Exeter Region Cooperative School Board Meeting 05/20/25

001We're going to get the meeting started. It's 6:04. Uh we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationisible and justice for all. All right, we're going to start with some introductions. We'll start with the board and then um any of our administration and leadership team that are here. Um, I'm Melissa Lions, vice chair and East Kingston representative. Neil Blake from Exit. Brian Duffy from Brentwood. Tammy Gun from Stratum. Amy Ransom Newfields. Erin Garcia Freddy Stratum. John Bolins exit. Esther Rasbel, superintendent. Uh, Mike Monahan, principal at the high school. Heather Murray, your human resource director. Foster, principal of instruction accountability. Good to see you guys again. Hi. Molly O'Keefe, director of finance. All right, thank you. All right, we're

002going to start uh opening public input at 6:05. Um if anyone would like to speak, um feel free to come up to the microphone. Um you'll have three minutes to speak. Um just provide your name, please, and the town that you're from. All right, seeing nobody, we will leave it open for 30 minutes, so until 6:35. If you anyone feels like getting up at any time, feel free. Um, so let's start with our visitors. We're going to start with the uh Exit High School Morocco trip proposal. Hi. Um, sorry. Um, I'm Liz Morris. I teach here at Exit High School. I teach science and I am proposing a trip for approval with Sharon Orchard who couldn't be here tonight um to travel with about 20 students over February break to Morocco. Um I think you

003have our paperwork and our itineraries. Um great. Awesome. Um so this is a trip we just successfully came back. We had a very successful trip to the Gopagos that we went to last February. Um it was such a enriching experience for the students who went. They learned a ton and we're just really eager to continue this kind of momentum that we have of meeting kids in different environments and in different contexts and doing some experiential learning with them. So go ahead. Thank you. I think that kind of travels a terrific idea. Um since it's a North African country. Yes. Would you discuss the security and all that stuff? Yeah. So we were concerned about that too. Um I we looked into all of that and it turns you know Morocco is um I would say

004more Spain adjacent than Africa adjacent. It has um we have one of the longest diplomatic relationships running with that country. Um, and there were some proposals that we made or some like ideas we threw around when we got back together with our travel agency. Um, and that I we were like, what about this? And they said, no, you can't go like Egypt for one of them. We said like, you know, proposed some ideas that they said we don't feel like that's a safe choice. Um, so I would trust that as much as any place in the world. this company has a long has done this trip to Morocco before. Yeah, they have. Yes. And the word on the street is that it is a very upand cominging um that we're sort of on the cusp

005of like that it's going to be a high destination place um that you're going to hear more about it. So, thank you. Any other questions, concerns? This is great. Exciting. Someone like to make a motion to motion to approve. Thank you, Neil. Second. Second. Done. All those in favor? All right. Thank you so much. Enjoy Morocco. All right. Next up, Scotland. Hi everybody. My name is Eric Ducet. I'm a social studies teacher here at the high school. This is my colleague Aaron Blae. uh for the last three years I I took students to Italy and uh I took a year off this year, but I'm very much looking forward if if it were approved to take students to a place that I love very much. I go uh uh there are a lot of summers

006I go to Scotland and uh Aaron lived here for the last couple of years, so he'd be my interpreter. Um but he he did he he lived there for two years. I have a lot of friends there and just the light bulb went off and I said, you know, I would love to bring kids. It's an eight, it's a they they bill it as an 8-day trip. It's a Saturday through Saturday. I'd use the same company that I used to go to Italy for the last three years. And I took Sam Heath uh who's now retired. Uh they're a wonderful company. They emphasize um as as would we on this trip. Um the the learning of travel and that's what I really like about it. Like wherever the destination is, you're a young person and

007we're going to learn how to travel. uh and the kids uh that we would get throughout September um into early October would we we would look at the itinerary and see if there are any particular places that they really want to go and students love travel um it's very amidable to any minor changes like that. This is also a great trip for students who are interested in beginning travel because it mostly is an English speaking country. Yeah. but is exotic enough to feel um like you're really far away from home. But for students who you know don't want to go out too outside their comfort zone, this is a great entrop for those students. Give them an opportunity to maybe travel and then next time they can go someplace like Morocco, which I might I

008just like to add my son went Mr. Ducet's Italy trip and Mr. Ducet is fabulous at this. That company is terrific. And um are you gonna do the updates on Facebook with that uh character? Absolutely. I have to make a motion that we approve. Yeah. All right. And seconded by Amy. All those in favor. All right. Enjoy Scotland. Thank you very much. He does this great. All right. Next up, student reports. Uh we do not have a CMS student report this month, although we got one in writing, so we'll make sure that this gets included into the meeting minutes. And there's about a million things happening at the middle school in the next like 3 weeks. So, um, could I add why they're not here? Yeah. They're, um, in the jazz choir and they're performing

009at Jimmy's Jazz Club tonight. It's a big deal. All right. Next up, uh, Exit High School. No, we don't have Carly this evening. Nope. Sports again. All right, then. SST, we have Tyler and Ryan. You go first. All right. Uh, good evening. Uh my name is Tyler Morang and I'm currently a senior automotive student at SECO School of Technology. Uh this program has had a tremendous impact on my journey in the automotive field. Uh through this hands-on learning and support I've received, I secured an uh internship at McGee Toyota over a year ago and I've been working there uh since then. Because it's recording, we have to take minutes. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Um yeah, this internship turned into a job and has given me over a year of experience in the automotive field before

010graduating. Um one of my proudest accomplishments during my time at SSD was competing at the Skills USA competition um where I won the gold in the state of New Hampshire uh for maintenance light repair. As a result, I'll be representing New Hampshire at the Skills USA National Leadership and Skills Conference uh this summer. This achievement also came with scholarship money which will help support my continued education and all this wouldn't have been possible without SST. And then in the fall uh I'll be attending Lakes Region Community College where I'll be enrolled in the Toyota T10 program there. And I'll continue to develop my skills and pursue a long-term career in the automotive industry. And I'm incredibly thankful for the f uh the foundation SST has provided and all the doors it has opened for me.

011Thank you. must have been amazing. Congratulations. [Applause] Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Ryan and I'm a senior in the automotive program at the SECO School of Technology. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight and share how SSD has made a real difference in my life. During my time here, I've earned several industry recognized certifications, including ASC and SP2, which have helped me build a strong foundation in the automotive technology and workplace safety. These credentials are not just pieces of paper. They're stepping stones into a successful career. One of the highlights of my experience was an 8week internship at MB Tractor. These hands-on training has helped me apply what I've learned in the classroom to real world situations, and it confirmed that this is a

012career path that I want to follow. I've also had the chance to compete at Skills USA in the power equipment technology competition. I was honored to take gold my first year and bronze the following year. Competing at that level pushed me to work hard and I take pride in what I do. Just two weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to compete in the Ford Ace competition alongside my teammate Caleb Greenley. We worked together as a team and took home the gold medal. As a result, I received an amazing toolbox and earned scholarships that will support my future training. Even more exciting, Ford is donating a brand new F-150 to the SST automotive program because of our win. Right now, I'm working at VIP Tire and Service, gaining valuable experience on the job. After graduation,

013I plan to go directly into the automotive industry, where I'll be paid to continue taking automotive classes while working and growing in the field. SSC has provided me with the knowledge, experience, and confidence to succeed. And I'm grateful to Mr. Mayot and this program for preparing me so well for the future. Thank you. [Applause] Does anyone have any questions? No. Well, thank you Tyler and Ryan. Very, very impressive. Um, congrats to both of you and good luck in your future careers. You guys are going to do great. All right, we're going to move on to approval of meeting minutes. Yes, you do not need to stay. It's only downhill from here. Right there. That was the highlight. All right, we have uh public minutes and non-public minutes from April 15. Did anyone have any corrections

014or changes? No. Anyone like to make a motion? Make a motion to or uh approve both the public and non-public minutes as presented. Thank you, Brian. A second. Second. All right. All those in favor. All right. All right. On to superintendent administrator reports. Thanks. First up, we have um the senior gateway committee presentation and Mr. Peg and Lyall are I think gearing up and uh Jill, I think is there for technical and moral support. Um so take it away. [Applause] Good evening everyone. Thank you for giving the Exor High School Gateway community an opportunity to share our vision for Gateway moving forward into the future as well as a little bit of information about its current status right now. I am Lyall Hamill. I'm the curriculum administrator uh here at the high school and I

015have with me Walt Pedig, a social studies teacher who is one of our lead um facilitators on the gateway committee. So starting off we wanted to begin with uh the SAU 16 portrait of a graduate. This portrait of a graduate helps anchor everything that we do here and sauwide. Senior gateway presentations enable students to address the key tenants of our portrait. Engaged learning, global citizenship, problem solving, and communication. These presentations help to place students within our larger community. These gateway presentations occur near the end of our students K12 educational journey and they serve as a capstone opportunity to help serve as a transition as our students move into college career and civic responsibilities. Senior gateway presentations are designed to be highly customizable and personalized for the students. Students are able to draw from various buckets

016as they select the theme for their presentations. A concept or a topic introduced during their coursework that they would like to further explore, a passion, project, interest, or hobby. Discovering information relating to a career or potential workforce opportunity, or an investigation about a particular cause that they can pursue in order to help make the world a better place. Students have the freedom to design their own opportunity based on their interest and they are able to design the means by which they are able to show learning in that area. Other key components of this process include student self-reflection which will have an example of a template in the later slide and receiving feedback from an authentic audience based on their project. Gateway presentations are a key element throughout the students time here in SAU16 as part

017of studentdriven assessment which also includes celebrations of learning and student led conferences. Gateway opportunities occur at three key transition points for our students in our elementary schools. They take place in grade 5. Slightly different parameters based on each elementary school and community. Yet they'll share common reflection questions which have been developed by our SAUwide gateway committee. Over at Cooperative Middle School, students participate in gateway presentations in grade 8 in the form of an ed talk which they deliver to their peers. In fact, a group of EHS students recently presented about their CMS Gateway experiences at the New Hampshire School Administrators Association annual innovations conference. And these very well spoken and very well-prepared students explain the steps that they followed for their grade A gateway process by modeling the topic selection, research skills, and the final

018presentation. The EHS senior gateway would look to build on the successes that students have experienced at earlier grades while aligning with our SAU16 portrait of a graduate. During our SEAU wide uh gateway meetings, we examine different assessment opportunities for students. On this slide towards the left on the narrow side of the continuum are traditional multiplechoice tests. As we move rightward on the chart towards fully design uh student design projects, which is where senior gateway would lie, we move through assessment opportunities that measure student learning at a deeper level. Gateway opportunities allow students to design their own path from topic of interest to research reflection and ultimately towards presentation which is why a student-driven and student designed assessment would be the most comprehensive according to this chart. Of course, all assessment is useful for providing feedback

019to students as learners and to our educators as teachers. So each form of assessment on this chart certainly does indeed have a place in the educational process. But we see gateway presentations representing a genuine assessment of deeper learning for our students. So what we've worked on this year, you go to the next slide, is a proposed timeline for the incoming class uh that would be freshman and graduating in 2029. And so we've developed this timeline of um things that we would hope they would do as they go through their four years here at the high school. And each year sort of notches up what they're going to learn about the gateway project. As freshmen, it's sort of just a introduction as to what is the gateway, how is it going to work, what's the rubric

020look like, what are we talking about when we talk about artifacts and things of that nature. And then at the end of every year these um they will have the opportunity to see the current seniors um give their presentation of their right now senior project in English which is what we've been using over the past years to um as a example of what the senior gateway project might look like at the end. And so then as sophomore years we notch it up just a little bit more. Now that you know about what it is, now we start talking about what are maybe some of your interests that you might um look into, what do what's a sample artifact look like? How would you collect those kind of artifacts? And then again, at the end of

021the year, um they would see the senior uh projects from English. Junior year, it's a little more that you take the next steps. Now you're actually asking them to start thinking about what are you actually going to do in collecting art archives or or artifacts along the way. Who have you talked to? What kind of a conversation have you had that could be an artifact? What have you looked into that could be an artifact? And those kinds of things. And then senior year is where it sort of really the rubber meets the road. The now that they've got this now it's like okay now we got to continue but we got to put it all together. And so we would ask them to put a timeline together for their own use of, okay, it's September

022of senior year. How are you going to get to the finish line? What offer um what check marks are you going to hit? And we hope to use the advisory for a lot of this of of uh just uh transmitting information out to them. Um and then having advisors sort of collect information as a checklist of okay this is where this student is and this is where this student is and then passing it on to the to the next uh or the appropriate people if if the student is falling behind. Um, additionally this year we looked at uh the rubric um and some performance indicators within that rubric. So we are looking at engagement uh collaboration uh creative and critical thinking, communication and reflection. And it was interesting having the faculty meeting uh today and

023having talked or having heard what the work study skills uh committee had to say. This dovetales very nicely with what they're talking about and the steps that we're going to take starting next year as a school. So, this incoming freshman class will get it, you know, this they're they're sort of riding the crest of this new wave that's going to go forward through their four years. So, by the time they get to their senior year, they will have been doing this kind of thing throughout their four years here at the high school. Um, so I think it's going to work out very very well. And then lastly, this reflection piece. Um, this is uh one of the the more important things I think. Um, and we've drafted sort of a template of what we are

024looking for students to reflect on. Not only what they did and and why they did it, but more what were the pitfalls that they that they ran into and how did they overcome those pitfalls, right? What was their plan? How did they show that uh you know they had that grit or that problem solving to figure out okay I couldn't do it this way how can I do it or who if I couldn't talk to this person who else could I talk to and so I think this reflection piece is a big part um and probably the next thing we'll sort of work on next year as practice um to add into the senior English project that we already have going. And then lastly, uh this year, um we are using uh sort of a

025senior showcase model. So next week on the block days, we've had uh 72 seniors volunteer to speak to uh the underassmen. Um we're going to set it up during our advisory days uh for half an hour. We have 36 uh seniors each day. Uh we're going to do it in the small gym uh at tables again as sort of the science fair model where students will be able to walk around and engage with the various seniors, find out what their project was about, talk to them about how how how' they do it, why' they do it, how long did it take, how big a deal was this. Um because the seniors have been working on this, some of them for months. Um and some of them have some very interesting um projects. Um I last

026year I saw someone who uh he made his own electric guitar and he gave a presentation to his class about how he how he made the guitar and I thought mo the most interesting piece was was twofold. One the the person he talked to at the Portsmith maker space that helped him and gave him some tidbits about oh you should do it this way or not this way or you need this tool here it is here's how to use it. But I also thought most importantly were the mistakes that he made and he realized, okay, I I should have done this before I did this. And to me, that's that's where you're learning. That's where the learning occurs. So, we're going to split uh the classes uh next week. We'll have freshmen come one day,

027sophomores come another, and we're going to split the junior class in half. And so, they all have uh opportunity to access these 72 seniors who've volunteered for us. Recognizing the importance of continuing the student-driven assessment process as students move through exit high school, the senior gateway committee understands that there needs to be a balance of personalization with consistency in the process. We have tried to weigh students unique experiences and expression with measured guideposts and check-ins for all students. We will continue to support students and teachers by creating, revising, and disseminating key templates, documents, and other information to all parties. We will help put together informational sessions for teachers so they can best understand how to guide their students. This will overall be a 4-year process to fully phase in if we start with our incoming

028uh freshmen. So we are hoping to remain agile in order to respond to student and teacher needs and adjust accordingly as the experience progresses. Senior gateway will be part of the slate of activities that students will work towards within their advisories. And because this project has such an importance for us, we believe the community as well, we're planning to include this in an updated graduation requirement policy uh policy IKF. as that policy is updated to reflect other shifts in graduation requirements which are coming down the pike. We are hoping to include gateway presentation as a graduation requirement in that future version. We anticipate that to be occurring in the fall after the proposed policy migrates through the policy review committee through the summer. Again, with the hope that we'll be able to have this take

029effect as a requirement for the incoming freshmen, the class of 2029. And before we um open it up for questions, I wanted to thank you, the exit regional cooperative board, principal Monahan, who's been a strong supporter of gateway at EHS, our SA16 chief officer of curriculum instruction and assessment, Jill Lizier, who's facilitated the SAUY discussions among all of the buildings, and of course to Dr. Aspel, who has made gateway presentations and studentdriven assessment a priority during her superintendency. Thank you. Any questions? Wow, sounds amazing. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Great work. Go ahead, Tammy. So, is it kind of a new program or it would be um building on what some of our students already doing through their senior English classes as senior research project. Okay. Um not all of the senior English classes do it

030because the students that are taking the AP classes are very kind of a strict curriculum that needs to follow. So, they don't have the time in order to do um a gateway opportunity such as this. Um so we are kind of shifting it towards landing in the advisory model so that way it's has um equitable access for all students to participate. So you're hoping that all our students will do this eventually but they're not right now. Correct. This is just a high school extension of what the elementary and middle schools do at the end of fifth grade and the end of eighth grade. And so now they'd be doing it at the end of 12th grade as well. I also just would add I mean this is a an end point. This doesn't wasn't just

031this year. This has been going on for about three years now. These conversations began. And I also would first also want to thank and commend the English department because they have been doing this kind of work as we've said through the senior uh English class and those those projects and presentations have been something that that they do, but they've been really um I'd say very generous um in their approach which they easily could have said, well, you know, this is our thing. This is English and and that's that. But they from the beginning they they they saw the value of it and were kind of almost like the the the preachers to like hey you you you need to do this and it's really evolved over these three years. We've got you know a wide

032range of disciplines represented on that committee who are really buying in and that's what it's going to be about. It's not just going to be an English thing. I mean the kid kid could be delving into something in science or anywhere and so it's going to be kind of across the board. So, um, this is the end point of of a lot of good work and I think it's demonstrated by the proposal you've seen here. I just like to thank everyone for all of their work because um, as you said, Mike, it's been a long time in the making. It certainly hasn't been a quick decision. has been a real thoughtful process and Jill, you have done an excellent job leading the SAU particularly this year in making this come to fruition for folks and

033I also want to commend the board um when we were negotiating this language around advisory was critical to giving that opportunity for all kids and access. So um teachers and the board obviously came to an agreement and uh supporting that and passing that as a community allows this to be accessible for all kids. So, thank you everyone for two for their your support. I do have a question. Um, my understanding is that AP English would have more of a structured curriculum with less free time to give. How does that work with the advanced placement classes in accomplishing the gateway and getting in the curriculum needed for the AP classes to get ready for the AP exam? Sure. That's exactly the the proposal that we're going to be making is that it will um the time

034that the students will be working and complete um check-ins with their adviserss be during their advisory program. So, we're taking it out of the senior English class. Thank you. And that would expand it to apply for other place of or in addition to correct. Mhm. One. So, um this has reached this point. I assume this will be a process of you're going to continue to just work on this going forward. any thoughts about where how what this could evolve into even farther down the road? Like what what would you want to see? How would you want to see it continue to grow? I I think a a grand vision that we could have for this would be again all students participating um those with accommodations um in their capacity as well. but really opening it

035up to be a community experience to be inviting uh community members as part of the authentic audience um and actually kind of melding it with a a showcase a celebration of learning where the students are able to um explain not only what they've done uh during their time at EHS but throughout their uh time in the SAU as well. That's terrific. Thank you very much. I'd also just like to thank the, you know, this board, but also previous boards because this has been something we've been talking about. Uh, Dr. Asbel understands that boards have talked about this over and over again, and I actually said it today at our our faculty meeting, and I've said it before in a lot of districts, you get this kind of thing kind of done to you as a

036school and a bunch of educators, people say, "Hey, you've got to do this like this." But, um, we've really been afforded the time and the space to build this out and make it happen. And I think it's going to really, um, uh, show bear really good fruit because of that. And and we're getting some good buy in from the staff. And already you see you got 72 seniors willing to put themselves out to do these these presentations. So, I'm I'm super optimistic um, as this evolves over the next couple of years. It says EHSAP introductions, but I have um a couple other administrators. So, I'm going to start um first with Brian Sans. Um he is our going to be our new facilities director. And Brian, if you want to quickly introduce yourself and go

037for it. Uh it's nice to meet everybody. I'm Brian Sans. Um I'm coming here with uh just over 15 years of experience in facilities management. Um both at public and non-publix. Um most recently I am the administrator for the state facility inspection program for all 651 non-public and public schools with the New Hampshire Department of Education. Uh so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity, looking forward to the challenges, and uh if you have any questions for me, feel free to feel free to ask. Welcome. Thank you very much. Well, we have less than 651. There's like they they break it up into fiveyear chunks. So, but it's more impressive when I just come up with come up with a number. Thank you very much. Thank you. And then we have our new food service

038director, Dalia Dagel. Did I say that right, Dalia? Yes. Yeah. And um little fun fact, Dolly does live in Stratum and uh participates in our our SAU. So yeah. Hi. Um I'm Dolly Dagel, new food service director. Um so a little bit about myself. Uh I love food. Um I live in Stratum. I have two children that are in the Stratam uh Memorial School. So I am completely invested in this school district. So this is like a dream come true to be here today. Um, I uh have about 20 years experience in food service. I was college dining until I had my son and then my mentor suggested food service. So, I've been the food service director, proudly been the food service director of Nashville School District. Sadly, I'm leaving there, but they're so ecstatic

039that I got my dream job to work here. So, I'm very happy to be here. So, thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself. So, any questions? I love your excitement. I hopefully I bring that to the like the staff and I love training too. So yeah and great support from the previous director too that's that's on her way out too. So she's been mentoring me for the past six years. So wonderful. Oh yeah. Great. Okay. Awesome. No questions. Maybe later. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Have a great night. And then you may recall you had Amanda Zeller's um resume last meeting and approval, but um we invited her to come when we had the two new principles. So Amanda is one of our new assistant principles here at the high school

040and welcome Amanda. Hi, it's great to be here tonight. Um my name is Amanda Zeller. I currently work in Hollis Brookline which is just down the road from NSHA where she's coming from. But I live in Newbury report. So, I'm really excited that it took me 23 minutes to get here tonight. Um, but mostly I just am really excited to work more in what feels like where I live in the Sea Coast area and be out here in kind of the world that I live and exist in. Um, because I just feel like that's more of my home. Um, so this coming year is really exciting for me to join what I have always known as a great school since I moved out here 20 plus years ago from the Midwest. So, still a Midwesterner

041at heart, but love the Sea Coast where I've lived now for more than I've lived in the Midwest, I'm proud to say. But don't do age calculations on that. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. And Dana, welcome. I'm going to let you handle your last name so I don't uh make a mistake on it. Hi there, everybody. Dana Jalo. Repeat after me. John Paulao. John Paulo. Um, so like I said, I'm Dana Jalo. I am the currently the assistant principal at Campbell High School uh in Lichfield. Uh I've been there for about four years and I just realized that that's almost 20 years to the day that I kind of was indoctrinated into the world of education. I went back and as was my custom to visit one of my old teachers and she said, "Wow, you

042just graduated and a with a degree in Spanish. You want a job?" And uh that there we go. I've been in education ever since. Um, and being here tonight, I know that I'm probably not the first person to say that I was super excited during throughout this this board meeting with all the things that were going on. These young guys, you know, that those young guys over there and all all the things that we're talking about, it's it's it's really invigorating and and exciting for me to to be moving forward and hearing all the great things that are going to be coming up and I feel really lucky and happy to be a part of that. So, thanks for having me. Any questions? Welcome. Thank you. You want me to say the last name again?

043Thanks, Dana. So, as you can see, and and I know you have the other resumes in your packet. Um, we feel very fortunate to have landed everyone. Um, all the new hires, but in particular, our administrative team was going to be enhanced, I believe, by our new auditions. Um, and the energy and the passion that they're going to bring to the teams. So, thank you for applying and joining us, and we're excited to move forward. And Tanya, it's nice to see you here also. So, thanks for coming tonight. Um, so new things coming. New things coming. Um, so I'm going to turn that over to Aaron because she was on that committee and she can give us a recommendation from that committee. The sobatical committee met in January and after receiving additional information, the sobatical

044committee is asking for the school board to approve a um requested sbatical for Can I say his name? Yep. Yep. For Oh, I can't say his last name. Michael Maldatazi. Can you help us out? What is his last name? Maldi. Thank you. I would not have gotten there. So beautiful. Uh for the second for the second half of next year, we're requesting the school board to um uh support that and approve it. So, if you're not familiar with that, there is a pretty rigorous process that that uh committee takes any candidate through. um they have to fill out an application they have to come and um present and talk about what their sobatical is and so uh if the board recommends it I mean if the committee recommendates recommends it then I believe that it's

045a it's a good proposal and will benefit um SAU16 as a whole can we what is he going out for his status on is it fair so he is going to be working on education supports for the 18 to 22 year old And just so everyone knows, we'll hear a report at the conclusion of the sobatical before this board back to the board so that we can see what the conclusion of the sobatical was. Thanks. I forgot to mention that. And he was our only applicant this year. And my only question in this kind of situation is do we have a concern about filling his position during the sbatical? Mhm. I mean, there always is. Sometimes it's harder to fill a a long-term sub for half a year. Um, and certainly in the area that

046he's in in special education, that will be a challenge, I'm sure. Um, and I think the benefits of having strong programs and ideas from that 18 to 22 year old that is new to us, right? We that change that law to extend an additional year um, in the long run should benefit our students. So, I'm hoping, you know, we find a strong candidate. Luckily, if it's the second half of the year, it gives us a little bit of time to kind of recruit and look at um different folks. And sometimes there's movement within the department itself or uh we get a long-term sub or sometimes a substitute comes in and then they want to continue in that role as a long-term sub. So, I'm hopeful, but you're it is always tougher than a regular position.

047I'd like to make a motion. Can I I can make a motion, right? I'd like to make a motion to accept the sbatical. Second. Thank you. All those in favor. Thank you. Um, as I mentioned, you had the uh other resumes in your packet. Um, I would ask to approve the group. Um, I can go through the roles. If you I'm not going to say the names because if you have something that you specifically want then we would go into non-public if you had a question around someone. Um this last one we handed out was the most recent one that is for um a BCBA at CMS and then um we have a one two three for special education. Uh a BCBA for EHS. What's a BCBA? Uh behavior certified board certified. Board certified behavior

048analys. There we go. Sorry. Remember what it was. I'm just thinking behavior in my brain. Certified what? Behavioral analyst. Um and then the other ones were the administrators that you met. So I would ask for approval of those nominations. Um make a motion. Go. Approve as presented. Second. All right. All those in favor? Amy, are you in favor since you made the motion? Thanks. No, just moving on. Uh, moving on to general asurances. As you know, we're the the at the end of the monthly cycle here with boards. So, boards have discussed this. Um, they did change the language in those asurances a bit to include some language around expanding Title 9 language and uh language around executive orders, etc. So, in response to that, uh, in working with legal counsel, I'm sorry for those

049of you that don't know what assurances are. I should explain that these are what we do every year and have done for as long as I can remember. Um, sign off so we can enter our information into a grant management system to receive grant funds. If you don't have your insuranceances uploaded, then you don't have access to the grant management system to complete the activities, etc. Um, and that's just at the federal federal level. Yes. That it's at the state level, but those are the federal grants. Yes. That get funneled through the state system. Um, so in working with legal counsel, we would like to include this letter um as we send these with uh the board chair signs off as well as I do. And I'm just going to read word for word the

050letter um so you all know what it says. Dear Mrs. Labenville who is the grants manager person at the state. Enclosed is the executed general asurances requirements and definitions for participation in federal programming. The general asurances for the exit region cooperative school district. The district practices programming and operations are in my opinion consistent with the United States Constitution and applicable federal law statutes and regulations. As you know, several federal court orders and injunctions have issued which may impact certain provisions of the general asurances. And then it lists specific case laws. Um, it goes on to say, "Accordingly, in executing the general asurances, this district certifies that it is in compliance with federal law as informed by the United States Constitution, statute, federal regulations, and applicable case law, and the requirements of the general asurances as

051qualified or interpreted by applicable court orders or injunctions. So, it takes into the fact and um supports that there is an adjunction going on." Now, today at 1, I'm sorry, at 2:16 PM, we got an updated general assurance from New Hampshire Educ Department of Ed. These are due no later than June 1st. So, as you can say, having for us eight boards meet again between now and June 1st is not real, I don't believe, as realistic. We'll have to put that out to other boards and see what they want to do. Um, so I obviously have the opportunity to have um, Bill sign the new one because this is we this is our night. The recommendation uh, well, the email I got from the New Hampshire Department of Ed reads uh, the Department of Ed

052has made available the attached modified version of the FY2026 general assurances. If your district has previously submitted an executed copy of the FY2026 general assurances to the Department of Ed, no additional action is needed. If your district has not provided executed general asurances at this time, please use either of the attached general asurances documents to meet the requirement of executed general asurances if required for subreipients of federally funded programs. On the certification page, please include the name and number of the SAU office and the name of the school districts which will be applying for funds. Both certifying parties are asked to execute the document and return the document by uploading into the district's GMS or grants management homepage no later than June 1st, 2025 in order to receive initial allocations for federal programs by July

0531, 2025. In response, in addition to that, I also um received an email from um our legal counsel, Michael Eaton, who was at the joint board meeting. Um, hi Esther, you should have received the attached modification assurances from the New Hampshire DOE earlier this afternoon. We've reviewed the modified version, and while it strikes through the problematic reference to the challenged executive orders, there remains several more vague references to executive orders and dear colleague letters. Accordingly, to be safe, we recommend that you execute the modified asurances or the other insurance and sign or submit the cover letter that I read you that he had previously sent me. Um, so I would ask the board to ask me any questions and uh make any comments and I will if um I'll move forward with connecting with Bill

054and having him sign the modified version um just because we have that opportunity with this board to access our federal funds and include that letter I read as a cover letter with each district but certainly with this district also. Any questions? the um the part previously, if I remember correctly, it's it required the district to comply with all executive orders. Is that right? And that's why they they struck out the some of the executive order language apparently. I haven't I haven't seen it. I didn't have time to look at the new modified one, but that's why we attached this letter. So is it is it our policy then that you know we're in compliance with the constitution but we are saying that in essence are we implying that we don't believe it's legal to require

055us to comply with all executive orders. I think the implication is there due to the injunction and that's the language in this cover letter that states the case law and I can read you the case law if you want but I didn't think you wanted to hear every I just read some articles after the last time we discussed this and it's that it was the n the department of education u organization act of 1979 specifically prohibits the federal government from providing you know controlling curriculum and such. So I mean I guess what I'm asking is if you sign that, are we essentially saying that, you know, we're obeying the law and that is the law? He have look, you have something to say. I'm not sure what you're actually asking me, Neil. But my impression

056in conversations with Mike Eaton is that by including this cover law, this cover letter, as a result of any injunction, etc., Then we're we're saying we're going to we're in compliance because we are we're aligned with the constitution. We're aligned with state and federal statutes and any of the issues that are being kind of in status in holding pattern because of this injunction. We're we're not saying we agree with that because it's we're waiting to see what the court says basically. Okay. But so the new email and the new version is striking through some of the executive order and I haven't looked at it. It just says and this is from uh legal counsel that while it strikes through the problematic references to the challenged executive orders. There is still vague and remains several kind

057of vague pieces and that's that's where we all were struggling right with vague definitions etc. And that's why the um the injunction occurred because it's so vague. There's it was impossible to say you were in compliance because we the language wasn't clear enough to say. So we're saying we're in compliance with the constitution which is clear. We're in compliance with statutes federal and state which are clear and and laws that govern these title grants. Any other questions or conversation? I I guess I would just assert say that, you know, I think this is a very they're putting us in a we may be put in a very difficult position. Um yes, I would be more comfortable having if we have until June 1st taking a little time and looking at this more completely to get

058to look at the language before signing off. And I I you certainly can. And I do not know how we will get a board meeting stuffed in there between in a week. I understand. I'm happy to sit with you, Neil, and and work through it. Um, you know, but do you require board approval for this? Um, chair approval. Chair approval. Usually it's my my suggestion. That's my suggestion. So, it's uh the will of the board. Whatever you would like to do. Approval. Just curious. just that's just a requirement of the way it's written and um that never used to happen before and the commissioner five years ago five years ago um added the chair used to be I just signed off on them or the superintendent signed off on them and and we went on

059our way. Um so is the plan to sign the asurances like this week or to wait closer to the due date? Um, well, the due date is June 1st, so we have to upload and get them in there by June 1st, which is a week and a half or so. I don't know. But it sounds to me like maybe they did backpedal a little bit. They did. The state absolutely did. And and I had sent in last Yep. I had sent um three emails to Lindsay saying, "Are you going to modify and not getting any reply?" And as I mentioned, this is 2:00 today that we got them. So, I haven't I haven't read them. Um, quick question is what I'm thinking of since this was modified already and had we done this two days

060ago, does it benefit us at all to wait till a little closer to June 1st to sign this and send it off in case not that the letter is necessarily going to change, but this letter won't change because Mike that's what that's what Mike backed it up with was they've reviewed it and they the letter he's written stands. It addresses the issues that were in the original ones. is there's less issues in this one, but it is still vague language. My question is not about this board necessarily, but it sounded like from the letter you read from the DOE that if a board has already signed the original letter that remains as is. That's done. It has the same letter attached to it. Correct. Anyway, so a number of our subsidiary board, not subsidiary, other

061boards in this SAU have already done that. Correct. Those have already been submitted before the the slightly revised letter came out. Yes, it is a difficult situation and we've talked about grant funds and I agree. So, it's it's a shifting sand. I mean, every time we we open up our email, there'll be something else. So, if they if they change the general assurances again and lower, you know, make more modifications to it, I'm sure they're going to do what they did with the others. If you've signed it, no need to make any changes. will apply these changes to you because you've certified your general asurances. Yeah, I I don't anticipate the court decisions going to come down between now and June 1st. Um and that would be the only thing that would drive a major

062change in this asurances. Um, I think DOE's made their change and it's my impression based on numerous emails and no response that this was an effort because we we did try to kind of unify on push back push back a as a group of superintendent. And so I think this is a good sign that there was some response. Thank you for doing that. So um it's not the perfect response but there was some adjustments made as a I think at a state level. Many superintendents kept asking, "Are you going to modify?" And I assume that, you know, down the road, this will be continually litigated, you know, into likely in the Supreme Court. Yes. And there, I'm guessing some New Hampshire laws that may pass will also get litigated as we move forward. So, I

063think there'll be a lot of things that um are kind of in that holding pattern as things get figured out through the judicial system. Um and again in SAU 16, we'll continue to focus on equity and belonging and the things that are aligned with law, right? Um and the constitution and continue to do our work and give kids what they need so they all have access to things like the gateway. Thank you for that. Thank any other questions or comments? Right. Thanks, guys. Thank I appreciate it. Sorry these times are tough. Yeah. Um the on a high note, the farm to school grant. Um Jean Pierce wrote that grant and we did get and Molly look you I believe it was close to $50,000. I don't have it in front of me but it sounds

064about right. Um and Yep. And it impacts different districts get different amount of money. And I just want to thank Gene publicly and let the board know that we got uh $50,000 worth in grant money. So there's another reason to sign the insurance. Um that's wonderful. It's a lot of money, but it was it was a competitive grant and it wasn't one that we get allocated. So it I want to just thank Jean for her work and effort on that and all many districts are going to benefit from that, not just the co-op. So just letting people kind of trying to give a high something positive. End on a positive. That's right. That's all right. So for the chair's report, uh the only thing Bill wanted me to cover tonight was coverage at each graduation

065ceremony. So we have four graduation ceremonies. Um I'll put the dates out. Let's see. I'll do them in order. So we have SST is May 29th and that's at 4:30 here. What day of the week is that? a Thursday, I believe. Yeah, I can look up that I don't have in front of me. Not on my list. Hold on. 29th is a Thursday. Thursday. All right. And that's 4:30. So that's the first one. The second one is Great Bay, which is June 4th at 6:00 p.m. See, June 4th is a Wednesday. Yeah. Next up is Exit High School graduation, June 7th, which is a Saturday, at 10:00 a.m. And the final one is adult ed. That is June 11th, that's a Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. and that's here in the auditorium. So, what we typically

066would like to do is have, you know, at least at least one board member, but preferably two, um, at each of the different ceremonies, um, just in case something comes up, just so we have presence there. Um, I don't know if anyone I have a senior. You have a senior. Yes. All right. So, Don will be there and I know Bill will also be there um, as chair. Yes. At the high school graduation. Um, that doesn't mean anyone others can't also attend that. It is the longest ceremony though. Hopefully we won't start early this year. Um, it's pretty short for No starting. Yeah, no starting early this year. No, not with the traffic. Proud that it is not the longest. I will say for Patrick O day, for those at home, if you want to

067be sure because it will start promptly at 10:00, plan on leaving your house very early due to traffic. like very early. Maybe ride a bike, Uber. That would sound or walk. Yeah, I know. Might be faster. Um, so is there anybody that has um um for the other three ceremonies? Is there anyone um go to SST? SST. Yeah. Okay, great. Great Bay. Great Bay. Excellent. I can do adult ed. Okay. I will also be at adult ed. It is best ceremony. It is so good. It is. Yeah. It's the most It was amazing. I I went for the first time last year and it's Oh, it was amazing. Yep. I'll be at all of them. So, no need to commit now, but at least now we have one we have one at at least every.

068So, if if um you'll receive emails from different people, too, so you can reply back um to the directly to the principles, let them know that you can attend. All right. That was the only thing on the chair's reports. Okay. Yep. Molly, do you want to do finance and can you also cover the school lunch? Sure. Thanks. All right. So, in your board pack is a current year financial. We did have a lot of ups and downs. Um, you'll see a lot of supplies because I tell everyone that they really need to have all their purchases in the Friday before April vacation or else you don't actually need it until next year. So, that's why you see so many supplies this time of year. Um, we also had a lot of reimbursements from the idea

069grant. Um, and then also it's my favorite time of year when I release the snow plowing encumbrance because I'm pretty confident it won't snow again. Um, so so did anyone have any questions on any of those items in there? So my question would have been it looked to me maybe I'm misreme remembering but we have a a significantly higher projected unassigned fund balance than we did at our last meeting and it's because of those released incumbrances. or am I misremembering what was projected at last month? So the revenue didn't change much from last month. So we did release the 127,000 in projected expenditures and the reason why are um detailed above. So there was ups and downs. So we had some increases like for special ed transportation and athletic transportation but we had a tremendous

070amount of decreases because of the idea reimbursement. Okay. So I think that's the big so that's the real change from last month. Did anyone have any questions? What's the idea reimbursement? I can't remember what. Yes. But what does IDA stand for? I don't education. Thank you. I just I know people if they want watch at home and I mean we're used to hearing it, but I don't remember always. I know what it equates to, but not what. Yes. And so once that grant was approved, we were able to um get a lot of the funds back. Okay. Uh, so the other thing I have is the lunch pricing and breakfast pricing. Um, so I'll read off CMS current and the proposed and same for high school. So the current pricing at CMS is breakfast is

071$2.50, lunch is $3.75, I believe. It's a little fuzzy on here. And milk is 50. The proposed is to have breakfast at $2.75, lunch at $4, and milk at 60. For the high school, the current pricing is breakfast at $3, lunch at $3.85, and milk at 50. And the proposed pricing from the food service director is breakfast at $3.25, lunch at $410, and milk at 60. And the note that um Gene has provided is we've not increased prices in a few years, and our costs um just this school year have increased more than normal. We continue to see the increases which have not hap we continue to see increases, which have not happened in years. Molly, can you tell us what um does Gan have a fund balance, a positive fund balance, or is she

072going to be in the red or the black this year? She she well, she has a spendown plan, which is um providing a significant amount of expense to her, but I believe she's still in the positive at this point in time. So she's so she's having a spendown plan, but she wants to increase prices. Is there is she going to spend it down so much that she feels that she won't make a profit next year? I don't think she feels like she won't make a profit. I think she recognizes the increase in cost of food that we all see when we go to the grocery store and wants to keep up with that. Um, how frequently are you able to raise prices if for example inflation continues to rise throughout the school like next school

073year? How because if inflation starts spiking jam everything up? I I believe you can I think you can read any time through a board process. Um the the law requires if you have a if you show a loss, you must increase your lunch prices for the previous year. So for example, if we showed a loss in 2024, we would have to increase lunch prices. We didn't show a loss, so you do not have to. I think Jean's just trying to anticipate um the possible increase of food to avoid showing a loss at the end of the following year. Okay. Thank you. And does this farmtoschool grant was that taken into consideration as part of the price increases? I don't think that was taken into consideration as president. No, that's for specific either equipment or um

074programming things like that like hydroponics, plants, and that kind of thing. Okay. And for those of you that don't know what the spendown plan that Amy and I were talking about is um our food service fund balance was extremely high um because Gene might be the most frugal person I've ever met in my life and she's amazing at it. Um and so you can only carry a certain amount of fund balance. So, she's been doing some improvements in the cafeteria with that fund balance. Can I ask that we bring back this for the next board meeting because I'd like to know what Jean's fund balance is because if she has a significant spend down for making such a profit where inflation and cost of um food for for our um families, do we increase food

075prices and I mean food increase lunch and breakfast prices is going to impact families. If we have a fund balance, we can put it off for a little while or maybe look at what Jean's going to have left over. I'd like to kind of look at those increases before we do. Do you have that, Molly? Um, I don't have it for this year and it's going to be when we finalize the DOE25 as to when we'll finalize it for this year. Right. It wouldn't We wouldn't have that number. We can bring it back. We can bring you 2024. Do you want? Yeah. Which I know is positive. I just don't know the number. So, we'll put it on the agenda again for June. Spend down plan. She has at least three times her um operating

076expenses in profit. So, that's significant. Mhm. So, is Gan the woman that's retiring and this lady that we met tonight is replacing her? Mhm. Was that the will of the board? Sorry. Eating a cookie. Yeah, I think that's good. Yeah. I have a a question. I don't know if you're going to be able to answer it, Molly, but about the price difference between the middle school and the high school. Is it about serving sizes or just curious why they might be priced differently? I get why elementary schools be priced differently because little kids are probably going to eat less and so forth, but just I'm not entirely sure, but I do think the c the portions are different. Okay. I also think it's the offerings, the variety of offerings at each school is different. Okay.

077But um we can even invite Jean to come to June and you can all thank her and say uh goodbye retirement. That's probably our best bet for what come to a tell us how you spend your money. She will just love me for that. We have questions. You can't leave on the fund balance. Um and given what we're going to be putting into trust funds at the end of the year. Does it makes do you think it makes sense to have any sort of discussion about spending any of that little bit that's left um on anything? Well, the only amount that you could spend is the up to the appropriation, which is very low. Yep. Um I know we had talked about a van at the last meeting. I know in you know years past

078we've picked up a few. Do we have any um data that shows kind of the use of those? And are we Yeah. Yeah. Um I don't have the hard data, but I can tell you that it's they are used every single day. Yep. It's by a bus. I mean, we have a signup by a bus. Um you need a driver. I know. You need a CD. And again, the issue isn't so much the buses, it's the drivers, right? Y I mean, first student has plenty of buses, it's the drivers that prohibits us using them for the athletic events as readily as possible. Y so we have done a better job of um using those vans because we had more we got more vans so we could take a whole team some of our larger teams.

079Um, but this week for example, we had to okay a coast run because there weren't any for student buses available till 4:00. The vans were already the three vans were already signed out for like the baseball team or some team and then there's another event for some other team lacrosse. So, the lacrosse team will get to ride a coast bus this week because uh that's all we have left. But it is $1,900 for the coach bus. Yep. Okay. I just wanted to bring it up again. I I mean there it's always a possibility. Yep. Okay. And I guess Yeah, we have next month, too. All right, moving on to committee reports. Uh start with strategic planning. I think we Yeah, we pretty much covered that last night. I don't know if there any additional questions,

080but Yep. Yep. If you're looking for strategic planning update, check the joint board. Is it okay if Mike leaves? Sorry, he's asking me if it's okay if Mike leaves. So, no. Yeah, of course. Coming back. Have a good night, Mike. I'll also uh Molly and Michelle, if you two want to jet out because I know you have to drive up to Whitefield tonight. So, safe drivers. Thank you. All right. Safety and security. We will meet in September, October, sometime. All right. Uh policy committee. So, we met twice in between our last two meetings, but uh the materials for this one don't reflect last week's meeting, so that's good. So, we only have uh seven policies to approve and six to retire. Uh Olivia prepared the summaries. um as to what these policies address. Uh five

081of them are revisions of existing policies. Two of them are new policies. Um as usual, they're all in reaction to changes in the law. Um we did discuss some of these in depth. In particular, we discussed the third one listed on the first page of summaries JICDD where uh there was a question about u board role in student discipline which I I didn't think there would be one but I guess there could be appeals. So um that was discussed. So do you have any other questions about the policies? Happy to deflect them to Heather. [Laughter] No, I know she's not here. Anyone have any questions? All right. I'll make a motion to approve the seven policies and remove the six policies. I'll second. All those in favor? All right. Uh we already covered sobbatical uh

082SST governing board. So we met yesterday afternoon. Uh we had a a student there from she would just finished her first year um in culinary. She's from Winnikut High School student and um she's looking forward to her second year and she's going to be working at Lasolas. And then um we talked about enrollment numbers and we're in good shape. Like last year there were 606 this past year 606 students. We currently have 680 signed up for next year. Oh great. Um, and you know that will eb and flow a little bit between now and September, but uh in good shape as far as that goes. And um they have two people retiring from the computer program and from the um first the right sight of teachers. I mean they have found replacement teachers that they

083seem to be pleased with. Um and then uh the other thing is they're batting around the idea of adding an electrical program. This is something that's going to take a while to implement but it's being discussed and one of the reasons is the welding, automotive and building trades have waiting lists. So they have no place to put them. So they'd like to expand that and also have an electrical operating. So that's being worked on and discussed and that electrical program is important to keep in mind because um this would be the board that would see the funding for that which would the biggest expense because they do have the space for it which is another why uh reason why it's appealing. They do have a classroom that they would have to uh modify a bit

084but they do have that space already readily available so it would be the cost of um a teacher to teach it and then some equipment. So she's waiting to, you know, look at Perkins grant and those kinds of things for maybe some of the supplies and then but just so when you see that budget that may be why SST looks higher as it comes across through BAC in that process next year. So heads up. All right. Great. Thank you. Uh any new business? I have new business. All right. It's quick. Um, normally at this time of the year, we asked uh the board if they will approve the superintendent for to do hiring rights. Um, and I would ask that you make it effective for tomorrow because we particularly get special education folks and they

085are lean and everybody's fighting for them. So, it's nice when I can do that hiring process um right away because then it takes sometimes if they have to wait like if I talk to someone tomorrow, they would have to wait a month and they don't. I always say don't resign until the board approves you because you never know, right? Um and then somebody else has a board meeting sooner or they've already gotten their hiring rights and so they take that position because that's just the way it rolls. So I would ask you to consider that. Certainly if you're not comfortable with that, I would ask you to give hiring rights for the summer. So whatever the board's comfortable with. I'm good with getting them now. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. All right. now through the summer. All

086those in favor? Thank you. All right. Old [Applause] business. So, I just I wanted to bring up we received an email from um from Allison. Um I don't know if anyone had a chance to read it on the grading that we saw last week. Um I read through the email. I went back. I rewatched the meeting from last month just to refresh my mind about u what we heard. Um, and I know we heard um from several members of the public last night at the joint board meeting um both parents and students um that were concerned um and I think I I had some concerns as well. So, and when I went back and and rewatched, there were some things that I didn't understand about the grading changes and that I completely missed. So, um

087I had a call today with Bill as well and we were kind of aligned on what we thought. Um, I had some concerns about specifically um, and it was covered very quickly and I it was a wonderful presentation by Drew with a lot of information and grading was kind of wedged into the middle of of lots of things. So, um, the biggest thing that I have a a problem with, a lot of the things I think are are great um, I think the biggest one is this the scores in Alma no longer including percentages. Um, so that grades will only have competencies and they will only have that um they will have the the four scale instead of um an actual percentage or a number. Um, and I I I don't think that's a great

088idea. Um, you know, having an eighth grader right now who's gone through this, um, I didn't like the elementary grading. Um, I I'm okay with the middle school grading as it is now. I think removing the percentages is a huge problem. Um, I I just think that that's a step in the wrong direction and I think parents are going to be upset. Um, and I just wanted to bring that up now so that we could have a quick discussion as a board. Um, because it was discussed yesterday and it seemed overwhelmingly that the group was not in support of where we were headed with the middle school. Um, so I just wanted to get, you know, input from this board and see what what everyone else thought. Yeah, I think I was a bit surprised

089or by the feedback, meaning that um I I guess I hadn't really made that connection quite through the presentation as well. It was I think that the intention is very much to align it and make it better. And I'm not sure if if there's something missed in the translation from what they're expecting is going to happen or that we are really making that change. And I know you spoke to it again last night, but I think I'm just hoping that we can it would be nice to talk through it a little bit more. Um, yeah, because there's we got another email as well, I think, from someone who was there last night. Yeah, Bill mentioned that he's received about a dozen emails. So, I know I don't I didn't receive any other than the one,

090but um he's received. Yeah. So my my recommendation would be because Drew is not here um is for Drew to come up with as Allison and I think the general consensus is that maybe um having some kind of input from families whatever that looks like talk through that with Drew and then have him get gather that information and then move forward with either the same recommendation based on input he gets or making some modifications based on information he gets and bringing it you know bringing it back to the board. Um, I know Jill's here and certainly can speak to this. Um, you know, it's hard in uh for everyone to understand the importance of competencies and how those connect for kids and that's what is in ALMA and that's that's a big deal. That's really

091the most important thing. Um, as you know, when we go through all kinds of things that we do for driving a car, things that we don't get an A, B, C, D, or F on our grades, and we're still motivated to continue to take the test over or to learn how to drive because we have a passion and a connection, and that's something we really want. That's what we're trying to get around instruction is really the focus on instruction and competencies and creating those passions. For example, the gateways, right? making that shift from a traditional ABC which we already did right that has that's been gone for quite a while. The the number part in Alma that you speak to um Melissa is really the piece I think that people were concerned about. Um and

092certainly I think that you know I talked with Jill today there's probably a way should that feedback continue to be that way to con to modify that 0 to 100 um on a four-point rubric instead of a fivepoint rubric. Um so I think that might be part of the feedback that you work through and and think about and I think we need to continue the conversations and educate our communities. Right. And that's part of that communication piece that Drew is going to continue to work on. Um I think sometimes the hard part is I've gone to those things that Drew has put on around grading and middle schools and there are generally about 5 to 12 parents there. And so it's hard to get that engagement and that feedback and that message out with and

093we have to continue to move forward, right? And so we are doing the best we can as far as trying to communicate that out. And I think that's something that we always have struggled with. As long as I've been an administrator, it's a there's a lot of educational talk and we try to flip that like Allison spoke to last night and I know that's another area that Drew and I talked about was how can we make those presentations or that information less educational speak. Um, I mean, the I can statements are I can things. I can add two-digit numbers. I'm not sure how to make that any less complicated. Um, maybe put in an example of what that means for people. Two-digit number addition would help. Um, and I use a basic example. I know

094there are other things have more complicated language. Um, so we're we're working through that, too. But I would ask the board to give Drew some time to come up with a plan to gather some parent input and then um come back to this board with some information probably in September because as you know it's a trimester. So that first reporting system if they have a good idea they can work over the summer and then come back with another recommendation or certainly this board could meet in August with what I just think you need some time to gather that input. Um because 12 emails from a thousand students is is not a lot at this point. That doesn't mean there's still a need to have that conversation. That's not what I'm saying. But I think we

095have to keep it in perspective that 12 emails out of all of those parents um is not a huge portion. However, it's still important and as word gets out, it may it may draw in more. And so I think that we need to think about that and allow that middle school to engage with parents and gather some information and and perhaps set a board meeting for August to talk about what he's done, what information he's had, what they've worked on, and any modifications they may want to recommend uh to the board and how to move forward. I don't know if you have anything else to add, Jill. Can you hear me? Oh, okay. Um, I can certainly work with Drew and and Karen Berg over at CMS to prepare some more information uh following what

096Dr. Asbel just shared, but I also just um would like us to really think about what that number means that we have some feedback on right now. So on um in the grade book right now, we have our competencies that are aligned to assignments. That gradebook is open to families and students all year. So they can see if they're demonstrating the learning that was delivered in the assignment. Under the assignment it will say is the student meeting extending developing in that competency based off of that assignment. Underneath that there is a number and that number does seem very familiar to us that have uh been in traditional schooling. So if it says meeting underneath that it could say 85. It could say 62 which would probably be around the uh developing or proficient area or

097beginning or developing. So I want to think about like how much information does that number really give us on student learning? Do we want that number because it makes us feel comfortable and we recognize it or is it giving us information on what that student needs to know and do next? That's where I believe we probably need to enhance our communication. I also want to say I am very proud of the work that CMS has done internally. I've worked with many schools on their grading systems before. The schools that fail are the stu uh schools that go to their grading system before doing any internal work on assessment knowledge competencies and indicators. The middle school has been on a very long journey with their teachers of developing assessments that are aligned to specific competencies. So

098that we aren't saying a student is 85% in math. We're saying a student is demonstrating learning in geometry with these performance indicators, getting really specific on what they know and what they need to grow in. If you don't do that work and you jump into grading, that's when you you're scrambling and you're kind of just throwing out P's and D's and M's and just saying what fits. The middle school has done this background work. every everybody continues to grow in it. But as a school, this is a school that I've seen is that that's actually ready to make the shift to this uh to this type of reporting. Um so we will work on our communication, but from my opinion and in my expertise, I think they are ready for this shift and I would

099not have supported them in this if I didn't think they were ready. Um so that's I think that's where we are. I really value when the students were coming and saying this is motivating to me to see that number underneath. So I want to dig in to why the number underneath the P and the E is motivating to the student and not that um not that letter above it. So I'll follow I'll follow that directive and we'll I'll support Drew and Karen in this process. Yeah. Go ahead, Neil. Uh I just first I'd like to to compliment this process. because I thought the feedback was actually terrific yesterday and I think it's terrific that the board and the administration are being responsive. I've seen other examples and that doesn't happen. So this is I think

100a good thing. Um so I you know I don't I think this is u a that's terrific. The most interesting thing to me was uh when I think it was Allison said or someone said last night that look um our kids are launching into high school not fully transition to they they're not ready because the difference in the grading said the thought occurred to me I just offered is as something what if the last year at CMS the eighth grade was the same as the high school and the others were different or or maybe was a it's a transition of some kind and you know I'm not an educational expert but just is something to think uh is and I'm not asking I don't need a response now I'm just you know yeah and I

101think giving time to Drew and I think the presentation that Drew did was terrific I I I did not spend enough time so my bad for looking at the grades I'm going to own some of that um so I think this is a terrific process of a high functioning community so that's my thought thank you yeah I I agree with you I definitely want to look into where those statements are coming from the motivation piece the transition piece not feeling ready I Those are valid and real concerns from our students. And so that definitely warrants some investigation of like what can we do to support them in this? And in my conversation with three friends at the bus stop this morning just discussing this issue, they saw both sides. I don't think anyone's up in

102arms. I think they just, you know, they're used to grazing one way if you have a different idea. I think as you've said, communicating those ideas and telling them why we're doing it even and I know people don't show up to the meetings. But but you also are doing a terrific job this system of communicating with using digital assets to do that. Drew is really good at that. So is Mr. So I this will resolve my personal opinion. This is a good process. It will resolve nicely. Just take the time and we'll edit edit the mission a little bit or something. Could I just ask what's the difference between the way the high school does it and CMS does it? Like what is that transition that they have to make when they go from one

103to the other? So there's quite a difference between the middle school and the high school. So in the middle school, we're reporting out on those competencies, right? So um every every course and every grade level and every content has competencies that students need to master. Either we report out on the competency itself in the content area or we jump um put them together and just put it under the content and give it a percentage grade. So, at the high school, they have competencies, but they are reporting out on a 100 point scale, which is the the percentage that we're used to um that some of us are traditionally used to. And then the middle school has a fivepoint scale. So, underneath the fivepoint scale, there are percentages that are correlating with the fivepoint scale. So

104let me think about uh like the the first part of that fivepoint scale is like 0 to 40 and then after that it would be 40 to 60. I might not be quoting it accurately but it breaks up those numbers into chunks to align them with the five point scale whereas in high school it's just 100 points. Does that make sense? Sort of. But it is I can understand why parents find it Yeah. why parents are completely lost. Yeah. And so how do you transition an eighth grader into a ninth grader or how are they prepared to just go from one system to the other? Kind of in a similar fashion that our sixth graders are having the Blue Hawk 101 now. So in the high school, we definitely have they have their advisory, they

105have their counselor, and now they also have freshman seminar to help them get used to that freshman year and what goes on with grading, what goes on with their schedule, where they can locate support within the school. Also, the teachers do an excellent job with developing their syllabus and how they're going to grade their formatives and their summitives. So that's more of a classroom, but then also as a systems level, they have the freshman seminar and you can am I Yeah. No, I just think it's important to note on the many presentations that you've seen between um middle because academic excellence is also a core value, right? And and some of that's reflected with the um data that you've seen and the progress that you've seen. When you think about the data and the growth

106that our middle school kids have made in math and ELA and in science as compared to a letter grade system at the high school, I I truly wonder I understand kids may be motivated because they want they want to be in top 10 or they want to make honor society or or something like that. However, our focus is about what have you learned? And what we're seeing is when the competencies are very clear and the skills are targeted, our kids are learning. And our data shows that we're seeing larger progressions and more advancements at the elementary and middle level with our students because they are truly learning and able to demonstrate what they know. So, I think the tough part is how do we translate that over so kids see the benefit of what they're

107learning, not the benefit of the grade. And that's a big transition particularly at the high school level, right? Because so many things are um related to a GPA at the high school level. Um and so that's a conversation that I would challenge you all to have around the weighted grade system at exit high school. Um because I'm leaving and I can say it out loud, but it's uh I don't believe it's an equitable system. And with equity being one of the core values, I would consider I would think that you would want to really dig deep into that because I as you we had our two folks here tonight, those students that are taking vocational classes do not really have an opportunity to make top 10 because those grades are not weighted versus an AP

108class. I don't believe an AP student works any harder than a student that we hear from SST in their area of passion. That's my personal belief and since I'm leaving I can say it out loud. Um, but I I I challenge you to think about that because if equity truly is a core value of ours, our current grading system at Extter High School, and I'm certainly not saying take away ABS. I'm that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is the weighted grading system is not accessible to all students, nor is it equitable. So, think about that for a minute. And I agree with that. Um, it's just it's just it's always been kind of on that radar. And if you will remember those of you that were here, uh, when Principal Monahan got that

109job, part of something what he wanted to do was take away top 10 and move to Magna, Kumladi, and and like percentages of classes. Um, it didn't happen because I we anticipate there would be a lot of push back, which I'm sure there would be, which is why I can say it now and challenge all of you to think about it. But um when we think about grading, that's really what I think about is how do we get kids to understand the importance of the learning and parents, not the importance of a grade. Because we all know still an A in one class is not the same A in another class and it's the same I'm just using an example, English nine. It depends on the teacher still because they don't they're not as tied

110as clearly to that targeted skill of what's missing because they have ABC and a point scale. So that's the struggle we're trying to that's the shift and that's really the basis of competency grading. Um and because it's a non-traditional approach, it's hard to make that shift for kids and families. Um but we do see the benefits of kids demonstrating the learning through our standardized scores and you've seen those presentations. Um, and I know we're proud of that. And so, uh, that work's been hard and long. And so I just caution everyone to really, I think your, to your point, Neil, is that, you know, this may be a slow process. And that why that is why I didn't ask Drew to come back in June because I think that's too fast. Sure. Um, I want

111to give him some time and that team some time and Jill some time and all of you to think about it and ask questions and receive emails and and those kinds of things and have the ability to have those conversations. So, yeah, and I think to that that time thing, I think that was one of the bigger problems I had in in re-watching that meeting was that I felt like we should have seen that grading information ahead of time. We should have had maybe a month to digest it to ask questions and it was very much like here's the grading, vote on it. Um, and I don't think we all had that opportunity. Um, so it it felt very rushed to me and it just feels like the the problems and the concerns when I

112was on the elementary board that people had with reports and report cards and my own son's complete like no motivation whatsoever because it's PP PPP everywhere and who cares. Um, I I don't want to see that carried into the middle school. you know, my my son's leaving eighth grade now, but um I that that's a problem, I think. And and to me, the the motivation of um that the difference in the grade can be pretty substantial when you see a score difference. And there's a difference between achieving something and getting an 85 and hitting a 95 or a 98. Um you're not going to get that extended learning, but you really you put in more time. And um kids kids understand numbers better, I think, right? They know the score of the basketball game. they

113know the score of the baseball game. Um, that's how they judge. So, I I I think that it's from my son motivating and I'm I'm concerned that that that P just he looks at it. I don't even look at it. So, there, you know, the report card to me it's it's the number and I know, you know, I'm not the only parent that thinks that. Yeah. And I think, you know, that's what we lived for a long time, right? Um I I wonder about 64 points to fail and 10 points for an A. I wonder about that. What are you going to get? An F minus - when you have a 30. Just throwing it out there as I can. But but I think this is a a really good discussion. I think this is

114because there's a lot wrapped up in the way people perceive grades and achievement and the future of their kids. And that's that's a challenging discussion not just here but everywhere. Yes. So I appreciate the responsiveness. I appreciate the way, you know, bringing it and actually having a discussion. Let's pause, figure this out again. Yeah. Is this and we I just Sorry. I think, you know, you guys put a lot of effort in and I think we all see that and appreciate that. So, this is, you know, just another step in the process. So, thank you for that. Is this the way middle schools are going? Are there other schools in the area that are doing the same thing or I I'm just curious where we compare to other districts. Many schools are going to competency

115base. It's a variety of ways it's implemented. If I could just I think tell me if I'm wrong, Esther, but a lot of this came from other uh countries like Finland for example, and they looked at how effective they were. And so you know why I'm smiling field trip to Finland. It's going to happen. But but so so I mean I think they see that the results in uh elementary school were mimicked at large in other like especially Finland that they didn't care what they were doing. They just wanted the kids to learn and out of the blue they scored number one in the world. So it's the idea is that CBE has value and I think they're trying to implement it as they have been for a while and the state of New Hampshire

116I believe has committed at the state level to become a competency based education. it is in school approval that you have to be you have to have competencies and etc. So that's a piece of it. It isn't dictated how you grade that system. And there there was that study group. I guess related to that is that where the eventually the idea is the high school might go that's for Dr. Andrewski. Yeah. And then you have to deal with how the colleges receive that. Right. Right. And and you know, many colleges don't look at SAT scores anymore. You know, it's it's it's they're also evolving and struggling. I think because in all reality, because I was a school counselor, every high school has a different grading system, whether it's weighted, not weighted, competency, numbers, right? And

117so when you all apply, they pretty much take all that, shake it out, and put it into their own system. Yes. Right. They they they don't That's right. They just don't they couldn't because it would be impossible to go, "Oh, exit does this and that means this." They just say, "Thank you very much." And then they make their own their own system and that's how they do that's how most colleges do it. Um you know, I believe if colleges went to competencies and were looking at things like that and then it would be very easy for high schools to make that switch. Some are competent based and some are not. So I think the last time this was discussed under previous superintendent there was the idea giving having you know the report cards we use

118and you can always translate it to like the standard form of converted. Yes. So it doesn't have to be like a falling off a cliff is I think the theory at least. I I do think it's important to think about how what kind of feedback are we giving to students? What what kind of feedback are educators giving to students? Right? Because that's a as we heard um Walter tonight, you know, the kid that had the guitar, he learned from the mistakes. It wasn't a grade that motivated that kid. It was this is I'm interested in this. I want to learn how to do it. So, how do we create that passion and engagement? And that's what things like the gateway and having the CTE classes and having ELO's. That's what we want for our kids,

119right? We want them to be passionate about it. Being passionate about English nine is probably tougher because everybody's going to take English nine, right? How do we get our educators to engage our kids in different ways? And that's the work that the middle school has really done that Jill's speaking about allowing a whole variety of assessments, not just a written test, all kinds of modes to show what you know. Um, which is it's a it's a long process. I mean, we've been doing this for 10 years in SA 16 trying to move this way and we're seeing the benefits. We're seeing our academic scores come back up. We're seeing those things happening. um you know the state they don't give ABCDF they give proficient percentage of proficiency right so it's it's um it's it's grading

120is complicated because to your point Erin it's emotional for people right and we're used to certain things and as parents and families we understand how to motivate our kids you got to see you need to get a B that's easy it's harder to have that conversation of show me what you know okay this says is you you can't add two-digit numbers, but you can, you know, fluency your math fluency is great. How do we work on this? Right? That that's a lot to expect a parent to understand and wrap their head around. So, as educators, I think, and leaders, we really have to figure out how do we educate everyone so that our kids get the shift because if our kids get the shift, yes, that's then our parents will because the kids will then

121be able to say like the guitar project, I I had to ask questions. I knew where to go. I knew what to do because this was important for me to learn. So, how do we raise that importance of learning that isn't around any grade? A B C D F M J pineapples, leaves, and squirrels. Really, that shouldn't be what motivates us. And it truly isn't. A lot of research says it truly isn't. Um, and for parents, the traditional system is what we all experience. So, it's easy for us to interpret and work with our kids to help motivate them in our own ways. So, I understand the concerns and and the logic. Um, but I I'm appreciate the board pausing and letting us regroup and really have some time to work through it. So, thank

122you for that. Yeah, I think it'll be an important part of, you know, for Drew moving forward is making sure that the parents understand it, right? Because it's difficult if you can't if you look at a report card, it's very difficult to even talk about it if if it seems like, well, things are met and we're good. So, and I that just doesn't it doesn't work for parents. I don't think it doesn't compute. Yeah. And there's no way I can have a conversation about it. Okay. You know, all these things. So, all right. What What else like um Yeah. I I think some work needs to be done there to get parents. Feedback to parents. Feedback to Yep. Well, thank you for the conversation. I appreciate it. Thank you, Esther and your team. Yep. All

123right. Anything else? No. Oh, nonpublic. Oh, nonpublic. Nonpublic. Okay. Oh, I'm glad Heather's here. All right. You remember what they are? You will the second we go in. Under which under which letter? So, it um a personnel. Okay. I'll make a motion to go into non-public under RSA 91A 32A. Second. Second. Roll call vote. Roll call. You don't. I I I I I I All right. Give it a minute. We'll be in non public. We are back. It's 8:02. I'd be looking for a motion. Make a motion to accept the recommendation of the superintendent. Second. Second. All right. All those in favor? All right. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you.