um that are from EHS. One just came back from an out of district placement. That's like I think the cost on that was 288 $288,000 in our program and they're going to be successful. We're going to make sure that they they're coming back. Doesn't happen every year. It changes. The cohort group of students change. So, we might only have two students next year. This year we have seven. Um, and some of them if we

124didn't have this program, uh, speaking to some of the special ed case managers, they would be in and out of district placement. So, I'm just sharing those are those are factual pieces for this, um, fiscal year. But you can kind of just take a look at those those data points. We've been historically declining in um, with our um, total grant funding. So, I'm just appreciative of the board when I actually do present. And you can read about all the great stuff on workplace partnerships on the second page. and I'll be happy to present out in November. We'll have a couple of student speakers. So, thank you for your time and thank you for all that you do for the community and our students. >> Uh you said so much there. First of all, I I

125agree extor I've talked to many different board members across the state. I see what's going on. We are very fortunate here. We're supported by the community, the teachers like so I I really hear that message loud and clear. Thank you for going to talk tomorrow up in conquered and >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. So, appreciate that and uh and all the work that you do. So, uh, Neil, yeah, >> good question. Your grant funding is down 37% from 22 to projected >> 26. >> Why is that? >> Uh, they continue the feds in the state, they change the barriers. So, for example, in the C Coast region, our students don't have as many barriers as in the Kohas County region. So sometimes they changed those um the parameters and the calculation on that. Um they

126actually changed it midyear and again I'm I'm not saying anything. I could just pro I can provide you the copies. We were supposed to get uh not 217 this year. We were quoted the WE owa funding at 176 26613. That was supposed to be 250. that went from on June 13th it was 250 or 256 and change till August 13th when they told me I'm getting 176 and and we weren't even able to actually apply for those funds until almost like the end of August. It puts a real undue stress on the business office and Molly's team HR is looking for the letter of agreements. I can't set out letter of agreements until I actually know that the monies are coming in. teachers what that teach for us are on their adjunct. I mean one

127of my teachers has a PhD in linguistics from Harvard like we have really good teachers but they teach in our program because of what they believe. But yeah it's um the barriers they use and they and they change they they change those the calibrations on how they figure out th that funding and who gets what. >> And did you mention you're thinking of adding $180,000 >> $113,000 which would offset what we've seen. >> Yeah. So, I I put together a really slim, skinny budget. Obviously, I'm going to still apply for any and all grants that I can get my hands on uh for our community and our students. Um I put together a real skinny budget that if this were to happen again, I could actually be able to operate something. Um and then we

128would come back for the following fiscal year to see what we would want to do if that did occur >> because that's still below you would still be below 22. It's you're down $127,000 in 22. >> Correct. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Neil. So, I appreciate that. This really helps me and I think the board think about our foundation, the work we have to do going forward about policies, budgets, all this. So, this is very helpful to hear what's going on. Uh we do appreciate that. I know that each of you has to go before the budget advisory committee in August, November to talk about your budgets and uh the budget advisory committee is other other all the people from the different towns that got voted in. They get to look at the

129budget. They get to go line by line item by line item, give you feedback. Um so everyone's welcome to go to those meetings, anyone from the public. So that is an important time. So we appreciate you doing that. With that said, um you're welcome to go. It's been a long day for you, I'm sure. Um so, please feel free to uh go home, enjoy the day, and show up tomorrow. Um please. So, thank you. >> Thank you all. And with that, I am going to close public comment. I forgot to close it, so I'm close it officially now. But thank you. [Music] All right. Uh, moving moving right on. >> I didn't pass these out. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Here. >> Thank you. All right. So, moving along.

130keep this thing going. We're going to talk about uh board goals. So, uh in your packet at the top, I uh we put the board goals from what we did last year and as I reflected on this summer, they they look to be in line with a lot of things that we'd be doing this year. But I want to just kind of go through each one and see if you guys agree and just kind of get a sense if they if these goals are still good for this year. The first one is the school board will work with administration to provide opportunities for high level academic and behavioral outcomes for all students in our district. Um my feeling about all the work that we're doing now now looking at the grading and the uh um

131multi-tered system. I thought that was still probably a good one that we should keep keep on there. But I want to hear from others. >> I have a comment >> people. Yeah. >> I I don't really like the word behavioral outcome. I'm not really sure what that's supposed to I don't really remember what we talked about way when we said them, but I I I don't know. I think it's just sounds a little odd to me. I think there could be >> I think I can imagine what we were trying to get to, but I don't I'm not sure that's the right word. >> Yeah, I think that was for I'm I'm trying to remember back to the discussion, but I think it was about the MTSSB. It would it would match MTSSB >> B

132about the behavioral outcomes the but you just don't like you don't like the word >> it sounds weird sorry >> you don't need to be sorry >> I know >> all right so so let's let's circle that word and uh we can think about it we can solidify this next meeting but maybe that's something that we could we could think about and >> um not hearing other feedback I'm move on to the second goal uh which The school board will engage all internal external stakeholders in achieving district goals by building trust and open communication. Um again when I think about this I think about the transparency our steps the way that we do uh our budget when we get the BAC looking at it. I think that's such an important thing to keep talking about

133and letting everyone know this is how we do business and we work and people can show up and have a voice and I think that builds trust. So I like that I think the open communication I think we are pretty open. We ask for public input and but I think I'd like to continue down that path. I think we'll hear more about the grading this year. So that'll be important. >> So any feedback about that goal? >> It's good. >> Good. All right. Uh I'll go on to number the school board goal number three. The school board will have a representative participate in the strategic planning committee and board members participate in the strategic planning summit bringing a focus on the importance of effective communication with all stakeholders and fostering transparency and trust. Now strategic

134planning is is I mean are we still >> we're still looking at the metrics that will probably run. I mean it's not as many meetings as we had. The summit's already taken place and we won't have to do that then. But we'll just need to finalize it. And again, my my goal is to have it finalized by January after we've had the administrative team look at it and then we've had the strategic planning team come back together to write the final metrics. So goal would be probably late October to bring everybody back together and then have administrators look at it one more time um in November. So that's the plan, but the full joint board would approve that strategic plan and they don't meet again. It won't be ready for October meeting. No, I imagine

135it wouldn't be. Yeah. >> All right. So, is there is there gonna be a strategic planning committee this year? I think we we we had one planned, but I don't think it's going to be it's not going to >> No, I don't think there'll be major input needed for that. >> All right. So, I don't see a big >> Scratch it. Okay. Decisive. All right. Agreed. All right. So, we'll scratch that goal. Move on to number four which is the school board will negotiate a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union and collaboration respect respectful manner that values the contribution of all stakeholders. Now certainly we've we've done the teachers union that was that was achieved check. >> So we can just switch that out and put pair of professionals. >> Pair

136of professionals. I I totally agree. Yes. Um, okay. So, with that, with the three goals that I think we've agreed on, we'll talk about the behavioral just think about that. Um, is there anything that that immediately jumps out that we should add to the goal list? If not, that's fine because I think we do wait till next meeting to say, "Okay, here I'm going to bring this. I'm going to bring." But if you if there's something off the top of your head that we should add, please >> give it more thought. Let's give it more thought. Bring it back next time. See people shaking their head. That's a good thing. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Very good. I appreciate that. I just want to bring up two other things. We did I just want to

137recognize a student wrote to us uh Eli Babelbon. >> Balabon. >> Yeah. So, Eli, appreciate uh you writing to us and letting us know. He is a seventh grader at CMS and uh he was looking for us and I think this go back to the administration but looking to create opportunities for international uh travel for seventh grade eighth grade students particularly he talks about French uh and and going to Quebec but just want to recognize him writing it to us and I'm going to hand that back to Chris to do some work on. So we appreciate that. And one other letter that we got this this uh this summer was from Bob Hall. Unfortunately, Bob Hall's mother passed away this summer. I know that we had written him card and stuff. We sent him a

138plant and some flowers from all of us. So, I just want to recognize him for saying thank you for that and uh we're thinking of him. So, we contributed a lot to the school system. So, thank you, Bob. He is still around town. I see him all the time. So, uh, that is the chair's report. So, I will go on to Molly. Would you like to do a financial update? So, we don't have a financial report in your board pack this month because they always typically start in October because we're still learning about all the students and building the incumbrances. Um we are starting to work with all of the building administration to get ready for budget advisory committee. Um that will start up in October. Um and then also I just want to remind

139everyone that we will be budgeting for the grants in the individual districts like I mentioned last night at the joint board meeting. Um and we'll be working with Michelle um photo on the adult ed grants and how that will be reflected. >> Right. Thank you. All right. So, let's go on to the uh committee reports. Uh there'll be no SAU strategic planning update. I don't think there's nothing to update. You kind of just did that. Brian, would you update us on policy? >> Sure. Uh policy committee has not met yet. It will meet this Thursday uh for the first time. There are nevertheless some policies in your packet tonight. The first two AB parental bill of rights and JICJ are responsive to new legislation passed last spring. Obviously, Principal Barrist obviously talked about the communications

140device policy. Um, we encouraged input tonight on that and aside from positive noises about it, we haven't had a great deal of input. >> Same experience at the elementary school board I sit on. Uh people are positive about the the ban, but no substantive input from parents yet. Um but I think we can wait to vote on that policy until October so we get more parental input. Uh AB, uh there's already been some communications from Allison to the policy committee. We're going to have a more substantive discussion about that on Thursday. Uh what you do see in your packet is largely cut and pasted directly from what was passed in the legislature. So some of that looks concerning and really really broad, but that's it is what is in the statute. It's it's really word

141for word. So there's going to be some discussion on Thursday about what maybe could be put on top of that uh at this SAU. But again, most of that is is going to be required by law. So again, we don't need to vote on that tonight, but just first read through consideration and be some more recommendations coming back from the policy committee at our next meeting. The remaining policies that are listed there, 8.2.3 through 8.2.15 are all policies that are required to be reviewed annually. There are no changes to those at all. Um, so they were included on tonight's u agenda because they didn't seem to need any work really or discussion. So we could vote on affirming those tonight if people are comfortable or wait until the next meeting to do that. >> I

142I I'm I'm comfortable moving forward. I didn't see any changes. So I'm I'm think keep them updated and I feel people are >> it shortens the list for y next month from the number of policies that might end up listed. Yes. Um, so I look for a motion to accept uh the policy. >> I'll make a motion to accept the I think it's 13 policies for re that are under the review list. >> I'll second. >> Great. Um, so uh all those in favor, please raise your hand and say I. >> I. >> Great. All those >> I'll abstain. I'm not familiar with the I haven't read the policies. >> Okay. All right. All right. So one assumption and Got it. Excellent. Um, all right. So, we'll move on to Oh, governing board. Tammy, anything

143to reporting this coming month? >> Yeah, I know it was a little bit early, >> but it sounds, you know, he said the enrollment was 6:30 plus. That's good. >> So, >> been positive. I've heard a lot of good things. >> Everything you said tonight sounded good. So, I'm expecting to hear more about that on next Monday. >> Okay, great. Great. So, you report out next time. That's that's perfect. Um, we have so >> just real quick, I can I just give a quick pair of professionals update just so you guys know where we're at. We had our great >> um we had our initial uh ground rules meeting and we've had so far one meeting um with the pair of professionals and >> things are going very smoothly and we have a lot of

144other scheduled meetings but we're hoping we'll wrap it faster >> and our next meeting is this Thursday. >> Thursday. Okay. Thanks for your work on that. That's u both of you. >> It's riveting. >> It is riveting. I know. But but you guys do such a great job. And >> it's a very important. >> It is. It's teamwork. >> It is. It is. It is important that uh >> Let's go. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna skip new business. I have one thing under that, but uh then we'll we'll go to old business first >> and uh >> I didn't mean to pre If you want to do new business, that's fine. >> No, I I'm changing it on the fly. That's how I work. >> I roll. Um, but yeah,

145no, let's talk about the trip to Morocco because Neil, you want to shut this up? >> I So, you know, uh, I think the trip to Morocco is a great idea. I voted for it last time. I asked some questions. >> Um, when the United States attacked Iran, um, I sent a note to Esther and Chris and the rest of the team saying, "Look, I think the world has changed and it concerns me." Um, and I I think it's a terrific idea. I included in the email which I've shared with you um what the travel advisory was from the state department before at the time we ma wrote made our vote and it talks about increased uh caution in Morocco due to terrorism. That doesn't surprise me. I know a little bit about Morocco or

146the North Africa. Lots of these countries that are still good for travel will have um some kind of issue like that locally. Look at that. Um but uh when the and you'll see in the second thing I sent you a UPI story about um a travel advisory. So after the United States attacked Iran, the State Department issued a general warning, you know, hey, heads up, it's a little bit more dangerous for you now. So I would really prefer that our kids not go to Morocco. Um I I think it's um it's a it's an it's an excellent idea, but I think the world changed. Um, so that's why I'm bringing it up to you now. >> It we're in a different time than we were when we voted for that. I agree. >> That's what

147I think. >> I'm not I'm prot travel. Uh, but that's a tough neighborhood. >> Other people have comments about this. >> When is it supposed to be out? Remember, >> some Marco trips. It's I think it's the spring break. It's >> so which is the last weekend of the contract been signed? >> Is it after the new year or is it like later? That's what I was trying to remember. Like it's like >> it's either February or April. >> I think it's February because I think they asked to go to Scotland in April. >> Okay. >> We we approved two trips. >> We did. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Is there an alternate location that you could replace this trip with another trip? No. >> I don't know. I I don't know the answer. >> What's

148the purpose? What was the purpose of the trip? What what class or what >> the the the district partners with uh private contractors to take kids on group travel. It's just you know general >> I forget which which are involved. >> It's sharpos and then this is where they're going. >> But maybe this could be replaced with something be a little bit safer. I think we need to bring >> I think we need to bring them back >> and maybe have them do some research on if any monies that they've already put towards students left travel can be redirected to another location. >> Can we could we ask the teacher to to the leader of the trip to say we have concerns can they come back with a different proposal? >> Yep. >> Would that

149work? >> I mean as long as it's in time to I mean I don't I don't want to inconvenience if people put money down and can't get it back. That would that would be awful. >> It would change the way I look at it, but >> Yep. Thank you. >> bring that for October. >> Yeah. I think does that does that make sense? I don't feel like >> I think the timing is important though, like we need to find out if October is too late. >> Yeah. So, I'll do some research tomorrow with with contact Bill and if we can get it for October, we'll put it on there. If not, >> if not, we need to figure something out. >> I'll have to we'll have to reconvene at a sooner time. >> Y Thank

150you for bringing this up, Neil. do our walk. Thank you. >> Yep. >> That's a good catch. Yeah. So, I appreciate that. >> All right. Uh we're nearing the end of the meeting, so I'll bring up some new business. And it is just uh so how I want to ask you guys a question about our meeting tonight. So, the new business is how did how'd our meeting go tonight? Would you make any changes? >> I thought it was really good. >> Yeah. And I I like the administrators sitting at the table with us. >> Yeah, I like that too. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was a new change. That was Yeah, that was >> the focus on the kids up front, I think, is fab if we could do that every meeting, but I

151I think that's a great idea. >> So, I do have a schedule that each principal and director Vodto would bring a group of students to present on something pertinent to the school at that time. So, again, a 10-minute presentation because I think that's the purpose why we're here >> and having them start off our meeting, I think, helps ground us in what the decisions that we have to make. So if you're comfortable with students coming does add a little bit longer to our our our meeting agenda but I I'm very happy to sit and >> Okay. I want to make sure everyone feels that way. Yeah. >> So I I have a schedule set up. It will rotate. So each each principal will have uh twice once in before the the new year once after

152the the new year of bringing students to present. Well, one one thing that I had asked and so I I had asked that we we bring students that kind of that can speak to a core area, core function rather than a running list of an update. >> How do you guys feel about that? >> Like I I so a student that would talk about the theater or the play that they participated in, what they did and what they learned versus kind of just like a running update of what's going on at the school. >> Yeah. So I kind of want to change up that because I I this is but you guys I want your input. Just felt like a running list. We can we can kind of read that in the report. We can

153get that from the website. >> It it's I love seeing the students speak but I kind of feel like if we get some depth of about a subject that's happening. >> Yeah. It's almost like what uh the presenting of the rebranding know what were the steps how are they involved and you could really tell that they were invested in it rather than we have this happening and I did this and I did that. I I I like that presentation. which I thought was really good. >> I think other SST kids did that last year. Some of the kids who competed in the >> Yeah. >> national competitions and so forth. So I think >> doing that for other things is a good idea. >> Can I quickly go back to Neil's item >> just for

154your reference? The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and San Marino are also level to exercise increased caution. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> I I believe it. >> Yeah. It's just >> so >> the Netherlands. >> Yep. I mean all travel. >> Yeah, things are >> I mean no Greece is fine. Greece was level one but just going >> I mean curious what the US would call itself because I' I'd think we're probably fairly dangerous. >> But >> yeah, so just you know if if the trip was to Sweden, would you have had the same reaction? No. But it's the same level of the Secretary of State. That's all. I just trying to research this while we were having the discussion. >> Do we know who's qualifying the the level like which which director of who is giving

155us Sorry. >> Um I mean seriously though like >> they have an Yeah. I mean like >> they have an opposite state and then there's a process. >> Yeah. All right. You want to >> in our packet in May is the refund policy. So if we do want to do our own reading before we talk to Orch then we do have it. >> Thank you. >> Is there a liability issue if something were to happen in level two even if it was Sweden? >> Question. >> I also think it might be important to find out how their parents are feeling. >> Right. >> Because you know it's great. Of course kids are probably thinking about it. They want to go to Morocco or whatever but like maybe parents are starting to get nervous. I don't

156know. I mean it's possible. >> Yeah. The more involved the better. >> Yeah. Because if they don't have enough students, they won't be able to run the trip. So, we don't even know how many students are signed up and parents are >> right. >> Considering their trip. >> Yeah. As I said to Bill, I think it's worthwhile regardless to have them come back in October and just talk about the safety and precautions they'd be doing in any trip, >> especially in heightened times. So, I I think it would be a good barometer of where we're at. >> Okay. I just wanted to pick you. Sorry. >> Yeah. No, no, no. You're you're good. Um just thinking about um you your um schedule with having different groups and students and things come. I wonder if um

157with all of the administrators and I love hearing all the updates, but we also have it in the packets. I don't know if it would be nice to highlight a different school each time as we're sort of doing that and and you know because it really they're they're reading to us what's they gave us in the packet. So, I think I guess making it more meaningful maybe possibly. I don't know. I mean, >> yeah. No, I think I think to and to your point and I know Chris was like, "Well, it's up to you if I I I thought it would be good for them to speak tonight. This is the first one." But I agree moving forward that they don't need to come here and and and give us updates like that. And I

158think what we did in the past is they they would come and and talk about a very specific area or something that's good that's happening and it'd be one of them. It'd be Drew or Tanya or >> And it could be more than one if it needed to be. >> Yeah. If it needed to be. Yeah. I don't They're always welcome to come hang out with us, but we know they're having long days and >> Yes. >> Um >> lots of other late night meetings. Yes. >> Yeah, I know. >> So, >> yeah, we can work on there's something specific that need they need to come present. I I don't think they're going to say no to that. So, I think that's a great suggestion. >> And and they is it is it fair to

159say they can send a representative like an assistant principal or >> I like to see different people like >> different students, different Yeah. Different administration. The different students is another big deal. I think that that's really helpful. >> Yeah. >> So, with the the two students that were elected by their peers, would you still like them to submit a report and then if there's any questions, they could answer that and leave? >> I think they're important to highlight. >> Yeah. >> Each meeting probably I would say. >> Are they are they so the middle school are they elected to the board? >> They are. Oh, they are >> by their peers. It's not required, but it is the high school's obviously the high school's required. So the middle school, it's not required, >> but it's

160a practice of moving up and and supporting their >> policy. All right. >> Did our high school rep leave because he had a different commitment or because he thought he was dismissed when people were saying you can go now. >> He actually had to go to rehearsal. So just checking. >> Yeah. We would stay the time and participate. Yeah. And that's So do they do we do that with the middle school kids too? >> I think it's very appropriate for them to leave after they >> Yeah. That's a long time for them to stay. Yeah. >> So they're not >> Okay. They're not required. >> I'm trying to figure out like what Yeah. >> So if they give their reports and it is kind of a list of things going on, which would be appropriate

161and then and Bobby's will be a little bit more engaged. And then for each principal, I'll have a specific presentation like you saw today. So they will actually practice their presentation skills and talk about a specific topic that they want to highlight to to inform you more on about what's happening in their schools. >> Okay. >> But one one per meeting. >> One per meeting. >> Yeah. We don't need Yeah. And then we'll still have the the one-page update from each principal. >> Perfect. Yeah. >> And then if there's a specific topic, then they would present here. And so I like that they're encouraged to come. But >> yeah. And if they somebody they really want to talk about something, there can be more than one. >> Yeah. Okay. That's very helpful. >> I figured

162that'd be that'd be helpful to go through. So now we all know Yeah. what's going on, what the meeting is. Anything else? >> Can I just say that I really like the 16 and 60. >> Oh, thank you. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. It's very good. That is great. >> Thank you. >> So, uh, yeah, keep doing that. We >> certainly will >> bring it here. We can do it here. >> You might be my spotlight school. We all do spotlight boards, too. >> Spotlight boards. Yeah. Everyone will watch it. Um, all right. So, anything else about the meeting that we should consider moving forward. All right. Good. If there is, you write me an email or anything. But I think that was very helpful for me to know. uh how to do that and

163and get the agenda together with Chris's help. All right, I think we have we do need to go in non-public, I believe. >> Do I lost my uh my page here? >> One under C, one under A. >> Oh, okay. Two. >> Germany, Italy, and Jiala are also level two. >> I was looking for my >> That's amazing. >> My agenda. >> Who was that? Tina just left. Uhhuh. >> It's just unrest and terrorism everywhere. You >> want me to make a motion? >> Okay. What's that? >> Do you want me to make a motion? >> Uh, yeah. We're uh So, we're going to go into a uh >> She didn't lose her mind. >> Hold on one second because we have to go into non-public. So, I just want to announce and then make

164make a motion. See if we can get >> um guys, do you want you want to hold on for one sec? >> Do you want me to make the motion? >> Yeah. So, we'd like to I'd like a motion to go into non-public session RSA 91A 3 um under Well, it would be A and D. >> C. A and C. >> A and C. >> I'll make that motion. >> Great. Can I have a second? All right. Uh I'd like to do a roll call for that. Tim, would you like to start? >> Yes. I I >> I I Great. Thank you. We'll now in non-public. >> See you. My first motion to uh accept the recommendation of the superintendent for the leave of absence. >> Second. >> Uh I >> I >> Great. Uh

165do we have any other motions? like to make a motion to accept the emergency authorization as per suggested by superintendent's office. >> I'll second. >> Great. We'll do a roll. >> I >> Excellent. And do we have one more motion? >> We do. >> I would like to make a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation regarding the last personnel matter discussed. >> I will second that. >> And with that, we'll do a roll call. I >> I I >> I I >> I >> Excellent. And we'll probably have one last motion >> to adjourn. Yes. Anybody uh want to make that motion? >> I'll make it. >> All right, Brian, you second that. All right. All in favor, raise your hand. >> Yes, we're good to go. >> Pass down their things. >> Yes.