001Great to see everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 601. And let's uh please stand for the pledge of allegiance. [Music] >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Um so uh we uh I don't think I see any members of the public but we um will now at 602 um open the floor for public input per RSA 18974 we will allow 30 minutes of public comment. Um and if there's is there anyone with us that would like to speak? No. Okay great. So, we'll move forward and if if anyone shows up, we can certainly um take public comment. Um later in the agenda, we will be discussing
002um a uh a new policy on the unauthorized personal communication devices. Um and per that policy, um we will make space to to for dialogue. Um so, if there's public comment around that later in the agenda, we can stop for that as well. Um so, moving on to the PTO update. Hello. >> Sorry. >> That's okay. I saw the light. I'm sorry. >> Hi. Welcome back. We're here again. Um PTO update. We've already been This sounds really loud. I'm going to stand back a little bit. Um we've already kind of done a lot even though it's the beginning of the school year. Um in the summertime we did three successful kindergarten meetups. Um it was an opportunity for caregivers and parents to who are having new students come in um come and meet at Main
003Street uh playground and be able to meet other parents and caregivers and have their kids also um get to know each other. And um the people that put that on was one person from the board um an incoming kindergarten parent herself and then um another parent. they actually like were able to put lists together so parents could see what classes um that their children were in. So, it was a really great way for parents to make connections with each other. Um so, we did three of those to start off over the summer. Um we also had a table at the meet and greet. So, um it was an opportunity for parents to come over and get to know the PTO and how they can get involved. And we sold um some spiritware as well, which
004was really great. uh and then provided a welcome back breakfast for all teachers and staff at both Main Street and Lincoln Street. Ginger Fox was here with coffee. Um and um it's just like a really great way to make sure that we let our teachers and staff know that they're really appreciated getting going um at the start of the school year. Uh we have a new form for teachers and staff to fill out if they have an idea um or they're interested in an event. Um the idea is that they talk to Beth or Ryan first to kind of go over the idea and if it's something that the PTO can fund, we want to make sure that things come out of the right bucket. So being able if it's something that we can do
005um we want to make sure that we can make that come to fruition. So we have a new form for um staff and teachers to fill out if they have ideas for different things um that will benefit our children. Um, and then lastly, our first meeting is on Thursday, and we're doing a pizza party again, and we already have, um, I checked this morning. I haven't checked since early this morning, but we have 31 kids coming. Um, yeah. Um, so we have child care. Um, we have some volunteers over from Exit High School that are helping us and going to provide child care in the gym. Um, so we're super excited to have lots of either returning or new um, just activity with parents, caregivers coming and just seeing how they can get involved with
006the PTO. So, we're looking forward to a really great year. >> Impressive. >> Any questions for me? >> No, that's incredible. Thank you. >> Cool. >> Sarah, >> great. Allison, over to you. Do you want to introduce yourself? >> Sure. Thank you and thank you for having me here. Allison Bryant. I'm your new uh assistant superintendent and superintendent designate for exit. Uh and can confirm that the breakfast that the PTO put on for the schools was amazing because I had a chance to sample that as well. So, thank you for for that and the work that you're doing to support our our schools. Um, it's been a great start and uh, I've felt incredibly welcomed by the staff and administration and students and look forward to to working more with you and hopefully uh, offering
007support and guidance um, as needed. Uh, to start, I do want to turn it over to Principal McCcluskey and Kataret to introduce new staff members and then then you can hand it back over to me when you're finished with that. >> That was perfect. All right. So, for Lincoln Street Treat School, we have uh several new um staff members that I just want to take a brief moment to welcome and introduce to the board. Um we have Brenda Connley who is with us this evening. Um who is our new BCBA in our EBD program. um she comes in a background um with a background in both clinical and public education um in both settings and um we're so excited to welcome her. We also have Alyssa Kavanaaugh who is here with us as well um
008who is a case manager for our EBD program. Um Alyssa spent the last 3 years as an ABA clinical specialist in Madbury and both Brenda and Alyssa were able to participate in our summer programming. So, they were able to do some planning together, get to know the kids, the families, and really be able to hit the ground running um this fall. So, we are very lucky to have them, and also feel very grateful that they were able to really spend some time getting to know our building and our our community before we got going. Um we also have um Kristen Hill who is a case manager in grade 4. Um she's coming to us with 5 years of case manager experience in a neighboring district. Um, we have Megan Cludier who is our new student
009support center teacher. Um, she's worked both as a pair professional and a case manager for students requiring emotional behavioral support. So, we're excited to see Megan apply her skills to promote regulation, um, help students access learning and really the overarching goal of our what we call room 202 is for those quick resets and to get kids back in the classroom so they're not missing that time instruction with the teacher. Um, and I think Megan's going to be very skilled at helping us reach that goal. Uh, and then lastly, we have Katie McKay, who is a case manager for our global skills program. Um, and we're very excited to welcome her. This is a position that we've had a contract for in the past. So to be able to hire Katie who comes to us with
010several years experience working with students with multiple disabilities supporting academic, emotional and behavioral needs. Um she has a really great skill set and experience that we're able to bring in and hopefully really build some continuity between those programs between the two buildings. So we're excited to welcome all those individuals um to Lincoln Street School for the new school year. Thank you. Good evening everyone. So we have a couple of new staff members um at Main Street this year. Um first we have Kelly Brooks who is here with us tonight and Kelly is our um director of assistant director of special education. Kelly comes to us with many years experience um as a uh director or assistant director of special education as well as a school principal. Um, and so we're glad to have Kelly join
011us this year. And then also we have Kayla Dunn. Um, she's not here right now, but she is a shared BCBA for our global skills programs in both Main Street and Lincoln Street School. Um, so she's a behavior specialist um, supporting those programs in both of our schools. >> Thanks. We already met >> and Max, but you guys all get to meet Max already. Thank you. The only other thing that I wanted to highlight is you see a lot of policies on the agenda for tonight. That will probably be a trend that will continue. We just have a lot of policy work to do this year. Um the majority of the policy this this evening, and I know we'll discuss this later, but just to preview them, they really are for review only. Um we're
012required to review them periodically, some of them annually or or on a regular basis. And so we bring those to you tonight. And then of course we have a couple of other ones that we'll talk about a little bit more in depth. >> Great. Thank you. And we were just talking before the meeting. Thought it might be nice to just say a personal hello from the from the board perspective just to our new members of staff. So I'm Heather Ikemer. I'm the board chair. I'm also a parent and I work in arts education. >> Hi, welcome. I'm Beth York. Um I'm also a parent in the district obviously. I have a third grader who just rose up here to Lincoln Street School. Um, and I also have a seventh grader, two girls, um, in the
013school system. >> Patrick OD. I'm a Scorpio. [Music] I have a, um, a second grader and someone who's prek, a pre-K kid who's on the way to joining Main Street next year. >> Tim Reed. Um, I have a third grader and a fifth grader now here at Lincoln Street. Um, I have the past 15 years worked for a company called Teaching Strategies, which is an early childhood education company based in Washington DC, which is where I lived for eight years before moving here in 2016. So, been fortunate to work for them since college. So, um, and I'm fortunate to serve on this board this time. So, thank you. >> Um, welcome. My name is Kate Pratt. I'm a physical therapist. I own a private practice in town. I'm a graduate of this school. um a
014as is I had three children that went through the system as well. Um so welcome. Thanks. >> We look forward to getting to know all of you better. be before we move on, can we just can I just ask one small thing which is just that uh if someone could just address I know what it means just but for those listening at home in case they missed it what EDP stands for in particular and uh and even BCBA just I I think Beth did a good job of sort of describing as behavior push but anyhow just what the alphabet soup sometimes it can get lost on people watching >> so um EDP stands for extor exit developmental preschool so it's our preschool um that we serve for students who um have some special needs andor
015we have community peers that also um feed into that program. So we have three and four year olds over at our preschool which is um over on School Street um not too far away from here. Um and then we refer to BCBAS really as behavior specialists. Um they really work to support students who might have some behavioral needs and really uh do a lot do a lot of deeper dives and assistance in supporting kids who um need some extra support in those areas. >> Great. Thank you. And good reminder, Patrick. Thank you. >> Any other updates? >> That's it. >> All right. Um so I would like to now turn to the minutes from June 10th um 2025. um and just give you all a chance to look over those. Um we had both um
016a public session and um a non-public session. So I would like to make a motion to approve both the um minutes from June 10th, both the public and the non-public session. I'll >> second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I >> I >> Great. Um, principal updates. We do we have more to share? >> All right. Who wants to go first? It's always the big question. >> I'll start with the littles. So, we um have had a great opening of school this year. Um, first starting off with um some summer highlights that happened over the summer. Um, we had uh a few opportunities offered by our school librarian Morin Kiesel um for families to come out and participate in story hour or a story time um that coincide with the farmers market down on Seaway
017Parkway which was excellent. She actually had a huge turnout. Um, so we were really pleased with the number of faces, familiar faces that we saw down at the parkway. Um, and um, the like Sarah mentioned earlier, we did have three opportunities where kindergarten families who were new to our school um, had some meetups on our playground. Um, and it was great to see so many kids participating in that. there was a lot of um early connections that were made and just getting them onto our playground is really beneficial um so they can get used to our space. So thank you to Miss Kisil and the PTO for offering those opportunities over the summer. Um we and just a highlight for you know and a big thank you goes out to our facility department because over
018the summer they worked um diligently to clean our schools. Um they did a fantastic job. There were a few um facility highlights that I just wanted to bring up. Um our new cafeteria cafeteria mural that was supported by Wheelright Funds went up over the summer just in the nick of time for the school to start. But it's such a beautiful u mural. It's bright. It's colorful. It follows sort of a Sesame Street color theme. Um and so it just really brightens up our space and um the kids and the staff are really enjoying it. So thank you for um for providing you know and allowing those funds to support that project. Um we did uh facilities did install a number of enhanced door locks in some of our doors across all three of our buildings.
019Um it's just an upgraded security feature to um ensure that um we can properly lock our doors in the event of uh some side of some sort of an emergency or um um anything where we would need to uh barricade inside a room or something like that. So um that was really helpful. Um at Main Street, a few of our bathrooms were upgraded. um much needed upgrades and um freshness brought into the space. Um and so that was really appreciated. And then the installation of our new digital marquees are coming soon. Um I was told actually just this morning that in the next couple of weeks we should really see some progress um with installing those. So maybe by the next board meeting uh you will all have had a chance to see our new
020marquees. So fingers crossed. Uh the first four days of school with staff was really successful. Um one of those days staff spent inside their classrooms getting things ready for the new school year. And then the other days we provided a number of um professional development opportunities for staff. Um and actually when when we list it out and we reflect back on there was a lot of opportunities for learning for um different adults in our buildings which was exciting. Um couple of other highlights that happened. We had the meet the teacher event on Friday um August 22nd and that was to welcome all of our students back to school. Um it was a nice collaboration. We had uh we partnered with Great Bay Kids, YMCA, food services, nursing services. Um our preschool um staff was there
021to greet preschool families. Um and we had the Kona ice truck there. Um I'd say overall it was really successful. It was nice to see so many uh families and caregivers coming out um to just say hi, meet the teacher um and connect with their old teachers too, which is always really sweet. Um students right now, two weeks in, we're busy learning routines, learning about how to play on the playground, learning how to eat in the cafeteria. All those back to school routines are underway. Um and then just a couple of highlights on some of our goals for this year um at Main Street School. Um really looking to strengthen our multi-tered system of supports. So what that means is some of the work we're doing is looking at some of our assessments to make
022sure that they're really um we're really finding out information that we need to know in order to provide really high quality instruction. Um we are focusing in an area of writing instruction this year which is really exciting for our early learners. Um and we are going to continue our work in establishing we've we have an established mission for our schools and we're going to continue with staff to really develop a high quality vision statement and then some goals and some priorities beyond that. So that's those are some of our goals for this year. Um this week in particular we um started with our win time block and what that means we call it when what it means is what I need. Um and um it's a short block of time where we can provide students
023what they need, whether that's remediation, whether it's extension, whether it's just, you know, reviewing some specific skills. We re really work hard to look at our assessments and look what kids need and be able to provide those supports as needed. And it's sort of an all hands- on deck approach, meaning we have classroom teachers, we have support staff, we have our uh specialist teachers. They're all working to support students during those times um during those wind times that are built into our master schedule. And let's see, one last I say this one couple more highlights. Um at Main Street, we are going to start back offering our community story hour on Tuesdays. We're going to start on September 23rd, and that is from 8:45 to 10:00. We invite all of our early learners, uh children
024ages four and under that can come with their caregivers, um and spend time in our library, um and they get a story hour from Miss Keel. They'll go to um a music class and get to play with some instruments and then they'll go to a shortened arts class or art space where they get to get messy and play around. So, we encourage um our young learners to come and join us during that time. And again, a big thank you to our PTO for the wonderful breakfast at the beginning of the school year. Um and we look forward to welcoming um families and children and caregivers to our first PTO meeting this Thursday. Main Street School 6 p.m. Pizza provided. Thank you. All right. Lincoln Street School update. A lot of what uh Miss Katar said
025I will be echoing or I I do echo so I will not repeat it. Um we do have a couple of upcoming dates. Um we have open house scheduled for September 25th. Um the time for open house is going to be 6:00 to 7. However, um in speaking with um Main Street School and Miss Kataret, um we are going to make 5:30 to 6:00 available for invite only. So for perhaps for students or families that might do better in a less chaotic or a calmer setting, smaller setting, um to provide those invitations so that they can have a positive experience at an open house versus when we have hundreds and hundreds of families and grandparents and students all running in different directions, which can be overwhelming. So we're going to provide that opportunity at both
026schools and are looking forward to that change. So, for the majority of our students, it will be 6 to 7, but teachers will reach out to families that they feel like might benefit from a smaller setting as well. Um, we also have um picture day at the end of the month on September 30th. I believe that's the same for both schools. Um, so we're get our haircuts done for that. Um, for fall activities, we have quite a bit going on at Lincoln Street School. We have our cross country program that um for each fall. that started on Monday and it goes for four weeks. Um, fall drama club, we have auditions being held this Thursday for the kids musical of Aladdin. Um, we have our student council has been elected. First meeting is this Friday.
027First school store was um this morning and they did well. Um, beginning band for grade four. Um we had a family information night last um last week and um our band programs are beginning in the I believe next week for fourth and fifth grade. Fifth grade starts right off with rehearsals. Fourth grade is all about learning how to take the instrument out of the case, learn how to put it together, learn how to make those few squeaks here and there. Um so the sounds of the clarinet will be going through the McCcluskey household and I'm looking forward to it. Um we will also be having our second year offering a strings program at the elementary level. We started that last year. Miss Levergood started that. So we are looking forward to that being in the
028second round. Um we have after school enrichment um which will be in both buildings starting up in October. So signups will be going out to families in the next week or two. So keep an eye out for that. Um echoing what Miss Kadaret said, we had our math win program begin this week. Win again staying for what I need. Um our first session is just three weeks just so that we don't wait too long to get the program up and running. So we use our data from the spring and we form some groups for a 3-week kind of shortened cycle of it um while we finish up our fall testing and then we are finishing up that fall testing this week and we'll be able to use that data to then do our traditional six
029week cycles. Um and then of course in October we'll have our data report from both schools. So, we'll be able to share um certainly the highlights and where we ended up in the spring and for the 2425 school year. We'll also be able to show you our starting point for this current school year. Um for professional development, just a couple of highlights um that we're looking forward to. We're going to have some I think some in-depth conversation with staff across the SAU um around the safe integration of AI into the classroom. And we do have a um a heavy focus on that for all SAU16 schools for our October PD day in the AM. Um we have a speaker coming in. We have some other conversations that are going to just kind of help build
030that common foundation. Um so that we have a good understanding of what it looks like for teachers, what's it look like for students and families. Um especially at the elementary level. Uh we're going to do some continued work around executive functioning needs um to help students stay organized and help them to be um appropriately engaged in the classroom. This is something that we've worked on um I think it was last year but our January PD day will focus on some extensive um PD around that. Um, and then we're also in our second um, year of benchmark advance, our literacy program, which we thought went really, really well in the first year. Um, but we're going to really focus on scope and sequence, which is really the pacing. You know, the first year is always a
031little bit slower than what the program says that you should be going. And now that we kind of understand the program, the expectations, kind of the flow of it, um, we're going to really work on that scope and sequence and really also look at student writing output. um we thought the program provided a lot more opportunities, but now to make sure that we're taking advantage of those as well. Um and then we discussed at the very end of last year um adopting purposeful people, which would be an SEAL program or social emotional learning um program that would be common between Main Street and Lincoln Street. And so we're piloting that this year. So it's not across both buildings, but we have a small pilot group in both buildings that receive some PD um during our
032August PD days. and um they'll be working on some slow implementation and um getting some data for us on that. So that's our Lincoln Street School recap. Um and I know that we have a little bit of summer discussion coming up. So I'll turn that over to >> Can I ask a question, Ryan? >> Is the purposeful people something that like will have an if you want to do it, we'll have an expense potentially down the line or is it just a training? Uh the the purposeful people program does have an annual expense to it. It's minimal compared to a lot of our academic programs. It's it's not much. Um but it's it's not >> the the expense for is is expected and we can budget for. It's not something that we'll be like, oh,
033>> okay. >> Just want to make sure we were planning. >> Ryan, I just have another question for you. Um so I just continue to be impressed by how we integrate arts across both schools. So thank you for for continuing to do that. And I just I I know in early conversations when we were talking about the strings program, >> there was a lot of communication with the middle school too around sort of building those pathways from, you know, early exposure here into hopefully continued um engagement at the middle school level if folks are continuing on to CMS. I just I'm curious if we know, you know, if any of those um fifth graders or, you know, last year went on to play strings at CMS or if that's sort of a conversation loop that
034might be something that we could continue to understand if folks are if if students are participating in some of the music electives at Lincoln Street School, if they are indeed going on and playing continuing an instrument. I mean, I I don't have the specific numbers for you, but I think that would be certainly an appropriate question and easy enough to get that data for you. Um, certainly the strings program would have just like a little little window. Um, but as far as the continuation of students participating because we also have our fifth grade coral program as well. >> Um, so to just see what that continuation might look like at Lincoln Street, we could certainly figure that out. Yeah. >> Yeah, that would be great. >> Yeah, of course. Thank you. >> All right. uh
035summer learning. Sure. >> Yeah. So, just um we're all busy during the school year, but we're also really busy during the summer. So, we put together a little video to just kind of show you what things look like here over the summer. We didn't show the classrooms being moved around, but lots of cute kids. >> Where most You sure? [Music] Hello. Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] Yeah. [Music] >> had Oh, thank you. Um, so we had about 70 students participate as part of um, special education programming and Deanna has the numbers for her programming, but we're always really super busy and um, you know, just love to kind of give you a little glimpse of what we do over the summer. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I could
036do that. Um, so ESSA this year was really great. We had um, the Brown Center again. Um they do great things for the kids in social emotional social emotional learning. Um they play games with structured play and how to maneuver conflict, how to talk about their feelings, how to think about how they could have approached something differently. Um it's really nice that we have them that they come and um hang out with our kids. They did have a group here and they had a group down in Main Street. So that's really nice too that they have a dedicated staff so they get to know the the students and the parents cuz they also do pick up and drop off and they do snack and they do all the things. Um we had 97 slots which
037means some children could go to um the targeted reading program or targeted math program. So in the whole district we have 97 slots that were taken by students and 69 students took those 97 slots. So was well attended. Um I do send out a feedback form for parents um just to get it actually the grant requires that and we also want to get feedback from teachers and parents about how we could um better improve the program and the not a lot of people always respond. Um we had a pretty good amount this time and it was overwhelmingly positive about all of the things. Um there's always things that we can fix that we'll work on next year. The teachers were really happy too with the way it was run. I took their feedback from last
038year. We tweaked some things and um they really appreciated that too. So it was a great year. So >> can you just remind me how many like how many instructional hours or how you know what's the duration and how many hours per week to >> So it's the students are dropped off at 8 and they're picked up at noon >> and within that time they have a 45m minute targeted block in each content area. So they might be in two content areas and in between that they go to the Brown Center and then the teachers go to the Brown Center, pick up their students and then bring them back 45 minutes later. We are very flexible with like there's vacations and there's camps and so we try to be really flexible so that the students
039can get a little like a little bit of support um but still have their family time. >> Yeah. >> So >> thank you. >> Anybody else? Great. Tremendous. And I love the video is great. It's great to see, you know, all the things that are going on here during the summer. Thank you for that. Um, so we have our committee updates. We got new committee assignments, I think, at our last board meeting um, in the spring. Um, and so I suspect some of these have met and some of them haven't. But let's just go through them. And the first one is our uh, newly named equity committee and that's Tim and Kate. There hasn't been a meeting at this point. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um I think uh let's come back to policies although I
040don't think it'll take too much much time but we'll we'll circle back at that to at the end. Um the next one was the safety and security committee and we have not met. >> No I think at the end of last year I think the next meeting is October. >> Okay. >> So >> okay great. Um and then Beth, you're back up for strategic planning. >> We have met. We're very ambitious committee. Um we met on August 27th. So we're still working on uh we were working on KIAI, so key performance indicators at the end of the school year last year and we have picked up. Um so really we're digging in during this meeting into um what the actual data is and how we were going to have which data made sense for the
041KPIs that we wanted to measure to meet for the strategic plan. So a lot of work has already gone into it. Um I think we do we have another meeting scheduled? I don't think we have one on the calendar yet. Um, and I do believe we'll hear about it at the joint board meeting next week a little bit. An update from Chris. >> And if you're not ready to share this, that's fine. But can you remind us sort of what areas your like do you have you guys settled on what areas? >> Yeah. >> Is that Should I share? Am I allowed to share that? >> Are you allowed to Okay. Maybe we need to wait till joint school board. I don't know. >> Even if it's not going to give you an overview. >>
042Yeah. It's going to come up on at the board. >> We'll get a you'll get a >> Great. We'll wait for take of that and really we got a you know a visual of what you know the the public facing scorecard is going to look like >> um and how we as a school um um not school board as a a school district um will measure progress and what that means. So great, >> wonderful. Um, so next up is facilities and that's Beth again and Patrick. We have not met. >> We have not met for facilities. So and I don't think that typically we don't have a standing meeting set up for that. It's really on an as needed basis and >> I don't think we have anything I haven't heard of any needs at
043the moment. So, >> great. >> Um, so Willight Trust, that's Tim and Kate. >> Uh, we haven't received any new submissions. We believe we're >> we didn't send anything. >> We're on pause because we're assuming that the allocated funds will be gone after these past few submissions at the end of the year, including the field trips that we're covering for this school year. The uh marquees, the stencils, and the mural. So, the mural's done. It's got the update on the marquees. The stencils, I'm not sure. >> They're they're bought. Yes, the senses have been purchased that the painting should occur next week. >> Great. Um and then field trips would be throughout this year. So by then we probably >> Yeah, we just got to figure out what's left and then what the board wants
044to do with whatever's left. >> Okay, >> great. >> So we didn't send anything. >> Yeah. And I'll just say I've really appreciated the updates on the projects and when possible seeing the pictures and hearing that they're progressing and you know being enjoyed. So thank you for including those in your reports. Um sbatical we have not had any um meetings around sobatical yet or requests that I'm aware of. Um and negotiations that's Kate and Patrick. >> Um our first meeting is the 17th of September. >> Great. So, and also just to add on to that, so this year the negotiations with the teachers group and so I think we have what six times set up something like that sort of set aside and >> through November. >> Yeah. Sort of once a week or once
045every other week and I think the hope is that you know over the next month or month and a half or whatever we can um kind of figure out what all the needs are and come to a consensus on what makes sense for a new contract. Great. Thank you guys. Um, great. >> Does the superintendent evaluation go here too? >> That's the joint school boarded out there. >> Yeah, that's it. >> It should be on here. >> We have met. >> Yeah, go ahead. Let's add that to So, it's in the minutes. >> We have met and those will also be presented at the joint board meeting on Monday. >> Great. >> Chris will present those. >> Dr. Androski present those. Yeah, I don't think we're not I think those are all the committees, correct?
046Yeah. Okay. So, let's circle back to policy. Um, first up, I just want to um note that in your packets there were quite a few policies um that were up for review only. Um so, I'm not going to name them all, but they are that list from investment and you know, petty cash accounts, cash in school buildings. So, um, we don't need to necessarily take an official vote, but, um, it's recommended that we that I move, um, to approve the policies on a review only basis. So, um, I'm going to go ahead and make that motion for policies DFA, DFD, DF, DG, D, J C, D K, D M, E H, E, I, I, H, A, M, A, J, L, C, D, and J, L. So, one more >> and I'm sorry, and one more
047and J L CJ. We have a second. >> Second. Any discussion? Okay. All >> I mean I guess I would just say in terms of discussion since we're not really diving into each of those that if there was something that came up during the year, it doesn't mean that we couldn't revisit one of these policies and decide to um amend it if need be. So um just because we're doing this now, you know, if something were to come up, we we still have that opportunity. >> Yep. Great point. Um any further discussion? Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Great. Um so the next policy um I'll draw our attention to is AB parental bill of rights. Um so we did have a meeting um to discuss this actually amongst um all of the board
048chairs um of the different districts. Um but this is the first time kind of bringing it to the board's attention. these um for the most part and please correct me if I'm wrong um have ex existed in other places um and you can see the legal references there but um this policy sort of consolidates them under policy AB. Um, I know this is your first time sort of reviewing this, so I just wanted to, um, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve so we can discuss, but um, make a motion to approve New Hampshire Parental Bill of Rights AB. >> Uh, well, I guess I have a question for you. >> Yeah. >> Why I don't Why do you think we need to make a motion to discuss it? I think
049we can discuss it. Okay. >> Motion to decide whether or not to approve it because we may want to amend it for example or something else. So why don't we >> maybe it makes sense to start with just a discussion. >> Do you have something you'd like to share? >> I don't discuss but I just just in terms of a process. I mean it's not a super long policy in the scheme of things but there's a lot that's sort of referenced in here. A lot of legal references in particular. >> Um just to give folks a chance to make sure they understood what's in it. And to clarify, this is a brand new bill. This didn't have >> the the sort of compilation of these >> one >> these um sort of this these bill
050of rights in one policy is >> I see. >> Yeah. >> Can I add something? you meant >> there's an additional requirement by law that we publish these on the website and in student and staff handbooks which was part of the change this summer. Yeah. >> So I mean if you think about these I mean the way I understand this is kind of what you said that you know things like for seclusion and restraint for example there's already a law about that. We already have a policy about that. People are already trained on how that works but it just has one place. It's almost like an index of >> that's right >> a variety of policies. That's not all the policies we have, but a variety of policies that, you know, particularly legislators, but other
051folks thought were important to highlight. >> That's right. >> So, um, I mean, you really, if you really wanted to know what's behind these, you'd have to look up each policy or each law to really fully understand it. But, it's referencing a lot of different policies and laws. Well, laws in here, but we also have corresponding policies. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Okay. Well, now I will move to approve policy New Hampshire parental bill of rights AB. >> Second. >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I Great. Um okay. So the second um policy um that I um we will now discuss is policy JICJ and this is the policy around unauthorized communication um devices. Um so this is actually a new bill that was signed into HB part of
052HB2 which was signed into law this summer um in June. Um and uh I will just read it. Um the school boards and the board of trustees of chartered public schools shall develop and adopt a policy governing the use of student cell phones and other personal electronic communication devices. So this uh policy is already effect in our schools. Um some of the elements of it are that this is a belltobell policy. So the um prohibition of all personal communication devices used by students starts at the first bell in the day and and goes all the way through um to the end of the school day. Um there are some exceptions um determined by the superintendent to respect student medical disability or language proficiency needs and my understanding is we have gotten some um of those
053requests and they have been met. Um and so that's another element of this policy. Um for today, this p the bill also states that this policy should be developed and the languages in collaboration with school parents and teachers and shall be reviewed annually. Um and so um the law itself sets really clear parameters as I've just discussed. Um but uh you know should the public um want to discuss things further there's you know conversation um you know around sort of how devices are are being stored or secured during the the day. I understand right now that really mostly it's in backpacks and um uh just how exceptions might be um communicated and documented and also just discussed we discussed um as the at the meeting of the board chairs of just how do we continue
054to hear um from students about any um you know both things that they're experiencing that are really positive about this change and any considerations that they um might want to Express. So, um I'll open it up to comment for the board. Um and just to note that, um we are also um expected to kind of open the floor to the public um to have this conversation as well. Um we are going to discuss the policy today um and then we will um we will adopt it at our next board meeting. So, we won't take a vote today, but um just wanted to open up for comment if anyone something to share. How will how will we invite the public to comment? Th >> this was posted at um as part of the agenda and and
055so they were invited to to come today and to the other board meetings um for public comment and I suspect also in October. So if someone was unable to make it today uh today, they are definitely invited to come and speak during our October meeting prior to um uh voting on the policy. Um again I think there's parts of this policy that are um you know pretty well established in terms of its parameters and I think um questions of sort of um protocol um are sort of the the types of questions I think that we're inviting um input on. >> Does that answer your question, Beth? >> Yeah. I just don't know how many people look at the agenda for our meetings. Like is it something that we should maybe put out and not like
056an update to the like the weekly updates to parents? I don't know. >> Do you have any thoughts from other you know what the other boards have been thinking about? >> I think consistently it has been an opportunity at board meetings um for public input there. We can certainly have more conversation about, you know, what else we might be able to open up between now and then. >> I just mean like come to the board if you have comment. >> I don't know if they would know to come to the next board meeting >> to if they have a comment, not provide comment in another to say if you have a comment, come >> because I don't know that they would look at our agenda. >> But they might read your updates that you send
057every week. >> I can work with administration and see what we can >> just might be another venue to get. That's right. I mean, we've had we've had times when we've had um I mean, when we were looking at having a school security officer, we even took out an ad in the local paper, for example, >> to invite people to come to sort of a public forum about that possibility. >> Um, so I mean, I think you're right. There's probably we probably need more than one way. It's not that it's not that it doesn't meet the legal requirement to just post it as part of the agenda, but just to get people's attention in different ways so they're aware. I mean, have you have the have folks started to hear any >> um reaction from
058families? I mean, at the elementary level probably has a different impact than it's going to have at the >> watches. Yeah. >> The older kids. >> Yeah. The watch part. >> Okay. >> I mean, the the new law, I can speak up if I need to, but I mean, the new laws are already pretty consistent with what we had for expectations on cell phones. Um, and again, we do have families that do like to communicate with their child through the school day on on smart devices that that can, you know, we try to have those conversations oneon-one when they happen, but >> yeah, >> it's not it's not a huge concern. >> What happens to access to their like if they have a smartwatch, are they not allowed to bring it into school? Do they
059have to put it in their backpack? Do they how how does that work? Can I just start this and then just jump in if So we actually have a line in the policy specific to smart watches and we felt like it would be important to include that for exactly for students have the opportunity to learn to tell time. However, knowing that that can be, you know, we we have to keep an eye. We're still expected to follow the law and so if there was a violation on a smartwatch, this is where I turn it over to the principles to talk about how you would handle that. It's just, you know, progressive discipline model like you would for for any other similar type of infraction which is, you know, the first time might be a conversation
060with um the classroom teacher or just kind of based on the new language. It might be a conversation with me um and then either the teacher or myself would follow up with the parent and just said, "Hey, you know, this is what happened. This is kind of the why." And then if there's a second infraction, you know, that we might say, "You know what? Let's have you pick this up at the end of the day type situation with another parent contact." But, you know, we'll we'll be in contact with families along the way. So, there there won't be any gotchas of like, oh, you can't have this device anymore. So, we'll be in contact with families. And if it does become a repetitive issue, we may get to a point, you know, that ultimate piece
061might be, you know what, this seems like it's a distraction to the learning environment. So, it might not be something that we can have in school. >> Just can I I'm sorry, just so I understand. I was I I was asking about um I'm sorry or what you said is helpful, but just sort of the logistics of what happens. You know, I know some schools will say you have to turn in your phone and put it in a locker, you know, and they lock it up and and that sort of thing. I don't think we have that system here. But >> are there if someone has a phone, are they allowed to bring it into the school, but it needs to stay in their backpack and doesn't come out. It needs to have the ringer
062turned off. Is that essentially how it would work? >> Okay. >> The way our building is is that if it searches all day, the battery dies. >> Yeah. >> So, they didn't turn it off, >> right? >> During the day, we are a neighborhood school, so I do understand that that Some parents wanted to make sure that their kids got here, >> right? So they can track their phone, >> walk. >> Yeah. >> Um but they do have to turn it off when they get here. And um I've had students in my office crying because they forgot and the battery died all day because it was just searching >> and they don't do it anymore. They turn off. >> Well, and the policy does state consequences for violations will be outlined in the student handbook.
063So I think you know if that it's helpful to know sort of what you're thinking and um you know I think we can't change the law but I think you know I think that kind of feedback is helpful to share um with the principles um as that handbook is updated with the information from the law for >> sure I think one one of the concerns that I heard before and what you know obviously it wasn't in responds to something happened over the summer, but was sort of accessed parents being concerned about their kids having access to a communication device in case there's an emergency, particularly if there's a fire drill, god forbid, you know, a shooter, something just the just sort of having that quick access for that. Um, and I don't know how that
064would impact this. I mean, if we had something, if there was a shooter drill, you wouldn't have all the kids go to your backpack and grab your phone necessarily. you'd be let's go outside. You just you would just have them go immediately, right? Or a fire drill or whatever. So, I think that's that's just um I mean, I haven't heard that directly in response to, you know, the agenda today, but I know that's something that came up as a topic of conversation previously that'd be worth, I don't know, just anticipating that concern and thinking through, you know, how to address it in the best way we can within the parameters of the law. Can I ask a simple question? It may be too simple, but um how do you make your smartwatch not be used
065for communication? I mean, even if you have do not disturb, I guess if their phone's off, but if they >> parents can set it um on it's called school time. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Parents, but I we have some children that know how to change that. >> That's what I was wondering. So I've had students come to me and show me it's on school time and then I let them go. Then I find out from the teacher it was it's off school. So then we have to move forward with like your m you know like we trusted you to have it and because they do use it for time and weather and whatever. I think what some of these questions are also raising just from a protocol pers perspective you know and what
066might go in the handbook is I think you will learn over the year even after that you know what kinds of questions and things we need to anticipate and the policy does have to be reviewed annually and you know space for public input so I think too there might be opportunities for us to learn around sort of what might we want to like I that I think that's a simple question but actually very very useful if you have a student with a smartwatch who you're sending to Lincoln Street School is just how do you how do you support them in complying with the new rule, right? I think some of those sort of small nuggets of both information and education and support would just help the students also and you be successful in complying with
067the new policy. So, we might not we might be able to anticipate some of those now and some of those I think as we get into the year I'm sure you'll you'll get additional feedback. I will say too, I mean not from um our our age students in these two schools, but um I think with having students in the middle of school and high school, I did do a small focus group and there this many of the students have are really receiving it very well. Um they're talking during lunch, they feel like they're more present. So, I think there's there's really important considerations and I think there's probably a lot of benefits too um that we're seeing. >> Typically at our level, it's really the smart watches. >> Yeah. >> And and it's only half
068a dozen in a school year. >> Yeah. >> It's not a lot. Um, and it's more of a conversation about, >> you know, we're going to have you put it in your backpack, the supply, explanation, reach home, have a conversation with the caregivers, explain why, >> and and and that usually works. So, >> great. >> One one small thing about just how this is written. >> Sure. on the in here. I don't this is just a personal thing, but on the first page under the third paragraph and restrictions, I don't I don't know why we have only in all caps twice. >> You know, I I just don't think we need that. I I know what the word only means. >> I'm sorry. Where are you? >> The third paragraph under restriction copy. >> I
069just think you can write the you can write the word only. You don't need it all caps. >> It doesn't need to be in policy. Maybe in some sort of external comms, but not in the actual policy. >> Right. In the policy itself. Exactly. That that seems like something more if you're Exactly. >> communicating internally, but the policy, we don't usually do that. >> That's easy. >> Any other comments on the policy itself? Just a note for your information, we are expecting to review this in at the April policy committee meeting. So it won't even be all the way at the end of the year. So >> great. >> Okay. Um so we'll we'll have a chance to revisit this in October. So great. Moving right along. Um new business I did have one item.
070Um, we, if you've noticed on our agenda, we still have our 2024 2025 board goals. I think we touched on these really briefly at a prior meeting. Um, and we can, you know, um, finalize this at our October meeting, but typically like to give a moment for us to kind of just review, um, our five goals and see if there's any changes that we want to make for the new year. Um, and then change this to the 25 26 goals. Um, so I'm just going to go ahead and read them and, um, I'll open it up for any discussion. um if we feel in agreement we can go ahead and um decide to move forward with these goals. If if not we can certainly revisit in our next meeting. Um so these are the these
071were the um the goals that we um identified for the last academic year as a board. Um and the first goal was to establish and maintain partnerships and effective communication lines with our families, caregivers and community. The second was to ensure that our schools are fully welcoming and creating a deep sense of belonging for all students and families by considering diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice as a core value. The third was to support efforts to promote educational equity and close stu and close student achievement gaps while working to improve academic performance for all students. The fourth is to actively support the ongoing development and review of safety and security initiatives at our schools. And the fifth is to support social emotional wellness of our students, staff, and school community and meeting the holistic needs of
072our population. I just wanted to see how those are landing with you all and if um any of you have any thoughts about changes or um additions for the current academic year. Any thoughts? Do these feel like goals that you would like to continue with >> or would you like to wait until October to determine that? I wonder if we should hear like the strategic plan >> on Monday for the district to or what we have so far from a presentation to see if maybe some of those through lines can you know bleed through in our goals to see if it makes sense. >> I like the idea of them rolling up to the >> I think that's a great idea. >> Okay. >> Any other thoughts? I think that's wise. >> I mean I
073guess it's it's always hard with goals because it's all these things are important. Sure. And there's also a lot of other things that aren't in here that are important. And it's just uh >> you know at some point you just have to you're choosing a few things to focus on and emphasize. It doesn't mean that the other things that aren't on here aren't things that the are important for the district to pursue and that we don't support those efforts as well. So I you know I think I think depending on what comes out of the strategic planning discussion we we may replace a goal with another one. I I personally don't think it's as helpful to have, you know, eight 10 goals or more just to keep adding on >> because you you lose focus.
074>> Yep. >> So, um whether it's four or six or five or whatever is is fine, but I think we should we should think about that when we have the discussion next month. >> Mhm. >> Oh, you know, I'd also say I know this is under the goals, but it's right underneath it. This is this um piece on here about guidelines for effective cross-cultural dialogue >> that really comes from a training that we did I mean at this point to move like four or five years ago. It's it's it goes back I think before the pandemic. Um so it's it it's from a training from about 5 years ago when most of us weren't on the board. And so, you know, for those this this these short words to have any meaning, I think we
075either need to think about having some sort of updated training or reconsider whether or not this is the best language to have on here. I mean, I I I think these are these are great, but they have to be meaningful for us. >> Yeah. I think it's a great um thing for us to think about. All right. Great. I really like the suggestion of hearing um more on the strategic goals for SAU16 and thinking about how these align and and with those. So um we'll we'll circle back to these in October. Um great. Any other new business? All right. Um >> just I just say again the meeting the joint board meeting is Monday. 6:00 >> just that everyone's, you know, has that on in case you don't have it on your calendar. Hopefully, we
076can get a good turnout for the first meeting in particular. There aren't >> that many times the joint board meets. So, be good to have everyone there. >> Yeah, it sounds like we'll have a lot of really important things to discuss. So, looking forward to that. Any old business? I don't think there's any else business. And I don't think we have to go into non-public. Um, so I am pleased to adjourn the meeting at 7:05.