Stratham School Board Meeting 06/11/25

001All right, guys. Can we call this meeting to order, please? Um 602. And uh let's stand for the pledge, please. [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] All right, good evening everyone. This is uh our last school board meeting of the school year, so it's very exciting. Uh we have a couple things we're kind of going to push to the front before we start um going over minutes. So um looks like Do we have a student council report? Yay. Go ahead, girl. Is it on? Yes. Hi, my name is Katie Burke and I'm the student council representative for Miss Lo's fifth grade class. We're just a few days away

002from summer break. which is super exciting. But before we go, I want to share some fun and special things that we that have happened this year. We had an awesome field day and one of the best parts was the big water slide that the third through fifth graders got to enjoy. Everyone loved it. At the at the start of field day, we also took time to honor some of our amazing teachers who are retiring. Miss Hazeline, Miss Spence, Miss Craig, Miss and Miss Cordy. We also did something really special for Miss Bachelor, one of our PE teachers who's retiring, too. The cross country team had the idea to make a trail after her at Stratam Hill Park. It's now called Bachelor Trail. Because Miss Bachelor was one of the cross country coaches and has and

003has been such a big part of our school, we're all going to miss her so much. And I'm speaking for all of us when I say thank you and we wish her the very best. All of the grades got to go on field trips this year. It's always fun to get out and see what we've been learning in person. As an end of the year activity, all of the grades also got to go to Stratam Hill Park, which was so much fun. The fifth graders have been super busy signing each other's yearbooks and making memories before we leave. Today, we got go we got to go to the beach and tomorrow we're headed to Stratam Hill Park where there will be a water slide and shoe flinging contest. The winner gets a golden high heel.

004I really hope it's me. Tomorrow night is fifth grade celebration and on Friday we will have our clap off as we walk out of the school as students for the very last time. SMS has been such a special place for all of us. It's not just the classrooms and field trips. It's the teachers who care, the staff who helps us every day and the fun we've had together. Thank you and have a nice night. [Applause] That's really great. Thank you so much for that. Um, it does sound like fifth grade has been pretty busy this year and um, I know I talked to Miss Bachelder and that so cool that that trail is named after her and that's pretty awesome. Does anybody have any questions? Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Nice job. You're

005ready for tomorrow. Um, okay. And now, um, I would love to introduce um, Champions for Children. And I think today we have Joanna Medadia, Carol Turner, and David Albbright going to present. So, I'd welcome you guys to come to the microphone. Good evening everyone. My name is Carol Turner. I'm the accounting manager at Audi Stratam. I am honored to be here along with my colleagues David Albbright and Joanna Medina representing our employee owners at International Cars. Our dealerships include Honda North of Danvers, One North Used Vehicle Store in Danvers, Dova Honda, Dova Chevrolet in Dober, Porsche Stratam, Audi Stratam, and Honda Stratum and all located in Stratum and Portsouth Volkswagen in Greenland. I'd like to start by thanking everyone for all their hard work that they do. Everyone in education is doing important work and

006it is an honor to be able to recognize and celebrate a few of the outstanding educators in our community. Our mission as employee owners is to provide outstanding value to our customers and employees, to consistently benefit our communities and the environment, to be a better tomorrow than we are today, and to have fun while doing it. As a part of that mission, our employee owners and management teams have developed the International Cars Teacher Award Fund. Today we have the honor to present the award of Champions for Children to Lynn Lame, Whitney Forbes, Kate Belanger. Thank you for all of your hard work and commitment to our children. I would like to add on a personal note, having been married to a teacher for 40 years, uh I personally know what it takes to be a

007great teacher, the hard work, the dedication, the emotional roller coaster that you're on. So, thank you very much. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Yeah, they are. Absolutely. Come on up. After they take their picture, I'd like to just share some of the things that were said about them and their nominations. Okay. Is that okay? I'm sure you'd want to hear it. Can I just sign in? No, it's great. Oh, what do you want to be in? Oh, sure. You ready? Cheese. Gotcha. [Applause] Uh before mentioning um some of the things that were said about the three um honores this year, I just want to thank international cars. Um this is our third year partnering with you guys and it has been such an incredible partnership and such an important part um of celebrating our teachers and

008we're incredibly grateful for your support. Um and I just even that you reached out in the first place has been really very special and we appreciate you guys. Um so every year we um open up nominations for Chances of Children typically in March and April and we send it out to the staff and ask them to to nominate people. Um we always get a number of um nominations. This year was no different. We had I think 11 different um staff members that were nominated. Um and those uh nomination letters get brought to the leadership committee. There's 13 of us. We review them. Um we look at the what was said about the nominees in comparison to like their criteria of champions of children. Um, and I'm not going to read the entire letters because we

009would be here for a very long time. Um, but I am going to highlight what was said about um, the people that were the honores this year. Um, so first is Mrs. Forbes. Um, and these are some of the things that were said about her so beautifully in the nomination letter. Whitney is a courageous and visionary leader. Her work sparks action and change. She brings insights, professionalism, and a student- centered mindset to every conversation. She approaches this work with fierce advocacy, compassion, and an unwavering belief in the potential of every child. She creates an environment where children feel safe to take risks, ask questions, and explore their interest. She is a model of what it means to be a dedicated, innovative, and equity-minded educator. Whitney Forbes. Um the my favorite part of doing this in

010the pouring rain and thunder and lightning on top of an 8 foot ladder um last Friday. scared for my life, shaking so bad. I thought I was going to knock the ladder over. Um Lynn was behind me. Um and she had no I don't they don't know. And um she was with a student who really didn't want to be out in the rain. Was like really unhappy. And thankfully a member of the leadership team was standing there and knew that we were going to mention Lynn. So it was like encouraging the student. We got it. You'll be all right. You can stay out here. It's good. So I finished saying what I had to say and then announced uh Miss Lamea's name and the students like boo like yelling over all the kids. It was

011actually perfect. Um so Lynn want to be outside. It was perfect. Um Lynn had been with us for a number of years and then she left to pursue her degree and we got her back um last year and we are so grateful for that. Um and here are some of the things that the staff had to say about Lynn. Lynn quietly and humbly and consistently goes above and beyond. She offers an abundance of compassion, patience, and understanding. She creates a safe space for children to grow, learn, and thrive. She is a thoughtful listener who finds creative out-of-the-box strategies to support to support students. She finds genuine joy in the small meaningful moments. She is a true team player who is respectful, encouraging, dependable, and lifts up our staff. Miss Lay. And then Miss Bandra was

012our final honory this year. Um, and there's I well I did not write the letter for her. Um, I feel like I can attest to every one of the things that was said and I would imagine every educator in the room and parent um and student would actually be able to attest to that. So, Kate is unmatched in her dedication and commitment to every child, staff member and family. She exempl exemplifies what it means to put children first. Her deep understanding of child development, teaching and learning and systems has made a permanent impact on both our students and our staff. She is the consmate collaborator. She has cultivated cultivated a school culture where kindness, empathy, and understanding are at the heart of our community. She will stop at nothing for the children, staff, and families

013of SMS. She leads with both her heart and her mind. Miss Banger, [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's really wonderful. Congratulations to all three of you. Amazing. Really amazing. Very special. Thank you so much. Truly, thank you so much. This is really special. Yes. Same thing. Whitney Forbes, you need to leave. It's your birthday. Go. [Applause] All right. Moving forward in the meeting. Um I'll turn um public comment on for um I'll just do 10 minutes at this time and then we'll open up again um towards the end of the meeting. Is there anybody who would like to make a public comment? Here we go. Thanks, Pat. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. I'm going to be touching on the uh non-resident student issue that's going to be addressed, I'm

014sure, later on in the meeting. Uh, I've done a lot of research since I heard about this. I'm I' I've handed out what I'm going to saying. I'm going to cut it short because I don't know if I have three minutes or whatever I have, but I did a lot of research on this, including studying our uh JFAB and all the state statutes that surround this and issues invoking section C of JFAB. I have no problem with all the other sections, but the section C is a little short on specifics that need to be filled in. Someone said told me that they sent to all of you uh Keraj's version of this which has a lot more meat and I have that with me. I'll give it to you if you want that afterwards. Um

015I did look at RSA 193 uh col 12 uh Roman 8 that states each district shall adopt an admission and attendance of non-resident student policy. But it's even that statute is very very uh slim on or very silent on specifics. Um so I think that's the issue that has to be addressed today or tonight if you we'll see how far you take it. There when it comes to tuition there are two statutes that discuss tuition in the education area. One is the manifest handhip hardship u student section that talks about it being set at the uh at the state board of education uh uh average uh cost per student um which for stratum is 26,500 minus transportation costs. So then there's also one of the things that's being I know we have right before Senate

016Bill 210 which is kind of out there as well which as my understanding is that the it probably going to go to conference committee. We'll know that tomorrow when the Senate votes on that and that means they won't have a resolution by until the end of next week on on that. So, but but in that current statute for open enrollment schools, um the tuition is not less than 80% of the receiving district's average per pupil uh cost as determined by the Department of Education. So, here's my issues. policy on JFAB is silent on a reasonable tuition or on a methodology of what to charge the non-resident students district or of residents or parents of a student. Issue two, once the SMS board comes up with a non-resident student tuition level andor methodology, it becomes precedent.

017Remember, it becomes precedent. That's very important when you come up with a policy. Understand that that someone's going to hold you to that going forward. Pat, you just wrap up. I just got started. I know it's been three and a half minutes. Okay. Um well, you can read the other ones that I have there. Um just please keep keep an eye on those as you have your discussions today. Uh also think also ask yourselves why section C has never been invoked since 1997 uh by other any other SMS board. Uh only one exception according to Chris told me this that it was one hardship case in which it was invoked. So please read the rest of what I have to say there if there's a few minutes that can if I be allowed to come

018back and finish my thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Uh, Tiffany. Hi everyone. My name is Tiffany Luck. I'm the PE teacher here at SMS and I would like to request permission to speak to you tonight if that's all right with you. Yeah. Do we have to do a motion? Okay. Um, just because she's out of district. Um, so, uh, is there a motion to allow Miss Lock to speak tonight? So, move. Yeah. Second. Second. All right. All in favor? I All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And bear with me. I'm extremely nervous. This is a very important topic that means a lot to my family. Okay. Um, as you know, I'm requesting the board's consideration in allowing my daughter to attend SMS as a tuition student. I understand that

019this is a unique request, and I truly appreciate the time and care you're doing with your research to deliberate and make an informed decision. I've been a proud and dedicated member of SMS for the past 12 years. Over that time, I've witnessed firsthand the exceptional quality of education, the deep sense of community, and the supportive environment that make our school truly special. It would be an incredible honor for my daughter to benefit from the same enrich enriching experiences and high standards that we work so hard to provide to every student. Allowing staff members to enroll their children in our schools would not only be a meaning meaningful benefit for employees, it would also deepen the connection between staff and the school community. Many districts across the state have adopted similar policies as a way to

020support their educators and strengthen their school systems. In addition, it offers families greater stability and alignment between their professional and their personal lives. I fully recognize the complexity of this request, especially with potential changes on the horizon regarding open enrollment, voucher systems, and related policies. My hope, however, is that my daughter Zoe may begin attending SMS in late August with her peers, and that this decision can remain local and community focused. I understand that a long-term policy would require thoughtful planning regarding space, financial considerations, and other logistics. I'm confident, however, that a fair and manageable pro could be created, one that supports our workforce while prioritizing what's best for children. For instance, if a policy can include re reasonable parameters such as you need to be a staff employee for a minimum of 5 years,

021enrollment not must be below 530, and class sizes not exceeding 18 or however you see that looking for you. We currently reside in Raymond, where the school system is unfortunately struggling. Working here has shown me what every child deserves and their education. Zoe has been a part of this community her entire life. My students know her, love her, and she's involved in many of our whole school events. This school feels like home to her because it is. Our ultimate goal is to move to Stratum and become full-time residents. In the meantime, I respectfully ask for your consideration and allowing Zoe to attend SMS this fall as a student. Thank you again for your time. I know it's a lot of work and I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Tiffany. You did great. Um, okay,

022I have um three more minutes. Uh, Kristen, super quick. Yeah, my name is Kristen Burke from Tony Hickory Pond. I just wanted to voice my support of Tiffany. Okay, thanks so much. All right. Any other uh Paul Pano, 10 Haywick Drive, Stratum. Um I just have a few points uh that I want to just talk about on JFAB part C. Um and and their questions too. uh Stratam Elementary School cost per pupil per the DOE New Hampshire information that is available online and it the latest is and they they they had the elementary school cost per pupil as $26,499. Okay. uh the cost has increased to well over 30,000 this year when you consider that we have a $12 million tax $12 million bond which has by itself a $960,000 annual payment. Okay. And the

023uh state grant we believe has decreased by a,321,15. They were paying over 2.3 like 2.35 million the last two years and it's now down to one 1.024 million. So it's dropped tremendously. we have to pick up that fee and that means our cost per student that I've calculated using the tax calculator that was developed uh for the whole town of over 30 of 33,000 plus per student. Consider that $33,000 per student to put a kindergarten student together. I mean that. So will we request the families the teachers families from these two two teachers their communities to come up with that kind of money. Um that's a good that's a that's a question I want to find out you know because if they don't come up with it that means all the rest of us citizens

024have to come up with that money. And if other people now take advantage going forward, I do hope that you know the superintendent and the board look at this very hard and consider all the issues that we've faced over the past year. Um, stratum citizens, yes, they will pay well over 30,000. Finish up. Thank you. I'm finishing per student to attend and we should not be giving a discount to residents of other towns or should it I say the the resident towns of where these people are going to school these children are going to school they can't we can't give a discount if we give a discount then they you know it needs to be reasonable um so if you do then the resident towns need to transfer the dollars per student to the SMS

025budget to spare the cost of the stratum residents. That's only fair. Okay? If we have more students going here and they have less, then we we should we should get those funds. We're I'm not asking for the world. Thank you. Just it's algebra. Thanks. Thank you. I know I had one more person that wanted to speak, but we're out of time at this point. I'm going to open it up again and I can let you go first when we come back. All right. So, moving ahead in the agenda. Um, let's take a look at the um public and non-public minutes. Any um changes on the public minutes? Um I was just going to make one change. It looks like at the end um it says that adjourned at 10 10:52, but it's actually 9:52. These

026meetings are long, but it seems late. Um, and I was just going to also ask if maybe um if Sharon could just put um page numbers on the board packet just so you know we can kind of follow along. Yeah. Um and then I didn't have any changes on the non-public. Nope. No. Okay. Um Okay. So, I'm going to move to accept the um public and non-public minutes of May 14th as is with those um with that one change to the adjournment time. Do I have a second? I second. Um all in favor, please say I. I. I. Okay. So, that's three um 0. Yeah. And I guess Kathleen can vote even though she kind of missed the beginning of it she was here. Y because she was here. She just break. Okay. All right.

027Superintendent report. So, thank you for the manifest. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you for signing the manifest. Um, I have them right here. Um, in your board pack was a current year financial. This is the last financial for the year. So, at this point in time, we always start to close out a lot of the purchase orders, close down a lot of the utility incumbrances that are unused, transportation incumbrances. Um, so you'll see that we removed, I believe it's $28,000 of projected expense um by closing down those purchase orders and closing down those incumbrances. Did anyone have any questions on any of those? Um, so what we're looking at is I'm sorry. um is is finalized or it'll go into the summer. Yep. So, that was going to be my next thing is um our fiscal year

028runs up all the way to June 30th and so we are going to be paying the bills and even in July we have a lot of bills that come in for services provided in June such as transportation or um any type of services for students. And so, we're going to keep paying those bills. Anything that happened in fiscal year 24, which uh sorry, fiscal year 25, sorry, I'm a year behind. um uh will be charged to the 2425 school year um accordingly. So you will be getting an email from me probably mid to mid August asking you to come in and sign the rest of the manifest as well as sign what's called the DOE25 and the MS25. The DOE25 goes exactly who it sounds like the DOE and then the MS goes to the

029department of revenue the DRA and those documents will then say what is the unassigned fund balance at the end of the year that will go to offset the tax rate in November. Okay. So instead of you coming in multiple times throughout the summer to sign, just wait for that email from me and then that will tell you we have everything ready and you can just come right to the SAU office and we have um um shelf and each district has its name on it. So they'll all be right there waiting for you. Okay. Okay. And then the other thing I have is your bond documents. So we do have to sign these in duly noted meeting. I'm just going to pull up the email from bond council just so I don't get anything wrong here.

030Um, they did give me three different versions. So, we have a a 20, a 25, and a 30, which actually, I think, 29 years. Um, so you can pick and then we have to sign four copies of whichever duration you pick. I printed five just so we have an extra copy just in case something happens. Um, and so I can pass these over to you. So, what it is, they do in here, they do have the full loan amount, which it matches the amount that was on the warrant. And you'll see that the interest rate is different for the duration that you pick. Um, so the interest rate, if you when you look on the loan agreement, this one is the 20-year one. It's a 5.25% rate. Now, this is maximum. You won't actually know

031the interest rate until it's actually sold, but they're saying this is the maximum rate that you would would get. And then if you look at the 25-year one, I believe it's 5.5% and then the 30 30 year well 29year one it's 5.75% I think. Um it does have in each of these packets the amount you would pay per year as we pay off the bond. So that will be included in your annual budget. So thinking between the 20 25 and 30 year obviously you'll be paying off the bond longer if you go over the 30-year. Um, those are the main things. It does have to be signed by the school district district clerk. Now, Kathleen is now on the board, so she's no longer the clerk. So, um, we actually have a resident who has

032graciously decided to put her name in. If you, this board would like to make a motion to approve Aaron Garcia de Praes as the school district clerk for the evening or the duration of the school year, um, then she could sign as the clerk. And we also have our new treasurer, Sarah Juel, over here um to sign as the treasur. And she's just signed all of her treasurer documents to make her official. Um so before we before we get started with any of the signatures, I do think we need a motion to appoint Erin if you so choose so do so. So did um Mr. Scam step down? So he's going to be that his finishes July 1st and so this sale is happening after July 1st. Okay. Was he is that a one-year term?

033I don't know exactly how long the term was, but um it was on the ballot and uh Miss Juel Okay. won the election. All right. Got it. So, thank you. And so, yes, effective July 1st, he will no longer be the treasur and effective um July 1st. Okay. Got it. Miss Juwel's signature will be on all checks and manifests. Um and this sale does happen after July 1st. Okay. Okay. So, there needs to be a motion for the um for Aaron and then um we have to kind of discuss which bond length we're going to do. Correct. Okay. Hi. Um, so, um, does anybody want to make that motion? Oh, I, um, motion to accept Erin Garcia de Parees as the new school district clerk for the remaining part of the school year. Thanks. I'll

034second that. Um, all in favor? I. So 30. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And so I do have them binder clipped per one. The one that's not So this is the 25. This is the 20. And the one that's not labeled is the original one that was 30 year, but it's really 29 years, I think, right? This is 20. And so 29. And I guess for just for benefit of people attending, um, and yep, just for the benefit the numbers there. Um, I don't have them here, but so what there's there's two documents there. There's five copies each of two documents. There's a loan agreement which will have the amount of the loan as well as the maximum interest rate which I had um said before. Um and then there's a certificate of vote

035where we would need to have a motion and a vote to um to pick which duration you would want and to have us enter into the loan agreement. But I guess what I'm saying is just for purposes of the notes, can you tell us like the total amount paid with the 20 year 25 and 30 29? I have to Is it in these? It's so it's going to be the last page. I don't know. I have to see if there's a total on the back of it. So they did put I think they just put the principal payments there. Okay. But it is it's the last page of the loan agreement. Yeah. But that appears to be all the principal payments on that. Yeah, this has all I believe in our former meetings, we were

036very I think we were targeting the 25-y year. That looked like the amount that we were we were comfortable with in interest. Um but again, that was where we were back when we were talking about this after the March vote. Yeah. Yeah. I think 25 year makes sense. It's the a it's the average and um I don't know the 29 year feels a little iffy because things could come up be you know between now and then and then we don't want to have a bond on top of a bond. Mhm. Right. I agree. I guess I'm just trying to figure out why we wouldn't go for the 20. Didn't Mike um from the select board say that the town usually does 20 year bonds? I remember that. Yeah. Um, I think I I feel like

037that would make more sense to me. I do. We have the impact to the taxpayers that that would Right. That's what I was maybe more aggressive. I mean, we would save money and interest. On this particular copy, it doesn't have the tax impact, but in the prior the ones that we provided prior, I can see if I can pull those up. Okay, we need Paul and his tax calculator. Paul, do you have the Paul Tuscini's tax calculator? What's that? The tax calculator. Um, I might be able to pull it up in my email. And it's also didn't say what the rate was in the time. It assumed 20. It assumed 25. It did assume 25. It assumed 25. Okay, that's how we It's also important to know that it was 25. I'm curious of the

038difference between the 20 and the 25. And it's also important to know that um this rate is not a final rate. While they put a maximum rate on there, it is a maximum rate. Okay. I don't really know how to Yeah. talk about this without really knowing that number. Um, and so are you looking about like the tax rate impact per year? Yeah. Can we give Molly a minute then? We can because I know I know that was in prior board packs, so I'm just going to have to pull that back. Yeah. Can we move that to the NY? That's what I'm thinking. Yep. That way we have a concrete number. Um Chris, do you want to move ahead? We don't have any personal updates and recommendations. So let me just highlight um with Kathleen

039joining the board. So that position has come open. So we will look to appoint a new school clerk for um the 2025 2026 until March vote and then that'll go on the ballot. U what I'll do is I'll put out a letter of interest in mid August so that we can have anybody that's interested to come in and interview with the board for our first meeting in September. I also did reach out to the board of selectmen that they'd like to have someone just sit in on those interviews since that clerk would lurk with the town clerk and it's also the collaboration. So they will appoint one member to come to our September meeting to be part of that interview process. So I'll take care of that for the board and then we can look

040at as we have for um board appointments for people to join the board. So just so we know that Aaron is just for the rest of this this time frame because her role elsewhere. Um I do couple other things. Um I did put a uh nomination in there for PE teacher. Um really excited met with him. Um you know very dynamic recommendations are great. I'd make a recommendation that we would move forward with the PE recommendation if so like that um to be public tonight. Um and we can um definitely call him by name if if you are you don't have any questions. I really I liked his resume and um it seems uh so he's he has two years experience just out of student teaching. Correct. Yeah. No, I think I think that sounds

041really great. Yes. Yeah. So, if you're uh Okay, I'd like a um motion to accept Noah Devers as our PE teacher uh at Strata Memorial School accompanying Miss Lock next year. Sounds great. Yeah, I'll make a motion to accept Noah as um PE teacher. Do I have a second? Yeah, I'll second. Sophie. Thanks, Sophie. All right. All in favor? I I All right. 30 0. Thank you. Uh second thing that I would ask is that you would give the superintendent the authority to hire over the summer. Again, um we'll follow the same process if we do have an opening and that's for certified staff. Um unfortunately, if someone doesn't come back, it's sometimes hard to get our meetings together and um give that that luxury to be able to hire them quickly so that we

042don't lose them if they're looking in other places. So, okay, I would need a motion for that as well. Yeah, I'll move to give the superintendent power to hire. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Kathleen. All in favor? I I All right. 300. Thank you. Uh in your packet, I gave you our meeting schedule for next year. Um I did look that last date, June 10th, is it's really is a Wednesday. Yeah. So, is there any um concerns? Uh and again, I'll put uh the public hearing dates in there once we those are finalized. But really keeping the um same time Wednesdays for our meetings. I did put in there talked with Jennifer about doing a board retreat where we do have two newer board members um and working through our goals just

043having a whole night dedicated to that on August 18th. It is a Monday. Um that's when we start bringing staff back in. So it's just a a good time frame for for a meeting if that works for everybody. Yeah, that'll work for me. Um the only day I wanted to change was that June 10th. Um, it is a Wednesday and uh that's 8th grade graduation. So, I'm going to not be So, either we could just do it Thursday or the week before. I guess maybe we want it to be Could we just do it on June 11th instead? Yep. So, the only thing is you our last day I believe is the 10th. Is the 10th I think is the 10th. So, um, next year, right, didn't we? That's what we wrote down. But do

044you have or maybe do it on Tuesday the 9th? Yeah. Our last day is scheduled for June 10th. June 10th. We could do Tuesday. Tuesday the 9th. I could make that. Mhm. Would you be able to make that to move this to Tuesday? I don't know if I'll be reelected. Oh, yeah. So, all right. I don't feel like I should have a say. Yeah. So, we can even hold it and then move it when we have everybody back in September if that's okay. Um, knowing that I'll put a I'll put it earmark to finalize a date. Okay. Yeah. Well, because Eric's going off, Sophie's going off, and then Yeah. So, it'll just be me and Cameron for sure. Correct. And then everybody else. Okay. Um, and then just thinking about the fact schedule, I know

045we wanted to make some changes, moving it up, all of that. So, do you feel comfortable with that? Yeah. So, again, I I've got to talk with David Emanuel um about appointing sooner. Um, so we have had conversations about appointing sooner, but also talking about expectations for that committee. uh nominating a chair um talking about their role and specifically what their role is on that committee. So I'm gonna work with David and our goal is to start budgeting uh with principles in mid August uh to late August. So I'd like to get the fact in sooner um and again you know some standalone meetings starting late September uh mid to late September. It's about a month and a half earlier than we were meeting this pre previous year. Okay. So once I have that and

046I can talk with David, I can start to try to put together um a meeting schedule that would mirror our schedule um either before uh so that we're not adding more meetings to to our docket. So that March 4th, I'm assuming winter break is February like that February 23rd. I don't have the SMS count. We have it February 23rd through the 27th. Okay. And then we if we do the district meeting on the 4th, it's a Wednesday the 4th. Yeah. like we did last year. So, we get come back for two days and then we have the annual meeting on that Wednesday. Okay. Um the following Tuesday. I guess just wondering, you know, we don't have a full board here tonight, but just wondering what you guys think. You know, people are always like, "Oh,

047if it was a Saturday, I could come. If it was blah blah blah, I could come. I I just wonder, you know, the town does their meetings on weekends." I've been to them. They're very packed. Um, I don't know what what are your guys' thoughts on Do you mean for our meetings? For I'm talking about the district meeting. Oh, the district meeting. Um, that might be nice for parents and for other community members. It might be easier than trying to rush home. Do any of the other districts do it on weekends or is it always week nights? It's depending where you're at. We've gotten away from weekends um just with the commitments that we hear and sometimes it's easier because we can provide child care and we we typically do it through our teachers. So

048staying late on a day is much easier than coming in for a sixth day. Okay. Um and trying to deal with with family commitments. So that's why we moved it from feedback of those who are providing child care. It's been easier to do it during the week. Okay. Okay. All right. Um so yeah, thanks for putting this together. Uh these dates looked fine to me. All right. So then we'll just plan on meeting in August and we'll have our September date in September. Then we can finalize this with the whole board being here or we can finalize it on August 18th if we want as well. Final night. That sounds great. And then um Oh, I just had a thought in my head. Oh, I guess the other thing to think about too just for

049board members is thinking about the topics that we kind of want to talk about each these sessions and and what makes sense for presentations. And then the other thing I wanted to suggest is if all the board members can come to this August 18th maybe with just like two ideas of goals, something that um would be meaningful to you considering you know where we're going next year and all of that just so a starting point. Sure. Yeah, of course. Okay. And that'll be open to the public. Um but it'll just be it is open to the public. It is a public meeting. Um, again, it's just working on your goals. Yep. Okay. Yep. So, I forwarded you guys the email. It was previously included in a board pack several months ago. Yeah. Um, again, the

050interest rate is not set in stone at this time. So, when the bond bank does the hypothetical tax impacts, they use a more um more of what it will really be. And but in these bond documents, it is a maximum rate that is documented in there. Um, so I did send you what we had previously prep provided and I think in here is a 30, 25, 20, 15. I think it goes all the way down to 10. Um, so it does and on the far right hand schedule that is the projected tax impact per thousand. Okay. Mhm. I did um I pulled up Paul Tusini's calculator and I think it'll be roughly $80 more per year or 40 per half to do um the 20 year versus the 25. Okay. Is that right? About $2

051million in interest. Yes. Okay. Total dollars. So to me that seems like a compelling case to do 20 over 25. It's a palpable amount. Um yeah, $40 per half. Mhm. It's not outrageous. It's definitely an increase. And I know people are feeling, you know, the tax burden a lot, but does save money in the long run. And so if you are wanting to do the 21 20 that um I noticed the binder clips got taken off. Sorry. It's okay. They were They're grouped. It It should say 20 year at the top. And we'll need to sign the four copies or sorry, five copies. Okay. The one that did not have something at the top was the 30-year one. So, it looks like that's the 30-year one. 20. That looks like the 20-year one. So, there

052should be Are there 25? Cuz I think I was missing some 25s here. Um 20. So there should be five copies of each the loan agreement and the certificate of vote. I have five and then and Jenner if you you want to pass back the 30ear ones that way we won't mix them up. All right. Do you need do we need to vote before we even Yes. Yeah. All right. Is there a vote on the floor? Is there a vote someone wants to make? Do you want to make? Um, sure. I make a motion to accept the 20-year bond of duration. Duration. Okay, sounds great. Um, I'll second. Um, any discussion on that? Further discussion? All right. Um, all in favor, please say I. I. All right. 30. And then we can sign those as

053we if Yeah, if you could sign them. And then also our clerk and our treasur. So that sounds great. Which one do we have to sign? It might just be one member of the school board. It should be on the last page. There should probably be. Yes. I think the first one is just the clerk and then it's the second one that is clerk clerk issuer. They all say clerk of issuer. What does that mean? That's the school district clerk. Okay. So that's they all say that. So there should be five copies of that and then five copies of the loan agreement after. Okay. So then the loan agreement that's the Clark one. Yep. And then the loan agreement should have a member of the school board as well as the treasurer. And here we

054go. Okay. We need to sign all five. Yes. That's where Aaron comes in. Just kidding. We'll just get through. Yeah, he's me. I just paint you. Here's your nice clip. Alligator clip clip. Why they're signing on that? The last thing from superintendent report is just the to overall make a decision on that tuition request and if we do modified policy JFAB in any manner. Okay, sounds good. Um so moving on to that tuition issue. Um I'd love to open up for discussion in the board and just to see kind of um how you guys are feeling about it. I've been thinking about it a lot this week. Um does anybody want to go first? Why don't you go first? I've been thinking about it. Okay. Um, so I was thinking about it a lot this

055week because I actually work at a school where um my kid can go at a reduced rate and that's actually very important to me and um I like it and but um I even I was also starting to draft something where I really like kind of went into like what would the policy look like and what would the agreement look like? What would be their tenure? Would it be renewable every year? I was kind of trying to think through like what this looks in practicality. But then I think I kind of came out on the other side where the difference with SMS is that it is supported by tax dollars and um you know to to bring in um you know as people have mentioned right the cost per student is very high. So in

056order for SMS people to take um you know to participate in it they would really have to contribute and then at a certain point is it even helpful to them right and so I think where I came down is I sort of came down on the other side where I'm not in favor of moving forward with um allowing out of district students to tuition in Does that make sense? Mhm. So, were you thinking that um the staff members would have to also pay a portion of that? Is that what you were? I think they do. You know, um Chris gave us all that research from local towns where they do contribute um either a quarter or half or maybe it's based on their tenure, but there is almost always a contribution which I think would

057be demanded by taxpayers. Um and then what would that be and what would the tenure look like? And then if you require like teachers to have 10 years of tenure working here, are they really going to have elementary age kids, right? It's like it gets um in really creating a policy once I tried to start doing it, it raised more questions than really seems satisfactory able to be answered. The other thing is when I do look at the policy um it talks about where they can get tuition free basis and it's to provide pro provide continuity of education to permit students to finish a final quarter um and then to um for homeless students you know so it's like it really doesn't cover the situation that we're talking about here. Correct. Has this um I

058think I have a question for the administration. Has this ever happened before in the past? Have we had um In my time here, we have not had a staff member request in my time here, but I've only been here for seven years. I don't know prior to that. Okay. And eight years. Eight years. And the same for you as well. So, this isn't this doesn't happen on a routine basis? It hasn't. Not in my time here. Okay. I can definitely see the benefit of um having that be an option for both the students and um the teachers. Um I don't feel like it's fair for the taxpayers, our local taxpayers to pick up the bill though. So is there a way that we could split the difference? Like what would it look like to have

059it but not have any impact, local tax impact? Is that even feasible? Is that doable? Um do we have any examples of that? Yeah, those are all all the policies. So Nottingham, they pay 20% of the tuition. Kirge pays 25% of the tuition rate. Uh Milford, it's based on the number of hours you work there. School, just to go back, the school pays 25%. No, the child's family pays 25% of the cost per pupil. Correct. And then the sending district picks up the rest of the bill. No. So the local tax So you're only getting 25% of your 23. If I go to what the DOE right now is, so it's based on 2023 New Hampshire ED cost per pupil for stratum is 24,964. That's what we'd set until it changes. Um so that would

060be if you adopted Ningham's policy, the the staff member would pay 20% of that 24,964 for their student to come here. And then what about um the sending district? They don't they don't because there's no agreement right now. That's what the voucher system will do. Uh the EFAs that just got passed that will support that. So, yeah. Mhm. Yeah. I I don't think I can say yes to that on unfortunately. I guess I just also wanted to kind of address that I've gotten many emails on this and and none of them are in favor. I recognize tonight people did say things in favor verbally, but you know, I've also been getting a lot of emails opposed. I think we're all watching what's happening in conquered and what's going to happen with this open enrollment. And

061it seems almost like if we say yes in this situation and then we get upset about open enrollment, it it just seems um inongruous to me. And um I I yeah, I think just what you're saying about, you know, the taxpayers, it just feels not right. Even though I understand that the people that are asking are incredibly valuable to this community and like I said, being a parent myself, I I understand. Um, and and I have, yeah, a lot of sympathy and respect for the people that are asking, but it just feels when we're thinking about tax issues and budgets, open enrollment, um, out of district placements, it just it feels not right to me. Yeah. I think it's really important that the public understands what we mean by open enrollment. Um there are several

062bills right now at the state level that are sponsored. Um and what they are basically saying is that any child in New Hampshire can go to any school that they wish to go to if these bills pass. Um and they have very uh they would limit us to what we would be able to say. Um they basically say you have to accept a student if there are vacancies and I believe the number per classroom that they were throwing out for vacancies was 30 children per student. That's 3 through five. K through two is up to 25. So 25 K through two and 30 students in our higher levels. And so if we had room in our classrooms, we would have to accept those students. Um and the only reason they give for not accepting those

063students are uh severe disciplinary issues which are it's kind of vague or if that child has been expelled um from their previous school. Um and the funding for this that we are taking into consideration as we're making these decisions is that the sending districts would only send us about 80% of cost to educate that child. And again the wording is very vague. Is it 80% of what we pay? Or is it 80% of what a different town pays to educate a child? So, if another town's only paying 10,000 to educate a child, maybe we'll only get 80% of that 10,000 and then we would have these additional students coming into our classrooms. Um, and our educators would have to meet each child where they are at, which is the definition of public education. And so

064when you do that, some children need less resources, some need more, and we the taxpayers would have to um make up that difference to make sure that that child got appropriately educated. Um we have no say of this in as a school board. Um this is a state law that they are trying to pass. So if you think that this state law sounds great, wonderful. there's a trifecta of um Republican le state um leadership and it most likely will pass. But if you think this sounds like a bad idea, then um we really encourage people to talk to their representatives and um state senators and the governor's office um because once it becomes law, we have to uphold that law. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Pat was talking about earlier, too. So, we're expecting

065votes, you know, by the end of the month, by June. Yeah. But that will change um public education, you know, and and how we pay taxes and where the money goes and keeping money local. Um so, we really um we're really watching that closely. Um Okay. So, I guess um is there any other discussion or conversation or Chris, anything we should be thinking about that maybe we're not? No, I I think I gave you as much information in your packet to try to make a decision what other districts do and what is coming down the pike. Again, you you don't have that. Again, when we did talk about the benefit of employees bringing their children here, I hear that. So, I I think you had all the information that you could have in order to

066try to make a a valid decision. Yeah, my heart definitely wants to say yes. And um but I I don't feel comfortable with the tax implications to our residents. All right. Um Okay. Do uh do we need a motion on this if it was a letter? Uh you do because it was a request for to consider it. So you would have to deny or accept that request. Okay. Um or you can uphel JFAB which does not allow for you're not allowing for tuition to come in. Okay. Um, okay. So, uh, does anybody want to make a motion? Should I make a motion? Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Um, I'll make a motion to uphold, um, JFAB, um, in that it limits out of district kids coming to SMS for the four stated reasons. And, um, we're

067going to uphold that policy at this time. Um, all right. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Thanks, Sophie. Um, all in any more discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Anybody opposed? Okay. So, 300. All right. Um, Molly, I know we were asking you to do 12 things at the same time, but I wanted to just go quick back to the financial report. Um, because it looks like right now the balance in theory is 204,000. um that you think we'll have at the end of the year, right? Yeah. Take it. Um so the unassigned fund balance would be the 204 as long as nothing else changes. Understood. Um but it's important to note that you can only expend up to the appropriation limit. So on the upper left

068hand side that 102,000 that is how much projected under spend you are. But you have some additional revenue from earnings on investment um e-ate other local revenue and um tuition which is more the the school preschool tuition sorry um with so with the expenditures less than planned and the revenue more than planned but then also in the tax rate we had planned for a level of food service loss that gets you to the 204. Okay. So you can't expend the 204 you could only expend up to the 102. Got it. Yeah. I guess I just wanted to because I just feel like this financial report is so important and um does it go out in the minutes like this little cheat sheet? No. Yes. Does it go out in the minutes? I think it's mentioned

069that we review it, but I don't know if the sheet goes with it. Um no, it's just You're right. It's just mentioned in the packet. Yeah, because I just think um you know I think one of the things like even before I got on the board sometimes you would have a fund balance that was pretty large and we can see in previous years you know that it has been large at different times. I think the fact it's 204 right now, at least to me, seems like it reflects that we're doing a pretty lean budget, right? And um kudos to you guys. And um also just that um I think it just shows like how I guess that's what I want to say. Yeah. And it's really the 102, not the 204 is the under expenditure

070to compare it to budget. So it is a very very lean budget. Is it too lean or does it Yeah. Well, I mean, considering what? So, we've been frozen basically the whole year. Okay. Teachers didn't get to spend their money. That's what I'm trying to get at. What does these numbers really say? So, special education, we had astronomical increases in special education when we built the budget over a year ago. We didn't know that, right? And they went up exponentially, not just like for Stratum, but just in general. And so, we didn't know that that was going to happen. And so, okay, if you were to like look at our budget, there are lines that are, you know, that we didn't spend. And there's like, wow, there's still money left over. Well, that's because we

071spent over spent in other lines. appropriately to the right line so you know auditors can see where the money is accurately spent but because it's ultimately a bottom line but it was ultimately special expenses lean and then we basically spent no money anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah. And if you want to see that impact on the the line by line detail on page one just towards the bottom um there's the 1210 function that is special education but it's also important to know that down in the 2700s is your special transportation. So you do have to look at your 1,200 and your special and transportation collectively. Okay. So in the 1,200 alone, it's just shy of almost $200,000 over spent. Um and then just going down to the transportation, special education transportation, um is $75,000 over spent.

072So the combination of those two is like $275,000. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. And I I just think like I want to get these stories out about these numbers, you know, because it's like we get to the district meeting and people, you know, can't believe what the budget is, but I think really, you know, what these numbers are telling a story about how expensive um, you know, these services are, right? And I just want to make sure we touch on that every month. And then also, you know, that it doesn't take anybody by surprise and and what you guys are doing and wheeling and dealing this budget. And it's very challenging. Um, okay. Thank you very much. And just remember too that you will have money that will go into your trust funds out of the

073end of the year for balance, right? So you're at 25,000 that will go into the maintenance and repair and then 10,000 for technology. So there is $35,000 will be reduced even further. So there's really no money, right? So you take that from the 102 and you're really Yeah. very very lean budget. Very lean. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yep. All right. Anything else, superintendent? No, that is all we have. Okay. We don't um need to use any of the unassigned fund balance for anything, right? There haven't been any requests. Yeah. No. Okay. I mean, majority is through the bond of the building that we have. And so, we'll be meeting and um we're already looking at how we can save money and not use contingency for that we can do other things through that bond through

074that building project. And I know Sophie will highlight some of that stuff and offer to it from our meeting today. Okay. um SMS administrative report. So you I um sent it via email, but it wasn't in the board packet. I don't know, but I just sent it to you. So I don't know if you have any questions about that part. And then we have our star monthly presentation as well. Okay. Um uh did anybody have any questions or comments about the No. Um I know uh I heard some kids talking about is teacher assignments going out differently this year than No, there's it'll be on the progress reports. It'll it's on the the um gosh narrative of the progress report their child will know. So you'll get email after we'll email it sometime around 3:30

075or so. They typically go out on Friday afternoon. Okay, sounds good. One of the it is a slightly different we have done step up a variety of different ways. Um, and one of the things that we've really encountered, um, is that we often have teachers that might be on maternity leave, so then they're not there, and so the kids go, it's, it creates this like ambiguity and it's really hard at the end of the year. Um, and additionally, um, for say you're a fourth grade teacher and your kids are stepping up to fifth grade and maybe that student is upset because they're not with their best friend. It kind of derails the whole rest of that early release and that last pivotal like hour that you have with your students. And so we really thought

076about like the implications that that was having for our students in the last day of school. And so we've done step up different. They're going and they're meeting all the staff that might work with the fifth grade. Okay. Um and they did like a slideshow introducing themselves and they did like a fun activity, but it was much more like neutral and safe and sort of got them excited like it was like all the highlights of what's going to happen next year and here's the cool staff that you're going to work with and just seemed to be um just more appropriate and and less um anxietyinducing. Yeah, I think. Yep. Yeah. It's always a tricky afternoon. Sure is. Lots of feelings. Lots of feelings. Okay. I want to shut my email off every time. Yeah. Yeah.

077Okay. Um All right. And then um presentation. Yeah. I'm just going to go I just have to keep hitting the okay button. Yeah. I was also wondering like it just happened this month that different things came in different places and I I hate Gmail but I'm just wondering could we put maybe the board packets on the drive so like all those documents are just in the drive you know what I mean so they're not attached to an email because people made like updates later or documents came in later I think we can do a better job of getting it done on time. Okay. So that that you get it when the package should be done out in advance. So either it comes singular or I also understand if it can't maybe there's just like a

078folder the the problem with the folder is just the access rights to the folder. So that's why we don't do a folder u for for protection of of that. So but I do note it and I I know we we will we'll work on getting Thank you. Um, so the slide deck is behind you, but I printed out copies for you as well because I think sometimes it's really hard um because we try to be efficient with our time when we go through this, but then it's hard because the numbers are really little, right? So, it's hard to see. So, I wanted to provide both. Um, so this is a glance at our spring um assessment data. Um, and one of the things I really wanted to highlight before we go into that are a

079few things. And I know we talked about this earlier um, this year as well, but ultimately when we're looking at the data that we're about to look at, it is one snapshot on a student's achievement on that day or those few days that they're assessing. Um, and ultimately what it really is is really good information for us as a school. Um, that speaks to our systems. it speaks to um curriculum changes that we might need to do or programming or scheduling um or um it speaks to the shifts that we've made and they are successful. It's giving us data to say the changes we're making are really impacting students. Um so that's one thing. The second piece we really wanted to talk about is what we're looking at tonight is standardized data. Um and that's

080just one form of data and ultimately as a school we really pride ourselves on looking at multiple um points of data that we use the phrase triangulated data. So you would have you know three pieces of data about very similar standards so we can really think about the child as a whole and honor that some students demonstrate their learning in um in various ways. The third bullet point up there is that we're going to be reviewing spring SAS data, but I want to be clear that everybody understands that this is preliminary data. Um it is not considered official data until the DOE disembargos it and which is typically in October the following year. Um the reason we feel comfortable sharing it is our families have access to it through the family portal. So it is

081public information for families. Um and this is not student specific obviously. So again it's um not the finalized data but it is preliminary. Um, and then I think ultimately as a staff, um, for those teachers that are still here and educators that are still here, um, when we think about our students and we think about, um, the best way to capture them as learners, as community members, um, and as students that continue to to flourish and thrive is to really come and see them at something like a student showcase, which really highlights all the complexities and the enduring learning that they're doing. Um, and so we're excited to share tonight's data because it is representative of a lot of the work um, the staff has been doing. Um, but we wanted to make sure that

082we um, aligned tonight's presentation with our core values. So SAS data for 2425 um, for our grade three I I don't know why I can't get that thing off the bottom. I apologize to everybody, but you have it in front of us. So grade three ELA um, the state percentage of proficiency was 49. Our percentage was 64. Take the picture. I can't. That was Katie was the one on the right is the student who spoke today. Grade four ELA, the state proficiency was 53%. Strata Memorial School was 74%. Grade five ELA, the state percentage was 57. SMS was 70%. Um, and then third grade, so I should mention this, only third, fourth, and fifth grade students take SAS. That's why we don't have K1 and two up here. Third grade math state average was 52%.

083SMS was 76%. Fourth grade state average was 52%. SMS was 77%. And then fifth grade math the state average was 40%, SMS percent was 71%. So, um there was a tremendous amount of work on part of the educators in the building to really analyze our our math uh curriculum, our math practices. Um collecting lots of progress monitoring data to then inform our gradient support groups to then offer intervention but also extension. There was a lot of work around alignment and cohesion both vertically and horizontally. Um and again um we were able to see that in our our daily curriculum based measures but this is another measure that speaks to that um the work that the teachers have done. Um and Kate and I talk daily about because people will say oh SMS admin did a

084great job or whatever. This is not anything that Kate and I did. This is fully on the educators in this building. Um they have worked tirelessly to um ensure that we are providing the best education for our kids. Um, so we wanted to highlight last year's data. So ELA 23 24 schoolwide, this is schoolwide. I didn't break it down by grade level. Um, we were 79%. This year we're at, uh, sorry, 69%. This year we're at 70%. In math, we were 58% and this year we're at 74% schoolwide. Come on. Amazing job back there, educators. Yes. [Applause] Um, really excellent work. Um, we have other just add a piece of data because I some of us follow lots of data, some of us don't. The increase in math is pretty unprecedented. You would typically see,

085you would hope to see like 2 to 4% increase, maybe a 7% increase. Like that I've never seen in my career. Um, and to pull it off as a whole school, you're looking at great, you know, multiple grade levels. That's 15 classrooms. Um, it's representative of the efforts. Like that is just a really I've never seen data increase like that. So, it's just been really like I just want to point that out. That's not your typical Um, and we were able to look at the cohorts. So like the third graders last year, this year fourth graders, same they made some significant growth. It wasn't just that the incoming third graders were just in literally all of the kids because of the amazing work of the educators um did really well. Um, and there's a strong

086correlation between this data um and the data that we have in our curriculum based measures. So their unit assessments, their daily quizzes or things like that. So I ready reading is another measure we use. Um I want to talk a little bit the difference about this than something like SAS. So this is actually a growth measure. So we administer this three times every year. So we have where they started in the fall and where they end up um in the spring student specific and of course classroom grade level schoolwide. Um and um so we'll get into it. So um grade one if you're looking at that right now. So obviously um this is different and we'll have grades um first through fifth because again SAS is only third through fifth. So what's really cool about

087this graph if you look on the left hand side our students made more than their typical growth what you would expect. We had kids making stretch growth we hadund you know like it was just resounding and you'll see as we go across all of these um just the exceptional growth our students made this year across the board in literacy and math. Um, one of the things I'd like to draw attention to is if you look um on the right hand side um and you see that teeny little red sliver. So those are the students um that like when we're talking about what we're really looking at in terms of growth is like that red getting letter smaller, the yellow getting smaller and your green getting bigger, right? And so um you'll be able to watch

088that progression as we go across. So grade two again um 136% like we are the kids are doing amazing work the educators are doing amazing work it also speaks to our framework for teaching and learning which we've been talking about for a number of years in our MTSS system so our ability to look at um really current data be really responsive to that um and then collaborate with classroom teachers special educators our interventionists and provide really targeted instruction um that meets kids where they're at and helps them grow um is paying off dividends which is really cool. Okay. Can I just add one thing in that in that um progress or typical growth you mentioned red and yellow but it does measure our students that were already on grade level and them growing as well.

089So Okay. Yeah. So we're looking so we're looking for green to get bigger, right? But you want your yellow and red to get smaller and that's like because ultimately green means we're on grade level, we're doing great. This is awesome. But when we think about our kids that are growing like you're thinking about kids that started in a place that felt really hard and really worked their tails off. I don't know if that's even correct but that's the word. Thank you Chris. Yep. um grade three again um and if you look at the bottom on the right uh side below it'll tell you what percentage um they were at to like so for example grade three um above grade level at the beginning of the year we we had 16% we're now at 45% like

090that you can see that you're right there there's some real clear measures to show that grade four um it's interesting when I think about the past year I think about the work in particular all teachers our fourth grade group was like so dynamic this year in so many really cool ways, but there were times it felt really overwhelming and like trying to make sure we were figuring them out and meeting their needs. And as the data came in, like I think about the work that went into that and it is like blows my mind also blows my mind the kids like just the really amazing efforts on everybody's part. Um, fifth grade, we're going to talk about this at the end. Um, and we're going to talk about how we're going to address this. So

091this does not at all correlate with data that we have from SAS or from the classroom data. Um I'll touch on it briefly right now. We our students particularly in fifth grade they have science, they have ELA and they have math for SAS. They have I ready for math, they have I ready for um reading um they have just a variety of assessments. And we typically start these and we did this year after April vacation. So, we came back in May and our fifth grade students have been assessing every single day since. And they're doing that in the middle of being like really excited but really anxious about the end of fifth grade and having lots of mixed emotions. On top of all the field trips that they go on, on top of all the

092learning that they're doing, on top of preparing for the showcase and they were so this was the very last piece that they did. So, they finished this about two days ago and they are cooked and spent and they will tell you that. I mean, and we're talking about kids giving hours and hours of like sitting in front of a computer testing. Um, so we have, and we'll talk about at the end, but we're going to really look differently at our assessment windows and how we place our assessments so that our students, particularly in third through fifth, but especially fifth, aren't feeling this like what just happened to my last five weeks of school in this building that I have adored in this community that I have been such an important part of. So, whole school

093um just a snapshot. I mean, it's just celebrations all over the place. and then our I Ready math. So, kindergarten, now that you know what I'm talking about, I'm not going to spend as much time. Um, just across the board, just incredible improvements. If I'm looking right now at grade one, the start of the year, 80% of our students um were in the yellow and we're at 27%. I mean, those are just incredible, staggering growth for our students. grade two, grade three, grade four, and grade five. So, yeah, whole school. It just feels awesome. Mhm. It feels really nice. I feel like um that's where our fourth graders chose to eat lunch on field day. So cute. They were on top of each other. Um, but what I think what feels really good about this

094is I feel like this is aligns with what we see in our day-to-day practices, which feels really good. So, we wanted to just kind of talk about the multiple data points and just a quick snapshot. So, for example, in this picture, these are the standardized assessments that we give in math in grades K through five. Obviously, you can see that they're a little bit different because SAS has got third through fifth, but if you and then the universal, so the USNS is a universal screener for numbers. something we administer three times a year as well. Um and if you look at that you can see strong correlations across um in almost all of them and then we provided something very similar for literacy. Isn't that so cute? It's from Phil. And then the last thing

095um just to kind of go back to what I was saying about our fifth grade I Ready being not correlating with our other data. So we met as a curriculum team after we were analyzing the data um and then talking with our fifth grade teachers and also talking with our fifth grade students who were literally like in my office doing makeups or doing extension time being like if you make me do this for one more minute this week. So we really got some pretty strong feedback from the students as well as the fifth grade teachers. Um so we really have sort of um starting early. We're going to start our um assessments earlier in the fall. We're going to still give our kids five weeks to get to school and adjust to being in the

096rhythms and the routines. Um but that will do a couple things for us. It creates a longer window, which we're trying to create longer windows. Um but it also gives us really good data to be able to start supporting intervention for students that may not have qualified this year, so we don't know to start the year with them. Um so that will be really nice so that we can be able to target and use our gradient supports more effectively earlier in the year. Um and then you'll also notice that we um spread some depending on the grade level like when we start and how many weeks we have so we can sort of think about developmentally where kids are and what's more appropriate. Um but really the biggest change you'll see is when we get

097to our third benchmarking cycle of the year which typically has been in May and um May and June we are going to be doing um I Ready and the universal um screener for number sense for third through 5th prior to April vacation. Um and ultimately um what that does is a couple of things. It allows our time after break to be a little bit um smoother for our kids and not as assessment intensive, but we don't because there's so much assessment that happens in the spring there. It's not like we are sacrificing another three weeks of direct instruction, quality instruction, and they're going to be missing some strands in mathematics. We're literally coming back and assessing anyway. So, it makes sense to sort of do a little bit before and then allow that after April

098break to be a little bit um less intense and then um support our students and their their data being more correlated. We envision Yeah, it's the grades three to five that we're starting early because they're the only ones who s test. The other ones will be fine in May early cycle. We're also going to be moving up a little bit of um like the best is going to be earlier so that we can do our final round of like lunch bunch and snack bunches um with that data coming in which will be really nice to inform those as well. So, that's our spring data in a snapshot. Kind of wasn't very quick, but I tried. Great. No, that's amazing. That's awesome. I wish Eric were here tonight. Um, can can you just help me with

099this multiple data points? Um, so I'm just looking just help me understand grade three 71%. Are you in literacy or math? I'm on um this is okay. So, yep. Got it. Math. Math. Yep. Um, so what does that 71% mean? Prof percent proficient. 71% of that grade level was proficient on that assessment. Okay, which is ultimate or or higher, but that's ultimately we're looking for proficiency. So they could be extended, but we're looking for proficiency. And then when you move to the right, that's the universal screener for number sense. It's another assessment that we give students and it also showed 71% proficient. And then if you move over to the right, SAS showed 76%. I guess so. I'm confused. Why would grade two be 84% and then grade three is 71%. So this is this

100is this is all the same year. Uhhuh. So like second grade Oh, okay. They're all different classes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Just this year. That's just this year. It wasn't like a laundry student. It's this year. Yep. Um the other thing that we were talking a lot about too, we were looking at the universal screener for numbers with little kids versus the I Ready. Um and we were looking at the curriculum shifts in second grade in particular in math and they are so significant on the I Ready um digital platform and kids really in second grade are still really in that concrete representational phase and so like when you do a universal screener for numbers sense it there is much more of like an interaction with the math um so we weren't it um

101we also I think I showed you I I remember showing all the data slides that we have like we're check off every day there's such a strong correlation I think the computer shift in um I ready and Second grade is like pretty intense. It's really language based. It's really been a piece that we're sort of working through a little bit. For sure. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you so much for putting this together. That's wonderful. Yeah. Hats off big time. Well done. Um I'm curious about how you think the um MTSS coordinator position contributed to the jump in scores. Yeah. Um, I feel like I don't know how to answer that in a really uh succinct way, Sophie, because I feel like it's still so new to us right now. We're really trying to work on

102those systems. I feel like the the um so the MTSS coordinator came out of all the work the framework and MTSS committee did, right? And this year was really full year first implementation. So, it's a pivotal part of that, but I don't want to say like this is attributed to that when it really is this system that we're putting in place. And so how do I determine like 20% was attributed to MTS versus attributed to the gradient support attributed to all the work that we did around curriculum alignment. I feel like it's just a really complex picture and I don't know how to sus out like what piece belongs to a person or a part of that system. What I feel like is it's an enormous system with so many working parts and so many

103pieces that even now I mean granted it's only year one like we're already meeting saying look what do we tweak? What do we need to do different? um grade grade five for example with um they were the first group to really launch gradient supports across the whole grade level to share kids like how do we then make sure we're doing that in every grade level in both literacy and math next year. So I don't know how to answer that other than to say like it's a it's an essential component to how we make all of this work. Um and I think with the future of that position is going to evolve and change and grow significantly because we now know the things we want to add to the plate of that person to to um

104increase like how that plays out. Um, I think that because we're really still in our implementation phase, I feel like I'm as heavily involved as I've always been. I think Kate's as heavily as involved. Like I don't know that we're not. And part of that is like the importance of this going well, the importance of all the things that every educator in the building has been doing in the service of our kids cannot fail. And so I don't feel like any one of us that has been involved for four years is stepping away in any way. I feel like we're as intensely involved as we were. Um, and now we have another person with a great brain that can add to that. Um, I would love to see some of that responsibility fall off Kate

105and I a little bit. Um, but I think right now like it's paramount that we are a team making this work. Yeah. I was going to ask kind of the followup. Um, do you feel like you can take a a breath now? Like do you are these the scores that you were hoping to get? Um, it's a really tricky question for me. Um I think I was hoping for while it is one point of data and I feel strongly about that. I feel strongly about the way that you're getting it right on the computer. I'm just like ah is this measuring you know but I did want it to reflect how hardworking and how competent and proficient our students are. I've taught for a long time. I've worked in a lot of different schools. The

106quality and expectations here is unmatched. Like you can go school to school. You would be blown blown away in a classroom. And I it was frustrating to watch state testing scores not match what I knew to be true. Um and so I would say that in one way this is what I was hoping for because you don't change everything in a year, right? It was just a matter of the tweaks and shifts and all arrows in the right direction and everybody on board to do that work is what you saw come to fruition. So I do feel it's more reflective. Mhm. Um, what I'm hoping for is that we measure whole children by lots of points of data and give them those awesome authentic opportunities like what you would see in our spring showcase, right?

107Like that's what I hope for. But I'm glad things are matching better. It's representative because it should represent what we do. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. I think one of the things I think about is that when we really launched this year, like opening days in August with the staff, like looking them in the face and being like what we're going to ask you to do was like wildly hard and feels counterintuitive to like some of our values in the sense of like crunching kids down to these numbers. Um, but it was in the service of all the parts of our framework. Um, and the way that they have stepped up and done it and like the grassroots efforts from our teachers even now about like we want to do this with our literacy and like it

108is like inspiring to be here even though people are wildly exhausted and it's been a heck of a year for a variety of reasons. The world um the the sentiment in our building right now is wildly positive and exhausted and engaged and it feels really good. Yeah. I feel like the scores at this point won't I think at some points um like our teaching staff or educators were in question like the work was in question and I feel like at least like and that's hard for me because I just don't look at all and so at least at this point I think that comes away a bit and and they can get the credit and respect that's deserved. Um that for me is like the biggest part and that's the best little picture ever. I

109know. I can't even look at it without getting a smile. No. He was like, "Get this. Look at these pipes." Mhm. All right. Any other questions from the board? Okay. Um, we're going to move on, but I'm going to um open up public comment just in case anybody and remember when we do public comment, we invite your comments, including about the data or about tuition, but it's not necessarily that there's going to be a back and forth or answers, but we kind of take your comments and questions and then can address them in a later meeting. Um, would you want to go first? Is there anything you would like to say? Okay. Would anybody else like to speak? Should I come up here? Yes, please. Yeah, please. Um, just say your name and and address

110for the minutes. My name is Bob Valeri. I live at Three Market Street in Stratam here. and I've only been in town a little bit less than 10 years, but I just want to thank you all for the time and effort you put in to administer the school department and um for especially for considering the tax the taxpayers expenses when we uh you know when you're talking about the tuition situation. So basically short and sweet. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I've got four quick points. Uh first, congratulations to see that the test scores are going in the right direction. That's very impressive and I think that'll help you very much going forward with the community. Um the other thing is let's talk about the fact real quick. Uh Kathleen and I were on it last

111year. I'm trying to have a meeting with uh David Emanuel uh to talk about him appointing people sooner, right? Because I think Kathleen, you'll agree with me that we came in late. And also number two, I'm going to suggest to you, Jennifer, uh that that the first meeting that you hear the budget as a board, the fact should be in the room too at the same time because we were kind of playing catch-up. So those are just two suggestions. Thank you. So, um as far as as the um the uh policy JFAB, obviously um I thank you for your your decision. Uh but I still think JFAB needs some work. I'm going to ask a question. Hopefully, you'll answer this. Is JFAB a district-wide policy or is this a stratum version of the policy? Is

112that something that real quick? It's similar in all of our districts. Right. So again, as I said earlier, I think now that the pressure is off, if you will, I think come the fall, I think that that policy should be worked on to be more comprehensive. Now, there's a lot of variables right now because of what the Senate what's going on in the legislature and I think that'll all be cleared up by the fall, which is my last point. Uh if you want to hear this, I mean, I was in a lot of conference committees over the years in conquered. Uh right now what the what the house did is on this I think the the bill that's in play and correct me if I'm wrong is Senate Bill 210 uh which is the uh

113the uh open enrollment bill but that started out in the in the Senate as a bullying bill. And what the House did is they tacked on open enrollment onto this bullying bill, which is is rare because in the House, the Senate can do that easily, but our House rules are such that you need a hearing and everything to be able to tack on a non-jain amendment to a bill, but they did. Now, tomorrow the House and the Senate are in session, and we will know if the Senate concurs or not with what the House did. If that happen, then things move along. Okay? If they don't, then there's two other options. they will say we uh we don't concur uh and the bill dies or we we we we don't concur but we ask for

114a committee of conference which is probably going to happen. So the committee of conference will meet um they have until next uh till the 19th to come up with their decision. So even if it passes the committee conference or even if the Senate concurs, it still has to go to the governor. So the so it's not over yet. uh the governor could still veto it. Now, even if the governor vetos it, it can come back alive in the fall because that's when the legislature votes on Yeah. on u veto overrides so the governor can be have her her thing overwritten. But so by by that it's the fall. So even at that you have time because to come up with a policy that fits whatever the legislature is doing you you have time is my

115point. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments on Yeah. Katie Young 150 Bunker Hill. I also teach at Stratam. Um I wasn't going to speak but just really briefly I do want to speak on behalf of the test scores. Um, and just hope that throughout the years, whether it's great test scores or not great, that we can really look at the work that our kids do every day. Um, I teach third grade. I put my kids through mildly over 10 hours of testing, more than that, plus preparation. Um, so while I celebrate them and I'm super proud of our students and our staff, I just want to keep that in our mind. Um, that this is not, you know, 3 plus 3 on a test. These are really in-depth, complex questions that we're asking from

116our kids. Hours of testing behind a computer screen. Um, they did phenomenal given all of those circumstances and what they've been through. They're really tired. They want just a chill day. We want a chill day. Like, it's a lot. Um, so I just hope that throughout the years, I know, you know, the test scores weren't great over the past couple of years, but that we can always just embrace all the work that our kids are doing, whether it's great on a test or not. Um, and just recognize and see that work. um because it's really hard when you know it feels the opposite some years. Um so I just want to put that out there. Lots more I could say about that and maybe for another time I will. Um but thank you for your

117support. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for coming. Yeah, and I think you know I struggle with that so much, right? Because I have a fourth grader. These tests are not easy on her. So hard. Yeah. And um so hard. Yeah. You know it's we we we see what's happening there too. So thanks. I don't think people realize that the math is not, as Miss Young said, it doesn't say just like 3 plus 3 equals what. It's a word problem that the a third grader then has to decipher what they're asking, which is is hard for you have to have reading comprehension and math skills all at the same time as a third grader. It's a lot for them. Yeah. Yeah. And I know I mean my kid brings it home, right? She thinks about it at night.

118She thinks about it when she wakes up. She it's it's something that she she carries around you. I'm sure lots of anxiety. Yeah. So anyway, thank you very much. And yeah. Um okay, so you um want to talk about enrichment. Yeah, I just we um talked about it briefly at last month's board meeting and I sort of just like walked away with trying to think about like what that could look like. Um, and I think part of it is that, um, when we think about the difference of like this and what our typical enrichment is, our typical enrichment is five to six weeks. There's not a lot of planning and prep involved. Um, it's super fun. The kids love it. It's engaging. I love that we do it. It's not about like to trivialize that.

119But I think what we were asking about was something very different. Um, and so I had sort of like tried to wrap my head around like what would that look like? And so I've started some ideas. I think I want the reason I wanted to circle back is I think we would have to be really intentional in building the FY27 budget. I think that's why I wanted us to circle back. Um because when I think about the things so I looked at what other schools do. I thought back to like what we did when we had band ultimately if you're thinking about like a oneweek session every week for 28 weeks. So we have 36 weeks of school but there's enough things that there may not be like a full I mean you're probably thinking

120about $5,000 per whatever you would offer. Right. Okay. Um or 42 I basically I was looking like 4200 to five grand is basically what you're looking at for some expertise in an area with planning all that kind of stuff. Um, and I do think when you're thinking about those things, you're probably thinking about a smaller age group because you're talking about some experiences or skills or development that would be different. So, you'd be thinking like if you wanted to offer, say it was band, it might be that you would have a two, three, and then you would have a a four or five. Um, or even like a math league and a debate club, like something like that. You'd be really wanting and you might not want to do it for two, three. There might

121be things like you might just do it for four or five. I just wanted to be like I put some thought into it. looked around like we I think you'd be wanting when we build the FY27 budget if that's something we want to be serious about without charging our families. So really making it accessible to all of our students it would be something in our operating budget and that would be an idea to gauge and to to think about as we because we are starting in August. So I didn't want to wait and bring it up in August when we're already starting to build. Yeah. Yeah. So, you're saying something like um doing a debate club or doing a you know math counts kind of thing that you would need that to be longer than

122the five weeks of after school. I envision it being a year-long thing. I think based on what we're talking about is really like it's a commitment. It's something that they would then be looking like are there other places we can go and do this with? Are there other schools that we can partner with? Um is it you know I think it's not something we do for five weeks. It's like we're investing, we're preparing, we're doing them, we're revising. It's that kind of stuff. And I mean, you know, instruments far better than I do, but like that's not something for six weeks. That's something really for a year to even begin to have any understanding of how to play the instrument or ability. Um, so I think it would be really thinking about like a 28week

123program. So most of the school year. Okay. Yeah. I think of like math Olympiads or anything run that's a full year. Or if you wanted to think about like international studies or like you would be looking at something that would be require some time. Yeah. Yeah. I had just like those after school programs, you know, like kickball and um yeah, making necklaces. I was just like, could we do something that was But um but obviously I hear what you're saying. I definitely Yeah, we'd have to defer to you on that. Okay. But thanks for the followup and I do think it would be a good idea. I do too. So we can I just wanted you to have an idea so bring it on you in August by the way. Appreciate it. All right. Anything

124else from you guys? No. as we think about Friday. No. Why would we be doing that? Okay. Um All right. Committee reports. Sophie, building committee. Yes. Let me pull pull up the report from our um owners rep. Thank you. All right. Um so the design build contract negotiations are ongoing with Corino Construction. Um we received a draft agreement and responded with comments um from Mark Joben and the district's council. Um so we've been having some preconstruction meetings. A big um thing that we're working on right now is the roof. And um do you want me to give the update? We probably going to go with a black roof. We are. We devoted to say wow big you heard it here first. Yeah. I don't I don't know if I could say it. I just said

125it. Um we've been starting to have pre-w weekly construction meetings. Um so I'm going to some of them but they're in the middle of a workday so it's hard for me to get to them. Um so what else? Um the archite architectural design code review and civil engineering of the additions will start immediately. Um, and engineering of the boiler replacement is set to begin immediately. Okay. So, that's exciting. If possible, this work will be completed this summer. Oh, wow. Wonderful. Um, yep. So, but material lead times may impact that to be determined. Um, and for permitting, um, yeah, working on that with the town planning department. Um and upcoming construction re-roofing the school is to be completed this summer and internal exploratory work will be ongoing this summer. Okay. So we people will see kind

126of immediate things happening in terms of the roof and Okay. Yep. So what we also talked about today just to give you update it's about a 26 to 28 uh week lead time for the boilers. So that will not happen this summer. Okay. U unfortunately they're going to look at other designs but that looks like that will be next summer. Um it looks like we could get it in December but it will take much more than seven days of a of a break to do that and we don't want to shut it off during obviously the coldest time of the year. So that looks like and we talked about that gives more time for design and look at more efficiencies with with the boiler. Um, the other thing is also with the roof, that's when

127the set and the the uh trim on our schools will go to lighter colors, so it'll brighten up and it will detract from that black roof, which is the most cost effective. Okay. Um, the the one nice thing that the roof that did come in at about $20,000 under budget. So, right now, rather than going in uh in a hole, we are actually in a positive. And that's something that we've been really pushing and Kate's been doing a really nice job talking about academic impact when they are on site. So, the other piece that they'll be looking at and um Karina will be going to the town to make sure all fees and and things are are needed and getting permits um because after the roof is done, the next phase would be looking to

128put the foundations on during the school year for the additions on both sides. So, that's really what you'll see this year is the roof, the the um the painting, the the faucets around the whole building, the um trim, and then foundation work. Can I ask a question? Um I would I am on this committee. We do still have public comment. We got six more minutes. I am I will just make another comment that I will be updating the building committee tomorrow with all this information as well and we'll be setting up meetings. So didn't forget about you, but the um the board needs to hear it first before we go to the building committee. Okay. My question was do you want to come to the microphone? Yeah, sure. It's a I I imagine that it's

129a a a roof, not a not a traditional roof. It's the membrane roof that is glued to the to the uh to the membrane to the uh the insulation. Mhm. Right. Are we putting a second 2 in on top of the old 2 in? Uh there's more insulation going throughout the whole building, but what the specs are, I did not read the full specs. Okay. I Yeah. What I could also add about the roof is that when they do start, which will be at the end of June, there will be a company coming up from Pennsylvania that will actually have to vacuum the entire roof before they pull it off. So, we will talk to residents going around. I've been told that it is very, very loud. Uh and it's a 5-day process for the

130size of our roof. So, we'll work on doing some communication with the town and the residents are closely affected to to uh the school, letting them know there will be nothing uh hopefully on Saturday or Sunday, but during that time frame of what it is finally agreed upon, there will be large there'll be a vacuum sucking through the entire top of the roof. Okay. Some people the architect wanted to put in two inches more insulation. I was against it. I did a calculation and I thought the the payback was too it was too far out. So we've got a diminishing returns. Okay. As an engineer, we've got a really great owners rep who's asking a lot of those questions and that's why we hired Mark and so he Oh, he's asking those questions. He is

131asking those questions and that's why he's going to give updates. So our owners rep has been doing fantastic. That's excellent. Yeah. and very very impressed with his thoroughess and and the the pushing that he has put back on Corino and the other uh architects in the subs that will be coming on. Good. Well, I'm looking forward to uh an update. Y thanks. Thank you. All right. Do you still have four minutes of public comment? Um anything else, Sophie or Chris? No. Okay. All right. Amazing. Sounds great. Um superintendent evaluation committee. Um the joint board um handled that uh last meeting. So uh nothing new to report. Safety and security. Uh has Cam Ren been to one yet? We haven't had one. You haven't had one? Okay. Um communications, Sophie. Um no real updates. Okay. Um

132chair update. I think the only thing I was going to add that I haven't already said is um I saw that community partnership award for um parents staff to submit on the 27th. So I thought that was that was pretty cool. Is that a new idea you have? It it is a new idea that I'm bringing forward. It goes will align with our strategic planning and it's just another way that we can recognize the people that support our our schools every day. Yeah. So I would just encourage the board or um you know to think about submitting that. I I already have an idea. So I think that sounds great. Thank you. Great. Welcome. Um strategic planning committee. Um yes, that's concluded for this year. Um and we're working on getting the um metrics onto

133uh a dashboard. Okay. What else, Chris? Uh that's basically where we're at right now. So we just got the document. Uh Dr. Asbel shared it with us today. So we got to give some feedback so we can get it back to Isobar and Qualrex. We'll probably have to have a meeting in August, September to get that ready so that by um October we can present to the joint board our final front-facing document with all the different metrics that we'll have to uh measure our um goals and how those go against the uh the core values that we came up with through the summit. Sounds great. When is your official first day or Yeah. Uh July 1st. July 1st. Okay. Yeah. All right. Very exciting. All right. Policy committee. Eric is not here. Um, we're going

134to do a second read on these first three. I think Cameron also, it seemed like Cameron and Eric sort of had the most to say and then they're not here tonight. Um, is it possible for us to postpone these? Is there anything timely? No. Um, we can postpone these and if you want to have these as part of our um, administrative retreat and review these in August, that that would be my recommendation. You have to Yeah, we can do that. Okay. um negotiations. Um do you want to just give an update, Chris? Yep. So, we got a letter from the union about um the intent to negotiate as their contract will be up at the end of this uh next school year. Um they are willing is if if we can go early. Um we

135do need one more rep. Cameron is our loan rep right now. So, ask for one more board member to be part of that. Um and then we can reach out and start trying to work with typically um Heather Murray from HR. she'll reach out to um the uh union negotiation team, find out when they can meet, but our goal would be if we can start in mid to uh mid um August. We'll be ahead. There are six negotiations that we have with all of our districts this year, so which is quite a bit. Okay. So, and there's just kind of regular is it people are just talking through attorneys or No. Um we've talked a little bit. I've talked with Katie. Um, and we'd like not to have to use attorneys this year if we

136don't, which also means that they wouldn't bring their their um NEA rep to be part of that. Most of the times they they do it. We they've asked if we could do it, and I'm totally open to that. Um, and I think we could work through that together. And if the time comes that we can't, then we both agreed that we'd bring in um our our legal counsel. Okay. All right. Um, well, I'm very interested in doing that, but are you guys also or how do you feel about it? Um, I'm interested. But you're also a lawyer, so you have a little bit more experience. Um, okay. Yeah, let's talk. We'll talk after and I'll let you know what we decide, but because I know you need some committees probably. I'm happy to be second

137on the building committee with Sophie, right? Oh, great. Because I mean, that's a lot of meetings to try to attend. Um, so I can definitely do that. Awesome. Um I wonder too if you're interested in the superintendent evaluation committee. Oh yeah, that' be a good one. Um because uh so we just finished our cycle and now there's a new cycle starting up. So it makes sense to have somebody new. I don't know if that's something. Think about it and then let's talk about it offline. Email me what's entailed with that? Yeah. Is Allison stepping off that? I don't know. She'll she'll start it but then she will um Sorry. Yeah, she she will start it. Um and then but she her term is up in March. So she did feel that it was right that

138she would stay on that committee the whole time where she would not be seeing it through. Yeah. So they did a kind of a duel uh in Brentwood. They took two people. So yeah, um Mr. Abear will will join her and they'll take over at some point. So but she had been the chair. So they'll have to yeah think about who a new chair would be. Okay. Yeah, it's in very good hands. It's very organized and thought out and they did a great job. Okay. Anything else um from anybody? Any old business or new business? I don't think do not have anything. N. Okay. All right. Um I don't think we have any reason to go into non-public and we just finished open comments. So, um I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Oh, wow. Oh,

139I second that motion. All right. All right. All in favor? I I three zero.